1:31 pm

Change the yellow labels, change the caption and you change the meaning of the photographs. You don’t need Photoshop. That’s the disturbing part. Captions do the heavy lifting as far as deception is concerned. The pictures merely provide the window-dressing. The unending series of errors engendered by falsely captioned photographs are rarely remarked on.

Errol Morris, filmmaker and writer for the New York Times, on the amazing suggestive power of words + photographs. (Via Boing Boing.) (#)

11:29 am

I never liked the idea of the “for Dummies” or the “complete idiot’s guide to” book series’, but their sales success have certainly demonstrated that plenty of people identify with being a dummy or a complete idiot. Self-deprecation is fine, just realize that there’s a dear line between embracing your own ignorance and ensuring a prophesy of certainty.

David Hansson, partner at 37signals and co-creator of Ruby on Rails. (#)

8:03 am

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

Albert Einstein. Or: Inspiration isn't magic. (Via Chris.) (#)

5:32 pm

When you embed a Google map on your web page, you don’t download a bunch of map images from Google and stick them on your server, you link to Google which then serves up the maps to registered domains. The same approach can be applied to fonts. Font foundries could license their fonts for embedding and serve those fonts only to registered websites, using their own hosted system or via a trusted third party.

This way foundries can provide designers and their readers with a legal way of embedding fonts, removing the need for uploading font files to multiple web servers, and of course make some extra income in the process. Think about it – foundries can sell their fonts twice this way – once to the designer and again to the readers.

Richard Rutter, arguing for the acceptance of @font-face embedding by font foundries. (#)

7:20 am

Love is not the last room: there are others after it, the whole length of the corridor that has no end.

Yehuda Amichai, from "Near the Wall of a House." (Via Lena.) (#)

2:08 pm

Anyone who grew up near the ocean knows that the curative powers of salt water are both expansive and mysterious. Everything from poison ivy to a common cold is quickly and remarkably aided by swimming in the ocean. We’ve known this our entire lives.

When we got to college, our Midwestern friends derided the college infirmary’s ubiquitous prescription of a salt water gargle for nearly every malady. Sore throat? Gargle this packet of salt in warm water. Sinus headache? Gargle this packet of salt in warm water. Herpes? Gargle, slut.

Pax Arcana, from a funny article on the benefits of the neti pot. (#)

7:43 am

Experiences are like movies with several added dimensions, and were our brains to store the full-length feature films of our lives rather than their tidy descriptions, our heads would need to be several times larger. And when we wanted to know or tell others whether the tour of the sculpture garden was worth the price of the ticket, we would have to replay the entire episode to find out. Every act of memory would require precisely the amount of time that the even being remembered had originally taken, which would permanently sideline us the first time someone asked if we liked growing up in Chicago. So we reduce our experiences to words such as happy, which barely do them justice but which are the things we can carry reliably and conveniently with us into the future. The smell of the rose is unresurrectable, but if we know it was good and we know it was sweet, then we know how to stop and smell the next one. 

Daniel Gilbert, from his book Stumbling on Happiness. It's a terrific book. Or: I've begun the process of reducing the book to the word "terrific." (#)

6:41 pm

Architects are an important part of my existence. They call me at eleven at night and say they just got off work, am I hungry? Listen, it is practically midnight. I ate hours ago. So long ago that, in fact, I am hungry again. So yes, I will go. Then I will go and there will be other architects talking about AutoCAD shortcuts and something about electric panels and can you believe that is all I did today, what a drag. I look around the table at the poor, tired, and hungry, and think to myself, I have but only one bullet left in the gun. Who will I choose?

I have a friend who is a doctor. He gives me drugs. I enjoy them. I have a friend who is a lawyer. He helped me sue my landlord. My architect friends have given me nothing. No drugs, no medical advice, and they don’t know how to spell subpoena. One architect friend figured out that my apartment was one hundred and eighty seven square feet. That was nice. Thanks for that.

Colin Kloecker, from a damn funny piece on the idiosyncrasies of architects. (Via Anthony.) (#)

6:52 pm

Do not use the bouncer as a catapult.

The manual for a baby bouncer Meg and I just bought. No clues given as to what we'd be catapulting. (#)

5:58 pm

The example I always give of a high-frequency, low-semantic-content phrase is, “Hi, how are you?” As a greeting, it’s not really a request for a health-status update, but a formula that says something like, “I confirm your presence. Channels for communication are now open. We may have a conversation, or just go our separate ways after acknowledging one another’s existence, but without exchanging actual information.”

Dennis Baron, professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois. (#)

5:41 pm

[I]t is important that you not hold initial ideas too precious. For if you do, it becomes easy for all of your further trials to somehow lead back to that initial idea, no matter how inappropriate it may later be proven to be. Yet it is likely that these facts will be lost on you.

Andy Rutledge, of Design View fame, on the risk of holding too tight to first ideas. (#)

6:13 am

A snowclone is a particular kind of cliche, popularly originated by Geoff Pullum. The name comes from Dr. Pullum’s much-maligned “If Eskimos have N words for snow, X surely have Y words for Z.” An easier example might be “X is the new Y.” The short definition of this neologism might be n. fill-in-the-blank headline. 

Erin O'Connor, keeper of snowclones.org. I love the concept. Jeremy Keith has suggested an especially good one. (#)

7:10 am

Imaginary work is always easier to do than real work. It is much more attractive (being more quickly done) and once you see the imaginary work, it can be very difficult to identify the real work it masks. People estimating imaginary work often assume they have all the facts in hand when making their estimates, which assumption leads them to believe that there is no “big technical hurdle” preventing its implementation.

Jamis Buck, programmer for 37signals, on the public's tendency to underestimate the time and effort required to develop even the "simplest" features. (Via Gruber.) (#)

11:45 am

Apple, through its marketing and visual design techniques, is manufacturing an illusion that merely buying an Apple makes you part of an alternative community. But the technology they use is explicitly chosen to divide people into separate digital cells, and to position Apple as sole warden. When your business depends on people paying for the privilege of being locked up, the prison better look and feel luxurious, and the bars better not be too visible.

The Free Software Foundation, commenting on the precedent Apple is setting by walling off software development for the iPhone. Can't say I disagree. (Via Lifehacker.) (#)

2:26 pm

You’re in love. Have a beer.

Anung un Rama, better known as Hellboy, dispensing drunken relationship advice to his good friend Abe Sapien. (#)

11:31 am

Your eyes are the Mesa Verde: Big and brown and far away.

Stephen Merritt, lead singer of Magnetic Fields. One of my favorite all time lyrics. (#)

1:05 pm

On one measure of the coffee ground into meal pour three measures of boiling water. Boil it on hot ashes mixed with coal till the meal disappears from the top, when it will be precipitated. Pour it three times through a flannel strainer. It will yield 2 1/3 measures of clear coffee.

Thomas Jefferson, outlining a killer coffee recipe. No wonder he got so much done. That's one strong cup. (#)

11:56 am

So much of this comes from the constant fetishizing of the President as the Supreme Leader, “our” Commander-in-Chief, rather than – as the Constitution explicitly states – “commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States.” In the U.S., private actors don’t have government “commanders” who can “order” or “direct” them to do anything. Even soldiers, for whom the President is actually the Commander-in-Chief, are prohibited from obeying unlawful orders. Yet here is Nancy Soderberg – in tandem with the rest of the political establishment – claiming that private telecoms were justified, even compelled, to obey unlawful “orders” from the President, and are therefore entitled to be immunized from consequences

Glenn Greenwald, commenting on an Orwellian piece of legislation now before Congress that would grant immunity to telecom's that broke countless privacy laws in the name of Bush's bogus war against terror. (#)

6:13 am

The album features full orchestra arrangements by Van Dyke Parks on four of the five tracks. Parks also contributes accordion. Newsom’s harp and vocals were recorded by Steve Albini and the orchestra was recorded by Tim Boyle. Newsom and Parks produced the album and it was mixed by Jim O’Rourke. The recording process was completely analog, on two 24-track tape recorders. The music was mixed to tape and mastered at Abbey Road Studios.

The Wikipedia entry for Ys, Joanna Newsom's second album. Amazing that an album with such a snotty lineage turned out so good. (#)

5:11 am

[O]n the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I’ve been totally in agreement and support of President Bush.

Senator John McCain, on his ideological ties to President Bush. (#)