Posts from August 2010

• The Timeless Beauty of National Geographic is a wonderful article examining the stability of a famous brand aesthetic. (I used to love reading NG in my elementary school library when I was a kid and just last year decided to get my very own subscription. Every article in every issue is fabulous, just as they always have been.)
• “The most well-known use of Spencerian script is, arguably, the Coca-Cola logo. The logo was designed in the 1880s by the company’s bookkeeper, Frank Robinson.”
• Repeat after me: Taking Photos In Public Places Is Not A Crime
• National Public Radio is changing its name to NPR. (I guess that’s better than Dweezil.)
• Finally! More photos of kitties in wigs!
• “Losing friends is inevitable. Making enemies is not.” — from 35 Lessons in 35 Years
• “This year is the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, the Star Wars sequel that many fans consider the pinnacle moment in a franchise that has pulled in $16 billion in box office and merchandising. But 1980 was also the year that Kurtz and Lucas realized the Jedi universe wasn’t big enough for the both of them.”
• Technology is great, for sure, but you’ll never pick up your iPad and find a perfectly preserved, century-old press pass to a World Series game in its digital pages.
• “Resizing my browser window to make sure it fills up my entire screen will not make me focus on your pretty pictures or admire your wicked design.”
• If you’re looking for seriously advanced computer knowledge — like how to determine the size of an image of Robocop riding a unicorn — take a look at Unicorn Tips.

• James Franco seems to be everywhere right now. There was a great article in New York Magazine last month — The James Franco Project — and it looks like he is going to be the star of September’s issue of Esquire. The crazy thing is that he legitimately sounds really interesting.
• Console jocks, by Tim Carmody (alt link) (guest blogging at kottke.org) is a great read, especially for fans of the Madden franchise. (Tim also wrote an excellent blog piece on one of my boyhood heroes: Charlie Chan.)
• “Tony Nijhuis’ incredible R/C model plane not only looks just like the real B-50 bomber on which it’s based, it actually flies. The plane has a 19-foot wingspan, and took 2 years and $9000 to build.” (via @theawesomer)
• It’s pretty tough to complain with this ESPN list of the Ten Best Sidekicks.
• Do tigers like catnip? Yes. Yes, they do.
• A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… we didn’t have fancy-pants computers to make scrolling text.
• I did not know — but am not surprised to learn — that Shaquille O’Neal is working on his PhD.

Bonus: Five Feeds I Recommend

1. Daring Fireball (subscribe)
2. Friends of the Program (subscribe)
3. Romenesko’s Obscure Store and Reading Room (subscribe)
4. Cats Who Code (subscribe)
5. Catalog Living (subscribe)

• “When I see a guy alone at a café without a device open, I assume that he’s either got the iPhone antenna problem or that he’s a serial killer… I’m almost never alone with my thoughts anymore.” (from Blogging from the Shower, by Dave Pell)
• I really love these vintage social media advertisements. Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce would be proud. (See also: The Periodic Table of Mad Men)
• The last six pictures from July’s massive oil spill in China are terrifying and heartbreaking.
• It’s pretty tough to argue that Apple doesn’t do everything better and smarter than everyone else, especially when you look at how amazing they made a simple battery charger. (I want one.)
• Research proves that happiness is probably not as expensive as you thought.
• “A 95-page court ruling on a college volleyball budget sounds like a Monty Python sketch — because Title IX itself has become a Monty Python sketch… Title IX strictures that were needed a generation ago simply aren’t needed any longer. But because no government program is ever shut down, they slog on, causing asinine intrusions.”
• It’s just not a real party until one of the guests decides to start smashing watermelon fruit bowls on the heads of the dancers.
• I absolutely must get a speech bubble whiteboard lamp for my office.

Bonus: Five Feeds I Recommend

1. Snarkmarket (subscribe)
2. shooshee (subscribe)
3. A Conversation on Cool (subscribe)
4. the impossible cool (subscribe)
5. All Day, Everyday (subscribe)

• The Banana Song will haunt your dreams.
• The photo of an iPhone 4 on the cover of the September 2010 issue of Macworld was taken with an iPhone 4.
• “He needed to know how Big Bird could possibly have arisen from evolutionary history: What are its relatives? How did it achieve such a unique bone structure? What happened to the other members of his species?” … The Taxonomy of Big Bird, Grandicrocavis Viasesamensis
  (This is the same guy who is running The Beibignorance Project, a scientific exercise to determine just how little one can possibly know about Justin Bieber.)
• There’s more to the story of how America got her name than just ol’ Americus Vespucci.
• And while we’re talking about maps… Check out this awesome map of New Jersey (larger) based on the music of Bruce Springsteen.
• Serenity Now! could be the scariest movie of the summer. The Oregon Trail is going to be the big one at the box office, though.
• The Periodic Table of Swearing is now available in color.
• “Two Michigan coffee shops have said that since throwing their employees into bikinis to serve up cups of joe, they’ve experienced a sizable jump in sales.”
• I pity those who suffer from RAS syndrome.
• It’s nice to know that according to Laver’s Law, I have always been shameless.
• “There’s an age at which it is no longer cool to have your own name and number on the back of a jersey. That age is 10.” from Sports Rule #2