Brilliant cartoon commentary on climate change issues by Kudelka
The top one, in particular, is brilliant.
By Jon Kuldelka (you can also buy prints of these at the link).
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Tag: politics
November 27, 2013
Children from around the world and where they sleep.
I always find this kind of photojournalism incredibly compelling (for instance, one of my favourite books to give as a present is Menzel D’Aluisio’s Hungry Planet). It’s alway an eye opener to see the breadth of privilege versus basic needs in the world.
Ahkohxet, 8, Amazonia, Brazil
Nantio, 15, Lisamis, Northern Kenya
Joey, 11, Kentucky, USA
Bilal, 6, Wadi Abu Hindi, The West Bank
Anonymous, 9, Ivory Coast
Alex, 9, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
By James Mollison. Book available for purchase here. Via My Modern Met
July 13, 2012
Ways Politicians and Robots are Alike
By DAVID NG
Their eyes.
A politician’s eyes appear to be fully capable of eliciting an empty yet intense robot gaze. Intriguing because this look is reminiscent of the kind that any human might make when solving difficult math problems in their heads, and which, coincidentally, is also an activity that robots are notorious for doing all the time. On the other hand, maybe they look that way (the politicians) because their eyeballs are also recharging and getting ready to shoot out laser beams.
Their focus.
Politicians are always super focused and always “on message,” sometimes to the point of “muzzling” individuals who might veer away from their specific agenda. This, of course, is indicative of algorithmic behavior and also of spyware filtering, which when taken to certain extremes is closely associated with “programming” for robots of the evil genius ilk. Indeed, this observation is quite striking: there is an eerie similarity between most Democrats and Dave from 2001, as well as most Republicans and Megatron from The Transformers.
Their message.
Robots, like computers, are often relentless in producing endless streams of spam. As well, this spam almost always fits in one of two categories: (1) either promises for financial wealth and economic prosperity; or (2) pornographic photos of genitalia. Sound familiar?
Their apathy towards unusual climate patterns.
Typically, politicians have a poor record on climate change policy. It is almost as if they don’t care that it’s happening. Which begs the question: why the nonchalance attitude? Wouldn’t most leaders in our society be wary of what is arguably the single greatest challenge facing humanity today? Is it because they know that they as robots are generally impervious to temperature and weather extremes?
Their wariness of appearing too robot-like.
This particular attribute is most likely to manifest itself as a collection of exaggerated attempts to draw attention away from their robot ways. For example – Possible exaggerated attempt #1: kissing babies. Possible exaggerated attempt #2: serving customers at a small local business. Possible exaggerated attempt #3: saying something very very stupid. Interesting to note that the combined symbolic aesthetic of baby kissing plus humbly serving customers plus saying very very stupid things is widely recognized as the perfect antonym to the “essence of robotness.”
Their hearts.
There are some politicians who seem programmed to care little for social programs and/or initiatives that aim to help the less fortunate. This suggests that the concept of inequity is perhaps too difficult to compute. If so, that’s a little cold… maybe even robot cold.
June 16, 2012
Angry Bergs: a kid’s video game where you try to melt those pesky icebergs to save your oil drill.
This is part of a larger site found at arcticready.com, and it is pretty clever. In other words, it’s an environmental campaign simed to draw attention to various issues behind the corporate and (lack of) environmental underpinnings of how a big oil company might operate (some hyperbole in use but in my opinion to good effect). Not totally sure at this point, but I think it’s also closely related to (or even part of) this Greenpeace prank caught on YouTube.
Anyway, Shell is trying hard to get the website (and video game) removed, but so far, it’s still there. Just in case, and for prosperities sake, here is the introductory byline and also a few screencaps of the game itself.
– – –
(From arcticready.com/kids)
“Right now, the polar ice caps of our planet are melting.
That’s bad—but it’s also good!
That’s right! It’s bad because our planet needs ice at the poles. But it’s good because when the polar ice melts, we at Shell can go up there to get more oil, which can do a whole lot of things. Thanks to oil:
Mommy and Daddy can drive to the store to buy you new toys.
Companies like Mattel™ can build new toys.
Engineers can drive to work to design new, better toys that are even more fun to play with.
When you’re done with your toys, trucks can take them away to dispose of.
Oil can even help us fix some of the problems that melting ice causes.
So it’s fine to be sad about our melting polar ice caps, and about how sad that makes the planet—but remember to be glad as well, because of all that the oil we’re finding there is letting you do, now and far into the future!
June 5, 2012
In which North Carolina attempts to make sea level rises illegal. (Or let’s make climate change against the law)
This is breathtaking in its stupidity. Below: Replacement House Bill 819, section 2, paragraph e.
Read the full story at Scott Huler’s epic takedown, but here’s a small taste:
“There is virtually universal agreement among scientists that the sea will probably rise a good meter or more before the end of the century, wreaking havoc in low-lying coastal counties. So the members of the developers’ lobbying group NC-20 say the sea will rise only 8 inches, because … because … well, SHUT UP, that’s because why.
That is, the meter or so of sea level rise predicted for the NC Coastal Resources Commission by a state-appointed board of scientists is extremely inconvenient for counties along the coast. So the NC-20 types have decided that we can escape sea level rise – in North Carolina, anyhow – by making it against the law.”
popperfont.net 