From Peter Linebaugh in CounterPunch:

“On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the Great Powers of the World signed the armistice laying down arms after four years of the bloodiest war in history. That was 1918.

Now, we call it Veteran’s Day.

What caused the armistice was the refusal of soldiers to fight. They refused ‘to go over the top’ anymore. In Russia, France, England, Italy they refused to participate in the slaughter which had begun in 1914.

What we learn from Armistice Day is that the soldier is the front line of the peace movement.”

GI refusal also helped end the war in Vietnam, and it’s spreading in Iraq and Afghanistan, too, encouraged by veterans speaking out.

The Center for the Study of Political Graphics has two new online exhibitions: MasterPeaces, High Art for Higher Purpose and Art Against Empire, Graphic Responses to U.S. Interventions Since World War II. Both are chock full of oppositional graphic goodness (and one of my poster designs, too!)

The holidays are coming! Could you use 100 full-color palm cards? Perhaps an end of year greeting or donation appeal? A little agit-prop or calling card? And don’t travel without your atheism cards!

Next Day Flyers is offering one of my readers free printing of 100 1/6 page flyers (4.125 x 3.375 inches) printed on 14 PT card stock, with full color on the front and black on the back. They will print with next day turnaround and include ground shipping to anywhere in the Continental U.S.

Next Day Flyers is an offset printing company that prints posters, flyers and business cards.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post before midnight EST Friday, November 26, 2010. You must be 18 or over to enter and must include your email address (though it will not show publicly on the site.) One commenter will be chosen at random to win the free printing.

Update: Comments are now closed. Congratulations Jesse!

Via Language Log I found this bit on Another battle of the alphabets shaping up in Central Asia:

“A statement by a Kazakhstan minister that his country will eventually shift from a Cyrillic-based alphabet to a Latin-based script and reports that some scholars in Dushanbe are considering dropping another four Russian letters from the Tajik alphabet suggest that a new battle of the alphabets may again be shaping up in Central Asia.

Russian commentators have reacted by suggesting that this is yet another effort by nationalists in those countries to reduce the role of the Russian language and hence of the influence of Russian culture, but in fact the controversy over any such change is far more complicated than that.”

Not a new story, Kazakhstan conducted a feasibility study on the switch back in 2007, but it seems to be gaining momentum. And not just a matter of international geopolitics either — Kazakhstan has a sizable Russian population in the north, a source of tension within the country.

While Cyrillic is the official script of Kazakhstan, the Latin alphabet is already used by the Kazakh diaspora in Turkey, Western Europe and the US, while Kazakhs in China use a modified Arabic alphabet. There’s more on Kazakh alphabets on Wikipedia and more on typography and nationalism here.

“All design influences our behaviour, but as designers we don’t always consciously consider the power this gives us to help people, (and, sometimes, to manipulate them).”

Dan Lockton has posted a fantastic resource, Design with Intent. Formerly known as Architecture of Control, this book of cards features 101 design patterns for influencing behavior through form, feedback, and interface. The techniques span media from architecture and product design, to signage, interaction and graphic design and influence users by making choices easy, difficult, confusing or fun in sometimes subtle or provocative ways. The cards are organized by mode as follows:

• architecture
• errorproofing
• interaction
• ludic
• perceptual
• cognitive
• machiavellian
• security

You can download the complete set here. It’s a great primer on interaction design in the real world and a useful lens for looking at the politics of access and usability and the quiet frameworks of design and power that shape our daily lives.

I don’t usually publicize events here (mostly because I hate reading other peoples’ posts about the wonderful events I will never get to) but there are a few social design-related events coming up in the next few months. Perhaps something near you?

• Compostmodern, San Francisco, January 22-23
  
  
• World Social Forum 2011, Dakar, February 6-11, 2011
  
  
• Poster for Tomorrow: The Right to Education, global. Call for entries posted in March.
  
  
• World Non-Profit and Social Marketing Conference, Dublin, April 11-12, 2011

Know of others?

• Noted previously, with every pair of shoes you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. As of September 2010, TOMS has given over one million pairs of shoes.
  
  
• In 2007 and 2008, under its Give 1 Get 1 program the One Laptop per Child program donated a laptop to a child in the developing world for every computer sold. 83,500 laptops were donated in 2007 and 12,500 in 2008.
  
  
• FIGS, a necktie retailer in Santa Monica donates one school uniform to a child in Africa for every tie it sells.
  
  
• For each pair of eyeglasses sold, Warby Parker donates a pair of eyeglasses to someone in need through Restoring Vision. To date, that’s almost 10,000 pairs.
  
  
• Out of Print in Brooklyn, donates one book to Books for Africa every time it sells one of its T-shirts, which feature the covers of mostly out-out-of print books.
  
  
• For every condom it sells, Sir Richard’s plans to give another condom away for free in a developing nation through Partners in Health.
  
  
• For every nutrition bar you buy from Two Degrees, they give a nutrition pack to a hungry child..
  
  
• Every time you buy a book, Better World Books will donate one to someone in need.