Public Work is an image search engine that boasts 100,000 “copyright-free” images from institutions like the NYPL, the Met, etc. It’s fast with a relatively simple interface and uses AI to auto-categorize and suggest possibly related images (both visually and content-wise). And it’s fun to just visually click around on related images. On the downside, their sourcing and attribution isn’t great — especially when compared to something like Flickr Commons.
I’d love it if an interface this quick and visual-first were adopted by museums though — let’s face it: the image search on museum, library, and institution websites is often terrible and slow. (via @jaygogh)
Tags: art
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From XKCD, a public safety announcement about driving: random drivers can’t grant you the right of way as a gift.
Yes, yes, yes, yes to the moon and back. I thought no one else noticed this! Vermont drivers are unusually “nice” in this regard and it drives me bonkers.
I ...
London expanded their Ultra Low Emission Zone (which polluting cars need to pay a fee to enter) and pollution levels decreased significantly in the first 6 months. Particulate matter (PM2.5) dropped 22% and NO2 fell 21%.
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The science and mechanics of six Olympic events, explained. Skater Minna Stess: “If you think about a trick, sometimes it makes it harder. When I’m skating, the best thing is not to think at all.”
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Brick Technology’s new video features increasingly powerful Lego machines designed to topple ever stronger towers. I love their iterative engineering videos (and those from Brick Experiment Channel). As I’ve written about these videos before:
They’re not even really about...
Mocking fascists is good, necessary, and effective. “Good thrusting mockery cuts right through that. Yes, they’re dangerous. But they’re also insecure, stunted degenerates. They’re weird. Normal people don’t want to be around them.”
In this video, Evan Puschak takes a close look at the iconic chase scene in Point Break to see how director Kathryn Bigelow uses POV shots to help put the viewer right into the action in a way that is incredibly immersive. Oh, and there a surprise appearance by Disneyland’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
Confession: I have never seen Point Break. Guess I should watch it now?
Tags: Evan Puschak · film school · Kathryn Bigelow · movies · Point Break · video
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The EFF on the harmful KOSA bill working its way through Congress. “The Senate just passed a bill that will let the federal and state governments investigate and sue websites that they claim cause kids mental distress.”
Results of LA’s 3-year basic income experiment were “transformative”. It gave people “time and space” to improve their lives by “landing better jobs, leaving unsafe living conditions and escaping abusive relationships”.
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An extensive history of Birdo’s gender (according to her Nintendo appearances). “If you do consider Birdo to be trans, then she’s the first-ever trans character in a video game.”
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Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win is a forthcoming book by Jessica Valenti (who writes the
Abortion, Every Day newsletter) that will be out on Oct 1, just before the election.
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Clive Thompson writes about the influence of BASIC (“the most consequential language in the history of computing”) and the giddy adolescent thrill of using it for the first time. “I felt like I’d just stolen fire from Zeus himself.”
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An explainer of the conservatives’ plan for women in America. “If enacted, Project 2025 wouldn’t just ban abortion. It’s a step-by-step plan on how the government can force American women out of public life and back into the home.”
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Speed jigsaw-puzzle competitions are a thing…and the mindet required seems the same as any other sport: “What differentiates a true champion is the ability to self-control, to ensure that the pressure does not affect them or they hardly notice it.”
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I was among the minority of viewers who enjoyed the first season of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series The Rings of Power, so I was excited to watch this extended trailer for the show’s second season. It seems to give away a little too much of the story for my taste (even though we all knew where it was going), but I am definitely pumped for season two.
Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will.
Season two starts streaming on Amazon Prime on August 29.
Tags: The Lord of the Rings · The Rings of Power · trailers · TV · video
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Germans are installing “plug-and-play” solar panels to feed energy back to the grid. “You don’t need to drill or hammer anything. You just hang them from the balcony like wet laundry.” Collectively, they are contributing significantly to solar capacity.
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Graphic artist Anthony Burrill has applied his unique typographic style to design posters and t-shirts of iconic drumming patterns for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
The designer, known for his powerful and positive messaging, has created exclusive artworks in partnership with drumming legends, including Paul McCartney’s drummer Abe Laboriel Jnr, Arctic Monkeys’ Matt Helders, Simple Minds’ Cherisse Osei, Slayer’s Dave Lombardo, and Porcupine Tree’s Gavin Harrison.
It would be fun to see a working visualizer that used Burrill’s style to visualize any song’s drum beats. (via daniel benneworth–gray)
Tags: Anthony Burrill · design · infoviz · music · typography
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Ran across this hilariously nonsensical gymnastics commentary by Joe Tracini this morning and it definitely filled up the ol’ joy meter. “Winding up for a spooky bassoon…”
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I am reading All Fours by Miranda July right now and it hooked me right out of the gate. Granta published a excerpt of the book back in April – you can use it as a barometer for whether you’d like to try the whole thing.
I came into the house my usual way, like a thief. I t...
Today’s piece by Heather Cox Richardson takes the form of a hopeful history lesson on how sometimes democracy happens in fits and starts.
At this country’s most important revolutionary moments, it has seemed as if the country turned on a dime.
In 1763, just after the end...
Lithub: The Republicans’ Project 2025 is disastrous for books. “Project 2025 is the single most expansive, extreme attack on our freedom to read that we’ve seen with ambition for federal government implementation.”
10 settings to tweak to increase iPhone battery life, including turning off the always-on display and reducing your screen refresh rate. Also, stop quitting your apps…
it doesn’t help!
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Note: There are some *major* unavoidable spoilers about the finale of season three of Halt and Catch Fire in this post. If you’ve been watching (and you definitely should be), you might want to catch the finale first and then come back.
The final two episodes of Halt and Ca...
Margaret Sullivan: “I urge news decision-makers to take Trump’s authoritarian desires very seriously.” Like when he tell evangelicals: “You won’t have to [vote] anymore, four years, it will be fixed. It will be fine. You don’t have to vote anymore.”
“None of us knows if we can do this. And we are about to do it anyway.” Rebecca Traister writes about “the thrill of taking a huge risk on Kamala Harris”. (I’m not quite there yet…being thrilled instead of anxious.)
Behind the scenes shots of iconic album covers, including those from Björk, Lady Gaga, The Beatles, Nirvana, Childish Gambino, and Taylor Swift.
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Futura, the typeface favored by the likes of filmmakers Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson was also used extensively for NASA’s Apollo 11 mission (along with an American knock-off of Futura called Spartan).
Tags: Apollo · Apollo 11 · design · Futura · Moon · NASA · typography
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