Pixar: What Makes a Story Relatable
/A quick look at Pixar's approach to storytelling and character development.
Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens
/Kirby Ferguson continues the Everything is a Remix series with a look at Star Wars.
What Was the Greatest Era for Innovation? A Brief Guided Tour
/The New York Times explores innovation:
The truth is, this isn’t a debate that can be settled objectively. Which was a more important innovation: indoor plumbing, jet air travel or mobile phones? You could argue for any of them, and data can tell plenty of different stories depending on how you look at it. Productivity statistics or information on inflation-adjusted incomes is helpful, but can’t really tell you whether the advent of air-conditioning or the Internet did more to improve humanity’s quality of life.
We thought a better way to understand the significance of technological change would be to walk through how Americans lived, ate, traveled, and clothed and entertained themselves in 1870, 1920, 1970 and the present. This tour is both inspired by and reliant on Robert J. Gordon’s authoritative examination of innovation through the ages, “The Rise and Fall of American Growth,” published this year. These are portraits of each point in time, culled from Mr. Gordon’s research; you can decide for yourself which era is truly most transformative.
What is the purpose of a logo?
/Brian Solis continuing a conversation about logos, after it was discovered that a few modern logos look a lot like logos from a design book:
Without purpose, a logo is merely design. If it’s borrowed or if it’s completely original, it makes no difference if it’s unrelatable. In the end, a meaningful logo is a symbol of what you stand for and what you aspire to do or be that attracts me to stand with you. It’s how you bring that purpose and meaning to life, in every moment of truth, that shapes my experience.
Now Computers Can Tell When You're Bored
/Boredom manifests itself in more than yawns and glazed eyes. Subtle body cues called noninstrumental movements—squirming, scratching, shifting—also give away a person's mental state. Like teachers and other public speakers, machines can now also pick up on these telltale signs of restlessness. A new study reveals that when computer users tune in to on-screen material, their fidgeting lessens—and algorithms can use that information to discern attentiveness in real time.
To measure engagement, psychobiologist Harry Witchel of Brighton and Sussex Medical School in England and his colleagues outfitted 27 participants with motion-tracking markers that a computer's visual system could follow. The participants then read digital excerpts from a novel by Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and from the European Banking Authority's regulations. Based on motion in the head, torso and legs, the computer could tell when a person had mentally checked out. In fact, an analysis of the cumulative movements revealed that when people read from the novel, they fidgeted nearly 50 percent less than when reading the banking guidelines.