Linkage

1. A strangely discolored Seurat reproduction? Not quite -- it's actually a photograph representing the 106,000 aluminum cans that Americans consume every 30 seconds. Chris Jordan has an entire series entitled Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait, which "looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics." His images illustrate everything from Vicodin abuse to annual prison incarceration numbers.

2. The Brooklyn-based design group Fwis has a beautiful gallery of book covers displayed on their site. One of my favorites has to be the typographical masterpiece that is the Ecco Book for Christmas Stories.

3. Knowing my ability to muck up electronic equipment? I'm buying Camera Armor immediately.

4. Fake Is the New Real's site is filled with experimental oddities, but perhaps the most entertaining (and tongue-in-cheek) subpage is their Comparative Timeline: Elvis Presley's Life vs. US Involvement in South-East Asia. Don't laugh until you look at it -- the two are disturbingly parallel. Other equally tongue-in-cheek but slightly more research-based projects abound, including the Common Sense Electoral College Reform -- which creates new states like Virgitucky and Land 'O Lakes.