Some really stunning stuff here:
- A much-more-fun version of the OED’s “first use” annotations for words: Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster. Look up your favorite word and see when it was first used in print; or, scroll back through some recent neologisms to see, for instance, when “spear phishing” became a thing (2004).
- I feel like this is a loss for all of us (except baristas who advertise “latte’s” on chalkboard slates): the Apostrophe Protection Society has thrown in the towel, saying “ignorance has won.”
- This is a couple of years old now, but the Prado created parody versions of some of its most iconic paintings in honor of COP25, to depict the cultural impact of climate change in a tongue-in-cheek and yet oddly unsettling way.
- Did you know the world’s first photo book was published by a woman? Have a look at Anna Adkin’s stunning sunprints of marine plants over at Scientific American.
- This is a fantastic piece over at Atlas Obscura: If you’ve ever wondered who came up with those iconic USFS signs marking national forests, etc., they were the work of a ranger with no formal design training, Bus Carroll.
- This is on my Christmas list for sure: an uncut Taschen large-format edition of Hokusai’s 36 Views of Fuji.
- At Colossal: Inventive, vibrant mosaic patches for tears in the cityscape.
- Stunning macro photos of beach sand reveal a kaleidoscpic menagerie of animals and fragments of the human world.
- After her death, Ursula LeGuin’s blog came down, but now it’s back up: read it while you can.
- Generate your own snowflakes with the Gravner-Griffeath model.
- While we were making grubby little beads out of FIMO in middle school, Alisa Lariushkina was crafting these mesmerizing, textured landscapes.
The Rookery 