EG 2008

Snapshots from the EG self portrait photo booth: Tan Le and Marvin Minsky, Olivia-Eric-Gus-Shelly, Richard Saul Wurman, Teller, Kev and Coley, Michael Hawley, Mr. and Mrs. Wozniak, Mr. and Mrs. Lovins.

Conference highlights: Woods Hole footage, Miru Kim, Joshua Bell, David Pogue, Marc Patcher, David Binder, Emotiv Systems.

Details to follow. Brains are processing.

Cozy Bird-Dictator Palaces

Mussolini’s Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana

“Super Kingdom is an art installation with a difference: each of the pieces on show in King’s Wood, near Ashford in Kent, is a fully-functioning animal house. They just happen to be based on a selection of infamous dictators’ palaces…” read more at Creativereview.co.uk

Looks like the knitted art from a previous post! - Tree Cozy.

Neighborly

Palm Frond Sculpture Bus Stop, artist unknown, 2008.

This is a little story about 3 random neighbors in Noe Valley that don't know really each other. Neighbor #1 is a woman who has lived in her Noe Valley home for forever. Let's just say 40 years. The first time Blizz (neighbor #2) met her, she was trying to drag a gigantic palm frond that had landed in her driveway to the gutter. He noticed a tiny frail woman struggling with a giant heavy thing, so he helped. He's cute that way. She was very grateful and chatty. She hated that Palm tree, always dropping it's gigantic fronds in her way. She cursed an ex-husband who had sold that property out from under her, which resulted in new owners planting that tree. After their chat, he dragged it home and used the table saw to cut it down to fit in the bin. Last week Blizz found another frond blocking the sidewalk near Neighbor #1's house so he pulled it aside and out of the way. It was smaller but he still didn't want to drag it all the way home. Today, while on a dog walk I came across the results of unknown Neighbor #3.

My Fellow Cozys

Thought I'd take a look-see for other cozys out there.

Cozy Dog Drive In

The Cozy Dog Drive In in Springfield, Illinois is the home of the one and only Cozy Dog. The Cozy Dog is a delicious hot dog on a stick that is found nation-wide at many county and state fairs.

Cozy Cruiser

Cozy Cruiser is an RV manufacturer specializing in fun and comfort for the adventurous and outdoor-loving person. Our camping “teardrop” trailers are the perfect solution for the weekend mountaineer, camper, hiker, hunter, or fisherman.

Cozy Beehive Blog
Cross pollinating velo buzz and served a little chilled


Cozy // Comfort Music Radio



Tree Cozy by Carol Hummel

Reverse Graffiti

Following Laughing Squid on twitter provides a lot of quick access to cool-stuff-right-now. This one in particular is really neato. An eco-friendly cleaning product company teamed up with a graffiti artist to create public murals by cleaning away dirt, instead of using paint. I love this because it gets me to look at the world in a different way, what else can be flipped around like this?

Reverse Graffiti Project
“San Francisco’s Broadway tunnel is a highly traveled thoroughfare in the heart of the city. Over 20,000 cars, trucks, and motorized vehicles pass through it per day. Its walls are caked with dirt and soot, and lined with patches of paint covered graffiti from days gone by. It set the perfect canvas to create a beautiful work of art showcasing the talents of reverse graffiti artist “Moose”, and the power of Green Works plant based cleaner.”

Save Mirador Basin: The Cradle of Maya Civilization

Photo by Susana Alvarado from the Facebook group Save Mirador Basin

Josephine writes, “This project is not just about saving a rainforest. It is about saving one of the most important ecosystems in the world. It is protecting a way station for millions of migratory birds that inhabit the eastern United States. It is rescuing the habitat for countless species, including jaguars, tapirs, toucans, and howler monkeys. It is supporting the largest privately funded archeological project in the world. It is assisting and educating the indigenous people, and teaching them to respect their environment. It is creating a sustainable future for the Mirador Basin so that its riches can be enjoyed forever.”

My friend Josephine Thompson works with Dr. Richard Hansen and over 340 archeologists and tradesperson who are dedicated to permanently preserving the Mirador Basin. Dr. Hansen has made it his life's work and has been at it for 30 years.

Josie started a Facebook group to raise awareness and hopefully come to some collective decisions about how to create a truly sustainable model for energy, communications and tourism.

In particular, Josie is seeking advice on the following:
1) How are we going to change this from an archaeology camp of 340 workers, using 5 generators, to a sustainable energy project?

2) Our satellite dish does not use a fast uplink/downlink and everyone who is stuck in the jungle for 5+ months cannot use video conferencing, IM or Skype. How can we get more bandwidth and add a communication network to a region that is completely off the grid now?

3) Please send links to examples of the best ecolodges in the world and express your opinion.

If you are a member of Facebook, please VISIT and JOIN the group to learn more and to offer advice and support. If you are not a member of Facebook but would like to be involved you can contact me directly.

As an aside, Bliz and I visited Josie in Guatemala earlier this year and took a trip to Tikal (we're planning another trip with Josie to visit Mirador) and did the Tikal sunrise tour. We hiked for an hour in near pitch black to the main temple to watch the sun rise over the jungle. During our hike we could hear the howler monkeys. They sounded more like dinosaurs. Here's an example I found:




I came across this article about one person's experience hiking to Mirador. This is definitely a trip I have to psyc myself up for. 3 day hike in the jungle with heat, humidity, spiders, deadly snakes, ticks, jaguars, poisonous plants, oh my. Josie, are you sure I can handle it?

Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer

I'm a bit hesitant to post about this NYT article because there really aren't hard facts yet on this topic. But to be honest this controversy is partly why I use my earbud headset with my phone and why I originally got frustrated with the tangled wires and came up with budcozy in the first place.

Plus, Dr. Keith Black is someone I saw speak once and he blew me away. He presented his research work on brain tumors and how he developed a sort of vaccine using a patients own cancer cells. Or something like that. I tried finding the video of his talk to link to but I think that was before the conference offered the presentations online.

Of note in this article:
“Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. “I think the safe practice,” said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.”

“For people who are concerned about any possible risk, a simple solution is to use a headset. Of course, that option isn’t always convenient, and some critics have raised worries about wireless devices like the Bluetooth that essentially place a transmitter in the ear.”

“We cannot say with any certainty that cellphones are either safe or not safe,” Dr. Black said on CNN. “My concern is that with the widespread use of cellphones, the worst scenario would be that we get the definitive study 10 years from now, and we find out there is a correlation.”

Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphone and Cancer

Paul Stamets's Life Box Packaging

Life Box video stills from TED|Talks.

I've been wanting to package budcozy with eco-friendly materials that go beyond it's first purpose. Paul Stamets's Life Box is exactly it. When will this be available? Anything else on the market like this?

Panoramic

Milan, Galleria Corso Vittorio Emmanuele, 2003

Ari Salomon makes good pictures. This one hangs on my wall.

Please, Understand.

A certain someone needs some Understanding smacked into her, with a capital U. I only know of one person who wields an influence over the over achieving and sometimes self obsessed. I've been working at his conferences for the last 8 or 9 years, and have seen his "work" first hand. Can we please arrange for a little Come-to-Jesus chit chat?

"Many of the people I speak with are really serving other Gods: the God of Beauty, the God of Style... the God of Money, Success, Fame, Fortune, and yet there is only one God that I serve and that is the God of Understanding. If you serve that God, all the others will be taken care of."
- Richard Saul Wurman, InfoDesign Jan '04

On Foot

A really nice thing about not being in a car and being on foot is all the stuff you'll see. Bliz and I started the day off on bus to the Union Street Fair, and over to Cupcake Camp. On our way back from Camp we took a quick detour to the Water Garden with Kinetic Sculpture and Bamboo Grove. Forgot to note the name of this place, anyone know?


View Larger Map

Sci-Fi Time Traveler Golden Era Superhero Helmut

The Mercury Helmet by Jasmin Zorlu.

This. This, I want.

I tried it on and it was amazing. It is made from fish skin suede and lined in organza. Placing this on my head made me feel like I had magical powers. I could summon Godzilla from the depths. I could cut through any dust storm. Light would shine upon me in a flattering diffused vignette. I could communicate telepathically with the whales.

I am saving up.

Mars Lander is Twittering

Photo from NASA.

I've been following NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Mission unfold via Twitter. This is really really cool on so many levels.

First, I'm getting news as it literally happens first hand from the source.

Second, these twitters give the Phoenix Probe a personality and a voice like it's ALIVE. I really care about that thing up there so far away. I hope he'll be ok, really. I found out that he has to survive the Mars winter in total ice and then try to thaw out later. He says things like "I'm going to sleep now, more tomorrow" or "I'm going to try to move my arm today, it's been in storage for 10 months" or "More pictures! Check them out".

Third, this twitter account has not really be publicized all that much, yet it already has over 9,000 followers. This continues to grow each day. One mention worth noting: Phoenix Space Probe More Popular Than Punk Rock.

Fourth, I'm frakking learning something about space in a way that really engages me. This is big.

Name: MarsPhoenix
Location: North polar region of MARS!
Web http://tinyurl.co...
Bio: I dig Mars!

Possum O' Possum

I love it when friends send me things in the mail. It's like being stranded on an island and finding a message in a bottle. Today was especially exciting. The mailman kerplunked our mail through the slot and it had an extra bang-plop to it. So I immediately went over to see what had been delivered. This package was on the floor with this hint on the back, "A registered possum is a better possum and that is a fact!" and "...and if you can accept that then you can accept just about anything... - Basil Clark". A few weeks back our friend Greg had given us a DVD of a film he made and the disc was scratched so we weren't able to watch the entire movie. I sent him a Facebook message asking if he had another. And a week later, presto! Hello, Possum O' Possum.



And as an extra bonus, also included in the package was one sterile adhesive bandage and one eraser. Things that just might come in handy. Thanks Greg.

Maker Faire Poster

Poster by eboy.

I'm a little tardy for a Maker Fair mention but, I came across this poster today and it's worth mentioning just for the visual graphics alone (one in a long series). And so, my quick review of the faire will be better late than never. Bliz and I went for the second time. We took CalTrain and the faire shuttle bus which worked out 200% better than driving, and we reviewed the schedule in advance to make sure we saw the stuff we wanted but, it was still totally overwhelming. This poster captures it well. The faire seems to have huge momentum and I imagine it'll be even bigger next year. It's really amazing to see a little bit of Burning Man in San Mateo. (As an aside, I grew up in San Mateo County. My parents were both born and raised there. My sisters and I were in 4H and they showed their lambs at the same fair grounds. I spent many summer nights running around the carnival eating sticky sugary foods and trying to win stuffed animals and gold fish. It was so the 1970's.)

A couple highlights:

- My friend Emi works for TCHO, who had chocolate samples you could vote on. It's yummy chocolate from scratch. Always a crowd pleaser. We had them at EG2007.

- My friend Marnia was there with Swarm. It's great to see this Burning Man project still going and now starting to tour year round.

- Mike with BlinkM, of course.

- David with Making Things, of course.

- Steampunk Squid, Robot Girafe, Tesla Coil, Cupcake cars, Never Was House and The Treehouse.

- The Mento-Coke guys did a show. Was fun to see in person.

For a more thorough review, Wired has a great blog write up complete with photos and videos.

How It Works

Came across a great series of How It Works videos. Super clever and super cute. Budcozy needs one of these. The video below explains the difference between regular incandescent light bulbs and CFLs.



More videos about things like Social Networks, Wikis, RSS and Zombies here at Common Craft.

On Auto-Pilot

For a majority of designers this is a really obvious list of links to mention but, I find myself utilizing most of these (and more I haven't listed) on nearly every one of my projects. They're great design resources that are so basic to me that I probably take them for granted. It got me thinking, what other online resources do other designers rely on? What might I be missing that might help me break out of old habits?

Font ID, search by sight

Free Vector World Maps, just in case you ever need one

Lorem Ipsum, for when you're waiting on content

Silk Icons, free family of 700 tiny icons

Silkscreen, free tiny font

Best Brands of the World, EPS files of most corporate logos

A List Apart, for people who make websites

iStockPhoto.com, a great resource for affordable graphics and icons

Frilly Things, a collection by Cameron Moll

wow

"Sen. Barack Obama was greeted by the largest crowd of his 15-month campaign in Portland Sunday, an estimated 75,000 people, according to Portland Police. "

When Obama Wins (wow)... We'll all find the map to candy mountain.

To outer space and back to the couch

It was one of those busy-fast weekends and we were excited to get everything accomplished. D has been swamped at work so this was a necessary break to get recharged by seeing some great stuff other people are up to. We started the day off with a hike up to Twin Peaks with Lucy. We are really lucky to be able to walk right out the front door and just keep going up until we've reached the top like the surface of another planet. Spring is so here with butterflies, birds, alien weeds and flowers. It was so windy up there that Lucy's ears flew back like she was riding a motorcycle.

Once we got back down to earth, we bused into town to load up with a super taco and horchada and head to the historic Armory building. It was open to the public for the Mission Bazaar, an exhibition of art, design, music and performance. We drive by that place often and someone usually makes a comment about what sordid things go on in there. In 2006 it was purchased for $14.5 million by an adult production internet company, giving the ominous Moorish Castle style building on a edgy intersection an even grittier presence. So we have been really curious to see the inside. It was like walking back in time into an old airplane hanger, lots of brick and steel and huge windows with bright sunlight streaming into the dark space. Most of the vendors were clothing and accessories, with a burningman-steampunk-hippie aesthetic. I got a super cute red and cream striped wrist band made from a vintage tie, with a single silver snap. D tried on a tiny victorian top hat, which made him look like something out of Alice in Wonderland. I think I should get him one. We bumped into a friend who makes films. A favorite local clothing designer of mine was there, Miranda Caroligne. I'd really love to get to the point where budcozy could be part of an event like this. I was inspired to get back to work on some new limited editions themes. American Cupcake sent me a link to the Union Street Faire in a couple weeks, which happens to be an eco theme, but it's hard to swallow the $650 booth fare. Being creatures of habit and feeling a bit overloaded by the bazaar, we walked over to La Copa Loca for waffle cones of hazelnut sorbet and sat on the sidewalk to charge up for evening plans.

The rest of the weekend went like this:

Wes Scoop at the Marsh
Hard to cover the 90 min show, I kept wanting to write things down but didn't want to miss anything. One thing I remember him saying is the answer to our nations problems is to acknowledge our predicament and engage in an intentional decline with a Reverse Peace Corps, to learn how to siesta and make tasty dishes from rice and beans. Remember to breathe. Unlearn our overachieving.

icanhaz
An honest attempt to icanhazcheezburgers but gravitational pull of the couch won. Instead we went to witness with our own eyes a really big crossover moment between the internets and reality.

Opera.

That butterfly
More collisions between worlds with the butterfly from the hike now firmly embeded in a mural. It stopped me in my tracks.

Free samples
In between giant boxes of cereal, a moment of bliss at Costco: toasted ham-n-cheese croissant sammie samples.

iPhone
A new iPhone case that goes real cute with the Pow budcozy. But I find myself looking at my iPhone wanting to take a picture of my phone with my phone. Need to track down the camera.

Series of amazing events
D got 2 pairs of jeans and 1 pair sneaks, without even trying. Do you know how amazing that is? We were so tired and hungry but you just can't stop when shopping karma strikes. Nutella-banana crepe post spree prepared us for MUNI home. And then the most amazing series of events happened. The J arrived immediately. Only one crazy person on board talking into a cellphone with no one at the other end. It did not break down. I do not kid. Then as we sat waiting for our transfer on the 48 to take us home (estimated 17 min), Hoshi appeared out of nowhere in a skid and waved us aboard to deliver us to our door.

More couch.

Hemp Factoid

Wiki says: "Hemp requires little to no pesticides, replenishes soil with nutrients and nitrogen, controls erosion of the topsoil, and produces lots of oxygen, considering how fast it grows. Furthermore, Hemp could be used to replace many potentially harmful products, such as tree paper (the process of which uses bleaches and other toxic chemicals, apart from contributing to deforestation), cosmetics (which often contain synthetic oils that can clog pores and provide little nutritional content for the skin), plastics (which are petroleum based and cannot decompose), and more."

While hemp is still illegal to grow in the US, I get my hemp fabric (and bamboo and organic cotton) from a local SF importer Pickering International.