randomWalks

It’s a banner year for mycology. Read about the joy of shrooming in the Washington Post and hear about it on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.

Approximately 60 people were arrested for riding bikes in LA yesterday. Bail for the arrestees has been set at $20,000. Update: From the IMC breaking news page: “9:49pm PST - Police will start releasing the jailed Critical Mass bicyclists at midnight if they post bail of $2500. Citizens may be released without posting bail if they sign a legal form saying that they ‘will not bicycle again’ in Los Angeles!!!”

A Village Voice report on the IMC bomb scare offers details that suggest the timing of the police action was intended to prevent the IMC from conducting a scheduled broadcast during Clinton’s address last night.

The IMC has a write-up of a protest solidarity rally in Asheville, NC (one of the most beautiful towns in the country). The article also hints at demonstrations during the October Presidential Debates in nearby Winston-Salem. I’ll have to look into that.

An IMC reporter has posted an update on the IMC bomb scare.

I’ll read Kendall Clark on the criminalization of dissent this evening when I have some time.

After being threatened by police under pretense of a bomb scare, the LA indymedia center is back in action. The Web site (formerly la.indymedia.org) can now be accessed at sacco.indymedia.org – not sure if this is related to the attempted raid last night.
shot in the face by rubber bullet
LA Times article on last night’s police violence
la imc breaking news
begging for mercy from riot gear cops
raising hell at the DNC – alternet.org full coverage

This video of a plane getting struck by lightning is cool.

Today’s indymedia LA highlights: five-minute roundup of the day’s news (mp3), report from hotel workers' rally in Santa Monica, students at Mumia rally are symbolically silenced.

Washington Post Style Invitational readers update Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” for the 90s (current contest is at top; scroll down a bit).

You know those 17,000 year old cave paintings in France that have spawned all kinds of speculation about the culture of the artists? A German researcher has found patterns in the paintings that suggest it’s a map of the sky. Perhaps it’s astronomy that’s the worlds oldest profession. While you’re pondering the past, consider this prehistoric map of the moon carved into a tomb wall 5,000 years ago.

Corporate Crackdown is Adbusters' cover article this month. The story exposes the development of these legal fictions that are becoming more powerful than nations and suggests ways to bring them back under civil control.

Independent coverage of the Democratic Convention protests will be provided by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center.

This makes me quite sad, and I have to admit it’s brilliant.

This link: (Bonobo Sex and Society) is for a friend of mine who has probably never read randomWalks. I found it at an interesting Metafilter thread on the upcoming Planet of the Apes movie.

Poignant new One Hundred Demons cartoon by Lynda Barry at Salon.com.

_____
/ --- \
||. .||   GOOD THING I WAS WEARING MY HAIR!
| o |   /
| V |
---
/|\
|     ____
/ \   |____|
__________________________________________________

Cultural Prosthetics: brief essays on the loss and re-creation of culture. Good stuff. thanks, caught in between.

K through 5th graders in LA are being taught to lock themselves inside their school in case the police start rioting next week like they did in Seattle.

How to pirate music and video without a computer! Fascinating… has anyone tried this?

The rotten truth is that, except in the elaborate fantasies of show biz, we are all lonely gropers, wretched novices, tyro emoters, and with nobody writing our lines, our dialogue is stupid, pointless and unfunny.

Dungeons & Dragons is about to be updated with a new set of rules. Third Edition (3E) is already the source of much controversy, with fans either dreading or drooling over its release. One thing’s for sure, the movie looks like it’s going to kick ass.
free D&D fast play game
Ring of Thieves free solo adventure (not D&D)

Word Perhect is wonderful Flash. Barneys New York is good Flash, but Word Perhect is wonderful. (get Flash)

The full text of Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book is online. I had a copy, but it was stolen. Actually, I had stolen it myself from a friend’s mom some years before. I found out who stole it from me and asked for it back, but…

Kendall of the monkeyfist collective examines his responsibility as a white man engaged in political action to attract negative attention away from women and people of color and to direct positive attention away from himself in this insightful commentary that I think he should submit to The New Abolitionist or expand for Race Traitor.

Today’s Morning Edition on NPR had a story about the Big Blowup of 1910, the only wildfire in living memory to compare to this year’s conflagrations. The techniques and tools developed to fight that fire are widely used today. (requires realplayer)