One of the things that has always bugged me is that high school never teaches real economics. Sure, you get one semester of macroeconomics, but that's about it. Well now everyone in America is getting a lesson on how the economy really works. The housing market is really starting to collapse. This is affecting money supply so the Federal Reserve is pumping more money into the economy. This is only adding to the problem of creating more debt, and it's getting to the point that a lot of debtors can't pay back their loans. Ever wonder why the bankruptcy laws were recently changed? Here's a great video that explains how money really works. Debt is all that money is these days. And more debt means more money. But an economy can't grow debt exponentially forever. So what does the future hold for us? Cory Doctorow predicts, in this wonderful piece for Forbes, what the world might look like in twenty years. Better learn how to actually make or do something.

A prayer for the dead.

Over in the Onion online shop, they have these really cool gift boxes. Nothing says "I love you" like a subscription to Salt of the Month club!

Now the robots are stealing our music!

Over at Freakonomics they have added short little videos that explain the process they went through to discover some of their findings. Interesting viewing. I also like how they splice in a montage of old clips.

"So you see son, someday you could grow up, become a meme, and have people laugh at you for fifteen minutes. Then, when you think it's all over, someone will make a tribute video about you."

It's interesting how history repeats itself. The current craft movement is taking off. But it was during a very similar time over 100 years ago when another craft movement took off. Arts and Crafts flourished between 1880 and 1910. It was in revolt to the industrialization of work that had been the realm of the master craftsman. It was about humanizing created objects. Today's movement is very similar. With most consumer goods being made by unknown people in a far away land, a sense of connection to objects is difficult at best. That is unless they are humanized and individualized. iPod cozies, resized clothes, and a plethora of recycled items all attempt to reconnect the human to the mass produced objects that fill our everyday lives. And all allow the cultural rebellion of individuality.

During the Arts and Crafts movement, focus was on the mastery of the craft and the rights of the craftsman. Guilds were formed and socialism helped influence the expectation of workers. Today the focus is on individuality more than mastery. Six billion humans and a Western culture conditioned for mass consumerism of bland goods leaves the individual with few choices for uniqueness. A single Spencer Tunick photograph expresses this lack of physical uniqueness in humans. Along with the obvious protection from the elements a nude body gains, clothing gives the wearer the ability to be visibly unique. Lately, that uniqueness has been corrupted by an aggressively invasive culture industry that replaces objects with actual content (your father's vintage sweatshirt) with slightly skewed soulless clones (distressed A&F hoodie.) But with self made items, fashion becomes unique and personal. A boring refuse from the corporatocracy is transformed into a unique symbol of individuality. A new identity is born within the boundaries of the existing schema.

Ironically, the latest technological innovation empowers the movement. While the Arts and Crafters of old fought against the evils of industrial technology, modern crafters embrace it. The Internet has allowed communication between crafters throughout the world. Complete How-to's for almost any craft are readily available for anyone access. This is in contrast to the classic mass media that is distilling into demagoguery and infotainment. And while the entertainment industry has taken to copyright litigation of it's own customers for profit, many crafters are following the ideals set forth by the open source and creative commons movement to share their techniques openly. The guild of old is now all of humanity. Anyone with a computer and Internet access can learn, discuss and transform any craft technique into personal art. So in a way, the progressive dream of an egalitarian craft movement is finally succeeding.

Crafting is also about recycling. With the billions of packaged goods produced each year, thousands of tons of waste are added to our landfills. Many crafters are using this refuse as raw material for imaginative solutions and installations. It's certainly not a complete solution to the waste problem, but it is at least a recognition of the value these objects still contain.

Due to economic restraints, most crafters are hobbiests. Mass production has almost eliminated scarcity in crafted goods. Because of this, hand crafted objects have difficulty competing with imported goods, even with an aesthetic premium attached. There are some that have been able to make a living, but by and large most crafts are made by people in their spare time, as a diversion from the usual television viewing or web surfing. But even the hobbiest can take their turn at shop keep. Sites like Etsy and Ebay allow crafters to easily sell their works to a global market. The returns may not make them millionaires, they do at least help support the habit.

And perhaps this is crafting's higher purpose. In a time of media inundation, telling us which clothes, music, hobbies, politics and beliefs we are supposed to have, the simple act of crafting allows a quiet defiance to prepackaged, homogeneous culture. A rebellion not so dissimilar to the khadi of Gandhi . A rebellion of the simple ideals of liberal democracy upon which the modern West has been built; individual freedom and equality. A rebellion of making your own things.

The new ugly is really about robot domination...of fashion.

(Updated to repair a link)

I am going to work harder at keeping this thing up. I read about so many interesting things and get great ideas, but they never seem to make it here. So be patient while I learn some new dance steps.

My friend Steph made this really cool tote bag from an old bird seed sack.

Fantasy football not your thing? Skip over the usual alternates of Fantasy baseball, golf, hockey or fishing. How about joining a Fantasy Terrorist, Fantasy Congress, Fantasy Superhero, Fantasy Fashion, Fantasy Music, Fantasy Porn Star, Fantasy Moguls, Fantasy Anime, Fantasy Husband, Fantasy Video Game, Fantasy Celebrity, Fantasy Weather, or a Fantasy Hurricane League!

Here's another new sport for your amusement, Urban Sprinting. via buzzfeed

How can a game that requires one team to wear sombreros not be fun? Presenting Whiffle Hurling for your amusement.

Here's another study showing that a unprocessed diet is better for you than a low carb, or low fat diet or any other type diet out there. In fact, it may even prevent type 2 diabetes altogether. The more your body has to work to get the nutrients out of the food, the more calories are burned. If you let a machine in some factory do all of the work for you, your body will end up storing those calories as fat. And you don't get the side benefit of the flavonoids, trace vitamins, minerals and, of course, fiber in raw food.

This is a link to the wonderful 10 hour 1985 documentary that looks at why we are who are. The Day the Universe Changed should be required viewing for everyone. Haven't you ever wondered why certain things are important, that when you look at them closely, don't make a whole lot of sense? Watch and be truly enlightened. James Burke actually says "telecommute" in 1985! Amazing, simply amazing insight.

Cruisin' on my scraper bike!

Ever wanted to know where a ship is? Well now you can know instantly.

Tired of the same old send your kids to boring old summer camp in the middle of the woods somewhere? Would you like your offspring to learn the important skills on canvassing, polling, and organizing fundraisers? Then Camp Obama is for you! And if they do well enough, they too could even end up as a Whitehouse staffer and eventually in front of a Senate committee not remembering meetings with people that they see everyday!

It puts the lotion in the basket...the tribute song.

As some one that has done a fair amount of ceiling painting recently and has some more in the next month, I am excited that Glidden has come out with a new ceiling paint. Painting ceilings is so difficult because you can never tell that you have completely covered the ceiling with new paint. You can usually only tell after the paint is dry and by that time you have moved on to the walls or trim. But this new paint is pink when you first put it on. It will then dry white. So if your ceiling's 100% pink, you're done. This reminds me of another pink'ed product, DAP spackling compound.

16 Words. via William Gibson's Blog.

How pop stars are manufactured. Great documentary preview.

What is Circuit Bending? Interesting short about the hacking of new sounds through everyday common electronic circuitry.

From 1950-2000 the earth was in relative stability. Two camps controlled most of the power on the planet. But less as a result of the weakening of the Soviet Union and more result of the globalization of trade, the old ways are showing to be ineffective in the new world order. This paper is an interesting insight into this potential new future. And it certainly works with the ominous opinion of Peggy Noonan back in this 2005 article. What I find disconcerting is how quickly it is unraveling. I am fear, as our current leadership has shown, that governments are unable to understand the radical changes taking place. When we look at the changes being made to our liberties, it becomes quite apparent that the West has decided that Totalitarianism is the way to go. But as Dr. Albert Bartlett explained, "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." All of the systems are beginning to fail and I am afraid we are in for some very interesting times. Totalitarianism will fail just as it has done in the past. I just hope that humanity can survive another global conflict in one peace. Or will this be the breaking of the world?

Absolute proof that everyone in Hollywood is an idiot hack without an ounce of creativity. But alas, they do light up the sky.

Boobies!!!

09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

No more secrets.

Björk introduced this really amazing new electronic instrument called a reactable on SNL last week as well as at Coachella. Check out this video to see why it's really amazing. It reminds me of some sort of alien interface. via bOINGbOING

The real reason everyone hates IT support. While this ordinary and every day call was made to HP, this could have been almost any company that has phone support for their customers. I cannot say that our helpdesk is any better. via Digg

For all of you wondering, here is where NASA is on the road to faster than light travel. I guess we will have to settle for SciFi. via digg

UPDATE: Here's some interesting speculation.

Scientists have found no link between intelligence and wealth. With the amount of rich idiots out there, how could this not be true? Who buys a gold plated iPod anyway? Amassing wealth is a learned skill. It's just that it has been purposefully left out of the curriculum. Or maybe it's accidental. I would imagine that what is true for wealth is especially true for power. They just don't know better.

Get ready for the super cheap car. It may be ugly, but it bothers me to no end that a significant amount of my money goes into the payment and support of my transportation. But they probably won't even sell them here, because they would rather sell us a $25-50K vehicle that sits in a parking lot most of the day.

Why does your waistline correlate to your income? Because in America, higher caloric junk food is cheaper than lower caloric good food. And the main reason for this is, of course, politics and corruption.

I am amazed at all of the commercials everyday for weight loss products when the solution is very simple, stop eating crap! All that stuff in the middle of the supermarket that comes in pretty packaging is BAD for you! It's bad because those companies get LOTS of money to sell you crap. Do yourself and take two simple things out of your diet and I promise you will lose weight. The first is high fructose corn syrup. I am not going to debate whether or not it's good or bad for you, but I can tell you that anything it's in also has twenty-five things that are bad for you. The other thing is processed carbohydrates It doesn't matter if it's wheat, corn, potatoes or rice. All of it is lacking the nutrients and fiber your body needs. Processed carbs are also in the packaged junk food you don't need to eat as well. I have lost over fifty pounds in the last two years by removing these items from my diet. I still eat lot of things that are considered bad for me like steaks, sweets, cheese, and pasta. But my waistline has dropped eight inches and my cholesterol has gone from 185 to 115.

Do yourself a favor and do like my wife says, buy only items along the edge of the grocery store and buy organic as much as possible. If you live in Alabama, try Grow Alabama. They will deliver fresh organic produce directly to your door!

Do you cry? Do you eat? Do you cry while you eat? via whaddyathinkin

Ismail Ax was the strange red inscription found on the arm of the Virginia Tech killer. An obscure reference to it can be found in a public domain book called Ishmael.

But there, my dear! that boy has slipped out, and is cutting the wood; I'll go and do it for him," said Reuben, as the sound of Ishmael's ax fell upon his ears.

Hannah arose and followed Gray to the door, and there before it stood Ishmael, chopping away at random, upon the pile of wood, his cheeks flushed with fever and his eyes wild with excitement.

"Hannah, he is ill; he is very ill; he doesn't well know what he is about," said Reuben, taking the ax from the boy's hand.

"Ishmael, Ishmael, my lad, come in; you are not well enough to work," said Hannah anxiously.

Ishmael yielded up the ax and suffered Reuben to draw him into the house.

The only other references to it can be found in this list and on this site referring to the guy in the middle of the photo.

UPDATE: There is also the Muslim connection that I didn't want to report initially, but is making more and more sense. Ismail is the son of Ibrahim (or Abraham to most Americans.) Ismail Ax is considered to be the ax Ibrahim used to destroy the idols in the temple as well as attempt to sacrifice Ismail to Allah. One of Islam's festivals is Eid ul-Adha which celebrates this tradition. Writing a persons name in red is traditionally taboo for Koreans because it symbolizes death. It appears that he might have viewed himself as a symbol of both Ibrahim destroying the false idols of the West as well as Ismail sacrificing himself to Allah Why?

For gaming purists, there is only one true art to master -- RPS. From Advanced RPS:

"“Mystical” Schools

Finally, it bears mentioning that there are also “Mystical Schools” of RPS. These instruct students to select their throw based on some inner force, higher power, or telepathic premonition. Such approaches vary so widely among themselves and results are so mixed (or mixed-up!) that there is no point in trying to catalogue or categorize them. Nevertheless, the well-trained RPS player will be aware that these schools exist and know their basic tenets."

Motivational posters for Gamers. via Geekend

Is it possible that the voice of reason might allow for peace? We can only hope.

You trust your computer, but does your computer trust you?

Old and busted: crude oil. Hot newness: pond scum

Bruce Campbell in a hilarious commercial for Old Spice.

The MR.NY webcast is a colorful and living portrait of the Gotham cultural landscape.

Birmingham, Alabama has a wiki.