Link roundup

1. Jimmy Kimmel has a great article at Grantland about his dad. Here's a taste:

Sun Devil Stadium was about half full. My Dad and I were in Dave's seats. Between the first and second quarters, the PA announcer called out a section, a row number, and a seat. Whoever was in the seat they picked would get a chance to kick a field goal for a sum of money I can't recall. We were nowhere near the winning section, so we paid little attention to the contest. The game resumed. At halftime, we were not among those in line for overpriced beer or a five-dollar hot dog. "That's what they want you to eat!" We remained in our seats. The announcer said something to the effect of "Hey, Cardinals fans — it's time for the Fan Field Goal challenge. Today's fan is from Section 43, Row H, Seat 5 — and let's welcome her now!"There was some cheering, not much — mostly, I'd guess, from Section 43. The first thing that caught my eye was the dog walking across the field. A German shepherd. The next thing I noticed was a man who looked like a Cardinals team representative slowly leading an older woman by the hand. And then I knew the woman was blind. And the stadium fell silent.My father looked at me with the same threatening eyes I'd later turn on my 5-year-old son when he spotted a very fat man in the supermarket and started to point. "Don't say a word," they told me. I didn't. Back to the action. At about the 15-yard line, a boy placed a football on a tee. Slowly, very slowly, the team representative led the woman to the ball, allowing her to "feel" it with her foot. I couldn't even begin to process what was happening. A BLIND WOMAN was going to try to KICK A FIELD GOAL in an NFL STADIUM! "Good for her!" you might be thinking, "Now, there's a woman who refuses to let her disability get the best of her!" And, in retrospect, I agree, but at the time my brain felt like it was loaded with Pop Rocks.The crowd remained frozen. Still holding her hand, the team rep cautiously backed the sightless woman five steps away from the ball. It was happening. No one made a sound. The only relaxed person in the stadium was a dog, which was now lounging on the turf. "And here we go!" the PA announcer boomed.

2. Pretty cute - - when you transfer DSiWare games to the 3DS, Pikmin do the heavy lifting.3. "A Chinese firm has been 'secretly' copying an entire UNESCO-listed village in Austria, called Hallstatt."*Buy Pikmin toys at eBay.

Dog going up stairs while wearing the cone of shame

"Lucy had surgery on her head and had to wear the cone of shame. This was the first time she went up the steps unassisted." Via.

If Ron Artest took over Jack Hanna's Animal Planet

Ron Artest agreed to participate in what he thought was a commercial for an animal charity. Little did he know that the video was actually arranged by the Jimmy Kimmel show, and that after starting out with a cute puppy, he would face an increasingly intimidating menagerie of creatures.

Games With Honest Names

From the Games With Honest Names edition of Photoshop Phriday.

A Pagan Book of ABCs

A Pagan Book of ABCs is a free Kindle download, or $5 for the hard copy. Only two reviews at Amazon so far.

The Predator (not the Gladys II)

Clumsily renaming a ship with an embarrassing name.

Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Austria (as interpreted by Kate Beaton)

Kate Beaton's latest strips feature Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Austria and Benito Juárez.*Hark! A Vagrant is 37 percent off at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Penny Arcade created three new X-Men: Hindsight, The Salmon, and Salivo.2. The Los Angeles Police Commission voted unanimously to eliminate red light cameras.3. Twitter's going to automatically shorten links now.

Grabbing ice cream cones by the ice cream

Obviously I strongly discourage this sort of behavior ("cone-ing"). And I don't find it funny at all watching the looks on the workers' faces. Via.

A use for DVD cases

Putting DVD cases to good use.

Spider-Man rebooted by Kate Beaton

One of five new strips by Kate Beaton in which she asks, What if...Spider-Man had been bitten by a brown recluse spider?*Hark! A Vagrant is 37 percent off at Amazon.

Illustration roundup

Batman wallpaper available in high-res here.Oh, Betty!Seriously, if this was just fan art by some random artist, would anyone have reposted it today? I mean, it's almost as ridiculous as getting excited over the news that George Lucas has written 50 hours of scripts of a Star Wars series.Kate Beaton mocks a mermaid cover. (Speaking of, Hark! A Vagrant! can now be preordered for 37% off Amazon.)

Hark! A Vagrant! cover

The upcoming book cover for Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant!. She also recently posted several strips about what she said to cartoonists this weekend:

Image roundup

Fun with shopping carts.Hipster Ariel.Mandarin duck.Bereaved wolf being comforted via.Fearsome toddler via. See also.

Image roundup

She's with me. And the human version.Grace Jones via Eric Perez, who created several Grace Jones posters.Happy urinal.Fierce little tiger.Baby okapi ("forest giraffe").:P.Bolivia's salt desert after a rainstorm. You can learn more about the desert by watching this video. Via.

Link roundup

1. One of Drew Magary's readers talks about meeting Randy Savage:

We were met backstage by some WWF people who were leading us into the locker room area, and we were brought to Randy to say hello. There were a bunch of other wrestlers around, which was really cool but there was one problem: the good guys were hanging out and being cordial to the bad guys! Seeing good guys like Brett Hart sharing laughs with bad guys like Jake "The Snake" Roberts was almost traumatic to see; like seeing your Dad french kiss your aunt. It simply wasn't supposed to happen.I was sad, scared and confused. I gathered up the courage to ask why the Good Guys were friends with the Bad Guys. Randy said, "We're not. We're just tricking them. You'll see."After this, a WWF rep was showing us some other areas of the backstage. I don't remember what we saw, but I know when we circled back to the area where Randy was, all of the wrestlers I had seen before were back in character. Bad guys were yelling at Good Guys about how they were going to kick their butt and Good Guys were holding each other back from attacking the bad guys.This. Was. Awesome. It IS real! Of course it is!Randy didn't know me too well, but he cared enough about a young fan and professional wrestling to keep the illusion and innocence alive.

2. Crooked forest. Via.3. If you've experienced problems commenting, there's apparently a problem affecting some users. (It'll be pretty sad if Blogger stops being reliable - - that's really all it has going for it.)

Image roundup

Monster dog.Finally, the Black Eyed Peas' secret origin revealed.Ghost mountain. Via.World War I-era ship's camouflage. Via.Widescreen wallpaper-sized still I cropped from one of the new Star Tours videos.Chicago, surrounded by fog.Abandoned mill in Sorrento, Italy.

Buffoonery turns free kick into a goal

Watch as two soccer players trip each other to distract the other team during a free kick. Via.

Image roundup

Do you want this octopus to have fewer arms?Deer escaping a flood.Wedding plea for help.

Link roundup

1. Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw reviews Mortal Kombat.2. The Worst Internet Intern Interview Ever. Via.3. FYI, don't plan on mass-producing and selling Portal fan art.