Invention helps reduce hand tremors for graphic designer with Parkinson’s disease

BBC Stories: This invention helped me write again

When Emma Lawton was 29 she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
As a graphic designer, drawing is a huge part of her life but over the past three years the tremor in her hands has grown more pronounced stopping her from writing and drawing straight lines.
Enter Haiyan Zhang and her invention that is changing Emma’s life.

See also

• Parkinson’s UK: BC's 'Big Life Fix' finds device to control Parkinson's tremor
• Parkinson’s UK: Emmas’s story: Diagnosed at 29
• Liftware Steady — Liftware Steady is an electronic stabilizing handle and a selection of attachments that include a soup spoon, everyday spoon, and fork. Liftware Steady is designed to help people with hand tremor, which may be related to Parkinson’s disease or essential tremor, eat more easily.

The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings (1882)

The Public Domain Review: The French artist, astronomer and amateur entomologist Étienne Léopold Trouvelot is noted for ⋮ the 7000 or so illustrations he created from his astronomical observations, the quality of which reached their zenith in the 15 exquisite pastel works which were published as ‘The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings’ in 1882.

As well as his illustrations, Trouvelot also published some 50 scientific papers, and was credited with discovering “veiled spots” on the Sun in 1875.

See also

• The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings: Atlas on The New York Public Library Digital Collections website. Includes high resolution (~70MB TIFF) downloads of all images, free to use without restriction.
• The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings Manual (1882) on the Internet Archive.

See also: Other posts on this blog tagged ‘space’.

List of clams: Comedy phrases that need to be retired

John August: John Quaintance recently tweeted photos of two whiteboards listing phrases banned in the Workaholics writers’ room. His tweet has been widely shared, and is a mitzvah to all writers.

These phrases are all clams — jokes that aren’t funny anymore and therefore need to die. When you include them in a script, you’re evoking the rhythm of comedy without the content of comedy. They’re not just cliché; they’re hollow.

• ___? More Like ___
• Can You Not?
• …I Can Explain!
• Let’s Not And Say We Did
• I Didn’t Not ___
• Va-Jay-Jay
• Wait For It…
• Just Threw Up In My Mouth
• Really?
• Good Talk
• And By ___ I Mean ___
• Check Please!
• Awkward!
• Shut The Front Door!
• Lady Boner
• Rut-Roh!
• I Think That Came Out Wrong
• Uh…Define ___
• No? Just Me?
• Why Are We Whispering?
• That Went Well…
• Stay Classy
• I’m A Hot Mess!
• That’s Not A Thing
• It’s Science
• Bacon Anything
• Cray-Cray
• Real Talk
• #Nailed It
• Random!
• Awesome Sauce
• Thanks…I Guess
• Little Help?
• Laughy McLaugherson
• ___ Dot Com
• I Love Lamp
• Oh Helllll Naw!
• #Epic Fail
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?
• Food Baby
• Douche (Nozzle)
• Soooo, That Just Happened
• Squad Goals
• I Just Peed A Little
• Too Soon?
• Spoiler Alert
• Um…In English Please
• Note To Self
• Life Hack
• Best. ___. Ever. (or Worst. ___. Ever.)
• It’s Giving Me All The Feels
• Garbage People
• That Happened One Time!
• Well Played
• I’m Right Here!
• Hard Pass
• Are You Having A Stroke?
• Go Sports!
• Zero Fucks Given
• We Have Fun
• Who Hurt You?
• I Absorbed My Twin In The Womb
• I’ll Take ___ For $500, Alex
• Thanks Obama
• Wait, What?
• Shots Fired
• Sharkweek
• You Assclown
• Ridonkulous
• Bag Of Dicks
• Hey, Don’t Help
• Debbie Downer
• I Can’t Unsee That
• That Just Happened
• See What I Did There?
• I’ll Show Myself Out
• Here’s The Line, Here’s You
• ___ On Steroids/Crack
• Swipe Right
• White People Problems
• I Could Tell You But I’d Have To Kill You
• That’s Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
• I Think We’re Done Here

Found via John August’s own Scriptnotes podcast. I recommend listening to this episode for the ensuing conversation about these ‘clams’, why they happen and what to do in their stead (the segment is about 20 minutes in).

See also

• Tired Joke or Cultural Touchstone: The Sitcom Clam (NYT, 2001) — “…at that time, one of the most popular jokes was: ‘She had to leave unexpectedly. She had some bad clams for lunch.’”
• The six forms of conflict common in movies
• The ten worst pieces of writing advice

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Pedro Medeiros (aka @saint11) creates pixel art and other game dev stuff on Patreon.

See also: The best Logos from the Commodore Amiga Scene

Every story is the same

Will Schoder explains Dan Harmon’s story circle. (via Kottke)

Previously on this blog: Dan Harmon’s 8 point story structure, in text form.

Editing in Storytelling

Lewis Bond takes a detailed look at the history and application of editing in film.

If there were one technique that distinguishes cinema, it’s the craft of editing.

See also: Editing as Punctuation in Film

Community: Exploring Chaos

Films&Stuff: Here I break down the structure of an episode all about breaking down structure. If that’s too meta for you than clearly you’re not a fan of Community.

A deconstruction of one of the greatest episodes of Community.

AxiDraw: a plotter that uses your pens

Evil Mad Scientist: AxiDraw V3

The AxiDraw is a simple, modern, precise, and versatile pen plotter, capable of writing or drawing on almost any flat surface. It can write with your favorite fountain pens, permanent markers, and other writing implements to handle an endless variety of applications.

The AxiDraw is an extremely versatile machine, designed to serve a wide variety of everyday and specialized drawing and writing needs. You can use it for almost any task that might normally be carried out with a handheld pen.

While no parts on AxiDraw require regular replacement, this new machine is built with a “screws not glue” design approach throughout, where essentially every part can be replaced by the end user if it should ever become necessary.

(via prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com)