think or thwim

I’ve got some shit to do. I’ll be back in a week.

In the meantime check out Shaun’s site: Deputy-Dog.com. He didn’t like his day job, and he quit going there. I’m pretty sure the world would be a better place if we could all be that brave.

Bill McDonough is a world class story teller. In this excerpt from his talk at the 2000 Bioneers Conference he tells about an experience he had when he was working on a design for a holocaust memorial:

McDonough has gone on to be a leader of what he calls the new industrial revolution with cradle to cradle design. All materials used are either biodegradable (food for plants) or recyclable (food for new technology). In this excerpt from the same talk he tells the story of his first product design.

The McDonough Fabric Collection at Design Tex (Steelcase) was the first cradle to cradle certified material. Most of the cradle to cradle certified materials are architectural, but here are a few non-architectural items you may be interested in:

• Herman Miller Celle and Mirra chairs.
• gDiapers - biodegradable disposable diapers.
• Begley’s Best Cleaner.

The whole list of certified products is at MBDC.com. McDonough’s entire 45 minute talk is at Google Video.

I have a theory that ignorance and happiness are directly related. My wife has a theory that I’m an idiot. This article from Damn Interesting seems to support my side.

Studies into clinical depression have yielded similar findings, leading to the development of an intriguing, but still controversial, concept known as depressive realism. This theory puts forward the notion that depressed individuals actually have more realistic perceptions of their own image, importance, and abilities than the average person. While it’s still generally accepted that depressed people can be negatively biased in their interpretation of events and information, depressive realism suggests that they are often merely responding rationally to realities that the average person cheerfully denies.

Damn Interesting: Christopher S. Putnam | The Total Perspective Vortex

This internet thing may work out. An interview with a political candidate is the highest rated video on YouTube this week, and even more surprisingly, it’s not because he screamed too loud. He talks about real political philosophies and issues using reasoning and logic.

Ron Paul simultaneously demonstrates that you can be a republican without being a lunatic and you can be a successful politician without making me want to punch you in the face. It’s a refreshing and engaging conversation.

I’ve seen references to this presentation where they introduced it saying things like “what happens when you link all the photos on the web?” That wasn’t enough to catch my attention, but Jeff Milner finally got me with “what you are about to watch is truly remarkable, and it just gets better as it goes.”

Photosynth. If you try it out, there are some useful keys for navigation.

Remember the guy that created his own real-life marker for Google Maps? Back in 2004 that same guy, Robert Sollis, did this.

In this newspaper all the negative news articles have been carefully cut out. While in theory this should leave only positive news for us to enjoy, it in fact leaves little more than a wealth of advertising.

Brilliant.

robertsollis.com

:: Core 77

A simple and cool idea. For every pair of TOMS shoes you buy, the company gives a pair to a kid in the developing world that doesn’t have any.

Volunteers deliver the shoes. The first shoe drop was in Argentina where the founder, Blake Mycoskie, originally came up with the idea. In the future they plan to offer volunteer vacation packages where you spend two days sightseeing and four days passing out shoes.

TOMS Shoes

:: Seth Godin

Today Aaron Swartz announced that he’s been stealthily working on Brewster Kahle’s Open Library. It is intended to be a wiki card catalog of every book ever printed. Full text is available for books that are old enough to be in the public domain. The books are scanned, so the pictures are intact (along with the notes in the margins of some of the old books). The full text of some academic papers is also available. There are also links to stores that sell the book and libraries in your vicinity that have it.

This is not another Project Gutenberg. PG has full text for about 21,000 public domain books. The Open Library already has metadata for about 500,000 books. They link to PG among other sources.

This is a good overview of what they have in mind and how they’re doing it: The Open Library Vision

This is the demo site: Open Library

:: Raw Thought

Last week Bill Moyers interviewed E.O. Wilson, and that should not be missed.

If we do not abate the various changes we’re causing: climate, habitat destruction, the continuing pollution of major river systems and so on, we will, by the end of the century, lose or have right at the brink of extinction about half the species of plants and animals in the world, certainly on the land…

I’m putting my hope primarily in human common sense. You know, I like what Abba Eban once said during the 1967 war. He said, “When all else fails, men turn to reason.” And I think we are at the stage now. We are ready to turn to reason.

The second part of the show about the Earth Conservation Corps is worth your time, too. Every Bill Moyers Journal is available online at PBS.org/moyers/journal.