Sprinkles Around the Web 5/28-6/10/10

Sprinkles from around the web

Two weeks worth of links and other things I found amusing, insightful, or otherwise useful around the web. Your mileage may vary.

Me

• A photo of me on the set of ExOfficio’s Spring ’11 photoshoot. Yes, that’s how far ahead the fashion industry works. (I’m the one with the braid and my back turned.)

• Okay, not really me, but my good friend Steve. His Batman, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Sandman tattoos were featured on Geeky Tattoos.

BP Oil Spill

We Just Tore Up Our Contract with Mother Nature. Chuck does a good job at collecting all the various links about the BP Oil Spill. Warning: He does become ranty at the end, and he’s a horror/fantasy writer so things get graphic.

Leroy Stick – the man behind @BPGlobalPR. Why a fake Twitter account is a thorn in BP’s side and how they seem more concerned about their PR and stocks than the Gulf Coast being destroyed.

Fandom

• Apparently, there are people out there making shows for me, including RuPaul’s Drag U and Men with Brooms:

• They’re bringing back Torchwood for a Season 4. Sweet.

Batwoman motivational poster about how she could’ve been defending the U.S., but instead she’s taking out villains in Gotham because Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell stops her from serving.

Graphic and Web Design

Create a Print Ready Business Card Design in Illustrator. Always handy.

Four Amazing and Fresh Web Designer Tools. Oh, the cool things CSS3 does and those who help us short-cut build them. Awesome.

Top 10 Ways to Tweak Your WordPress Theme. All those little how-tos in one place.

Inspiration

The Traveling Red Dress.

I want, just once, to wear a bright red, strapless ball gown with no apologies. I want to be shocking, and vivid and wear a dress as intensely amazing as the person I so want to be. And the more I thought about it the more I realized how often we deny ourselves that red dress and all the other capricious, ridiculous, overindulgent and silly things that we desperately want but never let ourselves have because they are simply “not sensible.”

Working From Home: Increase Productivity, Reduce Stress. It also saves a ton of time and money for the both the company and worker-bee.

• TED Talk: Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion’s free culture (or watch below). All about how the fashion industry can’t copyright their designs and how it’s led to both greater innovation and a lot of money.

Recipes (I want to make.)

Science

Hopes for breast cancer vaccine. It’s worked in mice. As someone who’s already had to visit the Doctor about a lump and has a grandma who survived breast cancer, this is awesome news.

Pseudo-science and airport security. How the Screening Passengers by Observation Technique TSA agents use is no more or less effective at catching would-be terrorists than just regular airport security procedures.

Ohio Legislature Bans Human-Animal Hybrids. Yes, you read that right. Watch out, manimals. Or is that humals? Humanimals?

Titan’s atmosphere oddity consistent with methane-based life. Just another place we could find life. If it’s evolved enough for us to recognize it or had the cosmic chance to evolve into life.

Autism test could make the condition ‘preventable.’ Doctors are starting to catch Autism in infancy, which makes it very treatable and less likely to severely harm an individual. (Though this method only diagnoses one portion of Autistic children; it’s a great breakthrough.)

Seattle

• The Magnolia Farmer’s Market is open. Too bad, Seattle doesn’t have summer weather yet. But now I get choose which day I want to go to the farmer’s market.

State lawmakers raise concerns over Nickerson Street road diet. I commute down this road, and the diet would make that commute almost double in time. I think the Mayor’s putting the cart before the horse just because he can easily do it here.

“We’re in real danger of losing a lot of our industry in the city and we can’t let that happen,” said Sen. Kohl-Welles. “It’s very difficult for industry to transport their goods to their port on a bicycle.”

Oh, snap. No, I totally agree that people speed down it. However, today I learned that smiley or frowny faces are way more effective in getting people to slow down than speed traps/cameras.

‘Floating farmers market’ idea proposed for Ballard. I love farmer’s markets and this could have an interesting kitsch draw.

Social Media

50 Women Bloggers You Should Be Reading. Need I say more?

College Humor CEO Shares His 10 Web Content Urban Legends. Mostly about how people aren’t excited to learn about your brand.

Winston, my cat, snuggles up to the computer.
Winston my cat snuggles up to the computer
Cats Can Now Tweet with New Liveblogging Device. I’m already way too obsessive about my cat. I don’t think I need this.

Flickr Makes it Easy to Share Photos on Facebook. This is awesome given I mostly use my FB to connect with family members, and one of the top things they want to see are my photos. (Also great because FB’s Flickr feed app sucks.)

Technology

iPad Publishing No Savior for Small Press, LGBT Comics Creators. Apple’s apps censor LGBT comics depicting same-sex relationships. Yes, even the all-ages ones. Remind me again why I’m supposed to want Apple’s products? My PC and Android work just fine, thanks.

Digital Literacy — Not Just For Kids Anymore!

Beyond saving inordinate amounts of time when sorting and filtering information, digital literacy enables you to find any resource then produce and distribute just about any message or idea to millions of people online. Many an entrepreneur and social activist has profited from the opportunity. But when the majority of the population still doesn’t know the difference between a web page and an application, will we be divided into two classes, those with access to timely critical information and those without?

RewriteRule’s Split Personality Explained. How URL rewriting and 301 redirects are very different, how to do them properly, and why the difference is a good thing for SEO.

Starbucks Used Social Media to Get One Million to Stores in One Day. Starbucks seems to be taking the reigns of being the company with the most successful social media these days.

Great Literature Retitled To Boost Website Traffic. Someone mixed English Literature and SEO humor just so I could laugh at this.

Writing

So frickin’ predictable: The creative process. I love this comparison about how creativity’s pains surprise you just like PMS and period pains. But it’s all so predictable. Wonder analogy.

0 Replies to “Sprinkles Around the Web 5/28-6/10/10”

    1. @Chuck — You’re welcome. I love your blog, and this article in particular brought up a very interesting discussion with a friend of mine, which was why I warned for ranting. 🙂

      @Cronopio — I can’t wait for it either!

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