National Train Day 2010 Poster

I saw this poster on the wall of the 30th Street train station in Philadelphia today, and I really like it:

The poster is for National Train Day 2010, a nationwide celebration of trains on May 8.

It's a very nice design, because it looks great from a distance (all that blue!) and also has all these fun details that you can only see up close (like the name and number on the back of the jersey on the kid standing alongside the train, to point out just one that I thought was neat).  Plus, it was memorable enough that after seeing it around noon, I thought to look it up hours later.

You can click the image above for a larger version, but I recommend  clicking here to see the high resolution pdf version, and be sure to zoom in nice and close.

So, does anyone know who drew this poster?

EDIT:  I know who drew this poster!  It was IC4DESIGN. How do I know this?  The kind person posting at National Train Day's twitter account told me.  And check out IC4DESIGN's portfolio.  Great stuff!

Is Ponyo too scary for kids?

If you are a parent, I'd like to draw your attention to several short posts on Double X that discuss whether Hayao Miyazki's new movie Ponyo is too scary for little kids.

One of the two people writing about this issue is Slate's movie reviewer, Dana Stevens. She has decided to take her three-year-old daughter to see Ponyo, even though there are a couple of scary parts.

This is something that my wife and I have been wrestling with, since our four-year-old son LOVES Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. We've held off showing him any of Miyazaki's other movies, though, because they are just a little too scary. After reading this discussion on Double X, I'm leaning toward taking him to Ponyo this weekend.

Here are the posts, in order:

1. Worshipping at the Shrine of Hayao Miyazaki
2. Miyazaki's "Ponyo": Too Scary for Kids? Good Question ...
3. "Ponyo" and the Scary Movie Dilemma

ALSO: Double X now rates movies, books, games, and tv. The ratings are very helpful to parents. (They rate them by "Fear Factor," "Heart," and "Attitude," which are three qualities that I find very good to know in advance before showing things to my kids.) Here's their review of Ponyo.

The Metabolists are falling apart.

This is fascinating.

Early Muppets

See more here.

Enjoy your weekend, everybody!

Not Comics: This American Life explains the financial crisis

Do you want to understand the financial crisis, but you don't know anything about finance? Listen to This American Life.

This radio show cannot be praised enough, and recently it has run a series of episodes devoted to explaining what is going on with the economy.

These particular episodes are fantastic reporting: comprehensive but not overwhelming, they explain incredibly sophisticated concepts in a way that anyone can understand. If you want to understand what is going on right now, listen to them.

Go here to get to all of the show's episodes about the financial crisis.

Or, click on the following links, which will take you to individual episodes. You then can click on "Full Episode" to listen to an entire episode as a free stream, or you can download an mp3 version through ITunes for less than a buck. Each episode runs one hour. If you don't have the ability to listen to them, I've also provided links to pdf versions of the transcripts.

• Go here to listen to This American Life episode 355: Giant Pool of Money or download the transcript.
• Go here to listen to This American Life episode 365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy or download the transcript.
• Go here to listen to This American Life episode 375: Bad Bank or download the transcript.

Not Comics: The State Comes to DVD

I can't tell you how excited I am about this.

(Note: please ignore the lame ad that sometimes runs at the front of the video.)

If you are having trouble seeing the embedded video, just go here instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kx_mPNU0XE

Not Comics: My Ideas for New Search Engines

A new search engine that only returns results involving pretty people.

- and -

A new search engine that only returns the least relevant results.

Where the Internet Ends.

So after you have read every blog post in your rss feed reader, read Slate, and read the New York Times, where do you go?

I'm talking worthwhile, interesting content, not useless fluff/trivia.

Suggest your favorite internet places in the comments. (They don't have to be comic-related.)