The best part about the Artisanal Pencil Sharpening site is that I honestly can't tell if it's a joke. Sure, conceptually, it's absurd but read through all the pages and you'll get a very serious vibe. Okay, so it's a joke but the copy and presentation is so good it's worth treating it legitimately.

Via Chad.

The Big Picture has a photo series up documenting the early days of the oil pipeline explosion (and subsequent oil spill) over in Dalian, China. Here's the quick blurb on the happenings:

Five days ago, in the northeastern port city of Dalian, China, two oil pipelines exploded, sending flames hundreds of feet into the air and burning for over 15 hours, destroying several structures - the cause of the explosion is under investigation. The damaged pipes released thousands of gallons of oil, which flowed into the nearby harbor and the Yellow Sea. The total amount of oil spilled is still not clear, though China Central Television earlier reported an estimate of 1,500 tons (400,000 gallons), as compared to the estimated 94 - 184 million gallons in the BP oil spill off the Louisiana coast. The oil slick has now grown to at least 430 square kilometers (165 sq mi), forcing beaches and port facilities to close while government workers and local fishermen work to contain and clean up the spill.

Great photos but, obviously, a harrowing event to go down.

• Whale Belly-Flops on Yacht - so what do you do in this scenario? Just sink the boat or what?
• PBR in China is Classy - and expensive. $44 a bottle. Hard to imagine it's the same actual brew but for amusements sake, I'll go with it.
• 15-year Old Tricks iTunes App Store - I think this is brilliant.. hiding an app inside an app.

Via Chad, Zach and Davis.. respectively.

It appears that Doug Lehmann (original founder of We Own This Town and the guy behind The Clutters) has started a new Flickr photostream for his photography.. I'm guessing this is more for his black/white film photos but I wouldn't be surprised to see any number of things pop up on there. If you can look at this and/or this and not be intrigued to comb through the whole thing you are a better man than I. Not a ton there yet but it's not about volume, it's about quality - and he's got loads of it.

This is as much a note to myself as is it is to you - take a small chunk of time and watch the entire TED Talk with Julian Assange. If you are unaware, he is the man behind WikiLeaks, a site none of us probably read with any regularity but one that is doing an enormously great job of creating accountability for government and corporations. His TED Talk takes place as an interview with Chris Anderson; focusing on the notion of "Why the world needs WikiLeaks." The bit that I've seen works as a great primer to his whole mission.

Ever since I procured my iPad I've been trying to find an app that justifies its purchase. The Air Video App certainly helped along the way of my rationalization for how the iPad might make my life more enjoyable in some form or fashion but not really so much more-so than a laptop. Enter Flipboard; a magazine style application that feeds your social connections into one location and presents it in a pleasing manner. From the looks of the introduction video you couldn't really have this same experience on any other device comfortably. That is to say, it looks like a worthwhile free download.. the only problem is, I haven't actually tried it out yet.

Via Jxn Blk.

Really enjoying the photo sets from Hollis Bennett - particularly The American Weekend and Panchromatic Domesticity. That being said, there are quality images in every set in the portfolio so take a moment to browse through them all.

Here's the deal: Today you're going to take some time to put down any and all of your projects and read this entire Bill Murray interview courtesy of GQ. He goes over a number of topics including Ghostbusters 3, Ron Howard, why he did Garfield and why he works with the kind of people he works with now. Honestly the Garfield anecdote is completely unbelievable but hilarious even if it's intentionally untrue.

Long story short, read it.
Once you're done with that, take a moment to enjoy this little Sofia Coppola anecdote about how she tracked Murray down for Lost In Translation.

Daniel gave me the heads up on this nice little article - A Brief History of Computer Icons. It doesn't cover all the bases by any means but that's why it's a brief history and not an exhaustive one. Regardless, it's interesting to see the evolution on both the Mac and PC; particularly the similarities between them in terms of iconography and even color palette. There is a Part 2 but it focuses on Modern Icon Design; not quite as intriguing to me. Read Part 1.

NPR has a great interview up with Billy West - voice actor extraordinaire best known for his work on Futurama as Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg and Zapp Brannigan among others. I recommend actually listening to the interview instead of reading the transcripted version; as he tends to shift in and out of the voices with ease.

Via Arlo.

The massive amount of photo galleries found on Square America are pretty much perfect in every way I could hope for. Each set is comprised of found vintage photography themed into a particular topic - people reading, vintage costumes, people smoking, etc. There are so many sets with so many great images it is hard to know where to start. I love the amateur nature of these photos, the storytelling in each one and, of course, the actual visual aesthetic.

Loving this clever brain model comprised of 32 sectional slides. The creator, Dwight Song, has several other interesting art projects over on his Flickr worth checking out or you can just hit up his Etsy and snag the last remaining brain model.

Via Chad.

A friend of mine recently requested that I get back to posting the occasional Animal video. Who am I to say no such a thing?

• Porcupine plays like a puppy - make it about a minute in and you will be treated to the greatest Porcupine Spin you've never seen. Via Chad.
• Angry Ibex - I can't watch this and not absolutely lose it with laughter. Even thinking about it puts me into fits. Via URLesque.

The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum is just one of many of the World's 15 Strangest Museums. Honestly, I don't think all of them are that weird and it's a bit odd that the Ventrioloquist Museum didn't make the cut (seriously, creepy). Regardless, worth a quick scroll through for some good images and just to know that there's a World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things.

Via Courtney.

The Smallest Art Gallery put up a new show this weekend - Selected Works from Laura Baisden. The pieces are all in the printmaking / linocut vein of execution and look great down in the gallery. Baisden has worked at Isle of Printing and currently gets things done at Hatch Show Print so it's safe to say she's quite versed in the ways of the printing press. Take a moment to check out the show and then swing by the gallery to see them in person.. always a better way of taking it all in.

This years Summer Mix Series has been a bit slower in the onslaught of submissions and I am happy for it. Taking in this amount of music is not an easy task and it's nice that there are a few days between mixes to take it all in. That being said, lots of new mixes going up today so be sure to keep up if you haven't been already. I've been enjoying the following (among others).

• Verano Dormido - The description reads: "a soundtrack for when it's very dark in the summer." Apt and totally spot on.
• The Drums - I'm always impressed with mixes from Aaron and this is no different.. a nice wide variety of genres to keep your mind occupied.
• Artificial Heartbeat - a bit of a concept mix robots, becoming human, etc. At the very least it's some excellent "mostly-dream, sort of electronic-driven tunes." Approved.

Thanks to Madrid I'm giving some serious consideration to finding a way to procure one of these Magno Wooden Radios. The design is a nice vintage throwback and each unit is finely crafted from a combo of pine and east indian rosewood. I love the simplicity of it and I've been wanting a little iPod speaker of some sort.. this could be the perfect solution (assuming I can get my hands on one and rationalize the cost).

At some point I'm going to have a sidebar of links for stuff of this nature but until that actually happens.. here's a compilation of things you need to see on the Internets that don't merit an entire blog post all to their own:

• Rob Huebel AV Club Interview - he is just as "on" during the interview as you'd think. Lots of great quotes and funny insight throughout.
• The Men Who Stare at Screens - interesting study that basically says if you think your one hour of working out somehow offsets your 8 - 12 hours of sitting in a day, you're wrong. Sounds obvious but it has some details regarding future health problems that are actually more likely if you partake in said lifestyle.
• World War II totally unbelievable - hilarious; please take some time to read this.

Please take some time to browse the photographic works of Katherine Squire. Her official site is an excellent introductory "Best Of" to her style - lots of people, events, warm colors and ambiguous stories being told through the images. Personally I'm fascinated with the photostream - pages and pages of images cataloging a life of various events. Pretty interesting and sometimes you might even see a familiar face or two.

Hat tip, Keith Davis Young.

The Spam Head project courtesy of Kavel Rafferty is a fun undertaking of envisioning characters behind the names of spam email senders. The plan is to draw one out every week until there's enough to compile an art book of them. The drawings are a nice take on the names but the truly amazing aspect of it is the actual names that spam senders use - Hung Mahoney? Grill Tumaliuan? Lung Barron? Aurelio Colley? Amazing.