January 2010
“For years we’ve all held to the belief that computing had to be made...”
– Fraser Speirs
(Thx Jean!)
Open source hardware 2009 - The definitive guide... →
“Each year we do a guide to all open source hardware and this year there are over 125 unique projects/kits in 19 categories, up from about 60 in 2008, more than doubling the projects out there! - it’s incredible!”
I especially like these categories:
Blinky projects - Open source hardware tends to have a lot of projects that blinky, pulse, and light up. It’s a hard...
13 Poses to Relieve Tension →
Yes, I am still too tense.
Making a Living: The Gringo Ethnographer as Pimp... →
“Set in the criminalized, racialized, and sexualized streets of Salvador da Bahia, this article presents experimental ethnographic glimpses of the deeply transnational aspects of desire, suffering,and violence in the disintegrating public spaces of a Northeastern Brazilian city famous for its global tourism fuelled by transnational desire for and consumption of Afro-Brazilian culture and...
“For the next ten days, I invite you to enjoy the privilege of being absolutely...”
– this week’s horoscope
The Power of Comics: History, Form & Culture →
“The Power of Comics: History, Form & Culture is an introductory textbook for comics art studies courses. It provides students with a coherent and comprehensive explanation of comic books and graphic novels, including coverage of their history, their communication techniques, research into their meanings and effects, and the industry practices and the fan culture.”
See also:
...
“[T]here is an underlying, though not formally articulated, principle that people...”
– File under: dodgy Kiwi politics
Play Leads the Way →
“Uplifting backbending sequence.”
Tactile Map Automated Production (TMAP) →
“This project uses free GIS data and off-the-shelf embossing technology to allow blind people to download and emboss customized tactile street maps of any location in the US.”
Very cool.
Garden update
I’ve been drinking the best peppermint tea I’ve ever had.
The cilantro is bolting.
I’m worried that my radishes are too close together and won’t make it.
J. made some awesome rosemary butter.
I’m going to make tabouleh this weekend with all the parsley.
Moomins cook up recipe book →
“They’re traditional Finnish recipes – it’s an introduction to Finnish cuisine,” said editor Emma Hayley at independent publisher SelfMadeHero. “There’s drinks, salads, desserts, breakfast at the end of a Nordic summer night – it’s great fun, with dialogue and Moominisms interspersed throughout the recipes.” Other recipes will include the...
“Always put something on the table, no matter how half-formed the concept, and...”
– Matt Webb
Author T.B.A.
Diffraction by a Semi-Infinite Metallic Sheet Author(s): T. B. A. Senior Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 213, No. 1115 (Jul. 22, 1952), pp. 436-458 Published by: The Royal Society
This paper, with a “senior” author “to be announced”, has been cited 74 times since 1952.
I first learned of this...
“We are so open to new gadgets, so closed to new social forms, so few attempts to...”
– Alain de Botton on Twitter
The design students I taught last year had extraordinary imagination and motivation to come up with new objects and interactions, but really struggled to reimagine social relations. It reminded me of all those 50s/60s visions of the future where everything is different,...
SPCA: the human-animal bond
Tell us about a special bond or friendship you have had with a family pet, a family member or friends pet, or a special animal you have met (pdf)
What type of pet did you form a friendship with?
What was that pets name?
Why was this pet special to you?
What type of personality did this pet have?
What was your favourite thing to do with this pet?
What are some special things you have done...
“Many are willing to suffer for their art. Few are willing to learn to draw.”
– Simon Munnery
(Via Phil Gyford’s insightful post on Learning to Quit.)
Material Beliefs: scientific research+design... →
Nicolas and I are reading the same books again, and I am totally digging Michel Callon these days. ANT-in-action. See:
Acting in an Uncertain World: An Essay on Technical Democracy
Market Devices (Introduction)
Tom Coates: Should we encourage self-promotion and... →
“Alongside that a desire to show-off can be really beneficial, a confidence in your ability is essential, the ability to push yourself into new areas certainly a benefit. But these attributes can also get in the way. There’s something in American culture in particular which values the pushy and the determined, but we’ve all worked with people whose confidence massively...
Clay Shirky: A Rant About Women →
“And it looks to me like women in general, and the women whose educations I am responsible for in particular, are often lousy at those kinds of behaviors, even when the situation calls for it. They aren’t just bad at behaving like arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks. They are bad at behaving like self-promoting narcissists, anti-social obsessives, or pompous blowhards, even a little bit, even...
“Criticising the “banality” of Facebook conversation is as trite and...”
– Cory Doctorow
(Exactly. But so depressing that people have to be reminded that phatic communication is socially important.)
Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go →
“I have found that most prospective graduate students have given little thought to what will happen to them after they complete their doctorates … The reality is that less than half of all doctorate holders — after nearly a decade of preparation, on average — will ever find tenure-track positions.
It’s hard to tell young people that universities recognize that their idealism...
