On Design ...

I'm always amazed when I come across something useful to haunt design while researching something completely different ... in this case, I was reading Stephen T. Asma's Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads when I came across this paragraph discussing museum exhibits:

The kind of team that developers put together, its diversity, can determine how well the issues of a given exhibit are handled. For example, the Brookfield Zoo, in Illinois, has a radical approach to this planning stage. They put together teams that are pulled from every division of the institution, including keepers, visitor services people, publicity people, and so on. They wind up with even better cross-sections of public knowledge, and this helps resolve potential exhibit problems before it's too late to change them. For example, one problem that crops up in working with visual designers is that they don't really know on a gut level how poorly most people understand design. But production people and developers, and even the curators, can help with that problem because they don't understand design, either. And so when all these people who lack different things try to work together, the things they lack are almost as important as the things they bring to the process. That interplay of expertise and ignorance helps the team create a realistic exhibit.

It easily applies to haunts, too, though I'd use "effective exhibit" instead of "realistic exhibit." It's good to be reminded that a good haunt should be a joint project - and good to have an example for designers / clients / investors / sponsors as to why it should be a joint project.

Ack!

First, there's a fairly new translation of the Holy Bible - the Good as New Bible. It's a little ... casual and loose.

After Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, he saw "the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, 'Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased' " (Mark 1:10-11, Revised Standard Version).

Compare that with this new translation: "A pigeon flew down and perched on him. Jesus took this as a sign that God's Spirit was with him. A voice from overhead was heard saying, 'That's my boy!' "

St. Peter is also referred to as "Rocky" throughout, and several books (including that pesky Revelations) have been omitted.

Articles here and here. The Good as New Bible is available on Amazon.

EDIT: The Good as New Bible also has a foreword from the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who apparently likes the new translation, in case you were thinking it was a joke.

Second is an amusingly offensive and patently blasphemous song (you have been warned) written and performed by The Reverend Brendan Powell Smith ... a lengthy review and tongue-in-cheek interpretation is here, and you can download the song itself from the artist's web site here.