On perishablepress:

htaccess tricks

A definite bookmark:

53 CSS techniques

A sum up of the current state-of-the-art in graphic design for web pages on webdesignfromscratch:

current web style

“ This series of articles is about merging ideas and inspiration in different and unexpected ways. Inspired by the pop artists of the 50’s and 60’s, I will take an inspirational item and transform it for the web, starting with what inspired me, working through the various design stages, and creating the final result.”

Creating Inspired Design Part 1: I Am The Walrus

“ Macro shots of various insects or bugs. All the shots are taken in my garden. ”

Insects macros

“ Just added a preliminary 9-block IP identification feature to Daily, my blog server to enhance commenter identity beyond name and website. Basically, what I am doing is using a privacy protecting derivative of each commenter's IP address to build a 9-block image and displaying it next the commenter's name.”

Visual Security: 9-block IP Identification

And the PHP version of it:

Visiglyphs for IP visualisation

A post on Noisy Decent Graphics:

Two brilliant pieces of graphic design

Paper prototyping and Photoshop CSS mockups:

• Paper Prototyping
• Quick CSS Mockups with Photoshop

Two great posts on 3quarksdaily:

• The Future of Science is Open, Part 3
• Lunar Refractions a post about Piranesi

“ Psychologists are learning more about how colour builds language and language builds colour.”

How grue is your valley?

“ Gerontologists consider the maximum lifespan for humans to be about 120 years. But with rising evidence for a genetic “death programme” which in principle could be amended, some researchers are starting to believe the limit could be extended.”

Can ageing be stopped?

“ From this place, and from this day forth begins a new era in the history of the world, and you can all say that you were present at its birth.”

Savage Wars of Peace

“ Dark energy does more than hurry along the expansion of the universe. It also has a stranglehold on the shape and spacing of galaxies”

The Universe's Invisible Hand

Airlines set to net billions

“ Heuristic evaluation is a technique that involves analysing the usability of a website against a set of general usability precepts. One or more “experts” will analyse the target site, often following a series of pre-defined scenarios. Whenever they encounter an issue that breaks one of the precepts or “heuristics”, they will note the issue and sometimes the severity.”

Heuristics for Modern Web Application Development

Ten Usability Heuristics

First Principles of Interaction Design

An article on whitespace by Mark Boulton on A List Apart:

Whitespace

On 456 Berea St. :

Styling form controls with CSS, revisited

One more cheat sheet from ILoveJackDaniels:

HTML cheat sheet

“ Scientists have discovered the key to the ability of spicy foods to kill cancer cells. They found capsaicin, an ingredient of jalapeño peppers, triggers cancer cell death by attacking mitochondria - the cells' energy-generating boiler rooms. ”

How spicy foods can kill cancers

“ In 1999 the Government started a series of “farm-scale trials” of GM herbicide-tolerant crops. Each of these GM crop trials covers ten hectares (25 acres) and it is planned to have at least 25 sites for each GM crop involved - winter and spring oilseed rape, maize and sugar beet. These trials are meant to examine the environmental effects of GM crops, but they have not been designed to prevent pollen escaping from the test sites or to protect nearby beekeepers from contamination of their honey.”

Bees, Honey and Genetically Modified Crops

Too much time spent inside labs and not nearly enough outside, learning from nature. Agriculture and the production of food in general are basic to the survival of the human species, but , instead of creating herbicide-tolerant crops, why don't they try to use different ways to supply for raising demand? I don't think the real problem is lack of food, even if it's necessary to bear in mind the population growth, rather it's the distribution that needs to be addressed. We need to understand that farming has to be organized better then it is now, in a more environmental friendly way, with attention to local necessities. Forcing higher production through manipulation finalized only to commercial ends, short lived, is not going to solve the long run problem of feeding a growing population. I may be naive, but I'd expect more intelligence from people spending so much time studying..

“ The Buddha once told a story about a king who ordered a group of blind men to be presented with an elephant. Each man touched a different part of the animal. The king then asked them what an elephant is like. The blind men who touched the elephant's head replied, “An elephant, your majesty, is just like a water jar.” The blind men who touched its ear said, “An elephant, your majesty, is just like a winnowing basket.” The blind men who touched its tusk declared, “An elephant, your majesty, is just like a plowshare.” The ones who touched the trunk replied, “An elephant, your majesty, is just like a plow pole.” The blind men who touched the body replied, “An elephant, your majesty, is just like a storeroom.” The blind men who touched the foot replied, “An elephant, your majesty, is just like a post.” The blind men who touched the hindquarters replied, “An elephant, your majesty, is just like a mortar.” The blind men who touched the tail replied, “An elephant, your majesty, is just like a pestle.” And the blind men who touched the tuft at the end of the tail replied, “An elephant, your majesty, is just like a broom.” The blind men fell into a fistfight, shouting, “An elephant is like this, an elephant is not like that! An elephant is not like this, an elephant is like that!” ”

The Genome: An Outsider's View

So, maybe, lab people should find the time to live on a farm..

Two articles on online communities and their de-humanization:

• Digital Maoism
• The “Dumbness of Crowds”

On BBC:

“ Oil prices saw their sharpest drop in two years, shedding more than $2 a barrel as mild US weather led consumers to use less petrol and heating oil. US light crude oil fell $2.73 to $55.59 a barrel in New York, falling by over $5 in two days. In London meanwhile, Brent crude fell $2.85 to $55.11. The US Energy Department said stocks of distillates rose by two million barrels in the last week of 2006. The fall led oil group Opec to say it might act if prices continue dropping.”

Oil in biggest fall in two years

When prices were raising, Opec was going to act to stop them. Now, prices are falling and Opec is going to act..what is it that they want? Not only Opec, all of these so called oil people? A few months ago everybody was saying they were trying to find a way to reduce oil prices and I thought it was just a scam to keep people from burning them down. Now it's obvious, but unfortunately, as usual, nobody notices. It's ridiculous..more posts about oil

Three article typography related on iA:

The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard

Web Design is 95% Typography (1)

Web Design is 95% Typography (2)

“ Improvements they devise to the molecular structure of an existing, expensive drug turn it technically into a new medicine which is no longer under a 20-year patent to a multinational drug company and can be made and sold cheaply.”

Scientists find way to slash cost of drugs

The fact that multinational drug companies holding patents on medicines of large use sell them very expensive is incredible but painfully true. I suppose many people know about it but very little has been done to correct the situation.

Via Kottke.org:

“ The remarkable thing is that the 7 lanes of freeway in each direction have zero extra capacity at that bandwidth, while the single track of rail rapid transit has, theoretically, at least another 66% to spare.”

15 thousand per hour