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I spent the past week or so working my way through 5 years worth of Questionable Content back archives. It’s a web comic strip.

On April Fools Day, this super geeky comic that I love, XKCD switched comics in a round robin “prank”. I read a few, and was kind of interested in the characters. I got busy and forgot about it, but then earlier in the week, I was reminded and decided to start from the beginning.

I think I liked it generally. A lot of the drama seems pretty goofy, and many of the characters (particularly the 3rd tier characters) are basically the same unrealistic character with like 1 quirk to make them different, and in the case of parents really unbelievable. Still, it held my interest, and there are a bunch of Dune references that I love. Really, more things should reference Dune.

I just went through the back archives for A Softer World. I suspect the creator would resist this label, but it’s sort of a hipster comic strip. It seems to try too hard in a lot of them (maybe that’s just a natural consequence of doing 250+ of them), but there are flashes of brilliance there too. I’m assuming those are the ones that are more honest an poignant, but maybe those are just the ones with the best lies.

Anyway, it’s worth checking out. via

Sixty Men from Ur provides a facinating way of thinking about how short human history really is:

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., one the United States’ great historians, is less than two lifetimes removed from a world where the United States did not exist. Through Mr. Schlesinger, you’re no more than three away yourself. That’s how short the history of our nation really is.

Not impressed? It’s only two more life spans to William Shakespeare. Two more beyond that, and the only Europeans to see America are those who sailed from Greenland. You’re ten lifetimes from the occupation of Damietta during the fifth crusade. Twenty from the founding of Great Zimbabwe and the Visigoth sack of Rome. Make it forty, and Theseus, king of Athens, is held captive on Crete by King Minos, the Olmecs are building the first cities in Mexico, and the New Kingdom collapses in Egypt.

It’s hard to imagine how much happens in the life of just one person, or how few generations there really are within the scope of human history.

Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras - Part I. provides a very detailed discussion of using Flash with Canon cameras. It also may help explain why some images I took recently had a bunch of motion blur even though I was using flash and expected to be able to freeze the action.

The artwork over at Fubon is really nice. I’m not typically a fan of heavy flash sites. I especially don’t like sites that look to flash for navigation. The stuff on that site is really nice to look at though.

This story about Super, Aquatic Lions is crazy. It does have me wanting to go get some buffalo meatloaf though.

Animator vs. Animation is clever. A character that is being created in Flash starts fighting back against the program interface. It’s like a modern day version of that cartoon where Bugs Bunny is drawing and tormenting Daffy Duck.

Bendito Machine is a cool little flash animation, but I have no idea what it’s supposed to be about. The site that’s hosting it says it’s about our capacity for hate and war. I don’t get that out of it, but I guess it’s as good an explanation as any.

You know there was a time when I thought I was pretty up on all the various web memes. It appears that’s no longer the case. I never even saw Numa Numa. I mean it was on Good Morning America for cripes sake. When Good Morning America is scooping me (by, I’m guessing months), it’s clearly time to turn in my Web hipster club jacket. (more info)

Sibling rivalry, vampires, Vampz has it all. Nice animated short.