Paul Shaw, an award-winning graphic designer, typographer, calligrapher, and teacher at Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Arts, tells the story of how New York City’s subway signage evolved from a "visual mess" to a uniform system using the Helvetica typeface. His illustrated book Helvetica and the New York City Subway System looks at how politics, economics, and bureaucratic forces shaped decisions made about the subway’s appearance as much as design ideas did. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2011/aug/04/helvetica-and-new-york-city-subway-system/
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Helvetica and the New York City Subway System
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Matt Ridley: Deep Optimism
Everything’s going to Hell in a handbasket! Or is it?
Not according to Matt Ridley. Ridley takes a long-term view of humanity’s past to project a deeply optimistic view of our future. This program was recorded in collaboration with the Long Now Foundation, on March 22, 2011.
This program contains visual aids. A complete video version is available at: http://fora.tv/2011/03/22/Matt_Ridley_Deep_Optimism
Via trade and other cultural activities, "ideas have sex," and that drives human history in the direction of inconstant but accumulative improvement over time. The criers of havoc keep being proved wrong. A fundamental optimism about human affairs is deeply rational and can be reliably conjured with.
Trained at Oxford as a zoologist and an editor at The Economist for eight years, Matt Ridley’s newest book is The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. His earlier works include Francis Crick; Nature via Nurture; Genome; and The Origins of Virtue.
Matt Ridley’s books have sold over 800,000 copies, been translated into 27 languages and been short-listed for six literary prizes. In 2004 he won the National Academies Book Award from the US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine for Nature via Nurture.
He is married to the neuroscientist Professor Anya Hurlbert. They have two children and live at Blagdon near Newcastle upon Tyne.
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The Problem of Sock Puppets
On the Media, a US NPR program, examines what happened when Dilbert creator Scott Adams joined Metafilter to defend himself in a forum criticizing him, but did so using a pseudonym. Scott Adams was outed very quickly by members in the forum, but Metafilter also confirmed it was Scott Adams after he refused to admit it himself.
A great overview explaining the various cultures and community mores that exist across the internet, just as all communities differ from each other. The best overview how complicated social can be in 6 minutes.
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The Incomparable 8: “Top Men”
"Raiders of the Lost Ark," and why it’s so great, with John Gruber, Dan Moren, and Jason Snell. Also, "Star Wars" comes up a few times.
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Biohacking - An Overview
Biological systems are large assemblies of parts that function together following rules of basic chemistry. As systems, they can be studied, modified, and engineered for novel purposes. DNA molecules contain the information used to encode living systems, and methods exist for discovering and manipulating this information. This talk will cover the basic components of biological systems, including how DNA can be modified to make new proteins or genetically modified organisms, such as fluorescent mice, therapeutic viruses, or bacteria that eat explosives or smell like bananas.
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The Art of Do-Foo
The one thing that sets a nerd apart from a hacker, a dork, or anyone else for that matter is simple. Nerds seek to quantify every facet of their lives. From baseball statistics to Star Trek trivia, there’s a little nerd in all of us. But true nerds pursue the quantification of everything. The idea of this talk is to quantify successes and failures within the New York City community. By utilizing modern information theory and simple statistics, we can isolate the key factors that have both positively and negatively influenced the culture in our region. Why have specific projects succeeded? Why have others failed? What are key factors in the success of a community? This talk will have fun exploring a roller coaster of statistical exploits on what may be one of the coolest and difficult to quantify datasets our planet has ever known. Learn how to get down with your nerd self in a fun and educational foray into the hacking culture, and the numbers that comprise it.
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How Many Friends Does One Person Need?
Renowned evolutionary anthropologist Professor Robin Dunbar explains how the very distant past underpins all of our current behaviours, and how we can best utilise that knowledge.
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Whole Earth Discipline
Join ecologist Stewart Brand as he presents a bold and creative set of solutions for producing a more sustainable society.
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The Art of Meditation
“The world’s happiest man" philosopher Matthieu Ricard explains how we can train our minds in habits of well-being.
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The Conversation 1: Heritage iPad
In the premier episode of The Conversation, Dan is joined by Craig Hockenberry, Christina Warren, Dan Moren, David Nanian, Ryan Schwartz, Ryan Irelan, to discuss the iPad, Heritage Dr. Pepper, and much more.
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