randomWalks

Frank Rich, How to lose a war.

originally posted by xowie

"He's one of the greatest architects in the world, and you'd expect him to be more enlightened. But then you expected more from Leni Riefenstahl."

originally posted by xowie

Eight white men discuss the future of technology.

Lynda Barry: the deep #1-ness of life obscured.

Eye witness accounts of the US strikes on Kabul courtesy RAWA.

In fact there was a previous terrorist attack on Congress, in 1954, and it was led by a woman. Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebrón organized a machine gun ambush from the House gallery which wounded five members of Congress. (A few months ago, at age 81, Lebrón was sentenced to 60 days in jail for trespassing at Vieques.) The story is, sadly, familiar:

Because of a desperation which was superhuman, three or four island patriots led by Lolita Lebrón took the road from New York to Washington. They made the trip by bus, because it was cheaper. The U.N. officials who failed to read Lolita Lebrón's poster [This reference by Jose de Vasconcelos is of a picture that appeared of Lolita Lebrón in the N.Y. Times with a picket sign reading "We demand the complete independence of Puerto Rico." (1953)] travel high above in jet planes; they could not discern the humble caravan headed by Lolita Lebrón. The island girl, like her comrades, bought only a one way ticket partly for the economy, no doubt, but also because they realized that they were on a trip from which there was no return.

originally posted by xowie

The Greatest has become our mute, iconic, bloated Buddha. The man with the fastest hands and legs in sports now moves as slowly as though he were under water. The wittiest athlete now whispers inaudibly. His body is ravaged by Parkinson's, a disease that is degenerative and will never get better. Watching Ali on a dais being lovingly fed by his wife, Lonnie, hurts my heart and makes me question my own fandom, my own complicity in his debilitation. Seeing a tape of his epic fight with Joe Frazier in Manila has become a bittersweet experience for me. While it was happening in 1975, I was drenched with sweat, hoarse from screaming and emotionally spent from the ebb-and-flow drama. But today, seeing the aftereffects on both men has made the greatest fight I ever saw no longer such a powerful argument for the sport it once exalted.

originally posted by xowie

I toy with the notion of brandishing my tiny sword in the aisle long enough to make a quick statement against our squandering of natural resources in guzzling SUVs, or the disruption of whale habitats with naval sonar exercises. I fantasize about shouting ‘STOP THE BOMBING!’ at the top of my lungs against a backdrop that would secure me a spot on the nightly news. I wonder if I’d do jail time, or whether the other passengers would kill me first.

originally posted by xowie

First check out the Signage then check out the rest of this artist’s great site – perhaps starting with the about page. Thanks, riley dog.

Owen Briggs' marvelous Box Lessons are helping me fix a cross-platform layout problem that has been bothering me for months. The exact bug was identified and solved with help from glish’s CSS hacks and, ultimately, Tantek Celik’s box model hack. (Add a link to CSS resources at the Web Standards Project and you now have access to the sum of all human knowledge on the CSS box model.) So I think I’ve finally solved the issue with the sidebar taking on various widths between IE5/Mac and the IEs on Windows, causing that gutter over there to grow and shrink. Unfortunately, there’s been this stupid horizontal scroll bar appearing under IE5/Mac lately – and come to think of it, I’m afraid I might be introducing it to Windows with this latest solution. In any case, if you are seeing something unusual (or … usual) and want to comment on the layout, please [reply].

“Face it. They’re the team we all wish we had in Boston.” (The Globe’s most popular story of the week.)

originally posted by xowie

Nuclear Power & Terrorism at The Nation. (Now that you have your Cipro, don’t you think it’s time to pick up some potassium iodide?)

originally posted by xowie

Larry (‘Superfly’) Ellison getting his wings clipped, hopefully.

originally posted by xowie

So there's a serious attempt to stifle debate. But, of course, God bless the Net. I keep getting more articles of various dissenting opinions e-mailed to me; naturally, some of them are crazy and some I don't agree with at all. But you can't shut everyone up. The big media have been very intimidated, but not the Web.

originally posted by xowie

Now try to see yourself leaping to your feet and commanding the rest of the passengers, "I am taking control of this plane! Defy me and you will regret it!" First, you will feel like an idiot. Second, you are unarmed, and the most vulnerable parts of your anatomy have never been more inviting, or accessible, targets.

originally posted by xowie

UK potheads celebrate reclassification.

originally posted by xowie

Check out Realwar model figures and then browse the rest of the inflammatory propaganda tucked away here.

Howard Kurtz, How to botch a crisis.

originally posted by xowie

Apple release iPod – updated live

To have your whole music library with you at all times is a quantum leap when it comes to music. And iPod fits in your pocket. Never before possible.” 3 breakthroughs in iPod: Ultra-portable. Ultra-thin hard drive: 1.8 inch hard drive is .2 inches thick. 5 Gigabytes: 1000 songs at 160K bit rate[!]

Displaying Photographs on the Web

My purpose here is to give examples of and make suggestions for various presentation options we have when displaying our photographs on web pages. Why bother? Because we don’t mount plain photographs directly to our walls, so why place plain photographs alone on our web pages? A gallery or museum will take care in their choice of framing and placement of photographs within a space, don’t our online exhibits deserve the same attention? The careful choice of a frame and background color serves to visually seperate the image from the surroundings, drawing the eye toward the photograph without distracting the viewer.

One last rumor to drive you mad with desire before you even know what exactly you lust for: SpyMac.com (nope, never heard of them either) predicts the “iWalk,” a combo PDA and MP3 player with handwriting recognition and Airport network access.

Pravda: “Old women sell venereal diseases”.

originally posted by xowie

Best A List Apart ever: “Double Typographic Issue For Your Pleasure.”