plurib.us

My weekend project: I have a long-time interest in web pages that give perspective to things that are otherwise hard to visualize.  I put together this page, to visualize the size of planets & moons in our solar system - from two perspectives.

It uses some web technologies only supported by browsers in the last few years.  (You'll need the latest if you're using IE.)

[www1.plurib.us...]

Data can be the source of data journalism, or it can be the tool with which the story is told--or it can be both. Like any source, it should be treated with scepticism; and like any tool, we should be conscious of how it can shape and restrict the stories that are created with it.

The Data Journalism Handbook is a free resource for those seeking to understand and present large amounts of information.

The Best Whistler EVER!!! 

  Actually, there is nothing in this video that isn't the best of everything ever.

The sailor inside me has never before considered the origin of "three sheets to the wind".

[phrases.org.uk...]

You can't un-see it.  (Bringing you all down with me.)

[t-shirts-around.blogspot.com...]

So, someone, somewhere is considering a plan to bring a 500 ton asteroid to Earth.  Despite the numbers, it's hard not to imagine all the ways this could go wrong.

[arstechnica.com...]

If you read only one patent application this year, read PHOTON PUSH-PULL RADIATION DETECTOR FOR USE IN CHROMATICALLY SELECTIVE CAT FLAP CONTROL AND 1000 MEGATON EARTH-ORBITAL PEACE-KEEPING BOMB.

It starts with a method to have the pet door let in the inventor's cat but not his neighbor's, but near the end of p.3, the cat explains how the device might have an additional use.

[worldwide.espacenet.com...]

George Dawe was an English portrait artist who painted 329 portraits of Russian generals active during Napoleon's invasion of Russia for the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

I'm using digital copies of these paintings as a basis for my own work which involves incorporating my friends, family and even some celebrities into the paintings using photoshop.

[replaceface.tumblr.com...]

Great info-graphic illustrating ocean depths.  I love graphics like these, that put things you didn't know into perspective.  (One day I will have to assemble a collection of them.)

[xkcd.com...]

Today marks 10 years since plurib.us post #1, made May 1, 2002.

It has been a long time.

A typeface on a sign that is read from 300 yards has different requirements than a typeface read in a magazine, from your armchair.

A neat description of the process for designing a font specifically for road signs.

[ilovetypography.com...]

[xkcd.com...]

Or, to quote a guy (John Moe - Future Tense / Tech Report), "The exhilarating liberty of limitation".

My current favorite song, "Trouble Hunters," is based on the Battle of Trenton, during the American Revolutionary War. (That famous painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River was right before this battle.) It's by a Minneapolis-based hip-hop artist named Astronautalis.

[youtube.com...]

I recommend you listen to the song without watching the video, and then watch the video while listening. Two amazingly different experiences. His latest album features a song titled "Dimitri Mendeleev" about the discovery of the Periodic Table of Elements. I am currently wearing this t-shirt:

[cache1.bigcartel.com...]

I am widely credited as the inventor of the <blink> tag.  For those of you who are relatively new to the Web, the <blink> tag is an HTML command that causes text to blink, and many, many people find its behavior to be extremely annoying. I won't deny the invention, but there is a bit more to the story than is widely known.

[montulli.org...]

Dino Comics: [qwantz.com...]

"Can you imagine playing Super Nintendo in space?"

Nice!  Thanks, Chris.

[nadineboughton.com...]

Doing a bit of a refresh, in anticipation of our swiftly approaching 10-year anniversary.  This post goes out to our dedicated readers who have not deleted our rss feed from your feed readers.  (We assume you did it out of love!)

[plurib.us...]

Welcome back.

Folks, I think we have found art.

[noooooomyimmersion.tumblr.com...]
(Thanks Chris.)

Some insightful editorials about why Wave didn't work.

[arstechnica.com...]

Let's take a cue from Brazil:

[arstechnica.com...]

Math, why do you have to be such a jerk?

[sciencenews.org...]

It's been too long since I last published a drawing.  So today I'm releasing an unfinished one I started earlier this year.  Sagami River.

[plurib.us...]

A strange, strange man has been showing up on morning shows throughout the Midwest, claiming to be a yo-yo trick champion. He is not. He is actually terrible at yo-yo. Yet he keeps getting on the air.

This guy is my new favorite media prankster.

[deadspin.com...]

Not surprising at all, and uncertain if this should trouble me. 

[arstechnica.com...]

Maybe the question of the day is, "is this dependence bad?"  I'm sure there would be similar symptoms if everyone had to give up, say, cars.  Is this different?

The Library on Congress is going to archive every Tweet ever.  This is going to be embarrassing for all of us.

[arstechnica.com...]

An idea (that turned into a website) I've been working on the last couple of years, on sound visualization.
[plurib.us...]

Some kind of explanation is in order, but that will have to come later.  Feel free to look/play around for now.
[plurib.us...]

Update: perhaps a better example:
[plurib.us...]

AUSTIN, Texas-The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has acquired the archive of writer David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), author of "Infinite Jest" (1996), "The Broom of the System" (1987), "Girl with Curious Hair" (1988) and numerous collections of stories and essays.

The archive contains manuscript materials for Wallace's books, stories and essays; research materials; Wallace's college and graduate school writings; juvenilia, including poems, stories and letters; teaching materials and books.

[hrc.utexas.edu...]

Man, there's a guy who should have stuck around.

A new version of FileZilla (cross-platform FTP client) just came out, which includes my latest theme.  (It's not the default, but it's selectable under Settings > Interface > Themes.)

Here's a presentation, of sorts, I made on the theme.
[plurib.us...]

Artist Caleb Larsen has created a device: A black cube, 8x8x8", with an ethernet jack. Upon connection to the internet, the cube checks to see whether it is for sale on Ebay. If not, it re-lists itself. The sale conditions mandate that the new buyer will keep the cube connected to the internet, and will sell it to the highest bidder whenever the auction ends. In the event of a sale, the artist gets 15% of the purchase price. The title of the artwork: "A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter".

The artist's page on the project:
[caleblarsen.com...]

The cube's re-direct to its own auction page:
[atooltodeceiveandslaughter.com...]

A comic written by a 5-year-old and drawn by a 29-year-old. Axe-Cop is my favorite new thing of all time.

[axecop.com...]