—Henry Miller

M.G. on Trump:

What fascinates me about Donald Trump is the psychology behind his presidential run. I’m not even sure he knows what he’s doing or tapping into, but I have to believe someone working with him does. Because there are some flashes of brilliance here. Again, not in message, but in execution.

We live in a United States that could not be less interesting, politically. In all likelihood, we’re about to see a Bush square off against a Clinton for their respective family’s right to be President for a third or second time, respectively. Think about that for a minute. It’s insane. Are we really to believe that the two best people to run this country happen to be directly related to those who ran it recently? What a coincidence! Again, insane.

Yes, insane.

—James Gleick

Armin Vit on Google’s new logo:

So… THE logo. If the plan is to signal revolution instead of evolution, where do you go from a serif logo? A sans serif, of course. This is not revolutionary on its own and even less so in these last two years when every other major company is switching to some interpretation of the same style of sans serif. There is nothing special about the new logo. Even the tilted “e” is a tried and true mechanism. In essence, yes, the new logo is boring but it’s not like the old logo was a party with cocaine falling from the sky and male and female strippers grinding on everyone’s groin while Jay Z performed a secret concert. What’s important is that the new logo is exactly right and perfectly calibrated for what it needs to do. It retains the color system that has far too much equity, it keeps a sense of quirkiness through the “e”, and it reads perfectly clear at every single size — perhaps to a fault. As I was working last night on a couple of Google Sheets I couldn’t help but be distracted by the highly visible new logo.

Any other solution to the logo — anything more effusive, more visible, more different, more visually explosive — would have been met with terrible anger. This “boring” solution is safe and almost expected but it’s extremely appropriate.

I appreciate the the thought that went into the overall system—workmark, animation, lettermark—more than I dislike the new workmark.

I launched a new Kickstarter project. It’s called The Phoenix Jacket.

I created it because I’m tired of having my iPhone 6 Plus jab me in the leg when I sit down. I’m also tired of trying to put my wallet in either my front OR back pocket. Jeans pockets were not designed for our modern world.

This is the part of my life where I realize necessity really is the mother of invention.

—Max Max: Fury Road

via Wonkette

Microsoft says Windows 10 is installed on 75 million devices after just a month of availability.

Guess what? Only 5 of those devices are phones and tablets.

Remember, Windows currently owns less that three percent of the worldwide smartphone market.

Spot on, I would say.

I’m getting very close to launching my next Kickstarter project and signing up for my new newsletter is a great way to stay informed:

thecombustionchamber.com/newsletter

I have waaaaaay too many tabs open in Safari and they have been open for way too long.

Lucky for me and you, I find good shit and good shit doesn’t go bad.

Artist Celebrates Late Grandfather by Drawing the 100,000+ Items in His Tool Shed

Jony Ive’s Secret Coffee Ritual – Good coffee-making tips here

exquisite texts — “text +1 (718) 404-9006 and write some damn poetry”

This is What Happens to Your Body When You Stop Exercising — “an athlete’s fitness drops faster the fitter they are” Solution? Stay active, even if it’s in little ways.

Hacking Kickstarter: How to Raise $100,000 in 10 Days — Keeping this on file for something I’ll be launching soon

How Bold Entrepreneurs Are Breaking $1 Million In One-Person Businesses — I want in.

This Simple Calculator Explains the Basics of Planning Your Retirement — C.R.E.A.M.

The Pixar Theory of Labor — I haven’t finished this, but what I have read is interesting.

Koken — “Content management and web site publishing for photographers” — I want to try this.

CreativeMornings: Wilson Miner – Steal This Talk

This crazy F1 concept car could save open wheel racing

Shawn Blanc: Creativity is a Gift

Andrew Ambrosino reimagined Apple Music and iTunes — I love projects like these.

Microsoft, Capitulation and The End of Windows Everywhere – Like IBM, Microsoft isn’t going away, but Windows is.

Seth Godin: When considering a new project, it might help to make three lists:

Rives: The Museum of Four in the Morning – What a great speaker

After you watch the above video of Rives, you can read this poem

Marco Arment: The ethics of modern web ad-blocking

NPR: Remembering When Driverless Elevators Drew Skepticism

Ars Technica: Op-ed: How I gave up alternating current *__*

The End of an Era: A Short Film About The Last Day of Hot Metal Typesetting at The New York Times (1978)

Ars Technica: Filmmakers fighting “Happy Birthday” copyright find their “smoking gun” It’s bullshit that the Happy Birthday song isn’t in the public domain.

MIT Technology Review: Tech’s Enduring Great-Man Myth

The Art of the Car Chase by Filmnørdens Hjørne

Once self-driving cars are ubiquitous, I wonder how weird car chase scenes in movies will seem to people.

Over at The Awl, Brian Feldman on Instagram celebrity, The Fat Jew:

Over the weekend, Instagram celebrity The Fat Jew—real name Josh Ostrovsky—faced swift and concentrated denunciation over the content (“jokes”) he posts on his account—one-liners, supposedly funny pictures, lowest common denominator viral chaff. Ostrovsky, who swipes material from others without credit and does not make much of what he posts, is arguably the native Instagram celebrity, with 5.7 million followers. There are people with more followers on Instagram, but mostly because they were celebrities before they joined; the Fat Jew is wholly a product of and for Instagram.

The Internet is all about posting uncredited words and images. It sucks.

For the record, I always do my best to give attribution to the quotes and words I post on this site.

Read enough old comics and this type of stuff shows up more regularly than one would expect.