About andrewprice

andrewprice

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Location:

Venice Beach (90291, USA)

Joined on:

03/21/07

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  Magazine

  

  This (Short) Week In GOOD

  This week's coming to an early end around the GOOD offices. Here are a few quick things to note before we head out:
  
  -Sean Hannity sez: "America is the Greatest Best Country God Has Ever Given Man on the Face of This Earth." No joke; he really said that.
  
  -The above value proposition notwithstanding, your right to privacy online is unraveling. The BBC reports that "Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube." The EFF is not happy.
  
  And some highlights from the GOOD blog:
  
  -Fox News turns NYT reporters into gargoyles with Photoshop. No credibility left to lose.
  
  -A Parsons graduate launches her high-end fashion line in war-torn Sierra Leone.
  
  -These cartoons lampooning business jargon crack us up.
  
  -We saw new images of the High Line park-to-be in New York.
  
  -Efforts by a right-wing news site to replace the word "gay" with "homosexual" backfire to hilarious effect.
  
  -Is Google deliberately disrupting anti-Obama blogs?
  
  -Tomorrow celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Here are some other things declared on the 4th of July.

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  Posted on July 3, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Politics

  

  Obama City

  Remember in Being John Malkovich, when Malkovich goes through his own portal?
  
  "Malkovich. Malkovich malkovich MALKOVICH. Malcovich."
  
  This is what happens when Obama goes through his own portal. A visit to the city of Obama, Japan.
  
  Thanks Zach!

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  Posted on July 3, 2008 by - andrewprice

• Rocket Love

  Authored by alexandra_m - 1 vote

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  Science

  Intermission

  Our career ambitions circa age six: astronaut, spy, or, barring those, Allosaurus. We had more or less retired these plans, but watching this light (ha!) video made by the inhabitants of the International Space Station, "astronaut" is back in a big way.
  
  
  
  Via VSL.

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  Posted on July 2, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Culture

  The Front Lines Of Fashion In Sierra Leone

  Adama Kargbo was born and raised in Sierra Leone, but moved to New York when she was 12. After graduating from the famous fashion design program at Parsons, she returned to her home country, ravaged by a desperate and brutal civil war, to launch her high-end line.
  
  Sierra Leone isn't the first place you'd think of finding couture, but the country is changing. According to filmmaker Eric Becker, who helped with her first shoot, "It is a world of rural, mud hut villages where cell phone ring tones mix with the sound of baying goats, where chiefs have business cards and gmail accounts. ...where the bottom—still brutally victimized by the trappings of poverty—has begun to connect to a global world at a rapid pace." In this context, Adama's case of reverse brain-drain makes more sense. And while fashion might not heal the wounds of civil war, it may help Sierra Leone realize a more beautiful future.
  
  
  Adama's line, called Aschobi, is based in Freetown.
  
  
  Adama had only one model for her shoot. She found the other two girls at a local ex-pat bar.
  
  
  Adama's clothes give traditional African style an urban twist.
  
  
  Photos by Henry Jacobson

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  Posted on July 1, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Art & Design

  Intermission

  A short piece about the ethics of art from Polish animator Tomasz Bagiński.
  
  

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  Posted on June 30, 2008 by - andrewprice

• It's Just Business

  Authored by Patrick James - 1 vote

• Homosexual Penetrates With Ease

  Authored by Morgan Clendaniel - 2 votes

• 1 vote

  Environment

  

  High Line Gets Off The Ground

  The High Line is an abandoned, elevated rail line through western Manhattan that has hovered above the street, deteriorating in desuetude, since the 1980s. In 2003 a design competition was held to solicit ways to turn the High Line into a public park. Designs by Diller Scofidio + Renfro were selected, and construction started in 2007. We wrote about this great example of urban revitalization in Issue 001 (our original video is below).
  
  Last week, the public saw new renderings of the High Line designs for the first time since 2005. There's a first set here and a second set here. To see what the High Line currently looks like, check out this striking Flickr set.

  
  
  Links to High Line news via Kottke.

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  Posted on June 30, 2008 by - andrewprice

• Campaign From Home

  Authored by alexandra_m - 2 votes

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  Buying

  

  Obsessive Branding Disorder

  In nature, animals use all sorts of evolutionary tricks to mislead predators, mates, and competitors about who they are. The tomato frog puffs itself up to look like a bigger, more fearsome creature when it's facing down danger. Harmless coral snakes bluff predators by mimicing poisonous ones. It's a facade.
  
  In the world of business, the corresponding behavior is called "branding." While creating a "strong brand identity" or whatever certainly has some fun, legitimate purposes, more often than not branding is about manipulating consumers' impressions. Starbucks is your little, local coffee shop. Häagen-Dazs is Scandinavian or something (the name is nonsense; no language uses umlauts that way). Branding has run amok, and that's the subject of Lucas Conley’s new book OBD: Obsessive Branding Disorder — The Illusion of Business and the Business of Illusion. According to VSL:
  
  Conley, a contributing writer at Fast Company, believes branding is an insidious pathology contaminating American life. His well-executed argument is convincing: The more money and effort companies pour into branding, the fewer resources are left for research, development and substantive innovation. Our products and services don’t improve, or even give us what we actually need; they just get slicker. And we are diminished.
  
  It looks like a great read to us. The appearance of the cover convinces us it's a sophisticated, no-nonsense analysis. It's on Amazon here.

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  Posted on June 26, 2008 by - andrewprice

• The West Coast and Green Bike Lanes

  Authored by pepdud - 1 vote

• 1 vote

  Art & Design

  Intermission

  Taking a cue from Jason Eppnik's Pixelator, Poster Child puts a "stained glass" cover over NYC video billboards to make animated graffiti. At about the 1:10 mark you get the full effect of his work. Bonus: the soundtrack is a hilarious Gregorian chant version of Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

  
  
  UPDATE: From the video's intro credits, it looks like Poster Child had help from Eppnik.

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  Posted on June 25, 2008 by - andrewprice

• 1 vote

  Mobility

  

  Documenting Bike Lane Failure

  If we want people to ride bikes more (and we do), we'll have to make room for them on the roads at some point. Right now, bike lanes aren't taken all that seriously. Drivers think of them as a turning lane or parking space, as evidenced by My Bike Lane, a user-submitted collection of photos documenting bike lane misuse. With all the motorists using bike lanes, it's no wonder cyclists are taking to the freeways.
  
  Via Matt Yglesias.

  Comments (1)

  Posted on June 25, 2008 by - andrewprice

• David Harvey Reads Capital

  Authored by Patrick James - 1 vote

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  Politics

  

  Mapping The Movers And Shakers

  This map of the political opinion makers online shows you which news sites and blogs are shaping the debate. Interestingly, The New York Times, The Onion, and Wired are all called "liberal infopits."

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  Posted on June 23, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Culture

  George Carlin RIP

  The legendary comedian George Carlin, famous for his stand-up comedy, especially the "Seven Dirty Words" routine, died of heart failure on Sunday at age 71.

  Comments (1)

  Posted on June 23, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Health

  

  This Sh*t Is Bananas!

  Our office kitchen is stocked with bananas. For now. It appears they might go extinct when a new strain of "Panama disease" reaches Latin America.

  Giving up bananas might be part of a positive trend towards more locavorous eating, though, according to Banana expert Dan Koeppel: "In recent years, American consumers have begun seeing the benefits — to health, to the economy and to the environment — of buying foods that are grown close to our homes. Getting used to life without bananas will take some adjustment. What other fruit can you slice onto your breakfast cereal?"

  Strawberries, obviously. We'll switch if we have to. We probably shouldn't be supporting the labor practices on Ecuadorian banana plantations anyway.

  Comments (0)

  Posted on June 23, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Politics

  

  Ross Perot's Back

  Ross Perot's back, and this time he's bringing all of his charts. We like the approach: short on ideology, long on facts.

  Comments (1)

  Posted on June 18, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Mobility

  A Traffic Jam For No Reason At All

  Researchers from the Japanese "Mathematical Society of traffic flow" have shown how a traffic jam can develop for no apparent reason. They had 22 drivers circle a track and asked them all to keep a constant speed of 30 kph. Small fluctuations in people's speeds caused little disruptions that snowballed into full-fledged jams. The traffic jams propagate around the track like a wave through a spring.

  We wonder how many day-to-day traffic slowdowns are due to this phenomenon, as opposed to a real capacity problem on streets.

  Comments (1)

  Posted on June 18, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Buying

  

  Euro 2008 Shirts

  The NBA finals might be over, but the Euro 2008 soccer tournament is in full swing. Fans of soccer and/or graphic design should check out the shirts Steve Rura made for 16 of the participating teams. They're really easy on the eyes.
  
  Via Computerlove.

  Comments (0)

  Posted on June 18, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Environment

  

  Parking Lots Put To Use

  Installing solar panels above parking lots seems like a no-brainer to us. Just park and plug in your car. You'll never have to engage your Chevy Volt's "range-extending power source." And until everyone's driving electric, whoever owns the lot can sell or use the power themselves. The company selling these "Solar Groves," Envision Solar, claims the panels would pay themselves off in five years.

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  Posted on June 17, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Mobility

  

  Crimanimalz Bike LA's Freeways

  After the viral popularity of that original video of rogue cycling on L.A.'s clogged freeways, the "Crimanimalz" have released another. You can watch it here, but be forewarned: the soundtrack's pretty grating. According to a recent NPR piece, the group is planning to make these freeway bike rides a monthly thing. The whole project is a little ridiculous, but then again, so is L.A.'s transportation infrastructure.
  
  Their new logo (above, from their new website) is rife with symbolism, by the way. Are those two-legged meerkats of alternate transportation leading the car-bound sheep of the freeway? Probably.
  
  Thanks, Bristol.

  Comments (0)

  Posted on June 17, 2008 by - andrewprice

• 1 vote

  Education

  

  Edgar Allen Poe, Disguised As PowerPoint

  To encourage the computer-reliant to read (and to facilitate covert reading at work), the New Zealand Book Council has disguised classic works of literature as PowerPoint presentations and created a Potemkin windows desktop to house them. You can contemplate Tolstoy, Twain, and Poe while appearing to pore over, you know, whatever PowerPoints normally contain. At the end of the day, we still recommend the paper versions, but readatwork.com will do in a pinch.
  
  Via PSFK.

  Comments (0)

  Posted on June 17, 2008 by - andrewprice

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  Magazine

  GOOD Greenmarket Party In NYC

  We threw a party in NYC with Greenmarket back on June 7. It was, by all accounts, an exceptional Saturday. We had a photobooth there; you can see a slideshow of all the people who used it here. Here are a few of our photos. If you took any, Flickr tag them "GOODgreenmarket".

  
  Good people having fun (close up)

  
  So that's where the bees are going: the party circuit

  
  Healthy, delicious, and sustainable: the trifecta

  
  More good folks

  
  Limbo...totally underrated

  
  Soundtrack by Jacques Renault, These New Puritans (above), and David Prince "The Daily Swarm"

  Photos by Eugenio Silvestriñi. Limbo photo by Christopher Berntsen.

  Thanks to everyone who helped us pull this off: Jenn Su, Gabrielle Langholtz, Michael Hurwitz, Mary Cleaver, The Greenmarket, and all of our volunteers. Thanks also to JetBlue, Hope Equity, and all our supportive sponsors.

  For more information on the Greenmarket, a Program of Council on the Environment NYC (CENYC), please visit Greenmarket.

  Comments (0)

  Posted on June 17, 2008 by - andrewprice