Le Monde in France, for example, has been charging for premium content since 2002, and has racked up 100,000 subscribers steadily paying $8 a month — even though its traditional newspaper circulation is barely more than 300,000.

Ad Age (link)

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

C. S. Lewis (via libraryland)

A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you.

Daniel J. Boorstin (via bookshelves)

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

Cicero (via bookshelves)

Man muss das Unmögliche versuchen, um das Mögliche zu erreichen.

(You have to try the impossible to reach possible things.)

Hermann Hesse (via germanheit)

alterity

wordjournal:

noun • /ælˈtɛrɪtɪ/ • the state of being different

Quote: Measuring creativity

bobulate:

When musicians improvise, their brains turn inhibitions down and creativity up. Scientists set out to measure exactly what is going on in the heads of musicians, using jazz as the constant:

[T]hey go into what we call a “dissociated frontal activity state.” There’s this notion that someone like Coltrane is “in the zone,” he’s far away from the concerns of everyday life. And he is in some other place where all of these novel ideas are flowing out of him.

How does he do it?

The brain really alters itself into this creative mindframe where its purpose at that moment is to generate novelty and to decrease inhibition.

Consider that for a moment: improv decreases inhibition and increases novelty! As I mentioned recently, people are already improvising. With the emergence and adoption of a new set of tools and services, the line between creator and consumer has narrowed and, in many places, blurred completely. And this is the great opportunity for designers (or creators or any kind): to create room for this sort of free flow of ideas in our design process and in the products and services we create for people. Plan for improvisation. Make room for novelty. (These are not oxymorons.)In the meantime, head over to hear a series on the field of “neuromusic,” research at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and music.

Measuring creativity

I remain suspicious, however, of anyone who argues that online social networks, like Facebook, will revolutionize human interactions. Whenever I encounter some utopian celebration of Facebook, I always go back and read some Jane Goodall, or Robert Sapolsky, and remind myself that our social lives haven’t changed that much since we were hairy apes patrolling the African forest. In fact, the most obvious parallel for just about every primate troop remains high school. It’s not that Facebook doesn’t matter – it’s just that our social lives are stubborn things, and tend to revolve around the same constants regardless of the technology.

Jonah Lehrer, “Facebook Friends,” The Frontal Cortex (via somethingchanged)

Ten Unexpected Collective Nouns

wordjournal:

  • rout • a rout of wolves
  • clowder • a clowder of cats
  • descension • a descension of woodpeckers
  • disworship • a disworship of Scots
  • mute • a mute of hounds
  • raft • a raft of ducks
  • unbrewing • an unbrewing of carvers
  • neverthriving • a neverthriving of jugglers
  • drunkenship • a drunkenship of cobblers
  • shrewdness • a shrewdness of apes

acatalepsy

wordjournal:

noun • incomprehensibility of things; the state of being impossible to understand; the skeptic doctrine that knowledge cannot be certain.

From the Greek α̉- (privative) + καταλαμβάνειν (‘to seize’).

another drawing from an old sketch book… i used a new & an old sharpie marker… it’s a technique i learned in school… a sharpie marker that is expiring provides a charcoal impression…

along with those old fountain pens i found some old sketch books from university days… here’s a sketch from the 90s…

i rediscovered a fountain pen set i put in storage… after years in storage, these fine pens still work well & beautifully…

snowfall, viewed from the east wing of the estate…

perquisite

wordjournal:

noun • /ˈpur-kwuh-zit/ • any monetary or other incidental benefit beyond salary; a tip or gratuity.

Often shortened to perk. From Medieval Latin perquīsītum (‘an acquired possession’).

(Source: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/february/seb-lesters-new-jd-salinger-book-jacket-designs)

sometimes we have a conversation like this one — from the film away we go

Verona De Tessant: Burt, are we f***-ups?
Burt Farlander: No! What do you mean?
Verona De Tessant: I mean, we’re 34…
Burt Farlander: I’m 33.
Verona De Tessant: …and we don’t even have this basic stuff figured out.
Burt Farlander: Basic, like how?
Verona De Tessant: Basic, like how to live.
Burt Farlander: We’re not f***-ups.
Verona De Tessant: We have a cardboard window.
Burt Farlander: [Looks at window] We’re not f***-ups.
Verona De Tessant: [Whispers] I think we might be f***-ups.
Burt Farlander: [Whispers back] We’re not f***-ups.

I bought a decaffeinated coffee table, you can’t even see a difference.

Author Unknown (via coffeechat)