This article has a number of great things going for it. 1) One of the best headlines I've encountered in some time. 2) An incredible video that shows the fluid movement / impact of jellyfish. 3) The actual content of the article that it puts forth that all of the millions of creatures living in the oceans actually stir the sea "with as much force as its wind and tides." It is, to say the least, a great read.

via HayekD.

After seeing thispost over on Flavorpill I started scrounging around for more examples of work from Swedish street artist Ekta. Fortunately, his official site has a ton of stuff in an easy to consume blog format.. so you can just dive right in. I love the simplicity of it, the color palettes, the texture and the oddness of the face configurations.

The Webkit World Clock is nuts! Granted, it only works in Webkit based browsers but, damn, if you happen to be using one.. this is quite a treat. The quasi-3D transitions on the world map in the back are fantastic. Anyone doubting that HTML/JS can't handle some of the tasks of Flash needs to be shown goodness such as this.

via Arlo

aka Mark These With Instapaper.

• Why 3D doesn't work and never will. Case closed. - great argument from Walter Murch, respected film editor and sound designer, about why 3D will never work due to evolutionary constrictions. This man worked on 'Captain EO' - he must be believed. His summation is perfect:

  3D films remind the audience that they are in a certain "perspective" relationship to the image. It is almost a Brechtian trick. Whereas if the film story has really gripped an audience they are "in" the picture in a kind of dreamlike "spaceless" space. So a good story will give you more dimensionality than you can ever cope with.

• A Physicist Explains Why Parallel Universes May Exist - if you are at all familiar with the concept of Parallel Universes this probably won't shed too much new light on the subject for you but with such a far out, conceptually bizarre, topic it's always good to get a refresher on the basics.
• The year 2011, according to Thomas Edison in 1911 - musings from the past regarding the future that is actually the present are always worth a read.

I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time browsing through the works of video production company CANADA. The Barcelona based trio of filmmakers is responsible for the highly enjoyable El Guincho video Bombay so they had my attention right out of the gate. They've also done music videos for TwoDoor Cinema Club, Scissor Sisters and a host of other artists I've not heard of but am compelled to watch the videos. I'm also oddly entranced by the screen tests made available on their site. There is something fascinating about watching people 'act' natural.. or be natural for the camera; deciphering the difference can be quite tricky.

Be sure to pop by the personal work for more fascinating creations. Honestly, I've yet to watch something on the site that I wasn't fully engaged by.. so you really can't go wrong no matter where you turn.

via Madrid.

Daniel pointed out a new design-oriented Tumblr worth following - Little Big Details. Basically, it focuses on exposing the small touches designers and developers implement in their creations to make the experience just that much more enjoyable. Some of them are so subtle that you may not even notice them... but that's what makes them so great.

I have long championed the work of Make-Out with Violence, a locally produced, directed, shot semi-horror film, semi-love story - specifically, I can never get enough of the soundtrack. The Non-Commissioned Officers are responsible for the massive 44-song undertaking - a feat few highly established bands can pull off as effectively as they do. Recently, a shortened version of said soundtrack became available on LP. Given that it's vinyl the entire soundtrack had to be cut down a little bit but they certainly chose a great deal of the best songs at hand.

In summation, I love this soundtrack and can't imagine any regular visitors to this site not enjoying it as well. So, why not procure it in wax and watch the movie on Netflix while you're at it.

Loving the illustration work of Niv Bavarsky. There's a looseness to the execution that just adds to the often odd subject matter. It's great to see a body of work that depicts items like a Kurosawa film poster, Japanese folklore depictions, Mind Controlling Goop Monsters, Cosmos Vomiting Frogs and a handful of show gig posters. Be sure to check the Engines Panorama while you're over there - such a bizarre, tripped out landscape.

via Lions and Vultures.

If you are not familiar, both Goodreads and Readernaut are sites geared towards cataloging your books - what you've read, what you're reading, how far along you are, what you thought of said book, etc. etc. They (along with other sites like Shelfari) basically do the exact same thing. So, the choice of which one to use comes down to the little details. For my taste, Readernaut has a much more pleasant and usable UI/UX than Goodreads; meaning, I can actually easily put a book in my catalog without having to go through 5 confusing steps. However, recently Goodreads launched an app and included a Barcode Scanner, which makes cataloging books quite a bit easier.

Long story short, which do you use? Why? Does the user base alter your usage? Is it better to use a site where all your friends are (and, thus, get their recommendations and insight) or to use the site that makes more efficient use of your time? Or do you just simply use both?

The level of output from Bob Odenkirk these days isn't quite the onslaught I'd hope for but when he does deliver, it's good stuff. Where I Got These Abs is an amusing little writeup he did for the most recent New Yorker that takes you through just how exactly he got each and every one of his abs - "dynamic tension! Constant dynamic tension." In usual Odenkirk fashion, it's quite silly but entertaining throughout.

• OAuth Will Murder Your Children - a slightly over-the-top ranting of how OAuth is being abused and what could easily be done to change the scenario. I wholeheartedly agree with the synopsis.
• Tweening Tips - this is likely very old news to most but I somehow missed out on the fact that TweenLite has easing Parameters for some of its more over the top tween styles. Good to know.

Not only is this video on The State of Wikipedia incredibly interesting from a factual standpoint it is phenomenally well animated. Love the style of illustration and the animation implemented throughout.

I also need to remember to watch all the offerings from JESS3 as I am sure they are all equally as compelling.

via Buchino.

Michael Magill has a phenomenal portfolio of desaturated images capturing a number of cities and occasions but I'm particularly smitten with his shots of NYC in wintertime. Images such as this, this and, especially, this have such a quiet, ghostly, quality to them. Love it.

On the last mix I included a track from Yellow Ostrich but wanted to take a moment to point out that their entire album - The Mistress - is available on Bandcamp and you should probably be grabbing it right now. There's also a pre-sale for a forthcoming limited edition yellow vinyl LP but you may not be ready for that yet. So, please, go here, download, enjoy.

NYC has announced that 27-year-old Rachel Sterne will be their first Chief Digital Officer. The job was described as functioning to "help develop forward-thinking policies on social media, digital communications, web 2.0 initiatives and other tools to better serve the public." I think it is phenomenal that a position like this exists within a city as huge and influential as NYC.. I hope to hear more about her progress of bringing government up to speed with digital communication to the people. I think we'll be seeing this sort of job sprout up all over the place before too long and I'm all for it - as government (of any size) and new media / communications are rarely proper friends.

via Soup Soup. As usual, the web moves forward and Internet Explorer is the bane of every developers existence. Fortunately, tools like Progressive Internet Explorer may help push things along as it gives many CSS3 decorative features to versions of IE as old as v6. I'm keeping this one bookmarked for reference.

via Will. If you're the sort of person that requires a Bluetooth keyboard and hates the lack of number pad on the official Apple keyboard, then this add-on is right up your alley. The integration looks great! A simple but brilliant way to perfect your typing needs.

via Daniel.

Twice in the past week I have been presented with information during conversation as fact.. scientific fact.. regarding impending events that could change our lives as we know it. Having done the tiniest bit of research into both topics I have confirmed that in each scenario there is a heavy dose of speculation occurring (and stated so in each article, though I guess that gets skimmed over). Here they are:

• Scientists warn California could be struck by winter ‘superstorm’ - this one was presented to me as likely happening soon, as in, maybe next week. Fortunately, the article points out several times that the storm is just a model and entirely hypothetical at this point. Is it entirely improbable? No. Is it on its way to the coast currently? Absolutely not.
• Tatooine's twin suns - coming to a planet near you just as soon as Betelgeuse explodes - when super-giant star Betelgeuse goes super-nova it will appear in our sky very brightly, potentially disturbing the darkness of night. What people fail to mention is that the effect is temporary and that scientists have zero idea when it will happen - could be next week, could be a million years.

Anyway, I found both of these amusing stories to ponder.. maybe you will too.

I feel like it's been some time since I put together a mix that was just comprised of music that's been treating my ears lately. December was all about summarizing 2010, I missed the mark for a November mix and October was the Halloween mix. So, yea, it's been a minute. So, without further ado, go snag Begin Again, my January 2011 mix. It's probably the most varied mix of offerings I've put together in terms of timespan covered - 1945 to 2011.. not too shabby!

Enough jibber jabber, just get to downloading in your preferred format!

[ Single MP3 | Single M4A | Individual MP3 ZIP ]

1. Jamaica - Cross the Fader
2. Signalkorps - Shut Down the Interstate
3. Ty Segall - Imaginary Person
4. Mellowdrone - Elephant
5. Mogwai - San Pedro
6. Mini Mansions - Crime Of The Season
7. Yellow Ostrich - Libraries
8. Generationals - Say for Certain
9. Hands Down Eugene - February Morning
10. Brian Eno - I'll Come Running
11. Spur - Mr. Creep
12. Nick Drake - At The Chime Of A City Clock
13. Gale Garnett - We'll Sing in the Sunshine
14. The Octopus Project - Catalog
15. Yall - Germs
16. Para One - Les Allees

The movie trailer for the forthcoming independent film Love is one of the most baffling things I've seen in a long time. For one, the whole thing is put together by Angels and Airwaves, a band that I know absolutely nothing about but still find it odd when a movie is produced by a band. Secondly, the film seems to be about an astronaut that loses contact with Earth, stumbles upon a Civil War diary that's been stored in his space station and starts going mad from the isolation. During the trailer we see shots of massive Civil War battles, a few shots of Middle Eastern warfare, documentary style confessionals, traces of The Fountain style special effects, a random babe in lingerie, a man stopping a fireball comet with his hand and then chopping through a cloud nebula, the Borg mothership and, finally, a hushed mysterious conversation between the lead character and a female lead we've not seen anywhere prior to in the trailer.

I am all for trailers that don't give everything away and stir up a desire to see what the full movie is about but this just looks insane! How could all of these things relate and relate well?! I'm perplexed by the insanity of it all.

Heads up via Courtney.

The Defining Form portfolio has plenty of great content to browse and acts as a photographic supplement to the main design work of Thomas Hoedholt. For me, every photo set seems to contain at least one compelling gem - though, sadly, I can't directly link to them. So, start with the Barcelona set and keep diving in.

The Colour Clock takes the current time, converts it to a hex color and creates a nice ambient color-shift change effect as the time passes. I've heard some people say that the full-browser Flash may be too taxing to keep running for too long without some resource hogging but I don't buy it.. it's a simple and effective effect, any decent computer should be able to handle it. You can even download it as a Screensaver for OSX.

via JXN BLK. The factoids contained in this writeup about The Secrets Inside Apple's Most Famous Icons aren't really as secretive as you'd hope but, regardless, they are interesting. I always love the little touches designers work into pieces with the assumption no one but themselves and friends will ever notice. Or, at the very least, touches that aren't entirely necessary but appreciated when stumbled upon - such as the Blue Screen of Death PC icon that comes up when you access a networked PC. Apparently the number that appears on the calculator icon - "12374218.75" is still a mystery as to what it signifies, if it signifies anything at all.