Check out this tumblr of people complaining about Qantas slightly altering their in-flight menu to be appropriate for the region they’re flying to due to their deal recent with Emirates. The rage is almost certainly inspired by a ‘just asking questions’ blog post from popular wingnut blogger Andrew Bolt.
Lee Lin Chin - World News Australia (via ichthyologist)
GIFs are everywhere! They overload my tumblr dashboard, they are in profile pics, and they are a medium for emotions , argues internet culture expert, Kenyatta Cheese.
I was super excited to read Giampaulo Bianconi’s Rhizome article on GIFs, Gifability. But what happens when you have an art critic who doesn’t understand remix culture write about remix culture? A deep misunderstanding of the art form…
I especially enjoyed the comparison of the interpretation and analysis of gif culture and hip hop.
Bianconi doesn’t understand that memes are just as ego-driven as any other collaborative art form, like hop-hop. The form in which the ego is validated rests upon a different set of values and outcome. So outsiders, like Bianconi or the music critics who overlooked hip hop, are unable to recognize what the new values of ego-validation look like so they dismiss a large of the culture as low-art, or non-art in Bianconi’s framework.
(Source: uggsandrugs)
All of the time <3
Teacups! I was most excited about teacups and they were awesomes!
Best funs!
Related: A good post on the the infantilisation of branding.
Humans in the Design of Cash: The world’s most powerful currency doesn’t have the best design
Have you ever confused a five dollar note for $10? It’s an easy mistake to make if you live in the United States, because all American money is the same size and almost the same color. Australians don’t make this mistake, and it’s not because they are smarter.
American currency hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years. Sure, the Federal Reserve has added a lot of anti-counterfeiting features (weird gradients), and some ostensible accessibility features (giant numbers in Helvetica) but the changes have been minor increments rather than revolutionary changes. Each new little change seems to draw some criticism — mostly that the new bills look like Monopoly money — but people adapt and quickly forget the old versions.
For most of my life the look and feel of American money seemed pretty OK with me. It has a distinctive look, and even a distinctive smell. When I moved to Brisbane, I thought that the plastic Australian banknotes looked a little silly — they’re so bright and so busy, they looked even more like play money than a new American bill to me.
When I talked to Tristan about this, he answered bluntly that American money looks like play money to Australians. (Ed from Tristan: Actually I was more blunt that that…). Even more important than the aesthetics is usability to all and accessibility to citizens with disabilities. Listen to Blind Film Critic Tommy Edison explain how stupid it is for all American banknotes to feel the same:
Australia solves this problem by making banknotes’ physical size relative to their value. It’s easy to feel how much money is in your hand without having to watch the numbers. This is a great feature for people with vision problems, but it’s also better for sighted people. The notes seems to organize themselves in my wallet.
And, as you can see above, not only do Australian notes feel different they look different. The perception of Monopoly money came only from unfamiliarity — any currency would feel fake if I wasn’t used to it. The strong colors make the money easier to count — you can tell at a glance the value of a note, making every money handling event more efficient and less error prone. For example, when paying a cheque with friends at a restaurant it’s really clear how much money people are putting in, and it’s easy to sort and count. It’s hard to be a cheapskate in Australia.
Is Australian Cash better than American Cash in other ways?
The plastic feel that initially felt strange is actually a great feature because it makes the notes very durable. If, say, a $20 note falls on the floor of a mens room, it’s no problem to rinse it off in the sink because it’s made of plastic. It can go through the wash. It can be ironed. It doesn’t have that money smell, but it turns out that the smell of American money is the cumulative finger grease of everyone who has ever touched that one dollar bill.
Plastic also allows a number of anti-counterfeit measures. It’s nearly impossible to print on plastic from a home inkjet printer. Plus, it has a see-though window in the bottom corner and a shadow image that reveals itself when shown to light. These are features that can help anyone without professional equipment spot a counterfeit.
Is Australia an outlier?
Australia switched from printing pounds to dollars in 1966 and they made a big change to plastic notes with proportional sizes in 1988, but other countries have followed their lead. You can see this in the photo above I have from leftover currency from my recent trip to India where rupees aren’t just length proportional, but height, too. There’s no way you could confuse a 10 and 100 rupee note, and even illiterate users could distinguish between these notes despite the same portrait of Gandhi appearing on each denomination. Other countries even pay Australia to make their money for them — foreign currency is an export! Even the Euro followed Australia’s design lead.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
So why can’t America have nice currency?
People cite tradition and the expense of changing automatic banknote readers (see these Boing Boing comments) but I really think those arguments are unnecessarily recalcitrant. Australian vending machines and ATMs are superficially no different from their American counterparts. This is not the QWERTY keyboard.
If the Federal Reserve could redesign American banknotes from the ground up to be more accessible, they would be both better for users (blind and sighted alike) and they could include state-of-the-art anti-counterfeiting technology. And the truth is, accessibility isn’t just better for people with disabilities. It’s better for everyone.
-Tom
Although it’s the only currency I’ve had significant use of I do love our money. I love it because of it’s accessibility as noted (boom tish!) in this post and also because, given the colours, we have nick names such as lobster and pineapple for different notes.
Introducing our new game called:
“Don’t Be A Di*k During Meals With Friends.”
The first person to crack and look at their phone picks up the check.
Our (initial) purpose of the game was to get everyone off the phones free from twitter/fb/texting and to encourage conversations.
Rules:
1) The game starts after everyone has ordered.
2) Everybody places their phone on the table face down.
3) The first person to flip over their phone loses the game.
4) Loser of the game pays for the bill.
5) If the bill comes before anyone has flipped over their phone everybody is declared a winner and pays for their own meal.
Variations/house rules:
-Starting the game after everyone is seated.
-In the rare event that multiple people flip their phones simultaneously, the bill is split between said players.
- Feel free to invoke penalties/strikes systems.
Notes:
- No touching or messing with anybody else’s phones.
- You don’t have to stack the phones. This was done for picture taking purposes.
- I realize I should perhaps think of a different name for this awesome game. Because I don’t mean to imply that everyone who checks their phone during meals is a di*k.
- I recommend not being such a stickler or hardass on people about the rules and even initiation of the game. Basic premise is to just get people open to the idea of staying active and attentive to one another. But if someone has to take a call; they have to take a call =).
- Have fun! It’s really more of a fun concept in this new age high tech life of ours. Conversation is the spice of life.
YES. this looks like a perfect game.
i like
Lol I’d lose XD
PERFECT
Me likey.
Great idea.
Nice!
