With a long-awaited long weekend just a few hours away, we’re sure a few of you will hear some Michael Jackson smash hits at a BBQ soon. Today also happens be his 50th birthday. Though the King of Pop’s career is near kaput (we said it), his brush with a different five-oh still warrants our undivided attention. It's been 40 successful and... Read & Discuss
As North Korea threatens to recommence nuclear activity, we thought this photo essay of their state-sponsored propaganda posters was a valuable window in the country's (or at least the country's government's) psyche. It’s fascinating to see our ideological differences from the other side, inked into lapidary, us-versus-U.S. slogans and... Read & Discuss
There’s nothing like some wondrous photography to sate your anticipation between DNC bulletins. PSFK points us to the absolutely awesome work of Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke. For their Lightmark series, the two gallivant across the globe to shoot some sublime photographs, enhanced by their expert use of light drawing. Drawing with light... Read & Discuss
Mother Jones spent a year gathering, grouping, and evaluating our military activity around the globe for their massive (and ongoing) dossier, "Mission Creep." The project is full of knowledgeable, take-no-prisoner articles, but it’s their interactive map of America's global military presence over the years that really caught our attention. The... Read & Discuss
Apparently it's linguistic Friday. The folks over at Boing Boing have exhumed Slim Gaillard’s Vout-O-Reenee Dictionary to help us all shed (learning) some retro me-lee-see (lingo). The promotional pamphlet is a lexicon of the jazzman's awesome and humorous patois. It’s a perfect, hyphen-filled index for instant '30s street cred and affected... Read & Discuss
We just posted GOOD 12: The Education Issue for your perusal. Here are a few outside stories to keep you in the scholastic mindset:- In case you missed our previous mention: this fall, a Texas school district will allow teachers the right to bear arms. The district’s superintendent justifies his life-and-death decision as such: "We have a... Read & Discuss
While we wait for Obama’s game-changing text, CNN educates us with a list of the best and worst vice president picks since Harry Truman’s right hand man, Alben Barkley. Traditionally, the ticket add-ons contribute more than just a pretty face, whether it’s supplementing the campaign with a state’s support (California came with Nixon during... Read & Discuss
Pythagoras was right. The Greek polymath once said that everything is numbers. Today—and presumably on 9/9/09 and so on—we thank him for his foresight.
In that spirit, we scoured our internets for anything with the right angle for a Friday afternoon, or just anything eight-related. Here’s what our brief dragnet turned up:
-In the New York... Read & Discuss
Kamikatsu, a small arboreal village in south-west Japan, has begun the arduous process of becoming Japan's first zero-waste community. By its target year of 2020, the village hopes to say sayonara to any incinerating or dumping. The experiment involves each household separating its waste into no fewer than 34 categories before it arrives at the... Read & Discuss
Besides continuing to depict Obama as a press-seeking celebrity, McCain and his people have also been referring to their opponent as a flip-flopper—the epithet that deflated Kerry’s campaign. Of course, the Obama camp has reciprocated the rancor by highlighting some of McCain’s switcheroos.With all this he-said, he-said finger-pointing (and... Read & Discuss
In this past weekend’s New York Times Magazine, Caroline Winter asked an elementary question: “why do we capitalize the word ‘I’?”Winter digs up some etymology, dissects the evolution of the monolithic majuscule, and comes to the conclusion that the capital “I” doesn’t let us see eye to eye. Whereas the lowercased exchanges in other languages... Read & Discuss
Rather than eBay away his Olympic tickets, GOOD friend John Britton has decided to refresh the world with a bit of charity. John is offering 3 pairs of free tickets for the equestrian events in Hong Kong on August 9. The pay-it-forward catch: you have to think of a good deed to do and post about it on his blog. He suggests a few altruistic... Read & Discuss
George Orwell's oeuvre is everywhere this summer. Earlier this month, Penguin released redesigned editions of his two seminal works, Animal Farm and 1984. On August 9th, the Orwell Prize will issue the Orwell Diaries for blog consumption in daily servings.Like epistles addressed to no one and thus everyone, the Englishman's entries will offer... Read & Discuss