Designing better futures

S&P 500 rolling returns movie 1881- 2009

Looking at graphs can be deceiving.  I used to be chief analyst for Europe's equivelant to the MIT media lab and am fascinated by how people respond to data and information.  A static graph isn't the way we go through life.  So here are the 10 Year rolling returns of the S&P 500 animated.  The long term if you will.  I threw the PE data for fun.  Data is from Shiller. 

Note the data is plotted as a semi-log and that looking at single countries data is a limited look at the concept of Equities as it is represents a selection and survivorship bias and compounded by using a sample of 1. 

One of the best books, I have read that explains how people interact with various media and form biases is The Media Equation.  Music by De Phazz

Housing Happiness, median incomes relative to house value 1987-09

Just a little video of the housing prices using Case Shiller Data and annual median incomes.

Household income in a catchment area is the ultimate arbiter of aggregate house values.  It works like a carrying capacity argument for a species occupying an ecological niche.  Homes need peoples incomes to support their values.  I know it is a weird way of expressing it.

I wrote about the current issue back in 2007 and a potential loss of value estimated at $6.6 trillion. It was outlandish then, but rather pedestrian now.  For more detail on the thought processes in 2007 look here. 

A book that has been getting rave reviews and is on my to read list is Barry Ritholtz's  Bailout Nation.  Barry usually has a pretty solid view on things.

The source data for the movie is hereDownload ShillermovieV1.0.  If you want a regular XLS file without the whizbang overpirced office 2007 graphics let me know and I can send you a copy.  Music by De-Phazz.  Video capture with Camtasia and MS excel VBA For Loop.

Some quality euro cheese

When I lived in Paris a long time ago, I listened to a lot of Euro cheese.  Thanks to youtube, you to can sample this, or not. 

and some quality deep house.

I always liked the Buddha bar in Paris. Nice place, probably passe by now.  I lived in St. Germaine de pres in the 6th Arrondisement.

I like this guy, he has his stuff together.

As someone who is rhythmically challenged and has size 15 feet, I admire this guy, good spirit, good intentions and takes some action.  Don't know about the final outcome, but we need more like him.

Cookin with Gas

Music transcends culture.  Listen to these guy totally cook on their Shamisens a traditional Japanese instrument.

My take on Vegas and hanging at ASF

The asset securitisation forum is in full swing.  It is a bit weird, billion of dollars blowing up, ratings agencies myth making set against the backdrop of vegas and an imploding industry.  All right it isn't exactly fear and loathing in vegas but....

or perhaps:

And hey a big thank you for the free superbowl party to Countrywide: free food, booze and 10 20 foot TV screens with >2,000 friends.  Um, who do I send the thank you note to, B of A, the FED, Tax payers?

Japanese culture and design.

Some of the best design comes from Japan.  One of my favorite periods of cultural explosion was the late edo period during the Meiji restoration.  Here is a very interesting video highlighting modern Japanese architecture in a very interesting way.  A lot of people don't know that the impressionists from France in the mid 19th century took a lot inspiration from a huge influx of Japanese prints and art works.

Thanks Core77.

Here is some 80's video cheese about the whole thing.

And here is a good starter link with japanese designers. from Mocoloco

You can also read about Murakami, one of the more well known contemporary Japanese artists here.  An example of  his work is below.

A little music from my European past

I always dug ATB's music, he does good club tunes and has a great sense for the female voice.  My wife is more into classical.

Some lads from London

I lived in London and was there when this tune was released.  The boys had a good video and anytime you can get a sitar into the act thats pretty cool.  Random factoid for the fans of this blog, both of them. Along with cultural anthropology, I studied Indian art and architecture up to the 15th century in school.

and now for a little Euro cheese

It's the holiday's and I have just been busy looking at the criminally stupid acts of MBIA etc.  If you don't know don't ask, it involves over $2 trillion in bonds and derivatives.  Here is a little Eurocheese music for the holidays.

and now for a little Swedish cheese

My wife and I spent a summer living in Sweden and loved it, I have worked in Denmark and spent a lot time there.  If I am good in this life, I will probably come back re-incarnated as a Scandinavian designer.  Our friends are still there here is a little something for them.

good music from some good guys

We are just getting ready to launch a new version of inclue! hooray!  These release cycles and testing and debugging can make a guy pull his hair out.  Hence my shiny headed look.

One of the exciting things about our next release of inclue! is the fact that it is going to be preloaded with music and videos.  The video is from YouTube and Dailymotion.  Daily Motion gets video delivery more than any other video site we have come across.  Check out how easy it is to create a stream of clips based on keywords.  Dailymotion definitely gets video.

The music is courtesy of our friends at Amie Street. 

The team there has been great to work with.  Plenty of enthusiasm and excitement.  The inclue! team would like to especially thank, Elias, Josh and Lucas for helping to get things all together and keep it tight.  For those of you into independent music, new media or new business models check out Amie Street.  They are doing some very interesting things and have a great approach that is going to lets artists get rewarded and even lets promoters have a shot at helping out bands. 

I hope they get into video and other media as the model makes so much sense.  The team has put music, commerce and even music videos into RSS feeds.  They are showing some bold innovation when it comes to media delivery over the net.  We look forward to see a lot of innovation from a very talented team.

video test matisyahu

Music Video Code provided by MySpace Video Code