David Hlynsky’s Communist-Era Store Windows depicts advertising (or the lack thereof) in East European countries in the late 1980s. This kind of cleanliness is now unseen, Mac stores being the exception (I knew there was something totalitarian about Apple!). But cynicism aside, what strikes me is not so much the difference between the then and the now, but how similar in fact the windowdressings depicted in the series are to my own memories of Portugal (a non-communist country) in the 80s. Perhaps it’s wrong to see these images set in a capitalism vs communism context. I see them in a rampant-capitalism vs whatever-else context. Advertising just wasn’t such a big part of the overall economy back then.

Cory Doctorow has a new novel out called Makers, which you can, as usual, download for free from his website.

I have a colossal number of pages to read as part of my Master’s thesis investigations, but I’ll read this as soon as I feel I need a break from those readings.

There’s an explanation for this image, but please indulge me. I want to post it right as it is.

Blue Note jazz sessions, as photographed by Francis Wolff. Nice. (via Kottke)

A beautiful Missions to Mars infographic, related to this report that argues for a manned mission. I personally think space exploration is probably better left off to robots for the time being, as the resources needed to make a mission possible for us nimble humans are better spent on other stuff down here on Earth. On the other hand: I loved the Mars Trilogy, so astronauts on Mars would be infinitely cool. (via CGR)

The number 42? (via circuitry)

A scary xkcd. Next week, I’m about to start teaching Editing to people born after the breakup of the Soviet Union. I teach at an University.

Curiosities of Locomotive Design. When I was a kid my favourite toy was an 8-shaped electrical train track, that allowed for the reenactment of awesome rail accidents. Funny how one forgets about such things.