Holy crap, is there a lost Shakespeare play out there? A linguistics conference is solely dedicated to the R sound. Is the AI pin the future of technology? Don’t count E Ink technology out just yet. Automakers have started using recycled materials for car interiors. Minnesota is crowd-sourcing its new state flag design, unfortunately. A new turbine deign could revolutionize wind power. An AI-powered robotic beehive that can help beekeepers save honeybee colonies. A New Hampshire distillery has come out with a trout-flavored brandy. AI-powered crunch-cancelling software that eliminates the distracting crunching sound of chips. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.
Construction has halted on the Times Square Theater, which has been under renovation for several years. The project is currently on pause while the broker looks for a tenant.
Multiple-reel films had appeared in the United States as early as 1907, when Adolph Zukor distributed Pathé’s three-reel Passion Play, but when Vitagraph produced the five-reel The Life of Moses in 1909, the MPPC forced it to be released in serial fashion at the rate of one reel a week. The multiple-reel film which came to be called a “feature,” in the vaudevillian sense of a headline attraction achieved general acceptance with the smashing success of the three-and-one-half-reel Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (Queen Elizabeth, 1912), which starred Sarah Bernhardt and was imported by Zukor (who founded the independent Famous Players
The 2023 PRINT Awards are now open. Friedrich Nietzsche’s Malling-Hansen Writing Ball. A branding expert talks about creative a bespoke typeface. A website that “deteriorates” every time someone visits it. Volkswagen’s motorized office chair can cruise up to 12 mph. A cubicle with motorized walls that can follow you around. Get a Hot Wheels version of your own car. A portmanteau word generator. Graphene is going into space. The James Webb Space telescope captures a protostar. Coors has developed nail polish that changes color when its temperature drops to a level acceptable for drinking a Coors Light. All that and more in WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany.