Something About This Web Site
Found Elsewhere Online:
Angry bored octopus goes wilding - [Boing Boing] > Funniest headline + article I've seen in a long time: A octopus has caused havoc in his aquarium by performing juggling tricks using his fellow occupants, smashing rocks against the glass and turning off the power by shortcircuiting a lamp.
The Wallet : What A Bear Market Might Teach Us [WSJ] > Two quotes: "The most important lesson that I learned, I believe, is that money is not wealth." & "Life may not always have been easy, but it certainly was good.". Personal and illuminating piece from WSJ writer Jason Zweig.
Election maps 2008 > Mark Newman (cousin) updates his cartogram election maps, insanely fast, to show this year's results.
Unboxed - Design Is More Than Packaging [NYTimes.com] > The only smart thing said or written about in this article: "It would be overreaching to say that design thinking solves everything. That?s putting it too high on a pedestal," Mr. Kembel says. "Business thinking plus design thinking ends up being far more powerful."
Another Frightening Show About the Economy [This American Life] > Alex Blumberg and NPR's Adam Davidson - the two guys who reported our Giant Pool of Money episode?are back, and explaining in alarmingly simple terms why shit happened, and how it might have been prevented.
313 - A Handy Map of San Francisco Bay [Strange Maps] > This 'Handy Map of San Francisco' does not say why or whether it is absolutely necessary to paint your right thumbnail black to create the effect of San Francisco.
Making money twice - [37signals] > That's roughly $765,000 over a few years off roughly the same content. Insight and ideas about how we run our business.
World War II Codebreaking Remembered [The Encyclopedia Vulcanica] > And that most importantly, were it not for the works of invention and genius performed at Bletchley Park in contribution to defeating the Nazis, your entire way of life could be markedly different.
Big black holes [Jason kottke] > Put another way, if you had 99 duodecillion dollars, you could buy as many PlayStation 3s as you wanted. Blows your mind, right?
He has got the hustle [Channel 4] > Nice to see a very good mate of ours getting some love: "I'm doing Jude Law next week," Charlie says, before grabbing the phone to negotiate a rate for Hello! syndication. Mr Gray is very well-mannered...it's something he's learnt from hanging around the truly professional and successful of the world.
Important work can be done while daydreaming [The Boston Globe] > The ability to think abstractly that flourishes during daydreams also has important social benefits. Mostly, what we daydream about is each other, as the mind retrieves memories, contemplates "what if" scenarios, and thinks about how it should behave in the future.
Interview with David Simon [The Believer] > My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader.
How to read a movie - Roger Ebert's Journal [Sun Times] > In simplistic terms: Right is more positive, left more negative. Movement to the right seems more favorable; to the left, less so. The future seems to live on the right, the past on the left. The top is dominant over the bottom.
Why America is Fucked [You Tube] > Draplin answers the question of why America is fucked, graphically. A teaser for a new project from Draplin Industries.
Axel Peemoeller - Eureka Carpark Melbourne > Peemoeller designs an interesting way-finding system for a parking lot in Melbourne. "In Melbourne I developed a way-finding-system for the Eureka Tower Carpark. The distored letters on the wall can be read perfectly when standing at the right position. This project won several international design awards."
Too much from too many sources makes it tough to keep a focus on things. Brand and design thinking isn’t limited to logos and graphic design unfortunately.
Amongst my theoretical architecture periodicals, the one I secretly most enjoy is a non-theoretical-publication: the outstanding The Architects Newspaper, complete with it’s own gossip column. I think it is important to mix in a little ‘build’ with your ‘theory’. Though it would be a mistake to consider that architecture is limited to just buildings, which is what Geoff Manaugh also suggests in his post, Architectureal Criticism. Dan Hill weighs in on the Economist’s recent piece on how London hasn’t changed that much in some respects. Jane Jacobs passes and leaves a space perhaps the size of London, or maybe even the continent she lived on, in urban-thinking. Slate considers architects building something else, their brand. Which is nothing but a toe-dipping piece compared to Perspecta’s Famous which wonders if the brand empowers or undermines the field.
Can I add in here a spotlight on an idea I thought was brilliant even though tiny in contribution, massive in its gesture. Bank of America’s “Keep the Change” service, a technical loss-leader offered in and amongst it’s “Achieve Your Goals” category, rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar, then deposits that difference into your savings account. It could potentially be anywhere from a dollar fifty a day to five bucks, that is saved for you. On your behalf. The idea is a lovely little human gesture which though I’m a great fan of, though not a customer, not everyone is.
So KKR buys up the software arm of Flextronics, getting frog as part of it. There has been some rumors that frog will be renamed along with the other groups in KKR’s shopping basket. / Scobelizer added his 12cents to the ‘undesign’ theory that just keeps on getting resuscitated.
But nothing was more enjoyable than my visit to Arion Press which is a beautifully preserved and still working place of industrious and unmatched craftsmanship and artistry. M.I.3 I’m afraid didn’t come close to being as entertaining or long-lasting. But I did also love Pegg’s monologue innit, which was definitely the peak of the movie.
I’m off to Overlap 2006 in two weeks, to immerse myself in the thoughts, discussions and topics from some amazing people. Thanks to Niti for inviting me.