Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

Within just a few weeks of Google CEO, Eric Schmidt’s North Korea visit, Google Maps updated its eye on the DPRK. Schmidt’s daughter traveled with him, on the “humanitarian” mission and blogged about it. CNN Money scoops her story. Cities, and the famous Bukchang Gulag can now be viewed in detail, thanks to the work of crowdsourced Google Earth  and other satellite images. This image (courtesy of CNN) shows a Guard’s Restroom with a Google restaurant icon. I hope that’s just some weird iOS 6 type glitch, and not another chapter in the story of recently reported North Korean cannibalism…
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Google is a household name around the globe – at least in households with regular internet access. It’s even a verb in foreign languages. Now, Google Chairman, Eric Schmidt is in North Korea to… well, no one really knows. Maybe he’s there to get the Google Maps car better access to the driveway of this “Covert Runway“.  He might be there to try the North Korean style nang-myun he’s heard so much about from his Bay Area foodie friends, but a few days into his visit and it’s still a mystery. The “official” story is that he’s accompanying former New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson, on a humanitarian mission to negotiate the release of a Korean American hostage. CEOs are the new influential world leaders, so I suppose it’s possible, but somehow I think Schmidt lacks that Clinton charm that helped to free Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Some believe that Schmidt is there to urge Kim Jong Un to ease restrictions on internet and data access. Others believe there’s a different agenda. North Korea is a new frontier when it comes to Google style information sharing. Schmidt will likely learn at least a tiny bit about the future of digital media in the new regime, and he may be looking for a foothold. Five years of Google in communist China didn’t pan out quite the way everyone had hoped though. How will North Korea handle the world’s largest search engine? Will Google+ and its Google Hangouts help re-unite the peninsula? All I know is that if any of the Kim boys want to add me to their circles, I’m SO adding them back.  
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The hackneyed phrase: “Well, back to the chalkboard,” is usually a roundabout way of admitting failure. But when Brooklyn-based Japanese American graphic artist Dana Tanamachi reaches for her chalk, stand back and be prepared to be stunned. Her layout concepts and font usage flows onto the slate directly from her mind’s eye through her hands ~ an art lost in this age of Adobe®. Webpage Biography: After graduating in 2007 with a BFA in Communication Design from The University of North Texas, Tanamachi moved to New York City to design Broadway show posters at Spotco—a leader in arts and live entertainment branding. In early 2010, she took a job working under Louise Fili at Louise Fili Ltd, specializing in the design of restaurants and food packaging. Currently, Dana works full time as a custom chalk letterer and has been commissioned by clients such as West Elm, Rugby Ralph Lauren, Google, The Ace Hotel, Adidas, EveryDay with Rachael Ray, Lululemon Athletica, and Garden & Gun Magazine. She has been interviewed and featured by The Wall Street Journal, Design*Sponge, and The Great Discontent. In 2011, Dana was named a Young Gun (YG9) by the Art Directors Club and a Young Creative to Watch by HOW Magazine. Most recently, Tanamachi had the honor of creating O Magazine‘s first entirely hand-lettered cover for their February 2012 issue. Here’s Dana Tanamachi in time lapse:    
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