Simian Design

These are my delicious links for August 13th:

• Top 10 Gruesome Fairy Tale Origins – Fairy tales of the past were often full of macabre and gruesome twists and endings. These days, companies like Disney have sanitized them for a modern audience that is clearly deemed unable to cope, and so we see happy endings everywhere.

  Well, here is the gruesome and twisted original endings.

These are my delicious links for July 22nd:

• THe First Thru-Hiker: Earl Shaffer – In 1948, WWII veteran Earl Shaffer decided to "walk the Army out of his system" by hiking the entire length of the Appalachian Trail. He was the first to do so.

These are my delicious links for July 21st:

• 19 Amazing Acts of Death Defiance – For the record, I'd totally do the Skydive from the Heavens one, in a heartbeat. Wouldn't hesitate.

  But there is no way in hell I'd do the tightrope walking, nor the free diving. That shit is just crazy.

• Expert Confirms Authenticity Of Vinland Map – A Danish expert said on Friday that a 15th century Vinland Map, the first known map depicting part of America prior to Christopher Columbus’ arrival on the continent, is almost certainly authentic.

  The map has been surrounded by controversy since its discovery in 1950, with many scholars suspecting it was merely part of a hoax intended to prove that Vikings were the first Europeans to land in North America (a claim confirmed by an archaeological find in 1960).

• Amazing Laser Light Magician – Fantastic show, must watch. I was impressed, would love to see this live.

These are my delicious links for July 13th through July 15th:

• 101 Muppets of Sesame Street – A giant illustration of 101 Muppets. Mouse over them to learn more about some of the lesser-known ones. Done in celebration of their 40th anniversary.
• Ways to trick your brain. –
• light-test.com – When a Photographer wants to test the lighting, often an assistant will step in. These are those shots.
• Digg digs into IE6 usage. – Basically, IE6 users are forced to use IE6 at work. Giving them a message saying, “Hey! Upgrade!” in this case is not only pointless; it’s sadistic.

These are my delicious links for June 24th through June 26th:

• Touched by an Angel – The story of how the Farah Fawcett poster came to be.

  "…t may be the most famous pinup poster of all time. Farrah Fawcett's smile is a row of impossibly white teeth so perfectly aligned they look machine-made, her hair a windblown blond tangle that swallows her slender hand.
  Then there is her nipple: a salacious nub straining against the nylon of her red one-piece. Its appearance marked the advent of "nippling." Whenever a model applies ice to her breast before a photo shoot, she's paying homage to Farrah….."

• The Bug, the Worm and the Death Star – As professionals, we prefer logo, logotype, mark, symbol, wordmark, icon, visual identity or signature. With this many choices it is no wonder others have settled on the irreverent bug. Incidentally, a long-time friend in Mumbai told me of some of the general names for logo in India include pintu (pint sized), chintu (tiny), dabboo (fat) and kaka (small one). (But depending on the specific region, language and even community in India, kaka also can mean poo-poo, as elsewhere. I guess context is everything, when calling a logo kaka in India.)

  But whether we designed it, manage it, or just live with it, having a name for the logo appears to fulfill some human need. Some companies provide a formal name, such as The Monogram (GE). Here are a few logos and their officially sanctioned names:

• How many colors? Wrong. – Richard Wiseman comes one of the best color optical illusions I have ever seen.
• Fun with a spray-gun, a field and perspective. – Nice project, doing POV Perspective on a field, the photos are quite nice.
• Volcano from Space; or how I would kill a man to stay in the ISS for a bit. – A chance recording by astronauts on the International Space Station has captured the moment a volcano explosively erupted, sending massive shockwaves through the atmosphere.
• 10 Ways to Instantly Increase Your jQuery Performance – Nettuts+ –

These are my delicious links for April 20th:

• Webphemera: Franklin: The Lost State of America – What led to the creation of the State of Franklin and why isn’t around today? Even more to the point, why hasn’t anyone ever made a movie out of this strange but remarkable story? My parents would live right near the State of Franklin if it were around today.
• Amateur Snapper | 10 Top Photography Composition Rules – The only rule in photography is that there are no rules. However, there are many composition guidelines which can be applied in almost any situation, to enhance the impact of a scene. Below are ten of the most popular and most widely respected composition 'rules'.

These are my delicious links for March 27th:

• Star Wars as Classic Art – These are really good. "It's no secret that the Something Awful Forum Goons love inserting Star Wars references into things, and this week that love runs wild and untamed. Using classic art as their canvas, they, uh, paint in Star Wars references. If you enjoy the wonders of art and/or the darling antics of beepy robots and outer space wizards, this Phriday is for you!"
• Flight Helmets – Wow. These flight helmets are cool. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter helmet is the scariest thing ever. Scary, but it's AWESOME. I want me one. I'd wear it around the house.
• Musselsoppans Vänner: Danish 70s Interior Design Porno Style – Wow. I kinda want rooms that look like this. It's pretty brilliant. Sorta NSFW, but only barely.

These are my delicious links for March 23rd through March 24th:

• I need me some Lucha Keys – Brilliant key holders. Give your keys that same macho, heroic image you strive to achieve for yourself.
• Vintage Supermarket Photos – I particularly like the rack of hats, and all the various font treatments on the signs.
• best of craigslist : Survival Of The Fittest – I never really was aware of the M & M breeding program, and that the Blue M & M’s are genetically weak, but now I know.
• Lego: 52-pound Lego Mon Calamari Star Cruiser – If this 7-foot long model of the Mon Calamari flagship from Return of the Jedi—complete with integrated lighting—doesn’t impress you on first sight, consider this: It uses 30,500 bricks valued at $5,500.The stunning Lego model—created by Thomas Benedikt—was created to scale from the official Lego Star Destroyer, which is an impressive 3,104-piece beast on its own. According to Thomas, the ship was almost impossible to recreate in Lego because of the difficulty of its surfaces: There are no right angles at all.

These are my delicious links for March 11th through March 12th:

• "I Look Straight into Linus' Weasel Eyes…" – Charlie Brown, as done by Frank Miller. brilliant.
• Ski Dump Bathroom. – Now THATS a bathroom. And of course when we're talking about wacky bathrooms, we're talking about one nation, right? Right. A Japanese coffee company, Goeorgia Max Coffee, modified the bathrooms of ski areas around Japan to promote their coffee energy drinks. This is definitely a high-octane bathroom.
• edith zimmerman plays with her food. – Edith has some fantastic photos of her food sculptures. The mantis and tangerine are really good.
• Approximate Conversion from Points to Pixels – I was being lazy this morning, and needed a quick way to convert some points into the appropriate EM size. Viola'. This chart helps out immensely.
• New York Architecture Images- black and white new york – Amazing collection of images of early New York. From 1894 on, just a real solid trip down history.
• 100 Free Useful Applications for Mac, Part I | Tools – A nice list, maybe a bit over-the-top, of useful Mac Tools. Some are obvious (Quicksilver, etc,) but there are some hidden gems in there.
• Floorplans of Sit-Com Houses. – By the same guy that brought us the Trilogy Meter, we are treated with another brilliant piece of charting and infographics. This time he's laid out, painstakingly I might add, the floor plans of many sit-com houses.
• Vintage air raid defense posters – In 1938, the Japanese Red Cross worked with government authorities to create a series of posters to teach the public about the new Anti-Aircraft Defense Law, which was enacted in seeming anticipation of air strikes following the outbreak of the Japan-China War (1937-1945). Among other things, the new law required citizens to take protective measures against gas attacks and prepare for disinfection, evacuation and relief.

  These AWESOME posters are the result.

These are my delicious links for March 7th:

• When kids these days tell me how wild or crazy their favorite band is, like Slipknot or Marilyn Manson, I utter three words to them: “The Butthole Surfers.” – A great article about how great the Butthole Surfers were live. How crazy, how nuts, and how great. For starters they were total freaks. Drummer King Koffey and his “sister” Theresa played the double drums like they were from another planet, the bassist Jeff had a backwards Mohawk and looked like he was having trouble staying awake, guitarist Paul Leary was cross-eyed on purpose Last, but certainly not least, was seven-foot tall, Gibby Haynes. No shirt, gut hanging out, long greasy hair, yelling at whomever he could yell at. The guy was fucking scary.