Our new contributor Eve Thomas tries on the Bixi.

Montreal’s new public bike system is much appreciated and ridiculously simple, but there are a few things to keep in mind before buying into the BIXI revolution:

There are no free rides. Despite what you’ve heard, the first 30 minutes aren’t technically free. You’ve got to be a member to ride, which costs between $5 (24 hours) and $78 (the whole season). Still a steal, but something to keep in mind before swiping your credit card.

Know your BIXI boroughs. Plans are for 300 stations, but there are currently only 74 up and running, so save the station map to your iPhone.

Get in gear. There are three gears – too many for a hipster, too few for a mountain bike – and most riders don’t think to check how to change them ‘til they’re well into traffic. You’ve got to click the button by your right handlebar. Bell’s on your left.

Biking is hard. Not quite a newsflash, but many of BIXI’s early adopters haven’t been on a bike since they were kids. So if you’re driving, try not to get behind them on a hill. Once they come face-to-face with their own lack of gluteal endurance, not even third gear will save them.

Photos: Rhiannon Brock

Seth Aylmer, Jose Serrano Reyes and Joan Tom.

Trust Art was introduced at TED2009 as an ‘intriguing new business’ – a stock market for art. Few months later, we are witnessing the first breaths of a new social media experiment based on the following premise: Can financial and social capital elevate art projects that are designed to elevate society?

Over the course of this year, Trust Art will commission ten public artworks steeped in social, environmental, cultural, and economic value and created by emerging artists – and anyone & everyone who cares about cultural renewal is welcome to participate. “The gallery model is open to only a small number of people – we want to open up the patronage of the arts to anyone who has $1 and an internet connection,” said Jose Serrano Reyes, co-founder and curator, who’s been studying (and banking on) the obsession of ranking for quite a while now, as over 300K people are actively checking their other online property, FameGame.com, every month.

Since the launch of the initial prototype, key partnerships with organizations like the Open Space Alliance and the NYC Parks Department have been secured.

The concept’s got strong legs. For instance, filmmaker Josh Powell will produce a series of viral videos and commercials for Columbia University’s Bamboo Bike Project to introduce the bamboo bike not only to people in the USA but also a global audience around the world.

“Riding on plants is cool” – Josh mentions in his project proposal. It’s also a concrete step towards a better future.

Josh Powell – Bamboo guru

The experiment officially launched last night at Norwood and all guests automatically became investors as the price of the ticket -$101, was distributed equally between the ten projects.

Anyone can now log on to TrustArt.org and become shareholders for only a dollar. Shareholders can increase the value of their investment by sharing to their network & creating bonding capital. The fictional currency can be tracked online at anytime, but the shares won’t be converted back to money until the end of the experiment, when the artworks produced will be sold at a public auction.

Check out Trust Art on Fame Game and show them some #followfriday love this week on Twitter.com/TrustArt.

If only it was as easy to fix, as it was to explain.

Richard Prince

New York City street vendors sell unbrellas for twice the price when it rains. A heart surgeon makes 10 times more money than a school nurse teaching children about a good diet.

We pay way more when our back is against the wall. Unfortunately for us, our healthcare system is designed around this principle. For every dollar invested on prevention, there is $100 spent on disease.

Our hospitals, our big pharma, even our doctors are incented to see an increasing amount of sick people. The more heart surgery I perform, the more dollars I make. The more people are fat and sick, the more drugs we sell. Sort of like paying firemen based on the number of fires they put out. How much fire prevention work would they continue to do?

Maybe this broken system explains why the U.S. has the highest per capita cost for health care in the world (16% of GDP or $2 trillon! – a huge drag on the economy – see Time Magazine.) You would think that for this high cost, you get some serious performance. NO. You get the worst performance: the lowest life expectancy amongst all developed nations.

High cost, low return. Sort of like the financial markets these days. There is much work on your plate Mr.  Obama.

Dr.Jones

Check out The Ascent of Money, a great documentary on the current state of the economy!

Panthère de Cartier ring, 18 carats.

As we got to the Convention Center yesterday to shoot the second half of the show, we walked into the Cartier Dôme in the Botanical Garden to check out some bling and pop 4pm champagne (tic toc tic toc).

This year, the geodesic dome hosts ‘Diamonds, Gold and Dreams,’ a dazzling 7-minute projection created by David Lynch around the theme of floating diamond – in his words ‘a kozmik diamond show.’

We stated that this is the closest you will get to a free acid trip during Art Basel.