Posts from 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

• The story of the creation of the “Wanted” posters for Jonah Hex is pretty fascinating.
• About five years ago, on September 1, 2005, I sat at a coffee shop across the street from the Leaning Tower of Pisa and could not believe just how much it leans. And that was five years after they fixed it.
• Everybody loves lists, so Listiki — a site for finding, making, and sharing them — should be popular.
• Adjusting to today’s dollars, the United States has incurred more debt in the last decade then during the entire combined previous 211 years of the republic’s existence.
• How to Create a CD Ladder, from FrugalDad
• “In an era when very little remains shocking, Pierce might have actually managed to create a genuinely disturbing work of fiction, the literary equivalent of Schindler’s List rewritten by the Marquis De Sade and filmed as a Tim Burton animated feature.” (hat tip to rb)
• Just about 100 years ago — on July 24, 1910 — the New York Times featured an article titled “Will Future Generations Lose Historical Documents of To-Day?”.
• “When you are parting with your money, know the person on the other side of the deal thinks you are not so smart and is depending on the anchoring effect when they tell you how much you are about to save.”

• One thing this country has always enjoyed is a good drink. Whether it was rum on the Atlantic, bourbon at the races or that Bloody Mary at Sunday Brunch, alcohol is the American Drink.
• Boom! Dexter returns at the end of September. (Don’t watch the trailer if you didn’t see season 4 yet!)
• Don’t Eff With Fudgie the Whale, Lindsay!
• I cannot wait to see Bad Universe (featuring BadAstronomy).
• Mister Gunther makes horoscopes fun!
• Betty Goes Reno: A visit to the glamorous divorce ranches of the Mad Men era.
• He hasn’t taken a single snap in a real game yet, but Tim Tebow is already leading the league in jersey sales. (Nike has some cool Tebow sneakers, too.)
• Do you think you can identify who voices each character on The Simpsons?
• I didn’t know that there are ATMs in Antarctica.
• Being President of the United States is probably the loneliest job in the world.

• I think it’s safe to say that bluntcard.com is my new favorite ecard site.
• Ferris Club
• Few things are as cool as Batman riding a robotic unicorn over a rainbow full of dolphins.
• There was once a woman who had immortal cells.
• True fact.
• I live in Los Angeles, so I am almost always “near” the ocean. There’s nothing like being in Hawaii, though. I need to be near a big body of water on a regular basis. I need it to reset my psychic metronome.
• To promote his new novel, Doubles, author Nic Brown challenged pro tennis player Tripp Phillips to a tournament. The story of the match is terrific.
• Fantastic feline fun for the whole family!
• Is anything sadder than a sad bear?