“we only use small characters because it saves time. moreover, why have 2 alphabets when one will do? why write capitals if we cannot speak capitals?”

At first, it looks like a Sol LeWitt conceptual art piece. Then, you realize that some of the lines are turning to form the word of the hour. You can see the words forming and going back into chaos, which I guess tells you how far along you are in the hour. This part reminds me of the Mondaine “Don’t Rush” wristwatch. Let’s see this Christiaan Postma piece as a wristwatch! (…or an iPhone app.)

(clock found via Pan-Dan)

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.

For those Woody Allen fans out there, I also just found out (via NotCot) that the typeface used in all his film credits is EF Windsor Elongated.

The hotel has their own pencils which are black with brass-colored eraser couplings and pink erasers. The pencil is stamped with the hotel name in white Futura typeface. It’s perfect. Born in 1924 via Paul Renner, it is one of the most widely used sans serif fonts. It can even be found on the moon.

You can learn more about the font and its usage and history on Typophile or Wikipedia, but I’ll leave you with two fine examples of Futura via Flickr:

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 therapists devised a method of cycling through the alphabet, whose order was based on frequency of use and he would blink at the letter he wanted to use.

Dasher paired with eye tracking systems is a beautiful way for disabled people to communicate.

I never noticed it before, mostly because it’s a perfectly unobtrusive application of a perfectly unobtrusive typeface, one exuding function and elegance, eschewing attitude.

Yes, I know I would have already known it was on the Shuttle had I seen the film.

Yes, it’s come to my town (twice), and I did not go.

Bah.