World Press Photos of the Year, 2012

A list of all the winners of the 2012 World Press Photo Photo Contest. I’m not particularly fond of the overall winner but there’s lots of great photography here.

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Best movie posters of 2011

From MUBI notebook, a selection of great movies posters from 2011, including Chris Ware’s lovely one for Uncle Boonmee.

(via dooce)

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Notable typefaces of 2011

Typographica shares their favorite typefaces of 2011.

The idea is simple: I invite a group of writers, educators, type makers and type users to look back at 2011 and pick the release that excited them most.

(via ★essl)

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Tarantino’s favorite films of 2011

Quentin Tarantino released a list of his favorite films of last year. His number one choice? Midnight in Paris. Here’s his top five…click through for his other choices:

1. Midnight In Paris
2. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
3. Moneyball
4. The Skin I Live In
5. X-Men: First Class

(via moviefone)

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The best “best of” lists of 2011

Still cleaning out some tabs from over the break…this list of the best “best of 2011” lists is worth looking at, even if you’ve got list fatigue. It includes lists like “10 Films Hypothetically Starring Ryan Gosling”, “Top 10 Classical Performances”, and “Top 10 Films of John Waters”.

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The most important events of 2011

The Morning News got a bunch of writers and thinkers to name the most important event of 2011.

While they may not yet have a common name, and their causes overlap but are hardly identical, the worldwide protests that began in December 2010 in Tunisia and swept through Egypt, the Middle East, Spain, Greece, the United Kingdom, every state in the U.S then thousands of worldwide cities — these, collectively, are the single most important event of 2011. It was so significant that the year itself may be the only possible name for these people’s revolutions and protests: the same way we talk about 1968 or Sept. 11 or Feb. 15, 2003: perhaps just “2011.”

As Joanne McNeil noted, hindsight provides clarity with questions like this. Events that are invisible at the time become important five or ten years later. Take 1993 for instance. At the time, the European Community eliminating customs barriers or Bill Clinton’s swearing-in or the first bombing of the WTC might have seemed most significant, but with hindsight, Tim Berners-Lee’s quiet invention of the World Wide Web in an office at CERN is clearly the year’s most significant and far-reaching happening.

Update: TBL invented the WWW in 1991, not 1993. ‘91 was a bit busier news-wise, what with the first Iraq war and Gorbachev’s resignation, but the Web’s invention ranks right up there in hindsight. (thx, sean)

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Best table tennis shots of 2011

If I made New Year’s resolutions, one of them would be to play more table tennis. (via stellar)

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The year in volcanoes

In Focus collected 30+ photos of 2011’s volcanic activity.

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A Year in Reading

The Millions presents their annual A Year in Reading for 2011, where they ask a bunch of people their favorite reads of the year.

With this in mind, for an eighth year, we asked some of our favorite writers, thinkers, and readers to look back, reflect, and share. Their charge was to name, from all the books they read this year, the one(s) that meant the most to them, regardless of publication date. Grouped together, these ruminations, cheers, squibs, and essays will be a chronicle of reading and good books from every era. We hope you find in them seeds that will help make your year in reading in 2012 a fruitful one.

Contributors include Duff McKagan, Mayim Bialik, Jennifer Egan, Colum McCann, and Rosecrans Baldwin.

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Yet more best longreads of 2011

These are from the Longreads Tumblr. You’ll never want for 3000-word reading material ever again.

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More best longreads of 2011

Longform has their top picks of 2011 up too.

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Best longreads of 2011

Load up yer Instapaper for the holidays: Give Me Something To Read’s favorite longreads of 2011.

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The year in photos

In Focus delivers part one of an eventual three-part look at 2011 in photography. 2011 was a remarkably eventful year.

Here’s part two. See also Buzzfeed’s list of the 45 most powerful images of 2011.

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