The Tolkien estate has disavowed the new Tolkien biopic; people will probably go see it anyway. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/23/tolkien-estate-disavows-forthcoming-film-starring-nicholas-hoult

"After the [Dyson] Airblade’s launch, a battle began to boil, pitting the dryer industry against the world’s most powerful hand-drying lobby: Big Towel." https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/25/hand-dryers-paper-towels-hygiene-dyson-airblade

Why Colors You See in an Art Museum Can’t Be Replicated Today https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-colors-you-see-art-museum-cant-be-replicated-today-180953332/

Old-school writing tools boost creativity, focus—and speed. Or so say some top authors. https://qz.com/quartzy/1594846/the-hidden-efficiency-of-old-school-tools/

Some high-profile male tech executives accused of sexual misconduct are getting second chances. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/tech-men-accused-sexual-misconduct-new-jobs-metoo

Source Code for Zork, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and Other Infocom Games on GitHub https://github.com/historicalsource/zork1

"Researchers who study empathy have noticed that it's actually really hard to do what we were striving for in my generation: empathize with people who are different than you are, much less people you don't like." https://www.npr.org/2019/04/15/712249664/the-end-of-empathy

Discovered via a Wired article:
"Notre Dame lives on in the virtual world, too—and that may make its restoration all the more complete. For the last half-decade or so, an architectural historian named Andrew Tallon worked with laser scanners to capture the entirety of the cathedral’s interior and exterior in meticulous 3D point clouds."

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150622-andrew-tallon-notre-dame-cathedral-laser-scan-art-history-medieval-gothic/

Why airlines make flights longer on purpose http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190405-the-secret-about-delays-airlines-dont-want-you-to-know

Comedian Ian Cognito dies onstage – and the audience think it’s part of his act https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comedy/comedians/comedian-ian-cognito-dies-onstage-audience-think-part-act/

Research shows that we’re more swayed by a simple star rating than what reviewers actually write. https://thehustle.co/amazon-fake-reviews

Streaming services have made songwriters cut to the chase to capture our attention. But let’s never forget how much epic intros have been the building blocks of memorable hits. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190407-the-most-iconic-long-song-intros-in-pop-music

Which books can help you become a better leader than your bosses were? Here are several non-obvious choices worth reading. #books #cosobookclub https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/8-books-that-can-help-1904.html

RIP Author and Grand Master Gene Wolfe, 1931-2019 #cosobookclub #scifi https://www.tor.com/2019/04/15/gene-wolfe-in-memoriam-1931-2019/

Behind the process of Helvetica’s 21-century facelift https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/9/18302057/helvetica-now-new-monotype-typeface-charles-nix-design-optical-sizes-alternate-characters

How great managers give and receive feedback https://www.fellow.app/blog/2019/how-managers-give-and-receive-feedback/

Happy Monday.

Events this morning already calling to mind the German word "backpfeifengesicht," which mean "a face that is begging to be punched." The word Backpfeife means either "punch or slap" and Gesicht means "face."