Signs of the Times, Part the Ongoing: Home Sweet Sign?

When we talk to and survey sign companies about their new business opportunities, we never ask about signage as a potential source of low-income housing. But perhaps we should. Says Midland Daily News:

When contractors were working at the Family Fare grocery store in Midland, they unexpectedly found a woman, 34, living inside the rooftop sign.

…The woman, whom police nicknamed the "Rooftop Ninja," lived inside the store sign for about a year, Warren said. Inside her dwelling, she had a mini desk, flooring, a pantry of food and even a houseplant.  

Agart

What is the most dangerous art medium? As it turns out, bacteria. Via Atlas Obscura, the Missouri University of Science and Technology microbiologist David Westenberg “paints” using E. coli bacteria that have been modified to produce pigment.

Using a wooden stick, he carefully spreads these strains onto a sterilized petri dish containing a nutrient-enriched antibiotic powder and a solid layer of a gooey substance called agar. This is a fertile mix that will allow the bacteria to grow and produce pigment over the next few days. Once they’ve grown, he’ll sterilize individual strains by suspending them in a saline solution. Then, and only then, will they be ready for his students to use in a Valentine’s Day-themed activity centered around agar art, otherwise known as microbial art, or the process of creating living paintings with bacteria.

However:

But if it’s not done right, there are some serious dangers involved in the art, including contamination and spreading disease to the general public.

Talk about suffering for one’s art.

Microbial art has actually been around for nearly 100 years. It’s the brainchild of Scottish physician and microbiologist Alexander Fleming, best known for discovering the world’s first antibiotic, more commonly known as penicillin, in 1928.

Phone Home

These days, the fear of losing one’s phone is perhaps even worse than the fear of losing one’s wallet. However, Brahma Beer came up with an interesting solution to the problem of losing one’s mobile phone: create one so horrible no one will mind losing it. (Of course, this could apply to just about any mobile phone, if you think about it.) Says Print magazine:

In preparation for Carnival in Rio earlier this year, Brahma created a cell phone that partiers would be okay with breaking or losing. As the Carnival’s biggest sponsor, Brahma took on the challenge of preserving the carefree revelry inherent to the festival by devising a phone stripped down to just the essentials— the ability to call and SMS text, a GPS and transportation app, as well as an 8-megapixel camera. “This innovation lets party-seekers leave their high-tech worries behind, ensuring the celebratory spirit remains unbroken,” the brand shared in a statement.

…  “Meet ‘Brahma Phone’: A phone created by a brand who understands everything about Carnival and nothing about cell phones,” they proclaim. “We thought of a phone that is so bad, with only the features that no one would want to steal,” said Nicholas Bergantin, co-CCO of the São Paulo-based creative agency Africa Creative, who worked with Brahma on the campaign.

Dial M for Mosaic

Are you a fan of legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock? If so, good news! If you are in the UK, you will have to make a pilgrimage to Leytonstone, a suburb northeast of London, where he was born in 1899. Via Atlas Obscura, in 1999, to commemorate his 100th birthday, the village honored their most famous resident with an art installation in the local London Underground Tube stop. Strangers on a train, indeed.

Seventeen mosaic panels were commissioned, depicting scenes from his life, as well as images from his most recognized, and in some cases, lesser-known works.

The artist collective known as the Greenwich Mural Workshop spent more than half a year painstakingly implementing more than 80,000 tiny, brightly colored tiles to depict these various images. It would take another few months for the artists; Carol Kenna, Stephen Lobb, Nathan Lobb, Julie Norburn, and Claire Notley to install this massive public display.

Wined and Dined

If you have ever been to a wine tasting, you know that whoever is hosting the tasting will read off tasting notes, or a description of a particular wine, noting the smells the bouquet if reminiscent of, what flavor notes the wine hits, etc. And you know that some of these tasting notes can go ma little over the top (whiskey tasting notes are even more outlandish, getting more elaborate and outré as the tasting goes on—wonder why that would be). Anyway, via Boing Boing, Dos Cabezas Wineworks in Sonoita, Ariz., offers award-winning wines, but winemaker Todd Bostock also offers up come creative wine descriptions.

2022 Pink::Cimarron Vineyard, Willcox, AZ (60% Garnacha, 20% Syrah, 12% Graciano, 6% Monastrell, 1% Tempranillo, 1% Kerner): Precisely perfect pink. Cara cara studded pavlova. Your hands after peeling a tangelo. Brand new copper penny. Monsoon downdraft. Fennel bulb. Ocean air. Texting to see when you are available to grab a dozen oysters. A dozen tacos al pastor. A dozen days off for a roadtrip…

… 2021 La Montaña::Cimarron Vineyard, Willcox AZ (28% Petit Verdot, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Syrah, 18% Petite Sirah): The deep red hue employed by snug leather seats in fast cars pleading the case for speed limit as one sign's opinion. Pre-hibernation bear hide, tangled up in a late season bramble bender. Opulent. Tightly wound. Fresh, darkfruit packed tannin weight. Has the life experience to entertain attention without demanding it. Generous now, rewarding later. Heirloom Café in San Franciso serves an extraterrestrial epoisses burger, never on the menu—but somehow always available… these two would make an interstellar culinary love connection—epoisses cheese (we just bought some at Costco, so no excuses), good ground beef (Vera Earl Premium Beef is our go to), onion jam, crunch pickled vegetable, glass of La Montaña=blast off.

Giant Spider Invasion

Well, this is a very 2020 headline. Says CBS News: “Giant venomous flying spiders with 4-inch legs heading to New York area as they spread across East Coast, experts say.”

Earlier this year, New Jersey Pest Control warned of the incoming spiders, saying Joro spiders will be "hard to miss" as females have a leg span of up to 4 inches and are known for their vibrant yellow and grey bodies. 

"What sets them apart, however, is their ability to fly, a trait uncommon among spiders," the company said. "While not accurate flight in the avian sense, Joro spiders utilize a technique known as ballooning, where they release silk threads into the air, allowing them to be carried by the wind."

Great.

Graphene Goes Boating

Was it a good week for graphene news? It’s always a good week for graphene news! Finnlines, an operator of shipping and passenger boat services, is coating its ships’ hulls with a graphene-based material. From (who else?) Graphene-Info:

Starting with their first vessel in 2022, Finnlines has already applied this high-performance hull coating to four vessels as part of a recently signed fleet agreement, reducing fuel consumption and emissions by around 7% compared to previously used coating.

… XGIT-FUEL is a biocide-free, hard foul release coating that offers an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional toxic anti-fouling and soft-foul release hull coatings. In addition to reducing vessel drag, it incorporates graphene to enhance resistance to mechanical damage, making it more suitable for vessels sailing in icy conditions, and it can be cleaned without affecting the surface of the coating. Requiring only one layer, its application is more efficient compared to alternatives, and the temperature range for applying XGIT-FUEL, from -5 to 40°C, broadens the application period and enables Finnlines to enhance the performance of vessels scheduled for winter drydocking.

Hail O Libero!

One of the most pioneering items of the 1950s was the step trash can—you know, you step on a pedal and the lid opens, so you can discard trash easily if your hands are full. They still exist of course, but kitchen trash cans are more often than not hidden in cabinets these days, and there are even trash bins that open with motion of voice commands (and are easily broken if the more oafish of us reflexively try to open or shut them by hand…). Anyway, the step trash can… Great principle for the time, and now, via Core 77, Hailo’s Libero applies the basic concept to a hands-free cabinet door opener using a laser sensor and a motor.

It can be installed on pre-existing cabinets, and will set you back $460.

Around the Webb, Part the Infinity: What’s It Scoping out Now?

Curious to know what the James Webb Space Telescope is observing? Be sure to check out NASA’s Space Telescope Live, an interactive site that lets you glean information on current, past, and upcoming observations by NASA’s Webb—and Hubble!—space telescopes.

The things we can do.

OM…No

For reasons passing understanding, Oscar Mayer now has gummy versions of its various luncheon meats. Says Boing Boing, “ There are gummy hotdogs, gummy bacon, and, strangest of all, gummy bologna.”

More Foodwear

Here’s another footwear/food mashup: Kellogg’s and Crocs. Says Food & Wine:

On Friday, Kellogg’s announced a brand-new partnership with Crocs, bringing you some seriously colorful new footwear accessories that will help you show off your love of both Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam. The limited-edition launch includes several Jibbitz, small pins that can be added to your Crocs for a personalized touch, allowing you to showcase your love for both Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam. 

You can pick these up—if you are so inclined—at “select retailers.” We’re guessing not Neiman-Marcus. The cereal boxes feature a QR code you can scan to redeem your free Kellogg's Jibbitz charm. 

This Week in Printing, Publishing, and Media History

June 3

1140: The French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy.

1889: The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles (23 km) between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Ore.

1924: Czech-Austrian lawyer and author Franz Kafka dies (b. 1883).

1929: American game show host and producer Chuck Barris born.

1961: American lawyer, academic, author, and founder of the Creative Commons Lawrence Lessig born.

1965: The launch of Gemini 4, the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Ed White, a crew member, performs the first American spacewalk.

June 4

1783: The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon).

1876: An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after leaving New York City. (Insert your own Amtrak joke here.)

1907: American actress Rosalind Russell born. Russell starred with Cary Grant in His Girl Friday, one of the best—and funniest—newspaper movies ever made.

1917: The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall win the first Pulitzer for biography (for Julia Ward Howe); Jean Jules Jusserand wins the first Pulitzer for history for his work With Americans of Past and Present Days;  and Herbert B. Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism for his work for the New York World.

June 5

1851: Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper.

1910: American short story writer O. Henry dies (b. 1862).

1919: American-Swiss author and illustrator Richard Scarry born.

1947: American singer-songwriter and violinist Laurie Anderson born.

1956: Elvis Presley introduces his new single, “Hound Dog,” on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements.

2012: American science fiction writer and screenwriter Ray Bradbury dies (b. 1920).

June 6

1756: American soldier and painter John Trumbull born.

Portrait of Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull, 1806.

1799: Russian author and poet Alexander Pushkin born.

1875: German author, critic, and Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann born.

1892: The Chicago “L” elevated rail system begins operation.

1933: The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, N.J.

1946: American bass player and songwriter Tony Levin born.

2016: English playwright and screenwriter; works included Equus and Amadeus Peter Shaffer dies (b. 1926).

June 7

1810: The newspaper Gazeta de Buenos Ayres is first published in Argentina.

1848: French painter and sculptor Paul Gauguin born.

1911: American engineer and designer Brooks Stevens born, most famous for designing the Wienermobile. (As we saw last week, a replica is for sale.)

1955: Lux Radio Theatre signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.

1958: American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor Prince (né Prince Rogers Nelson) born.

1970: English novelist, short story writer, essayist E. M. Forster dies (b. 1879).

1971: The United States Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1975: Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder. Alas, the “videotape war” of the late 70s and early 80s would result in VHS becoming the dominant format...for a while.

June 8

1809: English-American theorist and author Thomas Paine dies (b. 1737).

1867: American architect Frank Lloyd Wright born.

1887: Herman Hollerith applies for US patent #395,781 for the “Art of Compiling Statistics,” which was his punched card calculator.

1912: Carl Laemmle incorporates Universal Pictures.

1949: George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is published, initially as fiction...for a while

1916: English biologist, biophysicist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate Francis Crick is born.

June 9

1523: The Parisian Faculty of Theology fines Simon de Colines for publishing the Biblical commentary Commentarii initiatorii in quatuor Evangelia by Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples.

1870: English novelist and critic Charles Dickens dies (b. 1812).

1891: American composer and songwriter Cole Porter born.

1930: A Chicago Tribune reporter, Jake Lingle, is killed during rush hour at the Illinois Central train station by Leo Vincent Brothers, allegedly over a $100,000 gambling debt owed to Al Capone.

1934: Donald Duck makes his debut in The Wise Little Hen.

1961: American screenwriter, producer, and playwright Aaron Sorkin born, and walking and talking in no time.

1973: Secretariat wins the U.S. Triple Crown.