Kayhan Kalhor is a master of the kamancheh; here he is barely getting by on the setar.

Ted Williams’ The Science of Hitting sports some excellent pre-Sabermetric visualizations.

Why not while away a few hours with the The Brooklyn Historical Society’s map collection?

The Real News has a great extended interview with Noam Chomsky.

Need something to watch? Try Kurosawa’s 100 favorite films.

Smithsonian Open Access lets you download millions of 2d and 3d digital items from their collection. Tinker away.

The spectacular new central library in Helsinki.

Another fabulous vintage graphic concept, now with a modern API.

And while I’m on a type tip, here’s a long-standing holdover from the 50s.

I had never considered it, but OF COURSE there are super-granular conventions for comic typesetting.

The Florida State Library has catalogued a colorful collection of vintage crate labels.

The roads of the Roman Empire as a transit map.

Ella Fitzgerald actually got a late-career boost from the famous Memorex cassette adverts. (Not to be confused with this.)

New research indicates the brain uses filters, not a spotlight, to focus on important input.

As usual, the Scandinavians leading the environmental way, this time using dead plants as renewable energy. AND it’s profitable.

The Rakotzbrücke in eastern Germany makes a perfect circle with its reflection.

Some beautiful work featured in the 2019 Audubon Photography Awards.

Ultra satisfying style guide to The Guardian.

Interested in domes, switches, and custom keycaps? Isabela Moreira has you covered.

Public Domain Review posted a beautiful cosmology manuscript from the 12th Century. They also have other cool things.

Dillon Marsh makes lovely macro photos of the seeds of “hitchhiker plants.”

I’d consider living on the East Side if it was in this place.

Anna Talley’s Design Observer essay on graphic design during the 1968 French riots.

Some beautiful concert hall designs. The Brutalist ones are stunning, but I have soft spot for Calatrava.

Fabulous photographs, film stills, and illustrations at this French blog.

1960s Motorola ads reveal The House of the Future.

Lapham’s Quarterly asks how the wanderings of Odysseus might map onto the actual Mediterranean

Katie Holten created the New York City Tree Alphabet.

An interactive map of (American) human vocal bursts and their interpretations. ASMR-free.

The Manhoff Archive is a trove of color photos and video from the 1950s Soviet Union. Also, Stalin’s Funeral is my new band name.

Just gathering some ideas for the new Steel Cut Audio control room.

The Public Research Project’s Dimensions Guide is a wide(!)-ranging database of measured drawings.

One of Claude Debussy’s conservatory instructors dismissed him as “a bit of a fantasist.” Debussy was ten.

Steven Soderbergh’s daily breakdown of everything he watched and read in 2018. Updating my “to view” lists accordingly.

Vox’s Earworm series has a great episode on how Reid Miles created the Blue Note Look.

A newly discovered letter from 1613 seems to show that Galileo soft-pedaled his then-heretical scientific claims after the fact.

If you’ve been to the movies in the past thirty years you’ve probably heard The Deep Note.

I haven’t eaten octopus for years and this sort of research is the reason.

Night lunch wagons were the fancy food trucks of the 1890s.

Bad Astronomy on the Carina Nebula.

It would be amazing if New York were more like this.

Enjoying some extended Windy City time this year, so I was intrigued by this collection of notorious Chicago stories.

A week or so at the Panorama House in Matanzas would suit just fine about now.

A series of memos reveals the collaboration behind one of the most famous opening narrations in television history.

This nerdy German fellow built a useful and attractive guitar scale visualizer.

The Venn diagram of transit and design nerds is a full circle at Transit Standards.

The Boston Public Library posted hi-res scans of their Escher collection.

Behind the scenes pix of the model shop from Blade Runner

Todd Webb took some exquisite mid-century photos of NYC.

Here be a gorgeous interactive map of the Lower Mississippi by J.T. Lloyd from 1862.

There is a thing called Underwater Photographer of the Year and it seems clear why these people won it.

Frédéric Vayssouze-Faure makes lovely, minimalist animations based on string harmonics theory.

Tristan Gooley has some tips on using natural phenomena and observation to navigate without technology.

What remains of New Amsterdam in Lower Manhattan?

“Great self-destruction follows upon unfounded fear.” Louis Lapham on distraction and control.

Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion world map has brilliant mathematical foundations.

High-speed footage of hummingbirds. Just amazing.

“You see, early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and see no occasion to change now.” Frank Lloyd Wright’s signature buildings.