Kottke

No image in toast for atheist

kottke (Free subscription) | 4 hours ago

Atheist finds image of nothing in his toast . Quick, put the toast on eBay! ( link )

Electric Company typography

kottke (Free subscription) | 1 hour ago

The typography of The Electric Company . ( link )

English quiz

kottke (Free subscription) | 2 hours ago

How many of the 100 most common English words can you name in 5 minutes ? Surely you can do better than my pathetic 42/100. ( link )

Free topographical maps

kottke (Free subscription) | 3 hours ago

Kevin Kelly tells us how to print out free topographical maps for hiking, camping, etc. ( link )

● The $1000 iPhone app

kottke (Free subscription) | 16 hours ago

Yesterday developer Armin Heinrich posted an iPhone app to the App Store called I Am Rich . The program displays a red gem, has no function but to display your wealth to others through ownership, and costs $1000. It has since been removed from the App Store, although no one knows whether Apple or Heinrich pulled it. I Am Rich isn't the most clever piece of art, but it's not bad either. For some, the...

Rich people rooftops NYC

kottke (Free subscription) | 20 hours ago

A photo series of some elaborate roof decks and gardens in NYC . (thx, rob) ( link )

Ampersand blog

kottke (Free subscription) | yesterday

A weblog about ampersands , "often the most attractive punctuation mark of them all". (via le gruber ) ( link )

How Starbucks is trying to get its groove back

kottke (Free subscription) | yesterday

Fourteen ways in which Starbucks has tried to revitalize its brand . 8. Ditch the underperformers: In July, Starbucks announced its closure of 600 stores. Check this map for a closure near you, or peep the full list. It's also dropping 61 of its 84 stores in Australia, and eliminating 1,000 support jobs (not including all layoffs due to stores closures). ( link )

Yards or walkability, take your pick

kottke (Free subscription) | yesterday

Do you want a big yard in a walkable community? Can't happen . But you can't have it! Or, more specifically, if everyone has a big yard the community ceases to be especially walkable. That isn't to say that you can't have developments with yards relatively near to retail, so that there is stuff within walking distance. You can still have corner shops or similar, but having sufficient residential density...

• I Want A Big Yard In A Walkable Community - Eschaton

Emirates' Airbus A380

kottke (Free subscription) | yesterday

Photos and video of an in-flight tour of an Emirates Airbus A380 , a passenger jet that can be configured to carry more than 850 passengers at a time. This particular plane had room for 399 economy, 76 business class, and 14 first class passengers (ensconced in suites, not just seats). There was a bar, showers for first class passengers, video cameras on the tail, nose, and underside of the plane...

• Photos: Inside the Airbus A380 That Buzzed San Francisco - Laughing Squid
• Emirates announce new features available on its A380 aircraft - ClickPress

The demographic inversion of the American city

kottke (Free subscription) | yesterday

The New Republic on the demographic inversion of the American city . In the past three decades, Chicago has undergone changes that are routinely described as gentrification, but are in fact more complicated and more profound than the process that term suggests. A better description would be "demographic inversion." Chicago is gradually coming to resemble a traditional European city -- Vienna or Paris...

• Beyond Gentrification: Alan Ehrenhalt, writing in The... - Curbed

The girl in the window

kottke (Free subscription) | yesterday

This story about a "most outrageous case of neglect" was extremely difficult to read at times, but it's an amazing tale. "It's mind-boggling that in the 21st century we can still have a child who's just left in a room like a gerbil," said Tracy Sheehan, Danielle's guardian in the legal system and now a circuit court judge. "No food. No one talking to her or reading her a story. She can't even use...

● Old Masters and Young Geniuses by David Galenson

kottke (Free subscription) | yesterday

This short NY Times profile of economist David Galenson reminded me that I never shared Old Masters and Young Geniuses with you. The book was recommended to me by Malcolm Gladwell -- which means that many of you can now form your opinion of it without even reading it -- through a talk that he gave a couple of years ago . Gladwell also wrote an article for the New Yorker about Galenson's work but it...

Stupid ideas captured

kottke (Free subscription) | yesterday

Maggie collects the top ten stupidest ideas depicted on Flickr . These are pretty amazing. ( link )

The Genius of Charles Darwin | Free Video Clips from Channel 4

kottke (Free subscription) | 08/05/2008

The Genius of Charles Darwin is a three-part series about Darwin presented by his rottweiler , Richard Dawkins. A short video taste of the show is here and the entire first part is on Google Video . (via smashing telly ) ( link )