This pretty much sums it up:
Finally found new music that I can listen to. Their MySpace page is here.
The disaster in Georgia reminded me of why I love the Guardian so much. Their articles covering the war are almost good enough for me to begin having faith in the journalistic profession.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/10/russia.georgia1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/09/georgia.russia1
And for once, The Nation also delivered:
I’ve always been fascinated by the sheer irrationality of the shampoo purchasing process. You have to make a decision regarding the selection of a product that you know almost nothing about, but that the rules of social behavior require you to have. The only seemingly objective information is the list of ingredients, which doesn’t even include the amounts in which the listed chemicals are used. Assuming that this list is accurate, and I am under suspicion that it is entirely up the shampoo manufacturers to provide it, it is absolutely meaningless to a consumer who is not a chemist. The decision is then almost always has to be made based on the factors other than the quality of the product.
Of course, something as trivial as shopping for shampoo highlights a serious social problem. Visual design today is leveraged almost exclusively for propagandistic purposes by the seller, and almost never to help individuals make better decisions. Public signage and the nutritional facts labels seem to be the only examples of visual design used for public good.
Shampoos can be differentiated by a consumer by:
Listed ingredients
Smell
Color
Size of the bottle
Color of the bottle
Texture of the bottle
Price
Price per unit
Name
Typefaces used on packaging
Layout of the label
Marketing blurb
User-experience
Long term user-experience
Shopping environment of where it is purchased
Shelf placement
