This is the last year of Whiskerino, an exercise in camaraderie, manliness, photography and general beard growing. The last time it occurred, I was travelling without a razor, already rocking a massive beard, and was unable to compete. Basically, you start on November 1st, clean shaven and don’t touch your razor or any other trimming implements until February 28th, making a full 120 days of uninhibited beard growth.

I will be uploading a daily photo to my profile on Whiskerino and occasionally to my flickr stream, if you feel like keeping track. I’m also planning on producing a book at the end of it, with each of the daily photos and a collage which may or may not be related to the day’s photo.

Pictorial Webster’s features over four hundred original woodcut and copper engravings from 19th century editions of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The fine press edition features a letterpress interior, leather binding and a hand-tooled cover. A trade edition of the book is now available from Chronicle Books.

This video offers a behind-the-scenes peek at the making of the book. You get a good sense of what’s involved with production and the amount of effort that goes into it.

An awesome infographic on 50 years of space exploration from National Geographic, although they’re using a kludgey flash viewport. Check out the full size version while it lasts.

Update: If you like that one, check out this visualization of the various mars missions.

“Did you ever hear the word ‘derivatives’?” he said. “Do you think our guys could have invented, say, credit default swaps? Give me a break! They couldn’t have done the math.”

Update: A Year in Pictures is a particularly interesting artifact for the type nerds out there.

The book is a durable artifact in which author, reader, and the artisans who make and preserve them enter into ordered and potentially pleasurable relationships. A printed book is enhanced by the materials and processes with which it is made. The book in the era of digital reproduction is an object of pleasure as well as a container of information. To consult information relieved of the pleasures of turning a page, smelling ink, or admiring the binding, we can rely on the internet. The book as ark of deposit requires neither electricity nor fossil fuel to either read or maintain. The book as an object dwells at the intersections of writing and art, philosophy and poetics, science and scholarship. The structure of a book is a sculpture for reading. The meaning is transmitted and the book remains.

The production run is limited to 500, anyone want to buy me a copy?