garygilliland:

In today’s Guardian George Monbiot has written about the problems he envisages with the government’s plans to introduce a feed-in tariff for domestic renewable energy sources. The facts and politics of the piece are the subject for discussion elsewhere but the piece that intrigued me was his comment on how criminals would take advantage of the system.

“it can’t be long before thousands of petty criminals discover the perfect carousel fraud, bypassing their solar panels by connecting the incoming wire to the outgoing wire. By buying electricity for 7p and selling it for 44p (if you sell power to the grid rather than using it yourself, you get an extra 3p), they’ll make a 600% profit. Amazingly the government has decided not to measure how much electricity people are selling, but "to pay export tariffs on the basis of estimated (deemed) exports". Elsewhere in its report it boasts of "encouraging a risk-based approach to audit and assurance"”

This is still in the realms of theory but nonetheless it’s a brilliant example of criminal creativity.

via http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/01/solar-panel-feed-in-tariff

There’s a physicality to turntables and a connection to the music that isn’t available with other media. The ritual of picking out an album, sliding the record out of its sleeve, cleaning the disc and then putting it on the platter. As the record spins up I lift the arm across the blank space before the first track. There’s a few crackles and pops, then the music begins, twenty or so minutes listening to the music as a single piece, the way the artist intended.

Compare this to an Ipod, it’s more advanced, more convenient, more robust but it’s cold. Press a button, the music comes out in an endless stream sorted by genre, artist or date. I don’t need the discipline of listening to difficult tracks, I just click next until I get something easier to consume.

When my nephew and niece come to stay they don’t ask for the Ipod, they ask for the “disco”, aka the turntable. Like me they seem to be fascinated with the rituals involved in playing the music. Then when the music’s playing the slow spin of the disc holds them entranced.

Sonically it’s prone to pops and clicks. Records get scratched or warped and yet still the warm imperfect sound is more comforting than the consistent reproduction of a CD or MP3.

Who knew dead flies were funny? Apparently Swedish photographer Magnus Muhr did because he has started to make cartoons using dead flies as the protagonists.

MUHR PHOTOGRAPHY

At the Mac World conference filmmaking students asked Kevin Smith how succeed in film making. His answer pretty much covered how to succeed in any creative endeavour.

“I’d make one.

Make one that everybody likes.

What do you think happened? Think I was standing over a virgin holding a necronomicon?

The trick is to make something everybody digs.”

There’s great power in what smart people call stupid.

Stupid people ask questions. Stupid people break the rules. Stupid people are dreamers. Stupid people try things. Stupid people believe they can change world.

The Be Stupid campaign by Diesel captures it perfectly.

Bruce DeBoer from Permission To Suck has post the results of a new word game. Change, add or subtract one letter from a word and come up with a new definition.

Examples like Osteopornosis (n.): A degenerate disease and Dopeler effect (n.): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly, make for a light hearted distraction from work.

On a more important note games and exercises like this make for a great way to flex your creative muscles once in a while.

Fun Word Play | Permission To Suck

I’ve mentioned Daniel Eatock’s creative manifesto before. His presentation at AIGA gives you the opportunity to see the man himself talk about his work and see how his manifesto plays out in his work.

Daniel Eatock — AIGA | the professional association for design

I’ve written about ideas like this before but just because it’s a repeat doesn’t make the idea any less important.

In the December 2009 issue of Wired, Ideo talk about how they would manage the problem of urban rage and in particular the stresses caused by queuing. The idea is simple, convert the queue from an object of stress into something positive.

Members of the public can register for a card which allows them to log the time spent queuing at participating locations. The time accrued on the card can then be converted into time which the member organisations then ‘donate’ to nominated charities.

The whole article is worth reading both for a fuller explanation of the queuing idea and also for an overview of the thinking processes within Ideo itself

Wired: Reinventing British manners the Post-It way

Northern Ireland lost a great man yesterday, Sir Allen McClay founder of Galen and Almac. I had the pleasure to work for Allen for 11 years and during that time I saw him become Northern Ireland’s richest man, retire and then comeback to found another global pharma empire. Not bad for a boy from Cookstown.

I remember the day I saw him on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor. As I passed him I said "Do you want me to get someone else to that?". He looked up and said "No, don’t bother everyone else has something important to do. I’m just doing my bit."

His pride in the work force was unequalled. He knew the names of almost everyone in the company. He inspired us to complete projects we never thought possible. He never forgot who he was or where came from and most importantly he never under estimated the importance of the work others did with him and not for him. As a raconteur he could hold a room like few others I ever seen.

Allen you’ll be missed.