Linkblog

• Ravens Coach Brian Billick Tackles Super Bowl XLIV : NPR
  February 6, 2010 | 10:03 am

  As we approach the Super Bowl, I found this interview about what a coach really does surprisingly informative.

• Henrietta Lacks: A Donor’s Immortal Legacy
  February 6, 2010 | 10:02 am

  This is utterly fascinating. Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells are the world’s first immortal cells. I had never heard of HeLa cells before this interview with author Rebecca Skloot. Now I want to read the book.

• The Incredible San Fancisco Artists’ Soapbox Derby, 1975
  February 4, 2010 | 8:00 am

  24 minute film about a truly delightful community endeavor. I don’t think SF has this kind of artist mojo any longer, but I’d love to see something like this Oakland, careening down Joaquin Miller Road.

• Paywalls, Blogs, Comments, Editing and Magazines: A Conversation with Paul Ford, Web Editor of Harper’s Magazine | The Awl
  February 4, 2010 | 7:37 am

  If you’ve followed ftrain for the past 10+ years, you already know that Paul Ford is among the smartest people on the internet. This conversation with The Awl about pay models for publishing and his experience at Harpers is a little precious at times, but worth a read.

• Interview with Bloom County creator Berkeley Breathed
  February 2, 2010 | 8:12 am

  Bloom County was among those key influences informing my sense of humor, including Monty Python, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Edward Gorey. This interview looks back to its creation.

• Axe Cop
  January 31, 2010 | 9:52 pm

  So awesome. And funny. The best comic ever written by a 5-year-old and drawn by his 29-year-old brother. I wanna Avocado Soldier t-shirt.

• Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 3 and 4
  January 31, 2010 | 7:28 pm

  Rick Prelinger collects archival, industrial, and found footage of San Francisco, and presents them as clips in front of live audiences. Delightful look at the city’s past.

• Roger Ebert’s best films of the decade
  January 31, 2010 | 7:23 pm

  I’m a little late on linking to this. Historically, I’ve found Ebert to be far too forgiving a critic (he just loves movies too much and gives poor ones a pass), so I was surprised at how close his list is to mine (if I bothered to make one). Synecdoche, Me And You and Everyone We Know, even Juno.

• Taking Directions from Slime Mold
  January 25, 2010 | 7:54 pm

  If my colleague Kate Rutter were to have a spirit organism, it would be slime mold. Slime mold are bizarre, neither plant nor animal nor fungi, and they’ve become the poster species for self-organizing systems. Anyway, they can also design subway systems. Scroll down to listen to the piece about them.

• Where has all the popcorn gone?
  January 24, 2010 | 4:20 pm

  The folks on Chowhound have the same question I did the last time I went to the supermarket. Popcorn could become the next artisanal fetish.

• S.F.s Market Street changes as city evolves
  January 23, 2010 | 8:07 am

  Carl Nolte does it again with an exploration of Market Street’s multiple personalities. The stretch between 6th and 9th is among the most depressing urban blights in the US.

• Online Dating: The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures
  January 21, 2010 | 8:13 pm

  OKCupid.com is a dating site. OkTrends is where the people behind the site reveal insights discovered through statistical analysis of site behavior. It’s awesome.

• How to be a superstar bartender
  January 18, 2010 | 8:39 pm

  Excellent set of explicit instructions for the basics of mixing drinks (measuring, shaking, stirring, twists, etc.)

• Unofficial Google Advanced Search
  January 18, 2010 | 5:50 pm

  Nifty cheat sheet for getting the most out of the magic text input box.

• The San Andreas Fault made startlingly real
  January 18, 2010 | 4:41 pm

  Roll over for notes.

• Uh huh… Uh huh… “Beaver”
  January 17, 2010 | 8:59 pm

  I laugh every time I think of a Canadian history magazine being named “The Beaver.”

• Radiolab: Animal Minds
  January 17, 2010 | 1:33 pm

  You should simply subscribe to the whole Radio Lab podcast, and if you need convincing, this latest episode on “Animal Minds” will sway you.

• The Coast of Dystopia
  January 17, 2010 | 9:49 am

  Is The California Dream in tatters? It sure feels like it, though the state is still hard to resist.

• Mobile-phone culture: The Apparatgeist calls
  January 16, 2010 | 5:52 pm

  Healthy reminder of how you cannot assume standard behavior when it comes to product use across cultures. I’m wary of the “Apparatgeist” – I tend to agree with Mimi Ito.

• Time Your Attack: Oracle’s Lost Revolution
  January 16, 2010 | 5:45 pm

  Timing is everything, and 1999 was simply too soon for what proved to be many great ideas. (I worked at Epinions, which pre-saged much of “Web 2.0″.) An instructive article, though I wonder if, in part, Ellison doesn’t get the support/hype he seeks because, by all accounts, he’s such a dick.

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