A collection of links to share today. First some spiffy graphic design in the service of helping people understand important statistics.
Once a week, GOOD Magazine puts together what they call Transparencies, to show all kinds of data and compare things (pop culture, politics, history). No boring pie charts or bar graphs here. Might be useful for homeschooling and certainly good for 20 minutes distraction from what you're supposed to be doing. For example:
Comparing acreage used by the top retailers in the US (The biggest retailer in the world covers an area larger than Manhattan, can you guess who it is?); Comparing the first hundred days of the last 13 presidents includig Obama; Foods that might make you sick; and dozens more.
You can subscribe to get a weekly notice about the newest ones.
I'm a big fan of the radio news program Democracy Now. Amy Goodman is a national treasure. I especially enjoyed a segment she did last Friday. She spoke to Anna Deveare Smith, an actor and playwright who has interviewed hundreds of people — doctors and patients, celebrities and regular folks, Americans and people from around the world — about their struggles with illness, pain, mortality and the healthcare system. Ms. Smith then distilled the emotionally charged stories into her latest solo show, Let Me Down Easy. Watch the segment here (it's in the third part, starting at 39:50). Includes a few clips from the show. I hope to see the whole thing someday.
She says her show is an "exploration of the power of the body and the resilience of the human spirit, featuring first person accounts from a wide variety of sources". I love art that incorporates real life stories like that. It sounds like it goes way beyond all the "health care experts" we are being battered by elsewhere. The debate could use some depth.
Lastly some environmental art: Mater Matrix Mother and Medium is a "process-based temporary public art installation" by Seattle-based artist Mandy Greer. Last spring and summer she invited and taught the public to "tat" a 200 foot long river of recycled yards and fabrics. This funky, sparkley texture web of blue was then draped and woven into the trees of an urban forest. How cool it would be to come upon this while taking a walk through the woods. I wonder what the squirrels and birds thought?
Peace,
Jennifer
