Archive for the ‘Links’ Category
FontFonter–Try Web FontFonts on Any Website
A useful tool to test out FontFont web fonts on any website. I currently use FF Meta Serif Web Pro and FF Dagny Web Pro served through Typekit, but with this tool I can test out other combinations. Glorious.
James Tyler – The Importance of traders and the evils of bankers
Trade and commerce is the lifeblood of wealth creation. Without specialisation and exchange, we would all starve. You have oranges, I have apples. Individually we are bored, together we have a fruit salad.
For specialisation, exchange and commerce to work its magic, firstly we need some common ground: a market. Now, mention that word to a Socialist, and he starts to froth and foam at the mouth. The evil of markets, how the market forces this and exploits that, blah blah.
A good opening to a great speech. Discusses the problem concerning the giant elephant in the room–we have no free market in spite of the appeals to it’s sacrosanct position in the political pantheon (my words, not the speech).
Ork Posters! City Neighborhood Posters – Chicago
I am very interested in obtaining this poster of a typographic representation of Chicago…a small hint for the significant other.
Red on white is mighty nice.
homewrk
homewrk is a collection of workspaces, art studios, craft rooms, offices and all the little beautiful things that fill them up.
I will certainly grab a few ideas from here.
Look Around You – Maths
I happened upon this inspired bit of British comedy after watching Goodness Gracious Me (hit and miss). I was curious why there would be a ten minute show on TV. At first, I actually thought it was a children’s instructional science program. Indeed, it is easy to to be fooled. The tone, pacing, narration, are all uncannily like those insipid PBS programs I’d watch when home sick from school or when the teacher wanted a hour off during class.
Via Uncertain Principles.
The Big Questions Blog: Our Place in the Universe
What are the odds that humankind will survive long enough to colonize the Universe?
Katja Grace argues that the odds are low. Stripped of some nuance, her argument comes down to this:
- The fact that we’re around suggests that intelligent life is likely to be common.
- No other intelligent life appears to have colonized the Universe.
- If they haven’t succeeded, why should we?
That’s Not Art
People post ridiculous “art” to Tumblr. These pieces frequently make it into Popular. I reblog them here and call them out for being stupid.
Pretty funny observations. Hope I’m not guilty of some them!
Progressive enhancement: pure CSS speech bubbles
A purely CSS solution to a particularly vexing issue when designing and implementing a dead simple element: the speech bubble. Useful for quotes, comments on a blog, or some other scenario requiring a speech bubble. In the past, this was done with multiple images and elements–and it often broke–requiring finely tuned styling.
Scott and Scurvy
But here was a Royal Navy surgeon in 1911 apparently ignorant of what caused the disease, or how to cure it. Somehow a highly-trained group of scientists at the start of the 20th century knew less about scurvy than the average sea captain in Napoleonic times. Scott left a base abundantly stocked with fresh meat, fruits, apples, and lime juice, and headed out on the ice for five months with no protection against scurvy, all the while confident he was not at risk. What happened?
Interesting, long read on the quest to cure scurvy, long after it had been.
Why you’ve never really heard the “Moonlight” Sonata.
Something I’ve never thought of before, but the modern piano cannot play the music in the way many 18th and 19th century composers would have intended it.