Archive for the Politics Category
Published April 5th, 2009
In 1966, Robert Indiana gave the world a four-letter sculpture that soon became iconic.Today, on Design Observer, I saw a piece that pays homage to Indiana. (“Homage to Indiana” is totally a title for a mediocre independent film — Ed.) Like many works that have parodied Indiana’s work, this four-letter sculpture bears a superficial resemblance [...]
Published February 23rd, 2009
Let’s get a mood check on America in the waning days of February 2009. CNN’s latest poll finds that close to “eight in 10 [Americans] say that things are going badly in the country, with just 21 percent suggesting that things are going well.”No surprise there.But here’s something weird: “Three out of four questioned say [...]
Published February 15th, 2009
Yesterday afternoon my family and I took in (literally) a stunning piece of art installed at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum here in Washington. To celebrate Presidents Day, artist Zilly Rosen created an enormous quasi-pointillistic dual portrait of Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama, a photo of which I snapped with my iPhone. You might notice [...]
Published January 20th, 2009
My iPhone photos from today’s ceremonies here in D.C. aren’t very good, but this one’s a keeper — in part because the woman pictured here is standing on the steps of Constitution Hall, site of the notorious Marian Anderson incident.
Published January 20th, 2009
Here’s Obama’s speech today as a Wordle ”word cloud,” which give greater prominence to words that appear frequently in a text.
Published January 18th, 2009
BusinessWeek reports that when Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries issued a 62-page report “about the country’s worrisome dependence on food imports,” it added a twist. The Ministry summarized their findings in a four-minute animated video, which you can watch below. Maybe Peter Orszag should try this for his first budget.
Published January 10th, 2009
First came six-word autobiographies. Now Smith Magazine and the National Constitution Center are teaming up to collect suggestions for six words to inspire President-elect Obama and perhaps to include in his Inaugural Address. Here are some possibilities, both my own and selections from the Smith web site: Today the American story begins anew. We can, [...]
Published December 29th, 2008
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a terrific story about Igor Panarin, a respected Russian scholar and policy guru who’s peddling an audacious prediction:The United States of America will be no more by 2010.And it won’t be Russian missile doing us in. We’ll rot from the inside, says Panarin. (Kinda like the Soviet Union? — Ed.) [...]
Published December 14th, 2008
David Airey at LogoDesignLove has a fascinating post about the Barack Obama campaign logos that didn’t make the final cut. (An example is below.) Airey also points to an interesting interview with graphic guru, Sol Sender, about how the winning logo came to be.
Published November 4th, 2008
Take one historic day. Add one inexpensive pocket video camera. What do you get?55 seconds of democracy.Herewith, a video from inside the voting booth.
« Previous Entries Next Entries »