Two vaguely related links.
First, a fascinating post in Harper's reproducing testimony delivered on March 12 before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Subcommittee on Interstate Commerce by Jonathan Rowe, codirector of West Marin Commons, a community-organizing group, in California. It deals with the GDP, and raises a ton of interesting and important issues for how we measure our collective well-being. I am left with the impression that, given the nature of our economic system, we need to find a way to assign value to things like the environment, or community health, so that market forces can act upon them. As it stands, we are measuring all the wrong things—that is, if the end goal is "happiness" and not simply blind, uncaring, indiscriminate "growth."
Next up, a post from BoingBoing that touches on how to plan for the apocalypse (in the sense of major disruptions or the outright collapse of our complex civilization). Rather than building an isolated ranch, forming a militia and shooting to kill, they write:
"What would it be like, we wondered, if folks who knew tools and innovation left the comfy bright green cities and traveled to the dead mall suburban slums, rustbelt browntowns and climate-smacked farm communities and started helping the locals get the tools they needed. We imagined that it would need an almost missionary fervor, something like the Inquisition (which largely destroyed knowledge) in reverse, a crusade of open sharing, or as Cory promptly dubbed it, the Outquisition.
"Imagine these folks like this passing out free textbooks, running holistic programs for kids, creating local knowledge management systems, launching microfinance projects, mobilebanking and complementary currencies. Helping rural landowners apply climate foresight and farm biodiversity. Building cheap, smart, quality housing for displaced people (not to mention better refugee camps), or an Open Architecture Network for cheap informal rehabs of run-down suburban housing. Hacking together DIY windmills and ad hoc smart grids, communication systems, water treatment systems -- and getting really good atadaptive reuses of outdated infrastructure. In other words, these folks would be redistributing the future at a furious clip."
We need more of this kind of thinking.
Posted: July 14, 2008 11:09 pm | 0 comments
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When I was a kid growing up in Cleveland, I remember reading in the paper about some new manufacturing plant (steal, if memory serves), that promised to return the water it used to Lake Erie cleaner than before it passed through the plant. This was back in the days when people thought that the Great Lakes, especially Erie, would require some 100 or more years to recover from their status as "dead lakes."
I used to think, if you can clean the water as a byproduct of some industrial process, surely it would be worth the time and investment to build massive machines to clean the water of the lakes as a goal in itself. All it seemed to require, to my seven year old mind, was to deploy some filters, blown up to colossal proportions, to clean and purify the water; an industrial process to redress the harm industry had wrought. It had a nice symmetry, and I desperately wanted the industrial landscape in which I grew up to stand not just for apparent destruction.
A few decades on, a similar, if both more urgent and immense, problem: arresting, if not reversing, the calamity that climate change promises for our civilization. Here (by way of boing boing) is a link to an interview with Wallace Broeker, a geochemist who proposes building machines that clear the air of excess CO2. Read on for the rationale...
http://tinyurl.com/5pj2j6
Posted: June 23, 2008 7:51 pm | 0 comments
Tags: climate change
Many years ago, before I really understood what this thing called "typography" was all about, I ran across The Elements of Typographic Style. It confirmed for me that typography is something that matters. I found it a wonderful introduction to the topic.
I think the intro on the book jacket does a nice job summarizing why—even though you may not be a type nerd—you may find this book of interest:
"Long the preserve of trained specialists alone, typography is a territory opened now to everyone equipped with a computer. For millions of people around the globe, the freedom to produce effective printed documents has suddenly become, like effective speaking and writing, an essential professional skill, an integral part of working life, and a daily source of personal delight."
The Elements of Typographic Style
See also:
The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web
Posted: February 25, 2008 3:01 pm | 0 comments
Tags: typography
Edward Tufte takes a critical look at Powerpoint in this short pamphlet.
Given the extent to which presentation software has insinuated itself into both the boardroom and the classroom, this four year old book maintains its relevance. Give it a quick read (it's available in Simmons' Library).
It won't tell you how to make a better presentation, but it will explain the pitfalls of presentation software such as Powerpoint, and why an expert such as Tufte questions its value. As you may guess from the cover, he is not a fan. ;)
Posted: February 8, 2008 3:33 pm | 1 comment
Tags: edward tufte, powerpoint, presentations
I recently got a free subscription to Fast Company. The magazine is uneven, at best, but I've found at least one interesting article in the two I've received to date.
In this month's issue, there's an article worth reading that calls into question the importance of "influentials" in generating social trends. Some of you may be familiar with this theory, as it was given wide distrubution in Malcolm Gladwell's best-seller, The Tipping Point.
I post this since you tend to hear, given enough time around anything having to do with marketing, a phrase such as "thought leader." This concept comes straight from the thinking that Gladwell and others explore (and, to an extent, celebrate), and which has really entered the popular imagination.
Duncan Watts, the Columbia researcher whose work is profiled in the piece, does not provide a definitive rebuttal of the theory of Influentials. But, he does convincingly demonstrate that things likely don't work as this theory purports. As he puts it:
"My models might be totally wrong," he says cheerfully. "But at least I'm clear about what I'm saying. You can look at them, and tell me if you disagree. But none of these other thinkers are actually clear about what they're saying. You can't tell if they're wrong."
It's an interesting read.
Is the Tipping Point Toast? Marketers spend a billion dollars a year targeting influentials. Duncan Watts says they're wasting their money.
Posted: February 1, 2008 4:57 pm | 0 comments
Tags: fast company, tipping point
I'm sure this will make the rounds in the next few days. I picked this up from DF. Even Microsoft's packaging for Vista has poor usability, requiring an explanatory web page for opening it (step 3 of the 3 step process is reproduced below):
"Opening the Windows Vista box" instructions
"3. Holding the box with the Windows logo facing you, grasp the red tab on the top of the box, and pull it to the right to open the box as shown here."
Oy vey.
Posted: January 31, 2008 10:16 pm | 0 comments
Tags: design, microsoft, packaging
My wife Susanna recently stumbled upon the wonderful work of Russian animator Yuri Norstein on YouTube. Start, as we did, with the lovely and affecting "Hedgehog in the Fog," then watch the very interesting documentary on the animator. His acclaimed movie "Tale of Tales" is also available (in several parts).
Posted: January 30, 2008 10:15 pm | 1 comment
Tags: animation, russian, youtube
