Stuff... mostly media, if you want to give it a "theme"

1. WHRO, my local public broadcasting station (radio, TV, and Internet streaming), is having its 50th anniversary celebration, this year. And they've finally got a coherent style.
   
   Their main logo used to be gothic block lettering in all caps, with the "O" broken into horizontal lines so that it kinda, sorta, lined up with the horizontal lines in the H and R ... and, I suppose, meant to look like the lines of pixelated light in an old TV cathode ray tube. The logos for each in-house-produced show were all over the map, and looked like they were drafted in Windows Paint (I mean, I could recognize the fonts from my word processor)
   
   They're sprucing themselves up for the big party, so to speak, and they rolled out the new logo shortly after the new year. The cathode ray tube is history, so they've gotten rid of that allusion and gone for a softer, curvier, lower-case font (a cousin to helvetica?), with a "sprig" of stylized leaves growing up between the curves of the "h" and the "r". And, moreover, they're using the same font and a slight variation of the graphic, for all their locally produced programs, so viewers can recognize it as locally produced as soon as the opening credits start to roll.
   
   Here's WHRO's homepage with the logo in the upper right corner. If you hang around to watch the slideshow of programing highlights, you can see how that logo is being used for each of the different shows.
   
   (I know there are font and graphics geeks in my reading audience, so I thought you guys would be interested)
   
   
2. On the late news, last night, they did another one of those "public health and science" pieces, reporting on a recent medical journal's article that states that "Playing too many video games causes depression and social anxiety." And it just wanted to make me blow raspberries.
   
   For one thing -- it could be that kids who are already depressed, and suffering from social anxiety are playing more video games because the games help them cope, especially with MMORPG's.
   
   For another thing, the interviewed author of the study pointed out that getting out in the sunlight, and hanging out with your peers in face-to-face time is one of the best ways to allieviate depression. So kids should totes do more of that. The first part of that equation is absolutely true. But the second part is totally privileged. What if you live in a city without sidewalks or bike paths, and you can't get to safe, outdoor space to play, and/or your parents both work long hours and can't chaperone you around to meet your friends in 3-d space?
   
   Yes: Sunlight and fresh air is better for your mood than sitting alone in a basement. Make the argument that we should give kids more sunlight, and I'm with you. Make the argument that videogames are the Evil, and I'll blow raspberries.
   
   
3. I'm seriously thinking of starting a CafePress store, for reals, this time. The spurs in my side were all the LJ icons I've culled -- designs I've liked and don't want to let go of completely. If I transfer them to teeshirts, mousepads and mugs, than I could make them bigger and more detailed/less cramped, to boot.

This showed up in my YouTube rotation of recommended videos. And it cheered me. So I share:

Douglas Adams on Technology, Zoology, and the Future (7:58 YouTube Vid)