Simian Design

These are my delicious links for December 9th:

• Zeppelin Eureka – I want to take a Zeppelin Ride over San Francisco now. Great photos.
• The great alone: Scott and Shackleton's Antarctic – Robert Scott's ill-fated trip to Antarctica and Ernest Shackleton's attempt to cross it are great tales of human endurance. Here we present photos taken by their on-board photographers, Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley, presented in the book The Heart of the Great Alone.

These are my delicious links for December 8th through December 9th:

• Water Drops – wicked cool.
• Mobius Sliced Linked Bagel – In which you prove to the world that you are indeed a dork and a nerd, and understand math and space better than most.
• Bugs. Big Giant Bugs. – Thomas Shahan takes excellent macro photos of bugs. Check out his stream.

These are my delicious links for August 6th through August 7th:

• Living Root Bridges – In the depths of northeastern India, in one of the wettest places on earth, bridges aren't built – they're grown.

  The living bridges of Cherrapunji, India are made from the roots of the Ficus elastica tree. This tree produces a series of secondary roots from higher up its trunk and can comfortably perch atop huge boulders along the riverbanks, or even in the middle of the rivers themselves.

• Build your own IcyBall – The Crosley IcyBall is a commercial early-twentieth century portable chemical refrigerator that runs without moving parts or electricity. Cooling is caused by the evaporation and re-adsorption of ammonia into a water-based solution, which is a spontaneous process that can be reversed by applying heat, as from a campfire.

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 June 23rd through June 24th:

• Soviet Russian Album Covers – Amazing Hair Metal Records from the USSR. Fantastic stuff here.
• 10 Most Fascinating Mazes – The only real maze I've ever gone through is the one at Luray Caverns, and it was easy, yet I still got lost. I can't imagine the fun of a real large, actually hard maze. That'd be a fun afternoon.
• The Most Terrifying Mountain Bike Trail On Earth – The Emerald Isle’s legendary Cliffs of Mohan are just insane. INSANE. And these guys rode their bikes on them.
• Pentagram takes on Cigarette Marketing. – …"Marlboro filtered cigarettes can cause lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy. Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious health risks. Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth. Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide…BUT WHO CARES.
• The Creation of a Russian Terminator. – Brilliant series of shots showing how the Russians are creating an army of Arnold Terminators. Just brilliant.
• Visual Decision Making – Another body of web user experience research shows that website users are powerfully influenced by aesthetics, and that positive perceptions of order, beauty, novelty, and creativity increase the user’s confidence in a site’s trustworthiness and usability. Recent design writing and interface research illustrate how visual design and user research can work together to create better user experiences on the web: experiences that balance the practicalities of navigation with aesthetic interfaces that delight the eye and brain.

  In short: there’s lots of evidence that beauty enhances usability.

These are my delicious links for May 5th:

• Making a Booger Ball. – My son is quite fascinated by the idea of Booger Balls. In fact, he want's to grow up to be a scientist to study these strange phenomenons. I can now make him one.

These are my delicious links for March 16th:

• Terrariums | Paula Hayes – Paula Hayes makes some very nice terrariums, with some fantastic photos to show it off. I'm now itching to try and get a bottle and shove some stuff in there with the kids, see what happens.