Excellent trailer: My Little Pony takes over the world. what if every little girl’s dream became mankind’s nightmare?

I saw a mention of Bronies recently, and anything My Little Pony related makes me think of this live-action (fake) trailer from a couple of years ago: Reign of Buttercup Sprinkles:

Remember dinosaur porn? Now it's Bigfoot - Can you say ‘cryptozoological erotica'? (NSFW language)

Amazon Cracks Down On America’s Latest Sex Fantasy

Cum For Bigfoot outsold all of Wade’s other erotica, earning her up to $30,000 a month through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. So she kept churning out Sasquatch stories, publishing a total of 16 books in the Cum for Bigfoot series. In 2012, Penthouse declared Bigfoot leader of the “paranormal pack,” referring to the bizarro subset of erotica that has exploded in the wake of Fifty Shades of Grey’s success. “If there was a market for monster sex, I was gonna give it to them,” Wade told Business Insider.

Indeed, there’s a growing demand for mythical creature porn in ebook format. Plots invariably center on women seduced by (or forced to have sex with) leprechauns, gargoyles, minotaurs, aliens, or any type of man-beast hybrid. The Week gave special mention to dinosaur erotica in its “Unexpected Trends of 2013” list, calling it “the strangest literary phenomenon of the year, and possibly ever.” But the publication underestimated just how niche this stuff gets. For example, a search for the Bigfoot series on Amazon yields related titles like Ravaged by the Hydra, Mounted by the Gryphon, Fertilized in Space, and—my personal favorite—Frankenstein’s Bitch.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/14/monster-porn-is-the-latest-wrinkle-in-self-published-smut.html

Very cool new visual effects reel from season 5 of ‘Game of Thrones’: Mastering the Dragons

It's really astonishing how much work goes into relatively fleeting scenes in Game of Thrones:

Game of Thrones season six: three latest leaks from on set (spoilers).

Season 4 Bloopers

Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Visual Effects From Game of Thrones Season 4

Queen Elizabeth Visits Game of Thrones Set (and Pugs of Westeros)

Iron Throne Shoes.

For $20K, Game of Thrones Author Will Write You Into Future Novel Then Kill You Off

Valyrian steel, length of the seasons, dragon biology: The Science of Game of Thrones, bonus geological map.

If Game Of Thrones Characters Were Drawn By Disney

Game of Thrones infographic chronology: 4 seasons of the 4 main families and the Night’s Watch.

Peter Dinklage Summarizes Game of Thrones In 45 Seconds.

Super Mario Game of Thrones.

Video: Hodor (Kristian Nairn) Describes His Awkward Game of Thrones Nude Scene.

Game of Goats, A Yelling Goats Version of the Game of Thrones Theme Song.

Game of Thrones Wine Map: The Wines of Westeros.

Supercut of pithy quotes from Game of Thrones, Seasons 1-3.

Fallen behind on Game of Thrones, or want a refresher before Season 4? All 3 seasons recapped in 9 minutes.

Game of Thrones: new trailer and an interview with the actors on who should end up on the iron throne.

Deleted And Extended Scenes From Game Of Thrones Season 3 (NSFW - language)

The Game of Thrones Travel Guide.

via GeekTyrant

Monday links

You Can Now Have Your Tattoos Framed After You Die.

For my fellow grammar Nazis: Scenes From The Unproduced Screenplay: ‘Strunk & White: Grammar Police’.

Interactive chart showing how many years you probably have left to live.

The story behind Monty Python's 'Dead Parrot Sketch', with bonus Maggie Thatcher.

I had to walk miles uphill (in both directions) in my bare feet in several feet of snow, but these kids have it worse: 25 Of The Most Dangerous And Unusual Journeys To School In The World.

McDonald's Straws Are Designed to Mimic the Experience of Breastfeeding.

ICYMI, Friday's links are here, and include a lesson in correlation is not causation: charts of weird things that correlate with each other, the world's oldest beer recipe (from Sumeria, 1800 B.C.), a chicken that lived for 18 months without a head, and supercuts of everyone killed by Superman and Batman.

People Can Now Have Their Tattoos Framed After They Die

Tattooed Lady

I realize that tattoos are more widespread than they used to be - in fact, three of my four kids have one or more, although I think they all got them in their late teens and haven't added to them as adults. At any rate, as the bumper sticker says, tattoos are not just for whores and sailors anymore. Or circus acts.

That said, the idea of flaying and then preserving a piece of skin from your recently deceased loved one, then framing and displaying it, seems to me to be a bit much. I do admire the marketing idea, however. Gotta love the entrepreneurial spirit.

If you would like to bequeath your tattoos to those left behind:

Save My Ink, a service offered by the National Association for the Preservation of Skin Art, enables tattooed people to designate recipients of their heirloom body art in their wills.

After the death of dues-paying members, writes Voon, the service will send along a removal kit to the funeral home, which then removes the tattoos and sends them along to NAPSA for preservation and framing.

To some, passing on your preserved skin to family members and friends might seem a bit ghoulish. But not according to NAPSA. On its website, the association says that, among other things, bequeathing tattoos shows that you “have a story and a legacy that you want to live on” and that the service allows tattooed people to “declare who you are, before others define who you are.” The site also includes a gallery of preserved tattoo art for would-be preservers.

 More at Smithsonian and NPR.

Great "teachable moment" for the kids - tonight's total lunar eclipse/super blood moon

These come along quite rarely, and the next opportunity to see one will be in 2033. It's also nice (and not easy!) to find things that will give kids a better understanding of, and hopefully interest in, the mechanics of astronomy.

More on tonight's lunar eclipse:

What's actually happening is a confluence of three things. The moon will be full and in its closest point in its orbit around the Earth, making it a so-called supermoon. In addition to this, a lunar eclipse will occur. In other words, the Earth will line up directly with the sun and moon, directly between the two, Wolf said. So the "moon will completely fall in the shadow of the Earth," he said.

Click here to embiggen.

Because a lot of light scatters off the Earth's atmosphere, the moon will not look completely dark but have a coppery red color — hence the blood moon moniker.

Atlas Obscura:

The moon will be at its closest orbital point to Earth as well as in its brightest phase, so it will appear bigger and more brilliant than usual—30% brighter and 14% larger than when it's at its farthest point (apogee), a difference of 31,000 miles. Sunlight sifting through the outer bounds of Earth’s atmosphere en route to the moon will cast that signature gory glow, making it both a blood moon and a super moon.

West coast kids will be have the best view  - totality is between 10:11 and 11:23 eastern time, so just after sunset Pacific time, plus the kids will still be awake and the weather tonight looks as though it will be much clearer out there.

Lots more is available at EarthSky.org, and here's Space.com's full viewing guide: 'Supermoon' Lunar Eclipse: When and Where to See It.

NASA has a brief explanatory video: