Even though it’s not out until October,
Even though it’s not out until October, you can pre-order the new version of OS X (10.5, aka Leopard) at Amazon right now.
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Entries for June 2007
A Brief History of Economic Time. “No 18
A Brief History of Economic Time. “No 18th-century politician would have asked ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ because it never would have occurred to anyone that they ought to be better off than they were four years ago.” (via migurski)
Oliver Herring’s photo sculptures. Reminds me of
Oliver Herring’s photo sculptures. Reminds me of David Meanix’s work for Six Feet Under (if you remember Claire’s photo masks in season 4). (via moon river)
The social life of plants: plants can
The social life of plants: plants can tell their relatives from strangers. “Plants grown alongside unrelated neighbours are more competitive than those growing with their siblings — ploughing more energy into growing roots when their neighbours don’t share their genetic stock.”
A fragment of a weapon used by
A fragment of a weapon used by late 19th century whalers was found embedded in a bowhead whale, suggesting that the animal was over 100 years old.
The ending of the Harry Potter series
The ending of the Harry Potter series written in the style of the ending of The Sopranos.
Update: Hilarious alternate ending for The Sopranos.
Tim Knowles
I just stumbled upon the work of Tim Knowles, whose art explores the mostly hidden, obscured, or otherwise unnoticed motion of objects. One of his projects is Tree Drawings:
Drawings produced by pens attached to the tips of tree branches, as the branches move in the wind the tree draws on to a panel or drawing board on an easel. Like signatures the trees drawings tell of the tree’s character; a Hawthorn producing a stiff, scratchy & spikey drawing an Oak a more elegant flowing line.
Here’s the oak at its easel and the resulting art:
For Vehicle Motion Drawings, he constructed an apparatus to capture the motion of a car being driven…the turns, stops, and starts of the vehicle move the pen over the paper. His postal projects capture the motion of packages through the postal system, both with drawings and photography. (Knowles’ Spy Box reminds me of Kyle Van Horn’s cameramail.)
Love his stuff. (via waxy)
A blog of bad drawings of Star
A blog of bad drawings of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock. Khaaan! (thx, david)
Martin Klimas’ captured moments of shattering statues
Martin Klimas’ captured moments of shattering statues is an interesting form of photographic sculpture. (via daily awesome)
Opening Friday, June 22 at jen bekman gallery
Opening Friday, June 22 at jen bekman gallery in NYC: A New American Portrait, “a group exhibition of photographs featuring artists at the vanguard of contemporary portraiture in America”. Curated by Jen Bekman and Joerg Colberg, one of my favorite bloggers on the topic of photography.
Crime in the three biggest American cities (
Crime in the three biggest American cities (NY, Chicago, LA) is down…and up almost everywhere else. In part, this is due to the aging of the population in those cities. “Together they lost more than 200,000 15-to 24-year-olds between 2000 and 2005. That bodes ill for their creativity and future competitiveness, but it is good news for the police. Young people are not just more likely to commit crimes. Thanks to their habit of walking around at night and their taste for portable electronic gizmos, they are also more likely to become its targets.” Young people, your gizmos are hurting America!
New York Magazine has a short profile of Edward Tufte.
New York Magazine has a short profile of Edward Tufte.
The results from a recent Gallup poll
The results from a recent Gallup poll show that more Americans accept creationism than do evolution. Among registered Republicans, almost 7 in 10 don’t believe in evolution. (via cynical-c)
Ridiculous $65 million pants suit
Roy Pearson, the judge who is suing his former dry cleaner for $65 million in damages for a lost pair of pants, started crying in court today when describing the moment when the dry cleaner tried to give him the wrong pants. And this was after a witness called by Pearson likened her treatment by the dry cleaners to Hitler’s treatment of the Jews. The judge should have invoked Godwin and declared a mistrial. Also, nice headline from CNN: Judge aims to have pants suit ironed out next week. Haw haw.
The Pixar media machine is getting cranked
The Pixar media machine is getting cranked up for the release of Ratatouille…here’s another article about the movie in Time. By the way, if you’re organizing any sort of advanced screening in NYC, the proper procedure is to notify me immediately.
Digg policies from Lifehacker and Gizmodo, which
Digg policies from Lifehacker and Gizmodo, which state that the only Digg-worthy posts of theirs are those with “original content, new reporting, treatment, or photos” because “it’s not fair when we get the Digg for someone else’s work.” This seems inconsistent on the part of Gawker Media. One of their main innovations (if you’d like to call it that) regarding the blog format was the idea of linking to things in such a way that readers don’t need to actually leave the site to get the full (or nearly full) story. Why let all those readers (and the associated ad revenue) go to some other site to read the story…they might never return. Due in part to Gawker’s influence as first mover in the pro blog space, this practice is unfortunately standard procedure for most similar blogs.
For Pixar, the making of Ratatouille included
For Pixar, the making of Ratatouille included some time in real kitchens and restaurants, complete with a stop at the French Laundry for some face-time with Thomas Keller.
Don Herbert, also know as TV’s Mr.
Don Herbert, also know as TV’s Mr. Wizard, died today aged 89. Here’s part one of a 4-part interview with Herbert from the Archive of American Television.
Fun letterhead cartoons drawn by Saul Steinberg
Fun letterhead cartoons drawn by Saul Steinberg in 1967 when he was artist-in-residence at the Smithsonian for a brief period. (via daily awesome)
Five Flickr sets that aren’t driving the
Five Flickr sets that aren’t driving the long-term traffic you’d hoped for. Merlin brings the funny, you make with the laughing.
Lake/island recursion, including “largest island in
Lake/island recursion, including “largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island”. It’s like matryoshka dolls except with islands and lakes. (via fimoculous)
The Philadelphia Phillies have lost more games
The Philadelphia Phillies have lost more games than any other team in professional sports, almost 10,000.
Did President Bush get his watch stolen
Did President Bush get his watch stolen in Albania while shaking hands with people in the crowd? Bruce Schneier: “At 0.50 minutes into the clip, Bush has a watch. At 1.04 minutes into the clip, he had a watch.”
Update: Tony Snow is saying that Bush put the watch in his pocket. (thx, hal)
McSweeney’s in a spot of trouble
Bad news from McSweeney’s: their distributor filed for bankruptcy late last year and now they’re out $130,000:
As you may know, it’s been tough going for many independent publishers, McSweeney’s included, since our distributor filed for bankruptcy last December 29. We lost about $130,000 — actual earnings that were simply erased. Due to the intricacies of the settlement, the real hurt didn’t hit right away, but it’s hitting now. Like most small publishers, our business is basically a break-even proposition in the best of times, so there’s really no way to absorb a loss that big.
To try and make up the gap, they’re having a big sale and are also auctioning off some “rare items” like original art from Chris Ware, proofs from issues, signed copies of things, a painting by Dave Eggers of George W. Bush as a double amputee, and so on. In addition to Ware and Eggers, there’s stuff from David Byrne, Nick Hornsby, and Spike Jonze. I’ve long admired McSweeney’s for their editorial and business approach…it would be a shame to see them go out of business because of another company’s financial difficulties. So give them a hand by purchasing something, if you’d like.
Graph of US Presidential approval ratings since 1946.
Graph of US Presidential approval ratings since 1946. With the sole exception of Clinton, Americans like their presidents less at the ends of their terms than at the beginnings.
An interview with Paul Ford about the
An interview with Paul Ford about the work that he’s been doing at Harper’s, specifically putting the magazine’s entire archives online. “It’s obviously a lot for one person working alone to bring hundreds of thousands of pages online while writing, editing blog content, programming a complex, semantic web-driven site, and providing tech support for an office.”
Christopher Hitchens on his forced contemplation of
Christopher Hitchens on his forced contemplation of Paris Hilton. “Hilton is legally an adult but the treatment she is receiving stinks — indeed it reeks — of whatever horrible, buried, vicarious impulse underlies kiddie porn and child abuse.”
From a paper on adaption to wealth
From a paper on adaption to wealth and status: people on the right of the political spectrum adapt to higher status but not greater wealth and those on the left adapt to wealth but not status. (via marginal revolution)
Update: I had the two things mixed up earlier…it’s correct now. (thx to everyone who wrote in)
Another gallery of photos from Magnum’s 60-year anniversary. (thx, mark)
Another gallery of photos from Magnum’s 60-year anniversary. (thx, mark)
Michael Bierut on design lessons learned from
Michael Bierut on design lessons learned from The Sopranos. “On The Sopranos, interest in certain things, including but not limited to event planning, fashion design, literature, and certain psychological theories, are considered indications of effeminacy. A not unsimilar macho attitude often obtains in corporate boardrooms when it comes to design.”
“Travel is the starting point of learning
“Travel is the starting point of learning social science.” — Tyler Cowen
Stuff from Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote this
Stuff from Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote this morning: new version of Safari for Mac *and* Windows (downloadable beta), developing for iPhone can be done with HTML & JavaScript…just like Dashboard widgets, new Finder and Desktop, and Apple’s web site is completely redesigned.
Update: From the reaction I’m hearing so far, it’s difficult to tell what was more disappointing to people: Jobs’ keynote or The Sopronos finale. Also, a Keynote bingo was possible (diagonally, bottom left to top right)…no report yet as to whether anyone yelled out during the show.
Update: TUAW is reporting that someone in the crowd yelled “bingo” 35 minutes into the keynote, but if you look at the card, a bingo was only possible when the iPhone widgets were announced towards the end. Disqualified for early non-bingo! (thx, alex)
The difference between marketing, PR, branding, and advertising.
The difference between marketing, PR, branding, and advertising.
Researchers are developing a diet pill made
Researchers are developing a diet pill made from hydrogel…it swells in your stomach, making you think you’re fuller than you actually are. And I’m contractually obligated to say: Just add water!
F1 driver Heikki Kovalainen tells us what
F1 driver Heikki Kovalainen tells us what he goes through during a typical race. “The actual driving, keeping the car on the road, is all natural, all automatic — what I’m thinking about is where to make time.” (thx, ajit)
The sushi economy
Adding sushi to the ever-growing list of everyday consumables as economic indicators: steak, Big Macs, Starbucks coffee, Coca-Cola, and cigarettes.
A bunch of writers pick their favorite
A bunch of writers pick their favorite novel -> movie adaptations. (thx, david)
Today we once again get to hear
Today we once again get to hear the gospel straight from the source; Steve Jobs will be keynoting Apple’s WWDC at 1pm ET. MacRumors, Mac Observer, and Engadget will have live coverage. My predictions: better .Mac, iPhone something, and Jobs will announce that Paulie’s gonna whack Tony Soprano but not before Tony squeals to the Feds. Oh, and a pony.
WeirdConverter for height/length and weight…for
WeirdConverter for height/length and weight…for learning that 45 Panama Canals = 0.56 Great Walls of China or that 381 cans of soda = 23.2 spider monkeys.
Update: Measure is a app for the Mac that converts between ~3000 difference measurements. (thx, devin)
Unforgettable photos, some of the most striking
Unforgettable photos, some of the most striking and disturbing photographs ever taken.
Speed Demon Photography, some entries in a
Speed Demon Photography, some entries in a photo contest depicting speed. The rollercoaster picture is awesome.
100 hot women chosen by lesbians
Hot 100 women chosen by lesbians. A nice counterpoint to similar lists from Maxim and People.
This page generates a random pizza for
This page generates a random pizza for you. I got a thin crust pie with red sauce, topped with mozzarella, red peppers, tomatoes, black olives, green peppers, and breaded chicken. Yum?
The Life Project is a series of
The Life Project is a series of photographs that, from photographer’s Frans Lanting’s perspective, that are a journey through time, from the formation of the universe to the present time. Also available in book form.
Marc Andreessen on how to hire good
Marc Andreessen on how to hire good people. Don’t just hire smart people or people with degrees…look for drive, curiosity, and ethics. “Pick a topic you know intimately and ask the candidate increasingly esoteric questions until they don’t know the answer. They’ll either say they don’t know, or they’ll try to bullshit you. Guess what. If they bullshit you during the hiring process, they’ll bullshit you once they’re onboard.”
The guy behind Desktop TD and the
The guy behind Desktop TD and the guy behind Flash Element TD have quit their jobs and teamed up to form a small games company…here’s the blog they’re writing while they get things together. Includes a sneak peek at the new towers for version 1.5 for DTD.
Excited for The Sopranos series finale? Here’s
Excited for The Sopranos series finale? Here’s a sheet and some suggested rules to set up an office or household pool about who’s going to die, how, and other predictions.
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