New York, New York
In 2003, Donald Rumsfeld estimated a war with Iraq would cost $60 billion. Five years later, the cost of Iraq war operations is more than 10 times that estimate. So what’s behind the ballooning figures? Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilme’s exhaustively researched book, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, breaks down the price tag, from current debts to the unseen costs Americans will pay for many years to come. Watch the remarkable video/animation (starring Trade Gothic) here.
From the good folks at Good—(thanks Matt).
…like this sheep on the famous Kjeragbolten chockstone, a 5m³ boulder wedged in a crevasse at the edge of Kjerag mountain in Norway—a lofty and breezy 1000 m above the Lysefjorden (fjord).
the Internet, wherever
I gave a presentation today at <head>, as part of the world’s first interactive, real-time, virtual, global web-development and design conference (saving tons of emissions by not flying anywhere). It certainly challenged my Luddite-like tendencies (prior to today I had never even video-conferenced). Learn more about <head> here. Whew. Participants who took in my presentation can contact me here to obtain a PDF transcript of the quotations, etc. I used in my talk.
Winnipeg, Canada
As economies erode and monetary currencies tank around the world, here’s a fun little “value-added” activity you can do with those extra paper bills… Moneygami (money + origami)—lots more here.
Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba
[weird warning—blame it on the fresh air…]
While stacking my girlfriend’s supply of winter firewood in the brilliant sunshine of a perfect October day I found myself thinking about singular vision, the mythical Cyclops, and my dear old cat Erasmus (who departed this temporal realm two years ago) who I had named 18 years ago after one of my favourite old dead guys (whom I still tend to quote a lot), the Dutch Renaissance humanist Erasmus (Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus)—the man who is credited with the maxim:
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”
(from the Latin in regione caecorum rex est luscus.)
Images: The Cyclops Café (below my favorite hotel in Seattle, the Ace, and with such a clever WYSIWYG sign); Cyclops (by Jaime Pitarch); and the mythical Cyclops that has stuck in my mind since first encountering Homer’s Odyssey in grammar school over four decades ago (as envisioned by monsterkid.com).
Poster image by Josh MacPhee of justseeds.org
Following is an alphabetical list of the countries bombed by the United States since the end of the Second World War (the citizens of these countries represent roughly one-third of the people on earth)…
Afghanistan 1998, 2001-present
Bosnia 1994, 1995
Cambodia 1969-70
China 1945-46, 1950-53
Congo 1964
Cuba 1959-1961
El Salvador 1980s
Grenada 1983
Guatemala 1954, 1960, 1967-69
Indonesia 1958
Iran 1987
Iraq 1991-present
Korea 1950-53
Kuwait 1991
Laos 1964-73
Lebanon 1983, 1984
Libya 1986 (and again in 2011)
Nicaragua 1980s
Pakistan 2003, 2006-08
Panama 1989
Peru 1965
Somalia 1993, 2008
Sudan 1998
Vietnam 1961-73
Yemen 2002
Yugoslavia 1999
(location and source unknown)
Los Angeles, California (amidst the malaise)
If you liked Married to the Sea, there’s a good chance you’ll get a kick out of Wondermark.com… (thanks Ian McCausland).
A clever response to the seemingly ever-more-ubiquitous surveillance camera… source: Banksy.
London, U.K.
Furniture designer William Warren has come up with a practical set of solid plywood shelves that… when your time arrives, can be taken apart and reassembled as a coffin. As Warren explains: “We’re all going to die and we will need a coffin in the future, so why not make your coffin from something you’ve owned and loved for years and save your bereaved family having to choose one (and pay for one) at an already difficult time?” Why not indeed.
The Shelves for Life retail for £350. (seen in a back-issue of Wallpaper)
