American Madness

While Josh has kept himself busy posting up and down on the site I have had a more leisurely past few days, relaxing and enjoying the break from everything afforded by Thanksgiving. But now I am back and ready to get posting again.

First up today we have a little something for all of you creative gadget type folks out there. The Discovery channel is working on a show based on Rube Goldberg type inventions, setting up a team of artists, scientists, engineers, architects, designers and other like-minded folks to create Rube Goldberg-like contraptions to do “impossible challenges.” They are looking for folks between 25 and 3.

If you are interested in more information check out the casting call posted on the Make magazine forums.

My friend and colleague Eric Baum is one of the few ambitiously moral people in this universe. Where for others caveat emptor is the watchword, Baum here notes that Wall Street’s recent failure to embrace the categorical imperative has meant inflicting an unforseen wound on itself.

Blowback
By Eric Baum

The Central Intelligence Agency has a term called ‘blowback’ to describe the unintended consequences of hostile actions. In financial jargon there is no term to describe such quid-pro-quo sequences, but the subprime debacle may prompt financial analysts to coin one (ed: payback?).

Hedge funds and other money managers that cater to institutional investors are running for cover amidst a credit meltdown that is now demolishing equity prices. Financial insiders know the sequence of events that produced multi-billion-dollar losses at hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs. These insiders now expect more damage in the weeks to come.

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Ok, I came across this site and thought it was kind of neat*

Postcrossing is a project set up by some one who clearly likes to collect postcards from exotic locations without the hassle of actually traveling to them. Over 500,000 postcards have been sent so far, basically once you register you get a random address and ID number, you put the ID number on the postcard and then send it off to your addressee, in the meanwhile you will get a postcard as well. To keep it all good and make sure that everyone is sending and receiving the ID is entered into the database and identifies each postcard.

In a world were online social networking has become such a big deal and you haven’t actually met half the people on your Facebook page, it is kind of nice to get an actual piece of mail from a stranger. Also, it is probably nice to receive something in the mail other then a bill or a catalog, I can only assume as that is all I ever receive.

There is also that whole personalization aspect in that someone has taken the time to buy or print or otherwise create a postcard for you, at the least you can add some new artwork to your cubicle. I think I am going to go and sign up now.

*Yes, I use the word neat

So, I am not sure if this is going to work, but I found this video (which I am attempting to embed here) of a chain reaction of events, just kind of neat, click on it to get it to play. It reminds me of is a 4 minute clip from “The Way Things Go”, a 30 minute chain reaction. I’d say it is worth checking out. I keep seeing it referred to as a Rube Goldberg invention design. It isn’t. Rube Goldberg had complex chain reactions to accomplish simple tasks. This chain reaction doesn’t actually do anything (besides set some things on fire). A better example of Rube Goldberg would be this commercial for Honda from the UK.