GIFs are designed to loop short clips–generally a couple seconds long–over and over until you close your browser window. But As Long As Possible is a different kind of GIF; one rendered on a geologic ...

Though it’s almost 30 years old, the humble gif has had something of a resurgence of late, its simplicity slotting in perfectly as part of today’s fast, frivolous vernacular. The file format we’ve ...

Recently my editor alerted me to the existence of a MetaFilter thread called “Gif that’s what’s for dinner.” (A-plus pun idea, C-minus execution.) In it, users shared and discussed their favorite ...

There's nothing quite as momentarily incapacitating as a perfect loop GIF. No matter what is occupying your mind at the moment -- be it work, a first date, a bank robbery, whatever -- show someone a ...

When is Natalie Portman's laughter not Natalie Portman's laughter? An Object Lesson. Aristotle called laughter an "ensouling mechanism," and the academic discipline of humor studies has built itself ...

Ade Olonoh, the founder of the anonymous Q&A site Formspring, is setting his sights on animated GIFs. Loop is an iOS app for sending text updates to all of your friends at once — à la Twitter — but ...

Editor’s Note: This story originally published in March 2018. We’re republishing the piece following news that Stephen Wilhite, one of the lead creators of the GIF, died earlier this month after ...