This Week in the IndieWeb

March 22-29, 2019 Upcoming EventsFrom indieweb.org/events#Upcoming: IndieWebCamp New Haven 2019 March 30 - March 31 Southern Connecticut State UniversityIndieWebCamp New Haven is the first in Elm City, happening at Southern Connecticut State University, Participants are welcom…

Scenes from England's growing magician problem

Iron-age death cult's botched ritual burns its logo into 73 children's faces: Dozens of pupils were left with burns after "toxic" ash crosses were daubed on to their foreheads for Ash Wednesday at a Catholic school. First aiders had to treat students and staff at St Augustine's…

The Last Days of Walter Benjamin’s Life

This Aeon essay by Giorgio van Straten, “Lost in Migration,” is excerpted from a book titled In Search of Lost Books, which explains its fascination with a book that’s fascinated many people, a manuscript carried in a briefcase by Walter Benjamin at the end of his life w…

Panama Canal

Orson Welles as a Graphic Artist

There are so many sides to Orson Welles that one of them is bound to get overlooked. Welles was a groundbreaking screen and voice actor, screenwriter, film director, radio producer, etc., etc. He was also a remarkable visual artist, which comes through in his films but is often…

A map of Fairyland (c. 1920)

The Library of Congress has a remarkable digitized work in its collection titled “An anciente mappe of Fairyland : newly discovered and set forth,” by Bernard Sleigh, published in London around 1920. Here’s the high-resolution image so you can see some of the detail:…

A Phonetic Map of the Human Mouth

This infographic from Language Base Camp shows where the sounds that English speakers use are produced in the mouth and throat. I’ve had zero voice training in my life, so it was really illuminating to speak all of the different sounds while paying close attention to where…

How Ian McKellen Acts With His Eyes

In the latest episode of Nerdwriter, Evan Puschak examines how Ian McKellen does a lot of heavy lifting with his eyes, especially in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. On his way there, I really liked Puschak’s lovely description of the physical craft of acting: Part of that cr…

Four short links: 22 March 2019

Explainable AI, Product Management, REPL for Games, and Open Source Inventory XAI -- An explainability toolbox for machine learning. Follows the Ethical Institute for AI & Machine Learning's 8 principles. The Producer Playbook -- Guidelines and best practices for producer…

nikitonsky is being grumpy

nikitonsky: Why is this table half-open? Closed on the top, open on the bottom? No idea, but it’s getting me nervous

Think Tank Photo Announces the Stand Manager 52 Rolling Case

If you're still looking for a reliable solution to keeping your lighting stands properly stored and protected, especially during transport, you may be interested in Think Tank Photo's newest offering. The Stand Manager 52 Rolling Case is poised to be an ideal solution for storin…

Brendan Barry Makes His Own Cameras by Hand

In the newest episode of the ILFORD Inspires series, we are introduced to UK-based large format photographer, educator, and camera maker Brendan Barry, as well as some of the fascinating handmade cameras he uses to create his prints. Whether you have a keen interest on making yo…

The Fujifilm GFX 50R Created These Gorgeous Black and White Portraits

Whatever your photography genre of choice, we're sure you're curious if the rangefinder style Fujifilm GFX 50R would be a great tool to elevate your art and craft with. Today, we bring an answer to all you portrait and fashion photographers out there. Looking at this set by Che…

Our Favorite Lenses for the Fujifilm XT3 (and Why)

When we begun testing the Fujifilm XT3, we didn't totally know what to expect. We knew that it was going to be better, but we didn't know that the image quality would be more film-like, the autofocus would be better and the battery life would be better. We love the camera, and g…

What Ever Happened to the Dedicated Macro Mode on Fujifilm Cameras?

With Canon, Nikon, Panasonic and others launching their own serious mirrorless camera options we figured that we'd go back into history for just a bit to when Fujifilm first started their ILC camera system. I tend to use older cameras from both Sony and Fujifilm and by far, Fuji…

Marina Weishaupt’s Swiss Mountain Photos Are a Compositional Dream

If the mountains bring you peace and creative motivation, you'll find a kindred spirit in German photographer Marina Weishaupt, and her breathtaking mountain snaps. Today, we place the spotlight on her surreal set Winter in August, featuring the snowy peaks of the Piz Feiss in e…

Question: Why Are There Light Leaks on My CineStill Film?

Tons of photographers absolutely adore CineStill's films. They give you a look that you simply can't get at all in digital due to how they're treated and developed. But one of the biggest problems that has been consistent with CineStill film though is the light leaks that they c…

Deadwood: The Movie

Open the canned peaches because Al Swearengen, Seth Bullock, and the rest of your Deadwood favorites are back on May 31 in Deadwood: The Movie. Here’s a tease: Swearengen: You ever think, Bullock, of not going straight at a thing? … Bullock: No. I’m in 1000%. For mor…

Constructions in Magical Thinking

If you’re one of those sharp-eyed readers who notices such things, you may have noticed that earlier this week, we adopted a new tagline: constructions in magical thinking. We also got a cheery set of new mastheads to go with it (thanks Grace Witherell), which you’ll see in…

Dot Matrix

A sensibility can cohere a worldview more vividly than an institution, for worse and for better. “Stan culture”; the cyclical interest in astrology and its archetypes; the commodification of co-presence, as in podcasting and vlogging — all speak to the timeless fact that i…

What’s Eating Dan?

From America’s Test Kitchen and Dan Souza, the editor-in-chief of Cook’s Illustrated, a YouTube series called What’s Eating Dan? In each episode, Souza picks a different food — pizza, rice, salmon — shares some of the science involved, and then shows us the best way to…

Kinetic Alphabet

From London motion design studio Mr. Kaplin, an animated alphabet where the animation for each letter is a experiment that was completed in a single day. See also The ABCs in Motion. Tags: alphabet   design   video

Actually, Mercury Is Our Closest Planetary Neighbor

If you look at the orbits of the planets adjacent to the Earth’s orbit (Venus & Mars), you’ll see that Venus’s orbit is closest to our own. That is, at its closest approach, Venus gets closer to Earth than any other planet. But what about the average distance? According t…

Four short links: 21 March 2019

Newsletters, Confidence Intervals, Reverse Engineering, and Human Scale Email Newsletters: The New Social Media (NYT) -- “With newsletters, we can rebuild all of the direct connections to people we lost when the social web came along.” Scientists Rise Up Against Sta…