Iron Man Rebooted

Robin says,

Aha! Iron Man redesigns from the always-fun Project Rooftop blog. Which one is your favorite?

Watch for the Battery Pack

Robin says,

You've seen Jay Maynard -- the Tron Guy -- in costume lotsa times. But have you ever seen him getting suited up? There's something both quietly melancholic and undeniably Batman about the start of this piece.

(Ridiculously, I discovered this bit of Current ROFLcoverage via Waxy. The world just imploded.)

The Peace Corps Reconsidered

Robin says,

Foreign Policy's "Think Again" pieces are consistently good, but this one about the Peace Corps is outstanding.

P.S. Before you click, guess whether you think it's going to be pro- or anti-Peace Corps.

From Russia With Hate

Robin says,

Whoah! Christof Putzel's report on neo-Nazis in Russia is blowing up: front page of Digg, etc. It's hard to watch, but revelatory. And some of the comments on Current.com constitute significant bits of reporting in their own right.

In Case of Emergency...

Robin says,

...break glass.

It's, er, pretty high concept -- but I love it. Tools that remind you of decisions you've made are really valuable.

Reminds me of the trick with the giant wall calendar: First, you decide you're going to start a new habit. Then you buy a giant wall calendar. And on the first day you successfully do habit X -- maybe it's "floss" or "do 20 sit-ups in the morning" or "practice the electric violin before bed" -- you make a big black check-mark on the calendar. Then you do it again the next day.

And then the calendar takes over! The chain becomes impossible to break. As long as X is pretty easy to do, you do it -- because your decision, your discipline, is right there staring you in the face.

Iron Man Exploded

Robin says,

So I really enjoyed "Iron Man."

Almost better than the entire rest of the movie all on its own, though? The "Iron Man" end title sequence!

Perfect motion, check. Dust and scratches, check. Terrific colors, check.

Am now going to resist temptation to watch ten more title sequences in a row.

Musings on Twitter

Robin says,

After a year of defiance, I now meekly serve the 140-character box. And I just ran across the smartest take I've yet seen on what makes Twitter different, and good/bad, from ROFLconspirator Diana Kimball:

Okay, finally: I think what's so striking about this social signaling in Twitter is that it's imbued with intentionality. On Facebook, when you do something or friend someone or post on someone's wall, Facebook just reports it; the "hey, look at me" is automated. Therefore, the person who wants to be looked at is absolved of responsibility, vanity, or attention-seeking. Twitter is all about self-reporting, and so that all-important illusion of absolution is whisked away.

Mostly, of course, I just like the phrase "all-important illusion of absolution." So good.

'I Have No Designs on Your Camry or Your Hamster'

Robin says,

Slate still has some of the best writing on the internet. Loved this piece on vegetarianism by Taylor Clark:

Vegetarians give up meat for a variety of ethical, environmental, and health reasons that are secondary to this essay's goal of increasing brotherly understanding, so I'll mostly set them aside. Suffice it to say that one day, I suddenly realized that I could never look a cow in the eyes, press a knocking gun to her temple, and pull the trigger without feeling I'd done something cruel and unnecessary. (Sure, if it's kill the cow or starve, then say your prayers, my bovine friend -- but for now, it's not quite a mortal struggle to subsist on the other five food groups.) I am well-aware that even telling you this makes me seem like the kind of person who wants to break into your house and liberate your pet hamster -- that is, like a PETA activist. Most vegetarians, though, would tell you that they appreciate the intentions of groups like PETA but not the obnoxious tactics. It's like this: We're all rooting for the same team, but they're the ones in face paint, bellowing obscenities at the umpire and flipping over every car with a Yankees bumper sticker. I have no designs on your Camry or your hamster.

The Fatigue and the Remedy

Robin says,

That's it. I'm officially no longer interested in the primaries.

(One exception: I've been enjoying Current's Campaign Update by Mark Ganek and Brett Erlich. The "Real Story" segment in each episode is actually really good.)

Whoah, Clusterflock

Robin says,

Clusterflock was sort of crazy good today -- particularly the images.

Art, Saturday night, comics, zombie mass, fine chariots, and swing jumping.

I love it all.

Make Dance Here

Robin says,

My sister Lily, an amazing dancer working on her MFA in dance, just started the world's first dance vlog. She's going to make a super-short dance video every week based on her readers' input. I think it's a terrific idea.

Here's a longer dance film she made recently. And here's a recent performance.

Don't think of, like, break-dancing in music videos when you watch these. Think instead of using the whole range of human motion -- including motion we don't usually think of as "dance" -- as a palette.

Amano

Robin says,

I love Yoshitaka Amano. It's hard for me to think of him as really serious because, of course, I first ran across his art in conjunction with Final Fantasy 2 on the Super Nintendo... but no, he is super-serious indeed. Beautiful stuff.

Under Orders, Under Fire

Matt says,

Forgot where it was linked, but some blogger recently referred to a famous 1996 essay on the media by James Fallows that I had never read. The essay begins with a description of a public television broadcast called "Under Orders, Under Fire":

Most of the panelists were former soldiers talking about the ethical dilemmas of their work. The moderator was Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School, who moved from panelist to panelist asking increasingly difficult questions in the law school's famous Socratic style.

During the first half of the show Ogletree made the soldiers squirm about ethical tangles on the battlefield. The man getting the roughest treatment was Frederick Downs, a writer who as a young Army lieutenant in Vietnam had lost his left arm in a mine explosion. ...

Then Ogletree turned to the two most famous members of the evening's panel, better known even than Westmoreland. These were two star TV journalists: Peter Jennings, of World News Tonight and ABC, and Mike Wallace, of 60 Minutes and CBS.

Ogletree brought them into the same hypothetical war. He asked Jennings to imagine that he worked for a network that had been in contact with the enemy North Kosanese government. After much pleading Jennings and his news crew got permission from the North Kosanese to enter their country and film behind the lines. Would Jennings be willing to go? Of course, he replied. Any reporter would—and in real wars reporters from his network often had.

But while Jennings and his crew were traveling with a North Kosanese unit, to visit the site of an alleged atrocity by U.S. and South Kosanese troops, they unexpectedly crossed the trail of a small group of American and South Kosanese soldiers. With Jennings in their midst the Northern soldiers set up an ambush that would let them gun down the Americans and Southerners.

What would Jennings do? Would he tell his cameramen to "Roll tape!" as the North Kosanese opened fire? What would go through his mind as he watched the North Kosanese prepare to fire?

HTTPCOLONSLASHSLASH, &c.

Matt says,

Jennifer Daniel's portfolio site is fun in all kindsa ways.

Stickr

Matt says,

Finally, a website where you can make small quantities of custom bumper stickers. Go nuts. (cf)

All Streets

Robin says,

Simple idea. Beautiful execution.

The Planet of the Dead

Robin says,

Loved last night's Long Now lecture -- actually a debate between Niall Ferguson and Peter Schwartz. It was historian vs. futurist, conservative vs. liberal, pessimist vs. optimist. Unfortunately it was also incredibly great speaker vs. merely good speaker as well, so I feel the futurist/optimists didn't quite get their fair shake... but so be it.

My favorite phrase, and image, from the entire evening was this one. Niall Ferguson countered the claim that the past is a foreign country, saying: No, it's a foreign planet... a planet of the dead... and its population far outnumbers our own.

And historians try to understand that strange place. Ferguson said, with no little glee: "I prefer the company of the dead to the company of the living. And it's a good thing, because I spend most of my time with them."

The counterfactual anthology Virtual History, edited by Ferguson, is great. I haven't read any of his solo books yet, though.

Don't Blink or You'll Miss Current

Robin says,

Made a flip-book style video based on Current.com items.

I realize others might find it barf-inducing, but personally I think it's mesmerizing:

Pooh Sticks

Robin says,

Behold, a luminous collection of Pooh sticks. (Pooh sticks?)

P.S. I just found this link on some other blog but accidentally closed the window. I can't remember where it was. I'm sorry, Via Gods.

Light and Sound from Far Away

Robin says,

Yeah sure, you've got a rad visualizer for your music. But what about a rad visualizer for your phone calls? (It doesn't hurt that Arik Levy sounds sort of like Superman's father placing an interstellar call from Krypton.)

(Via Design Observer.)