Del.icio.us links for March 4th through March 5th:
- Tunguska-sized space rock buzzes Earth – An asteroid about the size of the one that levelled the forest in Tunguska, Siberia, a century ago flew past Earth on Monday – well within the Moon’s orbit. The risk of a future impact with the object is not yet known.
- LeftBanker – The Left Banker was head of Equity Derivatives Research and Strategy at Goldman Sachs International and was an advisor on derivatives and financial markets to the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange and the Italian Ministry of Finance.
- The Superior Civilization – The New York Review of Books – Superorganisms such as some ant, bee, and termite colonies represent a level of organization intermediate between single organisms and the ecosystem: you can think of them as comprised of individuals whose coordination and integration have reached such a sophisticated level that they function with some of the seamlessness of a human body.
- 10 ridiculously cool Steampunk guitars – You can pretty much give any object a Steampunk makeover, but because we really, really love guitars, the following are the shiniest examples of Steampunk axes to grace the earth.
- Genre and storytelling in video games | Blasphemous Geometries – This month in Blasphemous Geometries, Jonathan McCalmont takes a look at the roles of genre narratives and storytelling in the still-young media of computer and video games, questioning the received wisdom that that the form has matured noticeably from is simple puzzle-solving and goal-reaching roots.
- Apple’s Flatland Aesthetic, Part 2: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple TV – Last month, I discussed the ill-effects to the Macintosh of Apple’s Flatland aesthetic, a visual simplicity that threatens to bury Apple’s users with unnecessary clutter and complexity. This month, it’s time to turn our attention to Apple’s other devices.
- Apple’s Flatland Aesthetic, Part 1: The Mac – Apple [...] comes out with an initial, visually-simple model, and then just sticks with it as their users quickly outgrow it, resulting in their software appearing, over time, to lose power, instead of gaining it.