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Enrique Gomez De Molina

The hybrid taxidermy creations of Enrique Gomez De Molina are a fascinating bunch but they, apparently, come with a bit of a sad story attached to them - as he is currently facing five years in jail for illegally importing parts of endangered species. Granted, he's only purchasing these things but he is contributing to the downfall of some species already on the brink of obliteration. So, with that in mind, I'm fascinated and compelled by his work but bummed that he went about it in such a way.

View more here or here.

via Kate.

Highway Culverts Provide Underground Passage for Animals

Thanks to a nice heads up from Radiolab I spent a little chunk of my morning checking out this University of Maryland study on underground highway culverts as safe passage for animals. It's not only fascinating that the animals are daring enough to use these tunnels but that such a wide variety of species travel through them. "The study found 57 species in all used 265 culverts to cross the road or build a nest in Maryland, confirming that these drainage structures are carrying more than just streams."

The only bummer is that the photo gallery of images is stuck inside their Facebook page - though you get the best of the best from this Tumblr post.

Education First: Live The Language

Education First is a series of programs that helps students study abroad - cultural exchange and immersion learning. As part of spreading the word about their programs they've launched this Live the Language video campaign that showcases seven cities. The videos are, mostly, like music videos depicting kids having a great time hanging out in a new setting but they are chalk full of phenomenal title design. Check out these stills - they're great! So, take a moment to watch all the videos and get inspired to both travel abroad and design some solid type.

via It's Not What I Thought

Cabin Porn

Despite it's ridiculous name, Cabin Porn really is a great place to get some "Inspiration for your quiet place somewhere." It's basically an architectural blog of little fortresses of solitude courtesy of Jace Cooke and Zach Klein. Even if you don't feel, personally, that you ever want a little home in the woods it's a great site to just see some great photography.

Jordan Butcher

You're following the works of Jordan Butcher, right? His official site is a little barren at the moment but his Tumblr - well, it's rife with inspirational goodness and new works from the man himself. Get on board.

Giant Life-like Statue Of Confucius

Chinese artist Zhang Huan creates giant life-like statue of Confucious. What more can be said? Read More.

via Whetzell.

Jim Sanborn: Topographic Projections and Implied Geometries Series

There's a good deal of Jim Sanborn's work that deals with uranium, nuclear experimentation and creating art from a substance that - for most of us - is directly related with the bomb. However, he also has a series of "Topographic Projections and Implied Geometries" that feature large format light projections sending interesting patterns on to landscapes. The Kilkee County Claire, Ireland and Longsturn County Cork, Ireland pieces are my favorites but I imagine seeing all of them in real life would be spellbinding.

Long story short, there are some fascinating artistic undertakings in the portfolio of Jim Sanborn; visit them.

via Kate.

The Paper Fox Project

Melbourne artist Jeremy Kool has taken on the development of an interactive storybook for iPad / Android devices using characters he created with a distinctly origami feel. The actual story within The Paper Fox Project is unknown but Kool has been kind enough to share his character designs and environments to give an idea of what to expect - they look fantastic. Spend some time browsing the project blog to get a sense of where it's going and swing over to the store to get a glimpse at all the characters in one place.

HT Daniel.

Developer Advice

• Making an HMTL5 App & Making It Really Fast - aside from any advice about developing web apps being good advice I really enjoy the specifics that get brought up here - i.e. don't use text / box shadow, do use translate3d, not translate, avoid opacity and enable touch events. via Paige.
• Using Pluploader - as a bit of a followup to yesterday's post, I found this little tutorial on Pluploader to be incredibly handy.

We Own This Town: Volume 50 (Best of 2011)

This edition of the We Own This Town podcast is special for two reasons. One, it compiles a good deal of the best music from the past year. Certainly not all of it but it covers a lot of ground. Secondly, it's the Fiftieth release. 50! When I starting taking the reigns at Volume 9 in 2007 I don't think I ever predicted I would see it this far through. I'm proud of where it's come and I hope it provides a fairly decent reference point for people inside and outside of Nashville to know the kind of great music that this town is capable of.

I hope you enjoy the music and take this as an opportunity to discover some great new gems as the year wraps up.

Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works

You know how I like to avoid just about anything political or vaguely controversial on here but this article regarding Congress and SOPA is not to be missed. Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How the Internet Works perfectly sums up my feelings of frustration over politicians setting rules and regulations for a system that they do not understand - even to the point where they are pridefully ignorant.

It’s of course perfectly standard for members of Congress to not be exceptionally proficient in technological matters. But for some committee members, the issue did not stop at mere ignorance. Rather, it seemed there was in many cases an outright refusal to understand what is undoubtedly a complex issue dealing with highly-sensitive technologies.

When the security issue was brought up, Rep. Mel Watt of North Carolina seemed particularly comfortable about his own lack of understanding. Grinningly admitting “I’m not a nerd” before the committee, he nevertheless went on to dismiss without facts or justification the very evidence he didn’t understand and then downplay the need for a panel of experts. Rep. Maxine Waters of California followed up by saying that any discussion of security concerns is “wasting time” and that the bill should move forward without question, busted internets be damned.

Long story short, if you haven't done Something to contact your representative regarding this issue, please do so. This is really not the sort of thing that needs to be decided by people who, willfully, have no understanding of it.

Michael Ringor Photography

There are a lot of quality photos to take in from Michael Ringor but I think I can safely say I'm the biggest sucker for his night series. Sure, he's got great captures of California, SF and Apartment Life among his arsenal of visual goods to take in but how can you resist this? You can't.

McBess + Dudes Factory

McBess is the Artist of the Month over at Dudes Factory which means that they've got a huge slew of limited edition goods to investigate. Lots of great tees, giclee prints (on birch wood!) and even a 2012 Calendar. I'm typically not one to drop $32 on a calendar but in the case of McBess, it seems absolutely worth it.

Rally Interactive

Take a moment and browse over to the Rally Interactive site and consider the fact that all of the design and animations on the page are done without Flash. This current era of CSS3 / JS implemented goodness is blowing my mind - just select a portfolio item to see what I mean. Sure, it's a "simple transform" you may be telling yourself but who else have you seen do it? Especially with such a tasteful implementation. Really love it.

HT Mr. Arlo Jamrog.

Uploading

I spent way too much time yesterday investigating more contemporary upload scripts & techniques in an attempt to find something that wasn't Flash reliant but also wasn't days worth of programming to implement. Here are my findings:

• Plupload - from the makers of TinyMCE comes this highly flexible upload tool. Much like TinyMCE it is way over the top straight outta the box but can be stripped down to just what you need. I believe the latest version of Wordpress is implementing this so it's gotta be pretty good.
• Uploadify 3.0 Beta - sadly, this seems to have been somewhat abandoned by the original developer but the community has taken to squashing the bugs in 3.0 and redistributing their finds. It's still Flash based (bummer) but it's not like a whole lot of File Management needs to happen on a non-Flash enabled device anyway.
• jQuery File Upload - simple, straightforward script that tacks itself on top of any standard HTML form. I think this is one to keep an eye on for future releases as it will likely continue to get slicker and slicker.
• Ajax Upload - maybe not as robust as some of the other options but all of the necessities are present - some work sprucing it up visually will need to take place.

Pizzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Bagels

Last Friday, after posting my video offerings, Chad bestowed the goodness of this video to me. If this doesn't start your week off right then you are beyond the reach of my help.

Tristen - Decks The Halls EP

Earlier this year, Tristen released her full-length debut Charlatans at the Garden Gate. If you haven't heard it yet, please do so now. If you have heard it, then you are probably yearning for some new tunes. Fortunately, she has released a holiday EP that you can download for free that features holiday classics "Frosty the Snowman", "Winter Is Blue" (Vashti Bunyan) and "Blue Christmas." If you aren't in the holiday mood yet, this will get you there.

David Fullarton: Surprises.

It's difficult to tell if these creations from David Fullarton are just various doodles from a sketchbook or more fully realized pieces of work; though, in the end, I'm not sure it really matters. I love the collaged style, the looseness of it all and the seemingly nonsensical couplings that pop up.

via Austin.

Ryan Schude Photography

Take some time to browse through the photostream of Ryan Schude - an excellent diverse offering of portraits, slice-of-life, random interesting vehicles and outtakes from commercial work. It's got a little something for everyone. Swing by his official portfolio when you're done there to see even more.

Google Schemer

Have you tried out Google Schemer yet? If you've not heard of it - there's a fairly ridiculous introductory commercial to get you interested. The general idea is that it provides ideas for activities - but, thus far, the implementation is just based entirely on lists from friends. I kind of thought this would be an opportunity for Google to cull a bunch of data feeds about events from a localized area and aggregate them into options. Instead, it's a place for you to set a vague goal for yourself and check it off when you're done (though tracking progress on said goal is not an option).

Long story short, if you haven't tried Schemer yet, don't beat yourself up - there should be no rush to get in on the ground floor.

Friday Videos - Dec 16th, 2011

It's that time again! Load up the playlist and enjoy the slacking off from work. I've got some treats in store for next week to, hopefully, wrap up the year but, for now, enjoy the weekly goods.

• Old Spice - Motorcycle - It is remarkable how great the ad campaigns for Old Spice are; especially considering that I've zero interest in the product. You know you created something great when a customer wants to watch your advertisement over and over. Amazing.
• Inappropriate Folgers Commercial - yes, it's inappropriate but not really.. or is it? Either way, hilarious.
• Haboob Swallows Phoenix - do you know what a Haboob is? Did you know that they aren't that uncommon in the dryer parts of Arizona and New Mexico? Do you understand how terrifying they appear to be?
• Titanic: The Animated Movie - this trailer brings up so many question it's difficult to wrap your brain around. Why does it exist? Why is there a fun loving kids movie based on an enormous disaster? Why is there a rapping schnauzer? Why is his backing band comprised of stereotyped mice? Why, Why, Why? via Paul.
• Geek Love TLC - there is a fine line between laughing with someone and laughing at someone. I'm not sure where the new TLC Geek Love show falls but it seems like something we should all watch in order to decide.
• Priceless Hippo - your level of enjoyment of this is a good gauge of your maturity levels. Me? I'm about 8 years old because I loved it. (Please note, this occurrence is not uncommon in Hippos but it is hilarious).
• Drive Recklessly - an educational PSA on the dangers of speeding. Would you rather save 30 seconds or a life?
• Cheers - NORMisms - it's been many years since I've watched Cheers.. this Supercut is a nice reminder that we all need to revisit it.
• I Gave My Kids a Terrible Present - Jimmy Kimmel gets parents to trick their kids for the benefit of late night TV again. The results are hilarious but I can't imagine doing this to your child; some of them seem incredibly upset! Fortunately, you know they'll forget.
• Waving Bear - you will watch this on repeat for the remainder of the day.

BONUS

• Raiders of the Lost Ark Filmumentary Part 2 and Part 3 are now available. I am sure they are every bit as compelling as Part 1.
• Mariachi El Bronx - 48 Roses - a primo example of why music videos can (and are) still relevant when done right.
• 30 Most Important Cats of 2011 - Falfa sent me this and I am forever indebted to him for it.

Have a great weekend!

Alexander & Sons

Casey Dunn, quality photographer and PUBLIC School member, recently launched a new photo undertaking called Alexander & Sons that serves as a repository for his artistic collections. The first two sets, Hoop Dreams and Populous, document abandoned basketball goals and his experience in Hong Kong; respectively. Go give it a gander; it's great stuff.

Google Zeitgeist 2011

Take some time to check out the Google Zeitgeist 2011 that rounds up the top 10 searches of the previous year and couples with it some great search statistics. Even if you find it alarmingly sad that there is only one entry in the top 10 that covers a meaningful global event (#8) you should check out the great graphs, animations and data design of the interior pages; great stuff.

HT Daniel.

Nerd Insights for the Day

• Microsoft decides to automatically update Internet Explorer for everyone - apparently the folks at Microsoft have decided that it's time to force updates on all XP, Vista and Windows 7 machines to get them utilizing the most contemporary browser for their system. While the headline is certainly an exciting notion I have my doubts that this means much of anything because of the IT gatekeepers that will prevent it from really taking hold in their infrastructure. Hopefully it will become more standard practice to not keep most of the business community in the dark ages and this seems to be the first step.
• Bootstrap Rising - a nice little rundown of the perks and potential improvements that could be made to the Bootstrap framework. Good read.