Swans on Tea

… but it doesn’t.

Michael Tyznik’s US Currency Redesign

Contrary to rumors circulating in chain emails, this design is not the work of or in any relation to the U.S. government. It was my entry to the Dollar Rede$ign contest and is purely speculative.

American banknotes are in dire need of a redesign. Even though the green color of money is deeply interwoven into the nation’s culture, the need for color differentiation between denominations has forced the inclusion of color. The recent redesign of banknotes by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is poorly executed and aesthetically lacking. Because the coloring of the current notes is so subtle, it is still hard to differentiate between denominations by that method alone.

flickr gallery

Smartphone Domino Machine

APOD: 2010 April 25 The Ant Nebula

I will say this: I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords. Because there’s no chance a phrase from The Simpsons could ever become hackneyed.

Compare the population density of the world, with the nighttime image, which should be some kind of proxy of electric power availability.

In most places, there is a reasonable correlation with high population density giving you bright lights. In some places, like the US, even low population density is noticeably lit up. Now take a peek at Nepal and Bangladesh, just above India. That’s scary to me; all those people living in close proximity without access to modern “conveniences.” Scary in a different way is central China, because one might suspect that electrification is going to be expanding there soon, with all the implications to carbon being dumped into the atmosphere.