I’m not one to dive into the political world too often but this years round of familiar candidates has really captured my attention in that it is one of the most diverse round ups buzzing in all media formats traditional and modern on and off-line.

One particular politician that has captured my attention since 2004 is Barack Obama. His poetic speeches are powerful, his personality embraces leadership, his background is diverse, and his beliefs and actions are well supported by reason while embracing listeners to inspire, seek change, believe, and take action.

Besides the fact that this is probably the first time I’ve been excited about a presidential election, Obama is pretty geeky cool in the way that he’s all over the net, on MySpace, Facebook, has his own YouTube Channel, a blog, and even a Twitter feed. An extra highlight being a designer are some sweet icons www.008TheMovement.org has created which I received over the holidays!(thanks Bim)

No matter what the results are for Obama I praise him for being an incredible inspiration, a motivator for change, and a disruptor for the better! Obama just won the Iowa Caucuses and follows up with an amazing speech. Rock on Obama!

Barack Obama’s website

Have you ever wondered what $315 billion dollars looks like? If so, check out this link visualizing $1 stacks in comparison to a person and car!

This comparison reminds me of Chris Jordan’s photography on consumerism comparing our horrifying means of waste in smaller numbers we can understand…amazing work. It disturbs me that we consume “60,000 paper bags used every 5 seconds”, “2 million plastics bottles consumed every 5 minutes”, or “130,000 aluminum cans used every 30 seconds.” Also reminds me of the recent news about the dude that saved his trash for 1 year!(video)

The visual guide might be a bit deceiving though when compared to the famous $207 million drug bust some time ago. Either way, I’ll imagine being Scrooge McDuck in DuckTales swimming through it all!

315$ billion visual dollars via necromanc
Chris Jordan on Consumerism (pbs video)(poptech recap)
207$ million cash drug bust
Pictures after jump

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Just before the holiday break RISD announced that in June of 2008 John Maeda would be RISD’s 16th president taking over RISD’s longest-serving president (15 yrs) Roger Mandle. This is HUGE news. Watch the introduction of Maeda here.

Being a RISD alum (2002) and having some experience at the MIT MediaLab I’ve mixed feeling about this decision. Maeda is a really well known person coming from the prestigious MIT MediaLab. He’s very smart and inspirational, has an incredible history, probably has some great insights for RISD’s future, BUT I’m just not sure if he is the right fit..only time will tell. It’s a bit tough to follow Mandle.

A few thoughts:
- RISD is a very traditional hands on school and this is their strong point. Hands on is one of those things you can’t just read about or type…you just have to experience it. How does one manage an education system without experiencing it themselves and all the other disciplines? i.e drawing nude people all day all year, knowing materials, understanding students of a different nature, inhaling charcoal, the freshmen experience, doing 3 all nighters a week for 4 yrs, cross pollinating disciplines, sustainability, etc.

- John comes from a very modern digital world. His thoughts on creativity are very statistical which is not bad, but just very different than how most RISD kids think. I’m still not sure why Maeda is that famous besides his mathematical art pieces and his “simplicity” route, but it’ll be interesting to see how Maeda adopts to the physical design world. RISD does lack digitally, but keep in mind RISD is a school of tradition and physicality.

- Maeda comes from a very corporate background, getting projects, funding, lots of media attention, etc. Does RISD want this? RISD is good at leaving students alone in such a way that they have to discover themselves and be unique to the rest of the world. Many schools prep students for what the world wants but RISD’s culture almost forces you to discover yourself over manipulating you into what’s already out there. This can be good or bad. Think of it like an indie band signing onto a label or a street fashion that makes the shelves of wal-mart or corporate life compared to a small firms culture.

- Who adopts to who…does Maeda Adopt to the RISD culture, or will RISD have to adopt to Maeda’s culture?

Watch the two videos of Maeda vs Mandle. It’s pretty obvious who understands the RISD culture more, but Maeda definitely sounds like he’s ready to dive in and learn a ton and become a RISDoid; Ball, Nad, Sack (the RISD sports teams). I do wish the best for Maeda+RISD but as an alum I naturally question changes for the future. Hopefully Maeda launches his own RISD blog as he has for his simplicity forum here. He’s also created a few pretty cool open discussion groups in Facebook asking the RISD community to feed him info on whats good, bad, and ugly.

Any thoughts, please comment! All the best to RISD+Maeda’s future!

Happy New Years!!!! I wish the best in health, wealth, and happiness to all while causing a bit of trouble here and there while making changes for the better!

Sorry for not updating throughout the break but I decided to take some off-line time enjoying the real world a bit. A bit of mahjong, pool, bowling, shuffle puck, golf, fooseball, gambling(craps), go-kart racing, movies, darts, and wayyyyyy to much delicious food with family and friends!

I’m back catching up to a mountain of emails and goodies to post about. If you’ve spotted anything inspirational worth checking out, please send it my way.