Wow, I’m pretty sure if I owned an iPad it wouldn’t be able to do this.

Violence. Spoilers. Genius. Kubrick vs Scorsese. (via kottke)

I’ve only been following the World Cup on my periphery, but after reading The Genius of Messi.

Messi simply does things — little things and big things — that other players here cannot do. He gets a ball in traffic, is surrounded by two or three defenders, and he somehow keeps the ball close even as they jostle him and kick at the ball. He takes long and hard passes up around his eyes and somehow makes the ball drop softly to his feet, like Keanu Reeves making the bullets fall in “The Matrix.” He cuts in and out of traffic — Barry Sanders only with a soccer ball moving with him — sprints through openings that seem only theoretical, races around and between defenders who really are running even if it only looks like they are standing still. He really does seem to make the ball disappear and reappear, like it’s a Vegas act.

… I had to find some video. There’s some real magic in there. The ankle-breaking direction changes look effortless, and all while controlling the ball so precisely. Really, great, even in small screen contextless clips. (via kottke)

Vuvuzelas for BP:

BP is not feeling the pain they are causing in the Gulf. BP is spending millions on PR. In order to put a bit of public pressure on them, we plan to buy 100 vuvuzelas and hire 100 vuvuzela players off Craigslist to play in front of BP’s International Headquarters in London for an entire work day. Ideally, the players will keep coming back every day until they fix the gusher.

Didn’t take long to reach their funding goal.

Jeff Bezos' commencement speech to Princeton’s Class of 2010: We Are What We Choose. Starts with a great story.

Hyperbole and a Half: This is Why I’ll Never be an Adult.

Very interesting piece from Errol Morris on unknown unknowns, The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is (Part 1), but here’s the juicy bit:

Wheeler had walked into two Pittsburgh banks and attempted to rob them in broad daylight. What made the case peculiar is that he made no visible attempt at disguise. The surveillance tapes were key to his arrest. There he is with a gun, standing in front of a teller demanding money. Yet, when arrested, Wheeler was completely disbelieving. “But I wore the juice,” he said. Apparently, he was under the deeply misguided impression that rubbing one’s face with lemon juice rendered it invisible to video cameras.

“But I wore the juice” is now my new catchall excuse for my own stupidity.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has a trailer. Can’t wait!

A new McSweeney’s short imagined monologue: I’m Comic Sans, Asshole.

Even for the Mythbusters, this has to go pretty high on the “do not try this at home, kids” list: you can stick your hand into molten lead and not get burned!

Here’s a nifty technique I’m trying: flagging visited links with a checkmark. Neat trick, but perhaps too gimmicky? I’ll see how it sits. Comments open.

In the wake of the phenomenally depressing Prescott billboard story, Roger Ebert delivers a terrific piece on racism. So good. I know he doesn’t speak for everybody, but I wish he did.