Apple, one of today’s greatest sources for design information and analysis, will continue his daily discussions of newspaper and media design. He’s off to a great start in his new home — he’s been a blogging fool all day. In his first post, Apple explained the reasons behind the move.

Apple’s new blog can be found at apple.copydesk.org; bookmark it and update your RSS reader.

Grab your résumé, your fierce portfolio, fill out the application (Under Consideration has some great answers to their questions) and get to one of the search locations:
• Dec. 13: The Art Institute of Charlotte, Charlotte, N.C.
• Jan. 10: Somewhere in Chicago
• Jan. 17: Somewhere in Hollywood, Calif.
• Jan. 24: The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
• Jan. 31: Somewhere in New York

If you’re picked, you’ll move to Atlanta for a month and a half. It’s a TV show so, you know, it’ll be on TV; no word on which network. The site says judges will include creative directors from design firms, newspapers, magazines, colleges and celebrities. The winner gets $50,000 in cash and prizes. No word on what those prizes are, or how much cash it really is.

I’m not a fan of reality shows — whether they’re about design or not. But the way the newspaper and magazine industry look right now … good luck!

Check out that front-page — Superman-style “S” logo, one story, several headlines at the top of the page and a new format for the digest. Also see snapshots of metro, sports, business and features (travel, food, fit and lifestyle).

What do you think?

Flogos are soapy logos (or whatever you want). They’re 24- or 36-inch 3-D white clouds; 48-inch version coming soon, and color versions will be available next year. Cloud design could be the next best thing to controlling the weather!

Second, after getting home from a great week in Florida, there was a lot of mail. Some was fun (new Print!); some was not fun (ew — bills); and some was disturbing. Most disturbing was an AARP membership registration card. Somehow, I came back from vacation 20 years older. “Your admission to AARP membership is guaranteed as long as you are 50 or over, whether you are working or not.” I have until June 5 to send in $12.50 for a one-year membership. (Does this mean I can retire soon?)

How to write a news story, Mad-Libs style. It works! There’s also a “disease of the week” template. And there’s this (accurate) gem:

If you can’t think of a headline for a story, use one of these three magic verbs: “weighs,” “mulls,” or “considers.” They’ll work for pretty much anything from court stories (“Hamilton mulls plea deal”) to government stories (“Governor weighs Paseo extension”) to entertainment (“Colvin considers new album”) to features (“Benson mulls those who consider weighing Kasey’s artwork”).

ODDS & ENDS
• Great idea from Boston: By September, the cost of the war in Iraq is expected to hit $456 billion. So what does $456 billion buy? (Absolutely looking forward to stealing this idea … )
• “Hate” has been running through my head all day.
• Presidential hopeful Bill Richardson is running kinda funny “job interview” ads … but only online.
• Find a mailbox (or 20) near you — no matter where you are.
• Or find a place to eat!
• Comma sutra
• Sex sells … pie charts.
• Love connection on the CTA. How sweet …
• Blood-puddle pillows
• Flock is built on Firefox, but bills itself as a “social browser.” Your Facebook, Blogger, Gmail and PhotoBucket accounts are built right in. And there are more extensions than you’ll know what to do with.
• Color theory!
• Arrrgyle
• I want a daisy tree, but haven’t come across one yet this year.
• Cat attacks reporter — film at 11.
• Cool clock
• More newspapers are using open-source software, including Drupal.

For at least five years, research has shown that journalists want more training. In 2002, a Knight survey of nearly 2,000 journalists found that eight in 10 newsroom staffers wanted more training than they were getting. An update to that study, “Investing in the Future of News,” which was released today in the “News, Improved” book, reports that the number has increased to nine in 10.

Download key findings (PDF), buy the book or get it free just for filling out a survey. And the survey’s interesting too — only 10 questions and you can see how your responses stack up with others.

Following the theme here, young journalists keep saying newspapers are out of touch and boring. Yet we still work for them … (I love the section about explaining what IM, MySpace and YouTube are. Probably because I’ve had to explain one or all to people in the newsroom at one time or another.)

The best story I’ve read in awhile: It’s got everything. If a famous violinist plays famous songs on a famous violin in an infamous subway and no one stops to listen … well, what does it mean? The Washington Post set up an experiment, and explored every possible angle. UPDATE: The reporter talks about the story.

ODDS & ENDS
• There’s no crying in baseball, right? So at a baseball-themed funeral, complete with a baseball-themed urn or casket, what happens? Team colors, props and renditions of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” are also recommended.
• Behind on “The Sopranos”? Here’s a 7 minute refresher. (The New York Times wrote a story about the refresher too — they’re kinda on top of this YouTube thing.)
• Design can change the world. I just didn’t realize they meant environmentally.
• Mount Everest is not the highest point on earth, if by highest you mean the place closest to space. Confused? Then this will blow your mind. The Earth isn’t really round. Well, it’s round, just no perfectly round. So people in Ecuador are literally closer to the moon than some guy at the top of Mount Everest.
• Who doesn’t love dry erase boards? And dry erase markers? And a Web site created with those two things. Kinda.
• Newsroom humor: “How do we spell ‘hos’?” AP says no apostrophe; we use an apostrophe.
• Google has created a generation of stalkers. Come on, you’ve done it.
• Mac and cheese! And more mac and cheese!