Interesting Elsewhere

My occasional roundup of fun, thought-provoking, educational or otherwise interesting things I’ve come across in recent weeks…

Frere-Jones is Suing Hoefler | Quartz

These two run an extremely well-known type foundry (i.e. a company that makes and distributes typefaces) and have made gobs of money working with huge corporations to provide fonts for branding and identities. One of the most prominent examples is the Gotham typeface used in all of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign material. And now one of them is suing the other in a dispute about a 50/50 split of the company. This is huge news in the design world.

Step Into the Void Above the French Alps | The Atlantic

Whoa! I’m not really afraid of heights, but these “standing on air” things make my heart pound a little. Still, I would totally go step into this glass box.

Dryden to be Renamed for Armstrong | NASA.gov

NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California is being renamed for Neil Armstrong. It’s a Congressional/political thing and I don’t really have a strong opinion one way or the other; my main reaction was “dang, now there will be two ARCs which could get confusing.” (ARC is the Ames Research Center near San Jose, California.) But since Dryden was DFRC, I suppose it will now be AFRC. Acronym crisis averted!

Former UNC player ties counselors to no-show classes | News & Observer

I’ve been following this story, about how college student-athletes at UNC were encouraged to sign up for classes that never met, on-and-off as it develops with very mixed feelings. I think this type of thing (fake, or at least severely grade-inflated, classes for college athletes) happens all the time, which sucks; I’m sad that UNC in particular is at the center this time, but it is what it is. I think that college student-athletes should be held to the same academic standards as other students; I also think that the university has an obligation to actually give them an education vs. faking it. I’m not sure how I feel about student-athletes being paid, although I fully realize that universities are making billions off them.