Bob Dinetz, a prolific and talented graphic designer, based in San Francisco, has taken a series of photographs documenting three different areas of interest: flattened gum, covered up graffiti and chewed gum. The series is called Blind Spot. I’d love to see these really really big!

Another image found on Agence Eureka’s blog. I have a feeling this won’t be the last of them either.

Physog is slang for Physiognomy which is the evaluation of a person’s character or nature based on their appearance, particularly the face. The notion that there is a strong correlation between someone’s outer expression and their actual character has a very ancient historic precedent, as well as making loads of sense. Of late, there has been a bit of resurgence of interest in this field of study. This 1930’s board game is a cartoonish example of the practice. I’m totally keen on the disembodied images, much more than if these were all assembled into full faces. These photos are from the absolutely astonishing collection assembled by Agence Eureka. Be forewarned: Set aside at least an hour, and up to a full day, to look through her trove of paper ephemera.

I’ve been following the European debt crisis with some bit of fascination, fear, horror and disgust. How the F*ck did we get here? Although their debt crisis is different from our own in some ways, it’s also borne out of the same greed, speculation, mismanagement, ideological differences, growing divisions of wealth and the list goes on…and on. I posited the question some time ago to someone way more expert than I in the field of economics as to whether they thought the euro was at risk. As often happens with so-called experts, they dismissed my query as ridiculous. And amateurish. Well, fast forward a few months. While the likelihood of the euro-zone being disbanded is unlikely, it’s still a possibility. A previously unthinkable one. Anyway, all this talk of euros made me feel incredibly nostalgic for the former currencies of Europe: Those individual bills printed with beautiful illustrations and likenesses of famous people. I have favorites (see the 10 Francs note with Voltaire’s face) for sure. This little collection comes courtesy of Jacob Lewis Bourjaily. He has a site where he documents all the currencies of Europe bearing depictions of either scientists or mathematicians. I like his parameters.

I thought these were lost forever. Imagine my joy at finding them sandwiched in between the pages of some soon-to-be-thrown-out magazine. These are my brother and his partner’s to do lists. If you’ve been here for awhile, you may have seen the earlier iterations here, here and here. He has been feeding them to me over the past year or so. I gasp every time I look at them.