Hi folks. I am taking the rest of August off to spend some time with my family near the ocean. I might extend that thr
Three Quick Links for Wednesday Afternoon
Tim Carmody on what Amazon is allowed and not allowed to do with their Lord of the Rings prequel series. "Amazon's seri
Colorful Pencil Portraits
Loving these portraits from Lui Ferreyra, particularly the top one, which is a little Impressionistic — the colors re
In the Midst of Disaster
Control meets chaos in these carefully arranged images from Kerry Skarbakka’s series The Struggle to Right Oneself.
T
Three Quick Links for Wednesday Noonish
A short chronology of the early days of the telescope. (Spoiler alert: Galileo didn't invent the telescope and wasn't e
Even with Delta Variant, the Amazing Vaccines Are Saving Lives
It may seem like sometimes that with the pandemic, we’re back to square one. With the much more contagious Delta varian
Two Quick Links for Tuesday Afternoon
An interview with Philip Glass about original compositions that were generated by an AI trained on a corpus of his musi
Scanwiches
Remember Scanwiches? There was even a book version in 2011 and Helen Rosner wrote about the site for Saveur.
To cr
A Restored Vermeer Painting, Now with Bonus Cupid
Only 34 paintings by Dutch master Johannes Vermeer, art history’s foremost painter of Side Views of People Doing Thing
Two Quick Links for Tuesday Noonish
The Open Insulin Foundation has developed a process for producing insulin at scale for around $6 a vial but faces "pote
The Secret of Costa Rica’s Successful Health Care System
By making public health central to their health care system, Costa Rica has achieved a higher life expectancy than the
Crocheted Pasta!
Omg look at these adorable crocheted pasta shapes made by Normalynn Ablao. Her pattern for the pasta is available on E
Five Quick Links for Monday Afternoon
"I recently made a physical object that defies all intuition. It's a square of acrylic, smooth on both sides, totally t
Dying in the Name of Vaccine Freedom
You might want to take a deep breath or do a couple of laps around the house before watching this video about a commun
The Parents Are Not Alright
Dan Sinker writes for The Atlantic about how navigating Covid risks, politically motivated bullshit, and America’s fail
Four Quick Links for Monday Noonish
Which players carried their teams the most during the NBA Finals? (Do you even need to guess it's LeBron?) [pudding.coo
1800s Astronomical Drawings vs. Modern NASA Images
I love this post from the NYPL comparing astronomical drawings by E.L. Trouvelot done in the 1870s to contemporary NASA
Household Surrealism by Helga Stentzel
Often using the phenomenon of pareidolia, Helga Stentzel arranges common household items to resemble faces, animals,
Seven Quick Links for Thursday Afternoon
This new astronomy museum in Shanghai looks spectacular. "The museum features stunning projections and display work, an
Finding a Way Back
For the New Yorker, the novelist Donald Antrim wrote about wanting to die by suicide and being saved by electroconvulsi
Evergreen Architecture
I’ve been a bit obsessed recently with urban architecture that incorporates nature & greenery into the mix, esp
Five Quick Links for Thursday Noonish
Legendary actor and martial artist Sonny Chiba has died of complications from Covid-19. He was 82 years old. [variety.c
Miniature Life
Since 2011, Tatsuya Tanaka has been creating daily images of miniature people in the midst of everyday items that
Animated Embroidery
I love these little stop motion videos by Huw Messie (using Processing, I think) that use embroidery for the animation.
99 Portraits of Americans in Debt
Americans are collectively almost $15 trillion in debt, most of it related to housing (i.e. mortgage debt). For the
Two Quick Links for Wednesday Afternoon
Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses, as E-mailed by Your Passive-Aggressive Co-Worker. "Just circling back to suggest th
Robots Doing Parkour
Well. The robots sure are getting good at moving around — running, jumping, doing flips, casually vaulting over railin
The Potato Photographer of the Year 2021
I am a little embarrassed (and surprised!) at how up my alley this is, but behold: the winners of the Potato Photog
Four Quick Links for Wednesday Noonish
Parents in Mask-Free School Districts Are Freaking Out. A working single-parent friend is homeschooling her under-12 ki
The Story of Jumbo the Elephant
Jumbo the Elephant was one of the most famous animals in the world. Bought as a calf in Sudan by a European animal dea
The Otherworldly Images of Mikko Lagerstedt
Finnish photographer Mikko Lagerstedt creates striking, ethereal, and atmospheric photographs — check out his work on
Four Quick Links for Tuesday Evening
"In M.L.B.'s Beat the Streak game, fans build virtual lineups in hopes of topping Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak
Two Quick Links for Tuesday Afternoon
Your Holiday Gatherings Should Have Vaccine Mandates. "Your unvaccinated relatives should not be invited to Thanksgivin
Everyday Paparazzi
Johnny Cirillo photographs people on the streets of New York in the style of paparazzi (half a block away with a lon
Two Quick Links for Tuesday Noonish
An interview with Beyoncé, on the cusp of her 40th birthday. "I'm at a point where I no longer need to compete with mys
How Iceland Draws Geothermal Energy from the Earth
In this short video from TED-Ed, we learn how Iceland extracts nearly emissions-free geothermal energy from the Earth
A Tribute to American Landscape Photographer Bob Wick
Over at In Focus, Alan Taylor is highlighting the work of Bob Wick, a photographer for the U.S. Bureau of Land Manag
Benedict Cumberbatch Reads a Letter from Kurt Vonnegut with Advice for the Future
For a Volkswagen ad campaign in 1988, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a letter of advice to people living in 2088. In the video ab
Three Quick Links for Monday Noonish
"Lorde's phone, set to grayscale, now has no internet browser; she is locked out of her social-media apps, with others
The Taliban’s Return Is Catastrophic for Women in Afghanistan
Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario has covered Afghanistan for the past 20 years. In the Atlantic,
The Music of Subway Train Door Chimes
In The Hidden Melodies of Subways Around the World, the NY Times takes a look at an often overlooked aspect of transit
Two Quick Links for Monday Morning
Based on data from the NOAA, "July was Earth’s hottest month on record". [noaa.gov]
If Restaurants Can Build a Sidewalk
What’s the Proper Metaphor for the Covid Vaccine?
For The Atlantic, Katherine Wu writes about the difficulty of communicating how vaccines work and how they protect indi
Three Quick Links for Friday Noonish
"He says statistic that makes you feel better. But then he says — and here's the kicker — statistic that makes you feel
41 Questions We Should Ask Ourselves About the Technology We Use
In an issue of his newsletter, The Convivial Society, L.M. Sacasas posed 41 questions that we should ask ourselves abou
Animals Are Getting Smaller as the Planet Warms
One of the many effects of human-driven climate change is that, on average, the bodies of animals are getting smaller
Floating Micro-Origami that Magically Unfolds in Water
Watch as these tiny folded structures slowly unfold while floating on the water. It’s all about surface tension and ca
Mesmerizing Matchstick Stop Motion Video
Usually when I post these sorts of non-narrative videos — in this case, a series of creative stop motion vignettes fea
How One Family Grieves Their Son, 20 Years After 9/11
This is an extraordinary story by Jennifer Senior about the various ways in which members of a family grieved the death
Two Quick Links for Thursday Noonish
I've been watching episodes of the original Iron Chef on this Twitch channel. Allez Cuisine! (Are they available on str
Getting into the Delta Variant Mindset
I’m just going to go ahead and say it right up front here: if you had certain expectations in May/June about how the pa
One Woman’s Mission to Get Vaccines to Her Rural Alabama Town
The Panola Project is a short film by Rachael DeCruz and Jeremy Levine that follows the efforts of local convenience s
Two Quick Links for Thursday Morning
Nestflix, a faux streaming service of fake movies and TV shows that only appear within other movies and TV shows. Like
Magnificent Cumulonimbus Mammatus Clouds
Back in 2012, Michael F. Johnston captured a particularly spectacular mammatus cloud over Regina, Saskatchewan. I don’
The Five Dimensions of Curiosity and the Four Types of Curious People
In a paper published in 2017, Todd Kashdan and his colleagues identified five distinct dimensions of curiosity. Here ar
How Directors Shoot Films at Three Different Budget Levels
The YouTube channel In Depth Cine has been looking at how directors like Spike Lee, Alfonso Cuarón, Martin Scorsese, an
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