I found this really interesting. Personally, I do believe in reincarnation and always have. Even from a very young age when I was taught not to. I realize that this is a polarizing view that not everyone shares but it is a subject I have always found fascinating because it gets to the very core of who we are and how we exist. I guess it has always just been impossible for me to believe that the unique energy that is who we are is individuals ever dies. I think it goes on and inhabits new forms. I do believe that time is relative and maybe so then is dimensionality. How do we know that, what we would call our soul, doesn’t move much more fluidly through time and space than we could perceive it? Maybe sometimes there is an overlap. Either way, it’s an interesting thing to think about.
Anyway, I won’t drone on because I know some get angered when I interrupt the stream of creative/design porn, so if you have the time, watch the documentary and form your own opinion. I do occasionally like to push the ‘Changethethought’ message through more than just creativity and design. Spirituality is the true source of creativity. We know so very little about our own existence and the inner workings of our being.
Well, unless you have been living under a rock for the past week it has been impossible to ignore the news roaring out of the U.S. The Wall Street bailout failed today going down at 228 to 205. After a flurry of calls and emails protesting the bill flooded the government, lawmakers were just not willing to risk passing such an unpopular bill this close to an election. Wall Street responded promptly with one of the sharpest single day drops in the history of the American economy.
What does it mean for people like us? And by that I mean working designers, Art Directors, Photographers, Artists, etc.? Well, time will tell. A friend of mine who works at Wachovia stopped by over the weekend and said that people were pulling money out of the bank all last week and that the credit score for a simple car loan had been raised to 700. A perfect credit score is 850, and you can trust me when I say that there are a lot of people out there no where near a credit score of 700. That means working-class people like you and me are going to start feeling a crunch very soon unless something miraculous happens. I think what America is finally discovering is that you can’t build a kingdom on credit. Its akin to building a house on a foundation of sand. The days of the gold standard are long past and the concept of value now is open to speculation. And speculation just isn’t a hard currency.
One thing is for sure. The corporate government has been firmly put in place, and I think we are seeing the end of an era in the United States. I am just waiting to see what’s next. If I wake up tomorrow and hear the headline, ‘America Sold To China’, I can’t say I will be surprised.
Socotra Island…”has been geographically isolated from mainland Africa for the last 6 or 7 million years. Like the Galapagos Islands, this island is teeming with 700 extremely rare species of flora and fauna, a full 1/3 of which are endemic, i.e. found nowhere else on Earth.
The climate is harsh, hot and dry, and yet - the most amazing plant life thrives there. Situated in the Indian Ocean 250 km from Somalia and 340 km from Yemen, the wide sandy beaches rise to limestone plateaus full of caves (some 7 kilometers in length) and mountains up to 1525 meters high.
The name Socotra is derived from a Sanscrit name, meaning ‘The Island of Bliss’.”
It is an indescribibly bizarre yet beautiful place and you can see many more inspiring pictures of it here.
Alright this is completely not design or politics related and a touch sentimental but I just thought this was so cool. I love lions. They were my favorite animals as a child so I was pretty moved by this story.
Basically the story goes, in 1969 two men named John Rendall and Ace Berg saw a lion club for sale in Harrods. They felt sorry for the little guy I guess because he was alone and cramped in a tiny little cage with none of his original pride and no owner to speak of. So they decided to take him home and raise him. They were allowed by a local vicar to exercise the cub on the grounds of a local church and he lived with them at home. He quickly became too large for them to keep however and they decided it would be best to try to reintroduce the young lion back into the wilds of Africa. They decided they wanted to visit him a year later but local authorities warned them that the lion was now the head of his own pride and completely wild. He would not remember them and might even attack.
You can see how he reacted when seeing them above. A big ole lion hug.
I apologize again for not keeping up on my one TED talk a week policy but life has been a little hectic lately. I was just thumbing through some of the talks the other day and discovered this talk by Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor. Her story is unique in that she actually studies the human brain and suffered a stroke. She remembers every bit of the experience in vivid detail and tried her hardest to do so because she saw it as a once in a lifetime opportunity, if she survived, to share her first person insight with the rest of the world. That is exactly what she does in this talk. It has to be one of the most moving talks on the entire TED website and it really stuck with me. I have had someone in my family go through a similar experience that it took them a long time to recover from and it may be because of that I found Taylor’s talk so touching. It takes a massive amount of courage to share something like that with so many people and her story is really amazing.
Here is the background about the talk copied from the TED website:
“One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor’s brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness …
Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the “Singin’ Scientist.”
‘How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I’ve gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career.’
DATA (Designers Against Tibetan Abuse) is a new organization that has come together recently and opened a new project that will include a book featuring various designers, digital artists, illustrators and photographers joining together to raise awareness of the terrible issues faced by the Tibetan people.
All proceeds derived from the sale of the book will go to charity and if we have enough people express a willingness to participate we will take our idea to the following charities:
Adhemas Batista, Alex Trochut, Bram Timmer, David Carvalho (Karpa) Greig Anderson, Pawel Nolbert (hellocolor), Pete Harrison (Aeiko), Mike Harrison (Destill), Si Scott, Justin Maller (superlover and depthcore), Diogo Potes (six letter word) etc.
Right now participation in the project is by invite only. I was invited earlier this week and I was honored to be considered as this is an issue I have strong opinions about and I am always happy and excited to contribute towards something I feel is a good cause.
DATA is also currently looking for designers to volunteer to make a functioning website. If you are interested please contact: info@designersagainsttibetanabuse.com
This is a good thing to be involved in so if you do know someone who can help with their site, please do contact them.
You can learn a little more at the current DATA site.
Great and funny project, People Collector finds images on the web and categorize them. The Sneeze and Falling off my bike are quite funny. On the other hand, the Gun category is kind of scary.
Tim Russert passed suddenly today of an apparent heart attack. It’s a tragedy when considering what a hard working decent person he was and also because he is a good father. He was always fair as the moderator of meet the press, and he was respectful to his guests regardless of his opinion. He really was an objective journalist and he sincerely cared about the well being of the United States. He knew the hopes and dreams of American citizens extended beyond party lines and he was one of the rare journalists who could see the forest through the trees. It’s a sad day for American journalism and he will be missed by all. I don’t think words could express how stunned and saddened people were by his passing.
My sincerest condolences to his family. My heart goes out to you.
Hey everyone, I’ll be in Chicago tomorrow for a while. Any recommendations on things to do and see? Toy stores, book stores, design stuff, hot dogs, shows, beer? If any one has any ideas post a comment, it would appreciated!
I have decided to post a TED talk every week from here on out. There is just so much good content on the TED website that it needs to be shared. Some of the worlds most intelligent people are speaking at TED about a lot of things I think we should all be thinking about.
Mark Bittman gives a talk this week about what is wrong with what we eat and how our diet is impacting our ability to live on our planet. It’s an excellent talk and in incredibly important topic.
TED is something I check a few times a week now every week. I feel kind of ridiculous for not having written about it yet. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. TED started in 1984 as a conference to bring about the brightest minds and most innovative thinkers from those 3 categories. The speakers are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (although there have been a few to run over). The TED website makes the best talks from the conference free to view. There are already more than 200 talks archived at the site making it a true resource for inspiration to just about anyone interesting in just about anything. I have watched videos about topics ranging from Cern’s Large Hadron Collider to speculations on how our world will end. It’s some of the most thought-provoking content I have found on the internet and it always leaves me truly inspired. It’s an amazing effort and offers a unique insight into some of our world’s deepest thinkers.
TED is committed to spreading ideas. Ideas that can help shift attitudes and hopefully help change the world. The TED conference is held annually in Long Beach, California.
You can learn more about TED at their home website along with the TED Prize. Before you go there, you can view just a tiny tidbit of some of the amazing things going on their by watching Johnny Lee transform a $40 Nintendo Wii remote into a digital whiteboard. It’s on the lighter side of speculating on how the world will end but still amazing nonetheless
Well, I apologize for the bad news today but there are some stories in circulation that deserve attention beyond the normal banality of our design scene. Another such story that just left me aghast today is the story of Josef Fritzl.
Fritzl is a resident of the small town Amstetten in Austria. At the age of 18 he drugged and imprisoned his daughter, Elisabeth for the next 24 years. During that time he repeatedly raped her which led to her in turn giving birth to 7 children as a result of the abuse. One of whom died because of inadequate care. The child who died of neglect was a twin whose body Fritzl disposed of by incinerating it in a furnace. 3 of the children had never seen daylight until they were recently released. One of the children is still in critical condition. Another may have permanent vision problems because of his inexposure to natural light. The last, at only 5 years old was elated to ride in the police car as he had only seen them on television and never in person. He appears to be in good health.
73 year old Fritzl was an electrical engineer who apparently used his skills to construct an elaborate basement dungeon under his family home that measured less than six feet high in some areas. He kept the space secure with a massive 660 lb concreted door fitted with an electric lock that could only be opened via a remote control that he kept on his person at all times. The living space had only 3 total cells and measured only around 650 square feet. 650 square feet for 24 years. It belies imagination. It wasn’t until the 19 year old child fell ill and had to be taken to a nearby hospital that the atrocity was uncovered.
The strangest twist was that Fritzl managed to keep the entire incident secret from his wife the entire time by forcing his daughter to write fake letters to his wife (her mother). He even brought 3 of the children out of the basement hell to be raised by him and his wife claiming his estranged (but really imprisoned) daughter had left them on the doorstep.
In accordance with Austrian law it appears Fritzl may only be facing a 15 year sentence. At the age of 73 he will most likely die in prison, which is well deserved in this case. I do not believe in the death penalty but I do think he should be sentenced to at least the same amount of time he robbed his daughter of and that would be 24 years. How a man could do this to his own flesh and blood is an amazing human tragedy.
This is just disturbing. Enough so that I had to post it here instead of on the sideblog. I was just shocked when I heard this and then saw the videos. Allegations have arisen that South Carolina Highway Patrol Police Officers have been using their vehicles to ram suspects. It’s bad enough to hear about something like this on the news but it gets even worse when you watch the actual dashcam videos of the officers engaging in the alleged behavior. How does something like this happen? We have more people in jail in this country than any other country in the entire world. What has gone awry in our culture? We pay our police officers with our tax money to protect us and uphold the law. This kind of behavior crosses the line from simply unacceptable to criminal and makes these officers no better than the suspects they are trying to capture. I know it is an easy leap to think all cops are bad when you see something like this but that just isn’t true. Most police officers are good people who live a life of difficult public service because they believe in what they are doing. The bad apples here shouldn’t spoil the bunch but videos of police brutality just keep surfacing. We need to turn the law back at these officers and make sure that if they are tried in civil court for these actions they are reprimanded and punished. They are risking peoples lives and there is just no excuse. None.
I was thumbing through Time Magazine tonight and stumbled across an article that really caught my attention. The topic was centered around the possibility of producing fuel from growing algae. I was intrigued immediately because algae is voracious. It grows very quickly and carries that lofty possibility of being highly sustainable. If one tenth of New Mexico, the part where no one lives, was converted into an algae farm from which we could attain fuel, it would be enough to sustain the entire United States.
Understandably algae has become the holy grail of the enthusiastic biodiesel community. It is quickly becoming a real hope at a possible resource to make a serious impact on fossil fuel consumption. So far research conducted at Utah State University has show that farmed algae can yield 10,000 gallons per acre.
A joint venture company called Vertigro Energy is growing the oil-rich algae by pumping it through plastic bags suspended in a greenhouse. The algae produced via this process is siphoned off so the lipids can be extracted and refined into a biodiesel fuel. Vertigro’s processing facility is located in El Paso, Texas. According to their Principal Scientist, Glen Kertz, the process can produce 100,000 gallons of oil per acre, per year. When you compare this to ethanol, which I think is a scam and a totally unrealistic fuel source, you see the real potential. Corn only yields about 20 gallons per acre.
I hope we begin pulling our heads, collectively out of our warmongering asses and start pushing some greatly needed funding towards researching alternatives like this. I think we have lost 8 years now fighting pointless wars and throwing money away. It’s time to pull ourselves back together and start taking it to our government to put money towards programs and research like this to start making some serious gains in sustainable energy. I think seeing what has happened to food and gasoline prices this week was a good kick start for the American public. Algae biodiesel isn’t a new idea, it’s been around a while but it is something that needs to be examined and it offers a realistic solution to looming problem that will effect all of us, worldwide.
Well today is the official date of Earth Day. What do you do on Earth Day? To be perfectly honest, I do not know.
WikHow has a nice little page that can help you figure out things you can do on Earth Day. I found it pretty useful and it answered some of my questions. It seems like it would be something of greater importance these days considering the heightened awareness of the possibility of an impending environmental crisis. I didn’t even realize it was Earth Day until I saw Google’s special little illustration at their home page.
Here is somewhere you can find out even a little bit more about it and what you can do.
A coworker alerted me to this disturbingly terrifying project today. I have to say it kind of sent me reeling a little bit especially when considering a group of people with the level of intelligence it would take to complete a project like this would get together to actually follow through with it. It sometimes sounds like our civilization and planet are in a lot more peril than most of us would like to consider. Whether or not any of this is right or we are totally nuts remains to be seen.
Apparently several of the seeds on our planet have been going extinct even faster than the fish and animal populations. According to Dr. Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, “Every day that passes we lose crop biodiversity. We must conserve the seeds that will allow agriculture to adapt to challenges such as climate change and crop disease.”
In order to combat this problem they have constructed the Svalbard International Seed Vault that will be carved deep into the frozen rock of an island not far from the North Pole. According to the architects the “fail-safe” seed vault will “gleam like a gem in the midnight sun,” signaling the priceless treasure within: seed samples of nearly every food crop of every country.
My question is what do they know that they aren’t telling the rest of us? If they really think it is worth the resources it would take to carve a gigantic vault into one of the most inhospitable regions of the entire planet, what is signaling the disaster that would provide just cause for such an insane project. I try to take the optimistic side when it comes to conspiracy theories but this definitely caught my attention. It’s just too bad our government could care less.
There is so much good stuff on this site. It covers so many different ideas from so many intelligent people. TED is an annual conference held in Monterey, CA. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. When it originally started in 1984 these where the only subjects talked about. Now there are no limits to who speaks and on what subjects. Each presenter has only 18 minutes to share their ideas and blow your mind . Check out the Theme : Design Like You Give a Damn. So many categories and sub categories. Go get lost with some really smart people. TED Ideas Worth Spreading.
A must for everyone to stop by and check out is Al Gore’s Current TV. It’s definitely at the top of my list for TV worth watching. Current TV is mostly user generated television that spans content from movie reviews to daily insights of Arabian camel herders. The best part is that all episodes, if you will, are just short bursts of information. If watching it on your local cable station you can then visit the website, view and comment on that topic, find more sources around that topic, and then google whatever they can’t provide. I also really really enjoy the “commercial” graphics in between programmings that generate information about the top google searches at that moment or recent comments on that particular episode. Check out the quick samplings above, it only gets better from here. More from Blakkbox here.
03/10 COREY HAIM DIES 80’s movie star Corey Haim passed at the age of 38 at a hospital in Burbank, California. Some reports have suggested the cause of death may have been an overdose as Haim struggled with drug addiction for years following his success.
02/27 ICEBERG ADRIFT A massive iceberg has struck Antarctica dislodging a gigantic block of ice measuring 48 miles (78 kilometers) long and about 24 miles (39 kilometers) wide and holds roughly the equivalent of a fifth of the world’s annual total water usage. Holy crap.
02/27 CHILEAN EARTHQUAKE A powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake has struck Chile with a death toll so far standing at 82.
02/18 CLIENTS FROM HELL We’ve all had them and will inevitably be working for them again in the future. Clients from hell say some crazy-ass sh%$.
02/15 SMITH TOO FAT Actor and Director Kevin Smith who reached fame as ‘Silent Bob’ was determined to be ‘too fat to fly‘ by Southwest Airlines and he is not the least bit happy about it.
