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Language

• Mar 24 2008
  iLT: Letterforms, Classification, Ps & Qs by Christian Eager
  Language, Typography

  If you want to talk like you're in-the-know when it comes to type—or even just understand what those typophiles are going on about— this article on terminology over at I Love Typography is a treasure. It starts with basics: the difference between glyphs, graphemes, sorts, and characters, to list a few closely-related concepts. Then come the broad classifications, with a bit of required history, and an awesome portmanteau (inelegantly referred to as a "mash-up"), "Garalde"—Claude Garamond + Aldus Manutius. Trivia nerds will find the conclusion, containing the origins of "uppercase," "lowercase," and "mind your p's and q's", most rewarding.
  
  
• Mar 23 2008
  Affecting the Effects by Christian Eager
  Language, Misplaced Thoughts

  Think of it this way: When you affect change, your action alters pre-existing change. When you effect change, you create it; change is the effect of your action.
  
  
• Jan 25 2008
  McSweeney’s Lists by David Goligorsky
  Associative Thought, Language, Literature

  McSweeney's - an indie publishing house - has a list of great lists. While you're browsing, consider buying some of their stuff to help dig them out of a financial rut! (Thanks, Peter!)
  
  
• Dec 26 2007
  Interesting new method for text entry by David Goligorsky
  Associative Thought, Code, Computers, Data Presentation, Design, Engineering, Experience Design, GUI, Graphic Design, Interaction Design, Language, Pragmatism, Remix, Science, Software, Typography, Visualization

  Dasher changes the paradigm of text entry from pushing buttons to navigating through words. Here's a YouTube demonstration of the technology and here's the Dasher website, which offers a test drive of the program. (via GUUUI) I recently watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It's a film based on the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was the editor-in-chief of Elle. He had suffered a massive stroke in 1995 that left his mind in tact, but his body was completely paralyzed except for one eye and eyelid. Needless to say, he could not speak. Speech ...
  
  
• Nov 28 2007
  Fig Crumbs by David Goligorsky
  Language, Literature

  I recently came across the blog of Michael Crowe, Fig Crumbs, in which he posts amusing and engaging pieces of writing. One brief sample below. Beat up, but upbeat I’m really positive that one day, soon, very soon, I’ll find something to be optimistic about.
  
  
• Nov 23 2007
  EVOO by Christian Eager
  Language, Literature

  …but I’m compelled to point out page 34 of the manual, which explicitly lists the items that are forbidden by the FDA to use in conjunction with this product, and look here, what does it say right here in the top spot?” And I say: “I don’t know how to read.” And she says: “It says extra-virgin olive oil.” And she just looks at me. The Harness, by Joshua Allen. There's lots more fantastic stuff over at Fireland.
  
  
• Nov 22 2007
  Creativity is as important in education as literacy by Eric Silva
  Art, Associative Thought, Language, Pragmatism, Quotes

  So says Ken Robinson in an incredible talk (even by TED standards) on how education systems destroy the creativity of students, also noting "We have a huge vested interest in [education], partly because it's education that's meant to take us into this future that we can't grasp." Every line in the talk is worth quoting, but this gets the point across: Kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they will have a go. They're not frightened of being wrong. I'm not saying that being wrong is the same as creativity. What we do know is if ...
  
  
• Nov 10 2007
  Following-up on yesterday’s Longaberger post by Christian Eager
  Language

  More from the fun-words-to-say department: perfervid There are words galore at wordsmith.org
  
  
• Nov 09 2007
  Longaberger Building, for Eric by Christian Eager
  Architecture, Language, Misplaced Thoughts

  Image from 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, a high-quality new book in it's own right, independent of novelty architecture contained therein. For those looking to break into this Longaberger thing, you should probably read this first: Is it Really a Longaberger?. And one more thing, to add to the rather scatter-brainèdness of this post, a tidbit from the small-associative-leap-of-the-week department: the first result when Googling "identifying a".
  
  
• Sep 28 2007
  Child’s Mind by Christian Eager
  Language, Misplaced Thoughts

  THE NINETEEN-SIXTIES —Mr. President! Did you hear about Woodstock? —Woo—Woodstock? What in God’s name is that? —Apparently, young people hate the war so much they’re willing to participate in a musical sex festival as a protest against it. —Oh, my God. They must really be serious about this whole thing. The Wisdom of Children, by Simon Rich
  
  

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