bookofjoe

Stacked Crayon Art — Christian Faur

Look at the picture above.

What do you see?

Perhaps large pixels on a screen.

Or the best effort of a Seurat wannabe.

But it's neither.

In fact, like the exemplars below,

it's a photo-realistic image

by artist Christian Faur,

created

from thousands

 of stacked crayons.

[via WebUrbanist, PetaPixel, Laughing Squid, and Richard Kashdan]

Cable Tie Set

Leaf, Owl, 

or Bird.

Velcro closure.

1.9" x 0.8".

$4.95.

Helpful Hints from joeeze: Show only Amazon Prime items

If you're anything like me and do the majority of your shopping on Amazon and belong to Amazon Prime for any number of reasons, you may find sifting through all the items that come up in a search for those with Prime shipping rather tedious.

I've been doing this for years, wishing that somehow I could only see Prime goods but figuring it just wasn't gonna happen.

My problem was a failure to think outside the box and look somewhere on the page other than the options up top.

For some reason, yesterday I glanced down the left hand column and there, buried under "Department" and "International Shipping" was "Amazon Prime" with a check box for Prime Eligible (above and below).

I clicked the box and Bob was my new shipping uncle.

w00t!

Gummi Bear Anatomy Toy

That's different.

From LikeCool: "New York City-based artist and designer Jason Freeny has released his colorful Gummi Bear Anatomy Toys." 

$45.

[via Laughing Squid and Moist Production]

Why tech industry CEO Kyle Wiens gives a grammar test to all prospective employees

From the July 20 Harvard Business Review via yesterday's Wall Street Journal "Notable & Quotable" feature:

If you think an apostrophe was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, you will never work for me. If you think a semicolon is a regular colon with an identity crisis, I will not hire you. If you scatter commas into a sentence with all the discrimination of a shotgun, you might make it to the foyer before we politely escort you from the building.

Everyone who applies for a position at either of my companies, iFixit or Dozuki, takes a mandatory grammar test. Extenuating circumstances aside (dyslexia, English language learners, etc.), if job hopefuls can't distinguish between "to" and "too," their applications go into the bin.

Grammar is relevant for all companies. Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn't make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet. In blog post, on Facebook statuses, in emails, and on company websites, your words are all you have. They are a projection of you in your physical absence. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can't tell the difference between their, there, and they're.

If it takes someone more than 20 years to notice how to properly use "it's," then that's not a learning curve I'm comfortable with. So, even in this hyper-competitive market, I will pass on a great programmer who cannot write.

Grammar signifies more than just a person's ability to remember high school English. I've found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing — like stocking shelves or labeling parts.

Pivot Power Mini

Two grounded outlets and two USB ports.

Three-pronged plug folds out for use.

Compact collapsible design.

Built-in surge protector.

$24.99.

[via LikeCool]

The remarkable head stability of the owl

Videre est credere.

From the YouTube caption:

The Vestibular System of the Owl (1962)

Authors: Money K.E., Correia M.J.

Abstract: Owls have a curious variability in the postrotatory head nystagmus following abrupt angular deceleration. Owls can exhibit a remarkable head stability during angular movement of the body about any axis passing through the skull. The vestibular apparatus in the owl is bigger than in man, and a prominent crista neglecta is present. The tectorial membrane, the cupula, and the otolithic membranes of the utricle, saccule, and lagena are all "attached" to surfaces in addition to the surfaces bearing hair cells; these attachments are very substantial in the utricular otolithic membrane and in the cupula.

[via Kottke and Paul Biba]

Shark Laundry Basket

Designed by Krakow-based Jolanta Uczarczyk.

Polyester felt.

47"H x 17"W.

Apply within.

[via LikeCool]