James Gulliver Hancock offers an intimate look at his wonderful illustration project, All the Buildings in New York.
(↬ Doobybrain)
“People like to say that the games press is just chasing page views with certain stories, but let’s be honest: We’re chasing page views with every story. This is the reality of the business. It takes so many page views and so many uniques to stay in business, you find yourself going after stories you know will be popular. You may pass up covering games that don’t have a large following. You may break one long story into two chunks to stretch it out. You do anything to get people to click.
This system sucks, and many writers and editors involved with the system know it sucks. The writers who are often asked to create these stories know it sucks. You think you hate to read shit, imagine having to create shit that you know will do way more business than a well-researched and thought out story on a topic you’re passionate about. Now imagine making a pitiful amount of money for both stories. Is it any wonder so many talented writers leave the business?
”
Ad-blockers, the games press, and why sexy cosplay galleries lead to better reporting BY BEN KUCHERA (penny-arcade)
“ In his book “Debt: The First 5,000 Years,” the anthropologist David Graeber examines our history of debt and money, concluding, in part, that humans do not naturally tend toward impersonal, reciprocal exchange. Instead, exchange usually develops in cultures first as a part of a larger social and cultural ritual. One of the most compelling cultures Graeber profiles is the Tiv of West Africa, who have very particular rules about exchange. For starters, they believe that bringing an economic transaction to full completion is essentially immoral, or at least frowned upon, because it implies that one party doesn’t want anything to do with the other in the future. If a Tiv man or woman gives you a gift, you are supposed to respond with another gift of slightly greater or lesser value. The outstanding debt between the two of you is a signal that your relationship is going to continue. To respond with a gift of equal value would be to say implicitly that you wish to even things out and draw your relationship to a close. ”
Why Would You Ever Give Money Through Kickstarter? by
Here’s our new interactive look at Beijing’s pollution problems.
How was it made? This interactive is a composite of photographs showing air pollution levels in the sky over Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, from March 7-14, 2013. REUTERS/Wei Yao
The Urban Cave is the powerful documentation of homeless men and women in West Harlem by Andrea Star Reese. Formerly a filmmaker, Reese began this project when she enrolled in the photojournalism documentary photo program at ICP. One of her assignments was to capture “New York Underground”, which consequently led her to a train tunnel nicknamed the Batcave.
There she discovered a complex community of people; Chuck, Lisa, Krissy, Snow White and Country, that operated much like a family. Reese was allowed to witness their stories as a mutual trust was formed. She describes her images as a “response to the beauty of a place, a people, and the dignity, determination, and perseverance of this particular long-term homeless culture.” Reese captures a portrait of people, not an issue, and she is very specific about that. We would agree. (via featureshoot.com)
Crazed patchwork of farms in Central Asia, a monochromatic 3D hallucination in the snow. — Chris Hadfield, Canadian Astronaut, currently living in space aboard ISS as Commander of Expedition 35
(via @Cmdr_Hadfield)
Poland Spring water mostly doesn’t come from Poland Spring, and other magical mysteries of the bottled water industry. Head = asplode.
