From: Simon Edhouse
Date: Monday 16 November 2009 2.19pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Logo Design

Hello David,

I would like to catch up as I am working on a really exciting project at the moment and need a logo designed. Basically something representing peer to peer networking. I have to have something to show prospective clients this week so would you be able to pull something together in the next few days? I will also need a couple of pie charts done for a 1 page website. If deal goes ahead there will be some good money in it for you.

Simon

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 16 November 2009 3.52pm
To: Simon Edhouse
Subject: Re: Logo Design

Dear Simon,

Disregarding the fact that you have still not paid me for work I completed earlier this year despite several assertions that you would do so, I would be delighted to spend my free time creating logos and pie charts for you based on further vague promises of future possible payment. Please find attached pie chart as requested and let me know of any changes required.

Regards, David.

Fallen Princesses is a photography series in which photographer Dina Goldstein places Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. All of the princesses from your favourite Disney classics are existing in environments that articulate their individual conflicts. This controversial series is truly great. It’s cheeky, thought-provoking, and simply incredible. Below is Snow White in a domestic nightmare, and an overweight Red Riding Hood on her way to grandmother’s house, with fast food in tow.

Click to view large

Download this gallery (ZIP, undefined KB)

Download full size (102 KB)

Click to view large

Download this gallery (ZIP, undefined KB)

Download full size (340 KB)

Who hasn’t fantasized about the moment when you can splash a cup of lukewarm coffee in the face of your Bill Lumbergh-like boss after handing over your two-week notice? To avoid lawsuits (and arrests), some workers have devised more creative plans to give the old “peace out” and one particularly clever design staffer left a note his bosses will likely never forget.

Click to view large

Download this gallery (ZIP, undefined KB)

Download full size (49 KB)

Life lesson du jour: Don’t piss off the design team.

This makes me feel a better about not getting a Wave invite yet. I think it could be useful in communicating with clients, but really it's been like pulling teeth to get most of them to communicate via Basecamp. Long, messy, layered, multi-colored email threads is what they know, and a consultant who makes them learn something new isn't one they're going to call again. And Wave is a whole lot of new.

Explorer Ernest Shackleton loved his Scotch whisky. And he left a stash at the bottom of the world.

By Emily Stone — Special to GlobalPost

Published: October 26, 2009 05:29 ET
Updated: October 30, 2009 18:28 ET

CAPE ROYDS, Antarctica — This spit of black volcanic rock that juts out along the coast of Antarctica is an inhospitable place. Temperatures drop below -50 Fahrenheit and high winds cause blinding snowstorms. The only neighbors are a colony of penguins that squawk incessantly and leave a pungent scent in their wake.

But if you happen upon the small wooden hut that sits at Cape Royds and wriggle yourself underneath, you'll find a surprise stashed in the foot and a half of space beneath the floorboards. Tucked in the shadows and frozen to the ground are two cases of Scotch whisky left behind 100 years ago by Sir Ernest Shackleton after a failed attempt at the South Pole.

In Japan, Even the Barcodes Are Well Designed, by Cliff Kuang

(via @designglut)

"Is it true that fat kids don't get kidnapped." Genius. Shatner, I mean, not the twirp.

There will be much number-crunching tomorrow, but preliminary numbers (at least in Virginia) show that GOP turnout remained the same as last year, but Democratic turnout collapsed. This is a base problem, and this is what Democrats better take from tonight:

1. If you abandon Democratic principles in a bid for unnecessary "bipartisanship", you will lose votes.

2. If you water down reform in favor of Blue Dogs and their corporate benefactors, you will lose votes.

3. If you forget why you were elected -- health care, financial services, energy policy and immigration reform -- you will lose votes.

Tonight proved conclusively that we're not going to turn out just because you have a (D) next to your name, or because Obama tells us to. We'll turn out if we feel it's worth our time and effort to vote, and we'll work hard to make sure others turn out if you inspire us with bold and decisive action.

The choice is yours. Give us a reason to vote for you, or we sit home. And you aren't going to make up the margins with conservative voters. They already know exactly who they're voting for, and it ain't you.

Sounds about right.

Not a Simple Price War -- It's a Fight Over What You Get to Read

October 29, 2009

By William Petrocelli of Book Passage in San Francisco and Corte Madera, California

What looks like a simple price war between Amazon, Target, and Wal-Mart over a handful of bestsellers is symptomatic of a much deeper problem in the book business. The larger fight is really over what you get to read.

The price war began October 15 when Walmart.com dropped its prices drastically on several bestsellers. Amazon.com and Target.com quickly followed suit, and within a couple of days the prices were down to $8.99 and heading lower. At this point, these behemoths were clearly selling those books below cost and engaging in an illegal form of predatory pricing.

The authors affected by this price slashing were not amused. James Patterson said, "Imagine if somebody was selling DVDs of this week's new movies for $5. You wouldn't be able to make movies." John Grisham's agent added, "I think we underestimate the effect to which extremely discounted bestsellers take the consumer's attention away from emerging writers." (New York Times, October 17, 2009). The American Booksellers Association saw things the same way, saying in a letter to Christine Varney, head of the Anti-Trust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, that these companies are using books as loss leaders to sell other kinds of merchandise. "The entire book industry is in danger of becoming collateral damage in this war." (Bookweb.org, October 22, 2009)

Predatory pricing is a means of driving other booksellers out of business. When this happens, the choice of books is one of the first things to suffer. Some readers think that if their favorite store closes they can always buy the book they want somewhere else. But that's a dangerous delusion -- the books they want may not be there at all. In fact, these types of disruptions in how books are sold or distributed have a profound effect on what publishers decide to publish in the first place.

Some researchers think cats and dogs evolved their cuteness as a way of controlling humans. I think the robots will overthrow us the same way.

We told you it was happening back in April, but now Men In Black 3 has a writer and, if rumors are to be believed, a director. But does it have Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones? Not exactly...

Don't worry; MiB3 isn't necessarily going to replacement route just yet; according to The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business blog, Smith is interested in signing up for a third go-around (Back in September, Jones was also reported to have been considering the idea). The movie will be written by Tropic Thunder co-writer Etan Cohen, according to the Risky Business blog, and Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed the first two movies in the series, is said to be close to signing on to return for the third installment, which may begin filming as early as Spring 2010.

‘Men in Black 3,' by way of ‘Tropic Thunder' [THR Risky Business]

Send an email to Graeme McMillan, the author of this post, at graeme@io9.com.

Oh, this brightened my morning. But only if Smith and Jones are both going to be there.

Ford is planning to open its Sync in-car computing platform to third party app developers, the automaker tells FastCompany.com.

The idea is still nascent and there is no hard-and-fast timeline for release, says Prasad Venkatesh, who leads Vehicle Design & Infotainment at Ford. Just how drivers would use in-car apps is still being researched as well. (Below, a present-day Sync system in a Ford Mustang.)

"The way we're developing the toolkit, you could sit in the comfort of your home and plan a roadtrip," he says. Using a smartphone or computer, you'd then add points of interest or other plans. "At the click of a button, the cloud would make all that available to you in the car, and it would broadcast it to your social networking groups." Future Ford vehicles may include mobile broadband, he says; current Sync systems pair with a driver's mobile phone to download updates.

This sounds amazing. Not much info has been released about the system, but we're probably not far from having APIs that hook into all of a car's systems, allowing users to download apps that run all sorts of diagnostics, send reminders, and generally gather data about your car's performance and usage that can be managed in all sorts of ways. Brave new world.

Click to view large

Download this gallery (ZIP, undefined KB)

Download full size (86 KB)