Product Placement and Brand Mentions in Top 20 Tracks

A whopping 212 different brands have been mentioned throughout all the songs that reached top 20 status in the last three years, according to Bloomberg pop culture reporter Kim Bhasin and data journalist Lance Lambert. Their study analyzed the tracks, searching for brand references, whether by proper name or through slang references. Rolls-Royce received the most mentions (helped along the way by Rolls-Royce owners Drake, …

AuthaGraph World Map Corrects Perceptions

No map is perfect but those behind AuthaGraph have offered an alternative that addresses size perception. By laying the spherical world out on 96 triangles, which are then transferred to a triangular pyramid, they have been able to depict continents (and countries) in more accurate sizes with regard to one another. When unfolded, this pyramid can either lay flat in rectangular form or be folded …

Ettore Sottsass Sketched His Autobiography

Prolific and significant, architect and designer Ettore Sottsass sketched an illustrated autobiography back in 1993. Now published in a new edition of Phaidon’s “Ettore Sottsass,” these sketches offer a fascinating peep inside the brain of a master. They’re incredibly charming and accompanied by poetic notes of interest. (An especially interesting one: as a child, he enjoyed designing cemeteries.) Proving Sottsass was quite a sensitive soul, …