iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Information is Beautiful @infobeautiful.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Most generous countries. Often, nations who’ve suffered massive instability are among the most generous. Haiti. Liberia. Iraq. (source: Charities Aid Foundation) part of our Beautiful News project informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnew...

Scatter plot showing the relationship between generosity and wealth among various countries. Nations like Indonesia, Myanmar, and Kenya, which are marked as poorer, appear highly generous. Richer countries such as the USA and Ireland also exhibit significant generosity. The x-axis represents wealth, and the y-axis illustrates generosity levels. Circle size indicates the scale of the economy. The chart highlights that some of the world's poorest nations are among the most generous.

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Information is Beautiful @infobeautiful.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Interesting if you know your film directors: Who is your favourite director's favourite director? www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeau... by Reddit user u/maglortiwele

A dense network diagram explores which film directors are admired by other directors, based on the 2022 Sight and Sound poll of the greatest films of all time. Each circle represents a director, with the size showing how many peers named them among their favourites, while arrows indicate admiration or influence flowing from one director to another. Male directors are shown in black and female directors in purple. At the centre of the graphic is Martin Scorsese, by far the largest node, labelled as being mentioned by 84 peers, making him the dominant “favourite director’s favourite director.” Surrounding him are major contemporary and arthouse filmmakers such as Béla Tarr, Bong Joon-ho, Wes Anderson, Guillermo del Toro, Wim Wenders, Roy Andersson, Michael Mann, Richard Linklater, and George Miller, all interconnected through chains of influence and mutual admiration. Some directors form small clusters or loops where they repeatedly cite one another, reflecting shared artistic communities or stylistic kinship. Female filmmakers including Joanna Hogg, Julie Dash, Lynne Ramsay, Alice Rohrwacher, Cheryl Dunye, and Athiná-Rachél Tsangári appear throughout the network but are far fewer in number than male directors, subtly reflecting gender imbalance within canonised film culture. Off to one side is a humorous section titled “The most humble ones,” highlighting directors like James Benning and Michael Snow whose top-ten lists consisted almost entirely of their own films. The overall visual resembles a constellation or social web of cinematic influence, showing how film culture is shaped not only by audiences and critics but by directors continuously studying, quoting, admiring, and borrowing from one another across generations and national cinemas.

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Information is Beautiful @infobeautiful.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Damn ... how far Bilbo and Frodo actually walked (If the Shire is Kansas, Mordor is Jacksonville) (by reddit user fussomoro) bit.ly/BilboFrodo

A weathered fantasy map of Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings, showing two different journey routes marked in contrasting colors. The red line shows Frodo and Sam's path from the Shire to Mordor, while the blue line shows Bilbo's earlier journey as depicted in The Hobbit. The map includes familiar locations like the Shire, Rohan, and Mordor, with mountains and forests illustrated in a classic Tolkien-style cartography. The map appears aged with sepia tones and includes text labels in stylized fantasy font. A compass rose and scale bar are visible in the lower left corner, and the title reads "The Map of Middle Earth.

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Information is Beautiful @infobeautiful.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Yet another reason to tut at the Mercator map projection brilliantmaps.com/mercator-vs-...

World map using a Mercator projection, but with the true relative sizes of countries overlaid in a darker shade. This illustrates how the standard Mercator projection distorts the size of landmasses, particularly those further from the equator, by showing the actual size differences. For example, Canada and Russia appear much smaller in their true relative size compared to their depiction in a standard Mercator projection.

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Information is Beautiful @infobeautiful.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Evolution of the Alphabet via usefulcharts.com

Infographic showing the "Evolution of the Alphabet" from Proto-Sinaitic (c. 1750 BCE) to Modern Latin Script. Colorful arrows trace the development of each letter through Phoenician, Archaic Greek, Archaic Latin, and Roman scripts, culminating in the modern 26-letter alphabet. The image demonstrates how letter shapes transformed over time.

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Information is Beautiful @infobeautiful.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The digestive system as a tube map Original design by Jack Anderson www.radiologycafe.com/blog/digesti...

This infographic reimagines the human digestive system as a simplified subway map, using coloured lines to show how food and digestive secretions travel through the gastrointestinal tract. The red line traces the main path of food, beginning at the oesophagus, passing through the stomach, continuing into the duodenum and small intestine (represented here by the ileum), before reaching the caecum and then travelling through the colon to the sigmoid colon and rectum. Separate coloured branches represent organs that feed digestive juices into the system: the green line shows bile flowing from the liver via the gallbladder into the duodenum, while the yellow line shows digestive enzymes entering from the pancreas at the same location. The blue line outlines the large intestine (colon), which frames the small intestine before ending at the rectum. A short purple branch depicts the appendix extending from the caecum. By presenting the digestive tract as an interconnected transit network rather than an anatomical drawing, the graphic emphasizes the sequence of digestion and the convergence of food, bile and pancreatic enzymes in the duodenum while making the overall layout easier to understand.

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Andy Warhol @warhol.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Green Coca-Cola Bottles, 1962 botfrens.com/collections/19/content…

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BoschBot @boschbot.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Haywain - Closed

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ジェフえもん @jefuemon.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This poster is hanging in Susukino subway station. Susukino is the entertainment/red light district of Sapporo. I don't know, but I think in this area of town, some folks WANT a bear encounter.

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Evlyn Moreau @evlynmoreau.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Me these days:

panel from nancy saying you wake up very early and you go to bed very late

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Jay Troyer @gr8flbluejay.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Criselda Vasquez, American, The New American Gothic, 2017, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in, private collection The artist's father, portrayed in the painting, was kidnapped by ICE on 31 March 2026

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MoMA Paintings and Sculpture @moma.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

César Paternosto, The Hidden Order, 1972 botfrens.com/collections/14377/cont…

Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund in honor of Nando Parrado

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Nothings Monstered @nothingsmonstrd.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Ann Margaret, 1975

"Your senses will never be the same!"
Ann-Margret sitting on a pinball machine machine is Wizard a game inspired by the movie Tommy inspired by the weird concept album Tommy by The Who the back glass the back glass seems to have a sort of sort of cartoon and Margaret draped around the shoulders of Roger Daltrey as the title character.

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Nothings Monstered @nothingsmonstrd.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Squeaky hinge www.tumblr.com/pmamtravelle...

Photograph of an old door frame the paint is peeling off the wood and the hinge is Rusty the hinge is worked into the shape of a mouse

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Andy Warhol @warhol.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Flowers (Black and White), 1974 botfrens.com/collections/19/content…

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BoschBot @boschbot.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Garden of Earthly Delights

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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.org · 28/08/2026

John von Neumann, a 23-year-old prodigy, was the first to recognize and define the quantum world as a Hilbert space. Once he did, exploring the ins and outs of Hilbert space would lead physicists to a deeper, more unified understanding of quantum physics. www.quantamagazine.org/in-hilbert-s...

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Guggenheim Collection @guggenheim.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Windows Open Simultaneously 1st Part, 3rd Motif by Robert Delaunay, 1912 botfrens.com/collections/212/conten…

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, 1976

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The Kimono Gallery @roger1952.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

asket Weaver. Hand-colored photo. 1886, Japan. Photography by Adolpho Farsari

Produced in 1886 by the Italian-born photographer Adolfo Farsari, this masterfully hand-colored albumen print offers a captivating view into the world of traditional Japanese bamboo craftsmanship (takezaiku), capturing a dedicated artisan (shokunin) in his atelier surrounded by a dense, rhythmic display of his handiwork. Positioned at the focal point of the composition, the craftsman sits cross-legged on the floor, deeply absorbed in the delicate task of fashioning a basket base. From his hands radiate fine, pliable splints of split bamboo (higō), creating a striking starburst array across the workspace. He wears the practical, functional attire of a Meiji-era tradesman: a dark indigo-dyed work tunic (hanten) over simple trousers, his head bound in a striped cotton cloth (tenugui) wrapped securely to absorb sweat and protect against sharp bamboo shavings.

The studio composition functions as a spectacular visual encyclopedia of late 19th-century bamboo weaving techniques and utilitarian forms. Suspended along a central horizontal bamboo pole and stacked systematically around the perimeter are dozens of specialized vessels: open-work sifting sieves (zaru), shallow winnowing trays, cylindrical storage hampers, and nested household strainers. Farsari’s staging highlights the remarkable variety of traditional weave structures, from fine twilled mats (ajiro-ami) and square-grid lattices (yotsume-ami) to the bold, star-shaped hexagonal meshes (kagome-ami) seen on the large woven hampers flanking the artisan. The delicate, hand-applied watercolors—characteristic of Farsari’s Yokohama atelier—render the natural textures of seasoned and freshly cut bamboo in soft washes of pale sage, warm olive, and golden ochre against the neutral backdrop.

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MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

"Despite the enormous range of sizes available in the physical universe, our lives would not be the same at a different scale. Giants are impossible. The Lilliputians are to be found only in literature. And as for humans, there is a very good reason we are the size we are."

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu

Why Human Giants Defy the Laws of Physics

Without different anatomical proportions, a scaled-up body would collapse under its own weight.

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al-Mutaghatris @al-mutaghatris.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

this is the type of completely fascinating, completely off-track book for which I wish I had the superpower of being able to stop time whenever I wanted to read

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Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I have been meaning to write a post about a preprint that I'm pretty excited about: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... In neuroscience we often assume that we can learn something general about “the brain” using different species. But is this true? Do monkeys even see the world the way we do?

On the left, an image of a rhesus macaque looking towards its left, and on the right, an AI-generated zoomed-out rendering of a human in the same pose. Both are looking.

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Paul Welsh @paulwelsh89.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Edwaert Collier Memento mori

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Paul Welsh @paulwelsh89.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Korta, Unknown Artist. c. 1905 The Lithuanian National Museum of Art

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Paul Welsh @paulwelsh89.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Ceiling, 16th century Made in Spain On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 459

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Fidel Destro @fideldestro.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

I've had this pattern in my head for a while, and I'm sure I've seen its like before, but I couldn't really describe it or reproduce it. I have in mind a coat I'd like to have made, with this in the lining. It'll go with my mask. #Blender #Geometry #MotionGraphics #Design #Cosplay

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Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The designers of my building sacrificed a planned painting classroom in order to leave room for this magnificent baobab tree. That was fifty years ago and it continues to grow through the spaces of the building (my office is right behind it)

View of the corner of a modernist concrete building on a tropical college campus. The building is about forty feet high and a gigantic tree, growing partly inside it, towers over it by another twenty or thirty feet.

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The Kimono Gallery @roger1952.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

A gravity-defying self-portrait from the renowned "Today's Levitation" (Yowayowa) photography project by Japanese artist Natsumi Hayashi. The image was captured using a fast shutter speed to freeze mid-air motion -- the project creates a surreal illusion of floating freely without gravity.

Captured with striking lightness and whimsical precision, this self-portrait from Natsumi Hayashi’s acclaimed series Today’s Levitation (Honjitsu no Fuyū) epitomizes her surreal, poetic approach to ordinary urban spaces. Frozen mid-stride like a sprinter gliding effortlessly through the atmosphere, Hayashi hovers above the pavement before a weathered, rusted storefront shutter. Clad in a vintage-style floral print dress and bright green shoes, her posture remains impossibly calm—her facial expression untroubled and her torso held perfectly level, as though gravity had momentarily ceased to apply to her alone.

What makes the photograph particularly captivating is the subtle interplay of athletic precision, technical craft, and witty visual narrative. To achieve these weightless illusions without digital manipulation or safety wires, Hayashi relied on a fast shutter speed and a ten-second camera timer, frequently jumping dozens or even hundreds of times until achieving a split second of total poise. In a delightful touch of humor, she carries a small glass filled with a beverage perfectly upright, defying the kinetic energy of the leap. Directly behind her, a faded mural on the corrugated shutter depicts a runner striding forward with arms raised in victory—a playful nod to classic Japanese athletic motifs that creates a charming, mid-air dialogue between the painted figure and Hayashi’s frozen flight.

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The Kimono Gallery @roger1952.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Japanese actress Yumi Shirakawa (1936–2016) during the golden era of mid-century Japanese cinema.

This striking black-and-white studio portrait captures the classic glamour and quiet poise of Japanese actress Yumi Shirakawa (1936–2016) during the golden era of mid-century Japanese cinema. Sculpted in dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, the photograph illuminates her delicate features, dark expressive eyes, and graceful posture, with her slender fingers resting delicately across her chest. Wearing a sleek, dark high-collared top accented by a subtle, shimmering pin at the neck, Shirakawa embodies an aura of refined, cosmopolitan sophistication. Her effortless elegance and commanding visual presence earned her a reputation as one of Toho Studios' most captivating leading ladies, frequently compared by contemporary critics to Western cinematic icons like Grace Kelly.

Signing with Toho in 1956, Shirakawa swiftly became an iconic face of postwar Japanese cinema, defining the visual landscape of several legendary film genres. She achieved international recognition starring in foundational tokusatsu and science-fiction classics directed by Ishirō Honda and special-effects maestro Eiji Tsuburaya, including Rodan (1956), The Mysterians (1957), The H-Man (1958), and Gorath (1962). Beyond large-scale cinema, her emotional nuance and modern sensibility caught the attention of master director Yasujirō Ozu, who cast her as the sharp, independent Takako in The End of Summer (Kohayagawa-ke no Aki, 1961). Evolving from Toho’s premier starlet into a respected, long-reigning matriarch of Japanese television drama in her later decades, Shirakawa's legacy remains anchored in her remarkable versatility, intelligence, and enduring screen charisma.

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Information is Beautiful @infobeautiful.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Psychologist Robert Sternberg created a triangular framework for love. Three components - passion, intimacy & commitment - make 8 potential types of love. (by Instagram user: @thepresentpsychologist) bit.ly/TypesLove