Trees in Times Square

The Urban Forest Project asked 185 artists to create tree themed banners which will be on display in Times Square from September 1 - October 30. After they come down the banners will be recycled into totebags and sold at auction to raise money for mentoring and scholorship funds!

via social design notes

Half.com, Oregon Where Art Thou?

I am fascinated/repulsed by the lengths marketers will go to promote a brand. One stunt I frequently mention to my students is about a town was named after a website, but until now I never thought about what happened next. William Drenttel at Design Observer found out:

Back in late 1999, the town of Halfway, Oregon wasn't looking for a sponsor. But a then-new internet startup called Half.com was looking for a gimmick — or, as Joshua Kopelman (Half.com's CEO) called it, "recognition as 'out-of-the-box' thinkers." They offered the town complicated packages (stock, internet access, free giveaways at the annual rodeo), and an implied series of long-term benefits, including a call center located right in town that would have translated to new jobs. In the end, the town received $110,000, 20 computers for its school, and a free town website. Today, nearly a decade later, the town site is no longer functional — for, as Kopelman himself notes: "This is the Net, and all contracts are short-term contracts." (One should remember the timeline: the deal with Halfway was approved in December 1999, and the $300+ million sale to eBay was in June 2000, making this perhaps the most cost-effective PR stunt in American history.)

Read the entire article here.

Logoland

The short animated film Kapitaal, from Studio Smack, shows what the world (or at least the Netherlands) looks like when reduced to just corporate logos, information graphics, and the occasional graffiti.

Thanks Russ!

Steal This Film!

The first part of a documentary on the peer-to-peer filesharing movement and Swedish piracy in particular is available as a free download (of course).

via BoingBoing

Organic Candidates

The Organic Consumers Association wants your help building a voter guide to politicians that care about organic standards. Just look up your candidates and send em a survey (and if someone's already done the job you can check out how they scored). Get more info here.

Terror Has No Religion

Our friend Marc at Houtlust has posted about the new anti-terror ad campaign that is currently running in Iraq and other Islamic countries. He asked several folks from around the world, yours truly included, to give their opinion on the TV ad (which features a big-budget, Hollywood style suicide bomber explosion in slow motion) and the campaign in general. Check out all the ads and the responses here.

Free Socially Responsible Business Event in D.C.

On Tuesday, September 12 the DC Sustainable Business Network and DC Net Impact Professional Chapter will be hosting a free talk by social entrenpreneur and former Harvard Business School professor Mark Albion, titled "Building a Business that Reflects Your Values." Here are the details:

How do you build a business that reflects your values?

This question led Mark Albion interview 75 small business leaders of what he calls not-only-for-profit companies. He found that success depended on these leaders' ability to make three transitions, which could be called becoming part monk, part architect and part diplomat.

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
September 12, 2006
Hotel Rouge Lava Room, 1315 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC
202.462.9001

For more info or to register go here.

Mexican Standoff

Our friend Nash has sent us a slide show of images from the ongoing protests in Mexico City, in support of Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was narrowly defeated in, what the protestors believe was, a rigged election. From Nash:

These are strange, exciting and difficult times here. We really don't know what is going to happen, but six more years with the ultra right in power will be devastating for our country. The thing is that a lot of people did really vote for it, I think the fraud was before the actual elections, with a dirty campaign which built fear on people's head..

See all the photos here.

FCC investigates Fake News

Following the scathing report on Fake News put together by the Center for Media and Democracy the FCC has announced that it is launching a major probe of 77 broadcast licensees that may have presented marketing material as news. Here's a statement from FCC Commisioner Adelstein:

I’m pleased that the Commission has issued these letters of inquiry. We need a full and thorough investigation to learn all of the facts surrounding the undisclosed broadcast of what appears to be commercial material, and prosecute any violations to the full extent of the law.

The public is misled by individuals who present themselves to be independent, unbiased experts or reporters, but are actually shills promoting a prepackaged corporate agenda. The public has a legal right to know who seeks to persuade them so they can make up their own minds about the credibility of the information presented. Shoddy practices make it difficult for viewers to tell the difference between news and propaganda.

Read more here.

The Million Dollar homepage

Some blogs make a point of remaining ad-free as a way of pointing out their unwillingness to shill as part-and-parcel with getting a point across. This website makes more of a point by supporting 100% ad space.

The creator of this website makes more of a point by trying to raise $1 million USD for "tuition", selling 1,000,000 pixels for $1 each on his creation, the Million Dollar Homepage. In turn, he's making more of a point about pollution of burgeoning ad-spaces - in this case clearcutting an otherwise useful blog and paving over it with commerce.

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

Long story short, you can now see the entire documentary film about FOX News in it's entirety, free online at the following address.

Outfoxed examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know.

Nuclear War Starts August 22nd

According to Pravda and the Wall Street Journal, Bernard Lewis (political scientist with close ties to the Bush Administration), WWIII breaks out in a glowing rain of nuclear weapons and piles of dust and boots where Iran used to be ... let's see ... this Tuesday.

Worth keeping an eye on.

Airports May Begin Installing 'Hostile Intent' Detectors

A Knoxville, TN test of an Israeli security device may have figity people at airport terminals arrested before they have a chance to pull off their mental misdemeanors. With one hand inserted into a sensor that monitors physical responses, the travelers used the other hand to answer questions on a touch screen about their plans, this device measures biometric responses (blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels) and determines whether you're a regular commuter or a would-be terrorist

You are what you search

So what has become of the massive private data leak from AOL? Why an interesting survey of the different ways people choose to search the web for information, such as the PornHound, the Manhunter, the Shopper, the Obsessive, the Omnivore, the Newbie, and the Basket Case. A very brief but compelling article.

Eat Hot Dog, Get Cancer

According to this LiveScience article, all those jokes about hotdogs being made of nothing but lips & assholes may turn out to be the best case scenario. They're not great for you at the best of times, but a new study by chemists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center have found they may contain DNA-mutating compounds that might boost one's risk for cancer.

Hot dogs are preserved with sodium nitrite, which can help form chemicals known as N-nitroso compounds, most of which cause cancer in lab animals.

Spin

Not a lot of people know about network satellite feeds - supplimentary live footage outside of the regular broadcast schedule that let you see the behind the scenes; unexpectedly sincere stuff.

Using unauthorized satellite footage and the 1992 presidential election as a springboard, documentary filmmaker Brian Springer captured the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of politicians and newscasters in the early 1990s in this 60 minute documentary, SPIN - a surreal expose of media-constructed reality.

Pat Robertson banters about "homos," Al Gore learns how to avoid abortion questions, George Bush talks to Larry King about halcyon -- all presuming they're off camera.

break it down for me fellas

Now to lighten the mood with the master and chief of the microphone.

The one thing that stuck in my mind about Bush's post 9-11 State-of-the-Nation speeches is endless sycophantic boughts of applause distort the event; shows of support become a distraction against the actual issue at hand. Much has been said about this, but very little has been said about GW's ability to rock the mic and break it down for the people (on the People's Mic that is).

More humble distraction for the people.

American Apparel Clamor

Clamor magazine, which is about to publish an exposé on the dirty secrets of American Apparel, has already received a cease and decist letter from them:

In response to advance previews of Clamor Magazine’s forthcoming special section on American Apparel, the Los Angeles-based clothing company has issued a letter of demands from its Media Relations office.

Cynthia Semon, Media Relations Director at American Apparel, sent an email to Clamor Politics co-editor (and editor of the American Apparel section) Mariana Ruiz and Clamor co-founder Jen Angel, citing inaccuracies and accusing Clamor of shoddy and amateur journalism. Ms. Semon demanded, “if the article is not immediately removed online, along with a retraction and an [sic] public apology posted online and published appropriately, we will be forced to seek legal action in light of such gross, blatant, negligent and irresponsible journalism.”

“We have issued a correction of unintended factual inaccuracies,” stated Angel, “However, we have no intention of retracting the stories or the issue in which they appear. Apart from the correction we have made, we stand by those stories as they appear.” The correction is noted below.

“We’re publishing articles here that are critical of American Apparel’s business practices and challenge the credibility of their carefully crafted ‘progressive’ identity, and they’re not happy about that,” said Clamor co-founder Jason Kucsma. “That a social justice magazine with a yearly operating budget of less than $150 thousand is being issued an ultimatum by a company that turned $250 million in profit last year seems a little incongruous to me.

So what's the innacuracy?:

In this Fall 2006 issue, we incorrectly reported that Mary Nelson, a store manager at American Apparel, had withdrawn her sexual harassment suit against CEO Dov Charney. It has come to our attention that the suit by Mary Nelson, a sales manager, is still pending, and that an unnamed store manager withdrew her suit against the company.

And what's got AA panties in such a bind? Download and read the entire article in PDF format here.

Genetically Modified Crop Circles

Our friend Nash in Mexico sends us this photo journal of her time spent making crop circles with Greenpeace:

For thousands of years, maize (corn) has been an essential food for the people of Mexico; it also plays an integral part in our culture and religion. Unfortunately,in recent years the maize has been tainted by GE varieties entering the country and being planted by unaware farmers. As a result,normally GE-free maize is showing signs of genetic contamination.
So the question mark conveys a simple message - contamination is happening, but nobody knows exactly where it is taking place, nor where it could lead for the wider environment. We did this protest in Oaxaca with the Cropcircle makers from the U.K., very nice guys.

Ah, Virginia.

My home state's very own Senator George Allen is the target of a new MoveOn.org petition. It seems he was caught on tape making some bigoted comments to a videographer from his opponent's camp (an Indian-American who was born and raised in Richmond). See for yourself...

Back to School

Co-op America has posted a nice article on environmental choices for back to school clothes for kids in their RealMoney section. They give succinct information on organic materials and sustainable practices, but thier first suggestion for shopping is...buy used clothes!

On the other hand...

According to a recent Harris Poll, 50% of American's now believe that there were Weapons of Mass Distruction in Iraq prior to the Iraq war (despite all facts to the contrary). This is a sharp increase from the 36%, who believed in the WMD's existence in a similar Februrary 2005 poll.

Green Rocks

The Christian Science Monitor writes about the growing trend of environmentally conscious rock bands and tours in Friday's edition:

The 51-date Warped Tour, which ends Sunday, is being transported, in part, on biodiesel fuel, a mixture of soybean oil and diesel. Last October, producer Kevin Lyman committed to running the tour's 19 trucks and 17 buses on the fuel, which, he says, "uses 20 percent less of a nonrenewable product. That's a huge start. It runs cleaner. We're finding the trucks have more horsepower and some of the bus drivers are saying they're getting a mile more per gallon."

The tour's caterers have even eschewed paper plates in favor of using real dishes and that most indispensable of recycling devices: the dishwasher, saving an estimated 81,000 paper plates.

"I'm trying to make a statement," adds Mr. Lyman. "We need to start to thinking along these paths if we're going to continue to have a livelihood. It's not going to run out overnight, but it is time for fuel alternatives."

Read the entire article here.

Green Eyes on Dubai

"Architects throughout the world are striving to produce ever more sustainable buildings, but in the Middle East, an entire city is being created in what environmental groups are labelling as the most unsustainable development in living memory..."

Keep reading the WAN article here...

An Eye for An Eye

Our friend John at Social Design Notes has created two elegant anti-war posters that are free to download and distribute. He's also provided the unicode text if you want to make your own version.

Making Global Warming out of Paper

The folks at Typophile hold weekly type battles, where members create typographic solutions to various creative challenges. Battle 18 (the week of July 24th) was to create the words "Global Warming" out of paper. Check out the lovely results here.

Thanks Roy!

60 Percent.

According to a CNN poll posted yesterday, 60 percents of Americans now oppose the war in Iraq.
The highnest number since polling began after the war started in 2003.

Bush Pilot

A short documentary that explains so much. Seems while most of the world is wondering which middle eastern country or lobby group is pulling the Presidential strings, it turns out our friends in the Reischland are the secret puppet masters.

View it here.

Worms!

Our friend Jennifer Willis writes about quick and easy worm composting in the Portland Tribue's SustainableLife [!] section. Here's her how-to guide:

Get two plastic storage bins (with lids), about 8-10 gallons each.

Drill 10 1/16” holes along each side of the bins, near the upper rim, for ventilation (and to prevent fruit flies).

Drill 20 1/4” holes in the bottom of each bin for drainage.

Fill one bin with 3 to 4 inches of damp strips of newspaper. (Moisten by soaking in water and then squeezing out the excess.) Set the other bin aside.

Add 1/2 to 1 pound of red wigglers to the bedding. (There are approximately 500 worms per pound.)

Add a handful of soil or ground eggshells – this “grit” helps the worms digest food.

Bury food scraps (excluding meat) in the bedding, in small amounts at first. As the worm population increases, feed them more frequently.

Keep your worm bin in a well-ventilated area and out of direct sunlight. Laundry rooms and garages make great locations. Stack it on bricks or blocks to allow for drainage – you can also use the lid of the unused bin. If the bin is outside, keep an eye on moisture levels during the summer; in winter, move the bin inside or place it in a sheltered location to protect the worms from getting too cold.

When it’s time to harvest your compost – in two to three months – fill the second bin with bedding and kitchen scraps, and place it inside the first bin. Attracted by the food, the worms will crawl up into the second bin through the holes in the bottom. The second box becomes the active bin, while the first is full of rich, ready-to-use compost.

Read the entire article here.

"Jicama in the 'hood"

Our friend Tracie McMillan writes in Salon about "food deserts" -- areas that lack fresh (not to mention local and organic) produce, typically in poor, urban neighborhoods -- and what's being done to fix of them:

The sheer lack of quality food in low-income neighborhoods is bringing some unlikely colleagues to the foodie pioneers' table. Spurred by concerns equal parts public health and fiscal prudence, a burgeoning movement of politicians, lawyers and advocates -- and the occasional retail developer or small business owner -- is leading a charge to improve access to better food among the nation's poor. In doing so, they are infusing public policy with a notion traditionally considered a luxury: That fresher, higher-quality food is worth some trouble.

Read the entire article "Jicama in the 'hood" here.

Coffin Counter

Without a specificly stated political spin (though one might easily be inferred), the Israeli/Lebanese Coffin Counter shows a visual representation of the number of people killed in the current conflict (according to the BBC's coverage). The largsish coffin shaped icons give a simple and effective graphical overview of the reality of war.

There is now also an equivalent site for the current Iraq war as well.

via

Presto Change-o

Like a cardboard house, but way less flamable. Due to the singularly one-sided avalanche of global economic trade and the resulting fields of unusable shipping containers, designers have taken these "icons of globalization" and transformed them into alternative materials for relatively inexpensive, structurally sound habitats. A third-world inspiration for a first-world issue. Although, in raw form, containers are dark windowless boxes (which might place them at odds with some of the tenets of modernist design...) they can be highly customizable modular elements of a larger structure. Dear FEMA, just think what humanitarian benefit could derrive from pre-fab shippable habitats.

Design Rebels Needed

I'm teaching a course on design ethics in the undergraduate Communication Design program at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA this coming Fall and I am looking for designers, printers, paper manufacturers and marketers who are working in a socially conscious manner to come speak to my class.

I have been teaching the class, "Design Rebels: Socially Conscious Design in theory and Practice", since the Spring of 2003 and it has consistently been one of the most popular in the school. One of the things the students have really appreciated is hearing from speakers - they want to see that working ethically is not just an idea, but a reality.

The class meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2-4:20pm and runs from late August to early December. Speakers are welcome throughout the semester, though the students will be more versed and better able to ask questions on the subject later in the semester.

Since I am an adjunct faculty member I do not have access to funds to pay for visiting speakers, however if you are already planning to be in the Richmond area (Washington D.C. is approximately 2 hours away by car) I would gladly provide you with a meal and a place to stay (if you're not allergic to cats).

If you are interested please email me at contact_AT_alrdesign_DOT_com or. Thanks!

Activist Designers Needed

The Grand Jury Resistance Project is looking for designers to create banner ads to support Josh Wolf, a jailed journalist/blogger, who refused to turn over unpublished material on the June 2005 anti-G8 demonstration, to a Federal Grand Jury. There's no budget for this, but they will promote whomever helps out. Here is some suggested copy:

Support Josh Wolf (change to) Support Freedom of the Press
Support Josh Wolf (change to) Resist Grand Juries
I Support Josh Wolf (change to) Freedom of the Press (change to) Freedom to Blog

For more information about Josh's situation visit the Free Josh wiki and Josh's site. If you have the time/inclination to design you can contact Samantha of the GJRP at saoirse23_AT_riseup_DOT_net.

Reproduce & Revolt

Three of my illustrations will appear in the book Reproduce & Revolt, by Josh MacPhee and Favianna Rodiguez. The collection of Creative Commons licensed art is meant to be "A Graphic Toolbox for the 21st Century Activist" and will be available in December from Soft Skull Press.

"Little Green War"

Swords Into Plowshares, which I co-created, is mentioned in a fun article on Guerrilla Gardening in the latest issue of Richmond's Style Weekly:

Comrade Noah Scalin is one of the creators of “Swords Into Plowshares,” a show of clay guns that traveled around Richmond in 2004, each gun representing a homicide victim in the city that year. Scalin says he and his partner, Comrade Chris Humes, were inspired by guerrilla gardening and “seed bombs” when they conceived their project. In guerrilla gardening they saw a way to respond to people’s frustration with the powers that be, a form of subversion neither violent nor damaging that connects with the community, Scalin says, “transforming the neighborhood in a positive way.”

Read the entire article here.

Buying Local Backlash

The Christian Science Monitor presents a fairly balanced view of the pros and cons of the Buy Local movement in its article "Is Buying Local Always Best". And while I agree that we need a more nuanced view of the situation (globalism vs. localism), I still think most of the arguments against it sound like corporate fears, rather than real human concern. Here are a couple of them...

A local focus can breed an unhealthy provincialism and lead to practices that harm both the environment and the poor in developing nations, according to John Clark, a social development specialist for East Asia at the World Bank and author of "Worlds Apart: Civil Society and the Battle for Ethical Globalization."

For example, he notes, an estimated 50,000 Bangladeshi children lost precious garment industry jobs as a result of a 1996 boycott by Western shoppers who sought other sources for clothing. An ethic of buying local, he says, runs the risk of multiplying similar, albeit unintended, consequences overseas. "What are sweatshops to us may be a dream job there" in Bangladesh, Mr. Clark says. "But all that goes out the window if we only buy local.... I think we need more sophistication than just, 'buy local.' "

AND

Among those concerned is Roy Jacobowitz, senior vice president for development and communications at Acción International, a Boston-based nonprofit lender to micro-entrepreneurs in developing nations.

"The 'buy locally' argument is an isolationist argument, which I think is a dangerous one," Mr. Jacobowitz says. The danger, he says, comes in shutting the door to the reality: "Poor entrepreneurs in the emerging world need the opportunity to sell into markets that can pay fair prices for their goods." But if American consumers insist on buying local, he says, dreamers in the developing world will never reach their goals.

What do you think?
Read the entire article here.

The Vegan Diet

A new study shows that a vegan diet (no dairy, no meat) helps people loose weight and lower their blood sugar more than the standard American Diabetes Association Diet! From CNN.com:

Participants said the vegan diet was easier to follow than most because they did not measure portions or count calories. Three of the vegan dieters dropped out of the study, compared with eight on the standard diet.

"I hope this study will rekindle interest in using diet changes first, rather than prescription drugs," Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, which helped conduct the study, told a news conference Thursday.

Read the entire article here.

Thanks Charlie!

I know how they feel...

Jill Greenberg's portrait photos of crying children are mesmerizing and eerie, especially in context of the title she's chosen for the collection: End Times.

And if you find them too overwhelming , be sure take a moment to check out her astounding monkey portraits.

UPDATE: Coryndon points out that there is some controversy over these images as apparently the photographer creates the childrens' state of distress and some think it amounts to child abuse.

Thanks Mica!