Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

Over the past few months, I have enjoyed the occasional opportunity (perhaps once a week), of driving into the city with Ev’s eldest daughter, Jennifer Kornelsen, Ph.D.  I learn a lot from Jen. She’s a researcher in Neurophysiology with Canada’s National Research Council, where she conducts brain-related studies using cutting-edge fMRI technology. This week, she shared with me the Three Things About Science I Learned from Patrick (Patrick Stroman, Ph.D.), Jen’s Ph.D. supervisor (before she headed off for a stint of postdoctoral work at Stanford)… I found these profundities she shared to apply equally well to design—so I thought I’d share them here:

1)  The simplest explanation is the best. (i.e. the most likely, the most accurate, the most truthful)

2)  The data is what it is. (trust it, let it be…)

3)  If you’re nervous and think you’re going to puke, eat something colourful! (at least then it will be Spectacular!)

Thanks Jen. I look forward to gleaning more from you over time…

Tokyo, Japan

The great graphic sensei Shigeo Fukuda passed into another realm a year ago this week… I still miss you dearly and think of you often, my friend.

Graz, Austria

Actually, it’s both, ideal for a small space (such as an apartment) where you might only occasionally need a dining table. It’s not completely original (Victor Papanek and James Hennesey floated a similar idea in Nomadic Furniture back in the 1970s, as per the sketch above), but clever nonetheless…

(thanks Ev for the link to ivydesign)

Paris, France

Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of extraneous accessories such as pillows (less is still mostly more in my world)—but if I was, these lovely typographically-themed cushions would likely make it onto a wanna-have short list… I guess what appeals to me is the re-purposing of one context/medium and its juxtaposition into another milieu entirely.

I can (almost) imagine dozing off with my head propped up by one or two of these beauties, drifting into dreams of that oh-so-long-ago tryst with my pen-pal lover, then walking off hand in hand through the echoing cobble-stoned streets of that quaint Alsatian village… OK, that’s it, I’m off to bed.

(found here, via here)

Ottawa, Canada

The anarchist professor Denis G. Rancourt argues quite compellingly that global warming, rather than being “the greatest potential threat to humankind and the planet,” is in fact a myth and a red herring that contributes conveniently to the hiding of what is the planet’s most destructive force—power-driven financiers and profit-driven corporations and their cartels backed by military might. He suggests that liberal tree-hugging activists (ouch—this stings) who buy into and feed the global warming myth have effectively been co-opted, distracted from more urgent causes, or at best neutralized. Read a piece on this that Denis wrote here. (Though I’m somewhat reluctant to admit it, I’m starting to believe the man might be right).

Rancourt’s real concern is that if/when Carbon Trade has been introduced and established (as a result of the current, wrong-headed, singular focus on global warming), this will continue to misinform and obfuscate—essentially creating a smokescreen for the genuine causal issues: unethical and unsustainable corporate and political practices.

Thanks to new e-friend Laila Rashidie for the heads-up re: Rancourt; thanks to old friend Gregor Brandt for the cartoon above (which makes me feel a bit better, should Rancourt be right).

Winnipeg, Canada

My cousin Tim was laid to rest today…

I hardly knew you, Tim. But I’m very glad I attended your funeral. I learned more about you in an hour than I had known since you married my cousin, Ruth Koop, 36 years ago. I met your two handsome and well-spoken adult sons (for the first time)… and I listened carefully, with tears in my eyes, as one person after another stepped up to the microphone to share their recollections of you.

In case you weren’t listening in, they described you as “one of the most decent people you could ever know,” (that was your boss, by the way); as wise, rational, vital, fair, modest, understated, decent, knowledgeable, ethical, humble, good-natured, energetic, gentle, and loving; and as a brilliant thinker with a quick wit, as someone always on the side of the underdog, as someone perpetually giving and generous with your time, as a lifelong conservationist (choosing walking or cycling over driving, even in our brutal climate), as a peace-maker, as a tireless volunteer and champion of social justice, and as a man of great integrity—and few words.

I really do wish I had known you better, Tim.

Rest in peace…

Source: The New York Times

Today’s Times offers this ‘Op-Chart’ showing a comparison of American and allied deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan during 2009 by means of a map and legend to illustrate details. Accompanying text speaks about the tragedy of the “loss of any American life” and explains that “the colors on the chart show the extent to which the Western allies are sharing the deadly burden,”—invisible and unmentioned are the fatalities among either the “non-Western” Iraqi Army or Afghan Army and security personnel, deaths among what the U.S. considers to be ‘enemy combatants,’ deaths among civilian populations of either arena, or statistics on the massive numbers of serious injuries (physical and psychological) or refugee displacements that these wars have brought with them.

An aspect of this that I find extremely troublesome is the portrayal of an American or Western life (or death) as somehow being more valuable than that of another human being from a different hemisphere. This is consistent with a disturbing trend appearing in mainstream media over the past few years (the de-humanization of “the other”), creating further rifts between “them” and “us.” I choose to continue to believe that each life is worth as much as every other life.

Conservative estimates of total human death-tolls to date resulting from U.S.-led wars on/in Iraq (2003-2010…) and Afghanistan (2001-2010…) are in the hundreds of thousands. Canadian combatants are also engaged in Afghanistan (recent deaths shown in red) much to my chagrin and shame…

(unknown individual, location, and source)*

* Thanks to an e-mail from Rod at www.creativeroots.org I have just learned that the above image is actually of Trolltunga, “troll’s tongue”—given the hundreds of photos that show up in a Google image search for Trolltunga, obviously this horizontal slab of rock that sticks out above Skjeggedal is a very popular trekking destination in Norway. Thanks Rod!

See lots more images such as the one below, here…

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You don’t stop laughing because you grow old.
You grow old because you stop laughing.

(thanks Nicole)

Leipzig, Germany

A clever rubber belt design by the young graduate designers at YeaYea… the unique buckle allows for infinite adjustment.