Art Nouveau
I enjoy the flowing lines and curves, the flowers and leaves of Art Nouveau architecture. A well-illustrated article showcases 5 art nouveau features in the UK from an arcade in Norwich to a bar counter in Wednesbury. [Historic England]
History Lessons – Grapes, Wine & Hair Salons
The history of grapes goes way, way back in time. They grew naturally across western and central Eurasia 300-400,000 years ago. An ice age 200,000 years ago, separated the vine habitat into two separate areas, one in the region of Portugal, Spain and France, and the other to the east (roughly Israel, Syria, Turkey and Georgia). Humans in western Asia began domesticating grapes 11,000 years ago, but it took another 2,000 years before they mastered winemaking. [Scientific American]
Nowadays every household has a hairdryer, but that wasn’t always the case. Beauty salons grew in number and prestige at the start of the twentieth century, providing female entrepreneurs with a respectable, middle-class occupation by the end of World War I. The salons were a public space where women gathered but could still hold private conversations. The hood dryer was invented in the late 19th century but became commonplace in the period between the two world wars. [JSTOR Daily]
Roman Glass
I fell in love with Roman glass many, many years ago when visiting the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, England. Fragile and yet strong enough to survive until today, the glass has a wonderful patina in shades of gold, blue, green, and orange. Scientists have discovered that corrosion and reconstruction broke down some of the glass’s silica, creating photonic crystals.
“Photonic crystals are materials made up of periodically dense and less dense layers with different refractive indices, meaning each layer reflects light of different wavelengths at different angles. As photonic crystals' color depends on the angle they are viewed from, the light they reflect is iridescent.”
Photonic crystals exist in nature (blue morpho butterflies, blue-leafed begonias) but are also manufactured for use in cameras, sensors, and light circuits. [Live Science]
Writing for Busy Readers
Every day, over and over again, we have to decide: Will I read this article/email/post? Or should I skim it? Or maybe ignore it altogether? In Writing for Busy Readers, Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink propose 6 basic principles substantiated by evidence:
· Less is more (cutting the length of a survey from 127 to 49 words almost doubled the response rate)
· Make reading easy (short, active sentences using common words)
· Design for easy navigation
· Use enough formatting, but no more (“mixing up different forms of emphasis like highlighting, bolding and italics are the “equivalent of a peanut butter, ham and Gorgonzola sandwich on banana bread: a combination of ingredients that add up to an unpleasant, off-putting whole”)
· Tell readers why they should care
· Make responding easy [The Economist]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.
If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.
Thank you, Penny.