Interesting article by Steve Sailer about "Why do gentlemen prefer blondes?" discusses the evolutionary psychological significance of complexion and hair color. Interesting. Link courtesy of Gene Expression.

Got the latest issue of Emigre in the mail yesterday, the last in their series of four "audio magazines". The included CD is a very cool instrumental album by Scenic called The Acid Gospel Experience. Great artwork inside by Jason Fulford (photographs), Shelley Hoyt (big-sky landscape paintings of the SF bay area), and Charles Wilkin (eclectic collage), all inspired by the album. A new issue of Emigre never fails to brighten my day.

Here's a good survey by an MIT alum of solutions to typical user intreface tasks: UI Patterns and Techniques

Test your web searching prowess with the new Google Quiz.

Check out this new Flash interface to Amazon.com by Quasimondo! The UI isn't beautiful, but an intriguing step towards a more sophisticated, visual means of browsing books. Nice work.

The new Movable Type-based deconstructor is developing quite nicely. Thanks to my old friend Les Orchard for the inspiring work on his site, 0xDECAFBAD. "DECAFBAD" has the distinction of being a number in hexadecimal, with each numeral coming from the hex convention 0123456789ABCDEF. Who's the geek now? Check Les' site out -- he's got information flying every which way, in many formats -- and may be even more of an info-junkie than I am.

Speaking of Calatrava, I've come across some other excellent examples of "working art" this week. Theo Jansen makes "beach animals" that walk powered by the wind. And Arthur Ganson makes art machines.

Burning Man starts tomorrow, and it's got me thinking about how I can swing a trip out to the Black Rock Desert for the festival next year. Tom and Meredith are going out for it; I can't wait to hear their report when they get back. I've started vaguely brainstorming about what type of structure I'd like to build for it. I'm thinking something Santiago Calatrava-inspired, with structure defined by a number of rigid elements, and cloth connecting them to protect from the sun, sand, wind, and rain. It could be exoskeletal or "natural" in some other sense, perhaps taking cues from shells or flowers (see On Growth and Form). Much more research into forms and materials is required.

I've made the imulsive decision to switch from Blogger to Movable Type to make deconstructor a fancier, shinier place. MT has lots of great features, but what really sold me was the subtle K10K-style UI touches on the admin interface. Stay tuned for progress reports.

I'm almost done with Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser, a fantastic piece of investigative journalism about the impact of the widespread growth of fast food. This is a book every American should read. Here's an article by the author, about how to make things better: how to make the country's most dangerous job safer.