Snark: Percontation Point

via greenchairpress

"According to Bibliophile Bullpen, this is “called a percontation point — a ‘rhetorical question mark’. . . an irony mark also called a snark or zing. Created by Henry Denham in the 1580s, it pops up in literature every century or so, but never really caught on.” The history of the percontation point is here on wikipedia. Take a look, if just to see the side bar that lists a plethora of little used punctuation marks and their names."

Visit the Green Chair Press post here.

Edison's Mimeograph

via Princeton’s graphic arts blog

“Before the laser printer, before the Xerox, and before the carbon copy, there was the mimeograph machine. In 1876, Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931) filed a United States patent for autographic printing by means of an electric pen. A second patent further developed his system to ‘prepare autographic stencils for printing.’

“One description of the process reads: ‘To prepare a handwritten stencil, a sheet of mimeograph stencil paper is placed over the finely grooved steel plate and written upon with a smooth pointed steel stylus, and in the line of the writing so made, the stencil paper will be perforated from the under side with minute holes, in such close proximity to each other that the dividing fibers of paper are scarcely perceptible.’ This stencil was placed in the frame and when inked, produced a copy of the hand-written text on paper below.”

See more images and read the rest here.

Winky Dink and the Low-Tech Future of Interaction Design

via fastcompany

“Quick, what was the world's first interactive video game? Nope, it wasn't Pong. It was probably Winky Dink & You, a kid's show from the 1950s. The cartoon character Winky Dink would get himself into jams, and kids at home had to help him out by drawing the tool he needed right onto the TV screen, using transparencies that were sold via mail, for $.50. Millions of those kits were sold.

Today, we're all hot bothered over the future of interaction design and interactive storytelling, but as Winky Dink reminds us, the most engaging and enduring ideas are often low-tech. Rather than inventing new tech from whole cloth, the answer may be boosting dead-tree media, with everyday gadgets . . . ”

Read the rest here.

Ambient Sound at Walt Disney World

via boingboing

“In the mid 1990’s, the park started researching the problem. It would eventually find no existing solution, so the engineers had to design and construct, on their own, one of the most complex and advanced audio systems ever built. The work paid off: today, as you walk through Disney World, the volume of the ambient music does not change. Ever. More than 15,000 speakers have been positioned using complex algorithms to ensure that the sound plays within a range of just a couple decibels throughout the entire park. It is quite a technical feat acoustically, electrically, and mathematically.”

Read the rest here.

via quipsologies Vol. 35 | No. 28

"A rebus, I think; hilarious, I'm sure: Franklin Gothic."

Antique Radio Tuning Dials

via draplindesignco

Galleries of antique radio tuning dials:

Collection 1, Collection 2, Collection 3, and Collection 4.

The Orange Mountain Music Philip Glass Sampler Vol. 1

via veryshortlist

F R E E D O W N L O A D

“. . . take advantage of the substantial 21-song compilation The Orange Mountain Music Philip Glass Sampler Vol. 1, currently available—and free!—from Amazon. The album is a product of the label founded in 2002 by Glass and his friends devoted to archiving the artist’s extensive recordings. It delivers a healthy and varied dose as it skips from poignant piano soloing (like the haunting “Escape!” from 2002’s The Hours ) to epic orchestral arrangements (The Thin Blue Line’s “Help Me,” or “Dreamscape No. 3”). It’s no wonder that so much of this emotive music has been lent to bolster movie scores, but we find that listening to each track of this terrific assortment tells its own story. And hey, did we mention that it’s free?”

Download it from Amazon here; visit Very Short List here.

Pangolin Backpack

via designboom

“This unusual backpack is modeled after the protective scales on the back of an animal known as the pangolin. The bag is handmade in Columbia using recycled tire inner tubes from trucks. The design is arranged so the pieces retract onto one another rather than a standard zipper enclosure. The design mimics the razor sharp scales on the back of the spiny pangolin and is kept closed using 3 magnetic closures and provides a large storage capacity. Using the tire tubes makes the bag extremely durable and gives it a unique appearance.”

Read the rest here.

Walling Process: 1926

via shorpy

‘Rosslyn, Virginia, 1926. “Walling Process Inc.” A graphics business owned by one George Walling. National Photo Co. Collection glass negative.’

View full size here.

Thirty Conversations on Design

via idsgn

A collection of thoughts from 30 inspired designers, authors, and creative professionals.

Visit the idsgn site here, and the Thirty Conversations site here.

How to use an Apostrophe

via Quipsologies | From the Authors Vol. 35 | No. 11

Required reading (aided by easy to follow visuals) can be found here.

Creative License #59

Creative License #59 by N.C. Winters

The intersection of arts and science: Between the Folds

via make

“For folks interested in the intersection of arts and science, the PBS series Independent Lens is presenting a fascinating in-depth look into origami titled Between the Folds. The film documents ‘a determined group of theoretical scientists and fine artists who have abandoned their careers and scoffed at their graduate degrees to forge new lives as modern-day paper folders.’ ”

Read the rest here.

Official C.I.A. Manual of Trickery and Deception

via veryshortlist

“You might not be surprised to find a magic wand hanging next to a hidden camera in a toy shop, but what about a real-life magician working at the C.I.A.? Back in the 1950s, the Agency did in fact employ a magic man named John Mulholland, who wrote a surprisingly entertaining and illuminating manual on deception that has just now been published as part of The Official C.I.A. Manual of Trickery and Deception. For spy buffs and those interested in the art of illusion, it’s a quick and delightful read, complete with wonderful sketches of spy tools and plenty of history, too.

At the height of U.S. paranoia over the spread of communism, the C.I.A. would stop at nothing to give American spies the edge. Authors H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace describe the fear and paranoia over Fidel Castro, the K.G.B. and other Cold War enemies, and delve deep into a top-secret program called MK Ultra, for which Mulholland was recruited to write his manual. Hollow pencils hiding secret powders, trick matchbooks, disguises—all the James Bond stuff is in here. What’s most shocking is that it was all for regular menand not for Daniel Craig.”

Visit the Very Short List here.

Cameras Before Digital: A Smithsonian Exhibit

via npr

“If Louis Daguerre could see Canon's Mark II, his head would explode. Cameras have come a long way since 1839, and Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History currently has a display of 22 cameras to celebrate the camera's evolution. From the earliest daguerreotypes to view cameras to early digital models, the exhibit shows off just a fraction of the holdings in the Photographic History Collection.”

View the photos here.

Hershey’s Isn't Chocolate

via utnereader

“Hershey’s chocolates, for the most part, aren’t really chocolate. They’re ‘the terrible bastard children of chocolate and corporate frugality,’ according to Meg Favreau, writing for The Smart Set. Hershey’s, and other industrial chocolate makers, mix their real coco butter with other vegetable oils. This makes it cheaper, but it also makes it something other than chocolate. For now, the FDA requires Hershey’s to call its industrial byproducts “chocolate flavored” instead of real chocolate.”

Read more here and the Smart Set article here.