Inception + significant quantities of alcohol = Inebriation.

[Via A Whole Lotta Nothing]

The world's population, plotted by latitude and longitude.

(Be sure to move your mouse pointer over each map, which superimposes each chart over a world map and renders the message they convey so much clearer.)

[Via kottke.org]

Sixwing is right: Scissors for Hitler (and the ensuing comment thread) wins the internet today.

"I have you now."

So good.

[Via Entradista]

Contemplating the difficulties of spotting ATM skimmers, Khoi Vinh suggests that to a large degree the issue is a design problem:

Ask yourself: what exactly are all of those oddly proportioned boxes, varying planes, bizarre joins and strange angles that describe nearly every automated teller machine on the planet? Who among us who uses cash machines actually understands the purpose of all those expertly yet randomly fused-together shapes that are somehow intended to constitute a trustworthy money dispensing device?

How The Male Angler Fish Gets Completely Screwed.

[Via LinkMachineGo!]

155 years ago, the city of Chicago had a major problem: streets awash with sewerage, but with no room to lay underground plumbing as the streets themselves had been built barely above sea level.

The solution was both direct and surprisingly simple (in principle, at any rate): raising Chicago.

[Via The Browser]

Australian politics explained in terms of the Harry Potter series:

Until recently, the Australian Prime Minister was Harry Potter. He was elected to the position back in 2007 when the Australian Labor Party took victory, displacing the eleven-year-long Liberal (Conservative) reign of Voldemort. Voldemort had been convinced that he would be returned to power by an electorate only concerned with the economy, but misread the situation, as it turned out that many Australians were also concerned with Climate Change, Decent Treatment of Refugees, and Economic Policies that were more sustainable than Growth At All Costs.

At first, Harry was a lovely Prime Minister. [...]

[Via web-goddess]

A particularly nice APOD, depicting a Four Planet Sunset.

Emily Lakdawalla brings news from Neptune:

Congratulations to Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo for identifying the first known L5 Trojan asteroid of Neptune! This story is not just interesting because it is a first-of-its-kind discovery, but because of the tricky way that the astronomers went about searching for it, and because of the collateral benefits that their search will have for the New Horizons mission. [...]

From McSweeney's: Our Daughter Isn't a Selfish Brat; Your Son Just Hasn't Read "Atlas Shrugged".

I'd like to start by saying that I don't get into belligerent shouting matches at the playground very often. The Tot Lot, by its very nature, can be an extremely volatile place – a veritable powder keg of different and sometimes contradictory parenting styles – and this fact alone is usually enough to keep everyone, parents and tots alike, acting as courteous and deferential as possible. The argument we had earlier today didn't need to happen, and I want you to know, above all else, that I'm deeply sorry that things got so wildly, publicly out of hand.

Now let me explain why your son was wrong. [...]

[Via MetaFilter]

Prompted by this and this, Stu was inspired to come up with a gender reversed cast for Inception.

A couple of alternative suggestions for Stu's female lead, in place of Angelina Jolie:

• If he was casting his version in 2001, as per Karie's original list, I'd suggest Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight mode, or Sigourney Weaver.¹
• In terms of present-day casting, how about Charlize Theron?

Part of the problem with recasting Leo's role is that there just haven't been that many decent female action stars on film lately.² Then again, if you see Inception as a heist movie this isn't such an issue: what you're looking for then is more cool-leadership-under-pressure than action hero, and the likes of Naomi Watts and Cate Blanchett and Rachel Weisz³ come into the frame.

Next up: casting Inception as a TV miniseries.

1. Do I really need to explain that one? ↩
2. Do the likes of Milla Jovovich, Kate Beckinsale, Halle Berry or Keira Knightley quite have what we're looking for? ↩
3. Who Stu cast in the Cillian Murphy role. ↩

52 Bad Dudes.

[Via Subtraction.com]

Apparently American TV adverts for toilet roll are about to get more realistic:

Procter & Gamble Co. must add little flecks of cartoon toilet paper to the backsides of its Charmin cartoon bears in future ads or risk the wrath of arbitrators.

[Via The Awl]

Richard Jenkins on being cast by the Coen brothers:

[Joel and Ethan Coen] are two of the easiest guys in the world. They move quickly, they know what they want, and they want you to contribute something to the role. They don't talk about their work much. I played the part of the gym manager [in Burn After Reading], and I got a call once on my cell phone from Joel and Ethan, they said "Uh, Richard, could you work out before we start the movie?" And I said "I already do." And there was a pause. Then they said "Could you lift weights?" And I said "I do." Another long pause. They said "Never mind." [Laughs.] I guess I didn't look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Number 23 in the ever-growing list of things I didn't notice on my first viewing¹ of Inception: Inception's Snow Fortress = Geisel Library.

[Via Wikipedia, via MetaFilter]

1. Note to self: must go for a second look this week. But first, read this and this. ↩

I wonder whether the term human-flesh search engine sounds as creepy in Mandarin as it does in English:

The short video made its way around China's Web in early 2006, passed on through file sharing and recommended in chat rooms. It opens with a middle-aged Asian woman dressed in a leopard-print blouse, knee-length black skirt, stockings and silver stilettos standing next to a riverbank. She smiles, holding a small brown and white kitten in her hands. She gently places the cat on the tiled pavement and proceeds to stomp it to death with the sharp point of her high heel.

"This is not a human," wrote BrokenGlasses, a user on Mop, a Chinese online forum. "I have no interest in spreading this video nor can I remain silent. I just hope justice can be done." That first post elicited thousands of responses. "Find her and kick her to death like she did to the kitten," one user wrote. Then the inquiries started to become more practical: "Is there a front-facing photo so we can see her more clearly?" The human-flesh search had begun. [...]

[Via Long Form]

Karie suggests re-casting Inception as a 2001 production:

[... If] the project had been greenlighted in 2001, who would have played the various characters?

The central character, Cobb, a charismatic action hero with underlying trauma? Tom Cruise, of course. He did Vanilla Sky around the same time and was at the height of his career. As a result, I'd say that Penelope Cruz would be a shoo-in to be the 2001 version of Marion Cotillard. Julia Stiles might work as the young architecture student, now played by Ellen Page, but I struggle when it comes to the other actors.

Good game.

To my mind, the key issue is that Christopher Nolan in 2001 only had one major release under his belt, Memento: I'm not sure he'd have been able to get Tom Cruise. My bet is that he'd have ended up with a bunch of people whose stars were still on the rise in 2001.

After reminding myself of some of films that were released in 2001, I came up with this cast:

• Ewan McGregor plays Cobb.^{1 2}
• Josh Hartnett steps in for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur
• Naomi Watts replaces Marion Cotillard.³
• Ed Harris as Saito, in place of Ken Watanabe.^{4 5}
• I agree with Karie that Julia Stiles would work as Ariadne.⁶
• Daniel Craig replaces Tom Hardy as Eames.
• Joseph Fiennes instead of Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer.
• Dennis Quaid in place of Tom Berenger as Browning.

For the record, I have no idea who replaces Dileep Rao.

1. If Ewan has to go off and play with his lightsabre again, let Johnny Depp take a crack at Cobb. ↩
2. My initial thought was Matt Damon, but I'd rather that he didn't take the part. Doing Inception in 2001/2 might have prevented him from becoming Jason Bourne. Not a good trade. ↩
3. Or, if Nolan still wants a French actress for the role, how about Audrey Tatou? ↩
4. This does entail changing Saito's ethnicity and presumably his name, but I don't think that's terribly significant to the plot. ↩
5. I know Harris was then and is now a much bigger 'name' than Watanabe, but dammit I like Ed Harris! ↩
6. Or how about Maggie Gyllenhaal? ↩

A letter from former slave Jourdan Anderson to Colonel P H Anderson:

To my old master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee.

Sir,

I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than any body else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in a better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance. [...]

Be sure to follow the link and read the whole letter; it's as polite a fuck-you as ever you'll see.

Sholto Byrnes found a lovely story about an American's first encounter with the game of cricket in pre-Second World War Borneo:

A peppy American journalist married to Harry, [... Agnes] Keith was, along with her husband, part of a European expat community that numbered only 75. Her book is a treasure of humorous description; and I hope readers share my delight in this passage.

The married men were to play the bachelors of Sandakan in a cricket match. As I had never before seen cricket, or my husband playing it, I thought I should attend.

I went down to the padang [field] at ten o'clock with my best hat on, as I knew the women would be there too, and we all sat under a canopy with cold drinks and waited for the game to begin. At least I thought we were waiting for the game to begin. The men were on the field in smart white flannels, moving about in such a leisurely manner and with such gentlemanly courtesy and good feeling, and such apparent desire for the opponent to make the best shots, and such well-modulated remarks of "Well bowled, sir", that I, accustomed to American football, thought they must still be practising. [...]

You can probably guess the punch line, but the passage is worth reading in full, even so. Cricket is such a strange, wonderful sport.