softexpose.com

Between 1988 and 1997 there were roughly 96,000 felony indictments in New York so on average, just under 10,000 per year during this 10 year span. Of the 96,000 cases, how many defendants entered a not guilty plea by reason of insanity? They don’t need to have won the case. Simply, of the 96,000 homicide cases tried in New York, how many pleas of insanity were entered during this time?

Let me know what you think and I’ll post the answer. Then, I’ll tell you of those cases, how many won!

Originally by Andrea from Andrea Harner on August 30, 2007, 8:56am

I’m a big fan of Moleskine journals, both the full-size and the small cahiers. I usually end up writing in them in both directions, with one collection of content, say daily thoughts, ideas, artwork, and work-related miscellany, going from front to back and another type, say brainstorming for a book, going from back to to front. And then I usually have a couple of other though clusters tossed somewhere in the middle. I’ve tried conventional tabs, but I hate the little flappy things. So I might try this idea I bumped into on a new site for “tiny inventions,” called Inventoids. Cut “innie” tabs. I think I’ll try it. You can always use color marker bands on the edges, but I think this looks cooler. It’s an interesting option, anyway. YMMV.

Moleskine indexing hack tool - Link

From the pages of CRAFT:

Journal-Art Memoirs. Make a scrapbook the Moleskine way. Read this article in our print magazine, CRAFT 02: Creative Clones, Page 127. To get CRAFT, subscribe today. Subscribers–read this article now in your digital edition!

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on August 29, 2007, 9:00pm

While we’re on the subject of dastardly dangerous DIY, here’s a piece on how to turn a railroad spike into a rope dart, an ancient Chinese martial arts weapon. This video shows how a rope dart is used by a trained Kung Fu artist. Flailed around by someone who doesn’t know what s/he is doing is obviously a recipe for a knock-out, or worse, so proceed with all sensible caution.

How to Make a Rope Dart from a Rail Road Spike - Link

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Originally from MAKE Magazine on August 29, 2007, 7:00pm

Originally by Andrea from Andrea Harner on August 30, 2007, 7:37am

Lokesh Dhakar’s “Coffee Drinks Illustrated” is a wonderful, clean, lucid infographic showing the relative composition of a variety of espresso beverages.

Link

(via Neatorama)

Originally by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing on August 29, 2007, 3:54pm

Two years ago today, Hurricane Katrina destroyed thousands of homes, business, and lives in America.

Photographer Clayton James Cubitt has personal ties to the Gulf Coast, and his portraits of Katrina survivors are featured in this month’s issue of Eyemazing, the international journal of contemporary photography, along with an interview. Snip:

CM: Where were they taken? All of them except for three seem to be taken in a studio-like setting. Why did you choose that rather than shooting the subjects in the context of their surroundings at the time?

CJC: The studio portraits were taken in a former school gymnasium that had been cleared out and cleaned, and was serving as a distribution point for aid in the small Gulf Coast town of Pearlington, Mississippi, which was ground zero for Hurricane Katrina. The whole town was under 30 feet of storm surge, and had to fend for itself with no outside help for almost ten
days.

I wanted to shoot many portraits in a studio context in order to separate these images from the flood of photojournalistic images that came out of New Orleans. I think people have become so jaded as visual consumers that when they see a photograph that’s obviously reportage, they immediately shove it into a safe little compartment called “other.” This happens in Haiti, or Africa, or Pakistan, not America, and all the images look the same, with the victims of the tragedy filling the same role, that of making Americans feel relieved that they live in America. Well, this is America.

I wanted to short-circuit that automatic filing. I wanted to present these people with the same care and respect I would use when on assignment shooting a portrait of a celebrity or a politician. I think it allows for a lingering appreciation of what they’ve been through, in small doses, rather than in an overwhelming image of total disaster, which is very hard to really absorb in the two seconds most viewers allot a photograph.

But mostly, I wanted to treat them with the respect they deserve, but never get.

na-related photos from Clayton: Link.

Originally by Xeni Jardin from Boing Boing on August 29, 2007, 7:23pm