Cabinet of Curiosities

pencilfury: I’ve created a printable version of the kitty, the...

Fri, 24 May 2013 07:20:22 -0400

I’ve created a printable version of the kitty, the balloon and the box! Just save the flat image in the post above, print, cut and fold. I’m sure you can work it out. :)

If you print a version, feel free to post a photo to your tumblr with the tag #pencilfury and let me know. Thanks!

Fun!

futurejournalismproject: Why It’s Time to Rethink Web Video...

Thu, 23 May 2013 22:43:44 -0400

futurejournalismproject:

Why It’s Time to Rethink Web Video Entirely

Producer Adam Westbrook recently built an essay called The Web Video Problem about how cinematic video content is wrong for the web, and that we can and ought to recreate the visual storytelling experience on the web entirely. Toward that end, he’s working on web publishing house (Hot Pursuit).

He writes:

In visual storytelling on the web we are still talking about images in deliberate sequence. We are juxtaposing these images, either over time (in a linear audio/visual way) or in space (like a web comic might).

If we accept this definition of visual storytelling (in the purest sense) then it doesn’t matter if it’s video, a web comic or even an animated GIF - or a combination of all these and more.

Combine this with the growing capabilities of the web browser, and the connectedness of the internet, and potentially we have the ability to tell dynamic, visual stories in a way that hasn’t been done before.

This excites me very much.

The essay is nicely built and designed with bold, scrolling visuals (using the curtain jquery plug-in, which yes, is very popular these days and can be downloaded here for your own building pleasure) so that you can choose to read the whole thing or just get the highlights. It’s worth checking out.

Bonus: He provides some great resources on visual storytelling:

A good briefing on the principles of visual storytelling are featured in the second issue of Inside the Story Magazine, available here. If you don’t want to pay for the whole thing, this free articlecovers a lot of the same ground. Scott McCloud’s comic book on comic books is an essential read for visual storytellers. Craig Mod’s essay on Subcompact Publishing informed some of the ideas about thinking web-natively, as did this article by John Pavlus and this piece by Bryan Goldberg. Finally, Steven Benedict’sanalysis of Spielberg’s cinematic storytelling skills demonstrate what visual narrative can acheive, and let Steven Soderbergh tell you why this new thing shouldn’t become like the movie business.

Image: Screenshot from The Web Video Problem

A clever little animation in the Tumblr iOS app.

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:40:00 -0400

A clever little animation in the Tumblr iOS app.

incidentalcomics: Rules for Freelancers A comic for Red Lemon...

Thu, 23 May 2013 07:20:22 -0400

incidentalcomics:

Rules for Freelancers

A comic for Red Lemon Club.

I very much enjoy Grant Snider’s comics, you might too.

ilovecharts: Bob Dylan made beautiful words as well as...

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:30 -0400

ilovecharts:

Bob Dylan made beautiful words as well as melodies. In his opinion, “A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.”

Treat every day as a space for doing what you love. Eg. Trolling the internet for charts! I know reddit can be a scary place, but I do recommend exploring the depths of r/Charts, r/DataIsBeautiful, r/Infographics, and of course r/QuotesPorn!

If you are not following I Love Charts today, you should. Some very lovely charts from the Chartist In Residence, Maggie Appleton.

Tu nous entends l’univers ? Tu nous entends ? Si...

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:01:00 -0400

Tu nous entends l’univers ? Tu nous entends ?

Si tu nous entends : attends nous, on arrive. On voudrait tout comprendre, tout savoir, tout vivre. On cherche la porte la porte du nouveau monde pour savoir s’y fondre en grand.

We Tracked Down Our Biggest Troll… and Kind of Liked Him

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:30:25 -0400

We Tracked Down Our Biggest Troll… and Kind of Liked Him:

motherjones:

Ever wonder what an internet troll is like in person? We met one in his lair.

No seriously, he was really nice!

Well done MoJo.

Fast Company

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:01:06 -0400

Fast Company:

Making a visual map of beers using some clever algorithms and scraping beer reviews? Pretty sweet.

And the guy is a fellow Badger? On Wisconsin.

Stowe Boyd: How Tumblr Can Make Money And Not Piss Us Off

Tue, 21 May 2013 06:14:11 -0400

Stowe Boyd: How Tumblr Can Make Money And Not Piss Us Off:

stoweboyd:

The debate swirling online about how Tumblr (and by extension, Yahoo) can make ad money without alienating a fickle hipster audience is fairly straightforward, if you know how Tumblr works.

Most users would be pissed off if Tumblr put ads a/ on their blogs (extremely pissed off), or b/…

Good observations on the “Don’t tread on my dashboard or blog” mindset. Tag advertising could be done really well and create a great context to engage with audiences (less spam than, say, Google).

I’d also add that the pay-for-social idea seems like a good step for a lot of networks. With the rise of micro-payments for casual games and the maturation of social media’s core audience, people recognize the value/desire/need and are willing to pay for particular features.

I, for instance, would like to buy-out my advertising value on Facebook in exchange for cutting those silly, often irrelevant ads from my page. I’m not sure how much my eyeballs are worth, but at a reasonable price I’d stop considering quitting the network (in which case I’d be worth nothing).

Tumblr (or is it Tumblr! now?) just blew my mind with the fancy...

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:20:02 -0400

Tumblr (or is it Tumblr! now?) just blew my mind with the fancy updates on the iPhone app. I copied a link in Chrome and when I opened up a link post in Tumblr the URL was already pasted.

Very slick.

Tumblr Staff: News!

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:52:59 -0400

Tumblr Staff: News!:

staff:

Everyone, I’m elated to tell you that Tumblr will be joining Yahoo.

Before touching on how awesome this is, let me try to allay any concerns: We’re not turning purple. Our headquarters isn’t moving. Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission – to empower creators to…

Follow-up to my previous post: “fuck yeah” from David Karp is even better.

Exclamation: Tumblr. + Yahoo! = !!

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:49:24 -0400

Exclamation: Tumblr. + Yahoo! = !!:

shortformblog:

yahoo:

I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr!

We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and…

Note to Yahoo: If you post images in text posts, they don’t look as good on the dashboard as straight-up image posts. You guys are new here, so we’ll give you some time to get used to things.

I really enjoy the phrase “we won’t screw it up” coming from a CEO. Hope she keeps her word and hope this turns out to be a good move for Tumblr (reblogs don’t pay the rent, after all).

Also, the Yahoo! tumblr doesn’t have an avatar yet?

I’m not a frequent reader of Pitchfork, but I just went to...

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:19:00 -0400

I’m not a frequent reader of Pitchfork, but I just went to read their thoughts on the new Daft Punk album (I figured we’d probably agree on something for once). Turns out, Pitchfork is doing some pretty cool design stuff with their cover stories. Go check it out.

Taking advantage of some sweet parallax scrolling and other HTML5 tricks the page becomes an experience. It makes scrolling downright fun and brings in that progress feeling that you get from reading a real-life long form article, while blending in some great media.

So even though I’m not always a big fan of Pitchfork—when you bash artists I’m jonesing for, we have problems—I have to hand it to them for doing cool stuff with the medium.

ilovecharts: I’m thrilled to announce that next Wednesday, May...

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:22:43 -0400

ilovecharts:

I’m thrilled to announce that next Wednesday, May 22, Maggie Appleton will be doing a Chartist in Residence.

I first ran into Maggie’s work thanks to a few of her rather ingenious charts of quotations (like the one below) that made their way to my inbox. Maggie is an illustrator-designer-chartist with a penchant for anthropology, tea, and illuminating quotations and we will be giving her the keys to the blog next Wednesday to do whatever she choses for the entire day. Please tune in to see some brand new charts and illustrations and whatever else she decides to bring to the table with her unique charting style. Should be awesome!

Looking forward to this!

Bike to Work Day

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:08:00 -0400

Bike to Work Day:

(Taken with http://cinemagr.am)

An integrated field-numerical approach to assess slope stability hazards at volcanoes: the example of Pacaya, Guatemala - Springer

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:42:13 -0400

An integrated field-numerical approach to assess slope stability hazards at volcanoes: the example of Pacaya, Guatemala - Springer:

My girlfriend is very smart, especially when it comes to things that explode and things that fall down. So smart, in fact, that she is now published.

Another question.

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:20:01 -0400

evanfleischer:

Anyone willing to pay $2 month to have a piece of a novel sent to them every day, Dickens-style?

Very clever, Mr. Fleischer.

austinkleon: HERE IS TODAY An interactive art/science HTML5...

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:30:27 -0400

austinkleon:

HERE IS TODAY

An interactive art/science HTML5 site illustrating the scale of time on Earth.

In case you needed reminding of your insignificance.

(thx gwenda)

For one of those useful, blow-your-mind moments.

caseydonahue: Daft Punk - Doin’ It Right Random Access Memories...

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:05:58 -0400

caseydonahue:

Daft Punk - Doin’ It Right

Random Access Memories is incredible. This is my favorite track from the album.

StrawberryJams.

Don’t stop ‘til you get enough. — Advice To Graduates

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:30:40 -0400

Don’t stop ‘til you get enough. — Advice To Graduates:

When I graduated from the wonderful University of Wisconsin, I was chosen to give the commencement address. I wrote a poem for the speech an…

Wrote my first post on Medium today, really enjoyed the UI.