Thanks to the work done by the ESA’s Gaia mission, we have a map of two million stars and enough history data that we can run the map forward, and watch the stars as they move around the sky over the next five million years. Woah.
– via Kottke
Category: Links
Check Out These Succulent Cakes
I’m blown away by these cakes by Iven Kawi, which apparently really are edible food and not merely gorgeous arrangements of various succulent plants.
– via Colossal
On the Polar Architectural Vernacular
Though it falls well outside my usual reading habits (and why should that matter, you ask, quite correctly), this book, “Many Norths” looks pretty intriguing. From the writeup at BLDGBLOG, its seems like a fascinating study of a rarely considered corner of the built environment. I love this kind of stuff!
– via BLDGBLOG
The New Clouds Are Here!
For the first time in 30 years, the World Meteorological Organization in adding new cloud types to its atlas! So, this begs the question: are we still discovering new cloud types, or are we just getting more specific about naming clouds?
– via Kottke
Comic Sans, a Tale of Design vs Usage
Check out this interview with Vincent Connare, typographer and former Microsoft employee, aka: The Comic Sans Guy. He makes a compelling argument for Comic Sans, and an also brings up an excellent point about the usage of anything designed:
Type should do exactly what it’s intended to do. That’s why I’m proud of Comic Sans. It was for novice computer users and it succeeded with that market. People use it inappropriately: if they don’t understand how type works, it won’t have any power or meaning to them. I once heard a guy at a Rothko show say: “I could have done that.” He clearly doesn’t know anything about art. He’ll probably use Comic Sans without realising it’s wrong in certain circumstances.
– via The Guardian (h/t to the Paris Review Daily)
Illustrations of South Korean Corner Stores
Wow. I love these illustrations of South Korean corner stores by Me Kyeoung Lee: simple, bold, yet dreamy, as if just glimpses caught too late as you pass by on your way to something, which until now, you’d thought was important.
– via Colossal
On Cognitive Bias
Fun fact: because we rarely have a complete set of information about anything around us, but our brains still try to form conclusions on what’s available, much of what we think about the world contains a cognitive bias. Curious? Jason Kottke runs through the concept and provides some great links. Be prepared to doubt everything you know.
The Work of Art
Check out this review of an exhibition centered around the enigmatic (and beautiful) work of secretive artist Waclaw Szpakowski, who produced these drawings in isolation through the turmoil of the first half of the twentieth century. Art, artist, history, idea, form: it’s the work of art, so this is worth a read.
– via The Paris Review
The Origin of Human Stories
There’s little in life more encouraging than seeing one of your favorite blogs (Kottke.org) link to (and riff on) a post on another one of your favorite blogs (BLDGBLOG). In this case, these posts discuss the origin of humanity, exploring its reality versus the stories we tell about our origins. Fascinatingly, it seems we’ve readily abandoned our long history as nomads of land and sea, choosing instead to portray ourselves as the perpetually fixed residents of gardens and cities and god-mandated overland empires.
Landscape and Structure: A Village of Backyards
The Thousand Yards Pavilion to be constructed in Beijing for a horticultural expo makes me think of a village made of backyards: little empires with surprising views and discoveries in every corner.
– via Dezeen