The Big Think

Via Giles: Design Observer brings us the Top The Things The Never Taught Me in Design School. I couldn’t agree with them more. Especially # 1,2,6 and 9. Especially #2.

Way too cool. The Lego Volvo (full size)

Arizona State has a fun little page where you can input some asteroid impact parameters and see what the effects are. My favorite part is the line at the bottom of the results page:
These results come with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY

scriptingnews: “Or, more hopefully, the last former President Bush”

Normally I like Dave’s writing, and even though we’re at opposite ends of the spectrum politically, when he talks about his political beliefs I’m at least willing to listen, but in my mind he totally disqualifies himself from the conversation with this kind of unreasonable jab. Is he really saying that no other member of the Bush family would make a good president? I can understand that he might think Jeb is evil for “giving” the 2000 election to GW (nevermind the fact that it was another branch of the Florida governement altogether), but I’ve met Neil Bush and he seemed an upright guy. Okay, first impressions can be deceiving, I’ll grant. But do people with this kind of absolutist thinking really believe there have been presidents in the last 200+ years that would willingly sacrifice American lives for a personal or political goal?
I doubt that even the most hated political enemy (pick your personal Bush or Clinton, Lincoln or Nixon) would laughingly send young men and women off to their collective dooms on a whim or a personal vendetta.
The presidency is the toughest job in the world, and there are very few decisions there that are black and white. It’s definitely not a job I’d take for anything. But the absolute polarization of opinion in this country, reinforced by the media (TV vs Radio Talk) have made it almost impossible for the folks in the middle to join the discussion, or even to be heard above the mean-spirited shouting.
As amazing as it sounds we turn off fewer of the people we’re trying to convince if we’re thoughtful in our political complaining and at least try to listen. And who knows? You might just persuade someone to change their opinion.

*Update* I got a reply from Dave Winer today (this post originally started out as a letter to Dave in response to his post on GWB). His response? “You’re having a nice fantasy, Jason”. I’m not sure how to interpret this, and will refrain from chalking it up to his know mercurial attitude towards those who disagree (though I don’t think my thoughts count as “disagreement”). I could easily be disappointed that the middle road of thoughful listening was discounted by such an influential member of the left, but maybe he just meant that a thoughtul meeting of the minds is impossible nowadays.
I hope he hasn’t given up on honest discussion.