Assuming that you know the county of a city you'd like to live in, this interactive map is pretty interesting. It shows the inbound and outbound movement from all US counties to all destinations. The in/out movement for Nashville looks to be about equal, the same can not be said for larger cities such as Austin or San Francisco. It's actually far more revealing to pick a random county in the midwest and see how far the destinations don't go.
Apple Crippling Performance of Web Apps? - it seems like a bit of a conspiracy theory but sometimes numbers don't lie. Is Apple subversively pushing people towards preferring native apps over web apps b/c they unconsciously feel the speed difference?
10 iOS Libraries to Make Your Life Easier - if I were an iOS developer I would find this extremely helpful. That being said, as a non-developer, I still find it quite interesting to see what tools exist out there for said platform.
Twitter Angers Third Party Developers - if the article is to be believed, Twitter is slowly phasing out third party apps. While I can certainly see how this could get under peoples skin I think it may be one of their only choices for monetization. The question of "How does Twitter make money" has still not been answered as far as I'm concerned and it's possible that promoted tweets within a singular official app may be the way they go.
Just ran across the trailer for the forthcoming Bill Hicks film, American: The Bill Hicks Story and I am intrigued. Hicks always struck me as too abrasive for his own good but also equally undeniable in his message and the points he made. I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been for him to rage against ignorance and only return blank stares in return... it's probably best that he passed before the uprising of our current political climate as it surely would have killed him.
Anyway, watch the trailer, check out the film site and keep an eye out for a screening in your area sometime soon.
Been enjoying the illustrated portfolio from Joao Lauro Fonte. The color palettes are right up my alley and the subtle aging / texturing is just the right amount. Long story short: enjoyed.
Nancy McCabe deserves some serious accolades for her typographic map of the world. Aside from being a seriously impressive piece of information design the use of water colors to augment the topography is pitch perfect.
Purchasable here. Thanks to Feltron for the link tip.
Designers.MX continues to curate some rather great mixes. Simon Foster is among my latest enjoyed compilations. Ten tracks, all from foreign lands in foreign languages. With that in mind, it's not exactly "Mumbo Jumbo" but it's certainly worth some ear exposure.
On a related note, Designers.MX is also slowly rolling out accounts so you can Like and Comment on mixes. If you bug founders Blake or Josh I bet they'll hook you up with an invite code.
I don't know what is going on with these animations filed under Optimal Shimmer Source but I am completely okay with that. I can just sit, stare and marvel at the loop for a surprisingly long amount of time.
As usual, The Big Picture has excellent pictorial coverage of things happening in the world - specifically, the earthquake aftermath of Japan's 8.9 onslaught last week. It's really hard to imagine the level of devastation and damage done but these pictures start to give you a small idea of what they're dealing with.
If you haven't donated yet, may I recommend you go ahead and do so now.. they are certainly in need of it.
If you've noticed the site having a few issues this morning I believe it's due to ole Dreamhost struggling. I'd complain but it costs me next to nothing, comes with a ton of storage / bandwidth and only goes through these downtime woes every so often. I'm on the lookout for a better host but, overall, I'm just using this slight pause as a great reason to get yewknee up to 2011 standards.
My pal Aaron Grauer recently upgraded his photo Tumblr to display the goods in a nice grid. Aside from the presentation being lovely, the content itself is quite nice. Some of the imagery is likely a big NSFW (lady parts and/or some vaguely gruesome images) but, for my palette, it's great. I recommend following along and keep it stored safely in your bookmarks of Daily Reads.
Loving this series of Soviet Accident Prevention Posters - mostly because I'm a total sucker for the overall style implemented throughout that time but also because they all seem to depict a range of horrible scenarios I can only hope were not common place. "Be able to free the injured from electricity" - really? Were that many people grabbing on to bare wires and rendered so immobilized that a work place poster had to be put in place? Granted, human error is everywhere so they aren't that surprising but it's still as amusing as it is visually compelling.
Another busy week with not a ton of time for distractions. That being said, what this weeks playlist lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality (I think).
"Star Trek" Wakeup Call - William Shatner provided the wakeup call for the Discovery astronauts this week with this modified Star Trek intro. It's quite nice.
Velocipastor Trailer - I don't even want to attempt to explain this.. as it would ruin the video. Just watch it and then hope they start a Kickstarter for a full-length version (not really).
DALLAS Series Finale - have you ever watched the series finale of Dallas? The legit finale, not the reunion special finale. It will make you feel better about any TV series you've ever watched that you felt ended poorly. Watch for the devil eyes.. eesh.
Feb. FAIL compilation - Eight and a half minutes of cringe worthy moments that I can't look away from. I think it's safe to admit that my affection for America's Home Video style pain antics will never go away.
One Minute Puberty - incredible animation. It does have some NSFW aspects - considering what is involved in Puberty - but beyond that, incredible piece of work.
While I still plan on posting Friday videos and scouring the Internet for distractions as any other day, I think it's important that we all keep an eye on news about the Japanese earthquake that struck recently. The footage is overwhelming and the magnitude of destruction it has caused is incomprehensible - Hawaii and the US West Coast are under tsunami warnings now. 8.9 on the Richter scale is insane no matter how you look at it.
I don't know if it's just because I'm getting older and paying attention a bit more now but it really seems like the world is going through some pretty chaotic events lately - both geophysically (i.e. earthquakes in New Zealand, Japan, extreme snowstorms, etc. etc.) and politically (Egypt, Libya, Tibet, the whole Middle East, etc. etc.).
Long story short, keep aware.. people are in need.
Tiny Showcase just posted a preview sale of a new print series entitled Zoo Animals on Wheels that features artwork based on mid-century Eastern European matchbooks. As usual, the cost is low and the quality appears to be quite high. If you missed out on this weeks Plock print this might be a good way to make it up to yourself.
After seeing the first trailer for JJ Abrams new movie Super 8 I wasn't exactly convinced I'd be so into it. However, now that there is a full-length trailer I may be changing my mind. On the whole, the movie appears to have had great influence from producer Steven Spielberg. The kid cast, the sci-fi element and the hidden "unknown creature" aspect (Abrams speciality) all piqued my interest quite perfectly. It's also the first time I've ever seen a trailer debut on TwitVid but these are curious times.. so why not! As Cody put it earlier - I am cautiously optimistic.
The above image is a retouched version of a searchlight photo taken in February 1942 of an unknown object over Los Angeles. "During the early morning air-raid alert, more than 1,400 anti-aircraft shells are fired." Keep in mind this is less than three months after Pearl Harbor - an added aspect of tension for an already tense scenario. The original image is not quite as dramatic but still surreal in a number of ways.
The 45 points within A Radical Pessimist's Guide to the Next 10 Years are a combination of hilarious, depressing and all too true. Many of the points seem to be thrown out there for blanket comic value but with a little reflection, it becomes clear that they are more on the mark than most would like to admit. Granted, 90% of these points apply to First World Problems - the decline of the suburbs, separation anxiety from technology, loss of identity, IKEA, etc - so always keep that in mind.
Enjoyable illustrations from Aino-Maija Metsola - an illustrator in Finland doing great things with handdrawn goods. A lot of her patterns and drawings end up being used for clothing prints and it works quite well. Dig in.
Pardon the lo-res imagery but it's the best I could do. Regardless, take a moment to watch last nights appearance of Pee-Wee Herman on Conan; spinning his best tale about Ash Wednesday. Typically I'd say a resurfacing of something from my childhood is just a petty attempt at banking in on the nostalgia of adults but this just feels like Paul Reubens having a great time.. can't complain about that.
