The Friday Links

Happy Summer Friday! (where I live, anyway.)

Are you ready? All strapped in? Suitably contented?

Allllll righty.

Foodnited States

A lovingly designed set of food puns for each of the contiguous United States of America.

You can buy t-shirts, posters and stickers.

Sent along by Jared S.

streetchange

“…a new way of measuring changes in the physical appearances of neighborhoods using a computer vision algorithm.”

From a bunch of big brains at MIT. See the before and after of urban change on (in NYC) a nearly block-by-block basis.

Eye-opening. I like it.

Adam Makarenko

This guy… He has directed several music videos, he’s working on a full length film, and he’s won awards for his miniature diorama photography, which is how he came to my attention. He hand-crafts his own planets and other heavenly bodies, then constructs environments to shoot them in. Really beautiful, well-realized work here.

Deterministic Dungeon

An RPG game where randomization plays a part in nearly every single interaction.

I really like this game! I’m not a huge fan of RPG’s so this feels like a slightly faster version of those (with a sense of humor.)

Also if you’re a Radiohead fan, and were the least bit interested in the new re-release of OK Computer, you may be interested in this nerdy tidbit they included in the extended box set. 🙂

And now you’re all set. You’re equipped. You’re prepped! For your weekend.

Have a great rest-of-your Friday!

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Friday. It’s here. Welcome!

Links time!!

Cambodian Artist Visoth Kakvei Is Taking Doodling To Another Level

No joke. Look at his work! So amazing.

Recently

This is a cool service that you can subscribe to either quarterly or monthly. It will print a custom magazine of your photos based on your phone’s images.

This looks wonderful.

A.I. Movie Posters

As with most other “A.I.” generators, it’s obviously still learning. One of the ones I got was titled “Death Monny Photographer: The Ultimate Hates” (Starring James Fleet and Emma Watson.)

Mostly a weird little novelty, but I like it. 🙂

Sent in by Trevor H.

Jump Ball

A challenging multiplayer game. You jump your ball to flip tiles and possibly reveal coins. Collect the coins to grow in size and devour your opponents.

It’s hard! But I bet with practise it’s super fun.

Also this Thrillist article about the “The 100 Greatest Props In Movie History

” has been making the rounds, and I think it’s worth a read for you film nerds out there.

And that’s what I have for you. Okay? Okay??? [glares]

Okay!

Thanks again and have a great Friday everybody.

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Well there went the first week of July!

So fast!

And now you’re all ready for… your Friday Links!! (amirite?)

Factitious

A quick little quiz site that tests how well you can spot a fake news item versus a genuine, fact-based, properly researched news story.

There are some surprising items in here.

Sent in by Traci T.

It Is As If You Were Doing Work

If by “work” you mean “very repetitive tasks with no meaning but due immediately.”

This is making the rounds and it’s a little weird but fun.

Sent in by Trevor M.

Hipster Sound

“Stay focused, improve productivity or just relax by creating a stress-free ambience.”

Basically: Sound loops of several distinct environments so you can “act like” you are working in a Café in Paris, or Texas, or a variety of restaurant ambiences. Or just natural environmental sounds like rain.

“It is as if you were doing your real work in a fake café…” 😉

There are more options if you sign up. Sort of interesting.

Monkey Kick-Off

You are a monkey with a ball. You want to kick the ball as far as possible.

Go ahead. Try. 🙂

Challenging. Simple! But definitely challenging.

Retronaut: September 1942 – Making The New York Times

“In September 1942, Office of War Information photographer Marjory Collins paid a visit to the offices of the New York Times, located at the iconic One Times Square and an annex on 43rd Street.

“There, she documented each step of the messy, physical process as news coming in over the wires was sorted, edited, rewritten, laid out, and printed, all under an ever-approaching deadline.”

To see how much things have REALLY changed in how news is disseminated, this is a good starting point. So much hard work.

These have been your Friday Links! Please: enjoy responsibly.

See you next week.

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It is the last Friday – the last day! – of June 2017.

We are mid-year. Welcome!

And it’s Friday. And here are some links. Okay go go go…

Weirdbox

You enter the name of your instagram account and (if your account is not private) it creates a custom video for you.

It’s a comedic take on our weird obsessive “follow” culture.

Mine, of course, is 99% photos of my cat. 🙂

I like it.

InspiroBot

“I am an artificial intelligence dedicated to generating unlimited amounts of unique inspirational quotes for endless enrichment of pointless human existence.”

As you may expect, it hasn’t quite gotten the hang of things yet. The results range from nonsensical to “wait: WHAT did you just say?” I like.

Some more info here.

Sent in by Keith P.

NSTFM Gravity Lab

I’ve linked previously to online gravity simulators, but none have looked as beautiful as this one. So good!

Rogue Soul

A fairly straightforward side-scroller but it’s definitely got some challenges. Nicely designed as well.

Fun Paper Kirigami and Karakuri Puppets with Unexpected Behaviors by Haruki Nakamura

All of these made me smile. So well done. (“Penguin bomb”!)

You can order them online but only if you live in Japan. Amazing.

And there we go! Allllll linked up.

See you next week. Have a great (long?) weekend.

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Well hello Friday fans. Welcome to your Friday Links!

It’s Summer! At last.

Let’s get to it…

Postal Protest

“Protests can take many different forms, and the medium I chose to use is postage stamps.”

“These stamps are decorative and cannot be substituted for proper USPS postage. However, they may be added to a letter that has proper postage attached.”

These are great!

Dynamic Periodic Table

To see just how much you can do with this site, you need to read their “about” page. This is a great, great teaching tool for chemistry.

You can try mixing elements into compounds to discover how they bind and interact. This must have taken some considerable effort to create. Really well done.

Social Fixer

A browser tool that allows you to customize your facebook feed. You can remove politics (for example.)

This is pretty great. It makes me wish Facebook would implement these options. (But… $$$)

Sent in by Alison L.

Puzzle Massive

A massively multiplayer jigsaw puzzle site.

This is really indepth and has some large, large puzzles. At any given time there are hundreds of people on this site participating. I love this idea.

Pippa Dyrlaga: Paper Cuts

“I am a paper cutting artist using traditional papercutting techniques to create contemporary artworks.”

“My work is inspired by animals, nature, the place I live, architecture and the occasional pop culture reference. My paper cut works are mostly cut from a single sheet of paper.”

This is so intricate and detailed. Lovely.

And there we go. Alllll Friday Linked Up! 🙂

Have a great (Summer) Weekend everybody!

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It is now mid-June.

But: on a FRIDAY!

Links time!

Spirograph

This is not merely a little browser toy but it’s also a git repo, so you can actually download and modify this code. But as-is, you can create mechanically reproduced artwork in your browser, and print it, etc.

Beautifully realized. I love it.

Cayce Zavaglia: Embroideries

Yes. Embroideries. These look like detailed photographs.

Just… how? Amazing!

NASA: “Shadow of the Eclipse”

“On August 21, 2017, the moon will pass between Earth and the sun in a total solar eclipse that will be visible on a path from Oregon to South Carolina across the continental United States. This path of totality will occur in a little over 90 minutes, while observers on the ground will see the eclipse for about two and a half minutes.”

Using extremely accurate and detailed satellite data this page will show you precisely where the eclipse will be visible.

s0urce.io

“s0urce.io is a free to play hacking io game. Login and code to hack other users but be cautious and protect yourself by upgrading your firewall.”

It’s kind of like a nerdier “desktop defense” game only it’s all about you hacking other computers to earn money (bitcoins,) while also trying NOT to get hacked.

I like it. It’s really simple but over time you build up quite a complicated setup.

Trump’s Russian Ties

Get it? Ties? Russian “Ties”?

He’d better hope there are no “ties” in Russia! G’hahaaaaa!

You can buy each of them for only $40 apiece except for “The Kushner” which is $3,321. You can also customize them!

This is a zazzle site. It is not at all clear what the profits are going into. So… there’s that.

Happy Friday everybody. 🙂

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This email will not feature anything to do with James Comey or Donald Trump. That’s my iron-clad Friday Links guarantee ™.

And now! The Friday Links!

Pix2Pix Face Generator

The group behind this previously built a tool that would create cats based on your drawing of a cat or an apartment building, no matter how bad of an artist you are, and then use a neural network to make it look photographically realistic.

Now they do the same thing with faces. The results can be uh… a little weird. (And creepy!)

Lots more info here. Making the rounds. Pretty well done.

Camilo José Vergara: Tracking Time

“For more than four decades I have devoted myself to photographing and documenting the poorest and most segregated communities in urban America. I feel that a people’s past, including their accomplishments, aspirations and failures, are reflected less in the faces of those who live in these neighborhoods than in the material, built environment in which they move and modify over time. Photography for me is a tool for continuously asking questions, for understanding the spirit of a place, and, as I have discovered over time, for loving and appreciating cities.”

If you want to see how much a lot of places can change in 40 years, check this out. This takes some real dedication.

This is making the rounds a little bit, and for good reason. Wow.

Medieval Fantasy City Generator

“This application generates a random medieval city layout of a requested size. The generation method is rather arbitrary, the goal is to produce a nice looking map, not an accurate model of a city. Maybe in the future I’ll use its code as a basis for some game or maybe not.”

Unique, that’s for sure. What a neat idea though.

Similar / Related: there’s also software you can install called MapSCII that generates a world map in ASCII art. You can zoom right in, Google Earth-style.

Rooftop Snipers

What a bizarre little game. You can only jump and shoot. You can’t aim. Very often I was winning just by doing nothing. Weird. Yet! Addictive. I like.

Suggested by Raf M.

The 10 Most Beautiful Ceilings In The World

[self explanatory]

Also if you weren’t already aware, Monument Valley 2 was released this week on the iTunes App Store (only. Android is still coming.) The original was one of my favorite games of all time. Extremely well made. Super fun and addictive. And beautiful.

And there we go. Links! All done.

Enjoy your first proper warm-season weekend (in my hemisphere anyway.)

Happy Friday!

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It’s Friday! And it’s June!

I just brewed up a strong pot of covfefe, so we’re ready to get started… 😉

For its 80th birthday, here are 80 photos of the Golden Gate Bridge

[self explanatory]

Some great variety of composition here. Lovely.

times.new.romance

The intriguing, detailed, beautiful embroidery art of Sheena Liam.

She’s been making the rounds the past few weeks. There’s a pretty great interview with her here.

Where’s Wallace?

“Help D’Angelo Barksdale by finding him and 46 other characters from ‘The Wire’ in The Ringer’s interactive game”

For fans of the show, this is pretty expertly made. (And challenging.)

Sent in by Traci T.

Rhythm Reaction Grid

This is a non-obvious little game that doesn’t tell you exactly what you need to do, but I like it.

My hint: “Red sliders” are the growing red boxes. You don’t want to be in that box when you see that.

Once you get it, it’s a pretty fun game.

And finally: The Elvis jet I linked to a week ago did indeed sell at auction for $430k USD.

And that’s it! Okay? That’s what I’ve got. Isn’t it enough? Isn’t it ever enough?? [sob]

Oh wait — wrong conversation. Anyway see you next week! 🙂

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It is Friday once again!

And sadly: the last one in May. But that means nothing but (northern hemisphere) Summer now! Yay.

And! Links.

Here we go…

Sounds Of NYC

“Sounds of New York is our tribute to a city we love. We spent months capturing the buzz and energy of New York City’s neighborhoods and present it to you as ambient noise to help you focus while you work”

I like it! I wonder if there should be more of these for different cities.

‘Star Wars’ Flashback: When No Theater Wanted to Show the Movie in 1977

Yes, believe it or not, Star Wars was not perceived as a guaranteed hit the week it opened. “…After opening on 42 screens, the film expanded to 1,750 and stayed in theaters for over a year.”

This is a great read. Also: happy 40th anniversary, Star Wars.

Architecture in Miniature: 13 Modern Dollhouse & Other Tiny Buildings

Created by Miniio, “a company specializing in stylish modern dollhouses made of wood.”

Cold War

A really well made semi-simulation of what nuclear war would sort of look like.

Read the about page (the question mark in the top right corner.) It’s worth it.

Created by Simon Swain. Well done.

And in case you missed it, you can buy Elvis Presley’s last known private jet at an auction:

It’s been sitting on the same Roswell, TX runway for the past 30 years, where it has been a minor tourist attraction.

Opening bid is only $10,000.

More info – and great interior shots – at The Observer.

And that’s what I’ve got!

Have a great weekend everybody. See you next week.

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Welcome, Friday people.

Come, look at these links…

Giant Lion Sculpture Carved from Single Tree Trunk Took 20 People and 3 Years to Complete

Easily the best headline I read this week. 🙂

Currently on display at the Fortune Plaza Times Square in Wuhan, China.

Down and Out in Los Santos

“Documenting homelessness and poverty in the city of Los Santos and Blaine County.”

For those unaware, “Los Santos” is the fictional California city which is the setting for Grand Theft Auto V.

Hard to believes some of this imagery is from a videogame.

Dirty Lola Antique Altered Plates

“Miss Scarlett is a full-time professional illustrator, who specialized in watercolor and gouache painting.”

So imagine antique China plates upon which your favorite 80’s artists have been lovingly depicted.

I love these.

Brick Block

A fun little digital apartment building which you can add to or destroy parts of until it looks just right.

Created by Oskar Stålberg. Pretty cool.

And there we go! Links! On a Friday!

…Friday Links! (right?)

Have a lovely (long?) weekend.

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