think or thwim

:: Knuttz.net

If you need any circles drawn call this guy:

:: Athanasius Kircher Society

Pictures of Walls is a collection of mostly clever and strangely inspiring graffiti from all over the world.

There’s a lot of work being done today that doesn’t have any soul in it. The technique may be the utmost perfection, yet it is lifeless. It doesn’t have a soul. I hope my furniture has a soul to it.

-Sam Maloof

At age 90 Maloof still puts in a full day, six days a week. That’s down from 80-100 hours per week when he was younger.

He is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Award. His work can be found in the Smithsonian and the White House. A rocking chair will run you about $18,000, and his waiting list is several years long.

:: Smithsonian Institute Online Maloof Exhibit

:: Pictures of Maloof’s House and Shop (he built them himself)

From Seed Magazine:

According to The New Republic editor Michael Crowley, in the novel State of Fear, “[Michael Crichton] creates one character, a pompous bleeding heart clearly modeled after Martin Sheen, and then feeds him to cannibals.” When Crowley wrote this passage, part of an essay criticizing Crichton for presenting global warming as a conspiratorial hoax (shorter, freer version here), he didn’t know how lucky Mr. Sheen was.

Crowley, a Yale grad and Washington political journalist, reports that Crichton’s newest novel, Next, contains a character named “Mick Crowley,” a “Yale graduate” and “Washington-based political columnist” charged with “the sexual assault of a two-year-old boy.” And, oh yeah, the fictional Crowley’s “penis was small.” Crowley (the real one) says he’s actually somewhat flattered by the hat tip…

The Falling Sand Game is very addictive.

There are lots of other versions of the game, videos, and screen captures at the FSG Forum and the FSG Wiki.

They don’t let just any schmuck have an encyclopedia article. You’ve got to be a notable schmuck. From this Washington Post article, here are some of the rules:

Musicians and Bands:

• Charted on any national music chart, in at least one large or medium-sized country.
• Released two or more albums on a major label or one of the more important indie labels.
• Been the subject of a half-hour or longer broadcast on a national radio or TV network.

Politicians:

• Received significant press coverage.

Sports Figures:

• Compete in a fully professional league or at the highest level in mainly amateur sports.

If you don’t have what it takes, but try to submit your biography anyway, you wind up in the trash bin.

:: Emerging Media at UTD

Learning to do something early relative to everyone else is different than doing something innovative or unique. Malcomb Gladwell points out that child prodigies are gifted learners, but successful adults are gifted doers. From Gladwell’s talk at the APS Conference:

…the story of two buildings. One is built ahead of schedule, and one is being built in New York City and comes in two years late and several million dollars over budget. Does anyone really care, 10 years down the road, which building was built early and which building was built late? …

But somehow I think when it comes to children we feel the other way, that we get obsessed with schedules, and not with buildings. I think that’s a shame. … If you want to know whether a 13-year-old runner will be a good runner when they’re 23, you should wait until they’re 23.

:: Kottke.org | Best Links of 2006