Link Dump

Time is short this week and I will be travelling this weekend so no entry on Sunday (perhaps one on Tuesday when I get back). Anwyay, here are some links to chew on while I’m away:

• As a follow up to the last entry, this pie chart of the ingredients of Soylent Green is pretty good (warning: Spoiler! But if you don’t know this spoiler by now, where have you been?)
• Directors’ Cameos in Films: This is an interesting collection. Some directors are very subtle with their cameos, some are not so much. Some work well and fit into the movie, others stick out like a sore thumb. For my money, no one does a cameo better than Hitchcock. Often, they’re difficult to find, but sometimes they take on added meaning and symbolize an important theme (for instance, Hitch downing the champagne in Notrorious (scroll down)).
• Interesting color coded map of generic names for soft drinks. I tend to use soda or Coke (interesting that a specific brand is often used as a “generic” name for soft drinks)..
• How to quit Assassin’s Creed on a PC: This is an absurdly stupid interface (pretty, but stupid)… except that it’s probably much better for consoles. A lot of games that are developed for consoles have menu problems when ported to the PC (see: Unreal Tournament 3).
• One Of The Best Pitches Ever Made: I can’t imagine this happening in any sort of professional league, but it’s brilliant.
• Tim Burton’s Concept Art for Superman Lives: I’m not a big fan of Burton, but when this now-defunct project was announced, I was pretty intrigued, mostly by the choice of Kevin Smith to write the script. Of course, the film probably wouldn’t have been that great, but then we’d miss out on Smith’s brilliant story of writing the script (and dealing with the producer).

That’s all for now. Again, probably no entry on Sunday, as I’ll be out of town with no access to internet…