The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway – Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when it created a new signage system at the end of the 1960s. Why was Helvetica not chosen originally? What was chosen in its place? Why is Helvetica used now, and when did the changeover occur?
Category Archives: Links and Other Such Detritus
Super Balance Articles II Turbo
Super Balance Articles II Turbo – 20 articles written by the lead designer of the new Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Very interesting info about design, game balance, and how not to piss off a community of tournament players who have memorized SFII’s moves down to the frame.
Manifesto for Agile Software Development
Manifesto for Agile Software Development – Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Dinosaurs, sharks and explosions
Dinosaurs, sharks and explosions – The best SomethingAwful photoshop thread this year.
South African prison tattoos
South African prison tattoos – Amazing look at what happens in a culture where your own body is all you have.
Think Godzilla’s Scary? Meet His Lawyers
Think Godzilla’s Scary? Meet His Lawyers – “It’s been 54 years since an atomic blast awakened the slumbering reptilian monster Godzilla, and the fire-breathing, fin-tailed beast has been terrorizing downtown Tokyo ever since — in more than two dozen movies, on television and in comics and cartoons.But Godzilla is a pussycat compared to the coterie of lawyers and investigators in Los Angeles and Japan who aggressively protect the radioactive behemoth from anyone who dares to appropriate his lizardly image for profit.”
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions – A Discovery Channel documentary series on space exploration of the past 50 years, from the first Mercury flights through the Gemini program to the Apollo moon landings, the Space Shuttle, and the construction of the International Space Station.
Every egg wants to someday be part of a breakfast sandwich « The Internet Food Association
Every egg wants to someday be part of a breakfast sandwich – Eggs are the most magical of foods: they can be a binder, a cake ingredient, a protein to mix into salads, OR a delicious goopy yolky mess. It is in this last role that they reach their eggy apotheosis.
Your Body Is Mine
Your Body Is Mine – German researchers have managed to induce the illusion that participants have switched bodies with a person (or a mannequin) of the opposite gender. “Our subjects experienced this illusion as being exciting and strange, and often said that they wanted to come back and try it again,” say the scientists. No shit. (Via io9)
50 Incredible Fonts for Professional Web & Print Design
50 Incredible Fonts for Professional Web & Print Design – Most of these are so-so, but some of the grunge fonts are actually incredible.
Canadian fined for filming movie in theatre
Canadian fined for filming movie in theatre – A Calgary man was fined $1,495 and banned from theaters for a year in the first conviction under a new Canadian law making recording a movie in a theater a crime. The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association was disappointed that jail time was not given.
Washington Post blogger shuts down company sending out two-thirds of all spam (in his investigative report, he turned over four months of data-gathering to the colo, who sut them down) (via Waxy)