Everything Easy is Hard Again »

As someone who recently had to return to the world of frontend web design for the first time in ~10 years, my experience was not particularly great.

Here’s Frank Chimero:

That breaks my heart, because so much of my start on the web came from being able to see and easily make sense of any site I’d visit. I had view source, but each year that goes by, it becomes less and less helpful as a way to investigate other people’s work. Markup balloons in size and becomes illegible because computers are generating it without an eye for context. Styles become overly verbose and redundant to the point of confusion. Functionality gets obfuscated behind compressed Javascript.

This is one of the best things I’ve read about the current state of web design. It’s not really an old-man-yells-at-cloud nor a wistful reminiscence. It’s a manifesto for diligence.

The Polybius Conspiracy »

The Polybius Conspiracy is a series of podcasts from Radiotopia’s Showcase, and it managed to tickle so many of my pleasure-points all at once. It’s urban legend meets conspiracy theory meets creepypasta. And it’s terrifically well told.

I Love Spoilers »

I’m genuinely bothered by the rise of spoiler culture, where any talk about a piece of pop culture – even just mentioning the name – causes normally rational people to start shouting “no spoilers!” Personally speaking, I can think of at least three examples of where learning about a quote-unquote “spoiler” has caused me to actually check out something I otherwise wouldn’t (the most recent of these would be The Good Place, a show that hadn’t even hit my radar until I heard someone talking about the final episode of the first season, which made me want to watch the entire thing. And a good thing too because that’s one of the best shows on telly right now).

Although I almost choked on my cornflakes when I read this part:

Sebastian Starcevic, a journalist living in Australia, has written about his passion for spoilers as well. “I was actually sitting in the movie theater the other day watching a horror movie. I initially decided I wouldn’t spoil the movie for myself so I could enjoy it the way it was intended,” he told me over email. “By the first jump scare, though, I was skimming the Wikipedia page to find out who the serial killer was.“

Good grief Sebastian. Using your phone in a cinema?! Haven’t you read the Wittertainment code of conduct?

How to decode the images on the Voyager Golden Record »

Ever fancied pretending you were an alien decoding this weird golden disc that’s travelled billions of miles of space to reach you? Well, with Audacity, you can! This is seriously cool.

The mysterious Voynich manuscript has finally been decoded »

After looking at the so-called code for a while, Gibbs realized he was seeing a common form of medieval Latin abbreviations, often used in medical treatises about herbs. … So this wasn’t a code at all; it was just shorthand. The text would have been very familiar to anyone at the time who was interested in medicine.

Yay for solving the mystery and all, but it’s such a mundane solution that I can’t help feel a little sad. Update: via MacDara Conroy on Twitter - Has a Mysterious Medieval Code Really Been Solved? (I’ll save you a click: no)

Dear David »

Comic artist David Ellis is in the process of creating an amazing twenty-first century ghost story. One that’s told across weeks of tweets and incorporating videos, soundcloud clips and audience participation. It’s so simple, so well done and I couldn’t be more impressed.

17776 - What football will look like in the future »

Holy crap, this is impressive. From Jon Bois, who brought us the equally incredible Breaking Madden series.

4D Toys: a box of four-dimensional toys »

This is incredible. Marc Ten Bosch wrote a really fun game about playing with 4D objects. But his video describing how the game works is also the best primer on how the 4th dimension works that I’ve ever seen.

Fury Road themed Cozy Coupe »

My daughter loves her cozy coupe. I love Mad Max: Fury Road. Okay little baby, let’s do this.

The Raiders of the Lost Ark 1-Page Film School »

Vashi Nedomansky has put together a great collection of videos and PDFs about the making of Raiders of the Lost Ark. There goes today’s productivity.