After the usual organisational fail, I've finally made it to the hotel ready for the return to the invoice factory tomorrow, which means I now have time to start the third year of Monday Links 
Happy invoicing!
- Skyrim + Bacon = BACONBORN! - "I don’t know where the inspiration for this came from, and I don’t know why anyone thought this would be a good idea, but you know the iconic Iron Helmet from Skyrim? Harley Morenstein, the brains behind Epic Meal Time, made one in real life. Out of bacon." With the creation of the bacon hat, the rise of civilisation is now complete.
- In Search of British Dragons - "The dragon is the great, great grandfather of all monsters. Before the daemon, before the vampire, before the werewolf, before the giant. Before them all was the original uber-monster the dragon. The dragon's image has crawled across cave paintings 25,000 years old, dwarfing mammoths. It has slithered across Chinese rock art in Shanxi province 8000 years before Christ. It haunted the Sumerians and the Babylonians, was worshipped by the Aztecs and feared by the Celts. In the east a glittering rain god, in the west a flame spewing, maiden devouring monster. It is found in every culture on earth. The immortal dragon has its fangs and claws deep in the psyche of mankind. And it is still seen today." Everything you ever wanted to know about dragons in Britain.
- The Voyagers: A Short Film About How Carl Sagan Fell in Love - "Attached to each Voyager is a gold-plated record, known as The Golden Record — an epic compilation of images and sounds from Earth encrypted into binary code, the ultimate mixtape of humanity... And while its story is fairly well-known, few realize it’s actually a most magical love story — the story of Carl Sagan and Annie Druyan, the creative director on the Golden Record project, with whom Sagan spent the rest of his life." A short film by Penny Lane.
- Essay on Realistic Space Combat I Wrote - "A little (or not so little) essay I wrote on what realistic space combat would be like. Thought you guys might find it interesting. Sorry, I admit it IS a bit long, I apologize if it's somewhat intimidating." Spacebattles.com forum member Memphet'ran had to split his essay over two posts. It makes most space combat games and movies look pretty silly.
- U. S. v. Syufy - "In this opinion on an alleged movie theater monopolist, Judge Kozinski cleverly hid 204 titles. (Rumor is he was assisted by his law clerk, who was also an avid movie buff and went on to become an entertainment lawyer.) I've tried to locate all of them and link them to their corresponding page on the Internet Movie Database."
- Letting Go: What should medicine do when it can’t save your life? - "In 2008, the national Coping with Cancer project published a study showing that terminally ill cancer patients who were put on a mechanical ventilator, given electrical defibrillation or chest compressions, or admitted, near death, to intensive care had a substantially worse quality of life in their last week than those who received no such interventions. And, six months after their death, their caregivers were three times as likely to suffer major depression. Spending one’s final days in an I.C.U. because of terminal illness is for most people a kind of failure. You lie on a ventilator, your every organ shutting down, your mind teetering on delirium and permanently beyond realizing that you will never leave this borrowed, fluorescent place. The end comes with no chance for you to have said goodbye or 'It’s O.K.' or 'I’m sorry' or 'I love you.'"
- The Magna Carta Essay: It's Still ALIIIIVE! - "Back in 2005 I did an evil, evil thing. Discovering the proliferation of websites where student plagiarists could copy essays, I wrote a Trojan horse paper about the Magna Carta and seeded it on a few plagiarism sites. The essay is basically wrong from beginning to end." Henchminion discovers he has a victim
- The Curse of Cow Clicker: How a Cheeky Satire Became a Videogame Hit - "...it’s ironic that Bogost’s breakout hit—the game that has made him a celebrity within his industry, attracted tens of thousands of players, and even earned him a bit of money—is a cynical trifle he whipped up in a matter of days. It’s a Facebook game called Cow Clicker, and it’s unlike anything Bogost ever made before, a borderline-evil piece of work that was intended to embody the worst aspects of the modern gaming industry. He meant Cow Clicker to be a satire with a short shelf life. Instead, it enslaved him and many of its players for much of the past 18 months. Even Bogost can’t decide whether it represents his greatest success—or his most colossal failure." The bizarre saga of Ian Bogost's game, and the coming of the Cowpocalypse.
- 2011: 58 links later - "The past twelve months have brought us some great reads and a lot of ground-breaking, memorable and history-making events. As we get ready to welcome in 2012, I thought I’d celebrate bidding 2011 adieu by sharing some of the interesting and fun quick links that I enjoyed the most throughout the year (and who I heard them through)." Excellent collection of links by Della; some have appeared in Monday Links over the past year, but most haven't.
- 1001 Rules for my Unborn Son - Currently up to "518. Expect no sympathy for a hangover. And give none."
Happy invoicing!
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