Confusion rug

This rug is hilarious, thanks Amit! I wish it were for sale… though I suppose it’s easy enough to make.

Incidentally, Amit started the excellent Photojojo site and store. If you’re into photography, I recommend checking it out.

Healthcare costs

Atul Gawande has a fascinating article in the New Yorker about healthcare costs:

This is a disturbing and perhaps surprising diagnosis. Americans like to believe that, with most things, more is better. But research suggests that where medicine is concerned it may actually be worse. For example, Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic dominates the scene, has fantastically high levels of technological capability and quality, but its Medicare spending is in the lowest fifteen per cent of the country—$6,688 per enrollee in 2006, which is eight thousand dollars less than the figure for McAllen.

Turns out Obama read it too, so there’s hope yet for healthcare reform in this country.  The article gets bonus points for lots of mentions of my alma mater, Dartmouth College.

Gaussian Goat

Gaussian Goat. For those who don’t use Photoshop, this is a joke on the commonly-used Gaussian Blur feature.

Pillar Perspective

From a memorial in Moscow.

Folds on a sheet of paper

Simon Schubert creates beautiful art with a few folds on a sheet of paper (thanks Braden!).

Breaking wave in HD

Amazing video of a breaking wave. Click through to watch it in HD. (via Kottke)

Retail rainbows

It’s been a while since I posted a picture, so here are is a matching pair.

Both of these were taken in stores in San Francisco. I can’t remember where I found the books, but the shirts are from American Rag Cie, where you can find awesome second-hand clothes from the seventies.

Long-exposure of a Roomba’s path

My friend Noah links to this awesome long-exposure shot of a Roomba’s path.

This illustrates nicely the design insight that made the Roomba successful. Electrolux has a competing robotic vacuum, the Trilobite. It has a sophisticated on-board computer to optimize its path through a room. And yet, at close to $2000, its more of a design demo than a viable commercial product.

iRobot on the other hand (the makers of the Roomba) realized that it wasn’t a big deal if the robot was inefficient. They made a “dumb” robot, that worked its way haphazardly around the room. And by doing so, they got the price down to a couple of hundred dollars.

Guess who was more successful? The Trilobite might be a better vacuum, but the Roomba offers better value. Which reminds me; I need to use my Roomba for more than party entertainment (sadly, I haven’t been too impressed by its performance…).

Bathroom art

Someday, I want a bathroom with creative tile art.

Tara Donovan

Tara Donovan makes really interesting art out of commonplace objects such as straws, plastic cups, or in this case, pencils. Thanks to my brother Andreas for this link!