Simian Design

These are my delicious links for October 16th:

• Neo-Classic Space – This site is a tribute to LEGO's Classic Space era from 1979 to 1987.
• Classic Space Legos – Great forum showing people's creations using Classic Space Legos. Hours of nostalgic fun here.
• Pre-Classic Space Legos – PCS started in the late 1990 and early 2000 It is an attempt to create a bridge from the Lego themes of Space Port and Life on Mars to future theme of Lego known as Classic Space. Now though the theme is more a style than a storyline, folks seem to know PCS as a retro future space theme. PCS also has a line of heroes known as the Star Rangers.

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 May 18th through May 20th:

• James T. Kirk Captain's Chair – This full-scale replica of Kirk's captain's chair from the original Star Trek TV series is constructed from the original design conceived by Matt Jefferies, and is limited to only 1,701 units. Features include a wood and steel platform, leather seat and back with oak arm rests, 360-degree swivel action, and various toggle switches, knobs, and buttons from the series, some of which play classic Trek dialogue or sound effects through the seat's built-in speaker.
• The Macho Man drugged to the eyeballs. – I used to think Crispin Glovers interview on Letterman was about the most fucked up I've seen someone give an interview.

  The Macho Man blows him away. NO MORE QUESTIONS!

• Solar Transit – WOW. Atlantis captured in solar transit with a solar-filtered Takahashi 5" refracting telescope and a Canon 5D Mk. II.
• Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas – Great time-lapse video showing the stars and the Milky Way rotate and move overhead. I wish that you could see the stars like this where I'm at without driving way out into the sticks.

These are my delicious links for January 21st through January 22nd:

• Fifty Years of Exploration – NatGeo has a fantastic zoomable map showing the past paths of exploration that we've taken. Gorgeous detail, fantastic fun.
• Robot Tattoos – I don't have any tattoos, but if I were to ink up, a robot tattoo would probably be at the top of my list. There is one really fake photo in here, but the rest look legit.
• Layers | Screen forensics – A $15 OS X app that takes a screenshot of your current desktop. The catch? The screenshot is saved as a PSD with layers for each application, window and desktop icon. (via shauninman)
• The Inauguration of President Barack Obama – The Big Picture – Boston.com – The Big Picture comes through again with this excellent series of photos from the Inauguration.
• Gaius Baltar, Six, Starbuck, and Morbo from Battlestar Galactica in Lego – Neatorama provides us this fantastic link to a very accurate representation of some BSG characters in Lego.
• Ninja Tacks. – Ninja Tacks are injection molded ABS with a Chrome Plated finish. Each individual web order consists of 3 Ninja Tacks in a padded mailer. It's cheaper than mailing the retail packaging. Feel free to buy me some.

Ran across this from Make.  The GeoEye-1 (Google’s satellite) took pictures of President Obama’s inauguration the other day. Luckily it was a clear day, and the pictures, taken from 423 miles up, look great.

(via Make)

These are my delicious links for November 25th through December 2nd:

• Top Book Covers of 2008. – I love these sort of lists. I wish there were actually more book covers to see. My personal favorite out of this list is Maps and Legends, by Chabon. It's a breathtaking cover of a book, in three layers. If you ever see it in the store, take a look, it's well worth it.
• 45 Vintage Space Age' Illustrations – I want my jetpack. I want my flying car and robot maid. I want my talking house. Until then, here are 45 fantastic vintage illustrations of those promises of tomorrow.

  I'm not joking about my jetpack. I really want it.

• The Original Winnie the Pooh drawings. – I love these drawings. So simple, so clean, so evocative.
• Foodscapes: amazing food art by Carl Warner – Anyone who can create a believable sea of salmon has my vote. Great photos.
• Top 14 Top Gear Moments – Top Gear is a brilliant show you really should be watching. Here are 14 clips of some favorite moments.
• The International Space Station turns 10 – The Big Picture – Boston.com – As usual, The Big Picture comes through with a gorgeous set of photos of the ISS.
• Alien-like Squid Filmed at Ultra-Deep Oil-Drilling Site – WOW. This is really amazing, in a creepy way. What a freaky looking squid.

These are my delicious links for October 13th:

• Pictures of the Sun – Gorgeous collection of pictures of the Sun, as done by The Big Picture.

NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds.  My brain has officially been blown.  This is just staggering to me.

A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft’s landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground. 

I realize that the economy is doing a nose-dive, but there is no way in hell we should stop explorations like this.  Moon, Mars, all of it needs to continue.    Photo is of a Mars sunrise, taken on the 101st day of the Mars Rover.

These are my delicious links for September 30th:

• About Us Information on Websites (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) – Representing a company or organization on the Internet is one of a website's most important jobs. Effectively explaining the company's purpose and what it stands for provides essential support for all other website goals.

  Unfortunately, while most sites offer an About Us section, they often do a poor job of communicating the crucial information it should contain. Jakob now helps us figure out what that information should be.

• The Milky Way Galaxy, as seen from the False Kiva in the Canyonlands National Park. –
• Cool collection of Wolverine Art. – Just a nice little collection of cool Wolverine pictures and art. I like the Dinosaur the best.

Thank you NASA, for making this possible.