Chip Kidd är bokformgivare, känd för en lång rad ikoniska bokomslag, senast kanske mest för den amerikanska utgåvan av Haruki Murakamis 1Q84. I TED-pratet ovan håller han en mycket underhållande föreläsning om konsten att formge berättelser som bilder, eller egentligen om hur text och bild kan samsas. Det är en hyllning till den fysiska boken, så klart, men också om hur så mycket går förlorat när böcker avmaterialiseras. Väl värt 17 minuter av din tid.

Aaron Cohen:

Tab attic: noun describing the brain space occupied by unopened tabs you know are in a row up above somewhere, but you’re not ready to use. The more tabs you have open, the heavier the tab attic is.

Se tidigare inlägg – “Öppna tabbar“.

Från Evgeny Morozovs recension av Turing’s Cathedral:

Strictly speaking, Von Neumann’s was not the first computer. However, it played an extremely important role in getting the nascent computer industry off the ground. First of all, its origins in academia made it easier to get working scientists to pay close attention to what computing had to offer. Second, Von Neumann wanted to ensure that any work that the institute did on the EPC was put in the public domain and widely disseminated rather than patented by engineers […]. Third – and most important – Von Neumann chose not to optimise his computer to do only pressing or lucrative tasks; he knew that its most useful applications had not been anticipated yet. By arguing that “the projected device… is so radically new that many of its uses will become clear only after it has been put into operation”, Von Neumann helped to usher in the era of general-purpose computing which, alas, may now be finally coming to a close, as consumers embrace single-purpose apps and tightly controlled computing devices.

“Let me start by saying what a fungus isn’t. So a fungus isn’t a plant, and it isn’t an animal, it’s, it’s a fungus”. En underbart vacker film om svampsamlingen vid Kew Gardens. Det finns också en film om deras fröbank, en slags backup för naturen.

Här Suzanne St Albans Mango and Mimosa i Slightly Foxed Editions.

Filmer med realistiska vetenskapsteman har efterfrågats här tidigare. Losing Control (trailer ovan) är något så oväntat som en romantisk komedi med en kvinnlig molekylärbiolog som hjältinna. [via: Technology Review]

De första artiklarna i den nya vetenskapliga tidskriften Flavour Journal* har publicerats. En artikel kommer fram till att “[i]n summary, increasing the aroma intensity reduces the bite size”, medan en annan har kockar från Noma och Nordic Food Lab på författarlistan – “Seaweeds for umami flavour in the New Nordic Cuisine“.

* “We take flavour to be the experience of eating food as mediated through all the senses. Thus we welcome articles that deal with not only taste and aroma, but also chemesthesis, texture and all the senses as they relate to the perception of flavour”.

Läs mer om Stamens fina kartor.

Jag läser för tillfället George Dysons Turing’s Cathedral, en makalös bok så här långt, om den digitala tidsålderns tidiga historia. The Guardian recenserade den lyriskt häromdagen. Den sista delen av boken är tydligen en “speculative, even visionary account of the philosophy of programming”.

Uppbyggnaden av boken hyllas också:

If this is a cathedral, it doesn’t have anything as geometrical as a nave. It’s a mass of separate structures joined by spiders’ webs of coloured string. But it isn’t a failure. It isn’t one thing at all. It’s three successes: three separate and different and differently impressive books Dyson might have written, all bizarrely shredded and mixed into a heap whose sorting is left as an exercise for the reader.If this is a cathedral, it doesn’t have anything as geometrical as a nave. It’s a mass of separate structures joined by spiders’ webs of coloured string. But it isn’t a failure. It isn’t one thing at all. It’s three successes: three separate and different and differently impressive books Dyson might have written, all bizarrely shredded and mixed into a heap whose sorting is left as an exercise for the reader.