Nathaniel Hoffman is an independent journalist reporting on the American west and on the world from his home in Boise, Idaho.
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period. space.
Every modern typographer agrees on the one-space rule. It’s one of the canonical rules of the profession, in the same way that waiters know that the salad fork goes to the left of the dinner fork and fashion designers know to put men’s shirt buttons on the right and women’s on the left. Every major style guide—including the Modern Language Association Style Manual and theChicago Manual of Style—prescribes a single space after a period. (The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, used widely in the social sciences, allows for two spaces in draft manuscripts but recommends one space in published work.) Most ordinary people would know the one-space rule, too, if it weren’t for a quirk of history. In the middle of the last century, a now-outmoded technology—the manual typewriter—invaded the American workplace. To accommodate that machine’s shortcomings, everyone began to type wrong. And even though we no longer use typewriters, we all still type like we do. —Manjoo
Vs.
I love you guys, but you’re crazy. On questions of aesthetic preference there’s no particular reason that normal people should listen to a bunch of geeky obsessives who spend orders of magnitude more time on these issues than average. It’s like how you probably shouldn’t listen to me when I tell you not to use .doc files or that you might want to consider a digital audio player with Ogg Vorbis support. I strongly believe those things, but even I know they’re pointless and arbitrary for everyone who doesn’t consider “Save As…” an opportunity for political action.
Nor should we assume that just because typographers believe earnestly in the single space that their belief is held entirely in good faith. They’re drunk on the awesome power of their proportional fonts, and sure of the cosmic import of the minuscule kerning decisions that it is their lonely duty to make. Of course they don’t want lowly typists exercising their opinions about letter spacing. Those people aren’t qualified to have opinions! —Lee
dang. might start saving those avocado and mango seeds now.
Chart: America’s Gardens Are Warmer in 2012
One way to tell that the world (or at this country) is warming is to take a look at the map the USDA puts on the back of seed packets, which shows that winter temperatures have risen pretty much everywhere in the U.S. The Department of Agriculture released an update to the 1990 version of its “Plant Hardiness Zone Map,” which reveals much milder winters than in the past. Read more.
[Image: USDA]
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Watch this mayor’s soul leave his body. Fine questioning by a TV reporter. via ImmigrationProf.
tarmac
Jan Brewer vs. Obama: An airport meeting turns into an epic battle
She wrote some things in her book he didn’t like: The tough-on-immigration Arizona governor, who was not particularly happy with the way the president treated her in a much-talked-about-at-the-time 2010 meeting, wrote about it in her new book ”Scorpions for Breakfast,” and Obama didn’t like what she said. So, last night, when Obama got into Phoenix, this happened. ”I will say that a picture is what it is,” she said. “I must say, I was not hostile. I was trying to be very, very gracious. I respect the office of the president, and I would never be disrespectful in that manner.” What we would give to hear that conversation up close. (AP Photo) source
3 weeks to read the book.
