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When F. Scott Fitzgerald Judged Gatsby By Its Cover

With a big Hollywood movie now in theaters, some recent printings of the book have abandoned the classic cover in favor of one that ties in more closely with the film. So high school students working their way through the summer reading list this year will be hard pressed to find a copy without [...]

Aesthetics | Culture | Design | History | SciFi

8 Questions for ‘Star Trek’ Superfans Restoring Galileo Shuttlecraft

This nerd’s geek heart grew three sizes today. Ubernerds are restoring the Gallileo set piece from the original Star Trek.

Dedicated fans are giving new life to the shuttlecraft used in the original “Star Trek” television series.

Two “Star Trek” fans are a couple of weeks away from fully restoring the last surviving large set [...]

Aesthetics | Design | Education | Media

Create Engaging Infographics for your Classroom

Several of my journalism students have gotten interested in infographics. I’m not finished with the spring term yet, but I can’t help thinking about the fall. When we look at our reading habits and our daily interaction with all this digital data that surrounds us day and night, it becomes clear that Kress point does [...]

Aesthetics | Culture | Design | Modding | Personal | SciFi | Technology

Lego goes steampunk

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Be still, my nerdy heart.

Steampunk — which has inspired books, art and fashion — hinges on the idea of a future in which we use steam, rather than oil or electricity, as our primary source of energy. Still confused? Think 19th-century fashion and technology, but applied to a futuristic world. Or check out bing [...]

Aesthetics | Culture | Design | History | Media | PopCult

Ray Harryhousen, visual effects pioneer, dies

 

The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s influence on today’s film makers was enormous, with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK’s own [...]

Aesthetics | Culture | Design | Media | Technology | Writing

The History of Typography Told in Five Animated Minutes

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Open Culture.

Aesthetics | Books | Culture | Design | Drama | Literature

Jaz Parkinson “Colour Signatures”

Amusing visual representations of the color references in a handful of literary works. These are my colour signatures, an ongoing collection which are basically graphs of all the visual content in the books. For example when it might say ‘yellow brick road,’ ‘yellow’ gets a tally, or when for example in The Road it says [...]

Aesthetics | Amusing | Business | Culture | Cyberculture | PopCult | SciFi

The GE Mascot That Proves They’ve Never Seen ‘The Matrix’

On a scale of 1 to 10, this definitely rates a WTF.

Seriously, has no one in GE ever seen The Matrix? Literally any other robot in the history of film would have been a better choice — even RoboCop would’ve made people feel more at ease, because at least he’s a police officer. Agent [...]

Academia | Aesthetics | Education | Media | Rhetoric | Science

Higgs Boson Video

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Great video about subatomic particles, from Piled Higher and Deeper.

Aesthetics | Business | Culture | Design | Ethics | Media | Modding | Rhetoric

little drops — Why Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” Video Makes Me Uncomfortable… and Kind of Makes Me Angry

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Very insightful…. A reminder that even the much-praised Dove “we are exposing their advertising techniques” campaigns are just that — campaigns, designed to sell a product. (The parent company of Dove also owns Axe, which is blatant in its use of demeaning sexual stereotypes.)

Brave, strong, smart? Not enough. You have to be beautiful. And [...]