Via PBS Constitution:
Ever wondered what the preamble to the Constitution looks like when diagrammed?
… learn more about this amazing document.
What an excellent idea for a PBS series! Thank you, Public Broadcasting Service.
RSS Pillow by craftsquatch.com, via Flickr
This is one of many fine CraftSquatch creations. My favorite image storage* website, Imgur, recently had the good sense to feature a CraftSquatch design on a new Imgur product. I don’t know of any one else who has, not yet.
Virtual becomes reality
CraftSquatch, otherwise known as Justin T., needs an agent. I am certain that his designs would generate huge interest and product demand. Whether licensed or exclusive, they would scale. They are distinctive, and viscerally associated with the internet and web life. CraftSquatch designs are the opposite of skeuomorphism**. Instead, they transform the virtual into reality.
The primary target market for CraftSquatch designed products is not vast. but It has more disposable income than nearly any other.
Start-up funding?
I wonder if I could share my entrepreneurial designs on CraftSquatch’s creative designs with Fred Wilson? “Pitch” to him, as it were? First, I would need to contact the CraftSquatch himself, Justin T., who is not, presumably, Justin Timberlake on the down-low.
Possible hurdles
The RSS, or Atom, feed symbol is not trademarked, nor otherwise claimed. That is an exception, as most “web iconography” IS considered integral to brand identity. That eliminates Google icons and the Reddit alien. There are probably other, non-trademarked symbols. I need to find some, as none come to mind at the moment.
Justin T. may be more savvy than I realize. He may already have creative agent representation.
Shhhh!
Don’t tell anyone, not yet. It is my secret, and maybe a very silly idea.
* Flickr versus Imgur
Flickr is my favorite image sharing website. I consider Imgur to be more of an image storage website, though it has increasingly social aspects. I like Imgur a lot, especially the user interface, but it a has a different purpose and community.
Flickr is ostensibly for genuine photographers, though other image creators are welcomed, whereas Imgur is unlikely to be a photographer’s first choice.
** Skeuomorphism and user experience
There was an excellent website named skeuomorphism, with a single, publicly-visible landing page. That page was devoted exclusively to an essay about the subject. I don’t recall who owned it. Unfortunately,
hxxp://www.skeuomorphism.com
is a parked domain with GoDaddy, as of yesterday, 23 May 2013.
In lieu of that, I provided the calm, balanced, neither pro- nor anti-Apple essay, Skeuomorphism, opiate of the masses? by Anthony Mangold, linked above. I recall following his colleague, Anthony Mattox, for many years. Anthony Mattox created very appealing generative art visuals. That’s a subject for another post.
In the interim, both Anthony’s have formed a partnership, Friends of the Web, with a Joshua and a Daniel. Friends of the Web (FTW) features remarkably clean, easy-on-the-eyes typography. I think they build apps, but FTW’s own website design is second to none, in terms of ease of use for readers of prose, poetry or other text content.
I wonder if they offer MathJaX …?
"Never made a GIF"
—
True confession: Neither have I.
I do have at least five tutorials (all requiring expensive software that I don’t own nor am able to access) bookmarked.
(Source: tristonrobinson)
This is what the long game looks like. ventureswell
Nice chart!
Start-up behavior is for start-up’s
Amazon has had zero positive net income since its IPO in 1999. Minimal dividends have been distributed to common equity owners. I recall one exception. In 2010, Amazon distributed dividends of $0.19 per share. Yes, that’s 19 cents. This can’t be dismissed with an oft-heard response that,
They’re still new, merely a start-up!
It is unreasonable to expect dividends or positive net income from start-up’s. At 16 years of age, Amazon is not a young company, even though one would believe otherwise, if viewing this chart while ignoring the x-axis labels.
Agency problems?
A traditional objection voiced by so-called neo-liberals, or maybe neo-conservatives (I think they have converged to a point, mostly overlapping) can be refuted by this chart. I refer to the argument that by “going public”, the owner-founder or CEO is forced to follow dividend policies that are irrelevant, or even harmful, to the company’s longer term well-being. Such actions are necessary to satiate the short-term greed of stock holders. AMZN stock holders are unusual, in that they don’t require satiation.
Amazon’s strategy has been characterized by achievement of market dominance. The market has gone along with that, by continuing to buy and hold AMZN common equity, despite the company’s lack of profitability.
I wouldn’t short AMZN. I wouldn’t advise someone I loved to hold a long position in, it either.
Day of reckoning
The reckoning will come, probably.
Reckoning could be postponed or avoided if Amazon aggressively uses its monopoly power. That should be impossible, unless the U.S. Department of Justice chooses to ignore the criteria of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the associated remediation.
(via pegobry)
"19,000 of the 31,000 deaths from guns in the United States in 2010 were suicides, more than… homicides or unintended shooting deaths. The suicide rate is rising so rapidly that it now outnumbers deaths from car crashes."
—
Suicide Is Leading Cause Of Gun Deaths, But Largely Absent In Debate On Gun Violence via slantback
If the NRA was smart they would focus on safety, training, and mitigating compulsive actions of depressed people.
via un
Mitigating compulsive actions by depressed people is beyond the scope or ability of the National Rifle Association.
I believe that the figures quoted above are correct, or close enough to be meaningful. I’ve seen them cited multiple times elsewhere. If so, then there is a greater problem with our society, and outlook, than the potential harm (or benefit) associated with firearms. Gun control laws are not likely to stop precipitous increases in suicide rates.
(via notational)
"Apple officials said the money resided with its overseas operations, such as those in Ireland, not to avoid taxes but because of the growth of Apple’s sales overseas."
— In response to a U.S. Senate hearing about Apple’s strategy of shifting income to an Irish subsidiary to avoid paying U.S. taxes; Apple grilled about tax havens
