@departmentofinformation.org.bsky.social
Giving meaningful ideas the bureaucracy they deserve since 2021. A production of Tomato Laboratories (@tomatolab.org) departmentofinformation.org .
"Shortly before the trailhead is an area just off of Flamingo Lodge Highway where the mangroves, reeds, and other things of the swamp merge seamlessly into the salty, turquoise-blue water of the ocean. The shore here is tortured and torn between two worlds, geographies, and times."
02.11.2025 19:51 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
"Shortly before the trailhead is an area just off of Flamingo Lodge Highway where the mangroves, reeds, and other things of the swamp merge seamlessly into the salty, turquoise-blue water of the ocean. The shore here is tortured and torn between two worlds, geographies, and times."
02.11.2025 19:51 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0REVIEWED: NOAA Weather Radio Pamphlet, 1985
EXPLAINED:
What is "The Voice of the National Weather Service"?
Who is Owlie Skywarn?
Why did the Government Printing Office outsource an offset lithography job to Japan in the mid 1980's?
Read here 🦉⛈️📻 → www.departmentofinformation.org/noaa-weather...
REMINDER: Campus will be closed Monday for Labor Day (except for mission-critical lab facilities and the South Lawn pool). Yesterday was the last summer Friday of the season. The fall calendar will take effect this week. Thank you.
31.08.2025 01:45 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A smart phone is lying on a sandy beach with the album Beach Sounds displayed on it
A 3x3 grid of colorful beach photographs, lots of turquoise, browns, grays, and greens in a variety of marshy, forested, and aquatic settings
For the Summer Solstice, we are soft-launching Beach Sounds, the follow-up to Pond Sounds from the Office of Public Awareness.
💦🌞🦩
Beach Sounds was recorded on location, deep in the backwaters of South Florida and coastal New York using field recorders.
Stream or buy now exclusively on Bandcamp
In honor of Earth Day, we have begun rewilding some offices on the main campus. If you work in Building A and have not received a bee box—but would like one for your cubicle or workstation—please let your manager know.
Happy Earth Day! #earthdayeveryday 🌎
Our Information Hotline is no longer in service due to the inside of the telephone lines being haunted. If you need to contact us please use email or write to us. Thank you.
29.03.2025 22:40 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
We recently discovered a stash of loose vintage U.S. Forest Service pamphlets under the sofa mattress in the basement office of our Information Ambassador, Pokey the Pigeon.
08.03.2025 08:17 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Some clarity on our style guide.
14.02.2025 04:45 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0We have greatly improved our Groundhog Simulator™ since last year. Its an ethical, non-harmful alternative to using real animals for forecasts. Some people even say it is more accurate. Our Groundhog used Computer Vision to see their shadow so it looks like we are in for another six weeks of winter.
04.02.2025 04:51 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
A beautiful, minimal screen print in pink, blue, black, brown, and white of MLK looking concerned and resting his chin on his hand while looking down with the handwritten text over the top "I am ashamed, greatest purveyor of violence on earth is my own country — MLK"
A beautiful, minimal screen print in pink, blue, black, brown, and white of MLK looking concerned and resting his chin on his hand while looking down with the handwritten text over the top "I am ashamed, greatest purveyor of violence on earth is my own country — MLK"
A relatively young and concerned looking Martin Luther King Jr. looking off into the distance beyond the camera in a hallway during his bus boycott and integration trial in Montgomery Alabama in 1958
A worn looking letterpress by Paul Amos Kennedy in black sans serif font on red reads "I fear I am integrating my people into a burning house. - Martin Luther King, Jr."
1/2) Screen print by René Castro "I Am Ashamed, MLK". 1992. via Smithsonian
3) Photo by Grey Villet "MLK Trial Montgomery Alabama Integration". 1958, Montgomery, AL
4) Letterpress by Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. "I fear I am integrating my people into a burning house. - MLK". 2005
#MLK
One of our unpaid interns found this pamphlet from 1978 underneath the office kitchen fridge while cleaning the drip pan after they spilled a tray of coffee all over the floor. In exchange for class credit and redemption we had them sterilize and photograph it for our consumer review series.
16.01.2025 03:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A very dark, gray illustration of a library with a desk and a closed sign on it with a single lamp light illuminating a charlie brown looking christmas tree
a charlie brown looking christmas tree on a desk with a light over it in a dark room next to a stately pigeon seal
Reminder that our main campus, including the taco truck in the parking lot, the Xerox Climate Lab, and the library are all closed until January 1st, 2025.
Please do not report to work or you will be escorted away on a golf cart by Herald, the security guard.
#holidays #christmas #newyear
Have you seen strange lights in the night sky above New Jersey or the Tri-state area?
Call our tip line to leave us a voice message of what you saw. Our Information Scientists will use the anonymous data in future experiments and consumer products.
1-844-DOI-9003
info@departmentofinformation.org
It’s that time of year again! We’ve enlisted our Head of Accounting and Budget, Officer Bill, to scrape together the absolute best public procurement notices, notices of intent, and/or requests for proposals from governmental, quasi-governmental, and non-governmental entities from 2024.
17.12.2024 21:45 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Please enjoy 15 minutes of mountain rain, wind, and crows (or perhaps ravens—we aren’t sure) from our latest digital audio release by the Department of Public Awareness, Division of Film, Radio, Television, and Books. (also available to stream on Apple Music and everywhere else) #nature #music #art
15.11.2024 18:45 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0A number of artists and creators have made their home on Bluesky, and we hear their concerns with other platforms training on their data. We do not use any of your content to train generative AI, and have no intention of doing so.
15.11.2024 17:17 — 👍 103505 🔁 27492 💬 918 📌 2957Greetings, Pondsky.
tomatolab.org/Pond-Sounds
It’s campfire season & whether you’re burning barrels full of confidential documents or old office furniture it’s important to practice fire safety. We've collected some of the best vintage Smokey Bear posters to kick off the season.
www.departmentofinformation.org/smokey-bear/
#design #nature
A bright yellow zine with black ink text LOS ANGELES FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLE WHOLESALE MARKET PRICES 1972 is held by a womans hand in front of a spikey palm plant in los angeles with a blue sky and powerline visible in the back
A close up shot of the inside pages of a zine with speckled natural paper on the right and bright red tomato seed paper on the left
The inside flap of a zine is shown with transparent vellum paper and black ink on the right and bright yellow cardstock on the left
the inside spread of a zine is shown with bright blue paper and blank ink on the right and natural speckled paper with black ink on the left
New 1972 LA USDA Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Prices Zine
- 5.5’’x8.5’’ saddle stitched, ~38 pages
- Silkscreened cover
- Speckletone paper recycled and made with hydroelectric power from French Paper Co in Michigan
- Plantable tomato seed paper
tomatolab.org/market
🍅 🥑 📗 #art #design #food
A large pigeon mascot wearing a black beanie, rounded black framed glasses, a black hoodie over a yellow vest and white dress shirt with black tie tucked in, and a lanyard, stands on the sidewalk out front of the UN headquarters
To soft launch our new Information Ambassador, Pokey the Pigeon, we sent him to UN General Assembly Week.
He doesn't have a UN ground pass so he will be on the sidewalk or across the street at the Ambassador Grill Bar.
Please do not throw bread at him, there is an unpaid intern inside.
#UNGA79 🇺🇳
Captured by Landsat 1, the first satellite of the US’s Landsat program, in the early 1970s at a scale of 1:500,000, these satellite images of Florida were printed onto huge poster panels. The resulting images, showing creases, tears, and textures are super cool. #space #art #nature #science #nasa
24.08.2024 11:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The first in a series of USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Prices Report reproductions #art #design #farming #nyc www.departmentofinformation.org/1969-usda-nyc/
11.08.2024 03:01 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
a white fiber carton of red tomatoes with a paper label on top sits on a white background
a bright red cluster of different sized tomatoes sit in a white fiber pint carton on white background, viewed from the top
bright red tomatoes overflow from a white fiber carton
a rough stamp of a red circle and outer square reads tomato laboratories on a white fiber carton - red tomatoes spill out and around
Some summer tomato inspiration from the lab.
Pictured:
- New Yorker Tomatoes
- Matts Wild Cherry
- Patio Hybrid
tomatolab.org/Tomatoes
#tomatoes #farming #nyc #growing
JD Vance’s poor and ignored half couch/half man child
JD Vance HAS fucked a couch but ONLY for procreative purposes -
which is why we’re calling on JD Vance TODAY to acknowledge his cruelly abandoned half-couch, half-man children.
Three ancient report covers from the 1970s float above a black void, they share the title Los Angeles Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Prices and are on light blue, yellow, and white paper, respectivey
A white report cover with centered, large, black, all-caps, sans-serif text reading NEW YORK CITY FRESH FRUIT and WHOLESALE MARKET PRICES 1969
A diagonal pair of cropped saddle stitch reports with black text on red paper read MARKETING CALIFORNIA TOMATOES 1993 and 1994
An ancient government plant propaganda zine sits on desert sand and reads in all-caps, faded font Marketing West Mexico Vegetables 1969-70 Season
The Absolute Best USDA Fruit and Vegetable Market News Reports Published Between 1954 and 1994 www.departmentofinformation.org/2024/07/the-...
14.07.2024 12:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
