Kinetic Loop

The female CEO of Ning is on the May cover of Fast Company in a tank top. The kind that I sleep in. Then, in the table of contents, there’s a photo of her in the same tank top, sitting at a table with chairman Marc Andreessen, who’s wearing a blue collared shirt. I wanted to run into the paper and throw a jacket over her shoulders.

The first photo in the story is of her standing next to a tripod in the tank top. I feel like I’ve seen a hundred pictures of this woman in a tank top in just a few minutes. In the article, I find out that Bianchini was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and has an MBA from Stanford. So why is she wearing a tank top in every photo? Is Fast Company playing up her “working-class roots” by making her look like Stanley Kowalski?

In November 2005, FC’s cover was Marissa Mayer, another very attractive woman, in a turtleneck. What happened behind the scenes? Did Mayer tell FC to go fuck themselves (in a polite way, of course) if they tried to put her in something else? Did Bianchini acquiesce to FC’s tank top request or did she choose it herself? I don’t know.

A whimsical look at the scone-making, lettuce-growing, swing-dancing, bike-riding life of Bill Nye in his retrofitted, eco-friendly house in L.A.

Too bad I wasn’t using my telephoto lens. Taken by the new wing of the Art Institute.

Design and the Elastic Mind at MoMA. Over 300 works about changes in technology, science and history. Projects are in categories such as Future Mores, Harvesting the Internet, 3D Printing, Mapping, Sensory Design, Scenes from a Nanotech World and more. I could be here all day.

“‘The German Canoeing Federation put a lot of pressure on me regarding attendance of training camps and various other things,’ she said.” The first rule of the German Canoeing Federation is - you do not talk about the German Canoeing Federation. The second rule of the German Canoeing Federation is - you DO NOT talk about the German Canoeing Federation.

This has 20 gondolas and 5,392 light bulbs. And I really, really hope that no one buys this for their kid.

McCabe says McIntosh was wearing “facial makeup, lipstick, blue Capri pants, red flip-flops, a flowery blouse and a matching flowery women’s bra.” Yeah, that’s what I look for in a bra.

The Vancouver Museum is going to fix their existential crisis. (May I suggest a ferris wheel?)

The Siskel Film Center is somewhat inexplicably showing The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance tonight at 6pm. “A civilization-bringing lawyer battles an anarchic outlaw (Lee Marvin - “You’re not gonna hurt me, I’m gonna hurt you”) with the aid of an individualistic rancher.”

Finally, someone in Chicago has lost their pit bull, Felony. They sound like nice people. “Reward will be paid” — if you haven’t been devoured yet. Also: coincidence? I think not. “Our pet cockatiel bird, Magnet, accidentally escaped our home on 3/19/08. She was last seen flying west of Eastwood Ave.” Magnet knows the meaning of the words Cheerios, peanut, water and tea. Felony knows other words.

Fascinating, extensive New Yorker piece about the lives of elevators from Nick Paumgarten (soul of the commuter).

Lore, phobia, operations, consultancy, psychology and more are wrapped around the core story of a Business Week production manager who got stuck in an elevator back in 1999. Via Arts & Letters Daily.

A man was acquitted of smuggling endangered iguanas in his hollowed-out prosthetic leg. “During an undercover probe, James told investigators he had sold three iguanas for $32,000, prosecutors said. Four iguanas were seized when a search warrant was served at his house in April.”

A hollowed-out prosthetic leg is a great place to hide a MacGuffin, or, obviously, contraband. Also, there was an undercover probe. Who was on that team? I’m picturing McNulty and Greggs in a basement room, bitching about iguana duty.