http://brian.carnell.com Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:40:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Another must-have t-shirt from Split Reason . . . http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/zombie-day-at-the-mall-t-shirt Sideshow Collectibles is accepting pre-orders for this 1:4 scale Blackbeard figure. Arrr, but it will cost ye $399.99. http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/sideshows-14-scale-blackbeard Reuters reports on a four-year study of 600 U.S. adults whose average age was 72 when the study began. After four years, adults who had at least one parent who lived to be 100 had statistically signfiicant lower mortality rates as well as lower risk of diabetes, heart attack and ... http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/study-of-children-of-centenarians-suggest-genetic-link-to-long-lifespans Ryan Greenberg has written a survey and analysis of what Jason Kottke calls "single serving sites" -- sites that are typically just a single page, and occasionally just a single word such as HasTheLargeHadronColliderDestroyedTheWorldYet.com which currently just displays the word "Nope." Greenberg writes, Dozens of tiny, single serving sites provide a ... http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/paper-on-single-serving-sites DC Direct recently announced this Green Lantern Mini-Neon sign (7" wide by 9" tall) shipping in August 2009 for $89.99. http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/green-lantern-mini-neon-sign Suspense.net has a thorough list of clichés that you should avoid like the plague. http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/cliches-avoid-them-like-the-plague Where would the world be without bizarre Japanese toys? Bandai is planning to release this Endless Periperi "toy" which lets the user repeatedly experience the joy of ripping open cardboard packages! I'll take two. http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/bandais-endless-periperi-toy Tokyo-based JUN Planning took over the toy licences for Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas awhile ago, and they are releasing piece-by-piece a gigantic 1/4 scale Halloween Town diorama, based upon a similar diorama that Burton had created as a reference prior to the creation of the film. Grabbed the photo of ... http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/jun-plannings-enormous-nightmare-before-christmas-diorama The Center for Inquiry issued a press release in mid-December attacking the Catholic Church's Dignitas Personae, largely on abortion-related grounds (the Catholic Church, not surprisingly, is still against it). According to CFI, The Center for Inquiry, a think tank headquartered in Amherst, New York that supports research on bioethical questions, deplores ... http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/the-vaticans-dignitas-personae In February 2009, Mattel releases this Star Trek edition of the popular 20Q line of toys. The player thinks of a "sentient being, place or thing" from the Star Trek universe and the toy guesses it within 20 questions. Mattel's been seeding this using the online 20Q Star Trek site with ... http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2008/20q-star-trek-edition