INSIDE JOB received this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary. It’s quite a powerful and infuriating film about our financial system and how it crashed and burned. And why no one on Wall Street went to jail. (Note: the only reason Madoff went to jail was because his illegalities hurt other rich people, period.)

Watch it, and if, for some reason, you still think the reason all the cards came crashing down was because some poor people bought houses they couldn’t afford, well then I think it’s time for a cage match.

TED2004 In James Howard Kunstler’s view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about. (An oldie but a goodie.)

Green Patriot Posters the book edited by Dmitri Siegel & Edward Morris

IMAGES FOR A NEW ACTIVISM

Green Patriot Posters the book was released at the end of 2010, a year tied for the warmest on record with 1998 and 2005. The book brings together the strongest contemporary graphic design currently promoting sustainability and the fight against climate change at a time when one of America’s political parties is looking to rewrite the Clean Air Act so that it can’t be used to fight that very same climate change.

The book showcases 50 posters selected from the project Website in detachable, ready to hang format. It’s edited by Edward Morris and Dmitri Siegel and includes text by Michael Bierut, Thomas L. Friedman, Steven Heller, Edward Morris, Dmitri Siegel and Morgan Clendaniel. In addition to the site and the book, Cleveland saw bus adverts by Michael Beirut, Dorchester was home to a public art campaign and San Francisco had bus shelter placement thanks to some successful crowdfunding.

Green Patriot Posters {dot} ORG

Bierut Bus in Cleveland

Bike Your City Bus Shelter by Jason Hardy in San Francisco

Green Patriot Posters Reinvigorate Environmental Message at Wired and the Destroy This Book excerpt can be found at Design Observer. Most People just don’t get climate change. Few grasp the need and more important, the opportunity to transform our society. So the people who do get it need to be louder, more insistent and more effective at getting the message across. Certainly a very true statement. (more…)

Teach.gov

My favorite part of the State of the Union. The words of Barack Obama: “become a teacher, your country needs you.”

Visit Teach.gov to learn more.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

January 17, 2011 on Democracy Now!

BBCX365, by Johnny Selman, is a poster project to bridge the knowledge gap between global current events and the American public.

• I will do this by creating a more visually interesting vehicle for the news, use a credible news source (BBC), and promote, market, and network. I will design a poster a day for 365 days in reaction to a headline on the BBC news website and update this website everyday with the poster and the accompanying news story. By creating posters based on the news stories I hope to compel my audience to look into the article and eventually stir a larger interest in world news with the American public.

• In 2008 the internet overtook all other outlets for international and national news aside from television. Forty percent of Americans got their news online in 2008, up from twenty-seven percent the previous year. It can be estimated that currently over 50% of Americans use the internet as their main source of news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (fifty-nine percent) say they get most of their national and international news online (Pew). With the rise in popularity of mobile devices and the continued trajectory of Americans getting their news online; this project will predominantly be based online.

New Ts for BOLD Nebraska {dot} ORG

It was a big year for progress. Despite all the madness, 2010 looks pretty good for big steps forward. I’d say Hopey Changey is working out for this guy. If you’re on Facebook and want to chime in, we’re listening: What’s your BOLD Statement on BOLD Actions?

For more on progressive politics in this oh-so-conservative state of NE, do visit BOLD Nebraska {dot} ORG.

DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. This Week alone: 12,731 donors, 728 projects completed, 97,488 students reached.

• Give as little as $1 and get the same level of choice, transparency, and feedback that is traditionally reserved for someone who gives millions. We call it citizen philanthropy.

Tom Friedman on Rebooting America

America and the future. How much time do we have to get our shit together and actually deliver on what we call the American Dream? A great hour with Tom Friedman and Tom Ashbrook on America’s crumbling infrastructure, China’s rise, unemployment and jobs, taxes, the wars and the need for a serious yes-climate-change-is-coming-fast energy/environment policy. Bring on 2011.

A collaboration between GOOD and Deeplocal.

How Much Does the United States Subsidize Energy

$70.2 Billion Fossil Fuels
$16.8 Billion Corn Ethanol
$12.2 Billion Renewable Energy
$2.3 Billion Carbon Capture and Storage

SOURCE: The Environmental Law Institute.

A collaboration between GOOD and Deeplocal.