Normally, researchers observe snow crystals at moderate levels of magnification (30X-500X). The electron microscope, however, allows for observation at over 100,000X.
click to see full sized image
50 years of Space Exploration in an Infographic
There is so much of this I hadn't the slightest idea about. It is certainly one of the great strengths of an infographic: being able to take it all in, nearly all at once.
Beautiful and Fascinating HD Images of the Sun by Alan Friedman
"My photographs comprise a solar diary, portraits of a moment in the life of our local star. Most are captured from my backyard in Buffalo, NY. Using a small telescope and narrow band filters I can capture details in high resolution and record movements in the solar atmosphere that change over hours and sometimes minutes. The raw material for my work is black and white and often blurry. As I prepare the pictures, color is applied and tonality is adjusted to better render the features. It is photojournalism of a sort. The portraits are real, not painted. Aesthetic decisions are made with respect for accuracy as well as for the power of the image."
Weapons Transformed into Musical Instruments
Mexico City based artist Pedro Reyes transformed a mass of rifles, pistols, and shotguns taken by the Mexican army from drug cartels to build the musical devices that are controlled by computers and can be pre-programmed, a fully mechanized orchestra. Titled Disarm.
900 Classic Arcade Games in Your Browser
Yesterday, the Internet Archive released 900 classic arcade games for you to play for free in your web browser.
Commander Chris Hadfield - Space Oddity Redux
UPDATE: After over a year, the rights have been secured again for this amazing version of Space Oddity. Read the story »
Commander Chris Hadfield has made his own version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, shot and recorded on the International Space Station.
I am so blown away by this guy: photographer, creative as all get out, funny, an ASTRONAUT, doing it all from his tin can. Bad ass!
POTD - After Mayakovksy by Denis Johnson
AFTER MAYAKOVSKY
It’s after one. You’re probably alone.
All night the moon rings like a telephone
in an empty booth above our separateness.
Now is the hour one answers. I am home.
Hello, my heart, my god, my president,
my darling: I’m alarmed by the alarm
clock’s iridescent face, hung like a charm
from darkness’s fat ear. This accident
that was my life will have its witnesses:
now, while the world lies wholly motionless
and sorry in a crapulence of stars,
now is the hour one rises to address
the ages and history of the universe;
I swear you’ll never see my face again.
Denis Johnson wrote only poems for a while, and a lot of them. His third book, Incognito Lounge, showed a voracious imagination and relentless voice. Both of these have found full expression in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel Tree of Smoke.
More Poems of the Day
Cartoon Character Dressed as Other Characters
My mind melted a little bit. Click each to see its full glory.
Squirrel Sticks His Head In A Jack-o-Lantern
Photographer Max Ellis of Teddington, London:
"My kids love Halloween and beg to start decorating the house and carving pumpkins from about October 1. Obviously cut pumpkins only last a couple of days so I carved a small one to keep them quiet. I thought we could have a bit of fun with it making it hover spookily in the back garden."
Ellis waited days to capture the curios creature donning the pumpkin. What an adorable accident.
Shot Face - A Tumblr of Portraits the Moment After Taking a Shot
Shot Face - Tim Charles is a project from photographer Tim Charles catching his friends and subjects the moments after taking a shot. I quiver to think how I'd appear. Sounds like a great party photobooth idea though.
Eagle-Wing View of Paris
A non-profit FREEDOM put a Sony Action Cam Mini to the back of a white-tailed eagle named Victor, and let him fly from the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower.
SpaceTime-Lapse of Boston
A full-time engineer at GE Aviation, Julian Tryba calls this spatial-temporal slicing in video “layer-lapse.”
With time lapse locations around Boston sewn together to create this fast shifting time and space show.
A Parisian Apartment Becomes A Timecapsule From 70 Years Ago
An apartment on the Right Bank owned by Madame de Florian, an affluent Parisian socialite and actress, was left suddenly when the Nazis rolled into Paris.
Even though she never returned, she kept paying the rent all the way up to her death at 91.
Among the exquisite architectural details, the tapestries, the view into a bygone era, was found the painting discovered to be Madame de Florian herself, painting by renowned 19th century Italian Giovanni Boldini. The painting, and several handwritten love letters from Boldini seem to confirm that she was in fact his muse.
Marthe de Florian at 24 years of age painted by Giovanni Boldini
Lego Stop-motion Thriller
Truly outstanding use of LEGO stop-motion.
Skydiving Beauty
Sony sent a team of highly skilled skydivers about 15,000 feet in the air and filmed them in slow-motion with the new SONY Alpha 7 and Alpha 7R cameras.
Eerily Beautiful Monkey Portraits by Hiroshi Watanabe
Finger Icons
Astoundingly creative.
Abandoned Houses in Rural Iceland
Run by R3 Radgjöf, Gláma-Kím architects and Stapi, "Abandoned Houses in rural Iceland" is an on-going research project that started in 2011 that aims at mapping all abandoned houses on the southeast coast of the country.
See also Abandoned Hotels Around the World
User Experience Designer's Bookshelf
I recommend Bill Buxton's Sketching User Experiences as a important book to read.
It very much pushes on the way both the imagined end result and the tools at hand play a huge part in the success or failure of a design. It has totally changed my mindset.
Tufte has become an icon for me in the space that often gets reduced to infographics, but really has to do with the meaning available through comparisons.
One of the concepts that came to me from him is roughly "information is all the differences that make a difference." And this title of his, Envisioning Information, explores the way changes and similarities, represented visually makes information accessible in ways numerical abstractions sometimes hide.
A further extension on this thought, is the way images and the information contained in them can be the heartbeat of a power, convincing and compelling narrative. His Visual Explanations challenges a lot of the notions I had about important and help me refine a key idea for all of my interaction and information designs: salience.
For the actual work of designing interfaces, Kim Goodwin's Designing for the Digital Age and Robert Hoekman, Jr.'s Designing the Moment have formed the basis for my process, moving from strategies and concepts through user insights to frameworks structures and finally interfaces.
Twenty20 - New Startup for Me, New Role
Twenty20 is a startup based in Marina Del Rey I recently joined as the Director of User Experience. I am working alongside a great deal of talent, all across the board and am excited for what's to come.
The way we explain ourselves is:
Twenty20 is bringing stock photography into the modern, mobile age. Our global community of over 250,000 creative mobile photographers have contributed over 40 Million photos for sale, making us the largest crowdsourced commercial image catalog in the world. We sell those images to digital creators, brands, and ad agencies who are looking for a more authentic alternative to traditional stock imagery. We are a 25 person team, have raised over $10 Million in financing, and are based in Los Angeles (near Venice).