Beautiful images from the International Space Station. Even better in HD.
The End of Borders and the Future of Books
Bad timing and poor management killed Borders, not a lack of interest in physical books.
When Borders declared bankruptcy in February, more than 200 of its 400 outlets were still “highly profitable,” says its final chief executive officer, Mike Edwards. There’s no question that the book industry is in flux, with digital sales last year making up about $900 million of the $28 billion-a-year market and increasing fast. But a sizable portion of the book business is still taking place in actual stores.
Yelping With Cormac
A Tumblr collecting Yelp reviews by a fake Cormac McCarthy. From the review of a Taco Bell in San Francisco:
The priest asked the man why he lay there in the square and if perhaps he could be convinced to leave. The man said he had eaten a thing which he should not have and he could not move because the world was revealed to him in its evil and in its beauty. That if he moved he might fall into the sky and never return. The priest assured him that it was not possible to fall into the sky and that an earthly cure of ginger and peppermint would surely calm his digestion. The man asked could God make a taco so terrible even He could not eat it. The priest considered this and said no this was not possible and to think so was a sin. The man was silent for some time. Then he said that he had eaten such a taco and that it tasted of bootblack and horsefeed. That if this taco was under God’s dominion then surely all other great evils must be as well. And then the man took the halfeaten and greaseblackened taco from his coatpocket and thrust it at the priest like a broken sword. Eat it, he said. Eat it or be damned.
New Christo Project in Colorado
The new project by the artist Christo has been approved by federal regulators. Christo plans to install suspended panels of fabric over the Arkansas River in Colorado.
The project, “Over the River,” will include eight suspended panel segments totaling 5.9 miles along a 42-mile stretch of the river, about three hours southwest of Denver. Construction could begin next year, pending final local approvals, with the goal being a two-week display of the work as early as August 2014.
Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance
Lemony Snicket, in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.
Here’s to the Crazy Ones
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Steve Jobs recorded this version of the original Think Different commercial, but it was never used. Richard Dreyfuss narrated the version that aired on TV in 1997.
Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
RIP.
New Episodes of Arrested Development (Hopefully)
The cast of Arrested Development was together on stage at the New Yorker Festival this weekend, where it was announced that new episodes of the show were being planned, as well as the long-anticipated film.
The big news of the afternoon: If all goes according to plan, the series will return to television in a nine- or ten-episode limited-run series, set to film next summer, with each episode focussing on a single member of the Bluth clan. And series creator Mitchell Hurwitz said that he is halfway through the screenplay for a reunion film and is “eighty per cent” sure it will happen.
NASA Spacecraft Circling Mercury
NASA has successfully maneuvered a craft called Messenger into orbit around Mercury, no small feat because of the gravitational pull of the sun.
Mercury is not only difficult to get to, but it’s has some of the most extremes in the solar system. Temperatures there swing wildly by 1,100 degrees. While it gets up to 800 degrees on the planet closest to the sun, it also is so cold and dark in some craters that the temperatures don’t get above 300 degrees below zero. Radar even shows that there is likely frozen ice in those craters, something Messenger will try to confirm.
Abbey Road
I love this photo of The Beatles preparing to be photographed crossing the street for their Abbey Road album cover.
How to Fold A Fitted Sheet
Easily the most useful thing I’ll learn this week.
via kottke
Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library
The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library opened last week in Indianapolis, where Vonnegut was born in 1922 and lived until returning from World War II.
The library items on display range from the ordinary to the intergalactic, many of them donated by his children. They include the author’s typewriter and an unopened box of his Pall Mall cigarettes, alongside a painting devoted to the Tralfamadorians, the green aliens Mr. Vonnegut wrote about in books including “Slaughterhouse-Five.” Several of Mr. Vonnegut’s drawings are also displayed, including one of a gravestone that reads “Life is no way to treat an animal.”
Star Wars in 3-D
Lucasfilm has announced plans to re-release all 6 films of the Star Wars franchise in the 3-D format. Industrial Light & Magic, the company Lucas created to pioneer the special effects in the first movie, will handle the painstaking conversion from the original 2-D.
The first film in this 3-D sequence, which 20th Century Fox will release in 2012, will be the 1999 prequel, “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” meaning that fans will have to endure a 3-D Jar Jar Binks before they get to see a 3-D X-wing fighter assault on a 3-D Death Star.
I can’t say I’m surprised. Or excited.
New Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer
There’s a new trailer out for the final Harry Potter installment. It’s to be released in two parts, with this first one coming out in November.
The Ballad of Steven Slater
Turns out the tirade of Steven Slater makes for a great chorus.
Stonehenge Lit From Above
This beautiful image, taken by Harold Edgerton in 1944, was part of an Allied experiment exploring nocturnal reconnaissance photography.
Tattooed Legos
From a series advertising the Pilot Extra Fine Point ball pen.
Steve Jobs’s Reality Distortion Field
Taiwanese news animation covering recent events at Apple, including the recent iPhone 4 antenna problems. I love many things about this, not least of which that it was made for the ‘news’.
Talking Carl Scream Fight
Talking Carl is an iPhone app that repeats whatever you say, only in a higher voice. Get two of them together and they try to outdo one another.
via kottke
Harvey Pekar, Cleveland comic-book legend, dies at age 70
Pekar was the author of the celebrated comic book American Splendor.
“He’s the soul of Cleveland,” Crumb told The Plain Dealer in 1994. “He’s passionate and articulate. He’s grim. He’s Jewish. I appreciate the way he embraces all that darkness.”
Yet the darkness came with a humorous silver lining. As Pekar said, “The humor of everyday life is way funnier than what the comedians do on TV. It’s the stuff that happens right in front of your face when there’s no routine and everything is unexpected. That’s what I want to write about.”
RIP.
