It’s rare that I find myself in agreement with a decision made by Stony Brook University’s administration, rarer still that I find myself vocally defending that decision. But for the last week, my Twitter feed and Google Alerts for Stony Brook have been ablaze with the manufactured outrage of  conservatives who are furious—FURIOUS!—that a university many of them have never heard of has the audacity to rearrange their academic calendar.

More personal news: I’ve accepted a generous job offer from Think Progress! 

I’ve been planning the move to Washington DC for a few weeks now, but I’ve finally got a date: January 9 I wave goodbye to New York and settle in to the District!

This is the first actual blog post of the new year! One of my resolutions is to update this thing at least once a week, though I reserve the right to call an audible when things get particularly busy in Adamville.

Anyway:

As it says at the top of this site, in addition to my love of journalism, I have an equal obsession with design. At Think Magazine, I got as much joy working on design elements of both the magazine and website as I did reporting on some of the biggest stories we ran.

On that note, I want to bring your attention to an interesting new design that caught my eye a few weeks ago, and then again today. Apologies to non-Stony Brook University people, this won’t be particularly interesting to you I’m afraid.

If I were to ask you to picture the Stony Brook University logo, this is what many of you would recall:

That’s been the logo of the university for years. I’ve never really felt one way or another about it, though it’s hard to question the handiwork of Milton Glaser, whose most famous design is the iconic I Love New York logo that’s literally everywhere.

But starting with the announcement of the Jim Simons gift, the university has been slowly—albeit very publically—introducing something new. Take a look at the backdrop that the university placed behind the podium at the Simons announcement event:

Can you see that? The logo they’re using may not look all that new, but that’s the first I’ve ever seen of it.  It’s definitely similar in many ways, and keeps the rays of light image that Glaser introduced. But there’s no question it’s different.

I must say, I like it. It’s simple, but not boring. The font (I’m a HUGE font nerd) is super nice, and not all that dissimilar to the one Glaser used. The biggest difference is the decision to abandon all caps, which I think is the right move.

With all of President Stanley’s talk of a “rebirth” for Stony Brook, I thought perhaps this was a rebranding of sorts, a fresh spin on an aging logo. But after the announcement, the new logo disappeared.

Then today, the Alumni Association unveiled a full-page ad quarter-page ad they ran in the Wall Street Journal thanking the Simons for their gift. Check out the logo they used in the bottom right hand corner:

The change may not happen very fast, but it definitely looks like change is coming, campus wide. I can’t think of a single reason why the university would deliberately abandon it’s own logo for the biggest news story it’s had in years unless they were planning to make it the new official logo. I could be wrong, but if it happens (my prediction: over the summer), remember where you heard it first.

In the early morning of July 4 2011, I caught wind of a possible hacking of Fox News’ Political Twitter account. Out of curiosity more than anything, I tried to contact the supposed hackers for what I thought would be a quick blog post. To my surprise, I was able to conduct an interview with them, which was published online at Think Magazine’s website. From there, the story was picked up everywhere. Here’s a sampling of the news organizations that picked up my reporting the next morning.

The New York Times: 

A group calling itself the Script Kiddies claimed responsibility for hacking the Fox News Twitter account, according to Adam Peck, the outgoing editor of Think, an online student magazine operated at Stony Brook University on Long Island, who said he had communicated via instant message early Monday with a member of the group.

The Guardian:

A representative of the group ‘Scriptkiddies’ said in an interview with Stony Brook University’s Think Magazine: “We are looking to find information about corporations to assist with antisec [a concerted hacker attack on corporate and government security]. Fox News was selected because we figured their security would be just as much of a joke as their reporting.”

CNN:

Adam Peck of Stony Brook University’s Think magazine reported that the hackers, calling themselves the Script Kiddies, were an offshoot of the hacker group Anonymous.

The Next Web:

Think Magazine, a campus publication from Stony Brook University, scored an interview with the attackers:

Slate:

A member of the group talked to Think Magazine, a Stony Brook University publication, and warned more attacks could be coming.