Today, TSA defended their actions in a blog post.

Every officer wants to finish their shift and go home with the peace of mind that they kept potential threats off of airplanes… This incident may seem like a silly move to many of our critics, but when we can’t be exactly sure of what something is, every officer has the discretion to not allow it on the plane. This is done purely for the safety of everyone traveling.

Peace of mind, or piece of cake?

Since this story was reported my co-worker and I continue to send mouth-watering images of cupcakes to one another, in jest.

Today, the day of TSA’s defense, she sent me the most amazing video I had never seen. I’d like to share it with you now.

More from the dramatic chipmunk on Know Your Meme.

Ollapolla asks Chonko, “But what does Jon finds fascinating in such a product?”

To which this scanwich master replied:

I love the flexibility of sandwiches. The have such simple rules. Anything you put between bread. That means that sandwiches can be incredibly diverse. I am always fascinated by the wild sandwiches people come up with. I also really love the history of sandwiches. Every famous sandwich has some reason for existing and it’s usually a good story. I love learning the origins and evolutions of sandwiches out there. I’m not sure I dislike anything about sandwiches. I usually start eating a sandwich even before I’ve finished making it.

Every famous sandwich has some reason for existing and it’s usually a good story.

An analogy for us humans? Perhaps — I mean yes, it absolutely is.

powerHouse Calls Presents: Scanwiches: The Fluffernutter from powerHouse Books on Vimeo.

I am currently collecting responses to the question: What is your favourite sandwich?

If you aren’t on Facebook or Twitter, leave your response in the comments below. Let’s get this sandwich party started!

Here is one response I have already received from @hunkefunk:

Clever.

The New York City Department of Transportation announced last week that they are collaborating with Morse to use haikus in conjunction with striking graphic images to set a new tone for street smarts all over the city.

In all, 12 graphic designs that feature a haiku will be placed in 144 locations around NYC, specifically those areas where there is high traffic such as around schools.
The verdict is out on how effective this strategy will be. However, I really like the idea of merging artists with the state and bridging the gaps between state systems, like traffic, and culture, like art!

Image: Mary Smith

Recently, I saw Annie Leibovitz speak about her new book, “Pilgrimage,” and I also saw, for the first time, Bharat Sikka’s photography in his exhibit, Matter. Through the medium of photography, both artists provide a genuine expression of a world that exists within (an artist) as it is influenced by the world around them. Their images are the flashes of significance, they are the “notations on the artist’s world.

In a tiny space on College Ave. in Oakland, Calif., Annie Leibovitz, one my long-standing favorite photographers, read from and signed copies of her new book “Pilgrimage.” Diesel Books is not a huge space, and this was readily apparent when I arrived on Nov. 21 to a packed house; so packed I could not even make my way to the seat that I had reserved some three weeks earlier.

Image: Mary Smith

Standing only a few footsteps from the door, I had one of those moments of, “Is that really her?” It was in fact the woman I only know by the brilliant portraits she has taken that adorn the pages of Rolling Stone and Vogue, to name just a few. Seeing a photographer is like eating the forbidden fruit — dimystefying the mysterious eye that has the capacity to capture and share what it sees with the world. However, it was still deeply enchanting to watch her as she spoke about her new book, especially considering how personal “Pilgrimage” is.

The inside of the book jacket reads:

Pilgrimage took Annie Leibovitz to places that she could explore with no agenda. She wasn’t on assignment. She chose the subjects simply because they meant something to her.

It is remarkably inspiring to watch someone present a collection of work the way Leibovitz did. As she took questions from the audience you could feel how reflective an experience this project was for her — an experience, I think, that is hard to come by organically.

Image: Mary Smith

I relate Leibovitz’s project to a description I read while visiting the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts exhibition, “The Matter Within: New Contemporary Art of India.” One of the most striking works on display were those of Bharat Sikka, a photographer, whose works were mounted in such a way that they were crowding and overlapping each other. The series, Matter, is described:

Featuring pictures of figurative sculptures, moody landscapes, sleek portraits, and birds and butterflies, these works function as notations on the artist’s world.

“Notations on the artist’s world.” This phrase seems also, to characterize the 245 page book that makes up Leibovitz’s “Pilgrimage.” Both Lebovitz and Sikka have compiled snapshots of what means meaning in places and of objects that inspire (or haunt) them.

Leibovitz mentioned, as she spoke, that she is not a fan of fold out pages. However, in her book she was compelled to include one fold out page, that is, three 8.5 x 11 sheets when put together show a complete picture of the frame and caning of the bed that Thoreau slept on while living in a cabin at Walden Pond. It is the length of this image that allows the viewer to imagine a person sleeping on it, compared to the width of the bed frame, barely wide enough to fit one average-sized adult, that speaks to the utter lonliness that Thoreau must have felt at times living in the woods of New England.

The notations on the worlds of Leibovitz and Sikka are an interesting change of pace from highly conceptualized fine works of art. Not to say that these notations are any less artful, just that they are infused with a unique and personal sentiment, providing a window into someone else’s world — a rare experience.

Reblogged from Occupied Oakland Tribune:

UPDATE: It appears that Running Wolf is not behind this proposal. Also, one instance of his name in this article was previously incorrect.

Occupy Oakland may be a leaderless movement but few individuals receive as much respect as Native American activist Zachary Running Wolf. His occupation/decolonization of the tree on 14th Street, declaring the space “Ohlone …

Everyone in their own way.

They’re pulling down the wallpaper of this OccupyHouse, but it’s still standing. Last night’s PBS NewsHour brought Occupy lawyer Daniel Alterman in conversation with James Copland, of the Manhattan Institute to discuss the NY courts decision to bar camping at Zuccotti Park. This conversation illustrates that the legal disagreement between the two sides (there can’t just be two) is surfacing from a difference in interpretation of the First Amendment.

5:25 a.m. Camp deserted as police walk through

The Occupy Oakand camp is looking desolate, abandoned. A police helicopter is hovering overhead, shining a light and annoucing over a speaker that anyone there must leave now. But there’s no one in the tents, it seems empty. There are some people nearby, lingering near the police line on the plaza.

It seems about 30-40 tents were taken down in anticipation of the raid. Police have surrounded plaza at this point. There have been no reports of violence or police skirmishes with protesters.

What happens now?

Will Quan step down, as people are asking her to?

Will Occupy Oakland relocate?

Watch a live feed from @OakFoSHo of Occupy Oakland on UStream

Occupy Design is a grassroots project connecting designers with on-the-ground demonstrators in the Occupy Together movement. The project’s goal is to create freely available visual tools around a common graphic language to unite the 99%. The project places an emphasis on producing infographics and icons to improve the communication of the movement’s messages and the data surrounding them across the world.

OccupyDesign is a much-needed facilitator for one of the occupy movements biggest challenges — articulating their message in a way that can translate into action. However, from what I see on their site so far, these are baby steps in the right direction.

Designs found on the site are split into three categories: protest, logistical and universal. Protests signs use recognizable symbols, male & female bathroom icons, dollar signs, and arrows, as well as a bar graph to illustrate financial inequality. Additonally, in an effort to be true to an highly contoversial ethics of non-violence*, text signs provide the disclaimer, “We don’t make DEMANDS so THIS is a suggestion.”

Logistical signs indicate occupation logistics including where waste is meant to go, where bathrooms are and recycling happens. The logistical signs point to the occupy movement’s effort to stay organized and tidy in the midst of a vast communal living space.

And finally, the universal signs, while they are few represent larger concepts; human rights, justice, peaceful protest, community and then out of left field, factory?

"Factory"

No doubt ideas such as community and human rights, are big, but they are seemingly more manageable in a visual form. Imagining the complexity of community, which include people, spaces, responsibility, group autonomy, compared to its symbol, three identical people, which seems less overwhelming. These symbols also indicate a collective consciousness that might encapsulate differing degrees of understanding but an understanding no less that these ideas have meaning for the movement. To some extent, over analyzing the concept could become more detrimental than using the concept as a springboard for discussion, but more desireably, for action.

"Community"

OccupyDesign also encourages and provides tutorials for those interested in creating signs for the movement on their Resources page. Tonight I have seen a handful of tweets coming in from individuals who are making designs and posting them to the OccupyDesign Flickr page, where there is a slideshow that I highly recommend looking through.

The movement is growing** and not only are protestors angry, but they are willing to speak out verbally and visually.

*At tonight’s GA (11/09/11) OccupyOakland voted down proposal 2, which was All Inclusive Tactics/ Bridge Difference/ Responsible Black Bloc: @garonson, Vote’s in, with 15.8% approval: 112-599. 148 abstentions. Needless to say, black bloc proposal fails. #occupyoakland. Check out the meeting minutes for further clarification on this decision.
**Again at OccupyOakland’s GA there was a larger crowd: #occupyoakland judging by vote numbers, about 700-800 ppl here tonight. That’s several times more than the last few GAs.
It has also been reported that there are approx. 3,000 protestors at Sproul Hall for #OccupyCal.