Hunt and Gather

Chris' cousin Nick (Far left) just returned from the 2010 Mongol Rally. Check this out!

A third of the way around the earth, from Europe to Mongolia via a plethora of countries most people haven't heard of in a car that has an engine with no bigger than 1 litre. Starting from England, Spain and Italy, the rally finishes in the Mongolian capital Ulaan Baatar around four weeks and a whole heap of adventure later. It's between about 8 and 10,000 miles depending on the route you choose to throw your trusty steed at. We don't believe in telling you what to do or where to go as this is supposed to be an adventure not a cosy guided driving tour, so the world is pretty much your oyster.

The Mongol Rally isn't just about adventure, it's also about raising huge sacks of cash for some great charities. In 2009 the Mongol Rally topped £325,000, 2010 donations are still coming in and have nearly hit the £400,000 mark and we hope the 2011 Rally will smash that this year. 

Hundreds of volunteers painted six blocks along 12th street in OTR as part of the Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund launch of its new name, ArtsWave, and it's new mission.

If you get a chance look at the Over The Rhine facebook page. Tons of innovative folks and great business and community projects.

IDEO Method Cards is a collection of 51 cards representing diverse ways that design teams can understand the people they are designing for. They are used to make a number of different methods accessible to all members of a design team, to explain how and when the methods are best used, and to demonstrate how they have been applied to real design projects.

IDEO's human factors specialists conceived the deck as a design research tool for its staff and clients, to be used by researchers, designers, and engineers to evaluate and select the empathic research methods that best inform specific design initiatives. The tool can be used in various ways—sorted, browsed, searched, spread out, pinned up—as both information and inspiration to human-centered design teams and individuals at various stages to support planning and execution of design programs.

Inspired by playing cards, the cards are classified as four suits—Ask, Watch, Learn, Try—that define the types of activities involved in using each method. Each approach is illustrated by a real-life example of how the method was applied to a specific project. As new methods are developed all the time, the deck will grow and evolve over time.

In its first year, the Method Cards appeared to have unexpected relevance to groups that are not necessarily engaged in design initiatives. Clients report using the tool to explore new approaches to problem-solving, gain perspective, inspire a team, turn a corner, try new approaches, and to adapt and develop their own methods.

IDEO Method Cards are available exclusively from William Stout Architectural Books in San Francisco.

Now, the legendary design & innovation firm is making the IDEO Method Cards available as an iPhone app

About This Video
People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web.

About Steven Johnson
Steven Berlin Johnson is the best-selling author of six books on the intersection of science, technology and personal experience. His forthcoming book examines "Where Good Ideas Come From."

Brooklyn-based Kickstarter enables people to "crowd-fund" new artistic projects (books, movies, films, etc.) and then follow along the progress of the project through regular updates.

Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors.

They believe that...

• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

Levis used Walt Whitman's Oh Pioneers! for this commercial.

I love this idea- genius really. The concept for these shoes came from a problem. After a long day or work or a night on the town in fashionable, yet extremly uncomfortable shoes, you have to hobble home with aching feet. Out of that problem came the idea for these roll-up ballet flats, by Rollasole. They’re sold in vending machines in clubs around England and the U.S. So, if it’s been a long night and your feet are about to fall off because of your heels, you can just drop about the same amount as you’d spend on a cab and spend the end of your evening in comfort.
The package even comes with a little tote bag to carry around your heels for the rest of the night.

Have you heard of Prezi? Prezi is a web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides. Text, images, videos and other presentation objects are placed on the infinite canvas and grouped together in frames. The canvas allows users to create non-linear presentations, where they can zoom in and out of a visual map. Very cool but takes a little time to get use to.

Prezi Site
Step by Step Tutorial of the Basics