That rug! Source: architecturaldigest.com

March 27, 2024 · architecture

I just want the American phone market to get weird.

March 27, 2024 · design

  1. Somewhere in Japan
  2. A look inside North Korea.
  3. Susan Lin’s personal site.
  4. The Beauty of Mathematics.
  5. Bleeding Heart Tetra by North Americans.
March 26, 2024 · photography · sites I like · boxes and arrows · places · music

1.

Documenting Ridgewood’s Abandoned Tree Beds

The average pedestrian on a city stroll is more likely to notice the tall, flowering trees they see above them than the remnants of trunks no longer there. Photographer Alexa Hoyer is unique: It was the derelict, abandoned sidewalk tree beds that she couldn’t ignore when she moved to Ridgewood, Queens.

2.

Tiny unicorns are spreading joy all over Providence. Who’s behind them is a mystery

Their less than two-inch stature makes them easy to miss. But their neon hues and satin-like sheen catch the eye of the hunter, who might almost walk by before realizing they’ve stumbled upon a treasure.

3.

Four Things I Miss From the Golden Age of Paperbacks

As might be guessed from the fact that one publisher literally called itself Pocket Books, mass-market paperbacks were small enough that in many cases they would fit in the pockets of men’s clothing.

I’ve held on to a few of my favorite paperbacks. What great objects.

4.

Representing Non-Linear Journeys

Now we can attempt to plot a user’s journey, to see how they move from page to page. But rather than just depicting the user’s behaviour visually, I’ve been keen to try data sonification. Well, some very basic sonification: adding a distinct sound to each type of task, so that you can (theoretically) detect patterns or oddities by listening to the data.

I’m a sucker for beep, boops, and good diagrams.

5.

DoorDash, Uber Eats — and Tony

Tony Illes has become something of a folk hero in the Seattle area by advertising a much simpler and more human strategy. With a bunch of simple signs and a $5 delivery fee, he’s starting something of a delivery revolution from the seat of his bike.

March 22, 2024 · art · books · design · communities · tech

Winter Buried by Katja Lang.

March 20, 2024 · Art

Mixtapes, T-Shirts and Even a Typeface Measure the Rise of Hip-Hop

For over a decade, cassettes were the coin of the realm in mixtapes, even after CDs usurped them in popularity: They were mobile, durable and easily duplicated.

March 19, 2024 · music

They Didn’t Just Want to Build a Housing Shelter. They Wanted to Shift Public Perception:

Changing the way the public perceives shelters informed the design. From the nearby highway, the first glimpse you get of the structure includes an impressive mural by Australian artist Guido van Helten stretched across its 3,000-square-foot facade. A passerby might think this is an art museum, a shop, or possibly a school.

March 18, 2024 · civic · design

Matt Schu’s illustrations are wonderful!

January 30, 2024 · art

This pay phone is free, but you can’t make a call. It only plays birdsongs. (Gift Link)

In all, 10 birds native to the Takoma Park area are featured, including a rooster in honor of Roscoe, a beloved community mascot that once roamed around town in the 1990s in defiance of animal control officers who tried to catch him.

January 18, 2024 · art · nature

When I proudly showed my journal to my wife one morning, she couldn’t help but observe that my day’s to-dos included the essential task of sewing a button back onto my Hawaiian shirt, but somehow didn’t mention that I was taking my kid in for a doctor visit that afternoon. Maybe,” she suggested, you should write a BuJo’ entry about how you’re finally going to learn how to use our Google Calendar.”

I Was a Bullet Journal Skeptic, but I Hate to Say It Works

January 18, 2024 · paper

Dan Steinberg on the NFL:

Life is a never-ending succession of NFL teams adding ping pong tables w/stories about how they’re finally coming together as a family and enjoying each other’s company, and NFL teams removing ping pong tables w/stories about how they’re finally taking football seriously.

January 10, 2024 · sports

Room Tone 2023 features about 3 minutes of movie people trying to be quite for the 30 seconds it takes to capture room tone - the ambient sound that (the Criterion Collection) crew records at the end of all our on-camera interviews.” Make sure you read the inspiration before you click the play button. Very fun!

January 9, 2024 · movies · sound

From Dan Coe Carto’s 4K Rivers. An ongoing series of vibrant river and delta images from North America and other parts of the world. The images are constructed using high-resolution elevation data.”

January 8, 2024 · maps

Scientists Destroy Illusion That Coin Toss Flips Are 50–50

The researchers determined that airborne coins don’t turn around their symmetrical axis; instead they tend to wobble off-center, which causes them to spend a little more time aloft with their initial up” side on top.

This results in a same-side bias of 51 percent.”

January 8, 2024 · science

December 27, 2023 · blogs · architecture · podcasts · places

I’m such a sucker for these what’s in my bag posts. This one from Matt Mullenweg.

December 26, 2023 · gear · stuff

Here we are at the bottom of the year. The pit of darkness, cold and grim. From here we begin the ascent to glorious summer! Sun! Warmth! Leaves! Flowers! Light!

Solstice

December 21, 2023 · winter · seasons

Scarface’s Tiny Desk Concert1 is pretty cool, but the best part is when he performs Mind Playing Tricks on Me. The link starts the video right at his emotional preamble about fatherhood and his craft leading up to the performance. All the feels. Plus he gets the audience to rap Bushwick Bills2 part. What a great nostalgia bomb!


  1. I went to NPR in DC for a work meeting and got to see where the Tiny Desk concerts are filmed. The space really is tiny.↩︎

  2. I once saw Bushwick Bill in person!↩︎

December 21, 2023 · music · nostalgia

Starfish are all heads

Basically, the starfish was all headlike. This contradicts textbook descriptions of echinoderms, the evolutionary group that includes starfish, as animals that have lost their head. This study shows that rather than losing their head, they’re almost entirely head, and they’ve actually lost their trunk,” Lowe says.

Via the always great Curious About Everything Newsletter.

December 20, 2023 · science · animals · the sea

What it’s like to be … is a podcast about exploring the world of work, one profession at a time, through interviews with people who love what they do. The first episode about a ballpark beer vendor is really great!

December 20, 2023 · work · podcasts

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