The Camera Eye of the Beholder

Could you pass this challenge? From Boing Boing:

How much better is a $4,000 EOS R than a $500 Rebel T100? Peter McKinnon invited a professional photographer to look at photos taken with both cameras and try to tell which camera was used. He didn't do a great job.

Booklyn

Have you ever heard the word “abibliophobia”? It means “the fear of running out of things to read” and while it has yet to be added officially to the dictionary, it can be a real thing for those who suffer from it. So, for those whose book pile has dwindled and desperately need recommendations on what to read next, the Brooklyn Public Library will happily oblige. Bklyn Book Match is a free service whereby a librarian at the BPL will make book recommendations for you. Just answer a few questions about your interests and tastes, and you’ll get a customized reading list in about two weeks.

Sustainability To Dye For

Here’s an exciting development in increased sustainability for the textiles industry:

Recycrom is a revolutionary sustainable dyestuffs range, patent pending, using recycled used clothing, fibrous material and textile scraps. By a sophisticated process, Officina+39 has developed a system to reprocess the scraps and transform textile fiber into colored powder.

Recycrom is available in many colors using 100% of recycled textile materials.

Did It Make Him Mad? 

That’s something you never hear at press events: “Our inkset and color management system can hit 95% of those hard-to-match radioactive mutant colors.” They could be missing an important market.

Silent Night?

Check out the latest collaboration between William Shatner and Iggy Pop. They do a— Wait... What?!

Shatner has shared a new song with Iggy Pop. Listen to their rendition of the Christmas carol “Silent Night” below, backed by piano and strings. Elsewhere on Shatner Claus are other artists including Todd Rundgren and Henry Rollins, the latter of whom features on “Jingle Bells.”

Apocalypse [Not] Now

Via the Big Picture, Barbara E. Kahn, Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania, is not having any of your retail apocalypse talk. Retailers can and have, she said, rebel against Amazon and the negative forces affecting retail: 

The Kahn “Retail Matrix” analyses the four factors that impact retailers: brands, experiential, frictionless and low-cost. These add up to “Customer value” and “differential advantage” as the driving force for success in the brutal retail competition.
Kahn explains how “Digitally native vertical brands” have become big sellers. Niche brands like Warby Parker, Casper and Allbirds and other brands are creating a very different shopping experience – and competing successfully against the retail behemoths.

Across and Really Down

“It’s Still Alive!”

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s seminal horror novel Frankenstein. The New York Times talks about the birth of Frankenstein, his experiments, and the endless variations of Shelley’s monster.

This Week in Printing, Publishing, and Media History

October 22

1879: Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out). 

October 23

1959: "Weird Al" Yankovic born.

2012: After 38 years, the world's first teletext service (BBC's Ceefax) ceases broadcast due to Northern Ireland completing the digital switchover.

October 24

1861: The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States is completed.

October 25

1977: Digital Equipment Corporation releases OpenVMS V1.0.

October 26

1861: The Pony Express officially ceases operations.

October 27

1858: Theodore Roosevelt born.

1939: English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer John Cleese born.  

October 28

1726: The novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is published.

1886: In New York Harbor, President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty. The first ticker tape parade takes place in New York City when office workers spontaneously throw ticker tape into the streets as the statue is dedicated.