“After 50 years of using a typeface called Futura, the Swedish home furnishing chain Ikea decided to switch to a new font called Verdana. The typeface-sensitive Ikea fans around the world are not amused.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
District 9, Through South African Eyes
Sci-fi blockbuster District 9 “explores the plight of huge, chitinous aliens who’ve been trapped and maltreated for decades after their unexpected appearance in the skies above Johannesburg — touching on themes of apartheid, xenophobia and redemption along the way. Now District 9 is playing in South Africa … and many of those emerging from theaters over the weekend responded to subtleties in the film that may have been lost on many American audiences.”
When Schools Cut Arts: How Parents Can Pick Up The Slack
“How do you instill an appreciation for the arts in your kids, thereby enlarging their creative and critical-thinking skills while deepening their enjoyment of life? The question has added urgency at the moment. The statewide education budget crunch has prompted many cash-strapped schools to cut back on programs in music, theater, dance, photography, and the visual arts.”
Think Of Your Insomnia As A Time-Management Method
“Scientists aren’t sure why sleep exists at all, which has made it hard to explain the great diversity of sleeping habits and quirks in birds, fish and mammals of all kinds, including humans. … The answer may boil down to time management, according to a new paper,” which “argues that sleep evolved to optimize animals’ use of time, keeping them safe and hidden when the hunting, fishing or scavenging was scarce and perhaps risky.”
The Why And How Of Vibrato
“Q. Why do some people’s singing voices have more vibrato than others? Can it be taught?
A. … How to teach singers to achieve a vibrato without exaggerating any component is controversial.”
Berlin Celebrates Bauhaus At 90
As Bauhaus turns 90, Germany’s main Bauhaus institutes are marking the occasion with a joint exhibition. “With nearly 1,000 objects–including models, studies, paintings, photographs and furniture–spread over the ground-floor galleries of this stately neoclassical building, the exhibit is the largest Bauhaus retrospective ever mounted and the first time that the three Bauhaus institutes, once separated by the Iron Curtain, have collaborated.”
Where London Storefronts Were Empty, Art Moves In
“In Britain as in America, the recession has forced many retail businesses to close or move to cheaper premises, leaving behind vast spaces that have generally remained empty. … Now independent curators and entrepreneurial artists … are stepping into the breach, persuading landlords and municipal councils to turn vacant spaces over to them temporarily. Galleries have sprung up throughout the country, and particularly in London….”
Between Notes, A Pause Can Change Everything
“Vermeer understood the power of withheld information. Composers have a similar understanding that in shaping sound, a nothing can be just as expressive as a something. It depends on the frame, what it is that echoes in the silence.”
Bibliotheca Alexandrina: Would You Like Fries With That?
“[W]hereas the old Egyptian library offered a rich diet of philosophy and history to the greatest thinkers of its age including Euclid, Archimedes, and Herophilus, the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina is coming in for harsh criticism for serving up a very different kind of fare. A row has erupted over the decision to build a food court at the heart of Egypt’s self-proclaimed ‘window on the world’, with campaigners accusing the Bibliotheca’s trustees of selling out the library’s venerable legacy for short-term profit.”
A Publisher Explains Why The Kindle Isn’t A Threat
“E-books are about 10 years old. Their growth has been rapid, but they’re still evolving. It’s not yet totally clear, for example, what the Kindle wants to be when it grows up. … The Kindle will get better. When it does, perhaps it will make sense for our titles to be available in the Kindle library for use on it. Whether that happens or not, I see no reason to be frightened of the device.”