Awareness | 99% Invisible

99% Invisible did a 20m piece on the AIDS Awareness ribbon last month. The ribbon was a project of an art collective, Visual AIDS. The story is well done and worth your time – and this is coming from the guy who hates “awareness.” Source: Awareness | 99% Invisible By the late 1980s, AIDS had …

Wealth Inequality in America – YouTube

Very encouraging that this video has 6.5 million views. Since our idea is so far from reality, how does this change the way we talk about this issue? How do we approach the topic so the people we’re talking to don’t dig in and defend what they believe to be true? And how does the …

“Living in Limbo” brings LGBT issues to the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama

Living in Limbo: A contemporary photography exhibit that honors the complexities of lesbian family life by revealing authentic moments. Unfortunately the movement for LGBT rights doesn’t shift at the same pace around the country. Certain regions make strides forward – passing gay rights and marriage equality legislation – while others seem to be moving slowly …

In Kansas, Climate Skeptics Embrace Green Energy – NYTimes.com

Attempts by the Obama administration to regulate greenhouse gases are highly unpopular here because of opposition to large-scale government intervention. Some are skeptical that humans might fundamentally alter a world that was created by God. If the heartland is to seriously reduce its dependence on coal and oil, Ms. Jackson and others decided, the issues …

From Rob Walker's "Linkpile"

Artists plan to encase vacant Detroit home in ice: “To draw attention to foreclosures that have battered the region.” Yeah? is there a big problem with people not knowing about foreclosures and vacant housing in Michigan? I think that info is kind of, you know, out there. Why not do this in Westchester County or …

On The Media: The Science of Media Relations

Being a brilliant scientist doesn’t always translate into being a good talking head on television or even a good source for a science reporter. So the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program at Stanford University was created to give scientists a better understanding of how to deal with the media. Program director Pam Matson explains what goes …

The power of the symbolic win (do-over)

apparently I added the wrong video the last time I tried to do this, so let me try again. http://blip.tv/play/gaEW3O5ygpNs Mainly for Jay and Duncombe. I think at the core, one of the things he’s talking about, is if all that work getting Obama elected actually mattered…

Design and the end of the world

Comment from Irene Maui about JooYoun Paek’s conceptual design/art works: I’m tired of reading and looking to design as Art, making people to be confused about it. Some people are just looking for fame, and not really thinking on giving creative answers. The world is about to explode, and we have to fill our heads …

Bill Ayers on Fresh Air

Bill Ayers on Fresh Air with Terry Gross This is an except from the end of the interview that I thought was relevant to the questions we’re asking in How to Win. Gross: Do you think some of the tactics that you took on were in some part this youthful expression of anger, something that …

Politics as Product

Happy Spokesmodel Selection Day to one and all. I am certainly not the first to comment on the commodification of American politics in general and this race specifically, but a little more can be said before we’re on the next distraction tomorrow. This election has been primarily a contest between the values of experience and …

LIVERMORE / Anti-nuke activists lose out on bid to run weapons lab

A bid by Bay Area anti-nuclear weapons activists and the New College of California to take over Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been rejected by the U.S. nuclear weapons agency. Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) out of Livermore, New College in San Francisco and two allied groups filed the bid for the Livermore …

Laugh at a Campaign Pitch? Sure. Visit the Grandparents? Not So Much. – NYTimes.com

MIAMI — When Sarah Silverman told young Jews to get their lazy rotund rear ends to Florida to persuade their grandparents to vote for Senator Barack Obama, one question loomed: Would they go? This weekend was the first big test, a kickoff for the so-called Great Schlep, and so far, momentum has been building with …

I’m Rubber, You’re Glue …

by Jonathan Alter Published Aug 23, 2008 From Newsweek magazine issue dated Sep 1, 2008 It’s hard to predict what will stick. ‘It’s the economy, stupid’ was a hand-scrawled sign hung in Little Rock. When NEWSWEEK reported earlier this summer that the McCain family owns at least seven houses, few outside the hothouse of politics …

Tropic Thunder – comedy is anarchy

…in comedy, context is everything. “Tropic Thunder”… doesn’t risk simply offending; at times the picture is almost appalling in its tastelessness — I watched parts of it agape. But Stiller and his ensemble… understand that comedy is anarchy. As much as we want our lives to be stable and manageable, comedy demands that we relinquish …

The Changing Face of the U.S. Consumer

via: Ad Age NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The marketing community, already dealing with a slumping economy and an increasingly consumer-controlled media marketplace, must confront another new reality: The face of the American consumer is changing dramatically. It’s not news that the nation is aging, but the fact that the average U.S. head of household is …

San Francisco to vote on naming sewer after George Bush

Is this art? Is it activistm? Certainly, the power elite are not shaking in their boots over such stunts, but this just viscerally seems right. via: the Independet By Guy Adams in Los Angeles Friday, 27 June 2008 San Francisco Public Utilities Commission The plant that could be renamed the George W Bush Sewage Plant …

Game Culture

Play is one of the earliest and most important activities of mammals; helping adolescents learn the skills they need to survive. Games take the free play of the animal kingdom and apply rules and constraints, which have the ability to teach and develop the values and beliefs of a culture. The chess queen developed as …