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When Larry Met Sergey is the highly condensed story of Larry Page and Sergey Brin and the company they named Google. Scroll down for each chapter (slowly, because the graphics are in layers) and watch the men’s hairstyles and clothing change over the years. Link -via the Presurfer
If you’ve ever wondered how the events that take place in all of the Legend of Zelda video games fit together in the history of Hyrule, you need to check out this official timeline.
Part of a new Zelda art book entitled Hyrule Historia, this timeline proves that there is a cohesive plot unfolding in the games, a plot which is following a set path, and which sometimes strays off into the multiverse zone, depending on the outcome of certain scenarios and whether Link is defeated or victorious in his battle against dark forces.
If you’re interested, you can see more of this comprehensive timeline at the link below, as well as a 23 minute long video which shows the art book in all it’s beautifully illustrated glory. It’s good to know that someone can make sense of all that has happened to Link since his early days on the NES!
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All I know about the 2004 time travel film Primer is that it’s very confusing. That was made clear in an xkcd plot graph that we linked (Primer is at the bottom right). Although the movie covers only five days, there are nine timelines, according to this graph at Unreality magazine (which you can enlarge at the link). Does this clear things up? Link
Dan Meth has put together a series of pop culture charts. Number 6 explores which year in the future science fiction films take place. I had no idea A Clockwork Orange took place in 1995. I remember that year being a lot more low key.
Link via Geeks Are Sexy
Since its debut in 1979, the Happy Meal has been a staple of childhood. It’s not been without its problems, though, as nutrition-conscious parents and health-promoting legislation have worked to keep McDonald’s kids’ meals within acceptable caloric standards. From the 600-calorie hamburger debut to Tuesday’s First Lady-approved changes (and a little toy trivia for good measure), check out the bumpy history of the Happy Meal on The Week. Link
Image: McDonalds.com
Heather McDougal talked to 5th and 6th graders about how the ideal body image of women has changed over time, from the corsets of 100 years ago to the Photoshopped images of today. And the modern altered bodies and altered images are the hardest ideal to even consider living up to. As an example, contrast the image of Usula Andress in the 1962 movie Dr. No with one of Halle Berry in the 2002 movie Die Another Day.
The thing that disturbs me most about these two images is how our daughters must feel about themselves when they see them. The girls in 1962, seeing Ursula rising from the waves in Dr. No, knew that what they were seeing was a real woman, something they could aspire to (if that was what they wanted). Seeing Halle Barry, above, holds no such comforts, particularly when digital film has so much option for smoothing out those flaws. Such perfection is absolutely outside the realm of anyone who is honest with themselves. They might as well throw themselves against a brick wall, because you can’t live, and breathe, and be that perfect. It’s impossible, and our daughters know it.
When she presented the changing ideal image of men, she found fewer changes over time, but a difference between what men and what women consider ideal. Read the rest at Cabinet of Wonders. Link
This chart from Jorge Cham of PhD Comics is more relevant than ever. However, I’ve heard that it only applies to Americans. Link -via Chart Porn
Sam Klemke videotaped himself every year for 35 years, clips of which are presented backwards, so you can watch him watch him grow (or shrink, rather) into a 20-year-old wearing bell bottoms and platform shoes. The sound quality does fade in the earlier clips. I found this fascinating, since he is close to my age. -via reddit
Since humans were able to conceive of the concept of time they have wanted to know the future. And with the advent of Google we have come even more expectant of having any and all information at our fingertips. Have you ever found yourself wanting to Google something that doesn’t exist yet? Sports scores to a game that hasn’t been played? Find results for the 2012 presidential election? Well now someone has cataloged future events for each year as determined by the first page of Google search results. What comes up is an interesting list of visions of what’s to come. Only a small portion of the time line is shown here. Link
Recent anti-government protests in the Middle East vary immensely regarding how much news gets to international audiences, and we can find it hard to keep up with developments in so many different areas. The successful regime change in Egypt and the violence in Libya tend to crowd out news from other nations. The Guardian has published an interactive time line that will help you catch up with developments in not only Libya, but also Tunisia (where it all started back in December), Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, and other countries experiencing civil unrest. Link -via Metafilter
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Rob Cockerham constructed a chart of TV shows that were set in a time period other than the one they were produced in. This may be especially useful for young people who weren’t watching at the time, like my children, who thought the series Happy Days was produced in the 1950s. Still, there are some surprises for all of us. Really, who knew that Lost in Space was set in 1997! Shown here is a small part of a much larger chart. Link
What happens to all of your digital web accounts when you die? All those Flickr photos, for instance. Well, Richard Banks, who works on a project called Technology Heirloom for Microsoft Research, created a device meant to pay tribute to a passed love one, called the Timecard:
This is a timeline viewer, meant to represent someone’s life, that we imagine might be the digital equivalent of a photo album or baby book. We’d like to think that it might become a precious object for a family, forming a new class of digital heirloom.
Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] | Technology Heirlooms project | Interview with BBC
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The nifty hand-drawn graph above is Christopher Nolan’s graph detailing the timeline of Inception. If you don’t understand it, you’re in good company – but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying the movie.
Link – via Boing Boing
You see here only a small portion of a much larger graphic showing a timeline, or maybe a family tree, of famous LOLcats we all know and love. Happycat, who was the first to ask for a cheeseburger, is at the top and lots of his progeny are at the bottom. Link -via Gorilla Mask
A writer at Wolf Gnarls calculated that Bill Murray spent exactly 8 years, 8 months and 16 days stuck in a time loop in the movie Groundhog Day. According to Heeb Magazine, the writer and director of the 1993 film Harold Ramis disputes those findings.
“I think the 10-year estimate is too short. It takes at least 10 years to get good at anything, and, alloting for the down time and misguided years he spent, it had to be more like 30 or 40 years… People [i.e. spaz] have way too much time on their hands. They could be learning to play the piano or speak French or sculpt ice”
Considering we are talking about a fictional movie containing a fantasy phenomena, the matter may never be settled to everyone’s satisfaction. Link -Thanks, Liz!
1. Time travel in a Terminator movie is like plumbing in a porno: a very loose excuse to get to the action.
2. Anyone expecting accuracy is missing the point (and having much less fun than everyone else).
3. With that said, here is our attempt to construct a sensible time line of the franchise.
Note: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is not included in this project. Link -via Digg
These ten different timelines, which are all affected whenever someone uses a time machine, can be confusing (as all time travel stories are), but reading them may help you prepare for the new movie Terminator: Salvation.
I’ve mulled it over some more, and I still believe there has to be a timeline where someone other than Kyle Reese is John Connor’s father. When The Terminator was a standalone movie, you could read it either way. Either there’s a circular causality, where Kyle is “always” John Connor’s father, or Kyle’s time travel creates a new branch. But Terminator 2 pretty much establishes that time travel always creates new branches, because there’s no fate but what we make. And the Connors, with their friendly T-800, are able to stop or at least delay Skynet. But of course, your mileage, even backwards and forwards through time, may vary.
