Supercut of people running in slow motion in movies.

Film list, in order of appearance:

Armageddon
American History X
Bad Boys
Boys n the hood
The Grinch
LOTR : Return of the king
Cliff Hanger
Stand by me
Broken Arrow
George of the jungle
Zoolander
Rookie of the year
The Sandlot
Hot Fuzz
Swordfish
White men can't jump
Teen Wolf
Revenge of the nerds
The longest yard
Twilight
The last of the Mohicans
Hard Target
Run fat boy run
Ice age
Charlie's Angels
Get him to the Greek
Platoon
Zombieland
Mean Machine
The Matrix Revolutions
Forest Gump
Jeepers Creepers 2
Pain and Gain
Sherlock Holmes 2
The Hurt Locker
300
Scott Pilgrim
Shrek 2
Chariots of Fire
Tropic Thunder
Wanted
Kick Ass
Sucker Punch
The Untouchables
Battleship
The Last Boyscout
Volcano
The Patriot
The Rundown
Attack the block
Tron Legacy
Kick Ass
The Darjeeling Limited
Starsky and Hutch
Friday
10
Click
Baywatch Hawaiian Wedding
Wagons East
Police Academy 4
Homeward Bound
Resident Evil Retribution
Shrek
The Marine
The Running man
Mission Impossible
Blade Runner
Transformers : ROTF
Nacho Libre
Rocky III
The Immortals
Braveheart
LOTR : Fellowship of the ring
The Meteor man
Avatar
Predator
Jackass
Kung Fu Hustle
Terminator 2
Watchmen
Max Payne
Lethal Weapon 3
Run Lola Run
Hoop Dreams

Monday links

Hovering Tree in Germany.

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings: It's Richard II's 647th birthday.  Kind of related: Five Hardcore Deaths Suffered By Roman Emperors.

Is Iron Man made of Lego?

That time we nearly nuked Canada (with their permission).

The origin of the deadline.

From the archives, a Must Listen: Woman's rant about the government encouraging (via crossing signs) deer to cross busy roads.

Do Fat People Stay Warmer Than Thin People? (They could have saved the taxpayer dollars and asked a few of those of us with enhanced subcutaneous insulation.)

ICYMI, Friday's links, including deadliest actors and normally-proportioned Barbie, are here.

Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings: It's Richard II's 647th birthday

All places that the eye of heaven visits
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
There is no virtue like necessity.
~William Shakespeare (King Richard II, Act I, Sc. 3)

More are men's ends marked than their lives before:
The setting sun, and music at the close,
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
Writ in remembrance more than things long past.
~Ibid., Act II, Sc. 1

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings:
How some have been deposed; some slain in war;
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poisoned by their wives; some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp...
~Ibid., Act III, Sc. 2

Today is the 647th anniversary of the birth of Richard II (1367-1400), the eighth and last of the Plantagenet kings of England. The son of Edward the Black Prince, Richard succeeded his grandfather Edward III in 1377, but because his minority was dominated by rival nobles, it was difficult for him to assert his authority even after quelling the Peasant's Revolt in 1381. In ensuing power struggles with John of Gaunt and his son, the Duke of Hereford, Richard was defeated and forced to abdicate in 1399 in favor of Hereford, who became Henry IV. Richard died - probably murdered - in 1400 in Pontefract Castle, where he had been imprisoned. These events led inexorably to the Wars of the Roses and an ongoing obsession in the house of Tudor with reiterating its legitimacy - having gained the throne by virtue of a regicide two centuries earlier.  

Written in 1595 when Shakespeare was 31, Richard II draws on Holinshed's Chronicles as its principal source and may have been intended by the Bard as a lesson to the Tudors about the dangers of weak leadership at a time when Spain was threatening again and the childless Queen Elizabeth had not yet named an heir. In any event, the queen is known to have seen the play later that year. Of all Shakespeare's history plays, Richard II is the most lyrical, and its remarkable poetry and sad portrayal of personal downfall maintain its popularity today. For example, in Act V, Sc. 5, the doomed king laments,

"How sour sweet music is,
When time is broke, and no proportion kept!
So is it in the music of men's lives."

You can watch the BBC's Shakespeare Uncovered biopic of Richard II, with Derek Jacobi, here.  The Kindle version of the play is available for free here.

The boy king Richard II:

Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email.  If you'd like to be added to his distribution list, leave your information on the comments.

Guy in NY helps dig car out of the snow, then carjacks it at gunpoint, then runs away stripping off his clothes

Because it's New York!

Genero Placenia, 18, carjacked a man at gunpoint after helping the 19-year-old victim free his car from the snow, cops say. 

An 18-year-old goon helped a motorist dig out a car buried on a snow-swept Queens street Friday. Then he carjacked the man’s ride — along with his iPhone and cash — at gunpoint, cops said.

This is a generic car-in-snowbank picture and
 has nothing specific to do with this story.

But Genero Placenia’s plan fell apart after he helped his 19-year-old victim free the Honda Civic on 75th St. near Pitkin Ave. in Ozone Park at 1:30 p.m., officials said.

The robbery suspect ditched the car in a snowbank. Placenia, who shucked off his clothes and shoes as he ran, was caught in a nearby building — with “most of his clothes off” cops said.

More here.

Marijuana Overdoses Kill 37 In Colorado On First Day Of Legalisation

HuffPo UK: A satirical website managed to trick some people into thinking marijuana was a particularly lethal drug*, with a rather excellent hoax story.

The article was headlined: "Marijuana Overdoses Kill 37 in Colorado On First Day of Legalisation January 2nd, 2014."

Long queues sprung up across Colorado on Thursday, with hordes of customers braving the bitter cold and snow, as the world's first state-licensed marijuana industry opened for business.

But The Daily Currant, decided to have some fun with the new marijuana law.

"Colorado is reconsidering its decision to legalise recreational pot following the deaths of dozens due to marijuana overdoses," the story reads, attributing the shocking death toll to the Rocky Mountain News – a Denver daily newspaper that closed in 2009.

“It’s complete chaos here,” says Dr. Jack Shepard, chief of surgery at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver, “I’ve put five college students in body bags since breakfast and more are arriving every minute.”

"We are seeing cardiac arrests, hypospadias, acquired trimethylaminuria and multiple organ failures," the doctor raved."

Trimethylaminuria is a genetic disease formerly known as "Fish Odor Syndrome."

"By next week the death toll could go as high as 200, maybe 300. Someone needs to step in and stop this madness. My god, why did we legalise marijuana? What were we thinking?"

"Dr. Jack Shepard" was a character on the TV show "Lost."

The spoof story forced the real Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center to issue a news release clarifying that "there is no such doctor as 'Jack Shepard' on our medical staff and that there have been no deaths due to marijuana at our hospital," abc15 reported.

Confused readers took to Twitter to voice their concerns:

So there were 37 deaths in Colorado due to marijuana overdose. Soooo everyone that says marijuana doesn't do anything bad can shut up now.

— Cassie (@CaSsJoY22) January 4, 2014

Colorado legalized marijuana use. First day, 37 deaths. Gee aren't you liberals smart?

— Jedidiah Timm (@jedidiah4him) January 4, 2014

Just read there were 37 marijuana overdose deaths the first day of its legalization. Did you really think it wouldn't happen, Colorado?

— Shane Pendleton (@13SP1) January 3, 2014

Sigh...a minister I know posted a link to a satire site about 37 deaths in Colorado during the first day of legal marijuana.

— Boogie (@naima) January 4, 2014

One horrified man said in a YouTube video commentary: "This story just blows me away. Thirty-seven people died in Colorado on New Year's Day when marijuana was legalised… Doctors say they expect hundreds more imminent deaths. This is more deaths than an average day in Iraq and the Afghanistan wars combined."

* I had no idea that there was a musical version of Reefer Madness.  It stars Kristen Bell, AKA Veronica Mars; here's a trailer for the new Veronica Mars movie: