Experimental Hebrew type

Israeli typographer Oded Ezer does some incredible experimentation with type: reinterpretations of traditional Hebrew script, Hebrew/Latin fusions, sculptural fonts, and nature-inspired "biotypography." On that last notion, he says:

When I saw an ant on the floor of my studio, I started to imagine what would happen if this was a creature half ant and half letter. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if nature had invented letters? And then maybe different letter-ants could gather, create words and communicate with us!? I kept on fantasizing and loved the idea so much that I immediately had to do something with it - and so I did!

Via The Nonist.

State of the Union, Part III

Bush talked a pretty good game about energy independence and renewable fuel sources during last night's State of the Union, but as with so much of his speech, it was utter rubbish. As ThinkProgress wrote:

Bush said: “Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. Here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.”

FACT — BUSH HAS INCREASED DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL: Sixty-six percent of oil consumed in the United States comes from foreign sources, up from 58 percent in 2000. Americans now spend $200,000 a minute on foreign oil and more than $25 billion annually goes to Persian Gulf states for oil imports. [Energy Information Administration, 1/06; American Progress, 2004]

FACT– BUSH ENERGY BILL WILL NOT REDUCE RELIANCE ON FOREIGN OIL: The energy bill signed and supported by President Bush “rejected a Senate provision that required reduction of oil consumption by one million barrels per day by 2015.” Under the bill, “our need for imported oil will continue to grow for as long as models are able to project.” [U.S. House Committee on Government Reform, 7/05]

In honor of this doublespeak, here's a wonderful parody of the Mobil Oil logo seen in Los Angeles.

SOTU Parts I and II.

"Contextual advertising gone bad."

A week before the sixty-first anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, the German newspaper Landeszeitung Lüneburg ran a story about a Sinti boy who was deported from Lüneburg to Auschwitz. In a case of "contextual advertising gone bad," the page also featured an unfortunate ad placement: one of Germany's biggest power company's ran an ad with the headline “E.ON provides today for the gas of tomorrow!” The newspaper issued an apology.

Via StayFree!.

Impaler Imprisoned

This can't be good for a gubernatorial (or presidential) run:

Gubernatorial candidate Jonathon Sharkey being held on 2 Indiana felony warrants
Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey, who announced in Princeton Jan. 13 that he was running for governor, was arrested at his Princeton apartment about 8:30 Monday evening.

Princeton officer Todd Frederick initiated a search yesterday afternoon that led to the discovery of two active felony warrants from Marion County (Indianapolis) in Indiana.

The 2005 warrants were issued in May for stalking and in September for escape on a $100,000 bond.

Sharkey is being held in the Mille Lacs County Jail in Milaca and Indiana authorities have indicated they will come to pick him up, said Princeton Police Chief Dave Warneke Tuesday morning.

More from WCCO.

On Fanaticism.

Digging through my attic last night, I found a series of blank books I've filled over the years with excerpts from books I've read. Finding them in times when religious and political extremists are taking charge around the world and at home, they seem to take on new meaning. Another:

Fervor is the weapon of choice of the impotent. Of those who heat the iron in order to shape it at once. I should prefer to warm man's body and leave him. We might reach this result: mankind retaining this fire through self-combustion. Mankind set free of the trampoline that is the resistance of others, and digging into its own flesh to find a meaning.

—Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

Passing

Wow, it's been a tough winter. Three gigantic figures have passed on: 74-year old media artist Nam June Paik, who died Sunday; Coretta Scott King, MLK's widow, passed away this morning at age 78; and playwright Wendy Wasserstein (The Heidi Chronicles) died at 55 of lymphoma. Rest in peace...

Quotes...

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery--even if mixed with fear-that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms-it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavour to comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.

—Albert Einstein, quoted by The Huge Entity

"Everybody knows" is the invocation of the cliché and the beginning of the banalization of experience, and it's the solemnity and the sense of authority that people have in voicing the cliché that's so insufferable. What we know is that, in an uncliched way, nobody knows anything.

—Philip Roth, The Human Stain

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

—Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

State of the Union, Part II

An excellent new photo by Walker Art Center photographer Cameron Wittig. (Click for full-size image.)

Earlier: State of the Union, Part I

Misc.

US kidnappers: Isn't kidnapping wives of suspected Iraqi insurgents by the US Army as shitty as the kidnapping of Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll?

ABC reporter injured in Iraq: Bob Woodruff and ABC cameraman Doug Vogt received serious head injuries when an IED exploded near them in Iraq.

Contradictions by the commander-in-chief: At the same time that 50,000 soldiers have been forced to extend their service through the military's "stop-loss" program, Bush wants to cut the size of the Guard and Reserves to their lowest levels in three decades.

The Dead: 2242 in Iraq so far. I just realized I haven't heard much about the death toll in awhile.

Faceplant recipient speaks

Less than two months ago, 38-year old French citizen Isabelle Dinoire received the world's first successful face transplant, with suicide victim Maryline Saint-Aubert's nose, cheeks, lips and chin grafted in after a brutal dog attack. While she's finally left the hospital, Dinoire seems to have psychological scars that are yet to heal: she says she's not yet ready to be seen in busy public spaces. The Sunday Times has more.

Technical difficulties

My high-speed internet connection is down, so I've only got dialup. Posts will probably be light for awhile.

Folk typography

There's a Flickr pool for everything. Here's one dedicated solely to "outsider" or folk typography, "letterforms created by people who are not designers, typographers, calligraphers, or graffiti artists--in other words, people outside of all traditional schools of typographic influence."

Images: otherthings, Tim Walker.

(Thanks, Ben.)

Urban type: And here's a gallery of graffiti artist Eine's complete alphabet appearing on shopfront shutters.

Suit-ellite

On February 3, astronauts on the International Space Station will launch an unlikely satellite: SuitSat. NASA's Frank Bauer explains:

"We've equipped a Russian Orlon spacesuit with three batteries, a radio transmitter, and internal sensors to measure temperature and battery power. As SuitSat circles Earth, it will transmit its condition to the ground."

If you've got a big antennae and a radio receiver tuned to 145.990 MHz FM (click here to find out when it'll pass over your town), you can hear it:

SuitSat transmits for 30 seconds, pauses for 30 seconds, and then repeats. "This is SuitSat-1, RS0RS," the transmission begins, followed by a prerecorded greeting in five languages. The greeting contains "special words" in English, French, Japanese, Russian, German and Spanish for students to record and decipher. (Awards will be given to students who do this. Scroll to the "more information" area at the end of this story for details.)

Next comes telemetry: temperature, battery power, mission elapsed time. "The telemetry is stated in plain language—in English," says Bauer. Everyone will be privy to SuitSat's condition. Bauer adds, "Suitsat 'talks' using a voice synthesizer. It's pretty amazing."

The transmission ends with a Slow Scan TV picture. Of what? "We're not telling," laughs Bauer. "It's a mystery picture."

Unwheeldy.

Searching Google images, this happened to catch my eye: it's Dave Hershberger's entry in the 2005 Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore, a 42-mile trek made by an assortment of bizarre vehicles. Aptly dubbed Unwheeldy, it's a two-wheel hand-made bike with nine-foot wheels, 112-tooth sprockets, 120 spokes per wheel,and--oh yeah--it floats. (Here's Hershberger's journal of its construction.)

Surely, thought I, this is an oddity, a one-of-a-kind.

Not really. There's the Killer Tomato, and a slew of historic side-by-side two-wheelers called dicycles:



And don't forget the monowheels:

No doubt.

The last time Bush had "no doubt" about something it was "that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." So when he says "there's no doubt in my mind it is legal" to wiretap citizens without a warrant, we're suppose to believe him?

Nixon, May 1977: "When the President does it, that means that it it is not illegal.

State of the Union

A new photo by Brian Ulrich.

The case against consumer-driven healthcare

Last year, Bush trumpeted his healthcare reforms--high deductible health plans paired with a health savings account--as the future of American healthcare: "It means you're in charge of your health care decisions, not a, you know, somebody far away in an office complex that you'll never visit."

This newspaper clipping, of a pregnant smoker worried about the effects of noise on her fetus, prompts a thought: is that such a good idea?

(Thanks, Andy.)

Service to country, Santorum style

Sacrifice? Nah. A Rick Santorum bumpersticker is all it takes to serve America:

Santorum: "And yet we have brave men and women who are willing to step forward because they know what's at stake. They're willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country. What I'm asking all of you tonight is not to put on a uniform. Put on a bumper sticker. Is it that much to ask? Is it that much to ask to step up and serve your country?"

Another all-time low: Bush's approval rating has bottomed out at 36% approval, according to a new poll by American Research Group.

Starbusted

"Obey Starbucks" is the subtle (and as yet undetected) message of this sign in Boulder, adbusted to feature the face of Shepard Fairey's ubiquitous Andre.

Bloggers, declare your independence!

As a new experimenter with Google's Adsense, a thrilling way to make just pennies a month (click those links!), this may seem a bit hypocritical but: this is cool. Adfreeblog is a new site (or movement) for bloggers to stay ad-free. With this free, downloadable icon you cant attest:

1. That I am opposed to the use of corporate advertising on blogs.

2. That I feel the use of corporate advertising on blogs devalues the medium.

3. That I do not accept money in return for advertising space on my blog.

(Via StayFree!)