Cleverly Done!

2009-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

The Crisis of Credit Visualized
by Jonathan Jarvis

If you haven't heard, or seen, a good description of how our economy ended up in the mess it is in, this video is a clear representation. Hope it helps.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Another good description is the "This American Life" podcast titled "The Giant Pool of Money". Click on the link below. When you get to the page, click on the little orange speaker icon labeled "full episode" to hear the podcast.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242

By the way, the video runs about 11 minutes and the podcast is 59 minutes. FYI

Good News for Kermit - It's Getting Easier to be Green

2009-03-03T13:32:00.000-08:00

So, creative thinking is now moving beyond the arts and various forms of engineering.

Ecological-socio-economic creativity is here!

For me, this is the ultimate creativity. I find creativity to be the most stimulating when it is working within constraints, or problem solving. Although this pertains to the traditional realms of creativity that I mentioned above, we are now at a time when creative problem solving is critical to our survival. Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Solve Our Two Biggest Problems (Harper One 2008), and founding president of GreenForAll.org, has found a better solution to our current major problems (global warming and the economy, as well as social equality) by combining the problems first, and then finding a solution. A SuperSolution! As in "The whole is more than the sum of its parts".

Please check out Van Jones book, the GreenForAll.org website, and his interview with Gavin Newson, mayor of San Francisco:

Perpetually Recycling Our Planet

2009-02-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

The topic discussed in this video is much more serious that I intended to get with this blog. I thought I would just be showing interesting design and great creative writing, that sort of thing. This cleverness is much more important. It is complex and incredible. It is the way we would like all movers and shakers to think.

William McDonough is not entertaining, but what he has to say is not only highly creative and forward thinking, and it is probably very important for the future of our world. The beginning of his discussion may seem like random bits of information. Be patient. Near the end, when he talks about his project in China, is where you will find yourself saying "wow!".

By the way, Ted.com is cool in general. There are many highly interesting discussions. Check it out!

David Wiesner, Illustrator and Author of Children's Picture Books and a Longtime Favorite

2009-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

David Wiesner has the imagination, and apparently the time to express it, that I've always wanted. When I was a new parent in 1992, his book Tuesday (that year's Caldecott Medal winner) was the first book to get me excited about picture books.
He can tell the most amazing stories almost entirely with his illustrations. His illustrations always spark curiosity and promise clever humor. His visual perspectives make the reader feel like they are part of the action of the story. Imagine sharing an almost wordless book with your little one (or your not so little one, I often share his books with my husband) - taking time to see every detail, and discovering the nuances of the story along the way. Tuesday revolves around frogs floating through all the public and private places of a town fast asleep, giving us a chance to see what goes on in this space of time that we normally don't experience.

Seven years after that first discovery I started volunteering (and now working) in my sons' school library. One of the joys of being there, even now after my youngest son graduated from the school a year and a half ago, is finding our library's newest David Wiesner book in my To Do pile. My new favorites of his are Flotsam (also a Caldecott Medal winner, 2007), and Freefall (1991).

Because the pictures I've shared here are quite small you must see the books in person to REALLY appreciate the magic of his illustrations, and his ability as a storyteller. Please check them out at your library or your local bookseller!