In this day and age of digital downloads, iTunes, internet radio, and MP3 players, actually purchasing hard copy music (CD's) is becoming something of a rarity. And while I, myself, have happily embraced the freedom and portability which digital music affords, I can't help but feel like something has been lost in the shuffle.

Album covers and liner art are quickly going the way of the VHS tape, and I must confess a little sadness here, because as a young lad I looked forward to the liner notes of a new cassette tape/CD almost as much the music itself. Album covers and liner art were like an extension of the artist's vision and self-expression; a place where I often found inspiration in the form of visual art and fashion.

With that nostalgia in mind, designbump has put together this great collection of trends in album art from 2009. Sit back, relax, put on a great song, and enjoy!

Barbara Nixon, a public relations professor at Georgia Southern University, recently posted instructions for completing the final exam for her PRCA 4330 students. Students were asked to create a list of the five most important things they learned from the course about conducting public relations research and to explain why these five things were important.

Students were then instructed to choose from a list of options for submitting their exam. The options included creating a PowerPoint deck and uploading it to SlideShare; creating a podcast using Utterli; creating a video and posting it to YouTube; creating a blog post.

What I love about this is the integration of new media and technology in the classroom. It makes me feel better about the next crop of PR folks that will soon be upon us. After all, this whole internet thing is going to be huge.

Between delays and bad weather, traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday can be a nightmare. This year, Travelocity is to the rescue with Twitter updates from the country's busiest airports. Their Thanksgiving Task Force is also aggregating Tweets from travelers who use their #TravelocityTTF hashtag.

Aside from the customer service via Twitter angle, there's also an entertainment component. If you're bored during your travels, tune into Travelocity's Twitter feed to find out about fun contests happening every hour. A recent post promises a gnome lunchbox to the Tweeter who posts the best picture of a plane with a flashy paint job. A gnome lunchbox sounds like a great way to transport holiday leftovers. Yummy.

Technologizer brings us this fun little stroll down Nostalgia Lane: a collection of family home computer ads complete with large blocks of Ogilvie-esque copy and reasoned arguments for purchasing the product. (Remember back in the day when people actually read copy? Well, at least that's what we told ourselves.)

When you live in New York City, it becomes a game to figure out which neighborhood someone lives in purely based on their dress and demeanor. What if currency helped tell that story as well? That's the question design students at the School of Visual Arts answered in a recent project.

Students drew various neighborhoods (sorry, Manhattan only) out of a hat, researched them and eventually designed currencies to represent them. Some went for non-traditional shapes and sizes. Others focused on bringing to life a neighborhood's heritage, such as the focus on Chelsea Market's Nabisco history.

A full visual recap of the designs can be found on Flickr.