Tag: Linkonomicon

Last Stop “Castle Black”

In case you were wondering why the positioning of Moat Cailin was so strategically important in Westeros from George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire, Michael Tyznik has you covered with his transit map.

Westeros Transit Map by Michael Tyznik (All Rights Reserved – Used with Permission)

Tyznik was inspired by the creative transit map Tumblr of Cameron Booth, which is in turn inspired by transit maps from around the world (such as the iconic London Underground map).

And, if you happen to be a Columbus, OH native like me (Go Bucks!), you’ll also love this map.

*Chain of hat tips to Jennifer Ouellette from Nerdist‘s Alicia Lutes from Fast Company‘s John Brownlee.

…all of them should learn from rugby

Needless to say, I agree with everything filmmaker Werner Herzog has to say about rugby in this excerpt from a Vulture interview. They were discussing Association Football (aka) and the dishonor of taking a dive:

No, that’s an awful disgrace. It’s a disgrace. And it shouldn’t be [allowed]. And all of them should learn from American football. And more so, all of them should learn from rugby. What a manly, decent sport that is. There is a great kind of honor to rugby. I really love rugby for that.

They’re less protected than in American football.
Yes, and [I love] the kind of dignified way they deal with one another. Even though sometimes they sort things out in a brief fistfight. The ref lets them sort it out very quickly and then be decent again.
–Werner Herzog interviewed by Steve Marsh (bold) for Vulture Transcript

*Hat tip to Michele Banks.

Polio in Pakistan – Collateral Damage of the War on Terror

Thanks to the CIA using fake vaccination programs (something they claimed to have stopped doing earlier this year) in the terrifying “War on Terror” the Taliban banned polio immunizations since 2012. It should come as no surprise that the Taliban is perfectly happy to violently enforce this ban. Not only are polio cases increasing in Pakistan, but more 60 healthcare workers have been killed trying to administer life saving polio inoculations.

They are among the more than 60 polio workers who have been killedsince the Pakistani Taliban banned polio immunization in 2012…The edict by the Islamic militants to ban immunization was in response to the CIA’s setting up a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign in Pakistan. The covert operation was part of an attempt by the U.S. spy agency to verify whether Osama bin Laden was holed up in the city of Abbottabad. – Jason Beaubien, NPR

*Hat tip to Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing.

The Representative Disapproves

Representative Jackie Speier (CA, 14th District) has taken Science Magazine to task (PDF of full letter here) for their controversial cover and controversial response to criticism of that cover.

The July ll issue of Science Magazine featured a lurid cover photograph of transgender women in tight dresses and high heels with their heads cropped out of the frame.

Continue reading “The Representative Disapproves”

The Mobiest of Dicks

I know that title doesn’t sound right…or does it.

Thanks to a tweet by Jimmy Stamp that was retweeted by Alexis Madrigal, I found this delightful post by Robin Sloan entitled “The Moby Dick Variations” that speculates about what it means to be a novel as a unique work of art. In the post, Sloan investigates how a novel can vary and still maintain its identity. The post instantly connected to two divergent thoughts in my brain. Continue reading “The Mobiest of Dicks”