Links published in June 2010 — Most recent at top.
Core77: Discussing iPhone 4 Materiality with Jonathan Ive •
Quiet type Ive doesn’t give much interviews, so designers, treasure this advice:
“And it’s important to develop that appetite to want to make something, to be inquisitive about the material world, to want to truly understand a material on that level.”
To get to that level of performance and responsibility, one can assume he’s obsessive about materials, details.
Non, ce n’est pas une maladie vénérienne que tu pognes dans un marécage en Amérique Centrale, mais c’est presqu’aussi désagréable. Le bourdonnement incessant lors des matchs de foot vient de ces trompette de plastique (Vuvuzela), accessoires obligatoires de tout bon fan de foot sud-africain. 127 décibels x 90,000 fans, en continu. Ça, par contre, ça devient vicieux:
Demand for earplugs to protect from hearing loss during the World Cup outstripped supply, with many pharmacies running out of stock. Neil van Schalkwyk, manufacturer of the plastic vuvuzela, began selling earplugs to fans.
Fueling Mexico City: A Grain Revolution •
Transcript of Rachel Laudan‘s recent talk on the history of the Mexico’s primary fuel: tortillas. Excellent round-up, from the maize stock to the flat bread on your plate, which seemed largely unknown to anybody out of Mexico:
“[…] right up until about twenty years ago, large numbers of Mexican women were spending five hours a day grinding. Just imagine Mexico City: every household had somebody grinding tortillas. […] somewhere in a back room, somebody grinding maize to make tortillas for the main meal of the day.”
The impact this type of food preparation has had on its society is bigger than you might think. Today, things have changed dramatically with automated milling and preparations, the change was nevertheless a conscious decision:
Mexican women that I have talked to are very explicit about this trade-off. They know it doesn’t taste as good; they don’t care. Because if they want to have time, if they want to work, if they want to send their kids to school, then taste is less important than having that bit of extra money, and moving into the middle class. They have very self-consciously made this decision.
By the way, I know this blog is all over anything Mexico right now. Yes, I do get mildly obsessed about such things.
J’ai oublié de le mentionner: c’est moi qui fait la revue mensuelle de mai 2010 à P45.
J’ai délibérement omis le format habituel pour quelque chose de plus aléatoire, laissant le cours des choses modeler la revue: 31 jours, 31 photos quotidiennes, 31 manchettes. Le hasard incarné de la chose est fascinant, le décalage entre les nouvelles et mes activités quotidiennes. Je fais de la baguette, au même moment, d’autres s’acharnent à stopper un déversement de pétrole. Malade.