Plurib.us

This guy, on why Firefox OS is magical.  (lay terms, developer slant).

rawkes.com/articles/there...

Holy cow.  I had never considered this very special place on our planet.
qwantz.com/index.php?comi...

and there are more!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_i...

Spolsky, on Naming Things Is Hard.

blog.fogcreek.com/the-agonies-of...

Grey cubes (hover text).  I like to think I had this idea first, but I always imagined pasty sludge.  Grey cubes might actually be more perfect.

qwantz.com/index.php?comi...

What started as another weekend project has been consuming most of my spare time for nearly a month.  Introducing...

The Incredible Birthday Machine

Naming credit goes to Peter.  (I like to think the design lives up to its name.)  Now that you have a bunch of birthdays you didn't know you had, you should all celebrate them - I think - with the 'share it' link, which is hopefully not too hidden within.

Example: my son just turned 50 Million seconds old a week ago, which we missed.  But no sweat.  We can celebrate again when he turns 7 Mercury years next month.

I read an unsettling number of children's books, thanks to my library-frequenting 4yo.  I occasionally encounter awesome ones, and I'm going to start keeping a list so I don't forget them.  I'll also try to post them here.

"I Want My Hat Back", by Jon Klassen.  It's awesome.

Review:
nytimes.com/2011/10/13/boo...

Apparently it became an internet meme (but what hasn't?), and apparently children's books get official trailers on YouTube now?
youtube.com/watch?v=TYYQW_...

Don't miss NASA Curiosity rover landing on Mars Sunday night!
nasa.gov/mission_pages/...
twitter.com/MarsCuriosity
facebook.com/MarsCuriosity

It's going to be a nail biter.

Space smells like...  m.theatlantic.com/technology/arc...

(via Brooke)

The last several days have seen three ideas shattered (for me), that I used to take as obvious truths.  (Now it is your turn.)

Graduated color-sensitivity of our peripheral vision:
xkcd.com/1080/

Night Glow (bonus: other crazy things about our atmosphere):
auroranightglow.blogspot.com/2012/05/good-p...
auroranightglow.blogspot.com/2012/05/night-...

Lunar Libration (in which we can see 59% of the Moon's surface from Earth):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration

Ooo, pretty -- almost makes me forget I don't use a desktop anymore.

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/0...

Shiny map of earthquakes in recent geological history, via Brooke.  (So much for my plate tectonics conspiracy theory.)
blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012...

I know a lot of iOS users, who use Chrome otherwise.  As a mobile Firefox user who can no longer imagine a world before bookmark/history/password syncing, this could be a big deal.  (You know who you are.)

arstechnica.com/apple/2012/06/...

The rise & fall of Winamp.  Maybe I'll install it for nostalgia, or to be sad.  arstechnica.com/business/2012/...

On a happier ending, Firefox, your new favorite browser? arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/0...

Yet another way that I don't understand how law works.  arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20...

An interview with Aaron Sorkin. He created Sports Night and The West Wing, and he's pretty much got one of the most distinctive voices in TV drama.

Oftentimes, I write about people who are smarter than I am and know more than I do, and I am able to do that simply by being tutored almost phonetically, sometimes. I’m used to it. I grew up surrounded by people who are smarter than I am, and I like the sound of intelligence. I can imitate that sound, but it’s not organic. It’s not intelligence. It’s my phonetic ability to imitate the sound of intelligence.

vulture.com/2012/06/aaron-...

Interesting patent sharing concept that works around US patent system's [perceived] need for reform.  (Reminds me of Creative Commons copyright licenses, in how they use the law to weaken the law.)

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20...

"CHEC KPLZ"

qwantz.com/index.php?comi...

Found this photo repurposed in a random tech article (enabled by the CC licence).  Boring article, but I am sort of taken with the photo.

flickr.com/photos/boolean...

Dear every mobile browser (I have tried a lot), Google Reader for Android lets you long press on an image, and view its alt tag.  Why is G. Reader beating you to this?

The kid in me thinks that The Complete Weird Al Video Music Library is the best thing to ever appear on the internet.

The adult in me has a website I can use to broadcast this fact.

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/1shot/2012/pla...

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/meanings/three...

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

t-shirts-around.blogspot.com/2012/03/most-d...

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/science/news/2...

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/publicationDet...

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/1040/

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

It has been a long time.