Back in January I posted my sad story about the loss of my Flickr account.

The next issue of Ambidextrous Magazine

features my Object Obituary (PDF link) for My Flickr Meta-Content.

• Ex-Boyfriend Jewelry – You Don’t Want It. He Can’t Have It Back
  Nice niche marketplace.

• Gladwell in The New Yorker issue on Innovation
  Nathan Myhrvold left Microsoft and struck out on his own, he set himself an unusual goal. He wanted to see whether the kind of insight that leads to invention could be engineered. He formed a company called Intellectual Ventures

Biodiesel-fueled coupe made from old semi truck, Half Moon Bay, California

Lawnmower Races, Half Moon Bay, California

I went to a huge auto and machine show recently at a small airfield down the coast from San Francisco. I really love this kind of stuff, but my machine lust was battling thoughts of carbon footprints, sustainability and global economics that made it a little difficult to see the event as entirely wholesome.

Living in and trying to navigate this consumption/sustainability paradox is the conundrum of the day for anyone who loves things.

Nokia’s Jan Chipchase gave a talk at Adaptive Path a couple of weeks ago, and showed a model of the Remade mobile phone concept. The Remade is produced almost entirely by upcycling, a Cradle to Cradle concept whereby potential trash is transformed into something valuable and useful.

Appearance model, Remade mobile phone concept, Nokia. (picture from PhoneMag.com)

The extruded aluminum body of the Remade model seemed really tough, and made me think about what it would be like if products were built so well that they rarely broke.

Would that be the most sustainable approach to the object cycle-making things that lasted, and using them for as long as they lasted?

It’s a complex picture: there’s technological evolution constantly rendering our stuff obsolete, there’s the need for producers to continue to produce and sell what they make, and then there’s that crow/magpie thing-our persistent desire to add new objects to whatever we already have sequestered in our nests.

Thinking about a system this complex always leads to big questions. Here are some of mine for this round:

• What is the relationship between remaking how objects are produced and shifting cultural attitudes toward consumption?
  

• Can producers profitably focus on business models that take advantage of long use (for example by focusing more on post-purchase relationships and less on product replacement)?
  

• Can it ever be as cool, sexy, and fun as buying new things to use our things for years and years, so that they acquire a patina, shape themselves to our bodies and our personalities, and bear scars that tell stories?

Or will that leave something fundamental in our natures (our crow-selves??) unsatisfied?

• Job of the future: Cultural Attaché
  Could bloggers ultimately staff an individualized concierge service to provide interesting or edgy perspectives on stuff in the world? Where do coolhunters meet Xeni meet futurists meet ethnographers meet butlers?
• Your Mom Is Not A Valid Test Market
  Finally a hipster-sloganed t-shirt I can get into!

• Totalizator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  The first tote boards were manufactured for the horse racing industry by the American Totalizator Company.
• totalizator history
  The history of the automatic totalizator
• Obituary
  Straus made a fortune in royalties out of his invention, the American totalizator, a complicated (1,500,000 moving parts) electrical device which automatically calculates the odds in pari-mutuel betting.
• UNIVAC, Sperry, Rand and the American Totalizator Company
  We need a family tree visualization to make any sense of this, but it seems that the Totalizator has a space in the history of computing.

• Boarding Pass Design Imitates Fix by Users
  This is so great. Boarding pass with the agent circles already printed on ’em. As Jasper points out, wouldn’t be it better to design the boarding pass so it’s readable rather than reuse a workaround?

Ben and Jerry’s, San Jose, California, 8:45 pm

• The Next Speaker ¬ª Steve Portigal is de oprichter van Portigal Consulting
  I’m excited to be represented by a Speakers Bureau in the Netherlands. Now I need to find representation in North America. (If you can make the referral for me, please do so!)

Without donuts being part of the plan when I travel, they seem to show up with some regularity. While Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts seek to provide a consistent experience across geographies, there are also very unique experiences available in the very same category. The notion of donut is rather broad and is reinterpreted in some engaging ways. There’s something about the pure pleasure of a donut that also invites a fun approach to all aspects of the experience: the flavors, the environment, the presentation, the messaging.

Here’s a few I’ve documented. Please leave recommendations for other donuts-shops-to-experience in the comments.

Randy’s Donuts, LA (Amazing site, donuts are pretty good)

Voodoo Doughnuts, Portland, OR: Rex Diablo and Ol’ Dirty Bastard (fun to choose, less to eat)

Murciano in The Marais, Paris (the best thing I’ve ever eaten)

Fractured Prune, Washington D.C. (didn’t get to try it)

Roti Donat, Bali, Indonesia (definitely not good)

Mister Donut sign and exterior, Taipei, Taiwan

Mister Donut Simpsons promotion, Kyoto, Japan (I don’t remember what I got but it was good!)