Thought of the week: You can’t innovate without risk.

- Very Geeky web2.0 Checklist T-Shirt
- The Subjectivity of Wine
- A Coal Miner taking bath
- What is fake crab meat? Surimi!
- Urban Camouflages. via nytimes
- The power of Obama’s face!
- Katana vs Bullet video. Who wins?

Here’s another great TEDtalk by Vilayanur Ramachandran on the brain, phantom limbs, synestesia, and how vision plays a critical role in all our minds.

“In a wide-ranging talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with imposters.”

Many friends ask me why am I so scientific about design, or why do I dissect every element possible before concluding to a final design direction (interaction, experience, and industrial design). Usually I just say there is no other choice, but such videos as the above explain it all. There is reason for everything and that’s the exciting part. I can stop and say I just like a design, but to figure out why someone likes, hates, or experiences a design differently is the good stuff. Everyone has a different experience growing up hence in my world there is no such thing as an exact definition but only dynamic definitions. This goes for words, colors, emotions, scents, ideas, cultures, objects, people, etc.

Anyways, I won’t dive into this argument too long because there is no wrong or right… just an opinion. I’ll admit I wasn’t always like this, but I’ll list a few videos over the years that have that made me dive deeper into the “design thinking” world. Hearing from non-designers is key in our future. We are a hybrid society of designers. If you inspire only from designers, you’ll just become the same… so diversify and become the hybrid that we all are.

Seth Godin (video)(gel video)- Marketing, Purple Cow, Marketers are Liars.
Malcolm Gladwell (video)- Sociology, Blink, Tipping point
Steven Levitt (video)- Economics, Freakonomics
Steven Pinker (video)- Psychologist
Dan Gilbert (video)- Psychologist, Stumbling Happiness
Juan Enriquez (video)- Economics
Barry Schwartz (video)- Psychologist, Paradox of Choice
Erin Mckean (video)- Lexicographer
William McDonough (video) – Architect/sustainability, Cradle to Cradle
Al Gore (video)- Climate Crisis
Hans Rosling (video)(blog)- International Health
Chris Anderson (video)- The Long Tail
Chris Jordan- (video)(treehugger post) Photography/Consumerism

So many to name, but this is a good list to start some disrupting.

One of the most inspirational lectures from TED2007 is finally out for sharing!!! Stanford Professor Larry Lessig give his take on digital copyright and how laws are strangling creativity. (his books here)

“Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of “three stories and an argument.” The Net’s most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the “ASCAP cartel” to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you’ve ever seen.”

Afterwards, watch some of my favorites from TED2006 here.

I posted this insane base jumping video previously but now have some food for thought for it. In the video, the base jumper mentions how they first tried to get as far away from walls as much as possible, but overtime they got bored, so now they play around, getting as close as possible to walls and roads, nearly touching the cliffs as they fall.

My point is, that sometimes in design, doing a total 360 180 from the norm can turn out better. The grass is always greener on the other side… i.e: everyone uses white so use black, everyone makes it thin so make yours thick, everyone adds features and you subtract features, everyone makes them organic looking so make yours industrial, etc. Happy disrupting!

Check this out. Some students get summer jobs holding up signs on street corners, they get bored, so they start competing against each other, flipping their signs like bartenders with bottles or pizza dough spinners. They start up their own advertising company, their acrobatic signage goes viral , and now they have a multi million dollar company with sign spinners across the country! via The Big Idea

Seriously, you can freshen up any dead business and make millions… very cool!
Watch the video above, their website, story, or other videos.

Woa! People crashing through dry walls, flying boxes, and debris while gliding through slimmers of water above you on a transparent surface, stomping furiously through rooms, pumping their arms and feet to music, under, over, and on all sides of you! Very cool! Check out their video above, hit up their website, and go get tickets for their brief NYC visit!

“Att: New Yorkers. Get your credit cards ready, and book your standing space at ‘Fuerzabruta’, one of the most unique shows you’ll ever see. ‘Fuerzabrutaâ’ is a celebration of pure physicality, where performers move seamlessly between three stages – ground , air and underwater – to a thumping score that’ll make you feel as if you’re in an experimental Paris nightclub. Sexy, exhilarating and breath-taking to say the least. “There are people who see the show that dance and stomp and get caught up in the physical parts, while some just watch with their mouths hanging open” says co-creator Diqui James. The audience is obliged to stand during the performance, but really, you’d be giving the same amount of standing ovations anyway. Fuerzabruta is on at the Daryl Roth Theatre until February 17. Tickets are $70 but a limited quantity of $25 rush tickets are made available at the box office 2 hours before show time (cash only)” via coolhunter

More pictures via Flickr
Youtube Videos.
www.fuerzabrutalondon.co.uk
NYC tickets at Daryl Roth Theater.

Hmmm…here’s a pretty interesting theory by Neal Adams about the earth expanding! Does this mean the once solid earth is expanding and getting more hollow? Give this video documentary a watch (10 mins)

Airtight Interactive bring to us Tilt Viewer, a new way to browse Flickr photos in a 3D space (instructions here). Also check out their other product SimpleViewer which I use for my photos (has not been updated lately).

I’m all for cool interfaces, but sometimes fun interfaces overwhelm the users experience being too complex and taking too much time hence not getting the user adoption needed. The thing I really like about Airtight Interactive is that they put just enough freshness into their products without over doing. Keep it rocking!

Woa, bang, boom, yikes, aha! That about sums up my experience at Gadgetoff 2007. What a mind torching adventure with a surplus of surprises, ear wrenching explosions, curious minds, and a safari into a wonderful world of gadgets we all love to geek about! Everything from flame throwing bbq’s, rocket bikes, robotics on wheels, and hybrid cars roamed every corner while gaming devices, weird toys, numbing food items, interactive screens, musical instruments, and hot air balloons filled up the rest of this landscape of greatness with people from all ages and disciplines.

Gadgetoff’s spontaneous flow of events kept you on your feet, jumping from boats, to buildings, into a rustic railroad house, and a cool science museum while somehow getting us all to sit calmly in an auditorium for several intellectually stimulating lectures. We were a geek fest storming the town in fashion with electronics in every pocket, Segways leading the crowd, and individuals rifling with excitement on anything cool and usually out of the ordinary.

I’ll post a few pictures on my adventure after the jump with notes, otherwise, hit up Gadgetoff.com, their blog, or a bunch of their YouTube Videos thanks to Michael (co-founder)

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“Two weeks ago, TED.com hit a milestone: posting our 150th TEDTalk. To help you keep track of all the TEDTalks you’ve watched and want to watch, here’s a simple, low-tech tool: a list of all the TEDTalks posted to TED.com so far, in the order they were posted.”

Nice, a master list! via TED

Other inspirational conference video sources:
- GEL videos
- POP!TECH PopCasts
- GadgetOff
- All Things Digital 

It’s been a busy few weeks on my side… apologizes for the lack in postings, but keep sending me goodies. Besides my trips to NC, NYC, MI, RI, and ME this week, it should be back to normal by months end. Enjoy these links.

- Insane Base Jumping video: Jumping closer is better.
- Are you Left or Right Brained: A quick visual test. I saw both.
- Cool convertible jacket to bag: seems ninja like. I want!
- Aptera Hybrid Car on pre-order: Jetsons like Hybrid car.
- Table Frisbee: The new underground home sport.
- A Giant Pink Bunny Doll
- iPod Cassette Tape hack: Making your ipod retro cool!
- Blobbing: catapult your friends off a blob of air.
- USB 3, finally!
- A “Simpson’s” Scene to Reference guide.

A few weeks back I was invited by GM to fly out to their Proving Grounds in (Milford) Detroit to test drive their new 2008 cars, take a “Drivers Skill Enhancement Course” (stunt school), interview some VP’s in Design and Energy, and have some fun. I’ve grown up driving Japanese cars but took this opportunity to dive into GM’s world with an open designers mind and to scope out all of their brands; Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, Cadillac, Saturn, Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC.

I’d like to thank GM for funding this gathering and would welcome this adventure again though I’d suggest a few changes which I’ll address throughout.

If ya don’t like to read, check out the video I composed from hundreds of pictures taken during the journey above.The entire journey and story after the jump.

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