auntie pixelante › level design lesson: to the right, hold on tight – A detailed analysis of the opening level of Super Mario Brothers. Wow. I never thought about clever it was. So much thought went into it!

The ethics of modern web ad-blocking – Marco.org – In other news, I just installed Ghostery. I think of it as psychic penance for working (in the past) on websites with a truly evil set of tracking/advertising scripts.

A brief history of yarn in video games – Offworld – The sight of that Nintendo Knitting Machine ad made me hyperventilate until I got to the admission that it was never manufactured. DAMN.

Unravel looks pretty cool though!

Eric Schmidt: Apple Music’s human curation is ‘elitist’ – Oh, PLEASE. I signed up to the three month Apple Music trial, and I’ve been really surprised how good it is. I mainly stick to the “For You” tab and the playlists it suggests to me, and I’ve discovered a lot more new-to-me music than I ever did on Spotify (or my very limited use of Google Play). I love the fact that the lists are curated by humans. How in the world would an algorithm ever put together That’s so Fetch: Songs for Mean Girls? That title alone is worth a month’s subscription, frankly.

Lark Sew-Along: Working with Knits | grainline – Just realised I’ve got the perfect bit of jersey in my stash for this, so I bought the pattern! Time to actually make something with the overlocker.

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” Is Our Most Misread Poem – Starting the day with Mario and then poetry, because I’m deep like that.

30 years, 30 memorable facts about Super Mario Bros. | Ars Technica – Man, I loved that game. I could beat it without losing a single life.

The long read: For decades, brain surgeons have struggled to identify cancerous tissue precisely. Could one of the world’s most deadly scorpions come to their aid?
Source: How to light up a tumour | Alex O’Brien | Science | The Guardian

Fascinating story. And the bit about the little girl Violet just crushed me.

Pride and Recreation – This is my new favourite Tumblr EVER.

Can’t cope with stacks of information? Don’t worry. You’re not failing. You’re just falling into a state of Tsundoku.
Source: The Tsundoku Support Club – Safari Blog

I used to be pretty good about keeping clean Inbox. And then I caved and started using those damn Gmail tabs, and now I’ve got nearly 50 emails in Updates and Promotions that I keep meaning to read. Now I have a name for this feeling. Tsundoku.