Machine Learning Attempts to Translate Animal Communication

Neuroscientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Germany have deployed machine-learning algorithms to decode communication recorded in mole rat colonies, and documented the importance of varying dialects. This technology (already utilized in the analysis of human language) has also been applied to mice, bats, crows, sperm whales and more—sometimes opening fledgling pathways for humans to communicate back. Though we are far from …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

London's Black history tube map, an open call for radical creatives, a super-sized basketball book and other Internet wonders

Solange’s New Library for Rare Books on Black Art + Expression Founded by Solange’s creative agency, Saint Heron, and curated by Rosa Duffy, the Saint Heron Community Library highlights over 50 rare, author-inscribed and out-of-print books by pioneering Black artists and thinkers. The online archive—whose first season runs from 18-29 October—focuses on fostering knowledge, discussion and skill within the community. “These works expand imaginations, and …

Decolonizing Chinese Typography With New Font “Ku Mincho”

Hong Kong native Julius Hui is on a mission to build a new typeface that traces the lineage of the Chinese language, a font he calls Ku Mincho. In China, typography has a sordid history of colonialism and political standardization—first, calligraphy styles were dictated by the whims of emperors, then by Japanese imperialism, and then by the boom of digital media which introduced “fat and …