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From designer colleague Miles Harrison (following an exchange of bon mots on the GDC Listserv last week), of course with a nod to René Magritte… sometimes a logo is not just a logo.

Manchester, UK

Learn Something Every Day is an ongoing, self-initiated daily project by design studio Young.

Manchester, UK

Brendan Dawes is co-founder of Beep Industries and Executive Creative Director for magneticNorth, a digital design company. Since the early eighties, Brendan has explored the interplay of people, code, design, and art… the grabs shown above are a small sampling from his notes-on-design project.

Tim Minchin’s ‘Storm’ is a 9-minute beat poem that has become an anthem for critical thinking… “In the confines of a London dinner party, Tim argues with a hippy named Storm…”

Thanks to colleague Scott Gillam for the link.

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

I’m the chuffed new owner of the one-of-a-kind Paddlelele built by master luthier Fred Casey (of C.F. Casey Guitars). This tenor ‘ukulele began as a child’s canoe paddle… by dent of imagination and practiced skill it evolved into Fred’s entry into the Lake, the WAVE/WINNBAC art show currently on exhibit at the New Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli, Manitoba (I was attending the show with Ev, who’s entry was entitled On the surface all seemed normal…, and the Paddlelele called to me the moment I saw it on exhibit).

Lake Winnipeg (the world’s 11th-largest freshwater body) looms large for anyone living in these parts. Commenting on Paddlelele, Fred says: “To me, the lake means canoeing: slipping along in a sheltered cove or quiet backwater. Canoes and ‘ukuleles just seem to go together: a couple under a full moon, he paddling slowly as she serenades him with her ‘uke.”

Paddlelele, front, back, and side views. The original paddle is white poplar, back and sides are black walnut, as is the fingerboard. The tuning pegs are hand-carved black walnut, salvaged from one of Fred’s early dulcimers.

Happy Nowruz (new day) to all my Persian, Kurdish, and Turkish friends, and Happy New Year to colleagues throughout the Indian sub-continent! Best wishes on this first day of Spring (astronomical vernal equinox) to all others in the northern hemisphere…

Did you hear that winter’s over? The basil

and the carnations cannot control their

laughter. The nightingale, back from his

wandering, has been made singing master

over the birds. The trees reach out their

congratulations. The soul goes dancing

through the king’s doorway. Anemones blush

because they have seen the rose naked.

Spring, the only fair judge, walks in the

courtroom, and several December thieves steal

away, Last year’s miracles will soon be

forgotten. New creatures whirl in from non-

existence, galaxies scattered around their

feet. Have you met them? Do you hear the

bud of Jesus crooning in the cradle? A single

narcissus flower has been appointed Inspector

of Kingdoms. A feast is set. Listen: the

wind is pouring wine! Love used to hide

inside images: no more! The orchard hangs

out its lanterns. The dead come stumbling by

in shrouds. Nothing can stay bound or be

imprisoned. You say, “End this poem here,

and wait for what’s next.” I will. Poems

are rough notations for the music we are.

—Rumi (The Music We Are)

Previous posts about Nowruz (aka Norooz, Norouz, Newroz, Newrooz) here.

Canberra, Australia

Doug Jackson is an educator and security consultant with over 25 years of electronics and computing experience. Some years back, he designed the Word Clock as a project to help educate others about simple electronic design and construction, empowering them to “do the things they dream of.” Shown above are a few pics from Doug’s website where he generously offers various pre-constructed and tested clock modules as well as design files and manuals. Good on you, Doug!

Thanks to friend Bruce Hildebrand (who knows how much I like clocks) for providing me with the link to Word Clock.

(a re-post… from 2008)

Not to get weird about it, but the Ides of March have freaked me out ever since I first learned of them in elementary school. In the year 44 BC this day marked the treacherous demise of Julius Caesar (I’m not making a value judgment here, it’s just a historical thing); in 1917 it was the day that the last tzar of Russia, Nicholas ll, was forced to abdicate the throne (three years before my dad was born into the turmoil of Molotchna, and part of the remarkable unrest following WWI); in 1933 it was the day that Adolf Hitler first expressed his nascent dream of The Third Reich (and six years later to the day that Nazi troops invaded Bohemia and Moravia [then Czechoslovakia]).

More recently, it was the single day in history that more people on the face of the earth than ever before gathered together in a unified action for peace (400,000 marched in Milan, 300,000 in Barcelona, 120,000 in Madrid, you get the picture… )—to no avail, George W. Bush simultaneously prepared to lead the (bullied, cowed, coerced) “coalition of the willing” nations into the U.S. empire’s most recent war against Iraq.

It remains a poignant day for me… five years ago today I was in Mumbai, India on a network-building sortie with Icograda—six days later while in Ahmedabad (Mahatma Gandhi’s home town), we watched in surreal disbelief as the U.S. reigned down an unprovoked firestorm on the ancient city of Baghdad (one of the the world’s “cradles of civilization,” and onto its hundreds of thousands of terrified citizens).

Indeed, beware the Ides of March… (don’t say I didn’t warn you).

Images: Caesar’s demise as painted by Vincenzo Camuccini; Tsar Nicholas ll of Russia; Adolf Hitler of Germany; George W. Bush of the U.S. of America.

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I was delighted to receive a link this week from designer friend/equestrian Christina Weese in Saskatoon—to an online version of the 1972 Chouinard Catalog. As an aging trad climber this really takes me back… legendary climber/mountaineer (and IMAX photographer) David Breashear writes about the influence of this very same 1972 Chouinard catalog on his climbing in his 1999 autobiography, High Exposure.

“Another serious influence on my developing style came via the Chouinard climbing equipment catalogue of 1972, a slender publication with a Chinese landscape painting on the cover. Its author, the revered rock and ice climber Yvon Chouinard, called for “clean” climbing, proposing that climbers disavow pitons and bolts that scarred or otherwise altered rock. Instead, he advocated the use of metal nuts of various shapes and sizes which slotted into cracks without damage to the rock and could be recovered by the second climber on a rope. He reminded readers of the edict of John Muir, the late-nineteenth-century poet-environmentalist: ‘Leave no mark except your shadow.’ This ethic of purism and self-control made a profound impact on the climbing community—and on me as well.”

Images: a few pics from the catalog, including the chapter title for a treatise on clean climbing, a mess of ‘biners, the breakthrough Hexentrics stopper, Yvon’s ironmongery, and a pair of exquisite Annapurna glasses.