Tip: You can drag and drop the sources to put them in any order you want. Then bookmark the page to save that custom view.
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Today on Offworld we saw Rock Band's vocal pitch recognition get trumped by some ace theremin playing on Portal theme song Still Alive, and downloaded a new unofficial theme for the PlayStation 3 feat...
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Joshua Bearman wrote about the 2009 Nibbler Championship at the LA Weekly Blog. He says: Why is this so awesome? Nibbler, as I mentioned in a brief aside in my Harper's piece on Billy Mitchell, was an...
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I really enjoyed this interview with 97-year-old Chikabo Kumada, a botanical artist in Japan. His philosophy about life is every bit as lovely as his paintings. Here’s a snip: Mr. Kumada, when did y...
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1970s humor mag predicts future
Jerry Beck of Cartoon Brew says: I received several old issues of Cracked magazine over the holidays and noticed this article predicting life in the 21st Century had become surprisingly accurate. "Tod... -
Turning plastic crap into beautiful objects
An inspiring how-to for turning an ugly plastic clock into a nice-looking wood-cased object. Inspiring! Turn a generic plastic gadget in to something a little more beautiful (Via MAKE blog)...
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A wide-ranging and carefully considered list of the top 50 special effects shots in movies. The Matrix bullet-time effect doesn't make this list because: An effect extraordinarily limited in what can...
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Photos of the abandoned soundstage for The Wire. So I found out yesterday that the soundstage for "The Wire" still existed. I wasted no time in visiting it and was there almost less than 24 hours. It...
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The trailer for Objectified, a new documentary film about industrial design by Gary Hustwit, who also made Helvetica. (link)...
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This is the fifth annual selection of my favorite things I've linked to on kottke.org. This year's list includes games, photography, top-notch journalism, time-related material, architecture, design,...
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Steve Jobs: still fine and ornery
A short letter from Steve Jobs reveals that he's receiving treatment for a health problem and will continue as Apple's CEO in full capacity for the foreseeable future. I love the last line: So now I'...
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So here we are, a few weeks after the overly aggressive news conference held by the much-esteemed prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and it’s looking like Lightening Rod Blagojevich’s pick for...
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Looking Hard for the Silver Lining…
This from The New York Times:Amid the housing slump, skateboarders are finding a surplus of deserted pools in which to perfect their aerials. Funny, I don’t feel better. -
Addictomatic got a nice plug in the New York Times today. They did not include a link though (is that still possible in 2008?). Here’s one.
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Here’s an idea. Fuck the invocation. Happy Holidays from all of me at Davenetics.
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... people should need a license to fuck.
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Three Strikes (Strike Two: Pastor Rick)
Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his Inauguration has produced anger and/or hurt feelings in many liberal and/or gay precincts. It’s hard to say this without soun... -
In a recent post pointing out that Joseph Smith was lynched even though he wasn’t hanged, I cited the murder of an Ecuadorean immigrant, José Sucuzhañay, who was beaten to death by a m...
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Three Strikes (Strike One): Princess Caroline
I’m not among those who have a problem with the concept of Senator Caroline Kennedy (D-NY). To harp a bit on the theme of my current Comment, one of the plus sides of getting a... -
The nineteen-fifties are usually thought of as an age of bland conformity, but an awful lot of subversive cultural lava was bubbling under the surface. If you were a teen-age or precociously preteen m...
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1. Oliver Sacks has a beautiful essay in the November 20th New York Review of Books, on Charles Darwin as a botanist. It is not only scientifically absorbing (as is everything Sacks writes) and humanl...
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A couple test shots with my new camera. It was supposed to be delivered tomorrow, showed up today.
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For example: abandick (ə-băn’dĭk) 1. (v.tr.) To leave a man mid-sexual intercourse, causing him much frustration and physical discomfort. deifenestration (dē’ĭ-fĕn’ĭ-strā&...
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My wallet, it would seem, I’ll not recover. I only keep the one credit card, so I am going to monitor charges over the next few days and hope that nothing untoward shows up, working on the assum...
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did washboard abs become six-pack abs? (Tangent: Has Sarah Palin made it impossible for ‘liberals’ to say six-pack without wincing?)...
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The best selling MP3 album of the year was free
Cool news: The best-selling MP3 album at Amazon in 2008 was Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV, which was released free under a Creative Commons license. The album made more than $1.6 million in revenue f... -
Guest post: Acting as a non-monetary economy
Adam Gurri wrote in with this excellent observation: “When I think of something that is so abundant as to be available for free, I think of acting. It's no secret that are are more actors in New Yor... -
Annual cutting the Long Tail down to size roundup
Around the Christmas season each year there are a flurry of stories about hit toys, books and other retail blockbuster phenomena that seem to defy the overall trend towards more niche demand. This yea... -
The Conservation Law of Transparency (you can't be open in all things all the time)
I wrote the Long Tail in public here on this blog. Not every word, of course, but most of the main ideas emerged here first. I was thinking out loud, beta testing my theory with my readers. In exchang... -
We've been through lots of experiments in giving companies a human voice, few of them successful. Paid pitchmen and celebrity endorsements. Awkward commercials featuring the aw-shucks CEO. Quirky corp...
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The Problem with “Feeling Creative”
If your mall’s bookstores look anything like mine (and it’s probably safe to assume that they do), you’ll find numerous sections devoted to helping writers, painters, musicians, and... -
Introducing “43 Folders Clips”
43 Folders Clips (RSS) If you’re curious about the stuff that gets my attention and inspires me (and, consequently, inspires the longer essays you see here on 43 Folders), you may enjoy my in... -
apophenia: Warning: Email Sabbatical is Imminent .. and other random thoughts [via trivium] danah boyd is finishing her dissertation, then going on vacation for a month. While, she’s gone, she...
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In the wonderful Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott talks about the incredible, ripping pain she felt after having her tonsils removed. All she wanted to do was chug pain killers and let the stupid thing heal,...
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Photography, and the Tolerance for Courageous Sucking
As I’ve started shooting photos more often, I’ve picked up on some interesting patterns: habits, if you like. And, as I struggle to absorb the insane physics of capturing light with some...
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Man Wins Legal Battle to Be Declared Alive
A Romanian man named Gheroghe Stirbu was accidentally declared dead by government bureaucrats and had to go to court to force the government to re-register him as alive: Bungling civil servants had mi... -
Tesla Coils “Sing” Your Favorite Video Game Themes
This post started when I saw The 40 Greatest Uses of the Mario Brothers theme article at Rock the List. I figured I’d play one of the videos and link you guys to the rest. But when I searched f... -
Watch Wal-Mart Take Over America
This animation just confirms what I already knew: Wal-Mart is sweeping the nation like an unstoppable virus. It’s pretty amazing to see how the company has exploded across the States since 1965... -
Let’s Play … Virtual Border Patrol!
A new $2 million surveillance project in Texas lets you patrol the US border with Mexico from the comfort of your own home, and report any suspicious activity you see. The project results in one crime... -
Do you think this guy would have trouble with traveling in the United States? Or getting packages delivered by UPS without being billed as a terrorist? Behold a Nihang from the armed Sikh military ord...
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Digest: Annie Leibovitz at Work [Reading]
Weekday articles from The Morning News... -
Digest: The Mountain Meadows Massacre [Reading]
Weekday articles from The Morning News... -
Digest: Diamonds From the Trough, Part 3 [Listening]
Weekday articles from The Morning News... -
Digest: Diamonds From the Trough, Part 2 [Listening]
Weekday articles from The Morning News... -
Digest: Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting [Reading]
Weekday articles from The Morning News...
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Thread Count is a Marketing Ploy
Having recently been taken to task by a house guest for having low thread count sheets -- when she had actually been sleeping on high thread count sheets -- my suspicion that thread count was a false... -
Oddly enough, the Andre's description of how he'd like Flickr's permission structure to work is the way it originally worked, and, frankly, didn't work. It was based on the relationships we'd develope...
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Creative Commons - $12,000 to go
I'm guessing that most of you are familiar with Creative Commons, whose board I joined this year, and I'm hoping you can help out. We're just 12k short of our $500,000 fundraising goal for this year. -
But today, I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self-evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the "instant...
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A friend of mind is making happy songs about hope and I was trying to help her come up with some good songs to cover. I have to say I always found songs like these schmaltzy and somewhat sinister, may...
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CHANGE.ORG round #2 -- Citizens' Funding (aka, Teddy's idea)
Citizens' Funding of the Nation's Elections made it into round #2 at Change.org. Here's 7 minutes about why it needs to be in the final list as well. Voting runs from today till January 15. Vote here. -
powerfully interesting work on citizens funding
Robert Sand wrote this thesis as an undergraduate at Brown (he is now a law student). Roughly put, it models the effect that the view that "money buys results" has on political participation. The idea... -
While most companies have cut back on their support for the Commons, wonderfully and amazingly, the most constant and forceful support continues -- Sun ($50k). We're now within $12k of making our goal...
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Type "Apple Store Chestnut Hill" on your iPhone in Boston, and you get the map on the left. Follow the directions and you end up on a back alley -- about a mile from the Apple Store in Chestnut Hill.
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We're in the top 3, but there's still over a week of voting. Consider this carefully, and then register and vote....
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links for 2009-01-02: Group Studies
How your friends' friends can affect your mood Scientists call it "empathetic mimicry," but you probably know it as "misery loves company." Interesting tidbit: happiness is a more... -
Ottawa, Canada. Post from: Derek Powazek A Dog Named Jam Post from: Derek Powazek A Dog Named Jam...
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And, yes, this is really embarrassing
Wanna see me rock the earnest late nineties long hair goatee look? Watch the video above. It’s from Net Cafe - an early net culture tv show which put all its shows in the Internet Archive. IR... -
In Fray: Sex! Monorails! Naked Mole Rats!
For the few of us actually online during the holidays, we’ve posted a few more stories from Fray issue 2: Geek. Dig, Poop, and Roll I discovered what may have been the banana peel on the slipp... -
Wishing You A Grisly Death in the New Year
Consider the following thought experiment. Imagine that suddenly everyone around you begins to act funny. First your coworkers start to ask you what you’ve got planned for the Dark Days. Then yo...
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xkcd's Guide to Converting to Metric
even Liberia and Myanmar are mostly metric, compared to the U.S. ... -
Crowdsourcing an Ethical Dilemma
Dolores Labs uses Mechanical Turk to answer the Trolley Problem ... -
Stamen's Mike Migurski on extreme programming vs. interaction design
the linked interview is great ... -
Jason Scott on the closure of AOL's online communities
like physical evictions, there need to be laws protecting community data in the event of closure ... -
JPG Magazine to stop publishing, turn off website
with only three days notice; here's the response from Derek and the JPG community ...
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We've had these in the sidebar for a while, but I wanted to post the full Invention of Air tour dates with all the venue information in the blog itself, for those of you reading via RSS. These should...
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Great morning for Invention of Air reviews. This week's Newsweek examines the case for Priestley as a "lost Founding Father" and comes away convinced by the book's argument. The Dallas Morni...
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Today was an interesting day. One of many to come in the next month, I bet. I titled the last post "The Book Is Out" but today feels like the first day where it's really been out. I had a...
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The Invention of Air tour kicks off in earnest this week, with a live interview on NPR's Science Friday, airing sometime after 3 PM EST tomorrow, Jan. 2. I'll be reading at Sunny's in Red Hook on Sund...
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Quick post from the JetBlue terminal to say that The Invention of Air should be arriving in bookstore shelves today, and we've started the official review season nicely with a great long writeup in th...
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QUESTION: Where should we take 37signals Live? We'd
Where should we take 37signals Live? We’d like to do more live audio/video content, but what sort of topics or content or concepts would you like to see us cover in 2009? -
QUOTE: Beauty is more important in computing than
Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity. —David Gelernter, Machine Beauty: El... -
Learning grammar has to be one of the most boring parts of studying language, especially studying the grammar of your native tongue. There are always exceptions of course—perhaps grammar is your...
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QUOTE: My work revolves around the routinely spectacular
My work revolves around the routinely spectacular resolution of the human eye-brain system. —Edward Tufte... -
Have you noticed how everything is trademarked these days? Company and product names I get, and some taglines I understand too, but some of this stuff just seems a bit much. A few days ago I picked...
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Why Pro Sports Need Newspapers
Pro sports, every single league, from the NFL to NBA to MLB to MLS to NHL need newspapers. This need exists because of what internet sports reporting has become, and how LOCAL team fans have evolved t... -
What About the Bank BailOut Money ?
Lots of articles in the past few days wondering what the banks are going to do with the bailout money. Its of course a legitimate question. The response of the banks has been that the cash goes into a... -
You Know Chrysler is Toast Because..
The CEO takes out a fullpage ad in the Wall Street Journal today to thank the American Public for “investing” in Chrysler. Lets see, is there anything more idiotic than spending more than... -
Why Owning The Mavs Can Be Amazing
20,000 people standing and clapping and cheering non stop, showing our appreciation. It rarely gets any better than this To find out more about this great night. Click Here ShareThis ... -
You probably have never heard of XBRL. If you havent, and you are the least bit interested in how regulatory agencies can avoid future Madoff like events, and in government transparency for our bail...
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Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated
I've been getting a few notes lately expressing concern at my continued absence, so I wanted to let you know... -
Is the Internet making us stupid?
That's what I said (and said and said). (via waxy)... -
Ben Stein - When You Weren't Looking, They Were Working
Too true - and important - not to post: When You Weren't Looking, They Were Working Get it in your... -
Book Recommendation: Basic Economics
Can anyone recommend a good basic book on economics? Something for an interested layman (me) that will clearly explain the... -
Things may be quiet around here....
I have sustained a minor injury that restricts my ability to type. If this weblog is slow or even silent...
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Book Giveaway for Knitters and Crocheters
It's time to admit once and for all that I am not a knitter or a crocheter. I can knit; I learned when I was about 8. At one point when I was 12 or so, I made a fair-isle baby's poncho for a competiti... -
I got these little board books today at Old Navy. I love Charley Harper's illustrations. I think I'll send these to a little niece called Ava who turns a year old on Valentine's Day. I have been a bad...
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From Annie, Eric, and Willie the cat.
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At work I write a lot of error messages and similar little snippets that need to be very short and fit within tight character limits. I thought of the title of this post and it made me giggle. It's co...
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Last night was great fun. First stop was Absinthe for a cocktail and a wonderful antipasti platter to get some food in us. Yum. Then it was on to Reaves Gallery for the 11: Eleven show. Sharon had ema...
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For almost a decade now, I have run a list of technology predictions for the coming year. This year is different, there is no list, because: 1. Not that much will visibly happen in the web industry, t...
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“That’s the last bubble I can find in the U.S. I cannot imagine why anybody would give money to the U.S. government for 30 years for less than a 4% yield. I certainly wouldn’t. There...
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The Book Bernanke Should Have by his Bed
Niall Ferguson reviews Lords of Finance: “As the world teeters on the brink of another great financial cliff, we can only hope that the modern-day Lords of Finance will co-operate to better effe... -
The Council on Foreign Relations have pulled together a bunch of graphs about the recession. The results are disturbing.
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Crash of 2008 Market League Table
1. Shanghai - down 65.2% 2. Mumbai - down 51.9% 3. Singapore - down 49.2% 4. Hong Kong - down 48.3% 5. Paris - down 42.7% 6. Tokyo - down 42.1% 7. Sydney - down 41.3% 8. Frankfurt - down 40.4% 9. New...
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I should be writing and not blogging, so I will put up one panel of pencilled Andy Kubert art from the first part of the Batman two parter I'm doing, and hope nobody tells me to put it down again...D...
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Actually I didn't shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die, but he could tell I was extremely cross
Someone sent me a link this morning to an eBay auction that claimed to be of the contents of a Coraline Box. And as far as I can tell right now, it's a fake thing (still waiting to hear back from the... -
For those of you who missed it...
As many of you learned from Rich Johnston's Lying In The Gutters, Paterson Joseph is definitely going to be the new Doctor Who. It even got a green light. But alas, for once, in an affront to decenc... -
My opinion of IO9 just lurched down. This morning brought lots of mail from people asking about the truth of,http://io9.com/5122012/a-new-side-of-sawyer-doctor-whos-returning-monsters-and-gi-joes-troo...
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In the 1970s and the early 1980s I used to buy imported American novels in London, things you couldn't buy in the UK. I'd get the train up to London, and wander from shop to shop.... Mostly SF and F...
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David Brooks wrote a very thoughtful column in the New York Times yesterday on "Outliers." Much of what he said was very flattering. I have just two comments in response. 1. Brooks argues th...
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My latest New Yorker piece, "Most Likely to Succeed" is now up. A couple of additional thoughts. In some of the responses to the piece, I've seen some resistance to the idea that choosing NF...
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In my new book "Outliers," I spend a chapter trying to explain why Asian schoolchildren perform so much better at mathematics than their Western counterparts. The principal source of data on...
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My new book, "Outliers: The Story of Success," is coming out on Tuesday, after long last. I'm very happy with it, and I think anyone who liked Tipping Point or Blink will like this book too.
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My latest New Yorker article on Sidney Weinberg and the benefits of outsider-ness is now up on my website here: here Since writing the piece, I've continued to think a fair amount about this idea of t...
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What Should Go in a Default RSS Feed?
So after four or five years of not redesigning this site, I’m finally working up the energy to rearrange the furniture a little. Part of the motivation comes from realizing how much more I like... -
I wished this day would never come but have suspected for the last couple of years that it probably would. This weekend, I officially said goodbye to the website that changed the way I consume inform...
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In mocking the Snuggie product/website/commercial with Freckles, I noticed that they actually took the time to put a “Share” link on their online demonstration video. In order to reward Sn...
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My Vote for Most Amazing iPhone App: Midomi
The iPhone app universe is getting larger and larger everyday, but much like the blogosphere, tumblrsphere, and twittersphere, it’s mostly crap. Maybe crap is too strong a word. Perhaps “m... -
LazyWeb Request: Date-Based Theme Switcher for WordPress
Jason Santa Maria said something in his last post about art directing blog entries that struck a chord with me: “I am a huge proponent of preservation on the web. If and when I redesign, I will...
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It goes like this. Decide you’re ready for a fast prime lens, because much of the time you’re taking pictures in low light and you need the flexibility one would provide. Discover your Nikon cam...
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Which lens is best to have on hand?The one at home. Which camera is best?The model a step up from the one you just bought. When will the right camera for you be available?Probably next year. When w...
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I wrote a thingy on the podcasting format a couple months ago – making fun of novelty gadgets and mediocrity, but also listing shows I subscribe to and like. Within an hour or so of posting it my Ap...
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Last one for now, I promise. Sort of.
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It’s funny how many people, on learning that I’m Canadian, presume I must therefore have an opinion on Glenn Gould. As it happens I do, but the likelihood of any Canadian having one is up there wi...
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Help Me Explain Twitter to Eggheads
I have a nifty assignment from Chronicle of Higher Education to write about why I'm on Twitter. Personal essay, 1200 words, for print and online. Wanna help? If you're on Twitter, tell me what you us... -
Make Something Valuable to Journalism and Give it Away: Stanford Re-Deploys its Journalism Fellows
In which I interview the director, Jim Bettinger, on why one of the most prestigious mid-career fellowship programs in the U.S. has shifted its focus to innovation and entrepreneurship in journalism. -
If Bloggers Had No Ethics Blogging Would Have Failed, But it Didn't. So Let's Get a Clue.
"Those in journalism who want to bring ethics to blogging ought to start with why people trust (some) bloggers, not with an ethics template made for a prior platform operating as a closed system... -
The Palin Convention and the Culture War Option
John McCain's convention gambit calls for culture war around the Sarah Palin pick. And now The Politico is reporting just that: Palin reignites culture wars. An option is forming. This is my attempt... -
Hype Busting at Mother Jones Goes Bust
Has Obama compared his campaign to the great movements in progressive history, like civil rights? Mother Jones says he has. What were the editors thinking? And why aren't they linking?
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The science of funding science
Today's TEDTalk, from Kary Mullis, touches on a powerful topic -- how modern science is funded, and how the availability of money can drive scientific inquiry just as powerfully as curiosity or necess... -
Celebrating the scientific experiment: Kary Mullis on TED.com
Nobel-winning biochemist Kary Mullis talks about the basis of modern science: the experiment. Sharing tales from the 17th century and from his own backyard-rocketry days, Mullis celebrates the curiosi... -
TEDTalks embed swap, day 4: updates and tips
To recap: If you've embedded a TEDTalk in the past on your own site or blog, this week you may have noticed a new message in the embed player window: "Click here to view this video on TED.com. (W... -
If you've embedded a TEDTalk in the past on your own site or blog, today you may have noticed a new message in the embed player window: "Click here to view this video on TED.com. (Webmaster: Clic...
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TEDTalks holiday comment roundup
During this holiday break, the conversation on TED.com has been as lively as ever. We talked about our resolutions: Cynthia Ryan writes: my resolution for 2009 is to (continue to) challenge my assumpt...
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Digest: Annie Leibovitz at Work [Reading]
Weekday articles from The Morning News... -
Digest: The Mountain Meadows Massacre [Reading]
Weekday articles from The Morning News... -
Digest: Diamonds From the Trough, Part 3 [Listening]
Weekday articles from The Morning News... -
Digest: Diamonds From the Trough, Part 2 [Listening]
Weekday articles from The Morning News... -
Digest: Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting [Reading]
Weekday articles from The Morning News...