Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 167th installment of Saturday Hot Links!
Today: The Best New Thing On TV In 2014 — “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”!
Will The Interview’s $15M online haul be a game changer for Hollywood?
Related: Former Sony staffer among six suspected in hack.
11 innovative ways to stick to your New Year’s resolutions.
Scriptnotes: Episode 177.
TV premiere dates 2015: The complete guide.
The 50 most creative people of 2014.
The 24 most unforgettable movie quotes of 2014.
6 high tech stories from 2014 that will matter in 2015.
9 great poetry books from 2014.
The 10 coolest dinosaur discoveries in 2014.
Here are 12 writing exercises from 2014.
The 17 best films you didn’t see in 2014.
Top 20 most pirated movies of 2014.
The best sci-fi and fantasy moments from 2014.
Oliver Lyttleton’s top 15 films of 2014.
VOD numbers: 2014
The highest-rated broadcast series of 2014 — and how people watched them.
TV’s most shocking deaths in 2014.
Why 2014 was a breakthrough year for black female filmmakers.
The 14 best foreign language films of 2014.
Best books about psychology in 2014.
Must-reads on music in 2014.
The dumbest crimes of 2014.
The year in poems: 2014
14 fantastic new beasts and where we found them in 2014.
Time picks top 10 photos of 2014.
The 5 biggest breakthroughs in science in 2014.
Why Oscars don’t favor redheads.
The dark origins of 11 classic nursery rhymes.
Related: How many votes does it take to get an Oscar nomination.
13 ice cream secrets from Ben & Jerry’s flavor gurus.
19 rare recordings of famous authors [videos].
20 misconceptions about sex [video].
In Hollywood, it’s a men’s, men’s, men’s world.
8 brilliant ways your computer can respond to your mood with emotion tracking.
How does Eric Idle want to spend his remaining years? Exploring the meaning and origin of the universe.
Why are there two Carolinas and two Dakotas.
Latest advertising estimates underscore softness in TV.
Are you ready for 10 mind-boggling paradoxes.
Why we have film noir to thank for “Twin Peaks” and other hit TV dramas.
21 obscure references in classic songs — explained.
Russia’s economic crisis bodes ill for Hollywood’s majors.
The 10 most notorious paranormal hoaxes in history.
Haunting the suburbs: How white flight changed paranormal cinema.
How far does Mario have to run and swim in Super Mario Bros.
‘Transparent’ boss reveals the moment she decided to make a show about a transgender parent.
7 scientific solutions for annoying little problems.
Monty Python’s “Argument Clinic” sketch performed by two vintage speech synthesizers [video].
What happens if I survive the apocalypse and only have one pair of contact lenses.
See Before and After photos of locations from ‘The Wire’.
The time the United States tried to buy Greenland.
What do The Interview and Total Recall have in common [video].
13 scientific terms you might be using wrong.
Great review of a test performance of the musical “Diner” with music by Sheryl Crow.
Settlers of Catan versus Carcassone — which is better [video].
Another great review for the BBC TV series “Black Mirror” now available on Netflix.
5 ways to unplug from technology (and work).
We are very near the end of civilization as we know it.
How Chicago neighborhoods got their name.
Hollywood’s major studios fear Google fiber’s faster speed [piracy].
Why airlines want to make you suffer.
After you watch American Sniper, read this New Yorker article on Chris Kyle.
3 dirty songs Mozart wrote.
Related: 31 adorable slang terms for sexual intercourse from the last 600 years.
Disney dominates 2014 Broadway box office.
Do people only use 10% of their brains?
The excellent site Cinephilia and Beyond with an in-depth look at the movie Memento [videos].
Where are all the baby pigeons.
A look at Disney’s 2015 slate of 12 movies.
Chuck Wendig’s 2015 resolution for writers: Be Big (and Then Be Small).
7 things you probably didn’t know about Goodfellas [video].
How does caffeine work.
Study confirms kids’ movies are rife with death and murder.
9 words created by spelling other words backwards.
Check out art from original Toy Story 3 that was never made.
15 amazing places you can tour virtually including the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Still stuns me that Edge of Tomorrow wasn’t a smash hit.
Stunning satellite photos showing positive impact of recent rains in California compared to last year.
The 9 original Netflix series to be excited about in 2015.
7 things that will make you healthier and help you live longer.
Related: 7 things that will make you sicker or kill you sooner.
11 movie titles that became part of the lexicon.
The baby from the Nirvana album cover is now 23 years old [photo].
2014 U.K. box office drops for 2nd consecutive year.
The dude Jay from the radio podcast “Serial”? He did his first interview and you can read it here.
Related: Jay’s interview creates a blacklash from “Serial” fans.
How a real-life tragedy inspired the story for How to Train Your Dragon 2.
21 of the historical roles and responsibilities of the wedding party.
Big media hopes to kill ad-zapping DVR with VOD.
Thieves steal over $300K worth of wine from famed French Laundry restaurant.
Double Oscar-winning actress Luise Ranier dies at 104.
6 tech stories that will matter in 2015.
An epic supercut of explosions in movies [video].
NASA’s best images of Earth from space in 2014.
Guess I won’t be having sex with porn stars anymore.
Slideshow: A year of Moons.
Activists planning to balloon drop 100,000 copies of The Interview into North Korea.
16 amazing facts about sea monkeys.
Actor Edward Hermann dead at 71.
Another year, another set of failed ‘prophecies’ by Pat Robertson.
10 films to see in January.
A brief history of champagne.
Wall Street entertainment stock picks for 2105: Disney, Fox, Time Warner.
“I believe that we will win!” [video].
The top 20 worldwide B.O hits of 2014.
Getting rich won’t make you happy, but it will make you selfish and dishonest.
John Waters is a national treasure.
Are bees really all that busy?
Bono worries he may never be able to play guitar after bicycle crash.
Harper Collins apologizes for omitting Israel from Middle East Atlas.
Chris Rock turned down chance to be 1st comic to perform at Super Bowl halftime.
Meet the real James Bond.
See Neill Blomkamp artwork for an Alien project that never took off.
26 unusual plurals that work like “attorneys general”.
The 50 highest grossing indie films of 2014.
Related: Indie distributor scorecard — who won, who lost in 2014.
We need to get better at password protection.
Film adaptations fuel young adult novel sales.
Why you are not supposed to wake up sleepwalkers.
50 articles on writing to help you in 2015.
Kama Sutra for couples who have been dating for over three years.
15 famous songs with misunderstood meanings.
14 flight attendant slang terms explained.
Why some Civil War soldiers glowed in the dark.
20 writing retreats for 2015.
The secret to a happy life courtesy of Tolstoy.
Obese dachshund goes on diet, gets tummy tuck [video].
California’s new laws: How are you affected.
Bono begins the New Year with a 5,000 word blog about a lot of stuff including his bicycle crash.
Why does happiness matter?
Drunk man takes golf cart on L.A. freeway cruise.
Finally, who would win in an all-out battle: Star Wars or Star Trek?
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week: If you’re interested in writing an original TV pilot, check out the next session of Writing the Original Pilot Script. Created and taught by screenwriter and teacher Tom Benedek (Cocooon), here are some of the features of this 8 week writing workshop:
* Learn a set of steps to build your TV series concept into a solid script outline
* Write your script using step by step writing assignments
* One lecture posted each week.
* Forum Q&As moderated by the instructor.
* Weekly workshop writing assignments with instructor and class member feedback.
* Weekly 1-hour live teleconference call between instructor and class members.
* Weekly Pilot Script Case Studies
* Library of Interviews with TV Writers/Producers/Showrunners
The next session begins Monday, January 12. For more information, go here.