Links of the Week

Every week I post a lot of fun and interesting links in Twitter.  Last week was no exception.  Here is an aggregate of some of my favorites.

Writing & Fiction

I'm pretty excited about a new book called "How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One".  Here's an except.  In the spirit of this, the author has listed a few of his favorite sentences here: Stanley Fish's Favorite Sentences (and Mine, too)

I posted a few of my own favorite sentences, from a series I'm currently reading, Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake.

And while we're on that, Strunk and White vs. Stanley Fish at the Boston Globe.

I learned a new way of spelling "teh internet", "t'internet" from this blog post, Why Being an Indie Author is More Difficult Than It Sounds.

There's a documentary on H.P. Lovecraft, called Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown.  I love biographies of the old-school sci-fi and horror writers.  So inspiring and nostalgic.

I listened to an awesome short story called Schrodinger's Cat Lady on the Escape Pod podcast.  What a fun story!

Here's a blog post about publishing and piracy called, Writing on the High Seas.

Science

Carl Sagan's old Cosmos series is up on Google Video for free viewing.  I watched all of these last year, and they are very worth it.  He cannot disguise his passion for science.  The retro charm of this show only lends enjoyment, and most of the science is still accurate.  Here is Episode 1.

Speaking of Carl Sagan, here is the much-shorter excerpt, A Pale Blue Dot.  If you don't have time for 13 episodes of Cosmos, this one is less than four minutes.

The Kármán vortex street caught my interest.  What beautiful fractals in the clouds. 

I also discovered the beautiful Faroe Islands up north of Ireland and west of Norway.  The tradition of growing grass on their roofs came from the Vikings, who would build houses by tipping their ships upside down and growing turf on top.

And I found a huge source of free documentaries at Top Documentary Films.

There's a short TED Talk called How to Start a Movement, about the science of leadership.

Entertainment

Best superb owl commercial of the week?  Watch this Volkswagen Commercial featuring Darth Vader.

Leavenworth, WA has started a new marketing campaign, featuring Woody the Nutcracker in a new rap video.

News

An Iowa Eagle Scout testifies to the Iowa House of Representatives in favor of gay marriage.  You see, he was reared by two mothers.  His story is touching.

Speaking of touching, here's a video about the protests in Egypt.

In a story from Russia fit for a cyberpunk novel, a suicide bomber blew up prematurely when she received a spam text.