i know y'all are smart, but it doesn't hurt to remind you.

Check out how to support Earth Hour where you live.

on how b-schools have failed

I remember reading "M.F.A is the new M.B.A" while I was a student at Herron and today's New York Times has proved to me again that this is a great time in History to be a designer and a right brain thinker.

But with the economy in disarray and so many financial firms in free fall, analysts, and even educators themselves, are wondering if the way business students are taught may have contributed to the most serious economic crisis in decades.

“It is so obvious that something big has failed,” said Ángel Cabrera, dean of the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz. “We can look the other way, but come on. The C.E.O.’s of those companies, those are people we used to brag about. We cannot say, ‘Well, it wasn’t our fault’ when there is such a systemic, widespread failure of leadership.”

(...)

“There is a need to broaden from the analytical focus of M.B.A. programs for more emphasis on skills and a sense of purpose and identity,” said David A. Garvin, a professor of business administration and one of the project’s authors.

(...)

Business education “accentuates the simple technical pieces,” said Ms. Samuelson of the Aspen Institute, and “ignores the real complexity and, frankly, the really exciting opportunities business has to be the driver of long-term prosperity.”

++++++++++++++

MFA is the new MBA was published in 2003 by Harvard Business Review's Breatkthrough Ideas for 2004. It's available for download here or you can purchase the article here.

a-ok

Sasha, President Obama's youngest daughter, giving him a thumbs up after he was sworn in yesterday. Probably not the most popular moment of the inaugural, but the sweetest indeed.

press start to begin new phase

"If you’re just hoping to 'get through' this year’s financial crisis, you may be missing the bigger picture. The financial crisis is merely the final score of a game we’ve been playing for over a century — it’s called Free-market Capitalism. The game is officially over, and a new game is beginning."

We're in charge of discovering a new way of doing business that exists beyond the "one wins, one loses" idea. To me, that's all very exciting. It doesn't freak me out. It moves me forward. If only more people realized that.


[via]

on how design thrives during economic crisis

Yesterday's New York Times feauted a wonderful article on how history has proven that design can benefit from economic constraints. Makes me hopeful and excited to be part of the industry right now.

"...however dark the economic picture, it will most likely cause designers to shift their attention from consumer products to the more pressing needs of infrastructure, housing, city planning, transit and energy. Designers are good at coming up with new ways of looking at complex problems, and if President-elect Barack Obama delivers anything like a W.P.A, we could be 'standing on the brink of one of the most productive periods of design ever,' said Reed Kroloff, director of Cranbrook Academy of Art.

On the other hand, the design community talked up its role in safeguarding the world after 9/11, with little result.

Modernism’s great ambition was to democratize design. Ikea and Target have shown that the battle for cheap design can be won. The emphasis will most likely shift to greater quality at affordable prices. This time around it will be the designer’s job to discourage consumers from regarding that $30 Ikea side table as a throwaway item.

(...) 'It will be about finding the sweet spot between affordability and durability,' Ms. Lasky said. This kind of innovation means rethinking the economy of production and distribution so that goods are made cheaply closer to home (or in the home, if the most radical ideas are to be taken seriously).

One way or another, design will focus less on styling consumer objects with laser-cut patterns and colored resin and more on the intelligent reworking of current conditions. Expect to hear a lot more about open-source design, and cradle-to-cradle, a concept developed by William McDonough and Michael Braungart that calls for cars, packaging and other everyday objects to be designed specifically for recycling so that their parts and materials are used and reused without waste."

a sign of good things to come

The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC), which is, as the name says, organizing Obama's inauguration event, has created a site where you can see big chart detailing each and every contribution they have received.

The committee only accepts individual donations, and you can sort them by name, employer, amount, and location. "Unlike previous inaugural committees, the 2009 PIC does not accept contributions from corporations, political action committees, labor unions, current federally-registered lobbyists, non-U.S. citizens and registered foreign agents and does not accept individual contributions in excess of $50,000." You can see several well-known names there: several people from Google, Dreamworks, The Container Store ($25,000), Yahoo!, and the Soros family - who donated a total of $250K, being $150K under the Soros Fund Management employer name.

That's the thing about transparency: if information is available, people ARE going to make their way to it. It's really a simple and revolutionary idea.

eartha mae kitt, 1927 - 2008

The most exciting woman in the world.

home

Say what you want to say, Indiana is home to me. Indianapolis was a wonderful home during the 7 amazing years I spent there, and a HUGE part of me became a Hoosier. I don't like it when people put their ignorance on display by talking about how much they know about midwestern culture and the "middle american", as if they have actually deeply experienced that culture and place themselves. It's one of those things that really gets on my nerves. But that's another post.

I've been gone for a little over a year and the landscape of the city I have grown to love as my own is going through major changes. The RCA Dome is being imploded tomorrow morning. Its roof was inflated on September 24th, 2008. This video makes me want to cry, and that's one of the moments I realize I'm no longer just Brazilian.



++++++++

UPDATE (Dec 20, 2008):

a brilliant moment by keith olberman, about proposition 8

the first day of the rest of our lives

the above-average todd diamond explains the bailouts

Todd Diamond is a self-made potential millionaire who doesn't need to admit when he's wrong because he's never wrong and, more importantly, always right. His self-published self-help books include "Diamond Nuggets: 96 Ways To Change My Life," "Blood Diamond: My Year in a Street Gang And How It Taught Me About The Market And Friendship" and "A Dark Knight Over The Federation: When Batman Met Captain Kirk, Part 4."

brilliant

Transcript:

"Good evening, my fellow Americans. As we all know, this has already been a long, hard-fought campaign for the democratic presidential nomination. But tonight, with my recent victory in Indiana, and senator Obama's in North Carolina, we remain exactly where we were four months ago: hopelessly deadlocked.

Therefore, this nomination is going to be decided as it should be - by the super delegates - based not on primary results or caucuses or delegate counts or popular vote. But on their sober assessment of which candidate will be the strongest against senator McCain in November.

Tonight, I'm here to tell you why I am that candidate.

First, I am a sore loser.

If and when I am the nominee, I know, as do the super delegates, that senator Obama will work his heart out for my election. If, on the other hand, senator Obama is chosen, I will probably refuse to campaign for him. Or if I do so, it will be in a resentful, half-hearted way, thus ensuring his defeat. So that I can run again in 2012.

You see, unlike my opponent, I'm just not going to lose gracefully. It's not a criticism of senator Obama, just a fact.

Second, my supporters are racist.

If and when I am the nominee, senator Obama's african-american supporters will be disappointed, perhaps. But they will still rally to me. If, however, senator Obama is the nominee, my supporters will refuse to vote for him. Partly because I will secretly tell them not to, but mainly because they are racially biased. And would never vote for any african-american candidate. I'm not bragging. That's just the way it is.

Now, to those of you that worry if my opponent is denied the nomination that african-americans might simply stay home, I remind you: a) until senator Obama shockingly and - might I add, rudely and selfishly - won the Iowa caucuses, most african-americans supported me. B) my husband was the first black president. And c) in the days ahead, we expect to receive the endorsement of America's preeminent african-american leader, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Which brings me to my third and final argument. Unlike senator Obama, I have no ethical standards.

Even my critics would agree that once I get the nomination, I will stop at nothing, absolutely nothing, to win. Whereas with senator Obama, there are some things he simply will not do. Take, for example, the race card. Which he has been reluctant to play. As in anyone who doesn't vote for me is a racist. I, on the other hand, will be happy to play the gender card. And claim that anyone who doesn't vote for me is a sexist. In fact, once senator Obama is out of the picture, I look forward to playing the race card myself. As in anyone who doesn't vote for me is both a sexist and a racist.

Now, to those of you who say she'll never do that, it doesn't even make sense! I answer - if you believe that, then you don't know me.

So there you have it - sore loser, racist supporters, no ethical standards - qualities senator Obama simply cannot match. That's not an attack on my opponent, it's just the truth. When you consider that, the choice is obvious."

wow! via and link.

Rauschenberg

"I really feel sorry for people who think things like soap dishes or mirrors or Coke bottles are ugly," he once said, "because they’re surrounded by things like that all day long, and it must make them miserable."

Rauschenberg, October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008

feeding my obsession with the prison subject

"In the late '90s, pop-culture historian Bill Geerhart had a little too much time on his hands and a surfeit of stamps. So, for his own entertainment, the then-unemployed thirtysomething launched a letter-writing campaign to some of the most powerful and infamous figures in the country, posing as a curious 10-year-old named Billy. (...)

As it turns out, no group hates to disappoint a child more than convicted killers, all of whom responded promptly to Billy's questions about dropping out of school. Their letters range from criminally insane to downright sensible, offering snapshots of the personalities behind some of America's most hideous crimes. Recently, Radar asked Billy to follow up with his mentors as a college student."


Read all the letters here.

[Via]

an odd account of the midwest earthquake

Is Matt really the best they could find?

did you know this?

This is new: Sexually active gay men are no longer allowed to donate organs in Canada.

But this is not new: "Any man who has had sex with another man, even once, since 1977 is permanently banned from donating blood for life—even if he’s in a monogamous relationship and practices safe sex." (in Canada)

affordability, sustainability, safety, beauty

Say what you want to say about the man behind the project, I don't care, that's beside the point. This is a beautiful project and I'm excited to see something like it happen.

Make It Right Nola is a project launched by Brad Pitt to help bring families back home to New Orleans, after having their houses destroyed by Katrina.

13 architecture firms were commissioned to design green affordable housing to be built at the impoverished Lower Ninth Ward. The future residents will be able to choose the layout of their home from a list of designs selected by Make It Right, which to me, sets this project apart from so many others that may have come before. The idea that people will be able to go back to a place that was carefully designed for them is nothing short of outstanding. Those people have lost everything they had, and most of them probably never had much to start with, so rescuing their self-esteem seems just as urgent as giving them a home.

You can see the selected designs here.

Anybody can donate anything, from a dollar to $150,000, which is the cost of a full house. The website also gives you information about how to sponsor specific things, such as landscaping, appliances, low VOC paint, efficient lighting, rooftop solar panels, etc. Click on the pictures below, go check out the website and maybe help if you can.

tell me your BMI and i'll tell you who you are

Illustration by Carll Cneut

If I had words for this one, they would go here.

Checklist

The note Michael Vick used when he made his four-minute apology speech on TV has been sold for $10,200, with all proceeds benefiting the Animal Cruelty Reward and Response Fund. The buyer: comedian/producer Carol Leifer.

So here they are, his six well thought out points:

1. Apologize for what I've done... CHECK.
2. Apologize Commissioner, AB... ashamed, Disappointed... CHECK
3. Forgiveness and Understanding... CHECK
4. Take full responsibility for my actions... CHECK
5. We all make mistakes. I've made mistakes in judgement... CHECK

mmmmmmmm.... I feel like I'm forgetting something....

- HOW ABOUT THE DOGS HAVE SUFFERED!!!??

- OK, dogs have suffered.


---------------------------------------
(Bastard. Stupid heartless son of a bitch.)