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Why Do Some Sections of Sidewalk Have Bumps?
Today’s Big Question: Why is the passenger seat called “shotgun”?
20 Powerful Quotes From Frederick Douglass
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress” famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote in his 1845 memoir, A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Here are 19 other sage quotes from the dazzling orator.
Time of Day and Age May Influence Coffee’s Impact on Memory
A recent study finds that the time of day and your age may influence coffee’s influence on your memory.
The Early 2000s-Era Nokia 3310 May Be Returning to Stores
The early 2000s-era Nokia 3310 will be returning to stores later this month and can be yours for the price of $63—markedly less than a smartphone.
The Strange Life and Mysterious Death of Kim Jong-nam, Kim Jong-un’s Brother
Kim Jong-nam, the older half brother of Kim Jong-un (and globetrotting, Disneyland fanatic), died suddenly on Monday. Was it murder? Maybe.
It’s everything a movie producer could ever ask for: Thieves rappelling down from a skylight to avoid motion detectors; a criminal mastermind known only as “The Astronomer”; Scotland Yard. All of them embroiled in a successful—at least, so far—heist of more than 160 rare books valued at over $2.5 million.
The Guardian reports that a team of highly organized criminals broke into a London warehouse in late January to swipe rare titles, owned by multiple parties, that were being held in storage en route to a California book fair. The heist was facilitated by the crooks drilling holes into a skylight, then using ropes to inch down to prevent alarms from going off. Works from the 15th and 16th centuries have been reported missing, including volumes written by Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Galileo.
Closed-circuit cameras captured the thieves making deliberate searches of boxes known to contain the valuable items, meaning they were well-prepared for what they might find. Because the books are so distinctive, it would be virtually impossible to sell them without raising suspicion; authorities suspect an ethically-challenged collector known as “The Astronomer” may be behind the score.
If true, it wouldn’t be the first time a love of books led to a brazen robbery. In 1990, an Iowa man named Stephen Blumberg was caught after he had spent two decades amassing nearly 19,000 books from libraries and museums. The collection was valued at $5.3 million. Blumberg served four and a half years in prison.
[h/t Smithsonian]
February 15, 2017 – 10:15am
James Bond is one of the most coveted roles an actor can ever hope to land, and it’s been that way for decades. Six different men have played the role in a series of 24 films produced over nearly six decades, which means many, many more actors either tried to get the part and failed, or got the part but didn’t want it. Here are just a few Bond candidates you might not have seen coming.
At first brush, Cary Grant seems like a natural choice for Bond, and he had both Bond creator Ian Fleming’s favor and a close friendship with producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli on his side. Grant was already in his late 50s by the time Dr. No began its journey to the screen, though, and would only commit to a single film. Hoping for a star who would sign a three-picture deal, the production moved on.
Best known for films like My Fair Lady and Doctor Dolittle, Harrison might not exactly be super-spy material, but he was among the many actors considered when Eon Productions began casting Dr. No. In the end, despite his debonair side, it was decided Harrison didn’t have the action chops for the role.
David Niven certainly had Bond’s charming, tuxedo-clad side down, and was a favorite casting choice of Ian Fleming. The role ultimately went to Sean Connery, but Niven did get a revenge of sorts, playing a retired version of Bond in the 1967 spoof Casino Royale, loosely based on Fleming’s novel.
Another favorite of Fleming’s, Richard Burton was just beginning his legendary film career when he was approached about the role. Disagreements over salary and his belief that the Bond concept might not have stood up on film got in the way, though, and he ultimately passed.
When casting on Dr. No began, Patrick McGoohan—perhaps best known today for the TV series The Prisoner—was starring in the series Danger Man (Secret Agent in the U.S.), and was asked to consider the Bond role. But McGoohan, a devout Catholic, turned it down.
“It has an insidious and powerful influence on children,” McGoohan told the Express. “Would you like your son to grow up like James Bond? Since I hold these views strongly as an individual and parent I didn’t see how I could contribute to the very things to which I objected.”
Yes, it sounds weird, but when Sean Connery departed the Bond role after making You Only Live Twice (he would later return for a massive salary to make Diamonds Are Forever), Dick Van Dyke was among the actors considered to replace him. According to Van Dyke, he was asked to consider the part by Broccoli, but when he reminded the producer of his famously bad English accent from Mary Poppins, Broccoli replied: “Oh, that’s right—forget it!”
In the mid-1960s, Peter Purves was a TV actor best known for his role as Steven Taylor on the then-relatively new sci-fi series Doctor Who, which he’d recently departed when he auditioned for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Needless to say he didn’t get the part, and was then dumped by his agent. His string of bad luck ended when he landed a presenter job on the long-running BBC children’s program Blue Peter in 1967, where he stayed for more than a decade.
Terence Stamp was one of the hottest young actors of the 1960s, so it was only natural the producers wanted him to consider playing Bond when Connery left after five films. When Stamp pitched his idea for how to introduce a new Bond to producer Harry Saltzman, though, it was quickly rejected.
“[Saltzman] took me out for dinner at the White Elephant in Curzon Street,” Stamp told the Evening Standard. “He said, ‘We’re looking for the new 007. You’re really fit and really English.’
“I was very shocked but I thought it was great. ‘The fact is,’ I said, ‘Sean has made the role his own. The public will have trouble accepting anyone else. But in one of the books it starts with him disguised as a Japanese warrior. If we could do that one, I could start the movie in complete Japanese make-up. By the time it came off they are used to me a little bit. I would love to do it like that.’ He wasn’t impressed.”
Michael Gambon, best known to modern audiences as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter franchise, was one of many actors considered when producers were looking to cast Diamonds Are Forever (the film Connery eventually returned for). Gambon argued to Broccoli that he wasn’t nearly fit enough for the role.
“I said, I can’t play James Bond, because I’m bald, I’ve got a double chin and I’ve got girl’s t*ts,” Gambon recalled. “So he said, ‘Well, so has Sean Connery, so we put a wig on him, and we put two big leather bags full of ice on his chest before the take. And then a man comes in just before the action and takes the bags off and then Connery has a beautiful flat chest and he has false teeth and all that.’
“He said, ‘you could well do it.’ But he didn’t offer it to me!”
No American has ever starred in the Bond series, but a few came close, and Burt Reynolds was one of them after George Lazenby departed the series following On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Though he was offered the part, Reynolds said no, believing an American could never play the spy.
“I think I could have done it well,” Reynolds later said. “In my stupidity, I said, ‘An American can’t play James Bond, it has to be an Englishman—Bond, James Bond. Nah, I can’t do it.’ Oops. Yeah, I could have done it.”
Clint Eastwood was yet another American star considered when Lazenby left the series. Then best known for his TV work and his Spaghetti westerns with director Sergio Leone, Eastwood just didn’t feel right taking the character over from another actor.
“I was offered pretty good money to do James Bond if I would take on the role,” Eastwood said. “But to me, well, that was somebody else’s gig. That’s Sean’s deal. It didn’t feel right for me to be doing it.”
When Roger Moore decided he was done with Bond after For Your Eyes Only in 1981, producers again went after an American actor. After a great screen test, James Brolin essentially got the part, but when Warner Bros. announced their own Bond film—the Connery-starring Never Say Never Again—to compete with the upcoming Octopussy in 1983, the producers got nervous, and convinced Moore to return.
When Moore finally retired from the Bond role for good, Sam Neill was a front-runner to replace him, alongside future Bonds Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton. Neill’s screen test impressed longtime Bond director John Glen, but Broccoli wasn’t so sure. With Brosnan forced back into another season of Remington Steele, the role ultimately went to Dalton.
When the time came to revitalize the Bond franchise in the ‘90s, Liam Neeson was offered the role. He turned it down for a very simple reason: Love.
“My wife-to-be [the late actress Natasha Richardson] said, ‘If you play James Bond we’re not getting married.’ And I had to take that on board because I did want to marry her.”
When it came time to recast Bond following Pierce Brosnan’s tenure, dozens of actors were considered, and Ewan McGregor was among the serious contenders. In the end, he turned it down because he was afraid the job would take over his career.
“With Star Wars, we did a three-month shoot and a couple of weeks of pick-ups so it wasn’t an enormous involvement,” McGregor said. “But with Bond, I suppose it’s a much longer shoot and there’s a massive amount of publicity. I would worry about not being able to do any other work.”
February 15, 2017 – 10:00am
Award-winning grass-covered pavilion in #India constructed with over 1,000 #recycled #pallets https://t.co/DNH8zTlzyG pic.twitter.com/2jK82vhM18
— inhabitat (@inhabitat) February 14, 2017
A few years ago, the architecture firm M:OFA Studios found a way to transform discarded shipping pallets into something beautiful. “Pensieve,” named after the magical memory basin from the Harry Potter series, featured more than 1200 wooden recyclables arranged to create a one-of-a-kind public space in New Delhi.
The 800-square-foot structure was erected as part of the India Design ID event in 2014 and taken down that same year. But according to inhabitat, the design was so memorable that it’s still being recognized for awards even though it’s no longer standing. Most recently, it was nominated for a 2016 Kohler Bold Design Award in the “Community Harmony” category.
The symmetrical pavilion was modeled after the ruins scattered throughout the city. The crates were stacked on top of one another—some were kept empty and others were filled with compost for growing grass and other plant life. According to M:OFA, the design was “based on the idea of unobstructed thoughts associated often with children.” The broken walls of New Dehli’s ruins are sometimes used as playgrounds by kids, and “Pensieve” was meant to evoke this same sense of playfulness. Once inside, visitors could lounge on the solar-powered furniture that lit up when occupied, or stroll among the 100 motion-activated fiber-optic light fixtures at night.
M:OFA will be bringing more of their innovative architecture to this year’s India Design ID. For their 2017 project, they’re creating “mega-structures” out of wood scraps that will resemble hills rising up from the earth.
[h/t inhabitat]
February 15, 2017 – 9:00am
Although social media has made it easy to share your feelings with the press of a button, the market for old-fashioned analog greeting cards is still chugging along. The industry rakes in an estimated $5 billion annually, led by card giants Hallmark and American Greetings and bolstered by hundreds of smaller start-ups.
At big and small firms alike, card designers are tasked with spending their days finding fresh ways to communicate love, sympathy, or holiday cheer. We spoke to a few of them to find out what it takes to stand out on the retail card racks.
In the card business, writers are constantly angling to capture a “universal specific,” or a common theme that sounds personal despite having appeal across the board. Matt Gowen, a staff writer at Hallmark, says that one of the best ways to arrive at that sincerity is to imagine you’re writing a card for one specific person in your life. “Starting with a real person and a real relationship gives you lots of little details to use,” he says. “Writing an anniversary card, I can think about my own wife.” A colleague of Gowen’s writes her Mother’s Day cards with her own mother in mind. “Her mom just loses it. It’s a lot of fun.”
Most card displays are front-facing, with only the upper third of the card exposed to shoppers. That means card designers need to try and capture your scanning eye with something that makes at least a little bit of sense even when it’s cut off from the rest of the pack. “You need to create a symbol, image, or word that immediately makes a person want to pick up the card from about a three to six-foot distance, [which is] often how far someone is when they scan cards,” says Kate Harper, a freelance card designer. “For example, if it is a love card, adding a heart to the top third is helpful. It immediately communicates to the person passing by what the topic of the card is.”
Writers and designers at Hallmark are typically brought on group projects that are sorted according to holidays or themes, with a mandate to create anywhere from 100 to 150 cards for the occasion. Because standards are high, the vast majority of their ideas won’t make it into your hands. “If you write humor, which I do, a 10 percent acceptance rate is considered high,” Gowen says. “Most ideas end up in the trash. You learn to develop a thick skin.”
Ever wonder why cards feature an abundance of adorable animals or decapitated bodies? It’s because photographed human faces may make cards less appealing. “When people buy cards for someone, they have an idea of the person they are sending it to,” Harper says. “Maybe they are older, younger, or a different ethnicity than the person on the card. The buyer is asking unconsciously, ‘Does this look like my friend?’ Unless the images are completely humorous or retro, you rarely see photos of faces on cards.”
Harmlessly, of course. To develop an ear for relatable dialogue, card writers often comb social media or eavesdrop on conversations in public settings to get a feel for what strikes a chord. “Sometimes you’re out doing errands and something will stand out,” Gowen says. Inspiration has struck while waiting for his car to get washed. One colleague, he says, likes to loiter in card shops to see which types of cards shoppers pick up.
Those monolithic, aisle-wide card displays in your local pharmacy? They’re actually owned by the heavy hitters—Hallmark and American Greetings—and serviced by both. Owing to contracts with store chains, it’s not likely you’ll find any small-press, irreverent cards on shelves. “It’s impossible for an indie company like mine to get into a CVS or Walgreen’s,” says Emily McDowell, owner of Emily McDowell Studio. Instead, she markets online and to stores like Urban Outfitter that don’t have exclusive deals with the major brands.
Greeting card companies worry a lot about colors. “Bright, upbeat colors stand out,” Harper says. “Browns, grays, and black and white don’t do as well.” That thinking also applies to envelopes, although some designers stay away from red. “It’s best to not use red, since the post office has problems reading black ink on red envelopes.”
For a company like Hallmark, whose specialty stores carry a steady supply of gifts and novelties in addition to greeting cards, staff writers are expected to have their hand in a little bit of everything. “I’ve written for t-shirts, mugs, posters, songs,” Gowen says. “Anything with words, you name it.”
While major companies often insist on having words on both the inside and outside of cards, McDowell says that customers have taken a liking to cards that are completely blank on the inside. “I learned that early on,” she says. “It’s partially consumer-driven in that it’s more flexible for consumers to write their own personalized message. It’s also partially due to the fact that our cards, and all other boutique cards, are sold packed in individual plastic sleeves, together with their envelope, in order to protect the product in the store. Having blank insides eliminates the need for customers to open the packaging and see what’s written on the inside.”
Writers at Hallmark work on so many different card concepts that it can become difficult to keep track of which fall by the wayside and which make it to stores. “In the writing studio, you’re removed from that process and you can forget what you worked on,” Gowen says. “Then you walk into a card shop to buy a Mother’s Day card and go, ‘Oh, I worked on this.’ It’s kind of a nice surprise.”
When card-shopping, buyers typically get sucked in by an image and then sold on the writing. Whether a card is $1 or $10 doesn’t really matter, according to Harper. “The price is the last consideration in determining the purchase,” she says.
Thanks to Pinterest, Etsy, and a host of other creative commerce sites, there’s been a deluge of greeting card designs. What could be easier than a simple design and a little sentiment on paper? “It’s an easy point of entry because cards are cheap to produce,” McDowell says. “But they’re not often made by trained designers. I was in advertising for 10 years.”
Gowen has also seen some of the I-could-do-that spirit. “People come up to me all the time and tell me a funny story that should be on a card. It might be funny, but is it universal? That’s the trick.”
And, he says: “Anyone can write a card. But can you write them five days a week for a decade?”
February 15, 2017 – 8:00am
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| Backwards navigation: | Forbidden |
5 Questions: Spilled “Milk”
Wednesday, February 15, 2017 – 01:45