Richmond.com has a pleasant gallery of historical buildings that reside in its namesake Virginia city.  Some then-and-now photo comparisons and some architecture vocabulary I don’t follow make for a neat little history lesson. With Spielberg’s latest movie Lincoln to be filmed in Richmond, don’t be surprised if you see a few of these on the silver screen.

A collection of photos from shopping malls circa 1990. These photos are amazing in that, at the time, they would have been soo boring. Those are just regular people, in a regular place. That stuff they’re wearing is stuff everyone wears. But with age they’ve become a time capsule. It’s nice that the photographer had the foresight to both shoot them and hold on to them.

If you aren’t familiar with Watson, it is the computing powerhouse that IBM built to do Jeopardy trivia better than us humans. And it just thoroughly trounced the competition, who were comprised of Jeopardy’s best players ever, tripling the closest score. Along with his Final Jeopardy answer, fellow human Ken Jennings took a bit from The Simpsons and wrote “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.”

Man versus machine: it’s an interesting battle, one that’s been in the human psyche for as long as the prospect of machinery has been around. Of note in particular here is that the human-ness of the whole project was emphasized throughout the programming. From the oh-so-human developers of the technology, to the medical applications such technology can hold, the machine was never quite painted as such.

In Jeopardy the single unique identifier the contestant is given is their signature on their podium. Being a computer, Watson doesn’t quite have one of those, so it’s interesting to take a look at the font that IBM used for his virtual signature.

Using the font finding software What The Font (which coincidentally employs the same “machine learning” techniques used to create Watson) we learn that Watson’s human side is represented by ITC Lubalin Graph Demi. From the blurb: “It’s a good choice to convey practicality and stable friendliness.” Friendliness is a good thing to shoot for while a computer dominates all competition. Congrats to IBM on a well-earned victory, and for moving science forwards.

Check out this space-age apartment design that makes use of hidden compartments and shelving to achieve a super minimalistic future-look. Like an iPod spaceship. The design revolves around the so-called “Black Hole”, a panel/shelf unit that rearranges the layout of the rooms. A striking look, for sure, but only really works for people that don’t have a ton of crap.

With smart phones getting ever smarter, there’s something to be said for a return to simplicity. Enter John’s Phone. No GPS, no apps. It can’t even text. Aside from the number keys there are two buttons: call and hang up. A one-line LCD screen just large enough to display a number hides on top. And the contact list is a pen and paper, housed in a compartment on the back. With a 2-week battery life and ~$100 price tag it might be worth keeping one around.

Garfield creator Jim Davis spoke with recent merchandising collaborators The Hundreds about his cat and things related to his cat. In the interview Davis speaks candidly about his motivations and, in an interesting moment, the interviewer contrasts Bill Watterson’s licensing integrity with Davis’ lack thereof.

Two side notes: Garfield has a twitter account (not as great as Sockington), and this Garfield painting is being sold for $6,000 (ridiculous ).

In some parts of the world, people believe in a jolly fat man that hands out gifts. In other parts of the world, they believe this jolly fat man has a sidekick demon that scares kids into behaving with rusty chains.

Here’s hoping everyone has a merry Krampus visit. More Krampus here. And down there.

That Tron motorcycle replica that was for presale on Ebay has come to fruition. So, does it actually work? Does it look good? The answer to both is a big “sorta”. It loses quite a bit of cool in its jump to the real world, and looks to have the turning radius of a locomotive. But any real-life tron bike is better than no real-life tron bike, so here’s to them. Take a look at the test ride video, decide for yourself: