Augmented Reality: Second Sight

I'm curious how this might affect the art space within the next 10 years.

Mass Effect Movie announced

Great news for ME fans.

Taken from Bioware's forums:

Legendary Pictures, the studio behind great films such as The Dark Knight, Watchmen, The Hangover and 300 have picked up the rights to make Mass Effect. Legendary Pictures will produce with Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni along with Avi Arad (who has been behind great films like Iron Man, X-Men and Spider-Man). From BioWare Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuck and Casey Hudson will serve as executive producers.

"At BioWare, we’ve always thought of Mass Effect as having the depth, emotion and plot twists perfectly suited for an adaptation to a motion picture,” said Casey Hudson, executive producer of the Mass Effect series. “With Avi Arad and Legendary attached, we believe that the Mass Effect movie will be an extraordinary entertainment event that realizes our vision for the franchise and thrills fans.”

Rise Robots Rise

God I miss these guys. I wonder if there's any chance of them getting back together and doing something brilliant again.

Edward Tufte accepts Presidential Appointment

If you are anywhere near the industry of information design and visual communication, I highly recommend that you become familiar with this man.

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Edward Tufte Presidential Appointment

Original article here

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 5, 2010

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON

President Obama announced his intent to appoint several individuals to serve on the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel. Their bios are below.

President Obama said, "These impressive individuals will be valued additions to our team as we work to confront the challenges facing our nation. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come."

Steven Koch, Appointee for Member, Recovery Independent Advisory Panel
Steven Koch is a Vice Chairman and Co-Chairman of Credit Suisse's Mergers and Acquisitions Group. He joined Credit Suisse in 1985. Mr. Koch also teaches in the Director's Consortium, a semi-annual seminar he helped to organize, that is sponsored by the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Stanford Law School. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sinai Health System in Chicago and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, The Board of Trustees of the Francis W. Parker School and the Green Ribbon Committee of the Chicago Climate Action Plan. Mr. Koch received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his B.A. from Hampshire College.

Chris Sale, Appointee for Member, Recovery Independent Advisory Panel
Chris Sale is Vice President for Development Finance at CHF International where she provides guidance and informs policy for the CHF International's microenterprise, housing finance, and small to medium enterprise lending programs. Ms. Sale has more than twenty years of experience in finance and development, having served as the Deputy Advisor for External Relations for the Inter-American Development Bank, Deputy to the Chairman and CFO of the FDIC, COO of the US Small Business Administration, among other positions. She is currently a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and the Finance and Investment Chair for the National Partnership for Women and Families. She received an MBA from American University and completed her undergraduate work at Boston University.

Malcolm K. Sparrow, Appointee for Member, Recovery Independent Advisory Panel
Malcolm K. Sparrow is a Professor of the Practice of Public Management at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he has been teaching since 1988. Before joining the Harvard University faculty, Dr. Sparrow served 10 years with the British Police Service, gaining extensive experience in criminal investigation and rising to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector. At Harvard his research and teaching has focused on the distinctive challenges faced by regulatory and law enforcement agencies as they seek to control risks and threats of various kinds. Dr. Sparrow has authored several books and worked closely with U.S. and overseas regulators on issues including crime, terrorism, corruption, fraud, environmental protection, safety management and regulatory compliance. He holds a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, a MPA from the Kennedy School, and a MA in mathematics from Cambridge University.

Edward Tufte, Appointee for Member, Recovery Independent Advisory Panel
Edward Tufte is Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Statistics, and Computer Science at Yale University. He wrote, designed, and self-published The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information, Visual Explanations, and Beautiful Evidence, which have received 40 awards for content and design. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Society for Technical Communication, and the American Statistical Association. He received his PhD in political Science from Yale University and BS and MS in statistics from Stanford University.

______________________________________________________________________________

From ET:

I will be serving on the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel. This Panel advises The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, whose job is to track and explain $787 billion in recovery stimulus funds:

"The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board was created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with two goals:

To provide transparency in relation to the use of Recovery-related funds.
To prevent and detect fraud, waste, and mismanagement.
Earl E. Devaney was appointed by President Obama to serve as chairman of the Recovery Board. Twelve Inspectors General from various federal agencies serve with Chairman Devaney. The Board issues quarterly and annual reports to the President and Congress and, if necessary, "flash reports" on matters that require immediate attention. In addition, the Board maintains the Recovery.gov website so the American people can see how Recovery money is being distributed by federal agencies and how the funds are being used by the recipients.

Mission statement: To promote accountability by coordinating and conducting oversight of Recovery funds to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse and to foster transparency on Recovery spending by providing the public with accurate, user-friendly information."


I'm doing this because I like accountability and transparency, and I believe in public service. And it is the complete opposite of everything else I do. Maybe I'll learn something. The practical consequence is that I will probably go to Washington several days each month, in addition to whatever homework and phone meetings are necessary.

-- Edward Tufte, March 7, 2010

Keeping an eye on this

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

I do miss the Mako.

painter11

I do miss the Mako from ME1. It was honestly fun to drive.

This was done a couple months ago when my wife started up a new character in ME1 in order to carry over into ME2. Brought back nostalgia. I didn't like this painting after working on it for a while so I forgot about it and worked on other projects, but tonight I peeked at it and found that I didn't mind it so much, maybe a fresh perspective and all that.

Work in Progress: mock book cover for Le Guin's Rocannon's World

painter11

Work in Progress: Tiefling Warlock

painter11