links for 2009-01-29

January 29th, 2009 by Steve Curati

Not safe for work: If you can't say anything nice, kill yourself, says Paul Carr | Technology | guardian.co.uk

"Yesterday, as Techcrunch's Michael Arrington was leaving the DLD conference venue in Munich, one of the conference attendees walked up to him and spat in his face…"

I'm glad I don't mix in these circles.

(tags: Internet guardian sociology blogging comments socialmedia)
Men smell of cheese; women smell of onion – Telegraph

"Men smell of cheese while women smell of onions, new research claims, after tests were conducted on the two sexes' armpits." And together we make beautiful crisps.

(tags: science news)
Students urged to avoid design – Design Week

(tags: design education)
Streaming music: even better than the real thing? |

"Is the download dead? Apple clearly doesn't think so; its announcement earlier this month that music on iTunes will drop its jacket of DRM (digital rights management) may feel overdue, but it's an implicit insistence that it thinks people will keep buying songs to "own" – even if all they actually "acquire" are invisible variations in magnetoresistance on a hard drive."

It's easier for me to wirelessly stream last.fm playlists to my living room than it is to play from my desktop upstairs via airtunes.

(tags: music technology Internet guardian streaming mp3)
Attenborough reveals creationist hate mail for not crediting God |

"They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."

(tags: evolution creationism guardian news environment science religion)

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Briliant!

Dave Brubeck with young Russian violinist

“During a visit to Moscow in the 80’s, Dave Brubeck met the faculty and students in Moscow Conservatory. While he was improvising on a “Ei, uhnem”, a Russian folk song, a young man downstage stood up to play Stéphane Grappelli-style violin jazz with him.”

(by afahsu)

via @openculture

(via Ai Weiwei Piles 1,200 Bikes On Top Of Each Other, For Dazzling Effect | Co.Design)

Infographic: The Changing TV Landscape

(via Iconic Photographs With Their Subjects Removed)

“I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew.”

austinkleon:

Ronald Searle, Les Très Riches Heures de Mrs Mole

47 jewel-like drawings by Ronald Searle made for his wife, Monica, each time she underwent chemotherapy. On New Year’s Eve 1969, Monica Searle was diagnosed with a rare and virulent form of breast cancer. Each time she underwent treatment, Ronald produced a Mrs Mole drawing ‘to cheer every dreaded chemotherapy session and evoke the blissful future ahead’. Filled with light and illuminated in glowing colours, the drawings speak of love, optimism and hope. Like the mediaeval illuminated manuscripts such as the 15th-century Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, to which the title of this book refers, the 47 drawings are on an intimate scale and were never intended for publication.

When asked about the drawings, Searle said, “I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew.” Here’s a little more about them:

Prior to the cancer shock the couple had bought a decrepit house in the south of France and, despite her illness, Monica continued to devote her time making this house a home.

Devastated with his wife’s diagnosis Ronald did the only thing he knew how to do to cheer her up. .. draw.

Before every chemotherapy session he gave his wife a painting. Monica was depicted as a mole, a very happy mole celebrating life in their new home. (The Mole idea came after their discovery of a large celler that they made into a cosy room)

‘Everything about them had to be romantic and perfect,’ says Ronald. ‘I drew them originally for no one’s eyes except Mo’s, so she would look at them propped up against her bedside lamp and think: “When I’m better, everything will be beautiful.”

Searle died last week at 91.

(Images via bluedoorbooks)