October 10, 2008
A Little Less Ivy in the Bank
Robin says,
QUESTION: How has the stock market's precipitous plunge affected college endowments, especially the titanic ones, e.g. Harvard and Yale? Will it affect their scholarship programs -- many of which are generous and new?
Or did Harvard's legendary money managers somehow manage to beat the market again?
If I worked at a newspaper or financial news website I would assign this story right now. But I don't, so I'll just blog it here.
Candidate Analogies
Robin says,
A funny thread on Current.com.
Rise of the image fall of the word!
Hangul!
Robin says,
To my ever-increasing embarrassment, I am totally monolingual. Maybe that's why I am also increasingly fascinated with the typography of other languages: What's the Helvetica of Japanese? What's the Comic Sans of Hindi? Who's the hot young Arabic type designer?
This doesn't quite answer those questions, but it's pretty awesome: Jonathan Hoefler on the insanely logical and self-consistent Korean alphabet:
Typographically, I envy my Korean counterparts who get to work with Hangul, with its letterforms that always fit into a square, and can be read in any direction (horizontally or vertically.) And best of all: no kerning!
Any pointers to cool non-Roman-alphabet typography out there?
October 9, 2008
Go to Where the Party's Going, Not Where It's Been
Robin says,
Oh man, I love this. Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine with the metaphor for success in media today: "...figuring out where the party is at nowadays, and setting yourself to be the one who's over there hosting the party."
It makes a lot more sense if you watch his whole video. Which you should.
Improving the debates
Matt says,
Last Thursday's Presidential debate was widely panned for its ridiculous format. Seriously? Two-minute responses and one-minute followups? And this is supposed to transcend talking points?
The Lehrer debate felt much meatier to me. It clearly showcased two men who had very different (but both quite substantial) views on foreign policy, and allowed them to contrast those views at length. Still, any amount of time spent paying attention to the moderator in a Presidential debate is wasted time, and Lehrer had to do a fair amount of refereeing to keep the candidates in line.
CJR's got some excellent ideas for shaking up the debate format. I've got one more:
What if we allotted to each of the candidates a block of time — say 40 minutes — and allow them to apportion it however they'd like? Engage a moderator merely to pause the debate and send the candidates in another direction if they get stuck on a particular topic, but mostly allow them to steer the debate where they'd like. Each candidate could be wired with a mic that detects when he's speaking and winds down the clock, and both the candidates and the viewers can see how much time each one has left.
You could even take this a little further by employing a team of fact-checkers who work furiously during the debate to spot misstatements of fact. If a candidate is discovered to have fudged the truth, the misstatement is revealed during the course of the debate and the candidate is docked a minute. (This would be difficult to enforce and cause a lot of partisan sniping, so the plan might be better without, but I offer it as a possibility.)
What say you, Snarkmind?
THE MEDIA
Matt says,
I love this. Ironic Sans posts a video of the CNN Election Center, left momentarily unattended. It's like an outtake from a dystopian '80s movie about the future.
60 Seconds in the Life of the Election Center from Ironic Sans on Vimeo.
Conflict in the Middle East
Matt says,
Infosthetics points to this well-done short about the standoff in the Middle East. Being five minutes long, of course it dispenses with a lot of the actual geopolitics of the matter (leaving the prophetic religious elements of the conflict entirely unmentioned, even), but it's pretty.
October 8, 2008
Political Landscapes
Matt says,
Cf. my post on "America in speeches": BLDGBLOG has a thoughtful essay on the geography of political rhetoric. (Via CJR.)
Blackwater Yard Sale!
Robin says,
Oh man, this is why you have got to sign up for the Blackwater email list:
Is this a sign of the times? How will the credit bust affect mercenary armies?? THINK OF THE CORPORATE MILITIAS, PEOPLE.
Daily Delight
Robin says,
Can't believe I haven't linked to this yet, as I've been enjoying it for weeks: Kyle T. Webster's Daily Figure. Gestural figure drawing was always my favorite part of art classes -- though I could never do it this well.
FYI, this satisfies your FDA daily recommended allowance of line art.
October 6, 2008
From Above
Robin says,
Earth from above at The Big Picture. Hint: It's not the above-ness that's so great. It's the eye for pattern and geometry. For some reason, this one really gets me.
(Also on Kottke. But I got it from the Big Picture RSS feed. Lest you think me a link-poacher.)
Musical Mario Paint
Robin says,
Hmm I feel that my links have been sub-par lately. I'll write about my current project soon... and remember there's always this (email it to your grandma!)... but in the meantime I am in love with these Mario Paint masterpieces. In no small part because I myself was a Mario Paint maestro back in the day. Man, do you remember the SNES mouse? What a weird contraption.
October 5, 2008
The Art of the Panda
Robin says,
By now you know I like title sequences better than movies themselves. The latestgreatest example is Kung-Fu Panda, which was actually fairly sweet and clever... but was also completely bested by its own title sequence. Watch it in HD here.
October 1, 2008
The Money Meltdown
Matt says,
'I Will Have as My Student Only Mademoiselle Camille Claudel'
Robin says,
Wow. Read the tragic tale of Rodin and Camille. (Yes, that Rodin.) Intense. Why isn't this a movie yet?
P.S. Lots more artists in love!
September 29, 2008
The Global Economy
Robin says,
It's not just the U.S. markets; now the Nikkei-225 is down 5%, the Hang Seng is down 5.5%, Brazil's index is down 10%, etc., etc. For some reason, this creeps me out in a way the Dow, etc., did not.
What's the best source for smart reporting on this crisis -- from a global perspective? The Economist seems to be posting at magazine-pace... FT seems okay. What else is out there?
Elements in the Basement
Robin says,
- dramatizes basic chemistry as interludes at a dance party
- is crazy
- was produced for the European Union's YouTube channel!
To all these things I say: YES.
September 28, 2008
Behold, the Maltese Falcon
Robin says,
WHOAH. Telstar Logistics has a couple of great shots of the coolest boat in the world. It sort of barely fits under the Golden Gate Bridge. I wish it belonged to an evil genius super-villain instead of a VC.
September 25, 2008
Edward Hopper on Salvia
Matt says,
The eerie art of Gregory Crewdson. (via)
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