Secret Still

I’m trying to sit here and eat an apple, and Philip Bell is ruining it for me. Each time I take a bite, I spit a little bit of it out because I’m so impressed with his work. It goes: bite, “holy shit!”, little pieces of apple go flying. The work that is specifically causing me to projectile chew is his Illustrated Bill of Rights project. He designed a set of pictograms for each of the ten articles that compose the Bill of Rights and then created radial patterns out of them. It’s like a kaleidoscope made of our basic freedoms! Fun! Side note: when I was a kid I broke open a kaleidoscope, took out all the colored, plastic crap, and replaced it with various living insects that I thought looked cool. This and the food spitting would explain why I don’t have many friends.

Philip Bell: The Illustrated Bill of Rights

Now that we can all unclench our sphincters a little, you might want to check out this great photo essay by Callie Shell chronicling Obama’s road to the Presidency. These are some beautiful and candid shots. We made the right choice.

Callie Shell: Obama

In lieu of new Daily Video links today (I’ll leave yesterday’s up), I’ve decided to do a post on some interesting video sources. The key to this post is that I like to learn. No, I love to learn. I can’t stop myself. The internet, in it’s ever-evolving attempts to disseminate knowledge to the far corners of the Earth, has brought to my attention a few excellent resources for learning more than you could ever want to know about the world and the ideas that shape it. Check out my short list after the jump.
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Since Beijing is hosting the Olympics this year I keep seeing more and more protests calling for the freedom of Tibet from Chinese rule. I agree. What’s more surprising to me, however, is the abundance of Chinese nationals around the world holding counter-protests. Maybe surprise is the wrong word. Incredulity is probably better. How, China? How can you possibly imagine that Tibet is yours? It would be the same as Germany still claiming Poland. Just because the people that occupy the country can’t physically fight back doesn’t mean that you can take it. I know that these kinds of actions go on all over the world, and they have for thousands of years, but proliferation doesn’t make something right. Especially not in a world that is becoming an unbounded global economy (or should be at any rate). National Geographic, in an effort to not let China’s actions be forgotten, have reprinted the essay of Heinrich Harrer, a German living in the sacred city of Lhasa in the middle of last century. Harrer’s story, which you might know as Seven Years in Tibet, is probably one of the best accounts of the Chinese invasion of Tibet. He was an Olympian who later became the tutor of the current incarnation of the Dalai Lama. I can’t imagine a more fitting Olympic protest than the tale of an Olympic athlete who witnessed the horrific actions of this year’s Olympic host not so long ago.

My Life in Forbidden Lhasa

I just wanted to point out this amazing photoset over at NPR. It’s called Standing By Their Men, and it features photos of scandalized politicians and their wives at press conferences explaining the scandals. The array of faces the women display is what makes it all worth while. I especially like the Hillary Clinton picture, because she’s smiling lightly but her eyes seem dead. She might make a great leader, but I don’t like her at all as a person. It’s impossible for me to understand what these women are going through, but my natural reaction would’ve been to beat my husband to within an inch of his life and then light all his stuff on fire. And that’s all before I try to destroy him in the divorce. It’s cute how full of rage I am.

Standing By Their Men

There is a great piece up on Under Consideration about the versatile and tasteful design that is Obama’s campaign logo. If I didn’t already like him the best this would be just another reason that I would reconsider him as the best choice.

The Hardest Working Presidential Campaign Logo

Right now the Society of Illustrators has a big group show going on at their HQ featuring works by international illustrators protesting the American war in the Middle East. I’m generally too pragmatic to bother with politics or protests, but the images are great and the war is supremely pointless. There have been a couple of times where people who proudly show off their “support our troops” stickers haven’t realized that you can support the troops without supporting the dumbass war our country is involved in. I support the troops coming home and being paid a decent wage, and veterans not having their health care taken away. Check out the bevy of images in the Artists Against the War slideshow on the Society of Illustrators site:

Artists Against the War

In case you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be one of the many people held prisoner in secret camps and tortured by our great country for crimes they never committed, now you can find out. Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah has spoken about the variety of ways that he was physically and psychologically tortured while a captive of the CIA. If I could find a way to vomit on the President I would. You hear that, Secret Service? Bullets aren’t the only projectile you’ve got to be wary of, now you’ve got to be constantly vigilant for projectile vomit. If you need a good headshot for whatever file you have to open on me, just let me know. I’ve got some hilarious polaroids. I don’t know if I will ever not be disgusted by our country again.

Inside the CIA’s notorious “black sites”

This is a brilliant project by Nichelle Narcisi to stimulate the 18-24 year-olds into voting. That’s pretty much the holy grail of political advertising and she might just pull it off. I think her campaign and Barack Obama might actually see the highest young voter turnout for the 08 election. Shit, I’m gonna vote and I have very specific opinions about why I never vote.

You can join Nichelle’s campaign at www.exceptyou.org and read more about her project at Design Observer who tipped me to it in the first place.