I know nothing about this other than it is cool, it appears to be Russian, and it is best watched at 480p on fullscreen.
Now, will someone please come and do a similar show at my house?
Beards. One true sign of manliness.
Sigh.
The weather is getter cooler. The days are getting shorter. Soon, classes will be back in session — and that, my friends — is the surest sign that summer has come to an end.
With that return to school, students will mourn the passing of another season, as is well known and often commented upon. But what, I ask you, of the various teachers, professor and instructors? What of them?
Yes, they too will gaze wistfully into the rearview mirror of time and see the glorious summer fading into the distance. For me, not least of all, because I will once again need to shave on a regular basis.
Oh, summer! How I love your long, hot days as the sun’s rays beat down upon my rough, be-stubbled face. How the gentle rain’s moisture clings to my chin long after the skies have cleared….
This weekend, readers, my face will be shorn of its summer growth. And I will, once again, mourn its passing.
For comfort, however, I will turn to The Beardly and ruminate about beards until summer rises again on the far side of winter.
Collaborative design community
Through Metafilter, I’ve stumbled upon (see what I did there?) a website called Designer’s Couch.
I haven’t spent a lot of time poking around yet, but it seems like a nice, fairly easy-going, non-pretentious place for designer-minded types to post some of their work, get inspired by what others have posted, and to share and to critique.
Of course, like a lot of these communities, there are far more people asking for feedback than giving it. But it’s a nice-looking site, it seems friendly and collaborative, and it has a series of helpful articles.
There’s also some really nice designs up there!
Free course for online journalism
Photo: That’s a completely different kind of newspaper “web”. Source: Winnipeg Tribune archives, 1957.
I’m intrigued by the idea of an open-source, peer-to-peer “university” as a way to both learn and to perhaps share my own knowledge, and now there’s a course that’s tailor-made for me — “Open Journalism and the Open Web.”
Says the syllabus:
a solid six-week online curriculum that will benefit both “hacks” and hackers (that’s journalists & programmers, in plain English). Each week the course will focus on a different topic, and each week the participants will be joined by a different subject-matter expert (or two) from the field of news innovation. The course readings, online participation, and a seminar are expected to require roughly 4-6 hours per week.
The six subjects include the basics of both journalism and coding, project management, collaboration, datasets, maps and open sources.
Very interesting!
There are only 40 seats, and to weed out people who aren’t serious, they’ve set a “sign-up task.” I’m seriously considering it.
(via Boing Boing)
Music Mondays: Dr. Dog
by Amy Breen
I had never heard of Dr. Dog until they covered Architecture in Helsinki (a band I had heard of) and their song “Heart it Races.”
It was practically love at first listen. They took what I consider to be a pretty mediocre (and kind of odd and unpleasant) song and turned it into pop gold.
Isn’t that the perfect pop song? Maybe it’s so perfect because their music is so heavily influenced by pop music of the 60s, full of harmonies and pretty lo-fi sounds. Check out more of their music on myspace.
Will fast food ever decay?
It’s almost trite, the idea that fast food is so stuffed full of preservatives (and salt, another preservative) that it basically doesn’t have an expiry date.
But it’s still compellingly gross to see such longevity documented. New York artist Sally Davies bought herself a McDonald’s hamburger and fries on April 10. She’s been taking a picture of it every day since.
It still looks the same.
As website Good.is notes, the hamburger actually starts to look better on Day 137 than it did on Day 94. Creepy!
UPDATE: According to the Toronto Star, the burger and fries are now rock-hard, but they “artificial smell” is gone. Also, Davies was born in Winnipeg. Cool!
Now this is a floating shelf!
Okay, so the whole conceit of shelves that float on your wall and look like clouds really only works if you’ve got blue walls — but it’s so CUTE!
They’re 950 Krona at Design Torget, out of Stockholm. That’s about $135, but I have no idea if that’s per shelf, or if you get a set of three, or something.
(via tdw)
A Cuban-Irish pub, in the heart of Prague
As my parents gear up for a month in central and eastern Europe, they’ve been perusing a number of guidebooks. One of them, for the Czech Republic, said it listed the Top 10 pubs in Prague.
Intrigued, I flipped to the indicated page, and at No. 6 or so, burst out laughing.
O’Che’s, they said, was a Cuban-Irish pub. The combination was just delicious enough and just absurd enough to really appeal to me.
I Googled it — it’s real — they’ve even got a Facebook page.
Apparently, they are also known for their extensive sports coverage, their darts league, and their Thursday cocktail specials.
Guinness meets Guevara? Count me in.
Why people get fat
by Amy Breen
Or at least why it’s harder for people to lose weight once they’re fat. Pretty interesting!
(via)
I can read, but am I hot?
Prompted by a Facebook friend’s comment on a photo, I have uploaded a shot of myself to the website Hot Guys Reading Books. Yes, that’s a real website.
Here’s the picture I uploaded:
I was just enjoying a nice morning cuppa when Amy snapped this shot. Now it’ll be posted for the world — if the website moderators judge that I am hot enough.
According to their FAQ, the wait queue for getting a submission posted to Hot Guys Reading Books is several months. So in order to soothe the insecurities that come with not knowing whether I am hot enough to qualify for their website, I have posted it here on my website, too.
Anyway, if you like pictures of guys who can read, I’m not sure there’s a better website possible. Go check ‘em out.
(Thanks Corey!)
Best. Dance off. Ever.
by Amy Breen
Who remembers Groove Armada? You know, UK electronica band from the 90s? I came to know them when Fatboy Slim did a remix of their song “I see you Baby” with a really memorable video.
After that, they pretty much dropped off my radar. I don’t tend to listen to that kind of music, so I stopped paying attention, but they’ve been consistently making music for the last 12 years.
They’re just coming out with a new album, and I came across a fantastic video for their song “History.” The video was supposed to be thirty seconds, but the creators, the Dawson Bros. went a little out of hand.
From the youtube description:
Groove Armada’s people asked us to make a thirty second viral advert for their new album. But we got carried away and ended up making a street dance film instead. We f*cking love street dance.
We hope you like it, but above all… we hope Groove Armada’s accounts department will still pay us.
And here it is. Pure awesomeness. And a great song, too.
Vintage $40 cult pencil vs. modern reproduction vs. cheapo desk find
The legendary Eberhard Blackwing (the top pencil, above) commands a devotion among artists and writers that, frankly, seems unmatched.
It had the slogan “half the pressure, twice the speed” which, if true, would make a great deal of difference to people who use a lot of pencils. But even still, it’s just a pencil.
At any rate, in 1998, production on the famous pencil was discontinued.
Until now, when Palomino Blackwings are about to hit the market.
Pencil loving Mark Frauenfelder, of Boing Boing, got his hands on a pre-production model, and he broke out an original Eberhard to test-drive them side by side. (That’s his picture, above.) This is no mean feat — the originals go for as high as $40 apiece on eBay, that’s how much they are loved.
Frauenfelder’s impressions? The new Palomino Blackwing isn’t bad — but it is different:
• (New Blackwing) is softer and darker than (Original Blackwing).
• (New Blackwing) is quieter on the paper.
• (Original Blackwing) holds a point longer than (New Blackwing).
If the new version is cheap enough — under $2, he says — he’ll use it. Otherwise, no dice.
Interestingly, he also picked up a cheapie pencil that he found in his daughter’s desk — and found that it was pretty good, too.
My take is that people form attachments to things for all kinds of reasons. The original Eberhard Blackwings are distinctive for a number of reasons — their writing ease just one of them — and I could see myself getting sentimentally attached to them. Then, when they were suddenly unavailable, I could see myself rationalizing why I needed them — for real, actual reasons.
But watch me poke the pencilati here — I don’t think the Eberhard Blackwings are, really, that much better than other top-quality pencils. They’re certainly not $40 better.
But of course, I’ve never used one.
Babies busting out their moves — with moustaches
I just love the absurdity of this video. It’s difficult to properly explain, but I laughed. As the Daily What says:
Need your daily fix of mustachioed babies rocking out to Balkan folk-inspired modern house music? Riva Starr has got you covered.
Short Film Friday: French Roast
I almost missed it! My triumphant return as keeper of Short Film Fridays….I still have a few minutes of it being officially Friday, don’t I?
In any case, here’s the Oscar-nominated short French Roast. Enjoy.
You poop wrong — don’t sit, squat!
So, Slate has a very informative article on squatting while you hang a rat — it’s supposed to be healthier.
Anyway, they link to a website that offers a “convertible” toilet. It lets you sit any one of four different ways depending on how you like to poop. There’s the Forward Sit, the Aft Sit, the Asian Squat and the South-East Squat. So many options.
Here’s the animated gif that purports to show the whole thing:
Anyway, the Slate writer tried perching on his toilet seat, holding on to the towel rack, to give this squatting thing a try. He liked it.
Me, I’m not sure. Any readers want to chime in?