Month: January 2008
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The best book covers of the year
[Book Design Review covers the best of 2007](http://nytimesbooks.blogspot.com/2007/11/my-favorite-book-covers-of-2007.html). Some great design here – the kind of books that you know are going to be interesting just judging from their covers.
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For high-flyers only
[A table made from a DC-4’s wing](http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/aviation/table-made-of-dc+4-wing-shall-be-mine-334367.php). The only problem is that you’d need to review your entire decor to match.
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Why can’t we all just get along.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the TV and film writers in the US are [on strike](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007–08_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike). It’s been about 9 weeks now since they went on strike in November. The economics side of this is the question of ‘why’? The standard theory suggests that you should never see strikes, because the simple threat of one…
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The simple path to better photography
[Buy a 50mm fixed lens for your SLR](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2007/october#sun-14-jdd). They’re cheap, and they make a massive difference to your pictures. I got one recently, and the picture’s are superb.
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Coming Soon: The Great Debaters
[The true story of black debaters in the Jim Crow South](http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/thegreatdebaters/trailer1/). A little bit from the ‘great teacher inspires students’ cookie cutter mill, but the trailer suggest that it’ll be a deeper than average.
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How the South was Lost
[The US Civil War in Four Minutes](http://www.idkwtf.com/videos/latest-videos/the-civil-war-in-four-minutes). Nice summary of what happened, shows just how long it took for any ‘progress’ from the Northern point of view.
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The Fortune 15
[The 15 wealthiest fictional characters](http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/11/richest-fictional-characters-oped-books-fict1507-cx_mn_de_1211fictional15_land.html). I suspect a lot of the writing for this one is done while the participants are quite drunk.
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Something for ET
[A fantastic mobile to phone home on](http://io9.com/335383/retro+futurist-cell-phone-made-from-rotary-dialer). Could be a very profitable phone – think of all the replacements people will have to buy after spinning it too hard.
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A history of smack talk
[Swearing in baseball in 1897](http://www.kottke.org/07/12/seven-things-you-can-never-say-while-playing-oldtimey-baseball). Not safe for work. In fact, it’s hard to imagine any context where the kind of language in this would have been appropriate…
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Making the virtual more real
[A wrist-mounted air guitar player](http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/993b/). So very, very silly. Can someone please buy me one?