Humor: Knowledge vs. Imagination

"Knowledge vs. imagination" by Kristen and Rob Tornoe of It's a Shore Thing

The full quote: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research."

Gaming Round-Up: April 20, 2015

"Portal 2" by BigGreenPepper

Andy Astruc writes about his experience playing Skyrim’s "Live Another Life" mod with his own roleplaying rules.

Erik Bigras explores the epistemological boundaries of our concept of a “good” game.

George Buckenham, maker of Punch The Custard, offers his rules for making games.

At Kill Screen, Dillon Baker notes the trend of games about rural, pastoral life.

Kill Screen Daily has an interview with FM Towns Marty (NSFW), who posts images and gifs from otherwise inaccessible retro Japanese computer games. His images were controversially used in Jon Rafman's video for Oneohtrix Point Never's song Still Life (Betamale) (NSFW).

Lulu Blue critiques the superficial nature of common videogame language, while Heather Alexandra, the author of the TransGamer Thoughts Tumblr, offers a Defense of Lore as an alternative ways of communicating about a world.

Comic Round-Up: April 20, 2015

"Arkham Knight Cover" by Stjepan Sejic (Nebezial)

Event: Forbidden Planet in New York City is stoked to announce a Troma signing on Thursday April 30th at 7:00 PM! Meet Lloyd Kaufman (Troma President and creator of The Toxic Avenger), Ethan Hurt (Composer of the Class of Nuke ‘Em High Theme), and Lisa Gaye (star of Class of Nuke ‘ Em High 2 & 3, Toxic Avenger 2-4, and many more Troma classiscs!

Event: Writer Mark Waid (Princess Leia, Daredevil) and variant cover artist John Tyler Christopher will appear at Downtown Comics in Indianapolis, IN on Monday May 4th from 4:00 to 7:00 PM for Star Wars Day!  RSVP on Facebook!

Interview: Alex Dueben talks to Miss Lasko-Gross. 

Interview: Chelsea Liddy, organizer of Comique Con, the first convention to feature only female creators, talks about her plans for the con. A collaborative effort with Green Brain Comics, the con will be held at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and will feature panels, cosplay and a screening of the documentary She Makes Comics. 

Interview: Comic-Book Writer Nick Spencer talks about writing the print version of Ant-Man as Marvel releases a second trailer for the movie and Vulture looks at the film's long production history.

Interview: Keith Knight says he asked that his cartoon criticizing vaccine manufacturers be taken down from The Daily Kos because the comments had gotten out of control.

Interview: Malaysian cartoonist Zunar is facing nine charges of sedition, which raises an interesting point. The Malaysian government feels so threatened by him because it depends heavily on support from less-educated rural voters, and Zunar’s cartoons have wide appeal.

Link Round-Up: April 20, 2015

"R'lyeh" by MarcSimonetti

The golden ratio has spawned a beautiful new curve: the Harriss spiral is a new fractal discovered by mathematician Edmund Harriss.

The Golden Ratio in Art Composition and Design  Graphic artists depict the golden ratio – in pictures  Alex Bello blogs about the book: Golden Meaning: 55 graphic artists reveal the maths of the golden ratio  Another look, from Creative Review

H.R. Giger lives on in this festival of rare and unseen films.

 

A Japanese whiskey company mills incredibly detailed ice cubes in shapes like Batman, Mario, Godzilla, and more.

Not art, but still interesting: The hidden FM radio inside your pocket -- and why you can't use it.  The app mentioned in the story to (potentially) unlock your smartphone's FM tuner for personal use can be found over here.

A professional photographer for more than 20 years, and published in Q, Melody Maker and Rolling Stone, Pat Pope has worked with many of the biggest names in pop and rock music, including Oasis, David Bowie and Radiohead. One act with whom he has worked several times are 90s indie titans Garbage. Indeed, they admire Pope’s work so much that recently, as they put together a forthcoming self-published book, their management asked his permission to use one of his pictures of them. So far, so good... Pat Pope’s row with Garbage.

Lecture: LEGO Movie Anti-Copyright?

"Is The LEGO Movie Anti-Copyright?" by PBS Idea Channel

Mike Rugnetta returns with another great theory.  This time, he explores whether The LEGO Movie is actually making a case against copyright!  (Not bloodly likely given the studios backing the film, but it's an intriguing though exercise.)  Rugnetta takes a look at how copyright effects every part of culture and how it affects the creation of something new out of something old – themes that The LEGO Movie grapples with at every turn.

"EVERYTHING IS AWESOME in the LEGO™ movie, except when it isn’t and LORD BUSINESS gets in the way and wants to control everything and stifle creativity™! Emmet, Wyldstyle, Batman, and others in the movie seem completely opposed to the imposition of any sort of structure that dictates what will be built and how, which to us at Idea Channel sounds really similar to discussions around copyright law and intellectual property (IP). Are master builders just artists who make good use of the public domain? Can the LEGO movie advocate for open culture even if LEGO itself is historically opposed to it? Find out in this week’s episode of Idea Channel!"

Music Video: Science Style

"Science STYLE Cover - Taylor Swift Acapella Parody" by AsapSCIENCE

Science never goes out of STYLE, as the guys from ASAP Science are more than happy to tell you in this scientific a capella parody of Taylor Swift's "Style."

"See, I heard that you've been out and about making fun of nerds."

Video: The AvenGerbils

"The AvenGerbils: Hamster of Thor" by Jimmy Kimmel Live

"Marvel is doing something interesting with the new “Avengers” sequel. They’re releasing a G-rated version of the film that’s just for kids. #AvenGerbils"