Thing I did not know I was looking for (but totally was): a deep dive into ASCII rendering. Super interesting!
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Vintage Tourist Maps of Japan
The gang at Present & Correct found a cache of pre-war tourist maps of Japan while rummaging around in Tokyo’s Jinbōchō used book district. They photographed them for a new self-published book called Paper Trails.
Tags: books · design · Japan · maps · Paper Trails
The Copyrightability of Fonts Revisited by Matthew Butterick, a type designer &...
The Copyrightability of Fonts Revisited by Matthew Butterick, a type designer & copyright litigator. “If a court were asked to directly consider the copyrightability of an ordinary digital font, it would likely rule in the negative.”
Clint Smith visits the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery,...
Clint Smith visits the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. “The goal of the sites is to force visitors to confront the violence of the past without the counterweight of a more uplifting narrative to assuage their distress.”
Bruce Springstein wrote & recorded a song about Minnesota’s battle against tyranny:...
Bruce Springstein wrote & recorded a song about Minnesota’s battle against tyranny: Streets Of Minneapolis. “Our city’s heart and soul persists / Through broken glass and bloody tears / On the streets of Minneapolis.”
David Lynch Went to the First Beatles Concert in the US (1964)
In one of his final on-camera interviews, David Lynch recounts going to the very first Beatles concert in the US in 1964.
I ended up going to this concert. I didn’t really have any idea that it was the first concert. I didn’t have any idea how big this event was. And it w...
Why do RSS readers look like email clients? “When we applied that...
Why do RSS readers look like email clients? “When we applied that same visual language to RSS (the unread counts, the bold text for new items, the sense of a backlog accumulating) we imported the anxiety without the cause.”
A collection of “well-made apps and sites” gathered by Marcin Wichary....
A collection of “well-made apps and sites” gathered by Marcin Wichary.
People Photographed With Their Vehicles
For his project called Homo Mobilis, Martin Roemers travelled the globe and photographed people with their cars, bikes, scooters, etc. You can see a selection of the photos on Roemers’ website, at The Guardian, or in his forthcoming book, Homo Mobilis (Amazon). (via @steveportigal.bsky.social)
Tags: cars · Martin Roemers · photography
Why Some People See Collapse Earlier Than Others: Perception, pattern-seeking, and the...
Why Some People See Collapse Earlier Than Others: Perception, pattern-seeking, and the role of neurodivergence in a failing civilisation. “Collapse awareness is fundamentally a pattern-recognition event. Some people are wired for that.”
Kristen Radtke remembers Alex Pretti. “I didn’t realize, in the hours before...
Kristen Radtke remembers Alex Pretti. “I didn’t realize, in the hours before his name was released to the public, that the man millions of people had seen lying facedown on the pavement from multiple angles…was my childhood best friend.”
An Archive of Italian Graphic Design
“Archivio Grafica Italiana is the first online archive dedicated to the entire Italian graphic design heritage.” (via sidebar)
Tags: design
An impressive isometric map of NYC, built with AI agents. “I’m particularly...
An impressive isometric map of NYC, built with AI agents. “I’m particularly interested in scaling up the grindy repetitive tasks that make many ideas practically impossible.”
Watch Classic Episodes of Sesame Street for Free on YouTube
Sesame Street has uploaded a bunch of classic episodes to YouTube that are free to watch, including the very first episode from 1969, the one where Mister Rogers visits, and the episode where Mr. Snuffulupagus is finally revealed. The most recent one was uploaded just a couple of days ago, so it appears to be an ongoing effort. (via open culture)
Tags: Fred Rogers · Sesame Street · TV · video · YouTube
You Need A Kitchen Slide Rule. “Kitchen work is all about proportions,...
You Need A Kitchen Slide Rule. “Kitchen work is all about proportions, and nothing beats the slide rule for proportions.”
Information You Could Hold in Your Hand
Whoa, this is a fantastic archive of tangible media objects — like gramophone records, punch cards, 8-tracks, floppy disks, etc. (via unsung)
Science magazine: US government has lost more than 10,000 STEM PhDs since...
Science magazine: US government has lost more than 10,000 STEM PhDs since Trump took office.
The Comics Journal’s obituary for Scott Adams. “Dilbert’s tone shifted during the...
The Comics Journal’s obituary for Scott Adams. “Dilbert’s tone shifted during the 2010s, punching down at targets, mocking and belittling societal shifts and perceived “political correctness,” with more cynical, even bitter humor…”
This video from December is about a pair of teenaged ICE trackers....
This video from December is about a pair of teenaged ICE trackers. “Armed with phone and body cameras, Ben and Sam patrol the Chicago suburbs in hopes of tracking ICE agents and filming raids they see as unwarranted and unjustified.”
A 90-minute ICE Watch training session via Zoom “on effectively protecting your...
A 90-minute ICE Watch training session via Zoom “on effectively protecting your neighborhoods from federal enforcement incursions”. Jan 28, 7pm ET. Sign up here.
A 90-minute ICE Watch training session via Zoom...
A 90-minute ICE Watch training session via Zoom “on effectively protecting your neighborhoods from federal enforcement incursions”. Jan 28, 7pm ET. Sign up here.
Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong. “Activists have made the decision to emphasize protection,...
Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong. “Activists have made the decision to emphasize protection, aid, and observation. When matters escalate, it is usually the choice of the federal agents.”
Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong . “Activists have made...
Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong. “Activists have made the decision to emphasize protection, aid, and observation. When matters escalate, it is usually the choice of the federal agents.”
A collection of dartboards used in different areas of the UK. “The...
A collection of dartboards used in different areas of the UK. “The closure of pubs and leagues not being fed with new players, unfortunately, leads to some of the boards just being consigned to history.”
A collection of dartboards used in different areas of...
A collection of dartboards used in different areas of the UK. “The closure of pubs and leagues not being fed with new players, unfortunately, leads to some of the boards just being consigned to history.”
Scientists have detected a swole neutrino, a potential signal from a primordial...
Scientists have detected a swole neutrino, a potential signal from a primordial black hole, which may have formed “before there were even atoms, let alone stars”.
Scientists have detected a swole neutrino , a potential...
Scientists have detected a swole neutrino, a potential signal from a primordial black hole, which may have formed “before there were even atoms, let alone stars”.
The Best Book Covers of the Past Decade
Every year since 2016, Literary Hub has asked a group of book cover designers for their picks for the best book covers of the year. Using 10 years of data, here are their picks for the best covers of the last decade. I’ve included a few of my personal favorites below.
Tags: best of · book covers · books · design · lists
The Best Book Covers of the Past Decade
Every year since 2016, Literary Hub has asked a group of book cover designers for their picks for the best book covers of the year. Using 10 years of data, here are their picks for the best covers of the last decade. I’ve included a few of my personal favorites below.
Tags: best of · book covers · books · design · lists
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“For a month, I tried: swapping my iPhone for a Nokia which...
“For a month, I tried: swapping my iPhone for a Nokia which I can only use to text, call and play Snake; also, a Walkman and a film camera. I picked up physical copies of books, newspapers…” What Emma Russell learned from her digital detox.