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Infinite Horizon by George Christakis  

Infinite Horizon by George Christakis

George Christakis: Photos

 
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Osaka City by Vic Tsui  

Osaka City by Vic Tsui

Osaka City

Vic Tsui: Photos

 
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I Think We're Haunted by Michelle Magnoli  

I Think We're Haunted by Michelle Magnoli

Self-portrait. Living in a toxic enviornment is getting to me. My only hope is that it will make me a better artist.

Michelle Magnoli: Photos

 
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r0B0t: Washington University to train locusts to 'sniff out explosives' - Daily Mail  

Daily Mail

Washington University to train locusts to 'sniff out explosives' Daily Mail A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis hopes to breed 'cyberinsects' tuned to smell out explosives. Wing tattoos will allow researchers to steer the insects remotely. HOW IT WILL WORK. Researchers hope to develop and demonstrate a ... Cyborg locusts being developed to sniff out explosivesITV News Scientist Wants to Engineer Locusts Into Remote-Controlled Bomb DetectorsGizmodo Why is the Navy paying to engineer hordes of tattooed robot locusts?TrustedReviews BBC News -The Stack -Telegraph.co.uk -Engadget all 12 news articles »

 
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r0B0t: Amazon moves one step closer toward army of warehouse robots - The Guardian  

The Guardian

Amazon moves one step closer toward army of warehouse robots The Guardian Kiva robots transport goods at an Amazon Fulfillment Center, ahead of the Christmas rush, in Tracy, California in 2014. Photograph: Noah Berger/Reuters. Sam Thielman in New York. @samthielman. Tuesday 5 July 2016 15.15 EDT Last modified on Tuesday ... Amazon robot competition won by shelf stacking AI that could one day be used in warehousesThe Independent Team Delft Wins Amazon Picking ChallengeIEEE Spectrum Amazon robots close to replacing the rest of warehouse workersExtremeTech The Verge -BBC News -Engadget -Tech News Today all 23 news articles »

 
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Stonewall National Monument - Celebrating Love Over Hate  


On Monday, my teenage daughter and I attended a powerful dedication of our nation's newest addition to the National Park System, the Stonewall National Monument. President Obama designated this new national monument to celebrate and remind all of us of the great courage and commitment of gay right activists almost 50 years ago.

During the 1960's, the Stonewall Inn bar in lower Manhattan was one of the few places in our nation where lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people could safely convene, dance and recapture the humanity that was too often denied them in the rest of their lives. A police raid of the bar in 1969 elevated Stonewall as a national icon and spurred the gay rights movement across America and other parts of the world. The Stonewall monument designation on Monday also marks the one year anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. Today, the LGBTQ movement is seen as a powerful civil rights effort, creating equality and dignity for all.

Yet as we celebrated this newest national monument, many of the speakers also reminded us that we must remain vigilant in stopping hate crimes. The horrible mass shooting in the LGBTQ Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where 49 people were killed is a poignant reminder that such hatred towards LGBTQ people remains very real and deadly.

For me, this act of hatred and violence made me recall the horrific murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998. My wife and I lived in Laramie, Wyoming in the 1990's. The brutal beating by two men, who then left Matthew to die tied to a fencepost, was a hate crime that shattered our sense of Laramie as a small, safe town. It was an eye-opening glimpse into the cruelty faced by those targeted for their sexualized identity.

Eleven years after Matthew Shepard's murder, President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard Act that extended hate crime protections to LGBTQ people. Also, less than one year after Matthew's murder, my daughter was born. Today, 17 years later, being at the Stonewall designation instilled in her an affirmation of her value and place in our country and as a member of the LGBTQ rights movement.

The Stonewall National Monument will always remind us that our nation's history is complex and vivid. Adding the important history of Stonewall Inn to our National Park System validates our parks as places for and about all Americans. They are places where we come together to celebrate life, heal our wounds, and remember those that put it all on the line to protect our democracy.

Join me in thanking President Obama for yet another gift to America!

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The snow leopard -- world's most mysterious big cat -- may be more common than thought  
The snow leopard has long been one of the least studied and therefore poorly understood of the large cats. No longer.  
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Eye of the beetle: How the Emerald Ash Borer sees may be key to stopping it  
This iridescent jewel beetle, responsible for the death of more than 50 million ash trees in the United States, has blazed an absolute path of destruction west since its discovery in Michigan in 2002. Recently the pest has been detected in Colorado, and just this spring it was confirmed in Nebraska and Texas. Researchers have been doing more than just watching the migration patterns -- they've been studying the creature in hopes of helping to slow it.  
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What Senate Backers Aren't Saying About the GMO "Compromise" Bill  
Last week, Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) announced what they bill as a "compromise" deal that would label GMO foods across the nation. But the advocacy groups that have fought so long and hard for clear GMO labeling aren't cheering: They know the bill is a gift to the agribusiness and biotech industries--not a compromise. That's why consumer advocates have dubbed the bill the Denying Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act.

Here's what the backers of the bill don't want their constituents to know about the DARK Act:

The Bill Is Not a National Labeling Solution.

The backers of the Senate bill are portraying this as a big victory for those of us who don't live in Vermont, which passed a GMO labeling law that goes into effect today. (The Senate committee's Twitter feed even posted a map showing that their bill would spread Vermont-style labeling across all 50 states.) But this is a misleading claim.

The Vermont law is about clear, on-package labeling, but that's not what the Senate is proposing. This bill is not about expanding GMO labeling; it's about preventing states like Vermont from taking action. As the bill states, it would "immediately prohibit states or other entities from mandating labels of food or seed that is genetically engineered."

The fact is, clear GMO labels are already appearing in stores nationwide, thanks to the Vermont law, because it's much easier for a company to provide GMO labels on all of its products than just the ones going to Vermont. Companies that have publicly agreed to comply with the Vermont law include Mars, General Mills, Kellogg's, ConAgra, and Campbell Soup. GMO labels can already be found on packages of Snickers, M&Ms, Lay's Potato Chips, Cheetos, Doritos, Fritos and Smartfood Popcorn, among others. But this bill would put an end to that.

Furthermore, New York, Massachusetts and other states have ongoing efforts to label GMOs at the state level--efforts that the DARK Act would effectively shut down. Indeed, that is its true purpose.

The Bill Does Not Clearly Label GMOs.

Advocates of GMO labeling have pushed for clear, on-package language, just like what's required under the Vermont law. But the Senate bill would allow manufacturers to post "call for more information" phone numbers or even smart phone "QR codes" if they so desire--meaning that if you have a phone with the right app installed, a steady hand and a solid data connection you'll be able to access a website that will tell you what's in the food you're buying.

That's not a label--that's a hassle.

The Bill Has No Penalties for Violators.

In announcing the bill, Sen. Stabenow said: "For the first time ever, consumers will have a national, mandatory label for food products that contain genetically modified ingredients." But there is no mandatory recall authority if a company does not comply with the suggested QR code or 800 number options (or any of the other vague and meager aspects of the bill.) Nor are there any penalties or fines associated with non-compliance. How can labels be mandatory if there are not even the most modest attempts to require enforcement?

The Bill Does Not Cover All Genetically Engineered Food Ingredients.

A bill that claims to be a "mandatory system of disclosure for food that contains GMO ingredients" must require labels that mention GMOs, right? Not necessarily. As McClatchy reported, "food manufacturers would have wide discretion under the new law to comply, and the now-familiar terms 'GMO,' 'genetically modified' or 'biotechnology' aren't guaranteed to appear."

Furthermore, the definition of "genetically engineered" could mean that some of the most pervasive GMO crops might not require a label. That's why Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin said the bill "would potentially allow products with a significant portion of GMO ingredients to skate by without being subject to labeling requirements." The bill would not even apply to many forms of genetically engineered food--only foods produced with traditional forms of genetic engineering. This leaves out emerging techniques like gene editing.

The Bill Benefits Corporations, Not Consumers

The industry has been chomping at the bit to repeal Vermont's law. This bill does that. The industry has long said GMO labels should be voluntary, meaning companies get to decide how much information consumers get. That's precisely what this bill does--puts all the power in the hands of food companies, while ensuring that consumers are left wondering what is in their food. This bill is no compromise--it's a gift to agribusiness and biotechnology companies that have fought popular, state-based labeling initiatives for the past five years.

Americans should know this--even if Senate backers of the bill refuse to say it.

This piece originally appeared at TheHill.com's Congress Blog.

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Learning about the hummingbirds and the bees in floral diversity  
The floral diversity and repeated shifts in pollination have inspired a series of scientists to study adaptive evolution in the genus. But until now many of the species relationships have been unresolved and hampered by the very thing that makes studying the genus so appealing. The rapid speciation and evolutionary radiation that makes studying adaptation in these groups so interesting have also meant the species relationships have been difficult to resolve -- until now.  
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Don't Fight Meatless Mondays, Fight The Pro-Animal Protein PR Machine  
Meat. In America, the suggestion that our health and the Earth's might benefit from our eating less of it is almost as hot-button a topic as religion or politics.

But I'm not here to pry the hamburgers out of anyone's cold, dead hands. I just want to clear up some misconceptions about the Meatless Monday program caused recently by Iowa Senator Joni Ernst. She was so concerned by even the suggestion that the U.S. military consider adopting this long-established program promoting going vegetarian once a week that she has introduced legislation to prevent it.

"Our men and women in uniform should have the option to consume the protein they need, including meat, on a daily basis," she said in an emailed statement to Time.

I'm not a soldier, nutritionist, or a vegetarian, so I turned to the experts in my contacts list to help me explain all the many problems with that sentence.

Myth #1: Running a Meatless Monday program means there is no animal protein to be found anywhere on the menu that day.

Wrong! We hear this one frequently on the couple dozen college campuses where we participate in Meatless Mondays. While the goal of the program is a simple one, to get people to "once a week, cut the meat," as they put it, no one is being forced to do so. There is still meat to be found on the menu that day. There are just a lot more vegetarian and vegan dishes focused on plant-based proteins than usual -- from the many global cuisines that don't fetishize meat and cheese the way Americans do --  in order to tempt carnivores to try something new. The official Meatless Monday program's how-to kit for food service actually says "Meatless Monday is a campaign about adding options, not taking them away. ...[B]usinesses that offer choices to their customers tend to have greater success."

So, to be clear, even if the U.S. armed forces were to adopt Meatless Mondays, soldiers could still have the option to consume whatever form of protein they chose.

Myth #2: Soldiers (and athletes) need protein more than the rest of us.

Nope, but this one's a little more complicated, so I asked Terri Brownlee, our director of nutrition and wellness, to explain it. (She has all those expert acronyms like MPH, RD, and LDN after her name.) Protein is just one of the macronutrients (including fats and carbohydrates) that all animals need for their bodies to function properly. "How much protein you need is calculated based on body size, with the standard recommendation 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram daily or 8 grams of protein for every 20 pounds of body weight," she said. In case you're as metric-math challenged as I am, that means 2.8 ounces for the average 195-pound man and 2.3 ounces for the average 166-pound woman. Men tend to need more than women only because men tend to be bigger than women. "Protein needs are based on lean body weight vs. actual," she adds, explaining that although a larger muscular person needs more protein than will a smaller muscular person, "a larger person with more body fat does not need more protein than a smaller muscular person, generally speaking."

You don't need animal protein to bulk up: just look at the gorilla, hippo, rhino, and elephant -- all herbivores!

So yes, soldiers and athletes may need more protein than us couch potatoes. I said "may." A  2014 report from a national-security group found that obesity among active duty personnel rose 61 percent between 2002 and 2011.

As I've already mentioned, choosing not to eat meat one day a week is not the same as giving up animal products entirely. However, there are plenty of elite athletes who are vegetarian or vegan, including these 14 huge, vegan, and "probably immortal" bodybuilders. You don't need animal protein to bulk up: just look at the gorilla, hippo, rhino, and elephant -- all herbivores!

Myth #3: Protein from animals is different and somehow better than protein from plants.

It is different, based on the amino acid makeup, but it isn't necessarily better, Terri explained to me. Animal sources of protein are more easily broken down by the human body and deliver all the amino acids we need in one food, while plant-based protein sources, such as vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds, all lack one or more essential amino acids. But you can get all the ones you need just by eating a mixture of plants, which don't have the other health baggage meat carries (harmful fats, processed meats' link to carcinogens, often high sodium content, etc.) and do offer important things like fiber to aid digestion, carbohydrates for energy, and vitamins and other nutrients.

Myth #4: Americans need to worry about getting enough protein daily.

Pretty much everyone -- outside the meat industry and politicians from the big meat-producing states -- agrees that this is the one aspect of the American diet we don't have to worry about. The average American eats around 130 pounds of meat and poultry annually, according to the Wall Street Journal's analysis of USDA data, or 5.9 ounces daily.

That number doesn't count seafood, and it doesn't count protein from plants. Thanks to the Paleo diet and other low-carb crazes, we're eating more meat as well as high-protein plant sources like  nuts and seeds like quinoa than ever before. Remember the 2.8- and 2.3-ounce recommended daily allowances for our average man and woman above? That's a portion size smaller than a bar of soap. Chances are good you're getting triple or quadruple the amount of protein you "need" from multiple sources without even trying.

Myth #5: Big Meat is just looking out for our best interests and good health.

So we're back to the point I made at the beginning. Why do Americans love their meat so much?

Partly it's our history as a country. Meat has always been plentiful here. Colonial America was teeming with wild game and fish. Domestic animals thrived and fattened. Historians have noted that for centuries, even the poor in the United States could afford meat or fish for every meal.

We've come to believe that we have a right to cheap meat, even though there are many hidden costs -- both environmental and to public health -- not reflected in the price-per-pound sticker. "Most people like eating meat -- it's what desperately poor people most want when they first get some money -- and lots of people want to believe that what they eat is entirely a matter of personal choice," says New York University nutrition expert Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and many other books, when asked why Americans are so attached to our bacon and hamburgers. "But the fight about Meatless Monday is much more about meat industry fears of loss of market share."

The meat lobby is one of the most powerful in America. For years, as Marion, Michael Pollan,  and many others have chronicled, it has fought to prevent the US Dietary Guidelines from specifically telling people to eat less meat. Yet consumption is finally slowing.

Iowa, the state that Senator Ernst represents, is No.1 in pork production as well as in growing corn and soy for animal feed. Banning Meatless Mondays under the pretense of protecting our soldiers is just the latest salvo in a losing war.

So don't believe all the hype. No one is going to take your hamburger away. But choosing to forgo meat one day (or more) a week would be a good thing for all of us to do.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Dan Chu: Stonewall National Monument - Celebrating Love Over Hate  
On Monday, my teenage daughter and I attended a powerful dedication of our nation's newest addition to the National Park System, the Stonewall Nationa...

Read more: Environment, National Monuments, Sierra Club, Public Lands, Stonewall, Green News

 
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If Aliens Ever Attack Earth, We Need to Protect the Moon or Die Trying  
This article was originally posted on Inverse.



By Neel V. Patel

In the world of science fiction, when aliens attack the Earth, they often go after another rocky sphere. That would be the moon, our planet's only natural satellite. Although there are exactly zero humans currently residing on the moon, zero pieces of essential equipment or instruments (although let's be real, those lunar go-karts are pretty dope) situated on its surface or its orbit, and no concrete sense of whether it possesses any valuable resources, the moon is essential to our species' survival on this planet. If hostile aliens were to blow it to bits or cause some serious damage to it, human would be in serious trouble -- even if we managed to successfully repel an extraterrestrial threat.

The moon has played a key role in shaping the way natural processes of Earth, and it continues to do so today. The moon is thought to have been formed just a mere 30 million years after the Earth (which itself is 4.53 billion years old). Since then, the moon's single greatest (and most obvious) effect on the Earth has been the mediation of the ebb and flow of tides on the planet's bodies of water.

Scientist believe that in the infancy of this relationship, the moon's distance from Earth was half of what it is today -- and this resulted in much more extreme tides. These tides drove heat from the equator to the poles, leading to ice ages. These glacial shifts spurred more rapid migratory patterns in various species, resulting in a more diverse array of life around the globe. In fact, because of how important water is to molecular processes in primitive life and organic materials, tide shifts may have acted as a kind of natural way for those chemical reactions to get rid of or acquire water in the formation of basic structures like nucleic acids. In other words, tides may have jumpstarted or encouraged the evolution of life on Earth.


Because it's gone forever.

Okay, that's a pretty cool history lesson, but what about today? What exactly would be the biggest impact on our lives today if the moon disappeared or had a chunk ripped out from itself?"

"We'd lose the normal rhythm of tides," says Noah Petro, a research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center who works with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. He tells Inverse we'd probably lose the large tides we're used to on a day-to-day basis, and instead experience "smaller tides, caused by the Earth's rotation with the sun."

The most noticeable effect this would have is that we'd see oceans around the world level off, to a certain extent. While initially that might save coastal communities from having to deal with potential floods during high-tide, it would also mean they would lose the benefits of low tide. That would wreak havoc on clams, which would have a cascading effect on underwater ecosystems as well as the beachside food shacks worldwide.

Furthermore, the moon plays a significant role in distorting water around the equator. Without a natural satellite, that water would probably redistribute itself around the poles. This might seem like a good thing for coastal cities by the ocean that are constantly threatened by rising floods. But this is awful for bodies of water inland that are fed by oceans. We might see estuaries -- responsible for desalinating water naturally -- dry up or become significantly reduced. Rivers and lakes further inland would also shrink by quite a bit.

Unless we manage to make artificial desalination technology viable, we'd see the whole world inundated by water shortages -- and that's already a problem much of the world is currently contending with.

Petro also cites two other significant effects the moon's vanishing act would have on Earth. "The moon stabilizes Earth's orbit," he says, "so we'd see changes to the climate we're currently used to." He points to Mars as an indicator of what we might see. Mars doesn't have large moons like Earth's to affect its axial tilt as much, so the red planet is stuck with very long ice ages.

On Earth, there would be a significant amount of long winters, and "a general cooling off," of the world at first, he says, perhaps followed by a warming. We'd see "wild extremes" that are more drawn out and last much longer than the planet has previously exhibited. Petro emphasizes that these climatic effects would certainly not be felt immediately -- they would occur on a scale of 1,000 to 10,000 years. But there is one other effect that humans would have to find solutions to very quickly if the moon were blown up or hit with some sort of explosive force: debris.

A lot of material, he says, would be expelled into Earth's orbit, and some of it might even push through the atmosphere and strike the surface. If that debris were big enough, we'd basically deal with a catastrophic scenario of falling moon rocks that not even Brian May would be able to fix.

Let's also not forget the fact that orbital debris is also an increasing threat to the world's satellite currently zipping around the globe. Some of those instruments are extremely important to communications systems used by governments and militaries. If aliens fired a bunch of missiles at the moon, we can basically kiss those satellites goodbye. Hopefully we have a few landlines still lying around as a backup.

"Fortunately, we don't expect the destruction of the moon to happen," Petro added, laughing.

MORE FROM INVERSE:

• When Alien Invasions Are Actually a Good Thing
• 
  
• How to Stop Worrying and Love Bad 'Star Trek' Movies
• 
  
• The Sex Robots Controversy, Explained
• 
  
• A Single-Language Facebook Is Coming Soon
• 
  
• Why Jon Snow Should Never Be King on 'Game of Thrones'

Photos via YouTube

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More Scenes from Ramadan 2016 (38 photos)  

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan is a time of reflection and prayer. Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and sex during the daylight hours in order to focus on spirituality, good deeds, and charity. When the sun sets, communities come together for Iftar, the breaking of the fast. Now that the month has come to a close, Eid al-Fitr, or the festival of the breaking of the fast, begins. We looked at Ramadan earlier this month, but there were just so many more great photographs, we're doing it again.

 
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Afterglow  

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Sunset over Tottenham

 
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TAKE ME BACK AGAIN  

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Celebrating Juno's Arrival at Jupiter  
The Juno team celebrates after receiving confirmation from the spacecraft that it had successfully completed the engine burn and entered orbit of Jupiter, Monday, July 4, 2016 in mission control of the Space Flight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Juno mission launched August 5, 2011 and will orbit the planet for 20 months.  
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_DSF4123.jpg  

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Oyster mouth Castle  

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Oystermouthcastle, castle / swansea / wales / united kingdom
The early castle[edit]
The first castle was founded by William de Londres of Ogmore Castle soon after 1106 following the capture of Gower by the Normans. In 1116 the Welsh of Deheubarth retook the Gower Peninsula and forced William to flee his castle which was put to the torch. The castle was rebuilt soon afterwards, but was probably destroyed again in 1137 when Gower was once more retaken by the princes of Deheubarth. The Londres or London family finally died out in 1215 when Gower was again taken by the Welsh under the leadership of Llywelyn the Great. In 1220 the Welsh were expelled from the peninsula and the government of Henry III of England returned the barony of Gower to John de Braose who rebuilt both Swansea Castle and Oystermouth.

 
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ISIS: The Cornered Beast  
Claiming more than three hundred lives, most of them Muslim, the attacks by ISIS in Turkey, Bangladesh, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia have created pandemonium. Since the early months of this year, ISIS has suffered a series of defeats. But the real lesson is that it will take much more than military victories to defeat ISIS.  
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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2016/jul/05/ay-caramba-horniman-museum-festival-of-brasil  
The day I danced my Brexit woes away with a Brazilian | Jonathan Jones  

The Horniman's Festival of Brasil is a cocktail of culture, costumes and chaos and carnival spirit is just what we need this British so-called summertime

How could I stop thinking about Britain's misery? There I was, in a sunny south London park on a Sunday afternoon, dully reading political news on my phone, when I was persuaded to put on a cow mask and skirt and join in a carnival. Crisis? What crisis? It was time to parade and dance.

Led by a mirror-shaded policeman riding a hobbyhorse and seduced by trumpeters and drummers, a crowd of dazed Brits embraced a Brazilian festive fever. We became a small part of Rio de Janeiro. As the carnival director told us, the point was not to show off our costumes but to go wild and enjoy ourselves without inhibitions, by dancing to that infectious beat, throwing ourselves to the ground, forming human tunnels. And doing a hokey cokey in which everyone near me shouted “In”'. (Turns out, you can't escape the aftermath of the EU referendum.)

Related: Wild walks, slides and crazy golf: art shows to throw yourself into

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https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2016/jul/05/jukebox-jewkbox-jewish-popular-music-in-pictures  
'Part biblical, part polyester': Jewish pop  in pictures  

From superstar cantors to Streisand and CBGB's roster of rebels, Jews have played an influential part in the rise of popular music. The new exhibition Jukebox, Jewkbox! charts the highs of Yiddish theatre, punk politics and Israeli folk

• Jukebox, Jewkbox! A Century on Shellac and Vinyl is at the Jewish Museum, London, 14 July-16 October

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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/4-10-july-2016/coke-zero-rebrands-coca-cola-zero-sugar/  
Coke Zero rebrands as Coca Cola Zero Sugar with message of moderation  

Coca Cola Zero Sugar has been re-launched in the UK, backed by a £10 million ad campaign, a new name and new design.

Formerly Coke Zero, the renamed drink fits in with other products in the Coke family as part of it's “one brand” strategy, as we found out from vice president of global design at Coca-Cola James Somerville in April. You can read the full story here.

The new Coca Cola Zero Sugar design, which features a red disk was unveiled in April but only rolls out to the UK market now. It carries the strapline “Taste's more like Coke, looks more like Coke”.

The new campaign and the positioning are part of Coca Cola's drive to encourage consumers to cut down the amount of sugar they consume.

Coke Zero's last overhaul was in 2014, which was designed by Bulletproof and positioned around a “Just add Zero” campaign.

The post Coke Zero rebrands as Coca Cola Zero Sugar with message of moderation appeared first on Design Week.

 
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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/4-10-july-2016/rebrand-charity-well/  
How to rebrand a charity and do it well  

It's been a tough year for charities. According to a report by the Charity Commission, their reputation has collapsed. We're uncomfortable with their aggressive fundraising, we distrust how they spend our money and we have doubts about the difference they make to the causes we support.

Design can't change the way charities behave. But the connections they make with us are what creates trust, so their need to communicate well is greater now than ever.

What's with all the fake kid's drawings?

It's been decades since charities first latched onto the importance of identity so why does the sector still look like a design scrapyard? Why is it awash with clichés and me-too design? What's with all the corny people icons, fake kid's drawings, and vacuous, clipart-like symbols? Why are so many charity identities mind-numbingly ordinary if not downright garbage?

A shortage of half-sensible budgets is one reason. But there's more to it than that. Charities do themselves all sorts of disfavours. They like jumping on bandwagons. They're inclined to imitate rather than embrace ideas that are individual to them. And they want to be loved by everyone, which can make impossible demands on their communications.

Trustees that know nothing about communications

What's more, charities can be exasperating to deal with because of their governance and the “democratic” way they're managed. Trustees usually have the final say on a new identity, but they generally know little or nothing about communications so their opinions can be irritatingly subjective.

So here's how to survive in the curious world of charity identity and how to go about conjuring up work that invites people in and makes them want to know more.

Stop peddling snake oil

You know who you are. You use words like differentiation, touchpoints, behaviours and learnings. Time and again, gibberish is passed off as “brand insight” and the upshot is work that's not what it's cracked up to be. Quit trying to bamboozle people and do your job properly. If you expect charities to behave with honesty, integrity and straightforwardness, you should too.

Listen

Listening is the most important thing designers do. Everyone's got stories to tell so listen to trustees, listen to management, listen to staff and listen to volunteers. You only learn things when you listen.

Have an opinion

In the creativity game, you're not a player unless you've got an opinion. Be single-minded. Don't waste time trying to please everyone. Be crystal-clear about what you need to do and get on with it. One bloody good idea is all it takes.

Trust your intuition

Charities are increasingly risk-averse. Consultation and research are used to lessen the risk of failure rather than boost the chance of success. Design should be about the sheer joy and excitement of doing things that haven't been done before. So if you want your work to be truly unforgettable, you've got to be daring and you've got to trust your intuition it's always right.

Don't take no for an answer

Intelligent, idiosyncratic identities can be hard to sell because they drag people into their discomfort zone. Charities are inclined to resist ideas that rock the boat, so design that's never going to get noticed usually wins the day. Don't let it happen. Gutsy, ballsy, feisty ideas are what charities really need and it's up to you to make sure that's what they get.

Idiosyncratic + ruthless = unforgettable

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is my formula for an unforgettable identity. It has to be idiosyncratic; that's to say, everything an organisation says and does and the way it looks should be so individual and characteristically ‘them' that they just couldn't be mistaken for any other. It's those idiosyncrasies that need to be uncovered, given form and voice, and ruthlessly protected.

John Spencer is the founder and creative director of Offthetopofmyhead

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https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/4-10-july-2016/dyson-brings-engineering-life-new-london-store/  
Dyson “brings engineering to life” with new London store  

Technology brand Dyson will open its first ever permanent London store this week, which will allow people to try out products first-hand and learn about the science behind them.

The Dyson Demo is based on Oxford Street, and showcases the company's portfolio of products including its regular, cordless and autonomous vacuum cleaners, purifier fans, LED lighting and the recently launched Supersonic hairdryer.

Dyson Demo has been designed by Dyson in partnership with WilkinsonEyre, the architectural practice which also recreated the brand's headquarters and factory in Malmesbury, Wiltshire in a £250 million project in 2014.

The space is spread over two floors the ground floor features white plinths presenting the portfolio of products, including the Dyson Pure Cool Link purifier fan, the Dyson 360 Eye robot (robot vacuum cleaner), Supersonic hairdryer, and the Cu-Beam lighting range.

The walls are also adorned with copies of the V8 cord-free vacuum, alongside pots containing different types of dust, food and debris. Visitors are then invited to test the vacuum cleaner on four different floor surfaces, with the dirt of their choice.

A glass staircase designed by WilkinsonEyre leads to the first floor, which includes hair salon stations where visitors can have their hair styled with the Supersonic hairdryer. The area also includes moving, mechanical installations which demonstrate the product testing phase of the hairdryer on real samples of human hair.

Dyson “experts”, who work alongside engineers at the headquarters in Malmesbury, will also be stationed around the store at all times for visitors to speak to about the science behind the products.

Tom Mogridge, a Dyson senior design engineer, says that these “experts” “understand how the engineers think” and have “good insight into the company's products”. “It's really exciting that a product that I've worked on is able to be demonstrated for visitors in store,” he says.

The space also includes digital screens used across walls, which show the products in action.

There are no tills, but visitors are able to buy products in-store once they have spoken to somebody and tested out a product.

Jake Dyson, research, design and development director, and the son of company founder James Dyson, says: “The Dyson Demo encourages people to be hands-on. It's all about showing the inner workings of products it's really important to demonstrate them first hand so people understand the engineering behind them.”

Max Conze, chief executive officer at Dyson, adds that the space will help to educate visitors about the “fundamentally different ways” that Dyson technology works, and will “bring engineering to life”.

The space will also be used for engineering workshops for school children during holidays, hosted by the James Dyson Foundation.

The Dyson Demo concept was originally created in Paris, France in 1999, also designed by WilkinsonEyre. A space was created in Tokyo, Japan last year, and in Jakarta, Indonesia earlier this year. Dyson hopes to roll out more Demo retail spaces worldwide, including in the U.S.

The interactive learning environment concept is similar to that of Apple, which opened a San Francisco learning space earlier this year. The first similar conceptual Apple store was opened in 2001.

The Dyson Demo London retail space is based at 447 Oxford Street, London and opens 6 July.

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