DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo via Mashable.

Cloak is definitely the best app I've heard of in a lot of time. This is how is described in Mashable: A new app claims to be the social network for the anti-social. While most social media apps focus on helping you get closer to your friends, Cloak uses location data to make it easier for you to avoid your connections. The app pulls in location information from your social networks to show you where friends are so you can avoid accidentally bumping into people you don't want to see. Read full article in Mashable. E.T.P. 3'

Photo via Fast Company.

John Pavlus writes in Fast Company: "Ever wondered what George Lois, Daniel Libeskind, and Margaret McCurry have on their nightstands? Wonder no more, thanks to Pentagram's new website.
Some people think I treat Pentagram too fawningly around here. Well, can I help it if they keep doing great pieces of work? Here's another: Designers & Books, a spare, handsome website that lets you glance over the shoulder of your favorite A-list designers and see what books inspire them. With 50 designers, 678 books, and a few other bits and bobs to choose from, there's definitely something here for everybody." Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 7'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via Fast Company.

The future of reading. "On March 8, the New York Times unveiled a new app called NYT Now that signals a major shift in how publishers package the news. For $8 a month, NYT Now will offer users access to a limited number of stories, and those stories will be presented in a totally new way (for the Times, that is): as a series of cards, one per story, with an image and, at most, two bullet points summing up the news. "It's not a news summary app," is the first thing Cliff Levy, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner tapped to lead the NYT Now team, told me in a phone interview. I got a detailed description of how it works, how it looks, and what its aims are, and here's my takeaway: NYT Now is a news summary app. But thanks to its design, it may actually work as intended--and what's intended is to be as native to mobile as the newest version of NYTimes.com is to the web". Full article in Fast Company. E.T.P 9'

Kogonada is a South Korean filmmaker and regular contributor to Sight & Sound whose projects have been featured on NPR, The Atlantic, Canal+ and Der Spiegel, and have screened internationally. The pays a little homage to Wes Anderson and his beloved symmetry in this short: Wes Anderson // Centered. Have a look in his Vimeo. E.T.P. 2'30''

IN DOG WE TRUST

Photo Riley via his Instagram.

Hello dog lover! Hope you're having a fabulous Sunday!

Here are some links for you:

7 Dos and Don`ts for making a lost dog flyer

IMPORTANT: Dog walkers warned of electrocution risk from stray voltage as snow melts

Emotional reunion between retired soldier and military dog

The worst ad ever. Ready to cry?

Shaggy hobo dog gets haircut to be transformed into cute pedigree pup. Amazing

Video of the week: Pedigree Adoption Drive. Charlie's story

Enjoy your Sunday! And follow Riley on Instagram

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In Dog We Trust is edited by: Carola Melguizo from La Guía del Perro. 

TO DO (OR NOT TO DO) LIST

Our friend and fellow procrastinator Marie, is organizing a beautiful experience in Regent State and wants to invite you all to be part of it.

Find below here invitation and you can also read the post in GOOD.

Invitation: Draw a dream for a better neighborhood

Dear Procrastinators

We are currently encouraging the kids from Regent Estate, a neighborhood in East-London, to express their dreams for their neighborhood in drawings. On March 28th and 29th, we'll be exhibiting all the dreams drawn on a clothesline across the neighborhood. And we would like to make a surprise to the kids, asking artists and creatives to make a drawing of one of the dreams expressed by the kids, that we'll show to them on the day of the exhibition. If you want to help to realize this, please get in touch by email by March 26th at regentdreamsdrawingfactory@gmail.com and we'll send you the complete dreams list! So far we have a zoo, a café for superheroes, a tree house, a park for disabled people, a pool with sharks and dolphins... 

And if you are in London, come to visit the exhibition of the dreams on March 28th and 29th 3-6PM at Workshop 44, 44 Marlborough Avenue, London E8 4JR United-Kingdom

Thank you for your help !

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 16th of March

EDITORIAL

Two events this week demonstrate how terms like democracy, elections and freedom keep being pushed into becoming a farce. The first one is North Korea elections and the second one Crimea's referendum. To the black and white world that some people like to live in, these two elections held at gun point should serve as two examples to reflect upon, that definitely call for a revision of some distorted, simplistic, reductionist definitions of that wasted term. In North Korea there is a unique candidate and voting against him is considered treason to the Supreme People's Party (Yes. Supreme). In Crimea, pro-Russian forces firmly in control of Crimea politically and militarily; Ukraine opposition has been harassed, called Nazis and fascists and Ukrainian TV stations replaced by Russian ones previous to the elections. But hey! They are voting!

The news section finishes with articles about Venezuela that one month after the protest began is now facing a lot more censorship, repression, torture and death. Alongside the 'normal' problems that still don't go away like the shortages of EVERYTHING and extreme violence. As usual you have a selection of articles in English and Spanish and the very eloquent YouTube videos.

In our Science section a recent study claims fat could cloud your cognitive activities, and psychedelic research continues. In Design, Business and Innovation, now you can 3D-print a life-size version of yourself, it that's what you're into. In Culture & Entertainment, Monoskop share McLuhan correspondence with nice people, how much McLuhan is too much McLuhan anyway? Photoautomat presents the third and last post about Tim Hetherington and In Dog We Trust features the sniffing video everybody wants to see.

Happy Sunday and happy reading!


NEWS

Photo via BBC.

Last week North Korea celebrated elections to approve members of the rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly. I appreciated the contextualization added by journalist Lucy Williamson: "The North Korean vote is a ritual, the result of which has already been largely determined. The Supreme People's Assembly meets rarely and has very little power but you would not know it from the official turnout. There is only one candidate for each district, and one name on each ballot paper. The democratic duty for the electorate is simply to write "Yes" beside it. Writing anything else might be seen as treachery, rather than democracy." Because North Korea IS A DEMOCRACY. They vote. Don't you see? Read BBC's article about the latest North Korean elections in BBC. E.T.P. 5'

This week's KAL's cartoon http://econ.st/1iJl8XB via The Economist.

Photo via @GraniTweet

Other wonderful example of democracy (because they are voting) is the referendum that will be held in Crimea today. There are Russian tanks surrounding the city. Ukraine and the West have dismissed the referendum as illegal and one that will be held at gunpoint, but Russia supports it.
"Ukrainian citizens registered in Crimea are "free to discuss the referendum questions" and to campaign in public, according to the rules. But campaigning has been almost entirely pro-Russian, often featuring swastikas to portray the authorities in Kiev as neo-Nazis. Shortly after the referendum was called, Ukrainian TV channels were removed from both terrestrial broadcasts and cable networks in Crimea. Some of them were replaced with Russian stations. There have also been reports of violence against pro-Ukrainian activists." So, as the BBC asks, is Crimea's referendum legal? E.T.P. 7'

AFP: Strongman Putin is playing a 'short game on Ukraine'.

The Atlantic: The view from Kiev: Coping with Ukraine's unfinished revolution. (Added March 19th)

Reuters: Crimeans vote over 90 percent to quit Ukraine for Russia. (Added March 18th).

Euromaidan PR: Over 123% of Sevastopol residents vote to join Russia!. (Added March 18th).

New Republic: Putin just recognize Crimea's independence. The next couple of days will determine what that means. (Added March 18th).

Photo via The Economist.

Finally, The Economist published an article titled: Another day, more bodies. That's Venezuela's new normality. "Thicknclouds of teargas hung in the air over the north gate of the Central University (UCV) in Caracas on March 12th. A police helicopter clattered overhead; on campus, plain-clothes gunmen on motorcycles, some bearing the initials of the national guard, harassed student demonstrators. . . A month after the government crack-down on protesters began, Venezuela’s crisis is deepening. This was the bloodiest single day since three people were killed in Caracas on March 12th. Eighteen injuries were reported at the UCV, after a previously peaceful student march to demand the resignation of the Venezuelan government ombudsman was halted on the orders of President Nicolás Maduro. . .  While he wields a baton in one hand, Mr Maduro releases doves from the other." Read full article in The Economist. E.T.P. 5'

Another article in The New York Times. In Venezuela conciliatory talk but combative tactics. "Acting on the orders of President Nicolás Maduro, riot police officers and soldiers this week blocked a march of thousands of student protesters, doused them with pepper spray, blasted them with water cannons and bombarded them with tear gas.
A few hours later, Mr. Maduro invited the student protest leaders to sit down to peace talks, promising to listen and chat “with respect and affection.”  E.T.P. 6'

In related news Roberto Ferdman describes in Quartz the tense and maybe soon to be over relation between the Venezuelan government and the commercial airlines working in the country asVenezuela is holding $3.7 billion in foreign airlines’ cash hostage "Anything goes when a country is running out of money. The Venezuelan government has received a warning from The International Air Transport Association (link in Spanish) (IATA) which represents over 80% of global air traffic, signaling that a handful of international airlines are considering ending their flights to and from the country. Why the sudden scuffle? Well, foreign airlines have just about had it with Venezuela’s dodgy financial ways." The airlines are not the only ones absolutely fed up with the government dodgy financial ways, as the protests demonstrate, but this is a specific case useful to understand the magnitude of the crisis. Read full article in Quartz. E.T.P 4'

More articles:

FiveThirtyEight: Why only half of Venezuelans are on the streets. (Added March 19th).

The Washington Post: Venezuela president pushes back using bellicose words and brute force. (Added March 19th).

AFP: Venezuelan forces take opposition protest plaza. (Added March 18th).

Quartz: Venezuela just invented the world's creepiest supermarket loyalty card. (Added March 18th).

Sun Sentinel: Photos: The hidden faces of Venezuelan protesters. (Added March 18th).

AFP: Venezuela cracks down as protests rage on.

VICE NEWS: Venezuela Rising. Dispatch 6.

You Tube: Students detained in Altamira Square (watch until the end).

Facebook: Photos: Student protests in photos by Elyxandro Cegarra Gómez.

Spanish:

El Nacional: Colectivos amenazan a los que toman la calle en Catia. Identifican a los manifestantes y los visitan para que se mantengan callados.

El País: Fotos: Violencia en Venezuela.

El País: El régimen venezolano estrecha el cerco sobre Internet.

French:

AFP Blog: Répression à moto au Venezuela. (Added March 18th).


YouTube:

This is how Maduro refers to the opposition leader (spoiler: he calls him a fag), this is basically the tone of every public address, and the he calls for a "peace dialogue". Link in Spanish.


To see the past posts about Venezuela follow the hashtag #SOSVenezuela

SCIENCE

Photo via NPR: A volunteer participates in LSD research in Viejas, Calif., in 1966.

The sixties are gone, but psychedelic research treatment continue. "In 1966, psychedelic drug advocate and former Harvard professor Timothy Leary appeared on the Merv Griffin Show. "I'm in the unfortunate situation of being about 20 years ahead of my time," Leary said. When asked how many times he'd taken LSD, he answered 311. The audience gasped.
Leary was fired for experimenting with psychedelics on undergraduates, and before long, LSD was classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it had "no known medical use." Research on the medical uses of LSD and other psychedelics came to a halt. Today, psychedelic drug research is coming back, and scientists are picking up where Leary and other researchers left off, conducting experiments on therapeutic uses of these drugs. But the research still faces stigma, and funding is hard to get." Listen to this interesting program in NPR Website. E.T.P. 12'

 

Image via FastCoExist.

Your fat is why you're not as bright as you could be. Obesity doesn't make you less intelligent, but it might cloud your cognitive abilities. In a recent study, conducted by researchers at Georgia Regents University, the blood of obese mice had especially high levels of a chemical called interleukin 1, a substance born from fat cells that can cause inflammation. When the researchers later examined the obese mice brains, they found that interleukin 1 had passed the blood-brain barrier--something that normally should not be possible. The substance had seeped into the hippocampus, an area responsible for memory and learning. Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 3'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Image via The Creators Project.

"If you've got that extra dough burning a hole in your pocket, you probably can afford the flight to China necessary for you to visit one of Pinla3D's offices. There, you are scanned in a process that takes about three minutes before getting sent back home to wait for Pinla3D to finish printing the new you. A full, 1:1 scale model of yourself and/or your loved ones, down to the crinkles in your favorite shirt and the sauce you forgot to wipe from your face as you stepped into the scanning chamber—a remarkable feat considering most 3D-printed objects you see these days don't have the resolution to match your average Xbox game." Read full article in The Creators Project. E.T.P. 4'

Photo via INC.

Barbara Ortutay in her article in INC asks: Why the Creep Quotient Is Still High With Google Glass? "With its $1,500 price tag, the device is far from having mass appeal. At the South By Southwest Interactive tech jamboree in Austin this week, I counted fewer than a dozen people wearing it". Read full article in INC. E.T.P. 5'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo Marshall McLuhan via e-comunicación.

I just handed in my dissertation this past Friday, but you can never have too much McLuhan I guess. This is why I share this post from Monoskop. "McLuhan corresponded with a vast number of people, including Duke Ellington, Woody Allen, Jacques Maritain, Rollo May, Susan Sontag, Eugene Ionesco, Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, Bob Newhart, Hubert Humphrey and Jimmy Carter.
These letters have been selected from a large collection, now in the Public Archives of Canada, and offer a valuable commentary on McLuhan’s work and, in some instances, the most lucid and detailed explanation of his ideas available." You can read the full article and download the letters in this new website I've just discovered: Monoskop. E.T.P. 3'
(The download page looks really suspicious, but I had no problem. Click the smaller "download" button though, the big red one is spam).

Photo via Dazed Digital.

"If you've been anywhere near your laptop or phone in the last 36 hours, you've almost definitely seen people talking about First Kiss, the video that features 20 improbably attractive strangers make out with each other for the first time. As with most feel-good viral videos, not all is as it seems: the short film by rookie director Tatia Plleva is actually from Wren, a clothing brand based in New York. But by racking up 24 million views – and counting – since it was put on YouTube at around 2 PM Monday, some people are already deeming First Kiss to be an "unprecedented achievement" for a fashion film. In fact, it just might be the most successful fashion film ever made".  Read full article in Dazed Digital. E.T.P. (including video): 8'.

PHOTOAUTOMAT

Tim Hetherington. (5 December 1970 – 20 April 2011).

British-American photojournalist, filmmaker. 

If you've been following this past two week's Photoautomat you've probably already have a clear idea of Tim Hetherington's stand of war photography; about his urge to look further and add humanity and that day-to-day feeling to conflict. Maybe becuase that is exactly what conflict take away from us... it takes away our humanity and it takes away the sense, the possibility of doing anything aside from being in conflict.

Third Part.

Inner Light: Portraits of the Blind, Sierra Leone 1999- 2003

The civil war in Sierra Leone left many people with serious medical conditions. In 2004, Hetherington wrote that in addition to amputations, “the fighters of the Revolutionary Front (RUF) also terrorized people by cutting their eyes out. Others lost their eyes to shrapnel or as a result of being caught up in combat. Many simply lost their eyesight because they did not have access to a doctor and therefore a simple medical condition developed and went untreated.”

Born in 1970 in Liverpool, Tim Hetherington graduated from Oxford University and later studied at Cardiff University. A contributing photographer at Vanity Fair, Tim received numerous awards including a Fellowship from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (2000 – 2004), a Hasselblad Foundation Grant (2002), the 2007 World Press Photo of the Year, the Rory Peck Award for Features (2008), an Alfred I. DuPont Columbia Award (2009), as well as an Academy Award nomination and the Leadership in Entertainment Award by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America for the film Restrepo(2011). Hetherington’s photographs are held in several museum collections, including Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO. After his death, the largest town square in Ajdabiya, Libya was renamed Tim Hetherington Square by anti-Qaddafi rebels.

Hetherington and fellow photographer Chris Hondros were killed while covering the conflict in Misrata, Libya on April 20, 2011.

This is the lik to his Trust: http://www.timhetheringtontrust.org/

An interesting arcticle in American Photo Magazine. Another one in The Guardian.

Trailer for documentary: "Which way is the front line from here?"

Trailer for "Restrepo".

Have a look at the previous posts on Hetherington here: Part I and Part II

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The PhotoAutomat section is edited by the Brooklyn-based photographer Andreína Restrepo.