Here’s a collection of links I found interesting or relevant from 4/23-4/29/10:
Art & Graphic Design
• 50 most stunning examples of data visualization and infographics. These are just downright cool. I love infographs, and completely respect them as they’re hard as hell to make.
• Chris Ware Takes Aim at Corporate America in Rejected ‘Fortune’ Magazine Cover.
[…T]he real joy of Ware’s work (and probably the reason it was rejected) lies in the tiny, hilarious details like the warehouse of Waves of Grain 4 Sale, a tiny Republican tea party, a “Greenspan LubePro,” a helicopter dropping huge stacks of cash on top of a skyscraper while little figures celebrate, and many, many other shots at corporate America.
Local Seattle
• Seattle Erotic Art Festival is this coming weekend. See the art, the performances, meet new people, and support sex positive culture.
• Watch your speed on Elliott Ave West. The SPD’s installing speed cameras on Elliott Ave W to catch speeders. Tickets will be pricey.
Fandom
• Free Comic Book Day is this weekend. Find and support your local comic book shop.
• Hijinks Ensue’s web comic about Joss Whedon’s Avengers’ movie. Hilarious and completely true.
• True Blood’s first webisode, Pam and Eric have tryouts for a new dancer at Fangtasia. NSFW. (Via Inside Trekker.)
Inspiration
• Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2010. This year 31 women make the list. The highest number since Time started doing this.
• Secretary Hillary Clinton announces Three Significant Women and Girls’ Initiatives at Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. 50 nations come up with 3 initiatives to help support women entrepreneurs across the globe.
Politics
• Supreme Court critical in domestic partnership case. Even Scalia says this isn’t a first amendment issue and that if you sign a political petition, your name’s going to be out in public. Bigots. (And wow, I actually agree with WA Attorney General Rob McKenna.)
“Oh, this is such a touchy-feely, oh so sensitive” point of view, Scalia said. “You know, you can’t run a democracy this way, with everybody being afraid of having his political positions known.”
• I’m Boycotting Arizona. Author Tayari Jones’ awesome letter on why she’s boycotting AZ due to SB1070, the anti-immigration bill.
There are those who would argue that this is just a “Mexican thing.” Even if this were the case, I would still stand with the protesters. A “Mexican thing,” is a human thing.
• Republican Governors Association embraces ‘pro-terrorist, neo-Marxist propaganda.’ Yes, the Republican Governors Association are using imagery from V from Vendetta and other anarchist/neo-Marxist propoganda. I assume V-author and known magician Alan Moore will be cursing them.
The picture and its factual basis in the Guy Fawkes story eventually became a rallying cry for supporters of Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), who turned in an astonishing $4.07 million for the presidential candidate on Nov. 5, 2007. However, as with the tea parties, also created by Paul’s supporters, old-guard Republicans and neoconservatives came to see Paul’s campaign model as both a threat and an opportunity, then seized upon it.
• Gulf Oil Spill Could Eclipse Exxon Valdez Disaster. Or as Bill Maher tweeted, “Every asshole who ever chanted ‘Drill baby drill’ should have to report to the Gulf coast today for cleanup duty.”
Technology
• Nobody Can Stop Facebook Because Nobody Understands Facebook. If you haven’t heard, Facebook’s taking over the web. And if you have a Facebook account, it’s opt-out, not opt-in, to connect and share your information and your friends’ on various websites. Want to know what your friends read, shop, and watch? Facebook’s there to creep you out. I work on the backend of e-commerce marketing and sometimes use this kind of information, but this even creeps me out.
Have the nuances of online privacy become so complex that they’re beyond the comprehension of mere mortals?
