The committee in charge of overseeing the preservation of the caribou is coincidentally composed of oil company executives with a vested interest in the development of the tar sands. This is going on in our country. On our watch. Let’s take action.

Sunshine from American Buffalo on Vimeo.

“In their tendency to persist even in the context of geographically homogenizing forces, place differences permeate the artifacts whose creation they stimulate. … The mechanisms through which such diverse elements combine into a local industrial atmosphere shape not just competitive advantage of one place over another in producing a given artifact, but the nature of goods that can come into existence.”—New York University sociologist Harvey Molotch, quoted in The Atlantic—Cities.

City Maps shows an unexpected view of the streets of Austin, New York and San Francisco by mapping the city using logos. The app is linked to Foursquare, Twitter and deals so you can be fully connected with the activity surrounding you.

Once you get over the overwhelming number of brands that pepper the map, it becomes obvious that the experience of a place—particularly one as dense as Manhattan—is heavily influenced by the pacing of the landscape. Where do you escape the lure of the commercial?

Meanwhile in London . . .London Typographica is mapping the typographic landscape of the city by documenting public signage, type and lettering around the city. The result is a rich tapestry of old and new styles, typefaces, materials and scale. Gorgeous.

Working in the social profit space means we interact daily with people who are engaged in a bottom-up effort to improve the world we live in. The ideas are there. So are the startups and the established organisations, showing by example that changing the way we do business is not a hindrance to but simply a broadening of the meaning of profit.

Danish think tank Monday Morning is developing an initiative called Sustainia.

In a nutshell, Sustainia is a collaborative space—both virtual and physical—in which to define an attainable vision of the world for 2020. The vision encompasses existing technologies that are scalable and sustainable and offer measured results to environmental and social issues.

The stated mission of the organisation (from its website):

+ Become a global positive point of reference for discussing a sustainable society – a global BRAND for a desirable sustainable future
+ Make sustainable solutions and products fashionable, desirable and inspiring
+ Help provide a new positive and inspiring momentum around global leadership on sustainability
+ Kick start a global community focused on creating awareness on sustainable solutions and how a sustainable society will improve our quality of life
+ Inspire political decision makers by providing them with a new narrative and concrete vision

In June 2012, the Sustainia site will include a virtual world populated with our future selves and erected with technologies and innovations already waiting in the wings to be embraced and developed. In a world where we spend the majority of our lives fully engaged with a screen and a virtual existence, we can only hope that building a precise, accurate, feasible vision of a possible world will bring it that much closer to reality. (The fancy graphic design, featuring the ubiquitous Gotham, is sure to help too!)

Sustainia is a consortium of partners representing civil society, businesses and experts. Global companies and foundations involved: Microsoft, GE, DNV, Philips Lighting, DONG Energy, Novo Nordisk, Tetra Pak, Cisco, Interface Flor, BIG Architects, Knoll, IKEA, Vestas, VELUX, Realdania, Scandinavian Airlines SAS, Ramboll, UBS Investment Bank. Key organisational partners are the UN Global Compact and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new climate initiative R20—Regions for Climate Action.

This American Life contributor and producer Starlee Kine found a unique way of expressing what it means to keep going, no matter what. As many creatives know, that is the key to success: moving forward when you’re stuck, taking the first step without knowing with absolute certainty where you’re headed, putting in a few more hours to make sure it’s as resolved as it can be. Magic.

DuckDuckGo is a search engine and an advocate for no tracking, no bubble practices. I previously delved into the “personalization” phenomenon, or the You Spiral as Eli Pariser terms it. I found it refreshing to peruse DuckDuckGo’s DontTrackUs and DontBubbleUs pages because they explain clearly and simply what’s going on when you let Google rule your virtual life.

I personally enjoy being challenged by differing views. I enjoy learning and I don’t like it when well, anyone really, spies on my activity to better sell things to me. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy convenience like the rest of us. I just want to be given the choice. I want to be the judge of what I should or should not be exposed to. Call me crazy.

Lost in Motion from Krystal Levy Pictures on Vimeo.

Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from Miss Representation on Vimeo.

Playing 28 February at the Pacific Cinémathèque.