Miscellaneous thoughts and links for a Sunday morning. Mainly for those of you that don’t read Squandrous on a regular basis.

(Today’s thoughts are brought to you by the letter U.)

Un-Warren-ted.

Shepard Fairey’s art is featured on the cover of TIME for their Person of the Year issue. Fairey has also been tapped to create an inaugural poster for Obama’s big ceremony next month.

Fairey has some issues with regards to Obama’s decision to ask Rick Warren to deliver an invocation during the inauguration ceremony, but instead of complaining or boycotting, he’s taking a more generous and productive step. From his post:

While I’m on the subject of gay marriage, I will be donating a chunk of the proceeds from an inauguration poster of Obama I was asked to create to the movement to overturn Prop 8. At first I was considering pulling my inauguration poster, but I think re-directing funds from it to put into a cause I care about is actually more constructive.

I’ve been a strong supporter of the No On Prop 8 movement for the past little while — and this month, we celebrate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which hopes to ensure equal rights for everyone regardless of sexual orientation — so I’m really glad that Fairey is supporting the movement as his constructive form of protest.

I understand Obama’s decision to have a diversity of voices (even those that conflict with his own) at the inauguration, but I still cannot support any individual that does not believe in the core and basic fundamental concept of equal rights for all.

Inspired by Fairey, I’ve made a small donation to No On Prop 8 as my form of protest against Rick Warren’s prominence at the inauguration ceremony as well. After all, the best form of protest is one that actually helps to solve problems instead of causing more of them.

Universal.

I’ve been thinking about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights quite a bit recently, so I was extremely glad when Sascha pointed me in the direction of this video.

Expect more writing about human rights in the new year. If you have any thoughts on the subject, I’d definitely welcome a guest post.

Unmarketing.

You know what I love? When a company’s marketing campaign involves more than just selling me a product, but doing good for the world at the same time.

I have no desire to go watch Disney’s Bedtime Stories, but as part of the campaign, Disney Publishing Worldwide will donate up to 250,000 brand new books to First Book to go to children in need.

All you have to do to help is leave a comment at this blog post telling First Book about your favorite bedtime story.

Sometimes, it’s that easy to make a difference in someone’s life.

Unconventional

I knew my friends Jessie and Chris were absolutely amazing photographers, but their forays into video are just as — if not even more — mindblowingly fun.

Love the vibrancy and playfulness of this video. Plus, you know it would be tons of fun play in paint like that.

Uplifting

This festive season, Stories of Giving helps you measure the success of the holidays not by the amount of gifts you got or by the amount of turkey you ate, but by the amount of difference you made in the lives of others.

In my personal efforts to spread some holiday cheer, I spent an evening at the Eaton Centre, went to a cookie-decorating evening for kids at the local community center, and got a few people rapping about the holidays on the public transit. Here’s the result of one of my rap freestyles:

Yeah, I know. I’ll keep my day job. I don’t think I’d make it very far in the rap game.

Unlocked

Scott Adams asks a pretty interesting question: do you have any futuristic iPhone predictions? A few future apps he imagines:

• What’s-His-Face
• Doctor-In-A-Box
• What’s-It-Like-There
• Brain-Extender

Check out his full post for more details. What about you? What are the futuristic iPhone apps you dream of every night?