It’s an extra-large holiday weekend here in the States. Why not celebrate it with an extra-large Friday Link Pack! Some of these links I mention on Twitter, if you’re not already following me there, please do! Have a link I should feature in the upcoming link pack? Click here to email me and let me know! (Include a website so I can link to you as well.) Let’s get to it…

WRITING:

Amazon Sues To Block Fake Reviews On Its Site
This article is a few months old, but it somehow flew below my radar. It’s nice to see Amazon taking some steps towards removing this practice. Never, ever, ever, EVER, pay for reviews. They are as unfair to your readers as they are to you.

Mad Max: Fury Road And The Art Of Worldbuilding
I loved Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s easily my favorite movie of 2015. In this article, I go into depth on how director George Miller created such a wonderfully thought out action flick, with deep well-developed characters, and a breakneck pace.

Gay Vampires And Bisexual Cowboys: Why Erotica Gas E-Readers To Thank
The Guardian looks into the growing popularity of the erotica genre and the correlation with the rise of e-readers and the privacy afforded by them. There’s also a bit that goes into the psyche of readers of erotism. Personally, it feels stifling as an author. I’d hate to try something different and have my audience revolt.

Online Is IRL
Chuck Wendig wrote this piece in response to the backlash erotica writer E.L. James received on Twitter during her #AskELJames hashtag campaign. It’s some good thoughts surrounding how we treat one another online and how as critics we should always focus on the work, and not the creator themselves. [Note: Wendig later withdrew this statement. I’m not really sure why? Because he’s a man, I guess? All I see is one author stepping forward in the defense of a fellow author. YMMV, the initial article is still great.]

The Modern History Of Swearing: Where All The Dirtiest Words Come From
If you have been reading my blog for some time you’ll note that I am a fan of etymology and the evolution of words. This article from Salon delves into the histories of some of today’s dirtier words.

ART:

The Anamorphic Graffiti Of Odeith
While anamorphic street art is always fun, Odeith takes it to the next level. I particularly like it when paint is used on the ground to help take that 3D effect to new places.

Yes, Androids Do Dream Of Electric Sheep
So, Google set up a feedback loop in its image recognition neural network. The result were these strange hallucinatory images of animals, buildings, people, and landscapes. Beautiful, maybe. Terrifying, absolutely.

The Corey Press
Lovecraftian woodblock prints created by Drew Meger in Salem, MA. Really love all of these (the Nyarlathotep piece, Sage of the Sands, is my favorite.) If you like what you see, make sure you check out his Etsy store. (I featured Entfuhrentanz, Die Herzogin, for the featured image this week.)

Kisung Koh, Recent Work
My own art tastes have veered away from animals over the last few years. However, there was something incredible about these recent pieces from Canadian artist Kisung Koh. They go beyond your typical paintings of animals and into something else entirely.

RANDOM:

Go Play Gran Text Auto
Yesterday, a friend of mine launched his new game for iOS. It’s part driving and part texting. It’s fantastic, hilarious, and free! I highly recommend checking it out. iOS only for now. Here’s the link to download.

The 6 Alien Species Currently Fighting for Control Over Earth
Well, this is certainly… er, interesting. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if the blog post is serious or not. [Thanks for Will from Dorkshelf and Art of the Title sharing this.]

Netflix Is About to Be Bigger Than ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox
It’s a banner day… er, decade, really… for new media, and Netflix is the vanguard. You know those execs who never thought Netflix was going to make it are kicking themselves right now. And to thin, Netflix used to be the company that shipped DVDs to people.

9 Creatures So Unfathomable They’re Named After Monsters
We’ve already looked at the six species of aliens fighting over our planet. Let’s look at what they’ll inherit! Atlas Obscura (my favorite blog) lays out this strange menagerie. Creatures named after the hydra, to flying dragons, to the goblin spider.

Dice-Shaming
We’ve all been there. We’re fighting a monster, trying to pick a lock, or rolling to see how successful one of our abilities are… and… epic fail. Well, the gamers over at blastr have put together this slideshow of 27 dice that didn’t behave and the consequences their poor rolls wrought on the outcome of the game.

WEIRD WIKIPEDIA:

Raven Paradox
“The raven paradox, also known as Hempel’s paradox or Hempel’s ravens, is a paradox arising from the question of what constitutes evidence for a statement. Observing objects that are neither black nor ravens may formally increase the likelihood that all ravens are black – even though, intuitively, these observations are unrelated.”

H.P. LOVECRAFT STORY OF THE WEEK:

He
A man begrudgingly moves to a new town, and while wandering the streets at night he meets a mysterious stranger who begins to show him visions. Some interesting connections to Lovecraft’s personal life and his racism in this story. I highly recommend checking out the Wikipedia page for He.

GIF OF THE WEEK:

Crows gunna crow.