Sometimes the best solution is the most simple solution. Colin Willems of SPRANQ, a communications agency in the Netherlands, came up with Ecofont, an ink-saving font that purports to use up to 20% less ink thank your every day Helvetica. An eco-friendly solution for those things you need to print that might not be so precious.
Free to download, free to use, go to www.ecofont.eu to try it out.
As a student of propaganda, I’m always interested in the pageantry that goes in to things like debates, especially when it comes to the Town Hall format. Every single person in the room has been screened, so even though they might be able to ask whatever questions they want, the questions they will be asking are already known. Six million questions were submitted by normal people around the country, but who decides which questions will be read? What will Tom Brokaw ask? Only time shall tell…
UPDATE 6:12PM: It’s actually a little creepy watching McCain walk around…
UPDATE 6:31PM: WOW! OBAMA whips out 9/11?! I thought only the Republicans did that. It’s too bad neither of them are really answering the question, because it’s true. The government hasn’t really asked the American people to rally in a way that changes their lifestyle like what has been done in the past. If people are really patriotic, they would be willing to sacrifice for the good of the country, but unfortunately, we have too much dissent among the ranks. Interesting to see the volunteer corps idea rehashed. Bush was doing it too.
UPDATE 6:53PM: Ok, they’re really just saying the same thing now. Nothing new here. Isn’t it interesting that the topics that govern the elections for the last however many years haven’t really changed? The economy has always been a hot topic, even though the economy has enjoyed upward growth for about the last 50 years.
UPDATE 7:11PM: Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Man oh man. Have you been trying to keep up on this whole global financial crisis? While the media tries it’s best to make it easy enough to understand, it’s pretty goddamned complicated.
But does that mean you can shy away and not pay attention and wait for it to work out for the best? Heavens no! The Money Meltdown is “everything you need to know about the global money crisis.” Be a responsible citizen and find out what the hell is going on with links to text and audio explaining the history, key facts, next steps and more relating to this mother-of-all economic meltdowns.
Really now… David Letterman is probably not someone to piss off in an election year:
I was getting ready to watch a fantastic episode of MTV’s “Pimp My Ride” when I saw a commercial for something that looked much more interesting! I hopped over to mtvengineroom.com and watched two episodes, or, webisodes, of this new web series from MTV U and HP (I didn’t know they still made things other than free printers).
EngineRoom takes young, attractive creative types from around the world and pits them against each other in a hip creative loft in NYC. You’ve got USA, Europe, Latin America, and Asian Pacific represented by some pretty good interdisciplinary talent, ranging from directing and editing to animation and visual effects.
The first challenge has the teams create a commercial spot in the stylings of HPs “hands” series, and they all do a pretty good job. Team Latin America nails it though with a visually spot-on piece.
I’m glad I found this online reality series as I’m a complete sucker for these challenge based shows. You can check out the team members’ portfolios here, and learn that graphic designer and judge Stefan Sagmeister does not like butterflies here. Check out the How-Tos to learn a little about motion tracking in After Effects. Thanks MTV!
The aptly named color inspiration blog COLOURlovers recently posted color schemes taken directly from The Great Depression and WWII. Through Flickr , The Library of Congress shares some photos from the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information from the 1930s to the 1940s.
It’s nice to look back and see that people were still styling better during a depression and a world war. Enjoy about 1600 color photos from America’s hard times here.
The Presidental Debates: Part I
Listening to the debates, about 20 minutes into it, I am absolutely amazed at McCain’s Jedi Mind powers. He speaks, my mind goes blank, and next thing I know I’m in a ditch watching ants crawl by. That is true power!
UPDATE: CBS & C-SPAN have both made the full video of the debate available, one though iTunes, one through YouTube. God bless America.