Several weeks ago, my friend and colleague, Shanai Matteson asked if I'd get involved in a project she was working on along with several other people. If you have been reading my blog, or for that matter, Pharyngula, for a while you'll know of Shanai even if you don't know you know: She was for many years the public outreach coordinator person (not sure of her exact title) for the Bell Museum of Natural History, so it is she who organized the Great Smackdown at The Bell (with PZ Myers, Chirs Mooney, Matt Nisbet and me), as well as several Cafe Scientifiques that I've done, as well as a very interesting Evolutionary Dinner With Beer a year ago or so. Since then, Shanai has left the Bell and with her husband, Colin Kloecker, have started a company, Works Progress, that does some very interesting things, including Financial Engagement, a Public Thing.
This involved getting together at a public plaza in Minneapolis and having an Open Meeting Format discussion of the economy. The organizers of this event arranged to have individuals peppered throughout the groups who were committed to providing some kind of documentation of the event, and I agreed to do this.
The result of Financial Engagement, a Public Thing was a newspaper that was distributed to shoppers waiting in line for Black Friday shopping last night. The newspaper was also produced in a PDF file format, which you can download here. It's a pretty big file, but worth the download time!