A bunch of people have been raving about the new USA show Royal Pains, so I started watching. Top reasons why you should start too: gold bars, open ended plot structure, pleasing supporting cast, and a Mark Feuerstein who looks like the lovechild of everyone (see above).

When I take the train to and from Princeton, I get a glimpse of the wonderful bridge above. “Trenton Makes the World Takes”. I don’t know what Trenton was thinking when that message was added in 1910, but nowadays, considering the quality of life that Trenton offers, this bridge just seems super bitter. Lighten up Trenton. The world just really doesn’t care about you.

Can’t even fathom how this Rubik’s Mirror Blocks puzzle works. Buy it for me.

WHY?!?!?!?

“Your Message Here” is a project put together by Something’s Hiding in Here through the Urban Outfitters’ Sansom Window Project. The project gives artists the chance to make a window installation for two months at the Urban Outfitters’ store in Philadelphia. “Your Message Here” is simply a sign that will display a new message daily chosen from user submissions to the website. So go to the site and leave a message if you’ve got something to say.

“Is Obama the End of Black Politics?” is a very interesting article from the New York Times Magazine recommended to me by Dong. The article is a look into the impact that Obama has and will have on black politics and the line he walks that separates two generations of black political thinking. If elected, Obama is expected to be both a leader and a black politician roles that seem at times mutually exclusive especially when thinking about maintaining influence. Obama as President would be a racial milestone, but the transition he must provide to a new generation of black politics will be a delicate task that he must pioneer.

For those who won’t read the article, the following is a powerful anecdote that I wanted to share. Speaking about a photograph that hangs in James Clyburn’s office:

Above his couch hangs a black-and-white photograph of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking in Charleston, with the boyish Clyburn and a group of other men standing behind him onstage.

When I visited Clyburn recently, he told me that the photo was taken in 1967, nine months before King’s assassination, when rumors of violence were swirling, and somewhere on the side of the room a photographer’s floodlight had just come crashing down unexpectedly. At the moment the photo was taken,
everyone pictured has reflexively jerked their heads in the direction of the sound, with the notable exception of King himself, who remains in profile, staring straight ahead at his audience.

Clyburn prizes that photo. It tells the story, he says, of a man who knew his fate but who, quite literally, refused to flinch.

I especially love the snarky first line: “Take a look at yourself”. How embarrassing.

My spam provides me with some solid current event notification. Why Jesus got to hate on Madonna?

And finally the one that prompted this entry in the first place.

Why would I ever click on that? Georg, you are in a spammer class of your own.

For the second day in a row, I have come across some sweet data visualizations so I think a post is warranted. Above is a screenshot of Zach Beane’s visualization of movie box office results. It is pretty similar to work done by the New York Times this past February except I find Beane’s effort much easier to understand and much more pleasing to use.

Another piece that I came across today is the above interactive graphic from the New York Times displaying Olympic medal counts by country for past summer Olympic Games. I had no idea the New York Times did work like this, but I am now digging the fact that they do.

The next two items are from the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. store at 826NYC. 826 is a national organization of writing centers founded by Dave Eggers in San Francisco (the first 826 center is 826 Valencia). I’m a big fan of Dave Eggers and the organization and hope that everyone will click through the links to find out more about the initiative. I plan to have a dedicated post about 826 in the future.

X-Ray Vision

Superhero Tights – Actual tights are inside!