Edward Woodward, mostly known as the vindictive cop from The Equalizer and The Wicker Man, died yesterday at the age of 79. Who will save us from the never-ending onslaught of street thugs and dirty pagans now? The Independent has released an obituary:

Veteran actor Edward Woodward, who was known for his roles in The Wicker Man and The Equalizer, died today.

The 79-year-old had been suffering from various illnesses, including pneumonia, and died in hospital, his agent said.

Janet Glass released a statement praising his “brave spirit and wonderful humour”.

It said: “Universally loved and admired through his unforgettable roles in classic productions such as Breaker Morant, The Wicker Man, Callan, The Equalizer and many more, he was equally fine and courageous in real life, never losing his brave spirit and wonderful humour throughout his illness.

Featured below, a trailer for the Wicker Man featuring Woodward in full form.

 
Another fantastic find, courtesy EggCityRadio, Gerald Busby‘s scary-as-shit, flute-heavy soundtrack to Robert Altman‘s 3 Women.  Along with The Long Goodbye and McCabe & Mrs. Miller, 3 Women definitely makes my “classic” Altman shortlist.  That’s not to say, of course, I don’t love MASH, or Nashville, or even Short Cuts, but I think those larger, “tapestry” films play far more to the head than they do the heart.

What’s 3 Women all about?  Well, imagine Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell’s Performance played out in Palm Springs with James Fox and Mick Jagger swapped out for Sissy Spacek and Shelly Duvall.  If it unfurls like a dream, that’s probably because Altman dreamed the movie first, turned it into a screenplay, then proceeded to shoot something he was still himself just sorting out.  But, hey, maybe that’s how you made masterpieces back in the ‘70s?  The trailer for 3 Women follows below:

 
The 3 Women soundtrack

Bonus I: 3 Women Part I

Bonus II: The Life & Times of Gerald Busby

Flickr user mleak stands next to her full-size sculpture of Wonder Woman, made from 11 (only 11?) bags of Wonder Bread. Slightly less hot than Lynda Carter… slightly. ComicsAlliance reports:

Somewhere on the grain-based Earth-9, the rolls and croissants of Breadmerica cried out for a vitamin-enriched warrior of peace and “Wonder?Ǭ

 
Who knew Jean-Paul Sartre suffered from a mescaline-induced crustacean complex?  What follows is a snippet of conversation the French existentialist had with political science professor, John Gerassi.  In it, Sartre recalls an “experiment” with drugs in 1929, the same year, not so incidentally, he met Simone De Beauvoir, aka “Castor.”

Sartre: ... I ended up having a nervous breakdown.

Gerassi: You mean the crabs?

Sartre: Yeah, after I took mescaline, I started seeing crabs around me all the time.  They followed me in the streets, into class.  I got used to them.  I would wake up in the morning and say, ?

 
Kindle users cover your eyes! This is an excellent stop-motion video that spans over two months, 3,000 photographs and 35 books documenting the making of the book “The Complex of All of These.”
 
(via HYST)

New Scientist reports that there is some huge freaking thing at the edge of our universe that has been labeled “dark flow.” I just… just… DEAR GOD I HOPE IT’S NOT GALACTUS.

Something big is out there beyond the visible edge of our universe. That’s the conclusion of the largest analysis to date of over 1000 galaxy clusters streaming in one direction at blistering speeds. Some researchers say this so-called “dark flow” is a sign that other universes nestle next door.

Last year, Sasha Kashlinsky of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and colleagues identified an unusual pattern in the motion of around 800 galaxy clusters. They studied the clusters’ motion in the “afterglow” of the big bang, as measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). The photons of this afterglow collide with electrons in galaxy clusters as they travel across space to the Earth, and this subtly changes the afterglow’s temperature.

The team combined the WMAP data with X-ray observations and found the clusters were streaming at up to 1000 kilometres per second towards one particular part of the cosmos (The Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol 686, p L49).

Many researchers argued the dark flow would not turn up in later observations, but now the team claim to have confirmed its existence. Their latest analysis reveals 1400 clusters are part of the flow, and that it continues to around 3 billion light years from Earth, a sizeable fraction of the distance to the edge of the observable universe (arxiv.org/abs/0910.4958). This is twice as far as seen in the previous study.

The dark flow appears to have been caused shortly after the big bang by something no longer in the observable universe. It has no effect today because reaching across this horizon would involve travelling faster than light.

While the rest of the world freaks out about swine flu shots and the new 2012 movie, I will be hiding under the bed from the Smasher of Universes Who Wields the Power Cosmic, thank you very much.

(New Scientist: Dark Flow Extends Towards End of Universe)

(Bonus: Galactus is Coming!)

Survivalists beware. The Raw Story reports that we have now hit Peak Gold:

Since starting its slide in 2000, the world-wide production of gold has finally hit “terminal decline,” according to reports citing Barrick Gold, the largest gold miner in the world.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph during a London gold conference, Barrick President Aaron Regent said that one could argue that Earth has reached “peak gold,” as new supplies of the ore are increasingly difficult to find.

“The supply crunch has helped push gold to an all-time high, reaching $1,118 an ounce at one stage yesterday,” the paper noted. “The key driver over recent days has been the move by India’s central bank to soak up half of the gold being sold by the International Monetary Fund. It is the latest sign that the rising powers of Asia and the commodity bloc are growing wary of Western paper money and debt.”

The report continued: “China has quietly doubled holdings to 1,054 tonnes and is thought to be adding gradually on price dips, creating a market floor. Gold remains a tiny fraction of its $2.3 trillion in foreign reserves.”

(Raw Story: Peak Gold)

Gl?ɬ?gg is the drink of the Gods. And now that we are on the veritable cusp of the holiday season, there is NO good reason not to make up your own batch to share with family and friends. Yes, it’s mulled wine, but with a hilarious name, and the more you drink, the funnier the name becomes, and the more you laugh about the name, the more you drink. Get it? Instant holiday cheer!

Gl?ɬ?gg is mulled wine with some spices and whatnot in it. Here’s a well-reviewed recipe.

The Scandinavian Insider reports on the sordid world of Gl?ɬ?gg parties:

Most gl?ɬ?gg parties aren?

 
This young man, Will Phillips, a ten year-old student in Washington County Arkansas is very, very impressive. He’s smart, he’s articulate, he’s logical and he is passionate about doing the right thing.  This kid is awesome. When Will took his stand—or rather kept his seat—against a rote recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in his classroom until there really is liberty and justice for all Americans—including lesbians, gays and transgendered people, he had no idea that his small gesture of defiance would end up with him on CNN. But there he was and wow, this kid is just unflappable. He even looks smart, and that’s impossible to fake (Compare his countenance to Sarah Palin’s!) You can see the wheels going round in his head before he opens his mouth. And when he speaks, he speaks the truth. God bless you Will, go out there and make your mark on the world.

When you watch the video clip note how Will’s father, Jay Philllips, is obviously bursting with pride over his son’s principled act of civil disobedience. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, a private/public moment of great empathy Jay shows toward Will.  Jay and his wife, Laura, are active supporters of the local LGBT community, and have clearly instilled a sense of right and wrong in their son and they, too, deserve a round of applause—make that a standing ovation—for having raised a child this fantastic.

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In Walking on the Moon, British journalist Chris Campion reframes the story of the Police into the wider world of 1980s rock and draws connections between the trio of bleached blonds who somehow convinced the world of the unlikely charms of “white reggae” and the culture war that took place between the fall of disco and the rise of MTV.

The subtitle of your book is the ?