Not quite a year ago, my now-wife and I got our marriage license in this very spot. The kind woman behind the counter at about nine seconds in was the one who filled out the paperwork for us. Our friend Albert was there to sign off on it. A day later we’d make it official at a very small ceremony in my parents’ backyard. It was lovely.

We were able to do all of that because our particular genetics mean that we, as a woman and a man, are attracted to and love each other. I have no doubt that all of the people who showed up at the courthouse in my hometown love each other just as much as I love my wife. It breaks my heart that they can’t have that love and commitment recognized.

I love this chart of combinations of muesli ingredients so very much. The backstory is that a German make-your-own muesli startup (mymuesli.com of course) commissioned a data visualization of how their customers combined their muesli. It gets interesting with this chart showing a “surprise” factor, roughly translated as whether a particular combination of ingredients went together better (or worse) than might be expected.

So good! [via Tiff’s excellent journogeekery blog]

The Data Journalism Handbook looks awesome

Collaborative, open source book from the Chicago Tribune, the Guardian, the Financial Times, the New York Times, ProPublica, and others. More of this please.

Microsoft’s Metro theme shows what’s wrong with jQuery Mobile

I’m not trying to pick on Microsoft here, the problem that I have with jQuery mobile is that it’s a fairly monolithic approach to mobile web design. The default, iOSish theme is equally terrible. Build websites (with something like Zepto.js), not fake OS facades.

nprmusic:

Master of My Make-Believe has its playfully bouncy moments — Santi White says it’s inspired in part by a trip to Jamaica — but its overall tone is one of severity, even solemnity. It’s as if pop music caught up with Santigold’s sound, and she tacked left to avoid the glare.

Stream Master of My Make-Believe now.

Oh, YES. New Santogold Sant_i_gold. Needs Flash, etc. etc.

Thanks, Tiff!

Radio Time Machine is awesome

A mashup of the last 70 years of the Billboard Top 100 and Rdio. Set the year to when you were born, lost your virginity, graduated high school or got your first apartment for some awesome nostalgia. Or just confirm that, yes, music on the radio was definitely better before about 1973.

Requires Flash so it might need a little poking and prodding.

Facebook paying Microsoft $550 million for former AOL patents

The day Facebook bought Instagram for a billion bucks, Microsoft (somewhat under the radar) also paid AOL a billion bucks for 600 patents, half of which they are now selling to Facebook.

This makes me nervous about the future of the web.

Introducing Ospriet

A few weeks ago, I said that Osprey is the best tweet curation tool I’ve ever seen and that newsrooms should be clamoring for this.

All of those things are still true and now it’s free to use and build on. Great work from some great folks.

couch:

Tonight.

firstbook:

You know what’s cool? Pictures of Barack Obama doing a dramatic reading of _Where the Wild Things_are the White House Easter Egg Roll. You know what’s cooler? A looped video of him growling while reading. But you know what’s coolest? This GIF, created by The Atlantic’s resident photo and video goddess, Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg. The original photos are by The Associated Press’ Susan Walsh. Enjoy! 

Oh, this is wonderful.