A Variety of Unprocessed Foods Cut into Uncannily Precise 2.5cm Cubes by Lernert & Sander
DESIGN
- Why designers should never use fake text. Article about not using filler text in design work. I really believed that design should be informed by content and intent, otherwise it’s frivolous. It makes a difference. A nice design without substance will always be weak. I can’t design stuff if I don’t know what the content or meaning is. They have to work together.
- My Apple Watch after 5 days! (by Molly Watt). My classmate sent me this article about someone with a vision impairment reviewing her apple watch that I thought was really neat. Some of you know that I am interested in working with accessibility and wearables in the future.
- How a New Dutch Library Smashed Attendance Records. A Dutch library re-designed their library to attract more visitors, modeling it more like bookstores. Great way to modernize libraries and help make sure people continue to use (and appreciate) this great resource.
SOCIAL
- What Humans Are Really Doing to Our Planet, in 19 Jaw-Dropping Images. Sad face.
- Confessions of a Juggler. The New Yorker re-posted this article that Tina Fey wrote a couple of years ago and I thought it was really interesting to hear about her perspective. Or rather, how annoying it is to get asked about balancing work/life as a woman. It reminded me of this Atlantic article about women and how they decide on whether or not to have children and how it gets talked about in society.
- The Price of Nice Nails (NY times). Oh my goodness. Long but important read for anyone who gets their nails done at a salon. I actually haven’t, but since they are most employed by Vietnamese immigrants (as I read earlier), I wanted to read the article
- ‘Tales’ Of Pig Intelligence, Factory Farming And Humane Bacon (via NPR). UGH. Gross. Come on, industry.
- The Myth of Working Your Way Through College. “Today the same student would have to work 48 hours a week at that minimum wage job to pay for his classes.” Article about someone’s personal ‘study’ to calculate how much you’d have to work in order to pay for tuition (at Michigan) today. Really depressing.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
- Papa, Don’t Text: The Perils of Distracted Parenting (via the New Yorker). This was an interesting (and short) article about how parents might be talking to their babies less because they’re always on their phones. How might that affect language acquisition?
- Why One Silicon Valley City Said “No” to Google (via Next City). This was a super thorough article about the housing situation in the west coast and cities’ relationship with big tech companies in Silicon Valley (specifically Google). It’s something that really concerns me and so it was interesting to read more about the dynamics involved. It made me feel better that it wasn’t really the tech companies’ fault, it’s things like resistance to the tech companies that have created problems in San Fran. And it’s also fair that nearby cities want to protect their local culture.
- The World’s First Solar Road Is Producing More Energy Than Expected. This made me really happy and I thought, what great idea! But I have to think that the glass over the solar panels will eventually get so dirty and scratched that it won’t be able to capture enough light, right? I’m sure they’ve thought of a solution to this, but I’m curious about what it is.
- HalfBike kickstarter project. I saw this originally from Co.Design I think, but something about these tiny half bikes makes me really want them even though I feel like they would not be great in hilly California.
- The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed. The title is awful, but this was a really great article, I thought, about the sheer manpower it takes to moderate all of our social media and the internet. It interviews moderators who just can’t stand looking at picture after picture of the horrible things that people try to post on the internet. I’m not just talking about porn, but some really violent things.
MEDIA
- At 81, The Man Behind Big Bird Sees ‘No Reason To Quit’ (via NPR). Awww! After I read this I had to read a bunch of Big Bird/Sesame Street articles. Did you know Burt & Ernie are in claymation now?!
- There is an owl that likes to land on people’s head in Denmark. A beautiful owl.
- The Remarkable Patients at a NYC Exotic Animal Hospital. More animal love. A short photo series of patients at this veterinary clinic. The turtle one is just too sad for my heart.
- Twins and Secret Languages. This a short video interview with twins who have learned to speak many different languages fluently in order to talk to each other. It’s crazy! I have always loved learning languages and wish I knew more.
- The 10 Happiest Countries On Earth. My friend sent me this article because Switzerland was #1. No wonder why I was so happy this summer 🙂