Browser Newsletter 1104
Best of the Moment
Logo, Bullshit & Co
Oliver Reichenstein | iA | 5th September 2013
You can't rebrand a $10bn company over the weekend. Especially if you're not a professional designer. "For a brand like Yahoo there is something more important than spacing, kerning, colors, serifs, or making designers angry at this point. No, it’s not getting attention. It’s gaining trust. A different logo powered by bullshit doesn’t convey identity and trustworthiness. It conveys desperation"
The Ancient Roots Of Punctuation
Keith Houston | New Yorker | 6th September 2013
Brief lives of the octothorpe, pilcrow, ampersand, manicule and diple. If you know Houston's Shady Characters (http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk) blog, you will know what to expect: an affectionate blend of history, scholarship and pedantry. The ampersand is a ligature of "e" and "t", the Latin et. The octothorpe (#) derives from the abbreviation "lb", for libra pondo, or pound weight. The diple (>) was the precursor of quotation marks
Trash Is Treasure
Adam Minter | Business Week | 29th August 2013
Driving across America with a Chinese scrap-metal dealer. "By his estimate, there are at least 100 other Chinese traders like him driving from scrap yard to scrap yard, right now, in search of what Americans won’t or can’t be bothered to recycle." Christmas tree lights, for example. "For the most part, non-Chinese don’t know about these micromarkets, and even if they did, they wouldn’t have access to them because of language and culture"
Squirrel Power
Jon Mooallem | New York Times | 31st August 2013
Power outages caused by squirrels. More than you probably think: at least 50 big ones over the summer. Squirrels have brought down Nasdaq twice. "Squirrels chew through electrical wiring because the animals are constantly teething. An adult squirrel’s incisors never stop growing — they can grow as much as 10 inches per year — and the animals must chew constantly to keep them worn down" (Metered paywall)
Video of the day: Australian Sex Party Campaign Ad
Thought for the day:
"The more horrible this world, the more abstract our art" — Paul Klee