Giving crowd sourcing a try: I am looking for a house or a duplex in
Minneapolis - and willing to pay a $1000.00 finders fee to anyone helps me
find an especially cool pad. Areas I am interested in: Uptown/Lakes,
Southwest minneapolis (east of Lake Harriet to 35W - probably not any further
south than 42nd), Near northeast (South of Lowry, West of 5th St. to the river).
Newer/modern a plus - good bones a requirement.

"Setting your aim on Holy Design means making a commitment to think things through anew on a continual basis—a major undertaking that potentially represents a serious organizational change. To successfully achieve Holy Design, not only do you need to focus on one idea at a time, you need to think about the idea from every perspective. Holy Design is an immersive experience, and achieving it requires starting at square one every time and working through the design process from beginning to end. Successful companies like Apple—or even Quark back in the day—know that creating a few exceptional products can make for a very successful business model—if you take the time to develop that Holy user experience again and again."

An excerpt from this post at UX Matters.

http://www.lifeonashirt.com/2008/11/16/the-impact-of-timing-why-this-financia...

Excellent post on some of the potential for opportunity to arise out of the current state of turmoil in the world economy.

" There is much less difference between the Democrats and the Republicans
than the polarization of voters would suggest. They both sit to the right
relative to most other Western economies, and both are hostage to jingoism
and superstition which again registers higher than in other wealthy nations.
My main beef with Bush Jnr. was that he showed no intellectual curiosity, a
fundamental trait that differentiates us from beasts. But the Obama
administration may be less hostile to knowledge, or science, as it is termed
from the Latin.

This program imagines a briefing for the new president (it was made just
before the election) and asks some well known scientists what they would
teach the President.'

http://twitter.com/tinybuddha

Satyajit Das is one of my new favorite reads on the economy, the financial crisis, among other issues - very sharp guy. Satyajit is an example of the kind of gems that are out there sharing their intellect with the world that far exceeds what you get from most of the "A-list" bloggers or so-called main stream media.

An excellent example and read:

Confusing The Cure and the Disease

"In the Arabian Nights, the beautiful princess Scheherazade buys one day of life at a time by recounting fantastic fables that entrance the King who has condemned her to die. Investors and traders are currently telling each other fairy tales to buy one day at a time to stave off the inevitable.

Dramatic recent events are not symptoms of the disease but the cure. The “disease” is the excessive debt and leverage in the financial system. The “cure” is the reduction of the level of debt (the great “de-leveraging”).

The initial phase of the cure is the reduction in debt within the financial system. The overall losses to the financial institutions (net of re-capitalisation via new equity issues) are $400 to $600 billion and may well go higher. This requires reduction in financial sector balance sheets through reduction in lending and asset sales."