The Predator (not the Gladys II)

Clumsily renaming a ship with an embarrassing name.

Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Austria (as interpreted by Kate Beaton)

Kate Beaton's latest strips feature Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Austria and Benito Juárez.

*Hark! A Vagrant is 37 percent off at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Penny Arcade created three new X-Men: Hindsight, The Salmon, and Salivo.

2. The Los Angeles Police Commission voted unanimously to eliminate red light cameras.

3. Twitter's going to automatically shorten links now.

Grabbing ice cream cones by the ice cream

Obviously I strongly discourage this sort of behavior ("cone-ing"). And I don't find it funny at all watching the looks on the workers' faces. Via.

A use for DVD cases

Putting DVD cases to good use.

Spider-Man rebooted by Kate Beaton

One of five new strips by Kate Beaton in which she asks, What if...Spider-Man had been bitten by a brown recluse spider?

*Hark! A Vagrant is 37 percent off at Amazon.

Illustration roundup

Batman wallpaper available in high-res here.




Oh, Betty!




Seriously, if this was just fan art by some random artist, would anyone have reposted it today? I mean, it's almost as ridiculous as getting excited over the news that George Lucas has written 50 hours of scripts of a Star Wars series.





Kate Beaton mocks a mermaid cover. (Speaking of, Hark! A Vagrant! can now be preordered for 37% off Amazon.)

Hark! A Vagrant! cover

The upcoming book cover for Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant!. She also recently posted several strips about what she said to cartoonists this weekend:

Image roundup

Fun with shopping carts.




Hipster Ariel.




Mandarin duck.




Bereaved wolf being comforted via.




Fearsome toddler via. See also.

Image roundup

She's with me. And the human version.




Grace Jones via Eric Perez, who created several Grace Jones posters.




Happy urinal.





Fierce little tiger.




Baby okapi ("forest giraffe").




:P.




Bolivia's salt desert after a rainstorm. You can learn more about the desert by watching this video. Via.

Link roundup

1. One of Drew Magary's readers talks about meeting Randy Savage:

We were met backstage by some WWF people who were leading us into the locker room area, and we were brought to Randy to say hello. There were a bunch of other wrestlers around, which was really cool but there was one problem: the good guys were hanging out and being cordial to the bad guys! Seeing good guys like Brett Hart sharing laughs with bad guys like Jake "The Snake" Roberts was almost traumatic to see; like seeing your Dad french kiss your aunt. It simply wasn't supposed to happen.

I was sad, scared and confused. I gathered up the courage to ask why the Good Guys were friends with the Bad Guys. Randy said, "We're not. We're just tricking them. You'll see."

After this, a WWF rep was showing us some other areas of the backstage. I don't remember what we saw, but I know when we circled back to the area where Randy was, all of the wrestlers I had seen before were back in character. Bad guys were yelling at Good Guys about how they were going to kick their butt and Good Guys were holding each other back from attacking the bad guys.

This. Was. Awesome. It IS real! Of course it is!

Randy didn't know me too well, but he cared enough about a young fan and professional wrestling to keep the illusion and innocence alive.

2. Crooked forest. Via.

3. If you've experienced problems commenting, there's apparently a problem affecting some users. (It'll be pretty sad if Blogger stops being reliable - - that's really all it has going for it.)

Image roundup

Monster dog.




Finally, the Black Eyed Peas' secret origin revealed.




Ghost mountain. Via.





World War I-era ship's camouflage. Via.




Widescreen wallpaper-sized still I cropped from one of the new Star Tours videos.




Chicago, surrounded by fog.




Abandoned mill in Sorrento, Italy.

Buffoonery turns free kick into a goal

Watch as two soccer players trip each other to distract the other team during a free kick. Via.

Image roundup

Do you want this octopus to have fewer arms?



Deer escaping a flood.



Wedding plea for help.

Link roundup

1. Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw reviews Mortal Kombat.

2. The Worst Internet Intern Interview Ever. Via.

3. FYI, don't plan on mass-producing and selling Portal fan art.

Link roundup

1. From Drew Magary's latest NSFW and funny, but probably offensive column:

I gotta go to church more often then. I think churches operate as the epicenter of most American daydreams. I can't sit in a church for more than five minutes without imagining a flock of vampires crashing through the stained glass window, and I have to stab them all in the heart with a steel crucifix. I'm pretty sure my visions are exactly like that new Paul Bettany movie.

I've been at ceremonies where they do the whole "Do you reject Satan?" thing, and it's impossible to not think of The Godfather at that moment. I also wish they had an effigy of Satan right at the altar that you could stab or shoot with a crossbow. Why not add a bit flourish to the ceremony?

2. Robin Hanson:

What if the airline industry lobbied to end the practice of routinely investigating the cause of each airline crash? After all, if there is no investigation, it will be hard to show an airline was at fault. You might imagine there’d be a public outcry. But in 1970 the US medical profession did essentially the same thing, and few complained:

Today, hospitals perform autopsies on only about 5 percent of patients who die, down from roughly 50 percent in the 1960s. … Autopsies play a critical role in helping to advance understanding of the progress of a disease and the effectiveness of various treatments. At the same time, they may identify medical conditions that clinicians and high-tech imaging miss or misdiagnose. …

In 1998 the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that autopsy results showed that clinicians misdiagnosed the cause of death up to 40 percent of the time.

3. The Batman by Aragones statue I posted yesterday is available for preorder at the BBTS for $80.

Image roundup

A few gems, mostly spotted at Reddit:


Middle school classroom/cabinet of wonders.



Petra, Jordan.



Fleeing a dragon.



If you see something, skate something. Via.



Deadly bird.

Terrorists Cats?

Terrorist cats? well you have to watch the video below to find out

Do you believe that they can rule the world? Share your thoughts, comment below

Sexiest Tutorial on: How To Put Make-up [Funny]

This is by far the most enjoyable make-up tutorial ever!

"This is my 1st video so go easy on me. :)) I do not talk like this. It's my exaggerated version of the "filipino accent". I just made up this character named Petra Mahalimuyak. 
You'll know more about her soon." :)  --ashleyslips

Thoughts about her?

Sexiest Tutorial on: How To Get Abs In 1 min. [Funny]

I'm sure this will get you all the abs that you would want.

"It's summer already & there's nothing better than having a sexy beach body! ;) Tired of being fat? Worry no more! My tutorial will help you get results FAST! Guaranteed!" --ashleyslips

Did you find the tutorial useful?