Interesting links for January 10th through January 13th:

• The Death of Checkers – I love it that somebody actually used the brute force method to “solve” the checkers game. And it only took 18 years!
• Official Guide to the Summer of 2008 « FirstShowing.net – Great list of the movies coming out next summer, including (when available) links to the trailers. It’s going to be a busy summer 😀
• Flight of the Hamsters – Cute flash game where you have to launch hamsters.
• Torchwood: Torchwood Snogging, Synopses, And More – Two clips from the next season of Torchwood (I think it’s safe to say there from the first episode).

Interesting links for January 8th through January 9th:

• Mind Hacks: A phobia of bridges – I’ve never stood still with how irritating such a phobia would be. But then, how could you even have such a phobia?
• Advertising: Jumper Teleporting Through Commercials – Weird crossover trailer for Jumper, where Hayden Christensen jumps into another commercial (HP, Serena Williams).
• Mind Hacks: ‘Stress’: from buildings to the battlefield – Cute little fact that Stress shouldn’t have been called stress (but strain).
• IQ-145: Teen Becomes His Father’s Freaky Experiment in IQ-145 – Trailer for a new web series IQ-145 with Thomas Dekker (Heroes, Sarah Connor Chronicles). Seems interestings.
• Environment: Vertical Skyscraper Farms Dominate Skyline of 2050 – Pretty nifty idea for the future: farms in skyscrapers.
• Microscopy: The Tarnished Gears of Steampunk Microscopy – Cool photos of watches under the microscope.
• Office Supplies Fetish: Customize Your Notes with the Circa Modular Notebook – Ooh, loving this note book system. Does anybody know if I can it in the UK anywhere?

Interesting links for January 7th:

• Culture-Jamming Decapitator Hacks London Ads – East London photographer is vandalizing ads by decapitating the models aka sticking a big photoshopped sticker over their heads replacing it with a big bloody stump.
• New 3-D Technique From RabbitHoles Makes Posters Pop – If I’m right this is the first time 3D posters are being commercially used. I know James Cameron is also involved in a company doing this same thing and think we’re going to see it once Avatar comes out.
• Art: The Ghosts Of Tomorrow’s Mega-Cities – Beautiful photos from photographer Peter Bialobrzeski of Asian mega cities and of the construction sites of Asian mega cities.
• Paper dresses by Jum Nakao – Pretty runway dresses completely made out of paper by fashion designer Jum Nakao. Plus you gotta love the black plastic Lego-like hair styles.
• Architecture: How to Make Molten Metal Look Like Rain – Cool 100-foot high sculpture from architect/designer/artist Thomas Heatherwick for the Wellcome Trust building in London.
• Battlestar Galactica: Secrets Of Battlestar Season Four Betrayed In New Photo – The cast of BSG pose in a Last-Supper-esque photo and executive producer Ron Moore gives hints about the next (and final) season. Very light spoilerage of the identity of the final Cylon.
• Torchwood: Captain Jack and Spike Kiss – First images of the steamy kiss between Captain Jack (John Barrowman) and Captain John (James Marsters aka Spike from Buffy)

Interesting links for January 5th through January 6th:

• Big TREK update! Footage seen! Script read! Tidbits galore! — – Rumours about the plot of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek.
• High Heels and the Body – How wearing high heels can damage your body.
• Jack Black Spills Year One Details – First details about Judd Apatow’s religious comedy “Year One”. Sounds like dangerous material to pull off, but I think Apatow (Knocked Up, Superbad) has the skills to handle it well.
• Michel Gondry’s Next Film – Return of the Ice Kings « FirstShowing.net – I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind seems pretty awesome too. Quite interested to see where Michel Gondry goes next. If it is this idea “about kids who invent a water that makes you hear music when you drink it.” Wow.
• Kitty Wigs! – Pink is the color of fantasy. Our model, Chicken, looks like her mind is elsewhere when she wears this wig — somewhere in a land of cotton candy and pinwheels where the air smells like sugar kisses. The world we live in is a very weird place indeed: “Pi

Interesting links for January 4th:

• 55 Must See Movies of 2008 | /Film – Another preview list of the films coming out in 2008, ordered on release date. Mentions two films I hadn’t heard of before: Nick and Norah?s Infinite Playlist, and Synecdoche, New York.
• Phil Wheeler – Online Gallery – Pretty pictures. Mind Hacks: “They’re psychological in both senses of the word, as some contain images associated with psychology, but also often contain hidden images, visual illusions and distortions.”
• 60 Dumbest Celebrity Quotes – How dumb can some people be? “I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada.” – Britney Spears, “I think gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman” – Arnold Schwarzenegger,
• Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future – Great collection of quotes from famous people about wrong predictions. Being a movie fan, I especially love this one: “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” H. M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, 1927.
• School in a cave – Photo shoot of children attending class at the Dongzhong (literally meaning “in cave”) primary school at a Miao village in China. The school is built in a huge, aircraft hangar-sized natural cave, carved out of a mountain over thousands of years by wind,
• Top 60 Japanese buzzwords of 2007 –
• Why 2008 Will Be An Awesome Year For Movies « FirstShowing.net – List of the most interesting movies coming out next year. Besides the obvious ones (The Dark Knight, Indy IV, Star Trek), there are a couple more obscure ones (Blindness, The Box, Repo! The Genetic Opera!, Zack and Miri Make A Porno).
• How to Draw a Face: A Mystery – Story about a guy whose father drew a comic “face” (at least it was a face in his fathers eyes) on his birthday cake every year and who wanted to finally know where the face came from.

Interesting links for January 3rd:

• Jazz Up Your WordPress Admin – A list of themes for your WordPress Admin. Sadly there aren’t that many out there and the default theme is ugly. I’m using the Tiger style now, but have the feeling there should be even better ones out there.
• Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2007 – Beautiful fractal images. I wish I could have posters of some of these. I especially like Stardust, Air, Dreamtime Persistence and Mono Mania. What are your favorites?
• Law & Order: London in Development – ComingSoon.net – I never got into watching Law & Order, but some people might like the idea that ITV is negotiating a 13-episode order with NBC.

Interesting links for January 2nd:

• Raiders of the Lost Backyard: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com – Wow, great story of three boys in 1982 who made a scene-by-scene adaptation of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
• The Strangetastic Photo Galleries: The Winchester Mystery House – A collection of photos of a creepy mansion (with 160 rooms).
• Keys to the Kingdom: Making Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull – A great insight into the minds behind Indy IV, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Plus photos from the set by Annie Leibovitz.

House: Wow, House is back and it’s good! After last season’s slump, I was seriously considering throwing this series off my To-Watch list. So far though this season has been great (4×01 and 4×02). I loved the kidnapping of the guitar and the patient in the first episode. Also all the new doctors add this whole new dimension to the show. I wonder which of them are going to stay and for how long? I’m guessing Kal Penn and “Thirteen”. Does anybody else here think that “Thirteen” is somebody’s sister? I’m guessing Cameron’s.

Chuck: I’m still undecided on this series. It’s geeky, funny, but yet…I’m not really sure where it’s going. I also find it quite weird that the creators chose to name the character “Chuck” because there wasn’t any character on TV called Chuck so far, while now this season we suddenly have 3 Chucks (this Chuck, Gossip Girl rape guy and Pushing Daisies dead girl).

Journeyman: I wasn’t expecting to like this series as much as I do. It’s time travel, which most of the time means plots with gaping holes in it (too irritating for my logical mind; I hate it when they don’t think things through properly). Here though I’m not minding it that much and I think it’s to do with acting of the main guy. He somehow makes it less ridiculous then it actually is and I mean this in a good way!

Heroes: Did anyone else notice that the last episode (2×03) should have been called “Blue Screen” instead of “Kindred”? Last seasons special effects were always very subtle; this was just cringe-worthy. Shouldn’t a bigger budget mean “less crappy effects”? And the Maja/Alejandro storyline…zzzzzzzzzz. Get on with the cool stuff already.

Another batch of interesting links from the blogosphere:

What Do You Give The Person That’s Got Everything? This. Yes, that’s right; even the most boring person can now have their own action figure. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Super Accountant! [Via ChipChick]

Polly Put The Kettle On: I used to be one of those girls that wore mood rings; I loved watching the ring change color according to the mood I was in, until (of course) I found out it reacted on warmth. Now, this is the grown-up version of the mood ring. [Via ChipChick]

Sneak Peeks: Take a look at the trailers for Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp and Semi-Pro with Will Ferrell. Then check out new images and posters from Astroboy (!!!) and Iron Man (if you hadn’t since this trailer yet, click here). [Via FirstShowing]

Will Won’t Travel: If any of you were following Traveler, you might have heard by now that unfortunately it’s been cancelled. One of writers though has taken the time to write a blog post to round off all the loose threads.

Felicity’s Lost Alias: Since Lost I’ve not been that impressed by anything JJ Abrams has done. However, there are quite some people that think differently: Fox has just bought the rights to Fringe, a new supernatural series described as a cross between Twilight Zone and X-Files. What?! The next show isn’t about a university girl turned spy who get’s stuck on a deserted island and isn’t allowed to cut her hair?? [Via BuzzSugar]

Some cool/interesting/weird stuff I stumbled upon this morning:

Cabbage Plastic Patch Kids: It’s already bad enough that the pictures of celebrities are airbrushed for magazine covers, but at least I can somewhere somehow see the point behind that. But to airbrush photo’s of your own children?!? They look like creepy weird plastic dolls! [Via dollymix]

The Truth Is Out There Again: According to David Duchovny an X-Files movie sequel is in the work and will start shooting in December. Do we really need more alien abduction and Big Foot stories? That is so 20th century. [Via TvSquad and my new plaid pants]

Come With Me If You Want To Live Be Confused: Another rumoured sequel is Terminator 4, which in my mind is completely unnecessary now that The Sarah Connor Chronicles will be aired. The storyline is already confusing enough as it is; do they really want to complicate the plot even more? Plus this quote from the producer about the new hero doesn’t give me much hope:

Ben-Hur was influenced by Jesus Christ, but it was his story. Much in that way, this character will be influenced by John Connor.

[Via First Showing]

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty: As long as they don’t bring the Hoff back, this could be quite interesting. Yes, they’re talking about a remake of Knight Rider.
[Via Variety]