Jewelboxed
There’s little I love more than when someone takes a simple idea and makes it extraordinary through attention to detail and good usability. That’s precisely what Coudal Partners, a design firm in Chicago that made a bit of a name for themselves with Photoshop Tennis, has done with their side business called Jewelboxing. They were unhappy with the packaging available for CD’s and DVD’s so they did something about it. I used their system to package the annual year-end mix I give out to my friends. Kudos to Coudal. Highly recommended.
Hi, I’m John Tolva!
The Ampcamper
How I hauled myself, two teens, an 80 lb dog, and a whole load of crap 4000+ miles across six states in twenty days using an electric vehicle. And survived to tell the tale.
The Terror Tourist
A roughly monthly exploration of places in horror fiction — real or imagined, geographical or psychological — culled from The Heavy Leather Horror Show.
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Views From The Tank
Coral and fish photos, water chemistry data, and notes on home reef-keeping. Dive in.
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Marginalia
Stuff I’ve found interesting from around the web lately.
Chromeography
Original range in our cabin built by my grandparents in the 1930s.
American Suburbs Are a Horror Movie and We’re the Protagonists
My partner and I regularly have to pass this street next to an abandoned bank. There’s no sidewalk, yet cars zoom around the corner all the time. Creepy and dangerous! This past year, my partner Dakota and I have been making an effort to walk to the nearest grocery store, rather than drive there.
What do LEGO bricks and celestial bodies have in common?
Thank you to Brilliant for sponsoring this video! To try out STEM courses for free, visit https://brilliant.org/PhysicsfortheBirds/. The first 200 subscribers will get 20% off of an annual premium subscription. How many things are there of each size in the universe? Are there more sun-sized obje
‘I’m good, I promise’: the loneliness of the low-ranking tennis player
I was 10 when I first told my folks that I wanted to give up playing tennis. They didn’t yield then, and they never did. Tennis was our family business. I first picked up a racket at the age of three, and spent 15 years of my life travelling the world in pursuit of entry into major tournaments.
The Many Lives of Null Island
Last year we rebuilt our well-loved Stamen basemaps from scratch, re-creating them on a totally new tech stack in partnership with Stadia Maps.
CTA L mapmaker Dennis McClendon, who found a calling in cartography, dead at 67
If Dennis McClendon noticed someone lost in the Loop, he’d ask if they needed directions. He might even pull a little map out from his pocket to pass along. It was a thrill for him — like a chocolatier giving a kid a piece of chocolate.
Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art
In 1953, Roald Dahl published “The Great Automatic Grammatizator,” a short story about an electrical engineer who secretly desires to be a writer.
Dark Matter Black Holes Could Fly through the Solar System Once a Decade
Black holes the size of an atom that contain the mass of an asteroid may fly through the inner solar system about once a decade, scientists say.
What's the worst meal you've ever had?
If you're like us, you enjoy a good meal. Doubly so in the company of friends. The atmosphere, the food, and the conversation all add up to a great time. Not every meal goes as planned, though. There's the noisy business-bro two tables over. Or that case of food poisoning.
Sports Celebrate Physical Variation—Until It Challenges Social Norms
The Olympics are a celebration of athletic prowess, an event that incidentally highlights the diversity of the human body. Take height for example. Simone Biles, the GOAT, hurtled herself through her Paris 2024 floor routine at 4’8”.