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Happy Friday!

Busy month so far on my end. Crazy. FYI.

Letttt’s begin!

Celebreedy

“This new bot on twitter, tumblr and (shortly) Instagram, posts blended celebrity pictures. The proportions are chosen at random, though never more than 60% of either, to ensure that the resulting image sits right in the uncanny valley.”

They really just turn out looking (to me) like “normal, ordinary people”.

Lei Xue

A Chinese artist who creates crushed aluminum cans in Ming Dynasty porcelain.

h/t: Colossal.

His other works are pretty amazing too.

Tom Whitwell: 52 things I learned in 2019

“#8: Drunk shopping could be a $45bn /year industry, and only 6% of people regret their drunk purchases.”

A very wide range of discoveries. I found this interesting.

Dungeon Basket

A pretty simple platformer with some clever features.

Sent along by Ashy T

There you have it! Links! On a Friday! Friday Links!

Have a great weekend everybody.

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It’s Friday! At friggin’ last.

Especially this week: we made it. (I hope most of you made it. This was a terrible week. 😟 )

Let’s see some new links…

Judith Hope: Puppets

Ms. Hope makes some incredibly intricate, really detailed puppets, including some weird choices like (among others) bactriophage. (?!?!) Her Instagram is also worth a follow.

Just amazing. And Bananas!!

The London Time Machine

A great little map mashup using “The Morgan Map of 1682” and current satellite photographs to show (a) how accurate that very old map was and (b) how the terrain has changed in 338 years.

Vatican Library Online

A really vast, really carefully curated archive of a lot of material in the physical Vatican Library.

It’s a bit daunting to use – among other things, you should probably understand Latin – but wwwwwow the history in this collection.

It’s making the rounds, and rightly so.

NGSnake

It’s the original “Snake” game, but way, way faster.

Super hard.

I hope your weekend is calm, peaceful, happy, etc.

Happy Friday.

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Welcome to Friday!

Welcome to 2020!

Let’s begin…

We’re obviously seeing tons of “best of 2019” lists. I’m sure you’ve already seen several of them.

The one I will link to, is IMDB’s “Most Anticipated Movies of 2020” That’s a nice alternative to lists of stuff we all saw last year. (Although, note, for some reason “Top Gun II” is on that list, and yet Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” is not. Very confusing.)

But having said that:

Kottke: The Best of the Best-of-the-Decade Lists

He finds the good ones. You could spend a week here. Consume with caution.

I’ll include one more to round it out.

Reddit’s Favorite Mindblowing Facts of All Time, Fact-Checked

I hemmed and hawed about including this one, but it’s got some interesting findings.

Suggested by several subscribers.

Lego: Maximum Security Prison

(I mean it’s 2020!)

“In this two floor setup a fully functional prison was designed to fit on a 32×32 base panel. “

Somewhat making the rounds.

Firework Jumper

An unusually challenging jumping platformer.

Addictive and (to me) super frustrating game, but you might enjoy it.

Well Happy New Year everybody!

Hopefully see you next week.

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Happy Friday!

And welcome to post-Christmas. That was fast.

The final Friday of 2019. Of the 2010’s. Weird…

Let’s go!

The Most Scathing Reviews of 2019

Specifically: Book reviews.

“Despite all its ghastly goings-on, this creaky thriller constantly slips on banana peels of its own unintentional comedy…”

Oof. 100% true title.

What Did We Get Stuck in Our Rectums Last Year?

Making the rounds! This is an annual article previously featured on Deadspin (RIP,) but now on Vice.

Also: not just the rectum. The nose, throat, etc., etc.

Yikes!

Suggested by Kim S.

Apollo Flight Controller 101: Every console explained

“From the archives: A handy reference to each station in the Apollo Mission Control room.”

There’s other stuff here too, like how they set up the projectors to put up multiple data views on their huge wall screen.

Intensely nerdy, sure, but super interesting.

C4 Arena

“Connect Four”, but now multiplayer. Play against A.I., local multiplayer, or online multiplayer.

Have a Happy Friday, and a lovely New Year.

See you on the other side.

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Happy Friday!

And happy Winter Solstice (in the northern hemisphere.)

It’s the last Friday before Xmas 2019! Crazy how fast that happened. What a full year!

It’s link time!

Endless Jingling

“Endless Jingling was written and recorded by Josh Millard. It selects a handful of christmas songs at random from a collection of three dozen recordings, then jumps around randomly between them forever and ever and ever or until you reload for a new combination of songs.”

SUUUPER ANNOYING! But still fun.

The Happy Broadcast

“… I want to use my art to spread some positivity.

“I want to create something positive as an anti-venom to the vitriolic rhetoric that pervades our media.”

Created by Mauro Gatti

Somewhat making the rounds. Especially after this past year, much needed.

The 2019 Hater’s Guide to the Williams-Sonoma Catalog

“Come on in! Dust your boots off in the breezeway. I have a special mat you can use for it that’s woven from human hair sourced from the tribes of the South Pacific. Best snow-wiping hair ever designed, by God.”

A perennial favorite.

PAC-XON

Pacman, but you have to box the ghosts in by drawing strategic walls. “Pac-Qix”?

Some powerups and yes you can still get the ghost-eating power-pill.

Genuinely addictive.

And those are this week’s Xmas Friday Links! Merry Xmas!

Stay safe out there, Santa…

See you next week.

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Friday… The Thirteenth! [orchestra!]

And time for your Friday Links!

And only one more Friday before Xmas! Wah!

Let’s go…

The Deep Sea

Discover what kinds of wildlive thrive at which depths of the ocean, as far down as “The Challenger Deep” (10,924 metres aka ~11 km / 35,840 feet aka ~7 miles.)

And they do mean “depths”.

Created by Neal Agarwal.

NYTimes: The New York City Subway Map

A great interactive piece on this iconic transit system, and how art and design helped make the system more understandable to its riders.

Sorry Olds, Only Gen Z Can Make It Through This High School Quiz

“Are you part of the squad or are you an ‘old’?”

Note: very American.

Note 2: this quiz will chew up your CPU.

Yes, it’s from Buzzfeed.

Broken TV

A simple little “descrambler” puzzle game.

Note: click on the piece you want to move, then click on the space you want to move it to. I thought they had to be adjacent. They do not.

The motion patterns are lovely.

And there you go: alllll Friday’d up. I mean linked up. I mean Friday Linked up!

Happy Friday, and Merry Christmas!

See you in a week.

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Welcome to your Friday Links!

This issue is normally the Friday Links Xmas Gift and Giving Guide, but I have unfortunately been too overwhelmed with work and other things going on in my life to properly compose a good one this year.

So, lazily, I am going to instead refer to last year’s guide and add just a few extras.

For the giving part, In Canada, CBC’s Sounds of the Season is on now. Always recommended.

For the gifting part: ThinkGeek, which was my perennial favorite gift guide to link to, has sadly shuttered.

In its place, this year I’ll recommend The Verge’s 2019 Home & Tech Gift Guide 2019 instead. It’s not nearly as good or comprehensive, but it’s what I’ve got.

Apologies for not being able to provide more new material. It is what it is. Happy Holidays!

And now to the links!

Steampunk Tendencies

A collection of extremely unique, beautiful, whimsical creations from the Steampunk community.

I love all of this!

Rewilder

“Rewilder creates the best bags on & for the planet from 100% salvaged materials. Everything is washed, cut, and sewn in California for bags with a micro-footprint and highest quality. They don’t make trash; they treasure it.”

As of this writing they were sold out of a lot of stuff, but we all know there’s still plenty of trash out there so they’ll make more eventually.

Great idea. Some cool designs too.

Recommended by Tina E.

Anthony Hopkins Talks To Brad Pitt About Movies, Mortality, And Mistakes

From Interview Magazine.

It’s a long read, and I found it fascinating.

Block Blaster

A fun, slightly “drifty” version of Arkanoid or Breakout.

I suck at it but it’s still addictive.

Suggested by Kate S.

And so this concludes the Friday Links for the First Friday in December 2019.

Happy Holidays everybody! See you next week.

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Happy Friday!

And happy belated Thanksgiving to my American friends.

And that’s the end of November. Hmph.

And now! To the links!

Bruno Simon

Bruno Simon is an expert web developer.

His personal site features games completely rendered in HTML.

Very impressive work here.

Suggested by Emma W.

Rogan Brown: Paper Sculptures

“This piece is part of a new series of works that mixes hand and laser cutting to create an incredibly detailed and varied visual texture making multiple references: coral, bacteria, pathogens, diatoms, fungi etc…”

These are incredibly complicated, beautiful works.

Just having a little, good, clean fun!

“This year, for my Birthday, my husband bought me something I have wanted for years–a Power Washer.”

…

“I realized that I could do word art in one tenth the time that it would take to power wash the entire driveway and it would allow me to leave most of the dirty part dirty.”

End result: beautiful artwork on people’s driveways.

A pretty great little art project created by artist Dianna Wood.

Makin’ Babies

(Beta)

Simple: click on the baby’s face to make more babies. You earn medals for certain thresholds.

Weird, oddly satisfying little game.

There we go! Wrapping up your November with some links.

Next week I’ll have a 2019 holiday shopping and giving list for you. Stay tuned!

Thanks for following along at home.

Happy Friday!

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Helloooooo Friday!

Mid-month already. So… so fast! Crazy.

Links time!!

miniatureglass

A glass artist from Kyiv, Ukraine blows glass to create small glass spiders.

They’re gorgeous!

Threadless: Street Sheets

Tokyo street designs on t-shirts, leggings, mats, etc. I like it!

An Original Volkswagen Beetle’s Wheel Hubs Are Turned into Fashionable Mini-Scooters

Aka: “VolksPods”

They look a little weird from a seating stance position. You’d have to lean pretty far forward. But still: great design.

Dodge This

You only get a single shot and must carefully align to take out the tiny Ninjas.

Also check out this bombshell report from TheAthletic.com about how the Houston Astros may have stolen the 2017 World Series.

Just a crazy report. Making waves.

And that’s your Friday links!

I guess it’s time to say: Happy Holidays!

See you next week, Friday fans!

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Well hello there Friday folks.

Here we are: November!

And Friday!

Aaaaaand go!

Hunger For Words

anyone interested in dogs, speech therapy, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), animal psychology, or new ideas. Watch, read, and follow along on this exciting journey of teaching my dog to talk!”

Stella is an 18-month-old “Catahoula / Blue Heeler mix” dog who uses a custom-built soundboard to communicate in English.

This research is fascinating, and ongoing.

There’s a pretty excellent Instagram account as well.

Making the rounds, and rightly so.

The Size Of Space

Another virtual display of just how mind-blowingly large some objects in the known universe can be.

Considerable: The Other Side of Sesame Street

Behind the scenes photos and interviews on how they achieved the puppetry for Sesame Street between 1970 and 1971.

It’s a lot more work than you might think. They definitely make it look easy.

Cusors.io

A weird multiplayer game where you and others work your way through mazes or other simple puzzles using collaboration and wits.

Suggested by Kate S.

And that’s that, people. All out of links.

Have an excellent weekend everybody.

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