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The Greatest Crisis of Our Lives
October 10th, 2008
Over a year ago I read a book titled Black Swan by Nassim Taleb. Nassim describes an inherent negative property of information, essentially, that it is difficult or costly to think about, or determine the unknown.
“Alas, we are not manufactured, in our current edition of the human race, to understand abstract matters — we need context. Randomness and uncertainty are abstractions. We respect what has happened, ignoring what could have happened. In other words, we are naturally shallow and superficial — and we do not know it. This is not a psychological problem; it comes from the main property of information. The dark side of the moon is harder to see; beaming light on it costs energy. In the same way, beaming light on the unseen is costly in both computational and mental effort.”
- Nassim Taleb
Our refusal to consider the abstract has lead us to our current financial disaster. If you’re unsure, just look at Taleb’s warning of global economic collapse from his 2006 book:
“Globalization creates interlocking fragility, while reducing volatility and giving the appearance of stability. In other words it creates devastating Black Swans. We have never lived before under the threat of a global collapse. Financial Institutions have been merging into a smaller number of very large banks. Almost all banks are interrelated. So the financial ecology is swelling into gigantic, incestuous, bureaucratic banks – when one fails, they all fall. The increased concentration among banks seems to have the effect of making financial crisis less likely, but when they happen they are more global in scale and hit us very hard. We have moved from a diversified ecology of small banks, with varied lending policies, to a more homogeneous framework of firms that all resemble one another. True, we now have fewer failures, but when they occur ….I shiver at the thought.”
“The government-sponsored institution Fannie Mae, when I look at its risks, seems to be sitting on a barrel of dynamite, vulnerable to the slightest hiccup. But not to worry: their large staff of scientists deem these events “unlikely”.”- Nassim Taleb, Black Swan 2006
It appears that fixing this mess will be left to my generation. Please, educate yourself. A good place to start is the most recent This American Life Podcast. It gives a detailed description of why the financial system is crashing. Another resource is the previously mentioned Black Swan.
Good luck.
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Krochet Kids International
October 10th, 2008
My cousin, Stewart Ramsey, is a co-founder of a non-profit organization that hires African women to crochet hats that are then sold in American. From their site:
The crocheted products these women are making have a far reaching impact. They provide immediate stability for their families, share about the realities of poverty, and their sale promotes the development of their community.
- krochetkids.org
I designed the original logo (back-to-back K’s) way back when this was just Stew and some high school friends making the hats for some extra cash. I think Karli did the updated logo? Anyways, it’s a really nice upgrade and the site looks really nice too. The hats themselves are excellent (I own one from the old days) they fit well and look good.I’m really proud of Stewart and all that he’s accomplished. We need more people like him. Check out Krochet Kids and buy a hat.
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I Love Sketch
October 14th, 2008
ILoveSketch from Seok-Hyung Bae on Vimeo .This is the kind of user interface that I would like to see more of. Intuitive, simple design. Notice that there are no tools in the application, just gestures of the pen. Via Mant
Here, an additional input device that is entirely visual. I’ve heard rumors about Apple using a mirror, or second built-in camera in their MacBook line to provide similar functionality by looking at finger position (but we didn’t see that in today’s MacBook refresh). This is also the kind of thing you could easily recreate for cheap, if someone would just provide the software.
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Identities
October 16th, 2008
Cubcrafters makes small “Super Cub” aircraft in Yakima, WA.
Soggy Dog Productions does event promotion in Spokane, WA.
Senescent specializes in care for Alzheimers and other memory related ailments.
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K9000 - Dynamic
October 16th, 2008
This month has been crazy. I’m designing a book and several websites along with all the other projects. I finally got some time over the last few days to finish up a track for October. Here it is: Dynamic. You’ll also notice that I’ve changed my musical pseudonym from “K.B. Peterson” to “K9000”. Someone will have to remind me who came up with this name. My friends started calling me K9000 while I was DJing parties and it just stuck. It’s short for KARL9000 which is the translation of HAL9000 in French? I forget. Anyways, enjoy.
You need the Adobe Flash Player to hear this. -
Architecture for Humanity
October 23rd, 2008
Cameron Sinclair shows how successful an open-source model can work for non-profits. One of the most inspiring talks I’ve ever heard from TED.
More information at the Architecture for Humanity website.
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Sidearm Clothing
October 23rd, 2008
As many of you have probably noticed sidearmclothing.com has been moved to the Sidearm Shop , marking the end of one era, and the beginning of another. I’ve always wanted to do a lot of things under the Sidearm name, but in the past I’ve spread myself too thin. From now on, everything Sidearm will be accessible from the home page at sidearmdesign.com.
All Sidearm clothing is printed on American Apparel. Shirts are $15 and Hoodies are $40.
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Django Inline Image Solution
October 25th, 2008
I’ve been trying to find a solution for the Django admin that would allow me to upload images directly into a text field. With the default admin, images either have to be manually uploaded or be uploaded through an ImageField. ImageFields though, only produce a list of images. For instance, it would be difficult to spread a list of images throughout an article (as I have in this one).
By using the Filebrowser add-on in conjunction with TinyMCE (WYSIWYG) a solution is found! Follow the install directions at the Filebrowser code base and then it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.
1. Click the insert image button in the TinyMCE textfield
2. Upload an image
3. Choose and insert the image
You can even assign CSS classes to images, adjust their size, and set rollover properties.
If you want the slick skin that’s shown above it’s available from the same developers under the name Grappelli and is well worth installing.
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Scrapbook #2: Inspiration
October 26th, 2008
An excellent collection of design from all over the world. If you’re creatively stuck, head over to Alki1’s Flickr for a boost. I highly recommend the set of Cuban design.
What are you looking at for inspiration?
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Superbrothers
October 27th, 2008
Canadian pixel artists SUPERBROTHERS are producing some really awesome work. Check out their site for more art and some great videos with original music by Jim Guthrie (from the band Islands).
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Dan McPharlin
October 28th, 2008
Dan McPharlin brings us misty landscapes and organic machines from the farthest reaches of the galaxy and beyond. Much more available at his flickr page.
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Dan McPharlin Two
October 28th, 2008
Dan McPharlin, in addition to being a great artist , makes incredible miniatures of old synths, computers, and gadgets. More in Dan’s Miniatures set.
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Snowblinded
October 29th, 2008
“Geomagnetic” is the newest piece from Colorado artist Snowblinded (Anthony Cozzi). I wish I could find out more about this artist and his methods but he seems to be relatively under the radar. From his site:
“My art is a combination of digital elements and nature’s raw and majestic beauty.”
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