Archive for December, 2009
Making a Fiberglass Chair
December 14th, 2009
The amount of craftsmanship that went into making a mundane, ubiquitous fiberglass shell chair is incredible.
TeuxDeux
December 11th, 2009
Designer/blogger Tina Roth Eisenberg (alias swissmiss) recently posted about her recently-completed web-based to-do list manager, TeuxDeux. Perfectly minimal – it’s my new home page.
Earth’s Rings
December 9th, 2009
What would the sky look like if Earth had rings like Saturn? Pretty darn neat, especially near the equator:
Alternately, for those who don’t care about conjectural astronomy, enjoy Barbara Bonney’s lovely rendition of Ave Maria.
Monkey Syntax
December 9th, 2009
It seems that the Campbell’s Mona Monkey of the Ivory Coast uses syntax in its communication:
If the Zuberbühler team’s observations are correct, the Campbell’s monkeys can both vary the meaning of specific calls by adding suffixes and combine calls to generate a different meaning. Their call system, the researchers write, “may be the most complex example of ‘proto-syntax’ in animal communication known to date.”
I’m sure these little guys couldn’t learn sign language, and that’s a shame.
Philosopheme
December 8th, 2009
philosopheme phi·los·o·pheme
n.
A philosophical proposition, doctrine, or principle of reasoning.
Organic Foods
December 7th, 2009
After getting into an argument in the grocery store today over who owns Kashi,* I’m posting – for your consumption edification – a chart of which giant corporations own which organic brands. I think everyone knows some of them (Odwalla ⊂ Coke, etc.), but a few were kinda surprising.
* It’s Kellogg.
Meta Tags: Basically Useless
December 3rd, 2009
Apparently Google has more or less abandoned the analysis of keyword meta tags. Which isn’t really surprising, since it’s incredibly easy to abuse them. Anyway, if you’ve still been using them, congratulations! Your life just got a little easier.
Envisioning Development
December 2nd, 2009
The Envisioning Development project has an interactive map detailing the cost of living in various neighborhoods of New York City. It’s nice to know that if I ever get a web design/development gig in NYC I can afford to live in Williamsburg and be the biggest hipster ever.
I wish there were similar maps to detail the CoL for other cities.