One of our very favourite deals of 2013 was for the lovingly crafted Lunchbox font, from Kimmy Design. So we were delighted when we found out that our sister-site, MightyDeals.com, had managed to arrange an equally awesome deal on the companion typeface, Lunchbox Slab Serif.

The hand-drawn quality of Lunchbox Slab Serif gives it a real, honest feel. You can almost imagine a waiter chalking it up on a board.

Just like its sibling, Lunchbox Slab Serif is ideal for any project that you want to introduce a sense of wholesome fun to — ideal for signage; imagine farmers’ markets, vegetarian restaurants, icecream brands; you might even try crafting a high-class wine label with it.

All hand-drawn typefaces run the risk of losing some of the illusion of craft, as the little organic imperfections get repeated, Lunchbox Slab Serif solves this problem by providing no less than 4 alternatives for each character. So no matter what your content, you’ll always be able to maintain that hand-drawn aesthetic.

Lunchbox Slab Serif includes over 1500 different glyphs across 3 different weights. But that’s not all, you’ll also receive over 200 ornaments, each one with its own stylistic alternatives; a complete set of small caps, each with 4 variations; and a full set of swashes, designed to work with both the regular and stylistic variations.

Lunchbox Slab Serif is a superb typeface, but it’s even better when combined with its sibling Lunchbox, which also features the variations, ornaments and swashes that Lunchbox Slab Serif boasts. In case you didn’t manage to grab it first time around, MightyDeals have also extended their Lunchbox deal.

You can download the desktop version of Lunchbox Slab Serif for $17 or get the desktop and web versions for just $25, that’s an incredible saving of 72%! Its sibling Lunchbox is available for $17 for either desktop or web version, or $25 for both, which is also a 72% discount. Head over to MightyDeals.com to grab these sensational fonts today.

Have you used Lunchbox in a project? Are you excited about the release of Lunchbox Slab Serif? Let us know in the comments.

90 Pixel Perfect Royalty Free Flat Icons – only $5!

Smart home appliances could become more common thanks to efforts by major companies including Lowe’s and Staples to make gadgets compatible.

When I interviewed Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod and now CEO of Nest, two years ago, he told me that he started the company, which sells smart thermostats and alarms, because existing products for taking control of your home over the Internet were clunky and appealed only to the technically minded (see “Nest’s Control Freaks”). “Home automation is for single geeky guys. It’s not for families,” he said.

By Taxiarchis Botsis, Jan 28, 2014, Tuesday, 10 am, ITE 459, Department of Information Systems, UMBC

This presentation will describe the contribution of Informatics to the promotion of population health and the corresponding use of various methods for getting the most from BIG DATA. The presentation will begin with a short discussion on the disease surveillance for high risk populations using diabetics as a prototype and the nuances of handling large Electronic Health Record data. Then, the talk will focus on the post marketing safety surveillance and, particularly, the extraction of key features from spontaneous reports, the use of case classification methods, the retrieval and quantification of specific information (of interest) and the pattern recognition and signal identification from BIG DATA; certain methodologies with real examples will be presented. A new approach for the literature-based development of case definitions will be also discussed.

Brief Speaker Biography: Taxiarchis Botsis works as a Medical Informatician at the Office of Biostatistics and Epidemiology (OBE), Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the FDA. He is also an adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Tromsø in Norway. His background lies in the field of Medical Informatics. After receiving his MSc and PhD in Health Informatics from the University of Athens in Greece he worked on the data management of International Randomized Clinical Trials. He then received a fellowship from the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) to work as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Tromsø in Norway; at that time his main area of interest was the disease surveillance for high risk populations. He then spent one year at the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University (New York, NY) where he worked on a number of Electronic Health Record data mining projects. In 2010, he received an ORISE fellowship to work on post-marketing safety surveillance at OBE at the FDA (Rockville, MD) and, last year, he was promoted to a full-time employee. During this period he has been working on various projects and developing new approaches for improving the efficiency, effectiveness and rigorousness of safety surveillance.

Don’t miss out on the fun this February! There will be birthday celebrating, dance performances and lots of alumni spirit. For more details, see below.

True Grit’s Birthday Bash & Basketball Game
Wednesday, February 5, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Celebrate True Grit’s 47th birthday! There will be a pre-game reception including birthday festivities, pictures with Gritty and fun with fellow alums. Following the party, watch the men’s basketball team take on the New Hampshire Wildcats. To learn more, visit alumni.umbc.edu/happybirthdaygrit.

Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Performance
Saturday, February 8
Pre-show reception at 6 p.m., show at 7:30 p.m.

Join the Chapter of Black and Latino Alumni at The Kennedy Center for a performance by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The performance includes captivating new works and enduring classics like Aszure Barton’s LIFT and Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. More info at alumni.umbc.edu/alvinailey.

Spirit Group Alumni Day
Saturday, February 22, 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Join us for the 4th annual Band, Cheer, Drumline, Fever Retrievers, Tumbling and Twirling alumni day. The event will include food, drinks, group photos, performances, men’s basketball vs. Binghamton and more. Get info at alumni.umbc.edu/spiritday.