These are just too great not to share. Read Here »

One of my goals for the new year is to update more. More comics, more news, and more blog posts, too. So, to start things off, here’s something neato I found. Remember I used to post stuff like that? I did. It happened. Here’s a bunch if you want to look through. Anyway, here’s one more.

Tiny PMS Match is a mostly-photo blog (on Tumblr) where graphic designer Inka Mathew takes tiny things like berries, individual M&Ms, what my mom would refer to as “tchotkes”, and whatever other things she finds and then perfectly matches them with a Pantone Matching System (yes, THAT PMS) color. The result is fun and pretty adorable.

Check out Tiny PMS Match »

Check out this video of awesome designer-guy James Victore going around New York and talkng about all the typography he sees. It’s a pretty great look at typography that makes you just appreciate the detail of everything around you, which is what I always loved about design. Victore’s approach is to appreciate what’s out there without devolving into design snobbery about how every small business should have hired a designer, which I also appreciate.

Also, for some reason, he’s in a WWII/Korea-era army jeep, so I kept thinking him and Hawkeye Pierce were gonna have martinis and make font puns. I’d watch the hell out of that show.

Thanks to @MariesaKDale for putting this on my radar!

I put together a new Medium.com post all about avoiding the type of crap work you don’t want to do. Read it here »

Feel free to share your personal stories about this kind of thing in the comments. I’m listening. Or go read the story here »

There’s an opinion piece appearing on nytimes.com that approaches the growing problem of cycling/car accidents that end with no citation or persecution for the drivers.

As they say in the article, we are definitely at a crossroads with bike sharing and cycling way up in urban areas. What should be done about all these cyclists and the vehicles they are in accidents with?

In stories where the driver had been cited, the penalty’s meagerness defied belief, like the teenager in 2011 who drove into the 49-year-old cyclist John Przychodzen from behind on a road just outside Seattle, running over and killing him. The police issued only a $42 ticket for an “unsafe lane change” because the kid hadn’t been drunk and, as they saw it, had not been driving recklessly.

I’ve been in three bike accidents:

• One of them was the driver’s fault (he opened a door into traffic which made me hit the door and then my bike’s back wheel swung and dented a taxi next to it),
• one ambiguous (a guy in front of me stopped short, I swerved to avoid and crashed on my own),
• and one completely the driver’s fault (a taxi t-boned me while he was running a red light).

So clearly this is a topic very close to me. You’d be amazed how many pedestrians, drivers, and even some police are unsure of a cyclist’s “rules of the road” (or completely wrong about them). In the first accident I mention above it was extremely cold out, so the officer at the scene let me wait in his car. I listened as he called it in and explained the situation on the radio and asked who was supposed to be at fault, because he had no idea.

For those of you drivers out there who make the understandable point about the death wish of cyclists, don’t worry. Those bikers who break every traffic rule in a daily ride are not given a free pass. I couldn’t agree more with the ending:

So here’s my proposal: Every time you get on a bike, from this moment forward, obey the letter of the law in every traffic exchange everywhere to help drivers (and police officers) view cyclists as predictable users of the road who deserve respect. And every time you get behind the wheel, remember that even the slightest inattention can maim or kill a human being enjoying a legitimate form of transportation. That alone will make the streets a little safer, although for now I’m sticking to the basement and maybe the occasional country road.

Kind of reminds me of Sarah Beacan’s “League of Courteous Cyclists”.

Feel free to argue about it in the comments. I’ll gladly start up a conversation with anyone willing to discuss.

Illustration above went with the article in NYTimes, originally by Kurt McRobert.

Have you ever had a cup of Chemex coffee? If you haven’t, you should. This beautiful and elegantly simple piece of technology and art produces a wonderful cup of coffee and is a go-to for many of the coffee afficianados I know (though I’m more of a french press man myself).

Here is an article all about the Chemex, and its inventor Dr. Peter Schlumbohm. Turns out it’s been around for 70 years, with the design largely unchanged. The thing has been in the freakin’ Museum Of Modern Art. Since you like my site I have a feeling you like 50’s advertising, elegant design, a story of invention, an interesting read, and above all coffee nerdery. This article has it all.

Read the whole thing here »

A while back, I did a comic about how handy a bicycle would be during the zombie apocalypse.

This past week, Kottke featured a story on Slate about how useful the bikes used in bike sharing programs around the universe (DC, NYC, etc.) would be during the apocalypse. The best is probably The Road parody:

The man put the boy on the handlebars of the bicycle.

It had once been blue. Streaks of cerulean remained in the spectral lines of dulled gray aluminum. It was heavy and his leg ached as he pedaled.

Who used to ride this bicycle, Papa?

No one person rode this bicycle. The bike was shared by everyone who could pay.

Did the people who shared the bikes carry the fire?

They thought they carried the fire.

They also talk about how bikes aren’t really allowed to be “cool” in Hollywood outside of Premium Rush, though with cycling a growing trend around the country it’s only a matter of time until there’s more coverage. I, for one, cannot wait. 

And it feels good to be right.

Read the article here »

*Yes, I read a lot of Kottke.org and you should too. It is next up on my list of “dream blogs to ever feature my work”.

Systemic Rachel sent me a link to this article on the local DC blog Greater Greater Washington, which details the story of a man named Zach who, while cycling, wound up in an accident with a car. For those of us that commute by bike that is always a big fear. I know I have been in three cycling accidents throughout my five years of commuting to work that way, but luckily nothing as serious as the one mentioned here.

Before you click the link, know that it isn’t an article about how gruesome the accident was or how wrong the driver was. In fact it’s the story of how Zach attempted to get his insurance to cover the accident, how the accident was reported, and how lucky he was that it was caught on camera.

During the test, Officer Carter entered the room. He asked me to sign a ticket for running a red light. I asked him to take a look at footage since I was certain I hadn’t. He wasn’t interested and asked me to sign the ticket and admit fault. I didn’t. He left.

That’s just the beginning of the story. This is a cautionary tale for all the cyclists that read this site to obey traffic rules whenever possible, know your rights as a cyclist forwards and backwards, stand your ground when you know you’re right, and of course be safe out there.

Give it a read, and feel free to come back and post your thoughts. I’ll be waiting.

“It must have been your fault. C’mon. You are a biker.” (via Greater Greater Washington)

In case you’re asking yourself “hey, this isn’t the normal stuff Rosscott posts about”, I’m featuring this for three reasons:

1. Beer.
2. It features my good buddy Nate Oyler, who built HilariAwesome.com. (He’s the one who describes how stupid simple it is to brew beer.)
3. Beeeeeer.

More about the doc can be found here.

Just check out Nippl.es.