From the Batman TV show from the 1960’s.
via vintagegal

In light of my last post, this news about This American Life retracting their episode on Apple’s suppliers is interesting.

I had a friend once upon a time who was a comic book artist and writer. He told me around 20 years ago that there were only about ten truly great artists in the business. One of them was Moebius.

From Ars Technica:

As part of iFixit’s ritualistic dismemberment of the third-generation iPad, the team discovered that, like its predecessor, the device is not only made up almost entirely of its battery: it’s also difficult to repair and to recycle. Though Apple’s engineering and design teams have created a thin and seamless device, their reliance on glue and difficult-to-separate components belies Apple’s goal of creating “green” products.

Apple is the big dog now. This can be hard for people to understand who have used Apple products for more than 5 years. I know it is for me. They walk the straight line of a paradox as both David and Goliath in my brain.
But now that they are #1, they’re going to be under the microscope. Every move they make will continue to be scrutinized, be it greenness of their products, or the conditions of the factories where their products are built.
It’s easy to point fingers at all their competitors and how much less they might doing to to be green or observe workers’ rights, but it’s more important to focus on holding Apple accountable for their decisions.
If they’ve shown us anything in the last 10+ years, it’s that they can achieve anything they set out to do. especially in the face of naysayers.

Sound, yet often ignored advice from Patrick Rhone:

I’m a writer. I have everything I need, right now, to write. Take away my computer? I’ll still write. I’ll use pen and paper. Take away my pen and paper, and I’ll use my fingernail to scrawl it into the soft bark of the nearest tree.

Extreme? Perhaps. But I can tell you for certain that, when it is time to write, nothing will stop me from doing so.

PayPal just announced Here, it’s answer to Square‘s device that let’s you accept credit card payments from your iPhone.
The little triangle piece dangling down in front is driving me fucking nuts.
I’m never above being proven wrong, and I would love to know what Yves Behar’s thinking was on that. Yves designed it with his team at fuseproject.
Update: OK, I think the limp triangle is explained over at Co.Design:

Additionally, the device had to tell you that you could swipe a credit-card through it, which Behar’s team accomplished by layering light and dark plastics atop each other, so you can tell that there’s a surface for sliding.

I still think there was a better way to convey the swipeability.

Just a reminder to anyone interested -The 2012 Gumball 3000 is coming up in May and the route is posted!
For those who don’t know, the Gumball 3000 is an annual, 3,000 mile road rally from New York to Los Angeles. It’s a rally that lives on in the tradition of the original Cannonball Run, otherwise known by it’s proper name, the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash.
One of the my favorite stories is in October 2007 issue of Wired.The story is about the 2006 Gumball winner, Alex Roy and his transcontinental driving record across the United States of 31 hours, 4 minutes, averaging 90.1 mph.
He averaged 90 mph.
If you know how averaging works, this means Roy hit speeds below 90 mph as well speeds well above 90 mph.
My favor piece is worth a repost:

“Ultimately, this drive is a math calculation,” Roy says. Maher looks blank. Roy points to a series of cells in the spreadsheet. Maher scans it, then turns the page, searching. “See,” Roy says, “that’s the average we’re looking to hit: 90.”

“I know this average,” Maher says quietly. He flips through more pages. “I’m looking for the extended stretches of big speed, the long stretches where we can really hit it and make time.”

Roy straightens. “Well, those don’t really exist,” he says. “You’ll see. It’s very rare to run over 100 for even a minute or two… “

“Oh yeah?” Maher says smiling. “Well, I’m about to change that.”

Love it.

via TED

via paleofuture

via Co.Design

via Olivier Stevens. He has a pretty good stream over at flickr. Worth a look.

Iranians celebrate the Festival of Fire. Sounds right up my alley. I loooove fire.

Yes, about halfway through writing my post on Top Gear, this Oatmeal post did pop into my head.