Social Maps

Saw this today while searching for a cool map of Oakland. Eric Fischer, as mentioned on Fastco Design, made this from thousands of geotagged tweets. So cool! Reinforces the metaphor as the city as a beast.

Bay Area Twitter-Generated Map Infographic

Reanimation Library

Wow--this independent library in Brooklyn is soooooo cool. Check out the interview:



Poor Stephen Hayes's Mystic Arts of the Ninja--relegated to obsolescence...I loved that book as a kid! (I might even still have it around somewhere.) And OH MY GOD can someone with skillz please make me a pair of those "Master Librarian" knuckle dusters--I'll find a way to make it worth your while. Really.

Books, Content, Form and Formlessness -- Craig Mod Explores the Book as Object and Metaphor

Thanks to a tip from Saudade about a NYT article, I just read a great article on the nature and future of books, printing, and reading. Check out book designer, writer, and publisher Craig Mod's thoughts here: http://craigmod.com/journal/ipad_and_books/. And as a book lover, a book seller, and a librarian, I must admit I agree with his points, especially that "disposable books" should be swept out from print and into solely digital formats.

My only concern here is that he seems to ignore the digital divide. What of those who cannot afford one of Steve Jobs very expensive-but-beautiful products--do they not deserve to take a bit of summer reading to the beach? I don't think many public libraries will be loaning out iPads anytime soon, so perhaps the disposable mass market should be left around, despite its inherent negative effects until everyone can have some sort of e-reader. Any thoughts?

What does your soul look like?

This project is really neat! Draw your soul, and send it to the good people at Information is Beautiful. Closing date is Oct.31st though, so get on it! As David states on his site:

If enough people do this, it could be really interesting. Because we’ll all be blind to other peoples’ drawings, there’s a chance here to spot patterns, commonalities and any interesting coincidences that might appear across all the souls.

And to my agnostic and atheist friends, swap out "soul" for "mind" and play on.

a reminder from the past...

Here's a poster from the WPA.

This is awesome...