Chapter 11 of the WWW

Well these weeks just fly by, don't they. Another week, another week of what is mostly meaningless crap, which will all be forgotten by Monday - if not already. But that's life. That reminds me, I came across a thread on reddit asking what phrases we used to use (by 'we' it mean people my age-ish, e.g. 30+), that are, or will be soon, meaningless. I'm going to go through it and make a best of, because there were some golden ones in there. Anyway, here's some already meaningless crap. Enjoy!

Procrastination is always a good place to start. If you use Chrome, disconnect from the internet, try to load a page, hit space, and see how far you get. 

PuppySwap is a genius way to get a puppy in your life - and keep it. Who wants a grown up dog? They're not half as cute. 

It's really a very clever campaign for the Toronto Humane Society, tackling pet abandonment. Over 180,000 animals enter Canadian shelters each year, and 40% will never leave. Ouch. 

You might have heard of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson's record making free-climb of the sheer face of El Capitan. It's an absolutely astounding feat, and if you don't believe me, look at this wonderful interactive site from the NY Times. You can see more photos here. They're really worth a look. 

Like zombies? Like parkour? Then you'll like this. Go full screen, it's worth it. 

I was going to write about the genius idea of sending glitter to people you hate, but it seems it because so successful, so quickly, the guy who started it has already made a huge amount of money and has put the site up for sale. The modern world never ceases to amaze me. 

Here's another form of sending things, albeit a slightly more digital version. You can send file, anywhere (e.g. from PC to iPhone). It's simple and smart and one of those things you'll forget about in a moment. 

Here are some bonkers photos of NYC at night. Are they real? Yes. 

Life is like a box of chocolates. Or a donut. 

If you're not sure how big your country is compared to another country, then check this out. Just add the two countries you want to compare, and boom, there you have it. 

That's it, folks. See you next week. 

Ze Internet. Chapter 5

This week went incredibly quickly and nothing really amazing happened. To me, at least. All kinds of crap happened out there in the world. Don't get me started on America and their trigger happy cops. Our baby hasn't appeared yet, which is, quite understandably I think, all that I'm waiting for right now, so while I wait, you can look at this week's selection of crap from the internet. Lots of videos this week for some reason. Watch them. Do it. 

Let's revisit space to start with. Face it; you can never have enough. This is extremely beautiful, and quite thought provoking. 

Here's some more space. Well, typography and space. It's a great post about typography in Alien, a movie with a tagline so perfectly terrifying that it still gives me the shivers, 28 years after I first read it. 

Now let's look at brains! How strange to see one like this instead of the usual grey, solidified lump we get to see. I must admit I was shocked to see it so...gloopy. 

Where there's brains, there's zombies. This is an excellent zombie short from 2013.

And back to space. This is a nice cartoon of 'The most astounding fact', originally spoken by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Almost better hearing him say it. 

Here is what London would look like if we turned off all the lights. I find this so captivating. I long to spend time where there is zero light pollution. The closest I came was this summer, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We were listening to one of the park rangers give a short lecture about the canyon, when I just happened to look up and there, in all its wonderful glory, was the Milky Way. I didn't have my camera with me, and wasn't sure how I'd go about taking a photo even if I did (pretty sure there's more to it than wide angle lens and long exposure. Or is there?), so instead I just sat open mouthed, gazing upwards at the night sky. It was magical. 

OK, final space related thing this week, that new Star Wars trailer.

And now for something completely different. 

Have a good weekend. 

The Ultimate Zombie Map

Love zombies? Of course you do! Who doesn't. Check out Jason B. Thompson's Kickstarter page and get your mitts on a poster (really big one here).