The Nation’s editors Richard Kim and Betsy Reed have rounded up an army of writers who have contributed essays on the mavericky ex-governor’s brush with greatness. The collection is called Going Rouge: Sarah Palin – An American Nightmare and will conveniently also launch on November 17th.  The book is already making waves with its obviously similar book cover. In both covers, the plucky moose-mama sports the color red and gazes toward a brighter tomorrow. But there are also a few key differences.

First, the use of the word “Rouge” which alludes to Palin’s sex-appeal and sideshow antics during the 2008 election. In what may be a reminder of the how close Palin came to power, the ex-governor is shown with hair tied back and wearing more formal attire, unlike going Rogue’s more innocuous, homey look .

There is also the font size of Palin’s name on Going Rouge which at first glance makes it seem as though she is the author and not the subject. Then of course, the dark clouds and the word “Nightmare” which are pretty self explanatory.

Now many books quietly or inadvertently  use similar cover photgraphs. Take, for instance, the following well known examples. (Thanks to the awesome totallylookslike.com

Going Rogue’s #1 status on Amazon.com has been attributed by some to mass advance buys by right-wing organizations who plan on distributing the volume to their loyal sheep.

But what will the cover’s effect be on launch day? Is it just a playful dig, or a disingenuous and even unethical marketing tactic?

Would the casual buyer unwittingly pickup the wrong copy?

Related posts:

1. Chronic Pottymouth There’s nothing like blazing up some sticky icky, jumping into...

The young gentlemen is somewhat portly, and somewhat aesthetically challenged. This effect is heightened as he is juxtaposed with Foxy, who as I may have mentioned, is a smokin’ hot mama. But it is the annoyed look of Fox and the hustling attitude of her handlers that made some call the actress a bitch and the pic a freeze-framed visual definition of cruelty.

Now I think Fox and her entourage were not to blame for this perception. It is pretty clear they are trying to get somewhere and obviously they can’t stop for random strangers who accost them with unknown motives…

But what if the positions were reversed? An incorrigible scalawag on Reddit got hold of the pic and using some photoshop trickery, swapped the subjects’ heads for a joke:

The pics are an awesome display of the perceived value disparities between human and human. Beauty, fame and status are wide gulfs indeed….

The original photo was found here:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3605/3633752862_d2a463fdca_o.jpg

The photoshopped version was submitted by “sluice” to Reddit.com and the original link is:
http://bayimg.com/image/eabfpaacc.jpg

No related posts.

I’m a little late in running across pixlr’s amazing photo editor, surely a godsend if you’re po’.

Photoshop would be hard to improve upon– the industry heavyweight has everything a casual user, a professional graphic designer and everyone in between could ever want.

But of course there is a drawback–unless you’re “young, black and famous, with money hangin’ out the anus”, buying a legit copy is a major investment. There are of course other methods *cough* demonoid *cough* but that would of course be wrong…

Enter pixlr.com, a site which allows the user to access an amazing photoshop-esque interface and many of the familiar features of Adobe’s cash cow. And all at the charming price of $0.00! No longer will people toil in the dark ages under the tyranny of the retarded child emperor known as MS paint. A reasonable editor is now within the grasp of anyone with a internet connection and basic PS skillz.


You have Swedish programmer Ola Sevandersson to thank for the application. He spent over a year refining it in his spare time and the result is something very functional and very free. I wonder if he’ll get sued? I hope not. I think its far more likely Adobe would buy the software…but who knows….

No related posts.

“Some photographers take reality…and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.”

Andrzej Dragan certainly falls into this latter category of photographers. The quantum physicist and professor clearly has the soul of an artist and his photo-treatments give the viewer much added insight.

Some of his most amazing creations show famous figures who died young and how they would have looked in old age.

Marilyn Monroe

Bruce Lee

Adolf Hitler

Artist’s site:http://andrzejdragan.com/

No related posts.

Jonathan Harris, a luminary in his field, delivers one such talk and speaks on how he combines art and computer science to understand the human story.

His first creation entitled We Feel Fine, is a program which scans blogposts for the phrases “I am feeling” or “I feel” and then takes these sentences, and assigns them a color based on the phrase’s emotion. This creates a larger snapshot of the internet’s mood which can be explored in greater detail.

A second project consists of numerous photographs of an arctic whale hunt. These can be filtered by character, times, excitement levels and other criteria to construct a sub-story taken from the main narrative.

For the third project, Harris travels to Bhutan, interviews a swath of natives and attempts to portray their happiness visually.

An awesome talk and one that shows shows that the evoluton of digital storytelling is in good hands…

No related posts.

There are 6 billion+ people on the planet and we’d like to tell ourselves that in an ocean of humanity we each have individual styles, tastes and personalities.

Nope.

Psychologists have identified broad personality types that almost everyone fits into. Novelists and mythologists recognize archetypes that are common to almost all cultures. Fashion, political leanings, and countless other facets of life can be reduced in part to a herd instinct that makes you gravitate toward or repel away from what you think you are –which for most humans is determined by by genetics and other people’s thoughts.

Exactitudes (Exact + Attitudes) has explored these ideas by documenting various dress codes and how they relate to group identity. Visionaries Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek have created a series of images which show people similarly dressed and striking the same poses. The stunning effect causes the viewer to re-evaluate how much he classifies a person based on an individual vs. group identity.

I know I’ve seen this tattooed fellow to the left lounging around in Pacific Beach. And I think we’ve all seen this busy executive (below) striding through the airport.

And more importantly, I know I’ll see him again even if its not him.

Truly, I am what I think you think I am….

Check out the site for more details: Exactitudes

No related posts.

In the piece Running the Numbers, viewers can zoom in on representational photos to understand the magnitude of common statistics, including children without health insurance, the US prison population, and the amount of money spent on the Iraq war…

Below is the image representing the the 200,000 Americans who die every six months from smoking related illness:

Skull With Cigarette (zoomed out)

(at full zoom)

found at: portfolio.com

No related posts.