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November 23, 2004
ABC Monday Night Football Intro
Well, I'm about a week late to comment on this, but I just saw the ABC Monday Night Football intro that caused a bunch of controversy last week. The part everybody was talking about was dumb and inappropriate, I agree. But the horrible mish-mash of trucks, nationalism and steroids that followed really set me on my heels. Ick! Now I am offended.
Here’s a link to the video on iFilms, just make sure you have good virus protection before you go there.
Posted by dme at 10:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2004
Headline from the Future
President Appoints Self to Cabinet PositionThe resignation of Donald Rumsfeld has long been anticipated, however in a bold move today, President Bush has nominated himself to be Secretary of Defense. At a press conference in the Rose Garden Bush said, “I’ve known George for more than fifty years. He has always been loyal and I know I can trust him. Besides, the inner circle was just tapped out.”
Posted by dme at 08:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Russian Airplane
So awkwardly designed, it seems embarrassed of itself on the runway in Amsterdam.
Posted by dme at 07:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Waiting for Fight 45
A few of the characters waiting with me for Flight 45, Amsterdam to Cincinnati.
Posted by dme at 07:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 15, 2004
Design Engaged: Drawing-Prototype
It’s kind of a personal compass. You would set locations as comfort, safety, etc. as you discover them, and similar profiles would suggest new locations. An opposite button would load profiles of people who are not like you.
Posted by dme at 05:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Drawings from Design Engaged
Posted by dme at 05:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 11, 2004
How to Say 48 - 51
There’s a county by county election results map that has been alternately encouraging and bothering people because uses right figures to tell a wrong thing. If you wanted Bush to be president, you might think, “Now that’s MY America.” If you wanted Kerry, that’s not your America. If you take the area literally, the map says 83% of the people love George Bush, and 17% are extremist Kerry wackos.
The need to see a map that says “48-51” (or even better “51-48”) instead of “17-83” is intense. The problem is, nothing says 48% - 51% like a pie chart, and a map is not a pie chart. So these fellows at the University of Michigan have made a map to solve that problem. Now everyone can agree, it doesn’t look like America.
The problem with the county map is not area, or area of color, or shade of red to purple. It’s the intensity of the color that implies an even distribution of the population. I really think if they would adjust the brightness of the color to reflect population, instead of the area, they would get a more accurate graphic. And you could find Tennessee on it.
So, in conclusion…
Posted by dme at 05:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Reckless Emboldenment
Don’t they know? Small cars only embolden the enemy! This is not a time to show weakness!
I think I can see why my father liked Amsterdam so much. There is a blend of efficiency and goofiness that would have resonated with his sensibilities.
It reminds me of the time he drove a Simca (see below). We have many stories about that car. In Fort Worth, Texas, it was an oddball car. He got rear-ended at traffic lights several times by people who looked right over his car when the light turned green. The insurance money paid for the car several times over.
Dad must have looked around Amsterdam and thought, “Holy cow, these are my people!”
Posted by dme at 03:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 09, 2004
That didn't take long.
I saw this bumper sticker on the way out of Fry’s with my new (beautiful) camera. That was Sunday, Nov 7th. How long does it take to make bumper stickers anyway?
Posted by dme at 05:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Coloring Books!
Everywhere I look they're selling these coloring books. It's really fun, just get a red marker and draw horns and devil-beard every time you see a picture of this guy.
Posted by dme at 05:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What I did for democracy this year.
Attended Meetups for Howard Dean.
Attended benefit for the Texas Observer with Molly Ivans and Al Franken.
Donated money to Howard Dean ($150), John Kerry ($300), MoveOn($100), ACLU($200).
Attended Howard Dean and Wesley Clark rallies.
Posted messages to DNC, Dean for America, John Kerry, and Wesley Clark blogs.
Hosted a convention party.
Attended a public screening of Outfoxed.
Made calls for MoveOn.
Wrote letters to registered voters in Iowa and Florida.
Protested re-districting at the Texas state capitol.
Wrote letters to the President, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, John Cornyn, and Lloyd Doggett.
Wrote letters to the editor at Austin American Statesman.
Wrote to advertisers supporting Sinclair Broadcasting.
So there! My next post is going to be juvenile, and I deserve it.
Posted by dme at 05:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 07, 2004
Death and Populations
Juan Cole has written about a study published in The Lancet. It says that US and coalition forces have killed 100,000 civilians in Iraq. Mostly by bombs, mostly women and children.
I’ve seen some attempts to put this into perspective, “that would be the equivalent, in American population terms, of 1.1 million people here.”
That’s not right.
So here is my attempt to put this into perspective. Each pixel represents 3000 people. The bright red pixels each represent 3000 deaths. For Iraq, the recent war is represented (33 pixels=100,000 deaths). For the US, September 11, 2001 is represented (1 pixel=3000 deaths).
In addition to death as a proportion of population, I made an assumption that 100 friends, family, colleagues of each person would be affected. They are represented by dark red.
Posted by dme at 06:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 06, 2004
Red States in the Red: Post Election
We didn't see it coming, so now everybody is looking. If there is a shred of anything to enjoy after this election, it's all the political maps. The closest to getting the real picture is this one.
The "red states take and blue states give" issue has been popping back up, so I gave this graphic a refresh with the final election results.
The trend is even more striking. I don't think it means what it implies. It implies that the red states are greedy freeloaders, or that the red states enjoy the favor of a biased federal government. I'm not cynical enough to think this is the real story.
This is just two trends that both depend on population density. People who live in dense, diverse populations have more exposure to people-who-are-not-like-me. For this reason they don't support wars that hurt and kill people-who-are-not-like-me, or laws that restrict the rights of people-who-are-not-like-me.
The other trend is the efficiency of spending government money. It's just cheaper to serve people who live close to each other. Hawaii is an exception to this trend, and it debunks the red-states-greedy-blue-states-generous idea. It's just more expensive to send services half way around the world.
Posted by dme at 05:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack