Archive for the 'links' Category


February 3, 2012 | comment
  • Cobblers in lab coats, or, how it’s made: Louis Vuitton edition.
  • Why do I feel like there will be a day when I wish I didn’t know what a nano quadrotor is?
  • Star Wars Uncut: A shot-for-shot remake of the entire first Star Wars movie stitched together from hundreds of user-submitted snippets. Hilarious and charming in a hundred different ways.
December 13, 2011 | comment
  • Looking like something out of an adventure book, Ball’s Pyramid is the tallest volcanic stack in the world (about twice the Eiffel Tower). Seeing a satellite view makes the volcano shape more evident.
  • Hannes Coetzee, South African guitarist, plays a unique style of slide guitar with a spoon.
  • Wikipedia lists hand gestures. Watch out for the Clinton thumb.
November 29, 2011
  • Explaining the strategic cancellation of a television show mid-season (in this case, NBC’s Community) from a modern network’s perspective. Hint: it’s all about the money.
  • John Norquist, long-time mayor of Milwaukee (and current head of an urban planning non-profit in Chicago), explains how he thinks about city transportation. Hint: it’s all about the money.
November 16, 2011
  • The Michelin Guide published its second year of Chicago restaurant reviews, and only Alinea received the three-star top award. Their more budget-minded Bib Gourmand award went to 56 area restaurants, including such slouches as Frontera and Avec.
  • Jeff Mangum is going on tour for first time in at least a decade. While ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ has rightfully been canonized, things were not always that way. Take a look back at Rolling Stone or Pitchfork’s modest review of the album (with vintage site design). Also worth checking out: the title track slowed to a 13-minute glacial pace.
  • Wikipedia’s list of sandwiches, complete with pictures. Most are legitimate and appetizing, but it looks like a few came together very late at night.
October 4, 2011
  • An amazing WWII story about Niels Bohr having to dissolve gold Nobel prize medals. Science wins out in the end.
  • Studs Terkel talks about radio, his own life and his work process in this interview from 2001. Text and audio available.
  • The Scottish Verdict: in the courts of Scotland a criminal verdict can go one of three ways: “proven”, “not proven”, or “not guilty”. Why is a matter of some interesting history.
September 16, 2011
  • The Frustrated Little Shopkeeper: a clever, bilingual little girl deals with her parents’ increasingly ridiculous requests while switching roles and languages.
  • From the Extras special features, a short on the spiraling difficulties of laughing during a scene (“corpsing” in the biz). Worth it to see Ian McKellen bust up.
  • Wikipedia’s list of Unusual Deaths—which helpfully notes that it may never be complete.
August 19, 2011
  • This American Life has been on a roll lately, and their recent episode with the Plant Money folks covering patents may be the best of the bunch. It focuses on warchests of software patents and subsequent litigation.
  • F1 race car driver Karun Chandhok shares his steering wheel and explains what all the buttons do. I can’t believe they are expected to do all this at 200mph, but I suppose there are rules about not giving the driver assistance and turning the cars into giant remote-controlled vehicles.
  • Music news: You can watch Radiohead remix/refine their last album on Nigel Godrich’s own From the Basement series. Also, The Weeknd released a new mixtape, which is up for grabs here.
  • Music not-so-news: Karlheinz Stockausen, composer and electronic music pioneer, gave a lecture in 1972 on (among other things) sound synthesis. It came at an interesting time, as electronic synthesizers were making the jump from laboratories to recording studios.
July 25, 2011
  • A proposed “soda tax” is nothing new, but Mark Bittman gets comprehensive about the potential benefits and the dangers of the status quo.
  • What is the best single-page resource for learning about map projections?
    I would posit this page.
  • The always entertaining and approachable Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down the problem with “unidentified” flying objects and what it would take for him to believe an abduction story.
July 5, 2011
  • New camera technology is coming that allows photographers to change the focus of a photo after the snap. The data captured by the “micro-lens array” puts a simple two-lens 3D shot to shame.
  • With some old documents and a little urban archaeology Forgotten Chicago maps out the evolution of Chicago’s El system, exploring its many abandoned and demolished lines.
  • Hats. All of ‘em. Thanks, Wikipedia.
June 23, 2011
  • Jack Endino, record producer, published a worthwhile article in Tape Op on the nuances of guitar tuning called Guitar Tuning Nightmares Explained.
  • How many different versions of St. James Infirmary will it take to rid the blues? A hundred? Let her go, Let her go, God bless her!
  • The new Buddy Holly tribute album is streaming on Soundcloud (and NPR) with tracks from the Black Keys, Fiona Apple, Cee Lo, Justin Townes Earle and others. Want to feel like a layabout? Guess how old Buddy was when he died.

Next Page »