Liberty. It’s a simple idea, but it’s also the linchpin of a complex system of values and practices: justice, prosperity, responsibility, toleration, cooperation, and peace. Many people believe that liberty is the core political value of modern civilization itself, the one that gives substance and form to all the other values of social life. They’re called libertarians.

The study rated every U.S. county for their manufacturers’ exposure to competition from China, and found that regions most exposed to China tended not only to lose more manufacturing jobs, but also to see overall employment decline. Areas with higher exposure also had larger increases in workers receiving unemployment insurance, food stamps and disability payments.

The authors calculate that the cost to the economy from the increased government payments amounts to one- to two-thirds of the gains from trade with China. In other words, a big portion of the ways trade with China has helped the U.S.—such as by providing inexpensive Chinese goods to consumers—has been wiped out. And that estimate doesn’t include any economic losses experienced by people who lost their jobs.

Most serious professions take this kind of self-knowledge for granted. Architects and prospective architects know which are the best architecture schools; they can readily find out the average salaries of apprentice, mid-level, and senior architects in their country and region; they know what titles and honors they can aspire to, and have a generally accurate idea of how long they must toil as apprentices before they can expect to be promoted—or start worrying if they have not been.

Web design, if that’s what we call it, has had no such data. Moreover, no professional organization is dedicated to our field’s advancement in the way that, say, AIGA promotes, explains, defends, and takes the measure of graphic design.

With your help, we took the first steps to change that with the publication of our 2007 A List Apart survey and findings. We have published surveys and findings each year since. Here, admittedly a little late, we present our findings from 2010.

Thoroughly amused. This is one of those times where StumbleUpon really came through for me. Cheeky little company.

Anyway, this is a web comic that gets you to believe the standard comic publishing model has very little future. Why? Because it would have had far too many loopholes and special interests to compete against–the newspaper is an exclusive club after all. No, this is just further proof that in some instances, the internet is a leveler when it comes to self publishing.

I worked on a QR Code generator utilizing the Google Chart API this afternoon. It was built on some of my own work as well as the work of others. My contribution is really very small.

Excellent looking site that showcases some equally great craftsmanship including wood and leather work.

I’m not sure how old this website is, but I do know that at this moment it is really producing some quality work; as a typography site it certainly only piques the interests of a select few, but the content is presented well enough to give it a look even if the subject matter isn’t your bag.

Now that I’m seeing it linked to all over the place, I figure I better jump on that bandwagon so that all of my loyal readers (anyone?!?) can take a look.

I started The Sartorialist simply to share photos of people that I saw on the streets of New York that I thought looked great. When I worked in the fashion industry (15 years), I always felt that there was a disconnect between what I was selling in the showroom and what I was seeing real people (really cool people) wearing in real life.

And again, because I’m too lazy to post anything fancy, another link to a site highlighting the style of the nerdy cool. Many of which I’d enjoy emulating.

I’m lazy. Don’t get mad, just click the link enjoy the style, buy me something if it suits you. But don’t really because that shit is expensive.