Seven examples of adaptive reuse architecture projects. [via]

The shoplet blog has a couple of articles on Post-It Note art.  Nintendo’s advertising campaign is especially neat.

To the drunk hottie who fell off my motorcycle…

Many of you will remember David Byrne as the lead singer of Talking Heads.  The Heads wrote a good part of the soundtrack to my youth, along with Oingo Boingo, The Cure, U2, Pink Floyd, and a smattering of others.  I never saw the Heads live (that I remember) but did see Byrne years later at the State Theater in Portland, Maine (where I’ve also seen Tori Amos, Paula Cole, and George Carlin; no, silly, not together!).  I found it powerful and interesting, but his solo music never touched me quite the way his Heads stuff did.

But these days, he’s making buildings sing.

I think the FairTax is worth talking about.  J00?

Late today, the FDIC seized IndyMac.  Not surprising – but I am seeing some really ominous numbers.  The FDIC statement – issued after the markets closed yesterday – said that their preliminary estimate of the FDIC cost was $4 to $8 billion. About $1 billion of IndyMac deposits were uninsured and will be lost, affecting about 10,000 customers.

But now for the really troubling data: the FDIC’s total insurance fund is less than $60 billion.  If IndyMac ends up costing $6 billion, that’s more than ten percent of the FDIC’s total insurance fund that’s been wiped out with a single collapse.

Yet, the FDIC “insures” more than eight thousand banks with about $7 trillion in deposits.  The top 150 banks have total assets of at least $20 billion each and deposits exceeding $2 billion each.

I just don’t see how this can end well.

Another great column from pilot Patrick Smith on TSA stupidity.

Check out my iPhone piece over at Pajamas’ new tech site, Edgelings.  I wanted to call it “Talking to God on a Two Way Radio” in memory of George Carlin, but the editors decided to borrow from Tom Wolfe.

So, what happens when (not if) they fail?

Former Fed Governor William Poole says,

“Congress ought to recognize that these firms are insolvent, that it is allowing these firms to continue to exist as bastions of privilege, financed by the taxpayer..”

Big trouble, kids.