I've been digging through the Flickr photostream of Erik Chevalier and enjoying what I find. The more recent works are all right up my alley but there's some serious goodness hidden further in as well. Check out his official site for more as well.

Via Kate.

• Crush the Castle 2 - an excellent game for your work day distractions.
• I'm Comic Sans, A**hole - you've probably already seen this already but, if not, give it a read. Hilarious.
• Stuff No One Told Me - short, one panel, insights into things no one told you but maybe should have.
• HBO Fall Previews - Both Bored to Death and Eastbound and Down are returning.. I am honestly excited for both.

Thanks to these guys I count myself among the fans The Big Sleep and both their albums, Son of the Tiger and Sleep Forever. It's been a couple years since they put anything out (an absolute eternity in Internet Time) but they recently posted a demo of a new track up on their site which I recommend you snag.

Emma Kunz is a strange combination of "healer", researcher and artist. Her story is, to say the least, quite unbelievable:

When she was 18 years old, she began to use her abilities of telepathy, prophecy and as a healer, and she began to exercise her divining pendulum.

She achived successes through her advice and treatments that often edged on the limits of miracles. She herself rejected the term miracle because she attributed it to the ability to use and activate powers that lie dormant in everyone. Not least, it was this gift that permitted Emma Kunz to discover in 1941 the power of the Wurenlos healing rock that she named AION A.

At the very least, she made some remarkable works and is likely worth spending some time researching to find out more about her fascinating life.

via Jessica.

Street Anatomy can be a little hit or miss for my tastes at time (though I love the overall concept of the site) but sometimes you see something pretty clever there and it's worth taking note of. Such is the case with this United Skull of America print / t-shirt; a well done illustration of a skull comprised of the fifty states. Simple and worth a quick gander.

I know I've been dropping hints at it every so often for the past month or so but the Summer Mix Series really is set to launch very soon. In fact, I'm posting this here on the blog to hold my own feet to the fire and get it all ready for this week. That means you need to be making your mix right now if you care to submit (or cleaning off harddrive space if you plan to download). This year there will be a much more stringent focus on Themed Mixes - so don't just compile your recent favorite jams, come up with a cohesive idea that brings all the songs together.

I've never been convinced that sending people to Mars is a great idea but that's neither here nor there. Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was commissioned to create a plan by Richard Nixon to send men to Mars and these images are part of his presentation to make it happen. It's hard not to love these illustrations even if they are for a project that was likely doomed from the start.

Via Public School and Flight Global.

It's been awhile since I've checked in on the works of Travis Beckham, aka Squidfingers, and it appears that he's been up to much of the same - being great and making loads of quality designs. I'm really enjoying some of the more collage-y works - Brotha Lynch Hung and The Foundry are good examples. He's also posted some new iPhone desktops for your consumption. Enjoyable as always.

I am a total sucker for antique paper texture. Combine that with some vintage images collaged with various colorful textures and I am fully intrigued. Such is the case with the selective works of Dr. Kennedy Jones - all of the elements I'm drawn to are present and accounted for. I'm much more partial to the pieces with old photographs worked in rather than the silhouettes but there are good parts to it all. Also be sure to check out the flickr photostream for more random works and sources of inspiration for the pieces.

Via Oz.

• Improve the YouTube Player - handy little javascript that updates YouTube embeds with some color codes making it appear 100x cleaner. Simple, effective and totally worth implementing.
• CSS3 Warp - Everything can be done in CSS3.
• Faruk Ates - check that right sidebar in a Webkit browser.. approved!

I had a long weekend of traveling, spending time with family and generally being off the computer entirely. So, with that in mind, I haven't culled a great deal of anything to share here on the ole blog. However, I'll try not to leave you entirely high and dry:

• IT Crowd: Series 4: Episode 1 - the first episode, Jen the Fredo, is available for viewing online.. assuming you can proxy around the UK only viewing restriction.
• Surprise Boosh visit in NYC - Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt showed up at the NYC screening of Journey of the Childmen and shared that they are actively working on that comedy album that's been rumored about for so long. I love this quip:

  Both chaps looked like they had been…partaking in some long studio sessions, bleary eyed but game to f**k around. When a nervous male fan flubbed a question with, "How’s the album coming…out?" Barratt took a beat, smirked, then pounced. "How’s it coming out?" he asked rhetorically. "We’re releasing it as a virus." Standing beside him nursing a PBR, Noel nearly overlapped him with, "It’s going to be an awesome car and we’re going to go riding around the citttay!"

• CSI Computer Literacy - "I'll create a GUI interface using Visual Basic to see if I can track an IP address." Via Chad.

I will openly admit this weeks playlist is a little heavy on the animal videos but it's well balanced with some other goods, as well as a few bonus videos to fill your palette completely.

• Steve McQueen Intro - a cat named Steve McQueen gets his own life intro. This should happen for more beasts. via Paige.
• A Dial-Up Modem in Brooklyn - street interviews of people attempting to recreate the old dial-up handshake sound. I can still hear it clearly in my head.
• Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World (Death Metal Version) - sure, we've seen the Metallica Jazz version and all the other guitar overdubs but this is a nice twist on the theme. And it looks oddly believable that he could be singing it.. sort of. Via Chris.
• Immortal Dog - from the people that brought you Brawndo and oddly reminiscent of Fun Town Auto.. it's probably work inappropriate but I found it disturbingly amusing. He Will Not Trust You.
• Dough Pounding Japanese Style - there is something hysterically frantic about this that I can't deny laughing heartily at.
• Next Ending Sneezing Bear - it goes on for just long enough to be hilarious.
• Happiest Duck in the World - sometimes Friday Videos can be heartwarming, right? That Duck Dance is great!
• Kitten With A Tiny Hat Outtake - you think it's adorable and then it's shocking.. perfect.
• COPS Best Of - I can only imagine there are hundreds of these sort of video compilations on YouTube but a good one won't ever get old. I watched the entire 4:25 completely engaged.

BONUS

• Mini Rocky IV - Mini Cooper vs Porsche, Rocky style. Brought to you by Honor Student.
• Bebe Dancarino - this disturbs me to no end. I can't believe how long this video is.
• RSAnimate: The Secret Powers of Time - not so much funny or crazy but just another great entry in the RSA series. Via Jed.

That's it! Have a great weekend everyone..

I know there are dozens and dozens of these kinds of blogs out there - random images culled from an infinite number of sources with little to no credit given to their originators (making it near impossible to find more) - but I still find myself drawn to the mindless browsing that comes from them. Sometimes they're on Flickr, loads are popping up on Tumblr and occasionally they even have their own server. Whatever the case may be, I'm into it.

Yimmy's Yayo fits right into that mold. Loads of images - many of which are quite NSFW - cover a wide gamut of subjects. It's mindless and scatterbrained but makes for a good distracting browse if that's what you're in need of.

While I don't personally have a need for a file comparison program I do find myself completely engaged by the site design for Kaleidoscope. Granted, I can see the usefulness of the app (particularly when comparing source code) but that's not the point I'm trying to make here - click around on the site - it makes use of great full page layouts with a nice range of style on each one but still cohesive throughout. I think I'm also a sucker for the sliding in-page style navigation and they embrace it wholeheartedly.

The HTML5 Mobile App Framework known as Sencha Touch looks extremely promising. After visiting the examples on an actual mobile device (check Kitchen Sink) I was entirely convinced that this is worth bookmarking, reading up on and diving into for any future mobile development. The writeup's are enough to get excited over but there really isn't anything better than just seeing it in action - try out the Solitaire game in a WebKit browser and you'll see what I mean.

Heads up via Daniel.

Thanks to the ever diligent yvynyl I was able to procure the free EP from Monster Rally. The six tracks all feature a rather summer-y / Hawaiian sound mixed with a bit of what you'd expect from a yvynyl recommendation - a bit of a trippy / weird vibe thrown into the mix. It works quite well and could easily be integrated into your constant rotation for the summer. → Download Monster Rally EP

I've been tinkering around on the freshly launched Hot Potato site this morning. The basic gist of the site seems similar to Facebook Status Updates or Twitter Posts in that you post what it is that you're doing currently - what you're watching, listening to, reading, thinking about, etc. However, instead of acting as a just another site to do something similar it is setup to be the hub of your activity as it will send your updates to Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc. It is still in its infancy so I think its true usefulness is still emerging. Regardless, the design, UI/UX and overall cheery / humorous vibe of the site makes it well worth playing around on.

Be sure to watch the Intro Video - it's great.. looks like Patrick Moberg style illustrations and stumble upon the 404 page; also quite amusing.

You can find me on the site here.

Despite the navigation be a little tricky I've really been enjoying browsing through all the works from Doe-Eyed. The poster series are particularly great but there are plenty of other projects well worth digging into. Spend some time on this one - loads to love.

Heads up via Young Monster.

The turritopsis nutricula species of Jellyfish has been discovered to be the first, and possibly only, immortal creature. Once the creature reaches its adult form (pictured) it can, apparently, use transdifferentiation to transform its cells backwards to the polyp stage of its life and begin the whole cycle again. There's not much more to say beyond that - consider myself officially in awe.

There are loads and loads of design projects out there taking existing album art and redesigning it as something old / vintage looking but rarely do you encounter someone taking an album and reinventing it as something more contemporary. The Visual Mixtape re-envisions a bunch of albums into very clean large scale posters. The typography, layout and color choices are solid but the most interesting part to me is seeing what image the designer chose to match with each album.