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I had two pieces and an interview come out today. In Politico, I address the anniversary of January 6, arguing that the events of that day have misled us about the real challenges we face. A quick taste: While scholars warn of fascism on the one side and pundits bicker over wokeness on the other, the larger and longer view reveals how blinkered both of these assessments are. The right’s road to power does not run through street violence, mass rallies, fake news or lawless coups. The left’s weakness has nothing to do with critical race theory and cancel culture. Both claims suffer from the same shortcoming: They focus on the margins rather than the matrix. Driving the initiatives of […]
Even Walmart Is Worse in the Metaverse
hello i have written about the metaverse and that cursed walmart video that’s been going around
Each of the 12 Federal Reserve banks is overseen by a nine-member independent board of directors. Who are they, and what is their role?
For reasons architecturally unbeknownst to me, the McMansions of Chicago’s suburbs are actually insane. Perhaps it makes sense that Chicago, America’s mecca of great and distinguished architecture would also give birth to what can be appropriately called the netherworld version of that.
For six years, I have run this blog, and for six years I have been absolutely amazed by the formal leaps and bounds exhibited by the McMansions of Chicago’s suburbs. This area is undisputedly the fertile crescent of unhinged custom homebuilding and while I’ve heard other claims made for the gaudy, compact McMansions of Long Island, the paunchy shingled stylings of Greenwich, Connecticut, the Disney-Mediterranean hodgepodges of Florida, the oil-drenched nub mountains of North Texas, you name it – nothing comes remotely close to that which has been built in the suburbs of Cook, Lake, and DuPage Counties. (In the case of the houses featured in this post, nine of ten are located in Barrington, IL, which just might be the census designated place known as McMansion Hell.)
We are pleased to auction at our eBay site, a new print by Alister Pearson of his artwork for 'Goth Opera'.
The print is base don the 1994 book cover and has been signed by Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton. It is being auctioned din aid of Project Motorhouse
To view the auction and maybe place a bid please visit our eBay site at www.ebay.co.uk/usr/dwas_auction
In 1999, I had the good fortune to work alongside Dan Licht at an NYC digital startup called SenseNet, RIP. Back then, although still in his early 20s, Dan was already an accomplished art director and digital designer. Today he’s a fantastic comics illustrator, artist, and creative director. Check his recent art on Instagram and his client work at Daniel […]
The post Looking Back, Looking Ahead: artist Dan Licht appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.
This food timeline started as a way to explore the revolution in Australian food that has occurred during the baby-boomers’ lifetime, but has since expanded to include more about the previous decades (and century) as well. Also included are overseas events and trends that had an impact here. The entries are brief, but there are lots of links if you want more information.
Tracking the list of most Googled recipes over the past few years is both revealing and mystifying. The most Googled recipe for 2021 was gnocchi, perhaps not a surprise given our ongoing love for Italian food. But the most baffling is how curried sausages became the third most Googled recipe of the year. I remember […]
For all its faults, we must celebrate 2021 a lot. Why? Because of its abundance of palindromes. Palindromes are one of the most delightful phenomena of language. They are words (and phrases) that read the same way no matter where…
On America’s roads and highways, they drive strong. In America’s TV commercials, they dazzle us with their new features. From America’s history, they remind us of transportation. They are, simply put, cars and trucks. When it comes to 2021, cars…
From the tragic to the extraordinary, the news of 2021 was defined in part by extremely large numbers. We read statistics that boggled our minds, while also reading of advances in wealth and technology that boggled our minds. All these…
What is there to say about cryptocurrencies? Quite a lot, to be honest! In 2021, this new form of currency captivated our imagination and inspired our society in ways that would have been unimaginable even ten years ago. From the…
Some call them “rebels.” Others call them “heroes.” Some may know them as geniuses, while others are content to describe them as brilliant. Who are these people of which I speak? They are the INNOVATORS. Innovators have a habit of…
2021 was defined by uncertainty and sweeping changes. Is it any wonder, then, that paperweights — with their reassuring stability — were in much demand throughout the year? When chaos swirls all around you, a sturdy paperweight can help anchor…
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) may be considered one of the great achievements of humankind. We rely on these systems to provide indoor air quality of an acceptable level in order to thrive. HVAC systems can be as simple…
When times are tough, music can help us make it though the night. When times are good, music can help us celebrate. When times are scary, music can comfort us. When times are funny, music can laugh along with us.…
Our fifteenth annual International Day Against DRM (IDAD), might be over, but the fight against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) continues. Each year, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and its Defective by Design campaign distill what we've learned throughout the year in our anti-DRM activism on one special day: a day especially supportive to those retailers and publishers who rightly refuse to foist DRM on their customers, and a day especially critical of those who haven't gotten the message that our real digital rights cannot be restricted. For those of us steeped in the Defective by Design campaign, IDAD never fails to provide moments that inspire us in our work for the coming year.
Raising interest rates in an attempt to control inflation is a myth that could, instead, lead to a price spiral
If 2021 taught us anything, it was that today’s television landscape is different than it used to be. Many years ago, if you wanted to watch TV, you’d have to physically sit in front of a large box in your…
Cancel Culture was out of control in 2021. From the most elite colleges to the hottest podcasts, 2021 was the year when smart people simply stated the facts and then found themselves being yelled at and called dumb more than…
“One of the first things you have to decide on with a musical is why should there be songs.”
The person speaking is Stephen Sondheim, the writer of some of the best songs for musicals in the 20th century, who died in November aged 91.
You can put songs in any story, but what I think you have to look for is, why are songs necessary to this story? If it’s unnecessary, then the show generally turns out to be not very good.
I’m no Sondheim, but as an editor I won’t put a graph into any story unless it is absolutely necessary to tell the story.
When I do, the picture can be worth at least the 800 words that accompany it.
So here are my 10 favourites from the business and economy stories I edited for The Conversation in 2021.
Some of the best graphs remove doubt
This graph, from the Bureau of Statistics, leaves no doubt about what happens to consumer spending when lockdowns end.
