Censorship Tells the Wrong Story

Reporters Without Borders is a global organisation that fights censorship and laws that undermine press freedom, defends journalists and media assistants imprisoned or persecuted, gives financial each year to hundreds of journalists or media outlets, and works to improve the safety of journalists. 

Their new print campaign by Ogilvy & Mather is based upon the claim that censorship tells the wrong story. The biggest problem of censorship is not the withdrawal of information but the fact that it distorts the truth and hence creates a new story. Among the many posters are these, which I think are the best of the lot.

As they say, "In some countries a journalist can be thrown in prison for years for a single offending word or photo. Jailing or killing a journalist removes a vital witness to events and threatens the right of us all to be informed. Reporters Without Borders has fought for press freedom on a daily basis since it was founded in 1985."

Damage Map; End of Days Procrastination Fun

Came across Damage Map today. I've been 'playing' with it for ages. It's so fucking cool.

Created by Gareth Collins, Robert Marcus and H. Jay Melosh at Imperial College London, it is, "an easy-to-use, interactive web site for estimating the regional environmental consequences of an impact on Earth. This program will estimate the ejecta distribution, ground shaking, atmospheric blast wave, and thermal effects of an impact as well as the size of the crater produced."

Yes please.

You choose your location of impact (either coordinates or from a list of cities), diameter, density, velocity, impact angle, and then the target type (rock, water etc). I chose London, diameter of 30m, density of 8000kg, velocity of 17km/s (the 'typical speed of impact'), and a 50° impact angle. This is what happened.

The crater!

The air blast.

The ejecta.

Seismic shaking.

Now excuse me while I up my density to 80,000, my diameter to 200m, and my angle of velocity to 90°.

Blood

Is it just me or is blood popping up everywhere these days?

The Social Blood initiative.

The wonderful Thicker than Blood by Saatchi & Saatchi.

The bloody stockings by Kiseung Lee which, while being purely conceptual (on show Helsinki Design Week) they were still hammering home the message of giving something a little more vital this year. 

Finally, this ad from Brazil, with the tagline, "If getting blood was this easy, we wouldn’t have to ask you to donate."

Blood giving is a little weird in Denmark.

"The Blood Banks in Denmark are regulated by Sundheds Styrelsen (Board of Health) under the Ministery of Health. They dictate that all blood donors must be able to read and speak Danish. The reason being, that all blood donors need to go through a written and oral interview in Danish. These regulations are meant to secure that blood donors understand all questions and are able to answer them correctly. They are also meant to prevent misunderstandings between the blood collecting staff and the donor. As the questions are of a personal matter, translators are not allowed. Any lack of understanding or misinformation may result in reduced safety both for the donor and for the recipients. It is therefore not allowed for the blood banks to make any exceptions. We are aware that many non Danish speaking people work and study in Denmark. Although we could use the blood, we are presently not able to include these individuals as donors. In case you stay in Denmark and do learn the Danish language, we naturally welcome you warmly as a donor."

Why not have an English speaking member of staff? Who knows.