What’s In This Issue?
This Week’s Main Stories
Story 01Can Fart Masking Undies and In-Flight Bunk Beds Save Travel?
Story 02The Quiet Beauty of a Hyper Legible Font
Story 03Will DNA Testing Lead To The End of Family Secrets?
Story 04Body Positive Book Helps Children Love Their Body As Is
Story 05Why "Clown Fashion" Could Be The Next Big Style Movement
Story 06Inside Japan's Obsession With Paper (And Nostalgia)Even More Stories
Can Fart Masking Undies and In-Flight Bunk Beds Save Travel?
Given the growing fears of travel due to the Covid-19 virus, one could argue there has never been a better week to announce economy class bunk beds and fart odor masking underwear inserts. Yes I am poking a bit of fun at travel because you know what? This week we could really use the levity as the news is filled with corporate travel bans and suggestions to avoid going out unless essential.
The Quiet Beauty of a Hyper Legible Font
Great design can make the hidden visible. That's what this beautiful new "hyperlegible" font from the Braille Institute does by improving legibility for readers with low vision. The unique design uses exaggerated forms, unambiguous characters and opened counterspace to make reading anything more approachable. And it reminds all of us about the beautiful power of designing something solely for the noble purpose of making sure no one gets left behind.
Will DNA Testing Lead To The End of Family Secrets?
"DNA testing forces questions on people they didn't even know they were asking." This is just one of the fascinating insights shared by author/journalist Libby Copeland in an interview with WIRED about her new book The Lost Family. As DNA testing becomes more prevalent, there are many people who are uncovering deeply buried family secrets, finding long lost relatives and sometimes discovering that they may need to reinvent their entire self identity due to learning the truth about some previously buried personal truth. These are big questions of identity ... and ones we may all soon be forced to face, whether we ask for it or not.
Body Positive Book Helps Children Love Their Body As Is
Unlike most children's books about bullying that show someone overcoming bullying, a new body positive book called Her Body Can just shows "a plus-sized kid living her best life." The authors are already working on a second book called His Body Can to also help boys who may be struggling with similar body self-esteem issues. Helping kids be more confident with their own bodies is a great purpose, but I really love that the authors are not forgetting that these issues can dramatically affect boys just as much as girls and we need to remember with projects like this not to leave boys behind.
Why "Clown Fashion" Could Be The Next Big Style Movement
Author Andrew McConnell believes "the clown is an image of cultural exhaustion." He goes on to share in an interview that the clown "is a holdover from the industrial age, whose lingering presence has come to represent the loss of innocence and fun curdling into terror." Yes, clowns do terrify people but what's equally concerning is these fashion styles that are inspired by a seemingly ill-fated and confusing surge of "clown chic" does seem to be a thing. Bring in the clowns, I suppose.
Inside Japan's Obsession With Paper (And Nostalgia)
As a country, Japan is obsessed with paper. A Japanese architect built a church out of paper tubes. Every Japanese person has a small ink stamp known as a hanko. Transactions are conducted by paper and apparently the fax is still widely used in Japan. And then there are the notebooks and exquisitely crafted paper stores. The government is trying to move citizens to digital for various things, but the power of paper is just one sign of the general love of nostalgia from the Japanese. While everyone tries new ways to speed things up, it was hopeful that at least in one culture there are people who appreciate the exact opposite.
