games | puppet wrangling

Thursday various

Just what is a documentary these days?

So the salient question might not be, â€œWhat is a documentary?â€ â€” an abstract, theoretical approach to a form that is grounded in the concrete facts of life. Instead it might make sense to ask what (or whom) a given documentary is for? Is it a goad to awareness, an incitement to action, a spur to further thought? A window? A mirror? The more you think about it, the less obvious the truth appears to be.
I think somewhere, in the back of my brain, I knew that Eric Stoltz had originally been cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future — had, in fact, filmed for several weeks — but it’s still weird and kind of amazing to see the footage.
The Wire Monopoly? Sometimes parody edges up right up against the things we wish were real. [via]
Children’s picture books are apparently a dying art, thanks to parents starting kids on chapter books earlier and earlier:

Picture books are so unpopular these days at the Childrenâ€™s Book Shop in Brookline, Mass., that employees there are used to placing new copies on the shelves, watching them languish and then returning them to the publisher. [via]
And finally, The Doctor is now immortal. Or always was. Or whatever. I’m still a Doctor Who neophyte compared to some, but even I know “continuity” is a very slippery slope in that universe.

“Due to strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this game in no way endorses a belief in the occult.” A History of Zombies in Video Games [via]
Restaurant Workers Donâ€™t Stay Home When Sick, Study Finds. Not too surprising, but still: yuck.
Tens Of Thousands Of Walruses Crowd Ashore In Alaska Due To Melting Sea Ice. How far south do they have to get before we accept there’s global warming? Utah?
You know, Katherine Heigl’s reputation as a shrill diva probably is overrated, if not unwarranted, but I suspect most of her movies have bombed at the box office simply because they’re really, really bad.
And finally, Unicorn vs. Narwhal [via]

Robots with synthetic skin? [via]
They don’t build safes like they used to.
Underground chefs? I had no idea, but apparently, there are more than a few. [via]
If you’re going to hack an electronic voting machine, this is the way to do it. [via]
And finally, the YouTube Time Machine. [via]

Take the House Season 7 Challenge. Win points by correctly guessing the conditions or diseases that will turn up on the show week to week.
The Room: The Game. “You are tearing me apart, Lisa!” [via]
Things I’ve Overheard My Roommate Say to Her On-Again/Off-Again Boyfriend or Works by Joyce Carol Oates? [via]
J.G. Ballard’s self-edits [via]
And finally, Heather on why you should visit the Banff Centre for the Arts:

Just watch out for the elk. And the mathematicians.

Five Philippines inmates escape while guard plays Plants vs. Zombies. In his defense, it is a very addictive game. (I just downloaded it again on my iPad.) [via]
Childrenâ€™s Pop-Up Books Flop as Learning Tool:

Those exposed to the book with the photographic images were able to correctly identify their bird nearly 80 percent of the time. Those who saw the book with the drawings did so around 70 percent of the time. But those who were entertained by the pop-ups did so only 50 percent of the time â€” no better than chance. [via]
I’ve only read the first of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently books, and I wasn’t exactly wowed by it, but I do know there are fans who love the novels, maybe even more than his more famous Hitchhiker’s Guide books. And I’ll admit, the idea of a television series is quite intriguing. [via]
Three words: Alien Pez dispenser. “They’re coming outta the walls! They’re coming outta the goddamn walls!” [via]
And finally, hispter dinosaurs [via]