Bookmarks:

2008 City Railway System

According to the authors, each city's various subway structures and railway systems should reflect somehow the character of that city. In an effort to infuse the city's identity into its subway map, while also trying to simplify and beautify the original diagram, Kim Ji-Hwan and Jin Sol produced a series of original maps for three city subway systems - the Seoul Railway, Tokyo Railway and Osaka Railway. More cities are in the design phase and others are being planned.

The first image depicts Tokyo's intricate network of subway, lightrail and monorail, with more than 1500 stations covering the metropolitan area. Placed in the city center is the Imperial Palace, the residence of the current Ten-no (Japanese Emperor). Subway lines circumvent the expansive ground claimed by the Imperial Palace. This characteristic is visualized in this map by the concentric circles spreading out to the entire city, with the center in the Imperial Palace ground. This strong representation of circles is reminiscent of the national flag of Japan and the Japanese identity expressed in the flag.

The second represents Seoul's network. The city boasts 600 years of history as the capital of the South Korea and its crossed by a river of great magnitude, which has become one of its most important symbols, the Han Gang. The depiction of Han River in this map mimics the curvature in the middle of the Tae-Geuk mark of the national flag of Korea. The overall circular shape of the map was also inspired by the Tae-Geuk mark. The brighter area in the center of the map shows the territory of Han Yang, the old capital of Cho-Sun Dynasty. This was the old Seoul marked by the Four Gates, and the growth of the city becomes clear when compared to the modern metropolitan sprawl.

Top 60 popular Japanese words/phrases of 2008

Publishing company Jiyu Kokuminsha has released its annual list of the 60 most popular Japanese words and phrases of the year. This diverse collection of expressions highlights many of the events, trends and people that caught the attention of the Japanese mass media in 2008.

From this list, a panel of judges will select the 10 trendiest Japanese words of 2008 and announce the results on December 1. The expressions are listed below in no particular order.

* * * * * * * * * *

UPDATE (Dec 1, 2008): Jiyu Kokuminsha’s top 10 words/phrases of the year:

1. “gu~!” (#25 below)
2. Arafo (#14 below)
3. Ueno’s 413 pitches (#58 below)
4. Izakaya taxi (#34 below)
5. Manager in name only (#41 below)
6. Buried treasure (#35 below)
7. The Crab Cannery Ship (#17 below)
8. Guerrilla rainstorm (#1 below)
9. Late-stage elderly (#43 below)
10. “I’m different from you” (#54 below)

* * * * * * * * * *

1. Guerrilla rainstorm (gerira g?u - ?????): Sudden, unpredictable rainstorms struck Japan with alarming frequency and intensity this year. Although the expression “guerrilla rainstorm” has been in use for about 30 years, this summer’s abnormally unstable weather really hammered home the meaning.

2. Dumb characters (obaka-kyara - ??????): “Dumb characters,” a.k.a. “dumb idols” (obaka-aidoru - ???????), are entertainers loved for their lack of brains. Nobody better embodies this phenomenon than clueless TV talents Mai Satoda, Suzanne and Yukina Kinoshita, who, as regular guests on Fuji TV’s “Quiz! Hexagon” trivia show, made a name for themselves by consistently displaying a stunning lack of basic knowledge.

Pabo

The trio recently formed a musical group called “Pabo” (which means “idiot” in Korean) and released their first CD in September.

3. Subprime (sabupuraimu - ??????): The word “subprime” began seeping into the public consciousness last year, but it was relatively easy to ignore because the problem remained confined to the other side of the Pacific. The word took on greater significance this year as the mess washed up on Japan’s shores.

4. Morning banana (asa banana - ????): Years of online discussion between weight-conscious Mixi users resulted in the creation of the “Morning Banana Diet,” a simple diet program which, among other things, involves eating bananas for breakfast. The diet program took the nation and mainstream media by storm after it was featured on a popular TV show. Sporadic banana shortages occurred at some supermarkets as suppliers struggled to keep up with demand. [More]

5. Change (????): While Obama brought a message of “change” to the United States, Fuji TV delivered a hit drama, entitled “Change,” starring SMAP idol Kimutaku (Takuya Kimura) as a school teacher who reluctantly becomes prime minister.

6. Crystal jelly (owan kurage - ??????): The crystal jelly, a.k.a. Aequorea victoria, is a bioluminescent jellyfish found off the west coast of North America.

The creature was thrust into the spotlight this year after marine biologist and organic chemist Osamu Shimomura, along with Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien, were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the jellyfish and developing it as an important biological research tool. [More]

7. Rozen Aso (??????): “Rozen Aso” is the nickname of current prime minister Taro Aso, a manga fan who was once reportedly seen reading “Rozen Maiden” at Haneda Airport. In 2007, as foreign affairs minister, Aso established the International Manga Award for non-Japanese manga artists. When he announced his candidacy for prime minister after the resignation of Shinzo Abe in 2007, the stock prices of some manga publishers and manga-related companies rose sharply.

8. Akiba-kei (????): “Akiba-kei” (lit. “Akihabara style”) refers to the geek culture of Tokyo’s Akihabara district, the otaku capital of the world. Synonymous with “otaku,” the expression generally applies to young men who frequent Akihabara and harbor a deep interest in idols, erotic PC games, model figurines and manga, although it can refer to geeky women as well.

9. Hime-den (??): This abbreviation of hime-denwa (lit. “princess phone”) describes a garish style of mobile phone decoration popular with junior high and high school girls.

Hime-den

Hime-den are typically decorated with glitter, fake jewels, ribbons, lace, and little teddy bears.

10. Marriage hunting (konkatsu - ??): “Konkatsu-Jidai” (”The Times of Marriage-Hunting”), a recent best-selling book by Toko Shirakawa, looks at Japan’s declining marriage rate and the growing difficulty that people in their 30s and 40s face when seeking marriage partners. Recent statistics indicate that 47 percent of men and 32 percent of women in their early 30s are unmarried. These figures appear to be on the rise as people focus more on career than on family, and as more and more people view marriage as a personal preference, not an essential part of life. [More]

11. Air performance (ea-gei - ???): This refers to a recent twist on the Japanese art of monomane (impersonation). Unlike conventional monomane artists who do voice impressions, air performers lip sync their imitations to recordings while incorporating well-timed dance moves, gestures and facial expressions. Transsexual entertainer Ai Haruna is well known for her “Air Ayaya” performance, an imitation of idol Aya Mats?ra (a.k.a. Ayaya).

12. “You say?” (Iu yo ne? - ?????): Transsexual entertainer Ai Haruna frequently uses this pet expression as a retort when berated. “I U YO NE-” is also the title of her upcoming single.

13. Onee-mans - (onee-manzu - ??????): Onee-mans (”sister man”) is a popular prime-time NTV variety show featuring a cast of effeminate gay men and transgenders who get together to discuss topics ranging from fashion to cooking.

14. Arafo (?????): “Arafo” — a word coined to refer to females between the ages of 35 to 45 — is an abbreviation of “Around 40,” which also happens to be the title of a popular TV drama that depicts the worries and conflicts of the Arafo generation, particularly with respect to career, love, marriage, childbirth and child rearing.

Incidentally, the word “arasa” (”around 30?), which is used in the fashion industry to refer to females around 30, was derived from this word. [More]

15. “Lost Generation” (rosu jene (sengen) - ?????(??)): In June, Kamogawa Publishing Co. started a new biannual magazine entitled “Lost Generation,” a self-proclaimed ultra-leftist journal focusing on the themes of “anguish, unease and the absurdities the young people of today face in everyday life.” The magazine takes its name from the so-called Lost Generation of people now in their late 20s and early 30s who came of age during Japan’s lost decade, a period of economic stagnation that followed the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s. [More]

16. Taste for middle-aged men (karesen - ????): An abbreviation of “kareta ojisan senmon” (lit. “specialty in withered old men”), “karesen” refers to the particular preference some young women have for middle-aged or older men who are calm, unassuming, and lack sex appeal. This type of man is the subject of a photo-heavy book entitled “Karesen,” which profiles a host of dandy gents and extols their virtues.

17. The Crab Cannery Ship (Kanik?sen - ???): This year saw the surprise revival of “Kanik?sen,” a 1929 novel by Takiji Kobayashi that follows the proletarian struggle of exploited workers on a crab cannery ship. The book sold over 600,000 copies this year, and a contemporary film adaptation (scheduled for release in 2009) is reportedly in the works. [More]

18. Millennial anniversary of the Tale of Genji (genji monogatari sen-nen-ki - ???????): In 2008, special events were held across Japan to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the Tale of Genji, the world’s oldest novel.?

19. “The Homeless Junior High School Student” (h?muresu ch?gakusei/kaisan - ???????????!): “The Homeless Junior High School Student” is a best-selling memoir by comedian Hiroshi Tamura, who became homeless as a 10-year-old after the death of his mother and the break-up of his family. Some of the hardships Tamura recounts include spending nights in public parks and eating cardboard and grass to survive. The book sold over 1 million copies within two months of its release, making it the fastest selling non-fiction book on record in Japan. The story was adapted to the screen this year as “Homeless Chugakusei” (”The Homeless Student”).

20. “Ponyo, ponyo ponyo, the fish kid” (ponyo, ponyo ponyo, sakana no ko - ??????????????????): This is a line from the theme song for anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.” Performed by Fujioka-Fujimaki (famous duo Takaaki Fujioka and Naoya Fujimaki) and eight-year-old Nozomi Ohashi, the song reached No.3 on the Oricon Weekly Charts in August.

21. Michelin (mishuran - ?????): The first Tokyo edition of the Michelin Restaurant Guide was published in 2008, and the city’s eateries received a record number of coveted stars.

Despite some criticism, the guide sold over 300,000 copies the first year. The 2009 edition is due out shortly.

22. “I am one of your works” (watashi wa anata no sakuhin no hitotsu desu - ?????????????): Following the death of legendary manga artist Fujio Akatsuka on August 2, comedian and TV personality Tamori (a.k.a. Kazuyoshi Morita) delivered a eulogy, in which he said, “I am one of your multitude of works.” Akatsuka was instrumental in helping Tamori during his early years in show business.

23. “It’s all good.” (kore de ii no da - ???????): In the eulogy, Tamori also borrowed a phrase used frequently by a character in Akatsuka’s Tensai Bakabon manga series, when he said: “Your liberating ideas helped us accept and affirm the way things really are. That is, you taught us, ‘It’s all good.’”

24. Sekai no Nabeatsu (???????): Sekai no Nabeatsu is the nickname of comedian Atsumu Watanabe, whose inane number-counting gag involves having a conniption fit every time he comes to a multiple of three or a number that has a three in it.

25. “gu~!” (???): “Guu” — a bastardization of the English word “good” — is the signature line of comedienne Edo Harumi, which she usually delivers while giving an exaggerated thumbs-up gesture. She often incorporates the gag into everyday conversation by over-emphasizing the “guu” sound at the end of words. Edo Harumi also received a lot attention as the celebrity marathon runner at this year’s NTV 24-hour charity telethon, which aims to bring-guu in donations from viewers tuning-guu in to enjoy the spectacle of a celebrity in pain.

26. Kitaaa! (????!!): Comedian Takahiro Yamamoto repopularized the expression “kitaaa!” (”relief!”) after imitating the way actor Yuji Oda used to scream it in eyedrop commercials years ago.

27. “A woman’s life is like walking on a long one-way path.” (Onago no michi wa ippon-michi ni gozaimasu. - ????????????????): This is a famous line from episode 6 of “Atsuhime” (lit. “Princess Atsu”), a 50-part NHK drama that chronicles the life of Tensho-in, the wife of 13th Edo shogun Tokugawa Iesada. [More]

28. Kuidaore Taro (???????): For 60 years, the bespectacled clown mannequin known as Kuidaore Taro played drums and served as mascot outside the famous Kuidaore restaurant in Osaka’s Dotonbori district. Unfortunately, the local icon lost his job when the restaurant shut down this year.

Kuidaore Taro

Instead of putting the clown mascot up for sale, the owner has decided to rent him out as a celebrity for promotional purposes. Expect to see Taro in commercials, festivals and other events in the future. [More]

29. Kimotiiiii (?????): Seibu Lions outfielder G.G. Sato is known for driving fans wild with antics like the “Kimotiii!” (”Feels good!”) he belted out on countless occasions this year.

30. Make Legend (meiku rejendo - ?????????): This is the slogan of the 2008 Yomiuri Giants baseball team under manager Tatsunori Hara, who beat the odds to win the 2008 Central League Championship. The slogan is reminiscent of the team’s 1996 slogan of “Make Drama” (which, in hybridized Japanese-English, means to achieve success after a dramatic turnaround). That season, the Giants under manager Nagashima captured the Central League pennant and “Make Drama” was recognized as the trendiest expression of 1996.

31. “It was nothing” (he no tsuppari demo nai desu kara - ??????????????): After judo star Satoshi Ishii won gold at the Beijing Olympics, reporters asked him to describe the pressure he felt. Notorious for making bold statements to the press, Ishii said, “It was nothing [compared to what his coach felt].” The champ later shocked the judo world at a garden party hosted by the Emperor, where he announced his intent to quit judo for a career in the burgeoning field of mixed martial arts.

32. Recurrence Prevention Committee (saihatsu b?shi kent? iinkai - ?????????): The sumo world found itself embroiled in scandal again this year after Tokyo police arrested Russian wrestler Wakanoho for marijuana possession. In response, the Japan Sumo Association’s Recurrence Prevention Committee, which was established last year to investigate questionable training practices after the hazing death of a teenage wrestler, conducted a series of random urine tests. Two more Russian sumo wrestlers, Roho and Hakurozan, tested positive for cannabis. To make matters worse, after Wakanoho was permanently banned from the sport in August, he went public with details (and names) that appear to substantiate the allegations of bout rigging that have haunted the Sumo Association for years. [More]

33. Sento-kun/ Manto-kun (???????????): Sento-kun, the official mascot character for the Commemorative Events of the 1,300th Anniversary of the Nara-Heijokyo Capital, garnered widespread criticism from the media, religious groups and the blogosphere after he was unveiled in February. A Buddhist child monk with a rack of deer antlers sprouting from his head, Sento-kun is supposed to evoke the image of Nara’s rich Buddhist history and the wild deer that roam freely around town. But some citizens were angry at officials for shutting them out of the decision-making process and wasting 5 million yen (about $50,000) of taxpayer money on what they saw as an ugly mascot.

Sento-kun (left) and Manto-kun (right)

A group of Nara-area designers took matters into their own hands and came up with their own mascot that more closely represents the will of the people and the true spirit of Nara. That mascot is Manto-kun. [More]

34. Izakaya taxi (???????): In June, about 450 Japanese government bureaucrats admitted to receiving beer, snacks and cash from taxi drivers hired for official journeys at taxpayer expense. Taxi fare from central Tokyo to outlying areas can easily cost 10,000 to 20,000 yen ($100 to $200) per trip, which is good money for the driver. To ensure repeat business and get the leg up on the competition, some drivers started keeping coolers stocked with goodies for their big-spending bureaucrat passengers. When the scandal broke, these taxis came to be referred to as izakaya (”pub”) taxis. [More]

35. Kasumigaseki’s buried treasure (kasumigaseki maiz?kin - ??????): The “treasure” buried in Tokyo’s Kasumigaseki district (home to Japanese government buildings and institutions) is not the legendary trove of riches the Tokugawa shogunate government is rumored to have hidden during the closing days of the Edo period (1603-1867) as they faced defeat by Meiji government forces. Instead, it consists of reserve funds and surpluses in the central government’s special accounts. With an estimated value of 187 trillion yen ($1.9 trillion), some politicians believe that this “treasure” could be used to fund economic stimulus measures and social welfare plans. Arguments over how (and whether) to use this money and whether or not it can effectively bail out the Japanese government are intensifying as Japan’s economic situation worsens. [More]

36. Twisted Diet (nejire kokkai - ?????): “Twisted Diet” refers to the parliamentary gridlock resulting from the Democratic Party’s majority in the Upper House and the Liberal Democratic Party’s overwhelming majority in the Lower House.

37. Gasoline Diet (gasorin kokkai - ??????): Political wrangling over gasoline taxes took center stage in the 150-day Diet session that convened in January, earning it the nickname of the “Gasoline Diet.” While the ruling Liberal Democratic Party wanted to extend the “temporary” (30-year-old) gasoline tax hike to maintain funding for road and highway projects, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan wanted to let it expire to provide consumers relief at the pump.

38. Temporary tax (zantei zeiritsu - ????): The so-called “temporary” gasoline tax hike — which is actually over 30 years old — expired at the end of March after the parties failed to reach a compromise. However, it was reinstated one month later after a revote, and prices at the pump returned to their previous levels, jumping about 25 yen per liter ($1 per gallon) overnight.

39. Fuel surcharge (nenry? saachaaji - ????????): This refers to the de facto surcharge tacked on to various goods and services as a result of skyrocketing oil prices.

40. Fishermen strikes (issei ky?ry? - ????): Fishing unions held a pair of token nationwide strikes this summer to protest rising fuel prices. Squid fishermen held a two-day strike in June. And in July, the nation’s fishermen held a massive one-day strike involving about 200,000 boats from all of Japan’s major fishing unions.

41. Manager in name only (nabakari kanrishoku - ???????): “Managers in name only” are company employees who put in lots of overtime but do not get paid for their extra work because they are called “managers,” even though in fact they have no administrative authority. One of these “managers in name only” at the McDonald’s fast-food chain filed a lawsuit against the company for unfair labor practices. In January, the Tokyo District Court ruled in his favor, ordering McDonald’s to pay its outlet “managers” for overtime because they are given no administrative authority. (The law is designed so that companies in Japan do not have to pay overtime to real managers with actual administrative authority.) [More]

42. Choriiissu (??????): Shibuya slang for “hello.”

43. Late-stage elderly (k?ki k?reisha - ?????): “Late-stage elderly” — those aged 75 or older — now account for nearly 10% of the Japanese population, according to an annual survey by the Cabinet Office. The same report, which warned of an imminent pension crisis as the number of retirees reached a record 27 million (21.5% of the population), added that Japan has become a “full-fledged aged society.” In April, the government rolled out the Late-stage Elderly Health Insurance System to better cover people aged 75 and older. While the scheme has been criticized for various administrative shortcomings, the name itself also came under fire. Many found the phrase “late-stage elderly” offensive, so the government renamed the scheme as the more palatable “Long-Life Medical Health Insurance System.” [More]

44. Yuru-kyara (?????): With the buzz generated by Sento-kun (see #33 above), the mainstream media began to bandy about the term “yuru-kyara.” The expression was coined years ago by artist Jun Miura to describe the amateurish mascots frequently employed by local governments and others in grassroots PR campaigns. “Yuru” means “loose” or “weak,” while “kyara” means “character.”

Yuru-kyara in Shiga prefecture

The fact that yuru-kyara are poorly designed is a key element of their charm. [More]

45. Saiban Inko (???????): To help promote the citizen jury system that starts in Japan next year, the justice ministry encouraged local prosecutors to come up with original ideas for yuru-kyara. One suggestion was a green parakeet named “Saiban Inko,” which is a play on the words saibanin (juror) and inko (parakeet).

Former justice minister Kunio Hatoyama helped spread the word about the jury system by parading around in a Saiban Inko costume for the press.

46. Free Tibet (???????): The “Free Tibet” rallying cry echoed across the world ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

47. Tainted rice (osen-mai/ jiko-mai - ???????): In September, it was revealed that tons of moldy, pesticide-tainted rice had been served up at more than 100 hospitals, homes for the elderly, and dozens of schools, and had been used as an ingredient in sake, shochu and rice crackers. Osaka-based wholesaler Mikasa Foods, which had originally purchased the contaminated rice for use in industrial products such as glue, ended up selling it to hundreds of companies across Japan to boost profits. The scandal forced the resignation of gaffe-prone farm minister Seiichi Ota, who had come under fire only weeks earlier for saying the government was forced to pay close attention to food safety because Japanese consumers are “fussy” (yakamashii - ?????). [More]

48. Poison gyoza (doku-iri gy?za - ???????): In January, 10 people in Japan fell seriously ill after eating frozen gyoza dumplings produced in China. Tests revealed extremely high levels of the pesticide methamidophos (see #49 below), prompting a full-blown food scare. Investigators suspect the poison was intentionally mixed into the food at the company’s factory in Hubei, China. The poisonings deepened consumer distrust toward Chinese food products and aggravated public sentiment toward China. [More]

49. Methamidophos (??????): Methamidophos, an organophosphate insecticide, became a household name in the wake of the the poison gyoza dumpling scare. Unhealthy amounts of the toxic pesticide were also discovered in the tainted rice that came to light in September. Methamidophos is not to be confused with melamine, a toxic substance that turned up in a host of other products imported from China this year, including powdered milk, chocolate, frozen dough, pastries and pizza.

50. Whispering matron (sasayaki okami - ??????): The “whispering matron” is 70-year-old Sachiko Yuki, former president of upscale restaurant chain Senba Kitcho K.K., which closed down in May after a series of labeling scandals and revelations that it served expired and leftover food to customers. At a press conference held last December to apologize for wrongdoing, Yuki answered questions alongside her son Kikuo Yuki, also a Senba Kitcho executive. Each time reporters directed questions to him, Ms. Yuki could be heard muttering under her breath, telling him what to say and how to act. [Video]

51. Zero carbohydrates (toshitsu zero - ????): As a result of the zero-carb trend that took off last year, the “zero” label is a common sight on drink shelves in Japan. The major breweries now offer a range of zero-carb alternatives.

Kirin Zero

Incidentally, anything less than 0.5 gram per 100 milliliters qualifies as zero.

52. Relaxed generation/ Unrelaxed education (yutori sedai/ datsu-yutori ky?iku - ????????????): Japan’s yutori (”relaxed”) education policy is designed to reduce the amount of class time and content of the national primary education curriculum. In recent years, the mass media and others in Japan have blamed this policy of pressure-free education for the drops in scholastic ability. In a sign that attitudes are changing, new teaching guidelines released in March of this year advocated a policy of “unrelaxed” education. [More]

53. Pension Coverage Special Notice (nenkin tokubetsu bin - ???????): Japan’s Social Insurance Agency unleashed a massive headache on pensioners this year in the form of the Pension Coverage Special Notice — a personalized statement outlining the details of each pensioner’s coverage history. Pensioners were instructed to carefully review their statements for errors and call the Social Insurance Agency if they found any discrepancies. In addition to finding the statement difficult to decipher, people complained of busy phone lines, having to wait their turn for hours, and operators that were unable to provide straight answers to questions.

54. “I’m different from you” (anata to wa chigau n desu - ??????????): At a press conference following former prime minister Yasuo Fukuda’s sudden resignation in September, a reporter confronted Fukuda about his seeming detachment from the problems facing Japan and his resignation. Agitated, Fukuda fired back: “You said I sounded detached, but I am able to see myself objectively. I’m different from you.”

Fukuda-inspired ASCII art

Japan’s online community mocked Fukuda’s uncharacteristically blunt outburst for weeks. [More]

55. Filtering (???????): Major political parties within the Japanese government cooperated to draft legislation to regulate access to Internet content deemed “harmful” to minors. The bill requires mobile phone companies and Internet providers to offer filtering services that restrict access to websites on mobile phones and computers used by minors, but also ensures that parents have the option to refuse such services. The bill also calls for the government to provide financial support to private organizations that develop or promote the use of filtering software. [More]

56. Age-age (????): Shibuya slang for “exciting” or “fun.”

57. “I’ve got nothing to say” (nani mo ienee - ??????): When a TV reporter asked Olympic swimmer Kosuke Kitajima for a comment immediately after winning the 100-meter breaststroke gold, he buried his face in a towel and said, “Sorry, I’ve got nothing to say.”

58. Ueno’s 413 pitches (ueno no 413-ky? - ???????): Women’s softball pitcher Yukiko Ueno led Japan to a gold medal victory by throwing an astounding 413 pitches in three games over two days.

59. Kami-sama, Hotoke-sama, Ueno-sama (?? ?? ???): Yukiko Ueno is from Fukuoka, the hometown of legendary 1950s-1960s Nishitetsu Lions pitcher Kazuhisa Inao, who long ago was praised as “Kami-sama, Hotoke-sama, Inao-sama” (lit. “God, Buddha, Inao”). Fukuoka fans recycled and updated the old expression following Ueno’s stellar Olympic performance.

60. “Yes, YES, YEEESSSS!” (yoshi, yoshi, yoooshi! - ??????????): Olympic TV commentator Taeko Utsugi (a former Olympic softball coach) lost her bearings while covering the women’s softball final. The moment Japan secured the gold medal, she burst out screaming, “Yes, YES, YEEESSSS!” before becoming completely unintelligible and breaking down in tears of joy. Later, after watching a tape of the broadcast, she admitted feeling a little embarrassed with herself.

Why I Support Barack Obama

In my talks this year, I have been outlining some of the world's great problems, highlighting some of the things that are being done by technology innovators to solve them, and urging my listeners to "work on stuff that matters."

We are in unprecedented times. And folks, I'm sorry to say that the current financial meltdown is not the worst of it. Political instability around the world, wars over access to resources, and yes, terrorists, are all in our future. Scientists who've studied global warming agree that we're heading towards decades of extreme environmental stress, leading to even more severe economic disruptions than we have seen to date. Meanwhile, we have an aging population with ballooning healthcare costs, an unfair economy in which some people receive outsized gains while others fall behind, an educational system that is not preparing children for the future, and deficits that require an increasing percentage of our tax dollars to service debt to other countries. Even if there is a short term recovery, huge problems loom in the years ahead, problems we can no longer pass off to our children and grandchildren.

Faced with these problems, we need a president who can harness the best and brightest our country has to offer, a president who is conversant with, and comfortable with, the power of technology to assist in solving these problems, a president who is good at listening, studying, and devising solutions based on the best insight available, rather than on narrow ideology. We need a president who can forge consensus, not just among the partisans in our own fractured democracy but around the world. We need a president who can inspire our citizens and our global partners to forgo narrow self interest and embrace the possibilities that we can achieve if we work together to build a better future.

I believe Barack Obama is that president. He is a man of intelligence, but also a man whose character and temperament seem suited to the problems of our age: unflappable, optimistic even in the face of adversity, willing to speak the truth about subjects that have long been taboo (I'm thinking of his speech on race, and his speech on fatherhood) and with unscripted reactions that show his fundamental decency (I'm thinking of his reaction to those who wanted to make a campaign issue of Sarah Palin's daughter's unplanned pregnancy.)

Because this is a tech blog, not a political blog, though, I primarily want to address the subject of why members of the technical community should join me in supporting Barack Obama. (The New York Times has made a compelling case based on the broader issues, as has Colin Powell.) I outline four principal reasons:

1. Connected, Transparent Government


2. The Financial Crisis


3. Climate Change


4. Net Neutrality

I will also discuss some important additional considerations, personal and political, that I hope Radar readers who don't want to see politics in these pages, will forgive.

I want to be clear that this is my personal endorsement, and not an endorsement by O'Reilly Media. I'd like O'Reilly to be a company where people of all political persuasions are welcomed and supported, and feel free to express their personal opinions, as I have here.

1. Connected, Transparent Government

Web 2.0 has shown the power of what I've elsewhere called harnessing collective intelligence. Despite the claims of critics like Nick Carr and Andrew Keen, Google does make us smarter. So does Wikipedia, and Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, the blogosphere, and Twitter. Our access to information today is unprecedented; the ability of individual citizens to discover and share important new ideas is greater than it has ever been in our history; important ideas are able to bubble up and become visible to those who need to know them.

Barack Obama understands this. His campaign has demonstrated his ability to harness the internet not only for fundraising, but also his comfort with its decentralized nature. my.barackobama.com is not a one-way fundraising machine, but a platform that has enabled his supporters to act independently, while coordinating their decentralized, bottom-up activities in a way that adds to their effectiveness. What's more, it is a platform that has allowed supporters to disagree with him, and so to shape his policies - a far cry from the current administration's belief that disagreement is equivalent to disloyalty.

Further, I believe that Obama's prowess in fundraising from small donors has the potential to change the culture in which Washington is for sale to lobbyists. I'm not naive: I know that bundlers and big donors will continue to have privileged access under any administration. But I also know that the internet enables the long tail, and what we see here is the long tail of influence, a long tail in which self-organizing groups of people who care about important issues will have far more impact than they do today.

I also believe that in an Obama administration, there will be significant investment in applying the lessons learned from internet campaigning into the tools of internet governance. There are efforts already underway to build better tools for two-way communication, for government transparency, and for harnessing innovations from outside the public sector to improve the work of the public sector.

Those of you who follow my blog and my speeches know that I am a big believer that "alpha geeks" show us the shape of the future. I've been watching the work of folks like Ellen Miller, Greg Elin and Micah Sifry at the Sunlight Foundation, Adrian Holovaty at Everyblock, Carl Malamud at public.resource.org, and Tom Steinberg of mysociety.org in the UK, and I believe that in an Obama administration, we'll have an unprecedented opportunity to put their pioneering applications and approaches to work to build a more responsive, more transparent, and more effective government.

I should add, for those of you who are concerned about the financial downturn, that reinventing government will be a huge business opportunity. Yes, much of that business may well go to existing government contractors - navigating the maze of Washington procurement is not for the faint-hearted - but there will be tremendous demand for expertise that today can only be found in the cutting edge technical community.

2. The Financial Crisis

The financial crisis we face today is a damning indictment of a philosophy that insists that the market is always right, that government only gets in the way, and that unfettered capitalism is the best system. Left to themselves over the past eight years, Wall Street bankers have feathered their own pockets at the expense of customers, shareholders, and the public. Meanwhile, investments in the real economy have faltered, been diverted to artificial wealth creation using obscure financial instruments that, in retrospect, turned our banks into willing participants in a giant Ponzi scheme.

It's clear that the era of hands-off government is over. Ironically (or perhaps inevitably), it is the failure of deregulation, not the expansionist ideas of an activist government, that is driving us towards ever greater government involvement in our daily lives.

Meanwhile, John McCain repeats the old mantras of deregulation, of letting the market work its magic. I'm a big believer in the market, but I also know that markets, like games, depend on clear rules of fair play.

It's not going to be easy for anyone to unwind the enormous mess that has been created as a result of the mismanagement of the economy under the current administration. It will take great insight, intelligence, and an about-face in our attitudes towards regulation.

More than that, though, making the right decisions, coming up with the right regulations, will take insight into the nature of networks, the nature of markets, that can be profoundly informed by what we've learned from the internet over the past decade. I realized last year that there was a productive - nay an essential - dialogue to be held between the world of financial markets and the world of Web 2.0. (See Web 2.0 Meets Wall Street (pdf).) It's why I launched the Money:Tech conference, and why I've been spending so much time thinking about what we can learn from the development of markets that are, effectively, run by computer programs, or as Richard Bookstaber put it so eloquently, A Demon of Our Own Design.

It will take a president and presidential advisors with enormous technological sophistication to understand, let alone design and manage the kinds of regulatory regimes we will need for increasingly automated markets. We are far more likely to find that sophistication in the administration of Barack Obama than in the administration of John McCain.

It will also likely take significant government spending to boost the real economy as part of the recovery from the collapse of the shadow financial economy.

Given the inevitability of increased government spending, the question becomes one of priorities. Obama understands how important it is to invest in infrastructure, in education, in health care, in energy independence and green technology, and in making our society fairer to all its citizens. At the same time, he is a believer in markets.

He has been described as a 'University of Chicago' Democrat, in reference to the way he has tried to synthesize the market-oriented economics of the University of Chicago, where he was a lecturer for twelve years, with the traditional Democratic ideas that government can play a large role in creating markets, in leveling the playing field, and in creating a fairer society. As University of Chicago professor Cass Sunstein notes, in the article linked-to at the start of this paragraph, "His policies often involve setting up a government program to address a market failure but then trying to harness the power of the market within that program."

We need a new approach that synthesizes the best of what the right and the left have had to teach us, and Barack Obama has demonstrated, long before the current crisis was upon us, serious thinking about what such a synthesis might entail.

We need fresh thinking, not a pendulum-swing from one ideology to another. And despite claims to the contrary by his opponents, I believe that Barack Obama isn't afraid to take the best economic ideas from any part of the political spectrum.

3. Climate Change

I have come to believe that climate change provides one of the most severe long term threats to our society - greater even than the current financial turmoil.

While no one knows for sure just how bad the effects of climate change might be, the worst case scenarios are bad indeed - so bad that they might entail the end of civilization as we know it. However unlikely you may consider these worst case scenarios, or however distant, it's worth remembering that in our everyday lives, we insure against outcomes that are far less likely.

And however much you discount that worst-case scenario, it's clear that investment in green technology will provide an enormous boon for our economy and a long term strategic benefit for our country.

If global warming doesn't get us, oil depletion will. It's easy to forget that the US was once the world's biggest oil producer. Our oil fields are now mostly gone, providing only 3% of the world's supply and 10% of our own needs. It takes someone very short-sighted not to realize that the same fundamentals that marginalized our domestic oil industry will one day do the same to other nations whose oil supplies we depend on today.

I highly recommend the video documentary A Crude Awakening, which makes a compelling case for the end of cheap oil. As demand rises around the world, so will the price of oil, and competition for this precious resource. The current pullback in oil prices is temporary, driven by a recession-fueled decline in demand.

And as oil becomes scarce, we face the dangerous prospect of increasing our reliance on coal. I've been in Beijing on days when you can't see buildings a quarter mile away, and I assure you, it isn't pretty. And the consequences for warming the planet are dire.

Meanwhile, the need to secure oil supplies around the world will hold our economy hostage to the whims of countries who have no love for us.

Given how long it takes for new forms of energy production to come onstream, we need to make major investments today if we are to have any hope of replacing fossil fuels with green alternatives.

But once again, this crisis provides huge opportunity. Reinventing the energy economy will require enormous technological innovation as well as huge capital investments in generating capacity, upgrading the grid, and instrumenting the world to measure and manage our carbon output. If we do not invest in these technologies, we face the real danger of becoming a second class nation, as those nations that do make the investments reap the rewards.

Progress from the climate crisis towards the green economy will require strong government policies. If we'd stuck the course that President Jimmy Carter outlined in 1977, we'd be in a very different position today. This is not something we can leave to the unfettered market. We need government leadership.

Given a free rein by the hands-off attitude at the highest levels of government, oil companies have reaped record profits while making only token investments in alternative energy, independence from foreign oil, and the strategic interests of our country. Given choices among alternative energy sources, existing energy companies, agricultural lobbyists, and unscrupulous promoters took us down a disastrous path towards corn-based ethanol, a proposed solution that raised food prices and did little to address the real problem, but much to line the pockets of entrenched multi-national companies.

Now, I'm not saying that any multi-national company is likely to put national interests ahead of self-interest, but it's clear that it is a foolish ideology that opens the sheepfold to management by wolves.

I will say that I'm not satisfied with Obama's energy policies. We need to move more urgently and more broadly than even he envisions, but at least he has resisted the political posturing that characterized John McCain's embrace of offshore oil drilling as a solution to the spring runup in energy prices, which was, after all, only a rehearsal for the much larger problems we will face down the line.

But for those concerned about climate change, the most urgent case for the election of Barack Obama was made by John McCain. Despite being an early and thoughtful advocate on the threat of global warming, he lost all credibility with his selection of Governor Palin as his running mate. We can not afford to take the risk of a Vice-President (especially for a candidate as old as McCain) who is scornful of science, denies human involvement in creating climate change, and is completely unprepared to tackle this most urgent of problems.

If scientists are right, we have to act now. Every year counts. There is no "do over" on this issue.

Climate change and energy policy can no longer be dictated by "politically possible" but must be dictated by "technically necessary." NASA's James Hansen has recently argued that an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 350 ppm looks to be the safe bet climate wise for humanity. We are already at more than 380 ppm! (Here's Hansen's full paper (pdf).)

As my son-in-law Saul Griffith argued at our Emerging Technology Conference earlier this year, we need to pick a target CO2 concentration and work backwards to get to an energy policy, rather than guessing at an energy policy with fingers crossed, hoping for a climate outcome that is tolerable.

4. Net Neutrality

I love the internet. It's been one of the most fertile grounds for technological innovation, wealth creation, and social change that our country has seen in my lifetime. I believe passionately in the "small pieces loosely joined" model that allows anyone to invent a compelling new service, find other people to use it, and grow a business without having to ask anyone's permission.

It's essential that we preserve the architecture of the internet.

Under the guise of free market experimentation, big companies with monopoly positions in local markets are asking us to change the fundamental rules that have served the internet so well. They want to be able to charge differential fees for different types of data traffic.

This will, quite simply, be the end of the internet as we know it, turning it into a network that works much more like the cellphone network, slow to innovate, hostile to its users, extracting profits through artificial barriers rather than true value creation.

Barack Obama supports net neutrality; John McCain, as in other areas, once again claims that government should get out of the way.

Other Key Issues

I would be disingenuous to suggest that my endorsement of Barack Obama is driven purely by technical issues. Here are some of the other issues that are on my mind:

9/11, The War in Iraq, and the Growth of Authoritarian Government

Perhaps the most frightening thing about 9/11 is how easily we, as a nation, forgot who we are and what we stand for. We threw away the sympathy of the world by acting as though the threat of terrorism justifies the abandonment of human rights. The false intelligence and the lies that linked Iraq with the terrorists of 9/11, the abuses in Guantanamo, the drumbeat of fear that was used for political gain, all lost us the respect and moral leadership we once enjoyed. Meanwhile, Americans gave up freely the liberties that were the very foundation of our nation and made us a model for the rest of the world.

We need a clear break with that sordid epoch. John McCain is as outraged by Guantanamo as Barack Obama, but he continues the misplaced focus of American foreign policy on Iraq. And he seems to share the Bush administration's idea that terrorism is the greatest threat facing this country.

Barack Obama has outlined a commitment to extricate ourselves from a colossal foreign policy mistake. This plan, derided as naive by the Republicans, is in line with the wishes of the Iraqis, and will allow us to realign our foreign policy priorities to deal with far more substantial threats to our national interest.

But more importantly, it is itself a strategic move in "the war on terror. " By invading Iraq, we created a haven for terrorism that didn't previously exist. Even worse, we gave them exactly what they wanted, an enemy that could serve as a recruiting tool.

And we played completely into their hands here in America as well! What, after all, is the goal of terrorism? To disrupt the society of an enemy by creating an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.

Al Quaeda no longer needs to do anything to create that atmosphere of fear. Our government does that for them! From the horrific -- abuses of civil rights that undermine fundamental constitutional freedoms -- to the ridiculous -- what Bruce Schneier has so ably criticized as security theater that has increased the costs and inconvenience of travel while providing no added security, the Bush administration has acted the puppet to Osama bin Laden's game plan.

On the internet, we know how to deal with people who try to disrupt our activities. While griefers are not the same as terrorists, the same principle applies. We say, "Don't feed the trolls!"

Even without any overt action, an Obama presidency will undermine the aims of terror by providing a clear break with the past, a break with the policies that have made America more of a target for terrorism than we were before 9/11.

My hope -- and I'll admit that it's only a hope -- is that Obama is smart enough to know, like Roosevelt, that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and will use the power of the presidency to reverse the fear-driven policies of the past seven years.

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of what has happened in those years is the way that fear has been used to claim extraordinary power for the Presidency. Those of you who know my background know that my degree is in Greek and Latin Classics. So it's perhaps forgivable that historical parallels with ancient Rome are quick to come to my mind. The claims of the Bush administration to be above the law, its claims that the threat of terrorism demand the suspension of civil liberties, are eerily reminiscent of the events that led to the end of the Roman Republic. Faced with an invasion by pirates (the terrorists of 68 BC), Pompey the Great was given extraordinary powers. Within a decade, Rome was a dictatorship, led by the one Senator who had supported Pompey's exaggerated claims, Julius Caesar.

Of course, we are a long way from that point, but the drift of our country towards authoritarianism is alarming. John McCain has been trying to paint Obama as the candidate of big government. Yet it is the Right, not the Left, that is bringing us the biggest, most powerful, most centralized, and most intrusive government that America has ever seen. Many members of the technical community have libertarian leanings; you should vote for Obama for this reason alone!

I don't see evidence in Obama's platform that he has come to explicit grips with this issue. But it is seems far more likely to me that any Supreme Court justices he appoints will be more inclined to stop this mad slide towards an authoritarian society than the candidates who might be proposed by John McCain. I do know that the technological sophistication and political predilections of Obama's advisors will be to warn of the slippery slope that awaits us if we continue down the path of fear, with the tools of technology applied to end freedom rather than to increase it.

Abortion

I come from a conservative Catholic family. I am no longer a practicing Catholic, but conversations with my brothers and sisters who are have made clear to me just how fundamental the issue of abortion is to their support of John McCain.

If you believe that abortion is murder, as they do, that literally millions of lives are lost each year in government-sanctioned killing, then virtually all other issues pale by comparison. The chance that a John McCain will appoint one or more Supreme Court justices who will make it possible for the court to overturn Roe v. Wade is hard to pass by.

Meanwhile, Obama's voting record on the other side of this issue speaks volumes to them about what they consider a fundamental failure of morality on his part.

I understand their concerns. I hate to see a candidate with a perfect voting record on one side of an issue that so clearly divides the country, with passionate and compelling arguments on both sides. But I remind them that Obama said, in his speech accepting the Democratic nomination, "We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country." He expanded on these views in an interview with Relevant Magazine in July.

It seems to me that the debate about abortion has been polarized far too long, with each side unwilling to give an inch, for fear that the other will take a mile. While Obama will surely not give my family and those who agree with them a Supreme Court justice who will overturn Roe v. Wade, I would hope that, with his gift for finding a middle ground, he will be willing to engage, and perhaps break the deadlock in our culture around this most divisive of issues.

It is almost certainly true that, by contrast, John McCain and Sarah Palin would continue the "culture wars" strategy that has made it impossible to make any progress on this issue.

Character

Senator McCain has made much of character in his career and in his campaign, yet he has run a race that gives the lie to those claims. He hired the very people who used lies to undermine his campaign for the presidency in 2000; he has adopted the sleazy tactics that he once abhorred.

McCain's tilt to the right, pandering to the base of the Republican party while abandoning many of the positions he fought for in his maverick years, culminating in his cynical selection of Sarah Palin, shows a man who has been driven by the pressure of the race to sacrifice principle to expediency.

Contrast this with Barack Obama, a man who, faced with these attacks, has largely maintained the high road.

I'm not saying that the Obama team hasn't played politics, using trivialities to paint McCain in the worst possible light. But McCain has demonstrated a far greater willingness to stretch the truth, to stoop to tactics that have dismayed even his supporters.

At the start of this election, I was prepared to give McCain serious consideration. But his behavior during the campaign forfeited my good opinion. The ancient philosopher Heraclitus once said that "Character is destiny." John McCain used that quote as the title of his book, but it is Barack Obama who has demonstrated the sure character of a man who will not change how he acts for the sake of political gain.

Barack Obama shows us that character is also the deepest foundation of strategy. When strategy comes from a fundamental sense of both who you are and what you want to accomplish, it has secure roots. His campaign has been disciplined without being authoritarian, focused without being myopic, responsive while maintaining consistency. These are all signs of a man whose strategy is deep rooted and a reflection of who he is.

Competence in Leadership

The final argument for the presidency of Barack Obama is the enormous competence he has shown in running his campaign. He has demonstrated unprecedented ability to motivate people, to gather support for his vision and his programs, and to surround himself with people who can execute on that vision. For the past two years, he's managed what you could easily think of as the fastest growing and best-funded startup in America, and as CEO of that startup, he's come through with flying colors.

If Barack Obama were a company, I'd say he was ready for the IPO. And I for one intend to buy shares on November 4. I hope you will too.

Update: As you continue the discussion in the comments below, I ask you to be respectful of the people you disagree with. Comments that contain ad hominem attacks will be deleted. Most of the initial comments were thoughtful, but as the debate continues, tempers are rising. Remember that whomever is elected, we are all in this together, and will have to continue to work and live together after the election!

A Fresh Look At Google Gears

There’s a common misconception that Google’s “next-gen” web platform called Gears only (or even primarily) enables offline capabilities for web applications. The truth of the matter is that Google’s ambitions are far greater, and the browser extension’s capabilities are more multifarious, than this reputation suggests. MySpace’s implementation of Gears, which has little to do with offline functionality, is a perfect example.

Gears has been available for over a year now, with the first version released not too far back in May 2007. You can see the whole version history here, but essentially Gears has undergone four releases, each adding incrementally to its capabilities. The last was released this past August, with another released a couple months earlier in June.

The overall goal of Gears is to bestow upon web applications much of the same functionality enjoyed by desktop apps. And it’s doing so through a browser extension that can be installed for a range of browsers (Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer) on a range of operating systems (Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac OS, and Linux). With the release of Google’s own Chrome browser, some users don’t even have to install Gears; it just comes pre-loaded, making Chrome a super browser of sorts from the get-go.

The long-term consequence of this technology is clear: as browsers become more and more powerful with the assistance of initiatives like Gears, there become fewer and fewer reasons to install and run desktop applications (and therefore splurge on Windows and Office, to name two Microsoft cash cows oft identified as dying breeds).

But before that can happen, Gears and similar technologies need to truly enable desktop-like functionality within the browser (or more accurately, they need to enable desktop-like functionality for web applications that traditionally operate only within the browser).

So where do we stand today? Currently Gears can be used by developers to improve web applications in the following ways (on both desktop and mobile devices):

• Client-side database storage - Most interactive websites depend heavily on databases that collect, organize and deliver the information contributed by users and in-house publishers. Traditionally, these databases have been deployed almost exclusively on the server-side, requiring users’ computers to send requests and wait for responses whenever they wanted to do something non-trivial with a site’s data. With the Gears Database API, websites can now establish databases on the client-side (i.e. your computer), allowing for quicker program speeds and certain offline capabilities (for when you can’t get online to query remote databases).
• Client-side webpage serving - Gears can essentially turn your computer into a server of webpages and other flat data files for when regular web servers can’t be reached. The LocalServer API lets websites cache their pages when you are online and serve them up later when you’re not. It can also be used to speed up certain actions through caching for when you are still online.
• Desktop shortcuts - For web apps to act like desktop apps, they need to open like them, too. So Gears makes it easier for developers to place shortcut icons on the desktop that users can use to open web apps with the standard double click. While basic site shortcuts for the desktop were possible before, the Gears functionality makes the user experience of adding and using these icons more intuitive. The graphic quality is higher, multiple sizes are supported, and in the future shortcut icons will support communicative overlay icons (for apps, such as webmail, that want to tell you how many unread messages you have, for example).
• Multiple file uploads - Normally, when you want to upload a collection of files to a website, you have to select them one by one (unless the website you’re using has decided to implement a Flash or Java-based loader). With Gears, it’s possible for users to select multiple files at a time and batch upload them, saving you time and tediousness.
• Geolocation - For mobile devices that can determine the user’s current location, Gears makes this geolocation information available to applications running within the browser. The geolocation API can be used to identify the user’s position once or to watch it over time as the user moves around. Permission to access a user’s position must be granted through a special dialog, preventing unwanted snooping.
• Background processes - A lot of times when using JavaScript-heavy web apps, you have to wait while certain processes finish chugging along. With the so-called “WorkerPool” API, time-intensive processes can run in the background where they won’t slow down your general experience. The result: web apps feel more snappy because they don’t get bogged down as often.

The Gears team at Google rolls out capabilities based on the perceived demand for them. The following features have been alluded and may show up in upcoming releases:

• Progress bars - Whether you’re uploading one large file or several small ones, you probably want to know how things are going. Traditionally there’s no way to tell where you stand as you look impatiently at the spin of your cursor’s hour glass. But with Gears, you’ll be able to see a real progress bar telling you how much of the data has reached the server already.
• File resumption - When large file uploads fail these days due to connection interruptions, you have to start from square one and reupload everything again. Gears promises the ability to resume uploads so you can start where you left off.
• On-screen notifications - Users of Growl and microblogging desktop clients like Twhirl are accustomed to on-screen notifications that appear in the corner of their screens when anything new happens. Future versions of Gears will allow any website to trigger such notifications, whether or not they are currently running in the browser (perhaps allowing us to kill off the email notifications that many web apps abuse to spur return visits).

In the long run, we might see support for complex 3D graphics that take full advantage of your computer’s graphics card. Upload functionality could get integrated into the menus that pop up when you right click on files. And web apps could get loaded at startup or triggered in any number of other ways throughout your computer’s operating system (and its native desktop applications).

If you have extra time this weekend, the following presentation by Google’s Chris Prince, given at this past May’s Google I/O developer conference, is an informative visual and oral walk through of Gears:

Nik Cubrilovic’s next generation web posts are also helpful for understanding the platform war that has emerged (Google is not the only major tech company making strides to enhance the capabilities of web apps).

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

On Wedding Design

So, exactly four months ago, I totally got married. This has been a completely great thing, and I highly recommend it. You know, when you're ready.

After the wedding, sometimes people would ask me if everything feels different or more great now that we're married. When I would tell people "actually, not really!", I could naturally sense a little bit of romantic disappointment in their faces, like I'm the Harlequin Grinch. But I don't mean "not that different, yawn" — I mean "not that different, because, honestly, it's always been great." [AWWWW.MP3] My overall advice: when you know, you'll know.

Anyway, I don't want bore you with the personal blah blah blah. Instead, I'd like to talk to you about design...

Wedding design! (Guys? Guys? Stay with me here!)

The Brainstorm

I spent a too-long amount of time brainstorming the foundation of our design. First, I knew I wanted to incorporate Nicole's love of visual contrast — she who is so fond of a super-dark gray cloudy sky with a burst of a blue showing through, or a beautiful flower popping up through tired concrete. Second, I knew that the design had to represent both of us, a little piece of each. I know, right? As much as I'd love to make a wedding invitation with photos of say, photos of the latest flavors of Sun Chips ("You're invited to our peppercorn-ranchuptuals!"), it probably wouldn't play too well outside of, uh, me.

Then, two key words popped into my mind:

Pixel flowers.

Retro 8-bit quirky and fun but elegant and beautiful and colorful. Perfect. I immediately remembered seeing a magazine illustration by the amazing Nick Dewar of pixelated blossoms somewhere once. With Nick's illustration serving as mental inspiration (thank you, Nick!), it was time to get cracking.

Save The Date

The first thing we had to tackle was the age-old "save the date". Due some tardiness with the art director (sorry!), we decided to do it electronically to get it out the door instantly. Otherwise there'd be no date to save.

Enter friend and artistic genius David Lanham, out of the Coda icon. He graciously found time to to lend his illustrative talents to this project.

The first bit David cranked out was a perfect little pixel illustration of myself and Nicole, that I hoped we could use in a variety of places throughout the project. It went through some fun variations:


As you can see, we started off super micro (and I looked a little bit like Gob from Arrested Development about to perform a magic trick), then we got super (super) deformed, and finally with a bit more nudging I think David nailed it with the last one — it's cute, with just a dash of disturbing. Just like us! Uhh..

Illustration in hand, it was Cabel's turn. A few fonts, some colors, a clean layout, and a little extra something on my t-shirt (what is that? a tri-force? I honestly don't know why I added it) and it was ready to be e-mailed!


That's it. Simple. To the point. Fun.

Technical notes: I used e3 Software's truly excellent Direct Mail application to send it out. It's got a great statistics view that can show you how many people opened up the message, assuming their mail reader loads images by default. Font wise, that's Metroscript by Alphabet Soup for the logotype, and House Industries' Neutra 2 for the details. I used Neutra 2 primary because I wanted to be the last person to use this font. I love it, but I literally see it everywhere, all day long. So, sorry, suckers! You're not allowed to use this font because I'm the last guy. I called it. It's done, font closed. Use something else. Myself included. Don't look at the Coda header.

The Invitation

Onto the master illustration itself. Once I fully explained what was on my mind, David quickly cranked out a sketch of the core idea: an elegant tree, with little pixel flowers on it.


I wanted to take it into more "tree" than "branch", so I pitched the idea of having it wrap-around to the back of the invitation. David translated this into a rough layout sketch:


I liked it! But the tree seemed a little super-wide. With that in mind, it was time to make it "real".


Finally, wanting to shed the peach color and fill more space after committing to a text-free cover, we arrived here:


Awesome. Yay, David! It was time to start getting print-ready.

Pre-Press

I had decided on using letterpress for these invitations. It's good for small print runs, and it's also such a visceral, physical technique. If you ever get a chance to watch letterpress machines in action, it's mesmerizing and also tinged with danger. I found a great, local, and now-highly-recommended print shop — Egg Press — who were happy to tackle the job.

I went through their paper samples and picked one, but ink colors were harder for me — I looked at their stock inks but none of them were quite. It was time to bust out the Pantone book and pick three spot colors (for an extra charge, naturally). For the record, it's Pantone 510U, 5225U, and 5205U!

Then I re-formulated the art to fit the correct paper size, drawing an extra branch here and a flower there.

I was done. It was printin' time.

Finished Product

The invitations were now ready to go.


I love the texture, rough print, and embossed feel of letterpress. It made the "physical" nature of this job even more fulfilling.


There was one final surprise on the finished piece.

Since letterpress creates an actual physical impression in the paper when it stamps the ink, I thought it would be interesting to do one letterpress plate without ink — our pixel selves, subtly debossed on the inside.

As a bonus, since the impression runs deep, we're also embossed on the outside, and it's carefully aligned so that it looks like we're standing under the tree. Sort-of.


That's it! Here are scans of the finished piece:

Custom Stamps

One last stop before the postal office: custom stamps. We decided to use zazzle.com for this — as should be glaringly obvious. The giant zazzle advertisement (zazzvertisement?) on every stamp was a huge negative, but a high-quality pixel stamp was hard to pass up.

The Event

This fell into Nicole territory — I did the print, she did the space. But I thought she did a really stunning job designing the venue — the colors, the flowers, the details, everything kept the original idea flowing through to something physical, gussying up an industrial warehouse-style bar/venue with beautiful elegance. It was, as they say, like a dream.

I'll let these photos speak for themselves!


Yes. It's true. That is a pixel flower cake. Making that happen? High point of my life so far.


Confidential to those getting married in Portland: the amazing cake came from Bakery Bar, the gorgeous flowers by Francoise Weeks, stunning-to-everyone photography by Robert McNary, and the venue was the accommodating and incredible Holocene. Oh, and my suit? 100% Duchess.

The Photobooth

A quick wedding recommendation: for some really fantastic, non-cheesy photographic memories of your guests, look for a local distributor of good old fashioned photo booths. None of this fancy-pants digital stuff — we're talking a green, incandescent bulb that says "smile", little strips of paper sent by an ancient motor into various vats of chemicals, dropped into your hands still wet, a cool little honeycomb texture running through the paper and an ever-so-slight sepia tone. These are the real memories, four classic frames at a time.

The Gifts

As a "thank you" gift to the wedding party, we decided to get some laser-etched Moleskines made. (Can you tell I enjoyed this project?) I sent the art to Joe at Engrave Your Tech, who happened to be here in PDX, and the books were made super-quick. He also let me individualize each book with the person's name on the spine. They turned out amazing. (Sadly, it looks like Joe's not engraving them anymore (yipes!), but I bet he'll come up with something even better.)

The Ring

The very, very last step in the process: my wedding ring. A gift from Nicole, it holds a secret inside: a tiny pixel flower. You'll never see it, but I'll always know it's there.

Finally, Something Cool From Noby

A little bit before the wedding, a special gift arrived from Japan: custom-made chocolates with our little pixel selves printed on the package. These DECO??? (deco-choco) treats came from Noby, one half of Panic Japan. Talk about hitting your target audience — I was amazed. Let this be the best snack food picture I will ever post on this blog!

Phew

The rest was a blur.

My great friends Alex and Steve gave killer best-man speeches: embarrassing (there's no shortage of Cabel stories) but also very heartwarming. (Also, Steve delivered this great line: "If you asked me to describe the business relationship between Cabel and I, in Star Wars terms, I would say he is like the R2-D2 to my C3PO. He rolls around, interfacing with computers, solving problems, and making strange beeping noises, while I flap my arms helplessly, and shout 'We're doomed!'")

People ate many foods, drank many things, hugged a lot, saw goofy old pictures of both of us in an amazing slideshow my folks put together, danced like crazy to an amazing mix from the Juice Team on a tiny stage with the people I love, and talked to friends both old and new. And there was delicious cake. So much cake.

This was a great day. And in the end, before we knew it, it was time to close the place out and hop in the car, slightly melancholy that possibly the greatest party of our lives was over but more than slightly excited that the rest of everything was starting right then and there, in the middle of the automatic car-wash at the 76 station, in the early hours of the next day, as a shaving-cream "cabel + nicole" was washed off the hood but, really, will always be there.

Totally married. Totally awesome.

Defining the problem of elevator waiting times

Below is an interesting story about a building where tenants were complaining about long elevator waiting times. The solution shows how the key to solving a problem is often defining the problem correctly in the first place.

A classic story illustrates very well the potential cost of placing a problem in a disciplinary box. It involves a multistoried office building in New York. Occupants began complaining about the poor elevator service provided in the building. Waiting times for elevators at peak hours, they said, were excessively long. Several of the tenants threatened to break their leases and move out of the building because of this…

Management authorized a study to determine what would be the best solution. The study revealed that because of the age of the building no engineering solution could be justified economically. The engineers said that management would just have to live with the problem permanently.

The desperate manager called a meeting of his staff, which included a young recently hired graduate in personnel psychology…The young man had not focused on elevator performance but on the fact that people complained about waiting only a few minutes. Why, he asked himself, were they complaining about waiting for only a very short time? He concluded that the complaints were a consequence of boredom. Therefore, he took the problem to be one of giving those waiting something to occupy their time pleasantly. He suggested installing mirrors in the elevator boarding areas so that those waiting could look at each other or themselves without appearing to do so. The manager took up his suggestion. The installation of mirrors was made quickly and at a relatively low cost. The complaints about waiting stopped.

Today, mirrors in elevator lobbies and even on elevators in tall buildings are commonplace.

Excerpted from “Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track” [Amazon].