i don’t care—do you?

As a gesture of goodwill after her husband vulgarly disparaged the continent as an undesirable source for immigration, former fashion model Melania Trump seemed to once again forget about the power of optics, donning jodhpurs and a pith helmet for her (thankfully) photographic safari at a nature reserve in Kenya.
Who has such things in their wardrobe? The nineteenth century headgear has been all but abandoned for more sensible cover, owning to the fact that most visitors do not want to project antiquated colonial attitudes and willingness to bear the burden of leading the world toward civilisation.

sans forgetica

Via Slashdot, we are introduced to a typeface developed and distributed at no cost (also compatible as a web font for some browsers) by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Behavioural Business Laboratory to help boost retention by presenting text in a finely-tuned balance between legibility and obstruction—capitalising on a principle called “desirable difficulty”—in order to make passages more memorable.
Designed in consultation with a team psychologists and typographers, the founders hope it is precisely disruptive enough to make readers pause and take note but not so irascible as to repair to easier viewing, something especially useful for students cramming for exams or representatives saddled with tomes of last minute legislation to review before voting on it essentially sight unseen. The sans of course like Sas Serif signifies “without” like those flared ending and corners on letter strokes. See a font sampler and download Sans Forgetica at the links above.

john o’groats

Via the always interesting Things Magazine, we learn that the Islands Bill, passed by the Scottish Parliament back in May of this year, has recently come into force and includes a provision championed by Member Tavis Scott that prohibits the Shetlands to be depicted alongside the mainland’s coast in inset boxes, a geographical fiction quite irksome to the widely scattered archipelago’s residents, and demand that cartographers portray the islands accurately, empty space and all. The Ordinance Survey agreed with opponents who called the change impractical and warned it would reduce the level of detail that could be attained in all maps by changing the scale.

great railway journeys

Via Dark Roasted Blend’s weekly Link Latte, we find ourselves directed to the beautifully curated collection of vintage and antique European rail travel posters from Armand Massonet. Categorised and with a bit of provenance that allows one to date the ephemera and learn more, there’s a wealth of resources to discover. We especially liked the section dedicated to overnight expresses and sleeper cars (a less common luxury nowadays)—including automobile hauling service. The pictorial train map section, like this Bildkarte of Austria, is also definitely worth browsing through.