Well, this is a seriously disturbing trend. A new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says that the fattest U.S. states in 1991 were as thin as the leanest states in 2009. Today our thinnest state has a 19.1% obesity rate among adults, while our fattest, Mississippi has an obesity rate of 33.8%. Yikes.

Among the causes of this epidemic, outlined on TreeHugger, are suburban development, sedentary lifestyles, the economy, and farm policy:

Because current market incentives, imposed by the government, encourage factory production of protein and mass production of high fructose corn syrup, we have (surprise) super-cheap, mass-produced chicken, pork, beef, and sweet treats.

Hopefully we’ll start to recognize this horrific trend and come together on ways to get our fat asses back on the right track.

(Illustration by Tavis Coburn)

The Story of Cosmetics

After a week of nonstop internet chatter about (and with) the Old Spice Man, we get this great video firing back at the makers of our personal care products.

This is the fourth installment of a terrific video series which began with the must-see Story of Stuff. With these videos, Annie Leonard and Free Range Studios have done an amazing job of taking big complex issues and explaining them in a way that even a child could understand.

Nasty water makes for effective marketing. Donations to UNICEF’s Tap Project help provide untainted water to those in need.

(via Denver Egotist)

According to NASA, last decade was the hottest on record. And now we’re experiencing what is shaping up to be the planet’s hottest year on record. So the question is… just how hot will we get before people broadly except the fact that this is not a good trend?

(Image by Mark Weaver)

A weird and wonderful animation by Stephen Ong:

This animated short looks at the Human Machine and it’s obsession with consumption.

‘Collapse’

Whether or not you believe everything in this controversial film (now on DVD), you simply can’t ignore it. Michael Ruppert has a long history of making accurate predictions, and now he wants us to shift our attention to peak oil and the inevitable collapse of industrial civilization. A must-see.

Ladies and gentlemen…

After many months of planning, the Biennial of the Americas is finally here! The international event celebrating culture, ideas and people of the Western Hemisphere runs throughout the month of July with events all around Denver.

The original creative direction for the event was shaped last year with Mayor Hickenlooper and the visionary Bruce Mau, then other creatives around Colorado stepped in to help bring it into focus. The image above is one that I (Jeff Oeth) created for a print ad, while the event’s identity and much of the creative work was done by cypher13, a small but talented shop out of Boulder.

There are four main themes to the event: Innovation, The Arts, Sustainability, and Community. You’ll find a lot of art and dialogue relating to these throughout the entire month of July. I suggest taking some time to dig around the website to see what all is going on. Here’s a quick rundown:

The Nature of Things
A contemporary art exhibit featuring work from North, Central, and South America. Located in the newly renovated McNichols building at Civic Center Park. More info here.

The Americas Roundtable
Panel discussions with experts and world leaders on the topics of Education, Philanthropy, Women, Health, Poverty, Trade, and Climate & Energy. Located at the Performing Arts Complex. See the schedule here.

Citywide Exhibitions
A long list of artistic and cultural events at partnering locations throughout the Denver area. See the list here.

If you’re in Denver this month, I highly recommend checking some of this out. The Biennial is also on Twitter and Facebook for day-to-day updates.

www.biennialoftheamericas.org

Science fiction author Bruce Sterling, via Alex Steffen of Worldchanging

Grass is dumb

Continuing with the water conservation theme is this ad from Denver Water. They say that a reduction of just 2 minutes of watering would save the city nearly 1 million gallons of water each summer. You can learn more fun water facts here… and if you live in Denver, you can win some free schwag!

It’s all part of a great campaign by Sukle Advertising & Design.

I’m not sure if this is cool or annoying… Maybe a little of both, but I applaud their efforts. The German line of 100% organic and biodegradable personal care products uses clean design with nice hand-written typography to remind its users to conserve water. Hopefully they’ll add larger bottles to the line if they truly want to be less wasteful.

(via Re-Nest)