Reads

Reading list of books, magazines, newspaper articles, other physical documents, or online posts

👓 Empty Cans of Dehydrated Water | BEACH

Read Empty Cans of Dehydrated Water (beachpackagingdesign.com)

Our friend Mr. Ronse recently brought a gag gift known as “Bernard Dehydrated Water” to my attention.

Packaged as if it were a canned food product, this item is clearly a part of that larger category of gag gifts: packages, containing ephemeral contents. (See: Rob Walker’s recent Design Observer post, “Rarified Air”)

The thing that’s unusual in this case is that “dehydrated water” seems to be the only novelty product of an otherwise legitimate food company: Bernard Food Industries.

Apparently on the market since 1962, their dehydrated water beverage is the only gag gift mentioned in a long list of trademarked applications for their standard label design. Also interesting, is how they’ve stipulated their trademark’s use for “novelty gift items, namely, empty cans.”

(Some trademark documents, after the fold…)

👓 Coca-Cola Urns | BEACH

Read Coca-Cola Urns (beachpackagingdesign.com)
Although the Han Dynasty urn on the left was originally fired sometime between 206 BC and 220 AD and the decorative “syrup urn” on the right was fired nearly 2000 years later, in the late 1800s or early 1900s, the two objects seem related, none-the-less.

👓 Intersecting Milk Cartons | BEACH

Read Intersecting Milk Cartons (beachpackagingdesign.com)

I was hoping that “intersecting milk cartons” were already a thing. But, alas, no example seemed to exist online. So, for the 5th and final day of “Polyhedral Milk Carton Week,” I had to make it myself.

What are we looking at? My 3D animation showing the intersection of two gable-top milk cartons. They intersect in (more or less) the same manner as a polyhedral compound of two cubes.

Of course, milk cartons are not cubes. They’re more like rectangular prisms. And it wasn’t at all obvious (to me) what the intersection would look like with taller shapes.

This is cool…

👓 The world in brief, January 22nd 2019 | Economist Espresso

Read The world in brief, January 22nd 2019 (Economist Espresso)

WhatsApp, a messaging service, is cracking down further on fake news. Users will now only be allowed to forward a message to five groups (each group can be up to 256 people), down from 20. The limitation was first introduced in India last year after several mob lynchings there appeared to start after incendiary messages spread through the service.

I can’t imagine that unless the average group is well under 20 people, that WhatsApps change will have a drastic effect. 256 by itself, much less 5 times that, is way over the Dunbar number and likely not enough of a brake on social gossip. This sounds like a lot of lip service to me.

👓 Collecting note takers | Andy Bell

Read Collecting note takers by Andy BellAndy Bell (Andy Bell)
I think I might collect links to sites of folks who are posting notes on their personal sites on GitHub. It’d be great if y’all could send me some links so I can start it off with a nice healthy list!

👓 Feed page | Andy Bell

Read Feed page by Andy BellAndy Bell (Andy Bell)
I started using this site as the canonical root of all of my “social” content in 2018, but got lured back into the convenience of Twitter and Mastodon and sort of gave up on that idea. With yet more Facebook and Instagram controversies closing out the year, I had a sudden reminder that I should own my content—not irresponsible corporations like them or Twitter.

👓 Politics Perspective ‘Would you like to speak to the president?’ | Washington Post

Read Politics Perspective ‘Would you like to speak to the president?’ by Dan Balz (Washington Post)
PARIS — “Would you like to speak to the president?” That was about the last question I expected from a stranger on a Friday night in Paris. I was at a brasserie in the Latin Quarter, enjoying dinner with James McAuley, The Washington Post’s Paris correspondent. We had finished our meals and were continuing our conversation as we waited for the check to arrive.

👓 4 Reasons @GetClassicPress Should Add Native Microformats Support | Greg McVerry

Read 4 Reasons @GetClassicPress Should Add Native Microformats Support by Greg McVerryGreg McVerry (quickthoughts.jgregorymcverry.com)
Now that phase one of Gutenberg has dropped the interest in #ClassicPress grows by the day. So many WordPress developers fear the loss of control they will face under the new regime of 5.0. Many just don't want to do the work of all that refactoring. #IndieWeb and #ClassicPress should join forces. w...

👓 it is an inescapable law of journalism that a simple yes/no question in a headline almost always requires a “No” | Jeremy Cherfas

Read Because it is an inescapable law of ... by Jeremy CherfasJeremy Cherfas (Jeremy Cherfas)
Because it is an inescapable law of journalism that a simple yes/no question in a headline almost always requires a "No". And in this particular case, I do not believe blogging waned in 2018. QED.
An interesting rule of thumb…

👓 Yes, let’s begin impeachment | Fogknife

Read Yes, let’s begin impeachment by Jason McIntoshJason McIntosh (Fogknife)
I hereby add my small voice to the rising chorus of those with their minds changed by Yoni Appelbaum's "Impeach Donald Trump", published in The Atlantic this month.
Amen

👓 Libraries | Manton Reece

Read a post by Manton ReeceManton Reece (manton.org)
For 30 days between March 19th and April 17th, 2016, I visited a different library in Austin and posted to my microblog about each one. The best libraries can be wonderful, quiet places to work. I always brought my iPad Pro with me to do some writing. Here are the libraries, with the date linked to ...
After reading about Snippets from Manton, I thought this was going to be about coding libraries. Yet again, he’s pulled the rug out from underneath me…

I do love this idea of getting out more, going to different places, and even more particularly going to so many different nearby libraries. This is an awesome idea!

👓 New example code: Snippets | Manton Reece

Read New example code: Snippets by Manton ReeceManton Reece (manton.org)
It might surprise some developers to learn that the 4 official apps for Micro.blog — the iOS and macOS apps, Sunlit, and our microcasting app Wavelength — don’t actually share very much Objective-C or Swift code. To minimize dependencies and so that we could more easily develop each app quick...
I saw Snippets and thought about micro.blog’s predecessor. This post turned out to be about something related but much different.

Great to see pieces of micro.blog opening up like this.