Tuesday 20 May 2008

let's make no bones about this. The Australian bank notes are among the best designed in the world and the USA's are crap. Here each note is a different length and a different colour. There's not much chance of accidentally getting these boys mixed up:


But over there in America...
Paper money discriminates against the blind- May 20- AP

WASHINGTON - Close your eyes, reach into your wallet and try to distinguish between a $1 bill and a $5 bill. Impossible? It's also discriminatory, a federal appeals court says.
Since all paper money feels pretty much the same, the government is denying blind people meaningful access to the currency, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday. The decision could force the Treasury Department to make bills of different sizes or print them with raised markings or other distinguishing features.
The American Council of the Blind sued for such changes, but the government has been fighting the case for about six years...
(news item thanks to Bob Morales)
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VIRTUAL DREAMGIRL
CYBER-GENERATED BEDMATE
-NY Post- May 20, 2008 --
An NYU grad student has a unique, two-dimensional take on modern love.
Drew Burrows, 28, rigged a mattress, computer and projector to simulate a slender brunette in bed, asleep by the time you've come home from a long day's work. Burrows had his project - titled "In Bed" - on display last week, allowing art patrons to lie down next to the two-dimensional sleeping beauty who would eventually roll over to cuddle. (link thanks to Bob Morales)
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Hilarious:Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse as Laurel and Hardy in Brokeback Mountain. (Youtube) (link thanks to hayley campbell)

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

And since they've been making banknotes from that polymeric material, there's no panic if you accidentally leave them in your trouser pocket when they go through the wash.

cheers
BS

20 May 2008 at 20:55:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Trent said...

Dear Eddie,

Sorry to send this through your blog. I was hoping to contact you to gauge your interest in an in-depth magazine feature about your extraordinary life and work.
The guys at Bent Books suggested this would probably be the best way to contact you.
In recent months I've read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness; Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea; and Eddie Campbell's The Fate of the Artist. They were equally inventive, illuminating and brilliant.
I would love to spend some time with you in the coming days to get an insight into the work and, perhaps, the mind that powers this incredible blog.
My office number is 3666 6651.
My email is daltont@qnp.newsltd.com.au

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Best regards,

Trent Dalton
Journalist
Qweekend
The Courier-Mail

20 May 2008 at 20:58:00 GMT-5  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

US Dollars are crap aren't they? And since the dollar has been plummeting and ruining my income, they're cheap crap as well.

There's a great interview here with a designer known as Ootje who designed guilders for the Dutch Central Bank. As well as managing to come up with boldly inventive designs, he sneaked tiny in-jokes into the illustrations.

20 May 2008 at 21:39:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Eddie Campbell said...

"plummeting and ruining my income, "

mine too.
eight years ago the American dollar got you two Australian dollars.
now it's just four cents over one. I've been watching my income decline year by year.
At least the Euro and pound remain stable.

great link, John. Another set of beautifully designed notes. We carry banknotes around with us and never think about them as artistically designed objects. Another thing about the Australian bills is that you can roll them in four different directions and when one end meets its opposite end everything links up. That's on the whole series of bills. Amazing work. great party trick too when you carry them overseas.

20 May 2008 at 21:48:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Matthew Adams said...

You can also use the little window on the twenty dollar bill like a magnifying glass to start fires. If you get lost bushwalking and you forgot to bring matches or a magnifying glass, you just whip out a twenty dollar bill and start a bushfire. Only works with the twenty dollar bill too, none of the others.

Amazing and true...

21 May 2008 at 06:54:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Hayley Campbell said...

I like the fact that they're made of plastic so it doesn't matter all that much when the barman puts your (note)change in the ubiquitous puddle on the bar. I believe it's called a 'goole' in the Meaning of Liff.

Also, the lovely pink fivers in Oz aren't half as manky as the somewhat formless, damp, brownish, minging monstrosities I find in my pockets after a night in a London pub.

21 May 2008 at 09:18:00 GMT-5  
Blogger SRBissette said...

Ah, that's it. I'll wipe my ass with the dollars in my pocket, and ache to be an Aussie once again.

21 May 2008 at 09:57:00 GMT-5  

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