The Grid System ¶

Looks like a great resource for those interested in the use of grid systems in graphic design. (via John Gruber)

Give Me Something To Read ¶

Marco Arment put this together as a collection of “selections from among the most frequently bookmarked articles on Instapaper,” his excellent tool for bookmarking longer articles for later reading.

Mathematica Image Processing ¶

I don’t understand a word, but the images make this look really cool.

The Black Diamond ¶

Beautiful shot of the view from Copenhagen’s Black Diamond:Den_Sorte_Diamant_1.jpg library. My sister is currently studying abroad there and goes to the library to work. Jealous? Me too.

SNL’s Take on Arianna Huffington ¶

Actually pretty decent.

Fawkward Podcast Beta ¶

In which Adam and I rip the Blackberry Storm a new one.

The Fly and the Eye ¶

Inventive little short film, sent in by Gabe Aronson.

Apparently Since Monday ¶

YouTube went widescreen on the 24th. Gotta say it makes the old 4:3 stuff look even douchier.

Chicken Head Tracking ¶

I can’t help it. Since when is YouTube widescreen? (via Andy Baio)

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt ¶

Mitt Romney(!) in the New York Times:

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

Wow.

The Wrestler ¶

Aronofsky’s upcoming movie looks really intriguing. Great cast. Yes, that includes Evan Rachel Wood.

Private Ear Audio Theatre ¶

Not quite done yet, but I wanted to show off this design anyway. My friend Gabe did the wonderful graphics, and I set the text. I’m pretty happy with how the site has turned out so far.

Joe the Grave Digger ¶

Andrew Sullivan:

It hit me the other day what he is. He’s the comic relief in the fifth act of a Shakespearean tragedy. Think the grave digger in Hamlet. Alas, poor McCain. I knew him, Horatio.

Let’s hope.

The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace ¶

David Lipsky has a great profile in memory of David Foster Wallace. (via Kottke)

The Rove Realignment ¶

Ryan Sager thinks the Republican Party is splintering into big-government social conservatives and fiscally conservative social moderates.

Red Sex, Blue Sex ¶

Margaret Talbot discusses trends in sexual behavior among teenagers and maps the differences in family dynamics between red and blue states. The gist: abstinence-only education doesn’t work, and blue families have a lot to say about building successful marriages.

Greenspan Concedes Error on Regulation ¶

Edmund L. Andrews reports.

George Packer on the End of an Era ¶

I haven’t been alive long enough to fully understand the long-standing trends of conservatism and liberalism in this country, but Packer’s opinion rings true to me:

The conservative movement was driven by the single unifying idea that government is the problem, not the solution. It attained and kept power through the highly successful political strategy of dividing the country into the hard-working, America-loving, God-fearing majority and the minority of élitist liberals who wanted to tell the majority what to do. What’s happened to that idea and that strategy over the past few weeks?

I think the simple answer has little to do with the current campaign and everything to do with the botched leadership of the past 8 years. In addition to needing to be called out for their war crimes, Bush and Cheney need to be called out for their utter disregard for true American values and reckless thwarting of the ideals that make America run.

Tiny Tim on Fresh Air in 1996 ¶

Shortly before he died on stage in 1996, musician Tiny Tim did an interview with Terry Gross. For a brief interview, it’s an interesting profile of the man, as he reflects not only on his way of thinking about his life, but shows how he really finds a way to embody all the music that he clearly has a passion for. His knowledge of music is stunning, and his description of new music as belonging to the young is apt and succinct.

Is Apple Becoming a Phone Company? ¶

Gruber thinks so.

The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys And The Shrub ¶

In 2000, Rolling Stone sent David Foster Wallace to report on the McCain campaign. His profile is a fantastic read and full of insight into the political feelings, especially among younger voters, of the time. (I think… I was 15 at the time.) This passage about leadership is particularly striking to me today:

Obviously, a real leader isn’t just somebody who has ideas you agree with, nor is it just somebody you happen to think is a good guy. A real leader is somebody who, because of his own particular power and charisma and example, is able to inspire people, with “inspire” being used here in a serious and non-cliché way. A real leader can somehow get us to do certain things that deep down we think are good and want to be able to do but usually can’t get ourselves to do on our own. It’s a mysterious quality, hard to define, but we always know it when we see it, even as kids. You can probably remember seeing it in certain really great coaches, or teachers, or some extremely cool older kid you “looked up to” (interesting phrase) and wanted to be just like. Some of us remember seeing the quality as kids in a minister or rabbi, or a Scoutmaster, or a parent, or a friend’s parent, or a supervisor in a summer job. And yes, all these are “authority figures,” but it’s a special kind of authority. If you’ve ever spent time in the military, you know how incredibly easy it is to tell which of your superiors are real leaders and which aren’t, and how little rank has to do with it. A leader’s real “authority” is a power you voluntarily give him, and you grant him this authority not with resentment or resignation but happily; it feels right. Deep down, you almost always like how a real leader makes you feel, the way you find yourself working harder and pushing yourself and thinking in ways you couldn’t ever get to on your own.

Don’t you wish you could inspire people? I think Obama might be able to.

A Boy’s Life ¶

Moving and thought-provoking piece on transgender children by Hanna Rosen.

Powell Backs Obama and Criticizes McCain Tactics ¶

Excellent.

Quirky serifs aside, Georgia fonts win on Web ¶

I’ve referred to this several times, but it’s worth a re-link. Georgia was commissioned by Microsoft and designed by Matthew Carter in the mid-1990s. It has been a runaway success as one of the first major typefaces designed specifically for the screen. Much of its popularity is owed to Microsoft, who released the font for free through its “Core fonts for the Web” collection, making it one of the few serif fonts available to web designers.

Georgia has been lucky, but from an aesthetic point of view, I personally think it deserves its accolades and widespread use. It is truly a great screen font, and has held up incredibly well as anti-aliasing has become the norm. I still wouldn’t use it much for print work, but it is my go-to typeface for any of my web work that needs a strong readable serif.

The Final Debate Is Up ¶

On Hulu. They’ve had excellent election coverage.

Final Debate Reax ¶

More Sullivan… this time he gathers a variety of reactions to tonight’s debate.

Book Covers ¶

Awesome collection of book cover designs. (Thanks, Gabe.)

Why I Blog ¶

Andrew Sullivan at his best. One of my favorite bits:

You end up writing about yourself, since you are a relatively fixed point in this constant interaction with the ideas and facts of the exterior world. And in this sense, the historic form closest to blogs is the diary. But with this difference: a diary is almost always a private matter. Its raw honesty, its dedication to marking life as it happens and remembering life as it was, makes it a terrestrial log. A few diaries are meant to be read by others, of course, just as correspondence could be—but usually posthumously, or as a way to compile facts for a more considered autobiographical rendering. But a blog, unlike a diary, is instantly public. It transforms this most personal and retrospective of forms into a painfully public and immediate one. It combines the confessional genre with the log form and exposes the author in a manner no author has ever been exposed before.

Love the photo of him, and really enjoying the new design of the site. Much more readable, and with a lot more character.

Twitter Election Coverage ¶

I love innovative ideas. This is one of the most fascinating ways of, as Twitter puts it, “gathering public opinion” that I think I’ve ever seen. Something about it just feels very futuristic.

On a design note, I love that the feed pauses when you hover over it so that you can click on something.

Brads ¶

I just spent like an hour racking my brain and then 20 minutes searching the internet for these stupid little things I couldn’t remember the name of. They’re pretty handy when you need one.

Dr. Horrible in HD ¶

Still great.

The Modern’s Other Renovation ¶

Andrew Blum on Matthew Carter’s 2003 refresh of Franklin Gothic for MoMA.

NodeBox ¶

The more I explore this site, the more I love the work this group is doing.

Lacuna ¶

(n) : a small opening; a small pit or depression; a small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus; an absent part, especially in a book or other piece of writing, often referring to an ancient manuscript or similar

Google Chrome Comic ¶

Interesting stuff. Looking forward to trying this out.

The Impending Moustache ¶

Just saw these guys perform yesterday night. Great use of dramatic performance for comedic effect.

McCain Chooses Palin as Running Mate ¶

What?

Barack Obama’s Acceptance Speech ¶

Another great speech from an inspiring Democratic National Convention.

Transcript of Bill Clinton’s Convention Speech ¶

Classic.

Breaking Down the 10-Meter Dive ¶

More cool diving material from the NY Times:

John Wingfield, the head coach of U.S.A. Diving, explains U.S. diver David Boudia’s technique from the 10-meter platform.