I’m ready for people in positions of power at magazines and newspapers and movie studios to recalibrate their understanding of what it means to talk about race in the first place. If America would like to express that it truly values and appreciates the voices of its minorities, it will listen to all their stories, not just the ones reacting to its shortcomings and brutality.Cord Jefferson: The Racism Beat.
Because these combat robots are coming, and many are already here, if we do not prevent their global deployment by the time you and I are old we will see robots on street corners with guns that run software we do not control, implementing policies beamed to them over the airwaves in encrypted communications, accessing databases of faces and retinas, ever watchful for enemies not of the State as we currently understand it, but of the people who own the right to program the machines which watch over us. The State will have become technocratic – fascism by remote control – and the dream of control, coveted by evil men for generations, will have come to fruition. We have a scant few years to arrest the development of these technologies or to rearchitect the social foundations of liberty to survive a situation where combat robots leave the population largely powerless to resist tyranny, whether they have their rifles or not.
Is anyone doing anything about this?
A Note On The Mario Kart Review
No grand conspiracy, no ‘white guilt’ - I was playing the game, and when all 30 characters were unlocked, they appeared on screen at once, and I was struck by how the overwhelming majority of them were white. … I thought about what I saw on the screen, and formed the opinion “Nintendo can do better than this.”
Taking human life should always be a very serious thing. There’s something very close up about the Middle Ages. You’re taking a sharp piece of steel and hacking at someone’s head, and you’re getting spattered with his blood, and you’re hearing his screams. In some ways maybe it’s more brutal that we’ve insulated ourselves from that. We’re setting up mechanisms where we can kill human beings with drones and missiles where you’re sitting at a console and pressing the button. We never have to hear their whimpering, or hear them begging for their mother, or dying in horrible realities around us.
It amazes me how the seemingly most paranoid people are all “Software created by anonymous entities? Sign me up! I can’t wait to use it to store my most sensitive files/conduct illegal transactions!”
A comment on (3) FalseCrypt | MetaFilter
Good point.
Where do these systems of obedience come from? Why do we recognize power instead of individual autonomy? These questions are fascinating to me. It’s all this strange illusion, isn’t it?
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The thing to understand is why we’re fighting - understand, the purpose of segregation is to preserve the second-class status of blacks. And the main thing for you to understand is we must continue to fight.
I am mostly a pretty worried person. In conversations, I am always worried about what to say. The first time I took ecstasy, all of that lifted away. All the anxiety, which is the baseline of my life in some way, and I had this moment of like, wait a second! Are there people who feel this way all the time? This is like a whole way to be, where you don’t feel anxious? Oh my god! It was so amazing. In the months after that, it was a really helpful thing to have experienced. It remains to this day a feeling that is helpful to know about.
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=KYTZIPiQCqE&u=/watch?v=Zb7vFNKXIFo&feature=share
Short documentary on Greenbelt Knoll, Philadelphia’s first integrated development. We were driving by and the beautiful homes stopped us in our tracks. It’s delightful to learn that the neighborhood has such a remarkable history.
Just as clean tech is being thwarted by the trillions of dollars previously sunk into fossil-fuel infrastructure, our collective investment in capitalism itself is forestalling superior post-capitalist alternatives.
This Firefox addon iterates through all of the html text in your browser and whenever it finds a person or corporation from the data, it illuminates that relationship a little bit.
The main problem I was trying to solve was how to increase the spread of information about political…
I was told by another officer while in the car that recording a police officer was illegal because people are using iPhones as guns and shooting cops through the camera lens…I told him that I have the right to be recording a cop and he said that there were incidents, specifically in uptown Manhattan where a kid shot a cop with his iPhone. Straight face. Very serious.
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Ionic Street (by fotophotow)
I’m minorly obsessed with this alley off of 7th street in downtown Philly. If you come across any photos of it, let me know?
Mother of Hydrogen: a novel about war, magick, and America
Gonna read this soon, HMU if you wanna make a book club.
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sudama
shared this story
from  Seriously.
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I was reminded today that former Pirate Dock Ellis has always been one of my favorite athletes.
1. He pitched a no-hitter while he was tripping on LSD
2. He used to wear these curlers in his hair onto the field until the league banned him from doing so.
3. He once tried to hit every player on the Reds with a fastball to start a game. He hit three batters, and attempted to hit two more before getting thrown out.
4. He once chased a racist heckler into the stands with a baseball bat.
5. He was in general outspoken and intolerant of racism in baseball during an era when not many players would be.
(The “hate better” quote came after he sued the Cincinatti Reds for macing him before a game because a security guard didn’t know he was a player trying to get into the stadium. He won his lawsuit.)
I’ve had countless requests to buy text links, do link exchanges, and create hidden links on mefi to lame spammy companies. I’ve also had content companies ask if I wanted to institute a NYTimes type of system where archive pages cost a buck to view after 30 days, and I’ve gotten offers from ad firms to do keyword smart tag type advertising on all old archive pages. I’ve refused them all, and developed a mix of self-service ads and donation/payments for new users that supports the site and my time well.
Does Open Source = Full Disclosure? | MetaFilter
Never forget.
May 20, 2014: A Day for Marriage Equality in Pennsylvania
Today was a landmark day in the city of Philadelphia and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a federal judge within the state ruled the state’s ban on gay marriage to be unconstitutional. If the ruling is not successfully challenged, it will mean that Pennsylvania will become the 19th state to…
It is generally understood that women get paid less than men; that white women get paid more than black men and women and hispanic men and women. However, recognizing this macrocosm functioning intimately, in the immediate, personal, local context — in our friend groups, in our teams, in our companies, and in our communities — remains massively taboo.
universalequalityisinevitable:
David Suzuki in this interview about facing the reality of climate change and other environmental issues from Moyers & Company.
I realized that if you swapped out the word housework for Facebook that 80 percent of this text was still totally crystal clear, and it really freaked me out.
As of this writing, I have blocked more than 500 Twitter users, including accounts belonging to at least 20 of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average as well as dozens of startups. I have blocked government agencies and industry lobbies, print publications and new-media ventures, burger chains and probiotic yogurts, top-shelf spirits and sports drinks, financial institutions, automakers, cell-phone providers, over-the-counter medicines, Hollywood movies, Broadway musicals, and public television shows.
[gallery]
universalequalityisinevitable:
David Suzuki in this interview about facing the reality of climate change and other environmental issues from Moyers & Company.
I realized that if you swapped out the word housework for Facebook that 80 percent of this text was still totally crystal clear, and it really freaked me out.
As of this writing, I have blocked more than 500 Twitter users, including accounts belonging to at least 20 of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average as well as dozens of startups. I have blocked government agencies and industry lobbies, print publications and new-media ventures, burger chains and probiotic yogurts, top-shelf spirits and sports drinks, financial institutions, automakers, cell-phone providers, over-the-counter medicines, Hollywood movies, Broadway musicals, and public television shows.
But the notion, even expressed jokingly, of punching people in the face for wearing Google Glass — as if the device somehow signals a traitor to the cause of humanity — pushes things over the top. Yes, we can all imagine how people wearing an augmented reality device might be annoying: They can surf the Web while pretending to converse with us or, worse, record us when we don’t know it. No sooner had the very first prototypes been spotted last year than TechCrunch reported a new, purely apprehensive moniker for its wearers: Glassholes. But it’s as if the public is now being primed to go after early adopters — almost to a point where one might be reluctant to put on the device.
I asked myself, on a daily basis: What do I have that I didn’t earn? It was like a prayer.
Joshua Rothman interviews Peggy McIntosh: The Origins of Privilege
[gallery] Source: http://yourmotherseyes.tumblr.com/post/84415774797/the-vagenda-magazine-asked-their-twitter-followers
Somewhere, some junior ad exec with the Fleischmann’s Yeast account has just gotten their first google news ping in a decade.
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Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran, 1977
(Kamran Diba)
Neal Cassady: The Denver Years - Colorado Public Television / KBDI 12 Video
Premieres June 26, more info on Facebook
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Cira Centre at sunset
That these people, at this point of reasoning, seem to both want and not want something, to no ends, is vaguely an example of the base desire of conscious beings to want to stop being conscious, as a means of fulfillment, while knowing that if they stop being conscious they won’t require fulfillment, a paradox present in all consciousness-related phenomenon after 2-4 steps of cognition.
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Comic Book Readers
orkin 1947
what’s this?
Little girls read comics from the very beginning of their incarnation??
“Girl reading comic book in newsstand” by Teenie Harris (c. 1940-1945) © 2006 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
That sound you hear is thousands of wangsting sexist fanboys shrieking in horror.
Suck it.
You will have to search long and hard in Philadelphia to find anyone who will say anything bad about Comcast.
Principles for Living in the 21st Century
- Resilience over strength
- Pull over push
- Risk over safety
- Systems over objects
- Compasses over maps
- Practice over theory
- Disobedience over compliance
- Emergence over authority
- Learning over education
The page includes a little description/explanation of each principle.
Thinking about this again.
It is becoming clearer to more and more people that none of the institutions which claim to represent us are ever going to act in the interest of communities.
“The brutal truth is that the bulk of white people in American never had any interest in educating…"
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sudama
shared this story
from  Seriously.
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“The brutal truth is that the bulk of white people in American never had any interest in educating black people, except as this could serve white purposes. It is not the black child’s language that is in question, it is not his language that is despised: It is his experience. A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled. A child cannot be taught by anyone whose demand, essentially, is that the child repudiate his experience, and all that gives him sustenance, and enter a limbo in which he will no longer be black, and in which he knows that he can never become white. Black people have lost too many black children that way. And, after all, finally, in a country with standards so untrustworthy, a country that makes heroes of so many criminal mediocrities, a country unable to face why so many of the nonwhite are in prison, or on the needle, or standing, futureless, in the streets—it may very well be that both the child, and his elder, have concluded that they have nothing whatever to learn from the people of a country that has managed to learn so little.”
-
If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?
James Baldwin’s concluding graf is the literary equivalent of the mic drop.
(via syreetamcfadden)
No doubt, some will find the idea of engineering platforms to promote diversity or adapting existing laws to curb online harassment unsettling and paternalistic, but such criticism ignores the ways online spaces are already contrived with specific outcomes in mind—they are designed to serve Silicon Valley venture capitalists, who want a return on investment, and advertisers, who want to sell us things. The term ‘platform,’ which implies a smooth surface, misleads us, obscuring the ways technology companies shape our online lives, prioritizing and upraising certain purposes over others.
Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups…So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.
We’ve spent the last 30 years losing every battle with kleptocracy and government support of corporations so enthusiastic it has become a merging. Political protest is a Potemkin village, and everyone knows it. It is pure spectacle, free of real world consequence. It can be safely ignored or marginalized on the edges of real American politics, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the kleptocracy. If it does, or even threatens to talk about the kleptocracy, it will be violently put down.
Turns out, as with all things political, there’s money involved in here. In order to entice Huy Fong from Rosemead - where they’ve been operating for years without complaint - Irwindale offered the company a low cost loan and expected to collect the interest. Huy Fong built the plant, moved and immediately refi’d and paid off the loan, screwing the city out of the interest. Irwindale, like a lot of these little LA satellite cities is a crooked cesspool. The Mayor and the Deputy Mayor are both under indictment for fishy practices with money. Also, the vast majority of the complaints have been filed by one household - who’s the nephew of one of the city councilmen. It’s a shake down pure and simple.
It has a neck. No fish has a neck. And you know what? When you look inside the fin, and you take off those fin rays, you find an upper arm bone, a forearm, and a wrist.
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This is the age of the obvious. You must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, what any educated individual already should know because there is a lot of money in obfuscating the obvious.
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A technical glitch causes the Hubble Space Telescope, which ordinarily captures magnificently crisp scientific imagery of the cosmos, to lose balance and create this inadvertent piece of modern art.
It is suspected that in this case, Hubble had locked onto a bad guide star, potentially a double star or binary. This caused an error in the tracking system, resulting in this remarkable picture of brightly colored stellar streaks. The prominent red streaks are from stars in the globular cluster NGC 288.
When I first got this role I just cried like a baby because I was like, “Wow, next Halloween, I’m gonna open the door and there’s gonna be a little kid dressed as the Falcon.” That’s the thing that always gets me. I feel like everybody deserves that. I feel like there should be a Latino superhero. Scarlett does great representation for all the other girls, but there should be a Wonder Woman movie. I don’t care if they make 20 bucks, if there’s a movie you’re gonna lose money on, make it Wonder Woman. You know what I mean, ’cause little girls deserve that.
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Photo:Nobody Likes Me by i♡. http://flic.kr/p/koKVLc
While the physical space of the urban school is often understood to serve as preparation for factory work, with the rise of a deindustrialized economy it can be argued that students are being prepared instead for the enclosed space of the prison.
"The hidden curriculum is generally understood as the process by which daily exposure to school expectations and routines transmits norms and values of the dominant society to students. We argue that in the present the hidden curriculum no longer simply prepares students for work. Through both teaching and disciplinary practices it strives as well to injure and demoralize students by restructuring the school day as a sequence of low-intensity pedagogical assaults. In this way, the hidden curriculum anticipates the conditions of domination and abjection that students will encounter not only in the workplace or in prison proper, but also in social life generally." Doing School Time: The Hidden Curriculum Goes to Prison, José García and Noah De Lissovoy. (PDF)
My 5-year-old recognized this before I did, during his single week in kindergarten. So thankful he resisted with all his being.
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Here is a sketch comic I made called Ducks, in five parts.
Ducks is about part of my time working at a mining site in Fort McMurray, the events are from 2008. It is a complicated place, it is not the same for all, and these are only my own experiences there. It is a sketch because I want to test how I would tell these stories, and how I feel about sharing them. A larger work gets talked about from time to time. It is not a place I could describe in one or two stories. Ducks is about a lot of things, and among these, it is about environmental destruction in an environment that includes humans. Thank you for taking the time to read it.
-Kate
If you are 35 or younger - and quite often, older - the advice of the old economy does not apply to you. You live in the post-employment economy, where corporations have decided not to pay people. Profits are still high. The money is still there. But not for you. You will work without a pay rise, benefits, or job security. Survival is now a laudable aspiration.
Passover to me is informed by the Seder ritual, but it’s more than just that. It’s a Jewish holiday par excellence because every day should be a day where we remember the drive towards freedom. It’s something we should strive to preserve and protect. The month of April marks Passover, and it is the same month that the Civil War ended in 1865. During this time my great-great-grandfather and his brother were at the courthouse the day we signed the terms of surrender with Grant. They had been enslaved Africans at a tobacco plantation in Virginia. And on this day, their former slaveholder comes up to them and says, “You’re free.” I like to think of them as the first black people to realize that the nightmare was over.
Facebook wants my data to sell me stuff. I like to think of this as a feudal model. At a most fundamental model, we are tenant farming for companies like Google. We are on their land producing data.
If a person makes an unreasonable complaint at one of the stores, security camera footage of the person is processed into facial data with the recognition system and classified as “complainer”.
You speak English, a futured language, and what that means is that every time you discuss the future or any kind of a future event, grammatically, you’re forced to cleave that from the present and treat it as if it’s something viscerally different. Now suppose that that visceral difference makes you suddenly disassociate the future from the present every time you speak. If that’s true, and it makes the future feel like something more distant and more different from the present, that’s going to make it harder to save.
If, on the other hand, you speak a futureless language, the present and the future, you speak about them identically. If that suddenly nudges you to feel about them identically, that’s going to make it easier to save.
[…]
Futureless language speakers, even after this level of control, are 30 percent more likely to report having saved in any given year. Does this have cumulative effects? Yes. By the time they retire, futureless language speakers, holding constant their income, are going to retire with 25 percent more in savings.
Can we push this data even further? Yes. Think about smoking, for example. Smoking is, in some deep sense, negative savings, right. If savings is current pain in exchange for future pleasure, smoking is just the opposite. It’s current pleasure in exchange for future pain. What we should expect then is the opposite effect. And that’s exactly what we find. Futureless-language speakers are 20 to 24 percent less likely to be smoking at any given in time compared to identical families. And they’re going to be 13 to 70 percent less likely to be obese by the time they retire.
In a fascinating episode of NPR’s TED Radio Hour titled The Money Paradox, behavioral economist Keith Chen shares some absolutely astounding research on how the tenses in a language influence that culture’s attitudes about saving and spending money.
Complement with this excellent, albeit flawed by virtue of being written in the futured English language, read on how to worry less about money.
The full TED Radio Hour is well worth a listen.
(via explore-blog)
see also: Benjamin Lee Whorf’s “Science and Linguistics” [pdf]
(via kenyatta)
As the white father of an African-American son, I am keenly aware that I never face the suspicion and indignities that my son continuously confronts. In fact, all of the men among my African-American in-laws—and I literally mean every single one of them—can tell multiple stories of unjustified investigatory police stops of the sort that not a single one of my white male relatives has ever experienced.
WORLD ORDER - PERMANENT REVOLUTION
World Order - “World Order in New York”
I just love these guys. So coordinated, tight, and talented. And the music’s not bad either. I also love that they filmed in New York, one of if not the greatest city in the world.
I’m still mad at Will I. Am. and Justin Bieber for ripping these guys and Daft Punk off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35hCo_grAqw
Boy Meets Girl それぞれの あふれる想いにきらめきと
瞬間を見つけてる 星降る夜の出会いがあるよに。。。
Boy Meets Girl あの頃は いくつものドアをノックした
あざやかに描かれた 虹のドアをきっと見つけだしたくて。。。
- Boy Meets Girl, the feelings overflow with brightness
- Discover a moment when the stars fall in the sky
- Boy Meets Girl, I knocked on many doors back then
- You want to find a vividly drawn bright rainbow door
夜明けで歌ってた あなたが得意な SWEET LOVE SONG
やけに思い出しちゃって スーツケースに入れとこう
旅立ちを決めたのは 勢いだけじゃないから
あなたと過ごした日は ２０世紀で最高の出来事！
- The sweet love song you sang with pride at dawn
- You remember the suitcase you stored it away in
- Deciding to take the journey, isn’t just an impulse
- The day I spent with you is the best event of the 20th Century
Boy Meets Girl 出会いこぞ 人生の宝探しだね
少年はいつの日か 少女の夢必ず見つめる
Boy Meets Girl 輝いた リズム達が踊り出してる
朝も昼も夜も風が南へと 心をときめかせている
- Boy meets girl, such meetings are the treasures of human life
- A boy will someday gaze into a girl’s dream
- Boy meets girl, with a dazzling rhythm they begin to dance
- In the morning, the afternoon and the night, the wind pounds my heart south
安らぎが欲しかった 誇れる場所がほしかった
だけど大切なのは あなたとあの日 出会えたことね
- We want serenity, we want a place we can be proud of
- But most important is that I met you on that day
Boy Meets Girl それぞれの あふれる想いにきらめきと
瞬間を見つけてる 星降る夜の出会いがあるよに。。。
Boy Meets Girl あの頃は いくつものドアをノックした
あざやかに描かれた 虹のドアをきっと見つけだしたくて。。。
心をときめかせている
- Boy Meets Girl, the feelings overflow with brightness
- Discover a moment when the stars fall in the sky
- Boy Meets Girl, I knocked on many doors back then
- You want to find a vividly drawn bright rainbow door
- My heart pounds
Boy Meets Girl 出会いこぞ 人生の宝探しだね
少年はいつの日か 少女の夢必ず見つめる
Boy Meets Girl 輝いた リズム達が踊り出してる
朝も昼も夜も風が南へと 心をときめかせている
- Boy meets girl, such meetings are the treasures of human life
- A boy will someday gaze into a girl’s dream
- Boy meets girl, with a dazzling rhythm they begin to dance
- In the morning, the afternoon and the night, the wind pounds my heart south
WORLD ORDER - “LAST DANCE”
World Order - “Welcome to Tokyo” (2013)
The leader of this group is Genki Sudo, a UFC fighter?! O_O
WORLD ORDER - IMPERIALISM
Waxy.org Links.
Popular Posts Across MetaFilter.
The morning of machine civilization
akai tate kage mayoi
haiiro no fuku matoi
rizumu ni torawareta asa
itsumo to onaji shunkan
tomenai seisan rain
nanika ga kakete'ru
In the twilight of machinery
In the morning of machine civilization,
lost shadows, behind their red shields,
wrapped in their grey uniforms,
are imprisoned in the mechanical rhythms.
It's always the same scene everyday,
where production lines march on nonstop.
However, something is missing
in the twilight of machinery.
Where’s the world going
Won’t somebody tell me
Are these thoughts illusion
Are we all one
kono sekai wa kawareru no ka
kono omoi wa maboroshi ka
Where’s the world going?
Won’t somebody tell me?
Are these thoughts illusion?
Are we all one?
Will this world be able to change?
Are these thoughts illusion?
People find work to be done
hito wa hataraki tori utau
nemuri ni ochita yume
me o samase kare sakebu
itsumo to onaji shunkan
kono setsuna ni ikiru
itsuka kakumei motome
In the twilight of machinery
People find work to be done.
Humans work, birds sing,
and then they fall into a deep slumber.
“Open your eyes!” He shouts.
It’s always the same scene everyday,
and we live in this brief moment.
Someday we’d surely want a revolution
in the twilight of machinery.
Where’s the world going
Won’t somebody tell me
Are these thoughts illusion
Are we all one
kono omoi o kaerareru no ka
itsumo yume ni waraikakeru
Where’s the world going?
Won’t somebody tell me?
Are these thoughts illusion?
Are we all one?
Will we be able to change these thoughts?
We will always smile to our dreams.
(Are these thoughts illusion)
(Are these thoughts illusion?)
Where’s the world going
Won’t somebody tell me
Are these thoughts illusion
Are we all one
kono omoi o kaerareru no ka
itsumo yume ni waraikakeru
Where’s the world going?
Won’t somebody tell me?
Are these thoughts illusion?
Are we all one?
Will we be able to change these thoughts?
We will always smile to our dreams.
break through
paradigm
in your mind
revolution
desire
science
ascension
thirteen
white shirt
white shirt
white shirt
black shirt
black shirt
singularity
we are all one
are we all one
break through
paradigm
in your mind
revolution
desire
science
ascension
thirteen
white shirt
white shirt
white shirt
black shirt
black shirt
singularity
we are all one
are we all one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mkiGMtbrPM
WORLD ORDER “HAVE A NICE DAY” (by WORLD ORDER)
A new Genki Sudo video! YAAAAAY!
Machine Civilization, del grupo World Order encabezado por Genki Sudo.
totalitarian dystopian future lit is like “what if the government got so powerful that all the bad stuff that’s already happening ALSO HAPPENED TO WHITE PEOPLE?”
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http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=b0Bm8wvSVIU&u=/watch?v=LTq8TrA3hb4&feature=share
“They took YouTube and fucked it in the ass” — wow, this is good. Eases the pain a little, somehow.
ukbp:
Hari Kondabolu on the Late Show with David Letterman. I think I might be the first standup comic to say “race is a social construct” on late night television.
HARI ON LETTERMAN!
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Gerhard Richter: 4096 colours (1971)
Moving the Race Conversation Forward
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sudama
shared this story
from  Waxy.org Links.
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Jay Smooth breaks down a new report on media coverage of race
Ask MeFi: Best New Yorker articles of the last 2 years?
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sudama
shared this story
from  Popular Posts Across MetaFilter.
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I have a digital subscription to the New Yorker. I love it dearly when I make time to read it. I haven’t made the time in… about two years… and I would like to read the best articles I’ve missed in that time. So: which articles published in the New Yorker in 2012 and 2013 are absolute must-reads?
Once we made it to the lobby, Ross and Lebenthal reassured me that what I’d just seen wasn’t really a group of wealthy and powerful financiers making homophobic jokes, making light of the financial crisis, and bragging about their business conquests at Main Street’s expense. No, it was just a group of friends who came together to roast each other in a benign and self-deprecating manner. Nothing to see here. … The first and most obvious conclusion was that the upper ranks of finance are composed of people who have completely divorced themselves from reality.
Go ahead, say it out loud. The internet is a utility. There, you’ve just skipped past a quarter century of regulatory corruption and lawsuits that still rage to this day and arrived directly at the obvious conclusion. Internet access isn’t a luxury or a choice if you live and participate in the modern economy, it’s a requirement.
“But we just had Indian food yesterday!”
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sudama
shared this story
from  Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide.
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I’ve never understood this argument, which is sometimes cited as a reason to go to a non-Indian restaurant on a given day. How should people cope who live in India? They have Indian food many, many days in a row, and often (not always, by any means) poorer Indians are choosing from a less varied menu of that food than Americans who visit Indian restaurants. Would it be so terrible to eat only Indian food, whether at home or in restaurants, every day for a week? Every day for a month? I don”t see why. So how about two days in a row? Or two meals in a row? Three? What if you had Indo-Chinese food somewhere in the middle of the sequence? Momos cooked by Nepalese immigrants?
Until a group meal yesterday, I had Korean food five days in a row, three meals a day, much to my joy. I bet some Koreans, in Korea, did the same.
Originally posted on Marginal Revolution – click to see comments and suggestions.
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Police thwarted by goat stuck on roof who ‘only respects one man’
He told the story as-is, but instead of the whole notion of the intergalactic thing which was too hard and too silly, he maintained that the existence of Doctor Manhattan had changed the whole balance of the world economy, the world political structure. He felt that THAT character really altered the way reality had been. He had the Ozymandias character convince, essentially, the Doctor Manhattan character to go back and stop himself from being created.
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Google Street View Uses an Insane Neural Network To ID House Numbers
This neural network—which you can read about here, basically it’s a computing network modeled on animal nervous systems—has eleven layers of neurons, which makes it possible to ID millions of house numbers a day from the Street View raw image data. “We can, for example, transcribe all the views we have of street numbers in France in less than an hour using our Google infrastructure,” write the engineers in a new Arxiv paper about the project.What about the numbers that are too blurry for this giant brain to make sense of? No prob—those are identified by humans as part of a second generation CAPTCHA program. So you may have already contributed to the cause, without even realizing it.
In 1955, a crowd gathered in a hotel ballroom to watch as feed salesmen climbed onto a scale; the men were competing to see who could gain the most weight in four months, in imitation of the cattle and hogs that ate their antibiotic-laced food. Pfizer sponsored the competition.
Amazon’s brutal workplace culture
Basically: extreme Taylorism with digital tracking. From Simon Head’s new book, Mindless
[Its Chief of Operations and Customer Relations] Mark Onetto in his lecture describes in detail how Amazon’s present-day scientific managers go about achieving speedup. They observe the line, create a…
For many white people the only kind of anti-black racism that exists is one of slurs, overt discrimination, and stand your ground style violence. This mode of “opt-in white racism” is almost useless as an analytic tool for discussing issues in which race plays a role, but is very useful in distancing oneself from the necessity to engage those conversations. What is more interesting to me is why white people find comfort in white spaces, seemingly without the ability to see those spaces as white.
Erecting more balcony guardrails won’t persuade frat brothers to stop hosting offensive Asian-themed ragers and sending mass emails referencing “rapebait.” It won’t stop them from from throwing beer bottles at black students, calling them “Trayvon Martin,” or more or less getting away with sexual assault.
If you look at the way that the world works now, you can point to very specific things, like Twitter and blogging and the changes that are happening in the music and publishing industries, and you can actually point to this set of people, this set of thinking, and the stuff that came out of it and say, “Holy shit. That worked.”
The first hundred or so times Expereal asked me how I was feeling, my assessments were the kinds of superficial ones you might respond with if a stranger asked you on the street: “I’m fine.”, “All good.”, “Frustrated by a supermarket line.” Reviewing my answers after the first few weeks, it dawned on me: I had been politely lying to my smartphone.
My own concern is primarily the terror and violence carried out by my own state, for two reasons. For one thing, because it happens to be the larger component of international violence. But also for a much more important reason than that; namely, I can do something about it. So even if the U.S. was responsible for 2 percent of the violence in the world instead of the majority of it, it would be that 2 percent I would be primarily responsible for. And that is a simple ethical judgment. That is, the ethical value of one’s actions depends on their anticipated and predictable consequences. It is very easy to denounce the atrocities of someone else. That has about as much ethical value as denouncing atrocities that took place in the 18th century.
Plus I find the Bay Area congested, racist, incestuous, and overpriced. So I was never really tempted.
Steve McQueen talks lack of Diversity in Film
This warms the cockles of my heart for so many reasons:
1.) When asked about the lack of diversity, Steve gets right to the point by basically saying, “Why the fuck you asking the black guy, the minority in the room? How about asking the 8 other white guys who don’t cast minorities as leads in their films?” Thank you for that, Mr. McQueen.
2.) The white panelists’ complete refusal to participate in the conversation is representative of their refusal to address/acknowledge the problem of a lack of minority representation in film. One even has the audacity to say, “I”m not getting into it.” As if the issue at hand is completely irrelevant to his job as a director. As if to say, how dare they, despite being part of the problem, be asked to engage in a conversation about…the problem. The lunacy of it all!
3.) Steve’s utter disregard for white feelings.
THE LAST BIT ABOUT ALTERNATE REALITY IN FILM/ I’VE BEEN SAYING THAT FOR A MINUTE, WHEN MCQUEEN CAME OUT WITH IT I NEARLY FLEW OF MY CHAIR
They never did anything to me personally, or even threatened me, but they didn’t need to. You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. They were über-right-wing. Now, I’m not talking about Rush Limbaugh; I’m talking about the people who make life-and-death decisions. And it’s not necessarily evil; it’s more realistic. Charles was ex-CIA. It’s weirder than you can possibly imagine. I certainly never got the truth. Since then, everything that’s happened—from Nirvana going crazy and on and on and on—none of that holds a candle to how weird that situation was. That’s David Lynch weird.
George Orwell would be flummoxed. ‘Let me get this straight: You pay every month for your tracking device?’
"Just being black in the US is often all it takes to arouse suspicion. Here are 21 examples from the last five years of some of the things black people can’t do without others thinking they’re up to no good.
Listen to loud music at a gas station.
Walk home from a snack run to 7-11.
Wear a hoodie.
Drive in a car with a white girl.
Walk on the wrong side of the street.
Wait for a school bus to take you to your high school basketball game.
Drink iced tea in a parking lot.
Seek help after a car accident.
Inspect your own property.
Show up at your job.
Talk trash after an NFL game.
Throw a temper tantrum in kindergarten.
Buy designer accessories at Macy’s.
Enter your own home.
Be a tourist.
Lay face down in handcuffs.”
Source: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/21-things-you-cant-do-while-black
“All mammals play when they are young and those that have the most to learn play the most. Carnivores play more than herbivores, because hunting is harder to learn than grazing. Primates play more than other mammals, because their way of life depends more on learning and less on fixed instincts than does that of other mammals. Human children, who have the most to learn, play far more than any other primates when they are allowed to do so. Play is the natural means by which children and other young mammals educate themselves. In hunter-gatherer bands, children are allowed to play and explore in their own chosen ways all day long, every day, because the adults understand that this is how they practise the skills that they must acquire to become effective adults.
The most important skills that children everywhere must learn in order to live happy, productive, moral lives are skills that cannot be taught in school. Such skills cannot be taught at all. They are learned and practised by children in play.”
“Why is black pride OK but white pride is racist?” If students are taught that whiteness is based on a history of exclusion, they might easily see that there is nothing in the designation as “white” to be proud of. Being proud of being white doesn’t mean finding your pale skin pretty or your Swedish history fascinating. It means being proud of the violent disenfranchisement of those barred from this category. Being proud of being black means being proud of surviving this ostracism. Be proud to be Scottish, Norwegian or French, but not white.
I think a person should be able to dial a number, make a purchase, send an SMS, write an email, or visit a website without having to think about what it’s going to look like on their permanent record.
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Amazing visualization of the psychogeography of running with smartphones.
When I run, I’m an invisible observer of my city, a ghost forgotten by the people I pass almost as quickly as I disappear from view. I’ve gotten a broad, hard look at this city and its people. Some of it is challenging to see, but at times I think I can see the things that connect every citizen of the city. … We run across the invisible divides that segregate us from neighbors and, in that way, we come to understand where we live.
Alon Abramson: The First Steps, YIP – Young Involved Philadelphia
Running as psychogeographic dérive.
Whiteness was never about skin color or a natural inclination to stand with one’s own; it was designed to racialize power and conveniently dehumanize outsiders and the enslaved.
We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day.
Dmitry Kozak, deputy Prime Minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, assuring people that the Sochi failures have been exaggerated by western visitors.
(via ericcannedy)
As Americans have grown increasingly comfortable with traditional surveillance cameras, a new, far more powerful generation is being quietly deployed that can track every vehicle and person across an area the size of a small city, for several hours at a time. … A single camera mounted atop the Washington Monument, McNutt boasts, could deter crime all around the Mall.
It looks more and more as if high levels of extra antioxidants can actually give people cancer, or at the very least, help along any cancerous cells that might arise on their own. Evidence for this has been piling up for years now from multiple sources, but if you wander through a grocery or drug store, you’d never have the faintest idea that there could be anything wrong with scarfing up all the antioxidants you possibly can.
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Thanks for the submitting - See you on Friday for our 1840s GIF Party!
"Surfbort."
This goes perfectly with Outkast’s “Hey Ya”
Update: Also perfect with Shaggy’s “Boombastic”. Don’t take my word for it!
The key is to remember that the surveillance and the abuse doesn’t occur when people look at the data, it occurs when people gather the data in the first place.
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universalequalityisinevitable:
David Suzuki, from this video.
Much as we marvel at Babylonian clay tablets listing measures of grain, future generations will find just as much meaning in our log files as they will in the media we consume.
A Guide to White Privilege for White People Who Think They’ve Never Had Any
Talk a little to your delivery guys. Get to know them. Ask them if the credit card tips are getting to them, and if not, complain at the restaurant and at Seamless, because that shit ain’t right. But mostly, just tip in cash.
You want to make metro areas of 6 million people prepared for things like this? Stop subsidizing the automobile. Stop making it so damned easy for us to build a society that’s so fragile, that’s so close to the breaking point, that the world ends and we have to sleep in our offices when we’re seven whole miles from home (as one tale had it). This isn’t solved by various Atlanta area regional governments providing more services, more salt and plow trucks, or even more transit facilities. This is solved by not subsidizing a lifestyle that makes it completely impossible to have any sort of resilience.
The people who say that are idiots. Blogging was never alive. It’s the people that matter. There will always be a small number who are what I call “natural born bloggers.” They were blogging before there were blogs, they just didn’t know what it was called. Julia Child was a blogger as was Benjamin Franklin and Patti Smith.
I’ll break you in half. Like a boy.
So I was asked to be on Roger Ailes’ television program and the moment we sat down I said, “Mr. Ailes, I’m the most conservative person you’ve ever interviewed.” (laughs) And he was surprised, said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, most conservatives just want to turn the back the clock 100 years, but I’d like to turn back the clock thousands of years, to when we lived in small communities and took care of each other.” He said, “Well, isn’t that just romantic?” And I said, “No, I don’t think the human race will survive unless we do something like that.”
New Zealand School Find Less Structure Improves Children’s Behavior
Ripping up the playground rulebook is having incredible effects on children at an Auckland school.
Chaos may reign at Swanson Primary School with children climbing trees, riding skateboards and playing bullrush during playtime, but surprisingly the students don’t cause bedlam, the principal says.
The school is actually seeing a drop in bullying, serious injuries and vandalism, while concentration levels in class are increasing.
Principal Bruce McLachlan rid the school of playtime rules as part of a successful university experiment.
"We want kids to be safe and to look after them, but we end up wrapping them in cotton wool when in fact they should be able to fall over."
Letting children test themselves on a scooter during playtime could make them more aware of the dangers when getting behind the wheel of a car in high school, he said.
"When you look at our playground it looks chaotic. From an adult’s perspective, it looks like kids might get hurt, but they don’t."
Swanson School signed up to the study by AUT and Otago University just over two years ago, with the aim of encouraging active play.
However, the school took the experiment a step further by abandoning the rules completely, much to the horror of some teachers at the time, he said.
When the university study wrapped up at the end of last year the school and researchers were amazed by the results.
Mudslides, skateboarding, bullrush and tree climbing kept the children so occupied the school no longer needed a timeout area or as many teachers on patrol.
Instead of a playground, children used their imagination to play in a “loose parts pit” which contained junk such as wood, tyres and an old fire hose.
If I had revealed what I knew about these unconstitutional but classified programs to Congress, they could have charged me with a felony.
The choice is not whether to allow the NSA to spy. The choice is between a communications infrastructure that is vulnerable to attack at its core and one that, by default, is intrinsically secure for its users.
An Open Letter from US Researchers in Cryptography and Information Security
I’m almost surprised the stock market hasn’t crashed yet.
Roger said that he didn’t know if he could believe in God. He had his doubts. But toward the end, something really interesting happened. That week before Roger passed away, I would see him and he would talk about having visited this other place. I thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note: “This is all an elaborate hoax.”
Its About Time. A Victory - Unlawful Mass Arrests During 2004 RNC
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from  Holy Scrap.
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How the iPhone 5S replaced my Fitbit
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from  iPhone Atlas: Apple iPhone tips, how-tos, troubleshooting, and news - CNET Reviews.
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I’ve stopped carrying my Fitbit, now that the Fitbit app can track my steps using the iPhone 5S’s built-in motion tracker.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)I haven’t charged my Fitbit Ultra in over three weeks. And I doubt I ever will again.
Ever since I bought an iPhone 5S, I’ve kept an eye on how the embedded M7 motion coprocessor co-processor chip, which can track and store motion information, would be used. It wasn’t clear when the iPhone 5S was launched exactly how the M7’s data would be available, but after a few months, fitness apps like the Nike+ Move starting adding support for basic step-counting functionality.
While I started tracking my steps with both my Fitbit and Nike’s app at first, the clincher for me was when the Fitbit app for iOS was updated at the end of 2013, allowing the standard Fitbit app to track steps using the iPhone 5S’s internal hardware. Now I could get nearly the same activity tracking us… u… [Read more]
    
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Probability that computerisation will lead to job losses in next two decades, The Economist, 2013 (via Twitter / Malbonnington)
How to live like a king for very little
I totally screwed up #5, but this is some great advice.
PAPERMAG: New Documentary Perfectly Captures NYC In the 90s
I’ll always be drawn to New York like a moth to a flame.
An abridged history of Miss Officer and Mr. Truffles
A photo of a Canadian RCMP officer taking a pic of a young bear makes the news in 2011.
The photo gets famous on Tumblr in late 2013. Someone in the reblog suggests that it’d make a great cartoon:
An artist (lemonteaflower) creates single pane art of the imagined cartoon…
A Rare Connection: My Photo Shoot with John Schneider
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from  PetaPixel.
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I recently got asked to shoot photos for a show called “The Haves and HaveNots” for the Oprah Winfrey Network. I’ve shot many shows in my career and I always enjoy these shoots because there are so many challenges involved.
There’s tons of “talent” aka celebrities involved, all their teams, all the hair, makeup and wardrobe involved, there’s very limited time, there are tons of shots to create, there’s an immense pressure to “nail” the creative concept and obviously there is usually lots of money involved. These are high budget, high-pressure shoots. It’s diving into the deep end for sure, as far as photography is concerned. And I love that challenge. I love stepping up to the plate and going for the homerun.
But one of the things I DON’T love about these shoots is that I never really get to connect with the people I’m shooting. They’re in and out in minutes. Sometimes I literally am only able to take a few pictures before they’re wisked away.
This is one of those VERY few rare occasions where I was able to connect. And I have my subject to thank for allowing me into his story.
One of the cast members was John Schneider. You might know him from his work on “Dukes of Hazard” or “Smallville”. John was one of my many subjects that day and like the rest of the cast, he was extremely professional, humble and a lot of fun to work with. He was killing his portraits… smiling, goofing off and he even threw in several impressions of famous actors and presidents. I was very impressed by his talent and good-natured humor. You can see some of those portraits below.
Towards the end of his session, we brought in one of the female cast members to interact with. They were dancing, laughing and having a great time. Again, I was very impressed by his ability to light up the camera and have a good time.
Once we wrapped up his session, the female walked off set and John came to me and whispered in my ear “Hey can you sneak a few more portraits of me?” and I said “sure of course”. He said “there’s something going on and I just need a photo.”
So I grabbed my camera again and John walked back on set.
He immediately began weeping. Legitimately crying. He was so good at impressions that I thought this was another impression and I thought “wow, what an acting talent.”
But then after a couple of frames, I could tell that this wasn’t an act. He was really somewhere else.
Finally, I put my camera down. This was too real. It didn’t feel right to keep shooting.
So I walked up to him and hugged him.
He whispered in my ear “My Dad died about an hour ago. I found out during our lunch break. And I wanted you to capture that for me.”
Then he walked up to my screen, looked at the portraits and pointed to the last one (seen above, last) and said “That’s it. That’s my Dad.”
“I’m so sorry.” I said. I was stunned. Shocked. And deeply moved, obviously.
I didn’t want to ask any further questions out of respect.
John took off shortly thereafter to go back home to plan the next steps with his family.
I’ve since received official permission from John to share this story and these portraits with you. I will never forget this moment. And I want to thank John for inviting me into his story, even just for a moment and for allowing me to capture this for him.
As a father myself, I wept for him. We all did that day.
About the author: Jeremy is a Celebrity Photographer, Entrepreneur and a Humanitarian. He founded a global photography movement called Help-Portrait and recently launched an iPhone App/Social Network called OKDOTHIS. His goal in life is to use his platform, ideas and creativity to inspire and help others in need. You follow him and see more of his work on his website, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and OKDOTHIS. This article was originally published here.
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The future is so great!
FUCK
Sigh.
Our quote “Defense of the free world” is an aggressive hypocrisy that has damaged the very planet’s chance of survival. Now we have spent thousands of billions on offensive War in decades, and half the world is starving for food. The reckoning has come now for America. 100 Billion goes to the War Department this year out of 300 Billion Budget. Our militarization has become so top heavy that there is no turning back from Military Tyranny. Police agencies have become so vast – National Security Agency alone the largest police bureaucracy in America yet its activities are almost unknown to all of us – that there is no turning back from computerized police state control of America.
Allen Ginsberg
London Mantra
Sloow Tapes – CS 45
Solo recordings of Allen Ginsberg playing a small hand-pumped harmonium from India and singing mantras and songs to the cosmos. These recordings were made in the early seventies by the American poet and bibliographer George Dowden. From the vaults of Gerard Bellaart’s Cold Turkey Press (who also made the cover). 100 copies.
We can assume that people like to notice when their phone is ringing, and that most people hate missing a call. This means their perceptual systems have adjusted their bias to a level that makes misses unlikely. The unavoidable cost is a raised likelihood of false alarms – of phantom phone vibrations.
How to make your soup wonderful: Wild food soup stock
via sudama’s blurblog
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"The Male Gazed: Surveillance, Power, and Gender” By Kate Losse at Model View Culture
Government surveillance within social networks didn’t arise out of nowhere; instead, it is a product of longstanding inequalities in power in technology that have historically privileged white men above all, who have been much more likely to control surveillance technologies than be targeted by them. The outrage over NSA surveillance has occurred and received massive coverage not because the deployment of technology for citizen surveillance is new but because white, technical, American men have finally become targets of the surveillant gaze rather than its aloof masters.
I think I’m looking at something Orwellian. It’s a government, many-tentacled operation to gather daily information on what everybody in the country is doing. Your daily transactions on the Internet can be monitored with this kind of system, not just your Web surfing. All kinds of business that people do on the Internet these days — your bank transactions, your e-mail, everything — it sort of opens a window into your entire private life, and that’s why I thought of the term “Orwellian.” As you know, in [George] Orwell’s story [1984], they have cameras in your house, watching you. Well, this is the next best thing. …
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The anime series Serial Experiments Lain contains a screen shot of Conway’s Game of Life in LISP. (source @nmu102)
In the early 90s I desperately wanted to blow the whistle on racism in the market research industry, but with no Internet, not as easy to do that as it is today. Basically the company that did most of the market research for consumer product advertising (pop tarts, for example) refused to allow us to turn in surveys with more than ten percent black people in the sample. They had no other restrictions, on anything like age or gender. They were 100% clear that 0% would be fine with them, and in fact, preferred. I was doing surveys in a mall with a customer base that was probably 30% black at the time. We often had to tell people that we recruited that we couldn’t use them when the manager told us that we were over quota. The office manager would ask them what their zip code was, and whatever they said, she would say, oh, sorry we’re over quota for that zip code. Then they’d tell us that we couldn’t survey any more ‘zips’. Sometimes black people would directly even stop and ask us why we didn’t survey them, if I ignored them and asked a white person that walked by after them. I never had a good answer.
Teens aren’t addicted to social media. They’re addicted to each other. They’re not allowed to hang out the way you and I did, so they’ve moved it online.
"The feed is so pixelated, what if it’s a shovel, and not a weapon?" I felt this confusion constantly, as did my fellow UAV analysts. We always wonder if we killed the right people, if we endangered the wrong people, if we destroyed an innocent civilian’s life all because of a bad image or angle.
You may wonder what discrimination and social justice have to do with the technical and economic nature of the web; the short answer is, everything.
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(via Dead and Going to Die – The New Inquiry)
When we accuse people of being too lazy to take care of themselves and cook a proper meal, we assume they all have pots, pans, knives, sinks. There are people on social media who get on their high horses and call people who don’t make their own pasta “idiots”. Are you kidding me? My children were used to eating mangoes and avocados for snacks and having unlimited access to the cupboards and refrigerator. Now there is rationing. Woe to the person who eats the last egg I was saving to add protein to the salad. I turn into Mommie Dearest within seconds now, on edge all the time, trying to be the food police.
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All hell broke loose when the cover came out. Several advertisers took their money and ran. Subscribers demanded refunds. Angry letters flowed in. Photo History: George Lois Gives America a Black Santa
I almost cried and thought I might, but then didn’t, since I had a way to go before I got home and didn’t want anyone to have to see a 6’3”, 230 pound bearded man running down the street in tears in bright workout gear on their way to work or school.
“It’s cool!” I would have assured them, “I’m just thinking about men and boys kissing each other in the context of fatherhood! Not a big deal.”
I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don’t realize it.
The black people who Phil Robertson knew were warred upon. If they valued their lives, and the lives of their families, the last thing they would have done was voiced a complaint about “white people” to a man like Robertson.
Just add “if you’re white” or “because I’m white” to each generalization or anecdote in the article. For instance: “I find when you act confused but polite then people want to help if you’re white. There was a line behind me. I wasn’t fighting or angry. So there was no reason for anyone to get angry at me, because I’m white.”
Standards and practices still insisted on the removal of specific shots, like Mix doing push-ups on the butt, or other really tight butt shots.
Pop culture says that if a black girl is to be taken seriously, she has to assimilate and be as white as possible, to the point of bleaching her hair blonde. But the entire point of the song was the opposite.
There’s a world of possibility in telling me more about my own listening habits. If I could choose only one feature to add to Spotify, it would be play histories. When was the the first time I played a song? When was the last? When did I first add an album to my collection? How many times have I played it? Given my listening history, how likely am I to like a new album? How often do people with similar histories play a given album? How long did it take me to play one album twenty-five times in comparison to the last album I played that often?
In a sense, the most amazing thing about Mr. Mandela is that he is not a fiction. He actually lived in our lifetime.
Some of the questions asked by the incisive audience were polite versions of “What are the dangers of having this much data about so many people?” and “What does Facebook as a company do to help society?” These Zuckerberg dodged so expertly that by the time he was done “answering” (with a hefty & convincing confidence), I had forgotten exactly what the question was.
This leads him to a controversial conclusion: that the saturated fat in butter, cheese and meats does not contribute to the clogging of arteries — and in fact is beneficial in moderate amounts in the context of a healthy diet (lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other fresh, unprocessed foods). His own diet attests to that. Along with fruits, vegetables and whole grains, he eats red meat several times a week and drinks whole milk daily. He cannot remember the last time he ate anything deep-fried. He has never used margarine, and instead scrambles eggs in butter every morning. He calls eggs one of nature’s most perfect foods, something he has been preaching since the 1970s, when the consumption of cholesterol-laden eggs was thought to be a one-way ticket to heart disease. “Eggs have all of the nine amino acids you need to build cells, plus important vitamins and minerals,” he said. “It’s crazy to just eat egg whites. Not a good practice at all.”
A Lifelong Fight Against Trans Fats - NYTimes.com
Please just listen to this dude. Eating well is pretty simple!
It is on record. Rapes in the dozen. So stop hedging your words and when you tell me what a brilliant ode to pussy Black Panties is, then realize that the next sentence should say: “This, from a man who has committed numerous rapes.” The guy was a monster! Just say it! We do have a justice system and he was acquitted. Ok, fine. And these other women took the civil lawsuit route. He was tried on very narrow grounds. He was tried on a 29 minute, 36 second video tape. He was tried on trading child pornography. He was not tried for rape. He was acquitted of making child pornography. He’s never been tried in court for rape, but look at the statistics. The numbers of rapes that happened, the numbers of rapes that were reported, the numbers of rapes that make it to court and then the conviction rate. I mean, it comes down to something miniscule. He’s never had his day in court as a rapist. It’s fifteen years in the past now, but this record exists. You have to make a choice, as a listener if music matters to you as more than mere entertainment and you and I have spent our entire lives with that conviction. This is not just entertainment, this is our life blood. This matters.
Chicago Sun-Times journalist Jim DeRogatis on his work reporting on how R. Kelly is a sexual predator with dozens of victims and no one (especially hipsters) cares. Must-read article of the day from The Village Voice.
Additional essential quote: “The saddest fact I’ve learned is nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody.”
(via spaceshipmatria)
The day will come — sooner than you think — when you’ll want to be able to conduct a security audit on your own sex toys.
Such a strange existential dilemma. I spend hours looking at this hole and poking at it with my fingers. I know that I cannot “have” a hole, as a hole is not a thing that can be had. A hole is an absence. And yet this is supposed to be a list of the things I want, and I want this hole in the hardwood floor the way Gandhi wanted peace. The way the dog wants to lick my face. The way my mother wants me to stop pulling off her eyeglasses.
I cut my teeth on the open web of the early 2000s. It was APIs, and mashups. Mac OS X turned my laptop into a web server and coding machine, just the same as where I hosted the toys and tools that I wrote. This is what the future was going to be like.
And then it didn’t happen. Code is fragile because APIs keep changing and nobody cares about scripting anymore. There are no text and image file formats anymore, practically speaking, because there’s no file interchange. Once photos are on Instagram, that’s it.
We’ve lost the ambition of the early web and early internet to create an inclusive, level playing field. It’s clear what the technical challenges are - HTTP needs micro-payments at the protocol level to support businesses outside advertising, we need portable high level standards for photos, streams and identity - but we’re kinda not thinking like that anymore.
So in reaction I stick with plain text as much as possible, and continue my computing life vaguely resenting the software world we’ve built.
I can guarantee you that in the seconds between the first blow to the right shoulder and the second blow to the left, you’re not thinking about anything else or anywhere else, and your full attention is on the here and the now.
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Gargoyle, drumming
(via Signed Japanese boxwood Okimono of a Gargoyle playing drums from quirkyantiques on Ruby Lane)
So, I’ve only read the lengthy quote I posted below, but I can’t help thinking the whole Amazon drone delivery thing was timed to distract from this amazing reporting which was clearly deeply researched and, in a different news cycle, would have distance-runner’s legs. It’s one thing to have nagging suspicion that it’s unpleasant to package up Amazon orders as your day job. This Guardian article is another thing.
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My week as an Amazon insider | Technology | The Observer
The first item I see in Amazon’s Swansea warehouse is a package of dog nappies. The second is a massive pink plastic dildo. The warehouse is 800,000 square feet, or, in what is Amazon’s standard unit of measurement, the size of 11 football pitches (its Dunfermline warehouse, the UK’s largest, is 14 football pitches). It is a quarter of a mile from end to end. There is space, it turns out, for an awful lot of crap. […]
On my second day, the manager tells us that we alone have picked and packed 155,000 items in the past 24 hours. Tomorrow, 2 December – the busiest online shopping day of the year – that figure will be closer to 450,000. And this is just one of eight warehouses across the country. Amazon took 3.5m orders on a single day last year. Christmas is its Vietnam – a test of its corporate mettle and the kind of challenge that would make even the most experienced distribution supply manager break down and weep. In the past two weeks, it has taken on an extra 15,000 agency staff in Britain. And it expects to double the number of warehouses in Britain in the next three years. It expects to continue the growth that has made it one of the most powerful multinationals on the planet. […]
If Santa had a track record in paying his temporary elves the minimum wage while pushing them to the limits of the EU working time directive, and sacking them if they take three sick breaks in any three-month period, this would be an apt comparison. It is probably reasonable to assume that tax avoidance is not “constitutionally” a part of the Santa business model as Brad Stone, the author of a new book on Amazon, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, tells me it is in Amazon’s case. Neither does Santa attempt to bully his competitors, as Mark Constantine, the founder of Lush cosmetics, who last week took Amazon to the high court, accuses it of doing. Santa was not called before the Commons public accounts committee and called “immoral” by MPs. […]
Because Amazon is the future of shopping; being an Amazon “associate” in an Amazon “fulfilment centre” – take that for doublespeak, Mr Orwell – is the future of work; and Amazon’s payment of minimal tax in any jurisdiction is the future of global business. A future in which multinational corporations wield more power than governments. […]
"They dangle those blue badges in front of you," says Bill Woolcock, an ex-employee at Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Rugeley, Staffordshire. "If you have a blue badge you have better wages, proper rights. You can be working alongside someone in the same job, but they’re stable and you’re just cannon fodder. I worked there from September 2011 to February 2012 and on Christmas Eve an agency rep with a clipboard stood by the exit and said: ‘You’re back after Christmas. And you’re back. And you’re not. You’re not.’ It was just brutal. It reminded me of stories about the great depression, where men would stand at the factory gate in the hope of being selected for a few days’ labour. You just feel you have no personal value at all." […]
It’s taxes, of course, that pay for the roads on which Amazon’s delivery trucks drive, and the schools in which its employees are educated, and the hospitals in which their babies are born and their arteries are patched up, and in which, one day, they may be nursed in their dying days. Taxes that all its workers pay, and that, it emerged in 2012, it tends not to pay. On UK sales of £4.2bn in 2012, it paid £3.2m in corporation tax. In 2006, it transferred its UK business to Luxembourg and reclassified its UK operation as simply “order fulfilment” business. The Luxembourg office employs 380 people. The UK operation employs 21,000. You do the math. […]
"It’s a form of piracy capitalism. They rush into people’s countries, they take the money out, and they dump it in some port of convenience. That’s not a business in any traditional sense. It’s an ugly return to a form of exploitative capitalism that we had a century ago and we decided as a society to move on from." […]
It’s a mirror image of what is happening on the shop floor. Just as Amazon has eroded 200 years’ worth of workers’ rights through its use of agencies and rendered a large swath of its workers powerless, so it has pulled off the same trick with corporate responsibility. MPs like to slag off Amazon and Starbucks and Google for not paying their taxes but they’ve yet to actually create the legislation that would compel them to do so.
It turned out a city was exactly what I needed at that moment. Only cities can shoot you down in this way, without any regard. I was not special, I realized, standing in the dark at the 40th street transit center.
And yet, somehow, a great many people who are privileged seem to forget this – indeed, they seem to think exactly the opposite. They convince themselves that they have made successes of their lives from raw talent and intelligence and that everyone else who hasn’t succeeded must have failed either because they’re too stupid - as the recent speech of Boris Johnson seems to suggest – or too lazy (as the whole ‘strivers vs scroungers’ agenda supposes) or because they’ve made terrible decisions, can’t budget and so forth.
To reject a pull request that eliminates a gendered pronoun on the principle that pronouns should in fact be gendered would constitute a fireable offense for me and for Joyent.
Cards Against Humanity’s Black Friday Sale
A once-in-a-lifetime sale from Cards Against Humanity
It is a long-standing randomWalks tradition to observe and promote Buy Nothing Day, but this deal is simply too good to ignore.
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Five Myths About Crime in Black America—and the Statistical Truths
In the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death [and Renisha McBride and Jonathan Ferrell], we’ve seen a lot of discussion of the larger societal issues that play into how and when people are perceived as criminals. There were hoodies, there were marches, and there were frank talks from parent to child about how to minimize the danger of being a young person of color. On the other side, there were justifications of George Zimmerman’s actions: a smear campaign against Martin’s character, and plenty of writers explaining that statistically, blacks are simply more dangerous to be around.
That framing ignores the realities behind the numbers. Here are five myths about crime and people of color.
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In response to my Ms. Male Character video someone made this clever image illustrating what “female as default” might look like. Because we live in a strongly male-identified society the idea of Pac-Woman as the “unmarked” default and Mr. Pac-Woman as the deviation “marked” with masculinizing gender signifiers feels strange and downright absurd. While Pac-man and the deviation Ms. Pac-Man seems completely normal in our current cultural context.
Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: ‘You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.
I’ve read outraged responses to his column, from Ta-Nehisi Coates, to Hunter here at Daily Kos, to Salon and more, but still haven’t been able to shake off my own anger at Cohen (and his WaPo bosses)…
A week now and I’m still furious.
'How the hell kids gonna stay straight and help they neighborhoods if these schools getting shut down,' the man says with passion in his voice.
To be sure, the Tea Party types about whom Cohen writes are not racist in the same vein as the cross-burning Klansmen or the angry lynch mobs of decades past. Rather, like Jefferson and millions of whites before them, segments of the Tea Party have been simmering in the soup of white privilege for so long that they don’t even recognize that an earlier form of racial dominance helped make the base of that soup. Thus, one need not be a flaming racist to defend cultural norms that were forged in a far more racist past. The Tea Party genuinely fears the consequences of losing their white privilege. Slavery is obviously no longer the issue, but slavery’s legacy has, as Linda Faye Williams writes, long resulted in the “unequal allocation of educational resources, substantial insider networks that funnel good jobs largely to whites, and social policies that deliver more generous benefits to whites.” These are the modern fruits of white privilege.
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icantellyoumeanseriousbusiness:
Stephen Colbert talks about columnist Richard Cohen.
"Richard Cohen has known that slavery is bad for at least seven days." Colbert appreciation minute holla
Isaiah L. Carter: And The Hysterics That Follow…
Hey Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post, take a look at this: Isaiah Carter has fixed your disastrous Cohen piece with three edits, to three sentences. You said you could do it in one, but we’re still waiting for your one-sentence edit which clarifies this debacle.
The issue isn’t that Cohen is a racist. It’s that he holds his position of vast influence while living in some older white man’s cocoon, liberalish in a way but not much, in which he’s either indifferent or unconcerned with the actual America around him and routinely jumps at the chance to normalize and legitimize retrograde views about race. The problem with the article isn’t racism but inaccuracy, both descriptive and moral. And the complacent inaccuracy makes it worthy of criticism and contempt. People who have physical revulsion at interracial couples aren’t “cultural conservatives”; they’re racists.
Josh Marshall: Is Richard Cohen a Racist?
Brilliant take on the deeply troubling column. Nice challenge to Betteridge’s Law as well.
I erred in not editing that one sentence more carefully to make sure it could not be misinterpreted.
Controversy over Richard Cohen’s comments on the de Blasio family - The Washington Post
I call bullshit. Fred Hiatt needs to edit that sentence and put it in print. Anything else is just gutless and amoral damage control.
We are being told that Cohen finds it “hurtful” to be called racist. I am sorry that people on the Internet have hurt Richard Cohen’s feelings. I find it “hurtful” that Cohen endorses the police profiling my son. I find it eternally “hurtful” that the police, following that same logic, killed one of my friends.
Hey @washingtonpost, seems like you need some editors. I’m happy to volunteer! Sample work attached. pic.twitter.com/zs3jRoOfhE
— Alison Dame-Boyle (@alfidabo) November 12, 2013
Here’s the thing. There are people who have visceral reactions to inter-racial marriage and relationships. And those people are racist.
I just think that this paragraph is a gratuitously base aside that actually makes you look like a knuckle-dragging, bigoted garbage person, instead of just a conventionally lame political editorialist.
This Richard Cohen column — and perhaps all Richard Cohen columns — should be read as a memo to Jeff Bezos, the new owner of the Post. Cohen is saying, perhaps subconsciously, that he has nothing to offer the Washington Post. He adds no value. “Buy me out,” Richard Cohen begs, between the lines. “Pay me to go away and stop embarrassing this once respected newspaper.” How much will it take? I am not sure, but Jeff Bezos is a very rich man, and I think he can afford it. Indeed, if his mission is to invest in quality journalism, paying Richard Cohen to go away would be one of the quickest and simplest ways to advance that mission.
How much will it cost to make these racist old men go away? - Salon.com
Amazingly written *before* today’s horrific column.
Almost every teacher in that school came to understand the history they were teaching on—the destruction of the Black Bottom neighborhood, the scattered draft cards of many African-American men drafted into the Vietnam War, and the issues that doomed the school from the very start. … These weren’t the closings of buildings. These were the closings of families and communities.
It seems the only language we have for expressing success is numeric. It may be a universal language, but it’s an impoverished one. Maybe we need a word for “never having to sit in a meeting where someone reads long power point slides out loud.” Maybe we should have an expression that captures the level of success you’ve achieved when you do exactly what you love every day.
I Want to Be a Millennial When I Retire - NYTimes.com
If the Times is trolling me, consider me trolled.
Certainly it helps that all these smart people grew up in America, where they never had to worry about clean water or good public schools or political instability. The privileges we enjoy in the United States allow us to succeed on this level, and it’s why I challenge Twitter to extend these kinds of opportunities more broadly by expanding the diversity of its board, and in the process better reflecting its increasingly international and diverse user base.
A feeling I got from working at Google was that technology could solve any problem. Yes it’s fantastic, but what I realized later was there’s technology and there’s people. Google had its list ordered: Technology. People. And I think the right order is: People. Technology. You have to think about people first and technology second. Hopefully technology gets out of the way.
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1959 Polish poster for DESIRE (Vojtech Jasny, Czechoslovakia, 1958)
Designer: Jerzy Flisak (1930-2008) [see also]
Poster source: Danish Film Institute
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empty rooms of Twin Peaks x
Wow! I’ve never watched Twin Peaks, and nothing has made me want to watch it more than this.
"I like gray skies now, because #drones don’t fly in gray skies.” #dronesbriefing
— Noor✞Mir (@thedronalisa) October 29, 2013
I wrote a thing about OS X Mavericks.
It’s telling a new acquaintance you’re biracial, then furnishing a photo of your family when she insists that you’re lying. You have to do this, though, show her a picture — because you might be the one person who can change her mind about what blackness looks like.
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I often get email intended for a different Sudama. Once in a while it’s really great.
If in some way, you could contribute significantly to the way humans could handle complexity and urgency, that would be universally helpful.
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I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood
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"My intention is to give some of the wow and wonder of science."
http://miriam-english.org/randomwalks/index.html
I just got a report from someone who did this for six weeks, and his question to me was, ‘Is there any reason to stop?’
I’ve made it a goal to complete a photographic random walk at every subway station in New York City.
when you use “ghetto” as an adjective, i fucking hate you.
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how did that cat get in the sock though
And I thought, how crude, how cruel, how ignorant, how disrespectful of these children. What a set-up. Who would do that to kids?
A teacher’s troubling account of giving a 106-question standardized test to 11 year olds
The system of education in the US is a complete fiasco. Students and teachers who succeed do so despite unbelievable institutional obstacles.
This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it’s a feather bed.
I told him he should ask his friend to come over for pizza and play video games but his new friend always had an excuse.
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Brownian motion. Recording random movement as a continuous line. (via Brownian Examples Processing.org)
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A new poster from the National Congress of American Indians makes its post. Here’s some background from Native Appropriations on the push to end the use of Native mascots.
(via bitch-media)
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Came across this site full of high-resolution scans of public domain posters and decided to make iPhone wallpapers out of a few of my favorites. You can grab them here.
Obamacare, as the Affordable Care Act is popularly known, could fundamentally change the relationship between working Americans and their government. This could pose an existential threat to the small-government credo that has defined the G.O.P. for four decades.
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"Things in nature often move in complicated ways."
Rather than think of ourselves as isolated islands of microbes, the Hadza teach us that we are better thought of as an archipelago of islands, once seamlessly connected to one another and to a larger metacommunity of microbes via a microbial super highway that runs through the gut and skin/feathers of every animal and water source on the landscape (for those of you keeping up with your homework, this is Macroecology 101). The same can be said for plants and their extraordinary diversity of microbes above (phyllosphere) and below ground (rhizosphere) that the Hadza, and once all humans, interact with on a nearly continues basis.
The boys played endlessly at tracking and hunting, and both boys and girls played at finding and digging up edible roots. They played at tree climbing, cooking, building huts, and building other artefacts crucial to their culture, such as dugout canoes. They played at arguing and debating, sometimes mimicking their elders or trying to see if they could reason things out better than the adults had the night before around the fire. They playfully danced the traditional dances of their culture and sang the traditional songs, but they also made up new ones. They made and played musical instruments similar to those that adults in their group made. Even little children played with dangerous things, such as knives and fire, and the adults let them do it, because ‘How else will they learn to use these things?’ They did all this, and more, not because any adult required or even encouraged them to, but because they wanted to. They did it because it was fun and because something deep inside them, the result of aeons of natural selection, urged them to play at culturally appropriate activities so they would become skilled and knowledgeable adults.
Libraries aren’t free. And the work that goes into keeping them running (which is a lot more than keeping a bookshelf stocked) is complicated, sometimes thankless and under attack from people who think somehow that libraries are not fashionable enough, not hip or current enough, that our day has passed.
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Designed Conflict Territories- Tobias Revell
The thing we have to consider is who and what we are protesting against. I won’t regurgitate the stacktivism or infrastructure fictions ideas. Chances are, that if you’re here, you know them already but there’s a general idea that the very shape of global geopolitics has changed in the last 20 years or so and the people in charge are not who we thought they were. To re-word a great Dylan Moran gag: While we were talking, Google very, very gradually built a future around us. (Please replace Google with whatever or whoever you like to satisfy your own biases.) The point stands that the entities constructing and steering our futures, or what they often like to call the future - with all the baggage of powerlessness and inevitability that that wording brings - aren’t states, and they work on a completely different geopolitical strata: There is no town square for Google.
When Edward Snowden leaked the details of the PRISM program to the world press, he wasn’t revealing anything. We already knew, at some very fundamental level that a vast apparatus existed to observe and harvest us and our ‘data’. Whether through decades of dystopic training or the simple maths of adding ruthless western capitalism and it’s history of paranoia to enabling technology we knew that these things were happening. I wrote some time ago about the fact that the rebalance of power enacted by the PRISM revelations is different to what is easily read - they forced us to react. Snowden issued a call for action, and the world failed to respond. I now have a term for this retreating reaction - shocked acquiescence. When faced with something so large and unfathomable as PRISM or climate change, the most common reaction is to accept or pretend it’s not happening and move on.
So why this response? ‘There’s no town square for Google’ wasn’t just a tweetable bite. We have no space in which we can protest, in which we can occupy and configure a conflict besides or in front of the thing we wish to protest and air our grievances against. For both the new geopolitics and the threat of climate change, there is no common language, no common space, no commons.
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Siri can flip coins, roll dice
So far, I can’t figure out how to make Siri roll a d20. However, Siri’s coin might occasionally fall into a crack.
I’m not sure how far back Siri’s been able to do this, but it’s not an iOS 7 addition. Siri can do it on my iOS 6 test device, too.
[via Jerrod H]
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“I always get asked, ‘Where do you get your confidence?’ I think people are well meaning, but it’s pretty insulting. Because what it means to me is, ‘You, Mindy Kaling, have all the trappings of a very marginalized person. You’re not skinny, you’re not white, you’re a woman. Why on earth would you feel like you’re worth anything?’ There are little Indian girls out there who look up to me, and I never want to belittle the honor of being an inspiration to them. But while I’m talking about why I’m so different, white male show runners get to talk about their art.”
—Mindy Kaling for the win, ladies and gentlemen.
There is no post-Civil War precedent for what the House GOP is doing now. It is radical, and dangerous for the economy and our process of government, and its departure from past political disagreements can’t be buffed away or ignored.
Larry Page is not going to go to jail. Marissa Mayer is not going to jail - she’s already said she thinks it’s tantamount to treason! The large corporations - whose own business model, after all, is surveillance - have folded their hands and said “we’ve done everything we can within the law to fight this”.
Smashing our smartphones is not a solution. If only it were that simple. That promise of simplicity, in fact, might be why it is so tempting to causally link personal and social problems to certain technologies. It offers a certain comfort to us because we don’t have to look to our own crooked hearts for the source of our problems, and it holds out the promise of a relatively painless and straightforward solution.
The assumption the media makes is that something is not important unless a familiar, male white face does it. So, when Dave Eggers decided to rewrite my book as his own novel about a young woman working her way up through Facebook, the Wall Street Journal called it a treatment of “the essential issues of the day.”
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Rick Owens S/S 2014
Paris, 26th September 2013. Rick Owens has raised the bar.
White chicks? Skinny models? Walk-pose-exit-straightface runway show? Forget those. We got something better for you: Rick Owens Spring/Summer 2014 show.
The show was a step dance performance. As if the show wasn’t unusual enough, the cast is truly something different from hundreds of shows we’ve been seeing from New York, London, Milan and Paris in this fashion month. It was performed by step dancer girls, and what makes it different is, the majority of them are black, and all of them are plus sizes.
Of course, there’s definitely debates about the presentation. Some love it. Some hate it. Some confused. Of course, when you see the runway pictures in Style.com you won’t see the usual thing. You’ll be confused, especially if you don’t watch the video of the show. But surely, you can tell something is going on.
I think the message is crystal clear. Fashion is an interpretation of visual beauty. And most of the time, fashion didn’t represent universal beauty. Fashion often represent only one form of beauty: White and skinny. Which is a shame, because fashion should be representing universal beauty. And when you’re not in on of the “white” or “skinny” category, people valued your self less. You, valued your self less.
Even if it’s not the best collection, this is the best show, best casting of Spring/Summer 2014 for me.
Rick Owens is breaking all rules, murdering all stereotypes of fashion with this show. The message is crystal clear here: DIVERSITY
This is a “FUCK YOU” in the face for all stereotyping in fashion industry.
My most positive association with Whole Foods is that it was the place I used to steal tea-tree oil toothpicks from when I was quitting smoking. It worked! So thank you, Whole Foods, for having lousy security guards! What goes on in there otherwise has always been pretty offensive to me. A kind of lifestyle-porn orgy, carefully calibrated to make the affluent feel better about themselves and their place in the world.
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blah blah blah, garbage.
Whether our teens will eventually regret the things they post online is the wrong debate to have—or at least, it’s a debate we should have later on. Instead, we should be asking ourselves why we, as a society, discourage the real teachers, counselors, and principals from seeing a full picture of what their students are up to and what can be done to help.
While gentrification is inevitable, its character is not. Small, personal decisions, like buying your coffee at the local place instead of at Starbucks, can give gentrification in your neighborhood a more organic, human character. So will voting for liberal candidates, who support subsidies for the poor and the elderly, and also donating to and volunteering with charities that support these groups. Don’t be a destructive transient: the future of your neighborhood, and your city, is in your hands.
(PDF)
It’s gotten so that when I ride a Citi Bike I invariably end up thinking of all the buildings with their windows shattered, gray snow falling on people trudging in rags on their way to the rat market to buy a nice rat for Thanksgiving.
I did not observe you, but my daughter was with me packing the groceries and saw it all: “EBT: Yeah, right,” you muttered, with that look of disgust that would have shattered someone feeling just a little bit of shame over needing food stamps. As we walked to the car, my daughter told me what had happened, and I sensed her resolve about having made the right decision to work for social justice as she starts her senior year in a social-work program.
Hey, guys. ESPECIALLY “guys”… Watch this. It is very, VERY important that you watch this entire video. THIS is how a Man can be a Feminist. This is how WE, as Men, support the Women and Children in our society.
About halfway through, it starts talking about our obligations to not be ‘silent bystanders’ to violence - and it starts with identifying and calling out emotional violence.
When I talk about embracing new Perspectives, pointing out that we are in a battle for the collective soul of our culture, and that every small gesture and change can make a tremendous, unanticipated difference… THIS video demonstrates Perfectly what is possible. So please take up the fight against Indifference.
Am I still going to get bookings? Is the promoter still going to book me if I say, ‘Yeah, occasionally I have fellatio with a transsexual?’
There is no way that I could have experienced what Trayvon Martin did (and other black people do) because I’m white and through white privilege I am immune to systemic racial profiling.
All you hear are your own crazy thoughts, like a river of SHIT, ON AND ON! See your thoughts for what they are! Stop your helping! Stop your planning! There’s NO WAY OUT! Not for others! Not for you!
Humans are involved, as they regretfully always are, but this is also a story about merging ideologies, about one great tentacle-laden corporate-human entity, the Hedgefox, tumefying a tentacle and spraying great blasts of life-sustaining cash all over a smaller, quivering entity, the Foxhog. Then eating it.
Hedgefox Buys Metayacht — Ford’s Sensorium — Medium
This is an essay about Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post and by God can this man write.
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Michelle Rodriguez Made Me Cry at Comic-Con
At first, the moderator — a sweet-voiced writer from the LA Times — asked them typical, if interesting, questions. “What’s your favorite stunts?” “Your most challenging costumes?” “Do you have trouble leaving your character behind?” That kind of thing.
Then, she half-turned to look at them. “What’s the most egregious example of sexism you’ve seen on set?”
"Some actor dude once said chicks couldn’t drive cars," Michelle scoffed. “I was like, ‘Move over.’"
The audience laughed a little. Sexism! Girls can drive cars. Silly sexist actor boys. No one in the audience was like them.
"One time when a crew member started hitting on me when I was tied to a bed for a scene," Tatiana Maslany offered. “I was young. I was just starting out. I couldn’t get away."
Less laughter now from the audience.
"Once a guy on set kinda beat the shit out of me during a fight scene," Katee Sackhoff said. “He said he thought I could ‘handle it.’"
No laughter now. Lots of squirming. The guy beside me was checking Twitter.
"He’s lucky I wasn’t there," Michelle said. “That kind of thing makes my blood boil.”
Silence.
Onstage, though, it was like a fucking dam had broken. Michelle lectured us all, at length, on how 80% of the content written for women is by guys, and how they don’t know shit. “Dudes, I love dudes,” I remember her saying, “But they don’t know how to write for women.” Maggie Q talked about how, as an Asian-American actress, everyone expects her to be quiet and demure and also know how to do kung-fu in heels. Danai Gurira actually used the phrase “white male privilege.” In a room full of 6,000 Marvel fanboys! Male privilege.
I kept screaming, entirely spontaneously, like the sound was being ripped out of me. I couldn’t help it. I think I cried a little. I felt like I was in church.
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"Dear Steve,
Here’s another masterpiece for you to explore — On p187, a line that runs from Shakespeare to Stephen Daedalus starts to emerge by way of Hamlet, see what you think!
With my wish for your continued joy in discovery,
Frimi Sagan
June 2001”
To talk to your private self is the way to talk to all self. Personal is universal simultaneously.
If we do not seize this unique moment in our constitutional history to reform our surveillance laws and practices, we will all live to regret it.
What has struck me about the anti-war movement in America in these last few years –perhaps it is different elsewhere and perhaps it was different before– is generally how polite it has been. How ironic to chant, “Whose streets! Our streets!” while politely walking into pens and free speech zones. How strange to demand an end to the war while politely conceding to the demands of the NYPD that protesters not use Central Park, that they only march on these streets and not those streets so that order can be maintained, so that things can carry on as if there were no protest at all.
I want to make one thing clear: These were not low-level employees. They were what I would describe as upper mid-level managers. They told us that they had a combined fifty-five years of experience at the NSA. Without the support and consent of people like this, the surveillance machine could not exist. I don’t think that they are stupid people or evil people. I do think that they are people who have abdicated their moral agency and thus allowed for something very scary and very evil to come into existence.
There are some surprising cultural impacts of us not having minorities: people here are often condescending (you can probably read parts of that in my post as well) — though there are exceptions — but people get really condescending to: a). people they perceive as dumb and b). types of people they perceive to be dumb. The amount of jokes made about base school kids (i.e. kids who go to the schools that we would be going to if it weren’t for TJ) and judgments made about blacks or Hispanics is staggering. There are kids here who feel validated that kids at the base school are going to “working for them someday” as if someone’s high school in life was any valid indication of their work ethic, perseverance, intellect, and luck. You also hear comments about “ghetto” kids, generally meaning blacks and Hispanics, which is ironic considering we live in Northern Virginia where half the kids have pool tables in their basement and have lawyer/doctor/government-employed parents. Some people I don’t even know are comfortable regarding me as a “nigger” (but in a good way, y’know?) or telling me how I’m black, but not really because I watch avant-garde films and study philosophy. Our BSU (black student union, which no, I’m not a part of) was led by a white guy, which was partially deserved (iirc he had participated in the club all four years) and was partially indicative of how few blacks are involved in the club and how little notoriety the club has at our school versus Namaste (an Indian culture club) or the various Asian culture clubs (including the Asian Awareness club, whose irony does not escape a school whose biggest demographic is Asian). This isn’t to suggest that BSU should be a thriving community when it appeals to so little of the demographic, but I think it does show that when certain cultures are underrepresented at a school, some kids, even if they don’t don a white hat and burning crosses, let racially-inspired tendencies and beliefs get to them.
You would have thought that by now evryone with a browser and a modem would be following the online exploits of webloggers, but this is not in fact the case. Bloggers! We still have a lot of outreach work to do! There are still some people, perhaps even here tonight, maybe in the seat right next to you, who have never seen a weblog or who have never even heard of weblogs. Yes! It’s true! So I make this challenge: To all webloggers, and to our brother and sisters in the e/n, journal and webzine communities, let us join together in links of love and take back what is rightfully ours! Let us join together; for together we can take back the web!
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starring Kiefer Sutherland
Put yourself in Martin’s shoes, based on the scenario exactly as Zimmerman described it in that interview. An adult male has been behaving strangely and following him, first in his car and then on foot. It’s dark and a heavy rain is falling, making these actions even more suspicious. He has traveled on foot away from the street to a place behind condos near his residence, and there’s Zimmerman again. Martin confronts the man to find out why he’s being followed and the man doesn’t explain. Instead, he quickly reaches for something in a waist pocket. At that point, does Martin have any way of knowing the man isn’t reaching for a gun?
America has no functioning democracy at this moment.
This brings us to the second feature: the Zimmerman trial judge’s decision to sharply limit the explicit reference to race—including denying the prosecution the ability to argue that Zimmerman engaged in racial profiling. Studies of the legal system and aversive racism show that the less explicitly race is engaged in the discourse in the courtroom, the more likely aversive racism is to influence the decisionmaking process of the jurors. Thus, the judge’s decision also makes it more likely that race played a role in the outcome of the case.
When our children are gunned down in cold blood, I want it to be enough that they were simply ordinary as opposed to ‘innocent.’ In America, Black people will never be considered “innocent” and frankly it’s a label that we shouldn’t want to claim for ourselves. None of us is ‘innocent;’ most of us are just ordinary and flawed people. That should be enough to have the right to live.
It’s been hammered in my DNA to not “rock the boat”—which since I wanna keep it real means not make “certain people” feel uncomfortable. I mean, that is a crazy way to live. Seriously, imagine a life in which you think of other people’s safety and comfort first before your own. You’re kinda programmed and taught that from the gate. It’s like the opposite of entitlement.
It’s an appealing argument, and widespread, but simplistic and obtuse. It’s a belief most easily held when you’ve not witnessed peace rallies and makeshift memorials, when you’ve turned a blind eye to grassroots organizations like the Interrupters in Chicago working valiantly to stem the tide of violence in the city. It is the thinking of people who’ve never wondered why African Americans disproportionately support strict gun control legislation. The added quotient of outrage in cases like this one stems not from the belief that a white murderer is somehow worse than a black one, but from the knowledge that race determines whether fear, history, and public sentiment offer that killer a usable alibi.
It’s a vivid reminder that we must always be deferential to white people, or face the very real chance of getting killed.
LeVar Burton: I put hands outside car when pulled over (by CNN)
Even senators. Even senators must fear to describe America’s laws to America’s citizens. This is, yes, democracy-suppression, but it is a vitally necessary arrangement. It keeps you and your adorable kids and even your cute pet dog alive.
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"I stopped at a little shack where a man sold hot red chili in paper containers; I bought some and ate it, strolling in the dark mysterious streets." - Jack Kerouac, On the Road
The shack is still there and they still sell hot red chili.
If you live in the Bay, and are not choosing to be willfully ignorant, you probably already know that gentrification is a huge problem here. San Francisco’s proximity to Silicon Valley has attracted a lot of techie-type young professionals who are pushing out SF’s previous residents, especially those that are low income people of color. Those displaced are often moving to the East Bay, pushing the East Bay’s low-income residents of color out into far-flung suburbs with little of the resources the “inner-city” provides, such as public transit. Nothing I’ve said so far is anything that hasn’t already been said over and over again.
Resistance to gentrification takes many forms. Some, like Causa Justa and the Right to the City Alliance organize against evictions and foreclosures. Others, like local Barry Jenkins, make thoughtful films like Medicine for Melancholy, a love letter to the city of San Francisco lamenting the fact that many people of color can no longer afford to live there. And then you have Miss Persia and Daddie$ Pla$tik.
When I first saw Miss Persia and Daddie$ Pla$tik perform at Marga Gomez’s Comedy Bodega at Esta Noche in the Mission, I knew immediately I was witnessing something amazing. As someone who wrote my undergraduate thesis on the power of queer and trans people of color’s performance art, I recognized the performance of “Google Apps” as protest art, the likes of which I had never seen before. Even as I watched the performance, I didn’t feel like my mind was open enough to fully comprehend what I was witnessing. Which is why I’m really glad they made a video.
Though the slowly atrophying academic part of my brain is tempted to do a close reading, I will not interpret every line for you. That would be like reading a choose-your-own-adventure book where all your adventures are already chosen for you. I will say that I disagree with the interpretation of the video/song’s message as xenophobic. It’s pretty clear to me that Miss Persia and Daddie$ Pla$tik don’t want to be white, they just want to be able to stay in their homes.
What else can I say about this video? It’s hilarious, it’s obscene, and it’s poignant. Though thousands more words are sure to be spent explaining and opining on the housing crisis in the Bay Area, perhaps none will do so more successfully or succinctly than “Moving to the East Bay/Living life the broke way/SF keep your money/F*** your money!”
I also want to know what are the qualifications that one needs to become a whistleblower because that sounds like a much more interesting job.
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Twitter / AFP: ”Egyptian protestors direct laser lights on a military helicopter flying over the presidential palace in Cairo.”
I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed.
Storing and analyzing all global cellphone calls is neither necessary nor sufficient to fight the conflict method of terrorism. Greenwald is right in saying: “It is a globalized system designed to destroy all privacy.” But destroying privacy is not the primary or ultimate purpose of the system. The only plausible purpose of this striving for total information is its use for total control. It is the foundation of a totalitarian state.
Libraries have had a long history of dealing with authoritarian organizations demanding reader records—who’s read what—and this has led to people being rounded up and killed. As a librarian, you take this very, very seriously. So, when you get demands for information about a patron’s activities, there are things that sort of flash before your mind. Where am I? What century is this? What country am I in?
Chicha made with saliva remains an important part of the diet of many South American tribes, and a woman’s ability to make it is important for her husband’s social status. It is rude to refuse it, as this account written up in Salon describes. Given the amount of calories and nutrients such beverages can provide, it amazes me that many ethnographical and anthropological surveys seem to ignore or downplay their presence, as if they were just mere recreation.
To me, each song on “Exile in Guyville” reverberates powerfully, making it patently one of the strongest rock albums ever made.
Few fully understand that the tension between young black men and the police (and by extension, security guards, traffic cops and just about any sort of watchman) is the main thing keeping America from getting past race. If ten years went by without a story like the Martin case we’d be in a very different country.
One evening, I was having trouble with my computer, and I went to Luke’s room to ask him for help. I found him in the midst of shooting imaginary people. After he fixed my computer, he asked me if I wanted to watch him play for a little bit. I said I did not and tried to explain: “You know, I’ve seen the real thing. So I’m not really interested. I’m sorry.”
Don’t forget that the Southern food you have been crowned the queen of was made into an art largely in the hands of enslaved cooks, some like the ones who prepared food on your ancestor’s Georgia plantation.
Imagen If I Did ‘Molly’ and then Imagened an Epsode of Seinfeld Where They Do ‘Molly’
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If Saturn were as close to Earth as the moon.
As the world eagerly watches Snowden’s movements today, the public should put aside the mainstream media frenzy buzzing around Snowden’s personal life, and ask the more important question: in a country with the freedom of speech enshrined in the First Amendment, why does a whistleblower have to seek political asylum elsewhere after exposing government wrongdoing?
My wife Ana Hurtado and I have been eating a paleodiet (by accident because of fieldwork) for more than 30 years, because we grew accustomed to that diet (long before the fad). Meats, and unprocessed plant foods are a simple generalized ancestral diet and appear to produce better health than the current standard modern diet. As anyone who knows us can affirm, Hurtado and I are a lot leaner and fitter than most Americans in our age cohort (near 60). Why?
I believe a world in which everything is recorded and persists forever carries the seeds of something monstrous. It is in the nature of computer systems to remember things indefinitely, but there’s nothing difficult about programming machines to forget. It just requires laws to do it. We can’t treat it as a technical problem. And to get the laws passed, we need to politicize the issue.
Maciej Cegłowski : Persuading David Simon
I’m glad David Simon has caught so many people’s attention with his myopic apologism, because it has led to such fantastic articulation of the dystopia we’re prototyping.
Cost to Store All US Phonecalls Made in a Year so it Could be Datamined
Estimate by Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, who knows something about data storage. If you don’t want to click, it’s about one twenty-five thousandth of the defense budget.
You have to assume everything is being collected.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/secret-prism-success-even-bigger-data-seizure
No less true for being nine days old, folks.
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“Over the course of a year, I researched and created ZXX, a disruptive typeface which takes its name from the Library of Congress’ listing of three-letter codes denoting which language a book is written in. Code “ZXX” is used when there is: “No linguistic content; Not applicable.” The project started with a genuine question: How can we conceal our fundamental thoughts from artificial intelligences and those who deploy them? I decided to create a typeface that would be unreadable by text scanning software (whether used by a government agency or a lone hacker) — misdirecting information or sometimes not giving any at all. It can be applied to huge amounts of data, or to personal correspondence. I drew six different cuts (Sans, Bold, Camo, False, Noise and Xed) to generate endless permutations, each font designed to thwart machine intelligences in a different way. I offered the typeface as a free download in hopes that as many people as possible would use it.”
Making Democracy Legible: A Defiant Typeface — The Gradient — Walker Art Center
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92y:
You heard her, sloppy joints. Of course.
Watch the excerpt of Martha telling this story to Bravo’s Andy Cohen, plus who she would “shag marry kill” and - sincerity face - her thoughts on elder care from her new book, Living the Good Long Life: A Practical Guide to Caring for Yourself and Others.
The first time I ever played in a long term D&D campaign I made a half-elf—bi-racial, like me. I’m putting this out there because it’s hilarious and says basically everything you need to know about 18 year old Austin Walker: his name was Xanatos Woodshymn, he was a bard who was raised by orcs and who saw himself as the ‘by any means necessary’ advocate for the kobolds who were being used as slave labor in the nearby mines. He was the reincarnation of the Elven god Corellon—it was one of those D&D games—and at the final moment of the first “season” of our campaign, he sided with the orcs, resurrecting their ancient ‘evil’ god and becoming public enemy number one for all of elf-kind. It was a weird year. I had dreadlocks.
We are not just ourselves anymore. Each one of us has a new, statistical self living in databases around the world. It’s those selves, uniquely identified bundles of behavior, that marketers target and companies try to reach. These are remarkable, distributed portraits of what we read, what we eat, and where we sleep. When it comes to our statistical selves, the difference between the NSA and private companies such as Facebook or Google or Amazon.com lies in what the government can do with the data it collects. It’s building that giant index so that, if it needs to, it can actively cross the line between your statistical self and your real, physical self. It’s the difference between “would you like to receive local coupons for businesses you love?” and “why is there a van in front of our house?”
I began to wonder if abstaining from animal products actually contributed to improvements in animal welfare or just gave me a false sense of moral purity while flesh from abused animals that could otherwise have been eaten just wound up rotting in the trash. I decided I could do more to improve animal welfare by supporting farmers who do treat animals well than by keeping my money from “farmers” that would be better termed “meat production engineers.”
When my wife and I were first dating, we’d talk on the phone constantly, the way that new lovers often do. She lived on the south side of Chicago and I was up on the north side and I kept crazy hours at work, and so we’d connect by phone when we couldn’t connect in person. And those conversations would range the way those conversations always do: hopes, dreams, work, laundry.
I was working one of those ridiculous long nights we often had during production of Punk Planet, the magazine I ran back then, and I was idly chatting with my girlfriend on the phone about a story we were working on about Iraq. This was back probably in 1999, when the crippling sanctions on Iraq since the first Iraq war had mostly been forgotten and we were one of the few news organizations (if you could even call us that) still trying to keep that story alive. This was thanks mainly to the work of a single guy, Jeff Guntzel, who would send us dispatches from the country when he’d travel there with the activist group he was a part of. He’d also occasionally call us from a business center in Baghdad—his voice a raspy whisper through the amount of static and noise on the line.
I was working on the layouts for one of Jeff’s stories and was excited to tell this girl I was trying to impress more about it. But, as those young love conversations do, we moved off-topic pretty quickly, jumping from one topic to the next. I don’t remember much about those conversations now, but I still remember the distinct click the phone made when we switched from talking about the Iraq story to discussing her misadventures at the local laundromat earlier that evening.
That click became a regular occurrence on our office line—popping up as you’d move towards or away from more politically charged topics—and was followed not long after by intractable problems with our office phone line. Occasionally you’d pick up the phone and, instead of a dial tone, you’d get the digital static of a modem; other times you’d pick up and there’d be a few moments of silence followed by a click and a dial tone. Mid-conversation you’d sometimes find your voice beginning to echo, then snap back into normality. And of course, sometimes the phone would stop working entirely, and a bewildered customer service representative would mutter words about things being “flagged” before putting me on hold. The line would usually start working quickly after those service calls.
Finally, after an extended period of bad dial-tones and calls getting cut off, the line just entirely went dead. A particularly dogged technician came to the office. He spent time in our space, time in his truck, time up on a pole. If I remember right, he even drove to one of the main switches near us. Finally he came back, looking completely bewildered and said, “I really don’t know what to tell you. It’s almost as if your line goes somewhere else before it comes to us.”
This was before September 11. This was before the PATRIOT Act. This was before Bush was elected and Obama after him. This was, obviously, almost a decade and a half before this week’s revelations of governmental phone metadata collection and the NSA’s PRISM project. We were a tiny magazine—at the time, our readership probably hovered somewhere around 10,000. And yet there was this technician telling me what I’d already deeply suspected: Our line was going somewhere else.
I wish I could say I was outraged by the NSA PRISM project, by the collection of cellphone metadata, by any of it. I am disturbed by all of it, disappointed for sure, but outrage would imply that my worldview was shattered. But the world I’ve lived in for a long time is the world we’ve all been plunged into with the revelations this week. My worldview that things might be different than they are went away a long time ago, broken by the clicks that came up through the line as two young lovers shared their secrets over the phone.
What’s at stake has to do with how power is employed, by whom, and in what circumstances. It’s about questioning whether or not we still believe in checks and balances to power. And it’s about questioning whether or not we’re OK with continue to move towards a system that presumes entire classes and networks of people as suspect. Regardless of whether or not you’re in one of those classes or networks, are you OK with that being standard fare? Because what is implied in that question is a much uglier one: Is your perception of your safety worth the marginalization of other people who don’t have your privilege?
Somewhere around its final passage, which begins when a slacker picks up the Pixelvision camera through which we ourselves see the next few minutes, you realize you’ve been watching something on a higher plane.
Daniel Ellsberg: Edward Snowden: saving us from the United Stasi of America:
In 1975, Senator Frank Church spoke of the National Security Agency in these terms:
"I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."
The dangerous prospect of which he warned was that America’s intelligence gathering capability – which is today beyond any comparison with what existed in his pre-digital era – “at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left.”
That has now happened. That is what Snowden has exposed, with official, secret documents. The NSA, FBI and CIA have, with the new digital technology, surveillance powers over our own citizens that the Stasi – the secret police in the former “democratic republic” of East Germany – could scarcely have dreamed of. Snowden reveals that the so-called intelligence community has become the United Stasi of America.
So we have fallen into Senator Church’s abyss. The questions now are whether he was right or wrong that there is no return from it, and whether that means that effective democracy will become impossible.
Ed Snowden is a hero because he realized that our very humanity was being compromised by the blind implementation of machines in the name of making us safe. Unlike those around him, who were too absorbed in their task to reflect on their actions and pause in their pursuit of digital omniscience, Snowden allowed himself to be “disturbed” by what he was doing. More in the midst of technology than most of us will ever be, Snowden disengaged for long enough to be human, and to consider the impact of what he was helping to build. He pressed pause.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6e7wfDHzew
(Then) Google CEO Eric Schmidt on privacy: If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place
Omniscient, automatic, mass surveillance. . . . That seems to me a greater threat to the institutions of free society than missed intelligence reports, and unworthy of the costs.
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Report tyrannical activity.
Discuss: Are there ways in which government or the private sector intrudes upon the privacy of U.S. citizens? What are some of these ways?
“They’re not spying on us to prevent crimes, they’re spying on us to retroactively convict us of crimes once we’ve pissed them off.”—
I mused this a few days ago, before I saw the (must watch) Guardian video of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, where he specifically confirms it, at 7:10.
(via claytoncubitt)
Yep. This.
You are not even aware of what is possible. The extent of their capabilities is horrifying. We can plant bugs in machines. Once you go on the network, I can identify your machine. You will never be safe whatever protections you put in place.
I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.
You want to know why revolutions happen? Because little by little by little things get worse and worse. But this thing that is happening now is big. This is the key ingredient. This allows them to know everything they need to know to accomplish the above. The fact that they are doing it is proof that they are the sort of people who might use it in the way I described. In the country I live in, they also claimed it was for the safety of the people. Same in Soviet Russia. Same in East Germany. In fact, that is always the excuse that is used to surveil everyone. But it has never ONCE proven to be the reality.
Maybe Obama won’t do it. Maybe the next guy won’t, or the one after him. Maybe this story isn’t about you. Maybe it happens 10 or 20 years from now, when a big war is happening, or after another big attack. Maybe it’s about your daughter or your son. We just don’t know yet. But what we do know is that right now, in this moment we have a choice. Are we okay with this, or not? Do we want this power to exist, or not?
To those who understand state surveillance as an abstraction, I will try to describe a little about how it has affected me. The United States apparently placed me on a “watch-list” in 2006 after I completed a film about the Iraq war. I have been detained at the border more than 40 times. Once, in 2011, when I was stopped at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and asserted my First Amendment right not to answer questions about my work, the border agent replied, “If you don’t answer our questions, we’ll find our answers on your electronics.”’ As a filmmaker and journalist entrusted to protect the people who share information with me, it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to work in the United States. Although I take every effort to secure my material, I know the N.S.A. has technical abilities that are nearly impossible to defend against if you are targeted.
The 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which oversees the N.S.A. activities, are up for renewal in December. Two members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, both Democrats, are trying to revise the amendments to insure greater privacy protections. They have been warning about “secret interpretations” of laws and backdoor “loopholes” that allow the government to collect our private communications. Thirteen senators have signed a letter expressing concern about a “loophole” in the law that permits the collection of United States data. The A.C.L.U. and other groups have also challenged the constitutionality of the law, and the Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case on Oct. 29.
The retweet allows any user to recontextualize such quips however they please. Anyone, from their computer or Smartphone, can participate in an act of re-framing, of cultural critique or celebrity gossip or found poetry, all dealing with the same 140 characters. The retweet can serve as an implicit comment on the state of our Internet-formulated language, forcing us to consider a barely coherent Martha Stewart rant as a work within itself, rich with Steinian echoes.
Google and Facebook both published responses to the PRISM accusations. You can find Google’s response on their blog and Facebook’s by way of a Zuck status.
As I read through them, I noticed something that others have noticed - they’re remarkably similar. In fact, it may seem as if they’re using a generic script and basing their response off of that.
Here’s some comparisons:
—-
Google: “As Google’s CEO and Chief Legal Officer, we wanted you to have the facts.”
Facebook: “I want to respond personally to the outrageous press reports about PRISM”Google: “we have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government—or any other government—direct access to our servers”
Facebook: “Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access to our servers”Google: “We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday.”
Facebook: “We hadn’t even heard of PRISM before yesterday.”Google: ”Our legal team reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests … don’t follow the correct process”
Facebook: “we review each request carefully to make sure they always follow the correct processes”Google: ”this episode confirms what we have long believed—there needs to be a more transparent approach”
Facebook: “We strongly encourage all governments to be much more transparent”Google: “we understand that the U.S. and other governments need to take action to protect their citizens’ safety. But the level of secrecy around the current legal procedures undermines the freedoms we all cherish”
Facebook: “It’s the only way to protect everyone’s civil liberties and create the safe and free society we all want over the long term.”——
After first viewing the PRISM slides, I thought they were fake. After all, a program that large couldn’t cost the government just $20m/year. However, there are six examples above where the responses by two large companies have been nearly the same. In addition, even Apple responded to the accusations within just a few hours of the leak! It wasn’t in the middle of the day - it was late into the evening.
Something is up.
I don’t know what is happening, but I do not like it.
In many ways, 1993 did give us our world: globalized and multicultural, libertarian and technocratic at once, target-marketed, relentlessly digital and relentlessly individual, without distinctions between the pursuit of culture and the pursuit of wealth. To put it another way, 1993 might have been the last year of the sellout, when the principle of resistance to the smooth and efficient running of the market began to collapse into our culture of collaboration. It was the year of the first web browser and the forging of both the European Union and NAFTA. Bill Kristol was writing, in Commentary, of how to rebrand conservatism as rebellion in the face of Clinton’s win. MTV’s cultural metabolism was probably at its most rapacious, Tony Kushner brought Angels in America to Broadway, and Toni Morrison won her Nobel. Atlantic Records invested in indie label Matador and Walt Disney bought Miramax. Pulp Fiction, Clerks, and Reality Bites were all in production. Marc Jacobs’s grunge collection was for spring ’93. Harmony Korine was writing Kids, and the former insult-comic editor of Spy had taken over Vanity Fair.
When you used a Commodore 64 or one of the first Macintoshes, you were keenly aware of its limits: the paucity of colors, the tiny memory, the long time it took to load files off a disk. You had to learn to work within the machine’s constraints. The history of computing is the history of human creativity and ingenuity—which is why we should hold on to it forever.
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This guy is definitely dancing to George Harrison: Got My Mind Set on You
I have interviewed many white people who have fond memories of their lives in the 1950s and early 1960s. The ones who never cross-examined those memories to get at the complexities were the ones most hostile to the civil rights and the women’s movements, which they saw as destroying the harmonious world they remembered.
But others could see that their own good experiences were in some ways dependent on unjust social arrangements, or on bad experiences for others. Some white people recognized that their happy memories of childhood included a black housekeeper who was always available to them because she couldn’t be available to her children.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine Washington-backed Google Glasses strapped onto vacant human faces — forever.
As an entirely predictable consequence of today’s decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national DNA database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason.
To hear “Dark Eyes” for the first time — one of the greatest listening experiences one is ever likely to have in life anyway — with Dylan sitting there, averting his glance, shifting his weight nervously, made me aware of just how rare, how painful it is for him to lay his heart bare this way. The tape ended and there was a long silence as we all stared at our feet.
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China’s First Reading of Howl at Studio No. 5
It may have been the entire function of communes to go big, fail and then go home. At the time we thought we were reinventing civilisation but all we discovered is that free love isn’t free at all, that [when] one guy puts up all the money for your commune he is going to feel robbed after a period of six to 12 months, that gardening is actually hard, and that if you treat your women as people who are supposed to wash the dishes, they will leave after six months.
Rewilding, in my view, should involve reintroducing missing animals and plants, taking down the fences, blocking the drainage ditches, culling a few particularly invasive exotic species but otherwise standing back. It’s about abandoning the Biblical doctrine of dominion which has governed our relationship with the natural world.
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Strong men also cry… strong men also cry.
How can we design the space and signage to be flexible enough to switch between the two modes of service and to make it clear upon a glance what to do when you enter the space at any given time? I constantly have to examine the interface and imagine the experience from the other side. Honing my sense of empathy is an essential part of being a designer and part of why I was attracted to the discipline in the first place.
I’ve heard people say that if someone is brought up in a sexist society and thus becomes sexist, it’s not their fault. That’s a bit of rhetorical sleight-of-hand. On the surface, it’s true – but it sidesteps the question of continuing responsibility. If the same sexist (or racist, or whatever) person is capable of re-evaluating their own position but does not do so, then they’re responsible. Perhaps not for becoming prejudiced, but for remaining so.
And I would NEVER try to obtain information illegally! I’m shocked at the suggestion!! (And will contact you in a more private forum…)
My late father, Junius Edwards, was among the first African-Americans to own and operate his own advertising agency in New York City in the 1960s after working for years as a copywriter for Ogilvy & Mather and other Ad agencies Madison Avenue. Some of his clients under Junius Edwards Inc. Advertising were Carver Federal Saving Bank of Harlem, Faberge, Ligget&Myers, Greater New York Savings Bank and more. Junius Edwards Inc. is featured in the book: “Madison Avenue and the Color Line African Americans in the Advertising Industry” by Jason Chambers.
If you start thinking really hard about what “random” really means, first you get a little nauseated, and a little after that you find you’re doing analytic philosophy. So let’s not go down that road.
Burglar Mammy was horrendous, a confirmation of every harsh judgment levied against Mad Men for being too much of a white upper-middle-class historical fantasy, a show that’s not willing or able to really go where it labors to convince us it’s going. If Burglar Mammy were a dream figure attached to a particular character, and if Mad Men had shown any inclination to go anywhere substantive with its allusions to civil rights and racial anxiety, and if it hadn’t given us a black Playboy bunny, a black prostitute, a black mugger, and other disreputable minor characters over the years, but no people of color with personal or even narrative substance, I might feel differently about her.
Mad Men Recap: You’re Pretentious, You Know That — Vulture (via aminatou)
yeah i think i’m done with mad men for a little while, maybe forever.
(via jennydeluxe)
We need to look at the very heart of the web, the directory that connects the names of our services to the servers they run on, and we need to apply the concept of the Wayback Machine to it. We need temporal DNS, maintainable by librarians to keep the domains of the past connected to their archived futures.
Why tease us with skin color, as if this great simmering issue will finally be addressed, only to retreat again? Why is this great and lingering theme in American culture not addressed as fully as the show addresses, say, capitalism, or gender?
Why did Yahoo! make this acquisition? We know very little about Marissa Mayer’s big goals for Yahoo!, but we know one. She wants Yahoo! to own users’ daily habits. At an analysts conferece recently, she classified these as “searches on the Internet, checking finance, doing your email.” Yahoo! is skating to where the puck is going to be when it comes to “daily habits.” The Tumblr daily dashboard is a daily habit, and by some accounts, moreso than even Facebook or Twitter among teens.
alright well im pretty used to tumblr being pathetically misinformed/uninformed/panicking-about-things-without-realizing-what’s-actually-happening by this point but here we go
guys apparently tumblr needs some company to buy the website, because guess what? tumblr only has enough money to keep running for a few more months anyway. it has not made nearly enough money to break even what it costs to run.
so tumblr would be shut down in a few months anyway, even if it weren’t being sold
x (this seems to be one of the more informed sites)
x (note that this one mentions the amateur porn and cat gifs)
x (this one talks almost exclusively about the porn and how its expensive bandwith wise)
guys. do some research before panicking and freaking out.
signal boost or something to get this out, yes?
Twenty years ago, at the 1993 Whitney Biennial, fault lines opened up and the ground shifted. About 30 of the 43 artists were in the museum for the first time. More than 40 percent of the participants were women, quite a few were nonwhite, and a generous amount of the work was about being openly gay. One of the exhibition’s admission buttons, designed by artist Daniel J. Martinez, read I CAN’T IMAGINE EVER WANTING TO BE WHITE. People went batshit.
It is not my job to convince you to distinguish me from the violent sociopaths that claim to be Muslims, whose terrorism I neither support, nor condone. It is your job.
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My favorite comic author just published the first part of a new online graphic novel “Steve & Steve”. Of interest to fans of early computer culture, California in the ’70s, psychedelics. If this describes you, you’ve already clicked.
Letting children have their own way? Doing just what they like? Wouldn’t that be a total disaster? Yes, if parents perform only the first half of the trick. In the cultural lexicon of modernity, self-will is often banally understood as brattish, selfish behaviour. Will does not mean selfishness, however, and autonomy over oneself is not a synonym for nastiness towards others – quite the reverse. Ngarinyin children in Australia traditionally grew up uncommanded and uncoerced, but from a young age they learned socialisation. That is the second half of the trick. Children are socialised into awareness and respect for the will and autonomy of others, so that, when necessary as they grow, they will learn to hold their own will in check in order to maintain good relations. For a community to function well, an individual may on occasion need to rein in his or her own will but, crucially, not be compelled to do so by someone else.
Although by conventional test-taking rules, the students were cheating, they actually weren’t in this case. Instead, they were changing their goal in the Education Game from “Get a higher grade than my classmates” to “Get to the best answer.”
After a thorough review of the facts, available to our office at this time, it is our opinion that this case can only be seen as a tragic accident.
The problem isn’t that it’s impossible to pick yourself. The problem is that it’s frightening to pick yourself.
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For best results, queue up something around 126.5 bpm. I recommend Daft Punk or Prince.
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17 Moments When Jason Collins Was Super Gay
Clinton is an amazing person. At one point he hadn’t slept in like 30 hours and I heard him very articulately discussing the fine details of the history of ATMs in Malawi.
The very qualities that improve palatability and lengthen shelf life—high sugar content, fats that resist turning rancid, and a lack of organic complexity—make refined foods toxic to your key microbes. Biologically simple, processed foods may cultivate a toxic microbial community, not unlike the algal blooms that result in oceanic “dead zones.”
The act of running a marathon is supposed to be simple, individual—a victory of the will over the body, celebrated by all and untouched by the complicated questions of who in the world can choose to suffer and who only bears suffering.
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Little Star Weekly April 12, 2013
dont be afraid to do anything. infact if youre afraid of something, do it. then do it again. and again.
I have watched Dazed and Confused many, many times since that first afternoon, and it has improved with almost every viewing. It now seems like a completely different film. And as I have grown older, I’ve deduced why. Dazed and Confused is not a movie about how things were; Dazed and Confused is a movie about how things are remembered.
Google Street View Hyperlapse (by Teehan+Lax Labs), via Tom T.
Create your own at http://hyperlapse.tllabs.io/
One of my central points is that the arrogance and insularity of the old-guard, conventional wisdom creators of social media, including myself, was one of the primary reasons we lost some important values of the early social web. Seeing this resonate with those of us responsible gives me hope that perhaps we can work to remedy our errors.
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Unintentional new aesthetic, yo.
this fucking wall.
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Done doing these so here they all are in one place! Fully Dressed Redesigns of Superheroines.
Point of this: An exercise in character design, attempting to clothe the heroines nearly all the way and not making them painted-on, while still keeping the look of their original costumes in some way. Hopefully keeping them looking as iconic as the originally were. Just showing what can be done with a costume breaking outside the barrier of the norm.
NOT the point of this: some moral code I’m trying to push on you
Sorry if there was a character you wanted me to do that I didn’t get to!
This threatens many dearly held beliefs of technology workers: It suggests those at the top aren’t there because they’re the best, but because of hard work and privilege. It suggests that the enormous wealth generated by tech startups and founders isn’t justified by their superior intelligence.
In short, it requires geeks to re-examine their own revenge fantasies of being outsiders who now rule the world and admit that they might, themselves, be actively excluding others.
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Green puffer jacket with faux fur trim. (And this bag is becoming a favourite I think)
It’s just good, old-fashioned hard work, and there’s not a lot of that now. You know, hard work? Like not on the computer.
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Artist Jay Shells channeled his love of hip hop music and his uncanny sign-making skills towards a brand new project: “Rap Quotes.” For this ongoing project, Shells created official-looking street signs quoting famous rap lyrics that shout out specific street corners and locations.
this ^ is the.awesome.
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From Jack Kirby’s unpublished adaptation of The Prisoner
Life expectancy at age 5 was as good or better than exists today, and the incidence of degenerative disease was 10% of ours. Their levels of physical activity and hence calorific intakes were approximately twice ours. They had relatively little access to alcohol and tobacco; and due to their correspondingly high intake of fruits, whole grains, oily fish and vegetables, they consumed levels of micro- and phytonutrients at approximately ten times the levels considered normal today.
Out of frustration, I tweeted ‘Here are the 10 biggest markets for Letter to Jane…’ and the next tweet was ‘If anyone in those markets gave me a job that can pay for an apartment and wifi, I’m yours’ and five minutes later, David Jacobs tweeted me and said ‘DONE!’
Google Shutters Google+
Google Sunsets Groundbreaking YouTube Service
Google Moves On from Popular Maps Service
Google Makes Difficult Decision to Close Gmail, Focus on Core Users
Google Announces New Enterprise Software Division, Lays Off 20,000 in Search Division
Google Closes Search
The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we’re being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to. Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads. One reporter used a tool called Collusion to track who was tracking him; 105 companies tracked his Internet use during one 36-hour period.
This is ubiquitous surveillance: All of us being watched, all the time, and that data being stored forever. This is what a surveillance state looks like, and it’s efficient beyond the wildest dreams of George Orwell.
Bob Roth, one of my bosses when I edited Washington City Paper, told me to watch people as they picked it up from a street box and walk away with it: Almost to a one, they would hold it in their hands or fold it under their arms as if to display the paper’s flag so onlookers would know they were City Paper people, whatever that meant.
Been singing this to myself for weeks.
The first thing I ate as part of my new diet was ox liver, so I really threw myself in at the deep end. I was a bit squeamish because you can’t pretend a liver is anything other than part of an animal. It freaked me out a bit but I got through it. The second thing I ate that day was a rare steak. That was when I had a transformative experience.
Like most freelancers of my generation, I prefer to be paid in whiskey and sadness.
"Traffic," they spit. And I get it. The word has been used to bludgeon you into dumb shit. To put great stories on the shelf to build slideshows. To give up on quality and focus on quantity. I do get all that. But that’s precisely why we journalists must understand the numbers! The business side of any publication knows them inside and out. If we don’t understand how to tell good stories with our own data, who do you think wins any argument that involves data, which they all do?
Justice Scalia, when you spew that entitlement discourse from the bench you undermine the very core of our democracy. But you know what? I want to thank you for what you said. Because on Wednesday, you showed us all exactly who you are. And in the words of the late, great poet Notorious B.I.G.: “if we didn’t know, now we know.”
Huber is not a brave man, and his premise is totally false. People will only think you “simply discussing race” is racist if you, like Huber, treat black people like inscrutable extraterrestrials whose moral shortcomings might be responsible for their own poverty.
Daniel Denvir patiently takes apart the Philly Mag race cover story.
http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/Philly-Mag-cover-Whites-must-criticize-blacks-more-.html
(via monkeyajb)
If this looks good, I’m making one for myself later.
The cover stands out for its cast of black and Hispanic caricatures with exaggerated features reminiscent of early 20th century race cartoons. Also, because there are only people of color in it, grabbing greedily for cash. It’s hard to imagine how this one made it through the editorial process.
It’s OK, I’m just recording video.
“Improper Tensions”
A video reenactment of scrolling through this page. Embroidery by Maysles Bros.
(earlier: http://rw.adamrice.org/post/44070851932/embroidery-trouble-shooting-page)
They were never included in the Parker Brothers version, but, in all the early boxes, you were given an address to send to [Monopoly creator Lizzie] Magie for her advanced rules. If you did, under the heading of “For Advanced and Scientific Players”, Magie suggested a way to play where, rather than one person owning everything, all the players could share in the wealth.
Embroidery Trouble Shooting Page
If you haven’t seen the Embroidery Trouble Shooting Page yet, go now.
When the USPS announced that it was planning to stop Saturday delivery, how many of your white friends made snarky comments about being pleased to get junk mail less frequently and how many expressed concern about job cutbacks at an institution that has for decades provided a path to middle class life particularly for black Americans?
My wife roasts a whole chicken in a 90 year old Lisk roasting pan in our 1927 Chambers stove. She then takes it apart and stores the meat in the fridge while making stock from the bones. Want chicken for a sandwich, or a nibble?, or maybe some bites sized pieces in Frank’s hot sauce? It’s all in the fridge, no breading, (unless you want mom to make that, and she will), and very healthy. Come on folks, this is easy stuff to do.
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This is a legit illustration from an advertising patent. The juxtaposition of the viewer exercising control over the experience of watching the ad by debasing themself in a dramatic gesture of surrender to the brand is simply sublime. The bullet hanging in the air, suspended both by the magic of the freeze-frame and by an invitation to participate in the globalized corporate-efficient murder of the planet, is just the cherry on top.
Most of you who are reading this assume that Harvard provides some end-of-the-line safety net for poor students in such calamitous circumstances and that Harvard would never let a student fail, drop out, or not receive medical care for lack of money. I write to assure you that there is no end in sight to the falling.
Coke was Dunn’s concern, and on one trip, as he walked through one of the favelas, he had an epiphany. “A voice in my head says, ‘These people need a lot of things, but they don’t need a Coke.’ I almost threw up.”
It is the largest reported meteor since the one that hit Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “When you have a fireball of this size we would expect a large number of meteorites to reach the surface and in this case there were probably some large ones.”
Now your inbox is empty. You’re welcome. You still have a to-do list, and it is not empty.
As I settled into a state of calm, the thin man in the white robes told me his story. Vijaya was a former leader of the American Hare Krishna cult. He had left the group because they had started to behave — as do pretty much all cults — like gangsters, with all the corruption and violence that implies. He still believed in Hare Krishna’s brand of Hinduism, but he was part of a renegade group of psychedelic Hare Krishnas. And the Hare Krishna cultists had tried to kill him… and he was hiding out.
As a document in literary-critical and literary-theoretical taste in the late twentieth century, Random Walks will prove central.
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"In contrast to his famously hyperbolic statements about his generation, these photographs seem like a secret visual diary filled with more complex realizations about his life and times." Tim Keane: “I Noticed My Friends”: Allen Ginsberg’s Photography (Hyperallergic)
A recent study of Google searches by Professor Latanya Sweeney has found “significant discrimination” in ad results depending on whether the name you’re Googling is, statistically speaking, more likely to belong to a white person or a black person. So while Googling an Emma will probably trigger nothing more sinister than an invitation to look up Emma’s phone number and address, searching for a Jermaine could generate an ad for a criminal record search. In fact, Sweeney’s research suggests that it’s 25% more likely you’ll get ads for criminal record searches from “black-identifying” names than white-sounding ones.
In the 100 years since we really got serious about education as a universally good idea, we’ve managed to take the 15 years of children’s lives that should be the most carefree, inquisitive, and memorable and fill them with a motley collection of stress and a neurotic fear of failure.
I find it all too easy to forget my corporeality, to forget that my life is contingent upon the health of my body. My body is millions of years older than I am; it is skilled and experienced in ways beyond mine or anyone’s comprehension, yet day after day I use it to sit in front of a computer. I look at a screen; I punch keys. I sit down to read; I hold a book. This isn’t using my body - I’m just a mind. As Marwood says in Bruce Robinson’s Withnail & I, ‘We are indeed drifting into the arena of the unwell, making an enemy of our own future. What we need is harmony, fresh air, stuff like that.’ For me, that is the pull of running.
Tips on how to deal with economic hard times, by Gabe Soria and @josephremnant from unpub’d ish of Arthur Dec 08 * twitter.com/arthurmagazine…
— Arthur Magazine (@arthurmagazine) February 11, 2013
The goal of the North Dakota Man Camp Project was to document the social and material conditions present in the growing number of “man camps” in the Bakken Oil Patch. … The project brings archaeological and historical methods to the study the ephemeral phenomenon of contemporary labor housing.
Meritocracy has been criticized as a myth which only serves to justify the status quo; merit can always be defined as whatever results in success. Thus whoever is successful can be portrayed as deserving success, rather than success being in fact predicted by criteria for merit.
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Top: Title Unknown: "From over his shoulder, we see Bush looking at himself in the bathtub"—Jerry Saltz
Bottom: Title Unknown: "Justin Quinnell’s bath, as seen by his tongue?"—Adam Rice
Every modern life is lived in the teeth of massive evolutionary mismatch. … Nearly all of us receive unconscious biochemical rewards from our pain and emotional distress, and nearly all of us consequently develop literal biochemical addictions to at least some of our painful, distressing, out-of-balance, survival-mode states.
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‘Jane Says’ by Jane’s Addiction is my new jam.
We citizens of a modern democracy claim to believe in equality, but our sense of equality is not even close to that of hunter-gatherers. The hunter-gatherer version of equality meant that each person was equally entitled to food, regardless of his or her ability to find or capture it; so food was shared. It meant that nobody had more wealth than anyone else; so all material goods were shared. It meant that nobody had the right to tell others what to do; so each person made his or her own decisions.
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Justseeds: Mary Tremonte: Queer Scouts Patch and Poster Set
Every American wants MORE MORE of the world and why not, you only live once. But the mistake made in America is persons accumulate more more dead matter, machinery, possessions & rugs & fact information at the expense of what really counts as more: feeling, good feeling, sex feeling, tenderness feeling, mutual feeling. You own twice as much rug if you’re twice as aware of the rug.
People who like to share what they’re reading are looking at this material in a very different way from the publisher. They’re looking to cut it and paste it.
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Rinsed Chef Boyardee ravioli with a Yellow Tail red wine sauce, peas handpicked from a Cup-a-Soup, and finished with grated string cheese. (Corner Stourmet, The Bold Italic)
At first when the fire trucks showed up, I wondered if they were an intended part of the ‘performance,’ but I was quickly informed that it was DEFINITELY not part of the piece.
I didn’t want to come off as trying to do some D’Angelo stuff, but I can’t think of any other album that’s been so influential. D’Angelo left such a wealth of unexplored territory musically.
We live in a world where the architects of the financial crisis dine at the White House regularly. The idea that the government felt it so essential to insist that this behavior be marked as a felony is just unfathomable.
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City lights photographed from the International Space Station and Neurons imaged with fluorescence microscopy.
Source images; Cities (1) (2) (3) (4) (5), Neurons (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
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All Watched Over
by Machines of Loving Graceby Richard Brautigan
I’d like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.
The spread of computers and the Internet will put jobs in two categories,” Andreessen says. “People who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do.
We would collect a bundle of sticks in the local wood, sell them to a neighbour for a penny, then walk two miles to to the local picture house to see Charlie [Chaplin], it was silent films in those days, talkies weren’t invented then.
With that said, Kwanzaa-hating has always struck me as the most bougie and snobbish of holiday traditions. It’s that cool that Jonathan Safran Foer thinks that “no one is quite sure what Kwanzaa is,” but I’m not sure “what Hanukkah is.” And for most of my life, no one I knew was quite sure either. I’m only barely sure “what Christmas is.” (Celebrating the birth of your savior with an orgy of consumption?) It’s just seems bizarre in America, of all places, to stand on vintage. Has there ever been a more mongrel, more made-up, country that this one? Have there ever been two more “made up people” then the “white race” and the “black race?” This country is a mongrel mess — and its traditions are, too. That’s the whole charm of the thing. No one who takes the Easter Bunny seriously should mock Kwanzaa. This is about equality. Black people have right to make shit up, just as white people have the right to make shit up.
Awesome Kwanzaa: A Made-Up Holiday for a Made-Up Country - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi stays snatching wigs
(via aminatou)
So often when I’m out and about I find myself in desperate need of some random numbers!
An increasing number of Americans have found that when legal strictures and open discrimination are stripped away they are left not with the reprehensible, but with neighbors, friends, and family members whom they love, and see loving each other. Little wonder, then, that two-thirds of those under thirty support same-sex marriage.
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Off the Grid
“There are growing number of people
who have decided to live light on the earth
to not be a part of problem anymore
I spent the last few years with four of them
striving for harmony with nature
in the most pristine corners of United States.”
The only people in the world who get to act like race and gender don’t matter are white men. I’m a white man myself. And let me tell you: It is amazing. No joke. And if I shave and put on a suit? You would not believe it.
In response to the specific example of Nicolala liking Walmart, Facebook insists it really did happen: “We show that the Like happened on 10/01 at 6:46 p.m.,” the spokesman says.
Why Are Dead People Liking Stuff On Facebook? (ReadWrite)
Three things.
"Every time we have intense, saturation coverage of a mass murder, we expect to see one or two more within a week" Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe 25/03/09
This year we are recommending only things our friends made that we ourselves have bought.
Pickle Gift Set from Lonestar Taco
The Awl’s Weekend Companion published by 29th Street Publishing
It’s really the first time online-native writers have been given a tool they understand how to use with a hook into the App Store’s ecosystem.
When people look us up in the App Store, we’re confident that the first 12-15 apps are going to represent us very well. Our platform is only as good as the people using it. Compared to what publishing has been going through, programming is pretty easy.
They understand that healthy publishing businesses are built from the ground up, not from ‘vast amounts of cash’ on down. There is no ‘moving into profit mode later’ for healthy publications. So 29th Street is making top-notch tools that allow publishers of ANY size to find their fit — and publishers don’t have to burn money that isn’t theirs making delivery vehicles like these.
For the last seven years, at the Metropolitan Police forensic lab in south London, audio specialists have been continuously recording the sound of mains electricity. Comparing the unique pattern of the frequencies on an audio recording with a database that has been logging these changes for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year provides a digital watermark: a date and time stamp on the recording.
a tweet from a friend
Waiting anxiously for @shani_o’s story on the teleology of favoriting. I have a work email thread that I need to fave my way out of.
short version: we should be able to visibly fave emails so we don’t have to reply.
To be on the Newsstand you have to program an iOS app. The tech hurdle is high, and hiring isn’t cheap. iOS programmers are in extremely high demand. Now is a great time for another Movable Type. Writers would love a way to push serialized content straight to tablets, and the experience would be a boon to readers. Tablets are the best way to read, and Newsstand is the equivalent of RSS for non-geeks.
Tablets are waiting for their Movable Type, Ryan Singer of 37 Signals
Probably a good time to plug my friends at 29th St Publishing, who are solving this very problem. It’s no coincidence that they were Movable Type experts in their previous businesses.
(via evan)
Few people know this, but Community Chest is real; there are real cards, drawn in secret by the powerful and the occult — in darkened living rooms in penthouse apartments — in small clearings near running water — behind certain colonial buildings in the coastal northeast — cards whose instructions and gifts are printed in blood and considered mystical bonds.
Many people nowadays live in a series of interiors—home, car, gym, office, shops—disconnected from each other. On foot everything stays connected, for while walking one occupies the spaces between those interiors in the same way one occupies those interiors. One lives in the whole world rather than in interiors built up against it.
How about I build something that buys me things completely at random? Something that just… fills my life with crap? How would these purchases make me feel? Would they actually be any less meaningful than the crap I buy myself on a regular basis anyway?
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If Buy Nothing Day gets you down — forget about Buy Nothing Year — how about a more positive crusade: Buy More Stuff!
Previously: create something day (randomWalks, 2002)
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"Maybe 300 or 400 years from now, everything will be gone, we’ll all be gone, and they’ll be the four faces in the Black Hills and the statue there symbolizing the Native Americans who were here at one time."
A memorial for Crazy Horse 64 years in the making … so far - CNN.com
I thought it would really be exciting and sort of progressive for a big game company like ours to [create] a minority, someone who’s an outsider, who’s pretty underrepresented in most media.
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Draw some random points on a piece of paper and join them up to make a random polygon. Find all the midpoints and connecting them up to give a new shape, and repeat. The resulting shape will get smaller and smaller, and will tend towards an ellipse! [code] [more]
Maybe a hundred years down the line, nobody will look back at climate change as the most important issue of the early 21st century, because the damage will have been done, and the idea that it might have been prevented will seem absurd. Maybe the idea that Mali and Burkina Faso were once inhabited countries rather than empty deserts will seem queer, and the immiseration of huge numbers of stateless refugees thronging against the borders of the rich northern countries will be taken for granted. The absence of the polar ice cap and the submersion of Venice will have been normalised; nobody will think of these as live issues, no one will spend their time reproaching their forefathers, there’ll be no moral dimension at all. We will have wrecked the planet, but our great-grandchildren won’t care much, because they’ll have been born into a planet already wrecked.
You’re only able to get to a certain depth of creativity if you’re being constantly distracted. And I think you can cross further if you’re alone for, say, eight hours with no distraction. You can cross even deeper if you’re alone for a week. I found that it really wasn’t until about two days into any given stretch that I was able to get to a place of inspiration — that I had anything valid to say.
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"Occupy Hanukkah" cards by zoecohen on Etsy
ALF was the minstrel it was politically correct to love even as you shrank from him. He was the camp Semite redeemed by his ability to be more clever than the goyim. His appetite for the most helpless icon of the home, the kitten, updated the blood libel to slapstick.
Enough. This is just sex. This is nothing more than the odd, notable penis or the odd, notable vagina staggering off the marked path and rubbing against the wrong tree. This is just people.
Republican strategist: “This is the last time anyone will try to do this” — “this” being a near total reliance on white votes to win a presidential election.
Before election night 60 years ago, the race between Stevenson and Eisenhower looked close. But early in the night, with just over 3 million votes counted, UNIVAC predicted the odds were 100 to 1 in favor of Eisenhower.
The Night A Computer Predicted The Next President : All Tech Considered : NPR
NUMBERS HAVE BEEN RIGHT BEFORE
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Seriously: Unmasking Reddit’s Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web
This article is great. If you haven’t read it yet, you should. It details the search for, and eventual interview with, a guy who ran some really terrible subreddits on Reddit. It’s so interesting.
1. I can’t think of a “print-primary” publication that could have done this reporting, and run…
A single mysterious computer program that placed orders — and then subsequently canceled them — made up 4 percent of all quote traffic in the U.S. stock market last week, according to the top tracker of high-frequency trading activity. The motive of the algorithm is still unclear.
Mysterious Algorithm Was 4% of Trading Activity Last Week - CNBC.com - US Business News - CNBC
Also, expect to read sentences like “the motive of the algorithm is still unclear” a lot in the coming years.
(via mwfrost)
For such a critical app, there’s really very little that’s being done to innovate on the experience. It doesn’t wake me up to my favorite song. It doesn’t let me decide how long I want to snooze between alarms. It doesn’t check my calendar automatically and set an alarm based on what my day looks like. It doesn’t give me the weather forecast for the day when I wake up.
For instance, my mother is 89-and-a-half years old. She lives in Northeast Philadelphia and reads the Inquirer every day. She doesn’t own a computer. Her knowledge of computers, I would say, is minuscule. If there were no Inquirer in print, she would have to buy a computer, and at the age of almost 90, master new technology, or go to the Daily News, or stop reading.
Bill Marimow on his new old job, and the future of the Philadelphia Inquirer
monkeyajb: I don’t have anything against 90-year-old women, but as long as newspapers keep designing themselves for 90-year-old women, the newspapers will remain a dying (and irrelevant) breed.
The long-awaited results of a study in which patients were given complete access to their doctors’ notes do more than shed light on what patients want. They make our current ideas about transparency in the patient-doctor relationship a quaint artifact of the past. … All three hospitals in the study are working to allow those patients who participated to continue to have access to their doctors’ notes.
To which Big Bird interjects: “That’s not fair!” I am absolutely not fucking kidding. This is the part of the program where Big Bird defies a god and argues justice for the tormented soul of his little buddy.
If it actually were my friend, a large, online book retailer might say, ‘Look, you’ve been spending too much money on books recently. Don’t you think you should get out a bit more, and not sit there buying stuff?’
BUSKING GHOSTS ZINE: Like the idea of travelling by foot? Here are Nick Papadimitriou’s 6…
Like the idea of travelling by foot? Here are Nick Papadimitriou’s 6 top tips to kickstart your deep topography experience…
- Go walking. Stay away from bright lights.
- Explore second hand bookshops. Buy books on topography – on areas, regions, counties. Study them. Then walk around and see…
Not content with being merely evil, criminal, and spammy, they now seek to be outright creepy and repulsive.
When the company that bought the brand itself went out of business in 2001, Peterman bought the name back with the help of John O’Hurley, the actor who played J. Peterman on “Seinfeld.”
Robin Rusch: The many lives of J. Peterman
"Had I been smart, back then, I would have slashed the number of products, slashed the overhead and taken the company back to a profitable position."
Facebook can now tell if you’ve purchased a product that was advertised to you on Facebook.
How to Opt Out of Facebook’s Newest Attempts to Track Everything You Do, Even Offline (Lifehacker)
In a decade, this type of worry is going to seem so quaint I’m going to want to kill myself.
Those killed by US drone attacks in Pakistan are more or less automatically deemed “militants” by unnamed “officials”, and then uncritically called such by most of the western press – a practice that inexcusably continues despite revelations that the Obama administration has redefined “militants” to mean “all military-age males in a strike zone”.
Given a chance to be free of modern life, the body would naturally settle into a split sleep schedule.
Semi-autonomous flying things are already available to the public and will continue to become more available. Yet our intuitive privacy settings, our security forces, and our sense of property all assume humans on the ground. Let me posit this: Drones will make traditional fences as obsolete as gunpowder and cannons made city walls.
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Every opportunity to relate one part of the puzzle to another part of the puzzle is taken; no part of the puzzle is wasted. When designed well, this kind of puzzle means endless surprise, solving it means delving deeper and deeper; you become faimilar with every letter, every picture, every clue. It’s not just that it could be important—eventually it will be important. And by the time you’re finished, you know the puzzle better than you thought you ever could, and you rarely forget any part of it.
Tony Delgado: The Fool’s Errand
You must understand that haters have constructed an alternate reality around themselves, one where shitting on a perfect jewel is the equivalent of enlightenment. If you feel frustrated dealing with them, just imagine what it’s like inside their own heads!
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Robert Gibbons: On the Autumnal Equinox, 2012
I walk alone a lot, but not today, what with it being the last day of summer, & seriously, the earth & nature know this, the mind of earth & nature very palpable at Times like these Equinoxes & Solstices, where slender wheatgrass waves goodbye, New England asters emerge to say hello, the entire ground becomes animated, & stones one’s stared at before suddenly take on a new life of their own, tossing several glances (Pound’s phanopoeia) as unheard words in order to enhance, give wealth to our poor existences, & their own.
Some few, some very few, there are, who try the key of love in all life’s doors. Radiant, they turn to the men and women about and cry, “Try love! It unlocks all other doors as surely as it does the first in life. Try love!”
One irony of Mitt Romney’s leaked criticism of the 47% of Americans who don’t pay income tax is that Romney may be a member of the club himself since he pays almost no income tax relative to his vast wealth.
As long as the veg*n narrative is taken seriously, and we double-down on agriculture as a solution to the problem of overpopulation that it is the very cause of, we simply increase the human suffering that the failure of agriculture is inevitably hurtling toward.
Walking upright has a price in back problems. The capacity for tissue repair has a price of cancer. The immune response has a price of immune disorders. The price of anxiety is panic disorder. In each case, natural selection has done the best it can, weighing benefits against costs. Wherever the balance point, however, there will be disease.
"Generous" is the first word that comes to mind. Generous with his time, contacts, stuff and money. Maybe a little too generous sometimes with money—some people took advantage. Extraordinarily energetic; he wouldn’t stop working even when doctors told him to slow down. Meticulous in his research on causes. Sometimes he acted like a spoiled child, and I did see him stamp his feet and jump up and down on occasion.
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(via Bad Children’s Books — BobStaake.com)
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Important Observations
“Drift helps you get lost in familiar places by guiding you on a walk using randomly assembled instructions. Each instruction will ask you to move in a specific direction and, using the compass, look for something normally hidden or unnoticed in our everyday experiences."
Another iOS app and corresponding (pending) website. I don’t know why the idea of talking random walks excites me so!
Turn right onto E Main St and then walk toward the heart of the city. If the city has no heart, give it one.
N Ashland Ave to Old Lafayette Ave – Lexington, Kentucky « Serendipitor
Serindipitor is an iOS app that guides you through a generative dérive from where you are to a random location nearby. A companion site archives of completed walks, including directions, maps, and photos.
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Hooray! What was once a Walmart has become a 124,500 square foot public library.
Most people’s first mistake when walking is to know where they already are. Street names and recognisable sites should be avoided like the weekly chart countdown. If you know where you are, you cannot get lost. If you cannot get lost then you will constantly be distracted by things you have have already seen.
We don’t yet have the history of who was the Afrika Bambaataa of blogging. If there was a Sugar Hill Gang, if there was a “Planet Rock” of blogs, that was the stuff that I was around, and got to see. You were aware of it, you were like, this is going to win. This is going to take over the world.
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"Like full-spectrum hieroglyphs, these spray-painted dots are ‘infrastructural forensic evidence,’ in Foster’s words, marking the ritualistic elimination of insects from urban space." (via BLDGBLOG: Dot Urbanism)
Darwin’s revolutionary theory of evolution has been confirmed beyond any doubt, and is the foundation for a new and rapidly expanding field of precise science with profound potential benefits to human health.
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Public Telephone
Write down the number. Stand nearby and call it. Gesture excitedly and encourage a passerby to answer. When they do, ask them where they are, and ask them what the weather is like.
Getting lost means that between us and space there is not only a relationship of dominion, of control on the part of the subject, but also the possibility that space can dominate us. There are moments in life in which we learn how to learn from the space around us. […] We are no longer capable of giving a value, a meaning to the possibility of getting lost. To change places, to come to terms with different worlds, to be forced to continuously recreate our points of reference, is regenerating at a psychic level, but today no one would recommend such an experience. In primitive cultures, on the other hand, if someone never gets lost he never grows up. And this is done in the desert, the forest, places that are a sort of machine through which to attain other states of consciousness.
We felt as if we were moving in a strange new zone exactly halfway between randomness and order. No one could predict where the left-and-right pattern would take us, yet we weren’t wandering. The firm logic of the algorithm was constantly taking us away from the directions and destinations our whims might have chosen.
Sol LeWitt: Sentences on Conceptual Art (1969)
1. Conceptual Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
2. Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.
3. Illogical judgements lead to new experience.
4. Formal Art is essentially rational.
5. Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.
6. If the artist changes his mind midway through the execution of the piece he compromises the result and repeats past results.
7. The artist’s will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His wilfulness may only be ego.
8. When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.
9. The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter are the components. Ideas implement the concept.
10. Ideas alone can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.
11. Ideas do not necessarily proceed in logical order. They may set one off in unexpected directions but an idea must necessarily be completed in the mind before the next one is formed.
12. For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not.
13. A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist’s mind to the viewer’s. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist’s mind.
14. The words of one artist to another may induce an idea’s chain, if they share the same concept.
15. Since no form is intrinsically superior to another, the artist may use any form, from an expression of words (written or spoken) to physical reality, equally.
16. If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature, numbers are not mathematics.
17. AH ideas are art if they are concerned with art and fall within the conventions of art.
18. One usually understands the art of the past by applying the conventions of the present thus misunderstanding the art of the past.
19. The conventions of art are altered by works of art.
20. Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions.
21. Perception of ideas leads to new ideas.
22. The artist cannot imagine his art, and cannot perceive it until it is complete.
23. One artist may mis-perceive (understand it differently than the artist) a work of art but still be set off in his own chain of thought by that misconstrual.
24. Perception is subjective.
25. The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others.
26. An artist may perceive the art of others better than his own.
27. The concept of a work of art may involve the matter of the piece or the process in which it is made.
28. Once the idea of the piece is established in the artist’s mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly. There are many side-effects that the artist can¬not imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works.
29. The process is mechanical and should not be tampered with. It should run its course.
30. There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.
31. If an artist uses the same form in a group of works, and changes the material, one would assume the artist’s concept involved the material.
32. Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.
33. It is difficult to bungle a good idea.
34. When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art.
35. These sentences comment on art, but are not art.(Image - poster by Angela Ferrara)
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Michal Migurski: generating repeating patterns
Keep in mind people use social tools very differently. What has worked for the very early innovators through early adopters is extremely different from the different personality types that will follow. This gap in understanding that the world is not like us has not become real to many building social tools.
The city is a behavioral device. Its shapes and systems alter how we feel, how we see each other, and how we act. This would be a terrible thought if it were not for a second truth, which is that the city is malleable. We can change it whenever we wish.
I wanted to be able to have it as a very collaborative play space, and still the web hasn’t fully provided what I wanted then in terms of being a really powerful collaborative medium.
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This is a great meme.
Oh this is glorious.
This is straight-up blogging, amateur prose written quickly and with neither guiding stricture nor sober editing. I am going to tell it like it is, right from the heart, and I am going to tell it about telephone dials, because a man has to live by a code, and my code is unary loop disconnect dialing.
Peel your potatoes. All the antinutrients (defenses plants evolved to keep critters from destroying the tubers) are contained in the skin. This is exactly the opposite of what our parents told us! Like it or not, all the good stuff is NOT in the skin.
(Originally published in the May 1992 issue of Cometbus. I’m a sucker for this shit, thanks Aly.)
Punk Rock Love is fucking behind the dumpster down the street from the show. Fucking in the shower at the hotel Carlton. Making out in the recycling bin. Looking at her tattoos while she’s asleep. Taking showers together. Playing checkers with cigarette butts. Watching her band play. Dumpstering veggies together and then going back to her place and cooking up a feast. Knowing the same parts of the same songs. Both of you having the same ex-girlfriend. Punk Rock Love is having to tie her shoes for her cause she’s too drunk. Kissing under the overpass. Her sending you her whole diary to read. Her giving you ten rolls of duct tape for your birthday. Her beating up skinheads. Going to the prom on her motorcycle and checking in the helmets at coatcheck. Getting astonished stares from all the jocks who thought you were gay, now they feel dumb because you’re with an older punk rock bombshell and they’re with their friend’s little sister. Punk Rock Love is meeting her outside the club and her saying come home with me or I’m gonna kick your fucking ass. Going home with her and she almost kicks your ass anyway. Sharing hairdye. Riding double on a bike. Being loud and not caring. Sneaky eyes and sleeveless t-shirts. The sun coming up and you realizing there’s other people on the beach. A good sleazy one week stand. Still being friends afterwards, most of the time. Punk Rock Love is her sneaking out in the middle of the night to meet you in the park. Running your fingers over her spiky hair. Her chewing on a flower and you having to call poison control when her tongue swells up. Bringing her to a laundromat for a date. Sharing a sleeping bag and waking up freezing in the middle of the night and her, bleary eyed, trying to heat it up with a blowdryer. Social Unrest playing “Ever Fallen In Love?” at the gig you’re both at the night after she dumps you, hard. Starting smoking again after that night. Punk Rock Love is her drawing on you. Her sleeping on your back. Her being mad at you for being such a jerk. Her thinking it’s cool that you stink and your hair stands up by itself. Her having weird roommates that worship eggs. You waiting in the doorway for hours hoping she might pass by. Even in the snow. Her singing along with Descendants records over the air on her late night radio show. Her picture on the front page of the morning paper, getting arrested. Her borrowing your favorite black hat and never giving it back. Punk Rock Love is finding a girl who drinks as much coffee as you do. Going into the cafe where she works and she looks up and smiles and doesn’t notice as she tips over a pile of 50 dishes. They hit the floor one by one and when it’s all done everyone in the cafe applauds and you both turn beet red. Punk Rock Love is both of you doing fanzines. Years later her teaching freshman English, you still doing fanzines. Her wearing glasses though her eyes are fine, using crutches though her legs are fine, and talking with a fake speech impediment. You just thinking it’s rad girl style, until later when someone brings up the concept of self-imposed handicaps. Punk Rock Love is getting your first kiss and nearly losing your virginity at the same time, meanwhile you’re trying not to wake up the other person sleeping in the same bed. Groping in the bushes by the freeway and later you realize that all the passing cars could see you. Exploring the wasteland together, holding hands out of the fire escape. Lying out on the grass in her backyard. Lying on the astroturf in her bedroom. Drinking tequila on her porch, on your birthday. Riding her motorcycle early in the cold morning and you’re holding on tight and the steam is rising off the river and you’re thinking how she is maybe even better than the Ramones. Punk Rock Love is both being broke, Love letters. Finding out she sang “Stay Free” at her high school talent show. Finding out she’s a little crazier than you thought when you finally get her in bed. Her boyfriend getting mad. Walking around with her and her nephew and everyone giving you dirty looks cuz they think he’s your kid. Walking around with her and being happy and proud. Being sad together. Being sad by yourself. Missing her.
On the Cometbus ‘til I die.
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So um this is easily the most incredible tarot deck I’ve ever seen (via HEXEN 2.0) More on artist Suzanne Treister in this Metafilter thread.
I think the next 10 years are going to be a really interesting time where Twitter and a couple other services connect people all over the world in new ways and surprising things happen that we can’t even imagine right now. I am long on Twitter.
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Paul Benedict (via Actor, South Philly native Sherman Hemsley dies — NewsWorks)
RIP Sherman Hemsley (and dig the psychedelic life he led) but it is blowing my mind that this wacky white next-door neighbor from The Jeffersons was also The Number Painter from Sesame Street.
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Homo sapiens have walked the Earth for at least 130,000 years and, in this time, they learned to be human from their elders, not from their peers. Mandatory education in the U.S. is less than 150 years old. Learning to be a productive adult human by spending a third of every day with other kids might be a good idea, but it’s too soon to tell. I’m still unsure that the people best equipped to teach a 14-year-old boy how to be a man are other 14-year-old boys.
the pre-credit card internet was what facebook’s wildest peyote-sweat fever dreams can only ever hint at and it’s always just waiting for us
— sega juice (@dry_hugs) August 9, 2012
Interviewer: Okay. Which designers do you prefer?
Hillary Clinton: What designers of clothes?
Interviewer: Yes.
Hillary Clinton: Would you ever ask a man that question?
Interviewer: Probably not. Probably not.
[Via UniteWomen.org; State.gov]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfRWA_FukXg
Souls of Mischief - Cab Fare (by Perthx)
I can’t believe I’ve never heard this song before, I guess it isn’t on any SoM regular releases, but it is sooooooo good and that Bob James sample is gold, I can’t believe no one has ever sampled this before?
Also! This isn’t even a Domino joint, it’s produced by Adam/A-Plus which makes it even better.
EDIT: Apparently this was never released because Paramount (which owns the rights, from Taxi) won’t ever clear it, so duh. Hear the original Bob James “Angela” here.
One of my top ten hip hop songs.
You try and treat it as a journey or a pilgrimage of self-discovery where you try to improve yourself as a person and overcome your doubts and negativity.
Aussie runner set to win world’s longest race, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Grahak Cunningham on running around the block 5,649 times in 51 days.
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Microsoft Olympic Decathlon for Apple II
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"I think it’s about a car. A car that goes to Mexico, Indonesia and other places. It’s about a car that goes on all sorts of adventures. The guy on the cover is a teen, he likes to drive people places a lot. And he’s French." (via My 6-year-old Judges Books by the Covers, from No Exit to 50 Shades of Grey - Strollerderby)
I liked everything about this except “paranoid fantasies about a federal takeover of personal liberties”. I’m not sure they’re paranoid, and I’m not sure they’re fantasies. We need post-1984, post-9/11 arguments for gun control.
While eating, defecating, or resting in our beds, we are rubbing on our glowing rectangles, seemingly lost within the infostream.
I think it’s better for journalists to be much more transparent about where we stand. … Here’s my question to journalists everywhere—in a country that’s going to get gayer, browner, more Asian, more women in power, how are we going to accurately reflect the different realities that are out there?
Suppose a major party candidate for president believed we were in a “post-truth” era and actually campaigned that way: Would political reporters in the mainstream press figure it out and tell us?
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Is that Malik B. just to the left of Black Thought’s mic hand?
Twenty years ago today, one of Philly’s greatest musical acts, The Roots did their first performance at South Street and Passyunk Avenue.
Many albums later, The Roots continue to represent the Philadelphia music scene with class and dignity. We’re big fans of The Roots here, and we’re much looking forward to the upcoming Roots mural on 6th and South!
To the engineers at Delany, the regulation ergonomic stance of the pisser is to look ahead, not look down and wonder what “Turn To Silence” means.
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Sunday Minecraft by Nick Ladd.
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"The first-ever snapshot of a single atom’s shadow."
Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?
When I write about ‘Drones over Brooklyn,’ it’s not like I’m making something up. Drones are policing American cities. I’m not a ‘dystopian, futuristic master,’ I’m a schnook walking the street. It’s an insane reality we’re living in, and I’m just trying to translate it for myself.
A decade of growth and exciting ideas inspired by democratization of content has metastasized in websites that put out self-conscious, largely contrived, meta content—what writers think they are supposed to produce. This plateau is extended and populated by a wave of writers who, frankly, don’t have much to offer: not original voices, not fresh ideas, not diversity of experience.
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I love this picture of an American family. The story is just a little heartbreaking: Akron restaurant owner dies hours after meeting Obama
Our idols have aged and proven human. They have turned into yuppies like us who smoke weed only occasionally and in comfortable living rooms with Persian rugs and who have kids who play soccer, and that’s okay.
You fulfill hip-hop’s early promise to not give a fuck about what others think of you.
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The San Diego fireworks all went off at once this year. more
Today is a big day for hip-hop. It is a day that will define who we really are. How compassionate will we be? How loving can we be? How inclusive are we?
Millions of middle-class Americans are now receiving unemployment benefits, and many find themselves compelled by the meagerness of the assistance to shun opportunity and forgo productivity in favor of a ceaseless focus on daily survival. The system’s incoherence and contempt for its dependents fluoresce brilliantly in the wake of a historic event like the Great Recession. When floodwaters cover our homes, we expect that FEMA workers with emergency checks and blankets will find us. There is no moral or substantive difference between a hundred-year flood and the near-destruction of the global financial system by speculators immune from consequence. But if you and your spouse both lose your jobs and assets because of an unprecedented economic cataclysm having nothing to do with you, you quickly discover that your society expects you and your children to live malnourished on the streets indefinitely.
Like most writers, I feel like a reprobate who does not deserve to live on any day that I do not write, but I also feel that four or five hours is enough to earn my stay on the planet for one more day. On the best ordinary days of my life, I write in the morning, go for a long bike ride and run errands in the afternoon, and in the evening I see friends, read or watch a movie.
It doesn’t change who I am, I’m still the same person. I’m honest, I’ve always worked hard and I’ll work hard for you.
I once knew a woman who interned at a magazine where she wasn’t allowed to take lunch hours out, lest she be urgently needed for some reason. This was an entertainment magazine whose raison d’être was obviated when “menu” buttons appeared on remotes, so it’s hard to see this pretense of indispensability as anything other than a form of institutional self-delusion.
America’s biggest banks ripped off the entire country, virtually every day, for more than a decade!… Get busted for welfare fraud even once in America, and good luck getting so much as a food stamp ever again. Get caught rigging interest rates in 50 states, and the government goes right on handing you billions of dollars in public contracts.
Design & user experience are not the only vectors on which those decisions are made.
Lots of people talk about their standing desks with some degree of bravado. That is entirely unjustified; outside of office workers, a large portion of the workforce spends most of every day standing and working. It’s the traditional sitting office worker who is doing something unusual.
These shots are great. Your skin tones on Caucasians are perfect. Question: How’s the skin tone color on people of color ranging from Asian to African Americans, etc.?
Have your friends direct your movies and they’ll turn out better.
Lisa Herlihy, 45, said she was uncomfortable with the individual mandate upheld in the Supreme Court ruling. “I don’t think it’s right,” Ms. Herlihy said as she took a smoking break from her job in the Cobra department at a third-party insurance administrator here.
It may sound crazy and anti-capitalist to consider healthcare for all, but if we flipped a switch tomorrow and everyone had health coverage I swear a million small businesses would launch overnight.
A show that’s 100 percent reruns doesn’t fit with our mission as public broadcasters. I don’t think it’s justifiable.
This is the hidden truth: black people dominate Twitter. The trending topics, the amount of mobile penetration of devices…study after study continues to prove that Twitter is disproportionately black.
The daily repetition of chores once associated with survival has now been fully recast as a series of almost spiritual rituals intended to reconnect the camper with what has been largely lost; for by now most of the old necessities — hiking to and clearing the site, hunting for game, collecting water and firewood — have given way to such less arduous activities as parking the car, pitching cable-free pop tents, buying cold cuts at the campground store, hooking up electrical and sewerage conduits, setting up patio chairs, etc.
I was wolfbackriding while shooting white doves with fire when I got the email from Visitsweden.
I have been using the internet for TWENTY years! Like some hipster who has been following a band for years I spent 10 of those years not shutting up about the internet, and then the second 10 years wishing everyone would get off my internet.
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jimn:
How is this considered OK but Milli Vanilli were fake (for doing what every pop act did & does)?
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One of 26 photos in ISS Star Trails by NASA_JSC_Photo
I had never been able to find a clear way to say “it’s over” until now. Last week, I broke up from my long term girlfriend simply by using the “unpair” button. Alas, it saved a lot of pain and “talking,” since we conducted our entire relationship on pair since we had moved. It’s like we never even met — easy and painless.
But let’s face it — most of us know in our hearts that eschewing a breakfast of whole grains and fruit crowned with a dab of yogurt for a greasy pile of sausage, bacon, and eggs is not the road to health.
I try not to make it be about me, but as with all evangelizers, something transforms you and changes your life—you see people saying things that are dangerous, and it’s hard not to speak up.
This link is my blogroll
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It took me 10 years to figure out that I have a large karmic debt to pay for the number of Cokes I sold across this country. … It’s shocking to me now. But it was not shocking to me then in any way, shape or form. … We were really uninformed relative to the health issues.
There is a large portion of the population that relies on the carbohydrates and energy in our regular beverages. When my son gets home from school, he needs a pick-up with calories and great taste.
Increasingly I find myself purchasing from the food underground, tiny businesses that could never find their way through the monolith of regulations. They are foods, god forbid, cooked in people’s kitchens. You know, kind of like the food mom made, but for some reason it’s OK if mom does it, but not OK to sell it to other people.
This is by far my favorite book of the series, which makes no sense because it is the most boring and nothing happens in it. But there’s a scene at the beginning, when the Ingalls family moves into their fiftieth new house, and comes across all of the cool odds and ends left over by the last tenants that reminds me so much of my favorite dream ever, in which I am roaming around a house filled with all of these endless rooms of marvelous and amazing stuff, that I couldn’t help loving it despite its boringness.
I’m not going to put anything in my body that was not here before the Europeans arrived, because there is something wrong here. Ever since colonization, my people went from being a fit, athletic race of people to the most sickly and lame.
The absence of human placentophagy, the maternal consumption of the afterbirth, is puzzling given its ubiquity and probable adaptive value in other mammals. We propose that human fire use may have led to placentophagy avoidance in our species. In our environment of evolutionary adaptedness, gravid women would likely have been regularly exposed to smoke and ash, which is known to contain harmful substances. Because the placenta filters some toxicants which then accumulate there across pregnancy, maternal placentophagy may have had deleterious consequences for the overall fitness of mother, offspring, or both, leading to its elimination from our species’ behavioral repertoire.
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(via Mind-Blowing Shadow Art by Kumi Yamashita)
Liberal democracy—based on commitment to individual liberty and dignity—does not exist if the government legislates against particular bodies in public spaces, as it did during Jim Crow, or when it is complicit in the violent policing of those bodies by other citizens, as in the Trayvon Martin slaying. For more than two years, vocal pockets of conservative activists and politicians demanded proof of President Obama’s citizenship—as if a black man was trespassing simply by being elected to the Oval Office. As the president was being asked to show his papers to the nation, state governments in Arizona, Alabama and South Carolina empowered police officers, school officials and merchants to demand proof of citizenship from anyone they deemed suspicious of immigration violations—suspicions that are triggered primarily by racial, ethnic and linguistic profiling. Despite the dramatic legal changes brought about by the ending of Jim Crow, it is once again socially, politically and legally acceptable to presume the guilt of nonwhite bodies.
Unfortunately, “inadequate citizen rule” or “doubts about corporate governance” are not among the choices. From the available list, I went with “I don’t feel safe on Facebook.”
They’re fucking gross, man. Look, I love beautiful girls too. I think everyone should be free to have their knee socks and their sweaty shorts, but I’m over it. I’m over this weird, exhausted girl. I’m over the girl that’s tired and freezing and hungry. I like bossy girls, I always have. I like people filled with life. I’m over this weird media thing with all this, like, hollow-eyed, empty, party crap.
Amy Poehler on American Apparel ads (via e-pic)
A to the FuckingMen.
DON’T FREAK OUT ABOUT THE WHITE BABIES.
I would predict the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that’s hovering over his house is gonna be a folk hero in this country.
We have a game that you play once, on a randomly assigned difficulty setting, where you initially spawn in some random location (and may legally be prevented from leaving that location), where your long-term stats depend heavily on both the stats given to you by your parent gamers and by their treatment of you early in life. Every one of these factors is out of your control, and heavily influences how successful you’ll be in the game. What can be done, both as an individual player and as a collective of players, to give as many people as possible a satisfying gaming experience?
We need to work toward flooding the market—even if for the moment merely the intellectual market—with a mass of desires whose realization is not beyond the capacity of man’s present means of action on the material world, but only beyond the capacity of the old social organization.
My son will be three-years-old next month and is still breastfeeding. In other words, he is a typical primate.
Out of the Mouth of Babes | The Primate Diaries, Scientific American Blog Network
And if you don’t know, now you know!
My cavorting is part of my work.
It’s true that you have a higher chance of getting sick from drinking raw milk than pasteurized milk. You have a 0.00011 percent chance of getting sick from drinking pasteurized milk, and a 9.4 times greater risk of getting sick from drinking raw milk. We’re still talking about a miniscule risk of 0.00106% (one one-thousandth of a percent) .
If you feel the photograph is vaguely sexual — and I think many do, whether they’re willing to admit it or not — you’re dead wrong. If you extract the misguided sense that the kid is old enough to enjoy a breast as if it were a boob, suddenly all those unexplainable feelings about it being wrong or gross float out into the ether where they belong.
Jason Good: From Breasts to Boobs and Back Again.
"Women are already fighting enough battles over what they’re allowed to do with their bodies. Let’s not add another one."
This is fantastic. I was developing a critique of the knee-jerk reaction of all those who were all publicly reinforcing each others’ normalcy by expressing a shared revulsion at the “extremes” of attachment parenting, and I had figured out it had to do with sexualizing the scene, and that the picture worked because the child was a boy, but I hadn’t come up with anything as strong as this.
And yes, I’ve been trolled.
a.gb.static.cf.boldernet.net/mplayer/p…
Stephen Jepson: Never Leave the Playground
“Be Not Content is a coming-of-age novel set in San Jose, California in the early Sixties—describing William Craddock’s experiences as a young acidhead. This is a hip, profound, and wonderfully-written book, a unique chronicle of the earliest days of the great psychedelic upheaval. Be Not Content is filled with warmth and empathy, tragic at times, and very funny in spots, a wastrel masterpiece where laughter plays counterpoint against the oboes of doom. A mystical underground masterpiece that’s been unobtainable for years.”
UNTIL NOW! Rudy Rucker’s Transreal Books has released Be Not Content as an ebook.
My most painful memory, aside from every time I ever hurt you, is of letting go of my used copy of this book. I had a hunch it was an important book but otherwise I didn’t know anything about it.
Now I will finally read it.
I am at Dell’s big summit with Michael Dell in Copenhagen. Here we learn how to say “shut up bitch” and that women don’t belong in tech.
A fast-spreading plague of “super weeds” taking over U.S. farmland will not be stopped easily, and farmers and government officials need to change existing practices if food production is to be protected, industry experts said on Thursday.
daniel sinker: Where the Wild Things Were
My favorite moments in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are are not the beautiful scenes of the wild rumpus, so vivid and alive. Instead, I’ve always been partial to the quiet moments at the start of the book, where Max’s room slowly transforms into the jungle and endless sea that leads…
Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, ‘Dear Jim: I loved your card’. Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, ‘Jim loved your card so much he ate it’… That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it
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(via PAPERMAG - RIP Maurice Sendak: A Look Back At His Illustrations That Scared Us Most)
Childhood is cannibals and psychotics vomiting in your mouth!
What civilization is, is 6 billion people trying to make themselves happy by standing on each other’s shoulders and kicking each other’s teeth in. It’s not a pleasant situation. And yet, you can stand back and look at this planet and see that we have the money, the power, the medical understanding, the scientific know-how, the love and the community to produce a kind of human paradise. But we are led by the least among us — the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary — we are led by the least among us — and we do not fight back against the dehumanizing values that are handed down as control icons.
is this all what it lead up to? come out the gate rowdy and fightin’….and then gain spiritual enlightenment down the line? the same guy who had “twin sisters in the bed” was now offering women (wives, mothers, & sisters) love and respect to the end.
I drove a lot of famous musicians and speakers to & from the Cleveland airport over my college career, but I literally lost my head driving Adam Yauch down 480 back to Oberlin.
Damn, man. It’s well after 2am in somebody’s living room on a warm spring evening in 1995, and there’s a beer in my hand and a joint’s just coming around again, and that swirling sound in the mix at 2:45 of “Something’s Got To Give” (right after Yauch gleefully takes a sledgehammer to a handgun in the video) sounds like a helicopter taking off, bound for some funkier and more peaceful universe. And for a blissful half a minute, I’m on it. Feel like I just switched from one chapter in life to another here. This isn’t Cobain’s suicide, this is the grim hammer of inevitable mortality or something. Damn.
Next time you get a Lionel Richie record instead of ours, keep it. He’s the shit.
What is being proposed, in effect, is ‘charterizing’ the whole district, when there is a lot of evidence that at best [charters] have no positive effect on student achievement, and there is a lot of evidence they cost more. Charters in many instances, in Philadelphia and elsewhere, have served private interests — sometimes of public officials.
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I like taking a thing that everyone is used to and making them see it again.
(via Million Dollar Babies - The Morning News)
There is in fact no distinction between the fate of the land and the fate of the people. When one is abused, the other suffers. The penalties may come quickly to a farmer who destroys perennial cover on a sloping field. They will come sooner or later to a land-destroying civilization such as ours.
I can’t imagine I have to explain this to anyone in 2012, but if you find yourself putting brown makeup on a white person in 2012 so they can do a bad “funny” accent in order to sell potato chips, you are on the wrong course. Make some different decisions.
What really strikes me about this whole NYtimes exercise is how shitty it is. It effectively ignores decades and decades of academic debate on the subject. The fact that they included an essay on lab-grown meat, which doesn’t even address the philosophy or ethics of it at all, and is scientifically dishonest, really reveals that the Nytimes doesn’t know how to curate quality anymore.
A small, attentive child, in a stroller on some Brooklyn playground or Minneapolis street, is already recording the stray images and sounds of this era: Michelle’s upper arms, the baritone crooning sound of NPR, people sipping lattes (which a later decade will know as poison) at 10 A.M.—manners as strange and beautiful as smoking in restaurants and drinking Scotch at 3 P.M. seem to us.
Animals in nature move nutrients uphill, against the natural gravitational flow from high ground to low ground. This is why low lands and valleys are fertile and the uplands are less so. Animals are the only mechanism nature has to defy this natural downward flow. Fortunately, predators make the prey animals want to lounge on high ground (where they can see their enemies), which ensures that manure will concentrate on high look-out spots rather than in the valleys.
Researchers found that most feather-meal samples contained caffeine. It turns out that chickens are sometimes fed coffee pulp and green tea powder to keep them awake so that they can spend more time eating.
Since Carter, the man he shot dead on 34th Street and 5th Avenue, was a negro, Plitt was at first not held. But he is now in custody.
— Teju Cole (@tejucole) April 3, 2012
That’s from April 2 1912. History’s laughing so hard at us, its sides hurt.
— Teju Cole (@tejucole) April 3, 2012
The disastrous thing about advertising on the internet is that you know which ads work and how well, and you know what content gets the most hits. This creates a race to the bottom which is inimical to creativity and cool.
Often times, a writer uses tricks and exaggerations to convey to a reader the spirit — if not the precise truth — of what occurred. I just want to make clear that when I say that one of my friends was actually on the verge of tears, you understand that this is not such a trick. She was horrified to the point of crying.
I ate the vomlet!" he yelled. "I made other pledges eat it! That’s brotherhood!
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"What you’re looking at is the simplest thing in the world: an oyster shell filled with olive oil and balanced in a small dish of sand. Three pieces of cotton string are lying in the oil with their ends poking just a little way off the side of the shell. Those are the wicks. This is a shell lamp. This is perhaps what the first lamp ever looked like. At the very least, this is a fundamental human technology." (via Root Simple: The World’s First Lamp)
Now you’re talking. I think a lot about Serena. I do. I collect photos of Serena. She’s just a total, super-Amazon. What more can you say? Of course, she’s also a Jehovah’s Witness. Yeah, people have said to me, ‘Hey, I can arrange for you to meet Serena.’ But I have nothing to say to her. I’m not interested in tennis, and I can’t really abide that Jehovah’s Witness nonsense. You know, there’d be no grounds for anything to talk about. So I just have to admire her from a distance. But God, what a butt, as you well know.
These people are MAD that the girl that they cried over while reading the book was “some black girl” all along.
He didn’t just retweet content without comment but vetted it, asking for confirmation, sourcing, more details, playing his followers against each other as if he were an assigning editor of an incorporeal newsroom. He became a dogged beat reporter, far removed from the scene but covering it at all hours, exposing his messy and complicated process for all to see.
All this emphasis on clothing as a motive for murder is just a smokescreen for sidestepping the real issue, which is that bigots shouldn’t be allowed to have hand guns. In fact, since you can’t hunt deer with a hand gun and most owners of a hand gun are not reservists in the National Guard of their state, it is unclear why the US tolerates so many hand guns. In countries like Britain, which do not, the murder rate by gun is vanishingly small compared to the annual carnage in the US.
Publishing for mobile demands new tools and processes. As with zines and blogs, lowering the barrier to entry will encourage new authors and forms to flourish without losing the open ethos that is central to the spirit of the Web.
All the nipples on view in the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
via @TMNheadlines
It really is true that the American government and its media jointly terrorize the American people far more than the actual so-called “Terrorists” could even dream of achieving.
How To Talk To Young Black Boys About Treyvon Martin
“Eight talking points about the potentially fatal condition of being Black” by Touré
I wonder if doctors are losing their legitimacy now in a way similar to the other authority figures in our culture: the political leaders, the bankers economists, the business executives.
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(via All Major News Outlets Cover Trayvon Martin Tragedy, Except Fox News | ThinkProgress)
If you love hip-hop, or even are interested in music history, find some time to watch this great documentary. This is the Life - How The West Was Won is about The Good Life which was the legendary cafe where so many LA rappers got their start in the 90’s. Most folks know about Freestyle Fellowship and Project Blowed and some of the folks who went on to mass commercial success, but you can see so much more of what was happening in this documentary.
Medusa and SIN. Fat Joe getting booed off the stage. Ganja K. Cut Chemist. 2Mex. Charli 2Na. Amazing, magical stuff happening in a tiny little grocery store in South Central.
(Aceyalone is in my top 5 best emcees of all time, and he isn’t in this very much, but there are some scenes of him freestyling in the parking lot that are pretty amazing.)
Most of the conversation that once took place daily on blogs now takes place on your Facebook and Twitter accounts. To try and fight that trend is a losing proposition. Almost all prominent blogs are now corporatized with actual budgets, so continuing to play in that shrinking sandbox doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
I couldn’t even get my own teenage daughter to look at Google+ twice, ‘social isn’t a product,’ she told me after I gave her a demo, ‘social is people and the people are on Facebook.’
Much of the history of Black people, particularly our intimate history as shown in The Black Vernacular, is still unseen and unexplored.
Most of our competitors are interesting in doing something different, or want to appear new — I think those are completely the wrong goals. A product has to be genuinely better.
The results speak for themselves. My students not only understand Hamlet, they love it. They talk about it in the hall, and other teachers ask me about what’s happening on Twitter. My quiz grades have been higher than any in the past twelve years of teaching this piece.
Seeds that might not even be marketable now, 100 years from now might be the ace in the hole we need to figure out some kind of climatic conditions we can’t even perceive right now.
In case you missed it, the Attorney General of the United States spent a little time yesterday discussing the circumstances under which the President could order your death without having a trial or even having charged you with any crime.
What we’ve seen documented through more than fifty years of experimentation in New York City is that we cannot effectively create public spaces in places that are owned by a company. Yet, we’re increasingly ceding our public discourse to platforms and services which exactly mimic the traits of our sterile captive atria in the physical world.
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The ESPN employee responsible for our Mobile headline has been dismissed.
The ESPNEWS anchor has been suspended for 30 days.
Late to this (and who cares about Jeremy Lin anymore?) but one of the unsurprising but still fucked-up outcomes of the ESPN flap over “Chink in the Armor” is that the web lackey who put the headline out on the site got fired, but the on-air personality who said it gets a 30-day suspension.
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Actually Governor Romney, what you just said is completely incorrect… This is NPR.
NPR has a new ethics handbook, which came out February 24th. Here’s the key part:
We report for our readers and listeners, not our sources. So our primary consideration when presenting the news is that we are fair to the truth. If our sources try to mislead us or put a false spin on the information they give us, we tell our audience. If the balance of evidence in a matter of controversy weighs heavily on one side, we acknowledge it in our reports.
Fair to the truth. It’s already started to have an effect. This is from an NPR report on Feb. 27 about the auto bailouts and the Republican candidates.
NPR REPORTER: Mitt Romney, son of former American Motors CEO George Romney, criticized President Barack Obama’s handling of the bailout.
MITT ROMNEY: Instead of going through the normal managed bankruptcy process, he made sure the bankruptcy process ended up with the UAW taking the lion’s share of the equity in the business.
NPR REPORTER: Actually, the U.S. Treasury got most of GM’s equity.
Such a simple word: “Actually….” And now it has a chance to become standard practice at NPR.
For more on this, see my post: NPR Tries to Get its Pressthink Right
(Photo by Matthew Reichbach. Creative Commons License.)
There is a counterpart to you in China who is looking at the iPhone and approving of the fact that its hardware is made in China, but disapproving of the fact that its software is made in California, where there is a racist government, hundreds of thousands of innocent people in jail, and where people die routinely because they don’t have basic medical care. Too bad for that guy also. He has no control over California, its laws, or its problems, in the exact same way that you have no control over China, its laws, or its problems. Same for Tim Cook. He has a lot of corporate power, but it is still illegal for him to get married in California in spite of all that. He can’t wave a magic wand and fix California, let alone fix China. It is a fact of life that a modern computing device will have software from Silicon Valley and hardware from Shenzhen because those are the places where software and hardware are made.
…It was the first time I ever felt like a non-outsider in my own country and where my race was never a consideration to who I was as a person. It dawned on me that this is what white people must get to feel like all the time. It’s not a bad feeling. I highly recommend it!!! A+++
“There is no undo."
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(Beautiful Mosaics of Trees Photographed Across Time via PetaPixel as promised)
Safari users with the browser set to block third-party cookies thought they were not being tracked. Nonetheless, DoubleClick was able to set tracking cookies in an obvious violation of the set preference.
Google Sued by Apple Safari User Who Says Privacy Intruded on Web Browser - Bloomberg
Everything I want to say about this makes me sound like a crank.
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(via Inside and on Top of the Divine Lorraine with Lies and Get Up « Streets Dept)
I was not dressed like a parking valet; I was wearing a suit coat and a nice shirt and carrying my own laptop bag. And I wasn’t standing behind the valet stand. But that white lady was not getting served fast enough. She just looked for the first available brown person.
I don’t really think anything Microsoft does puts pressure on Apple.
Apple CEO Tim Cook talking to Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Vascellaro about the new OS X Mountain Lion.
Times change.
(via parislemon)
Google Tracked iPhones, Bypassing Apple Browser Privacy Settings - WSJ.com
Click on ‘interactive graphics’ for a look at how Google intentionally circumvents users’ privacy settings to track their web activity. Immoral? Yes. “Profoundly immoral”? I guess that’s arguable, but is it possible anymore to hope that Google is inculcating respect for users across their organization? No. Update: Apparently Siegler and Battelle are taking the position that privacy settings should be treated as just a suggestion or disregarded entirely in the spirit of good old-fashioned ingenuity. Unbelievable.
Target can buy data about your ethnicity, job history, the magazines you read, if you’ve ever declared bankruptcy or got divorced, the year you bought (or lost) your house, where you went to college, what kinds of topics you talk about online, whether you prefer certain brands of coffee, paper towels, cereal or applesauce, your political leanings, reading habits, charitable giving and the number of cars you own.
Usually, a breakthrough that can radically improve national health and has strong biomechanical science behind it is welcomed as “promising” and “exciting.” So why is running form different? Because if you strip Lieberman’s work down to raw essentials, you come up with a single hard truth: cushioned running shoes are a fraud. They don’t help, they probably hurt, and the billions of dollars that are made every year by selling and promoting them are cashing in on your pain. With that mountain of money at stake, a tremendous amount of effort has been made to create the false impression that cushioned shoes are a safety item, like bike helmets and seat belts. It’s not easy to reverse a misconception like that, especially when it’s such a cash machine for everyone who makes, sells, and “reviews” running shoes.
Ugh, just when I venture to pay some attention to Dave Winer, he chooses to bring the sexism back. Forget it.
“I work in an I.T recycle center. We have stacks of abandoned Apple G5 Macs” - Ian Lee
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"Here is Lincoln as he was, his eyes weary, his forehead wrinkled, wearing an expression, wrote a poet, of ‘deep latent sadness.’ But Gardner also captures something else. An eyebrow, arched. An upturned lip. The faintest hint of a smile." (BARACK OBAMA, Perfecting Our Union via The Atlantic)
Nobody wants to think about the poet at the water cooler, or, even worse, pouring over actuarial tables.
I do not agree that I, the consumer am responsible for creating the working conditions in Chinese factories simply because I decide to purchase a product that happens to be made in China.
These articles get the neighborhood’s evolution precisely backwards. Park Slope was initially gentrified in the 1970s and ’80s by families like mine that moved there for more space than they could afford in Manhattan or Brooklyn Heights, often to raise children. There were stores selling toys and books for children and babies long before there were trendy bars, clubs or restaurants.
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Art History Through Sci Fi-Colored Glasses | Tor.com via djacobs’ shk
I’d like to raise both of my middle fingers to him and anyone who thinks profanity is somehow more harmful to our children than images of violence and misogyny.
I was living in South Slope four years ago, and it was already known as the stroller district.
This position is genuinely puzzling. There were too many yuppies and too many strollers in the neighborhood when we lived there fourteen years ago. #humbleblog
Photo Exhibition Features Self-Portraits Found on Apple Store Devices
I cannot figure this out, though: WHAT ARE THOSE OTHER YELLOW CREATURES IN THE FIELD WITH THE COW????
What’s the right way to protest TODAY?
- Don’t delete your Facebook account. Deleting your account just makes you look like a weirdo in today’s world. Dave Winer has that luxury, but most of us don’t.
- Make ALL data on your Facebook account PUBLIC. Most technologists have done the opposite. To the point where if you aren’t friends with most geeks you can’t even see ANYTHING on their account. That isn’t helping the commons.
- Work to figure out how to get our data OUT of Facebook, Google , and Amazon and back into the commons.
It’s too late for Dave Winer and John Battelle to save the common web — Scobleizer
In other words, “Mr. Zuckerberg, tear down this wall.” Now I’m listening with interest to both Dave Winer and Robert Scoble. What have we come to?
People who argue that it’s a realistic movie are incorrect: the men of Jackson, Miss., would have killed several of these maids. The happy ending we get — Viola Davis’ Aibileen walking home unharmed as the screen fades to black — is fraudulent and so surreally absurd as to be Dalí-esque.
'The Help': Loathsome Movie Renews 'Magical Negro' Role
I’ll admit to knowing as little as culturally possible about this book & movie, but I do want to promote the occasional positive impact it has, such as this outstanding essay.
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I’ve submitted one of my Occupy Wall Street posters to Threadless. Would you give it a vote? http://www.threadless.com/submission/397309/When_in_Riot_Gear
If it’s selected for printing, I will donate the proceeds to the National Lawyers Guild for OWS defense.
I think that all social apps really strive to put people (and their work) at the center of the product, but very few succeed.
Now we were supposed to come up with a groundbreaking literary anthology representing a cornucopia of online talent, a new scene bursting with originality and genius. Genius? The literary web was two years old. Who exactly were the hot online writers of 1996?
When everything flows through a few company’s servers, Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Amazon, and a few others — it’s much easier to shut things down. And it’s also possible to shut things down without anyone knowing. And it’s possible to shut things down with no possible recourse. This is an unacceptably dangerous situation.
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(via "Cake Decorations" Wrapping paper | Marian Bantjes)
Clicking the like button 1 billion times will never give you an orgasm or a hug or a high five.
Grab a coffee, sit back and really enjoy one of the most fascinating patent applications to have surfaced in some time.
Under this new deal, pirated movies remain free of charge, free of non-skippable ads, free of five-minute load times, and are now nearly three months ahead of the competition.
At this point I can no longer postpone the actual copy. So I go home and sit down at my desk. I find myself entirely without ideas.
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Several studies have shown that optimal muscle-tendon efficiency occurs when the muscle stays approximately the same length while the tendon lengthens. When the tendon lengthens, it stores elastic energy and later returns it when the foot pushes off the ground. Tendons are more effective springs than muscles.
Therein lies the problem of being a professional black storyteller– writer, musician, filmmaker. Being black is like serving as Hoke, the driver in “Driving Miss Daisy,” except it’s a kind of TV series lasts the rest of your life: You get to drive the well-meaning boss to and fro, you love that boss, your lives are stitched together, but only when the boss decides your story intersects with his or her life is your story valid.
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“‘It’s hard to stand all day,’ said Zhao Sheng, a plant worker.”
(This is the best YouTube video ID I’ve ever seen)
Study finds no biological cause for #Morgellons syndrome. (Joni Mitchell claims to have this.) bit.ly/wauPZY
— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) January 26, 2012
Shocking acts of cultural preservation and repair
Mr. Chase blogs about math
Good luck holding out for that Organic Sustainable Craft Underwear for Puppies Shop.
Critics often describe Legend of Zelda games as classic Hero Journeys in the tradition of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey. While it’s easy to find connections here — the call to adventure, supernatural aid, descent to underworld, etc. — I see more resonance in Zelda’s connections to Japanese folklore and, especially, the series’ deep roots in Shintoism.
Long-term there’s no future in printed books. They’ll be like vinyl: pricey and for collectors only. 95% of people will read digitally. Everybody in publishing knows this but most are in denial about it because moving to becoming a digital company means laying off like 40% of our staffs. And the barriers to entry fall, too. We simply don’t want to think about it.
The constant celebration of excess — must we all aspire to twelve kinds of twine? — is more than I can stand.
Are you getting the picture here? If you decide to NOT play on Google+, you will, in essence, be devalued in Google search, at least for the percentage of people who are logged in whilst using Google. This strikes me as wrong.
Why don’t infants signal hunger quietly with spirit fingers or jazz hands?
Mammals Suck… Milk!: Why Breast-Fed Babies Cry More
I sincerely hate to fan the flames here: nobody wins when mothers whose best option is formula are made to feel guilty. But in the spirit of scientific inquiry I find this issue fascinating. Plus, that quote is fucking funny. If for some reason you’re still reading, I’ll share that this article has renewed my interest in the science behind elimination communication.
Three years ago, a TFA recruiter plastered the Fordham campus with flyers that said “Learn how joining TFA can help you gain admission to Stanford Business School.” The message of that flyer was “use teaching in high-poverty areas a stepping stone to a career in business.” It was not only profoundly disrespectful to every person who chooses to commit their life to the teaching profession, it advocated using students in high-poverty areas as guinea pigs for an experiment in “resume-padding” for ambitious young people.
Google is going to face legal scrutiny over their actions, likely sooner rather than later. But at best, this will drag on for years and end with Google getting a slap on the wrist (though in Europe it may be more like a punch in the stomach). The end will still justify the means — Google will be better positioned to compete with Facebook as a result of their actions.
But that doesn’t make them right.
It was all Steve’s stuff, but he was just a year and a half too early.
The things we own are more than ever like props, the clothes we wear like costumes, the places where we live, dine, shop, and vacation like stage sets.
Maybe you’ve seen the talk about iOS multitasking and misconceptions about how it works. I agree it’s not helpful to have Apple Geniuses teaching novice users how to remove apps from the app switcher. But apps do get stuck from time to time, and this can screw up device performance until it’s dealt with. Telling people, “forget it, don’t worry about the multitasking bar” doesn’t help someone who is dealing with a poorly-behaved app.
So what should we tell them instead? As Apple suggests in iOS: Understanding multitasking, before forcing apps to quit, just restart your device.
(Just a hunch, but I bet the folks protesting that there’s no need to manage apps under iOS are extraordinarily picky about the number, type, and quality of apps they run on their devices. They probably run shoddy, problem-prone apps far less often than the folks who show up at Genius Bars frustrated with their iPhones and looking for advice.)
Holy crap this thread is positively SOAKED in White Woman’s Tears.
(via http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/questlove-explains-little-brothers-beat/1376498/)
"Scientifically, this is one of the most intricate hip hop songs ever crafted." See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o64jxUjlzYg and I confess I’ve been asleep.
UPDATE not sure why the video’s not working for me. Click through if you can’t watch it here. Questlove’s reverence for J Dilla’s work is vibrant.
Piracy is a special form of stealing committed on the high seas. It involves rolling up to a boat, and taking stuff away from the occupants of the boat. Nobody has ever been killed downloading an authorized copy of a Katy Perry song.
Piracy Is a Form of Theft, and Copyright Infringement Is Neither
Disheartened that it’s 2012 and this is still a relevant point to make. Growing up involves losing faith in the ability of others to grow.
It was awesome to see flying cars, blimps, weird stoplights, people eating noodles outside, and a woman in a fur coat in the rain all within the span of a minute.
Seriously: Who Killed It: Why The Roots' “Undun” Is My Album Of The Year
Touré has released his pick for Hip-Hop album of the year, and it’s undun. When I saw this review finally written, I got really happy for a moment; Touré is a great music critic, a great writer, and his endorsement seems really meaningful. So many blockbuster releases this year are getting…
I’ve been enamored with body modifications that have utilitarian value.
THERE IS SO MUCH TO LIKE ABOUT THIS POST
Weetzie’s heart felt so full of love, so full, as if it could hardly fit in her chest.
Weetzie Bat: The Book For Girls Who Ended Up Taking A Gay Dude To Prom
Holy shit, remember Weetzie Bat?
What you’ve actually made, when you have an internet-connected device that can both send and receive 3D-printed objects, is a teleporter.
I just ate 272% of my recommended daily amount of saturated fat — and it’s only breakfast!
Let me tell you, this guy has a fridge full of butter — he probably had eight different kinds of grass-fed butter. Naturally, we got them all out and just ate butter for awhile…RIGHT FROM THE STICK. It was glorious.
A good old-fashioned butter tasting | Hunter-Gatherer
randomWalks is a blog about butter.
At the time I craved sugar so much that if I went to a friend’s house to spend the night, and she didn’t have anything sugary when I got there, I would have to go back out and go to the convenience store and get something, since it was like torture to go through a night without it. I had these bizarre alcoholism-esque behaviors around it.
Quadron kind of slaying Lauryn Hill’s Ex-Factor.
Holy GAH people, holy.gah.
So good.
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(via aaron hobson || c i n e m a s c a p e s) (VIA PETAPIXEL, WHAT)
Cult Unreleased Game ‘Desert Bus’ Ported to iOS in the Name of Charity | Touch Arcade
I can’t believe I missed this! I knew I missed something!
Someone once asked Allen Ginsberg how one becomes a prophet, and he simply replied, “Tell your secrets.”
Rather than urging people to consume only plants, doesn’t it make more sense to encourage them to eat an omnivorous diet that is healthy, ethical, and ecologically sound?
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P101111CK-0186 (by The White House)
Fantastic, but my favorite thing about this picture is the Chucks.
But, if no one’s gonna write on their Tumblr, well:
Seriously: The Roots and undun
I really love The Roots and Black Thought is one of my favorite MC’s. I haven’t purchased undun yet but I’ve been listening to it and it really is great and interesting and fulfilling. If you haven’t yet, please go buy it or listen to it or experience it.
This article in Capital is; fun to read,…
FYI – i know a forbes.com (salaried) journalist, and he has informed me that their bloggers do not get edited, and that they are paid based upon clicks to their posts. stop paying this guy. do not click the link, if you can help it.
I would not say this thread is “great” since no one is responding—besides you and my son! But you bring up a good point.
FIND IDEA THAT BURN, GRAB WITH BOTH HANDS, NEVER LET GO. THAT HOW MAKE FIRE.
Am I really that close with you? Should we actually be connected here?
Yep, Path is the first social app I’ve used that made me think I could really get more out of it by having less friends. I think that reflects some deeply smart design!
The price that fair-minded readers WANT to buy digital comics at is starkly different from what they are currently set at.
brianwood: The digital question mark
Dear comics industry, I stopped buying print comics right around 1990, but I literally yearn to buy digital comics at the right price. I am certain that, for every person buying your printed books weekly, there are on the order of 100 of us wishing it were just a bit more convenient and affordable to pick the comics habit back up. Please get this right before too many creators give up on the medium! Sincerely, Adam
“Bottom line: if Notification Center is on top, it shouldn’t use dark linen; if it uses dark linen, it should be at layer zero, underneath.”—
In the spirit of consistent skeuomorphism, I like to think of Notification Center as the flat sheet to layer zero’s fitted sheet.
I like to think: “What the fuck are you all on about? Nobody’s making mental models of OS texture topology, I guarantee you. Nobody but you.”
jimn:
http://wrttn.in/04af1a (via @kellan, via @Finn)
Books that will induce a mindfuck
(remember Everything2?)
Occupy Wall Street’s anarchist roots - Opinion - Al Jazeera English via wood s lot
When it comes to their most basic political sensibilities, most Americans are deeply conflicted. Most combine a deep reverence for individual freedom with a near-worshipful identification with institutions like the army and police. Most combine an enthusiasm for markets with a hatred of capitalists. Most are simultaneously profoundly egalitarian, and deeply racist. Few are actual anarchists; few even know what “anarchism” means; it’s not clear how many, if they did learn, would ultimately wish to discard the state and capitalism entirely. Anarchism is much more than simply grassroots democracy: It ultimately aims to eliminate all social relations, from wage labour to patriarchy, that can only be maintained by the systematic threat of force.
But one thing overwhelming numbers of Americans do feel is that something is terribly wrong with their country, that its key institutions are controlled by an arrogant elite, that radical change of some kind is long since overdue. They’re right. It’s hard to imagine a political system so systematically corrupt - one where bribery, on every level, has not only been made legal, but soliciting and dispensing bribes has become the full-time occupation of every American politician. The outrage is appropriate. The problem is that up until September 17, the only side of the spectrum willing to propose radical solutions of any sort was the Right.
As the history of the past movements all make clear, nothing terrifies those running the US more than the danger of democracy breaking out.
But, does it really matter, the City is stalled, growth is negative and the only thing moving at Canary Wharf will be tumble weeds past banks of empty desks and MD’s PAs in a hooped ear ring frenzy at Accessorize.
You will always be employable if you know how to do this | News | www.eFinancialCareers.co.uk
I may not know what it means, but I know poetry when I see it.
I’d like to see the bootstrappers, the tiny service businesses doing great stuff for their clients, the parents combining business with a successful and happy family life, the small companies treating their employees with kindness and compassion held up as great examples – not those who think sleeping under their desk makes them better than the rest of us.
Agreed. Working on that now!
Startups, lack of sleep, and finding better ways to do business « this is rachelandrew.co.uk
(via ambienttraffic)
I guess if I’m honest about it, I often feel like Slashdot never got the fair credit it deserved. As “Blogging” became a mainstream buzzword that you’d hear about on CNN, Slashdot simply got lost in the history.
Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda – interviewed by Matt Haughey
Slashdot was a huge inspiration to me when I started blogging in 1999.
Amadi Talks: Siri Failures, Illustrated
The recent illustrations of Siri, the iPhone 4S voice-recognition based assistant, failing to provide information to users about abortion, birth control, help after rape and help with domestic violence has gotten a lot of notice. Yesterday’s post with screenshots…
Shig Murao: The Enigmatic Soul of City Lights and the San Francisco Beat Scene
The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process.
No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks.
No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.
When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them.
Blacks are not seeing anything new for themselves in the movement. Why should they ally with whites who are just now experiencing the hardships that blacks have known for generations? Perhaps white Americans are now paying the psychic price for not answering the basic questions that blacks have long raised about income inequality.
Nils Dagsson Moskopp: WHATWG on Google+
Welcome to the new web, a web without RSS or ATOM feeds. A web you cannot easily read without JavaScript because somewhere in the page header there is a “<style> body { visibility: hidden; } ” later getting unset by a script that the platform owners want you to run.
A web where re-sharing of content is limited by the platform, not by the capabilities of your client. A web where you cannot comment on an article unless registering in a corporate namespace (which kicked you out if you happened to choose a name they do not particularly like).
A web that lies – about content not existing, giving error 404 when you have no authorization instead of informing you correctly (just try https://plus.google.com/115888683480056819656/posts/XrcLaUMViJP).
update
My Dad called to tell me my site was blank. It was, because I hadn’t properly escaped the script tags in this piece about how sites like Facebook and Google Plus are breaking the web. Ironic, don’t you think?
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(via Como crear un lente soratama – Pixel Análogo)
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The New York Times is doing some interesting work around the “Shrinking Middle Class.” This piece demonstrates the shift away from middle-income and shows the exit of money from the city to the suburbs, and the increase in both affluent and poor neighborhoods at the expense of middle-income.
The NYTimes piece doesn’t animate the shift and it really bothered me because a graphic like this should so obviously be an animation. So I made one myself. (Dark green is most affluent, dark purple is the most poor.)
Philadelphia county becomes markedly more purple in 40 years. Notice also that almost no regions show any reversal of trends — green gets greener, or purple gets purpler.
It is extremely easy for systems to become biased, even if none of the individual people in those systems intends to be biased. This is partly a cognitive problem, that people harbor unconscious bias, and partly an organizational problem, that even a collection of unbiased actors can work together to accidentally create a biased system. And when those systems are examined scientifically, they can be reformed to reduce their bias.
By breeding the fat out of turkeys and pigs, we have bred our own ignorance into other species.
This is worth watching through the 3m mark.
It not about rich people having more money. It about how they got money. It about how they take opportunity away from rest of us, for sake of having more money. It how they willing to take risks that destroy economy — knowing full well what could and would happen — putting millions out of work, while creating nothing of value, and all the while crowing that they John Galt, creating wealth for everyone.
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Stanley Donwood. (Source.) Download PDF.
Authorities have long claimed that they were merely battling the “black bloc” of violent anarchists. But when you look at all these videos, the bogeyman isn’t there. Instead, it’s a dozen scared kids and a police officer named John Pike spraying them in the face from three feet away. And while it’s his finger pulling the trigger, the police system is what put him in the position to be standing in front of those students. I am sure that he is a man like me, and he didn’t become a cop to shoot history majors with pepper spray. But the current policing paradigm requires that students get shot in the eyes with a chemical weapon if they resist, however peaceably. Someone has to do it.
I had been writing very short summaries (usually 3 or 4 sentences) and then tweeting the links to the sources of the stories (New York Times, AdAge.com, etc.) rather than back to Poynter. Julie wanted our thousands of Twitter followers to stop by Poynter’s site, then decide whether to check out the original story.
» How I ended up leaving Poynter JIMROMENESKO.COM
I nearly missed this whole thing, but: how utterly inane! Is this what Poynter stands for? Manipulating people for pageviews has nothing to do with excellent journalism, ethics, or new media skills.
Here is your library, more or less intact. We will give it back if you hand over your collective future without argument. Just leave it in the trashcan on the corner of Wall Street.
It’s true that iTunes Match is offering matched tracks for artists it doesn’t officially sell in its catalog—AC/DC among them.
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(via Why did the ‘New Yorker’ reject this R. Crumb cover?)
Unmasking an anti-Mac blogger may not be life-changing, but if you’re an anonymous blogger writing about Chinese censorship or Mexican drug cartels, the consequences could be dire.
Once the foot soldiers who are ordered to carry out acts of repression, such as the clearing of parks or arresting or even shooting demonstrators, no longer obey orders, the old regime swiftly crumbles.
Who shovels Bank of America’s snow? We do. Who hauled away the tree that fell in Bank of America’s yard? We did. But there are only so many hours and dollars we can invest in maintaing the Bank of America’s house.
ThinkUp 1.0 and Software With Purpose
anil:
Today, ThinkUp is out of beta and available for free. If you have a presence on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ and know how to run a PHP/MySQL app on a web server (or on EC2), you should…
This is a found poem comprised of actual reminders my iPhone has created for me using the Siri speech recognition feature. I’m going to miss this silliness when the speech recognition improves.
It would be so easy to say, ‘Well I’m going to retire, I’m going to sit around, watch television or eat bonbons,’ but somebody’s got to keep ’em awake and let ’em know what is really going on in this world.
If “young, white, geeky, and Stanford/Harvard/MIT dropout”, then “invest”, is a kind of mental shortcut that is anything but objective. This is mirror-tocracy not meritocracy.
“A rodent obesity epidemic might be affecting human health."
“Without toys or exercise wheels to distract them, the mice are left with nothing to do but eat and sleep—and then eat some more. That such a lifestyle would make rodents unhealthy, and thus of limited use for research, may seem obvious, but the problem appears to be so flagrant and widespread that few scientists bother to consider it. “
Here is the TEDx Talk I gave at Hampshire College, “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race”
I just noticed last week that Google Maps knew the location of my laptop computer, even though I had never told it where I was. After a bit of sleuthing, it turns out that Google probably got this information when a someone with an Android phone visited. The phone sniffed my WiFi ports, read the GPS location, and reported this back to Google location services. They did this without my knowledge, and without my permission.
It has to be the most disingenuous opt-out functionality ever. Google might as well make people solve calculus problems to opt-out.
Parents are being asked to teach their children that it’s not just acceptable, but often necessary, to lie on the Internet.
The most overlooked film in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors trilogy is actually the best.
The most fundamental thing about the experience of sound, that it is a vibration of air or other medium, that animals developed to sense goings-on in their environment, is now optional.
Our version of a perfect customer experience is one in which our customer doesn’t want to talk to us.
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Hiking (Taken with instagram)
Collective action is huge; people agreeing across time and space to do things that matter to them is a phenomenon that we’ve only glimpsed and imagined up to now. Peer-to-peer initiative is the next step past conversation and agreement. It’s true change, and it’s successful the first moment it occurs. Whether or not the banks care about it in this particular example is irrelevant. If people can unite to do one thing, they can and will organize to do something else. Again and again.
Protest is transformative precisely because people emerge, encounter one another face-to-face, and, in re-learning the habits of freedom, build new institutions, relationships and organisations.
When the rain has wet the kite and twine, so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it stream out plentifully from the key on the approach of your knuckle.
The great accomplishment of Jobs’s life is how effectively he put his idiosyncrasies—his petulance, his narcissism, and his rudeness—in the service of perfection.
If only we’d had the courage to respond to terrorism with a steadfast unwillingness to be terrorized. If only we’d recognized the trap we were being led into. But we didn’t. Now America is a parody of what it was that day 10 years ago.
“@danfrakes: Siri Reminders syntax: http://t.co/EYZOOVRy” So simple & powerful!
My weblog is an old school blog, a public diary of things that personally interest me.
Your behavior is affecting the normal operations of the IKEA cafeteria. Frequent fights and arguments do serious harm to the image both of Shanghai residents and IKEA.
RT @a_butler: Is there a Twitter personality with more followers than @buzzbissinger who still uses an egg avatar? http://t.co/HmmhhoAB
Actual human beings are not going to use this new Google Reader any more than they used the old version.
Imagine how great it would have been if they had a real cameraman. But instead you get all the bonehead mistakes of the amateur. There are no establishing shots, the camera is always jiggling, and none of them had a particularly good eye.
Plots from the unaired 8th season of Star Trek: The Next Generation
It’s as if whoever made the update did so without ever actually using the product to, you know, read something.
RT @melissamcewen: Does your Fage Total greek yogurt have missing fat? http://t.co/HXbjE65C
Leary and Alpert fancy themselves prophets of a psychic revolution designed to free Western man from the limitations of consciousness as we know it. They are contemptuous of all organized systems of action—of what they call the “roles” and “games” of society. They prefer mystical ecstasy to the fulfillment available through work, politics, religion, and creative art. Yet like true revolutionaries they will play these games to further their own ends.
Erowid Stolaroff Collection : Andrew Weil’s 1963 Report on Harvard’s Firing of Richard Alpert
"Why hadn’t I read this article before? I tried to recall the last time that I’d searched through the microfiche collection at a library. I tried to remember the last time that I’d actually been to a library. Since my mind was not immediately serving up any answers to these questions, I typed the article’s title into a search engine: ‘Corporation Fires Richard Alpert For Giving Undergraduates Drugs’. Zero hits."
Fantastic work by Erowid surfacing & explicating this primary material! I’m as guilty as the next unread blogger of Internet boosterism, but perhaps we’ll learn to take a long view and identify some of these discontinuities before it’s too late.
RT @TypeTruck: Hey Philly: come on out to the Soapbox tonight, 6-9pm! http://t.co/9QcT6jMR
How Caitlin Curran lost her job over Occupy Wall Street
(via Waxy.org Links )
A better way to put it is that we’re trying to eat foods that are whole and unprocessed, and avoid those that are inflammatory or metabolically damaging.
I’m going to call the paleo diet portrayed in the media the PaleoStrawman diet. It contains only lean meat and non-starchy vegetables. The meat comes from factory farms. The latest place it has showed up on is NPR, where anthropologist Barbara King contends that it is not the way to a healthy future for the world. She says she has interacted with paleo dieters online and has read Paleo magazine, but it doesn’t show at all.
We need to de-normalize the fact that a clown is telling our children how to eat.
Hey all you guys here is a cheap way to build a computer.
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“Why would someone spend their limited leisure time shoveling horse-shit into a compost pile?” wonders Jason Mark, co-manager at San Francisco’s Alemany Farm, which hosts community workdays twice a week.
More and more, people are clamoring to join in the urban farming movement and get their hands dirty. There’s no doubt that urban gardening has graduated from fledgling trend to part of our cultural landscape, with vegetable gardens taking root everywhere from tiny backyards, to college campuses, to the White House grounds, to fire-escape terraces.
You can download CSV files with all the data you’ve generated in the Shoe Tracker.
Footage of Scott Olsen being shot by Police at Occupy Oakland (by Raleigh Latham)
Click Click: The Signs of the Google Reader Protest
OMG (via DCist )
We Are The…Whatever Percent Who Use Google Reader
(via DCist )
If drinking domestic beer was ironic, then drinking it unironically was bad and funny, and I’d only ever drunk it unironically, only ever knew people who did, which meant we were bad and funny; if I drank the PBR it wouldn’t be a joke somehow, they would know.
I paid good money for this and it’s full of ads?
So I said, “Wow, that’s a really good-looking 12-gauge.” And he said, “Would you like to fire it?” And I said, “Yeah, sure, I’ll fire it.” And he said, “Shit, man, we must build a bomb!”
(via Scripting News )
Just to be clear: They aren’t holding up signs that say “I want Bill O’Reilly’s stuff.” They aren’t holding up signs that say “I am animated by toxic levels of envy and entitlement.” They are holding up signs that are perfectly and intrinsically clear: They want accountability for the banks that took their money, they want to end corporate control of government. They want their jobs back. They would like to feed their children.
How OWS confuses and ignores Fox News and the pundit class. - Slate Magazine
As is sometimes the case, this is not the best paragraph in the article. Please follow the link and read the whole thing!
Occupy Wall Street: Outing The Ringers
Portrait Photos ‘Printed’ Onto Abandoned Buildings by Scratching Off Paint
(via PetaPixel )
Think about it: there have always been rich and poor people in America, so if this is about jealousy, why the protests now? The idea that masses of people suddenly discovered a deep-seated animus/envy toward the rich – after keeping it strategically hidden for decades – is crazy. Where was all that class hatred in the Reagan years, when openly dumping on the poor became fashionable? Where was it in the last two decades, when unions disappeared and CEO pay relative to median incomes started to triple and quadruple? The answer is, it was never there. If anything, just the opposite has been true. Americans for the most part love the rich, even the obnoxious rich.
This is a never-forget moment. The show’s provocative name holds a mirror up to an ugliness that seems to have become yesterday’s news without having barely even made news.
Why “Just Store the App Data on Dropbox” won’t work for RSS readers
(via inessential.com )
→ Google Reader and Mac/iOS RSS readers that sync
(via Marco.org )
This is just one reason why occupiers seem incompatible with current ideas about policy demands or right vs. left. They are not interested in debate (or what Enlightenment philosophers called “dialectic”) but consensus. They are working to upgrade that binary, winner-takes-all, 13th century political operating system. And like any software developer, they are learning to “release early and release often.”
Petition to Google: don't kill Google Reader
(via docs.google.com )
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(via Binary’s Forth Fugue - today and tomorrow)
The iPad calendar is something that you can show to people who have never seen an iPad before, and they don’t see a computer interface. They see a calendar.
And I realize, my God, I had forgotten, I had completely forgotten how unbelievably, inexplicably wonderful it is that any of us exist at all.
Current business plan:
Epic Portraits Done with Light Painting
(via PetaPixel )
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The real story in this TPM piece on Pat Buchanan isn’t his batshit crazy, white people are doomed, Jesus-mongery. Anyone who pays attention has been hearing the same exact things from Pat Buchanan for as long as he has been in the spotlight. In fact, he never even really used code-words to talk about race, he was always pretty straight up about his racism.
No, the story is that Pat Buchanan now wears hipster frames. He looks like Ira Glass’s crazy old uncle.
I’ve been trying to figure out why I hold a bit of disdain for the Occupy movement that is sweeping the nation and world.
When is drinking beer and eating fried chicken a chemistry-building exercise, and when is it a sign of flagging morale and defiance of managerial authority?
I can’t make it through the whole thing, but I bet it’s really good.
Let’s Ask iPhone’s Siri Some Questions About Baseball and the Boston Red Sox - The Triangle Blog
The total body of evidence suggests that attention should be shifted from the harmful effects of dietary saturated fats per se, to the prevention of the accumulation of saturated fats in body lipids. This shift would emphasise the importance of reducing dietary carbohydrates rather than reducing dietary saturated fats.
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(via The Amazing Light Painting Photography of Brian Hart)
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Jack Kerouac at Staten Island Ferry wharf, we used to wander night time docksides under Manhattan’s bridges & through truck parkinglots along East River singing rawbone blues, Leadbelly’s “Black Girl”, “Eli, Eli”, chanting Poe’s “Annabelle Lee” & shouting Hart Crane’s “O harp and altar of the fury fused”… and “Atlantis” to Brooklyn Bridge’s traffic spanned above. Time of his Doctor Sax and The Subterraneans—New York Fall 1953.
Caption and photo by Ginsberg.
Conventional Wisdom and the Lunatic Fringe
(via Evolutionary Psychiatry )
(via quid.pro )
Treating Health Care Like a Hackerspace
(via Holy Scrap )
(via Runblogger )
(via Design Milk )
What’s going on with Google Reader?
(via Scripting News )
Delen Memory Table by David Franklin
(via Design Milk )
(via Mike Went West )
(via Modcult )
I don’t care if Google wants Plus to get bigger, I care about me and my friends who seek to read and discuss the entire internet every day. Is there really no space for different kinds of people to form different kinds of social spaces in Google products?
A crew of four Hispanics can earn about $150 each by picking 250-300 boxes of tomatoes in a day, said Jerry Spencer, of Grow Alabama, which purchases and sells locally owned produce. A crew of 25 Americans recently picked 200 boxes — giving them each $24 for the day.
When I decided to take up hunting, my secret fear was that I would become callous toward animals. Surprise, surprise - the opposite happened. My respect for animals has grown exponentially, as has my love for them.
Everything you put in your body has behind it a ‘chain of trust’. This chain consists of everyone who touches it before it goes down your throat. Being a bit on the paranoid side myself, I believe the best way to be sure I am getting what I think I’m getting is to make that chain of trust as short as possible.
(via Undernews )
Upcoming changes to Reader: a new look, new Google+ features, and some clean-up
(via Official Google Reader Blog )
Google redesigning Reader, removing existing social features next week
(via Waxy.org Links )
“I have the feeling now that Jack has imaginged us…
(via Fuck Yeah, Allen Ginsberg. )
Such modcult material… (via The Generalist )
German theater group stages live-action, point-and-click adventure games
(via Waxy.org Links )
Because I know you needed it, internet, I made you this…
(via Seriously )
“The goal needs to shift from one of making a system that teaches children a curriculum more…"
(via ian spalter )
I’m often surprised that people aren’t talking about these issues all the time. But the reason seems clear enough. Our brains have evolved to deal with issues at our own scales: mates, rivers, apples, rabbits, and so on. Our brains simply weren’t built to understand the fabric of reality at the very small scales (quantum mechnics) or the very large (the cosmos). As Blaise Pascal put it, “Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.”
It gave a tremendous level of self-confidence, that through exploration and learning one could understand seemingly very complex things in one’s environment. My childhood was very fortunate in that way.
Anyway, last night, the conversation turned to replicator-generated human meat, as it will do.
"The big surprise for me is that Riker is my favorite."Mu shu dork. - Adventures in the Pointless Forest
I will refrain from commanding you not to miss this, but I urge you to attend to the greatness within.
SunCalc: A Sun Trajectory Calculator
(via Root Simple )
For those who are not aware, these “feather extensions” are actually fly fishing lures that women have been buying up from fishing stores all across the country, causing a shortage. And fly fishermen are pissed.
With a rising number of Hispanic and black voters pushing into the electorate — putting Republicans at a bigger disadvantage every day — the GOP has unleashed a brazen, ugly effort to discourage these new voters from ever getting near the voting booth. They are turning back the clock on voting rights in America.
(via Daring Fireball )
Ronan has given us a terrible freedom from expectations, a magical world where there are no goals, no prizes to win, no outcomes to monitor, discuss, compare.
What is the best storage system for a small apartment? - ASK COOL TOOLS
SPOILER: bespoke milkcrates!
I guess he thought that was funny. I don’t. I think the vote is sacred.
Faster-than-light neutrino puzzle claimed solved by special relativity
IMPORTANT (via KurzweilAI » News )
BBC News - Fauja Singh becomes oldest marathon runner
I would queue this but the news can’t wait!
Leighton Hickman: An Introduction to Plein Air Landscape Painting
(via The Art Center )
(via Architizer Blog » Blog Archive » The Architecture…
Do people still say hot because this is hot. (via ian spalter )
(via Technoccult )
fuckyeahbeatniks:
Lisa Simpson’s bookshelf has Ginsberg and…
(via Fuck Yeah, Allen Ginsberg. )
It’s easy: you just imagine you have a few friends sitting around your living room and you’re telling them what’s new.
When Asked to Delete Photos, Just Have This Image Handy
(via PetaPixel )
(via today and tomorrow )
Dogfish Head Black & Red plus Zucca
Oh hell yes! (via Photos from sudama’s friends and family )
Stalking in the age of Facebook
(via kottke.org )
He saw the intersection of art and science and business and built an organization to reflect that.
Evidence is mounting that points to a “lost decade” between what we now remember as the 1970s and 1980s, a time whose full cultural trauma and resulting suppression from memory was so complete as to effect itself even on the living.
The scale of U.S. food aid isn’t strongly tied to how much recipient countries actually require it — but it does rise after a bumper crop in the American heartland, suggesting that food aid is far more about dumping American leftovers than about sending help where help’s needed.
The movement does not stand against capitalism, and it certainly doesn’t stand for communism. It’s a movement for honest capitalism. Honest capitalism in America — funding good emerging businesses so that they succeed — what a concept! Our bankers should try it sometime.
Android and the false promises of openness
“Now it’s back from nowhere and even thought I never agreed anything, this app has the permission to collect data about: My location (fine GPS location) My personnal information (read/write contact data) My Internet communication (full Internet access) My accounts (and even act as an account authenticator and manage my accounts list) My phone calls And of course it has the permission to modify/delete SD card contents, prevent phone from sleeping, write sync settings, control the vibrator, etc… And all this shit even if 1) you never agreed to any of these and 2) you are not a facebook user."
Alan Grayson on Occupy Wall Street
(via anildash’s YouTube Activity )
Sneak Peek at the Crazy Image Deblurring Feature That May Appear in Photoshop
(via PetaPixel )
Ten Year Anniversary Of Get Your War On
(via www.mnftiu.cc )
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream - To those who Occupy: We stand with you.
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(via Chart of the day, Apple price edition | Felix Salmon)
whoa whoa whoa. whoa. I have never wanted to cook up some cabbage more than I want to after reading this recipe
I feel strongly that users are the owners and stewards of their own health and fitness data.
Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now | The Nation
I said, ‘I don’t feel like digital is quite here yet.’ And he said, ‘I agree,’ then he turned and looked at me and said, ‘But we’ll get there.’
The Story Behind Albert Watson’s Portrait of Steve Jobs
Albert Watson’s portrait has graced Apple’s home page since Jobs’ death. I know I link to PetaPixel a lot, but this is don’t-miss material.
Pinhole Photos That Show a Day in the Life of a Mouth
Is this guy the most bloggable photographer or what? http://www.randomwalks.com/2000/04/justin_quinnells_bath_as_seen.html (via PetaPixel )
(via kottke.org )
(via Streets Dept )
Feds Are Giving California Pot Dispensaries 45 Days to Shut Down
Do the pot cartels really have this much influence with the federal govt? (via The Atlantic Wire )
The night Jobs died, my ex and I talked about our differing approaches to the worn-out Mac keyboards. She would meticulously get replacement keys, but over the years they came in different varieties of off-white, so her keyboard ended up looking like a weird off-white on off-white checkerboard. And when they stopped making keys the right size she figured out something I still can’t quite follow about putting paper on top of the blurred-out old keys and using a Sharpie to write the letters on them.
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(via Apple Store Memorials)
I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.
It was early 1991, Steve had announced to us that he would soon wed Laurene. At some point soon after that I realized he would need a fitting bachelor party and it would fall to me to put it together.
The Macintosh on his desk at NeXT had the striped Apple logo stabbed out, a memento of anguish scratched deep into plastic.
It’s 10,000 times better than anything I’ve ever done.
To me, Steve Jobs stands out most for his clarity of thought. Over and over again he took complex situations, understood their essence, and used that understanding to make a bold definitive move, often in a completely unexpected direction.
Jason rounds up the most important links about Jobs.
Time Photographer Diana Walker’s Favorite Shots of Steve Jobs
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(via Camera ~ photo by bgreenlee)
I can’t pick up your standard, but you didn’t expect me to. You gave me the tools and the inspiration to pick up my own. How dare I give back anything less than my very best effort?
I was reminded of AllMusic’s biography of Miles Davis: ‘… he was in the thick of almost every important innovation and stylistic development in the music during that period, and he often led the way in those changes… It can even be argued that jazz stopped evolving when Davis wasn’t there to push it forward.’
After a couple of bizarre weeks where I attended meetings all day filled with amazing people and amazing technology, knowing that at any minute I would have to leave, HR informed me that they’d talked the insurance company into providing special coverage. Just for me. It was that important to NeXT and to Steve that they keep a nobody first-line manager they had just hired. A couple of months later they turned that into coverage for all gay employees at NeXT.
When I would criticize the decisions of record labels or phone carriers, he’d surprise me by forcefully disagreeing, explaining how the world looked from their point of view, how hard their jobs were in a time of digital disruption, and how they would come around.
Elegance, character, artistic integrity, and ruthless dedication to design can no longer be derided as luxuries of those who don’t have anything to lose.
★ Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot
(via Daring Fireball )
“Hey Father Death, I’m flying home Hey poor man, you’re all alone Hey old daddy, I know where I’m…"
(via Fuck Yeah, Allen Ginsberg. )
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My own deep-seated libertarianism is probably more a conceit of modern technology than a core human trait.
24 years ago, Apple predicted a complex natural-language voice assistant built into a touchscreen Apple device, and was less than a month off.
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"This kettle was groundbreaking; it was one of the first production pieces that used an existing mold/die in its form rather than manufacturing one from scratch. The designer recycled a headlight from a pre-war car, which was flipped over to create a usable kettle. Great thinking. Designers in the age of sustainability would be wise to look backwards and record how design activity developed during the depression and into WW2. -Todd Falkowsky" (via The CANADIAN DESIGN RESOURCE » K-42 Electric Kettle)
Plenty of things in your ordinary, “small life”, would be inconceivably extravagant to your ancestors. It seems like humanity as a whole is on some sort of hedonic treadmill. I don’t think any of us, for instance, take any pleasure in the fact that we can freely shave ourselves or kick safes or go out in the rain without dying of an incurable infection, which is insane. All of human history minus the last hundred or so years people lived with this reality, and it was probably a great comfort to people to escape it, for about five seconds. Now we’re back to taking it for granted.
In the 60s they burned draft cards
(via Scripting News )
Men Photographed in Stereotypical Pin-Up Poses
(via PetaPixel )
(via Cool Tools )
(via Scripting News )
(oh and I would say the majority of the daily use kind of smokers I know are all over 40 and quite tweedy, if you need a source, why not try the head of the history department?)
Arts & crafts & the deconstructed middle-class identity.
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(via Dry Niagara Falls, 1969 | HOW TO BE A RETRONAUT)
The Wirecutter | A List of the Best Gadgets
“The Wirecutter is mostly a list of amazing gadgets."
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts.
That’s something that sticks in my memory. It was kind of a sloppy job. It wasn’t doing what it was intended to do.
When Rick Perry’s family painted over the rock that names their property, they used a thin coat of paint which doesn’t actually conceal the word “N––––rhead”.
I’m using about 10 extensions to prevent tracking (NoScript, AdBlock, Ghostery and others). The functionality provided by these extensions should be default in a modern browser.
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(via Simon Birch | Design Milk)
When people at home see PEOPLE THAT LOOK LIKE THEM getting abused by police… That’s when shit changes.
Denmark introduces food fat tax
Exactly wrong; look for the mea culpa in ~25 yrs. (via BBC News - Home )
Chart of the day: Air conditioning, the final frontier
(via eats shoots ‘n leaves )
While Amish dairymen are being raided by the F.D.A., Jack DeCoster, the notorious Iowa egg producer whose filthy, salmonella-infected eggs were linked to an outbreak that sickened more than 1,500 people last year, received a mild warning letter from the F.D.A. What is going on here?
The most successful civilizations in human history always had some way of readjusting debt so that you don’t end up in a situation where the big people end up effectively enslaving the little people.
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Sorry for the bummer (& that’s not me pictured above), but this site is scaring the shit out of me.
In 2008, Dr. Jeffrey Guss, a Manhattan therapist and co-investigator on the NYU study, taught “Psychedelics and Psychiatry,” the first course on psychedelic therapy offered at a modern medical school. Guss also directs the university’s 12-week psychedelic psychotherapy training program, the only program of its kind in the country.
A 71-year-old Wisconsin woman broke the Guinness World Record for planking Wednesday. Betty Lou Sweeney held the abdominal plank for 36 minutes and 58 seconds.
Amazing Reuters Photo of Rebel Firing RPG was Not Photoshopped
(via PetaPixel )
In one email sent by a dummy account using the name “Connor Erickson” with the subject “Arrested: need lawyer” Gmail populated ads for criminal and fraud attorneys. But when a user named “DeShawn Washington” sent the same email, Gmail populated ads for attorneys specializing in DUI cases.
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(via The Generalist: CASSETTE REVIVAL)
(via Rebecca’s Pocket )
People who cringe at the privacy and data-mining implications of the Facebook Timeline ought to be just floored by the magnitude of Amazon’s opportunity here.
Blockbuster Tried to Bribe Journalists To Tweet About Netflix
(via Hacking NetFlix )
I just thought, This will freak everyone out. It’ll be so funny. I’ll announce that I am running. I told Leno I was running. And two months later I was governor. What the fuck is that?
I think the only thing that homeschooling left me at a disadvantage with is that I failed to learn to obey. Not that I think it’s really a bad thing, it just makes me unsuitable for certain jobs, religions, and other institutions.
Joe Moon on Facebook’s New Timeline Feature
(via Smarterware )
Dolphin-Human Relation and LSD 25
(via Modcult )
How demoralizing it must be to work in marketing there… (via Daring Fireball )
Seriously: A High Line in Philadelphia?
It’s only logical that a Philadelphian who knows about the High Line park in New York would ask the question “When will Philly do the same with the Reading Viaduct?”
The answer, in a logical, only-in-Philly way, may be never — due to political, neighborhood, financial, and general urban…
It makes running a joyous celebration and makes me more mindful.
Shopping | Baby, you were Born to Run, barefoot | NWsource
p.s. I know it says ‘shopping’, but you don’t need to buy anything to go running.
Some doctors resist. They call it ‘poor care for poor people.’ This is a misunderstanding. It’s the most effective use of our resources.
White vinegar and carbon dioxide are used to identify and remove pre-tumors.
In Thailand, an Innovative Fight Against Cervical Cancer - NYTimes.com (via @melissamcewen)
(via kottke.org )
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(via Shakesville: Holy Shit) See also "Video: Alberta woman files lawsuit over flaming water". Lighting water on fire is the new planking?
Clean your hands with olive oil
(via Root Simple )
This is a preview of the new Facebook, right? (via kottke.org )
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Playing Angels (1950) by Carl Milles (by sudama)
Right before I left New York, I had my manager tell me: ‘You need to get a girl on your arm or people will start talking.’ I remember telling him: ‘I’m gay.’ He had no idea. And he said: ‘All the more reason to get a girl on your arm.’ My agent was also like, ‘It’s best if you keep your options open. Maybe bisexual?’
Not a chance.
Sling Shot: A Camera That Only Captures Expressions of Fear
(via PetaPixel )
(via kottke.org )
Announcing Streets Dept Presents at PhilaMOCA!!
(via Streets Dept )
I regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world operates according to different rules than my regular human world. For me, there is no difference between Ripley from “Alien” and any Katherine Heigl character. They are equally implausible.
A great pencil can be a magical thing. It turns simple note-taking into a charcoal sketch, with darker or thicker lines depending on how firm your grip is and how fast you’re scanning the page. It’s not just a pencil; it’s a lead paintbrush.
It seems like putting Facebook in jail is the only way to keep it from tracking you everywhere you go on the Web.
(via xkcd.com )
(via Modcult )
Somehow, no-nonsense cooking and eating — roasting a chicken, making a grilled cheese sandwich, scrambling an egg, tossing a salad — must become popular again, and valued not just by hipsters in Brooklyn or locavores in Berkeley.
(via Social Design Notes )
By listing, with certainty, the accomplishments of my future self, I hope to plaster over panic that I will achieve nothing close to them.
(via MAKE )
Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
On Wednesday night I ate a light dinner and went to bed early, in order to get extra sleep for Thursday morning. Nevertheless, 24 hours later, my hands are still shaking. I’m unable to focus. No matter where I am, I am thinking about Facebook and the new, deeper connection that I immediately feel to everyone I know.
Dad Photoshops Family Trip Photos to Convince His Kids that Ewoks Exist
By eschewing commodity crops and advocating the consumption of grass-fed meat, pastured eggs, and local produce, we are making several very, very powerful enemies.
How can Americans gain access to real, unadulterated milk? This would require a re-localization of dairy production, which would mean more dairy farmers. “Look,” Bunting says, “if you don’t want industrial processes, then we need more people producing food.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2MQK0us2k8
Love Vigilantes (by saffronskies17) “In-fucking-credible —- to say the least. Now im straight I assure you but for this man I would consider somethign new.”
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Our garden and the labors created a renewed sense of hope, connection, sense of purpose, and pride in our family. It gave us a physical common ground to stand in and share the joy of physical beauty and surprise… (via What Makes a House a Home: Angry Wayne and Lonestar Taco | Garden Design)
Artist Mocks the Absurd Poses in Fashion Photos by Showing Them in Real Life
(via PetaPixel )
(via today and tomorrow )
(via today and tomorrow )
miRNAs may be a new class of functional components in food, like vitamins or minerals—even in an animal that’s pretty far removed from their home organism, they can manipulate gene expression and have an effect on nutrition.
"I remember summer nights, window open to the sounds of coyotes in the neighborhood and everyone but me sleeping as I watched this." (via I remember this defense… - blackrimglasses.com)
In the case of an execution of an innocent person, the necessary point had nonetheless been made: the state and the community had shown that they were prepared to kill.
Kissing babies and eating junk food: election season, food, and identity
I never felt like passing out in a warehouse and I never felt treated like a piece of crap in any other warehouse but this one.
Amazon replies to complaints about poor working conditions in warehouses - TNW Insider
Pretty sure this would be the warehouse that handles my orders. What would Buddha do?
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(via Famous Places Photographed in Bubbles)
Remarkably, there exist simple scaling laws relating animal metabolism to body mass. Larger animals live longer; but they also metabolize slower, as manifested in slower heart rates. These effects cancel out, so that animals from shrews to blue whales have lifespans with just about equal number of heartbeats — about one and a half billion.
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Professional pet photographer Teresa Berg of Dallas, Texas realized that countless dogs are likely euthanized each year simply due to bad photography, and decided to make a difference. (via Photographer Helps Save Homeless Dogs Through Better Photography)
(via Cool Tools )
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pe…ter…
sonne ilu
ilu guys but you need to arch your back too
haha what are you talking about this is EXACTLY how I sit comfortably.
I’m so comfortable.
oh you too tanna?
spiderman where u at
[edit: added comment]
I just read all the comments.. dang yo, chill. It’s just a drawing. it’s freakin FANTASY. I think she looks hot and I wish i could draw half as good as this.
I actually have this as a poster in my room lololol. I like his art- mostly just for his lines— but yeaaahhh. Her pose bothers me every time I see this.
Also, reblogging for the comments dear god ahaha.
wait how are you guys sitting like that
wait I just
I can’t
fuck
lol fuq all y’all i sit like this almost every day
I am dying omg
I wish I had a webcammmm
i couldn’t even pull off the pose i kept falling over
da fuq
that is a look of intense concentration as i tried not to fall over while longing 4 peter
also i got a cramp in my foot
I don’t know about you guys, but I always drink my coffee like this.
oh my god this comment thread
tumblr you’ve outdone yourself
I’M CRYING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-an4jyWOUig
Wilderness Campaign fast playthrough (by chaos5482)
Military robotics has reached an advanced state of development on land, in the air and at sea. The perceived military advantages has led to a proliferation of robotics programmes to more than 40 countires. Armed robots currently have a human in the loop to control the application of lethal force. But there is an inexorable drive to create autonomous robots that can choose their own targets and kill them. There have been no international discussions about how such systems could impact on how wars are fought or what the likely effect will be on civilian populations.
(via Root Simple )
Civil War Era Photo Listed on eBay as Proof that Nicolas Cage is a Vampire
(via PetaPixel )
Ten Things to Remember About Netflix While Scratching Your Head About Qwikster
(via Daring Fireball )
(via Feminist Philosophers )
Contemplation of civilization can only reveal more about itself, about civilization, and perhaps a bit about the nature of humanity because we created civilization - our fingerprints are inherent in it’s design. In contrast contemplation of nature can reveal the nature of all of reality.
Jurors were required to consider whether a convicted murderer would pose a future danger if he were sentenced to life in prison rather than death. In a series of cases, Dr. Walter Quijano, a psychologist, testified that blacks posed a greater risk of “future dangerousness” than whites.
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(via Les Mousses - today and tomorrow)
(via Modcult )
The corn eaten by the Tarahumaras is what we want to eat. The soy eaten by the Okinawans is what we want.
My issue is not with Kathryn Stockett. I am just tired of the same old shit. At age 74 I’ve been watching this black-people-don’t-exist-until-white-people-notice-us for a very long time. When a white person writes about black life, major media and the movie studios suddenly see us. It’s Black Like Me all over again. I wrote about actually being a maid in my memoir, The Time and Place That Gave Me Life; nobody cared.
Suicide, Omega 3, and the Military
(via Evolutionary Psychiatry )
I am not saying that you are not sufferring from apnea but my sister works in a sleep clinic and she says everybody that goes in for testing gets diagnosed with some form of apnea. All patients leave with a CPAP machine too. While many cases are diagnosed as mild cases it is still diagnosed as apnea. Its unfortunate but sleep apnea is a cash cow for Drs right now.
Reporter’s conflict of interest
(via Scripting News )
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(via Abstract Slow Shutter Speed Photos of Landscapes While Traveling)
He said that I had a nervous breakdown because I was an overachiever. He said colored people weren’t supposed to do as well as I had done. I had been stressed out and there was nothing wrong with my knee. White guy thought I was imagining things. And that’s why I walk with a cane and I’ve had a dozen operations since I was fourteen. I hope that motherfucker’s burning in hell.
Everybody’s talking about the new design; no one’s talking about the fact that the content that yesterday was free will cost > $200/yr moving forward. It’s an interesting strategy. Rather than attempt, as the Times did (and the Times, remember, owns the Globe), to arbitrarily establish a paywall, you couple that decision with the release of a slick new interface. Then hope no one notices; see their FAQ for confirmation of that.
(via Cool Tools )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QVMan7Mgy4
On Rick Perry and Superman (by illdoc1)
When you refuse to allow major characters in YA novels to be gay, you are telling gay teenagers that they are so utterly horrible that people like them can’t even be allowed to exist in fiction.
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The Fibonacci tree design performed better than the flat-panel model. The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day. But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer! (via The Secret of the Fibonacci Sequence in Trees)
Asian honey may contain chloramphenicol or lead
(via Rebecca’s Pocket )
Look What I Found at the Discount Shoe Store: New Balance 310 Trail Shoe
(via Runblogger )
The Notepad looks like an everyday yellow legal pad of paper,…
(via Paper Bits )
spiegelman: maxsilvestri: I am having a rough day and…
I am haunted with worry for that little boy. (via Seriously )
The world’s funniest analogies
(via kottke.org )
The emphasis on animal products remains. The emphasis on real whole foods - kill it or dig it up with a stick - remains and is enhanced. Macro ratios had already been de-emphasized in v 2.0, but that has now been made even more explicit in the steps, and not just in the coda. Things which in my mind were “givens” but had been pointed out to me were not clearly emphasized have been made more explicit, like sleep and eating some offal. I’ve deleted references to legumes other than avoiding soy and peanuts, as other legumes seem more and more benign to me.
Archevore - Archevore Blog - Archevore Diet Revised
Kurt Harris’ Archevore Diet could be the most important thing you read in your entire life.
The study of human nutrition remains an immature science because it lacks a universally acknowledged unifying paradigm. Without an overarching and guiding template, it is not surprising that there is such seeming chaos, disagreement and confusion in the discipline. The renowned Russian geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975) said, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”. Indeed, nothing in nutrition seems to make sense because most nutritionists have little or no formal training in evolutionary theory, much less human evolution.
I’ve said in the past that nutrition today is where cosmology was in Copernicus’ day.
What do you get when you put together afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and rap pioneers De La Soul?
New App Can ID Complete Stranger’s Facebook and Social Security No.
Is privacy an anachronism? (via picturephoning.com )
For those of us who are thinking in the long run, towards an economy with greater scarcity of natural resources, being able to have food independence is truly important. True food independence involves both plants and animals.
Root Simple: Salvia Means Salvation: White Sage
(via www.rootsimple.com )
Cycling with Contractions to the Hospital
Shared with love as though my wife ever read any of this stuff. (via Copenhagenize.com - Building Better Bicycle Cultures )
Gay blood donor ban to be lifted
(via BBC News - Home )
The real reason the Postal Service is in trouble
Huh. (via Undernews )
Noooooooooooooooooooo! (via Techdirt )
MeFi: Someone once told me those were the two worst things anyone could be
“The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl” is a web series I’ve been meaning to watch. (via Popular Posts Across MetaFilter )
(via kottke.org )
Idea Mill: Little free libraries
(via Undernews )
(via Social Design Notes )
Chinua Achebe forces 50 Cent to rename movie
What about The Roots’ album? That is some shoddy reporting. (via Books news, reviews and author interviews | guardian.co.uk )
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
(via Daring Fireball )
Manufacturers like Procter & Gamble, the household-goods giant responsible for everything from Charmin and Old Spice to Tide, are concentrating their efforts on luxury and bargain items, putting less emphasis on products aimed at the middle class, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Corporations Tailoring Product Lines To Reflect Growing Income Inequality
Excuse me while I work on my middle class exit strategy.
Benjamin Palmer: 1 Year Out - Quitting Veganism
Life feeds off of life.
I felt that to remove myself from this cycle was almost more unnatural than the “natural diet” I thought I was trying to follow. I had been internally struggling with the animal abolitionist approach for a while, and it wasn’t resonating as strongly with me anymore; the idea that any animal usage is categorically wrong looks good on paper, but it doesn’t function too well taken out of the hypothetical and put into the context of the real world or my cognition.
How I stand now is that I recognize and respect the sentience of animals; at the same time I recognize and respect death and slaughter as part of life.
Towards the end of my normal life when I still could watch television I could actually cut my pain off and on with the remote control device. It was such an enormously clear association there was just no denying it.
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(via Extreme Tidying Up : Krulwich Wonders… : NPR)
No one would answer me. They put me in the back of the car. It’s a plastic seat, for all you out there who have never been tossed into the back of a police car. It’s hard, it’s hot, and it’s humiliating. The Indian man who had sat next to me on the plane was already in the backseat. I turned to him, shocked, and asked him if he knew what was going on. I asked him if he knew the other man that had been in our row, and he said he had just met him. I said, it’s because of what we look like. They’re doing this because of what we look like. And I couldn’t believe that I was being arrested and taken away.
It is spring time now in Tokyo and the cherry blossoms are in bloom. In my small terrace garden, the plants – tulips, roses and strawberries – are telling me that a new season has arrived. But somehow, they make me sad because I know that they are not the same as last year. They are all contaminated.
jimn:
“Last Train Home,” 2009.
To every product, attach a photo of the person who made it, at the moment they made it.
Word up.
It takes a certain amount of time and faith to accept or to realize that there is no difference between Him and His name, to get to the point where you’re no longer mystified by where He is. You know, like, “Is He around here?” You realize after some time, “Here He is—right here!” It’s a matter of practice. So when I say that “l see God,” I don’t necessarily mean to say that when I chant I’m seeing Krishna in His original form when He came five thousand years ago, dancing across the water, playing His flute.
The reason why a lot of commodity farmers would want to transition isn’t for moral or ethical reasons, but because organic production actually creates more jobs because it’s more labor-intensive [than industrial agriculture]. That allows for the next generation to stay on the farm.
Grass is good: Natural meats benefit the economy and family farms | Grist
Speaking of jobs, Douglas Rushkoff, Jaron Lanier, and Rush Limbaugh, we should be growing our food on a smaller & more local scale.
What we have to do to create liberty in the future is to monetize more and more instead of monetize less and less, and in particular we have to monetize more and more of what ordinary people do, unless we want to make them into wards of the state. That’s the stark choice we have in the long-term.
The Local-global Flip, Or, “the Lanier Effect” | Conversation | Edge
Heart this quote, star this tweet? Spare some change?
Once you can gather information in real time with a network, you can see so much more that the traditional idea of the insurer managing risk becomes absurd, because now you can say, “Well, I have enough information that it’s not so much of a mystery what will happen, and what I want to do is just insure the people who won’t need the insurance”. Then you start breaking the whole system.
You end up doing all this stuff to control your online presence, and your online reputation, and people become obsessed with that. But the real representation of you is the one you can’t access, which is the one that’s used to sell access to you to third parties.
I’m convinced the reason copying happened on the Internet was because Xerox PARC was so important as an early supporter of computers, that for Alan Kay to go to the Xerox people and say, “Oh, by the way, copying itself, even in the abstract will become obsolete because of computer networks”, would have just blown their minds. We ended up with copying on a network.
I’m astonished at how readily a great many people I know, young people, have accepted a reduced economic prospect and limited freedoms in any substantial sense, and basically traded them for being able to screw around online.
The Apple idea is that instead of the personal computer model where people own their own information, and everybody can be a creator as well as a consumer, we’re moving towards this iPad, iPhone model where it’s not as adequate for media creation as the real media creation tools.
The Local-global Flip, Or, “the Lanier Effect” | Conversation | Edge
Really surprising that Mr. Lanier is so near-sighted about this. Not since the original Macintosh shipped with MacPaint have I seen such an explosion of digitally-empowered personal creativity as I have with the iPad in the hands of my children.
Those markets are geared to shoppers who want to buy in bulk at the lowest possible price in order to pickle, can, dry and freeze, Mr. Woods said — unlike urban markets, where customers pay double rural prices and typically eat what they buy right away. “You won’t see certified organic products or any fancy marketing,” he said of rural markets. “It’s a very different world.” Ms. Hamilton began selling about 10 years ago when her garden produced more than she could handle. She knows she could charge more but doesn’t, because her customers “are struggling just like me.”
Here’s the complaint I sent to the NPR ombudsman about this method of hand-washing.
This is he said, she said reporting, one of the lowest forms of journalism in existence, in which the NPR reporter washes her hands of determining what is true. The new Kansas regulations may be a form of harassment, intended to make life as difficult as possible for abortion providers in that state. Or, alternatively, these rules may be sane, rational, common sense, sound policy: just normal rule-making by responsible public officials.According to this report, NPR has no idea who is right. It cannot provide listeners with any help in sorting through such a dramatic conflict in truth claims. It knows of no way to adjudicate these clashing views. It is simply confused and helpless and the best it can do is pass on that helplessness to listeners of “Morning Edition.”
Push back against this shit.
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If you have Parkinson’s disease and you get an invitation from MJF foundation that has a statement like that on it you get real excited. If I’m taking time off work to go down there to see the unveiling of a pair of sunglasses I’m going to be highly pissed off.
Nike “It’s About Time” Metal Shield | Highsnobiety.com
Probably sneakers, not sunglasses, but still. I hope it’s sneakers!
We were unwilling participants in a bait-and-switch for Marie Callender’s new frozen three cheese lasagna and there were cameras watching our reactions.
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The things you see..
This site is about to change forever and we’re in the total fucking dark.
TechCrunch As We Know It May Be Over | TechCrunch
I love weblogs.
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Time Management
Seek answers in only one particular set of semi-literate bronze age folk tales.
That list of preparedness resources on hardcorepreppers.com I blogged about this past week is now online and working again. There’s some great stuff there as well as some goofy items. As one Root Simple reader pointed out, the “herbalism” file is actually a list of imaginary herbs from World of Warcraft. Oh how I love when the virtual and real worlds collide.
Since people pay him money, he doesn’t need to run ads to “monetize” his customers’ attention. He doesn’t have to do all the things that typically ruin the experience for people—like clogging pages with distracting banners or breaking them into smaller chunks so users have to click around a lot. “It’s like a moral hazard,” he says. “Once you’re not just charging people straight up, you get into all these murky ethical things. You have to sell their eyeballs.”
Clive Thompson on the Problem With Online Ads | Magazine
I love paying creators directly.
If you’re white, you have to own it. None of this I’m-not- white, I’m-beyond-it-and-I’m-Norwegian stuff. White people have to see race according to the terms they actually benefit from. Not that whiteness is a monolith, any more than nonwhiteness is. As Mab Segrest writes: “Women are less white than men, gay people are less white than straight people, poor people less white than rich people, Jews than Christians, and so forth.” But what might matter, what should matter, is that whiteness is a real force that you’ve personally benefited from in one way or another if you’re white.
When I read a Bradbury story, I not only want to race to the computer and create literary wonders of my own—the greatest gift a fellow writer can give you—I want to race out the door and up the street with my arms wide, embracing the entire universe.
J.M. DeMatteis’s CREATION POINT: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RAY!
A few writers can make me feel this way, but none more than Perri Pagonis in Blood and Popcorn.
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“I can’t pretend I don’t have some rotting branches; we can’t pretend our privileges don’t exist just because we do not like them. To relinquish the power they hold, we have to constantly expose them for what they are,” Grandma Willow concluded, and gave John a pat on the back with one of her drooping branches.
It’s perfectly suited for the pantry in this house and we needed one and it was free.” And the dump, she noted, “has the best return policy.
Your carbohydrate cravings will go away and energy will come back. You will feel full and not really need to eat three meals to exist. You will notice your taste and smell change. You will notice changes in personality. You will become more thoughtful and mindful. You wont be as explosive in an explosive environment. You feel like you are warmer and exude body heat but your body temp will actually be lower and it will trend lower over 18-24 months while you thyroid settles into it new biologic groove. Your sexual desires will change and your libido will awaken. Your sleep will dramatically improve. Your migraines will improve slowly over time. Your muscles will begin not to kill you when you exercise after the rest. Your hair and nails will improve in color and presentation. Your pedicurist will notice you have less dead skin on your heels and you face. Your skin will soften and your skin color will change. Your energy level will gradually improve over 6-12 months. Your spouse will begin to notice things and treat you differently.
You’re looking at a credit score the wrong way round. You’re imagining it says how good you are with money and trust-worthy. It’s not. It’s how much of a good idea it is for a company to lend you money. Ideally they want to be able to charge you a high rate, for you to only pay a little above the minimum but to never miss a payment. i.e. low-risk, high-profit.
Over the past year, I’ve watched my credit score start low and go lower, and I’ve come to the realization that it’s complete bullshit.
Yes, the 300 foot trees can be found as far north as Oregon. They need to be within 40 miles of the coast because they require around 500 quarts of water a day, but they can absorb the water through their bark and needles and get up to 40 percent of their water from fog.
Wayback: web.archive.org/web/20111…
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"Talking and stretching are forbidden on the assembly line, and clocking in five minutes late may result in the loss of half a day’s wages. Bathroom use is limited to 10 minutes, which is strictly enforced by an electronic key card." The Deadly Labor Behind Our Phones, Laptops and Consumer Gadgets - COLORLINES
Ah, the perversity of it all just gets to me.
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fuck blogs (by jakedobkin)
In one of history’s ironic twists, a Gujarati man born in Bombay now owns the company that was set up at Leadenhall Street at the end of the 16th century by British traders and merchants who went around the globe looking for a good cuppa and some spices and ended up colonising half the world—including India, the jewel in the crown—before collapsing in 1873.
Apple competitors tried to rub the amulet for luck — and showed us what they really stood for: Cheap, imitative mediocrity.
The New Yorker Tim Ferriss profile is unremarkable. Save your time.
It isn’t just that he made computers cool or put them in pretty boxes. It’s that he put those computers in new conceptual boxes. A machine originally designed for processing equations and building bombs turned out to have a wonderful hidden potential: for song, laughter, poetry, community, family.
Is it now against the law to be dark and read a book about historic aircraft?
I spend almost all of my waking hours looking at, listening to, touching, or carrying an Apple device, except when I am taking a shower or have been chided for neglecting the children.
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(via Steve Jobs Resignation Has Chinese Netizens All Worked Up - Global - The Atlantic Wire)
“The Whole Earth Catalog,” a kind of hippie Wikipedia
Without Its Master of Design, Apple Will Face Many Challenges - NYTimes.com
A cute construction, but extremely inaccurate.
On Saturday, a representative from the Federal Emergency Management Agency emailed Ms. Tien’s colleague, asking if @irene could help them with their outreach. (A suggested tweet from the FEMA rep: “People should protect themselves from me, I’m dangerous. Visit http://m.fema.gov for tips on your phone.”)
He treated them the way his grandparents had been treated by so many small minded Americans 100 years ago. He had risen from humble beginnings into a position of power, and then used that power to oppress people because they spoke a different language, came from a different culture, and were a slightly different shade than his ancestors.
At some point as a society we’re going to have to stop pretending that useful jobs will continue to be created at even close to the rate that they’re being made obsolete, and figure out what to do with all of these people with time on their hands. Anyway, derail.
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(via 500px / Photo “Steve Jobs” by Ryan Katsanes)
“You’re missing it. This is not a one-man show. What’s reinvigorating this company is two things: One, there’s a lot of really talented people in this company who listened to the world tell them they were losers for a couple of years, and some of them were on the verge of starting to believe it themselves. But they’re not losers. What they didn’t have was a good set of coaches, a good plan. A good senior management team. But they have that now.” [BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998]
Everyone leapt to their feet and applauded again for several minutes more, this time with Steve egging them on, applauding each other as a team. That moment has since defined what I think about as leadership.
We believe that we’re on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We’re constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex. … We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.
Even if Mr. Jobs does not get personally involved in future negotiations, music executives still fear dealing with Apple. One chit the company holds is the power of the iTunes home page, where it promotes music. They also say that the entire Apple staff, including Eddie Cue, the vice president in charge of iTunes who handles the relationships with the record labels, do their best to follow Mr. Jobs’s style in their own negotiating.
What are you going to do in the longer term?” Rumelt asked. “What’s the strategy?” Jobs, he recalls, “just smiled and said, ‘I am going to wait for the next big thing.’
These headbangers are angry and vindictive. They’ve been looking for revenge since ‘92 and let’s face it— you weren’t far from the scene of the crime.
Used to be Apple would add features like this for power users to find.
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(via Miles Morales News - Comic Vine)
I’m thrilled to be able to show Tito, my son, a Spider-Man whose last name is Morales. Call me selfish, but I think that’s wonderful.
The couple say they do not feel like pioneers in the gentrification of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the neighborhood in central Brooklyn that traces its African-American roots to the early 19th century and has been the borough’s black cultural capital for decades.¶ “We just feel so lucky to be in such a vibrant neighborhood,” Ms. Enck said.
My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.
When Earl Ray, a Pima Indian who lives near Phoenix, switched to a more traditional native diet of mesquite meal, tepary beans, cholla buds and chaparral tea, he dropped from 239 pounds to less than 150 and brought his severe diabetes under control without medication.
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Here are the dwarves from the Hobbit. I had been sketching them as warm up drawings the past week or so and liked the way they turned out. So here they are a bit gussied up.
The reason I drew these and risked being compared to Sam Bosma was because the people making the new Hobbit films had released some pictures of the cast. And I rather disliked most of them (I like Bofur and Bombur, but the rest of them look like a cross between Scandinavian hard rockers and klingon cosplayers), so I wanted to know how I thought they should perhaps look.
Neo-Nazis tricked by T-shirt that changed message after it was washed
via @mccreath
Am I seriously being asked to sign a petition in favor of more privileges for overprivileged youth?
The logo for the symposium was offensive, in my view, as it showed outlines of clearly northern European Caucasians. So far, in all of the photos I’ve seen from the symposium, I haven’t seen any dark-skinned people.
If you accept the notion that no one knows what to eat these days since they’re bombarded with conflicting nutritional advice at every turn, then the several hundred people who attended this past weekend’s Ancestral Health Symposium in Los Angeles must be an exception to that as they seem to have a handle on it.
Eat Like a Caveman? Field Notes from a Conference on the Paleo Diet | Age of Engagement | Big Think
I think this idea that it’s not possible to know how to eat is a direct result of years of shoddy journalism in which reporters have been expected to present every story as a dichotomy without investigating the merits of either “side”. It’s a huge obstacle to teaching good nutrition, with tragic consequences.
Ancestral Health Presentations
A lot of the slides are up. This is the most important happening in 2011 to date, mark my words.
"93. Develop a way to program that requires no scripting or coding." Bad advice. Unrealistic.
rc3.org - 101 ways to save Apple, revisited
What about Otto?
"44. Continue your research in voice recognition." Bad advice. Still irrelevant.
rc3.org - 101 ways to save Apple, revisited
Maybe premature to say this; Apple bought Siri for a reason, right?
20. Tap the move toward push media by creating a network computer. Bad advice. Probably the most dated piece of advice on the list.
rc3.org - 101 ways to save Apple, revisited
I love that Rafe has dug this up! I am only on #20, but I think he is most wrong here. What is Lion+iCloud if not finally Apple’s most visible push toward the network computer? They literally told us the Mac is just another device in the latest keynote.
A generation bred on a diet of excessive consumerism and bombarded by advertising had been unleashed, he added. “Where we used to be defined by what we did, now we are defined by what we buy. These big stores are in the business of tempting [the consumer] and then suddenly these people find they can just walk into the shop and have it all.”
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(via EXAMPLES OF CARTOONS BASED ON RULES 1-4) via @randomwalks
An ex-vegan on veganism.
Psychedelic drug intoxication is a high-reward state, whereas meditation is generally a low-reward state. Drugs can cause a feeling of oneness that is similar to what a person can experience while meditating, but they lack the ability to increase reward sensitivity and restore a constructive relationship with everyday life.
If you aren’t willing or able to eat mostly home cooked food made from basic ingredients, as every healthy culture does, you will have to accept a higher likelihood of fat gain and disease.
When he wants to be, the president is a brilliant and moving speaker, but his stories virtually always lack one element: the villain who caused the problem, who is always left out, described in impersonal terms, or described in passive voice, as if the cause of others’ misery has no agency and hence no culpability.
Sell all you want, I’ll be buying this week.
Some of the congressional Republicans who are preventing action to help the economy are simply intellectual primitives who reject modern economics on the same basis that they reject Darwin and climate science. Others are obviously cynical, desiring the worst possible economy as an aid to recapturing the White House and Senate in 2012. Still others simply do not believe that government action can ever be a force for good at any time or in any way. Whatever their motivations, there is something terribly sad about desperate and unemployed Americans looking for rescue to a party that lacks any inclination to alleviate their misery.
Several blogs and gay and lesbian publications are now picking up the story, but the heavy hitters who usually kill for hero stories like this, have remained silent.
They hold your name hostage. It’s like identity theft. What the hell? I’m not gonna pay ‘em. They’re like, “It’ll cost you $50,000 for your name.” F you! I don’t have to pay for my name.
Late night tUnE-YarDs played “Gangsta” with Questlove and Black Thought and you need to see this. Weeeeeooooooweeeeooooweeeeooooo.
Will knowing how to make mead from sorrel and tea from honey locusts pods really come in handy if there is a food supply-chain meltdown?
if any of the fixes listed do not fix your washed out display please look into the following. Universal Access - Monitor Contrast Adjustments in OSX Be aware that OSX introduces a feature in the “Universal Access” utility that can severely limit the performance of your monitor. To review this feature proceed as follows: Click on the Apple icon (top-left) then on “System Preferences”
Next, click on the “Universal Access” icon (bottom-right). Ensure that the “Seeing” tab is selected. Under “Display”, ensure that the “Enhance Contrast” slider is as far left as possible - this is the normal position. If the slider is positioned even a small fraction of an inch from the left, there will be a loss of shadow contrast that can hide subtle shadow details in your images.
Hours troubleshooting ColorSync profiles only to find I’d “enhanced” contrast at some point. Ugh.
10.4: Avoid a fast user switching color profile bug - Mac OS X Hints
Did they run and hide? No, they’re lesbians, so they jumped in their boat and sped toward the slaughter. The women pulled terrified teens from the water and the rocky coast as the insane far-right gunman shot through their vessel. Unfortunately, there were too many youth to fit in the boat. Hege and Toril ferried the group to safety, then hurried back to the massacre, rescuing another boatload. Then they did it yet again. And still again. Altogether in their four trips they saved forty people from the scene where seventy-six died. The mainstream U.S. media, which loves a hero story almost as much as a tragedy, has been uniformly silent about the lesbian superstars.
We may iterate on the design later, but at the moment, the current experience is desired and what we will implement in Lion.
Really disappointing disregard for bringing Chrome in line with the Lion interface. Time to learn to love Safari’s sluggishness?
How else can some criminals make money if the drug game isn’t what it used to be? As far as the younger kids, the group/gang mentality seems to be the fad. The kids in their early teens seem to favor the shock and awe approach meaning they bum rush and attack then take whatever they can get their hands on. It should be noted that when separated from the group in the police station they tend to weep uncontrollably.
Al Horner: Listening to Tune-Yards with U2’s Bono
Being “backstage” at Glastonbury comes with quite lofty expectations: rubbing shoulders with stars, being witness to the crazed antics of coke-riddled rock stars, so on and so forth. However, the reality of working behind the scenes at the festival, sadly, has more to do with queueing for portaloos…
Actually, it takes place in the year before it was published. Literally in the year in which it was written. A speculative novel of the very recent past.
It’s really, really about the material.
Applications without processes. Processes without applications. Did Lion just blow your mind?
Fuck the business models, projections, and funding rounds and just “do the right thing”.
For someone who’s spent a lot of your career puncturing middle-class aspiration and self-delusion, your piece is painfully blind to the fact that all of China is just a few generations removed from dire, desperate want.
If I had continued at the public school, I’m quite sure I would have found my way into the group of bohemians (basically stoners playing hacky sack on the hill) and my subsequent life would have been very different.
A medical system that successfully guided patients toward healthier lifestyles would almost certainly see its cash flow diminish dramatically. “Last year, 75 percent of the $2.6 trillion the U.S. spent on health care was for treating chronic diseases that, to a large degree, can be prevented or reversed through lifestyle change,” says Dean Ornish of UCSF. Who (besides patients) has an incentive to make changes that would remove that money from the system?
I’ve worked in a lot of retail jobs. Zellers, Wal-Mart, Loblaws, Rogers Video. Not a single one even came close to making me feel the way Whole Foods did. Primarily because they don’t misrepresent themselves to the extent that Whole Foods does.
The HR lady has the audacity to tell me that I should have given myself enough time from leaving my place to be hit by a car and deal with the whatever happened afterwards to get to work.
It’s just crazy, and I’m tired of dealing with the crazies. It’s just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background. I’m happy that he’s willing to serve after all this baloney.
In Lion, screen sharing is easier than before — you can now log in and control a user account even if the computer is being used by someone with a different user account.
This feels like a really big deal to me.
TidBITS Macs & Mac OS X: Our Favorite Hidden Features in Mac OS X Lion
I pay the local gutter punks a trifling sum monthly to hurl a brick through the window and occasionally to spraypaint hostile graffiti on the marquee. Any minute now Channel 10 and the UC Review will be around all aghast to record the latest outrage against the yuppie community. It’s incredible how much sympathy we get from these vulgar anarchist attacks on our efforts to bring haute cuisine to this dreary neighborhood.
being in the country,” “feeling like I’m outside even if I’m inside,” “silence,” “music” and “lots of light.
These strains are a food-safety disaster waiting to happen. As far back as 2007, the government considered routine testing for the presence of these pathogens in certain raw beef products. But nothing has been done: inspectors don’t test for them, and the public isn’t aware of how they are different from earlier strains. Nor have they been declared adulterants in food, which would lead to stricter quality and reporting standards.
You think the FDA is doing something about E. coli, but it’s not.
I’d love next/previous tab gestures. More useful than back/forward a page.
(Imagine laptops that look like two iPads hinged together, is what I’m thinking.)
Of course, Nintendo gets the point for vision here — in any case, Abe’s “eye towards what the future might look like” observations are spot on down the line!
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The animation was played fullscreen on a computer, which was moved around by an assistant while being photographed in a dark environment. The resulting images are long-exposure “light paintings” of the entire cadaver.
We’re doing a very basic thing: bringing plain water into contact with dried plant materials to imbue the water with flavor, color and various active substances, like caffeine and antioxidant polyphenols.
The best thing is to let children encounter these challenges from an early age, and they will then progressively learn to master them through their play over the years.
It’s a lot like life…
The Hope Creek reactor is the same model as the plant that melted down in Japan following the catastrophic tsunami and earthquake in the spring.
They’ve added all of the ports you’ll normally use to their new generation of displays, and they use a Thunderbolt cable to handle the communication for all of those ports using a single cable. To connect, you just plug in the Thunderbolt cable and the power cable from the monitor. You can even daisy chain multiple monitors through a single Thunderbolt connection.
Remarkable insight into the near-future of computing.
Interests: Getting my innocent brother freed from prison after 28 years and counting
There are good foods and bad foods, and the advice should be to eat the good foods more and the bad foods less.
This study may well be the vanguard of the conventional wisdom converging with the ancestral/primal/paleo health perspective. But if we cure diabesity and cancer, where will we put all the people?
Counting Calories? Your Weight-Loss Plan May Be Outdated - NYTimes.com
I was recently at a very large consumer products company (stay tuned) where there was a wall of different phones and tablets from which managers could choose, then sit in a mockup hotel room to test how they’d work with it remotely. “Three to five years from now, everyone will be bringing their own device into work anyway,” the CIO told me. “I have to turn that issue into an opportunity.”
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Check out the Monopoly™ deed style on this early-20th-century ‘trade card’ advertising an island on the Jersey shore just south of Atlantic City.
(via Strathmere - a brief history & vintage photos)
Like all past versions of Mac OS X, Lion has no serial number, no product activation, and no DRM of any kind.
Apple couldn’t get much bigger without selling oil, while the media industry has been reduced to dime-size buttons that show up on iPhone screens. Google regularly announces initiatives to “save” the newspaper and book industries — like a modern-day hunter who proclaims himself a conservationist. And Facebook, having already swallowed up enormous chunks of discretionary media consumption time, has its old-school media counterparts chasing after “Likes” as if they were cocaine being dispensed in a lab rat’s cage.
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(via huxley vs. orwell - mlkshk) The first night I really got drunk I met a friend of a friend who talked my ear off about a book by Herman Hesse I’d never heard of which postulated a future dystopia in which the masses were mollified by an abundance of information: publishing was seen as a virtue but functioned as a vice, drowning the populace in irrelevancies. It took me a decade but I think the book was The Glass Bead Game. Have you read it?
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(via Shabazz Palaces @#p4kfest - mlkshk)
Peep exploits human instinct: our ability to notice a deviation from the norm with little effort, to determine what sounds right, and to discern singular important sounds from a collection of many sounds. We do these tasks with little or no conscious effort. Since computer interfaces mainly require the visual senses (and some motor skills), the audio senses are left available to perform this unconscious processing.
I made the same trip in 1958 in a ‘53 Hudson. The worst seating position of any car that had ever been invented. And if the film is authentic, the driver will be squirming with a sore back all the way. Good luck, everybody!
I saw this once years ago and have looked for it a half-dozen times since then to no avail. Finally, avail! This remains one of the most important prototype social apps extant.
So then World War II comes and then everyone’s sad for a while—a simplification of history—and then everyone wants to be cheered up, so along came the Beatles, just in time.
Musicians come and go and they’re stewards of the music for a brief period of time. But once the music plays—it’s really between Beethoven and the listener at that point. The musicians are there to get their goddamn hands off of it. All that training! Thousands of hours! Sight-reading every day! All so they can get the hell out of the way because nobody gives a crap about them at all.
I got to play with these orchestras recently, at Carnegie Hall. One of the best musical experiences of my life. You go in and there are all the walls covered in photos of great conductors. A picture of Mark Twain standing on the stage. This is what you walk by before you go onstage, in case anyone ever wants to try and have an ego in that room.
When 1 out of 5 students in the class being involved in a cheating case, the lectures and class discussions became awkward. For the rest of the semester there was a palpable anxiousness in class. Instead of having friendly discussions, the discussions became contentious. Not a pleasant environment.
This, of course, had a direct effect to my teaching evaluations. Instead of the usual evaluations that were in the region of 6.0 to 6.5 out of seven, this time my ratings went down by almost a point: 5.3 out of 7.0. Instead of being a teacher in the upper percentiles, I was now below average.
The Dean’s office and my chair “expressed their appreciation” for me chasing such cases (in December), but six months later, when I received my annual evaluation, my yearly salary increase was the lowest ever, as my “teaching evaluations took a hit this year”.
As if vocabulary itself materializes, precipitating out as alternative spatial futures for the city.
I would like to see our NGO post the state’s rules in the community kitchen and then let people make their own decision; keep the market together and let the state come down and pluck out who’s following the rules and who is not. Are folks who create cottage industry going to be forced to sell the goods from their homes or from hidden baskets under tables at the market?
Now many people know that octopii can change color but they think it’s for camoflage, for blending in with the environment, this is not at all the case. The reason octopii change colors in a very large repatoire of stripes, dots, blushes, travelling shades and tonal shifts is because this is for them a channel of linguistic communication.
Imagine another room within that room whose doorway is also sealed behind drywall—and then other rooms within that room, and further corridors and stairs and entrances. Tap, tap, tap—you navigate by sound, knocking deeper and deeper into an architectural world you only reveal by means of careful deconstruction.
Neurochemicals are highly conserved in evolution - bacteria, plants, insects, and fish all produce forms of the neurochemicals called the catecholemines. Thus it makes sense that bacteria in our gut can communicate directly with using, to some extent, the same “language” as our mammalian brains. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species are known to produce GABA. Escherichia, Bacillus, and Saccharomyces produce norepinephrine. Candida, Streptococcus, Escherichia, and Enterococcus produce serotonin. Bacillus and Serratia produce dopamine, and Lactobacillus species produce acetylcholine. That’s pretty much the entire hit parade of major neurotransmitters
Murdoch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars!
Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old
men weeping in the parks!Murdoch! Murdoch! Nightmare of Murdoch! Murdoch the loveless!
Mental Murdoch! Murdoch the heavy judger of men!Murdoch the incomprehensible prison! Murdoch the crossbone soulless
jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Murdoch whose buildings are
judgment! Murdoch the vast stone of war! Murdoch the stunned
governments!Murdoch whose mind is pure machinery! Murdoch whose blood is running money!
Murdoch whose fingers are ten armies! Murdoch whose breast is a
cannibal dynamo! Murdoch whose ear is a smoking tomb!
Murdoch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows! Murdoch whose skyscraper
stand in the long streets like endless Jehovahs! Murdoch whose
factories dream and croak in the fog! Murdoch whose smoke-stacks and
antennae crown the cities!Murdoch whose love is endless oil and stone! Murdoch whose soul is
electricity and banks! Murdoch whose poverty is the specter of genius!
Murdoch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen! Murdoch whose name
is the Mind!
Where it says ‘Moloch’, say ‘Murdoch’. via https://twitter.com/stevesilberman
Also, the idea that the “hidden” sculpture could, in fact, remain hidden unless the wind were to blog a certain way, revealing itself to the listener.
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You know exactly who they dont want in here but the guy with shorts and flip flops is welcome This is in Rockafella Center btw
It’s really about communicating with people that I work with that there are limits.
Omar Wasow looks at the rise in violence in the 1970s in black communities, and the forces responsible for the rise in disparities of black incarceration.
Speaking of citizen science, Gale McCullough (PopTech 2010), a former nursery school teacher and old-fashioned naturalist, discovered a whale that had journeyed an unprecedented 6,000 miles from Brazil to Madagascar. The technology she used? Flickr. Through the photo sharing website where people post their “I-went-on-a-whale-watch-trip” photos, she found matching photos of the whales.
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My local police precinct (Southwest Detectives in Philadelphia) is doing this fascinating thing where they post pictures from memory cards on stolen cameras to help find the original owners. It’s a strange combination of useful and invasive — one or two of the pictures border on intensely personal. But there are some really interesting pictures and I love the idea of someone finding their lost or stolen stuff this way.
What a great post! I feel guilty reblogging it.
I’d like to see the full spectrum of psychedelics be integrated into hospice care.
I never would have thought that writing gender-neutral language in software would be a harder problem than, say, indexing the entirety of the Internet for perfect search results.
Some people squirt their cats when they’re misbehaving, so maybe it could have water in the phone, and you could squirt the dog.
To present email and text messages as they often feel would create an experimental novel, as if descending from Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs cut-ups.
The subtext of nearly every interaction with a health-care provider in the U.S. is: You’re lucky to have this coverage. Don’t push it. There are thousands of patients waiting behind you who are in even worse condition than you are. Let’s get through this as quickly as possible so the whole bloody machine doesn’t come grinding to a halt.
And when I was 13 years old, reading this, I didn’t understand the scouring of the Shire. They won—why are there all these other pages? But I reread these books every few years, and every time my appreciation for what Tolkien did there grows. It was this kind of sad elegy on the price of victory.
A few months ago, I said in Berlin, “Cognitive cities require the approval and collaboration of city authorities. The same people who make flyposting illegal.”
It’s sad, and somewhat annoying – especially for Tom – but a better example that these streets are not our streets won’t be found in Britain today.
The slipper to coffee snobbery was fairly close to my bed when I woke up.
I’m uncomfortable using a privately-owned social network as the medium to give voice to our sensors and objects.
inky:
The Yip Yips discover dubstep.
A lot of the moms there are giving their kids Botox, I’m not the only one who does it.
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(via 50 Watts)
And somehow I knew that the notional space behind all of the computer screens would be one single universe.
I’ve just gotten to a point where this is no longer working for me. Too many of my day-to-day concerns are not consonant with the way I want to experience the world.
“It’s Andy Hertzfeld, the original Mac guy,” he said.
Unlike most of the party games you’ve played before, Cards Against Humanity is as despicable and awkward as you and your friends.
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Two nuclear power plants in Nebraska, 100 miles apart, are completely surrounded by water. (via Flooding Won’t Overcome Nuclear Plants, Officials Say : NPR)
I have a theory that all men in the universe can be classified into two groups depending on which of the following two questions they answer “yes” to: 1. Have you ever partied with cheerleaders? or, 2. Have you ever been bitten by a snake?
The world is full of aging baby boomers who are looking forward to psychedelic retirement and psychedelic hospice. They had psychedelic experiences in their youth that were useful to them. They gave up the drugs for family and career. Now they’re thinking back to those valuable experiences and they want to get re-engaged.
I became seriously worried about raising my own children when I was a camp counselor in a wealthy suburban area and found out the games that were “banned”, which included:
- Star Wars (and anything else with wars)
- Cowboys and Indians (and anything else politically incorrect)
- Police and Robbers (and anything else with “weapons” even if you used your hand and went “bang bang”.)
- Good old fashioned Tag and Hide and Go Seek… too “dangerous”
Meanwhile, everyone was unconcerned with the massive amounts of sugar we fed those kids.
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source: http://www.malcolmwells.com
With all due respect, I’m certain I can’t understand how Maisel’s hurt feelings are worth $32K.
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The poor kids wouldn’t know where to look – the reassuring fullness of their own mothers’ breasts, granny’s withered pancake boasting its long experience, or the strange mound of flesh granddad was squeezing up in breast envy.
Breastfeeding in Mongolia « Momzelle Breastfeeding Blog
Someday this will be me.
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Modern civilization has many things to admire, but the dark side of its so-called nutrition comes with it in a package. Often the fake foods that carry its malnutrition are manufactured to have drug-like addictive qualities. It peddles the illusion of ease with its elevators and office chairs. Its televisions and radios and educational systems constitute unparalleled systems of mass media that embed its ideologies within the minds of its students.
Cross-browser kerning-pairs & ligatures
Improved handling of kerning pairs and ligatures in modern browsers using the text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; declaration.
The one-story house in West Hollywood (835 North Kings Road; 323-651-1510; makcenter.org; $7) was built in 1921-22 and feels incredibly modern with its lack of decorative fuss. The unpainted concrete walls feature narrow strips of glass set at regular intervals. Other walls are made of redwood frames and stretched canvas; some open onto the gardens. Schindler described the house as fulfilling “the basic requirements for a campers’ shelter: a protected back, an open front, a fireplace and a roof.” Schindler’s house integrates the interior and exterior with several protected outdoor “rooms” — some with fireplaces on the exterior walls.
In Los Angeles, Seeing Distinctly California Houses - NYTimes.com
The Schindler House is where I fell mortally in love with architecture
You actually have to watch the popcorn pop. Then you take the various accouterments to the Champagne room for the least erotic virtual striptease possible.
It made me long for the urinal.
“A growing number of futurists” giving up on civilization & starting over. Tee-hee!
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"It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out what to eat when you’re dealing with REAL FOOD" (via Jurassic Flood: No excuses!)
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Eclipsed Moon in the Milky Way, via Astronomy Picture of the Day)
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Apple iCloud icon golden ratio
Alan van Roemburg thanks to Takamasa!
…This is basically equivalent to a “smoke cigarettes to raise money for colon cancer” promotion.
Humans paid a heavy biological cost for agriculture, especially when it came to the variety of nutrients. Even now, about 60 percent of our calories come from corn, rice and wheat.
I AM JOHNNY CARSON’S ADULT MALE CHILD
Parkitecture occupies an interesting liminal space in the parks; it both informs and restricts your movement, trying to blend in with the natural surroundings while being obviously official. It also requires an investment in apparently outdated trades–we saw trail maintenance in Zion being performed by a team of masons with chisels and hammers, chipping the red sandstone into appropriately rustic blocks. The curation and preservation of these trade skills seem just as important to me as the park itself.
I want to target the pot market. There’s no good reason we haven’t.
Instead of white bread, corn, sugar, powdered milk and canned foods, they began to eat the traditional fresh foods of their ancestral past: kangaroos, birds, crocodiles, turtles, shellfish, yams, figs, yabbies (freshwater crayfish), freshwater bream and bush honey. At the experiment’s conclusion, the results were spectacular, but not altogether unexpected given what [was] known about Paleo diets, even then … their diabetes effectively disappeared.
As a person concerned about his health, and as someone who feels that there are reasonable ethical options available for meat consumption, I have consciously (and perhaps selfishly) chosen to avoid a sub-optimal diet. I have come to recognize the fact that the human body evolved to eat meat, and that in order for me to live and be at my best, I need to be an omnivore.
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"It was an excellent decision to make the pawns ChuChus. The pawns is where a lot of themed chess sets go wrong, and Zelda is a tough series to pick an enemy pawn for. They look great." (via My friend just finished this hand-sculpted Legend of Zelda chess set. : gaming)
Is this what people aspire to? A stuffed peacock on a non-functioning fireplace? A 4-foot high photo of a cigarette smoker on the wall? Lily-white upholstered furniture on the beach?
Most small farms are not self-sustaining in a very basic sense: they can’t make ends meet financially without relying on income from jobs off the farm.
The Lisa hardware designers (Paul Baker, Bob Paratore and others) solved the problem by including a little Apple II, with its own memory and microprocessor (but clocked twice as fast), inside the Lisa to control the Twiggy drives.
You will know the future is here because it will not be a continuation and repetition of mids-80s and late-90s phantasms with ever shittier economic and political conditions.
if you described the War On Drugs, with its massive collateral damage to civil liberties and innocent lives to someone from a few decades ago, that would sound pretty crazy
Best blog name since “randomWalks”.
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(via How It Began - mlkshk)
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(via HOLLIS BROWN THORNTON Store — Luke Skywalker - hbt11-03)
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(via @Peanutweeter)
He was a kind of action hero for very famous writers and poets, but he couldn’t create that notion himself. It must’ve been a weird existence for him, where he almost felt like a creation of other people.
Ken Kesey’s Long, Strange Trip: An Interview with director Alex Gibney
Gibney on Neal Cassady.
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(via sudama’s shake)
I can at a moment’s notice access any email I’ve sent in the last 14 years, or any school paper I’ve written in the last 23. All this data takes up less than one gigabyte. By 8-bit standards, that’s staggering; by today’s, having the output of an entire era fit on 0.2% of my current computer’s capacity is humbling.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that operates the plant, has said radioactive water could start overflowing from temporary storage areas on June 20, or possibly sooner if there is heavy rainfall.
Earlier this month, Mike Maginnis outlined some of his Apple II goals. It was an excellent call to action for Apple II users to outline what they want to accomplish with or contribute to the Apple II.
So the original Apple II price point was $1195, and it still is.
The communes were the model for the modern idea of the self organising, non-hierarchical network which you now see in internet utopianism. What I show in the film is that what’s been wiped out of the memory of the communes is that most collapsed within three years. The more powerful system used the system and everybody else was defenceless because you were not allowed to make alliances with other people.
When I came back to California after the last commune I’d lived in had broken up, I was a single father with a young daughter, and I had to earn a living. I began acting professionally as a source of income. The good news is I was able to save toward my retirement and send both my kids to good schools and colleges, to graduate debt-free. The bad news is that once I took the money, I was a bought boy. I was dependent on other people for a living. I put my family’s needs before my own authentic desires. I don’t mind, and acting has been good to me, but it’s not where I live, and whenever you violate what’s most important to you, you pay a price.
I felt comforted by the fact that like everyone I’ve reconnected with on Facebook, he’d gotten fat, and by the banality of his listed interests like “Bob Marley” and “Scrubs.” He was a monster in my memory, but on Facebook, he was just a man.
I still agree with my 2005 opinion that rather than assuming “everybody reads” you should assume you’re somebody’s only filter.
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If we are not careful we shall leave our children a legacy of billion dollar roads leading nowhere except to other congested places like those they left behind. (via Malcolm Wells office, Cherry Hill, NJ - a set on Flickr)
To last for centuries, to provide a sheltered roadway, to serve all creatures and to present a living surface to the sky, a bridge must have a roof and a deep covering of earth.
In a Senate floor speech on Tuesday, Udall urged Congress to restrict the Patriot Act’s business-records seizures to “terrorism investigations” — something the ostensible counterterrorism measure has never required in its nearly 10-year existence.
We did public art installations. And, I don’t know if you consider it arts, exactly, but I consider growing organic vegetables in the shadow of a steel mill an art, and that has attracted homesteading.
Mayor of Rust, John Fetterman - NYTimes.com
Still totally fascinated by Braddock, PA. I guess I ought to visit someday soon.
We also want equitable education that’s shared - not people who know to text each other at 1 a.m. That’s not public education.
I know it might sound nuts, but it’s going pretty well. The allergies seem to have peaked and declined.
In particular, this is directed to locally storing one or more clips corresponding to a media item such that the clips can be immediately played back in response to a user request to play back the media item. While the clips are played back, the electronic device can retrieve the remaining segments of the media item from the user’s media library as a media stream over a communications network. Once the playback of the clip is complete, the electronic device can seamlessly switch playback to the media stream received from the user’s library.
If something is tied to a project’s success, you can’t hope for it, you need to find a way to make it happen.
I got really, really fast and to this day I still think of executing things in 30 minute increments. If something’s not right after 30 minutes, start over and try again.
I think it went way beyond constructive. It was an art form in itself. We were basically trying to see if we could get each other to drop out of school.
I am a Master of three martial arts including ninjitsu, which means I can wear the special boots to climb walls.
It just really made sense that the human body was surviving without grain. Our bodies really haven’t had time to adapt to pizza and rolls.
It’s hard to talk to strangers in parks,” said Scott. “Because invariably they need $50 for the train because they’ve lost their wallet. And you’re like, oh, I thought I was building community.
UNIVERSITY CITY IS AN EXPERIMENT IN THE ROTTING GENTRY. A MASTER PLAN OUTLINED BY A COALITION OF ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE THE BASTIONS OF THE RICH WHITE LIBERALISM THAT HAS PERVADED THIS COUNTRY OF LATE. SPECIFICALLY, THAT MEANS A FLOOD OF PEOPLE BUYING HOMES IN WEST PHILLY THAT CAN AFFORD TO DO SO BASED ON THE UPENN WAR MACHINE’S GENEROSITY, ADDITIONALLY ENABLED BY OBAMA-VOTING, HYBRID-DRIVING LIBERALS WHO BELIEVE THEMSELVES TO BE OPEN-MINDED, NON-RACISTS WHO CAN SEEMINGLY SEAMLESSLY INTEGRATE INTO IMPOVERISHED NEIGHBORHOODS OF PEOPLE OF COLOR. DISPEL AND DESIST THESE IDEAS, AND DARE TO RESIST. YOUR CHOICES ARE TIED INTO THE ECONOMIC MACHINE WHICH GRINDS US ALL DOWN, BUT NEVER FORGET THAT IN AMERICA “SOME [PEOPLE] ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.”
I will lose. I will make mistakes. I will have shitty periods of time that are completely outside of my control. People I love will make mistakes, usually completely unrelated to me, or not.
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(via Dangerous Minds | Douglas Rushkoff: Taking Back the World)
What I found most amazing was the glimpses of Black service workers in those parts of the canopy where Whiteness asserts itself most viciously as the dominant cultural form: the hostess at Rouge, the doormen in Rittenhouse Square, and the security guards in the Center City office building. That’s where Anderson’s magic lies: in offering vivid glances into the often-obscure mechanics of social life.
Anderson calls these spaces “cosmopolitan canopies,” places where diverse people gather, and feel comfortable striking up sometimes surprisingly intimate conversations. “It’s really a point of cultural convergence,” Anderson tells NPR’s Neal Conan, “where all different kinds of people … call ‘time out’ on the segregated and sometimes quite contentious areas” outside of those melting pots.
It’s the outdoor cafes. All 213 of them.
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This excellent survey of pop deity origins begins with “the ur-god and his dark twin,” Superman and Batman. As Morrison sees it, “archetyped, pop-mythic tales of superpowered heroes and villains” soared into our collective imaginations in an explosive fashion. Superman, “the personification of a thrusting industrial tomorrow,” had a primal impact. Soon there was a pantheon of gods and figures from legend and myth: Hawkman (“an avatar of hawk-headed Horus”), the Flash (“the Greek god Hermes”) and Captain Marvel, whose magic word, “Shazam,” was an acronym: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury. (via Nonfiction Review: Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison. Spiegel & Grau, $28 (464p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6912-5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEDLAgu0yl8
Little Girl Plays With Dead Squirrel (by 3jeana)
Why has eating gotten so complicated?
![Homeschooling by the Numbers [Infographic]](http://offers.degreesearch.org/infographics/homeschooling-by-the-numbers/homeschooling-infographic.jpg)
Via: DegreeSearch.org
When I start at a new office I like to take a small copy of a famous picture of a sad baby monkey desperately hugging a “mother” monkey made of chicken wire, and I pushpin that through the cloth of the cubicle-skin into the cushiony sponge-flesh below. That is how I tell the world.
No one writing code said, “Let’s totally mess with his perception of self and understanding of free will.”
You don’t get into what happened a week after his original vision of Blake’s voice, when Allen tried to re-invoke it and ended up having a horrific, nightmarish experience. He took that as a lesson if you tried to invoke visionary states consciously, you didn’t always know what you were getting. You might get merry Krishna or grim Shiva.
With a great leap, I threw myself through the air and landed with one foot on the poor armadillo’s tail. In a flash I drew a long knife from the sheath on my belt and stabbed it in hard and quick into the gap in the armor at the base of the armadillo’s neck, cutting the spine and killing it instantly.
I use default settings in almost all of my apps… I really like the idea of experiencing the software as it was designed (or unleashed) by its creators, and sort of getting in the mindset of the millions of other people who use the apps.
As upper-middle-class consumers increasingly seek out healthier foods, fast-food chains are targeting low-income minority communities — much like tobacco companies did when wealthy and well-educated people began to quit smoking.
Kern had previously gained national attention for her comments three years ago that homosexuality is the death knell of the country, and a bigger threat than terrorism or Islam, and for comparing homosexuality to toe cancer. She did not apologize and was not reprimanded for those remarks.
Natural selection has produced only minor alterations during the past 10,000 years, so we remain nearly identical to our late Paleolithic ancestors and, accordingly, their nutritional pattern has continuing relevance. The preagricultural diet might be considered a possible paradigm or standard for contemporary human nutrition.
Research shows that even when news reports have been retracted, and we are aware of the retraction, our beliefs are largely based on the initial erroneous version of the story. This is particularly true when we are motivated to approve of the initial account.
That Hudson just wants to go!
"There is no point for me to be here," as the Kan administration had failed to listen to him, said Kosako, an expert on radiation safety.
But if you can find only hard, green mangoes, bring them home anyway — they will ripen at room temperature in a few days time.
The ‘King of Fruits’ Commands Respect - Recipes for Health - NYTimes.com
This will transform my life.
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(via MoMA.org | Access to Tools)
There is a huge irony, that a time when we discover so many planets to look at, we don’t have the operating funds to listen.
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jimn:
A supposedly biodegradable fork in my compost bin. It’s been there for about a year. Under what possible circumstances will it degrade? “Biodegradable” is almost as vague a promise as “recyclable”.
If, like me, you obsess over tiny details of your Macintosh browsing experience, you may find LinkThing useful. If not, you’ll probably wonder what’s wrong with me.
You start out as a young person bewildered by things, and then suddenly you’re the one bewildering the young people. I can see it in their faces.
Go as far down the list as you can in whatever time frame you can manage. The further along the list you stop, the healthier you are likely to be. There is no counting, measuring, or weighing.
Please stop trying to sell me something I don’t need.
One of the remarkable things about the way the *global* indigenous world has embraced the web, for example, is that it has hugely facilitated political alliances between indigenous groups in different parts of the world, who nonetheless have similar (“tribal”) understandings of social organization that are relatively readily inter-translatable.
not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars—compassion, love, the subsurface unity of all things
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Protection from Narcissism (via | Corina Dross)
We’re all practically living in the same place. There has been a great levelling. We have the same brand names reiterated in all of our shop fronts; the same chain stores in every town.
I’ve come to the conclusion that what superheroes might be — in their current incarnation, at least — is a symbol of American reluctance to involve themselves in any kind of conflict without massive tactical superiority.
But I can remember walking through town wearing an old Watchmen T-shirt with the sleeves ripped off and somebody shouting ‘Aciiieeeeeeed!’ at me from the other side of the street! Which was a pleasant and engaging experience!
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(via Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work)
We ought to become what surrounds us and let our surroundings reach so far into us that there is no us left. From this expanded/contracted view nothing is secret, unrevealed or unknown because we become more than our “self,” we become the vantage point of the landscape and the environment literally.
We grew up together in a small town in Western Colorado during the 50’s and 60’s; we traveled to the Amazon together in 1971, as brothers and friends, as fellow seekers. We called ourselves, self-mockingly, The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss (even on the cusp of uncovering the mysteries of existence we managed to keep a sense of humor; it helped to be Irish). We went in search of we knew not what; only that it was a profound insight, unspeakable, beyond comprehension, and that it would change us, and everything, forever.
People were more likely to choose bigger, delayed rewards over smaller, more immediate payoffs when making the decision on a full bladder.
They are the only generation who will have pensions, social security, and crazy real estate investments that guarantee the expansion of wealth. They were bribed, paid to let the current system take it’s hold, and they took the money. My generation and many that follow will pay the price for their choices. We will rebuild this world or die trying.
Nutritionally I can’t think of a bigger lie than the one claiming that fats in general and saturated fats in particular are bad for us. This lie is so deeply embedded in the minds of most that you couldn’t blow it out with a stick of dynamite.
It seems possible that the golden age for forensic recovery and analysis of deleted data and deleted metadata may now be ending.
Seriously: What is gentrification?
There are so many strange racial plot lines in my wonderful neighborhood. I’m in Red Caps Corner, a shop dedicated to card games, dungeon and dragons, warhammer etc. In the open game room, I was pleased to see an almost even split between white and black. But even in this room with this split, it…
…What you need to do is to start finding out what local plants can be used for antibiotics. What are local water purification systems you’ll be able to use. How are you going to build shelters. How will you pull up parking lots to make gardens. Learning self-defense and forming committees to deal with the additional violence that might (or might not) break out. Getting to know your neighbors, both human and nonhuman. How’s that for a start?
These flat omelets, which can be eaten hot or cold and pack well in a lunchbox, are a perfect destination for all sorts of vegetables.
When children age 3 to 5 see a ball rolling into a box, they say that the ball couldn’t have done anything else. But when they see an experimenter put her hand in the box, they insist that she could have done something else.
(via Taking precautions › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion)
I am a huge geek; my wife, however, is not. She, like Luke, could never be turned, so the responsibility for making sure our two little kids end up liking stuff like Star Wars, Tolkien, Final Fantasy, Doc Brown and, of course, D&D is on me.
Scary and Sad: Japanese House Floats Through Pacific - Disasters - Curbed LA
Owsley Stanley,” my dad wrote. “Didn’t know his first name was Owsley. Just knew that the first few hits of acid were called Owsley. Went with friends to the Fillmore West to see Janis Joplin and the Holding Company, or so I was told. They laughed when I told them that I didn’t know who she was. Had just started U.C. Berkeley and had taken an Alternative Course in creative writing and another course on Gandhi. Dropped the Acid and well what is time and space anyway.
As the drug was then unknown in the UK and they had no knowledge of dosage or potency, he and his partner Paula injected the whole shipment in one go. It was an experience that he never really recovered from…
I tried “To Kill a Mockingbird,” but listening to Alex recite Atticus Finch made me want to push an icepick in my ear.
My grandmother took me down to the mailbox in Brooklyn every morning, and she would say, ‘It’s a federal offense for anyone to look at your mail. That’s what makes this country great.’ In the old country they’d open your mail, and that’s how they knew about you.
Don’t forget the human and the first-person experience, he said, we have this job to wake up the world to itself.
—Anne Waldman on Allen Ginsberg
I’d always been a writer but, boy, did I get an education. He’d say: ‘It’s easier than you think! Just look out your eye like you’re looking through a window!’ and, ‘Nobody wants to hear about your feelings, darling, tell me what you see!’
—Steven Taylor on Allen Ginsberg
Hi, I hear you’re really nice, if you come down to the Howard Johnsons in Greenwich Village, I’ll be waiting at the counter in a red-and-black-checked shirt.
—Jack Kerouac, picking up Joyce Johnson.
In the noise of everything you see and do in your life, those moments that garner the strongest reaction are the ones that are remembered. Fear, rejection, humiliation, glee, joy, devotion, tenderness, devastation, grief. So, to have a life filled with memories, you must always feel genuinely and passionately, and let everything make an impression on you. Avoid walls or defenses. You must always take chances. Accept it all, unshielded. That way, you’ll get the most value for your time.
The situation is not unfavorable; there is a prospect of ultimate success, but there are still obstacles in the way, and we can merely take preparatory measures. Only through the small means of friendly persuasion can we exert any influence. The time has not yet come for sweeping measures. However, we may be able, to a limited extent, to act as a restraining and subduing influence. To carry out our purpose we need firm determination within and gentleness and adaptability in external relations.
2. Open it. Oranges have two parts, the outside and the inside. You don’t want to eat the outside unless you want to get extremely high, so remove that. You can buy orange outside removers in many stores.
http://thecontentfarm.tumblr.com/post/3044657655/how-to-eat-an-orange
I loved it. I could see myself committing entirely to this life: no email, no web.
A planned trip by Bush to speak at the Switzerland-based United Israel Appeal later this week has been canceled after several human rights groups called for Swiss authorities to arrest Bush and investigate him for authorizing torture. Bush has traveled widely since leaving office, but not to Europe, where there is a strong tradition of international prosecutions.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/02/07/bush_amnesty_arrest
Your feel-good news of the day.
We must avoid the naturalist fallacy (that what is natural is good) and recognize that nature is beautiful and is trying to kill us!
http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/7/1/where-are-all-the-healthy-whole-grains.html#item4757196
“If minus 15 [Celsius] and windy, maybe not, but otherwise, yes. The children can’t learn if they don’t play. The children must play.”
http://www.tnr.com/print/article/politics/82329/education-reform-Finland-US
Giving an "adult" camera to a three-year-old may seem like a recipe for confusion and broken electronics, but I'm continually amazed at kids' thirst for knowledge and empowered responsibility.
The big lie about laws like DADT and [Arizona] Prop. 102 is that they effectively prevent gay people from taking part in venerable institutions like military service and life-long committed relationships. Of course, gay people are already everywhere, deeply woven into the fabric of mainstream society even where they’re invisible, quietly doing what needs to be done. All the laws do is to try to deprive them of human dignity while they do it.
Steve Silberman, http://blogs.plos.org/neurotribes/2011/01/10/why-cant-the-heroic-intern-who-saved-giffords-life-get-married-in-arizona/
God, we must have 10,000 or 15,000 books in our house. We have one room that's become basically a mountain of books. It's become impassable. So we have no lack of access to material and yet I didn't have access to my own head until I went to the library.
http://www.librarian.net/talks/lanier/
Via Jessamyn's 2010 booklist I found this interview with Jaron Lanier from about a year ago.
I mean, sure, yeah, technically Rachmaninoff is classical music — but it’s easily more “Intense and Rebellious” than, god save us, Nickelback.
http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2010/12/who_feels_chill.php
If bloggers and web designers become microcelebrities, with fun gossip blogs following them around, will they all end up addicted to meth and racism like real celebrities?
http://www.theawl.com/2010/12/bomb-the-ace-hotel-every-geek-and-blogger-now-a-microcelebrity
Too good not to blog. via frantic.
You pay good money to be able to cry in public.
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2010/how-to-live-in-new-york-city/
"*dress like a slub", but yeah.
Facebook and Twitter are restoring some of the basic functionality of the early ’90s Internet, so now people are going, “Wow, people can share things in a peer-to-peer way, and there must be a way for highly branded, centralized corporations to exploit that, right?” But the trick is that it’s really hard, because if this is a peer-to-peer technology revolution, then it necessarily reduces our dependence on highly centralized brands for meaning and supply.
Lots of people talk about their standing desks with some degree of bravado. That is entirely unjustified; outside of office workers, a large portion of the workforce spends most of every day standing and working. It’s the traditional sitting office worker who is doing something unusual.
Q: People say he killed the Newton – your pet project – out of revenge. Do you think he did it for revenge?
Sculley: Probably. He won’t talk to me, so I don’t know.
This interview with John Sculley is full of eye openers & jaw droppers.
Everyone has an image of the large-bellied, bearded, balding Buddha figure that Ginsberg became. But to play the young Ginsberg, you, the actor, must be slim and clean-shaven and must dye your hair black—your full head of hair. You must wear thick-framed glasses. You must apply prostheses to your ears to make them stick out.
randomwalks/sudama is a James Franco fansite.
Who buys copious amounts of unsalted, unbuttered popcorn? It's messed up.
The truth about homicide is that it is black men in their 20s, in their 30s, in their 40s. The way we guide money and policy in this country, we do not care about those people.
These lyrics were just the same when we did them again in American accents. There was nothing different, and all of a sudden, people were saying, 'Oh, wow. They're just as good as Eminem.' But in the Scottish accent, they're saying, 'Oh, no. They don't have any talent.'
The Fake 'American' Rappers Who Fooled Everyone, www.npr.org
When this idea came to me, I was really excited and euphoric even. It’s not often you get a chance to say something new about Newton’s laws.
via www.nytimes.com
The way the story frames this, what we have been taught to think of as gravity may simply be probability: the universe settling into the most likely configuration. Think electron orbitals, think Scott Adams' God's Debris, Think Douglas Adams' Heart of Gold.
The most interesting thing I know about W. S. Merwin is that he once got into a terrible battle with Allen Ginsberg and Ginsberg's Tibetan guru over an episode of forced nakedness at a poetry party (this weird history is chronicled in a previous Litkicks article, When Hippies Battle: The Great W. S. Merwin/Allen Ginsberg Beef of 1975).
via www.litkicks.com
this is a narrative based explicitly on Asian roots, and for a movie that lavishes in the history and beauty of Eastern culture its casting of White actors in the lead “hero” roles is racist and ethnocentric.
via splinterend.tumblr.com via Roger Ebert's tweeting
Drilling will resume in deep water. That's where the oil is… people all around the world are going farther offshore and farther into deeper waters. So we have to develop methods to recover hydrocarbons, and do it in a much safer way.... It kind of creeps up on you, but this tragedy is a wakeup call.
Energy secretary says 'top kill' should have been tried earlier, www.latimes.com, 22 June 2010
The Nobel-prize winning Secretary of Energy of the United States is on the case!
Those of you who know what a "switch" is may also remember what it felt like to be whipped with one. Child abuse? Probably. But these were people who'd seen people they knew dangling from trees by ropes. ...They were deathly afraid that we would act out in the wrong place at the wrong time and wind up as dead as those long lost relations. It was the only way they knew of making it clear just how dire our circumstances truly were.
One time we took out half of a Volkswagen. How did it end up there? We don’t know. One time we took out a fifteen metre roll of carpet that was obstructing a whole pipe. Really, anything you can think of, we can find it in the sewage.
Julio Cou Cámara is one of only two sewage divers in the world, working full time keeping Mexico City's trash streaming out of the city. Edible Geography is my new favorite blog.
Each of the balconies is held up by these fantastic wrought-iron dragons:
You've got to see the close-up of the dragon. Magnificent.
"Orange Beach, Alabama"
i had no idea D.C. had their own "design your D.C." cupcake challenge. amateur cake decorators showed off their stuff at hello cupcake last week. how cool is that? i kind of wish i could have been there. the metro map cupcake below is my favorite. to see all the cupcake entries, click here.
D.C.'s Metro Map cupcakeNom Obama cupcakeBen's Chili Bowl cupcake
via taza-and-husband.blogspot.com
Unbearably awesome.
via tim.shey.net
If your users are activating Safari Reader on your site, this means that the default user experience of your site is so bad that your users first consciously notice that they have trouble reading an article on your site, then remember that they might be able to fix it using Safari Reader, and then actually activate that feature.
"Boom"
The Song Decoders at Pandora - NYTimes.com
"‘Was the music just wrong?’ Because we sometimes have data errors,” he recounts. “He said, ‘Well, no, it was the right sort of thing — but it was Celine Dion.’ I said, ‘Well, was it the set, did it not flow in the set?’ He said, ‘No, it kind of worked — but it’s Celine Dion.’ We had a couple more back-and-forths, and finally his last e-mail to me was: ‘Oh, my God, I like Celine Dion.’
Let's look for deft, English alternatives: use Twitter, post to or on Twitter, write on Twitter, a Twitter message, a Twitter update.
'New York Times' Bans the Word 'Tweet', www.theawl.com, 10 June 2010
I respect the Times' position that "tweet" is colloquial, neological jargon to be avoided. But: deft?!
Saying something is so does not make it so.
Floss, you know, use salt, baking soda, get them professionally cleaned, you know, for a bit, take care of your damn teeth.
Patti Smith addressing Pratt Institute's 121st commencement ceremony, www.mediabistro.com
via @stevesilberman
The one internet privacy policy that really matters is your own. If you want it private, don’t share it. Because what’s private today might be public tomorrow. Period.
Are We Really Dumb Zucks?, tweetagewasteland.com
True.
We had a pretty good laugh at the thought of blinking text, and talked about blinking this and that and how absurd the whole thing would be. ...I remember thinking that this would be a pretty harmless easter egg, that no one would really use it, but I was very wrong.
The Origin of the Blink Tag, www.montulli.org
Oh. My. God.
Link me to a piece of content. Show me that it can be crawled, show me that we can draw strands of silk between the resources presented in your app. That is the web: The beautiful interconnection of navigable content.
This is a time for children to explore the immediate environment (backyard, neighborhood, nearby parks) in a way that is hands-on and full of joy. It’s not a time for them to worry about environmental tragedies.
How to Talk with Kids About the Gulf Oil Spill, www.nwf.org
Ranger Rick speaks the truth.
Every now and then I see tourists standing outside looking at the building, wondering if it could really be the place where it all happened," said Huberto Suarez, owner of Krika's. "There are no statues or plaques, so I tell them that this is it."
On the Beatnik trail in Mexico City, USATODAY.com, 20 April 2010
Joan Vollmer Burroughs died and is buried in Mexico City.
The administrator who managed the Lower Merion School District's laptop security system says she asked her bosses at least three times to clarify the rules for activating the Web cams and tracking software on students' computers.
"I tried to get the administration to look closely and get a policy on several occasions," Cafiero said in her first interview since the district put her on paid leave.
School official says Lower Merion lacked laptop policy, www.philly.com, 30 April 2010
"This house is like a mullet: all business in the front and a party in the back." - design milk
I read a bit about Aquaman growing a beard and having a harpoon hand and living in a cave and talking to spirits or something, and thought, how can anyone not like this guy? This crazy dude living under the water. Anyway that is the only version of Aquaman that I am really into.
It’s one thing for semantic and identity layers to emerge on the web, but it’s something else entirely for the all of the interactions on those layers to be piped through a single provider
"Understanding the Open Graph Protocol", factoryjoe.com, 23 April 2010
The problem with OpenLike is that Virginia has never heard of hunch, digg, reddit, or stumbleupon. But I bet you she's on Facebook before her 101st birthday.
[In your 30s] things start losing their profundity; in middle-late age, you enter a tragedian period, realizing that the human animal isn't changing for the better. In a way, I think I entered straight into my tragedian period, as my work is set against the stupid, destructive way we live on this planet. Americans have decided to be stupid and shallow since 1980. Madonna is like Nero; she marks the turning point.
"It's a Joni Mitchell concert, sans Joni", www.latimes.com, 22 April 2010
A suburban Philadelphia school district says it secretly captured 56,000 Webcam photographs and screen shots from laptops issued to high school students.
NYTimes/AP: Pennsylvania: School District Took 56,000 Secret Photographs
This is a shocking story, whose second chapter is the deplorable reporting by popular media which fails to ask basic questions like:
Let's see what we can come up with for the first question:
...It was discovered that the school had installed LANrev security software onto all of their laptops, in case of theft. The software was set up to take pictures every 15 seconds or 15 minutes (reports are very mixed over which it is) from the iSight camera without it showing any indication of being active.
Thousands Of Images Of Underage Students At Home Taken By School Issued Laptops, www.insanit.net, 17 April 2010
Lower Merion high school students [reported] iSight cameras powering up, as indicated by a brief flicker of the LED light next to the camera. Some students even put tape over their iSight cameras to prevent them from operating, but most were assured by the district that the light was a “common MacBook glitch.”
School district faces lawsuit over Webcam spying claims, www.macworld.com, 23 Feb 2010
Kudos & credits: The story is being tracked quite well at Stryde Hax.
My sole aim is, come May, to have fools begging for February, sepia photos, and those "Black History Month Moments."
Ta-Nehisi Coates is honoring the hell out of Confederate History Month.
* iPhone and iPad applications are very different things
* most people use it widescreen most of the time. why?
* frustrated by being shunted to iPhone versions of websites, particularly Google Docs.
* where the hell is the apostrophe?
For each of the next 5 days I purchased a Happy Meal from the drive-thru at my two local McDonalds, alternating between restaurants, and always driving a car with a child's car-seat in the back.
Each time the attendant asked if I wanted a girl or boy toy, I answered, "Give me whatever is the most fun." 5 times out of 5 I received a Star Wars toy. Four women (all different employees I'm fairly sure) and one man all responded to my request in the same way.
My brother had an MC Hammer album that was riddled with silent patches because my mom had erased the dirty bits from the cassette. I really don’t know how she did it — that might be a lost art — but she had it mastered.
The conversation: Joanna Newsom - Times Online
I cannot exaggerate the degree to which Malkmus enjoys fantasy sports; he almost seems to like them more than music. His fantasy football team was devastated by the loss of Ronnie Brown to injury, but he's stayed in the playoff hunt by picking up Vikings wide receiver Sidney Rice. ("You could just immediately tell he was going to be Favre's guy.") The most productive player on his NBA team is under-publicized Pacers forward Danny Granger, but he's more satisfied about stealing the Nets' Chris Douglas-Roberts off the waiver wire. Malkmus does not watch the NHL, yet he still participates in a fantasy hockey league. He's that kind of guy. I don't even try to talk with him about rotisserie baseball.
Check out the triforce! What does it represent?
via www.sippey.com
Do not look at the audience as you walk out onto the set. Look only at the familiar face of Jon Stewart. Know that he will get you through this. Trust in him.
via therumpus.net
In designing a computer “for the rest of us”, finally, 25 years after promising to do so, perhaps the best analogy for the iPad, as a product designed for everyday people, is actually the AK47, or in car terms, the Mini, 2CV or perhaps Trabant.
"A few observations" about the iPad, including the crucial question, "What's going on" with the horrible Notes, Calendar, and Contacts interfaces?
(Is it me, or does this "Blog It" format obscure the central link in these posts?)
Last night I dreamed I met Steve Jobs. We happened to be sitting near each other at a restaurant or something. I wasn't going to talk to him (I was sure I'd have the worst case of celebrity dumbstruck) but, for some reason I can't remember, he was interested in me. We ended up having a nice chat, expressing a lot of mutual respect. After that we hugged for a long time.
via www.adamrice.org
Check it out, I called the name two years ago.
Update: I had the name right in 2002!
I’d like to propose alternative captions for those Los Angeles Times photographs as models for all future disasters:
Let’s start with the picture of the policeman hogtying the figure whose face is so anguished: “Ignoring thousands still trapped in rubble, a policeman accosts a sufferer who took evaporated milk. No adequate food distribution exists for Haiti’s starving millions.”
And the guy with the bolt of fabric? “As with every disaster, ordinary people show extraordinary powers of improvisation, and fabrics such as these are being used to make sun shelters around Haiti.”
For the murdered policeman: “Institutional overzealousness about protecting property leads to a gratuitous murder, as often happens in crises. Meanwhile countless people remain trapped beneath crushed buildings.”
And the crowd in the rubble labeled looters? How about: “Resourceful survivors salvage the means of sustaining life from the ruins of their world.”
Apple seems to also view this as an accessory. What this needed to be was a computer. A new, better, more relevant computer, but a computer. That Apple expects people to sync this to another computer is either profoundly short sighted, or just stupid. Neither of which feels like the Apple I know. By positioning the iPad as peripheral, Apple took what should have been a really cheap, amazing computer in a world of terrible cheap computers, and instead positioned it as a really expensive toy.
Justin Spohn has written the best analysis of the iPad yet.
Aside from the deeply flawed introduction, I haven't heard a single legitimate complaint about the device that can't be solved in software. Even Justin's concern about iPad as peripheral, which I share, can be solved by moving the hub of the digital lifestyle into the cloud.
I suggest you stop what you are doing and go read Axe Cop.
[I hope for] an app that, when clicked, will snap off every television in every restaurant, lobby or waiting area within a mile. I will trade my children for this. Is that what you meant? Or did you mean PhotoShop compatibility?
Very funny, Mr. Breathed! I want that, too.
Smugopedia is a collection of slightly controversial opinions about a variety of subjects. We offer you the chance to buy a fleeting sense of self-satisfaction at the small cost of alienating your friends and loved ones.
When Kathie Lee Gifford said “night blogging” on the Today Show, we knew that Party Rats had altered reality and nothing would be the same again.
With the exception of those in the “dock” area (Phone, Mail, Messages, and Safari) which I consider crucial to the entire point of even having an iPhone, I am going to clear everything from the home screen. Any apps that get accessed more than once in the course of the next week will be allowed to come back.
via minimalmac.com
This is great. I am going to do this right now. I wish the Dock worked this way. I wish iTunes worked this way. I wish my bookmarks worked this way. I wish my email worked this way. I wish everything worked this way, automatically. They promised us adaptive systems!
I made a modest amount of money telling old media companies how they should approach the web, then a similar amount of money hanging around while they didn't do it.
I spent days at a time sitting at home alone, getting high or drunk, playing videogames, watching television, ordering delivery falafel, and wasting time on the internet.
I shared some ketamine with a lesbian who proceeded to get up from my bed, vomit into my sink, and then pass out. I scooped the thick vomit from my sink to my toilet with my bare hands. Hours later, after I passed out, I woke to find her playing with my genitals. She told me the next morning that she'd "had a nice time."
The End of the 00s: Made in New York, by Joel Johnson | The Awl
"dirty and nerdy", "Joel Johnson's '00s look-back for the Awl is the white hot core of narcissistic, wasted-decade hedonism".
We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions. We look to the Chinese government for an explanation. The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy. I will be giving an address next week on the centrality of internet freedom in the 21st century, and we will have further comment on this matter as the facts become clear.
via www.state.gov
Call me naive but I always figured "cyberwar" was a lot of hype. I'd been sitting on this post because I wanted to dig up a crazy discussion I'd come across where an IT guy at a human rights organization in Washington DC described an amazing series of attacks that seem to be connected to this, featuring pixel-perfect phishing emails and toxic PDFs attached to emails with spoofed senders, timed to coincide with expected communications. Really intense. But I can't find it.
Note: this is bigger than Google:
At least 34 companies -- including Yahoo, Symantec, Adobe, Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemical -- were attacked, according to congressional and industry sources. Security experts say the attacks showed a new level of sophistication.
We are naked beings and nothing has any meaning. We only fabricate things to help us be more removed from nature. Humans are like the prodigal sons of Earth – moving away from their mother to spend her fortunes, only to return in death as the stripped down and barbaric beings we once were. So to get closer to true nature? Burn your clothes and belongings and money, have a sharp chiseled stone to catch food and a grass hut to keep shelter! Or realize we live a world that is consumed by false beliefs and agreements and try to live your life without taking it all too seriously.
The right way to do it is to hold people accountable, to really restrict the number of things that you say to them, and to decide on the one or two things that are the most important. And then when you meet with them, you always bring back the conversation to that one thing. You have to do that consistently for over a year before you start having an impact.
via www.nytimes.com
Go get yourself a comic book, or any other rectangle that measures roughly 10” on the diagonal. Hold it as though you’re reading what’s on the surface.
You see the problem? Your fingers get in the way. Think about how big that surface is, too. That’s a lot of acreage to scan, looking for the right buttons to push.
While you’ve got it in your hands, imagine that it’s a sheet of thin steel. That’s heavy, isn’t it? Hard to hold up for long periods of time.
Think about how a user interface would have to incorporate those observations. Now imagine that you’ve been doing this experiment for four years and not four minutes.
via www.suntimes.com
It seems to me the hardest thing about doing great industrial design is having sufficiently high standards and taking the time to meet those standards. Which honestly doesn't seem that hard. How come no one can compete with Apple?
I dreamed I got a box of Chuckles with five licorice squares, and in my dream I exalted: "Finally!"
No longer able to eat or drink, Roger Ebert remembers.
Just as the three-dimensional world can be imagined as a cross-section through a four-dimensional world, so might individual consciousness be simply a slice of a higher form of conscious existence.
When architecture did not suffice, Claude Bragdon began to arrange festivals where people would perceive transcendent realities collectively through song.
?!
Sandy Isenstadt reviews "the first book-length treatment of Bragdon and his world", a biography by Jonathan Massey.
wil wheaton loves avatar
The best thing about Avatar is that it imagines a world where a program to breed Thundercats with Smurfs has been successful. SCIENCE!
via twitter.com
It's all true: it could well be titled "Dances with Thundersmurfs", and it's astonishingly delightful. Go for the 3D.
I was really struggling with the idea that I was going to live in Arlington. I drew a line through ‘one year’ and wrote ‘six months.’ I was there for 21 years.
Ian MacKaye on the Dischord house, The Orange Line Revolution - Music - Washington City Paper
The Black Book, which was first published 35 years ago, was like a scrapbook of the African-American experience
via www.npr.org
There's a certain way you can kind of move in and out of yourself, probably, to win consistently, that may be a little bit like writing fiction.
via David Foster Wallace in transcription at NPR.org. Huh, transcripts are free now. This is actually worth listening to, for the moment Scott Simon is caught off guard when Wallace mentions watching porn.
Google Public DNS privacy policy sounds reasonable:
Google Public DNS stores two sets of logs: temporary and permanent. The temporary logs store the full IP address of the machine you're using. We have to do this so that we can spot potentially bad things like DDoS attacks and so we can fix problems, such as particular domains not showing up for specific users.
We delete these temporary logs within 24 to 48 hours.
In the permanent logs, we don't keep personally identifiable information or IP information. We do keep some location information (at the city/metro level) so that we can conduct debugging, analyze abuse phenomena and improve the Google Public DNS prefetching feature. We don't correlate or combine your information from these logs with any other log data that Google might have about your use of other services, such as data from Web Search and data from advertising on the Google content network.
How to keep a folder of text files in sync across multiple Macs and editable on an iPhone has bedeviled me for months. Today, sweet relief in the elegant form of a few world-class geek tools, loosely joined: How to sync Notational Velocity, Simplenote, and Dropbox text documents with Hazel.
The new NYPL logo looks a lot like the Lyon Video logo.
Concentration is a great & steady state of grace — Ken Isaacs, How To Build Your Own Living Structures
The “prior art” claim of white people wearing locks is shot. White people falsely claiming their ancestors invented the hairstyle don’t do anyone any favors.
via www.alterati.com
This is how an American soldier is made. A fascinating photo essay that details 27 months in the life of new US Army recruit Ian Fisher. It chronicles his recruitment, induction, training, deployment and finally, his return from combat. posted by Effigy2000 (65 comments total) [add to favorites] 34 users marked this as a favorite [!]
Julia Baum took photos of suburban homes in Santa Clara, CA that were all built from the same architectural plan.
I'm pretty sure I grew up in a house just like these. Dig the Dr. Seuss shrubbery.
via kottke.org
Do not add TypePad bookmarklet to your browser if you:
- Are convinced blogging is something people did 5 years ago.
- Believe blogging requires a Phd in comparative literature, politics, zoology, astrology or computer science.
- Believe all blog posts should be written in long hand before publishing.
- Require your posts to be approved by your Mom/Boss/Partner before publishing.
- Believe there is nothing worth sharing on the internets.
- Are using Internet Explorer 3, Netscape Navigator 3, or WebRunner.
via www.typepad.com
I love bookmarklets.
I braise the turnips in butter and white wine; I sauté the kale and collards with olive oil and sea salt; I wait until the parsley shrivels and then throw it out. What to do with the kale, turnips, and parsley that overwhelm your CSA bin. - By Catherine Price - Slate Magazine
The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your interests is to make friends. The more we are willing to do for each other on our own terms and for compensation that doesn’t necessarily involve the until-recently-almighty dollar, the less vulnerable we are to the movements of markets that, quite frankly, have nothing to do with us. Douglas Rushkoff : Riding Out the Credit Crisis
Finally, Bud may have topped the farting horse spot that ran during Super Bowl XXVIII… The Life Cycle of a Blog Post, From Servers to Spiders to Suits – to You
I just used a tissue from a brand new box that smelled exactly like cassette tape liner notes, particularly Depeche Mode's Music For the Masses and the Cure's Disintegration.
create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.
Why does sustainability always seem to be a class privilege?
(Not dead) weblog Social Design Notes on the HauteGREEN design showcase.
This year, as the Smithsonian Kite Festival celebrates its 40th anniversary, we reminisce about the decade of its origin – the 1960s. Whether or not you can personally recall that legendary decade, we challenge you to help recreate it in the sky over the National Mall with your grooviest, most far-out kite. With psychedelic kites “blowin’ in the wind”, perhaps we can all experience a little bit of that peace, love and harmony.
group cube
Originally uploaded by Xavier de San Diego.
(I'm not sure what's going on here.)
New Orleans bloggers: Looka!, The Inderdictor.
Why does O'Reilly (of all organizations) use 'weblog' wrong?
I see a video iPod strategy behind Apple's embrace of podcasting. iTunes 4.8 was the first version of iTunes to handle video files. The RSS enclosure format has always supported delivery of movies (as well as any other type of attachment, I assume). The pieces are coming together -- although Steve Jobs has famously dismissed the idea of watching movies on an iPod as impractical, I can certainly imagine watching a BBC News summary, a Pixar short, a cooking demonstration, or a slew of movie trailers on the subway ride to work. If videoblogging takes off, it will give Apple a legitimate content pool that will justify releasing a video iPod.
Planets wreaking havoc is as constant as the rain.
Yes, first of all, this is *the* Velocity Girl. No, this isn't a track that's been locked in a vault for years, it's brand new. May we introduce you to the new Velocity Girl? Hey, wait a minute... it's exactly like the V Girl that disbanded in 1996! That's right, all members have reformed and resurrected what was perhaps THE janglepop band of the 90s. Pop sensibility and catchy hooks are back. This track, recorded earlier this year in the DC area, features the never-ending talents of Archie Moore, Brian Nelson, Kelly Riles, Jim Spellman and Sarah Shannon. If for some reason you lived under a rock and don't remember their first go-round, Velocity Girl are the band that gave the indieworld sugarpop and brilliance whilst the rest of the alterna-world was moshing in flannel. By the mid-90s they had the #2 selling album on Sub Pop of all time ('Copacetic' was #2 behind Nirvana's 'Bleach'). You have *no idea* how excited we are to debut to you new material from them...
Holy fucking... moly, randomWalks is pleased as punch to point you to a newish Velocity Girl mp3.
Also: Whither Velocity Girl?
One aspect of this transition that could prove interesting, in all positive and negative connotations of the word, is the so-called "trusted computing" capabilities of Intel's CPUs. Little has been done with them yet, but as we understand these capabilities, they're designed to work with a Microsoft digital rights management (DRM) system. There's no telling if or how they may play into Apple's existing music or future video plans.
TidBITS points out an underexamined factor in the Apple/Intel announcement.
Orlando Sentinel: Technicality springs DUI defendants
What's going on in Seminole is unusual. Nowhere else are judges throwing out virtually every breath test that comes before them.
That's because all four Seminole County criminal judges now use the same standard: If a DUI defendant asks for a key piece of information about how the machine works -- its software source code -- and the state can't provide it, the breath test is rejected.
Seminole judges are all following the lead of Seminole County Judge Donald Marblestone, who in January ruled, though the information may be a trade secret and controlled by a private contractor, defendants are entitled to it.
Well that didn't work too well, did it? Still I kind of like it.tales of a shaman identifier http haman h adam rice h div on the train the other v atom xml title atom li li stratum i turned h div burned
I'm taking the clips off the stack of index cards in my back pocket. It's like taking the gloves off, only not at all in any way whatsoever.
I got on the train the other morning, on the same car through the same doors that I usually do, and instead of turning right I turned left and sat in the seat corresponding to my usual seat. Sitting down, I found a wedge of read newspapers and, next to them, a cheap paperback edition of the 14th century Christian mystical text, The Cloud of Unknowing.
Fortunately, it's a more modern translation than the online version, which I find really difficult to puzzle through. Let's look at a passage from the prologue. The first paragraph comes from the online edition, the second from my newfound copy.
Fleshly janglers, open praisers and blamers of themselves or of any other, tellers of trifles, ronners and tattlers of tales, and all manner of pinchers, cared I never that they saw this book. For mine intent was never to write such thing unto them, and therefore I would that they meddle not therewith; neither they, nor any of these curious, lettered, or unlearned men. Yea, although that they be full good men of active living, yet this matter accordeth nothing to them.
However, there are some presently engaged in the active life who are being prepared by grace to grasp the message of this book. I am thinking of those who feel the mysterious action of the Spirit in their inmost being stirring them to love. I do not say that they continually feel this stirring, as experienced contemplatives do, but now and again they taste something of contemplative love in the very core of their being. Should such folk read this book, I believe they will be greatly encouraged and reassured.
I'm told that this is the place to get burritos in Boston, and indeed possibly the finest burrito this side of the Mississippi.
Spring wildflowers of the Pohick Stream valley
If you wash dishes by hand, here's a tip that will make cleanup go much quicker: rinse the dishes in the hottest water you can manage. If your heater is, like mine, set too high, that scalding water will drip off and evaporate like nobody's business.
(I picked this up reading the section on washing dishes in Cheryl Mendelson's Home Comforts because our dishwasher broke.)
I am doing 43 things.
I wasn't depressed about having to work on the day before the day before Christmas, but then I got on the bus which was totally empty and then I got on the train and saw all those sad bastards having a terrible Thursday. Now I'm feeling sorry for myself.
Air America's Beltway debut will be Jan. 20, with Franken broadcasting from President Bush's second inauguration.
Link: Air America, Touching Down in D.C. (washingtonpost.com).
Link: Panic - Extras - The True Story of Audion.
Remember that last day of school, when the yearbooks arrived, and you'd invariably end up spilling your guts to your secret crush(es) via hastily worded, heart-dumping notes tucked into the corner of the back page?
Whoa, I didn't know anybody else did this.
Did everybody do this?
Anyone want to buy a 40 GB click wheel iPod? It's been handled very gently and works like a dream. Comes with dock, cable, and unused headphones in original foil. These are sold for $400 brand new.
Well, I'm a modern guy — I don't care much for Rod Stewart fronting The Walkmen on Bows + Arrows. I really enjoy Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone and I can't figure out why they'd want to replace Bono?
Declaring that personal security is as important as national security, a judge Wednesday blocked the government from conducting secret, unchallengeable searches of Internet and telephone records as part of its fight against terrorism. (AP/Yahoo)
Throughout the week, a DOD blimp will float above the Washington area conducting tests to determine how effective electro-optical and infrared cameras aboard are at detecting potentially threatening movements on the ground. (WP/photo)
Growth of the lava dome in Mount St. Helens' crater could come either from a buildup of gases within the 8,364-foot volcano, which erupted with devastating force in 1980, or from molten rock moving into the dome, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. (AP/Yahoo)
The Montreal Expos will be playing for Washington, D.C. on Opening Day next April, ending the city's 33-year wait for a baseball team to return. (WP)
Federal Election Commission: Frequently Asked Questions About Election Day and Voting Procedures
The Tuesday after the first Monday in November was initially established in 1845 (3 U.S.C. 1) for the appointment of Presidential electors in every fourth year. 2 U.S.C. 7 established this date for electing U.S. Representatives in every even numbered year in 1875. Finaly, 2 U.S.C. 1 established this date as the time for electing U.S. Senators in 1914.
Why early November? For much of our history America was a predominantly agrarian society. Law makers therefore took into account that November was perhaps the most convenient month for farmers and rural workers to be able to travel to the polls. The fall harvest was over, (remembering that spring was planting time and summer was taken up with working the fields and tending the crops) but in the majority of the nation the weather was still mild enough to permit travel over unimproved roads.
Why Tuesday? Since most residents of rural America had to travel a significant distance to the county seat in order to vote, Monday was not considered reasonable as many people would need to begin travel on Sunday. This would, of course, have conflicted with church services and Sunday worship.
Why the first Tuesday after the first Monday? Lawmakers wanted to prevent election day from falling on the first of November for two reasons. November 1st is All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics. In addition, most merchants were in the habit of doing their books from the preceding month on the 1st. Congress was apparently worried that the economic success or failure of the previous month might influence the vote of the merchants.
sere adj.
Withered; dry.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
I've been whirling in the vortex surrounding Merlin Mann's take on Getting Things Done for a week now, and have finally decided to stop fighting the current. God save us, I ordered a label maker and some manila folders today.
I took the clippers to Sol's hair yesterday, after Lorraine mentioned that we're supposed to check him regularly for ticks upon returning from his little school in the woods. I'm sorry I don't have a picture to post yet, but we've taken to calling him "flock of seagulls" if that gives you an idea.
I honestly think it looks pretty good.
As he was falling asleep last night, after his first day of preschool, Sol asked me, "Daddy, why is the sky kind of a whitish blue sometimes and purple?"
To the Moon: Our Journeys to Luna (and Back) - A Timeline of Lunar Exploration
Wayback: http://web.archive.org/web/20040215002154/http://www.kokogiak.com/luna/default.asp
I like the klockwerks.
Not believing in lawns is not the same thing as not having to mow them. Lawns to Gardens CONVERT!
I think we’re just going to buy all of our furniture from IKEA. Have you seen the Drömminge sofa/bed?
I would like to cement this to the front of our house. Do you think someone would call the cops or something?
Lorraine provides the latest update: “the place is coming slowly. we have to be out of the condo on the 31st, so we’ll be moving in then, finished or not. hopefully it will be mostly done. the painting is just about finished. and now the floors have to go in. but the bathroom has to be all put together, and that is going to take a while i think. oh well. ian loves the new house. and wants to go there everyday. he really wants to take a bath in the new bathtub we bought. and he can’t wait to bring all his toys over. mostly he just likes to be in the yard. he loves that. just being able to open the door and be outside in the sun and the grass. and there are always lots of sticks around. which is very important to him.”
Here’s our floorplan, from the 1954 sales brochure.
What people have to rethink is the role of the bathroom, not as the space to spend the least amount of their everyday lives but as a place to retreat and foster their spirituality.HGTV: Zen Bathroom.
I think two or three of these chairs and a nice bench would look great around a dining room table.
I’ve put up a photo album demonstrating our refined sense of interior design. The best way to look through the pics is to start in the boy’s room and click ‘« Previous’ to walk through the house.
The abundantly elegant What Do I Know has very nearly convinced me of what kind of lawn mower to buy.
It’s an American Basswood, aka Linden tree. They make blinds out of these. I’ll tell you what else I learn.
There is paint on walls. Tomorrow, pictures.
We're going to have a few things done before we move in. We're tearing out the 'dog' carpet and putting in wood floors, painting the interior, and renovating the (busted) bathroom. It feels a little strange to be spending so much money on top of the cost of the mortgage, but I'm looking at it as an exercise in the pure experience of expressing power and control through expenditures. Put another way, we may never have another opportunity like this. In fact, blowing all of our savings and inheritance on things like tumbled natural stone-like floor tiles pretty much guarantees it, but I know you're with me on this one: those are fucking phenomenal tiles.
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Alternet: Psychedelics and Zen: Teach your Children Well
[John Perry Barlow:] I consider LSD to be a serious medicine, but by diminishing the hazards in our cultural drugs of choice and demonizing psychedelics, we head our children straight down the most dangerous path their youthful adventurism can take. (…)
Laugh at authority in America and you will know risk. LSD is illegal primarily because it threatens the dominant American culture, the culture of control.
[University of Massachusetts professor Nick Bromell:] Why these drugs? What is the synergistic connection between these drugs and coming of age – of middle class adolescence? Clearly this is something fundamental and still unresolved. (…)
There was nothing noble about lounging all afternoon in a suburban rec room and feeling that life sucked. But there was (and still is) something mythic about dropping acid and descending into a maelstrom where the nameless nagging insecurities of the everyday become tempests and nebulae in the void of inner space.
[Ram Dass:] It’s a great gift, a profound sacrament. You can’t put it down. We just don’t know how to use it, for the most part. … I feel sad when society rejects something that can help it understand itself and deepens its values and its wisdom.“The government says we should just say no, but I think we should just say ‘Thanks, thanks Kesey.’ “
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy takes out his phone and calls the emergency services.CNN is calling it the world's funniest joke, but the study only demonstrates that it's the joke with the broadest appeal.
He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a gunshot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"
Bizarrely, computer analysis of the data also showed that jokes containing 103 words were thought to be especially funny. The winning "hunters" joke was 102 words long.
Here are some intellectually stimulating shots of beer guts!
originally posted by Bill
We gave Sharon six weeks of quiet, during which time more than 79 Palestinians were killed. No one in the world cared.UPI: Arafat aide: Situation is bad.
Note the megatextual references to Heaven, Superior Being-as-girl-child, snow-as-inviolable-purity, and time-as-irrelevancy. [via riley dog]
TrackBack is a system for connecting weblog posts across sites. If you've been reading weblogs for a while, you've probably seen how conversations can happen across several weblogs. TrackBack simply makes the connections more visible.(from BlogRoots BlogPopuli How-To)
TrackBack was developed by Movable Type, and integrated into their weblog tool. It's rapidly becoming an open standard for connecting posts.
The question of the day at BlogRoots: is there sexism in blogging? For further reading see is MetaFilter a boyzone? and is randomWalks a fraternity?
It’s time once again for the Project Censored list of the top underreported, underplayed, and underanalyzed stories of 2001. Topping the list this year are radio and water, two things that have been increasingly on my mind. See also http://www.projectcensored.org/.
Before I steal a half-dozen links from one buddha, allow me to politely point you in his direction. Get your third eye open!
Mass graves discovered in May near the northern city of Shebergan could contain as many as 1,000 bodies of Taliban prisoners who suffocated in sealed trucks last November. The deaths allegedly occurred during the transport of prisoners by a militia under the command of Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum. The Newsweek report described Dostum's militiamen cramming Taliban fighters who had surrendered into sealed trucks for the trip to Shebergan. The report said many prisoners suffocated slowly in the intense heat and that drivers were beaten by Dostum's troops for trying to allow the captives to breathe.(From that Mass Afghan Graves article.) Now, as I understand it (and correct me if I'm wrong), if I'm not "with the terrorists," then this war crime is blood on my hands. Although beating and suffocating people sounds pretty terrible and terrifying to me, so what do I know?
Women in the U.S. armed services are increasingly at danger -- not from foreign terrorists, but from men in the U.S. armed services.Cincinnati CityBeat: Military Rape.
9 percent of women in the Marines, 8 percent of women in the Army, 6 percent of women in the Navy and 4 percent of women in the Air Force and Coast Guard were victims of rape or attempted rape in one year alone.
You cannot go back and become a person who doesn't know how to write FedEx, but if you will actually decide to write it over your paintings, FedEx may sue you, because it hold a "copyright" it owns the part of your brain where the FedEx logo is located.A "prisoner" by Miltos Manetas.
The government is preparing a national crackdown on file traders that would crush the rogue swapping networks in the same manner hackers were pushed underground 12 years ago.Wired News: Bracing for the Digital Crackdown. Digital Prophet John Perry Barlow sez: "They are going after people who are young and want to share their ideas. They are criminalizing the curious."
Remember last year's summer of the shark? Welcome to the summer of the abduction.The New Republic: Summer Scare. The bottom line (as I suspected) is that they're putting the story of an 11-year-old girl beaten nearly to death with a hammer on the evening news not because they think it's newsworthy, but because they think it will sell advertising. Are you buying?
The public didn't need to watch little Samantha's funeral "live ... in its entirety" on CNN. The public didn't need to listen to Larry King bloviate about this topic night after night, not just with Runnion's grief-stricken mother, but also with a panel of people involved in the case, and, most pathetically, with celebrity hack Dominick Dunne. It's fine to alert the public when a child is missing or there's a serial killer on the loose in the neighborhood, but that's largely a job for local news. What Larry King, Bill O'Reilly, and the rest are doing is something else entirely: It's sensationalizing other people's tragedy.
The world is a scary enough place without kids being made to feel that at any moment a masked man could sneak into their bedroom and spirit them away. It could happen--and does on extraordinarily rare occasions. But our children are in no greater danger this summer than any other.
What will comics look like in 5 years? I don’t know either, but Patrick Farley makes web comics look like a mature art form. While you can’t go wrong with anything at electric sheep, particular favorites include “Overheard at the Rave”, “The Guy I Almost Was”, and “The Spiders”. I’m mentioning e-sheep again because Farley has just launched the weekly strip “Barracuda: The Scotty Zaccharine Story, a look back on the rise and fall of Dot Com San Francisco.”
“Not directly experiencing racism is, in fact, directly experiencing racism.” Aaron, uppity-negro.com
This week, the government refused to comply with a federal judge who ordered that he be given the underlying evidence justifying Hamdi's treatment. The Justice Department has insisted that the judge must simply accept its declaration and cannot interfere with the president's absolute authority in "a time of war."LA Times: Jonathan Turley: Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision. Hello!
My inner child lives in an Earthship.
What kind of title is “San Francisco’s ‘Sleeping Giant’ Awakens” for an NPR segment? How often do we see white people described with racialized, monolithic, and anthropomorphizing imagery?
“When Shiva holds the center of the stage, the role of the personalized Brahman is colored with death and destruction. Shiva’s stern asceticism casts a blight over the fields of rebirth. His presence negates and transcends the kaleidoscope of sufferings and joys. Nevertheless, he bestows wisdom and peace and is not only terrible but profoundly benign. Shiva’s nature at once transcends and includes all the polarities of the living world.” “Shiva opens his third eye only in anger, and the offender is burnt to cinders.”
“30 Years After the Murder of George Jackson: A 29-minute documentary about the origins of the modern anti-prison movement.” Who was George Jackson? I’d never heard of him until I read of him at Full Bleed. This audio documentary is the top Google result about the activist who was murdered in San Quentin prison in 1971.
Washington Post: At 70, Master Jhoon Rhee Is Still Getting in His Kicks. He taught Bruce Lee to kick, trained more than 270 members of Congress, and does at least 1,000 push-ups and a few hundred sit-ups every day.
I'm all for random searches . . . but I do think the number of Caucasian, lactating mothers who have passed through al Qaeda training camps is negligible.Elizabeth McGarry said, 'That's the milk for the baby.' And [the JFK security guard] said, 'You have to drink it.' And she said, 'I can't, it's breast milk.' I'm not taking sides on this one -- I'm just thinking of that poor bastard carrying their urine sample.
The Memory Hole: “You might think that Kennedy revealing an A-bomb a few blocks from the White House would be highly newsworthy, but you’d be wrong.”
ME: You put it all into WorldCom, didn't you?Tim Carvell reads between the lines for Slate.
CITIGROUP: Funny how nobody ever calls it warm, soft cash.
ME: Uh-huh, uh-huh. Point taken. But just out of curiosity—you know, not that such things matter to me—exactly how much of my cash do you still have left?
CITIGROUP: Don't wait until someone says "Your money or your life" to remember that they are two different things.
ME: Oh, sweet Jesus. It's all gone, isn't it?
Doc Searls says “Bring on the WiFi Radios!” Also of interest: Radio’s titan hits the skids, in which Eric Boehlert looks at the antitrust cases facing Clear Channel Communications, a.k.a. Why Commerical Radio Sucks, Inc.
There’s a lot going on over at Blogroots – new look, new TrackBack-enabled weblog-related post aggregator (when will Blogger Pro support TrackBack?), and the highly-anticipated We Blog is due out in two days. In other news of limited interest, dive into mark has a good summary of the proposed changes in XHTML 2.0 (which look just great to this web head).
And the best thing is Twinkies have so many preservatives that they never go bad. If you got trapped in the room, you could eat the Twinkies for years.Tenants from Hell by Mel Ash, author of Shaving the Inside of Your Skull and Beat Spirit.
One of the benefits of 21st-century economic and cultural globalization is the overdue nod toward artists like Hélio Oiticica, who turn out to have been doing things 30 or 40 years ago that pass for new today.New York Times: A Brazilian's Work in the 70's Now Looks New. "The world is a museum, he said. There's art everywhere."
If the death of five Americans leaves Mr. Bush “furious," you’d think the death of one would at least find him peeved. According to unconfirmed reports, however, the shooting of an American citizen – shot in the head and chest while her 9-month old son sat on her lap – in Palestine by the Israeli Defense Force registered as a slight itch on the back of the President’s right knee.
I don't think it's that women are less sexual than men. I think they could or would like porn if the situation were different. There are still fairly big taboos about women admitting to being interested in porn - even for the ones who rent pretty racy stuff from upstairs. And the movies would have to be different. There'd have to be more about why these people are having sex. A better reason than Tab A fitting into Slot B, at least.If you haven't yet read Ali Davis' True Porn Clerk Stories, make some time to do so. It is the best thing on the Internet since Get Your War On.
And, from what I do know about porn, the sex would have to be different. It doesn't look like the women on porn boxes are having that much fun. They're always being bent or twisted into uncomfortable positions, or trying to avoid sperm being shot directly into their eyes. The fact that the men watching want to see as much as possible means that the women don't seem to be getting touched much. They're just getting poled by some guy who's apparently deliberately avoiding their erogenous zones. Whee. So we don't get many women downstairs. I hope the few brave feminine souls who do go down there find what they're looking for.
Oh, by the way... Management found out about this journal and the NPR piece over the weekend.
I am not fired.
It's bizarre to see the death of a once-close family friend announced on MetaFilter, and in relation to Steve Jobs no less. I've always considered myself blessed to have been exposed to so much wisdom as a little one, and Kobun was no small part of that. Any conscious memory I have of him is almost certainly confabulated, but I've always cherished the conviction that if I were to look him up someday, we would greet each other as old friends -- no matter I was no older than five the last time I saw him.Kobun Otokawa Roshi, 64, drowned Friday, July 26, in a pond near Lucerne, Switzerland, while attempting to rescue his daughter Maya, 5, who had fallen into the water. Maya also drowned. Roshi leaves his wife Katrine, their daughter Tatsuko, 7, and son Alyosha, 3. He also leaves two grown children: Yoshiko, 29, of Albuquerque, N.M., and Taido, 31, of Washington state. The loss of a great heart always leaves a void. His was a life worthy of celebration.
Rest easy, old friend, your targets are covered.Inscription on a plaque dedicating a dummy missile installed at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota which opens to the public around 2005. (Washington Post: Rethinking the Unthinkable.)
Priests tend to inflict maximum damage on their devout victims because Catholicism teaches that priests are God's representatives on earth, worthy of complete obedience and trust. To children, it often seems as though God is abusing them, a violation that can forever destroy the refuge organized religion provides.Washington Post: How Deep The Scars Of Abuse?
Pornographer’s Picks: “A subjective listing of excellent free and membership porn sites, as chosen by a pornographer, together with occasional musings on sex, the smut industry, or whatever else I feel like rambling about. Some of these links may make me money when you click on them, but the links will always be what they claim to be, and the best of what’s out there. Oh yeah! Clicking on any links provided will likely result in explicit sexual content, so consider yourself warned.”
If you spot somebody you believe may be a TIPS informant, do two things:The widespread public ridicule TIPS has suffered gives rise to faint stirrings of hope for the US within me. Did I say that out loud?
- Mark the informant. In a subtle way, place the mark of the all-seeing eye (the eye-in-the-pyramid from the Great Seal, shown above) on their home, vehicle or person. Chalk is best, though it must be renewed. This is like Hobo Signs.
- Register them here.
“Why would anyone pay for this stuff?” - Doonesbury 7/21/2002
Internet radio stations are closing by the hundreds because they can't afford to pay expensive new royalties. But a compromise may be on the horizon.According to Minnesota Public Radio's Future Tense, all may not be lost.
Palestine Chronicle - ‘Murder in Gaza’ “contains images of the death and destruction created by the Israeli attack on the Gaza City, late Monday, July 22, where 12 Palestinians were killed and 140 wounded.” If you don’t think you want to see this, you don’t. Don’t click.
Go Eliot!
Now that OS X has a RealAudio client, I can bring you the best of NPR so far this month:
Game over, folks. The Classic Nick Homepage is the absolute best thing on the Internet.
Looking for Macworld info? Check out Xspot.
I would have loved to have seen Tom Cruise's character use that fancy glove-based interface to make a warm and charming virtual greeting for his pregnant wife, instead of posing with her with no technology in sight.Jaron "virtual reality" Lanier talks to DJ Spooky's future-culture mag 21C about designing the future for Minority Report. Also in 21C: Memories of a Forgotten War: A Filipino/American Ghost Story.
If it's true that commonly used pesticides compromise the immune system of a vertebrate organism, which is what these findings suggest, then we're looking at a much bigger problem than deformed frogs.Washington Post: A Pesticide-Parasite Role in Frogs' Deformities?
It's sort of like alchemy to turn horror into humor or to see the absurd side of tragedy.Paul Krassner's actually not talking about Get Your War On, but about his show, "The Return of the Realist."
When asked to explain any new insights he may have gained into his character, Tony Soprano, he shrugged and said, "We've just finished the season so it's very hard for me to answer that. I almost need to clear my head a little bit and then look back at it." In trying to explain the enormous appeal of the mob boss, he likened his character to Ralph Kramden of "The Honeymooners": "It's like this moron is just doing the best he can and he just keeps screwing up. But I think that is changing a little bit."The Sopranos returns on September 15th. It sounds like they just wrapped up shooting.
I always forget to read the Funny Paper column in the Baltimore City Paper.
Somewhere, six feet under the fruited plain, the corpse of Hank Ketcham stirs from its fitful dreams of Swiss mountain sunlight and rolls over in dismay. Its dead bony hand scrabbles restlessly at the earth, fumbling for a chilled martini.
Lobot Is Lando Calrissian’s #1 helper. Lobot runs plant operations in Cloud City for Lando. But one day, something happened. Now you should look at the story.
By all rights, Metapop should be bigger than bread.
Well, the truth is that there is a lot of luck involved. Some people prefer to pick matches from the top rows of gems, leaving a couple potential matches on the lower reaches as a ‘reserve.’ On the other hand, particularly in the timed game, some players prefer to make matches on the bottom rows to maximize their chances of a big cascade, with its correspondingly big time bonus. But if you’re playing the non-timed version, probably the most useful strategy is just to cross your fingers and pray.The best strategy is no-strategy according to the creator of Bejeweled, the most addictive game since Tetris. You can play Bejeweled (a.k.a. 'Diamond Mine') online at the Popcap Games site. See also these 'best games on the web' picks.
SCIFI. COM chat transcript: Singularity with Venor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil
ChatMod: Tonight we’re pleased to welcome science fiction writer Venor Vinge, and author, innovator, and inventor Ray Kurzweil – the founder of Kurzweil Technologies. Tonight’s topic is Singularity. The term “singularity” refers to the geometric rate of the growth of technology and the idea that this growth will lead to a superhuman machine that will far exceed the human intellect. (…)
RayKurzweil: the event horizon of the Singularity can be compared to the concept of Singularity in physics. As one gets near a black hole, what appears to be an event horizon from outside the black hole appears differently from inside. The same will be true of this historical Singularity. (…)
vv: When dealing with “superhumans” it is not the same thing as comparing – say – our tech civ with a pretech human civ. The analogies shouldb with the animal kindgom and even more pershaps with things enve further away and more primitive (…)
RayKurzweil: The Singularity emerges from many thousands of smaller advances on many fronts: three-dimensional molecular computing, brain research (brain reverse engineering), software techniques, communication technologies, and many others. There’s no single Singularity studies. It’s the result of many intersecting revolutions. (…)
ChatMod: For both guests – will we notice the Singularity when it happens, or will life seem routine until we suddenly wake up and realize we’re on the other side?
RayKurzweil: Life will appear progressively more exciting. Doesn’t it seem that way already. I mean we’re just getting started, but there’s already a palpable acceleration.
vv: Yes, I know some people who half-seriously suggest it has already happened (…)
RayKurzweil: I do think that the entire Universe will be changed from “dumb matter” to smart matter, which is the ultimate answer to the cosmological questions.
Project Cryo: “I’m not sure if you want to place a Lego figure inside your mouse but if you do now you know how.”
How to survive without audiogalaxy: a guide to file-sharing alternatives
The leading clients are less user-friendly, slower, and sometimes shady. Using, and protecting yourself, from these apps takes more work and research.Not only that…
Major music companies are preparing to mount a broad new attack on unauthorized online song-swapping. The campaign would include suits against individuals who are offering the largest troves of songs on peer-to-peer services. The suits would be part of a broader effort, including a public campaign that may feature prominent artists urging music fans to respect copyright rules.Meanwhile…
Did you know you have a clothespin on your shirt?clothespins for the revolution
In an outstanding series on weblog usability (30 days to a more accessible weblog), Mark Pilgrim argues convincingly that web designers should not have links open new windows by default. I agree without reservation.
Wired News: Routes of Least Surveillance
The demonstrated tendency of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) operators to single out ethnic minorities for observation and to voyeuristically focus on women’s breasts and buttocks provides the majority of the population ample legitimate reasons to avoid public surveillance cameras.iSee maps routes across Manhattan as free of surveillance as possible.
Everyone has linked to these outstanding satirical propaganda posters, but somehow you haven’t seen them yet.
drylongso is “news, political and cultural commentary, fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, contests, and events for thinking people of color.”
The overriding thing the committee concluded is that, given that we know acrylamides are cancer-causing in animals and probably in humans, it is intolerable that they are in foods at the levels found and we have to find a remedy. But there is not enough information to make any consumer recommendations because we need more research.Washington Post: Panel Calls Acrylamide in Food a 'Serious' Risk. How about no more potato chips? Quit with the french fries, too. Looks like beans and rice for everyone, I guess.
wood s lot reverentially observes the recent passing of Beat poet, novelist, and Zen priest Philip Whalen. Two links I may and may not have stolen from the woods:
If I may call your attention to Warblogger Watch, in part to note the stylish (but too w i d e?) redesign, but mostly because it’s the first and best site bold enough to flip the script and pay the warbloggers the only kind of attention they deserve.
Adam is committed to collaborating with other relevant initiativesAdam is... by Google.
Adam is going to kill you
Adam is a singer, songwriter and pianist whose music embodies the fierce and tender spirit of Women's Music
Adam is renowned for his fine buildings, both public and private
Adam is unable to respond at this time
Adam is also active in the field of acting
Adam is the ideal human male with his rippling muscles and elegant contours
Adam is almost ready
Adam is never as funny and clever as it thinks and/or hopes itself to be
Adam is on TV, Wednesdays 7pm
Adam is famous
Adam is a polo shirt wearin sleep mo fo
Adam is a square
Adam is a complicated man
NPR has revised its linking "policy." The revision seems like an improvement, but it's not -- it's just as bad as it ever was. NPR still maintains that people who link to NPR's site require permission -- the new policy merely conditionally grants that permission.The latest on NPR's boneheaded linking policy from Cory at Boing Boing.
I'll say it again: The most harmful lie you can tell about the Web is that permission is a prerequisite for linking. There is no copyright interest in controlling how people reference your work.
I'm sending fresh mail to Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR's ombudsman, to tell him what I think of this. I recommend that you do the same. I will also be withholding my donation from NPR until this policy is reversed. Much as I hold public radio dear, NPR's policy has the potential to irreparably damage the Web. I would give up a thousand NPRs for the WWW.
The math doesn't even work anymore.Washington Post: WorldCom Says Its Books Are Off By $3.8 Billion. What was it that lookout on Titanic said? "Iceberg, right ahead!"
The Post on Hip-Hop and politics; the Times on Hip-Hop and theater.
Mr. Chin met his assailants, Ronald Ebens, a supervisor at Chrysler, and his stepson Michael Nitz, who had recently been laid off, at a strip club in Highland Park, a small blue-collar city surrounded by Detroit, where Mr. Chin was having his bachelor party.New York Times: A Slaying in 1982 Maintains Its Grip on Asian-Americans.
A dispute started inside the club about a stripper. Then a dancer heard Mr. Ebens hurl profanities at Mr. Chin, blaming him for the loss of American jobs. Moments later, according to court documents, Mr. Ebens and Mr. Nitz chased Mr. Chin down the street and crushed his skull with a Louisville Slugger.
Asian-Americans called the killing a hate crime. But a judge ruled the death was no more than the tragic end to a barroom brawl. The two pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, and as part of the plea agreement, were sentenced to three years of probation and $3,780 in fines and court fees.
"It sent a chilling message that it didn't matter if you worked for American companies and spoke English without an accent, you still weren't regarded as a red-blooded American worthy of rights," said Frank Wu, a law professor at Howard University and author of "Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White."
"The tragedy marked our political coming of age," said Helen Zia, a writer who helped found American Citizens for Justice in response to the Chin killing. "But we also need to consider where we go from here."
We're talking here about a man who's held a responsible job with the same company for 17 or 18 years and his son, who is employed and a part time student. These men are not going to go out and harm somebody else. I just didn't think that putting them in prison would do any good for them or society.Wayne County Circuit Judge Charles Kauffman, defending his outrageous sentence of a fine and probation for the murderers.
It didn't take us long to realize we had a huge hit. In fact, it took less than 24 hours. The first day Today's Papers appeared, we got a message from Bill Gates asking when we were planning to make it available by e-mail. (...)Slate: Scott Shuger: A pioneer of Internet journalism. Mr. Shuger died Saturday in a scuba diving accident.
Scott Shuger was, in a way, the first complete Internet journalist, in that the Internet was essential to both his input and his output, and the result was something new and useful that couldn't be done before. Without the Internet, Scott couldn't have read five newspapers from across the country—and done it before the paper editions were even available.
The Asian-American rights organization cited the behavior of the Queens poll workers - as well as similar complaints against workers in Chinatown and Brooklyn's Homecrest and Sunset Park sections - in a report released yesterday that disclosed a wide range of problems Asian-American voters faced last year.Hostility to Asians Cited at Polls. Also on Model Minority:
"If it was defeated at the polls it would be a monumental setback for civil rights in the state and some thought it would be better to let sleeping dogs lie and not take the chance," he said. Florida is the only state that hasn't acted on the restrictions.States respond to push to eliminate racist laws.
originally posted by beXn
Let it not be said that people in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression. The signers of this statement call on the people of the US to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11 and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world.
We believe that peoples and nations have the right to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by great powers. We believe that all persons detained or prosecuted by the US government should have the same rights of due process. We believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent must be valued and protected. We understand that such rights and values are always contested and must be fought for.
We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do - we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to resist the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world.
We too watched with shock the horrific events of September 11. We too mourned the thousands of innocent dead and shook our heads at the terrible scenes of carnage - even as we recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City and, a generation ago, Vietnam. We too joined the anguished questioning of millions of Americans who asked why such a thing could happen.
But the mourning had barely begun, when the highest leaders of the land unleashed a spirit of revenge. They put out a simplistic script of "good v evil" that was taken up by a pliant and intimidated media. They told us that asking why these terrible events had happened verged on treason. There was to be no debate. There were by definition no valid political or moral questions. The only possible answer was to be war abroad and repression at home.
In our name, the Bush administration, with near unanimity from Congress, not only attacked Afghanistan but arrogated to itself and its allies the right to rain down military force anywhere and anytime. The brutal repercussions have been felt from the Philippines to Palestine. The government now openly prepares to wage all-out war on Iraq - a country which has no connection to the horror of September 11. What kind of world will this become if the US government has a blank cheque to drop commandos, assassins, and bombs wherever it wants?
In our name the government has created two classes of people within the US: those to whom the basic rights of the US legal system are at least promised, and those who now seem to have no rights at all. The government rounded up more than 1,000 immigrants and detained them in secret and indefinitely. Hundreds have been deported and hundreds of others still languish today in prison. For the first time in decades, immigration procedures single out certain nationalities for unequal treatment.
In our name, the government has brought down a pall of repression over society. The president's spokesperson warns people to "watch what they say". Dissident artists, intellectuals, and professors find their views distorted, attacked, and suppressed. The so-called Patriot Act - along with a host of similar measures on the state level - gives police sweeping new powers of search and seizure, supervised, if at all, by secret proceedings before secret courts.
In our name, the executive has steadily usurped the roles and functions of the other branches of government. Military tribunals with lax rules of evidence and no right to appeal to the regular courts are put in place by executive order. Groups are declared "terrorist" at the stroke of a presidential pen.
We must take the highest officers of the land seriously when they talk of a war that will last a generation and when they speak of a new domestic order. We are confronting a new openly imperial policy towards the world and a domestic policy that manufactures and manipulates fear to curtail rights.
There is a deadly trajectory to the events of the past months that must be seen for what it is and resisted. Too many times in history people have waited until it was too late to resist. President Bush has declared: "You're either with us or against us." Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people. We will not give up our right to question. We will not hand over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say not in our name. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare. We extend a hand to those around the world suffering from these policies; we will show our solidarity in word and deed.
We who sign this statement call on all Americans to join together to rise to this challenge. We applaud and support the questioning and protest now going on, even as we recognise the need for much, much more to actually stop this juggernaut. We draw inspiration from the Israeli reservists who, at great personal risk, declare "there is a limit" and refuse to serve in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
We draw on the many examples of resistance and conscience from the past of the US: from those who fought slavery with rebellions and the underground railroad, to those who defied the Vietnam war by refusing orders, resisting the draft, and standing in solidarity with resisters. Let us not allow the watching world to despair of our silence and our failure to act. Instead, let the world hear our pledge: we will resist the machinery of war and repression and rally others to do everything possible to stop it.
From:
Michael Albert
Laurie Anderson
Edward Asner, actor
Russell Banks, writer
Rosalyn Baxandall, historian
Jessica Blank, actor/playwright
Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange
William Blum, author
Theresa Bonpane, executive director, Office of the Americas
Blase Bonpane, director, Office of the Americas
Fr Bob Bossie, SCJ
Leslie Cagan
Henry Chalfant,author/filmmaker
Bell Chevigny, writer
Paul Chevigny, professor of law, NYU
Noam Chomsky
Stephanie Coontz, historian, Evergreen State College
Kia Corthron, playwright
Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange
Ossie Davis
Mos Def
Carol Downer, board of directors, Chico (CA) Feminist Women's Health Centre
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, professor, California State University, Hayward
Eve Ensler
Leo Estrada, UCLA professor, Urban Planning
John Gillis, writer, professor of history, Rutgers
Jeremy Matthew Glick, editor of Another World Is Possible
Suheir Hammad, writer
David Harvey, distinguished professor of anthropology, CUNY Graduate Centre
Rakaa Iriscience, hip hop artist
Erik Jensen, actor/playwright
Casey Kasem
Robin DG Kelly
Martin Luther King III, president, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Barbara Kingsolver
C Clark Kissinger, Refuse & Resist!
Jodie Kliman, psychologist
Yuri Kochiyama, activist
Annisette & Thomas Koppel, singers/composers
Tony Kushner
James Lafferty, executive director, National Lawyers Guild/LA
Ray Laforest, Haiti Support Network
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, Tikkun magazine
Barbara Lubin, Middle East Childrens Alliance
Staughton Lynd
Anuradha Mittal, co-director, Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First
Malaquias Montoya, visual artist
Robert Nichols, writer
Rev E Randall Osburn, executive vice president, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Grace Paley
Jeremy Pikser, screenwriter
Jerry Quickley, poet
Juan Gumez Quiones, historian, UCLA
Michael Ratner, president, Centre for Constitutional Rights
David Riker, filmmaker
Boots Riley, hip hop artist, The Coup
Edward Said
John J Simon, writer, editor
Starhawk
Michael Steven Smith, National Lawyers Guild/NY
Bob Stein, publisher
Gloria Steinem
Alice Walker
Naomi Wallace, playwright
Rev George Webber, president emeritus, NY Theological Seminary
Leonard Weinglass, attorney
John Edgar Wideman
Saul Williams, spoken word artist
Howard Zinn, historian
Not too far from the Diana Ross Playground at West 81st Street, we examined a huge outcrop of bedrock called mica schist. This is the rock that underlies most of Manhattan and provides the foundation for its skyscrapers. Using the "Cambridge Guide to Minerals, Rocks and Fossils," we determined that the schist contained the following minerals: flashing bits of muscovite, a white mica that gives almost all of Central Park's outcrops a glittering sheen; and biotite, a black mica that gives the rocks their dark color. There were also flecks of pinkish feldspar. But most interestingly, we found shining, millimeter-size grains of red garnet.New York Times: Scratch Manhattan, and It's a Big Jewel Box:.
In the way cathedrals are built in the shape of a cross, most traditional Hindu temples are laid out to suggest a god in human form lying on his back and looking toward the heavensWashington Post: Big Enough for Two: Dedicated to the Hindu Gods Siva and Vishnu, Lanham Temple Achieves Harmony and Growth.
Thursday night's storm finished off the ailing oak, which began its life around the time the first European colonists settled in this region. Centuries later, the area around the tree hasn't actually changed that much. Route 662 -- itself a descendant of an ancient trail used by Native Americans -- runs next to the tree, and a steel grain tank sits across the street. But mostly, there are acres upon acres of farmland and pristine woods.Washington Post: Mourning a Fallen Giant: Maryland's Landmark Wye Oak Draws a Respectful Crowd.
A former head of the Census Bureau said, "The longer you are here, the more it makes you American."Associated Press: Fewer Americans Remember Ancestry. I'm glad we cleared that up.
Your opponent is evil and evil only and nothing rational could describe their evil evil evil acts of evil, negotiation is useless (they are, afterall, subhuman and quite evil), there are no root causes to disputes, force works and people don't mind our civilian casualties because we're the good guys, blowback doesn't exist and my favorite: We don't care what the world thinks. Bombs away and that Ted Rall/Noam Chomsky/Mike Moore he's no good!The Warblogger's Mantra, Philip Shropshire.
Subject: Re: Tab Browsing Update Newsgroups: netscape.public.mozilla.general > > while using tabbed browsing, are their keyboard > > shortcuts for swithing tabs? > The shortcuts are Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-PgDown
So now you know.
Beer-chan are fairies and always says it's so good !! Try to get Beer-chan surprised, and you'll see Beer-chan blowing their barm. Green soybeans are Beer-chan's favorite. Keep it away from Beer-chan if you don't want to miss it.
"I don't see a difference between a chimpanzee," he states unequivocally, "and my 4 1/2-year-old son." (...)Washington Post: A Law Professor Says It's Time to Extend Basic Rights to the Animal Kingdom.
Some talking points: Chimps have complex social interactions. They use tools. Research by Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham, among others, has shown that, even in the wild, they demonstrate an idea of the future and remember the past. They can count. And they can communicate in sign language at the level of a 3- or 4-year-old child.
Movie Title Screens Page - “A unique catalog of movies on video…specifically, screen captures of movie title screens! What good is it? Whatever use you put it to.” Kind thanks to xblog.
(randomWalks now supports RSS auto-discovery.)
Back in the day, having a board with more than one phone line was huge. Two lines meant more than one person could be online at the same time. This was heavy. But it was the end of something, too: the end of that amazing solitude you felt when the busies stopped, and the carrier finally screeched through, and you knew the board was yours. And then, for as long as you were online, nothing changed unless you changed it. Everything stopped; frozen in time, waiting patiently for you to peruse it, or ignore it. Two lines, though, and it was gone. It was just one more person, but that was a lot.Back in the day (when 300 baud was the bomb), we used to call "bulletin boards."
Cincinnati CityBeat: Shut Up, Already, Damn!: Talking black at the movies. I didn’t really like this article. So why did you post it? ‘Cause I thought you might want to read it.
Inuit elders and hunters who depend on the land say they are disturbed by what they are seeing swept in by the changes: deformed fish, caribou with bad livers, baby seals left by their mothers to starve. Just the other year, a robin appeared where no robin had been seen before. There is no word for robin in Inuktitut, the Inuit language.Washington Post: Signs of Thaw in a Desert of Snow: Scientists begin to heed Inuit warnings of climate change in arctic.
"ArtBots," held at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn on Saturday, featured 10 robot-centric projects by artists, engineers and tinkerers and attracted hundreds of spectators. The show filled a warren of rooms with the whirr and whine of tiny electric motors. On the floor of one room, three robots made of Lego bricks topped with plastic dolls' heads pulled Japanese ink brushes across a scroll of paper, producing swirls of thick black strokes. When all three had finished their maneuvers, onlookers applauded.New York Times: Robots Find a Muse Other Than Mayhem
MOTHER GOOSE & GRIMM: Monday: "On his day off, the Grim Reaper loves making parking meters expire." OK, Mike Peters, here's the three ways you ruined the gag. 1.) Why "on his day off"? It's confusing and irrelevant. 2.) Saying "loves making" it happen is a bad setup. Who cares what the Grim Reaper feels here? He's the Grim Reaper. You've got to do a lot more setup if you want to make the Grim Reaper's emotional state be part of the gag. 3.) The "expire" thing is worthless, and bolding it for emphasis is extra-worthless. The real joke is not some lame pun about expiring, it's the conceptual gag about how when the Grim Reaper comes by, the parking meters' time is up.The Baltimore City Paper's Funny Paper doesn't get any better than this.
So from the original caption, we're left with ". . . Grim Reaper . . . parking meters . . . " Both of which are in the drawing, so you don't need to mention them by name. Now get rid of the Reaper's "heh, heh, heh" thought balloon--which is really just you laughing at your own gag--and you've got just the image: Death striding past a row of parking meters, which are going "click," one by one. Now that, Mike Peters--that's a strip you could sell to the New Yorker. If you weren't such a crappy artist, we mean.
You know, as I said in the first newspaper report about it, if I had to choose between losing my soul or losing my show, I'm glad I chose losing my show. You know, I never sold out. When I came over to the network, everybody said you're going to lose your edge. You're going to sell out. Well, I didn't and I got fired. And that's OK.Bill Maher was on Larry King the other night -- thanks to George for pointing out this transcript.
I think if people understood they could give six copies of Dr. Seuss and every child could have one ... that translates better than saying give us some more money.U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill on "how rich nations should help poverty-stricken Africa".
No one I know in the hip-hop community is really plugged into reparations, and I know a lot of people. Something is very wrong with that. It is the responsibility of those of us who are informed to reach our young people in their language with this idea that is age-old, and has no chance of being achieved without their support.Russell Simmons sees a key weakness in the reparations movement.
Get educated on the India/Pakistan conflict:
Raj, 27 and from India, was smoking a cigarette outside the school where he took computer classes last fall when a white man walked up and sucker-punched him in the face. The same stranger had earlier taunted him, shouting, "You Muslims all grow up to be terrorists." The police officer who met with Raj in the emergency room refused to write down the phrase.Village Voice: Arabs and South Asians Dodge Authorities, Even When in Need.
Raj (not his real name) found an attorney to help him lodge a bias complaint, both about the assault and the officer's conduct. During a meeting with a New York City prosecutor, his lawyer thought to ask, just in case, "if there would be trouble" for her client. (...)
The prosecutor was honest. If the feds came snooping, he said, Raj's nationality—and a criminal record reflecting a store robbery—could land him behind bars, no matter that he was the victim in this case. The conversation with the prosecutor so shook her, a hate crimes specialist not easily spooked by the system, that she advised Raj "to go underground. We suggested that when the prosecutor's office called him, not to return the calls. We told him never to apply for citizenship, not to leave the country and expect to come back, and if he sees a cop, to go the other way."
If you're going to put buildings on that site, build one of the seven modern wonders of the world, and please give us a skyline that will once again cause our spirits to soar.From Public, a Strong Voice for Rebuilding Twin Towers (New York Times).
Wiley Wiggins is guestblogging over at Boing Boing.
Freddie tried to explain it: We are made from cells that can divide and multiply and add and subtract.Read Lynda Barry.
“Here’s an annotated version of the schedule from the Emerging Technologies 2002 conference. Under each session are links to the blog entries about that session.” As Cory sez, “I can’t stop clickin'.”
Here is an exhausting bunch of links “on the idea of automatically creating back links based on referrers” which seem to have all been prompted by Jon Udell’s Blogspace Under the Microscope, although it seems to me that yaywastaken was the first to spark interest in this among webloggers by providing an easy-to-implement javascript referrer service. Most people would use this sentence to say something about the “semantic web”, but I must simply point you to write the web [dormant?] and a google search on the subject.
How to glue this to that.
I have stared at the sun, and for the sake of my sanity, will never again look directly at the consciousness of the online ueber-geek collective. [Rob Flickenger on EtherPEG at the Emerging Technology conference]We also do a weblog called Xspot which will probably be getting its own domain soon. Can you think of a good domain name?
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah has said he had to spend hours briefing US President George W Bush on Middle East issues at their last meeting.BBC: Bush 'noble but uninformed'.
"He listens and debates politely, but was not fully informed about the real conditions in the region, especially the conditions suffered by the Palestinian people."
Wal-Mart does not want the U.S. buying public to know that its famous low prices are the product of human misery, so while it loudly proclaims that its global suppliers must comply with a corporate "code of conduct" to treat workers decently, it strictly prohibits the disclosure of any factory names and addresses, hoping to keep independent sources from witnessing the "code" in operation. (...)Jim Hightower wants you to boycott Wal-Mart.
"There will always be people who break the law," says CEO Lee Scott. "It is an issue of human greed among a few people." Those "few people" include him, other top managers, and the Walton billionaires. Each of them not only knows about their company's exploitation, but willingly prospers from a corporate culture that demands it. (...)
Wal-Mart operates as a massive wealth extractor. Instead of profits staying in town to be reinvested locally, the money is hauled off to Bentonville, either to be used as capital for conquering yet another town or simply to be stashed in the family vaults (the Waltons, by the way, just bought the biggest bank in Arkansas).
Why should we accept this? Is it our country, our communities, our economic destinies--or theirs? Wal-Mart's radical remaking of our labor standards and our local economies is occurring mostly without our knowledge or consent. Poof--there goes another local business. Poof--there goes our middle-class wages. Poof--there goes another factory to China. No one voted for this ... but there it is. While corporate ideologues might huffily assert that customers vote with their dollars, it's an election without a campaign, conveniently ignoring that the public's "vote" might change if we knew the real cost of Wal-Mart's "cheap" goods--and if we actually had a chance to vote.
"This is not weather that we see very frequently," said Jim Travers, meteorologist in charge of the Weather Service's Baltimore-Washington office in Sterling. "Although this spring's been pretty different."Although I could not have told you about the tornado watch we were under today had I not come across this article, I could have told you about the most beautiful rainbow I've ever seen. Some things are too precious to photograph, I think.
The hardest hurdle for me is that I just remember being in a really close relationship with a black man and being able to come home at the end of the day and say to him, `It's hard being me. It's hard being a black woman in a predominantly white field.' I needed to be able to say that to Jason or else I couldn't live with him. . . . He can take it. He knows how to give me space to talk about a situation with white people without having to defend himself.The new mix: More black women and white men are settling what some consider the final frontier of interracial marriage (Chicago Tribune).
O’Reilly is publishing a book on weblogging, due out in September.
It's easy for social justice activists to tell themselves that since Jews already have such powerful defenders in Washington and Jerusalem, anti-Semitism is one battle they don't need to fight. This is a deadly error. It is precisely because anti-Semitism is used by the likes of Mr. Sharon that the fight against it must be reclaimed.Naomi Klein on Sharon, Le Pen, and anti-Semitism.
When anti-Semitism is no longer treated as Jewish business, to be taken care of by Israel and the Zionist lobby, Mr. Sharon is robbed of his most effective weapon in the indefensible and increasingly brutal occupation.
“The American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee urges all its members and supporters to contact Dick Armey and demand that he not only retract but also apologize for his endorsement of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
How about the Washington Warriors?
“ClipIt! follows in the footsteps of programs like Deskswap, an application that allows you to share screenshots of desktops with other people, but is more interested in sharing the low-bandwidth information of everyday interaction. When multiple users are connected, their clipboards are uploaded and shared with each other, thus providing an ambient link and direct window into someone else’s activities. The project allows people to be aware of each other’s computer usage and to ‘get a feel’ for what they are working on or thinking about in real-time.” I am obsessed with the clipboard. I’m running ClipIt!, but I may be the only one – the only stuff I’ve seen so far is my own. Quick, paste the contents of your clibpoard into a comment!
"For the individual or individuals who may have been responsible for this: You have got our attention. We are not certain we understand your messages. We would like to hear from you - you do not need to send any more of these devices." — FBI agent Wayne DunMore US mailbox bombs discovered (BBC)
“Jubilant astronomers unveiled humankind’s most spectacular views of the universe, courtesy of the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.”
The Onion a.v. club interviews Danny Hoch:
This kid came to my show, like, “Yo, homeboy,” with his hat to the side and his pants hanging off his ass. He came to my show four times and paid to get in, and he brought his friends, and I was blown away. He’s like, “Hey, man, yeah, you know, I never seen anything like this. What is this?” And I said, “What do you mean, what is it?” And he said, “What do you call this that you’re doing?” And I said, “Theater.” And he said, “Nah. No, bullshit, it’s not theater. What is it called?” And I said, “No, really, it’s theater.” And he said, “No, dude, if it was theater, it wouldn’t be about me."So is Jails, Hospitals, and Hip-Hop going to be released after all?
Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin: Poets of Everyday Life (Bright Lights Film Journal).
It’s not hard to see why Little Fugitive, Engel and Orkin’s most famous and successful film, was so inspiring not only to the French but also to American auteurs like Cassavettes and Scorsese. Like the two features that would follow it, Little Fugitive is a paean to the sights, smells, and sounds of New York, from the cramped but somehow comforting streets of Brooklyn to the dazzling chaos of Coney Island as seen through a child’s eyes. Engel and Orkin extrapolate the universal from the personal in this Homeric story of a little boy’s heroic trek alone through the vastness of an urban amusement park.
“Be the first person to write a review!”
Abercrombie should be held responsible for the false and misleading message it has sent the public: that it's harmless fun to portray Asian Americans as coolies, laundrymen and rickshaw drivers, because everyone knows better and there no longer exist any problems of racial discrimination, harassment and violence based on the misconception that Asian Americans are exotic foreigners.Abercrombie & Fitch Still Doesn't Get It (ModelMinority.com).
Federal Trade Commission rules require a business who engages in misleading advertising to spend 25 percent of its advertising budget on corrective advertising. By analogy, activists should demand that Abercrombie dedicate one-fourth of the costs it incurred in designing, manufacturing, distributing, and marketing the T-shirts to educate its own employees and the general public regarding historical and continuing racial discrimination against Asian Americans.
I wouldn't necessarily want to trip in the aftermath of Sept. 11, but I can now use my psychedelic training for coping with the epistemological cyclone of a cataclysm such as this. I grew up in the cushiest reality in the history of the planet. Now I see demons pouring over the lip of my existence, but I've learned through psychedelics how to breathe through it and not believe its story.AlterNet -- Is Taking Psychedelics an Act of Sedition?
Ladies and gentlemen, Christianity offers the only viable, reasonable, definitive answer to the questions of 'Where did I come from?' 'Why am I here?' 'Where am I going?' 'Does life have any meaningful purpose?' Only Christianity offers a way to understand that physical and moral border. Only Christianity offers a comprehensive worldview that covers all areas of life and thought, every aspect of creation. Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in this world -- only Christianity.House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, speaking to a group of evangelical Christians last week.
The NY Times auto-blog updates with each addition to the New York Times website. “If the NY Times had a weblog, this is what it might look like,” says creator Dave Winer.
Dan Bricklin logged about 2 hours on a Segway earlier this month, riding indoors, outdoors, over bumps, hills, and people’s feet. Read his impressions in two parts: “what happened” and “what I learned”.
In Central Asia there is a simple one-stringed instrument, the tar -- 'tar' means string -- and it's played by wandering bards and mystics, fakirs. The idea of the tar seems to travel to ancient Persia, where one string became two, and it was called the dutar. And then in India it became the more familiar sitar. The string seemed to travel China and also westward, and in Arabian countries it's known as quintara, with five strings, and in Greece it's known as the chitara, which was much like a zither. And in the form of a stringed lute, it travels to Spain, and it is known as the guitarra, and then to America, where it is known as the guitar . . . and so if you're following the terminology of stringed instruments, you're following the influence of the Silk Road.The single theme of this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival is The Silk Road, an early trade route which linked Asia and Europe, reaching from Venice to Japan.
By one estimate, what we now know as mods appeared in 1983, with a fan-made reinvention of the original "Castle Wolfenstein," a classic arcade-style action game for the Apple II. (You played an Allied spy fighting it out with Nazi combatants, who'd shout at you in German as they opened fire.) But the inspiration for this mod was not so much WWII as Saturday-morning cartoon.Salon.com: Triumph of the mod. Apparently, "Castle Smurfenstein" may have been the first 'mod' (in which graphics and gameplay are altered by hacker fans).
Of the roughly 6400 astronomers in America, two dozen are black. Facing that and similar voids in its astronaut pool and engineering base, NASA is sponsoring the fledgling City University of New York space science program to draw bright college students into its ranks, but more surprisingly, it's reaching down into junior high and grade school to spark black kids into thinking about getting fitted for a space suit. NASA began after-school programs last week in Brooklyn for junior high school kids to study the science they'll need to be part of the space program decades down the line.The Village Voice: Features: Brothers to Another Planet by Erik Baard. Maybe my son will moonwalk for real...
Debunking six common Israeli myths:
The Palestinians are a brutally oppressed people--and Israel is a nation under siege. The deaths of 400 Israeli civilians since the start of this latest intifada are senseless and tragic and maddening--as are the deaths of 1500 Palestinians during that same time. And if you read that last bit and vehemently disagreed with half of it, and are already composing a response in your head to explain why the side with which you are aligned is morally superior to the side with which you disagree--well, that's kind of the problem at this point, isn't it?Tom Tomorrow, talking sense.
How to use a monopod – I think I can use these great tips (which distinguish a monopod from a tripod), since my Nikon 990 has a lens that swivels independent of the mount point.
"The word is Orwellian," said one producer who asked not to be identified. "We're all pretty stunned. They're dumping people but calling it an initiative to strengthen cultural programming."The Washington Post and The New York Times are reporting that NPR is drastically refocusing its arts coverage, cutting several dozen positions -- many associated with the classical program "Performance Today" -- and opening an office in Los Angeles to better cover the entertainment industry. randomWalks is not surprised to see no mention of hip hop in either article.
How I Benefit from White Privilege by Donna Lamb
On the highway, rescue workers laid out the cell phones of the dead in a neat row. For hours they rang and rang and rang.On Israeli Buses, Fear is a Perpetual Passenger (washingtonpost.com)
If we assess the foreign policy accomplishments of the Bush administration since Sept. 11, the scorecard is quite dismal. There are some people in the Bush administration who have the same mentality as Arafat or Sharon. I can name names, like Ashcroft, Cheney and Rumsfeld, although that is considered impolite. ...The war on terrorism cannot be won by waging war.George Soros: billionaire revolutionary?
A young calf has his belly shaved. Many slashes are made in the skin. A prior batch of smallpox vaccine is dropped into the slashes and allowed to fester over a period of days. During this period of time, the calf stands in a head stall so that he can’t lick his belly. The calf is led out of the stock to a table where he is strapped down. His belly scabs and pus are scraped off and ground into a powder. The powder is the next batch of smallpox vaccine.Vaccines: A Second Opinion by Natural Living champ Gary Null.
It's like, you know, you put dog or cat in some box and put smoke there, how he gonna fight for life? Same we did.Celebrating a Window Man's Greatest Scrape (washingtonpost.com). "It is a squeegee handle, and on Sept. 11, 2001, it -- and the coolheaded MacGyver thinking of a humble window washer -- saved the lives of six men," and it's on display at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
McFarlane Toys has released a “statuesque” Jerry Garcia action figure. Oddly, all these photos and the photos on the package show Jerry with glasses, but the actual figures I saw at the toy store yesterday must have been wearing contact lenses. Jerry was cool, but I couldn’t resist Moishe.
Counterpunch: An American Student in Ramallah
My name is Tzaporah Ryter. I am an American student from the University of Minnesota. I currently am in Ramallah. We are under a terrible siege and people are being massacred by both the Israeli army and armed militia groups of Israeli settlers. They are shooting outside at anything that moves.
I am urgently pleading for as much outside help as possible to help save lives here.
I arrived in Ramallah last Thursday. I had come back for a visit to the Palestinian city where I had been previously living and studying. On Thursday afternoon, the Israeli army began sealing off each entrance to Ramallah and there were rumors that they planned to invade.
Women carrying their children were trying desperately to flee from Ramallah, carrying infants and toddlers, and their young children were running along in the rain through the fields, slipping and falling on the rocks, trying to reach safety. Israeli jeeps were speeding across the terrain pulling up from every direction and shooting at the women and children, and also at me, as we ran in opposite directions. They were chasing down people, hunting them like that in the fields.
When night fell, Israeli tanks began to invade and also we saw Israeli troops coming on foot from the valley, and surrounding our house. I could hear them calling to each other in Hebrew. They were against our door and all around. They were firing everywhere a barrage of bullets and there was tank fire. We had to lay on the floor and keep silent. We stayed there, on the floor, for nearly four days in the darkness.
We knew that our circumstances were better than others because old people or infants or people with medical emergency needs had no help. It was very cold, with most families packed all in one room. Some people are without life sustaining medicines like insulin, and they are altering their doses dangerously if they have any medicine left to take. People are becoming dangerously sick from lack of food and water and heat. The fear and terror only makes things worse, but it cannot be avoided.
The numbers of these killings I fear are much greater than the numbers confirmed in the press, because the human rights offices and the media centers have been stormed, and everything is shut down. No one can move without almost certain chance of being shot by the Isreali snipers, who are everywhere.
The Israelis are demanding that all journalists leave Ramallah and today another foreign journalist was shot. They do not want any more internationals here and are deporting people. It seems quite clear that they do not want eyewitnesses which is only heightening my own fears.
The hospitals have also been surrounded and invaded and Israeli troops are taking the injured people and interrogating them. Today a woman, a patient, tried to walk out from hospital. The Israelis shot her in the neck and killed her.
There are reports that they are rounding up men between the ages of 14 and 45 in that neighborhood, and these civilians, from these same Palestinian families trapped in that building, were just used to walk in front of an Israeli tank as it invaded the Preventative Security Compound.
This is a massacre. The foreign delegations tried to get in but were turned back, the International Committee of the Red Cross is trying to help but they are being ignored. Please help.
On the news in America, we see hardly anything of demonstrations. What are you doing over there?
For the love of God, please stop this slaughter. Please help.
Lynda Barry: Let us now praise hairy men!
Here's a rundown of the extra scenes:"Lord of the Rings" DVDs in August, November (E! Online)
- Bilbo's journal, "Concerning Hobbits": A brief introduction to the history of Hobbits, which comes after the introductory prologue about the creation of the ring.
- The introduction of Samwise Gamgee ( Sean Astin)--a scene that had showed him doing his gardening work.
- More footage from the Green Dragon Inn, with Merry and Pippin singing Hobbit songs.
- Sam and Frodo ( Elijah Wood) on the road to Bree, during which they see an exodus of elves.
- Aragon song: Viggo Mortensen singing an Elvish song foreshadowing his relationship with Arwen ( Liv Tyler).
- Aragorn in Rivendell at the site of his mother's grave.
- An extended scene in which the Fellowship leave Rivendell.
- New scenes, pre-battle, from the Mines of Moria, which explain the history of the mines.
- Cate Blanchett's character giving a special gift to each member of the Fellowship before they depart.
- Thirty more seconds of footage from the film's climactic battle scene.
This image of black water off the coast of Florida was acquired on March 20, 2002, by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS). Scientists and local fishermen are not sure what is coloring this typically turquoise water black. Amid growing concern, scientists are now trying to determine the source of the black water.I saw an image of what they were calling a "red tide" off the same Florida coast a few weeks ago. Sounds ominous, doesn't it?
The Warmth Of Oscar’s Open Arms (washingtonpost.com)
“I feel like I won the Academy Award last night. I leaped up and made a fool of myself,” said director Warrington Hudlin, who watched the awards at a big party in New York. “I lost it, I can’t be cool. It’s too wonderful. It’s too historic.” Entertainment lawyer Nina Shaw said she watched the faces in the audience at the Oscars as they listened to Berry’s emotional acceptance speech and could see the import of the moment dawning on them. “There was absolute shock on some of those faces, as they realized for the very first time they were witnessing history."
Terrorism Fears Push Maryland Toward Wider Police Power (washingtonpost.com)
“I realize that this bill basically says you can tap someone’s phone for jaywalking, and normally I would say, ‘No way,’ " said Del. Dana Lee Dembrow (D-Montgomery). “But after what happened on September 11th, I say screw ‘em.”
Tonglen means "taking in and sending out." This meditation practice is designed to help ordinary people like ourselves connect with the openness and softness of our hearts.Cultivating Compassion in Difficult Times, Shambhala Publications.
As a fervent dissenter, I'd love to think I'm taking an illustrious, courageous stand, but it worries me how easy this is when I'm preaching to the converted. If you don't like my cynical critique of everything under the sun, I know you won't be reading FmH regularly for long no matter if I'm the most thoughtful, literate, erudite weblogger on the planet.Eliot reflects deeply (meandering, eclectic) on the significance of peaceblogging.
Writing quickly and well: 13 secrets from Poynter Senior Scholar Roy Peter Clark. All great, but – “texterity?”
With the smart eye band implanted, you'd set your eyes to read a book, say, by clicking a button on the device sitting behind your ear. This would generate a magnetic field to activate the eye band's artificial muscle.Eyeball squeezing could correct sight (New Scientist). I want bionic eyes!
In the end, we will need to give up any lingering fantasies of a color-blind Web and focus on building a space where we recognize, discuss and celebrate racial and cultural diversity. To achieve that goal, all of us -- white folks and people of color -- will have to shed the defensiveness that surrounds the topic of race.Cyberspace and Race: Henry Jenkins for MIT's Technology Review.
Yeast Infection: The Pitfalls of Self-Diagnosis
A new study of customers in pharmacies and grocery stores showed only a third of the women buying over-the-counter vaginal antifungal product had accurately self-diagnosed their conditions.
Boing Boing seems to attract a knowledgeable crowd. Here, they discuss absinthe.
Age: 30 - “A simple project: Take a photograph of myself every day of my 30th year. Digital, 35mm, 120, webcam, Polaroid, whatever ? as long as I end up with 365 images documenting the year. No real reason, I don’t care that I’m 30, it just seemed like a good project.”
What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob?Once-Secret "Nixon Tapes" Show Why the U.S. Outlawed Pot (AlterNet)
"You swipe the license, and all of a sudden someone's whole life as we know it pops up in front of you," said Paul Barclay, the bar's owner.Finding Pay Dirt in Scannable Driver's Licenses (NYT)
Mr. Barclay bought the machine to keep out underage drinkers who use fake ID's. But he soon found that he could build a database of personal information, providing an intimate perspective on his clientele that can be useful in marketing.
Now, for any given night or hour, he can break down his clientele by sex, age, ZIP code or other characteristics. If he wanted to, he could find out how many blond women named Karen over 5 feet 2 inches came in over a weekend, or how many of his customers have the middle initial M. More practically, he can build mailing lists based on all that data ? and keep track of who comes back.
The church says priests must be male because Jesus' apostles were male. So should women have stayed out of U.S. government because the founding fathers were male?Father Knows Worst, Maureen Dowd.
Celibacy is not church doctrine but a tradition from the Middle Ages. By that logic, hospitals would still be using leeches.
It may be a news flash to the Vatican, but it's been clear for years that the church is in a time warp, arrested in its psychosexual development. The vow of celibacy became a magnet for men trying to flee carnal impulses they found troubling. In some cases this meant homosexuality, in others pedophilia. (...)
Societies built on special privileges become far too invested in preserving those privileges. They will never do the kind of soul-baring and housecleaning that might raise questions about the kind of secret society that creates that kind of privilege.
If one looks at the map of the big American bases created for the war, one is struck by the fact that they are completely identical to the route of the projected oil pipeline to the Indian Ocean.Pipeline politics taint U.S. war (Chicago Tribune)
… and identical twins at that. Perhaps someone from upstairs had a say in this.Found in rebecca's pocket.
During this time of heightened security awareness, we will report suspicious or questionable requests for printing or document reproduction to law enforcement authorities."OfficeMax Rats Out Its Customers" says The Progressive magazine's McCarthyism Watch
A review of Web-based color pickers will come in handy.
Newsnight: Anthrax attacks (BBC)
Three weeks ago Dr Barbara Rosenberg - an acknowledged authority on US bio-defence - claimed the FBI is dragging its feet because an arrest would be embarrassing to the US authorities. Tonight on Newsnight, she goes further…suggesting there could have been a secret CIA field project to test the practicalities of sending anthrax through the mail - whose top scientist went badly off the rails…
Before the Age of Reason was announced, humanity had polished strategies for interacting with the world of the imaginary and invisible: complicated magic-systems; sprawling pantheons of gods and spirits, images and names with which we labelled powerful inner forces so that we might better understand them. Intellect, Emotion and Unconscious Thought were made divinities or demons so that we, like Faust, might better know them; deal with them; become them.alan moore: magician is a small collection of Moore's writings.
Ancient cultures did not worship idols. Their god-statues represented ideal states which, when meditated constantly upon, one might aspire to. Science proves there never was a mermaid, blue-skinned Krishna or a virgin birth in physical reality. Yet thought is real, and the domain of thought is the one place where gods inarguably ezdst, wielding tremendous power. If Aphrodite were a myth and Love only a concept, then would that negate the crimes and kindnesses and songs done in Love's name? If Christ were only ever fiction, a divine Idea, would this invalidate the social change inspired by that idea, make holy wars less terrible, or human betterment less real, less sacred?
The world of ideas is in certain senses deeper, truer than reality; this solid television less significant than the Idea of television. Ideas, unlike solid structures, do not perish.
At Airport Gate, a Cyborg Unplugged (NYT)
Steve Mann has lived as a cyborg for more than 20 years, wearing a web of wires, computers and electronic sensors that are designed to augment his memory, enhance his vision and keep tabs on his vital signs. Although his wearable computer system sometimes elicited stares, he never encountered any problems going through the security gates at airports. On Feb. 18, his experience was entirely different. This time, he said, he was told to turn his computer on and off and put it on the X-ray machine. Still not satisfied, the guards took him to a private room for a strip-search in which, he said, the electrodes were torn from his skin, causing bleeding, and several pieces of equipment were strewn about the room.
Everything it takes to stage a guerrilla drive-in fits neatly into the back of a Honda Civic: a VCR, a video projector, an FM receiver and a generator. The only other things you need are a film and a wall.Film on the Wall (laweekly.com)
It would be hard to design a drug that acts on the reward center that would be more effective than nicotine.Girl, you know it's true.
The Language and Rhetoric of Race (Robert Jensen in The Mighty Organ)
White people who struggle against racism need not deny what they have achieved. In fact, it is by acknowledging those achievements that we open up the space to go further, both individually and collectively, in resisting the society’s racism and one day eliminating it. It doesn’t mean we are off the hook; it means we are on the hook even more publicly.
The balance in all this is tricky. The tendency among progressive whites toward self-congratulation, denial, and avoidance is well-known, especially to non-white people.
I ignore the weapon speed factor, the effects of weapons vs. armor, generally don't pay attention to anything but gross violations of encumbrance, and never use psionics.How Gary Gygax plays original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
Of their own free will, knowing who they're with and who they're supporting and who they're encouraging and who they're assisting...Woman and children in the 0peration Anconda "battle zone" are "a good target," says the Pentagon.
"When they built the road there in the first place, people were cringing, as we knew what was underneath," said James Spollen, a Fire Department spokesman.Remains of 11 firefighters, unknown number of victims found at Trade Center (NYT)
For months firefighters had suspected that many of their colleagues might be buried in this southern section of the site.
The south tower was the first to fall, so there was little sense of the extreme danger among the firefighters in the lobby, on the sidewalk, on the adjacent street, as well as those trying to help rescue victims in the lower floors.
The Bruderhof company “community playthings” makes beautiful wood toys and furniture for babies and toddlers.
we have brains is a collaborative writing project for feminists.
As with all arguments over affirmative action, a little knowledge of history is helpful here. Today's equal-opportunity policy in the Army largely evolved after President Jimmy Carter made Clifford Alexander the first black secretary of the Army.Race and gender policies on trial (The Washington Times)
As Mr. Alexander later described it to me, he was dissatisfied with the absence of women and nonwhites on the first list of colonels he received who were candidates for promotion to general. He sent the list back and asked for it to be expanded, with an eye on including a more racially and gender-diverse pool of applicants.
One of the colonels on the new list was Colin Powell, later the nation's first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and currently its first black secretary of state.
"The radio business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."The All New KRUD Radio - kinda... sorta...
—Hunter S. Thompson
As Rabbis Face Facts, Bible Tales Are Wilting
When I grew up in Brooklyn, congregants were not sophisticated about anything. Today, they are very sophisticated and well read about psychology, literature and history, but they are locked in a childish version of the Bible.Harold Kushner (When bad Things Happen to Good People) is a co-editor of Etz Hayim (Tree of Life), a newly issued version of the Torah and commentary which refutes literal interpretations of traditional Bible stories.
O’Reilly, long considered the definitive technology publisher (I can see 19 O’Reilly books from where I’m sitting; 17 if I don’t turn my head), is increasingly becoming a destination for subversive and insightful technology analysis. Andy Oram’s Stop the Copying, Start a Media Revolution is a good example:
It’s thrilling to enter the cathedral in Rouen, France, and ponder how I am walking the same nave trod by the medieval residents of that town. But of course, my modern upbringing grants me a very different experience of the cathedral from theirs. In fact, if I go back the next day I am not having the same experience as I had the day before. My subjective experience of the cathedral at Rouen changes as rapidly as the light captured by Monet in his series of paintings of the cathedral’s facade.
The new art may be built on an understanding that an experience cannot be repeated. The artist may change it at whim, or build in an automatic form of evolution like the video I used to like at the MOMA. Like the river in Buddhist theology, art will be both eternal and evanescent.
U.S. Behind Secret Transfer of Terror Suspects (washingtonpost.com)
Since Sept. 11, the U.S. government has secretly transported dozens of people suspected of links to terrorists to countries other than the United States, bypassing extradition procedures and legal formalities, according to Western diplomats and intelligence sources. The suspects have been taken to countries, including Egypt and Jordan, whose intelligence services have close ties to the CIA and where they can be subjected to interrogation tactics – including torture and threats to families – that are illegal in the United States, the sources said. In some cases, U.S. intelligence agents remain closely involved in the interrogation, the sources said.
www.darpa.mil/iao/ - “The Information Awareness Office (IAO) develops and demonstrates information technologies and systems to counter asymmetric threats by achieving total information awareness useful for preemption, national security warning and national security decision-making."
I submit that “total information awareness” means exactly what it sounds like. Got privacy?
suggested reading:
No more Mr Scrupulous Guy, John Sutherland in the Guardian
Six Months After, A Memorial Built On Beams of Light (washingtonpost.com)
The two light beams, made up of 88 intense searchlights arrayed in two side-by-side 50-foot squares, will cost about a half-million dollars, which covers the installation, security and a lighting technician.
The beams will be lighted from nightfall until 11 p.m., but are subject to temporary shutdown based on Federal Aviation Administration concerns about how the light plays in certain weather conditions and conservationists' concerns about the impact on bird migratory patterns. They worry the lights could draw migrating birds to their deaths.
The Privatization of Our Culture by Bret Dawson
Here is a convenient thesis statement for you: The discoveries, eureka-moments, fables, characters, songs and jokes that form the only common ground we share as citizens -- the set of ideas collectively known as ‘The West’ -- are now the property of a few multinational corporations. Our entire culture has fallen into private hands, taking with it our right to tell our stories, our right to keep our personal lives personal, even our right to heal our sick. Most of the thoughts passing through your head at any given moment are private property, subject to the whims and desires and litigious controls of the companies that own them. (...)This almost-perfect article is basically the essay I've been writing and rewriting in the back of my head for several years. (via Follow Me Here.)
They can be stopped by large and small acts of civil disobedience, by the willful and deliberate and unauthorized use of those precious trademarks in media large and small -- on your school notebook, on your website, on your TV show. Eventually, they’ll lose their power, becoming as generic and empty and valueless as ‘Kleenex’ and ‘Aspirin’ and ‘Thermos’ have become.
I don't know a single Arab or Muslim American who does not now feel that he or she belongs to the enemy camp, and that being in the United States at this moment provides us with an especially unpleasant experience of alienation and widespread, quite specifically targeted hostility. Hundreds of young Arab and Muslim men have been picked up for questioning and, in far too many cases, detained by the police or the FBI. Anyone with an Arab or Muslim name is usually made to stand aside for special attention during airport security checks. There have been many reported instances of discriminatory behaviour against Arabs, so that speaking Arabic or even reading an Arabic document in public is likely to draw unwelcome attention. And of course, the media have run far too many "experts" and "commentators" on terrorism, Islam, and the Arabs whose endlessly repetitious and reductive line is so hostile and so misrepresents our history, society and culture that the media itself has become little more than an arm of the war on terrorism in Afghanistan. All with what seems like great public approval in the United States. (...)Edward Said's Thoughts about America in Al-Ahram Weekly.
I have come to deeply resent the notion that I must accept the picture of America as being involved in a "just war" against something unilaterally labeled as terrorism by Bush and his advisers, a war that has assigned us the role of either silent witnesses or defensive immigrants who should be grateful to be allowed residence in the US. The historical realities are different: America is an immigrant republic and has always been one. It is a nation of laws passed not by God but by its citizens. Except for the mostly exterminated native Americans, the original Indians, everyone who now lives here as an American citizen originally came to these shores as an immigrant from somewhere else, even Bush and Rumsfeld. The Constitution does not provide for different levels of Americanness, nor for approved or disapproved forms of "American behaviour," including things that have come to be called "un-" or "anti- American" statements or attitudes. That is the invention of American Taliban who want to regulate speech and behaviour in ways that remind one eerily of the unregretted former rulers of Afghanistan. And even if Mr Bush insists on the importance of religion in America, he is not authorised to enforce such views on the citizenry or to speak for everyone when he makes proclamations in China and elsewhere about God and America and himself. (...)
The US position has been escalating towards a more and more metaphysical sphere, in which Bush and his people identify themselves (as in the very name of the military campaign, Operation Enduring Freedom) with righteousness, purity, the good, and manifest destiny, its external enemies with an equally absolute evil. Anyone reading the world press in the past few weeks can ascertain that people outside the US are both mystified by and aghast at the vagueness of US policy, which claims for itself the right to imagine and create enemies on a world scale, then prosecute wars on them without much regard for accuracy of definition, specificity of aim, concreteness of goal, or, worst of all, the legality of such actions.
The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a state of fear, ill-equipped to deal with the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President.
Let us pray that our country will stop this war. "To provide for the common defense" is one of the formational principles of America.
Our Congress gave the President the ability to respond to the tragedy of September 11. We licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror of September 11th. But we the people and our elected representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the response.
Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq.
We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus.
We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.
We did not authorize national identity cards.
We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities.
Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize war without end. Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy.
Yet the defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems to fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems in search of new enemies to create new wars. This has nothing to do with fighting terror.
This has everything to do with fueling a military industrial machine with the treasure of our nation, risking the future of our nation, risking democracy itself with the militarization of thought which follows the militarization of the budget.
“Look inside” Ram Dass' Be Here Now.
The French Senate approved a bill proposing that Saartjie Baartman's, the so-called Hottentot Venus, remains be repatriated, nearly 200 years after she was exhibited in Europe as a sexual freak and scientific curiosity.Via Daily Mail & Guardian
originally posted by zakia
BBC photo gallery: Winter Olympics closing ceremony
BBC photo gallery: Winter Olympics opening ceremony
Blair and Bush to plot war on Iraq (Guardian Observer). Tony Blair will visit the White House in April in order to “finalise Phase Two of the war against terrorism” in which military action aimed at toppling Saddam Hussein in Iraq will be “at the top of the agenda.”
Breaking the Cycle of White Dependence: LiP gives you Tim Wise. Or is it the other way round?
We were dependent on Mexicans to teach us how to extract gold and quartz from riverbeds, both critical to the growth of the national economy in the mid to late 1800's. And had we not taken over half their nation in an unprovoked war, the emerging Pacific ports so vital to the modern U.S. economy would not have been ours, but Mexico's.
Then we depended on Latino/a labor in the mid-20th century under the bracero program, through which over five million Mexicans were brought into the country for cheap agricultural work, and then sent back across the border when they were no longer deemed useful.
And we were dependent on Asian labor to build the railroads that made transcontinental travel and commerce possible. Ninety percent of the labor used to build the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860's were Chinese, imported for that express purpose, and exploited because the railroad bosses felt they could control them better than white workers.
In fact, all throughout U.S. labor history, whites have depended on the subordination of workers of color by the marking of black and brown peoples as the bottom rung on the ladder, a rung below which they would not be allowed to fall. By virtue of this racialized class system, whites received the "psychological wage" of whiteness, even if their real wages left them destitute. That too is dependence, and a kind that has marked even the poorest whites.
“Is Metafilter a men’s room?” asks an insightful MetaTalk post. I have not yet read the thread.
Salon.com interview: Bill Clinton and Black America
My initial thought was, It can’t sit well with African-Americans to call any white man, a black man. But you note that it was tongue-in-cheek, right?
It certainly was tongue-in-cheek on Toni Morrison’s part. Anyone who reads the totality of what she said clearly understands that she’s painting a picture. But I think that in many ways it diminished what Clinton did to suggest that he is black. Because if you’re black and you did those things, now you begin to argue, “Man, you could have done more than that [for us], brother.” But the fact that he is white and did that much is quite remarkable.
Why do you think white people might wrinkle up their noses at the idea?
Largely because they don’t understand the history of the relationship between African-Americans and the 41 white men who have encumbered the Oval Office.
Looking through this slideshow of images (some are gross in a fakey monster movie kinda way) I got really irritated by all the candlelight vigils and mourning family members. THEY WERE DEAD! Come on! Boo hoo hoo- grandma was dumped in the woods and not crammed in an urn.THUMBMONKEY
A Diverse – and Divided – Black Community (washingtonpost.com)
America’s black community, which now includes more West Indian and African immigrants than ever, is no longer the monolithic group that many politicians, civil rights advocates and demographers say it is.My only thought as I skimmed the beginning of this article was, “I don’t know that the black community could ever have been considered monolithic,” and I was gratified to see that George had the same reaction.
A new African American community is being forged, sociologists and anthropologists say, in which culture and nationality are becoming more important than skin color. It is as diverse – and as divided – as the Latino community or the Asian American community, each made up of migrants from numerous nations.
Enron Designed Fake Trading Floor (Click2Houston.com)
The bankrupt energy giant, Enron Corp., designed and maintained a fake trading floor at its Houston office.
According to former Enron employees, on the sixth floor of the company’s downtown headquarters was a set, designed to trick analysts into believing business was booming.
“It was an elaborate Hollywood production that we went through every year when the analysts were going to be there to be impress them to make our stock go up,” former employee Carol Elkin said.
The Myth of the “Great Red Heartland” exposed, via your favorite Ashcroft-bashing cartoonist and mine, Tom “we are the majority” Tomorrow.
I usually set my browser to default to a blank page (by deleting the “Home Page” URL in preferences) but I think I’ll try loading Daypop Top News Stories in new windows for a while. I haven’t looked at it before, but I am coming to love Daypop like I love Google.
We are the Chinese young man standing in front of the tank. And you? If you are nowhere to be seen, you are probably inside the tank, advising the driver.Asaf Oron explains why he joined a group of Israeli soldiers refusing to serve in the occupied territories.
Cats Painted in the Progression of Psychosis of a Schizophrenic Artist
The progressive escape of reality towards delusion is expressed in the pictures below. They have been painted by Louis Wain, an European artist in the beginning of this century. Since Wain was young, he used to draw and paint cats for calendars, albums, postcards, etc. When he became 57 years old, he was affected by schizophrenia, which overtook his life as well his art. The last 15 years of his life were spent in psychiatric institutions.His cats paintings started to change and to show startling images. Quite revealing of his psychotic condition were the cat’s eyes. See how they become fixed with hostility, even in the earliest paintings, because the psychotic probably tends to think that the world is looking upon him in a menacing way. Another sign is the fragmentation of the cat’s body. They become altered in a strange way under the psychotic’s gaze, and almost always are represented as distorted and phantastic shapes.
“This cat is alerted by an intuitional feeling that something is amiss."
The okayplayers take on interracial sex scenes in movies.
If you don’t believe in his God, John Ashcroft says you’re uncivilized and ignorant.
Read Eric Glish’s (he wrote the literal book) introduction to CSS layout for Apple.com and drink from the holy grail itself – a 3 column liquid page layout with a header, (and fully and clearly explained) with CSS (no tables). But that’s just a warm-up:
To make things interesting, I took the Apple Internet Developer home page, which makes extensive use of tables, and I re-coded it using CSS for all layout. (…)
“Over 100,000,000 people live withing a single day’s drive of Potter County, Pennsylvania.” Do you?
The Tomb of Horrors weblog (it’s not scary) points out an excellent overview of online comics worth reading in the Comics Journal called “Tape This to Your Cubicle Wall”. I recognize some of my favorites from the sample panels. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a comics reader, it can’t hurt to click on the panel that most grabs your eye and read a few screens.
See also: John Ridley on comic books for NPR
I’m going to steal some (unvetted) links from wood s lot today:
Holy fucking shit, man, you'll never guess who just walked in--www.mnftiu.cc: get your page eight on.
Changes in World Economy on Raw Materials May Doom Many Towns (NYT)
Stretched across the southern tier, from Arizona and New Mexico through Texas and Georgia and into Virginia, these small rural communities form the base of the national supply chain. They produce most of the oil and much of the ore, fiber and food. In past recessions, even if they did not bounce back entirely, at least they survived. But this time around, as the overall economy begins to show some signs of healing, things are ominously different in many of these towns.
Let’s work toward leadership that reflects the cultures and communities where Hip-Hop was born. That doesn’t mean that we can’t be active and feel invested in the culture, but we must be aware of how racism plays out in the power paradigm of America, and how it is controlling Hip-Hop culture.Dig the musings of a prominent online hip hop community in response to this article on the role of white people in hip hop.
Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you.Ashcroft Disputes Report on Islam Views (washingtonpost.com)
-- Minister of Hate John Ashcroft
It's like my whole life was waiting for this moment, so I knew what to say. I said: ''Here's how I want to open the show tonight. We've got Sting, who beat you last night. Controversial -- Sting is now a freshly turned heel. I want to send him out with his buddy Lex Luger. He's going to cut a heel promo on the fans. We're in the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill. He's going to call it a dump, and that's going to get the entire crowd going bananas.'' I ran through the whole scenario for Hulk: ''Lex Luger's going to have a bat, like he's batting. Sting's down like a catcher saying, Come on, bring it, we're going to put you out of the park. You get up on the ropes, outnumbered. Then Bret Hart's music starts up and Bret comes down the ramp.'' Anyway, I went on, and at the end Hogan's like: ''That's pretty good, brother. Couple of holes in it, but pretty good.''Bob Mould (Husker Du, Sugar) on his dream gig, scripting pro wrestling.
I told you so!Enron? Nader Is Glad You Asked (the Nation)
We must bear in mind that while we regard the use of the [chair-like toilet] as natural, we represent only a relatively small percentage of the world’s population, and a percentage that may be said, in an absolute sense, to be wrong, insofar as we have allowed civilization to interfere with our biological functioning.I’m definitely interested in trying out this technique. Is anyone qualified to debate the merits of both positions?
Read The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick by R. Crumb from from Weirdo 17 online.
“Isn’t the whole accusatory concept of ‘self-loathing’ rather flamboyantly stupid?" Indeed.
This is no longer about stopping drugs, it's about fighting the guerrillas.Senator Patrick Leahy (Dem. Vermont) on the Bush administration's plan to expand military "aid" to Colombia for the protection of a 500-mile-long oil pipeline.
It does not matter how many people ridicule these ads; the idea will propagate without public consent. It works on an emotional level, not an intellectual one. It galvanizes fear. It frames the debate.Judith Lewis says the drugs fund terrorism message is a powerful meme. I wonder how a free drug market would compare to the black one operating now? I wonder why the capitalists aren't lobbying for an end to prohibition?
They know about us, but they think we're in a museum. The man you see riding the horse in the museum is not dead. I'm actually alive.Tribes to Get Their '15 minutes' (nytimes.com)
Bush’s Sickening Super Bowl Propaganda (AlterNet)
U2 first rose to fame off a breakthrough album in the early ’80s called “War” – the band, born of a country plagued by war and terrorism, was against it, and later songs like “Bullet the Blue Sky” specifically ripped U.S. military adventurism and its impact on poor countries.
Yesterday, Bono finished the band’s short halftime show with the inevitable tribute to 9-11 victims, literally wrapping himself in the American flag, as though honoring 9-11’s dead – many of whom weren’t Americans – somehow required solidarity with the U.S. flag and with the waging of yet another war, or three, or five. Permanent war, reduced to emotional spectacle and a brandable moment. (…)
It’s not drugs that fuel political violence throughout the world – it’s their prohibition, and the forcing of drug transactions into the black market. There, as the CIA well knows, lies the world’s most efficient system for funneling large amounts of untraceable money.
The effort to eradicate certain popular drugs – including the War on Drugs touted by yesterday’s TV ads and the Drug Czar office that paid for them – has literally created, and perpetuated, the very black market now accused of being a source of cash for al Qaeda’s jihad. Ending drug prohibitions would do far more to thwart terrorism than the War on Drugs ever could.
Faults Suggest a High Calling for Delphi Priestesses (washingtonpost.com)
Evidence is growing that the priestesses, known as pythia, were ripped on hydrocarbon gases, especially ethylene, a sometime anesthetic which, taken in modest doses, can induce lively conversation of a somewhat incoherent nature.
The entertainment industry executives who decide what goes on television can't seem to grasp the reality of a Hispanic experience in America that transcends that of the domestic servants who tend to their Malibu mansions. On television, we see the maids and the gardeners, but we rarely catch a glimpse of the families they support with their scrubbing or lawn trimming.PBS series displays complexity of Hispanic family life (dallasnews.com)
"Sesame Street," which was loosely modeled after the old variety show "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," is essentially becoming a series of individual stories. "I've never seen `Sesame Street' get worse through changes," said Peggy Charren, founder of Action for Children's Television.Lorraine was at the doctor Monday morning, so naturally I turned on the television to watch "Sesame Street" with my 14-month old son. I found myself thinking the show had changed a lot over the years -- what I didn't know was that we'd happened to catch most of the first episode of a completely re-worked "Sesame Street".
Damn, why did Slashdot’s Rob Malda have to turn out to be an over-the-top asshole?
The huge challenge is making these things "directable"... Suppose the director wants [a mug dropped onto a table] to land upright, but in an accurate physics simulation, the vessel always ends up on its side. By adding subtle unevenness to what had been a perfectly flat table top, the scientists showed that they can create conditions in which the mug bounces a few times and then settles upright.Calculating Cartoons is a substantive, accessible look at how animators and game creators program physics simulations to acheive ever-more realistic special effects.
George W. in the Garden of Gethsemane: An Open Letter to George W. Bush from Michael Moore
Motorola says listing Palestine as country was error (Yahoo) Shrug.
You just gotta be true to your lifestyle. I mean, if you come from a place where you got space around you, don't pretend and act like you squooshed up. Or if you come from squooshed, don't front and represent, like you spaced out. Just be who you are. If you from Kansas, you know, represent...wheat or whatever. I got respect for that. Be yourself.Danny Hoch as Emcee Enuff.
Lance Knobel is blogging Davos from the inside at DavosNewbies.com.
Did you know?
The WEF is a private member organization comprising representatives from 1,000 of the world's largest corporations including Microsoft, Monsanto, Nike, General Motors and, until recently, Enron. Originally formed in 1971 as the European Management Forum, the Swiss-based group has grown into a major global agenda setter and a leading proponent of corporate globalization. Until this year, the organization held its annual meeting in the Swiss mountain resort town of Davos.Indymedia's Guide to the World Economic Forum
The exclusive meeting is open to members - who pay upwards of $30,000 in annual dues - as well as selected politicians, journalists and academics. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are both expected to be among the 3,200 in attendance. While the WEF helps set global economic and trade agendas that affect the entire world, the group predominantly includes European and American businesses.
The World Social Forum is a gathering of the international left meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil this weekend. Indymedia is covering both the WEF and the WSF, and ZNet has backgrounders on some prominent WSF attendees.
The Nation and the Nation website will be featuring reports from the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil; from the expected protests in the streets of New York City; and from the suites of the Waldorf hotel in New York, where the World Economic Forum will be meeting. Watch this space starting January 31.
Wil Wheaton swept the 2002 Bloggies. This is, somehow, appropriate.
Excellent – nay, essential – coverage of the State of the Union over at Craig’s booknotes.
Stop spreading lies about Saruman! It's bad enough the spin doctors led by Galadriel and Gandalf completely rewrote the real history of the War of the Ring.The Tolkein Crackpot Theories Page
Pay attention, for here is the TRUTH!!!
New Lynda Barry comic, how #1! Plus, archives!
“We will starve druggies of education, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue families that provide aid or safe haven to druggies. Every family, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the druggies.” (Apologies to Mr. Bush’s fine speechwriters.)
Israeli Reservists Refuse Territories Duty (washingtonpost.com)
More than 60 Israeli army reservists, half of them officers and all of them combat veterans, have publicly refused to continue serving in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the grounds that Israel’s occupation forces there are abusing and humiliating Palestinians.
“We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people,” declared a petition signed by the reservists and published in Israel’s best-selling daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.
I can’t wait to listen to some of these homebrew mp3 remixes, a.k.a. bootlegs.
For God's sake, do not kill us! We surrender!Before dawn in Afghanistan last Thursday, US Green Berets launched a surprise attack on their unarmed allies, storming a disarmament depot with indiscriminate fire, then rounding up survivors only to tie their hands behind their backs with plastic bands and execute them. This according to that America-hating, propaganda-strewn leftist rag, The New York Times. God bless America.
What do you MEAN, reverse racism doesn’t exist?
As white people, we’re all raised to assume that anything in the world is ours by right, and that other people are treated the same way as us. The truth is that as white people we’re given many things that are not given to people of color - anything from jobs to smiling welcomes wherever we go. We come to think of those things as ours by right, and when we lose them, we think we’ve experienced racism or discrimination. Usually what we’ve really lost is a piece of unearned race-based privilege, which we’re not used to being without.
Blather: The Alan Moore Interview features more chapters than Watchmen.
Amazon.com: buying info: Chris Ware Lunch Box “Decorated with popular images from the new serial beginning in The Acme Novelty Library series of picture books and pamphlets, this one is sure to be just the thing to display for a short time, put in a closet, and then eventually throw away.” There’s nothing like cheesedip.
"My daughter recently asked me, 'Dad, is your next film going to be about people just talking and talking and talking?' And I had to tell her, 'Yeah, probably.'"The Baltimore City Paper talks with Richard Linklater.
American Gulag - “Infoshop.org announces a new weblog dedicated to news concerning prisoners, prisons and prison abolition. This new service will allow activists to post news and resources and will be managed by a working group of prisoner support activists.”
In a memo that slipped beneath the political radar, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft vigorously urged federal agencies to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests made by American citizens." And the nation hurtles one step closer to destruction. Sometimes I think that Asscroft and Osama Bin Laden are secretly the same person, in the same way as the seemingly benevolent Senator Palpatine is also the evil Sith lord and future Emperor in Episode I of Star Wars. More poetically, they are like two sides of a knife blade thrust into the heart of democracy and freedom.
"What did it feel like to suspect you'd killed your own husband with your art?" Fresh Air? How about Lurid Speculations? It's like Dr. Laura for people with bachelor degrees. Car Talk has more intellectual content.Curtis White's "The Middle Mind" is a vague sort of diatribe about, I suppose, faux intellectualisme and the tendency of even supposedly highbrow media to acknowledge the fact that lots of people are, well, dumb. Utterly pointless as far as I can tell, but his Terry Gross rant in the middle is somewhat amusing.
Kaz was the first white person my sister and I played with. He was one only white person (besides his parents) who ever came to our house. After a few visits, Kaz developed an affinity for Indian food. My parents had to have a pitcher of water ready for him when the spices hit his taste buds. After being friends with him for a few months, I realized that white people smelled funny...Stan Cherian at Turbanhead.com.
That's the whitest tie I've ever seen.Floridian: Getting race right - "Why are some successful at reflecting ethnic diversity while others fall flat?" Or, what's E.R. got that Sex and the City has not?
Fornication," he says. "Because you can't hate your own kids. The browner we get as a society, the better off we'll be."White & Black & Blue (washingtonpost.com)
Miami Herald: In bigot versus bigot, white racist is winner
Let’s allow that black folks can, indeed, be racist. Or prejudiced, intolerant, biased, bigoted or any other word that floats your boat. Black people are, after all, members of the human race and, as such, are heir to all the idiocy by which human beings are beset.Thanks to allaboutgeorge.
But with that established, let’s also say this: It’s an affront to common sense to suggest there is equivalence between black-on-white bigotry and its opposite. As an aggregate, bigoted blacks have much less power to injure whites than vice versa. They also have less history of doing so. These are incontrovertible facts that render hollow the yowling demands that the racism of blacks be accorded a place in the national consciousness commensurate with that of white people.
Hey, when you find a black bigot, feel free to censure and ostracize him or her as the circumstance warrants. Just don’t pretend the transgression is what it is not. Don’t claim it represents a significant threat to the quality of life of white Americans at large.
Michael Chabon’s writing technique is well-suited to word processing.
The Absolute Elsewhere: Fantastic, Visionary, and Esoteric Literature in the 1960s and 1970s.
What’s that in the doorway?
I came across a couple of amusing pieces about getting back in the job way – grooming and etiquette tips for “fuck-ups like me” :
The projet MOBILIVRE-BOOKMOBILE project is a collection of independently-produced books and zines traveling and exhibiting across North America in a vintage Airstream trailer. The project is accepting submissions for the 2002 tour which will visit the west coast of Canada and the US.
He’s an underprivileged devious cat burglar who dotes on his loving old ma. She’s an orphaned wisecracking doctor with a song in her heart and a spring in her step. They fight crime!
"How does grilling work in the text of your life? Would charcoal have interfered with the process of social bonding?"It's difficult to believe this isn't satire, but The New York Times' Consuming Rituals of the Suburban Tribe is a frightening look at the future of market research.
I'm not waitin' for y'all, y'all gonna catch up.Mos Def at the Black Jack Johnson Project show on his rap-rock fusion experiment which I would have caught if I hadn't been in bed with a temperature of one hundred and one on Saturday night.
It’s Dr. Bronner vs. the DEA as the Hemp Industries Association challenges a DEA order banning the sale of food products containing hemp, effective February 6th. It may be your last chance to stock up on: “Healthy Hemp Sprouted Bread. Hemp Plus Granola. Hempzel Pretzels. Hempseed Energy Bars. Hemp Chips. Hempsi Hempmylk.” If you’re in the DC Metro area, the Washington Post helpfully offers, “hemp products can be found at Fresh Fields/Whole Foods, Yes Organic Market, My Organic Market and Takoma Park/Silver Spring Food Co-op.”
Word Balloons: Comics projects to aid victims of terrorism (The Oklahoman)
Today’s newspoem: cheap flags.
TiVo deals, badass baby clothes, lefty war links, race book reviews, ancient beer.
Prescription: Euphoria by Carla Spartos (The Village Voice)
Taking one or two pills of pure MDMA over the course of a lifetime may be safe for some people, but it’s not so attractive to pharmaceutical companies. After all, drugs like Prozac turn a profit – and lots of it, since patients need to take them every day. Unlike struggling researchers, the wealthy manufacturers can afford an army of Capitol Hill lobbyists to turn politicians' heads the other way.
If it were in our national security to deploy to South Africa under apartheid, would we have found it acceptable or customary to segregate African American soldiers from other American soldiers, and say, 'It's just a cultural thing?' " McSally asks. "I don't think so. I would hope not."The Air Force Flier In the Ointment (washingtonpost.com) - Martha McSally is suing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claiming that the Pentagon's policy requiring female personnel to cover up from head to toe and ride in the back seat when traveling off base in Saudi Arabia is unconstitutional.
These alternate Apple MWSF home pages are hilarious.
To make sure that Caitlin grew up with the right priorities, I created huge padded rainbow apples, the early Apple logo, to go at each end of her cot.'Cutout' Macs a Real Passion (wired news)
If these rules make sense to you, we could quickly cross the line from words to action, both on the Web and in neighborhoods and villages around the world, by inviting people and organizations that support these goals to meet and work together, locally and face-to-face -- in schools, community centers and houses of worship -- or online and across any cultural or national border.I like the sound of this ambitious initiative of idealist.org.
Hamed Karzai worked as a consultant for the huge US oil group Unocal, which had supported the Taleban movement and sought to construct a pipeline to transport oil and gas from the Islamic republics of Central Asia to Pakistan via Afghanistan.Saudi paper profiles new Afghan leader (Financial Times) - This is what is meant by "it's all about the oil." I wish I were bold enough to put that bumper sticker on my car.
Mark your calendars: May 4th, 2002 is Free Comic Book Day!
Aw shucks, randomWalks won an O.Dub award. Great work, team!
Our friends at The Nation have put together a nice package on globalized media, centered around a damning chart of conglomerated ownership put into perspective by NYU Prof. Mark Crispin Miller and supported by a bunch of great essays and a call for reform.
originally posted by xowie
via boing boing.
originally posted by xowie
Finally the 'War on Terrorism' is achieving its policy objectives. Osama bin Laden is looking haggard. We may not have caught him or brought him to justice but, at the cost of thousands of innocent Afghan lives, billions of dollars of US citizens' money and the civil liberties of the Free World, we have got him looking haggard.I remain, sir, Haggard of the Hindu Kush, by Terry ("Cardinal Biggles") Jones.
originally posted by xowie
NPR’s Morning Edition 12.31.01
Shazia Mirza is unique among standup comics. Mirza is a practicing Muslim – and a woman – who likes to poke fun at her own culture. “People ask me,” she says. “Why does your mother walk five steps behind your father? I say because he looks better from behind.” Join Morning Edition Monday to hear more of her unique humor.
The American Library Association has announced a third annual list of the Best Free Reference Web Sites.
Alarmed, perhaps, by such patent lunacy--and also by the danger that America's own coalition against terror, in which India and Pakistan have vied for leading roles, will be busted up--the White House, through its spokesman Ari Fleischer, counsels "restraint." India is unimpressed. Counsel of restraint from a nation that has just overthrown the government of one country and now has five or six more in its gunsights can hardly be expected to carry weight with one whose Parliament has been attacked, as it believes, by its enemy of almost half a century.Jonathan Schell's Letter From Ground Zero to "The Nation" serves as a concise and powerful primer on current conflicts which threaten to expand drastically.
When the Bush Administration began its war on terrorism, announcing that if you weren't with us you were against us, did it imagine that from the dizzying heights of its sole superpowerdom it would command the nations, rewarding some, raining bombs on others, and dominating all, according to its sole interest and pleasure? The nations have had other ideas. Preferring American practice to American preaching, they have taken up arms in their own causes, just as previously many built nuclear arsenals whose use again urgently threatens the world. We have not one unified war on terrorism but many clashing wars. It's hard to say which are more dangerous--those that, like Israel's, seek to join the American one or those that, like India's, seem to undercut it. All are burning out of control. For now, the instruments that alone might stop them--negotiation, treaties, a readiness to compromise, measures of disarmament--have been cast aside.
What I read on my Blogger vacation: Ginger toonies. War on karaoke. Wynton Center. Al-Qaeda manual. Paul Battaglia. LA Weekly lists. How to subdue. “Strike Hard” campaign. Asteroid belt. The Metamorphosis.
originally posted by xowie
Poor White Racism (a reply to A Question of Privilege)
In order to put and end to poor white racism, you have to understand the situation of poor whites. You do not learn how a gun works by inspecting bullet holes, you inspect the gun. The gun metaphor is very appropriate for poor white racism, because poor white racism is a mindless weapon. Someone else is pulling the trigger. (…)Be sure to read the enlightening discussion that follows the article.
This kind of racism is unique from the garden variety racism that is typical of, say, the middle class or upper classes (i.e. the kind of racism that has at least the potential to be remedied by the kind of therapy group work that people like Chris Crass devote all their time to). Garden variety racism comes from a presumed, mostly unconscious sense of superiority, which is reenforced by the dominant culture, of course. Even certain kinds of “anti-racism” are really just manifestations of this garden variety racism (i.e. “I’m such a big- hearted white boy for ‘helping’ those poor people of color”). (…)
Just as avoiding the issue of racism is a cop out, making semi-mystical claims that racism is an uncurable disease that we may never be rid of, is also a cop out, it allows people to relinquish their responisbility for stoping it, it also allows people in the white left to shirk the hard, ugly, unpleasant, and often unrewarding work of really trying to put an end to racism amongst white people in general. Racism, like rape, is fundamentally about power. Poor white racism is both a conscious and an unconscious false expression of power by a powerless group over an even more powerless group. (…)
Because the white left is largely middle class we end up with the spectacle of white suburban ARA youth fighting white working class skinheads. We have the oddity of having white activists dealing with thier own racism, or insisting that “everyone is oppressed”, but refusing to organize in poor white communities because those communities are racist and sexist.
FYI for those, like us, still dependent on Blogger:
Blogger has had a security breach. It appears no permanent damage has been done, but as a precaution, we advise you change your FTP password if you had it stored on Blogger. U: Also, it wouldn’t hurt to change your Blogger password, as well (go to one of your blogs, select team, and then click on your name).
Iceland launches energy revolution (BBC News)
People my age will see the first steps towards the hydrogen economy. My children will watch the whole transformation. My grandchildren, when they are grown, will live in this new economy where Iceland will be totally independent of imported energy, and where all the energy in the country comes from clean renewables.
The various ZNet Watch Sites have been reorganized and collected into this great index page. The page is worth visiting for the A’s alone: activism watch, africa watch, alternative media watch, anarchy watch, animal rights watch.
Stop! It is illegal to spray graffiti here! We have just taken your photograph. We will use this photograph to prosecute you. Leave now!Camera Becomes New Weapon in War on Graffiti
Replica of WTC in Christmas lights.
originally posted by xowie
Saudi Arabia’s Apartheid (washingtonpost.com)
One of the (still) untold stories is the cooperation of U.S. and other Western companies in enforcing sexual apartheid in Saudi Arabia. McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and other U.S. firms, for instance, maintain strictly segregated eating zones in their restaurants. The men’s sections are typically lavish, comfortable and up to Western standards, whereas the women’s or families' sections are often run-down, neglected and, in the case of Starbucks, have no seats.
Stop American Billions for Israeli Bombs by Alisa Solomon. More here, here and here.
originally posted by xowie
Far out PYL home game. (No trivia questions, just prizes and whammies.)
originally posted by xowie
The primary goal of Ftrain.com, the goal which all other goals serve, is to make the site fully conscious and self-aware by 2051.If anyone can do it, Paul Ford can.
Nathan Crombie -- who plays a creature called an orc in the blockbuster movie trilogy -- claimed he and a group of fellow actors got high EVERY DAY on ultra-strong grass called Thunderweed. They would sneak away between takes in New Zealand to smoke spliffs at the top of a tower on the set.My drugs hobbit. And here's one about porn. Ok?
originally posted by xowie
Mumia lives! Now let him disappear by Dan Kennedy. Harsh, with interesting links.
originally posted by xowie
Your own body is a phantom, one that your brain has temporarily constructed purely for convenience. I know this sounds astonishing, so I will demonstrate to you the malleability of your own body image and how you can alter it profoundly in just a few seconds.If you have a chance to try these Jedi mind tricks, let me know how it turns out.
Lone Wolf and Cub Ogami Action Figure “This is the main character of the classic manga saga. He comes complete with a detailed wheeled cart and Daigoro (Cub) figure, cloth banner with calligraphy, costume accessories (sandals, hat, cloth costume, etc.), and all the swords and other samurai weapons we see in the story, and is highly articulated. This figure stands 12 inches tall."
“like the needle… needle and spoon”
The full list of 110 films used to make the three-minute montage The Spirit of America. Oh, the patriotic three-minute montage, I should have said.
originally posted by xowie
Phil Agre’s latest RRE pointers mailing includes links to some year-end “top ten” music lists. I’ve probably spent more time singing about the itsy-bitsy spider this year than I have listening to new music. What did I miss?
It looks like maybe 100,000 people, at least 80,000 people, most of them black, were not permitted to vote who had a legal right to vote in Florida. That story was simply not covered in the U.S. press. And that is how the election was won.Guerrilla News Network interviews Greg Palast.
Here’s how they did it:
Socialcritic.org’s Selected Readings in Social Criticism is a stupendous directory of texts available online for your perusal and edification. Don’t miss the concise list of war on terrorism readings – an excellent primer of dissenting thought in these times of stifling conformity.
Lots of folks have linked to Owen Briggs' Design Rant recently but I just now got around to looking through it, and I see that this is crucial stuff – required reading for anyone involved with web design in any capacity.
I’ve heard a lot about how beautiful they are on Marketplace lately, but I hadn’t seen any Dutch banknotes before now. Wow.
The ritual consists of interested humans arriving at a predetermined Wal-Mart at 12 noon on the first Sunday of every month and proceeding to push empty shopping carts slowly and silently through the aisles. Eventually, all of the participants locate one another and form a single-file chain of anti-shoppers which weaves, wanders, and whirls throughout the different departments of the store for about an hour. Overall, it is a soothing and fun experience for the actors, and perhaps a memorable spectacle for shoppers. It is a collective reclamation of space that is otherwise only used for buying and selling. It is a symbolic display of the will to resist the capitalist ideology. And, it is a living, breathing, moving, evolving sculpture.Whirl-Mart: ritual resistance
Abu-Jamal Death Sentence Thrown Out (AP)
A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the death sentence imposed nearly two decades ago on Mumia Abu-Jamal, revered by supporters worldwide as a crusader against racial injustice but reviled by others as an unrepentant cop-killer.
U.S. District Judge William Yohn cited problems with the jury charge and verdict form in the trial that ended with the former journalist and Black Panther’s first-degree murder conviction in the death of a Philadelphia police officer. The judge denied all of Abu-Jamal’s other claims and refused his request for a new trial.
The judge said Abu-Jamal is entitled to a new sentencing hearing within 180 days. ``Should the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania not have conducted a new sentencing hearing … the Commonwealth shall sentence petitioner to life imprisonment,'' the judge said in his 272-page ruling.
The ruling could be appealed to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
We don't manufacture much of anything; just war. We don't concern ourselves with education; just war. We don't attend to the 40 million Americans without health coverage; just war. We don't focus on the 30 million American children living in poverty; just war. We don't support the arts; just war. Even though a a multitude of human needs were in existence prior to September 11, and have only increased since then, we continue to direct our attention and our resources into what we do best: war. Just war.Coming to a mall near you.
originally posted by xowie
Sensi in Hollywood.
originally posted by xowie
Some film-makers in Los Angeles see the current relationship between Hollywood and the White House as a mutual back-scratching function, with President Bush seeking to win over the normally pro-Democratic entertainment community while Hollywood wins brownie points which it may be able to employ later in its relationship with the government.You think? Rousing montage of film clips is just what the president ordered.
originally posted by xowie
Say it ain’t so, the Sorting Hat sent me to Slytherin!
Four thousand one hundred one pages on Abbie (Abbott) Hoffman, courtesy the Federal Bureau of Investigation, via newbreed librarian.
WP: The Coldest Warrior by Ted Gup.
originally posted by xowie
I just got an email with the following headers:
From: xz9Q.559fMh2334@msn.comCan you guess what the body said?
To: <Undisclosed.Recipients>
Subject: Anything other than white is unacceptible 191943
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 15:55:57 -0800
xrefer: “The web’s reference engine … contains encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri & books of quotations.” Is it any good? (racism quotes, gormless definition)
Saudi clans working with U.S. oil firms may be tied to bin Laden
Two billionaire Saudi families scrutinized by authorities for possible financial ties to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network continue to engage in major oil deals with leading U.S. corporations.file under: why-doesn’t-this-surprise-me?
We are targeting these groups that do it all the time. If you are at your house one night and you want to get a free copy of some software, that's not what we are talking about.Well, that's a relief! Although, the ZDNet headline promises "Warez Crackdown's Just Begun"...
In my late teens, I saw "Wild Style." I went to a music store and told the man there I wanted two turntables. And he laughed at me, said "You don't need two, you just need one!"DJ Krush: Putting His Spin on Hip-Hop (washingtonpost.com)
Hello, Switzerland.
originally posted by xowie
What do you get when you mix the best book ever written with the most prolific games designer of the last fifteen years? Lord of the Rings by Reiner Knizia. (...)The Lord of the Rings board game sounds like a winner.
I can see the game becoming as popular as Settlers of Catan.
In wartime, people want a cocksure leader, the kind of guy who enjoys sparring with reporters, grins when things appear to go badly and shows occasional glimpses of our national craziness — you never know, he really might just decide to flatten Baghdad. Like Osama bin Laden, Rummy clearly digs the war, and while most of the Bush team walks around wearing permanent expressions of hemorrhoidal despair, he looks like he’s having fun.Wyatt Earp and the Witchfinder General by John Powers.
originally posted by xowie
Adbusters: America vs. The World
Assignment: List direct American military intervention on other nations' soil from World War II to the present day. Do not include: indirect military involvement such as arms sales, however significant (e.g. Israel); nuclear threats or nuclear testing (e.g. Marshall Islands); establishment of controversial bases or defense systems (e.g. Western Europe, Saudi Arabia); humanitarian missions that did not involve combat; or the geopolitical impacts of military treaty development, acceptance or rejection. Discuss.
Hello, mycroft.pica.army.mil!
TidBITS Mac newsletter on Digital Photo Goodies.
Infographic: clearing out the caves (CNN).
White-Out: The Outing of Whiteness - The experimental movie is an intriguing mix of extensive one-on-one interviews with whites and Blacks from Africa and the U.S., compelling scenery, and an innovative and unflinching historical perspective. Ms. Bradford has produced an incisive examination of how whites automatically assume their race and culture to be “normal”, all others “abnormal” to varying degrees, and how the absence of whites' examination of their own identity helps keep racism locked into place. She says, “Stepping out of our conditioning as whites and taking an honest look at our whiteness is one of the most important things we can do to end racism."
Although that description suggests that this movie uses Black people to represent all “Others” – excluding Asians, Latinos, and native peoples, as is too often the case when race is discussed – it still sounds like it could be useful for introducing a white audience to their own racism. I’d love to see it.
From “An Exchange on White Guilt” (part of Gregory Jay’s Whiteness Studies site):
Antiracism is not about guilt or blame. You don’t have to be guilty or blameful to receive privileged treatment at the bank, at the store, in the courts, in legislative policy, etc. just because you are “white.” This is not about individuals; this is about structures of privilege.
For two centuries laws and customs in the United States gave “white” people (a word that appeared in countless legal decisions and legislative acts) an unfair advantage over others. “Hard working immigrants” of European descent faced a hard lot, but their relative lot was made easier by the fact that they did not have to compete on a level playing field with nonwhites. The job market and access to education were thus skewed in their favor, just as men did not have to face much competition since women were denied the right to compete for most jobs or for admission to the best schools and colleges.
Again, these are structures of privilege, and they benefit people no matter whether those individuals want this to be the case or not. It doesn’t matter how fair and antiracist you may be, you are not the one they follow in the department store, but you are the one that gets her loan approved at the bank. It’s this structure and legacy of white privilege that’s appalling.
I welcome any conscious effort by European Americans to celebrate their heritage as long as this includes loudly denouncing white supremacy and the myth of the existence of “white” people.
In sum, with this decision, she broke the commercial press's legal monopoly on First Amendment protection, and extended that protection to an online periodical. This is a huge precedent. It applies to Indymedia. It applies to the website of Washington-based independent journalist Jeremy Bigwood, he wrote to me yesterday, because he's been reporting on Bolivia and the Andean drug war, too. It applies to any independent online journalist or website who makes a fair and responsible attempt to publish the facts and opinions on important public issues.Like weblogs, I guess. Indymedia Q & A with NarcoNews' Al Giordano.
originally posted by xowie
Links to free culture (Marcel Mauss, the Free Store, the Situationists, the Internet gift economy, GNU, net.art, mail art, free music, free publishing, etc.) courtesy the Free Words project, via jessamyn.
The Utterly Surreal Test - Result
I am a Collection of Elvis Impersonators.
I refine elastic nightmares with habitable abstract umbrellas. My perspective oranges enter forgotten densities of responsible soap. Evil lids of atomic paper eat my incomplete golf balls.
Who spices folded robots? The Utterly Surreal Test
Although the world’s best Chinese food is served in Monterey Park, I am not brave enough to eat here. (Vegans read at own risk.)
originally posted by xowie
The most unusual (and visible) aspect of betel chewing is its effect on the salivary glands. You don't just salivate, you pour; and the saliva emerges from your mouth tinted a deep brick red. (...)Betel nut, a.k.a. pan masala -- anybody tried this stuff?
Perverse as it may sound, betel-drooling is quite pleasurable indeed. There is an almost orgasmic satisfaction to be found in the experience of saliva-ducts open to full throttle. Delicious above all is the aftermath: when the chew is finished, your mouth is left astonishingly fresh and sweet. You feel uniquely cleansed, drained, and purified.
On the one hand, I would have liked to have gone to DC’s “2nd annual” Zine Fair,“a celebration of diy publishing and radical thought” – which sounds a lot like the old indy rock yard sale, this time with an anarchist bent. I suppose it was a nice way for the city to celebrate my son’s first birthday, in any case.
In this fight for our cherished freedoms, those cherished freedoms should definitely be the first thing to go. Sieg heil, y'all.Molly Ivins thinks Ashcroft's gone nuts.
Don't count me among those who quake that Mr. Ashcroft is shredding the Constitution. He does respect some rights, after all, like that of illegal immigrants and terrorists to buy guns in the U.S. without fear of government intrusion. And he just doesn't seem clever enough to undo the Bill of Rights, even with the president's backing. You have to have more command of the law than he does to subvert it.Frank Rich, Confessions of a Traitor.
originally posted by xowie
When they moved from a 65% cool computer ad format to an 89% luxury crap ad format, I let my subscription lapse. This means I have to wait a few extra weeks to read things like Wired’s October The Fellowship of the Ring cover story online.
Huge bonuses were paid to Enron insiders two days before the bankruptcy filing. Also, a great response to Bill Lockyer’s tasteless comment about Ken Lay.
originally posted by xowie
IHT.com: Villagers Dying Under U.S. Bombs, Anti-Taliban Forces Say
From Ethel:
What really caused the prisoners to revolt, and what really killed them? Also: It takes money, unimaginable power, and greed unchecked by moral or ethical considerations to make money, as the saying goes. (Featuring your favorite group and mine, the Carlyle Group.)
Font of the Week? Font of a lifetime! Learn about Albertus, create your own sample, and download a truetype version for Windows.
Sen. Thurmond Celebrates 99th Birthday (yahoo/news) looking healthier than ever!
“A joint initiative of six organizations with exceptional expertise in computer and Internet training in the [global] South,” itrain online is a multi-lingual directory of training materials and tutorials on all aspects of computer, network, and internet technologies.
Danza (jish, boingboing, 0sil8) hasn’t hit Daypop yet. This ought to be interesting.
From Follow Me Here:
From this weblog community vantage point, the outrage about the Dictatorship’s mad, ongoing powergrab under Ashcroft’s influence seems so palpable, but where’s the organized opposition behind the spleen? It may turn out to be one of the greatest, most enduring humiliations in American history – certainly on a par with McCarthyism, if that phrase still makes anyone blush – that reasonable Americans are allowing this to happen with no more than ineffectual spluttering like this. Is it time to write your Congressional representatives? Ha! Time to march on Washington? blockade the Justice Dept? Do the words mass protest, or nonviolent civil disobedience, resonate with anyone anymore?Eliot believes that those who oppose Ashcroft must get organized.
The Weblog Review has given us a once-over and compared us favorably to MetaFilter, which is pretty cool, though not as cool as it would have been back when… Nevermind. I’m a little surprised that a weblogger reviewing weblogs isn’t familiar with the convention of hooking a perma-link to each post’s date/time info, but I have chosen to suppress the link color and hide the underline, so the point is taken that I will miss out on some direct links as a result. I suppose I could also put a link to the archives higher up, with those nav links at the top of the sidebar. In any case our official rating is a 4 and our reader rating is a 2.75, so you know what to do (scratch your butt, close this window, and go get something to eat)!
Monkeyfist.com unveils a new look (I was going to make some joke involving gloves but what’s the use) which does a great job showcasing some of the very best original content on the Web. My favorite recent piece goes a little like this:
I am homophobic.
I am homophobic (literally, “afraid of non-heterosexuals”) to the extent that I accept the exclusive validity of “traditional” notions of gender, of masculinity or femininity. I assume, as most people do, that everyone around me is heterosexual, unless they make it clear that they aren’t. By making this assumption, I expect a uniform range of behaviors from everyone I encounter. This expectation has everything to do with why life is extremely difficult for those who are homosexual and for those who’s sexual identity lies somewhere in between. Because it takes a considerable amount of work to break out of these expectations, only a very small number of people who feel overwhelmingly that they are homosexual, and simply cannot live normally otherwise, actually “come out of the closet.” The same closet that’s built and maintained by me and by everyone else who assumes and expects heterosexuality of everyone.
Most people of color (and therefore most of the world) are lactose intolerant. White poison from Colorlines and The Food Pyramid Scheme are two interesting articles about racism and the dairy industry. Additionally, NoMilk and NotMilk are informative sites about the untold horrors of milk consumption. It’s time to go vegan again!
originally posted by beXn
“How Gyroscopes Work” from Howstuffworks.com, courtesy The Segway Blog (see flux).
Diary of the first Segway owner. (c/o boing boing)
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
Know your rights. (via Emil Guillermo.)
originally posted by xowie
Q: I feel an overwhelming need to kill this man in the cave, but the location of the cave is unknown to me, and so it's impossible to find him. He's been allowed to stay in the cave, however, by the fanatical rulers of the country where the cave is, Afghanistan, so I feel an overwhelming need to kill those rulers. As they've moved from place to place, though, I haven't found them, but I've succeeded in finding and killing many young soldiers who guarded them and shepherds who lived near them. Nonetheless, I do not feel any of the expected "closure," and in fact I'm becoming increasingly depressed and am obsessed with nameless fears. Can you help me?
A: Your real problem is simply the way that millions and millions of people around the world feel about you. Who are these people? They share the world with you -- one single world, which works as a unified mechanism. These people are the ones for whom the mechanism's current way of working -- call it the status quo -- offers a life of anguish and servitude. They're well aware that this status quo, which for them is a prison, is for you (or for the privileged among you), on the contrary, so close to a paradise that you will never allow their life to change. These millions of people are in many cases uneducated--to you they seem unsophisticated--and yet they still somehow know that you have played an enormous role in keeping this status quo in place.Wallace Shawn, The Foreign Policy Therapist.
Times Cries Eke! Buries Al Gore by Gore Vidal.
originally posted by xowie
Ten Do’s and Don’ts to Raising Healthy Multiracial/Multiethnic Children:
Children are concrete learners - they learn about themselves and the world through real experiences, not words and lectures. In a society so polarized by race and ethnicity, our children must have lots of direct contact with both sides of their family. The easiest way for this to occur is through experiences with both parents.
When two adults cross the racial divide to have a child, they can never go back. Your child represents an in-your-face challenge to racism and the belief of every racial, ethnic and national group that ingroup marriage is somehow normal and better. (…)
It’s difficult for a child to develop prejudicial beliefs or inaccurate information about one side of their heritage if they have positive contacts with both sides all the time. Its easy to develop prejudices when the child is around people from only one of his/her backgrounds. (…)
When you hold and talk to your infant, talk about her pretty skin, beautiful eyes, and curly hair. Tell her how much she looks like her father and mother. Sing songs about a beautiful, brown, curly headed baby. Read books about multiracial children, families of the world, and all aspects of her heritage. Give her mirrors to see herself; when you talk to others affirm her positive multiracial identity. (…)
Don’t teach children that color does not matter. It does! - in this country, and most countries in the world. And color matters not only in the greater society, but within every single racial and ethnic group (Blacks, Hispanics, Natives Americans and Asians). People’s initial reactions to other people are based on physical characteristics - what that person looks like (skin color, hair color and texture, facial features).
Children respond to people who care about them - regardless of their background. It certainly helps if these adults know about multiracial children and how to support their healthy identity development.
Do not entrust your child to adults who do not respect their need for a full identity. And, do not assume minority adults support multiracial identity; many do not.
I constantly hear from young biracial and multiracial adults who do not feel good about themselves, because their parents did not support their mixed identity. The rest of the world does not ignore it!
Children need classmates, neighbors, playmates, etc, who represent both racial groups (or more). If this does not occur, children develop an unrealistic - and overly romantic - view of the part of their heritage that is missing, and then want to discover ‘being black’, ‘being Native American’, ‘being Hispanic’, etc. The problem is they truly don’t know what it means to be one of these minorities, so they become attracted to the stereotypes of the group - music, behaviors, clothes, language, etc. Do not raise a child in a single-race environment - especially if its white.
Our children are minorities, have direct personal connections with the dominant group, and are something new - what many are calling third culture children.
Ninety five percent of our children’s experiences - good and bad - have nothing to do with race and ethnicity. Our children progress through the same developmental stages, learn the same school-related tasks, and have all the same challenges as single-race children.
They just have one more experience: being multiracial or multiethnic.
Mr. Kamen plans to demonstrate today a two-wheeled battery-powered device designed for a single standing rider. Its chief novelty lies in the uncanny effect, produced by a finely tuned gyroscopic balancing mechanism, of intuiting where its rider wants to go -- and going there.George calls it a "'Gwe lo rider" and I think they should team with Apple for a special iPod edition. What is it? A.k.a. "Ginger," now known as Dean Kamen's Segway, it's IT.
“It is Bobby Fischer without a shadow of a doubt.”
originally posted by xowie
CD buyers beware – record companies are distributing discs which are broken in a number of ways: they won’t play on many CD players including most computers and DVD players and they won’t allow songs to be converted to mp3 format. As usual, if you buy one from a store, you’re stuck with it (exchanges only, no returns). So bookmark Fat Chuck’s corrupt CDs list and print it out before you go shopping. Considering that the only music worth listening to since 1991’s Nevermind has come out first on vinyl, this shouldn’t really be a problem.
Five cases of plagiarism involving George Harrison (but not all of them his fault).
originally posted by xowie
The great trouble with the Negro in the South is that all presumptions are against him. A white man has but to blacken his face and commit a crime to have some Negro lynched in his stead.
An abandoned woman has only to start a cry, true or false, that she has been insulted by a black man, to have him arrested and summarily murdered by the mob.
originally posted by xowie
CounterPunch: We Are the War Criminals Now by Robt. Fisk, and Suffer Palestine’s Children by Sunil K. Sharma.
originally posted by xowie
Industry 2, Free Speech 0.
originally posted by xowie
Over all, more than 1,200 people have been detained as part of the sweeping investigation, including men traveling the country with large amounts of cash and box cutters, and those who sought information on crop-dusters and flying lessons on large jets. But a senior law enforcement official said for the first time last week that just 10 to 15 of the detainees are suspected as Al Qaeda sympathizers, and that the government has yet to find evidence indicating that any of them had knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks or acted as accomplices.How do you spell internment? (How quickly one forgets.)
originally posted by xowie
It has come to be assumed in much of the Muslim world that to be a proponent of women's rights is to be pro-Western. This enmeshing of gender and geopolitics has robbed Muslim women of their ability to develop a discourse on their rights independent of a cultural debate between the Western and Muslim worlds.Muslim Women as Symbols — and Pawns (nytimes.com) via Follow Me Here.
Baptists urged to pray for Muslim conversions during Ramadan.
“It’s a free country,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on Islamic-American Relations. “If he wants to have Christians fast and pray, we’re hardly in a position to tell people not to."
originally posted by xowie
An Alternate Reality (nytimes.com)
Most political reporting about the stimulus debate describes it as a conflict of ideologies. But ideology has nothing to do with it. No economic doctrine I’m aware of, right or left, says that an $800 million lump-sum transfer to General Motors will lead to more investment when the company is already sitting on $8 billion in cash.
Okay, so let's have that national ID card. Or, better, a national ID tattoo. Or, better yet, how about an identifying microchip embedded into every American's ear? I'm sure Oracle's Larry Ellison could devise a tiny chip for that purpose, one that could easily be read by an electronic scanner.Harley Sorensen, Lend me your ears.
originally posted by xowie
Eliminate terrorism? All you need is love.
originally posted by xowie
Naughty children to be registered as potential criminals (news.telegraph.co.uk) - “[UK] police are to set up a secret database of children as young as three who they fear might grow up to become criminals.”
Remember the little rush of pleasure the first time your brain was forced to question itself by the tessellations, optical deceptions and serene beauty of M.C. Escher? Relive that sense of wonder with a few of his artistic heirs: Kelly Houle and István Orosz specialize in "catoptric anamorphosis" (the art of distorting an image such that you need a mirror to correct it). Their visions include the unexpected, poetic, and flat-out impossible.Originally seen on memepool and used without permission. That's probably rude.
to Art by cricket
Should I set up a randomWalks mailing list?
Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.Carter's 1980 State of the Union Address.
The Secret Service in Durham, NC are investigating a poster (critical of Bush’s Texas executions) on a teenager’s wall, according to the Independent Weekly.
Wild WP joint on Freemasonry.
originally posted by xowie
At her best, which was often, Kael was so brilliantly persuasive on her own terms that she could seem right — right for Pauline Kael — even when wrong by your own standards or, indeed, nearly everyone else's.Remembering Pauline Kael.
originally posted by xowie
Father Mychal Judge, The Firemen’s Friar.
originally posted by xowie
Stamp Backlash Worries Muslims (washingtonpost.com) - Xenophobic philatelists eschew the recently introduced Eid Mubarak postal stamp.
Except for the diesel fuel that drips down his chin, the jug of fuel he totes around and the wand of fire he brandishes, Sanchez acts much of the day like a friendly traffic officer, waving pedestrians across his corner of Insurgentes Avenue and Thomas Edison. Although a few passersby hesitate before stepping into the crosswalk where Sanchez is preparing his act, most walk right by without a second glance. He’s far from the only fire-eater in town.
sprawling over four acres north of Cincinnati, Jungle Jim’s is the endpoint of a global network of farmers, suppliers, producers and distributors. Each day, the gates of its loading docks roll open to take in a universe far beyond La Choy and Old El Paso – 110,000 products, fresh and canned, boxed and frozen, shipped in from all over.
“What are we having for dinner?”Also in today's Post:
“I don’t have anything for you on that at this point in time."
“Well, didn’t you go to the store?"
“I’m not going to discuss tactics, techniques or procedures."
“Well, did you, like, go to the store or not?"
“We have achieved our objectives."
“Did you get the frozen pizza?"
“I’m not going to tell you what those objectives are.”
When Laura Bush delivers her terse radio address on Saturday, November 17, she says nothing of deposed kings or the place of women among Afghanistan’s new government. She does not mention the resolution submitted to Congress by New York Democrat Louise Slaughter and Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen urging that women be leaders in any new government. She does not mention RAWA, and she does not promise the women of Afghanistan that the Northern Alliance will not be permitted to oppress them. She speaks as though women’s liberation is a fait accompli.Out of the frying pan by Judith Lewis.
originally posted by xowie
America’s hyperreal war on terrorism by Anis Shivani
The best way to understand “America’s new war” is as a convenient legitimizing rubric to extend American economic and military power abroad, and to complete the repressive domestic agenda already set in motion during the post-cold war years in the guise of the “war on drugs.”
In both instances, corporate globalization’s increasingly intolerant attitude toward dissent of any kind is implicated. This is not so much a war against “terrorism,” but a pre-emptive strike against domestic and international opposition to the hegemony of transnational capital in the early years of the twenty-first century. (…)
This is the postmodern form of repression, where terror-originating from the state is completely unlocalized, and it penetrates to the very core of the potential dissenter’s heart and mind, and allows no possible refuge from the panoptical sights of the police state. (…)
In effect, the anti-terrorism legislation of 2001 is analogous to Hitler’s 1933 Enabling Act, converting the hithertofore soft American totalitarian state into a hard one, making explicit by writ of law what was already occurring in terms of supression of free speech, dissent against the corporate global order, and massive inequalities in access to power and justice. The usurpation of the voters' will in the 2000 election was a test-run: since this judicial coup engendered no noticeable dissent among the intelligentsia, press, and common people, the stage was set for an all-out assault on the remaining liberties of the people. (…)
Racial profiling of Arab and Muslim Americans has been endorsed by even liberal Senators. Anti-globalization activists wonder if their shop has been closed for good. The distinctive element of this wave of repression is that it is accompanied by soft talk. The president and his surrogates will continue to make the correct multicultural noises about acceptance of difference, even advocacy of a Palestinian state should that be necessary to buy the short-term allegiance of recalcitrant Muslim states, but the words will be as hollow as the administration’s “compassionate conservative” ideology. As more than $2 trillion was handed out to the richest Americans in a “tax cut” designed to starve the federal government of resources for public spending, the compassionate part of this policy relied on the armies of compassion to rally ordinary people to public service and on so-called faith-based initiatives to handle the welfare discards. (…)
The war on terrorism signifies not a return to multilateralism, as some have suggested, but an escalation of the unilateralist position already taken by conservatives during the first eight months of this administration. “You’re either with us or against us.” Is that multilateralism? The US is only seeking a thin cover for its avowed military and economic goals (including assertion of hegemony in the key, oil-rich Central Asian region), but it is not multilateralism by any means.
The recount report from the national media consortium, using data painstakingly gathered by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), at a cost of almost a million dollars, was finally released. The data provide strong support for reform, as the data demonstrate (among many other things) that:Steve Cobble, Are We Really Going to Abandon Election Reform?
- our current voting system has class, racial, and disability biases;
- punch card balloting must be eliminated;
- ’second-chance’ technology, which cuts down on overvotes, needs to be available at the precinct level, everywhere;
- provisional voting should be a universal right;
- ballot design should be taken out of the hands of local officials, who may be partisan, incompetent, or just bad designers;
- hand recounts are justified, to ascertain the will of the people;
- voting rights should be restored to felons who have served their time;
- poll workers need (and deserve!) more training; and
- voter education should be a serious and well-funded public obligation.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
The trouble with Harry.
originally posted by xowie
Epic Macy Gray interview.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
Leonid viewing info
From the AP:
Astronomers expect this year's Leonid meteor shower to peak during a half-hour period around 5 a.m. EST on Sunday, when as many as 70 meteors a minute could streak across the sky. If the weather is clear, the shower should be visible from all North American locations.Earthgrazers and Fireballs: The Strange Side of the Leonid Meteor Shower
To best view the shower, head to a dark location far from city lights. The meteors should be visible across the sky, appearing to radiate from the east, in the direction of the constellation Leo that gives the shower its name.
Only a lawn chair, warm clothes and the naked eye are required. Binoculars or telescopes are not necessary.
Many astronomy clubs and observatories plan to hold meteor shower-gazing parties.
During the three hours of its continuance, the day of judgment was believed to be only waiting for sunrise, and, long after the shower had ceased, the morbid and superstitious still were impressed with the idea that the final day was at least only a week ahead. Impromptu meetings for prayer were held in many places, and many other scenes of religious devotion, or terror, or abandonment of worldly affairs, transpired, under the influence of fear occasioned by so sudden and awful a display.daypop: leonids
Over the centuries, the Leonids have been unpredictable. Even though the Earth passes through the comet's orbit every year, the intensity of the shower depends on the density of the dust stream at that point.Will you be watching?
Decades can pass and the Leonids can be anemic, scientists say. Some years, though, most recently in 1966, the shower can be extraordinary, Chester said. Tomorrow's should be, too.
"This is the best shot you're going to have," he said. "If you don't do it now, you're never going to get the opportunity in your lifetime again."
It isn't enough for your heart to break, because everybody's heart is broken now.Allen Ginsberg in The Sun's collection of literary quotes for September 11.
Judith’s hotlist for the week.
originally posted by xowie
It says here they are going to bury me in private. Babbs says there's been thousands of e-mails and he wants me to thank you all for writing. Meanwhile, I've still lots of forms to fill out and they're looking for a bigger halo but durned if I'm going to play that harp. I'm holding out for the thunder machine. See you around. — KeseyKesey obits: nytimes.com (memorial), washingtonpost.com, sfgate.com, latimes.com, registerguard.com (Eugene, OR), npr.org.
I’m feeling an incredible affinity for this job lately -- three day work week, ambling around the city, looking at people in shop windows, dogs, trees, going into everyone’s apartments and seeing how they live, handling thick piles of cash, feeling like a general bad ass.Jody spent last summer delivering pot to customers in uptown Manhattan. Read her story and then check out the rest of this great Marketplace series on the underground economy.
Niem has constructed an ACME Novelty Toy Gallery, assembling the intricate paper designs included in Chris Ware’s ACME books and taking copious loving pictures. This is wonderful.
I’m going to buy some TextAd impressions at MetaFilter, and I need help coming up with a short (50 characters or less) description of randomWalks. Any ideas?
Krazy Kat Archive – “George Herriman’s Krazy Kat (1911), a comic drama of love and rejection in the manner of a surreal commedia dell’arte, proved a hit with intellectuals because of its wit and advanced style.” Via The Blacklist.
The Working Writer by Susan Wiggs
When I was in graduate school I took a course from B.F. Skinner, the famous behavior scientist, who taught us the importance of PRDs in self-motivation. He suggested rewarding increments of work with single kernels of popcorn. The true artist substitutes M&Ms for popcorn because really, how motivating is dry popcorn, anyway?Indeed.
A visit to the Brautigan Library by Jessamyn West.
A recent GeekLog post leads to some informative comparisons of slash-style website systems.
On the public radio tip, two from The New York Times: NPR’s Story Project Proves Truth Is Stranger, Public Radio’s Private Guru.
Tom leaves three days later, drained from lack of sleep and fried from staring at his monitor. With his jacket empty of weed, another workday stares him in the face. It's been a weekend muffled in sensory white noise, a visit to a cocoon of headphones, pixels and dope, and he'll do it again next Friday.High Score (Salon.com).
Move over nedlog – German schoolgirl Annika Irmler has the world’s longest tongue, as verified by the Guinness Book people. Anagrams are left as an exercise for the reader.
Adding and Subtracting – this has got to be a hoax.
A plane has crashed in Queens, NY. From what I can gather, it crashed shortly after taking off from JFK. No one knows why it happened so don’t freak out too badly. CNN.com is crushed but you can read the news at robots.cnn.com. The relevant story is here, and (as usual) Metafilter has scooped the media and you can best follow the developing story in this thread. Also if you’re stuck in an office and away from a TV like myself, you might want to download Apple’s Quicktime 5 and watch the BBC World News Quicktime stream.
Yahoo full coverage
I worked last night, all night. The immense devastation, smoking and steaming in the cool air, illuminated by artificial light against the black sky appeared more eerie than it had been the in the light of day. From most vantage points, beams of light shining up into the sky, from huge self contained light plants, illuminated the rubble piles from behind making the already surreal mountains of destruction appear more imposing while at the same time strangely beautiful. The beauty that quickly vanishes as you get closer and watch the awesome and dangerous work going on.(the flow) Insider's report: Bechtel Engineer's Chronicle of Ground Zero Excavation. Thanks to Electrolite.
French Reporter Tells of Days Held in Jail by the Taliban (nytimes)
Mr. Peyrard, who speaks some Pashto but was detained with two Pakistani journalists who translated for him, said that the younger guards liked to practice their English with him, repeating: “This is a jail. This is a cell. This is a mouse.” When the American planes came over, they would shout: “This is Mister Bush.” At one point, when the bombardments slowed they shouted “This is Mister Bush droopy."
Ken Kesey is in critical condition recovering from surgery for a tumor on his liver. (Who’s Ken Kesey?) U: He has passed away.
In honor of the heroes at “ground zero," let’s roll!
Let’s roll!
Let’s roll!
Let’s roll!
Let’s roll!
Let’s roll!
Let’s roll!
"Parties in Brooklyn are a bit more chill and laid-back, less thumb-up-their-ass than Manhattan," says Ingram, whose Sessions party is only two months old. "People are less concerned about what you're wearing and more concerned about having a good time. And people dance in Brooklyn!"Push Push in the Flatbush.
originally posted by xowie
Another great hotlist from silver surfer Judith Lewis.
originally posted by xowie
DC’s own Politics and Prose Bookstore and Coffeehouse presents an annotated reading list titled Books For Understanding Old and New Worlds.
Daypop: body bags
There are major disputes - about agricultural subsidies and dumping, about tariffs and the patenting of life forms. The most contentious issue is drug patents. India, Brazil, Thailand and a coalition of African countries want clear language stating that patents can be overridden to protect public health. The US and Canada are not just resisting - they are resisting even as their own delegates head for Qatar popping discount Cipros, muscled out of Bayer using exactly the kind of pressure tactics they are calling unfair trade practices.Doha, the economic frontline by Naomi Klein.
originally posted by xowie
I was googling “emergence” (see the first chapter of Emergence by Steven Johnson) but before I could get anywhere I got stuck watching the glider gun. I love the glider gun!
From wood s lot:
Waking Up In Time by Peter Russell
A Speech Without the Speaker by Jaggi Singh
Anarchism and the Anti-Globalization Movement by Barbara Epstein
From Follow Me Here:
Torture Seeps Into Discussion by News Media (The New York Times)
A peek at Al-Qaeda’s Encyclopedia of Jihad from The Sunday Times
FDA approves Ecstasy therapy tests
While firemen and police were racing into the fires of hell in downtown New York, and now, while our soldiers and airmen and Marines are putting their lives on the line in Afghanistan, the Administration and its Congressional allies are allowing multinational companies to make their most concerted effort in twenty years to roll back clean-air measures, exploit public lands and stuff the pockets of their executives and shareholders with undeserved cash. Against such crass exploitation, unequaled since the Teapot Dome scandal, it is every patriot's duty to join the loyal opposition. Even in war, politics is about who gets what and who doesn't. If the mercenaries and the politicians-for-rent in Washington try to exploit the emergency and America's good faith to grab what they wouldn't get through open debate in peacetime, the disloyalty will not be in our dissent but in our subservience. The greatest sedition would be our silence.Which America Will We Be Now? by Bill Moyers
Islam — The Power of Women (The Globalist)
One key cause for the inability of Islamic countries to compete economically is that from Morocco to Iran, women do not go to work. The most extreme case is of course Afghanistan. There, we see the tragedy of highly trained women — if they haven’t already fled the Taliban’s harsh regime — being forced to sit at home, even when the country desperately needs their skills.
Women doctors cannot heal sick patients, women engineers cannot design repairs on buildings or roads, and women managers cannot help bring order from the country’s chaos — all because of their gender.
I'm the boss?George W. Bush discussing lunch plans with French President Jacques Chirac.
New Observations Online issue 125: Comics via Media Backlog.
There is more than one way to respond to the horror of Sept. 11. And there is more than one kind of patriotism. We forget this. You do not have to rally around Bush and tolerate Cheney's chthonic creepiness and wave a frantic flag and believe every scripted half-truth that drizzles out of the Pentagon, applaud the nonstop attacks on an already demolished nation. Pro-America does not mean pro-war.Evil Evildoers Of Evil (SF Gate). Somebody (Mark Morford) has been reading mnftiu.
"We felt horrible when we learned that the Red Cross … warehouse had been struck," White House chief of staff Andrew Card told Meet the Press. So horrible that at 8 o'clock on the evening of Oct. 25, two more Hornets dropped two 2,000 lb. guided weapons on the warehouses. The next morning a B-52 bomber delivered three more 2,000 lb. smart bombs. A third Hornet dropped another bomb that missed the warehouses and hit a residential area 700 feet to the south.William Arkin, Bombing the Red Cross.
originally posted by xowie
We should be putting the current international developments in context rather than just having wrestling matches between colourful characters. I've already started writing X-Men as a pacifist comic.Scot plans to make Batman hang up cape (The Sunday Times) Apparently the world's greatest comic book characters, entrusted to the care of a radical, decidedly non-mainstream writer, are set to grow up all over again. Also thanks to kindall.
Jerry Kindall says:
According to the latest Ansible, when Isaac Asimov’s Foundation was published in Arabic, the title was translated as… “Al-Qaeda.” Apparently Asimov’s future history is as popular among Arabs as it is among English speakers, and one “Middle East expert” thinks it might well be where bin Laden’s terrorist organization got its name. China Miéville notes that the term has “no political precedent” in the Arabic world and says: “Unlikely as it sounds, this is the only theory anyone can come up with."</blockquote
The Almost Complete Codes List (AVS TiVo Forum) features new codes and easter eggs for the latest TiVo software update.
Am I a Terrorist or a Member of Al-Qaeda or a Taliban Fighter or Not?
If you like explodingdog, you will probably like the book. Please buy one so I can make some of my money back.I like explodingdog.
So you want to build your own MacQuarium?
originally posted by xowie
NYTM: How ‘The Simpsons’ survives.
originally posted by xowie
Random-Abstract.com - Formerly known as Totally-Useless.com shares this list of domains.
Random dotcoms using whois off of networksolutions
I am sure I missed a whole bunch of them.
Random Drivel.com
Random Whim.com
Random Walks.com
Random Effect.com
Random Babe.com
Random Abandon.com
Random Element.com
Random Games.com
Random Ideas.com
Random Joke.com
Random Penguin.com
Random Oila.com
Random Ridge.com
Random Scribbles.com
Random Soft.com
Random Surf.org
Random Task.com
Random Thought.com
Random Unity.com
Random Violence.com
via MeFi: A picture of weblogs. Cool! randomWalks is represented.
originally posted by xowie
In words unusual for a defense lawyer, Wixted said the case was not about whether the rabbi was a "miserable little piece of dung as a human being" but whether there was sufficient evidence to convict him of soliciting his wife's killing.Dramatic summations send rabbi case to jury.
originally posted by xowie
Pentagon: Afghan village a ‘legitimate target’ (CNN.com) Following up on an earlier story, I guess the US position on bombing innocent people is crystal clear now, if it hadn’t been before:
We hit what we wanted to hit… The people there are dead because we wanted them dead.
B-52s, the crude weapon of the frustrated bully, should be banished to the scrapyard. This campaign, as ministers and their defence advisers are finally admitting, has shown up the poverty not only of military thinking but of the very utility of weapons of war.The Guardian: Return of the B-52s.
The bombing is sending a powerful unintended message to Muslims everywhere that bin Laden is telling the truth when he says that America is at war with Islam. If the bombing campaign carries on into Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, Al Qaeda's hand will be strengthened even more.CSM: Stop bombing and start thinking 'hearts and minds'.
originally posted by xowie
The Terrorist Attack on America: an astrological perspective, by Liz Greene.
NYC wants to build a giant dome (last 2 paragraphs) over the WTC site so work can continue through the winter.
You can now watch all of Pixar’s (Steve Jobs' other company) short films at the Pixar website via Apple’s Quicktime. The server seems to be slashdotted so be sure to check back if you can’t get through – this is some witty and beautiful computer animation.
Sisters and brothers should deliver their cash holdings, especially the coin collections in socks, pots and bottles, as well as amounts in secret funds, to the bookkeeper.Euro will leave monks the poorer (smh.com.au) A notice in the Franciscans' magazine urges monks and nuns to forsake their hoarded currency and renew their vows of poverty.
"There were no Taliban in the village," said Ahmed, a mechanic who said he is about 20 years old. "There were no tanks or Taliban cars. They just killed innocent people. . . . The plane saw us, and they opened fire. We don't understand why they did that."Villagers describe deadly airstrike.
originally posted by xowie
A year ago I posted about joining a CSA (community supported agriculture) program. If I were as ambitious and meticulous as Rebecca Blood, I’d give you a careful analysis of whether joining such a program was worthwhile economically, with some consideration of the organic and local nature of the produce thrown in.
Being neither, I’m happy to report that we had a lot of fun getting fresh vegetables every week. We were unfamiliar with cooking (if not eating) some of the vegetables, which inspired us to try a bunch of new recipes – exactly as I’d hoped when we signed up. I especially enjoyed the salad mix we got in early spring and summer and again in the last couple of weeks of the program in fall. Who knew arugula was the most delicious green on earth, and why didn’t anyone tell me?
In the middle of the season they hooked up with a nearby orchard to offer a fruit share – literally the day after I had been thinking of inquiring whether they had considered such a thing(!) – and the locally grown apples were abundant (~dozen/week), crisp, and sweet.
I was a bit surprised we didn’t get more tomatoes and corn, though I understand (thanks to the rad newsletter) that predatory herbivores were a problem this year. We also split a two-person share among my wife, father, and brother, so there you go. In any case we will surely participate again next year.
Skyscrapers are no longer being designed; no one wants to live in them... Buildings will now be more sober, serving the people who live in them. Donald Trump made a big thing of inaugurating his Trump Tower but now he keeps a parachute in his office.Buildings may never be the same, says Guggenheim architect (Independent News)
Ha’aretz: U.S. papers: FBI hunting suspected terrorists with Israeli passports. I saw a wire story in which US authorities were officially denying these reports yesterday, but today I wonder: could this be related to the “heightened state of alert” the FBI requested on Monday?
SFBG: Goth is dead. Long live Goth.
originally posted by xowie
"It’s not like I had this un-ambiguous thing of ‘Oh my god, we must stop bombing and turn it over to the World Court.’ So these were more just personal comics about how I’d been feeling about the whole situation. And I was drinking heavily when I made them, frankly. I’ve gone through a lot of Jim Beam in the evenings, because I’ve been working whole days in a midtown Manhattan office, listening to sirens and re-booting cnn.com, which is like the worst thing you can do to yourself psychologically."LAW: an interview with David Rees, Judith spins with DJ Irene and Robert Fink, and a list of techno guides.
originally posted by xowie
Don't worry, at first glance these things might look baffling and complex, but they'll quickly become second nature to you once you actually start cleaning up after your disgusting messy self you utter, utter filthy bastard.fridgemagnet presents: Cleaning the Fucking Kitchen for Dummies. Thanks, Boing Boing.
Hello kiddies...welcome to randomCorpses. The Cryptkeeper, a splendid animatronic device (and member of the extended Xowie family), invites you to check out these fabulous Tales from the Crypt internet "radio" shows, based on the original EC comics. Happy Halloween, creeps!
originally posted by xowie
I'm not justifying what happened on Sept. 11, but it's clear that when Bush said if you're not with us, you're with the terrorist -- when he said he wanted the man dead or alive -- he was calling out the posse, and black people know the posse. They come by and get you in the middle of the night and kill you without due process.Deep Distrust of Government Still Simmers (washingtonpost.com)
Beetle Bailey? At The World Trade Center? How weird is this?
There are 11 President Bushes, three Mayor Rudolph W. Giulianis and one National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.The Topps Company has already created a line of "Enduring Freedom" trading cards.
originally posted by xowie
Apparently, someone asked Raymond Chandler once what he thought of Hollywood ruining all of his books. And he took them into his study and pointed up to the shelf where they all were, and he said, "Look, they're there. They're fine. They're okay."The Onion's A.V. Club interviews Alan Moore! Thanks, lia.
Realtime Javascript Editor: “Type your code on the left and see the output immediately on the right.” Cool!
My wife wants to read some ghost stories, so here is the Shadowlands true ghost stories site (recommended on MetaFilter) and many more sites at open directory: ghost stories.
From World New York:
US broadcasts to Afghanistan available at 8700 kHz, shortwave. Or, listen on the Internet by tuning a web-controlled shortwave radio to that frequency.
In Jalalabad, the Sultanpur Mosque was hit by a bomb during prayers, with 17 people caught inside. Neighbors rushed into the rubble to help pull out the injured, but as the rescue effort got under way, another bomb fell, killing at least 120 people. In the village of Darunta near Jalalabad, a US bomb fell on another mosque. Two people were killed and dozens--perhaps as many as 150 people--were injured. Many of those injured are languishing without medical care in the Sehat-e-Ama hospital in Jalalabad, which lacks resources to treat the wounded.Precision, My Ass by Maria Tomchick (c/o Ethel the Blog).
originally posted by xowie
"They don't want you to hear these other voices out there," McKinney said at a public forum in Clarkston. "Help me come up with a strategy to get through this white noise that's been put out 24 hours a day."McKinney lambastes media.
originally posted by xowie
There are no mobile phone transcripts of Afghan civilians bidding farewell to their loved ones as the cluster bombs rain down around them, no immediate images of the impact of the wayward missiles on unlucky suburbs. Unlike those who perished in the World Trade Centre, the dead in Afghanistan do not have names, only numbers. And, given the limited access to the area, even those are questionable.Gary Younge, Peace by precision. Also at the "G": an interview with grumpy Simon Wiesenthal.
originally posted by xowie
My new weblog has already been hacked! (Thanks adam.)
originally posted by xowie
retroCRUSH presents the worst pre-fab Halloween costumes ever.
A Smarter Web (MIT Technology Review) in which Mark Frauenfelder (BoingBoing) explains the semantic web – I’m looking forward to reading this.
Of Microbes and Mock Attacks: Years Ago, The Military Sprayed Germs on U.S. Cities
Between Sept. 20 and Sept. 27 of 1950, a Navy mine-laying vessel cruised the San Francisco coast, spraying an aerosol cocktail of Serratia and Bacillus microbes – all believed to be safe – over the famously foggy city from giant hoses on deck, according to declassified Army reports. According to lawyers who have reviewed the reports, researchers added fluorescent particles of zinc-cadmium-sulfide to better measure the impact. Based on results from monitoring equipment at 43 locations around the city, the Army determined that San Francisco had received enough of a dose for nearly all of the city’s 800,000 residents to inhale at least 5,000 of the particles.Apart from even anthrax and the Current Situation, this has to make you wonder what types of tests the US government has conducted on you.
Two weeks after the spraying, on Oct. 11, 1950, Mr. Nevin checked in to the Stanford Hospital in San Francisco with fever and other symptoms. Ten other men and women checked in to the same hospital – which has since been relocated to Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. – with similar complaints. Doctors noticed that all 11 had the same malady: a pneumonia caused by exposure to bacteria believed to be Serratia marcescens. Mr. Nevin died three weeks later. The others recovered. Doctors were so surprised by the outbreak that they reported it in a medical journal, oblivious at the time to the secret germ test.
Thoughts in the Presence of Fear by Wendell Berry.
originally posted by xowie
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."To discourage architect Frank Gehry's involvement in the development/rape of L.A.'s Ballona wetlands, artist Robbie Conal plastered psychedelic fucking-frog posters at Gehry's home and office. (The Finger.)
originally posted by xowie
Eight white men discuss the future of technology.
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.Jack Newfield, The Shame of Boxing.
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.Next time, they might be women by Judith Lewis.
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.Susan Sontag interview, wherein this "confident, orotund piece" by Stanley Hoffmann is cited.
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.Safety first! Fly Air Naked. (c/o Unknown News.)
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[!]That’s cute how the controls are arranged to look like a speaker. I’m surprised they’ve used the old System 7 font “Chicago” for the interface. Next thing you know they’ll be striping that logo.
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.Some food for thought for when I eventually get around to designing a photo site.
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.”
The Mac Observer Interview With Online Comics Pioneer Scott McCloud On Comics, His Mac, & Windows
originally posted by xowie
The Ultimate Guide to Shooting Rubber Bands is illustrated and quite comprehensive. Also, Cards as Weapons.
While I’m looking for info on its origin, you might want to read an article called the “real” deal about nuclear, bio, and chem attacks.
Before BSE surfaced, no one had ever accurately assessed just how many uses there are for a dead cow. There had been some guesses. According to the authors of the British inquiry, "it has been said, and not altogether facetiously, that the only industry in which some part of the cow is not used is concrete production." But if the concrete is loaded onto a truck with rubber tires and driven down a paved road, or if the production company's annual report is printed on glossy paper, or if the company office uses plywood in its construction, then cow parts are involved. The paper is probably coated with a gelatinous chemical ultimately derived from tallow. The tires and the pavement are manufactured, in part, with bovine fatty acids, and the plywood is bound together with adhesive made partly of cow blood.Discover Magazine: Cow Parts via Donkeymon. Meat is murder, rubber is murder, film is murder, soap is murder, medicine is murder, sugar is murder, chewing gum is murder ... "every last scrap gets used somewhere."
Proud to be an American? Pledge allegiance to this:
Among the alternative strategies under discussion are using drugs or pressure tactics, such as those employed occasionally by Israeli interrogators, to extract information. Another idea is extraditing the suspects to allied countries where security services sometimes employ threats to family members or resort to torture.Now see if this don’t make you put your hand on your heart.
"What was most noticeable is your inability to work," she said. "I was trying to read a speech. I could hardly see. The mesh part in front of your eyes is like having 15 screen doors in front of you. You start seeing double."NY rep Carolyn Maloney gave a speech on the House floor wearing a burqa.
originally posted by xowie
Nothing seems to track: Gov. George Pataki said he was taking Cipro but wouldn't get tested. Senator John Breaux said he got tested but might not take Cipro. Dan Rather said he hadn't been tested or taken Cipro. Tom Brokaw ended the NBC news with "In Cipro we trust."Intense anxiety from Maureen Dowd.
originally posted by xowie
Ralph Nader to Tommy Thompson: nationalize Cipro.
originally posted by xowie
Attention! People of Afghanistan, United States forces will be moving through your area. We are not here to harm you! We are here for Usama bin Laden, Al Quaeda, and those who protect them! Please, for you own safety, stay off bridges and roadways, and do not interfere with our troops or military operations. If you do this, you will not be harmed. Do not approach United States forces. Stay in your homes! We are not here to occupy you, or to overrun your country. If you see United States forces, you need to find shelter and not leave it until we have left the area. This is for your protection. Roadways and bridges will be unsafe for travel. Your home will be the safest place. Do not listen to the Taliban or Al Quaeda. We will not harm you if you comply with these instructions.Flyers at CNN.
originally posted by xowie
October 22 actions against police brutality and murder. (via movementbuilding.org)
originally posted by xowie
I reminded the audience that ABC correspondent Cokie Roberts had been asked if there was any opposition to the war. ‘None that matters,’ she replied. ‘Well,’ I continued, ‘would you all care to join me in saying, ‘Fuck you, Cokie Roberts’ when I count three? Okay, one . . . two . . . three . . . ’ And it came at me like an audio tidal wave — thousands of voices shouting in unison: ‘FUCK YOU, COKIE ROBERTS!!!’Paul Krassner, Take that, Cokie.
originally posted by xowie
L.A. porn stars strike back against terrorism. Also, a day in the life of an adult video store.
originally posted by xowie
"I always have men come up to me afterwards and ask me questions and say: 'Is it true that (Muslim) women have to walk steps behind their husband, is that true?' I say 'Yes, they look better from behind'."Muslim comic Shazia Mirza.
originally posted by xowie
The effects of drugs and prostitution over time. “This is a series of arrest photographs of the same individual taken over the course of 10 years.” Disturbing and fascinating.
The Gap wanted us to be in a commercial and we said 'no' and everyone said, 'why not'? It's almost as if, if people are willing to give you that much money, you are insulting everyone you know by turning it down. People's opinions about selling out seem to have changed over the years.New Music Express: Stripe Knows Onions(?) Somewhere in America, Dave Eggers is rocking out to De Stijl, totally oblivious to this delicious news.
In my own English Department at George Mason University, when the radicals wanted to create a program to push Marxist propaganda under the heading "Cultural Studies," the internal memo describing this new offering had this wonderful defining paragraph:In "Empowering or Cowering", David R. Williams would seem to be grinding several axes at once. Let's hope he doesn't slip.Cultural Studies can be understood as the working title for an assemblage of theoretical approaches that are often interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary but also anti-disciplinary. Such work focuses on the analysis and critique of culturally constituted cultural forms and practices and on historically constituted social identities and agencies in the context of their imbrication with the asymmetrical relations of power that permeate the production and reproduction of the economic, political, and ideological dimensions of specific societies.I love that opening: "can be understood." By whom?
Www.randomwalks.com will stop working at some point today or this weekend. You will still be able to reach randomWalks at 216.92.165.104. Things should be back to normal early next week.
Do some good at Windowbox.com: change the world with urban gardening.
AT&T has a text-to-speech software demo that blows away anything I’ve ever heard. You can type in up to 30 words and download a small audio sample of either a male or female voice speaking the text. If you’re at a loss for what to type, try some favorite song lyrics or cut and paste the following:
God, if only that War on Drugs hadn’t been so effective! I could really use some fucking marijuana right now!
Iron your letters. This problem can be solved.DIY anti-anthrax solution: I don't make this stuff up.
City of Berkeley says stop the bombing.
originally posted by xowie
"We are in the process of putting a proposal together and analyzing what it would take to get to get something running in a matter of a small number of months, like three months, 90 days. We think we could put up this technology very, very quickly."Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and John Ashcroft have been meeting recently about a "voluntary" national ID card. Everything's about to get real nice for us motherfuckers.
"I made this offer not because the government can't afford to pay for the software, but [to] shut up the critics who were saying, `Gee, Larry Ellison wants to build a national database because he wants to sell more databases,' which is pretty cynical and bizarre."
Ellison said that if he does donate the software, maintenance and upgrades won't be free.
Check MacSurfer for links to lots of speculation on just what Apple might announce next Tuesday. The widespread assumption is that it will be a digital music device, but even that seems to be a guess. All Apple has said in their press event invite is that the “breakthrough digital device” is “not a Mac.” All I can say is, whatever it is, I want one. (Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my chin.)
From the watch-what-you-say-watch-what-you-do department comes an admonition from extremist and patriot John Ashcroft that government agencies must use caution in complying with Freedom of Information Act requests.
As if you need another reason to visit BoingBoing regularly, they’ve added a sideblog edited by a rotating guest. This week’s editor is science fiction author and school teacher Pat York. Not this Pat York, mind you. A different one.
Read the list of ingredients. If you want something that simply looks like a hamburger and has no taste of its own, then a list headed by soy is right for you. But if you want something that actually looks like the vegetables with which it is made, that has texture, taste and appeal, look for an ingredients list that has lots of vegetables and maybe a little rice or cheese as a binder.The Washington Post considers ten veggie burgers and is pleasantly surprised to find most palatable. Also in this week's Food section, recipes featuring that quintessential fruit of fall, the pumpkin.
Steven Baum’s Ethel the Blog has an interesting take on the “powdery substance” sent to dozens of abortion clinics across the country.
On this cool, autumn-hazy day in the waning year 2001, the richest country in the world is dropping bombs on the poorest -- America has invoked the right of "self-defense" against Afghanistan. But in that poorest country in the world, winter approaches, and six million people are now living on the razor-edge of starvation. How many will die as a result of America's bombing campaign?America: The Unconscious Empire at G a r g o y l e via george.
7,000? That would be miraculously few.
When will Americans wake up to the dirty secret that they are even now suffering and hurting other people for the sake of an imperium?
More excellent news for Californians: emergency contraception just became lawful here.
originally posted by xowie
Brutal repression of Muslims in Uzbekistan.
originally posted by xowie
Anyone who complains to me about their job will be forced by me to read this incendiary tract about the nature of work and power structures and false consciousness. This was the first thing I have ever read in the bathtub and worth every soggy page.From Jessamyn's 1998 book list by way of a google by way of an Amazon.com customer review by way of a metafilter thread on Afghanistan in 1971 ("just another destination for hippie trekkers and backpackers").
BloggerBot is supposed to let you post to a Blogger-managed weblog via AOL Instant Messenger. Right now it looks like it’s been bloggered – overloaded due to traffic from the Blogger home page.
It was the loveliest landscape I have ever seen: the hypnotic precipices beside us, falling 5,000 ft to jade rivers or lakes of lapis lazuli; the magnificent mountain ranges with the first snow of the autumn lying thinly on them; the gorgeous valleys with their green fields, and willows turning gold and red; the full-bearded men in turbans and green-striped chappans balanced on tiny, out-of-scale donkeys; the village women scurrying like formless ghosts in burkas of blue or white.John Simpson of BBC is traveling through Northern Alliance territory towards Kabul. The wreck of land that I love.
originally posted by xowie
Editorial balance:
- Iron Chef Morimoto goes to Philly.
- More hype for Salute to America’s Heroes week.
originally posted by xowie
Eddie Haskell goes to war by James Higdon, and The Utter Failure of Weblogs as Journalism at kuro5hin (both c/o wood s lot)
originally posted by xowie
Cluster bombs are used to cover a broad area rather than a single specific target. The bomblets, or "sub-munitions", contain higher explosive than landmines and their normally brightly-coloured casings make them attractive to children... On average, between 5% and 12% of the bomblets fail to explode, according to UN estimates.Masters of war deploy horrible weapon.
originally posted by xowie
L33t chicks are everywhere, it seems.
originally posted by xowie
Hey feds! We could really use some fucking information right now!
originally posted by xowie
Bite Me at Chin Chin.
originally posted by xowie
I decided that what I had embarked on was an intensive meditation retreat. It had all the elements, I told myself: the long hours of silent sitting; the walking back and forth, going nowhere; the grueling schedule and sleep deprivation; the hypnotic, enigmatic chants ("…and if that looking glass gets broke/Mama’s gonna buy you a billy goat..."); the slowly dawning realization that there is nothing to look forward to but more of the same. And at the center of it, of course, was the crazy wisdom teacher in diapers, who assigned more demanding practices than I had encountered in all my travels in India—like "Tonight you will circumambulate the living room for two hours with the master in your arms, doing a deep-knee bend at every other step, and chanting, ‘Dooty-dooty-doot-doot-doo, dooty-dooty-doot-doot-doo.’" Or "At midnight you will carry the sleeping master with you to the bathroom and answer this koan: How do you lower your pajama bottoms without using your hands?"Tricycle: Mothering as Meditation Practice.
Honoring 9-11, three asteroids were named Compassion, Solidarity and Magnanimity.
originally posted by xowie
FBI: “the sky is falling”. U: The press release has moved. The original file was named “skyfall.htm”… what the hell?
The once-humble unlucky tourist page has become epic. TouristGuy appears with Bert on page 5.
originally posted by xowie
September 11 Resources is a directory of several hundred sites pertaining to the Current Situation.
It's as though it's 1937 and I'm a bandleader named Freddie Hitler. Maybe we should change the name now. A friend suggested 'Basket of Puppies.'Scott Ian of Anthrax on stocking up on Cipro: "I will not die an ironic death."
originally posted by xowie
Sure, The Emmys got cancelled again, and, as a nominee this year, I already found out that I wasn't getting one of those little gold people so who cares if I can't walk down the red carpet in my Bob Mackie gown? I don't even wear a gown -- I wear pants, ill-fitting pants at that! Yesiree, I say, BOMBS AWAY! Rockets red glare! We are all WHITE WITH FOAM!All Mike is saying is give war a chance.
originally posted by xowie
Wartime Lies: A Consumer’s Guide to the Bombing, Alternet via booknotes.
I mentioned to Joseph Atick of Visionics that the City of London was thinking about using his technology to establish a database that would include not only terrorists but also all British citizens whose faces were registered with the national driver's license bureau. If that occurs, every citizen who walks the streets of the City could be instantly identified by the police and evaluated in light of his past misdeeds, no matter how trivial.Great NYTM thing on biometric cameras in Britain.
originally posted by xowie
Taxonomy of anti-war chants.
originally posted by xowie
Médecins Sans Frontières today rejected U.S. ‘humanitarian’ airdrops as useless and dangerous. MSF-USA has photos taken by Afghan refugees at a camp near Peshawar.
originally posted by xowie
Wired has done a great job of collecting links about Afghanistan.
originally posted by xowie
MeFi war thread.
originally posted by xowie
Updated info about chemical and biological terrorism at the Stimson Center.
originally posted by xowie
Gerson, 37, is an owlish man who fills yellow pads with doodles when you ask him a question. He says he believes that social justice must be central in Republican thought. ''The great stories of our time,'' he told me, ''are moral stories and moral commitments: the civil rights movement, the War on Poverty.'' He and the president get along well. The president calls Gerson ''the scribe.'' They share an intensely felt Christianity.How they wrote Bush's big speech. Also Two Towers by Katherine Rose Hawkins. p.s. I did not post "what Bush should have said".
originally posted by xowie
The Media Cover-Up of the Gore Victory by David Podvin.
“Wired is collecting Web sites whose content is posted either by people living in Afghanistan, or by recent expatriates. I’ve started with these,” says senior editor Paul Boutin.
I love printables:
posters for peace
war resisters league anti-war flyers
hate-free zone posters
unamerican propaganda
maps (afghanistan)
free dmitry
adbusters pdfs
Also printable:
better times sustainable living flyers (“make your own snacks')
2001 calendar
october calendar
musical staff paper
dollhouse accessories
mothers against peeing standing up
And with that I think it’s time to stop.
The Chairman Smiles - Exhibit of posters from the former Soviet Union, Cuba and China.
Vaginal Davis and Margaret Cho.
originally posted by xowie
Pick up a jar. Those tiny ice-like formations on the bud are THC crystals. Now smell it. If you're a marijuana user, you'll say, "Wow!"Welcome to Victoria, B.C.
originally posted by xowie
There is nothing anti-American about opposing the drive to war by Mike Marqusee.
originally posted by xowie
poetry on the subject of virgules and whatever that other thing was.
originally posted by xowie
Two great links from today’s xblog: 5inch custom CDR media (I especially like the bitmap and fuk blanks) and Nooface, a slash-style site “in search of the post-PC interface”.
How did GRAPE-NUTS cereal get its name?
In making the world safe9/11 Poem, Newspoetry.com.
For US corporations
We have made the world unsafe
For US citizens
One of the very interesting side effects of our Freenet is the almost immediate rise of a parallel Internet. Because our community is diversified and technophile enough, after a few days people already had the first Freenet public web pages out targeting fellow Freenet participants. One guy put up a small web page selling his consulting service for people needing help with configuration and installation issues. A student in the neighborhood is starting a Freenet web site (which eventually might become accessible from the public Internet as well) offering to do the shopping for people, including home delivery. Our internal IRC site is pretty much in demand and there are almost always neighbors to find there for chats or discussions.BYTE.com - A Wireless Neighborhood Freenet.
"I'm glad he's dead with the rest of them, and I don't like feeling something like that," Samantha finally said. "But he wasn't just a bad tipper -- he killed people."Agents of terror leave their mark on Sin City lapdancers.
originally posted by xowie
“Virgulesolidus.com” is available.
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission - Nuclear Site Locations: “This site is no longer available.”
Why doesn’t the government want you to see these photos of the WTC site? The photographer was detained and his digital storage media nominally erased, but he managed to recover the 72 photos and they’re now being mirrored globally. There’s nothing especially surprising or shocking in the few I’ve looked at; what’s interesting I suppose is that these photos, like the hundreds posted in the days following the attack, haven’t been filtered through the media apparatus of professional photographers who answer to editors who answer to bankers who answer to the almighty dollar.
"They had nothing. All they had was a vocal group. They didn't have any instruments," says Flea, who graduated in 1980, two years after Proposition 13 was passed and school arts programs began getting the ax. At Fairfax, Flea was a member of the jazz band, orchestra, marching band and choir. If those programs hadn't been there, "for me it would have been completely devastating because that was the only reason I went to school." Performing at Fairfax 20 years later, he says he felt "shaken up about it. There was just no music for kids in public schools."Flea is opening a music conservatory in Silverlake.
originally posted by xowie
LAW: The rush to Auden and Yeats; also Judith Lewis on our new censorship.
originally posted by xowie
“Unmediated.org” is available.
I only hate N.Y. because my parents live there. Waiving the flag by Erin Aubry Kaplan.
originally posted by xowie
When the towers went down, so did the sense of control that makes us feel like adults. In such moments of regression, we fall back on patterns that provided safety in childhood...Just as children cannot help but love their parents, regressed adults must rally 'round their leaders, and any critique or mockery threatens this bond.Richard Goldstein, The Price of Unity.
originally posted by xowie
Simulating an Airport Software Base Station in Mac OS X.
In his latest link-filled <a href="" http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0109a.html>Crypto-Gram Newsletter Bruce Schneier takes a look at airline security, biometrics, intelligence, cryptography and steganography in light of the Current Situation. According to his analysis, the airline industry is, perhaps not surprisingly, taking measures aimed almost exclusively at establishing a sense of security among travelers rather than relying on experienced experts to increase actual security. Biometrics are simply not a viable solution to the problem of identifying one suspected terrorist in on the order of ten million travelers, and steganography, practiced properly, cannot be defeated. So what’s the good news? A remarkably sane and insightful voice is suggesting rational defense measures that stand a chance of working while preserving the freedoms that define America. It may not be much, but I’ll take what I can get these days.
Redesigning the OS X Dock by Brian Ellis. If Steve can get over his not-invented-here complex this will be the Dock circa Mac OS X 10.5.
Hurry up and drop that butter.
originally posted by xowie
Suddenly, this terrorist leader displaced Pamela Anderson as a popular Internet search term, and a new cluster of domain name registrants tried to seize the remaining unregistered cognates of the name. (Unlike the actual person, the now highly desirable osamabinladen.com was nabbed in 2000, as was the alternate spelling usamabinladen.com, registered to a possibly fictitious Usama bin Cocksucker in Helltown, Penn.)Salon: Cybersquatting among the ruins.
originally posted by xowie
Interviews about death by Studs Turkel.
Color-print this flag sticker for your car.
A poem by Daniel Berrigan.
Awesome peace action in the Dam Square.
WP peace march photos.
Love love love in Union Square.
WTC steel recycled by Mafia?
Why we shouldn’t bail out the airlines.
originally posted by xowie
People keep saying that the world has changed completely since September 11th, but when I checked the Constitution it hadn't changed at all. Let's fix the real problems, sure. I've said that all along. But extreme measures, whether at home or abroad, are only going to make the problem worse. (...)From Phil Agre's latest Red Rock Eater Digest .
I've heard all the arguments for unquestioned obedience to authority in wartime, for example that only the military really knows what its doing, but those arguments apply to nearly everything. Besides, the military openly admits that it has no idea what it's doing. In a war without boundaries, a democratic people must be fully engaged with the war, contributing appropriately to the war but also regulating the government's conduct of it. That's what civil liberties are for. In fact, protecting civil liberties is a military imperative in an even more straightforward way. When our government violates civil liberties, it abandons its claim to moral and political legitimacy.
i c h e n e y p o k a t i w i e n k c a j i h n t n a t s i n a h g f a a f a s l t t u f g p t l k o i h u w s h n e s i w s r l i b t e i n i b a a o c u n a c l t k a x m r m h i g k i a a n s a r o u s g t f g p a r u e d t s a a o o e p r o t e s t l b r n a e m a h e r e u i p p c r t r b r s s r t m f e i g a l f h n u k e n x
originally posted by xowie
B l o w b a c k blog (“when wartime decisions come to haunt the people that made them”) features comprehensive links and excellent blogging of the Current Situation.
On my way to pick up lunch I caught a few minutes of NPR’s news special Peace Rally featuring Bryan Becker (International Action Center), Michael Albert (Z Magazine), Michael Kelly (Atlantic Monthly), David Dellinger (Chicago Seven), and Judith Zuk (Brooklyn Botanical Garden) talking about this weekend’s anti-war activities in DC.
Rafe Coburn’s Primer on Raising Your International Literacy lists several resources which, taken together, will expand your understanding of the Current Situation as well as other Concurrent Situations, not to mention Situations to come.
The Mac Observer’s List Of Retail Locations That Will Carry The Free Mac OS X 10.1 Upgrade
originally posted by xowie
"I was going to have a sign saying something like 'It would be fine if you stayed at 69,'" McFarlane said.McGwire home run ball going, going down.
originally posted by xowie
World New York has archived its World Trade Center disaster coverage which includes personal stories and valuable links. I hope Grant wins an award for this, though I’m not quite sure who should give him what.
MERIP has a fact sheet on Afghanistan’s refugee crisis.
originally posted by xowie
Here is an updated schedule of events in Washington, DC this weekend.
Dr. Mann, equipped with his hidden "wearcam," went into chain stores and innocently asked why there were domes on the ceiling. He secretly filmed the employees' evasiveness and their defensive responses — "They're here for your own good" — and then reached into his bag and pulled out a video camera of his own. At that point, he was usually kicked out of the store. "Of all places I go, it's the casinos and department stores and police stations that object most strongly to my apparatus," he said. "And yet those are the places where I feel it's most needed to prevent what would be a one-sided totalitarian regime."Real-Life Cyborg Challenges Reality With Technology, nytimes.com.
Judith Lewis on the latest rumors.
originally posted by xowie
Women I know in New York and Washington debate whether to order Israeli vs. Marine Corps gas masks, and half-hour lightweight gas masks vs. $400 eight-hour gas masks, baby gas masks and pet gas masks, with the same meticulous attention they gave to ordering no-foam-no-fat-no-whip lattes in more innocent days. They share information on which pharmacies still have Cipro, Zithromax and Doxycycline, all antibiotics that can be used for anthrax, the way they once traded tips on designer shoe bargains.Maureen Dowd's starting to freak me out! From Botox to Botulism. cf.: Overview - Med. guide - CDC - Bio FAQ - Nuke - Fallout.
originally posted by xowie
I tried to put it in the simplest possible terms for you people, so you'd get it straight, because I thought it was pretty important. I guess I figured I'd left no real room for confusion after putting it in a four-word sentence with one-syllable words, on the tablets I gave to Moses. How much more clear can I get?Rebecca reminds us that the Onion is back, and it is in fine form indeed. Laughter is therapy, do something good for yourself and read an article or two.
The DC Independed Media Center welcome team has posted a schedule of S29-related events including workshops and conferences leading up to a weekend of peace rallies and marches taking place in lieu of the IMF/World Bank protests. I’d like to recommend an activity that should be relatively safe, but after Genoa I don’t think it would be responsible to take a guess. March organizers were denied a permit as far as I can tell, and, although I would expect the black blocs to behave, it’s anybody’s guess whether the provocateurs will be out and what police will be prepared to do to protestors (“We’re going to go [to the protest] and take care of business: kill, kill, kill,” said one cop). I am torn up by the fact that I fear my baby boy would not be safe at a peace march, but there you go.
A panel of four Williams College professors urged restraint in the so-called war on terrorism Monday, with one of them calling upon America to bomb Afghanistan not with explosives but with food and medical supplies.Professor: Drop food, not bombs, Berkshire Eagle. What a great headline. The Tower Records near my work is clearing out their books and last week I picked up a book on the history and practice of Food Not Bombs which includes recipes and explains how to start a local chapter. Thanks to Marty of Wordforge for the quote and link. Along similar lines, Dori Smith wrote: "Someone on a mail list I'm on said today that, from his perspective, the best outcome for this whole tragedy would come from dropping several million Real Goods catalogs on Afghanistan, each with a gift certificate attached. Think about it: it's a whole lot cheaper, a whole lot more targeted, and a whole lot more likely to bring about a positive result."
Anthropology professor David Edwards, speaking during a public forum at Chapin Hall, said airlifts similar to those provided to West Berlin by the United States and Britain in 1948 and 1949 could prove a public relations coup and an unexpected blow to terrorist Osama bin Ladin, in a country wracked by starvation, civil war and oppression.
"Bin Laden expects us to strike with military force. It's what he's prepared for. In dealing with terrorism, you have to do the unexpected," said Edwards, an expert on Afghanistan who was joined on the panel by political science professors Marc Lynch, Gary Jacobsohn and James McAllister.
I feel so much pain and anger about the destruction of the twin towers, and then I can't even talk about it in class. I'm too angry about the way everyone's talking about Arabs. I can't share my pain with them. This club has never been so important to me before. It's the only safe place for me where I can mourn what has happened to our city, and not be hurt by those around me at the same time.Peek inside the Arab Club at Hunter College half of whose members (mainly those with darker skin or who wear veils) have stopped showing up at school due to harrassment.
Anti-Starbucks downloads.
originally posted by xowie
Downtown Brooklyn after the crash.
originally posted by xowie
Starbucks apologizes for forcing NYC rescue workers to pay for water. (snopes.com)
originally posted by xowie
Civil libertarians—and there aren't many—have to be careful not to believe that the huge popular support for the Bush war effort will make significant resistance nearly impossible. But opposition to a coup d'état against the Bill of Rights is our only alternative to yielding to the beginnings of a police state for an indefinite period.Net Hentoff in a remarkable edition of the Voice. Also: Slowing Ashcroft and A User’s Guide to Antiwar Activism.
originally posted by xowie
Guardian Unlimited: Now what? - Chewy Q&A goodness. Scroll down for “Who is making money from the terror crisis?”
ArianaE, an Afghan web portal, has a listing of Afghan restaurants in the US. I’d really like to visit one in the near future. Do you suppose they have many vegetarian options?
The pictured map, uncovered in the files of the Council on Foreign Relations, tells a part of the Afghanistan story that has attracted virtually no attention. Note the proposed pipeline routes and that once the Persian port of Gwendar is reached, the American oil industry is home free.Progressive Review: Give Me a Pipeline or Give Me Death.
slashdot: hackers would be subject to life imprisonment under Ashcroft’s anti-terrorism legislation.
originally posted by xowie
xowie sez: 10 reasons to oppose the proposed national I.D. card.
originally posted by xowie
I’d forgotten to keep an eye on think peace, the collaborative weblog started in response to the New War. Also want to watch:
I've realized that almost no one wants the war the government and media have been trying to sell us on for a week. My own father, a supremely patriotic man and an avowed conservative who joined the Navy back in the early 60s, does not want this war. Every veteran I've talked to does not want this war. No one wants terrorists to be able to kill more people, but no one believes this garbage that our only two options are doing nothing and going to war.David Grenier: A new hope.
Al-Hewar Center has a huge page of links to statements and condolences from Arab-American and Muslim-American organizations and personalities.
originally posted by xowie
Have you heard the good news?
HRW statement on Afghan refugees.
originally posted by xowie
Read 1/10th of this: End of Liberty? Chilling Maureen Dowd. Scroll down for Susan Sontag. Cory D. on that pimp Larry Ellison. Still more Robert Fisk. Jonathan Gold. On the defense of civil liberties. Jim Washburn. Disgraceful pundits. Derrick Z. Jackson.
originally posted by xowie
The real fear now is chemical.A "US government adviser" leaking (sp?) to The Sunday Times in an article on the beginning of our New War.
Can you find Afghanistan on a map?
Christopher Hitchens’s latest. (thanks, J.)
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
This week’s urban legends.
originally posted by xowie
War, being a dramatic departure from the stream of events that went before it, is an especially fertile occasion for the pursuit of private agendas. World War I, for example, institutionalized the public relations industry. Most of the founding figures of public relations first came to prominence by participating in the propaganda campaign that persuaded Americans, against great odds, to join the war on the side of France despite isolationist sentiments and the large number of German immigrants in the country. As they built the government's propaganda machinery, they also built the professional networks and personal reputations that guaranteed their success, and the success of public relations as a concept, in the post-war world.Some Notes on War in a World Without Boundaries from Phil Agre, the source of more unadulterated sense than I've seen in a long time. This man is brilliant; subscribe to his Red Rock Eaters mailing list for more.
What new social structures will be institutionalized in the course of the war that is now getting under way? The answer, I think, can be found in plain sight, in the military doctrine that the Bush people have been articulating. ... One of the great dangers of the coming war is that it will institutionalize this kind of warfare, applying it not simply to dangerous individuals in foreign countries but to the civilian populace of the United States.
Who knows what will happen now? Not me, buster. That's why I live out here in the mountains with a flag on my porch and loud Wagner music blaring out of my speakers. I feel lucky, and I have plenty of ammunition. That is God's will, they say, and that is also why I shoot into the darkness at anything that moves.Hunter Thompson thinks WW3 has already begun.
originally posted by xowie
Three Arab-Americans from Utah have been kicked off a flight from Minneapolis because the other passengers refused to fly with them.Arab-Americans kicked off NWA flight, startribune.com.
"After a few minutes," he recalled later, "the pilot came up to me. . . . He told me that he's not safe with me flying to Dallas."Arab Americans Enduring Hard Stares of Other Fliers, latimes.com
"What do you have against me?" the incredulous passenger asked.
"He just said, 'I'm not going to take you. Myself and my crew are not safe flying with you. They don't feel safe.' "
It’s a fabulous season for apples – “four times the quantity of last year” according to one grower – and one of the greatest memories I have is of spending a cool, sticky, exhaustingly fun day at a pick-your-own orchard up in the Blue Ridge mountains with family and friends one autumn years ago. In all the, well, everything, I almost missed this Washington Post guide to pick-your-own orchards near DC. Considering my son’s newfound appreciation for the fruit (apples and pears are the only solids he’ll countenance) I really hope we can make it to one before all the apples fall.
I’ve heard lots of talk about the forbidding mountainous terrain of Afghanistan. Trying to get a look for myself, I’ve come across this Time photo essay on famine and photojournalist A. Raffaele Ciriello’s photos of Afghanistan. Thanks to Cursor for both links.
Still available: 72virgins.com.
In 1998 alone, literally half the top 10 highest-grossing films involved one form of apocalypse or another: Armageddon, Saving Private Ryan, Deep Impact, Godzilla and the most wildly popular disaster movie of all time, Titanic. James Cameron’s epic is so well-known that a favorite haircut for young men in Kabul is something called the "Titanic." Barbers reportedly get jailed for cutting boys’ hair like Leonardo DiCaprio’s, but their teenage customers love it.Not a Movie by Manohla Dargis.
originally posted by xowie
Jonathan is looking for volunteers to help take Life During Wartime to the next level.
Rumsfeld Might Change ‘Infinite Justice’ Name - washingtonpost.com.
Chinese Working Overtime to Sew U.S. Flags - washingtonpost.com.
"This is your receipt for your husband...and this is my receipt for your receipt."Why does Terry Gilliam's Brazil remind me of John Ashcroft? (see this also.)
originally posted by xowie
Pakistan’s nukes.
originally posted by xowie
Judith Lewis interviews Mir Tamim Ansary. Also in the Weekly: To Be Muslim and American in L.A. by Celeste Fremon.
originally posted by xowie
Looking again at last Tuesday's darkness, peering deeper into Krishna's mouth, we see not just ourselves but the entire world staring back. It would be comforting to believe the international outpouring of sympathy in the wake of the attacks was simply that, but it was also a global craning of necks. What will happen? The world looks out its windows and wonders how, if, when, and where the full weight of the structure will fall.Killing the Buddha: Seeing Ourselves.
During the Gulf War of 1991, I gave a talk to a high school assembly in Massachusetts, a private school where the students came from affluent families and were said to be "95 percent in favor of the war." I spoke my mind, and to my surprise got a great round of applause. But in a classroom afterward, a girl who had been staring at me with hostility throughout the discussion, suddenly spoke up, her voice registering her anger: "Why do you live in this country?"From the introduction to You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train by Howard Zinn. This and many more fine articles can be found on ZNet's Emergency Terrorism and War page.
I tried to explain, that my love was for the country, for the people, not for whatever government happened to be in power. To believe in democracy was to believe in the principles of the Declaration of Independence--that government is an artificial creation, established by the people to defend the equal right of everyone to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I interpreted "everyone" to include men, women, children all over the world, who have a right to life, not to be taken away by their own government or by ours. When a government betrays those democratic principles, it is being unpatriotic. Love of democracy would then require opposing your government.
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has compiled a partial list of the rash of hate crimes and murders committed in the past week.
originally posted by beXn
Patterns of inquiry revealed by the network:
You can create any number of scenarios to prove that nonviolence won't work, but meanwhile we rarely question that the violence is clearly failing. In other words, most in the media become very skeptical when they hear about pacifism. They equate it with just letting people walk all over you, which it clearly is not. When you study Gandhi, King, Merton Day, Muste and all the others, you find that it's direct resistance to authority, a direct resistance to Caesar. But it's a very difficult subject to comprehend. Everybody is always, "What if someone breaks into your house with a gun and wants to shoot your family? What do you do then?" So you can create scenarios where clearly it probably won't work, but meanwhile there are 40,000 a people a month who are dying in wars around the world. The U.S. is selling weapons to 142 nations; we're the world's biggest arms dealer. We spend $800 million a day on Pentagon programs, bankrupting our economy, and rarely is this ethic questioned. So I question it.From an interview with peace activist and educator Colman "please forgive us" McCarthy.
think peace is a collaborative weblog to which everyone is welcome to post.
Suppose bin Laden is the mastermind of the recent horror. Imagine he had gone before the Afghan population a week earlier and told them of the U.S. government's responsibility for so much tragedy and mayhem around the world, particularly to Arab populations as in Iraq and Palestine. Imagine that he further told them that Americans have different values and that they cheered when bombs were rained on people in Libya and Iraq. Suppose bin Laden had proposed the bombing of U.S. civilians to force their government to change its ways. In that hypothetical event, what would we want the Afghan people to have replied?Apparently the ZNet server was hit hard by the recent Microsoft-enabled "Nimda" worm so I'm mirroring the September 11 Q and A right here. As I've come to expect from Michael Albert and ZMag, it's insightful and quite comprehensive. U: ZNet is back.
We would want them to have told bin Laden that he was demented and possessed. We would want them to have pointed out that the fact that the U.S. government has levied massive violence against Iraq's civilians and others does not warrant attacks on U.S. civilians, and the fact of different values doesn't warrant attacks of any sort at all.
So isn't this what we ought to also want the U.S. public to say to George Bush?
originally posted by xowie
It’s Understanding Islam Week over at Dan Hartung’s Lake Effect, and I have faith that Dan will do an outstanding job of gathering and explicating links. Thanks to Follow Me Here for the pointer.
Q:What is the meaning of the suffix ‘-stan,’ found at the end of the names of so many countries?Google's cache of a National Geographic page.
A:The names of seven countries, all of them Asian, have either the ‘-stan’ or ‘-istan’ suffix. They are: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The use of these suffixes, both of which mean ‘country’ in Persian, illustrates the broad historic influence of Persian culture. These suffixes are similar to the English ‘Land,’ as in ‘Finland,’ ‘Greenland,’ ‘Iceland,’ ‘Ireland,’ ‘Poland,’ and of course, ‘Disneyland.’
This decency and sense of fairness is America's greatest strength, but it has also been a weakness. Americans want to think of themselves as a benign nation that stands for the downtrodden against the strong, and for right against wrong. This has sometimes made it much harder to make people see the distortions that their government's policies have produced over decades in the Middle East and other parts of the world; that the America that they believe in and strive for --the America of decency and freedom -- is not the same America experienced by millions of people whose lives are ruined by US-backed dictators and despots, who see their loved ones incinerated by "smart bombs" and wasted by sanctions. People are sometimes unwilling to see an image in the mirror that they do not like. The America that wrote to reassure me and other Arab Americans that I am safe at home here is not the same America that with unconditional support sentences my cousins to a life of brutality and violence under endless Israeli occupation. But it is the America that can and must act to stop it.Ali Abunimah, Thoughts from New York.
Here in the UK I pray for everyone of you there. I have always loved New York so much. Its energy has always felt to me to be as much about love and ozone-positive fresh air as money and commercial dynamism. Whatever was intended in these acts of terrorism, they have created only more energy and more love. - Pete Townshend
originally posted by xowie
Alternet: alternatives to war; the racism of war fever.
NYT: a nation of checkpoints; the big terrible.
Salon: life will never be the same; rally ‘round the flag.
WP: fears for liberties; a beating and regrets.
originally posted by xowie
I did not see the speech at the Islamic Center, but support what I think Bush said. Someone please tell me what the hell this means though: Both Americans and Muslim friends and citizens, tax-paying citizens, and Muslims in nations were just appalled and could not believe what we saw on our TV screens. My eyes hurt from reading that.
originally posted by xowie
The U.S. has already demanded that Pakistan terminate the food and other supplies that are keeping at least some of the starving and suffering people of Afghanistan alive. If that demand is implemented, unknown numbers of people who have not the remotest connection to terrorism will die, possibly millions. Let me repeat: the U.S. has demanded that Pakistan kill possibly millions of people who are themselves victims of the Taliban. This has nothing to do even with revenge. It is at a far lower moral level even than that.Noam Chomsky interviewed by Radio B92. Incredibly interesting.
originally posted by xowie
Criticism of this most devastating of all intelligence failures has been muted; there seems a widespread assumption that the Arabs who have been rounded up since Tuesday must all be guilty. And there is unity in vengefulness, too. According to a New York Times-CBS poll yesterday, only 6% now oppose military action and a substantial majority would support war "even if many thousands of innocent civilians are killed". That support is especially strong among those too young to remember the second world war, Korea or Vietnam.No room for dissent as spirit of flagwaving sweeps the nation.
originally posted by xowie
"The terrorist attacks will cause the widespread use of Carnivore and at the very least an acknowledgment of the Echelon system... The tragedy may soften our commitment to privacy as a public and allow for these technologies, once they are in place, to stay in place afterward. I can't think of anything that would better expedite the abuse of this technology than what has just happened." - Coralee Whitcomb, CPSR.ZDNet, Attacks silence privacy concerns.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
As Palestinians who suffer daily from acts of Israeli aggression against our innocent people, we cannot find the words to express how shocked we were to see the horrific scenes on TV. We condemn such acts and we do not accept such horrific acts in the 3rd millennium where peace, prosperity, and freedom should cover the whole world. We reiterate our deepest condemnation of this horrible act on these innocent humans. No matter how can we express our sorrow, we can't find enough words to say how sorry we are.City of Beit Sahour, Palestine.
originally posted by xowie
Lynda Barry, with you.
originally posted by xowie
People from every corner of the world have come to our nation to enjoy the freedoms we hold so dear and to escape the hatred and persecution that exists in their homelands. Let us not stoop down to the level of our attackers and also be guilty of senseless acts of hatred against the innocent. We must rise above our circumstances and show the world our resolve and what it really means to be an American.Message to Ithaca, Hon. Alan Cohen.
originally posted by xowie
I have been thinking about the words retaliation and punishment and act of war. I have been thinking about violence, what it feels like to be nothing to someone else. What it feels like to be a consequence of someone else's disassociated rage, disconnected fury. I have been thinking about the cycle of hurt for hurt, nation against nation, tit for tat. I have been thinking about how deeply something else is required. I have been thinking about the courage it requires to think about something other than violence as a response to violence. I am thinking about the complexity of this and the loneliness of this and the helplessness and the sorrow that would be felt in the space where violence once was and the grief. I have been thinking that for those of us who are living on the planet right here, right now, we must live in this dangerous space, allowing the helplessness, the grief, the sorrow to create new wisdom that can and will and must free us from this terrible prison of violence.Eve Ensler.
originally posted by xowie
Tips for planning an anti-war action, from a group calling for student protests Thursday at noon.
originally posted by xowie
The plight of the Palestinians is the single most important issue to most Arabs. Professor Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland conducted a poll in which citizens of five nations -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates -- were asked how important the Palestinian issue was to them personally. In four nations, 60 percent said it was the most important. In Egypt, reviled throughout the Arab world as the state that made peace with Israel, 79 percent said it was.Gary Kamiya, The bloody Jordan river now flows through America. Also at Salon: American pacifists call for restraint.
originally posted by xowie
On a so-called Christian station, I heard a preacher tell his listeners that Islam was a cult that worshipped the moon and preached total destruction of Jews and Christians. Callers seemed baffled about which religion the terrorists might have adhered to—-"Islam or Muslim?"—-or asked which Middle Easterners they'd seen on TV celebrating the bombing: "Is it the Israelis who don't like us, or the Palestinians?"Driving back to L.A. with the radio on.
originally posted by xowie
Our leaders have described the recent atrocity with the customary cliche: mindless cowardice. "Mindless" may be a suitable word for the vandalising of a telephone box. It is not helpful for understanding what hit New York on September 11. Those people were not mindless and they were certainly not cowards. On the contrary, they had sufficiently effective minds braced with an insane courage, and it would pay us mightily to understand where that courage came from.Richard Dawkins, Religion's misguided missiles.
originally posted by xowie
I wish the flag didn't scare me. I wish that every time I saw the flag I could be secure in the assumption that the person who hung it values freedom of religion and the presumption of innocence as much as I do. I wish seeing this flag everywhere didn't make me profoundly uncomfortable whenever I leave the house. I feel like it must show, like you can see in my eyes that I don't want war the way we are being told with pictures and polls that we want war.i am about to go buy a flag to put in front of my parent's house so that you don't think that my family is anti american. we are very american, we love being here in america, we love everything american, it's people, it's land, it's culture (s), it's freedom, it's wide variety of choices for professions, everything about it. we loved it before we came here, and learned to love it more after coming here. but i am getting the flag merely to keep people wanting to hurt my family, from questioning how american they are, because they look different. having the flag does not make me love america more, it just means that i have a flag in front of my house. -- MetaFilter post
"Does anybody think that we can send the USS New Jersey to lob Volkswagon-sized shells into Lebanese villages -- Reagan, 1983 -- or loose 'smart bombs' on civilians seeking shelter in a Baghdad bunker -- Bush, 1991 -- or fire cruise missiles on a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory -- Clinton, 1999 -- and not receive, someday, our share in kind?" History did not begin on September 11.David Corn, Going to Extremes.
originally posted by xowie
The Voice is back. The “wailing wall” at the V.A. Hospital, plus flyers of missing people.
originally posted by xowie
“Responding to Terrorism”: A Compendium of Articles from the Alternative Media collected by Utne Reader Online.
Nineteen years ago today, the greatest act of terrorism — using Israel's own definition of that much misused word — in modern Middle Eastern history began. Does anyone remember the anniversary in the West? How many readers of this article will remember it?Not me. Answer: the massacres at Sabra and Shatila camps began September 16, 1982; 1,800 Palestinians were murdered. Who lit candles for them?
Powerful commentary by Robert Fisk.
originally posted by xowie
"We should be careful when we use those analogies. If I ever used war analogies, I apologize. Football is not war." - Ray Brown.SFGate: Language of sports forever changed. By the way, here's just one incredibly stupid analogy in sports reporting.
originally posted by xowie
Take a peek at photojournalist Raku Loren’s What’s Really Going On.
Statement of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
originally posted by xowie
Our government has a bad record in its ‘wars’ against such ill-defined enemies as poverty or drugs. Terrorism in the modern world is effected across many borders and its remediation requires analogous forms of cooperation. ‘War’ may sanction actions that increase our insecurity and vulnerability. War does not easily coexist with justice despite the best efforts to elaborate just war theory. War seeks the destruction of the other rather than efforts to find the best ways in which to coexist with those who are different.John Buell, Apocalypse Now?
originally posted by xowie
Devastating hi-res photos by Sara K. Schwittek, Brooklyn, N.Y.
originally posted by xowie
Argentina: 2 missing Australia: 9 confirmed dead, 85 missing Bangladesh: 50 confirmed, more missing Belgium: 60 missing Brazil: 5 missing Canada: 2 confirmed, 100 missing (est) Chile: 1 missing China: 4 confirmed, 30 missing Colombia: 6 confirmed, 116 missing Denmark: 5 missing Dominican Republic: 3 missing Egypt: 1 confirmed, 3 missing El Salvador: 1 confirmed, 18 missing Finland: 7 missing France: 81 missing Germany: 4 confirmed, 700 missing India: 250 missing Indonesia: 1 confirmed, 1 missing Ireland: 4 confirmed Israel: 1 confirmed, 150 missing Italy: 8 missing Japan: 2 confirmed, 100 missing Lebanon: 1 confirmed, 2 missing Malaysia: 7 missing Mexico: 150-500 missing (est) Norway: 1 missing Pakistan: 3 confirmed, more missing Paraguay: 2 missing Peru: 5 missing Philippines: 7 missing Portugal: 3 confirmed, 20 missing Puerto Rico: 1 missing South Africa: 1 confirmed, 2 missing South Korea: 1 confirmed, 27 missing Spain: 9 missing Sweden: 1 missing Switzerland: 4 confirmed, 10 missing Taiwan: 9 missing United Kingdom: 100 confirmed, 200 missing (est) Zimbabwe: 6 missingc/o Life During Wartime.
originally posted by xowie
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.Scobleizer.What would happen if instead of bombs, we instead bombed them with food and those 45 words?
originally posted by xowie
Noelle: Will this bring peace?KPFA interview with Rear. Adm. (Ret.) Euguene Carroll, USN. (For a detailed overview of the likely U.S. military response, see this article by Stephen J. Baker, another retired USN admiral.)Admiral Carroll: We can inflict grave damage, but it will not bring peace, it will not end terrorism, it may even exacerbate it. We will lose the sympathy shown around the world. We should make Americans safe from terrorism by reducing the motives. Terrorism arises out of abject poverty and hopelessness. If I can't protect my children, if I see my family dying around me, I become a terrorist out of a feeling of sheer helplessness. Without any hope for the future, they give their lives.
originally posted by xowie
If we are to make progress as a civilization—or, more critically, survive as a species—we face the stark choice of either building a new global culture of compassion or continuing to ignore or support our current system's cultivation of inequality, militarism and the degradation of human life where economic and social decisions are guided only by market values. Without fundamental change, the forces who see violence as the only method to address legitimate grievances, symbolized in the carnage of lower Manhattan and along the Potomoc, will inevitably grow and become more destructive in this noxious environment.Respond to Terror with a Revolution of the Heart by Scott Harris, Producer, Between the Lines.
originally posted by xowie
[Friday's Congressional resolution is not] based on a quest for justice. It is an open-ended invitation to attack anyone U.S. leaders decide to target. And those leaders -- Dick Cheney and Colin Powell among them -- are some of the same people who during the Gulf War unleashed attacks not only on military targets but on civilians and the entire civilian infrastructure of Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people during and after the war. This resolution, and the statements from the Bush administration about an ongoing global war, suggest that what is coming will be even more frightening.Robert Jensen, Why I Will Not Rally Around the President.
originally posted by xowie
One target of operation "Infinite Reach" was bin Laden's paramilitary camp in Afghanistan. "The U.S. picked the highly accurate cruise missile for the strikes against the Afghan camp," reported CNN's military correspondent Jamie McIntrye, "because of their ability to fly with pinpoint accuracy." One of the missiles was so inaccurate it hit the wrong country, Pakistan, several hundred miles off-course.Remembering the Last U.S. Retaliation Against Terror, by Jeff Cohen.
originally posted by xowie
War Against the Planet by Vijay Prashad, Fearing strikes, Afghans flee Kabul by Amir Shah, Bush’s Faustian Deal With the Taliban by Robert Scheer.
originally posted by xowie
Any explanation of Middle Eastern violence that relies upon the notion that Islam is an inherently violent or inherently anti-Western religion is false and misleading. First, Islam is one of the world's largest and most diverse religions and like Christianity or Judaism there are thousands of views within Islam about the religion and also about violence and the West. Secondly, there are major differences even among explicitly Muslim militants and activists regarding these issues - some insist upon non-violent struggle and others regard violence as a legitimate tool. There is no way one can generalize about Islam or any religion for that matter.Steve Niva, Addressing the Sources of Middle Eastern Violence Against the United States.
originally posted by xowie
In response to Tuesday’s terrorist attacks, Clear Channel, the world’s largest radio network, has sent out a list of some 150 "lyrically questionable" songs by everyone from the Animals to the Zombies to its radio stations, recommending that the songs not be aired.Among the banned songs: Peace Train, Imagine, and Blowin' in the Wind. Get the picture? Meanwhile, RATM had to shut down its messageboard after repeated complaints by the Secret Service. (thanks, Judy)
originally posted by xowie
Suicide bombers are supposed to be 17-year-old zealots with nothing to live for but the hope of a martyr's welcome by 72 virgins in paradise. These men, the FBI reveals, lived middle-class lives, had degrees and jobs and wives and kids and a willingness to leave them all to kill us. Among the casualties last week was our sweet certainty that anyone lucky enough to be able to live in America, share its vices and freedoms and gifts, surely would not want to destroy it.Time, Mourning in America.
originally posted by xowie
Felt by all the world.
originally posted by xowie
The simplistic stereotyping that goes on - equating Arabs and Muslims - must stop. Two-thirds of Arab Americans are, actually, Christian. And up to three-fourths of the U.S. Muslim population is not Arab.Rethinking Islam's place in American society.
Now what does this word Islam mean? Oh, wow, it comes from the word salaam, which means peace. Suddenly, it was dawning. Hey! Didn't I once write a song called Peace Train? It was fast becoming clear that I was now being confronted with something much greater than I had originally anticipated: possibly - the Truth!Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), My rise from icon to slave.
Truly, our hearts bleed for the attacks that have targeted the World Trade Center (WTC) as well as other institutions in the United States despite our strong opposition to the American-biased policy towards Israel on the military, political and economic fronts. Islam, the religion of tolerance, holds the human soul in high esteem, and considers an attack against innocent human beings a grave sin. This is backed by the Qur’anic verse which reads: "Whosoever kills a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if be had killed all mankind, and whosoever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had: saved the life of all mankind." (Al-Ma’dah:32)Ask the Scholar (Islam Online).
originally posted by xowie
Altered city. Brief interview with Angus Kress Gillespie. How little kids are handling it. Raw thoughts. No more illusions. We need the rule of law, not the rule of war. Perseverance amid 450,000 tons of debris. Now more than ever. Fallout.
originally posted by xowie
The next thing I remember is that a dark cloud of glass and debris about 50 stories high came tumbling towards us. I turned around and ran as fast as possible. I didn’t realize until yesterday that the reason I’m still feeling so sore was that I fell down trying to get away. I was on my back, facing this massive cloud that was approaching, it must have been 600 feet off, everything was already dark. I normally wear a pendant around my neck, inscribed with an Arabic prayer for safety; similar to the cross. A hesidic Jewish man came up to me and held the pendant in his hand, and looked at it. He read the Arabic out loud for a second. What he said next, I will never forget. With a deep Brooklyn accent he said “Brother, if you don’t mind, there is a cloud of glass coming at us, grab my hand, lets get the hell out of here?” He helped me stand up, and we ran for what seemed like forever without looking back. He was the last person I would ever have thought, who would help me. If it weren’t for him, I probably would have been engulfed in shattered glass and debris.
wtc-filter is a good weblog covering the war. If they had a link to randomWalks, I would make it my home page. If they were to add one more weblog, though, it should be World New York.
Dear reader, two Sundays in the future: you know vastly more than I do about what I mean when I say war. Do you envy me, living in this before, this last shred of relative innocence? I hope not. I hope I ought to envy you, the wild sweet peace you enjoy, the simultaneous epiphany of universal human amity and accord, the melting of all world guns into memorial sculpture which took place on, say, Sept. 16, the miracle that occurred in place of the carnage I’m dreading today. Oh, I hope I ought to envy you; I hope I’m a moron.9 failures of the imagination by B'klyn novelist Jonathan Lethem.
originally posted by xowie
When we cry out for violence, we are indeed asking our leaders to do to other civilians and rescue workers precisely what has happened to us here. Let us use great caution and prudence in our solutions to this horror. We owe that to our counterparts the world over -- people who by no means deserve to suffer the way we are now. I think most people, having seen what I just have, would be hesitant to call for an expansion of this horror.The greatest argument against war.
originally posted by xowie
I woke with the images, the cry for retribution: brutality begetting brutality, blood in my eye. I need to believe that this is somehow un-American. Their whole point is to make us a nation at war. We should resist, resist becoming like those who did this.How can art help us now?- James Taylor, Singer, songwriter
originally posted by xowie
Poynter.org’s gallery of front pages.
originally posted by xowie
Not angry - haven't felt that once, strangely, and I am a reasonably irascible old man. Just surges of disbelief at the kinds of things said on tv and radio; the damnable dance of politicians and the professional pundit puke while shattered hearts lie bleeding true blood. Warm and wet. The stirring promise of endless battlefields to satisfy lust for metaphoric blood. Just experiencing, along with a legion of others, the advancing exhaustion of some subtle psychical strata due to encompassing more than the emotional machinery is yet (if ever) evolved to accomodate without something palpable and accessible to touch. Lots of pictures but no picture. Lack of effect leading to lack of affect. Absurdity of trying to comfort a grieving loved one by email. Not that there's anything to say, only the will to feel alongside of. O world of lost children believing in disbelief instead of doubting doubt. History returns to the starting point armed with ever less poignant weapons. Image of a Fireman on the 31st floor of a crumbling tower when the heavens suddenly open and forever rushes in like a leviathan come to reclaim her young.Journal of Robert Hunter.
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SiameseQuadraped: I’ve been focusing on thought and compassion and the meaning of love all week, and the incidents in NY/DC/PA came at at a time when we were talking about Holden Caufield in The Catcher in the Rye, and the book, Brave New World. Anyway, next week we are reading “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and I came across this quote, marked as “great” by a student of mine in her journal. “It is very queer that the unhappiness of the world is so often brought on by small men.” And this one: “Our bodies are a thin skin stretched painfully over repressed madness.”
Here is a poem by Randall Jarrell:
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
originally posted by xowie
Shock, rage and grief there has been aplenty. But any glimmer of recognition of why people might have been driven to carry out such atrocities, sacrificing their own lives in the process - or why the United States is hated with such bitterness, not only in Arab and Muslim countries, but across the developing world - seems almost entirely absent. Perhaps it is too much to hope that, as rescue workers struggle to pull firefighters from the rubble, any but a small minority might make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world. But make that connection they must, if such tragedies are not to be repeated, potentially with even more devastating consequences.Seumas Milne, They can't see why they are hated.
originally posted by xowie
What can you do? Here are some things to consider:Buddhist Peace Fellowship.1) Being peace yourself. Take the time to stop, breathe, and notice your feelings and reactions to all that has happened and is happening. In the face of the immensity of this tragedy, face your own sense of helplessness and powerlessness. And at the same time, consider how your every word, action, and interaction with another right now carries the potential for peace or war. Be gentle with yourself and others; our compassionate presence for each other will be required more than ever.
2) Cultivate an environment of peace and tolerance in your community -- stand up for and speak out for groups that are receiving the brunt of ignorance and hatred. Consider contacting Muslim organizations and mosques in your community and express your concern for their well-being and safety. Ask if there is anything you or your sangha can do in support of them, i.e. organizing a sitting meditation vigil in front of a mosque to express solidarity and offer protection.
3) Political Action: How the U.S. government responds to this situation will have ramifactions for generations to come. Military action right now has the potential to escalate the situation and increase violence across the world, and will not deter terrorists but rather solidify hatred for the U.S. Contact President Bush and your legislators and express your wish to see this national crisis handled in a sane way.
4) Gather Together: Organize gatherings to offer people a chance to share grief, sadness, fear, anger, and other feelings and thoughts about what has happened, and to discuss nonviolent and skillful actions that can be taken together.
originally posted by xowie
Experts have opined that the US has to hit "someone" within 10 days, that cruise missiles targeted somewhere in the Middle East are the only appropriate action. The deputy secretary of state, Paul Wolfowitz, said that "the whole civilised world has been shocked... and even portions of the uncivilised world have started to wonder whether they're on the wrong side". How's that for the official American view of the planet?Ahdaf Soueif, Our poor, our weak, our hungry.
originally posted by xowie
"Our nation must be mindful that there are thousands of Arab-Americans who live in New York City," Bush said, "who love their flag just as much as the three of us do, and we must be mindful that as we seek to win the war that we treat Arab-Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve." It's a message that 17-year-old Roula Abu Hassan says her teacher at school missed today. She says her health teacher told her class at a high school in Brooklyn that "Palestinian children all want to become terrorists." Both Roula and her mother Saud Abu Hassan, who moved to the United States from the Palestinian territories, are visibly upset by the statement and want the teacher to apologize.Arab-American community 'keeping its head down' - CNN Generally speaking, when a teacher is accused of harrassing a student, aren't we told the name of the adult and not the minor?
The Detroit Free Press is presenting 100 Questions and Answers about Arab Americans, which I would fail were it a test.
The man who occupies the White House cried today. Good. Keep crying, Mr. Bush. The more you cry, the less you will go to that dark side in all humans where anger rages to a point where we want to blindly kill.Michael Moore 9.14
Tell the mayor, a guy most of us have not liked, that he is doing an incredible job, keeping the spirits of everyone up as high as they can be at this moment. Being there for a city I believe he loves, his own cancer still with him, he goes beyond the call of duty.
But do not declare war and massacre more innocents.
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Hey terrorist motherfuckuhs! This Bud’s NOT for you.
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Pilot Charles "Chic" Burlingame, Oak Hill, VA
b. Orange County, CA, 1949
a "huge Angels fan"
Navy fighter pilot, 350 carrier landings
Contestant, Greed, Tic-Tac-Dough
Captain, American Airlines Flight 77
died the day before his birthday
"Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
from his friends in Hollywood
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If you read nothing else today, read Mir Tamim Ansary on Afghanistan. I will probably throw the whole thing up here when I get a chance, but don’t wait for me. Go now.
I might have linked more photos sooner had I still a DSL connection. All of these links are from World New York:
“I had originally started this photo collection as a tribute to the view out of my bedroom window that I grew up with. Never did I think…”
BBC: Islamic world deplores US losses.
originally posted by xowie
We are at war, they said. And I thought: they have learned nothing, absolutely nothing, from the history of the twentieth century, from a hundred years of retaliation, vengeance, war, a hundred years of terrorism and counter-terrorism, of violence met with violence in an unending cycle of stupidity.Howard Zinn, Violence Doesn't Work.
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Ask Bush to show restraint.
originally posted by xowie
I have dropped my quarters in slots my daughter will never see, in buildings she will never enter, on observation decks that do not exist any longer, except in my mind. And I have listened as the timer counted down the time left before the viewfinder would fade to black. And I can imagine looking thru the viewfinder, and wondering why that plane looks so damned close. I can imagine looking uptown as the plane came closer, and closer, and seeing Harlem, and thinking, damn: I shoulda gone to Sylvia’s Soul Food. ‘Cause Harlem, far from being the bad part of town, was one of the safest places in New York yesterday. Even terrorists know which victims count the most in America. America, if you want safety, you’d best get your ass to the ‘hood. Get your boogie shoes to 123rd street. Move immediately into the Robert Taylor Homes, or Cabrini Green, or the lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. Do not pass go, let alone Wall Street. For there you are like sitting ducks.To My Baby Girl, On the Day After by Tim Wise.
originally posted by xowie
The idea that one could ever be prepared for such inhuman terror is absurd. However, viewed through the U.S. television networks, Tuesday's attack seemed to come less from another country than another planet. The events were reported not so much by journalists as by the new breed of brand-name celebrity anchors who have made countless cameos in TimeWarner movies about apocalyptic terrorist attacks on the United States -- now, incongruously reporting on the real thing. And for a bizarre split second on Tuesday night, CNN's graphic "America Under Attack" disappeared and in its place flashed another one that said "Fighting Fat" -- an eerie ghost graphic that yesterday passed as news. The United States is a country that believed itself not just at peace but war-proof, a self-perception that would come as quite a surprise to most Iraqis, Palestinians and Colombians. Like an amnesiac, the U.S. has woken up in the middle of a war, only to find out it has been going on for years.Awesome Naomi Klein.
originally posted by xowie
If we are provoked into war, it will involve none of the massive military campaigns of World War II. It will more resemble a cold war of antagonism always on the edge of hot war, with similar costs: titanic sums of money spent on security, civil liberties curbed, anxiety and paranoia displacing hope and trust, the life of the mind constricted and contorted, and vast opportunities for human betterment lost.Resisting the blind rush to war by Eugene Leach.
originally posted by xowie
liz: I urge each and every one of you to TURN OFF your television and your radio for JUST ONE DAY. Try it. A media moratorium. A cleansing of your system, if you will. A fast from "the facts." I did it today and I feel so much better, so much more full of love and peace and understanding and hope for myself and all of humanity. Our brains, like our bodies, can only handle so much stress and trauma. After the 10 millionth replay of the plane hitting the tower, I knew I was being manipulated in a most unpleasant way. A migraine ensued that has only now, after several hours of yoga and media fasting, gone away. Right now is the time to sleep, take your B vitamins, meditate, and move your body. Love thy neighbor. MASTURBATE. Do that loving-kindness thing for yourself and try to remember that you're alive, which means there are still opportunities for you to do some good.
originally posted by xowie
Of course, I'm smoking a pipe dream here, offering a strategy straight from LaLaLand. America will "retaliate," Americans will feel pretty darn good about it, and the president's approval ratings will shoot up higher than 110 stories. It all goes without saying, just like the reasons for terrorism go without saying -- meaning literally that the reasons can never be seriously discussed. The agony thousands of American families are going through this morning will be repeated -- first in an Arab nation, and then, soon, in America again. What goes around comes around. Again and again and again.Our friend Helen's now famous 9-11 essay. (left column)
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A hole in the world by Jonathan Schell
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As one who professes to pray to Jesus every morning in the oval office, I hope our President will heed the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount who said, "..it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" ..."but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."An Eye for An Eye? by Tom Turnipseed.
originally posted by xowie
We who favor peace must create our own national dialogue before we can hope to influence the larger one.Alternet: Waging peace in a terrorist age & not everyone wants bloodshed.
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Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
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Tuesday was International Peace day.
originally posted by xowie
This log is dedicated to presenting those graphics created to explain the terrorist act against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
We are calling on the political and military leadership of the United States and its allies to seek justice rather than revenge, and in doing so, break the horrible cycle of violence and suffering. During these difficult times, we call for tolerance and for people in the U.S. and around the world to stand firm against the persecution of innocent Arab and Muslim peoples. We vow to redouble our collective efforts towards social, racial, economic, and environmental justice, civil liberties for all, and nonviolent conflict resolution. Our hearts and thoughts are with the victims and their families. We join people around the world in praying for peace.Ruckus press release.
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Dan Kennedy: The End of Decadence.
originally posted by xowie
The enthusiasm of many who planned to participate in the protests has suddenly evaporated. The willingness of the American public to even listen to the protesters' message has surely diminished. Impassioned arguments about the depredations of global capitalism sound, for the moment at least, moot.The DC anti-globalization movement is recovering too.
One Metropolitan Police Department detective put it even more bluntly. "Most of us are veterans," he said. "We're going to go [to the protest] and take care of business: kill, kill, kill."
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A co-worker said when he went in to wake up his 4-year-old daughter yesterday morning, she asked, "Did any more castles fall down?"Raise a flag, kick a ball - You never know what will help.
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Understanding Osama bin Laden - AlterNet:
The State Department has theorized that if the people of a rogue nation experience enough suffering, they will overthrow their rulers, or compel them to adopt more sensible behavior. The terrorist actions in New York and Washington are a clear and ironic implementation of this strategy against the United States. (…)
Above all, Americans need to remember that the rest of the world has an absolute right to self-determination that is as defensible as our own. A despicable act of terror such as that committed in New York and Washington is a measure of the revulsion that others feel at U.S. actions that seemingly limit those rights. If we perpetuate a cycle of hate and revenge, this conflict will escalate into a war that our great-grandchildren will be fighting.
The broadest goal today of progressives is one that transcends any ideology: we, all of us, as individuals, must become aware and participating citizens of the world, not just the U.S. We have to pay attention beyond our flimsy borders, and we must demand that the U.S. treat others as we would have them treat us. Because no matter who was behind the attacks, it’s certain that they felt they were treating us as we have treated others.
And in countless cases, that is correct. The same emotions of shock, terror, grief, rage, and powerlessness that many of us felt yesterday have been felt before by the ordinary people in Belgrade, Dili, Mogadishu, Baghdad, Panama City, Beirut, and many other places where the craters take the form of American footprints. They know the world is a small place. So must we all.
Commentary: A Few Words from Ali Abunimah
originally posted by xowie
Tuesday did not offer a flattering exhibition of America's leaders. President Bush gave a timid and stilted initial reaction in Sarasota, Fla., then disappeared for an hour before resurfacing in at a base in Barksdale, La., where he gave another flaccid address with every appearance of being on tranquilizers.Alex. Cockburn and Harold Myerson.
No American president since FDR after Pearl Harbor had faced quite the kind of rhetorical challenge that W. confronted on Tuesday night; and if it seems a tad unfair to hold W. to the Roosevelt standard, well, nobody made this guy run for president, or forced him to steal the position when he couldn’t win it at the ballot box.
originally posted by xowie
It may seem presumptuous on my part, but I personally believe we need to think seriously whether a violent action is the right thing to do and in the greater interest of the nation and people in the long run. I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence.The Dalai Lama's letter to the President of the United States of America.
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At 8:59 a.m., before he had heard the news, David Jacobs, a Brooklyn resident and software architect, posted to the Web log randomWalks a New York Times interview with Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber who recently published a memoir, Fugitive Days. While the Twin Towers were being designed and built in 1972, Ayers was planting bombs in the Pentagon and the Capitol. ‘I don’t regret setting bombs,’ he told reporter Dinitia Smith in the interview, which ran, presciently, Tuesday morning. ‘I feel we didn’t do enough.’ Only a few minutes later, Jacobs did what the Times couldn’t: He explained the strange synchronicity. ‘It’s a complete coincidence that I posted about the weathermen moments before the WTC & Pentagon fires,’ he wrote on the site. ‘More soon.’Change in the Weather by our friend Judith Lewis. There's a lot more 9-11 in today's LAW.
originally posted by xowie
More weblog coverage: booknotes and kottke.org.
Check out this unique and powerful satellite image “processed with the SWIR band which is particularly sensitive to fire spots. Thanks to this SWIR band two red spots are clearly visible through the plume of smoke at the south end of Manhattan island.”
The 9-11 coverage by two hundred weblogs, including randomWalks, has been archived for posterity.
Noam Chomsky: On the Bombings.
originally posted by xowie
When I began crying I thought, ``Bury the dead. Bury the dead and tell each one of their mundane American stories, all with the same ending, and make everyone read all 10,000 or 30,000 or whatever, and see if that makes people thirst for more blood, when it's all told out, when they've heard the stories of all the dead, and when they understand that America will go and put the ending on tens of thousands of other stories, in Afghanistan or wherever we decide, then ask if they want that to happen, or if they want to figure out some way around it.''Paul Ford on Ftrain.com.
They pay rent-a-cops $5.75 an hour to make sure the bad guys don’t get on my plane. That is what my life is worth - less than the cost of an oil change. Too harsh, you say? Well, chew on this: a first-year pilot on American Eagle (the commuter arm of American Airlines) receives around $15,000 a year in annual pay. That’s right - $15,000 for the person who has your life in his hands. Until recently, Continental Express paid a little over $13,000 a year. There was one guy, an American Eagle pilot, who had four kids so he went down to the welfare office and applied for food stamps - and he was eligible! Someone on welfare is flying my plane? Is this for real? Yes, it is.Latest from Michael Moore.
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Deep 9-11 searches free from LexisNexis.
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Remy, a student of P.S. 139 in Brooklyn, said that he had been in school all day, and could tell something was wrong early in the morning, because teachers kept leaving the class to talk in the hall. He recalls, "My teacher said, 'I don't have permission to tell you what happened.'"Salon: Brooklyn kids tell the story they were told.
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Ray Downey: an essay from Gov. Keating.
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A caller asked Howard if he thinks the World Trade Center buildings will be rebuilt. Crazy Cabbie said they should be put right back up to show the world we haven't been defeated. He also said that his radio partner Cane said that when those buildings went down it was like chopping off the country's testicles. We need our manhood back so they should be put back up right away.There's no accounting for taste. He's managed to comfort a lot of people.
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Neale of wrongwaygoback.com is constructing a detailed timeline of 9-11 World Trade Center attack.
Why the towers collapsed features a helpful graphic.
"We are Arab-Americans, yes, but today we feel American. This happened on our soil here. The people who lost their lives are our people, too."More Arab-American reactions: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, L.A., New Jersey, Philly, Seattle, Vegas.
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"I said to the guy next to me, "It's going to crash in. It's going to crash in.' Then it crashed in,'' Lee said.Surreal terror in New York.
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Over in Brooklyn, which is even more ethnically diverse than New York, the most unusual thing is the light. That and all the people. In Boreum Hill, about three miles southeast of the massive column of smoke, dust, and ash, you can still see scraps of paper hovering in the sky. The debris refracts the sun, touching everything on the street with a spooky, gray-gold patina. All along Atlantic Avenue, thousands of people walk home from work or school in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Some wear dust masks. Dozens gather on the street corners to gaze up at the sky.Salon interviews NYC Arab-Americans. Also: Flying with phantoms.
originally posted by xowie
Jonathan of killyourtv.com has started a special blog on the attack called life during wartime.
Political cartoonists respond to the attack.
If you’re having trouble with the news sites:
Google Current Events. Many online news services are not available because of extremely high demand. Here are links to news sites, including cached copies as they appeared earlier today.
Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. - Matt. 3:34dj/adam that strip is heartbreaking. And I can't stop thinking of the people on those planes. I'm going off to smoke pot until I pass out. And tomorrow will be a new fucking day.
originally posted by xowie
The Objectives And Aims Of Jihaad:From The Islamic Page.
- Raising the Word of Allaah, the Most High
- Helping the Oppressed
- Repelling Aggression and Protecting Islam
originally posted by xowie
Oliver North (gak!) just pointed out on Fox News that the U.S. once went to war with the Barbary Pirates.
In other words, 9-11 could result in a declaration of war.
originally posted by xowie
9-11 links at ResearchBuzz.
originally posted by xowie
Poynter.org: Covering the Attack - story ideas, ethical guidelines, media analysis.
The corporate media often referred to Pearl Harbor as they covered the attacks. This analogy appears to come from the unexpected nature of the attacks as well as their overwhelming force.Early Analysis of Media Coverage - Indymedia
While there are some parallels between the two attacks, there is also a difference that has disturbing implications for everyone in the United States. The attack on Pearl Harbor was made by another nation. This attack was most likely the work of a small group of people. The United States was able to attack Japan afterward because nations are easy to find. Small groups of people are somewhat more difficult to find. Thus, national defense agencies and industries will undoubtedly see a substantial increase in their operating funds while Americans will see a corresponding decrease in civil liberties.
Lest anyone make this a partisan issues, Clinton laid the ground work for tomorrow's attack on civil liberties with such actions as greatly increasing the FBI's wire-tapping abilities. With CNN interviewing people like Tom Clancy (no joke), there will be no shortage of people calling for Americans to trade in some more freedom in return for a promise of more security. Benjamin Franklin correctly said that the people who would make that trade would neither get nor deserve freedom or security.
WTC/Pentagon attacks meta-coverage:
Sec. 101: Prohibition of Certain Devices.As an attorney, I have to say this is one of the most grotesque and frightening articles I have ever read. If it is not a hoax. If enacted, the SSSCA would be grounds for civil war. (Thanks Boing Boing.)
(a) In General -- It is unlawful to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies that adhere to the security system standards adopted under section 104.
originally posted by xowie
Buddy Holly’s 65th birthday. Rave on!
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
My unseen opponent began with some highly irregular, if not totally absurd, opening moves - shifting all his pawns forward by one square. These were moves that no Grandmaster would ever play. From this deliberately unpromising position emerged moves of extraordinary power. In the first game I was totally crushed.Chess legend 'plays the web' - BBC News. Grandmaster and speed chess expert Nigel Short suspects his anonymous Internet opponent is none other than Bobby Fischer.
I am Seymour Skinner. Who are you?
Of course if you're Einstein, you want everything that you want your way and then you want to be left alone. So you want love, and you want affection, you want a good meal, but then you don't want any interference outside of that, so you don't want any obligations interfering with your life, with your work. Which is a difficult stance to maintain in an adult relationship; it doesn't work. Everything has to be a give and take. Einstein always felt Paradise was just around the corner, but as soon as he got there, it started looking a little shabby and something better appeared.Dennis Overbye talks about Einstein in love. thanks, wordforge.
SF Gate: Sketches of the Game of Ultimate.
originally posted by xowie
"John and George had already had a dose, but then called me and asked if I wanted to come over, and I thought 'yeah, cool, why not -- it's the Beatles after all','' he recalled, describing how they had gone on to get high.Peter Fonda Recalls Acid Trip with the Beatles.
originally posted by xowie
Fortunately the world didn't split in two as one of the children surveyed before the event believed would happen, nor did the Earth leave the Sun's orbit as feared by another.UK Children Cause Earthquake in Giant Jump.
The Adult Industry Medical (AIM) HealthCare Foundation was started by porn legend Sharon Mitchell to provide HIV testing and health care for performers in the adult entertainment industry. They are providing a vital service to exploited workers and are terribly under-funded. If you watch porn, you should support this organization.
originally posted by xowie
George Washington University, located in the DC neighborhood expected to see some state violence at the end of this month, is closing its dorms for five days surrounding the IMF/World Bank meetings. An interesting aspect of the shutdown which somehow didn’t make it into the Washington Post article is that the DC police will be using GWU as a base of operations.
The U.S. runs but can’t hide.
originally posted by xowie
Who’s got the beats in hip-hop these days? Where is the song that gets you snapping your neck before you even realize the stereo’s on, and then keeps you nodding after it ends, like the next day?
That kind of stuff, familiar to us all, kept piling up in my mind and got me started trying to figure out how white supremacy had come about in the u.s. working class. So for years after this I read labor history and asked older trade union radicals questions whenever I could.Finally, an anarchist veteran of the autoworkers' historic 1937 Flint Sit-Down strike told me that the strike had been Jim Crow, that one of the unpublicized demands had been to keep Black workers down as only janitors....or out of the plants altogether. This blew my mind. That's when it hit me that the wonderful working class history that the movement had taught us was a lie.From an interview with J. Sakai, author of Settlers. Wow.
It was hard research work, but no conceptual leap at all to see that in general in u.s. history the colonized peoples have been the proletariat, while the white working class has been a labor aristocracy. This has been camouflaged in capitalist history by retroactively assigning white racial membership to various european immigrant peoples who weren't "white" at the time. For instance, when leading u.s. capitalists started the "Interracial Council" to promote patriotic nationalist integration during World War I, the "races" they wanted to bring together were the Irish race, the Welsh race, the Polish race, the Lithuanian race, the Hungarian race, the Sicilian race, the Rumanian race, and other Europeans that we now think of as only nationalities within the white race. Shows you how race is another capitalist manufactured product.
Racism as we experience it today didn't exist before capitalism, which is why many revolutionaries see rooting out the one as requiring rooting out the other. To Europeans before modern capitalism the most important "races" were what we would call nations. Indeed, until well into the 20th century it was widely assumed by Europeans that even different European nationalities were biologically different, and had different mental abilities and propensities. Slavs were thought to be biologically different from Nordics, and Jews were thought to be an exotic race all by themselves.
There's a certain trend of fashionable white thought that claims that race is nothing more than a trick, an imaginary construct that folks are fooled into believing in. So we even find some middle-class white men claiming that they've "given up being white" (i can hear my grandmother saying, "More white foolishness!" with a dismissing headshake). Needless to say, they haven't given up anything.
Race as a form of class is very tangible, solid, material, as real as a tank division running over you ... tank divisions, after all, are also socially constructed! About another form of this same white racist game -- white New Age women deciding to play at "becoming Indian" -- Women of All Red Nations activist Andy Smith used to wearily suggest that if they really really wanted to "become Indian" they should live on the rez -- the u.s. colony -- without running water or jobs, without heat in the winter or education for their children, with real poverty, alcoholism, and violent oppression.
Secret neo-Nazi dances have been held for two years at the Shack, a rock club near Disneyland.
originally posted by xowie
There is a belief among some black comics that audiences find it funny when they launch extended insults against white people (see also Chris Rock's embarrassing outburst in the forthcoming "Jay and Silent Bob"). My feeling is that audiences of any race find such scenes awkward and unwelcome; I've never heard laughter during them, but have sensed an uncomfortable alertness in the theater. Accusing complete strangers of being racist is aggressive, hostile, and not funny, something Tucker demonstrates to a painful degree in this movie--where the filmmakers apparently lacked the nerve to request him to dial down.Presumably Roger Ebert thinks black comics should stick to insulting black people. Perhaps he would agree with After the Rain's suggestion that if Tucker learns to "behave better," he could be a "really cool black guy, like Will Smith." Personally, I would expect Roger Ebert to behave a little better than criticising actors for the script they're given, not to mention "accusing complete strangers of being racist."
New book by Douglas Coupland, new show by (“Freaks and Geeks” creator) Judd Apatow. thanks, alt-log.
Though not remarkable in any way, this PBS NewsHour “Fighting Racism” site should be listed in the open directory’s Race and Racism category, as should this NPR World Conference Against Racism special report. It’s too bad I can’t figure out what happened to my editorship.
Blood meal, bone meal and fish emulsion are just what they say they are: the remains of blood, bones and fish. The first two products come from cattle slaughterhouses, where bones and blood are dried, crushed and packaged for gardeners. Fish emulsion and other fish-based products are made from carcasses left over at fish-processing plants, though sometimes fish are caught specifically to be used as fertilizer.Is Your Garden Vegetarian? / Alternatives to Blood Meal, Bone Meal and Fish Emulsion.
The Original Unofficial Joint Smoking Rules will surely be amusing to thumb through at the bookstore.
Werewolf is a simple game for a large group of people (seven or more.)
“Here are recent commissions and experimental paintings by John Pound, done in the style of his Garbage Pail Kids artwork.”
Excerpts from the Kurt Cobain bio.
originally posted by xowie
One big story out of Durban is last week’s general strike.
originally posted by xowie
"Allo? Allo? Allo? Allo? Allo? Allo? Allo? Uvaldo? Uvaldo? Uvaldo? Uvaldo?" shouts one man. He is using a phone card but might as well be trying to shout all the way to his home country.Pay phones of the Ballston Metro.
originally posted by xowie
Two from Westchester Weekly: The Zen of Being Poor and an interview with John Stauber.
originally posted by xowie
The documents indicate that the Pentagon sees the film business as an important part of public relations. "Military depictions have become more of a 'commercial' for us," said one memo quoted in an investigation by David Robb in the current issue of the media magazine Brill's Content... The film companies are often shown in the documents to be more than anxious to help. "We firmly believe that with the support of the US military, Armageddon will be the biggest film of 1998, while illustrating the expertise, leadership and heroism of the US military," wrote Disney executive Philip Nemy to the Pentagon.Filmmakers re-write scripts to please the military. (c/o Unknown News)
originally posted by xowie
Maggie Krzywicka on reading Gravity’s Rainbow: Thomas Pynchon is a deeply disturbed man. Good luck.
Did you know Apple sells at a discount for homeschools? Cool.
Consumers will be able to electronically send TV shows to others with ReplayTV boxes, sources say, though the company plans to use software that limits the number of times a program can be played or sent.ReplayTV to re-enter DVR box business - CNET.com. For two thousand dollars, a box that stores three hundred twenty hours of TV -- and runs Napster!
originally posted by xowie
The World Conference Against Racism is officially underway in Durban, South Africa today. Good coverage:
Where else?I had a wonderful sneeze once, from someone sitting behind me in a concert. It was a really lovely turquoise that came across my shoulder in a triangular sheet.BBC News - 'I can see sounds'.
originally posted by xowie
"What a fence is doing 90 percent of the time is telling someone not to go here," says Mark Davis, president of the American Fence Association. "A fence will stop a pretty honest person. But anybody with a tool or ability to get in will get in."Global Economy's New Guardian (washingtonpost.com). There are (at least) two sides of every fence, especially 2 1/2 mile, $2 million, 9-foot-tall one.
"It's something designed to get you angry," says Jamie Loughner, a protester from Washington who joined the Medieval Bloc in Quebec City. "People become more outraged because they are so offended by the fence. . . . It's easy to shake your focus from what you're truly protesting."
"It gives you a very clear boundary, that people have in fact breached the law," says Thomas Seamon, a law enforcement consultant. "People are going to actively either climb over it or attempt to rip it down. Then there's no question you've broken the law."
"If you can make the fence a target so police aren't the target, or private property is not the target, or individuals are not the target, then this fence would have served its purpose," says Hubert Williams, president of the Police Foundation, a District-based outfit that provides research and technical support.
Let's catalog how copyright owners have used the DMCA so far: to silence a magazine publisher (2600 case); to threaten computer science professors (Prof. Ed Felten); and to jail programmers (Dmitry). And as for the public's first sale and archiving rights, copyright owners are poised to debut a host of DRM [digital rights management] technologies that will dramatically curtail these rights... The writing's on the wall -- how much worse does it have to get before the Copyright Office recognizes that the DMCA has fundamentally, and unwisely, unbalanced the Copyright Act?The U.S. Copyright Office just issued a disgraceful endorsement of the DMCA.
originally posted by xowie
According to studies by communications professor George Gerbner, people who watch more TV are more likely to believe that their neighborhoods are unsafe, to state that fear of crime is a very serious personal problem and to go out and buy new locks, watchdogs and guns for protection.AlterNet - Prison Policy in a Media-driven America. via the inestimable wood s lot.
Paul Klite, the late Director of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, pointed out that "Murder, one of the least common crimes, is the number one topic on newscasts." According to the group Children Now, while the homicide rate dropped 33% during the period between 1990 and 1998, news coverage of homicides actually increased by 473%.
Children Now recommends that parents speak with their kids about the levels of violent crime reported in the news and explain to them that crime reporting is not accurate representation of reality. Perhaps parents should speak with their adult friends, neighbors, co-workers and relatives as well.
Outrageously overpriced, esthetically questionable, and taller than most bookshelves, this will be one of the first things you throw away the next time you move.Acme Novelty Library #15, that is.
The first municipal police forces in this country were formed to catch runaway slaves. Northern cities found them useful for breaking strikes and suppressing demonstrations. All this so-called ‘protect and serve’ stuff is just public relations. I’ve never known a cop to catch a rapist, but I’ve known several of them to beat and gas protesters or shoot folks for the crime of Driving While Black. The cops exist to make sure that those in control stay in control, and that the masses don’t get out of hand. (...)From David Grenier's account of last Saturday's Reclaim the Streets party in Seattle. You may not agree with the protestors' tactics or even with their goals, but you should understand that every time a cop swings a baton at a peaceful protestor, your legal, civil, and human rights are smashed as surely as her bones.
To me Reclaim the Streets is an entirely symbolic action. Yes it’s great to have a party and to get people to think about public space belonging to the public instead of to commercial interests, but having a dance party for a few hours isn’t high on my agenda. If we’re going to try to create a temporary autonomous zone why not take a section of the city and hold it for as long as we can — days, weeks, months, even years. To do that would require getting an overwhelming majority of the people in that section to want autonomy, otherwise we’re not a people’s movement but an occupying force. Even other short-term actions like work strikes have a concrete goal worth fighting for. I’m just not sure I’m completely behind a tactic that is so costly to us in terms of police brutality with so little possible payoff. Perhaps I just don’t understand Reclaim the Streets as well as I should, but I wasn’t inspired to take a beating from the cops over the right to listen to techno outdoors for a few hours. (...)
... you know what the real fun thing is? The real shits and giggles part of all this is that there were two groups on the street that day. One group carried guns and clubs, used chemical agents on unarmed civilians, made up laws as they went along (you can’t share food in the park, for example), and used violence to advance their boss' political career and try to intimidate folks from exercising their freedoms if those freedoms conflict with commercial interests. The other group gave food out freely, tried to avoid conflict by staying on the sidewalk, and was armed only with puppets and costumes. Yet the cops are praised in the media by the politicians, while the FBI has labeled Reclaim the Streets a terrorist organization.
It's important for children to wear their backpacks correctly -- on both shoulders, not just one (those trendy one-shouldered backpacks are definitely not a good idea) -- according to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.Backpack Fitness: Rx for Heavy Class Loads (washingtonpost.com) Of course, I've been saying this for years....
Oh that wacky New York Times: Kevin Smith’s 1st kiss fall fashion comic. p.s. - Kevin Smith has also put out an anti-Kevin Smith website.
originally posted by xowie
London vacations are cheaper if you pretend to be homeless.
originally posted by xowie
Nice cartoon with a happy ending.
originally posted by xowie
On John Stuart Mill and Eccentrics, Women, Minorities, and the Concept of ‘Othering’
There is an increasing backlash against the movement to diversify American society. Some people feel that to keep us all in our own separate spaces is perfectly acceptable; as it was, it shall be. There is no need to modify a system that works for the majority, because, after all, that is the notion on which our bountiful nation was founded. There is no need for us to look outside ourselves and gain perspective from the experiences and opinions of persons different from us. “Mankind speedily become unable to conceive diversity, when they have been for some time unaccustomed to see it.” (13) If the majority (or, whoever is perceived as the majority) has already placed itself in its comfortable, conformist, white suburban environment, and it has every intention of remaining there, then what is the use of learning about conditions elsewhere? When that majority speaks, we are obligated to listen. However, the majority does not always know what is right. A majority of Americans wanted to maintain slavery, deny women the right to vote, and, yes, dismiss the charges against President Clinton, all because they did not want to face the difficult questions these issues would force them to acknowledge. We are resistant to change because we fear it. If women and minorities were to be on equal footing with white men, that would force us to realign our priorities, power structures, and value systems. We would have to completely change the way we educate and socialize our children. In order to embrace eccentricity, we would also have to accept that there is no correct definition of what “normal” is.
The Left Opposition have released Mandate?, their response to the G8 leaders' claims to represent the ordinary people of their countries, and a rebuff to the contention that they have a "mandate" to pursue neo-liberal globalisation policies.This is dangerous music - Socialist dance anthems (one with a nice sample of Gil Scott-Heron).
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
NYTM: Barbeque sauce, racists and Piggly Wiggly.
originally posted by xowie
Thinking Differently About Africa: Why isn’t Apple a larger force in Africa’s computer industry?
I grew up in a small Massachusetts town. This town had a clear river that flowed under a paper mill. The mill used to dump dyes into the river. The river coursed by my elementary school; every day it was a different color. Some days the river would be bright green, other days it would be bright yellow, and sometimes it would be magenta. I never knew what color it would be. I liked not knowing. I would stand on the bridge and throw rocks into the water and watch the multicolored scum explode to the surface. It was horrible and it was beautiful.See Cathryn Griffin's photos of Western Carolina in DoubleTake magazine.
I think it had to be represented to the court that they were, in fact, gypsies. The implication is that their roots to the community are tenuous. I think it has to be said, for whatever it's worth, so that the judge might understand that these ladies . . . are more than just amateurs at what they do.washingtonpost.com - 'Gypsy' Crime Warning Stirs Anger. A Fairfax County, Virginia, prosecutor argued that, as gypsies, two alleged thieves presented an unusual flight risk. The judge, in apparent agreement, denied bail.
AlterNet – D.C. Protests resource page.
"I used to use the cover of ‘Stagger Lee’ [by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds] as a sound check until Hal had a serious meltdown one day," says Jones. "He broke a Budweiser bottle on the bar and told me he would gut me if I ever played the song again. He had cut his finger and stuck it in his mouth. I still remember his cold blue eyes and the little speck of blood on his bottom lip and the moment toward the end of the song when Blixa of the Bad Seeds begins shrieking. It was very surreal. This song is sort of a soundtrack to Hal for me, God rest his angry soul."Signal Hill is an oil town which I have been careful to avoid in the twenty years since its police department beat Long Beach State football player Ron Settles to death and hung him in a jail cell. Here's a terrific story about the town's meanest bartender.
originally posted by xowie
Today's Serious Writers fail even on their own postmodern terms. They urge us to move beyond our old-fashioned preoccupation with content and plot, to focus on form instead -- and then they subject us to the least-expressive form, the least-expressive sentences, in the history of the American novel. Time wasted on these books is time that could be spent reading something fun. When DeLillo describes a man's walk as a "sort of explanatory shuffle ... a comment on the literature of shuffles" (Underworld), I feel nothing; the wordplay is just too insincere, too patently meaningless. But when Vladimir Nabokov talks of midges "continuously darning the air in one spot," or the "square echo" of a car door slamming, I feel what Philip Larkin wanted readers of his poetry to feel: "Yes, I've never thought of it that way, but that's how it is."The Atlantic - A Reader's Manifesto by B.R. Myers.
Protrude, Flow is an interactive magnetic fluid art installation, or something. Crazy.
"Sometimes he tries to talk to me but I don't like him. I turn my head,'' Simentov said.There are only two Jews in Afghanistan. They hate each other.
originally posted by xowie
The "war on drugs" is rooted in racial bias. It is racially unequal in its implementation. And it is racist in its disproportionate impact.Taking it to the U.N.
originally posted by xowie
Even after the reality of genocide in Rwanda had become irrefutable, when bodies were shown choking the Kagera River on the nightly news, the brute fact of the slaughter failed to influence U.S. policy except in a negative way. American officials, for a variety of reasons, shunned the use of what became known as "the g-word." They felt that using it would have obliged the United States to act, under the terms of the 1948 Genocide Convention. They also believed, understandably, that it would harm U.S. credibility to name the crime and then do nothing to stop it.Bystanders to Genocide, "a chilling narrative of self-serving caution and flaccid will" from Atlantic Monthly. Also, a just-released set of declassified Rwanda documents is here.
originally posted by xowie
Draft resistance grows in Israel.
Gaza’s economic catastrophe worsens.
Yearning for the joys of normal life.
originally posted by xowie
Look at it. It's disgusting. It looks like somebody gutted a muskrat.It looks like somebody really doesn't like the new "hot dog" style cut at Subway, and has started a petition to bring back the "v-shaped canyon" cut.
Cameroonian architect Edouard Din’s KmtSpace.
originally posted by xowie
Richly textured backgrounds, constant visual surprises, a thrilling music score--this 'toon gives you your cable bill's worth... Creator Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory) raids the history of illustration, art and cinema with the gusto of a kid playing in an attic. He gleefully cobbles past, present and future into a supercool fantasy of classical Japanese art, Hanna-Barbera, expressionism, anime, '60s film and '50s modernism, just for starters... Best of all, in an era of chatty, hyper 'toons, this action show knows when to stand still and shut up. Tartakovsky uses generous pauses for drama and laughs, and has no problem going 10 minutes at a stretch without dialogue...Everyone digs Jack.
originally posted by xowie
There have already been 78 migrant deaths this year along the U.S. - Mexico border.
originally posted by xowie
8 Goths and 22 Norwegians on exploration journeyDid Vikings visit Minnesota in 1362?
from Vinland over the West We had camp by 2 skerries
one days journey north from this stone We were and
fished on day After we came home found 10 men red
with blood and dead Ave Maria Save from evil
originally posted by xowie
Read the Washington Post article, In N. Va. Drug Ring, Good Kids Went Bad, and the entire Tim Wise commentary, A New Round of White Denial: Drugs and Race in the 'Burbs.On Sunday, August 12, the front page of the Washington Post brought us yet another story about white suburban youth, who, to the amazement of their parents, friends, and the media, turn out to be stone cold criminals. This time the headlines emanate from "nice neighborhoods," in Northern Virginia: places where sinister crimes aren't supposed to happen.
But, as authorities have discovered, one of the most significant drug operations in the region's history was being run from this "nice, safe" place. And not by dark-skinned street-hustlers preying on vulnerable teens and getting them hooked; but rather, by the former soccer-playing little leaguers who this nation grooms to run major corporations, hold political office, or merely typifies as normal, all-American boys.
In the instant case, the accused, from the Prince William County hamlets of Chantilly and Centreville are youths who reporter Josh White describes as "good kids," who "went bad." When was the last time a black or Latino drug dealer or gang-banger was described this way? To those who study media, implicit in most news coverage when they do it is the suggestion that it's because they were congenital criminals; it was their IQ or pathological underclass families. They don't "go" bad, they just "are" bad.
But when stories are written about pale-faced killers or dealers, or in this case both, sympathetic adjectives fill the pages. Crime becomes human interest -- a cautionary tale. We are encouraged to identify with the instigators of the mayhem in ways we never would be were they dark or poor.
Listen to those quoted in White's story. First there is Prince William Detective Greg Pass who explains, "None of this happened in bad neighborhoods... It bothers everyone involved that in many ways these kids are mirror images of the detectives working the case, except they have chosen to go the wrong way." Sympathy, recognition, identification, and all of it, by the officer's admission, due to the fact that these kids are "mirror images" of the detectives themselves. And what does one see in the mirror after all? One's face: one's white, middle class suburban face, to be precise.
Just as the media generally "deracializes" incidents of white deviance, portraying them as the aberrant, inexplicable acts of aberrant, inexplicable individuals, (unlike the same from the dark and poor which are often portrayed as group tendencies), so too did Josh White in his piece on Wolfe, Barber and Petrole. Instead of pointing out the fallacies of white suburban denial and the blindness that besets so many of the residents in these "nice," places, White and the Post offered up a quixotic melodrama: good kids gone wrong; sympathetic, misguided youths posing as hardened criminals and coming to a tragic end.
Planet of the Dubyas and other great Tom Tomorrow toonies.
originally posted by xowie
"I'm working on lots of issues," he said.President George W. Bush on his extended vacation, according to Harper's Weekly Review.
>nudge metafilter awake
I hope to participate in the expansion of WhitePrivilege.com, which has already become a great resource on the eponymous subject, so keep your eye on it. I’ll stick a link in flux where you can be sure to find it.
Did you hear about the Trash Bloc? Some anti-authoritarians are planning a bloc for the weekend of the protests that would go around Washington neighborhoods and pick up trash. I think we can all get down with that.
Key Anti-Capitalist Convergence (Sep 29 and 30, Washington, DC) links:Great Buildings Online “documents a thousand buildings and hundreds of leading architects, with 3D models, photographic images and architectural drawings, commentaries, bibliographies, web links, and more, for famous designers and structures of all kinds.”
Variety editor Peter Bart is out of work. Here’s why.
originally posted by xowie
The epic at Milk Hill, and other great circles of 2001.
originally posted by xowie
I knew that Bob Crane of "Hogan's Heroes" was murdered in 1978, and I knew that it had later come out that he was very involved with pornography, and liked to film himself and friends. (It's likely the murder weapon was the tripod from his video camera.) But now Crane's son has set up a Web site where people can pay to see Crane's nude photos and sex videos. Dude, this is just wrong. He was your dad. Have some respect.Visit Alt-log for the link (scroll to July 21). Disclaimer: I haven't followed it myself.
Swimmingholes.org details over 400 natural swimming spots in twenty states in the Eastern U.S. and a few in the West.
It's a great film but bloody, a body is shredded and suchlike, and not quite what he wanted to see, poor fellow.Guardian - Vidal praises Oklahoma bomber for heroic aims. Apparently the last thing McVeigh did before he was martyred/murdered was watch Fargo. In any case, Vidal has a brave and provocative perspective on McVeigh's story.
I thought I was the quickest the quickest the quickest mind alive and the quickest with words but words cannot catch up with these changes, these changes are beyond words, beyond words, beyond words. While I repeated these words I felt the waves of pleasure like those of the most acute pleasure of lovemaking . . . I felt the impossibility to tell the secret of life because the secret of life was metamorphosis, transmutation, and it happened too quickly, too subtly.Anaïs Nin, on the acid she got from local hero Oscar Janiger, who just died at age 83.
originally posted by xowie
"I thought to myself: What am I going to do that's going to make a difference?" That night, O'Keefe dreamed he was surrounded by singing birds. They were hidden by leaves, but their songs swirled through his head, a glorious dawn chorus. Then, in his dream, he awoke to eerie quiet.The sustainable-coffee movement is born. Make mine shade and fair-trade.
originally posted by xowie
Pop-Quiz Question: If it were a military spy plane being held hostage in Genoa, instead of four young pacifists, would the US government then feel the need get involved? The question, of course, is rhetorical; we all know the answer. Home of the brave, indeed.19 members of the PublixTheatreCaravan, plus American Susanna Thomas, have finally been released.
originally posted by xowie
The ACME Mapper puts a snappy interface onto Microsoft’s Terraserver database of satellite images of the surface of the Earth.
The purpose of the terror, economic strangulation and daily humiliation is not obscure. It was articulated in the early years of the occupation by Moshe Dayan, one of the Israeli leaders most sympathetic to the Palestinian plight, who advised his Labor Party associates to tell the Palestinians that "you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave."commondreams.org - Neocolonial Invitation to a Tribal War by Noam Chomsky.
Has it been 30 days already? I would buy their cheap-ass camera if it would make the ads go away. This seems to be helping a bit.
originally posted by xowie
Q: "Mr. Allen, you met wife Soon-Yi when she was so young. After all these years, what keeps you two going?"Someone nasty's at City of Angles. (Spotted by LAX.)
originally posted by xowie
P&G is targeting people who have already tried some sort of makeshift wet toilet paper, mostly women from families with young children. Data shows that 60 percent of U.S. consumers have at some point made their own form of the product, moistening a sheet of regular toilet paper or putting together some combination of toilet paper and wet wipe. Twenty-five percent are regular users.Reuters - P&G Rolls Out New Ad for Wet Toilet Paper. Makeshift wet toilet paper can be tricky business I would imagine.
originally posted by xowie
If Metafilter wasn’t on vacation, there would be a huge thread about this voicemail for the homeless story. (c/o guess who).
originally posted by xowie
Toker Aaron Sorkin punks out, Bartlett-style. Perhaps he can begin to redeem himself by writing activist Woody Harrelson into an episode or two of “The West Wing” this season.
Va-voom poet Liz Belile headlines Gynomite, a reading series featuring “hard-core slut/dyke/whore/hussy/het/vamp PORN with an occasional political edge”.
originally posted by xowie
This Blackness may be used for making jokes about black people and/or laughing at black humor comfortably. This Blackness may be used for instilling fear. This Blackness may be used to augment the blackness of those already black, especially for purposes of playing 'blacker-than-thou'. The Seller does not recommend that this Blackness be used while seeking employment, shopping, or writing a personal check. The Seller does not recommend that this Blackness be used while voting in the United States or Florida. The Seller does not recommend that this Blackness be used in the process of making or selling 'serious' art.At last check, Keith Obadike's Blackness was worth about $150 on eBay. I wonder how much I could get for my white privilege?
csmonitor.com - One man’s trash is another’s gold. Dumpster diving: “like Christmas every day.”
Perseids tonight.
originally posted by xowie
"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right."There are times that I love this man. He just fractured the pro-life movement, he still talks like Yogi Berra, and, well, Jenna.
originally posted by xowie
The World Bank and the IMF said in a statement late yesterday that their annual meetings would be "consolidated" to two days -- the weekend of Sept. 29 and 30. That is a drastic reduction from the original schedule, under which the meetings would have begun a couple of days before that weekend and run through Oct. 3. Protesters had planned actions from Sept. 28 through Oct. 4.washingtonpost.com - IMF Trims D.C. Session to 2 Days.
Welcome to allmylifeforsale. Over the last six months I have gone through the process of listing everything I own on Ebay. Feel free to look around and sort through where all of my stuff has gone. The last item that I will list will be the domain name for allmylifeforsale on August 1st, 2001. When that is finally sold feel free to join me on my road-trip to visit all of my stuff.
The more cuttings you accumulate, the more you will be tempted to offload them on your readers, like the celebrated Scottish leader writer who, returning late from a liquid lunch with a deadline to meet, clipeed the main leader from the Times, scrawled "What does the Times mean by this?" above it and sent it down to the printer. Packing the column with other people's quotes is the columnar equivalent of watering the milk. Assimilate the material and then discard it.plasticbag.org shares Keith Waterhouse on writing columns.
...
Having something to write about is not the same as having something to say.
In Thin Blue Lies: Police and the Art of Propaganda, Tim Wise drops a lesson on how the public is persuaded to accept racist policing. What are you afraid of?
Mind-blowing restored photos of the 1964/65 World’s Fair.
originally posted by xowie
A field guide to the L.A. River.
originally posted by xowie
I think I have said this before, but [ b r o o k l y n k i d ] is what New York looks like. Am I right?
Dangerous agitprop.Salon.com - No laughing matter. Fantagraphics owner Gary Groth on Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics in Salon's look at online comics.
The game becomes a wild goose chase across the Net as you receive phone calls, faxes, e-mails and instant messages from a variety of Anim-X staffers and mysterious informers, directing you to research any number of strange alien conspiracies and nefarious government activities.Salon.com - Paranoia for fun and profit.
People who don't live here can't understand our realities. You take a couple in Europe or in the United States. They have one or two children, and they can't understand why people traffic in children. But when you live here, you understand right away.nytimes.com - The Bondage of Poverty That Produces Chocolate.
But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was adamant today when asked whether the president would ask Americans to stop using so much energy. "That's a big 'no,'" Fleischer said. "The president believes that it's an American way of life, that it should be the goal of policy-makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one." The president, he said, considers Americans' heavy use of energy a "reflection of the strength of our economy, of the way of life that the American people have come to enjoy."
Huge numbers of same-sex couples were counted in Census 2000.
originally posted by xowie
Controversial Black Panther t-shirts.
originally posted by xowie
The lower leaves of the treesFrom the favorite poem project. (The Tanka form is interesting; I like reading this Yahoo group.)
Tangle the sunset in dusk.
Awe spreads with
The summer twilight.
originally posted by xowie
The Washington Monthly - Canada’s Burning: Media myths about universal health coverage
I don’t fully understand the ‘design anarchy’ issue of Adbusters, but the stories are awful nice to look at.
originally posted by xowie
Lots of good reads in the Washington Post lately:
I've been careful to teach my daughter critical thinking in my one-woman "mind over media" campaign. It started with fairytales: "What's make-believe?" and "How would you like to stay home and cook for all those dwarves?" Later we moved on to the news: "Why was it presented in this way?" and "What's a stereotype?" But if you think I was reading "Winnie the Pooh" to my toddler when I thought up these questions, think again. I was relaxing with a cup of coffee and a book on feminist theory while Maia was riveted to PBS.hipMama: In Defense of Television
Coming out of a sixth reading, several months distant from my first encounter, I still shake my head in sadness, knowing that one of the best-crafted comics of the last twenty years - maybe of the history of the medium - can’t be placed in the hands of those who need so badly to know what comics can do.Ninth Art’s review of Dylan Horrocks' HICKSVILLE accurately appraises the palpability of the author’s love for the medium, but gives short shrift to his ability to convey that love to those unfamiliar with comics.
It could be shipping right now.Is Bob Cringely talking about viruses, or about the parasite becoming the host?
I've had some exciting and promising ideas on a new project. The good news is that what I see in my mind's eye is incredible, and I'm extremely confident about my instincts. The new ideas are out-of-the-box in the way G-Force was when it first appeared. The not-so-good news is that the algorithms require a system at least a hundred times faster than what's in existence today to get decent frame rates.So says G-Force (a.k.a. iTunes visualization) creator Andy O'Meara. This guy sees sound the way some people taste colors. Get him an honorable discharge and his MacArthur 'genius' grant, already!
Virginia Commission for the Arts Artist Fellowships exists “to encourage significant development in the work of individual artists and in the medium in which they work, to support the realization of specific artistic ideas, and to recognize the central contribution professional artists make to the creative environment of Virginia.” Grants are available to organizations, and Fellowships to individual artists in the literary or visual arts. What, no digital?
The purpose of global poverty is to create a vast pool of cheap labor that the transnational corporations can exploit. Many Asian and African countries, along with those of East and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, compete with one another as to who can provide the cheapest labor. Corporations shut down their plants in the U.S. and Europe and set up shop in some part of the world where they can pay their workers 50 cents an hour. Workers here and in Europe, terrified of being thrown out of work, respond by settling for low pay.Just in case you weren't quite sure what role the International Monetary Fund plays in keeping us fat and happy.
This state of affairs did not come about by accident. Following the end of the Cold War, governments of the West pursued a ruthless campaign to facilitate the work of the corporations. Countries would borrow money from the Western banks. Inevitably, they would get into trouble with repayment whether because of the collapse of prices of primary commodities or the sharp rise in the value of the dollar or the devastation of their currencies following a speculative attack. Then the IMF -- effectively a U.S. government agency representing the interests of the West's bankers and creditors -- would offer to lend money, but with "conditionalities." Countries would have to pledge to follow the courses set by the IMF: cuts in public spending, currency devaluation, free trade, price liberalization, deregulation and privatization. Such programs implied wholesale political transformation. What the people themselves wanted was of no importance.
Of the little more than 1% of clones that make it to term, most have severe abnormalities: malfunctioning livers, abnormal blood vessels and heart problems, underdeveloped lungs, diabetes, immune system deficiencies and possibly hidden genetic defects. Several cow clones had head deformities - none survived very long. It would be fair to say that experts are amazed in the few instances that cloning has worked.BBC News - Cloning humans: Can it really be done? I do not understand the other arguments against cloning humans, but I understand this one.
Once in the studio, we had to wait around for almost two hours before the show began. Throughout that time everybody was talking about what dead relative of theirs might pop up. Remember that all this occurred under microphones and with cameras already set up.Is he playing hot or cold with the bereaved or does Crossing Over's John Edward really see dead people?
originally posted by xowie
When you finish reading this paragraph, do not move your head, and just let your eyes wander around and count how many logos or ads you can see without moving a muscle. Notice the logo that's no doubt stuck on your computer monitor. Look at your mouse, your mousepad, your modem, any pens that may be around, books, yo-yos, the odd do-dads you may have on top of your monitor.Free your mind with the pwan's Personal Unbranding Resources.
If you haven't started trying to cut down on your advertising memes, I wouldn't be surprised if you found around 15 logos trying to sell themselves to you. I suggest you try this experiement in a couple rooms in your home, perhaps while you're taking a shower, or first thing in the morning when you've woken up, but not gotten out of bed yet. If you're a run-of-the-mill American, I think you'll be shocked to see how many logos are creeping their way into your subconscious as you lounge around the house.
Tim Robbins on voting for Nader.
originally posted by xowie
Motherjones reconsiders anarchy in a brief column loaded with links including:
Put your faith in the two inches of humusFrom Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry.
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
The Internet Sacred Text Archive is a non-profit archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics.
I ran into nedlog at Burrito Brothers last night and he urged me to look for this The Philadelphia Experiment story that aired on NPR over the weekend.
"When I get down on all fours and go up to dogs and go 'hhuhahhuhahhuh,' they get very solicitous."The lengths to which researchers go in determining whether dogs laugh.
“That’s racist!" is a record of angry asian man’s observations and experiences with racism. It’s got a lot of sharp insight mixed with a fair amount of humor, but if you disagree with more than about 10% of his accusations, that’s racist!
Then, one by one the prisoners were asked, in broken English: 'Who is your government?' Norman thought they meant what nationality he was, but then he noticed the replies of the others. Taking his cue from his neighbour, he answered in Italian: 'Polizia'. Anything else would almost certainly have meant another beating.Don't read these stories about the Genoa detentions on a full stomach. Bastardi!
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
Fabulous little essays on art history, from painter Robin Urton.
originally posted by xowie
Challenging White Supremacy resources for workshops.
Simply watch your breath whenever possible.The Meditation Tip of the Day, daily wisdom from different sources.
After few breaths your mind will wander.
Catch this.
No matter how long or short a time you have been away simply come back to the breath.
Don't dwell on what is past.
Be ever present with the breath.
If no other object arises return to the breath.Vipassana
I used to be editor of the Open Directory Project’s Race and Racism category. Lately, my login has not been working. I need to look in to that. The ODP is neat; some of you may be interested in looking at a proposed reorganization of the Society: Issues: Race-Ethnic-Religious Relations category. I have had a year to think about it, and am still not quite sure why it doesn’t satisfy me, but it doesn’t. What do you think?
John Kass has emitted some intense columns lately about the Chicago Mob. Curiosity led me to a cop site full of wild stories. There’s tons more about Midwest organized crime at the site of CJ prof. Gary Potter.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
There are some things the general public does not need to know and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows.Undernews, the daily news service of the Progressive Review, attributes this quote to Katharine Graham.
Slice of life in a leather bar.
originally posted by xowie
State terrorism in Genoa International action appeal
List of solidarity demonstrations
WP photos 7/20 - 7/21
IMC print 7.22.01
The wild boy who became a martyr
Police seek Black Bloc who brought mayhem to city
Leaders Start to Rethink the Big-Summit Format
G8: Still tension after the violences that have upset Genoa
G8 halts ‘super summits’
Aftermath in Genoa
Prodi defends demonstrators
"Truncheons rained down on me…"
originally posted by xowie
I’ve got to stop now. We should be safe if we can make our way back to where we’re stayiing. Call the Italian Embassy. Go there, shame them! We may not be able to mount another demonstration tomorrow here if the situation stays this dangerous. Please, do something!Agents of the Italian government beat a bunch of sleeping dissidents bloody yesterday in the defense of my access to cheap consumer goods. I believe that if they could simply beat a few dozen people bloody to prevent this firsthand account of the Genoa IMC raid from reaching my eyes, they would not hesitate to do so.
See also an account of the day before in Genoa:
A whole lot of people have been badly hurt, people who clearly and unmistakably are not rock throwing, streetfighting youth, people who believed they were going to be in a peaceful and reasonably safe place. Lisa and I had done a training for the women, trying to give them some sense of what they might face on the streets from our experience in other actions. But there’s no real way to prepare for a cop beating a peaceful, non-aggressive, midde-aged woman on the head.
We are currently negotiating with Springer's producers over a proposed "brand" showdown in which a young female representing the WTO "brand" would face-off against a young male representing "Anti."....In focus groups, 59% of teens reported that they would consider purchasing WTO product if associated with friendly talking frog.Leaked Memo Reveals WTO Plan to "Sell" Itself to American Youth.
originally posted by xowie
This one goes out to Mimi Fariña.
originally posted by xowie
ConnectNet.org takes your zip code and shows you places nearby where you can connect to the Internet for free.
Why Boycott Adobe? Because Adobe Systems (creator of Photoshop) has leveraged the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to sic the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a Russian graduate student presenting a research paper in Las Vegas this week. You, too, can violate the DMCA (and risk Adobe’s wrath) if you just decode the following cipher: enaqbzJnyxf ybirf lbh. Am I an accessory if I give you a hint?
Part of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Dr. David Pilgrim’s The Tragic Mulatto Myth is a marvelous survey of American film and literature. See also The Meaning of Mulatto by Erin Bannister:
By the end of twelfth grade, I had adopted the word mulatto, a term that originated from the Spanish word for mule, the ungainly, stubborn, and sterile offspring of a donkey and a horse. Which one of my parents, I wonder, is the donkey?
If you can’t watch the MacWorld New York keynote currenty in progress, check out this MacNN text feed or this pbzone text feed.
Bottle Village, Cadillac Ranch, Carhenge, Chandigarh, Dickeyville Grotto, Heidelberg Project, House Sculptee, Las Pozas, Milkovisch House, Owl House, Palais Idéal, Pasaquan, Rainbow House, Roden Crater, Salvation Mountain, Tarot Garden, Villa d’Este, Watts Towers.
originally posted by xowie
Effects were present in twenty minutes, and I took my portable radio into the garden at forty minutes just to pull weeds. Each weed had special significance, and my cat Ms. joined me and agreed with me. This is excessively strange.Sasha Shulgin's 5-MeO-DiPT (aka foxy).
originally posted by xowie
Mac OS Rumors is hiding, but the rumors are sweet like candy.
NYTM: (1) hilarious portrait of a 15-year-old intern attorney expert. (2) advertising infiltrations.
originally posted by xowie
I've begun collecting mushrooms, and they're mighty good on pizza. I haven't grown my own wheat yet, but I have ground whole organic wheat into flour. I've done it on a stone mortar and pestle, but I prefer to use a metal grinder. I don't grow my own olives yet, but when I do I'll press them for oil. And now I can bake them in an oven made completely by hand from raw materials.It's been too long since I've read Kestrel's Nest. Look at him go! If the Earth were doomed and I could choose 3 people to put on a rocket and send into outer space, Eric Wagoner would be on there for sure.
Phase 2 Sim continues.
originally posted by xowie
The Detroit page.
originally posted by xowie
It's one thing to send thousands of soldiers to attack another army on a battlefield. But an engineering project requires everything to be put precisely into place.I prefer to think of the technology as simple, with relatively few people involved.Caltech professor Mory Gharib plans to demonstrate that simple machines and kites built the Egyptian pyramids. So far he's got four tons and fifteen feet of vertical concrete that says he's right. thanks, q daily news.
Diagnose disorders of tomato fruit, leaves, and stems with these photos.
Exiled poster artist Julio Eloy Mesa.
originally posted by xowie
Q: How many pennies are there? A: There are this many.
Salon is now publishing weekly comeeks by the superlative Lynda Barry. Dig it and dig it well. Thanks to boing boing for the heads up.
Global City Transit Navigation Design. “These maps capture our imagination by the way in which each solves a similar problem in a unique and culturally appropriate manner.”
The incredible Springfield Interchange Improvement Project is underway not far from here. I should go take some more photos.
Sinkers.org posters for S30: DC. Read more about September’s World Bank/IMF convergence at abolishthebank.org.
Friday, July 13, 1951: Kansas City, Kan.
originally posted by xowie
No time for love, Dr. Jones:
This article argues that wealth is a zero-sum game in more, or more important, ways than it is not. It sounds right, but I need to learn me some economics to be sure.
The 34-year-old former gymnast says China's athletes and public deserve the glory of hosting the world's premier sporting event. But ask Feng, muscular and 6 feet tall, how he became a wheelchair athlete, and what emerges is a disturbing tale of state-sponsored violence, discrimination, and suppression.Chinese outcast wonders if Games would help or hurt.
originally posted by xowie
Alex Grey’s Chapel of Sacred MIrrors.
originally posted by xowie
Dean Chamberlain’s color-saturated photos of LSD heroes.
originally posted by xowie
When I want to get up to speed on what’s happening around the world and why, I turn to the following current events primers:
There is the overwhelming sense among most whites that things can't possibly be as bad as black Americans say they are.washingtonpost.com: Misperceptions Cloud Whites' View of Blacks. I own a mansion and a yacht.
Chemistry opens you to receive another being; you grow to enlarge yourself beyond what you would otherwise be, know and perceive.latimes.com: Couples With Right Chemistry Have Love Down to a Science. I've always been a fan of chemistry.
I bet riding a broom is a lot like riding a motorcycle – you really gotta lean through those curves.
Insane precautions for the G-8 summit include snipers, 200 body bags and “little” missiles.
originally posted by xowie
Dr. Menlo is now hosting abuddha’s memes! I should have offered to host that great site when it first occurred to me.
One evening when she was two, lying in bed waiting for her story, Greta started singing the words, "My tushy feel good, my vagina feel good." The tune was quite pleasant, and she sang it for about ten minutes, the same words, the same tune, over and over. Then, with one last "My tushy feel good, my vagina feel good," rising to a kind of crescendo of pure well-being, she looked up at me and said, "Know that song?"From An Open Letter to Superintendent Grimmel, which I have taken the liberty of retitling Please Excuse My Daughter From School Today: A Homeschool Manifesto.
The Poynter Institute’s excellent Diversity Digest, linking to rare and important journalism that covers underserved communities in non-formulaic ways, finally has a permanent URL.
Career women ‘rent’ wombs to beat hassle of pregnancy.
originally posted by xowie
World’s largest cave system discovered in China. (People like caves in China.) originally posted by xowie Update Here’s a bit of news from November 2006 about Soaring Dragon Cave, mentioned above.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all energy is freely and democratically provided by Nature, that utilities both public and private have no monopoly on the production and distribution of energy, that this century's monopolization of energy by utilities threatens the health of our environment and the very life of our planet.signed Solar Guerrillas of Planet Earth
- We, the Solar Guerrillas of this planet, therefore resolve to place energy made from sunshine, wind, and falling water on this planet's utility grids with or without permission from utilities or governments.
- We resolve to share this energy with our neighbors without regard for financial compensation.
- We further resolve that our renewable energy systems will be safe and will not harm utility workers, our neighbors, or our environment.
"Hot Tuna" (Houttuynia cameleon). tricolor ground cover. All parts are edible. The gingery taste and herbal scent are good in oriental cooking and good for medicinal purposes too!Tasty.
originally posted by xowie
Concrete ghost town.
originally posted by xowie
Beautiful essay on human consciousness.
originally posted by xowie
We bought a tea kettle today and the whistle turned out to be shrill and unpleasant. Should we learn to live with it, or endeavor to listen to 18 tea kettle whistles in hopes of finding a fun (or at least pleasant) one we’ll look forward to hearing?
"The good thing is, it's solid," he said, rapping the shed's metal walls. "It doesn't leak at all."Zephania Nyabanga speaks four languages, earned a bachelor's degree in Kenya and a master's in Indiana, and lives in an abandoned shed in the woods of Northern Virginia.
By any measure, Prince George's County Maryland police have shot and killed people at rates that exceed those of nearly any other large police force in the nation.washingtonpost.com: Police Shootings. This same-old story ought to earn the Post a Pulitzer.
In 1995, police shot and wounded a man who allegedly tried to run over an officer with a Chevy Blazer. A jury acquitted the man of assault after he and other witnesses testified that the vehicle was not moving and that he had raised his hands to surrender when he was shot.
In 1997, police said they shot and killed a distraught college student because he attacked them with a knife. When his family sued years later, the officers admitted under oath that the dead man never touched the alleged weapon — which turned out to be a butter knife sitting on a kitchen counter.
In 1998, two officers said they fatally shot a Landover teenager in self-defense after he tried to grab their guns. In fact, records indicate he was shot 13 times in the back while he was unconscious and lying facedown on the floor.
Looking around my kitchen, I see that I can make tarragon pills, salt pills, heavy cream pills and breadcrumb pills. You can pipe frosting into the capsules, or fill them with caramel sauce or melted chocolate, for a dessert you don't even have to taste.Flak Magazine: Review of "empty vegetarian capsules"
If you’ve never been to Disinformation, it’s worth a visit.
Did I mean: let’s wig out at danko’s? No.
Driving Meditation by Tich Nhat HanhWhen we see a red light or a stop sign, we can smile at it and thank it, because it is a bodhisattva helping us return to the present moment. The red light is a bell of mindfulness. We may have thought of it as an enemy, preventing us from achieving our goal. But now we know the red light is our friend, helping us resist rushing and calling us to return to the present moment where we can meet with life, joy and peace. Even if you are not the driver, you can help everyone in the car if you breathe and smile.
Gothic gardens, corpse compost, naturist naturalists, world wide weeding? The New York Times Magazine: Extreme Gardening
World New York: Most people who claim they live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, don’t.
Smoking pot and tripping your brains out.
originally posted by xowie
Fillmore West (once called Carousel) shut its doors on July 4, 1971.
originally posted by xowie
Next week the Olympics will probably go to Beijing. I have mixed feelings about this - the PLA freaks me out ‘cause of where I live. I wish they would get rid of the Olympics.
originally posted by xowie
Mike Godwin on the horror of DMCA.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
Funky comet A2 is visible in the early a.m.
originally posted by xowie
Later, they started handing out fake parking tickets to drivers they thought were dangerous. The concept was to actually create a people's database of dangerous drivers. The uses of such data was never clearly worked out. That and the many hostile encounters with drivers after handing them the "tickets" led to the project being scrapped.Carmageddon, from Collision of Interests, a NY-oriented anti-car archive.
originally posted by xowie
Drudge in Miami.
originally posted by xowie
I'm not a cultural translator. White folks can run along and catch up. If they get it, that's fine. This strip shows them how much they don't know about black people, but it doesn't teach them about black people.In The New York Times Magazine, a look at the remarkable success of Aaron McGruder's 'Boondocks' comic strip.
originally posted by xowie
Adam Engst on MacHack 2001.
originally posted by xowie
After the Smithsonian Folklife Festival packs up it’s taste of the five boroughs, DC Metro folk can find a bit of New York flavor at Fair Lakes shopping center in Fairfax which features a New York-style bagelry, a deli, and a pizza joint.
The public face of convert Buddhism in America is predominantly white and male and middle-class. Historically, the presence of blacks and women within this developing scene has been largely glossed over or ignored. Martin Baumann in the Journal of Buddhist Ethics estimated there were between 3 and 4 million American Buddhists as of 1997, and concluded that only 800,000 of them were "Euro-American."The Village Voice talks to bell hooks and Jan Williams about Black women and Buddhism.
Beyond Kaycee: more on-line Munchausen hoaxes.
originally posted by xowie
My brother found a fansite about the greatest show Nickelodeon ever aired, You Can’t Do That On Television.
Jon Langford’s NPR production Along for the Ride will probably interest you if you like punk music. I did not know I knew (and liked) a Mekons song.
The lucky slaves live on corn paste and bananas. The unlucky ones are whipped and beaten to harvest the almond-sized beans that are made into chocolate treats for more fortunate children in Europe and the United States.Mmm, chocolate.
For $99, this A/V transmitter looks like a great toy.
Before my brother heads off on his road trip (I love you, I hope you have a blast!) he ought to consider investing in this MP3-playing head unit.
There are so many places it's hard to choose one. There are so many regrets. I think Our Town is such a great spiritual and deeply existential play -- it became a meditation for me when I was in the production of it seven days a week. I only see through loss, death and my right eye (my left eye is very impaired). I only start to see the color of everything, the intensity of everything when I'm leaving it.Another Spalding Gray quote and another Spalding Gray link. Google's cache is the Net's Hamlet.
If I'm not present in the act of skiing, or if I think, "Hey, I'm skiing," that's when I go down.I am fairly sure that Spalding Gray is important, though I am not sure why. My friend who does not read randomWalks probably knows why.
In my life, when I'm not performing or working on something new, all I'm doing is walking and thinking. In skiing, I have no room for thought, I'm too busy doing. It terrified me because I love skiing so much, but I didn't know how to make a living at it and I'd always prided myself on making a living at what I loved.
New Pixar Film (Monsters, Inc.) in November. I’m there.
There's this ugly tendency just now for white heterosexual males to get all resentful and self-pitying, to whine about how they are supposedly being discriminated against, and consequently to vote Republican. It's high time we got rid of all that Michael Douglas-style backlash, and all that Woody Allen or Robert Bly 'sensitive man' horseshit as well. I'm not looking to define some new model of straight masculinity; I'm suggesting that we abolish such role models altogether. Make your life a work of art instead, as Oscar Wilde and Michel Foucault both recommend; try to be as singular and eccentric as free of models, as possible.From an interview with Steve Shaviro, professor of Film, Culture, and English at the University of Washington. His "theoretical fiction about postmodernism" Doom Patrols can be read online.
We really shouldn't allow people to vote on racism.washingtonpost.com: Md. Indians Seek Help To Change Team Names
The image below is a finger labyrinth. You can "walk" it on screen with your finger or mouse. Print it for later use. Tracing the path in the labyrinth can be relaxing. It also can be balancing as you journey back and forth to the center. Repeat several times in succession to get the most benefit. Try it with your non-dominant hand for more of a challenge. It will help you to give up control and break out of your routine response pattern.An article in today's Post about a recently-built labyrinth at a Maryland hospice worker retreat reminded me that I'd like to walk a labyrinth sometime. I don't have any particular expectations of the experience, but I am deeply interested in the value of rituals, and this one apparently dates back thousands of years, spanning many cultures and religions. The Labyrinth Society maintains a directory of labyrinths which are open to the public.
Even San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown - who has been on the receiving end of some tough reporting by the Chronicle - got into the act. "I only wish the person who suggested Mr. Bronstein remove his shoes had advised him to go in naked,'' Brown is reported to have said.Catching up on dragon jokes.
originally posted by xowie
Big Tobacco buys Ashcroft.
originally posted by xowie
"He'll be given a good home," said Mike. "He will not be turned into a purse."Mike Bailey, professional wrestler.
originally posted by xowie
Looking into the Chesapeake Bay crater.
originally posted by xowie
Some of us work on the plantation.
Some of us own the plantation.
Facts are facts.
This hat is for those who own the plantation.
As James Baldwin wrote, the white man here is trapped by his own history, a history that he himself cannot comprehend and therefore what can I do but love him?Actor Carroll O'Connor on his groundbreaking character, Archie Bunker. O'Conner died of a heart attack yesterday. He was 76.thanks, reverend brian.
Deconstructing Harry, redux. thanks, george.
"I got real good at talking to promoters or hall owners. They’d ask, ‘What kind of music do you play?’ I’d say, ‘Oh, it’s a rock group and a little bit of jazz in there.’ That’s a trick — the ‘jazz’ word is always useful when you’re stopped by police or authorities."Many fine articles in the Weekly's annual music supplement, especially this one about the early days of L.A.'s definitive hardcore band.
originally posted by xowie
I hope you’ll consider participating in the “Roll Your Own” Blackout tonight. Just shut off all the lights and appliances that you (reasonably and safely) can between seven and ten p.m. your time. According to the Q and A, “your darkened house, and the utilities' lower demand figures, will signify your vote of ‘no confidence’ in the energy policies now coming from Washington.” Realistically, it’s unlikely that the power companies will even register the action, but I like the idea for two reasons. One, it will be a nice moment of political solidarity with like-minded folk across the country. And two, (two even works for those who aren’t turned on by the ideology) this is an opportunity to get a new perspective on my relationship with electricity – not to mention with our sun, Sol. This is his day, after all.
SECRET UNDERGROUND CITIES: something to do the next time you’re in Britain.
From Taiwan to Hong Kong to ChinaTown to the East Village to DC: boba, or bubble tea, the name for a variety of beverages served with little balls of tapioca or sweet potato flour.
From a list of 20 ostensible Eskimo snow-words: igluqsaq. This is a compound word meaning 'house-building material' (note the familiar 'iglu' at the beginning): it can mean plywood or brick just as well as snow. If we pulled the same trick with English, we would start counting words like "etiology" (a slip on snow can cause injury), "projectile" (you can throw snowballs), "food" (you can eat snow as long as it's white), and so on. Hmmm.Hmmm indeed. Steven J. Derose debunks the "Eskimo" snow words myth. Thanks, iceberg273.
Today I pass the time readingBilly Collins, poet laureate.
a favorite haiku,
saying the few words over and over.
It feels like eating
the same small, perfect grape
again and again.
originally posted by xowie
Killing the Buddha is a religion magazine for people made anxious by churches, people embarrassed to be caught in the "spirituality" section of a bookstore, people both hostile and drawn to talk of God. It is for people who somehow want to be religious, who want to know what it means to know the divine, but for good reasons are not and do not.I thought I had blogged this, but I had not. Rumored to have been founded by some kids from my alma mater, Killing the Buddha says, "the medium is the messiah."
Cops and ravers.
originally posted by xowie
Polish woman says she was denied entry to U.S. because she has ‘rough hands’.
Episodic Genovese wiretaps.
originally posted by xowie
Les agradecemos y les decimos que el pr ximo a o lo haremos otra vez.
originally posted by xowie
Mired is reporting that Butterfly of Digable Planets has died of a heroin overdose. I hope it’s not true.
"It's amazing how many calls I've gotten from ladies trying to arrange behind-the-scenes tours with the Komodo dragons for their husbands,'' joked zoo director Manuel Mollinedo.Clamor for zoo ball tickets.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
I’m a trip to Radio Shack away from being able to surf the web and do email from my Palm.
The way in which authority operates in the Potter books frightens me. It's part of their escapism: escapist in a way which naturalizes authority and makes it invisible, partly through the figure of the benevolent dictator, partly through the non-realist representation of Harry's Muggle life. At Hogwarts, almost pornographic attention is given to minor changes in Harry's mood. When he's living with the Dursleys, the boy spends years living in a cupboard under the stairs, and not only does he have no apparent emotional reaction, but where the hell are Social Services?Harry Potter and Capitalism via hobbsblog. I'm sure a lot of people will find this article amusing, but I've been genuinely troubled by the lack of class consciousness in J. K. Rowling's work.
For dmoz: oneworld.net: guides: racism.
rebekah jude - come to my house for a so-over-it Rent BBQ slash trampoline party.
I don’t like the looks of this URL either. (c/o boingboing)
originally posted by xowie
The trials of Analog Pussy.
originally posted by xowie
Nikon Coolpix 990 online resource guide. I don’t like the looks of that URL at all – it looks like it could blow away, or get scrambled by static cling or something, but there you go.
Where the Buffalo Go: How Science Ignores the Living World: An Interview with Vine Deloria
You May Be An Anarchist And Not Even Know It: An Interview with John Zerzan
This week Bull Run Mountain Organic Farm delivered radishes, arugula, Red Sails lettuce, Salad Bowl lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, tatsoi, Yukino Savoy, Salad mustard, garlic flowers, and Pac Choi. Yummy salad tonight!
The lawyers dwell on small details.
originally posted by xowie
In the desert on the U.S.-Mexico border, charity becomes political protest as humanitarian groups seek to put hundreds of gallons of water in the form of “watering stations” – a few gallons of water and a blue flag – on federal, military, private, and Indian lands.
This Guide to Free Online Photo Albums is very handy for comparing the features of the various services. I have been a fan of photopoint but they’ve recently gone subscription.
TheExperiment is a source for alternative/activist news.
More comics links than you can click at GLITTERDAMMERUNG! Comics Weblog.
Sample some great indy comics by downloading a pdf of the out-of-print NON number 3. thanks, bugpowder.
It's really an uncomfortable situation, since I'm not an illustrator, though I do get calls from morally indefensible businesses offering me money to decorate their ambitions.The onion interviews Chris Ware, esteemed comic artist and author of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth.
"I would like to see it more like the wine industry where there are certain strains and varieties grown under specific conditions," he said pulling on a large spliff of a highly sought-after strain called Bumbleberry.What are they smoking at the Vancouver Sun?
originally posted by xowie
Glib blog of angeleno news.
originally posted by xowie
Thanks dj for ruining Memento for me.
J. R. R. Tolkein would have made a great Dungeon Master. thanks, Jennifer.
If you read Dr. Menlo like you should, you would have seen the link to this article about Berthold Steinhilber painting photographs with light.
When I finally came in, Debbie was home from work. I told her everything about my dinner with Andre.Annotations: the Findhorn Foundation, The Little Prince and the taming of the fox, and see also meet Martin Buber.
It was just a certain inclination to meet people. And as far as possible, to change something in the other, but also to let me be changed by him.Meet Martin Buber.
Grandpa Rex's Allen was the oldest living cat in the world when he died at age 34 (the equivalent of being over 150 years old in human years!). The hairless cat, belonging to Jake Perry of Austin, Texas, was fond of broccoli. He was also known to eat asparagus on occasion.Life Extension For Your Pet.
originally posted by xowie
Australia has Anzac Day (April 25) and Remembrance Day (November 11).
On Anzac Day, some people march.
originally posted by xowie
"A lot of us were standing outside watching the planes flying overhead. But you don't see Japanese-Americans or other Hawaiians in the film. Maybe it was just the base they were showing? It's hard to tell. But it doesn't show us." The movie spends 40 minutes on the Japanese attack without showing that the Japanese not only bombed battleships, killing more than 2,000 sailors, but also bombed and strafed all over Oahu, this island where Pearl Harbor is situated, causing fires and reducing buildings to rubble. And the movie does not give even a glancing reference to the scores of Hawaiian civilians — the youngest a 3-month-old girl — who were killed in the attack, most of them from friendly fire as antiaircraft rounds missed their targets and landed several miles away in Honolulu.The New York Times: Some Upset by Twist on Pearl Harbor. Count me in. Don't let Disney teach you history!
"There's no reason that we would expect any acute reactions. What we're more concerned about is if people consume this over their lifetime, will it eventually catch up with them?" said an F.D.A. food safety official.New York Times: Stressed Out? Bad Knee? Try a Sip of These Juices. Not concerned enough to require accurate labeling, apparently. Also in the New York Times: The Demise of the Stick Shift is Accelerating, As Others Abandon Plains, Indians and Bison Come Back.
originally posted by xowie
From suggested lesson plans for John Ashcroft’s Dept. of Justice Bible study group:
MATTHEW 5:38-39 - “Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Discuss the implications of this passage on the use of force by federal law enforcement officers.
Wiccan icon Fairuza Balk appeared in the Sopranos finale.
originally posted by xowie
It turns out that tying a tie is equivalent to a so-called persistent random walk on a triangular lattice. Using this model, the number of all possible knots is calculated. The optimal knot is determined by the aesthetic conditions of symmetry and balance. Of the 85 tie knots found, our model duly predicts the four knots in widespread use and further introduces nine new aesthetic ones.Tie Knots and Random Walks, Thomas M. Fink and Yong Mao. I don't know how to tie a tie.
Is it just me, or has this been the slowest-moving weather front you’ve ever seen come across North America? We’re having crazy storms over here. Are we drastically changing our climate? How many people will increase their chance of getting skin cancer this weekend? By how much? Will you please put on some sunscreen?
He has been totally dependent on his father ... a spoiled brat.Yoshihiro Tsurumi, City University of New York professor on former student President George W. Bush.
Taking note of: “3 color” q u i d d i t y. Very nice. Thanks ghost rocket.
Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People - “This new online exhibit from Canada’s Digital Collections Program documents an often overlooked group who fought for the British in the Revolutionary War: freed and escaped slaves. After the British government offered freedom to any slaves who fought on Britain’s behalf, as many as 30,000 people of African descent escaped to aid the British war effort. When the war ended in an American victory, these free blacks were evacuated to Nova Scotia with the other Loyalists who left the former colonies. Although they had been promised land and a new life in Canada, black emigrants found harsh living and working conditions, prompting many to leave for Sierra Leone. This site tells the story of the black Loyalists with numerous illustrated vignettes, short biographies, a timeline, and descriptions and maps of black Loyalist communities.” - The Scout Report via wood s lot.
Everything you know is wrong. (Another example.)
originally posted by xowie
No one could find an obituary. One person called the newspaper in Kaycee's small town and they said that they had not heard of any girl with leukemia.Unnnhhh... The Kaycee Nicole (Swenson) FAQ (and more).
originally posted by xowie
Amazon Listmania: Picture Books About Interracial Families.
A gallery of photos from Brooklyn Kings: New York City’s Black Bikers.
My computer literacy is zero. It's partly because it wasn't easy to learn, so I just gave up.His Holiness the Dalai Lama is spending this week in Silicon Valley.
The news organization has to elevate the significance of stories about communities of color. Those stories have to be seen as part of the path to success and not part of the path to obscurity.
The boxes are supposed to help you focus your attention on one post at a time. The prominent dates floating to the left ought to help you see what’s new since your last visit. The thin border around the list of links is similarly intended to help you isolate that part of the page mentally as you scan for information. The title is supposed to be murmured more often than shouted, and the strip is just for fun. What works and what doesn’t?
“Where the hell did they get these kids?"
“It doesn’t matter."
You’ll probably enjoy this.
The appeal of laissez-faire capitalism, as it spread around the world until it vanquished even the Soviets, was simple: You need neither a change in structures nor a change in human nature. Instead, the bad side of human nature -- the greed, competitiveness, and materialism -- could be counted on to magically produce enough wealth that many people could actually enjoy the easy life that the utopians and commissars could only promise. That is the revolutionary idea of our time, and it has cast into a sepia shadow both Gandhi and Lenin. We distrust moralizing as thoroughly as we distrust government; in a cynical age, our ultimate trust is in the notion that trust is unnecessary, that we should each simply advance our own cause.Bill McKibben writing for Mother Jones about the joys of renunciation.
If you saw my check, you'd understand.Pedro Gomez sets up portable toilets in New York City.
I love outdoor art. Washingtonpost.com has a small photo gallery depicting murals from throughout the nation’s capital. The best murals are probably found in the West and SouthwestLos Angeles (the mural capital of the world), Austin, San Francisco, Tucson and San Diego have some great ones.
Phil Greenspun’s online photo-illustrated Travels with Samantha makes me long for the open road and the beautiful countryside my wife and I saw on our honeymoon. Her favorite spot was Yellowstone. I’ll never forget skinny-dipping in Lake Powell.
“frontwheeldrive humbly attempts to bring intelligent reporting to emerging sciences such as Artificial Intelligence, Memetics, Complexity, Chaos Theory and the like with a nod toward design and an open eye on new media. Forever forward in the pursuit of positive stimuli. Information in formation.” It does a good job, and boasts some big names.
“PliNkit! is a collection of useful links that work very well, or are designed for viewing on a palmtop computer. It is designed to be a no frills easy to navigate listing of these sites.” One day I will have my cell phone hooked up to my Palm III and that day I will come to randomWalks and search for “lynx” and find this post because it has the word lynx in it. Then I will bookmark PliNkit! on my Palm and never think about this post again.
Look here: say you have a disk that can spin, and so you put a pail of milk on it and you make it spin. You will see the milk go up the side of the pail, and fly over and out onto the disk. No big deal, eh? The spin will make a pull. But now what if you said that the pail of milk is your "at rest"? Then you have you and the sky and all that in a big huge spin, and the disk with its pail of milk is the only body that is "at rest", yes? How can you say then why the milk goes up? What can make the at-rest milk fly out of the pail like that?Brian Raiter explains the theory of relativity in very short words of no more than four letters.
I was hitchhiking around Europe in 1971, when I was 18, with this copy of A Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe. At one point I found myself lying in the middle of a field, a little bit drunk, when it occurred to me that somebody should write a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It didn't occur to me that it might actually be me years later.CNN is reporting that author Douglas Adams died of a heart attack on Friday. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
rft’s photography / Tips and Tricks contains “helpful information for working with digital photos [and especially those] taken with the Nikon Coolpix 950 or Nikon Coolpix 990.”
OH. Now I get it!(doing a V-8 head slap)...getting your system to run Myst III is the first puzzle of the game! Ubisoft is pure genius...(where's the cheat?)...Overheard on the Myst III: Exile tech support forum.
OC Weekly regular Alison M. Rosen is the funniest writer in the history of free papers. Her recent master-works cover phallic Christian vegetables, Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light (tm), and penis duplication kits.
originally posted by xowie
Read CNN.com without the ads. You can thank me later. Also, Nic’s tricks filter Salon and Slate, stripping out the tables and graphics with a short perl script and serving up the articles like it’s 1994. Dig it. This page of lookups looks handy too. I wonder when I’ll get around to making one of my own.
Things in nature often move in complicated ways. You have probably watched the way a butterfly moves. The molecules of the air that you are breathing move in a similar way. This type of motion we call a random walk. You can also take a random walk.
Suppose the Earth is all one big single living organism, with all the elements of it connected like cells in a body. Suppose the goal of evolution is to link up individual human minds, bringing an explosion of intelligence and even global consciousness to this mammoth being.Now suppose the above quote leads into a Washington Post article on ... bird watching? Apparently this guy, and by "guy" I mean French Jesuit Scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, proposed this notion back in 1940 but it was hard to take seriously for a lot of people for a long time until the Internet appeared and here and there folks began to say "wait a minute" and now you get folks like John Perry Barlow, erstwhile Grateful Dead lyricist and founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, suggesting that worldwide changes in human development, agriculture and preservation in response to real-time bird observations resulting in a virtuous circle of renewed habitats and rejuvenated populations reflect the beginnings of a global consciousness evidenced by "large-scale interaction between the greater 'us' and the greater 'them'". Don't look at me. Is that a sparrow?
Who was Jeremy Bentham? What is utilitarianism? (Why am I asking?)
“There are a number of excellent sites out there for people wanting to shave their heads, or just connect to others who share the hairstyle,” and Head Shaver’s Information and FAQ is probably the best of them.
On Alt-log: Apparently Baltimore City Paper has a regular column called Funny Paper in which they humorously deconstruct the comics. It reminds me of a less straightforward version of the wonderful “Comics I Don’t Understand."
If you have seen the remarkable photos in The Empire That Was Russia: The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated (A Library of Congress Exhibition), you will certainly not begrudge me the sharing of them with anyone else. (In the early 1900s, Russian photographer Prokudin-Gorskii created color images by shooting simultaneously with three black and white cameras fitted with red, green, and blue filters. The resulting images were projected back through colored filters onto a screen for display.) The photos are technically marvelous, but more striking is the dissonance between the “modern” medium and “historic” subject matter, if you take my meaning. Have a look!
Huntley Meadows lies in a wet lowland that was carved out by an ancient meander of the Potomac River. The resulting freshwater wetland is one of the rarest habitats left in Fairfax County. Acre for acre, a healthy wetland supports more life than almost any other habitat. Wetlands also purify polluted waters and control the destructive power of floods and storms.Huntley Meadows Park is a nice place to spend an afternoon. I'm reminded that it's a stone's throw from our home by this Washington Post article. Last summer I went with some family and took pictures. Friends of Huntley Meadows Park runs a good website with news, events, history and photos.
Eric of Kestrel’s Nest, how does your garden grow?
Why do you think there have been so few chronicles about the realities of working at Wal-Mart or Comfort Inn, which employ more people than the dot-coms did even at their height?James Fallows asks Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America in which she spent three months trying to survive in three cities on three minimum-wage jobs. The in-progress Fallows and Ehrenreich dialog in The Atlantic immediately brought to mind a recent piece in the Washington Post titled Dot-Com Vets Turn Job Loss Into Second Spring Break which inexplicably glamorizes the downturn in the job market by looking at how folks who, according to Fallows, find it "hard to understand people for whom a million dollars would be a fortune" are making do with movies, massages, and trips to Madrid in these lean times.
The question that comes up over and over again, and I don't really have an answer still -- really, I don't know any other people who have answers to them -- is, "It's terrible, awful, getting worse. What do we do? Tell me the answer." The trouble is, there has not in history ever been any answer other than, "Get to work on it."Chomsky: For One Thing, There's No "It". There is injustice where you live, and tomorrow you can either oppose it or allow it to persist. Why don't you sleep on it?
listen missy has the longest list of DC area bloggers that I’ve seen. Inexplicably, randomWalks is not included.
"He's Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney."Vice presidential advisor Mary Matalin on vice presidential aide Irv "Scooter" Lewis Libby. Via the inestimable World New York.
FTAA Diary is a 48-page zine (available for download in pdf format) chronicling the experiences of folks who protested in Quebec. Illustrated with powerful black and white photos, the narratives personalize the events like no journalism could hope to.
Dr. Menlo - best Quebec/FTAA coverage.
Romenesko, it should be considered, is a group blog disguised as a one-man blog. He is considered an important meta-media entity by journalists, so they send him tips; plus, he is paid to thoroughly read all the periodicals like the NYT that we all depend on blogs to cull through for us. Not to diminish what he does in any way; just be aware that it's what can be done with underwriting and sources.MetaTalk: dhartung on obscurestore.com.
I've spent most of my life in a town which owes its existence to an earlier incarnation of capitalism. The main square in Middlesbrough is a case in point: on the one side is a public library, endowed by Andrew Carnegie; alongside it are statues of Bolckow and Vaughan, the two ironmasters who brought industry and prosperity to the town in the late 1800s. They were entrepreneurs first, not philanthropists, but they invested in their workforce. I can't imagine there are many places in SE Asia graced by Nike subcontractors that will erect statues of Phil Knight.Pooh-pooh Metafilter though you may, I'll wager they've got the most illuminating discussion about globalization the English-speaking Internet has yet seen going on over there. It starts to get really good right around here but feel free to hit that 'home' key on your keyboard. Update: The saga continues.
Steve-o’s Grand Adventure includes an account of sneaking into Hobbiton USA complete with pictures.
George Will should rent a Nissan Pathfinder and remove the bulb from the rear tail light. The next step would be to install a hidden video camera in the rear seat. Then he and a black friend should take turns driving the vehicle around the D.C. area. Afterward, Will can veiw the results and write a column on whether or not he would mind trading places with his black friend.The Washington Post published this great letter (quoted above) in response to a George "Jackass" Will column.
Targeting China as the next Evil Empire has been an evolutionary process in the United States. The new Bush administration apparently plans to talk and act tough toward China. That isn't going to make life any easier for me and other Chinese Americans. Some Americans appear not to be able to distinguish between Chinese Americans and Chinese from China. We all look alike, I guess.San Francisco Chronicle: A Great Wall of Unease -- William Wong observes the recent rise of anti-Chinese sentiment in the US with alarm.
XML Resume Library or, How to Write a Resume for the 21st Century (featuring an XML DTD and 3 XSL transformations).
Of note: Andrew Friedman for Feed on the intersection of drug laws, the census, and the prison industry with an eye on race and class.
In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shinesI recently came across this interesting history of "In The Pines", a traditional folk song most famously recorded by Nirvana for MTV Unplugged. Memo to self: collect various versions of the song off of Napster et al.
And we shiver when the cold wind blows.
Public Textures is a collection of photographs of scenes, surfaces, and objects featuring rich textures. (What else?) The photos are in the public domain so have at it.
She's reading a book on gender theory right now. She thinks it's fascinating and kind of funny.Washington Post: Wonder Woman's Powers -- Phil Jiminez, writer and illustrator of Wonder Woman for DC Comics, has given the Amazon heroine an inner life. But whence came that golden lasso of truth? Believe it or not, the head (belonging to psychologist William Marston) from which sprang forth a fully-formed Wonder Woman also conceived of the first polygraph.
Ghost World the movie website (via linkmachineego, which covers comics and sites that cover comics lots better than we do).
Using PHP and MySQL as a Weblog [sic]
How to manage your site with Blogger, PHP, and XML
I do not believe I would very cheerfully help a white student who would ask a benevolence of a stranger, but I do not feel so about the other color. We have ground the manhood out of them, and the shame is ours, not theirs, and we should pay for it.About.com: Mark Twain's Reparations for Slavery
Inmate rape has such an established place in the mythology of prison that references to confinement often call forth jokes about sexual assault. But while rape is accepted as a fact of prison life, the subject has received little serious attention and legal remedies are rare. Few prison rapists are ever prosecuted, and most prisons provide little counseling or medical attention for rape victims, or help in preventing such attacks.New York Times: Little Sympathy -- I don't know what this does for recidivism, but it doesn't sound like rehabilitation to me. What's a prison activist to do?
If Italo Calvino had a website, it would be The Invisible Library, “a collection of books that only appear in other books.”
Cincinnati Riots:
For most of us, it would be an easy choice. Of course you would learn to communicate with your child. But not if it meant you couldn't have food on your table.IHT: For Asian Immigrants in U.S., a Wall of Words Separates Generations
All of us who are not racists -- liberals and conservatives alike -- have an instinctive tic against explicit racial classifications, which is understandable given our nation's history of racial injustice. But if we really want a more just society, we must be prepared to re-examine this instinct with an important distinction in mind: we must distinguish between policies whose premises deny equal citizenship and those whose premises affirm it.New York Times: Race and the Uses of Law, By Ronald Dworkin
If you want to join this retrieval of democracy on the air, the Pacifica Campaign is at 51 MacDougal Street, Box No. 80, New York, NY 10012. The Web site is www.pacificacampaign.org, and the phone number for information about actions being planned is 1-800-797-6229. It also takes messages.The Village Voice: Can WBAI Be Saved? by Nat Hentoff
The menorah has no place or role in the Christian religion, yet the cartoonist uses this core symbol of Judaism and makes it disappear into a cross with the words, "It is finished." It is as if Johnny Hart is telling his audience that Christianity now supersedes Judaism as the "true" faith.See the cartoon on a Jewish Defense League web page if you haven't seen the Sunday funnies yet. (The JDL is not to be confused with the Anti-Defamation League, who issued the press release quoted above.) Time.com is carrying a bit of background on B.C. creator Johnny Hart's proselytizing.
I almost forgot about the filepile.
The Bradford pear, found throughout the Washington area, blooms each year at the beginning of Spring for two weeks ending in a dramatic flurry of petals. It’s really a beautiful tree, but the bad news is that after about two decades the tree tends to fall apart. That gives me about five years to find a new parking space.
Project Censored has announced the top 25 censored media stories of 2000. As always, the list is a terrifying glimpse into the nature of power and “what really goes on”. My favorite is the exemplarily jaw-dropping “Gerber Uses the WTO to Suppress Laws that Promote Breastfeeding”.
The women were pretty and flirtatious, the men were lively and friendly, the Victoria Bitter was cold and delicious, the stars in the southern sky were simply amazing, and I was having a lot of fun - until I made the mistake of trying to climb Ayers Rock on acid.Tom Robbins answers reader email at the Guardian's Books Talk. See this and other fine links at wood s lot.
...
As for Finnegans Wake, it's on the nightstand by my bed. I've been reading it nightly for 14 years. I'm now on page 39.
We can certainly rest easier at night knowing the Democrats are out there fighting for us.
The “WAMU in your Ward” series on WAMU’s DC Politics Hour ought to be a fascinating look at the character of Washington D.C.’s neighborhoods. Along with the poop on Ward 1, listen this friday (scroll down) for an hour on the Peace Corps' 40th birthday. You might just want to listen to WAMU right now, especially if you like your NPR with a little bit of bluegrass. In any case, it’s a good time to look at the District’s Wards because the city government is about to redraw the boundaries.
"I don't know how long people can do this work. Nobody we know of is doing it to the extent we are, so it's hard to know how long we will last." Why does she keep doing it? "Because something sacred occurs when people in such pain begin to tell you how they feel.""Yes, it's him." Beverly Jones counsels survivors as they identify bodies at the DC morgue. The program is the only one of its kind in the nation.
The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry deserves a better post than it’s getting here. It also deserves a better site than it’s got there, but it’s definitely worth your time. Be sure to “Browse collection by: ” – there’s some great stuff in there!
If you think that the next big crackdown on political protest is going to take place when 5,000 police officers clash with activists outside the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City next month, you are mistaken. It turns out that the most effective form of crowd control isn't pepper spray, water cannons, tear gas or any of the other weapons being readied by Quebec police in anticipation of the arrival of 34 heads of state. The most cutting-edge form of crowd control is controlling the crowds before they converge. It happens every time we read another story about how Quebec will be surrounded by a three-metre-high fence. Or about how there's nowhere to sleep in the city except the prisons, which have been helpfully cleared out. Protesting, rather than being a healthy part of democracy, seems like an extreme and dangerous sport, suitable only for hard-core activists, with bizarre accessories and doctoral degrees in rock climbing.A-Infos: Quebec City Keeping Us Out Before We Get There
Native American people from across North and South America have said they fear that a free trade agreement covering both continents could have devastating effects on native peoples.BBC: Free trade concerns Native Americans
Historical and modern day images often contain hidden messages about us, about others and about our world. These subtle lessons lie just beneath the surface. In order to see them, we must replace passive consumption of images with critical analysis. We can no longer accept a sculpture or a logo at face value. We must dig deeper.Images in Action is a teaching activity at the new tolerance.org. What images would you add to the project?
"I" am a boundary, a distinction delineated as much by notness as isness; as is everything. This being so, so this being (is). My line, and the lines we all draw, are largely a cultural affect. What does this mean exactly? It implies that linear thinking is too straight, man.Sometimes I think this is what God has done. In any case, you ought to be reading abuddhas memes.
...
I think that if I grokked it all, I would purposefully forget that I did - as a release from the grey obsession of control, and spontaneous rediscovery of beauty.
A while ago my younger brother mentioned that John and John were looking for Ballads For The Age Of Science, one of which They Might Be Giants covered on a recent album. I knew I had seen them in mp3 format somewhere on the web, and here they are (link above). At the time, I frustrated myself trying to find them. (This doesn’t happen to me. When I look for something on the net, I find it. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but we’re talking ninety-nine point forty-four.) Thanks to gmtPlus9, a consistenly rewarding weblog with a fresh perspective.
If you ever played Dark Castle on the original Macintosh, your heart will skip a beat when you learn that a sequel is in the works. But wait – it gets better. Download the Return to Dark Castle demo now, and thank me later.
“I wanna know if what I saw is still there” – heard this song on KEXP (was KCMU, is possibly the only radio station worth listening to) a few times in a few weeks and now I want you to hear it (it’s right here).
Thanks to Aaron Swartz of Blogspace, randomWalks (and any other weblog) can now offer an RSS feed.
I don't know what America is coming to when thousands of people, many of them adults, are willing to be regimented into brushing paint on a jig-saw miscellany of dictated shapes and all by rote. Can't you rescue some of these souls -- or should I say 'morons'?
Paint by Number: Accounting for Taste in the 1950s opens today at the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C.“This spring, Slate will ask Dr. Melfi’s real-life counterparts to examine developments on The Sopranos." Good reading.
The relaunch of the XPLANE site is a great excuse to go dig through the xBlog archives. Wow!
This guy must have been happy when dj was born. I was only 1 year old, but I bet I was too. A true soul.
From the referrers: shey.net - a weblog w/good comics and politics.
The past two nights were absolutely incredible; beyond words.Photographers talking about taking pictures of last week’s auroras.
…
These images are a poor example of what the experience is like in person.
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This cloud of light suddenly became alive. It grew brighter and brighter and it started pulsing hypnotic waves and rays throughout the entire northern sky.
Some of you will surely enjoy The Leaky Cauldron weblog: “We Blog for Harry.”
In our biggest cities, population growth is being fed by the increasing number of Hispanic and Asian residents, yet the national debate around race and ethnicity remains disproportionately focused on white and black Americans. Too many political leaders are still staring at the rear-view mirror, looking back at what the country was, not at what it is becoming. As the magnitude of this demographic transformation begins to sink in, every institution of American society will have to rethink its policies and priorities, every political organization will have to refashion its platform and strategies.Juan Gonzales writes for In These Times about the results of the 2000 Census. I sure wish I'd learned some Spanish in high school; I think I'm going to look into an immersion course.
You heard about the guy who was fired for posting a map on a USGS website of caribou calving areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge where the Republicans want to drill for oil right?
One Chinese translation of World Wide Web literally means Ten-Thousand-Dimensional Web in Heaven and Net on Earth. Isn’t that beautiful?
This MacOS X Issues page offers an honest thorough evaluation of OS X 1.0 which closely mirrors my opinions.
This command line interface tutorial is required reading for anyone who would play “root” with Mac OS X. Also of interest:
Think of me as Chomsky with dick jokes.More about the funny-as-hell Bill Hicks.
Got another one of those Pocket Calls the other day. You know what I'm talking about - you pick up the phone, and all you hear is muffled ambience. Someone's cell phone has called you from inside their pocket, and the call lasts forever because the person doesn't even know about it. Stupid pocket calls.My brother's cell phone called me from his car once. I was like Mulder 25 minutes into the X-Files: "I don't know how or why, but I think my brother just called us and he doesn't know it," I said feeling pretty clever. My wife, of course, was all Scully: "What? Are you sure? Let me see the phone... yeah, it sounds like he's in his car talking to his friends and his cell phone is on the seat and someone sat on it and it turned on and called us by itself." I'll never know how she did that. I read Cardhouse today.
The Utne reader ran this article about ways to have fun. Here's what is "fun": studying languages, crochet, work, work, being Ira Glass (now that would be fun), and work.Hobbsblog II -- Electric Boogaloo is a destination unto itself.
If it's a little like eating an omelet through a really big straw, well, that's part of the beauty of it.Remember Push-Pops? It's what's for dinner.
Missed us. Better luck next time.From a message posted to a Californian website by "Dave", a fisherman in the Mir target zone. The BBC is carrying some eyewitness accounts of the unique event. You'll also want to see some pictures, I suppose.
In its original literal sense, "moral relativism" is simply moral complexity. That is, anyone who agrees that stealing a loaf of bread to feed one's children is not the moral equivalent of, say, shoplifting a dress for the fun of it, is a relativist of sorts. But in recent years, conservatives bent on reinstating an essentially religious vocabulary of absolute good and evil as the only legitimate framework for discussing social values have redefined "relative" as "arbitrary." That conflation has been reinforced by social theorists and advocates of identity politics who argue that there is no universal morality, only the value systems of particular cultures and power structures.Arts and Letters Daily picks up on some interesting pop scholarship claiming that "The Sopranos" -- the greatest acheivement in American television to date -- has light to shed on the debate over moral relativism:
Stanley Fish blows apart the propagandist notion of "reverse racism".In this country whites once set themselves apart from blacks and claimed privileges for themselves while denying them to others. Now, on the basis of race, blacks are claiming special status and reserving for themselves privileges they deny to others. Isn't one as bad as the other?
The answer is no. One can see why by imagining that it is not 1993 but 1955, and that we are in a town in the South with two more or less distinct communities, one white and one black. No doubt each community would have a ready store of dismissive epithets, ridiculing stories, self-serving folk myths, and expressions of plain hatred, all directed at the other community, and all based in racial hostility. Yet to regard their respective racisms--if that is the word--as equivalent would be bizarre, for the hostility of one group stems not from any wrong done to it but from its wish to protect its ability to deprive citizens of their voting rights, to limit access to educational institutions, to prevent entry into the economy except at the lowest and most menial levels, and to force members of the stigmatized group to ride in the back of the bus. The hostility of the other group is the result of these actions, and whereas hostility and racial anger are unhappy facts wherever they are found, a distinction must surely be made between the ideological hostility of the oppressors and the experience-based hostility of those who have been oppressed.
“Maybe we can talk about Revelations 3:17.” – Jill Scott, “Long Walk”
Alternet is carrying an interesting follow-up to Tim Wise’s School Shootings and White Denial essay, and of course it will precipitate a storm of denial over on MetaFilter, though I hope we can take the discussion in a different direction this time. Unfortunately there are more than a few people over there devoted to promoting color-blindness as the solution to racism out of one side of their mouth, and reminding me that I’m white (and therefore have no right to take certain positions on racism) out of the other.
Sweet Jesus, I’m staring at boxes…
BBC Q&A: Why do interest rates matter? This is like remedial Economics for dummies in lay terms, and I’m still not sure what’s going on.
Now that you’re back, let’s keep talking. Do you think the boxes make randomWalks too discontinuous?
I was about to steal another link from Follow Me Here, but then I saw another, and another… just go, now!
You have to remember that this was right after Vanilla Ice hit it big and then crashed. They lost interest when they found out I was white. But the thing about that experience that was most reassuring was that some producers told me, by listening to my demo tapes, that they thought I was black.Henry Biggs plans to record a rap version of Homer's "Iliad."
We attacked the Chinese Embassy and deliberately bombed civilian journalists at a TV station and how did pop music respond? With Livin' La Vida Loca.Stuart Maconie sidelines this good point about the production of culture in an article about protest music that suggests the author has never heard of hip hop.
“If distributing code is illegal, and these numbers contain the code, does that make these numbers illegal?”
In the summer of 1949, as the story goes, inveterate gambler Nicholas "Nick the Greek" Dandolos approached Benny Binion with an unusual request-to challenge the best in a high-stakes poker marathon. Binion agreed to set up a match between Dandolos and the legendary Johnny Moss, with the stipulation that the game be played in public view.This nonsense inspired the World Series of Poker.
During the course of the marathon, which lasted five months with breaks only for sleep, the two men played every form of poker imaginable. Moss ultimately won "the biggest game in town" and an estimated $2 million. When the Greek lost his last pot, he arose from his chair, bowed slightly, and uttered the now-famous words, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go." Dandolos then went upstairs to bed.
The bread I could eat three times a day, with or without different combinations of pulses, vegetables and spices, is n'jera, the flat bread made by Ethiopians from a grain called tef. The method is simplicity itself: you simply add a starter of batter that has stood since the last cooking and fermented naturally to more tef flour and water to make a new batter and let it stand until the bubbles begin to rise. It is then cooked on a flat surface no hotter than is necessary to dry it without colouring it.This column is making me hungry. Speaking of bread, if you haven't discovered the intense pleasure that Great Harvest bread can bring, get thee to a bakery!
Lingua Franca explores how the student-led anti-sweatshop movement is drawing economists on both sides of the issue into a public dialogue.
The Eden Project? This must be what they were talking about on All Things Considered the other day.
Most commentators characterize this mushroom ominously as "toxic" or "poisonous". Somewhat more lightheartedly, Aurora relates the apocryphal tale of the elderly woman who accidentally consumed G. spectabilis. She laughed and cried uncontrollably. When the authorities came to carry her away to the hospital, she remarked, "If this is the way you die from mushroom poisoning, I'm all for it!"Confessions of a Gymnopilus Spectabilis Eater
Tampa Tribune: Packing Pavement - “As the photographs on this page illustrate, what we call urban congestion is not too many people, but too many vehicles in too small an area.”
"Listen," she said, impatient with my questions. "There isn't really any training. Be aggressive. As long as they hear confidence in your voice, you're OK. Mostly they're calling because they're depressed and need a friend."Just the other day I thought to myself, "I'd like to read another one of those articles where the reporter gets a job as a telephone psychic." Because, of course, one day I'd like to write my own. thanks, alt-log.
Eric Meyer, author of O’Reilly’s Cascading Stylesheets, is also known as the CSS Anarchist. Turn your new browser into a precision weapon with user stylesheets.
CSS layout techniques in effect. Standing on the shoulders of giants, randomWalks has done the dirty deed, divorced style from content (really just a trial separation), and is eagerly awaiting your honest opinion of the result. Bug reports welcome, pls include details. (If you’re using IE5+, NS6, or Mozilla and the site doesn’t look pretty much like this screenshot, then something’s wrong.) This site is not flattered by Netscape 4.x; for information about upgrading to a better browser, visit the Web Standards Project.
'American Desi' is a fun-loving romantic comedy reminiscent of the great teen films of the eighties like "16 Candles" and "Pretty in Pink," mixed with the fresh hip-hop style of "House Party" with a uniquely Indian flavor.?? From Kris, an All-American boy from India, to Ajay, an Afro-Centric Hindu homeboy, to Farah, a devoutly religious but modern Muslim girl, 'American Desi' tells the story of a unique set of characters and their culture from a decidedly hip and youthful point of view. Like the masala films of India, 'American Desi' is so full of music and dancing that it might very well do to Bhangra and Garba what "Saturday Night Fever" did to Disco!American Desi opens in a limited nationwide (USA) release Friday (in theaters near you, you lucky bastards.) Why is this the first I'm hearing of it? Sounds like a must-see. I was browsing PBS listings and came across an interesting looking film called "American Sons" about racism towards Asian American men. I haven't watched it yet, but I did notice that Peace Development Fund supported the film.
We're in more danger from all the Chinese jumping in the air at the same time than we are from their supposedly huge increase in defense spending.Ethel the Blog
"What am I doing wrong?"Poverty in a pocket of affluence (washingtonpost.com)
If you want to hear interesting, ambitious, challenging pop music these days, the place to turn is not mainstream radio but television -- and not MTV but commercials for establishment products like banks, phone companies and painkillers.For Rock Bands, Selling Out Isn't What It Used to Be
Is It a Sign? (washingtonpost.com) - Babies with normal hearing are being taught sign language by parents hoping to produce a learning boost or tantrum relief.
The LA Times is running two fascinating stories today:
When you’re white, you have the luxury of invisibility. Anything that peels back the veil that keeps you invisible and makes you opaque is jarring and frightening to white folks. You don’t ever have to think about being a dominant group member. Your world is natural and normal. It’s not white. It just is.In one the Times talks to Tim Wise (quoted) about his recent school shooting essay (rW post).
When people can't establish a racial category for this guy they can't see him; in a sociological sense he's invisible. But what makes him interesting is not just that he could be passing -- moving between races -- but that he's playing with itThe other is a look at a serial bank robber in California who, with the help of a little foundation here and a little concealer there, has become nearly impossible to catch. I don't even know what to say about the reliance of our law enforcement system on racial profiling and classification. What would they ever do if we all fucked enough so that a criminal had the same color skin as an innocent?
I was fascinated by seed packets as a kid. I remember tearing them open and pouring out a couple dozen little black specks into my hand, and then looking out over our garden like “nuh-uh”.
Interview with Norton Juster, author of “The Phantom Tollbooth”.
Would you live on Noah’s ark?
Hopefully people don't mind long songs.Trey Anastasio is on a solo tour. Penthouse.com has more about how Phish fans are coping with the band's hiatus. Excerpt: "Dog Biscuits are better than Phish!"
The All-Star Newspaper links to articles by “the best newspaper writers in the business” every day at noon ET.
Here was a woman who no longer could recognize her own children; a woman who had no idea who her husband had been; no clue where she was, what her name was, what year it was -- and yet, knew what she had been taught at a very early age to call black people. Once she was no longer capable of resisting this demon, tucked away like a ticking time bomb in the far corners of her mind, it reasserted itself and exploded with a vengeance. She could not remember how to feed herself, for God's sake. She could not go to the bathroom by herself. She could not recognize a glass of water for what it was. But she could recognize a nigger.It looks like it's about his grandmother, but Exploring the Depths of Racist Socialization is really about you. God, I love Tim Wise.
It's like when you go to the bathroom. After you use the toilet, you must wipe yourself. That's how you finish the job!According to Zen Master Seung Sanh, the happy Hollywood ending in "Little Buddha" is not good teaching. "Little Buddha" airs Friday, March 9 at 6:05pm ET on the Encore True Stories channel, according to TVUltra. Also see: more about wiping yourself.
What went wrong is that we allowed ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security by media representations of crime and violence that portray both as the province of those who are anything but white like us. We ignore the warning signs, because in our minds the warning signs don't live in our neighborhood, but across town, in that place where we lock our car doors on the rare occasion we have to drive there. That false sense of security -- the result of racist and classist stereotypes -- then gets people killed. And still we act amazed.Tim Wise on the recent school shootings.
Take a penny, leave a penny, says filepile.org.
Zoinks! Like, not even for ten Scooby Snacks!
Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration --If the media put a positive spin on LSD (from a Bill Hicks comedy routine called "war on drugs" which you can still find on napster without looking too hard.)
that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.
There is no such thing as death,
life is only a dream,
and we are the imagination of ourselves.
Here's Tom with the weather --
Ellison Music Labs features a hip hop stream, a drum and bass stream, and a jam band stream. That’s something for just about everyone – and three things for me!
It would be wrong to say that I would only be discriminated against because I am Korean or Asian American. I used to bus tables, and people used to think I was Mexican. The reality is that I might be discriminated against because someone thinks I am Native American or Latino or Asian American.The results of the first United States Census to eschew the one-drop rule are due out soon. Unfortunately, most government agencies don't have a clue how to handle the complexities of an officially multi-racial American people.
Holloway 7 is a brief exploration of how Jef Raskin’s ZUI (zoomable user interface) is intended to work. Interesting stuff, but I guess there’s no substitute for actually using something – I still can’t figure out if this thing makes any sense.
I ask them if Harris allows people to smoke in the loft. I ask if they know where he and Corrin keep the iron. In one particularly surreal moment, I realize I've lost my keys. I enter the chat room and ask if anybody happened to see where I left them.Will Leitch writes about housesitting for www.weliveinpublic.com who incidentally also has the cooler domain panopticon.com. Way-cooler than that is the top result when you google "panopticon" which is the cultural theory and medial literacy website k.i.s.s. of the panopticon. I was looking for this picture, of course, and finally this brief explanation of the original incarnation of the concept of global surveillance.
These PLBM arcade games for PalmOS look great – I can’t wait to install lunar lander.
More Cold Mountain poems by Han-Shan.
The Unimog, a converted German military vehicle manufactured by Daimler-Chrysler will be sold as a luxury vehicle in the US later this year. (This ten-foot-tall, six-ton beast dwarfs the Hummer.) According to Unimog marketing manager Bruce Barnes, “even in Scottsdale, Arizona, moms will want to take it to the grocery store. It’s a head-turning vehicle.” It seems to me this thing pretty much condemns itself, but here’s a tree-hugging press release to chew on.
I think this one’s pretty good.
It should be understood that caught in between is on fire, but I’ve been remiss in not mentioning the Black History Month blogging that BoyCaught’s been doing all month long. Take a minute today and an hour this weekend to peruse the great links he’s gathered. Maybe if we ask him nice he’ll collect them into a single page somewhere that’s easy to point to.
If you follow the mainstream media, you may be told by a trustworthy, concerned-looking talking head this evening or read in a stolid, respectable rag tomorrow morning that CD sales are down 39% since last year. If you pay close attention, you might discover that the number applies to CD singles, but in any case 39% is quite a lot, isn’t it? You may think to yourself, “Oh, my… what have we done?” Well, I’m happy to say you can relax, and here is slashdot’s jamie to look at the source of that statistic:
That's right, CD singles. Unit sales for the singles were down 39%, revenue down 36% (they raised prices, of course).
And CD singles account for how much of the RIAA's profits?
Not quite one percent.
Yes, that's right: they lost 36% of 1% of their profits.
And the news media is reporting it as a 39% loss.
The facts are that their "CD sales" are up this year, even over last year's stunning performance. The RIAA increased the average price of a full-length CD from $13.65 to $14.02, and still managed to sell 3,600,000 more of them.
Total profit increase on this, the core of their business, was 3.1%, or just shy of an extra $400,000,000. (read more ...)
Dr. Menlo’s Manifesto in Hypertext is a sort of State of the Revolution address. Good reading when you’re feeling kind of isolated and out-of-sync with the world around you and wondering for the umpteenth time who’s crazy and who’s sane after all.
Squidfactory found a site that has lots of pictures of the new VW Microbus concept.
Anxious to sanitize their product to the point where it passes muster with compassionate conservatives everywhere, especially those living on Pennsylvania Avenue, major producers in the industry are proposing to discard or ban a host of sexual acts and scenarios that have in some instances become staples of the genre. Welcome to the era of kinder, gentler smut.Mark Cromer writes for The Nation about the porn industry's reaction to the Bush presidency.
I really dig weather.com’s new hourly forecast.
Did my mother realize how strongly our trips to the fabric store would affect me? I doubt it. And I can only recall them in the most fleeting glimpses, when I'm exhausted or otherwise intoxicated.Music for Babies is Charlie Bertsch's look at the startling choices that confront new parents.
From the soc.culture.asian.american FAQ:
9. What’s the difference between “Oriental” and “Asian”?
“Oriental” is a term which has negative connotations for many Asian Americans because it reflects European and American colonialistic attitudes of the past and present. It is also a term that has always been used to exotify people and products. i.e. Exotic oriental teas/women/attitudes/customs/foods/etc. A general rule of thumb is “Oriental is for rugs, not people.” Besides, no one uses the term “Occidental” to describe white folks. Additionally, “oriental” is a term which describes location in respect to Europe (and to England specifically). “Asian” is in respect to nothing.
Once I read an interview with Madonna where she talked about her envy of black culture, where she stated that she wanted to be black as a child. It is a sign of white privilege to be able to "see" blackness and black culture from a standpoint where only the rich culture of opposition black people have created in resistance marks and defines us. Such a perspective enables one to ignore white supremacist domination and the hurt it inflicts via oppression, exploitation, and everyday wounds and pains. White folks who do not see black pain never really understand the complexity of black pleasure. And it is no wonder then that when they attempt to imitate the joy in living which they see as the "essence" of soul and blackness, their cultural productions may have an air of sham and falseness that may titillate and even move white audiences yet leave many black folks cold. Needless to say, if Madonna had to depend on masses of black women to maintain her status as cultural icon she would have been dethroned some time ago.bell hooks from Black Looks.
This article about the stereotyped Black man offered up by nearly every reality TV show broadcast in the US ends just as it’s getting to the essence: why is this the “reality” the networks – and damningly the audiences – are choosing?
Recent Heart Maker hearts are better than any I could come up with.
I want Mumia to live, I've signed the petitions, I've helped pay for the ads -- hell, I'll personally go and kick the butt of the governor of Pennsylvania! But, for chrissakes, the woman working at Sears just wants to be able to spend an hour with her kids before she heads off to Denny's. Can't we help her? Do you want to help her?Michael Moore in 1997 on the failure of the left. Via the underrated hobbsblog.
We are, thank God, beginning to convince people of the idea that pillows should be washed or thrown away. Some people were using six-year-old pillows continuously without being washed, in unventilated bedrooms where the windows were kept shut at night. At the end of the six years, a tenth of the weight of the pillow consisted of old human skin, mould growing on the skin, mites growing on the mould, dead mites and mite dung. If you ask children to put their heads down on bags of grot like that night after night for a third of their lives, you don't have to invent traffic fumes as a cause of asthma.I feel dirty.
Cartoonbank.com is The New Yorker’s online database of cartoons. You can search (internet dog, racism), order prints and t-shirts, and launch a pop-up “cartoon channel” window that refreshes with a new cartoon twice a minute.
At last, a theory of race that’s not racist. Nina Jablonski and George Chaplin found that indigenous skin color correlated with ultraviolet light exposure and they think they know why.
Interview with Joe Sacco, author of the great journalistic comic Palestine.
This is a poetic journey among the weeds, starting in early autumn. The weeds are all from the immediate vicinity of my home: a different one picked, scanned and hypertexted each day. Persistent walking with eyes to the ground.
The water drops are for navigation.
The best thing in today’s Washington Post: Zippy the Pinhead. A distant second is a feature about MTV’s “Undressed”. The article takes an unfortunate moral tone and fails to convey the genuine appeal of the show.
Years from now, when my grandchildren ask me what happened to all of China's trees, I'll have to say, 'We made them into chopsticks.'Chinese chopstick activists advocate the elimination of disposable chopsticks in favor of reusable chopsticks or recyclable spoons.
Good versus Evil is the most hackneyed, overused excuse imaginable for having two sides in a fight. With the exception of a small number of homicidal maniacs, no human being regards him- or herself as evil. As a Dogma designer, you are required to create a real explanation for why two sides are opposed - or to do without one entirely, as in chess.Gamasutra presents Dogma 2001: A Challenge to Game Designers.
DeLillo fans, go wild.
License plate seen while riding on the on the Beltway: IDO WJWD. If I am lucky enough to see this car again, I will be sure to stick my thumbs in my ears, wag my tongue, and make google-eyes at the driver – because I really want to know WJWD in that situation.
Indians built the fire by having long sticks or logs coming to a center like spokes toward the hub. Then as these logs burn up they are shoved in. In this way fire is kept up all night. Indians can tell a white man?s fire - the ashes show the white men to use green wood, Indians the dry wood. White men make the sticks to lie in an oblong, Indians the sticks lie in a circle, when fire burns out so the ashes and portions of the sticks, the race is told.Alice Fletcher kept a diary while living with a Sioux tribe for 2 months in 1881.
It is recognized widely that it fails to achieve its stated end and the failed methods are then pursued more vigorously while effective ways to reach the stated goal are rejected. It is therefore natural to conclude that the drug war, cast in the harshly punitive form implemented since 1980, is achieving its goals, not failing.Noam Chomsky on what the war on drugs is all about.
What are these goals? A plausible answer is implicit in a comment by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the few senators to pay close attention to social statistics. By adopting these measures, he observed, "we are choosing to have an intense crime problem concentrated among minorities." Criminologist Michael Tonry concludes that "the war's planners knew exactly what they were doing." What they were doing is, first, getting rid of the "superfluous population," the "disposable people" ("desechables"), as they are called in Colombia, where they are eliminated by "social cleansing"; and second, frightening everyone else, not an unimportant task in a period when a domestic form of "structural adjustment" is being imposed, with significant costs for the majority of the population."
The National Justice Commission repeatedly points out that crime in the United States, while sort of high, is not off the spectrum for industrialized societies. On the other hand, fear of crime is far beyond other societies, and mostly stimulated by various propaganda. The Drug War is an effort to stimulate fear of dangerous people from who we have to protect ourselves. It is also, a direct form of control of what are called "dangerous classes," those superfluous people who don't really have a function contributing to profit-making and wealth. They have to be somehow taken care of.More info on disposable people.
The Pixelpalooza icons are up for judging at the Iconfactory, and there are some unbelievable entries. Do your Mac a favor and download some today!
Sometimes knowing a word's origin can forever change your view of the word. You probably think of the word feisty the way I once did: an often pleasant adjective meaning 'spunky'. You might describe Ross Perot as feisty, meaning full of spirit. If you guessed feisty comes from the root feist meaning 'spirit', guess again.
Please, pardon my bluntness. I could do it several times longer than I normally could. Once, I believe I must have gone at it for 12 hours, using up all the lubricants, shampoos, cooking oils, and even toothpastes I could find in my home, even fruit preserves.The Erowid Experience Vaults are endlessly entertaining and informative.
If you watch TV, you can’t do better than TV Ultra.
...less like Big Brother than "a friendly uncle and aunt watching over you."
"The excessive precautions were a victory for those who wanted to disrupt Davos," said George Soros, the billionaire financier whose prowess at playing the capital markets has troubled governments from Britain to Malaysia. "I do think these people have something to protest about. The global capital system creates a very uneven playing field."It seems like more work went into establishing the divide than bridging it (or should those links be reversed?) at this year's World Economic Forum.
Good Works is a national directory of social change organizations and is the first directory to present alternatives to traditional corporate employment. This directory, now in its fifth edition, lists the aims and projects of over 1000 organizations and provides background information on contacts, starting salaries and benefits, types of staff openings, available internships, annual budget and funding sources, and the application process.
This is cool: download DC’s own Go-Go, Hip Hop, and more from mp3.washingtonpost.com!
The pseudoephedrine contained in many "non-drowsy" drugs like these is really an amphetamine in disguise, differing from methamphetamine by only one oxygen atom, a proton and a symmetry operation. These differences are sufficient, however, for the stimulant effects to be hindered by the passage of pseudoephedrine molecules across the blood-brain membrane, plus orders of magnitude difference in its activity where it counts - the dopamine neurons.So that's where the "pseudo" comes from.
“The White Man’s Burden” and Its Critics is a collection of resources edited by Jim Zwick.
Slavery slipped into an unholy marriage with state's rights doctrine in American memory, and despite decades of persuasive scholarship, the divorce has never been completed.In which David Blight reveals the origin of the myth of the moral Confederacy.
We get this one all the time. Our workshop uses simple white turkey feathers that are then dyed yellow.Big Bird!
I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots.Papa Bush in 1987. I wonder if Dopey Bush feels the same way. Bonus link: list of all known smurfs.
Robot Wisdom trifecta:
The Virginia Senate voted yesterday to let Fairfax County prohibit its residents from sleeping anywhere but their bedrooms, a measure that some activists and local officials say unfairly targets the living arrangements of the county's burgeoning immigrant communities.BlogVoices should be back soon, thanks to chrish and pyra, but this looks like a job for MetaFilter.
I understand the interest. I grew up in a small town in Kentucky where they shot a series called Centennial, and I followed Raymond Burr around everywhere he went.George Clooney was apparently generous with fans while shooting O Brother, Where Art Thou?
I don't think that what I'm doing is necessarily left versus right. What I'm addressing is top versus bottom. If I'm not spending a lot of time making fun of the more extreme elements of the Green Party, it's because what I do is to critique power.Dan Perkins, better known as Tom Tomorrow, talks to Mother Jones.
<img src=“https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/85682/2023/0f9e2217d0.jpg" height=“108” width=“128” alt=“sisyphus” / border=“1”>
“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
I love a site that uses background images with abandon. How come you rarely see that anymore?
When you have some time, read through Dostoevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor from The Brothers Karamazov – but be warned that it will take something apart deep inside of you and leave you with no idea how to reassemble the pieces.
Is it me, or is subterranean notes: art on the web back in action?
I’m very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very excited to see that World New York is back, and equally sad to see arblog go.
Recipes, crafts, and other activities inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House.
The Online Journalism Review reviews the IHT website.
What if reality TV were based on, well, reality?
A laser projector will beam your message (up to 160 characters) onto the mountain side overlooking Davos, where it can be seen by the hundreds of journalists and thousands of politicians and business leaders attending the World Economic Forum’s annual conference.
At one point during the day, the set acquires a weird postmodern vibe. Garofalo and Bernhard are sprawled on the pavement near a van after a shootout, their clothes soaked with gaudy red stage blood, while Favreau "directs" their movie. Allen Coulter, director of this episode of "The Sopranos," films them filming. On the perimeter of the set, video crews and newspaper photographers take their own pictures of the scene.I wish I had a picture of that. New Jersey Online also has some decent coverage of the anti-defamation pressure that has booted shooting from Essex County.
A black person used to be described by the deaf by pressing the nose flat or pressing the nose with the letter "N" for negro. For an Asian person, the corner of the eye was pulled taut by the small finger hooked in a "J" for Japanese. One signed a Pole by thumbing a "big" nose. Greeks also had nose references and Italians were identified by making the sign of the cross on the forehead.This old article describes relatively recent changes in the American Sign Language lexicon.
It has a terrible effect on my personality; I get angry about everything. I hate the change. And finally when my body gets used to it, it's time to change again.There is a great political struggle in Mexico right now over daylight saving time.
The Guardian Weblog devotes a special issue to the year of the snake.
These bios are making me really sad.
Best interface ever: International Herald Tribune
It's like a soccer match. You can put up goals if you want to and you can put some white lines on the turf, but if there are no rules, you can kick your opponent, you can make a goal with your fist, one team can have 24 members and the other one only eight members. If there are no rules, there is no game.Hernando de Soto talks about why, as he puts it, capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else.
Watch what you eat… you never know if you are looking at an innocent bowl of soup or a deadly warrior in disguise!
As I drove home from the rave, this song by Nine Inch Nails, called "Broken," came on the radio. It's an amazing song. It's enlightening and at the same time it's terrible -- it assaults you with sounds, as though you'd put a conch shell up to your ear to listen to a jet engine warming up. As you listen to it, it undoes all the music you ever heard before. It erases it. Every once in a while it's good to listen to "Broken"; it's hypnotic. But if you listen to it over and over again, you'll fry your listening gene. Built into the enlightening quality of it is this power to remove the ability to hear it.Matthew Klam writes for the New York Times Magazine about experiencing Ecstasy.
I dig Jozef Hand-Boniakowski’s Fountain Pen and Ink Artwork.
If memory serves, there has never before been a set of icons celebrating the great cross-cultural phenomenon known as Iron Chef. Thanks to the great artists at the Iconfactory, on January 25th there will be. Allez icons!
Why I read MetaFilter >link<
What we know about Blogger Pro so far.
BOMB by Gregory Corso --------------------- Budger of history Brake of time You Bomb Toy of universe Grandest of all snatched sky I cannot hate you Do I hate the mischievous thunderbolt the jawbone of an ass The bumpy club of One Million B.C. the mace the flail the axe Catapult Da Vinci tomahawk Cochise flintlock Kidd dagger Rathbone Ah and the sad desparate gun of Verlaine Pushkin Dillinger Bogart And hath not St. Michael a burning sword St. George a lance David a sling Bomb you are as cruel as man makes you and you're no crueller than cancer All Man hates you they'd rather die by car-crash lightning drowning Falling off a roof electric-chair heart-attack old age old age O Bomb They'd rather die by anything but you Death's finger is free-lance Not up to man whether you boom or not Death has long since distributed its categorical blue I sing thee Bomb Death's extravagance Death's jubilee Gem of Death's supremest blue The flyer will crash his death will differ with the climbor who'll fall to die by cobra is not to die by bad pork Some die by swamp some by sea and some by the bushy-haired man in the night O there are deaths like witches of Arc Scarey deaths like Boris Karloff No-feeling deaths like birth-death sadless deaths like old pain Bowery Abandoned deaths like Capital Punishment stately deaths like senators And unthinkable deaths like Harpo Marx girls on Vogue covers my own I do not know just how horrible Bombdeath is I can only imagine Yet no other death I know has so laughable a preview I scope a city New York City streaming starkeyed subway shelter Scores and scores A fumble of humanity High heels bend Hats whelming away Youth forgetting their combs Ladies not knowing what to do with their shopping bags Unperturbed gum machines Yet dangerous 3rd rail Ritz Brothers from the Bronx caught in the A train The smiling Schenley poster will always smile Impish death Satyr Bomb Bombdeath Turtles exploding over Istanbul The jaguar's flying foot soon to sink in arctic snow Penguins plunged against the Sphinx The top of the Empire state arrowed in a broccoli field in Sicily Eiffel shaped like a C in Magnolia Gardens St. Sophia peeling over Sudan O athletic Death Sportive Bomb the temples of ancient times their grand ruin ceased Electrons Protons Neutrons gathering Hersperean hair walking the dolorous gulf of Arcady joining marble helmsmen entering the final ampitheater with a hymnody feeling of all Troys heralding cypressean torches racing plumes and banners and yet knowing Homer with a step of grace Lo the visiting team of Present the home team of Past Lyre and tube together joined Hark the hotdog soda olive grape gala galaxy robed and uniformed commissary O the happy stands Ethereal root and cheer and boo The billioned all-time attendance The Zeusian pandemonium Hermes racing Owens The Spitball of Buddha Christ striking out Luther stealing third Planeterium Death Hosannah Bomb Gush the final rose O Spring Bomb Come with thy gown of dynamite green unmenace Nature's inviolate eye Before you the wimpled Past behind you the hallooing Future O Bomb Bound in the grassy clarion air like the fox of the tally-ho thy field the universe thy hedge the geo Leap Bomb bound Bomb frolic zig and zag The stars a swarm of bees in thy binging bag Stick angels on your jubilee feet wheels of rainlight on your bunky seat You are due and behold you are due and the heavens are with you hosanna incalescent glorious liaison BOMB O havoc antiphony molten cleft BOOM Bomb mark infinity a sudden furnace spread thy multitudinous encompassed Sweep set forth awful agenda Carrion stars charnel planets carcass elements Corpse the universe tee-hee finger-in-the-mouth hop over its long long dead Nor From thy nimbled matted spastic eye exhaust deluges of celestial ghouls From thy appellational womb spew birth-gusts of of great worms Rip open your belly Bomb from your belly outflock vulturic salutations Battle forth your spangled hyena finger stumps along the brink of Paradise O Bomb O final Pied Piper both sun and firefly behind your shock waltz God abandoned mock-nude beneath His thin false-talc's apocalypse He cannot hear thy flute's happy-the-day profanations He is spilled deaf into the Silencer's warty ear His Kingdom an eternity of crude wax Clogged clarions untrumpet Him Sealed angels unsing Him A thunderless God A dead God O Bomb thy BOOM His tomb That I lean forward on a desk of science an astrologer dabbling in dragon prose half-smart about wars bombs especially bombs That I am unable to hate what is necessary to love That I can't exist in a world that consents a child in a park a man dying in an electric-chair That I am able to laugh at all things all that I know and do not know thus to conceal my pain That I say I am a poet and therefore love all man knowing my words to be the acquainted prophecy of all men and my unwords no less an acquaintanceship That I am manifold a man pursuing the big lies of gold or a poet roaming in bright ashes or that which I imagine myself to be a shark-toothed sleep a man-eater of dreams I need not then be all-smart about bombs Happily so for if I felt bombs were caterpillars I'd doubt not they'd become butterflies There is a hell for bombs They're there I see them there They sit in bits and sing songs mostly German songs And two very long American songs and they wish there were more songs especially Russian and Chinese songs and some more very long American songs Poor little Bomb that'll never be an Eskimo song I love thee I want to put a lollipop in thy furcal mouth A wig of Goldilocks on thy baldy bean and have you skip with me Hansel and Gretel along the Hollywoodian screen O Bomb in which all lovely things moral and physical anxiously participate O fairylike plucked from the grandest universe tree O piece of heaven which gives both mountain and anthill a sun I am standing before your fantastic lily door I bring you Midgardian roses Arcadian musk Reputed cosmetics from the girls of heaven Welcome me fear not thy opened door nor thy cold ghost's grey memory nor the pimps of indefinite weather their cruel terrestial thaw Oppenheimer is seated in the dark pocket of Light Fermi is dry in Death's Mozambique Einstein his mythmouth a barnacled wreath on the moon-squid's head Let me in Bomb rise from that pregnant-rat corner nor fear the raised-broom nations of the world O Bomb I love you I want to kiss your clank eat your boom You are a paean an acme of scream a lyric hat of Mister Thunder O resound thy tanky knees BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM ye skies and BOOM ye suns BOOM BOOM ye moons ye stars BOOM nights ye BOOM ye days ye BOOM BOOM BOOM ye winds ye clouds ye rains go BANG ye lakes ye oceans BING Barracuda BOOM and cougar BOOM Ubangi BOOM orangutang BING BANG BONG BOOM bee bear baboon ye BANG ye BONG ye BING the tail the fin the wing Yes Yes into our midst a bomb will fall Flowers will leap in joy their roots aching Fields will kneel proud beneath the halleluyahs of the wind Pinkbombs will blossom Elkbombs will perk their ears Ah many a bomb that day will awe the bird a gentle look Yet not enough to say a bomb will fall or even contend celestial fire goes out Know that the earth will madonna the Bomb that in the hearts of men to come more bombs will be born magisterial bombs wrapped in ermine all beautiful and they'll sit plunk on earth's grumpy empires fierce with moustaches of gold
In memory of angelheaded hipster Gregory Corso. Thanks to Levi Asher for the transcription.
There were 28 searches for the week ending 1/13/2001 for randomWalks at www.randomwalks.com/. Here are the top phrases searched:
Our new government's cornerstone rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first in the history of the world based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth. -- Alexander Stephens, vice president of the ConfederacyAnd so the next time a Confederate apologist tries to tell you that the Civil War wasn't "about" slavery, you just shout yee-haw!
What the drugs taught me:
thanks, alt-log.I'm not entirely clear on the point of slipping out the back, as opposed to the front. Am I supposed to be afraid of the neighbors seeing me breaking up? Is the front door guarded by relationship-preserving rottweilers? Am I supposed to soften the blow by taking out the garbage?The Brunching Shuttlecocks rates various ways to leave your lover.
Sam’s Web Cam Cookbook – exemplary use of hypertext.
Today’s puzzle completed 3 minutes 10 seconds!
The traditional pomp and circumstance will be shaken and stirred with camp and remonstrance.Looking forward to the inauguration with the WP.
Steve Jobs has a potty mouth.
Liberals have attacked John Ashcroft recently with charges of racism. True? In a sense, sure. I’m not convinced that he’s a bigot; I am convinced that anyone who would praise the malignant Southern Partisan is someone who doesn’t have my family’s best interest at heart.
Washington Post columnist Donna Britt says that calling anyone a racist who hasn’t clearly demonstrated such bigotry is wrong, but I think it’s a question of tactics. I don’t think it’s unfair to ask if this man who would be Attorney General of the United States is driven by an ideology that might run counter to the ideal of a nation united by equal protection (rather than defeated by it).
Indeed, Kendall Clark argues convincingly that to incorrectly identify racism is of far less consequence than to deny racism where it exists. I’ll agree that anyone who makes such an accusation should be prepared to support their claim, but more importantly, anyone who expects to be granted a very powerful and visible position in the federal government should be prepared to answer a few simple questions.
Instead of “randomWalks” this site is now going to be “the best of plasticboy”. Today on the best of plasticboy, we have: 2 reviews of Ken Burns' Jazz (review of Jazz, other review of Jazz) (mini bonus review of Jazz: fuck yeah!) and vegetarian recipes.
Boing Boing has posted all the links I would have recently, had I been posting, except for this incredible Beagle Bros tribute site which I’ve been willing to exist for the longest time. Here’s where I’ve been spending time instead of posting:
thanks to rogers cadenhead for the Beagle Bros link.piercing, an online comic.
The Asian American Movement Ezine is produced by a radical Boston-based collective working to document the history of Asian American activism. Like ModelMinority.com, it looks to be a great resource for Asian Americans and for anyone who wishes to broaden their understanding of racial issues in the United States.
A liberal will tell you the system isn't working properly. I will tell you that the system is working exactly the way it's supposed to. After reflection on my two decades plus of service, I am convinced that I only served the richest one percent of my country. In every country where I worked, poor people's poverty built and maintained the wealth of the rich.Stan Goff served in the U.S. military for two decades, much of the time with Special Forces training Third World armies.
New One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry, last one for a while.
Americans reluctant to address the realities of continuing racism and white privilege have consistently portrayed Asian Americans as a "model minority" who have uniformly succeeded by merit.
While superficially complimentary to Asian Americans, the real purpose and effect of this portrayal is to celebrate the status quo in race relations. First, by over-emphasizing Asian American success, it de-emphasizes the problems Asian Americans continue to face from racial discrimination in all areas of public and private life. Second, by misrepresenting Asian American success as proof that America provides equal opportunities for those who conform and work hard, it excuses American society from careful scrutiny on issues of race in general, and on the persistence of racism against Asian Americans in particular.
The mission of ModelMinority.com is to provide this scrutiny in every possible way, so as to educate, inform, provoke, and inspire movements by individuals and groups toward Asian American empowerment.
What I'm trying to do is to target market my product towards a younger crowd, which no one is really addressing right now. Or at least to make it more contemporary. I mean what's up with the big hair? It's so over. So eighties.Annabel Chong, from actress to producer.
After a year of preparation, that war is about to begin in earnest. Against whom is it to be waged? Not against the coca cartels in Colombia or the consumers in Manhattan but against the peasants who plant the coca and against the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) who protect them. This will solve neither the civil war nor the drug problem.If you've had an uneasy feeling about Plan Columbia but weren't sure why, read this. Z Magazine has put together a great set of links if you want to learn more. For a quick fix read Chomsky on Columbia.
I somehow made my way to Hobbsblog and was struck by the fascinating depth of information in the Orange Bowl Special Edition – last Wednesday, the Oklahoma Sooners played football with the Florida State Seminoles, right? Well, it turns out that the historical Sooners actually got their name by jumping the gun on a land rush and settling/stealing Seminole (among other tribes) land before anyone else had the chance.
Check out the new Blogger server! Congratulations, you guys rock.
Time (?!) presents the best comics of 2000. via c-log, a comics news weblog I’d like to see take off.
The Poppy Garden’s got it going on. Check out 4 January for a slew of J20 activism links.
Microsoft’s Xbox – I saw it here first.
Hey, look at this: Pyra’s asking for donations to help make Blogger go faster. I was gonna buy a Stalkers CD this week, but I think I’ll Napster it instead, and use the $15 to … um, buy food for my family. Then I’ll find another $15 somewhere and donate it to my favorite company.
There’s still time to nominate Dr. Menlo.com Blogs From Space! and Apathy for the most underrated weblogs of the second millennium.
The text in the Flash intro to the Rage Against The Machine site is something I’ve seen before (actually, quite recently) but I can’t quite place it. Do you know where it’s from?
“No one knows who installed the sculpture.”
The book is called User Interface Design for Programmers, but the principles of UI design that Jeol Spolsky brilliantly illuminates apply to lots more than just software.
Open the pod bay doors, please, Hal.
bonus: Achenbach on Kubrick’s “Odyssey”
From: jorn@mcs.comNot yet, Jorn, but I've come quite close to cutting your robotwisdom out of my rotation. After your recent display of anti-semitism (see 12.28 arblog and this Metafilter thread) I've lost all respect for you, if not for the quality of your links.
Date: Wednesday, April 5, 2000 5:27 AM
Subject: [weblogs] Weblogs as friendships?
Does anybody else _emotionally_ stop reading particular logs in exactly the way they break off friendships, when something offends them?
It took me 12 minutes and 8 seconds to find all six sets in the Set Daily Puzzle, which is entirely too long. Tomorrow I will take half that time. If your handheld runs PalmOS, download Grouper and charge those spare batteries!
Something’s wrong with this picture.
The Sim-Cam (best viewed with Netscape Navigator Gold 2.0) is a great introduction to how aperture size and shutter speed affect exposure in photography.
I hope one day to take photographs as well as Anton. For now, 3 tips: take pictures of everything you want; believe in yourself; do not care about others opinions.
Photo Essays at Impact Visuals: a photojournalism cooperative for social change.
A great photo happens when a photographer sees a situation unfolding in front of them that evokes an emotion that the photographer feels deep down, in the middle of their chest. And in a split second, they then make a conscious choice of exposure, lens, depth of field, lighting, body language, composition, etc., and release the shutter. The film is then processed, scanned, laid out on a page, printed on a press, driven across town to the newspaper carrier who throws it on some guy's porch, who then opens the newspaper and looks down at that photo… and if that guy gets the same feeling deep down in the middle of his chest that the photographer did when they viewed the situation in the first place, they have made a great photo.From Photojournalism from the Soul, an essay by Nancy L. Ford.
If you’re heading to DC for I01/J20, be aware that this guy is not your friend.
I am trying to use ridicule and social embarrassment to change the habits of the American consumer. Increasing publicity will turn the SUV from a status trinket to the badge of shame that it is. In the old days society had a pillory to shame people out of anti-social behavior. Today we have the mighty bumper sticker.
Rules:
- I only tag the big ones. I tag in the affluent suburbs where they never get dirty or use the 4 wheel drive.
2. I don’t tag commercial vehicles like contractors or any business affiliated vehicle.
3. I don’t retag vehicles that I recognize as already tagged
4. I only tag late model vehicles, not some beat up old Suburban some poor soul has inherited.
5. I don’t tag just because it’s a four-wheel drive vehicle. Only the types that never use ‘em (soccer mom’s etc.).
That leaves 85%.
Habari gani? Umoja. If you’re looking for information on Kwanzaa, you can’t go wrong with the Official Kwanzaa Website.
Drawing life to a close with a transcendentally orgasmic bang, and not a pathetic and god-forsaken whimper, can turn dying into the culmination of one's existence rather than its present messy and protracted anti-climax.When is it best to take crack cocaine?
I was surprised to see the degree to which children's television exists to sell toys to children. When you have the attention of that many kids there's a lot of good you can do that doesn't involve the selling of products. But I always got upset when we got more press for the amount of toys that we have for sale as opposed to the educational value of the show. The one thing I was never comfortable with being the host of 'Blue's Clues' is that television in general has too much influence on children. With Blue's Clues we did everything we could to get the kids' attention, and I always felt that was a tremendous amount of responsibility. Luckily we were always so careful that our content is always good.I always knew the Blue's Clues dude was cool. We'll miss you Steve.
If a Black Santa can cause this much trouble (“last year there was a dark-complexioned black Santa, and most of the white families got out of line”), imagine a Black Jesus!
Jack Herer for Agriculture, John Sellers for Defense, Bill Nye in Education – this cabinet has my support.
CMJ presents Smashing Peanuts in “A Billy Corgan Christmas”.
Among animal cases received recently by the Animal Control Division of the Fairfax County Police Department:The rest of today's Fairfax Weekly Animal Watch isn't quite as interesting.
Fair Oaks District, Centreville Rd., 2300 block, Dec. 7. Animal control was called about a squirrel running inside a residence. When an animal control officer saw the squirrel, it jumped into an open baby grand piano. After the officer started playing the song "All I Want" by the group Toad the Wet Sprocket, the squirrel jumped out of the piano and onto curtains, damaging them. The squirrel then jumped onto the officer's head and pounced onto a couch, where the officer was able to catch it. The officer released the animal outside. Neither the squirrel nor the officer was injured.
She is wearing a baby blue sweat shirt with tiny pink flowers. She is not wearing a coat despite the strong winter chill. She holds her own bag of gasoline, a black one, wrapping the plastic around her bleeding lips and nose. The bag swells and sinks, rising and falling. She holds it as if she were blowing up a party balloon. She giggles. She stumbles. She is 10.High on Gas and Out of Hope is a devastating story about gasoline addiction among Innu (native Canadian) children.
Hey, guy: saw your fucking Jolly Green Giant tee shirt--Ralph the Fake. Thanks. With support from you guys we put The chief into the White House. Now we are going to name 3 or more Supremes and get rid of fuckin gRoe shit and kick the asshole teachers' union to hell and fuck over your social socialitic security and make this one big fucking military camp that will make imperial Rome look small potatoes...again, thanks. Without you and yours, who knows, Gore won but we still lgot in but withoutt you guys he might have really wond!People ask me why I do randomWalks -- I do it for the person who sent this (anonymous) email. Every post I post is for you. I love you.
This is fantastic! Today borrowed blogs borrowed my blogjam blog about Random Walks borrowing my blog about borrowed blogs borrowing my blog from borrowed blogs! Or something. I feel giddy, and just a trifle sick.borrowed from blogjam
Every so often it’s fun to play Guess the Evil Dictator/Sit-Com Character as yourself and see what it comes up with. Just now I was pleased to discover that (apparently due to the birth of my son and my move out of New York) I’m a close match for Mork from Mork and Mindy.
Today I’m watching two webcams to see stuff blow up. The Hoan Bridge Camera is pointing at a condemned bridge in Milwaukee that’s scheduled for demolition, and the Popo volcano webcam is showing a column of smoke (and ash?) rising as high again as the recently-erupted Popocatepetl in Mexico. thanks to lake effect and robotwisdom for the links.
In the Beginning was the Command Line is a short book by Neal Stephenson that's available for download. It considers the evolution of operating systems over the years and is a great read for anyone who wants to know why computers are so damn hard to use and why that's a good thing. Or something. It's free. Read it.This was the first post to randomWalks, made one year ago. Check out the rest of the first edition here.
Get ready to play Name that Candybar, a.k.a. Twelve Things I May Never Eat Again.
United Skates of America is a photo essay on New Jersey roller-skating rinks 1976-1979.
W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the great intellectuals of American society, wrote that white people are rewarded for their support of a system that largely does not benefit them - in terms of how much power and wealth is concentrated into the hands of the few. He called this reward, the "psychological wages of whiteness". The ability of white people to think of themselves as better than Black folks, regardless of how poor they are, how many hours they have to work, how their labor makes someone else rich. "I might be poor, but at least I'm not a nigger" is how white identity helps shape a horribly disfigured humanity of hierarchy and punishment in the service of power and wealth. If white people are to work for an end to racial injustice then we must come to understand how the psychological wages of whiteness have (mis)shaped our identity and (de)formed our consciousness. Until white people confront their internalized superiority, the dynamics of racism will be reproduced unconsciously. Becoming conscious of how race operates, one will still make many mistakes and reproduce racism, but at least we can work to undo this and undermine this dynamic. Furthermore, when the internalized impact of white supremacy - of (un)consciously believing that white people are simply better - is confronted by white people, then as bell hooks suggests, new identities can be shaped and we can work to define our own reality.That's one to grow on, excerpted from White Supremacy on My Mind: Learning to Undermine Racism by Chris Crass.
"Usually, if you wait long enough, someone will ask your question," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas explained. How can the only black judge on the court really believe that?Clarence Thomas may not have any questions, but Courtland Milloy does.
Good digital photography website. thanks, brainlog.
You should be printing these posters
Video Backpacker: To me, my thing is, a video image is much more powerful and useful than an actual event. Like back when I used to go out, when I was last out, I was walking down the street and this guy, that came barreling out of a bar, fell right in front of me, and he had a knife right in his back, landed right on the ground and... Well, I have no reference to it now. I can't put it on pause. I can't put it on slow mo and see all the little details. And the blood, it was all wrong. It didn't look like blood. The hue was off. I couldn't adjust the hue. I was seeing it for real, but it just wasn't right. And I didn't even see the knife impact on the body. I missed that part.This line from Richard Linklater's 1991 film Slacker sounded rather benignly absurd at the time, but I find myself coming closer and closer to not just understanding this perspective but assuming it. If you haven't yet got a TiVo, be warned -- it heralds a deep revolution in perception.
Somehow within the last 12 months it seems that nearly everyone I know has obtained a copy of Real Vegetarian Thai – though I don’t think anyone has actually tried a recipe from it yet. Have you used it?
I am Curry. A slim and handsome race car driver. Here are some FAST and BASIC facts about me!!!
The world’s largest river by volume, drainage basin, number of tributaries, and possibly length begins “high in the Peruvian Andes as a thin sheet of crystal water flowing down the side of a rock wall”. A spot on a slope of Nevado Mismi meets both definitions of the source of the Amazon, being the furthest point in the watershed from which water flows continuously as well as the furthest point from which water could possibly flow into the ocean. A five-nation National Geographic Society expedition pinpointed the source of the Amazon using GPS technology.
The United States Department of State’s handy guide to renunciation of U.S. citizenship, for babygrrl and for future reference. (Print it out and keep it in your pocket!)
Since I'm Japanese, and Japan experienced the nuclear bomb, I feel a need to address this. So there's news footage from the actual nuclear bombing in the game, showing what happened, and what's happening with the anti-nuclear-weapons movement today is worked in, too. That way people can learn about these issues -- even if just a little -- while they are playing the game.FEED talks with Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid.
I take aPathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A.A. Milne
PILL-tiddley pom
It keeps me
STILL-tiddley pom,
It keeps me
STILL-tiddley pom
Not
fiddling.
Given his coexisting ADHD and OCD, we question whether Pooh may over time present with Tourette's syndrome. Pooh is also clearly described as having Very Little Brain. The cause of Pooh's poor brain growth may be found in the stories themselves. Early on we see Pooh being dragged downstairs bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head. Could his later cognitive struggles be the result of a type of Shaken Bear Syndrome?
The FEED special issue on drugs features a story on less well-known psychedelic compounds in which the author talks to Sasha Shulgin (PiHKAL and TiHKAL) and to Vaults of Erowid webmaster Earth, as well as a story on underground psychedelic psychotherapy sessions.
To say it in Mad Ape Den is to say it in one, in two, or in one and two (as I do now), but not in two and two and so on.
If Mad Ape Den has you raw and sad, try the new Van – it’s fun! But is a Mad Ape Den Van to be had?
And if you can do one and one and two, you can see why Al has e be mc2 (for if you sit or if you go – tug or no – the sun is red as Al’s say so).
But for a far-out irk, try to say it and not use “e”!
You think the fiction of Hollywood has to be exaggerated, and it's just not. I was shocked. I always thought there were really smart people working in Hollywood who were just really cynical, and they knew that the movies they were making were not that good, and they were doing it because they tested well. But mostly it's a very middlebrow to lowbrow kind of town. And they're making films that they approve of.Daniel Clowes' Ghost World is in print as a comic and in production as a film.
Dr Daniel Levin, a psychologist at Kent State University in Ohio, said the inability to recognise faces of people from another race is usually explained by saying that people have less experience of seeing them. His study shows the problem is not that we cannot identify the details, it is that we don't pay attention to them.The gently-worded wire story goes on to suggest that whites do significantly worse at recognition than Blacks (it's unfortunate that other groups don't seem to have been included). This is the psychology of racism folks -- do you recognize yourself in this story? Dr. Levin has published a page summarizing his face categories research.
Corners on the Curving Sky by Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
Our earth is round, and, among other things
That means that you and I can hold
completely different
Points of view and both be right.
The difference of our positions will show
Stars in your window. I cannot even imagine.
Your sky may burn with light,
While mine, at the same moment,
Spreads beautiful to darkness.
Still, we must choose how we separately corner
The circling universe of our experience
Once chosen, our cornering will determine
The message of any star and darkness we
encounter.
A: “the sound of 20 erasers rubbing against paper”
Q: What is a typical art class response when a male model gets an
erection?
How sexy can a woman be if she hates her body? She can act sexy, but can she feel sexy? How fully can she surrender to passion if she is worried that her thighs are too heavy or her stomach too round, if she can't bear to be seen in the light, or if she doesn't like the fragrance of her own genitals?Media activist Jean Kilbourne explains the psychopathology of advertising.
Today is the anniversary of the N30 protests in Seattle – protests that shut down the WTO conference and exposed the fear and contempt with which the plutocracy regards the rights, beliefs, and bodies of the public. A lot of people are remembering the protest today: check out John Butler’s thread on Metafilter and Dr. Menlo’s N30 tribute for a start. If you’re lucky, This is What Democracy Looks Like may be screening in your area this weekend. Keep an window on the Seattle Indymedia center, for the protestors have promised to return, and the Mayor has asked for a media blackout while he enacts his revenge.
MST3K meets “Dark Dungeons”, an anti-D&D comic screed by Jack Chick: two great tastes that taste great together.
Dave Eggers reviews four recently published books by four of the greatest living comic artists for the New York Times. thanks, tripping.
There are many people who believe that the human mind, based on neurons and physical principles, is just a very sophisticated formal system. Does Gödel's theorem imply the existence of facts that must be true, but that our minds can never prove? Or even stronger, that our minds can never believe -- or strongest yet, ever conceive?From Kenny's Overview of Hofstadter's Explanation of Gödel's Theorem, via the always-rewarding larkfarm.
I dated Yumi for awhile, and I have to confess I became very attached to her. Yumi could get very angry over small things. She would yell at me and ignore me the exact same way as all my other girlfriends have. Finally I decided to stop the relationship. It was too draining for me. It was hard sometimes to remember that Yumi wasn't real.
I poured the French roast I'd brought for us to share. She smiled. I placed a rose between us. She demurely looked away. I reached for her hand. She reached for mine. They almost seemed to touch. But almost was not enough. Her fingertips broke up into shards of three-dimensional light as they pushed toward me, out of the range of her imaging computers.The Washington Post is carrying an interesting article about the progress and shortcomings of tele-immersion. It looks we've got a long way to go before the technology can convey the crucial subtleties of face-to-face interaction such as eye contact duration, pupil dilation, nuances of posture, and the musical qualities of speech.
You can only get six shooters at any time, so the margin for error is narrower than on any other legendary golden age game. Plus, the game is faster and more ferocious than even Robotron when played on difficulty level #9.Following last year's amazing perfect game of Pac-Man ("It was tremendously monotonous"), Twin Galaxies -- the "worldwide authority" on videogame rankings and statistics -- certified a new Centipede world record this week. The previous record stood for fourteen years.
If we’d been taught this Virginia history in 4th grade (and taken a couple of field trips) I’d have become an historian!
Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day is a stunning image of Earth at night. The full-size image (534k) demands a few moments of reflection. The earth observatory site provides some more background information. It might be interesting to compare this illustration with a political atlas of the world.
A thread on creating Aqua-style interface elements and other graphics at the MacNN forums links to Phong’s eplastic tutorial and a couple other promising resources.
"Of course you must vomit," the interpreter said. "But this is an experience of a lifetime. Your instructor wishes to assure you that you will vomit with satisfaction."BBC correspondent Emma-Jane Kirby files a report from zero gravity.
I just can’t get enough of this picture from the great fires this past summer. It’s quite arresting – and I can feel the heat on my eyeballs!
An optics researcher has developed a procedure which can improve anybody’s eyesight – no matter how good. I want to be a cyborg when I grow up.
Somebody really hates us?!
limn: to draw or paint; to trace or delineate; to depict or describe
A singularly beautiful word – but has anyone used it in a sentence in the past 300 years? Yes!
When I was little, the classified ads fascinated me. Like, who was selling their crypt? The ad said "evenings". It seemed like such an obvious trick.New One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry, a jive-ass faker who can't spell and has no idea what "story structure" even means, and all is well with the world.
Of some interest: Yahoo News' most-emailed content.
Slicing up eyeballs, I want you to know!
Iron Chef Kono ato “is dedicated to Iron Chef that has not aired or will not air in United States”.
Well, my little friend, you’ve got something jammed in here real good.
Can anyone help Fred find a used car?
He tried various other angles on convincing me that there's no way you could prank someone by e-flatulating in their cubicle. I still wasn't convinced, so we went round and round about email, rotting flesh, and flatulence for like 5 minutes before we both realized that the conversation we were having was sounding more and more bizarre. At this point I just thanked him for his time and took off.Did you make a pootie?
At the National Cigar Museum: Racism Sells Cigars.
Minibosses is the band I always wanted to start.
There I was, wallowing for weeks in my unemployment misery, when one day, bam! I was watching the movie Pulp Fiction. And you know that scene where they blew the guy away in the back of the car and then had to bring in Harvey Keitel to clean the whole thing up?From the first chapter of Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium.
It appears the only thing spoiled by the Nader candidacy was the Democrats' ability to think critically.
Bill Gates has seen the future of personal computing, and it’s… a Newton?
Virtually the entire world, including the United States and the UN Security Council, regards Israel's occupation of Palestinian land as a violation of international law. Yet in a typical news story reporting on "Palestinian violence" against Israeli occupation soldiers, viewers are not told that Palestinians are fighting against a military occupation. The right to use force to resist foreign occupation is universally recognized and enshrined in international law.Something's rotten in the state of mideast coverage. thanks, thewebtoday.
"Governor Bush feels that Eminem is the perfect embodiment of what his presidency can accomplish," said Karen Hughes, Bush's communications director. "Like the governor, Eminem is charismatic, funny, and extremely dangerous to women, homosexuals, the country, and the world."Mired reports that Eminem will speak at Bush's inauguration. (Obviously a satirical piece, but I think this interview with Mos Def is for real. Who are these guys?)
This premature ejaculation is so buggy I’ll never be able to convince my NS4 friends to switch to it, which means it’ll be that much longer before I can spiff up my site with more and sexier CSS – but someone just came by and tossed me a NS6 t-shirt! “The Code is Ready… are you?” Woohoo!
Logo Design Workshop, parts one and two. Logos for the Design Challenged in 19 parts. Happy companies, sad companies. xblog on logos and symbols. And, of course, swish, swirl, and swoosh.
This is the burrito page with the burrito personality-style test that New Yorker article mentions. It’s a great page in that it covers one of the greatest possible topics for a web page, but otherwise it’s pretty piss-poor – which can be only partially attributed to the paucity of burrito information on this world wide web. A google search reveals a few data points, vegetarian burrito recipes (umm, fresh onion-tomato-cilantro salsa, rice maybe cooked with a little peanut oil, and your choice of beans cooked as you like them rolled up in the largest tortilla you can find is a good starting point), and of course the site that turns you into a burrito, but not much else besides way too many links to the world’s largest burrito which couldn’t possibly be as interesting as the world’s smallest burrito, which I’m going to make this week by wrapping a single grain of rice and one bean in a tortilla the size of my fingertip.
My uncle told me the story of this place when I was 13 and I didn't believe it until I saw it. The story goes that during WWII the US was worried that the Germans would try to bomb US airports, so they built a fake town just east of Richmond International Airport (then called Byrd Airport). The town is strange to see -- it consistes of roads, sidewalks, driveways that lead to nothing, streetlights, sewer covers, mailboxes, even the occasional park bench. It also had a runway with landing lights. All the lights were designed to be turned on in case of an air raid and at the same time, the real airport and all of Richmond would be blacked out in the hopes that the Germans would bomb the fake town.The only Virginia listing on ghosttowns.com (listed as Portugue Road), some research reveals that this construction project located on Portugee Road east of Richmond International Airport was better known as Elko tract (or Lost City to locals who used to park and party there) until some short-sighted bureaucrat decided that rural Virginia needs semiconductor plants more than it needs a fascinating historical and cultural landmark. I was excited for about 45 minutes this morning at the prospect of exploring and photographing the unusual site, but now that I know it's become the White Oak Technology Park, this aerial picture is probably as close as I'll come to Elko.
In case you’re not completely saturated in election coverage, analysis, analysis of coverage, and analysis of analysis, three of my favorite websites are doing a much better job of linking and thinking about these things than I could hope to. Please visit:
The real blame rests with a Democratic Leadership Council that is pro-death-penalty, pro-censorship, pro-corporation, pro-plutarchy, pro-military-buildup and pro-drug-war, and yet still somehow, against all logic, expects Liberal support. Listen up Gore. Listen up Lieberman. If you abandon the Left, the Left will abandon you. This lesson should be etched into your brains with a big Green tattoo the size of Florida with the name Ralph Nader all over it.
Of course, the liberals will insist there are environmental explanations for white drug and alcohol problems. One can imagine them trying to blame two-earner white families for being too busy with their dot-com startup or landscaping classes at Home Depot to give their children the nurturing needed to resist drugs.This quote is from Tim Wise's brilliant open letter to the Pioneer Fund ("committed to the proposition that people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds are, on the basis of heredity, inherently unequal"), but if you only read one of his many articles on AlterNet, read Acknowledging and Challenging Whiteness.
Thanks to misnomer for tipping me off to the latest edition of Scott McCloud’s online comic column I can’t stop thinking!
I can't speak for all Nader voters, but I can speak as a Nader voter, and the fact of the matter is that Ralph Nader spoke to the issues and ideals that most concern me as a citizen. Call me a crazy radical Lefty, but I'm more concerned with the vast amounts of money permeating and polluting our political process than I am about whether or not elderly voters can get their drugs on the cheap. And, yes, the issue of character was a factor too. Given a false choice between two desperate, inadequate fortunate sons grasping to escape their fathers' shadows, I chose instead to pick a man who'd devoted his entire life really fighting for the people of this nation. In sum, given the candidates on the ballot, I believe Nader was - and is - the best choice.What he said.
But - and this is what the Goreites just can't seem to understand - had Nader not been on the ballot and this had been a two-man race, I still would not have voted for Gore. I would have abstained in the Presidential race and voted solely for local and congressional candidates and ballot initiatives. Meaning that, at least in my case, Nader is not responsible for my not voting for Gore. Al Gore lost my vote before Nader ever won it.
Two days after the election, we still don’t know who the next president will be. How did things get to be so weird?
Not to belabor the day’s news, but the word out of Florida is pretty astounding – 19,000 Palm Beach ballots have been tossed out for being punched in two places, ballots are showing up which had been “forgotten” Tuesday night, Blacks were turned away from the polls yesterday, and it even looks like the flawed design of the Palm Beach ballot was illegal under Florida law!
Wow – Buchanan did really well in Palm Beach County, Florida. Odd, don’t you think?
Amy Goodman of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now! (“The Exception to the Rulers”) maneuvered a get-out-the-vote telephone call by President Clinton to WBAI in New York into a 30-minute interview addressing such controversial topics as the death penalty, sanctions against Iraq, clemency for Native American activist Leonard Peltier, relations with Cuba and China, racial profiling, and the candidacy of Ralph Nader! A transcript is available, and the audio is extremely compelling listening.
I'm getting ready to go vote ... then my girlfriend and I are going to do something absolutely numbing, like drink a bottle of gin and go see "Charlie's Angels" or the like. That way when I find out who won tomorrow, I will already have my blinding headache and wrenching nausea firmly in place.I found this MeFi post pretty amusing.
NewsForChange is carrying live election night updates from the Nader campaign headquarters.
Why do they just make fun of each other?WP columnist Marc Fisher's 9-year-old daughter on viewing a dozen presidential campaign ads.
Editorial: Exit poll results: post ‘em if you got ‘em.
It will be a rally either way. You basically have a choice between a candidate who is pro-business and one who is more pro-business.Wall street is looking forward to a post-election rally, which should be good for the billionaires any way you slice it.
If you need to do some last-minute research about the choices you’ll be met with in the voting booth today, you could do worse than look up your local chapter of the League of Women’s Voters. Your local paper has probably published a voter’s guide as well; check to see if it’s online.
Anticipating the results: the WP offers a guide to watching the media watch the returns.
To hold infinity in the palm of your hand – not quite, but Planetarium for the Palm comes pretty close.
The multi-talented Gillian Anderson drops LAN switching science for RouterGod.com.
It is olive picking season in Palestine. thanks, le blogeur.
The mothers are going to walk right up to that computer and say, My children are dying, what can you do? They're not going to sit there and like, browse eBay or something.Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates addressing the Creating Digital Dividends conference in Seattle.
My initiation into the mysteries of the database came unexpectedly today, with a request for a quick-and-dirty Microsoft Access job. I was delighted to discover that O’Reilly offers up database design principles as a sample chapter on their site. Of course, I started to get lost about 1/6 of the way in when the author talks about normal forms, but this totally abstract theory is just the stuff I love to smash my head on over and over and over until something breaks.
The e-mail’s creator could be guilty of voter fraud, a felony that carries a penalty of 16 months to three years in prison.
Cornel West: I’m for brother Ralph Nader. Not because he’s a perfect candidate — no candidate is perfect. But for me on personal grounds, I reached a point where working people and poor people are so disregarded and disrespected by a corporate-dominated Democratic Party that you have to begin a new cycle somewhere with somebody. And this broadens the discourse and broadens the engagement. And maybe we can see a little leftward leaning in the Dem ocratic Party. We shall see.Check out this great LA Weekly feature to see who other lefty thinkers are voting for and why.
Salim Muwakkil: The choice between Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and Democrat Al Gore is an agonizing choice, for all the obvious reasons. The choice is a bit clearer for African-Americans, however, who likely would bear the brunt of a Republican administration should George W. Bush squeak past Gore. What’s more, there’s a good chance that Congress will remain in the GOP’s hands; that dire prospect would set the stage for a three-branch assault on the very idea of an activist, progressive government. It was that idea that justified programs designed to redress the varied legacies of slavery and Jim Crow apartheid. I remember the dirty dozen years of the Reagan-Bush regime and its dire consequences. But I also remember how that era started and how many progressives urged a vote for independent candidate John Anderson in the 1980 election that launched Reagan; Jimmy Carter was too tepid a liberal for our tastes. The black community is still paying a steep price for the perverse policies put in place during that benighted era. Nader clearly is the best man for the job, but I’m voting for the lesser of the two-party evils. The worst of those evils is just too likely to cause too much damage.
Ishmael Reed: The white left can afford to experiment with Nader, because they agree with Bush that the problems African-Americans face are traceable to their personal behavior. As an African-American, I have to go with Gore, given the alternative. The Bush family gave us Willie Horton, drugs in the inner city, the outrage of Tulia, Texas, where 17 percent of the adult African-American population was rounded up and humiliated before photographers on trumped-up drug charges that were based upon the testimony of a corrupt undercover agent. And recently George W. Bush and his wife defended the Confederate flag. She even said that the Confederate flag was part of the Southern heritage. I wonder what heritage she’s talking about? Whipping people? George Bush’s enthusing about the reading scores of African-American fourth-graders has got to be the most cynical act in recent political history. The Bush family is always using black people for one purpose or the other. Bush’s father is famous for the Willie Horton campaign, in which they used a negative image of black people to gain 30 points among white male voters in the South during the time that Horton ad was used. In this case, they’re using black people to show their compassionate conservatism.
If you happen to find yourself in conversation with a stranger, what's wrong with talking about France's surprising victory in the World Cup, say, instead of mining the Francophile roots of ambulatory social commentary?Patrick Tracey struggles with the merits and demerits of psychogeography for the Washington City Paper. I am heartened to discover that the Washington Psychogeography Association is now accepting members.
I love this bilingual presentation of The Cure B-Sides lyrics. Now why haven’t these songs been released on anything but a too-long tangle-prone cassette?
Sure, no one's offended by a lego Mona Lisa, but will the same be true when someone finally builds a lego Piss Christ?Slashdot reader Anne Marie wants you to support funding for the arts.
I finally found a Community Supported Agriculture farm that serves my area! Fresh local ripe organic produce from June thru October for about $300 – incredible! (Can you tell I’m excited?) If you find this appealing, see if there’s a CSA farm near you.
What you should know about Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
If (like me) you spent way too much time playing the original Nintendo as a child, you’re sure to love Seanbaby’s NES page. Of special note are the twenty worst Nintendo games of all time and the NES congratulation! awards. thank you, mr barrett.
Salon profiles Alan Moore, eccentric comic book genius; I just want to beseech him, “darling don’t you go and cut your hair.”
The Frog Farm FAQ is an endlessly fascinating document detailing our rights, in theory and in practice, as citizens of the United States. Very scary reading for Halloween.
Nader will be on ABC’s Nightline tonight along with Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura for a town meeting-style discussion.
When I chew the etiquette gum, I feel the need to stand up straight. You can't slouch and chew etiquette gum.What's up with those inscrutable Japanese candy wrappers?
Metafilter thread about online comics, for future reference.
"Lenny Lambchop" was getting up on telephone boxes in NYC lower east side around 2 am; the bars were letting out. Two beautiful working girls wobbled over to him and asked if they could have posters. "What are you gonna do with 'em?," he asked. One of the ladies, wearing a too short spandex something, replied, "I'm gonna put "MEN WITH NO LIPS" up in my room." Concerned, L.L. said, "But we want lots of people to see them." The other woman winked, "Oh they will, honey, at least twenty people a night!" Good enough.From The Guerrilla Posterers' Guide.
Lotto, a short story by Douglas Coupland. thanks, matt.
-- or have you forgotten NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, the continuation of the drug war, the Defense of Marriage Act, the erosion of civil liberties, the dismantling of the social safety net, the unprecedented concentration of corporate power -- not to mention the bombing of Iraq, Sudan, and Afghanistan --I remember, Sparky.
They're a kind of slick impostor band that lead critics and hapless rock fans down the dangerous path of asking, "How relevant is this?" instead of asking, "Does this fucking rock?"Not everyone likes Radiohead.
A new concept in blogging: Can’t think of anything to say? What the hell, just borrow someone else’s life.
posted by Cobbler
Educate yourself about the Mideast
THIS IS SANDOU STYLE!! thanks, allaboutgeorge.
Robot Wisdom is hot right now, with over a dozen great links near the top.
if Gore really wants Green votes, he should trade for them, like, say, an end to Iraq sanctions!Kendall Clark pulls no punches over at the Monkeyfist Daily Churn.
It should help us all sleep a little better to know we're taking away violent criminals' taste for blood.Federal prisons now offer vegan meals.
Curry addictive? I believe it – I can’t get enough of the stuff.
Igor Sergeev’s “Red Hair and Voice” (30x45, ink on paper) at the Outsider Art Museum in Moscow.
More from recent NPR programs:
The secrets of Colombian currency counterfeiting operations. thanks, gulfstream.
This attempt to kill low-power FM behind closed doors smacks of everything that Americans have come to distrust about our democratic process.FCC chairman William Kennard is hip hop.
A couple of randomWalks editors, (no, not me) and some friends and family members are running “The People’s Marathon” tomorrow. I should have made randomWalks t-shirts, but I doubt anyone would have worn them. Hell, I wouldn’t wear one. I would write randomWalks.com on my arm though… in real big letters in black magic marker. Right now.
New One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry – this time it’s really about a demon.
True Food Shopping List - how to avoid genetically engineered food.
On September 14, Steve Yasko called me to a meeting with Pacifica General Managers. KPFK Manager Mark Schubb, expressed his repeated criticism that audiences don't want to hear graphic details of police brutality before breakfast, or as he said last year "before I have my coffee." He criticized our coverage of Mumia Abu-Jamal, East Timor and questioned why I asked Spike Lee about his affiliation with Nike. Pacifica's Chief Financial Officer weighed in with her criticism of American prisoner Lori Berenson in Peru, (we had just aired an exclusive interview with her that received widespread national press.) After the meeting, Yasko took me into the hotel lobby and shouted, "I am your boss! I am your boss!"From Amy Goodman's memo to the Pacifica Board of Directors regarding the future of the most important show on radio, Democracy Now!
How to win at pinewood derby. Where was the Net when I was painting my car with my Mom’s nail polish? What the hell was I thinking?
What the Japanese are selling is nothing more than cabbage sprinkled with seasonings and artificial flavorings. This debate is not just about protecting our market share. We are trying to preserve our national heritage.Looks like the kimchi wars are old news, though I just heard about them today on marketplace.
Working on Same Painting: Sorry I'm late.Get me drunk and I can recite this movie (Slacker) backwards. You didn't need to know that. Quote courtesy Andy's Movie Quote Page.
Having a Breakthrough Day: That's all right. Time doesn't exist.
For the past four years, whenever Odenton resident Gwen Jones has found coins on the floor or sidewalk, she has put them in a pink piggy bank covered with polka-dotted pigs. Gwen says such saving is important because "you could get something if you save your money. . . . I could buy stuff from a bubble gum machine." Once, she took money out to buy some ice cream. Saving pennies allows Gwen to buy more than any individual pennies could buy. However, since piggy banks provide less-than-competitive interest rates, she isn't keeping up with inflation.The Washington Post takes a crack at some common aphorisms.
Even though Ralph Nader was not allowed to enter the debate floor, we managed to get him in the debate - if only sonically! You'll hear the three Presidential candidates debate issues from affirmative action, to the current Middle East crisis to universal healthcare. It's what we here at Democracy Now think democracy should sound like.This excellent DIY debate combines tuesday's CPD debate with Nader's Madison Square Garden speech and requires realplayer.
In last night’s debate, Bush reassured the American people that he has absolutely no idea what affirmative action is. If you think it’s got anything to do with quotas or with hiring less-than-qualified applicants then neither do you. Someone ought to send this info on pertinent Supreme Court decisions along to the Bush campaign for the governor’s edification. Yesterday’s New York Times carried an op-ed which examines a critical review of 200 scientific studies of affirmative action and concludes that the facts vindicate such policies. In fact, a Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded last week to an economist who developed methods of analysis which, among other things, demonstrated the effectiveness of affirmative action in integrating the textile industry. Little-known fact: the greatest beneficiary of affirmative action has been white women.
Void-of-course Moon charts for the year 2000, Eastern time. thanks, astrogirl.
USAT says that on who would better handle the Middle East crisis, Gore edges Bush 47-43 percent, but that when it comes to better handling the attack in Yemen on the U.S. destroyer Cole, it's Bush 46-41 percent. Somebody should tell the pollsters and the voters that the attack is part of the Middle East crisis.From Slate's Today's Papers by Scott Shuger.
I got my sexy Monkeyfist stickers in the mail this weekend. Thanks Kendall!
I just discovered that Slate has tons of political cartoons online.
Like Nader but hate Bush? Invisible Broadcast System breaks down the electoral college system to demonstrate that a vote for Nader is just a vote for Nader (and not a vote for Bush) if you vote in one of the many states in which the race is not at all close.
There’s a lot of good stuff over at Kestrel’s Nest right now. Don’t miss this photo of Al Gore explaining how to hypnotize chickens or this note about Bush’s policy on Africa.
Sure, we'll crack SDMI. *After* the record companies and any consumer-electronics companies gullible enough to do their bidding have sunk billions of dollars into hardware and business plans based on it. Hasta la vista, idiots!The Secure Digital Music Initiative is an industry effort to kill MP3s and assert unthinkable control over when where and how you listen to music in the future. It looks like Eric S. Raymond spoke too soon, though -- every proposed SDMI watermarking scheme has been broken. Let's just hope this is the last we ever hear of it.
2001: A Space Odyssey original cinematic program – somehow this is very important.
Last night the toilet talked. Tomorrow it may listen, and the day after it just might run a drug test.Is nothing sacred?
The latest episode of Poynter.org’s Diversity Digest links to some good articles including a story on the increasing use of interracial people and families in marketing and one about the immigration of Mexicans to the rural American South.
The New York Times carries a pretty fascinating report on employing gender stereotypes to enhance the synthesized speech interfaces coming soon to a portal near you. I wonder when the researchers will determine that I want my kitchen appliances to talk to me in an old Black woman’s voice, my robot vacuum/duster to have a Spanish accent, and my math tutor to sound ever so slightly Asian.
Gardner: At the time, I honestly thought all these people were guilty. I did take offense at the way the dug raid was handled, because of the prejudicial statements made by the law officers, and by people being dragged in front of the camera in their underwear -- and some of the women were in their see-through nightgowns and pajamas. It was really disgraceful. There wouldn't be a white person in this community who was arrested and drug in front of the cameras like that. In fact, there was two white people that were arrested during the drug raid, but they were allowed to come in and bond out -- they weren't arrested that morning and dragged in front of the cameras. They seemed to have been treated different than the people of black skin, and the only reason I can ascertain is cause of their white skin -- because they were involved with the black community.Gary Gardner, a farmer who lives near Tulia, Texas and one of the few local whites to publicly criticize the drug sting operation which resulted in the arrest of over 10% of the town's Black population, talks to Democracy Now's Amy Goodman. I've been meaning to blog the Tulia case but failed on two occasions to gather any links besides my original source for the info (Democracy Now!)... so stop reading rW and check out grim amusements and caught in between for the rest of the story.
Goodman: I think it's important to note, Gary Gardner, that you're not exactly known as one who is sympathetic to the Black community.
Gardner: Well, that statement's not exactly right... I'm a person that sometimes uses language that went out 50 years ago. I don't know exactly how to put that.
Goodman: Let's just say you were warned about using certain "N" words on the program. (chuckles)
Gardner: (laughing) Heh, yes ma'am.
My point is simply that I doubt I’ll read kuro5hin for the same reason I hardly read slashdot these days – the homogenous readership of both sites is overwhelmingly ignorant of social issues and therefore, in my humble opinion, in the end any analysis they come up with of technology/culture news is so limited by a lack of any diversity of perspective as to be worthless. We can respectfully agree to disagree about which fast food chain has better french fries, but I will not respect any position which does not hold the liberation of those oppressed by shackles of greed to be priority number one.
Fuck kuro5hin. View source.
That was great listening this morning, nedlog, I’m glad you caught it. McChesney has his own site, from which I learned that he’s a Nader supporter and learned of an intriguing music newsletter which covers “culture and politics, funk and country, hiphop and heavy metal, racism and revolution, jazz and reggae, folk music and ska, censorship and the phony war on drugs”, Rock and Rap Confidential.
Sell by, use by, best by, better by, best if used by, enjoy or freeze by, best before, guaranteed fresh until...But what does it all mean? Use It or Lose It, says the Washington Post.
If you publish online you should read Write the Web.
A beginner’s guide to malt liquor, mostly for Linus' amusement. thanks to babygrrl, who’s also down for the cause.
astro(b)logy is sorting weblogs according to their creators' sun signs. I’m personally more interested in the sign of the site. randomWalks is a Sagittarius – keywords: versatile, sincere, searching, broad-minded, outspoken, superficial, jumps between subjects, irresponsible, lucky. thanks, considered harmful.
You can shuffle a deck of cards into oblivion in only 5 or 6 shuffles, but only if you are skilled with the riffle and split the deck into unequal portions. The average shuffler will require seven riffles, while the overhand shuffle is nearly ineffective in randomizing the order of a deck.
bonus links
the perfect shuffle
becoming an invisible illuminatus: phase one, the poker phase – i’m not making this up
poker variants
bullshit + poker =
7 card stud variations
poker FAQ
open directory: poker
As the okayplayer tour passes through, the Washington Post peeks behind the scenes at okayplayer.com
Using CSS as a Diagnostic Tool – brilliant stuff for HTML coders like me.
Two of Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons:
Did you know, it's a lot of white people in town that will mistreat you, and don't mean it. Did you know?From an NPR Lost and Found Sound installment about Eddie McCoy, a self-made oral historian in Oxford, North Carolina.
Uh-uh ... "and don't mean it," ... why?
Yeah. They have to do it -- to stay white.
Why Freeganthis shit is wild, and reminds me of the great Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book.
- An Attack on Consumption -
- In Defense of Donuts -
We’re having a party and everybody’s invited.
originally posted by mw
It's like you have peanut butter and jelly. I mean, we find that weird. Oh, we would never have peanut butter and jelly together. I would not do that to my taste buds.She just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich.
The Guy I Almost Was is a truly excellent panel-per-page online comic. I must insist you check it out. thanks, fuzzybelly.
Who let the dogs out? (NPR audio)
Printable Punk Rock Girl Paper Doll, from the Dead Milkmen site.
I don't think OSX is Sgt. Pepper. More like the Phantom Menace (technically amazing and very pretty, but will it have a plot, or just suck?).Rob Malda of Slashdot weighs in on the cultural significance of Mac OS X.
I'm not a security risk. I'm not being disruptive.Nader was surrounded by police and refused entrance to the debate hall at UMass-Boston tonight.
More NPR… (realaudio player required)
For the month of October, you can do the New York Times Crossword Puzzle online for free. How lame is it that they charge for this in the first place?
craigslist serves the Washington DC area now with jobs, housing, classifieds, and community events mailing lists. Lets hope it somehow lives up to the legendary original San Francisco iteration.
On an entirely different note, this skating/graffiti game is unlike anything seen before. I can’t wait to play it.
The next Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? looks like it will be pretty great – the cast is incredible featuring Holly Hunter, John Turturro, George Clooney, John Goodman, Michael Badalucco and I’m sure other great people whose names I don’t recognize.
Listen to Ralph Nader’s speech from Sunday’s super rally in Boston.
Howard Zinn Online – I still haven’t got around to reading A People’s History of the United States, which must be supplemented by Ronald Takaki’s Strangers From a Different Shore – get your copy from the Asian American Writers' Workshop – because Zinn inexcusably ignores the history of Asians in America as I understand it.
eleven commandments for digital photography :
I promise to be a good “digital humanist” and abide by the following eleven commandments as a photographer.
allaboutgeorge – good links about race and music.
NPR: Why does it matter how you raise these things that we're gonna kill almost immediately upon their maturity?Huff, a country lawyer, recently lost his family hog farm to an industrial operation. From NPR's Changing Face of America: Missouri Farms. Other recent NPR highlights include:
George Huff: I think the answer is the same as for those of us who are human -- we're born to die; what's done in between is what's called life. That's where this kind of treatment of animals is beneath what we're capable of as humans, and I'm hopeful people will understand that and abandon that practice.
Listen to the new Paul Simon album today in realaudio.
A bit of discussion about public radio over at Metafilter.
This article (complete with photos!) about hooking up a Samsung SCH-3500 mobile phone to a Palm device leaves me hot and bothered.
The wireless Web is like it was in the old days when we were tapping into bulletin boards with a 300- baud modem.NYTimes: The New Wireless Web
"If you look at this potato head, the only thing missing is a watermelon," Moniz-John said.
"If I saw it first, I would have said, 'We need to correct this,'" said Schumpert.
"He's a potato. That's why he's brown," Szarko said.
bonus links
The Story of Little Black Sambo
the story behind "The Story of Little Black Sambo"?
mammy: her life and times
the blackface stereotype
the liberation of aunt jemima
aunt jemima, rastus, and uncle ben: the advertiser's holy trinity
orientalism and asian americans
the minstrel show
the minstrel show's contribution to folk music
blackface minstrelsy and mark twain
talking to kids about racial stereotypes
Analyzing a Starbucks as a stage for this violating drama is interesting-- you are using the theatrical elements of their designers. They wanted the implication of theater, but no real play, no real action. Starbucks exist in a de-politicized and de-narrated hush. In creating these over-heard dramas you are standing in the way of the Starbucks-controlled Muzak which anthologizes music from around the world but deletes all the political songs. Somehow you hear Bob Marley in your local Starbucks, but not his political songs, of course. Amazing.From the previously linked site-- great stuff!
The Garden Report – beautifully designed weblog of sorts. thanks, thirteen.
Enlightening interactive exercise: Find out if you would survive as a poor, single mother.
For some context, check out this article about an American University professor who assigns this exercise to his students: “we can all agree that poverty is bad; that’s not controversial. I want them to think hard about what specific policies would end child poverty, how much they would cost, and how to get a bill to pass.”
She taught her students that it was all right to judge one another based on eye color. But she did not teach them how to oppress. "They already knew how to be racist because every one of them knew without my telling them how to treat those who were on the bottom."In 1968, fourth-grade teacher Jane Elliott demonstrated that racism is learned behavior by dividing her class according to eye color, and assigning positive attributes to brown-eyed students and negative attributes to blue eyes. She observed the artificially disadvantaged children suffer drastic hits to self-esteem and academic performance, while the faux elite thrived. Thirty years later she is still involved in the Sisyphean task of unteaching racism to white people.
I'm a minority myself: a Jew. If the mascot was a Jew, that would be great. A . . . little old man with a yarmulke -- great.The Student Council at San Diego State University has voted to retire longtime athletic mascot Monty Montezuma whose routine involves entering the stadium through a tunnel in a cloud of smoke and waving a flaming spear. "The issue then goes to the University Senate, a group of faculty members, administrators and students." For more info on racist sports mascots, see this open directory project directory.
“Time to Vote! is a non-partisan organization with a simple mission: to persuade employers to give their employees either the morning or the afternoon off from work on election day, November 7th, 2000 so that they may participate in the electoral process.” Makes sense to me… I’ll certainly be out of the office for part of that Tuesday. If my employer gives me any trouble they’ll just have to find someone else to sling HTML for them.
Today’s bubble: Impress your co-workers with a fine desktop from chickenhead.com.
My essay wan't an essay at all. I took the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence and replaced various Lifes, Liberties and Pursuits of Happinesses with Instant Replays, TrickPlays and Pursuits of TiVolution. And it still won.TiVo claims to be giving away 10 14-hr units a day in an essay contest -- which can't be true, considering that about 3 dozen Metafilter readers have won today (see above), myself included. The catch is that you have to give them your credit card info and pay at least $9.95 for one month of service -- not bad considering the 15GB hard drive alone has got to be worth more than ten bucks. I'm going to be spending some time with the Hacking the TiVo FAQ to see if I can't turn this thing into a 52 hour beast.
Check out the photo gallery accompanying this article about the one-year anniversary of the Ikonos satellite. “These images show the Great Pyramids of Egypt; California’s Hollywood sign; the Olympic Park venue in Sydney, Australia; Hoover Dam; London’s Millennium Wheel; San Francisco Harbor; Hong Kong Harbor; Mecca, Saudi Arabia; and a before and after of the bombing of Grozny, Chechnya. "
truth in advertising @ nike.com – spread the URL fast, it’s not long for this world.
Astronomers are looking at the biggest sunspot in nine years, but what’s a lay-person to do? Slashdot posters recommend projecting the sun’s image onto cardboard through reversed binoculars, or just looking at the sun in the morning or evening when it doesn’t hurt so bad. By clicking anywhere on the screen you agree not to hold randomWalks responsible for stupid things you do that damage your eyes.
Whatever name it assumes, table tennis has come a long way since its introduction as a genteel, after-dinner alternative to lawn tennis in 1870s England. Today, players compete for big money, wield high-tech rackets and volley the ball at speeds up to 160 kilometres per hour. Table tennis has become the world's largest participation sport, with 40 million competitive players worldwide and countless millions playing recreationally.From the official Sydney 2000 Olympic Games table tennis site.
The game, which debuted in the Olympic Games in 1988 at Seoul, began with cigar-box lids for rackets and a carved champagne cork for a ball. Today, players use specially developed rubber-coated wooden and carbon-fibre rackets and a lightweight, hollow celluloid ball. Various rubber compounds and glues are applied on the rackets to impart greater spin or speed.
Indeed, some glues are banned from Olympic competition — they make the ball travel up to 30kmh faster.
Do black residents of (wealthy) Scarsdale get abused by the police? No. When people have economic power in a community, they get their calls returned.I'm disappointed but not surprised by Nader's take on racial injustice. It's apparent that though his heart is in the right place, he just doesn't get it. Wealthy black residents of Scarsdale may wield economic power in their own community, but when they drive the New Jersey Turnpike or walk the streets of NYC or step into a shopping mall or do any of a zillion other everyday things, race trumps class and they become Black people first. Nobody asks about the size of your bank account before they peg you as a dark-skinned criminal. Many don't even look at your shoes. God forbid you should dress down in jeans or athletic gear. Ralph, racism is more than just a by-product of class division -- it's a tool white people use to perpetuate the class structure. thanks, considered harmful.
How to create Aquafied design elements – if you are looking for an easy “one button filter” or other quick methods to create this effect, this tutorial is not for you! also blogged to Xspot.
Reuters 09/22 6:34PM – NBC, which in August bid for the exclusive right to host a presidential debate, said on Friday it would broadcast a baseball game instead of the first showdown between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush. “We have a contract with major-league baseball. You don’t seriously think we have any interest in democracy, do you?,'' said NBC spokeswoman Barbara Levin. “If we were offerred more than the value of the baseball contract, we would be televising it.''
In two apparently unrelated incidents, 100 monkeys stopped traffic in northern India after one was hurt in an accident, and 3 monkeys pelted cars with fruit on I-95 near the Virginia-North Carolina border. I don’t know about you, but I’m already scared. Now can you imagine living in a city that’s also home to thousands of wild monkeys?
The astonishing story of genetic research on humans, which took 10 years to uncover, is likely to shake the world of anthropology to its core.
Ghost in the Machine is pointing to a fun Star Wars Episode II spoiler, but don’t you dare blame me if you click through to it.
New Lynda Barry comic about a tough acid trip.
"Going my way?" your vehicle will bleep in autospeak. "Indeed," responds the living room on wheels in the left lane. And the two will hitch up and rocket toward their common goal together. This technology will conserve fuel and may save lives, but the pleasure of driving as you know it will be gone. That's something you should know.What You'll Need to Know In 2020 That You Don't Know Now -- also Discover mag, also from kottke.
20 Ways the World Could End from the just-so kottke.org.
Sources close to the Nader campaign say representatives of the progressive politician are talking to the Fox network about somehow including him in the first debate, scheduled for October 3, via simulcast. The candidate would sit before cameras, fielding the same questions the debate moderator puts to Bush and Gore. His answers then could be aired with clips of the debate.The Village Voice: Nation: Crazy Like a Fox
Seltzer said his office spent the summer searching for cover photos that would illustrate greater diversity at UW, where minorities are 10 percent of the 40,000 students enrolled. When he could not find one, he approved adding Shabazz’s photo to the crowd scene.Black-White Issue Leaves University Red-Faced (washingtonpost.com) – Diallo Shabazz, whose picture was digitally added to a shot of white students cheering at a football game, is a “prominent African American student activist who has never attended a UW football game and is deeply involved in efforts to promote campus diversity."
People often ask my wife and me whether we want a boy or a girl. We always say “either”, but we always mean “both.”
We’ve heard of intelligence and emotional intelligence, but what about spiritual intelligence? Gary Zukav is spiritually brilliant. He frequently appears on Oprah, from which I assume (accepting all implicit risks) that his audience consists largely of women. Which is too bad, because men have quite a lot to learn from this man as well, and it would do a world of good (being, unjustly, a man’s world) if every man did.
I can envisage somewhere about 2050, when the greenhouse really begins to bite, when people will start looking back and saying: whose fault was all this? And they will settle on the Greens and say: 'if those damn people hadn't stopped us building nuclear power stations we wouldn't be in this mess'.James Lovelock (Gaia hypothesis) shares some provocative thoughts with The Guardian.
Following the correct technique is important, Gerberding said. If you’re in a public restroom with a towel dispenser, first pull down the paper so you have a clean sheet waiting with which to dry off. Then run the hot water and vigorously scrub for at least 15 seconds, making sure to ‘get all the nooks and crannies’ — that is the folds of your hands as well as cuticles and fingernails that can trap dirt and germs. If the wash basin has a foot pedal, be sure to use it, she added. A simple trick, she said, is to say the alphabet to yourself while washing — by the time you reach the letter ‘Z,’ your 15 seconds will have elapsed. Health-care professionals should wash for 30 seconds. If the washroom has an electric hand-dryer rather than a paper dispenser, use your elbow to turn it on, Gerberding added. Good old-fashioned soap will remove all the debris, she said, expressing concern that the newer antibacterial products on the market can give people a false sense of security — an extra cost for little gain. ‘The goal is to physically remove germs, not kill them,’ she said, ‘so unless hot water is not available, chemical products are not necessary.’Visitors must wash hands for 30 seconds after reading randomWalks.
"GFP Bunny" gives continuation to my focus on the creation, in art, of what Martin Buber called dialogical relationship, what Mikhail Bakhtin called dialogic sphere of existence, what Emile Benveniste called intersubjectivity, and what Humberto Maturana calls consensual domains: shared spheres of perception, cognition, and agency in which two or more sentient beings (human or otherwise) can negotiate their experience dialogically. The work is also informed by Emmanuel Levinas' philosophy of alterity, which states that our proximity to the other demands a response, and that the interpersonal contact with others is the unique relation of ethical responsibility. I create my works to accept and incorporate the reactions and decisions made by the participants, be they eukaryotes or prokaryotes. This is what I call the human-plant-bird-mammal-robot-insect-bacteria interface.Eduardo Kac's GFP Bunny site
NPR highlights from recent weeks (audio; requires RealPlayer):
The Simpson clan lives in two parallel francophone universes. Where American Homer visits the Kwik-E-Mart, French Homère goes to the supermarché and Quebec Homère shops at the dépanneur du coin. Where American Homer describes his shrewish sisters-in-law as the "gruesome twosome," French Homère labels them les sorcières Siamoises (the Siamese witches), in Quebec, they're called deux airs de boeuf (the two grouches). In France, the only two Simpsons characters who were not assigned standard French accents are both dark-skinned: Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the immigrant Kwik-E-Mart clerk, and Homer's black co-worker, Carl. Though Apu hails, according to plot, from India, he has been given a quasi-Arabic accent by the French. "A lot of corner shops are owned by people from North Africa or Lebanon. There is even a slur in French, 'On va chez l'Arabe,' meaning, 'We're going to the corner shop.'" As for Carl, his voice has been pidginized - though not in any easily identifiable way. The darker-hued pair gets special treatment in Quebec as well, but there, Apu's accent sounds more like Haitian Creole spoken à la Québécoise. And Carl's voice, hardly what one might call ebonical in the English original, becomes "the Québécois stereotype of the black immigrant 'nèg.'"Caste of Characters by Jonathan Kay.
War, divorce, and global warming… possible Clinton moves in October?
Behind the Candy-Coated Shell, Mac OS X Provides All the Power of Unix with Very Few Compromises
What’s up with the backlash against Oprah’s book club (Sep 13 and Sep 14)? Has she ever recommended a bad book? Maybe she has; I certainly haven’t read them all – but as far as I’m concerned, anything that gets people reading is a Good Thing, and to get millions of people reading this language’s greatest living novelist is certainly beyond reproach.
All of the people who are so paranoid about their information being collected by the supermarkets should consider this idea which I just came up with. If a website was set up where you could select your supermarket, and then send in the bonus card that you signed up for and received, and in return receive another bonus card for the same chain from some other random person around the country, that would throw off their tracking quite a bit.Donkeymon offered this up on metafilter but it's too good an idea to leave there. Unfortunately, it's never gonna happen -- but what could happen is I could go to the grocery store and try to trade cards with random shoppers while picking over peppers, considering cereal, ferreting out frozen foods, or lingering in line. Even better would be to get a few friends to each sign up for a handful of bogus cards at a few different stores several weekends in a row, and then hit the parking lots passing out Anonymous Shopper cards, proclaiming "You own your history, habits, choices and tastes! Subvert the economy that profits off of your private life!" Can you believe that Whole Foods Market has the gall to call them "loyalty cards"?
The most creative piece of mail I received in response to the essay also was the most confused. In a padded envelope from Clement, Minn., came a brand-new can of Kiwi Shoe Polish, black. Because there was no note or letter, I have to guess at my correspondent's message, but I assume the person was suggesting that if I felt so bad about being white, I might want to make myself black. But, of course, I don't feel bad about being white. The only motivation I might have to want to be black -- to be something I am not -- would be pathological guilt over my privilege. In these matters, guilt is a coward's way out, an attempt to avoid the moral and political questions. As I made clear in the original essay, there is no way to give up the privilege; the society we live in confers it upon us, no matter what we want. So, I don't feel guilty about being white in a white supremacist society, but I feel an especially strong moral obligation to engage in collective political activity to try to change the society because I benefit from the injustice.Adding Robert Jensen's two essays, White Privilege Shapes the U.S. and Why the System of White Privilege Is Wrong, to Peggy McIntosh's Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack brings the count of accessible literature about white privilege to ... 3. If you're white and haven't yet commited yourself to ending racial injustice, read these essays and then ask yourself why not? thanks to BoyCaught for the link to an About.com article on white privilege.
If he didn't work in comicbooks, Chris Ware would be famous by now. And he may yet be — after being selected for the Smithsonian's design triennial, and having his work published in the New Yorker, his first general-trade book, "Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth," (Pantheon, $27.50) will appear in September.From the intro to Time Magazine's interview with Chris Ware. Time also has a short article about the Jimmy Corrigan story. Buy Chris Ware comics from Fantagraphics or from your local independent comic store (try Big Planet Comics if you live in the DC Metro area.) xblog rocks.
"This is like welcoming James Joyce into the ranks of novel writers," says Art Spiegelman, another New Yorker artist and the author of "Maus." "This new book seems to be another milestone in the demonstration of what [comics] can be."
"s o u l t o o l s is a set of icons for your macos or windows computer. What perhaps makes this set a little bit different from the others is that they are only in black and white. Oldschool flavour, a bit sentimental but hopefully still with a fresh look." F-R-E-S-H! thanks, xblog.
Mac OS X early adopters will want to read MacWorld’s Beta Survival Guide and to keep an eye on MacFixIt’s regularly updated Troubleshooting Mac OS X report. Those who like to get their hands dirty might want to read MacAddict’s guide to restoring developer tools to OS X public beta. Unfortunately, until ars technica weighs in, the closest thing we’ve got to an overview of the OS is MacWorld’s OS X: The Full Story.
behind the curtain will be a collection of image galleries capturing 24 hours in the lives of a bunch of webloggers (five dozen have signed up so far). I don’t so much buy the idea that there’s anything inherently interesting about webloggers, but I do think photography is interesting – I’m participating mostly as an excuse to take some pictures.
BIGWORDS.com - I think they’re selling something, but just go read their online comic “Bee”. It’s good stuff.
It won't hurt It won't hurt It won't hurt It won't hurt ALL DONE
Until recently, I’d never been able to keep a plant alive. When my wife and I moved in to our apartment this summer we picked a couple of plants from a nursery and decided to have a go. Though my dream (Every Room A Garden) is still far from reality, one of the plants we chose, a Coleus, turns out to be so easy not only to grow but to clone that we’ve got 4 baby plants potted and 3 clippings rooting in tap water, waiting for a home. Anyway, the twist: Coleus turns out to be psychoactive.
How to Use an 18% Gray Card for better photography.
Recently, the McKinsey corporation said: "American food giants recognise that Indian agro-business has lots of room to grow, especially in food processing. India processes a minuscule 1 per cent of the food it grows compared with 70 per cent for the U.S...".Vandana Shiva lectures on globalization and poverty.
It is not that we Indians eat our food raw. Global consultants fail to see the 99 per cent food processing done by women at household level, or by the small cottage industry because it is not controlled by global agribusiness.
S11 primary sources:
S11 organizing site
World Economic Forum
S11 photos from indymedia
“If you care about people, you don’t hit ‘em with your batons,” says an S11 protestor to police in this realvideo clip.
Great audio on this realvideo clip – “Nonviolence!"
S11 secondary sources:
protestors win first round
If you loved The Matrix, you’ll hate Matrix Wazzup and Matrix Farting (c’mon, you know you want to click it.)
“Here’s a video of a Ferrari test driver blowing the engine on a $275,000.00 car.” It’s at the very end. Yikes!
I’m actually looking forward to being liberated by childbirth. While my fellow expectant mothers anticipate losing mobility and independence, I can’t wait to be off bed rest and carry my baby and his hundreds of accoutrements through the house and out into the world. I’ll be free!Sidelines is a network of support groups across the country for women and their families experiencing complicated pregnancies. It has lots of information on bedrest, including this article about a silver lining.
How I wish I’d had a digital camera in nyc.
The “Big Brother” houseguests are walking out together on Wednesday’s live episode – a decision reached by consensus Saturday morning. At this moment, the guests are announcing their individual intentions to “voluntarily exit” to the CBS crew as we watch chickens peck the ground outside. Salon shares the details of the real “Big Brother” story.
Of course, if “you don’t find CD cover art essential to owning an album,” consider subverting the corporate economy with a real buycott that bypasses the RIAA and supports the actual artists.
Whatever happened to album art (which has to be seen at 12"x12" to be appreciated properly)? Do hip hop records use the space well? What’s the best art ever included in a CD jewel case?
$129 for an I-Jam walkman that lets me listen to mp3s on a CD-R I burn at home(of which I already have six) or a player that accepts CompactFlash cards (which I already use in my digital camera)! These are two tempting machines. Whenever I discover my lifestyle doesn’t have room for wearing headphones and a portable, I know it’s time to reevaluate. My minidisc has served me well, but unfortunately transfering mp3s onto the discs is an analog process. I love it, but I doubt I’ll make that mistake again.
9:00 Bored Diner NewsI recently stumbled across TV Go Home -- source of the above listing -- and wanted to share it with you. Yes, you, and you alone. Everybody else thinks I'm talking to them but I'm not. I'm talking to you.
Read by a man idly picking wax from a restaurant table candle while his fiancee stares at her napkin.
This annotated guide to Dennis Miller’s cultural and historical references just might be enough to get me watching football.
l??????????l l??????l l????l l????????lKodama & Hana
One day I hope to learn how to drive.
New Lynda Barry comic at Salon: cicadas and suicide.
Salty, boiled soybeans-in-the-pod were a regular treat when I lived in New York, but I haven’t had much luck finding them here in Virginia. Now, thanks to the Post, I know how to grow my own edamame. Now if only I had some land… and it were Spring.
Also read about Thai basil, ugly tomatoes, and the July 4th Southeast Asian marketplace and festival at Wat Lao Buddhavong Sala, a nearby Lao Buddhist temple, all from the Post’s Gourmet Gardener.
How to close your Amazon.com account.
Why to close your Amazon.com account:
This is how I think about the way in which space seems to appear out of nothingness.
Does anyone still eat Loma Linda canned vegetarian products? Check out the remarkably unappetizing serving suggestion on the bean and peanut Sandwich Spread label. I’m pretty sure I ate their veggie hot dogs when I was young. Much tastier than today’s Tofu Pups or Smart Dogs, these faux franks were full of flavor and came in a can. Our supermarket has a little zone devoted to this stuff at the back of one aisle, but I don’t think those cans have been touched in ages – the labels have got that “years and years of direct fluorescent light” look, and the one can I grabbed was covered in dust.
“What’s related?” asks Netscape.
“Similar pages,” says Google.
[Ahem] As society is little more than a consensus about the relative importance of common myths, the absence of new stories makes for a monotonous and confining culture. So those people who have the hardest time writing -- because their experiences are undervalued and their self-confidence often low -- consequently have the most new material to add to the Tapestry O' Tales. Writing a book is a political act, and because it's entertainment, it's a subversive one. If it's successful, the potential to cause individual change is several magnitudes higher than selling Socialist Worker on the streetcorner. Ed Abbey's The Monkeywrench Gang spawned Earth First!, so don't underestimate the power of a good story to imagine itself into reality.The No Media Kings website is a step-by-step guide to DIY book publishing -- great stuff!
A modest proposal in the Washington Post: We Need Less Labor, More Days. A slightly less modest proposal: FUCK WORK. And if you’ve never read it, today’s the day to read The Abolition of Work by Bob Black.
Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide – long list of ethnic restaurants in the Northern Virginia area. Cowen’s got a great thing going, but he would do better to keep his ethnocentric attitude out of his reviews.
Blog of Holding is a Dungeons and Dragons weblog by the author of Considered Harmful.
Stuff to listen to –
Recent Robot Wisdom highlights: a possible cause of Gulf War Syndrome, and the food of the future.
We ought to be able to learn a lot about the globalization of power by keeping an eye on the upcoming s11 protests in Melbourne, Australia. Sites to watch for early updates include indymedia melbourne and Green Left Weekly’s s11 site.
Time spent with my wife is time well spent. My wife lives in an invisible city, sleeps on Einstein’s pillow. I met my wife while reading subterranean notes. My wife wraps me in language I listen for in dreams. I love my wife most when she makes me laugh.
Sears presents… the school uniform superstore.
Tip for Mac-based mp3ers: SoundJam is nice for listening to streaming audio (i.e. f188 or squidradio), but SoundApp is extremely stable for those .mp3s on your hard disk (doesn’t even skip) – not to mention that it’s free as in beer.
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. – Albert Einstein
Our approach is both pro-peace and anti-drug – William Jefferson Clinton
WAR IS PEACE – George Orwell
In the US, for over 20 years, to be against drugs is to be for the War on Drugs … That so many in the US do not immediately object to this flagrant display of Newspeak is a disgrace. – Bijan Parsia
Why am I composing this post on my Palm using the AvantGo Client for Blogger? Because I can, silly. Hmm, a few bugs (and typos) but this is dangerous – it could drive me to finally buy a portable keyboard and wireless connection.
The web could use more weblogs like Subterranean Notes, which seeks out great art on the web so I don’t have to.
''Along with television, entire areas of the reality we inhabit disappeared,'' wrote Avtandil Tsuladze, a newspaper columnist. ''There are no more politicians with their loud promises, no streams of compromising materials, no analytical programs, even the president himself has disappeared.''The Boston Globe looks at life in Moscow without TV.
''The first day was hard, but then I realized, this will undoubtedly raise the birth rate,'' said Vadim Byrkin, who works in Moscow. ''Someone should do a study in nine months, to see how many children were conceived in this week. My own activity has increased drastically.''
Coming soon to a computer interface near you: gesture recognition – “from simple pointing and grasping to the complex motions used to conduct an orchestra.”
Become a Certified Original Human – copyright your DNA.
One, two, three, four… I declare Thumb Wars? via footprints, which along with the parody site below is an organique production.
I just love ad parodies… can’t get enough. Found this link on the Adbusters Buy Nothing Day pages. I think this year I’ll have to find a way to engage some unsuspecting would-be consumers in the November 24 celebration.
The Japanese island of Miyakejima is being evacuated today after a series of volcanic eruptions sent steam, ash, and small rocks several miles into the air.
In today’s Post: a story about the student initiative to bring an Asian American studies program to the University of Maryland.
This was my first look at Photoshop 6.
If you don’t want to register with NYTimes.com try editing the URL to read “channel.nytimes.com/…” which should work for a while. Alternately, you can login with the username/password combo ‘cypherpunk/cypherpunk’. Update: try ‘cipherpunk/cipherpunk’.
Highlights of recent All Things Considered and Morning Edition shows:
I’ve been to a place where Flash is a beautiful thing.
Harrison, 58 - who worked as a carpenter before finding fame - rushed back into the Los Angeles bank and grabbed the broom.
You could have filmed ''Survivor'' for 400 years if it had been African-Americans, from slave ships to plantations to lynchings to shootings in housing projects to police brutality. Forget about promoting products. How about exclusive CBS footage of black folks being shafted for promotions?Derrick Z. Jackson declares Survivor "A Sham Of A Show".
Latinos must be scratching their heads, too. How come the cameras at the border were not from CBS but from the INS? Haitians did not get a million dollars trying to flee to Florida from a military coup. They got the baking heat of asphalt at Guantanamo Bay. And do not forget the Golden Venture, the decrepit ship that in 1993 spit 286 emaciated Chinese immigrants out into rough waters off Queens after 100 squalid days at sea. Ten immigrants died trying to swim to shore. The United States detained many of them for more than three years and sent 170 of them back to China. None of them ''Got Milk.''
The [music] industry will take whatever steps it needs to protect itself and protect its revenue streams. It will not lose that revenue stream, no matter what. Sony is going to take aggressive steps to stop this. We will develop technology that transcends the individual user. We will firewall Napster at source -- we will block it at your cable company, we will block it at your phone company, we will block it at your [Internet-service provider]. We will firewall it at your PC.This Sony VP is not kidding, but it gets worse; can you say tip of the iceberg? I knew you could.
A full-scale reproduction of a slave ship docked at the adjacent Washington Channel will have a walkway at its cross-section to give visitors a vivid sense of the captivity and journey of African slaves during the "Middle Passage." Lifelike figures will occupy the hull of the ship to illustrate the horrid and cramped quarters of the vessel.Michael Marshall Architecture proposes a new museum in Washington DC: The Frederick Douglass Center for African-American History and Culture.
A great Eddie Breen piece on eBay: In aqua-hell, Flame Bass is eaten over and over.
Let’s be clear about this..
Legal: http://24.15.107.67/DeCSS/DeCSS/
Illegal: http://24.15.107.67/DeCSS/DeCSS/
Everybody see the difference? Good. I’m not sure about the following links; best to assume they’re illegal too. Kids, don’t click this at home:
search for DeCSS at Disney’s search engine
DeCSS (descramble) – mp3 of the code put to music [must listen]
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, listen to 2600’s Emmanuel Goldstein discuss the recent ruling in the MPAA’s lawsuit against his site on yesterday’s Democracy NOW!
I’ve never been that impressed with super glue, but I’m gonna have to try this trick to keep my Palm stylus from slipping out all the time.
Pop vs. Soda in the middle-west?
Well, I didn’t make the best of the Monkeyfist Daily Churn, but I wasn’t really trying.
The clouds are alive.
I’m looking for some HTML and CSS references to keep handy on my Palm.
memoware CSS search
CSS doc reference file from memoware
memoware HTML search
Nintendo unveiled their next gaming console today – GameCube. “The company also showed several game demos for the system including Pokemon, Wave Race, Metroid, Zelda and Star Wars”!
Read an interview with Scott McCloud at Feed. thanks, girlhacker.
At the top of my wishlist: TV SETS: Fantasy Blueprints of Classic TV Homes by Mark Bennett.
Ralph Nader and Dr. Drew were on Politically Incorrect Monday night. You can read the transcript here today. In a few days, it should be available at http://abc.go.com/pi/transcripts/transcript_20000821.html.
Have you geeks seen surfraw yet? Definitely a fun toy.
You should follow that ‘stop bubbling’ link, by the way. Our friend dj didn’t do it justice with his lack of introduction… it’s possibly even cooler than the wooden mirror I linked a while back.
Naked women are a very much liked and classic sujet in many ad-campaigns. Using the same simple means we are trying for general irritation. These women though are doing it free will, for no money at all, using here feminine self confidence. So it could not fall into any sexist, mysoginist field. Nakedness could be seen as very old revolutionary tradition (Delacroix's "freedom" leads the people up to the Hippierevolution of 68), it's an elementary form of protest. Our work had to happen very spontaneously and quickly. It's aim was to point at the once more crucial state of Austria's politics. We want to let everyone know with our breasts and faces, that discrimination of any kind is very much part of Austria's everday life. We wanted to show our faces, we didn't want it to be an anonymous action. We don't need to hide,we are saying no to the momentary situation with all the confidence there is.tits against racism!
Bubbling this link to the top: Retrogression Magazine: A journal of music and revolution because the site is active again after a couple months of dormancy.
I picked up a Fantastic Four the other day and was shocked! Either Sue is still breast feeding Franklin or Reed has found some interesting new uses for unstable molecules. Either way, it's not the role model I want for my little girl.John Sokol worries in a column for Sequential Tart that the comics he loves are no good for his daughter's self-image. For an idea of what he's talking about, check out ST's Bizzare Breasts.
I’ve been playing with these pictures of Don pointing at himself and yawning for about 30 minutes.
We are tired of seeing blonde blue-eyed women used to sell make-up to black women, of a 14-year-old girl selling anti-aging cream that a 60-year-old woman will buy.Isabella Rossellini is launching her own line of cosmetics called Manifesto. BoyCaught stole the quote from net.Headlines, so I figured he wouldn't mind too much if I stole it from him.
Friday’s Democracy NOW! featured a town-hall-type discussion titled The Resistance: Where Do We Go From Here? Guests included Michael Franti, Medea Benjamin, John Sellers and Jello Biafra.
I don't want to be part of a show that calls women "bitches" and makes fun of Cassandra not having sex in a year.Big Brother housemate Brittany almost walked out with the seven other cast members, but you'd never know it if you just watched the show. I bet if they could see the show as it is broadcast they'd be long gone. Salon's Martha Soukup watches the 24/7 webcast so you don't have to.
There’s some great stuff going on at fury.com – AOLiza interfaces the classic Eliza AI-ish psychotherapist program with unsuspecting AIMers; Project Cameo is a great meme that’s begun to spread, though I can’t find any content yet.
Gotta love the design of this interview … I only wish the ’d' key worked.
New at TCBY: Kool-Aid ice cream!
Screenshots is a unique and fascinating project – “a series of drawings from an isometric perspective, in the style of a computer game”. Other projects by the creator of Screenshots include historical and pornographic images digitally edited to remove the figures. Saturday’s Lake Effect provides some commentary and context for this challenging work.
It's often said there is an intergenerational responsibility for slavery, for brutality, and people in this generation say, Well, I didn't have anything to do with that. And what's that got to do with me? Well, you know what? Corporations have been around for a long time. They've got perpetual life. And they operated and benefited from the repression of innocent people in this country, and they should be required to pay.From Ralph Nader's speech to the NAACP's 91st annual convention.
Check out the best analysis of the Democrats and of the left I’ve read this political season.
Bubbling this link to the top: a r b l o g - p o l y m a t h - g r e e n - s m o k e - t e c h n o l o g y because I want to keep an eye on it.
la.indymedia highlights:
realaudio of hip hop panel at shadow convention
when animals attack: unprovoked police charge civilians in a subway station
more protests at the Boston presidential debate Oct 3?
Why? - IMC’s Protest E-zine
If you’ve let yourself be disinformed about the d2kla protests by the corporate media, then it’s your responsibility to educate yourself about the issues raised by the protestors and to keep up on the news as reported by independent journalists as well. A good start would be to find out exactly what a black bloc really is.
A mad depressing metafilter thread on the Kursk accident discusses the sinking of the USS Arizona (pictured) at Pearl Harbor.
After I irresponsibly set it off at MetaFilter, johnb of The Green Boffin stepped in to drop some knowledge – don’t miss the analysis and insight in his posts.
In the future, displays will be wadded up and thrown away. thanks, dad.
Is this what democracy looks like?
“The Robyn Van En Center offers assistance to the enlarging community supported agriculture movement.” Find and join a local CSA project for fresh farm produce, yum!
The official police explanation for shutting down the concert is that the crowd had become unruly, with youths throwing rocks over the fence at the police and starting fires. In truth, the police were looking for a pretext -- any pretext — to shut down the gathering, fire some ammo, and clear a path for departing Democratic delegates. At 9th and Figueroa my group decides to take advantage of this opportunity to ‘dialogue’ (Democrats like that word) with the delegates as they make their way away. I wish one cluster an expiditious journey back to Beverly Hills and I get a look that says, How did you know where we’re going? My friend Sara asks them how they feel about living in a democratic police state. Calling them corporate liberals — and ineffectual to boot — is also surprisingly satisfying. Since Democrats fashion themselves to the left of something, they are disarmed by such taunts.NewsForChange (good d2kla protest coverage) diarist Aaron Hackett participated in the Critical Mass ride yesterday and escaped arrest. I look forward to reading his protest journal as the week continues. thanks, considered harmful.
Meanwhile my friend Dean and I formulate a theory that Richard Nixon — the bane of all middle-aged Democrats — was, on many important issues, to the left of Clinton and Gore. That’ll get their hackles up, we think. We try our new pet theory out on the delegates, but none launches into a defense of their men. All we get is nervous laughter. Finally we get a response from a 50ish looking man wearing a Gore button who ponders the question and responds, ‘You’re probably correct,’ and moves on up the street. We do have one lengthy, honest-to-God conversation with a woman delegate, and a crowd forms to listen to the debate.
Finally, though, we tire of dialoguing and start heading away. As we walk along Figueroa the sounds of sirens and cop helicopters are a constant. We stop at 7th to rest and discuss the evening’s events, only to have three police immediately tell us to move along. We comply and walk to 5th where it seems safe to relax. We lament our sore bodies and decide a bit of yoga is in order and convene a small circle and commence our exercise. What could be more benign? But no! Within minutes four cop cars speed up, lights ablaze, and eight police demand that we desist from our criminal enterprise. Just another case of yoga interuptus on the streets of L.A. Time to call it a night.
la.indymedia.org is working now; sacco.indymedia.org appears to be a mirror but I suggest you use the la. address again.
The man closest to the watertight door closes it, to isolate you from the flooding. . . . After that, you just lie quietly. No unnecessary conversation or movementToday's Post explores the various nightmare scenarios facing any survivors on the sunken Russian sub.
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.Stephen Hunter reviews "Wonderland" for the Washington Post.
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)
This Post article about Moby’s sources for several key samples on his phenomenal album “Play” unfortunately makes a weak argument for an important case.
Tips on using garlic from the Washington Post, including 5 recipes (2 vegetarian).
Why do so many organic foods and cruelty-free products come from Petaluma, CA?
A SETI scientist interviewed on All Things Considered expects to hear a signal within the next dozen years using a new array of backyard satellite dishes. (Get RealPlayer to hear the story.) If you’re not already donating your spare processor cycles, why not join the SETI@home project?
Suddenly, the cloth vs. disposable debate is relevant to my life. Who would have thunk?
The Green Boffin is a political weblog and Web directory I like very much.
'Yeah. Girls like to play with it. I like them to play with it.' The third nipple more than the first two? 'Nah,' he says; less an answer than a refusal to answer. He doesn't want to talk about this any more. He looks away. 'It was just something fucked up to say.'Marky Mark on his third nipple.
The boring truth is that we already have the tools to save many more than a million kids a year -- all without irrevocably changing the genetic makeup of food staples. What we lack is the political will to mobilize those resources. That was the clear message that emerged last month from the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa. One after another, the largest industrial nations shot down concrete proposals aimed at reducing poverty in the developing world.Dru Jay (quoting Naomi Kline) takes a critical look at Monsanto's Golden Rice -- rice genetically modified to contain Vitamin A.
This morning two women scaled a hotel in downtown Los Angeles and unfurled the new United Corporations of America flag in anticipation of d2kla.
NASA has produced some stunning images of urban growth and of the biosphere.
The Village Voice is doing a great job covering the RNC protests (isn’t it a little odd that these stories aren’t all over the place?) and to top it off their new design features snazzy dHTML navigation.
I’m fascinated by this mirror made of 830 little pieces of shiny wood, 830 servo motors, a camera, a few spotlights, and a Macintosh 8600 AV with ten serial ports.
If you come across any stolen music while sojourning in cyberspace, be sure to give it back!
Bratta.com is a great resource for dHTML beginners like me. The free scripts are bulletproof in NS 4 thru IE 5, and I’m learning a lot from this article on 5th generation browsers and the Document Object Model.
If I had a cell phone that sent email, I’d try out the Robot Project.
American Routes is a great weekly radio show focusing on “the important and soulful territory” of American music – starting with jazz, blues, rock, and folk and expanding into klezmer, tejano, zydeco, swing and more. Plus, their Web site has neato pictures like the one above.
It takes you to another time, and to a frightening, alien land, windswept and gray, dying in quiet obedience to insane decrees of insane leaders. Its authors took the time and space to tell their tale in its every moment, often devoting many pages to scenes that wouldn't last three panels in a monthly American superhero comic book. We come to know the players, large and small, as we meet them, as they reveal themselves to us. Koike and Kojima tell their story masterfully and artfully, portraying a man, a boy, and a country on their journey into Hell.About 1/3 of the incredible Japanese comic Lone Wolf and Cub was published in English in 1987, and I was blown away by its stark beauty and powerful story. Beginning this month (Aug 30), Dark Horse Comics will release a monthly series of trade paperbacks collecting the entire story in 28 volumes of about 300 pages each. I'm going to need a new bookshelf.
The guy behind Gengoid.com has a good hip hop station at live365.com.
Dru Jay of misnomer and the monkeyfist collective took some photos at the demonstrations in Philly last week.
One day my house will be this cool. The Icepick house, however, is just scary. In the short term, this slashdot post sounds about right.
From the I-want-to-believe department: natural vision improvement.
The Evil Genius Hoaxes are lots of fun to contemplate.
Will people in the future have souls? Or will our souls pass into the machines?
It's easy to forget that the Web had that brief period where there were no commercial sites at all, and people did all kinds of strange and interesting and stupid stuff with that space for the hell of it out of weird obsessions or whatever. And they were, in a sense, necessary for laying the foundation for the commercial Web, because the Web wasn't some kind of unoccupied territory; it was fucking nonexistent until people evoked it into existence by creating what the business geeks call "content."R.U. Sirius and Justin Hall have a talk.
Single Square goes disco!
meta:matrix brings us “Deja Vu: the web as we remember it”, a Web-based emulator of early versions of Netscape, IE, Mosaic, Lynx, and other browsers. My site degrades gracefully… does yours?
We always recommend that you drink 2 to 3 cups of hot ginger tea a day. Make it a habit. More info (and recipes) at The Chopra Center.
The Philadelphia Independent Media Center is a collective of journalists and independent media organizations providing alternative coverage of this week’s Republican Convention. Check this site several times a day this week for firsthand accounts of the action in the streets.
Hell-Raising in Philly - an activists guide to protests outside the republican convention.
Every once in a while, I’ll take a half-hour and comb my system folder for extensions and control panels that I don’t absolutely need for most of my daily Mac activities (i.e. http, smtp, a little ftp and maybe some irc. I’d like to deny the occasional MSFT, but I do dabble in Adobe) – anything that doesn’t pass the test is outta there. It’s time to rebuild. A restart, and Wow, that feels fast! Inevitably, I turn them back on, one-by-one, over the next couple weeks – but for a while, my computer no longer creeps. Things zoom again, almost like my first time on the machine. It’s a good feeling.
I listened to a lot of SquidRadio today. Good things are happinging in indie rock again. Or did they ever stop happening? Probably I just stopped listening.
The official Star Wars site has a good page about Urban Legends. I’m sure everyone who’s really interested in it has already seen it, but I wish someone had told me about it, so here it is.
Will my next portable be a YOPY, or a keyboardless Mac? Decisions, decisions… thanks, ubiquitous computing.
It’s not that I’m scared of the dark so much as I just think it’s a bad idea.
To fight police abuse effectively you need to know your rights. There are some things you should do, some things you must do and some things you cannot do. If you are in the middle of a police encounter, you need a handy and quick reference to remind you what your rights and obligations are.From the American Civil Liberties Union, "what to do if you're stopped by the police" in text and handy pdf format.
The Washington Post is keeping an eye on how race is lived on the TV with an article on William Collins being kicked off “Big Brother” and one on upcoming DC-based police drama “The District”.
Do you remember when HTML seemed almost elegant?
It's not like black folks are putting their lives on hold to wait for parity or reparation or the cosmic balance of the universe to tilt. We are steering our lives, raising our children and, occasionally, raising our voices. We do not think most white folks set out to deny, or discriminate. ... It doesn't matter if the racism is intentional or not. ... The net effect is the same. ... Income disparity, housing, job, education disparities, infant mortality, disparities in health care delivery and incarceration rates. ... I don't understand whites whose default reaction is to deny that race plays any part in anything.In a follow-up to a great Washington Post article I blogged in May, "White Girl" author Lonnae O'Neal Parker and Peggy Sakagawa share several months worth of a provocative email discussion sparked by the initial story. The exchange reveals two remarkably honest people trying to step outside of their comfort zones and achieve a meaningful discourse about the significance of race in their lives.
These people have worked hard. Y'all leave us alone here. Every coin has two sides, and you're not seeing our side. We've lived here all our lives. You've been here a day.A couple of recent Washington Post articles ("Activists, Neighbors Clash Over House Renovation", "Housing Activists Get the Heave-Ho") tell the tale of a mostly white activist group that didn't do its homework and ended up hurting one community while trying to help another. A group calling itself Homes Not Jails moved in to an abandoned house in a DC neighborhood and started hauling out trash and making improvements on the condemned property. The question is: did anyone ask for their help? Turns out the residents certainly didn't... the politically active neighborhood had worked hard to get the city to board the place up. Lesson? Just because your heart is in the right place doesn't mean your body belongs there.. especially when you haven't got your head in order.
Housing is a basic human right. Here, we're using sweat equity to make a home for a family that needs it most. You'd get this in any neighborhood, no matter where you go
They literally tried to just take over our neighborhood, like we don't care about it ourselves. I'm not heartless; I know everybody needs a home. But this can't be the right way to go about it. If they're so concerned with the homeless, why don't they find them a home in their neighborhood or their parents' neighborhood? Why us?
I really enjoyed the X-Men movie. Nothing much to link to, though. I can’t say that I’ve ever seen an official Web site which managed to complement a movie in any interesting way. Why is that? I guess no one’s ever done it right. Perhaps I can write about this for restmyeyes.net (as soon as it launches). I did have a lot of fun at the View Askew (producers of Clerks among other films) site, though this was quite a while ago and I haven’t been back recently. Anyway, this write-up at Metafilter pretty much describes my experience of the X-Men movie, so go there if you want a review.
In which Michael Moore declares himself leader of the majority party of Non-Voters until you say otherwise.
I saw “Cradle Will Rock” last night – it may be the best movie I have ever seen. The movie explores the revolutionary nature of art through the mostly true and truly incredible stories of a pro-labor play created through the Federal Theatre Project (a New Deal program which provided work for thousands of unemployed professional entertainers) and Diego Rivera’s commissioned mural for the new Rockefeller Center. Featuring consistently outstanding performances by an ensemble cast of known and less or unknown actors, the movie feels like theater. Offering profound layered insights into issues of class, power and art, the movie demonstrates the revolutionary potential of art.
The New York Times wraps up its “How Race Is Lived in America” series with a special issue of the magazine: “Memories of Race”. Lots of interesting reading – I wish I could stage an intervention for this kid… I’m sure he’ll develop spectacular insight into white racism which I hope he puts to good use – but I’m not too clear about why they thought it would be worthwhile to try to manufacture a “typical” Black and white kitchen based on demographics.
;)
5 years after the Million Man March on Washington DC, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is organizing a Million Family March. I heard that the Million Man March was an amazing experience. Hopefully I’ll make it to this one.
its sad that one could walk through life with such inane views of people. i don't know if youre trying to be funny or serious sudama, either way, it's not fucking cool. it's people like you that keep our community, society, country, and world at war. try dealing on the real problem and come up with a fucking solution instead of using some lame cop-out of "it's not fair". fuck racism, and fuck you.I shot off at the mouth again on MetaFilter -- this time the friendly readers there called me on it.
What a fine, fine poem.
Revolting, yet somehow mesmerizing! Once you’ve seen it, you never ever forget it, and everybody has seen one!Mark Martin is doing some really good online comics.
A lot of people ask me why American people love watching this show. I say that I'm doing a cooking battle, I'm not doing a cooking show. I don't need any gimmicks. I'm doing a very serious cooking battle. I'm a serious battler. It's like a gunfight [reaches for an imaginary six-shooter and fires].aOnline talks to Iron Chef Morimoto about his New York victory.
There are various options when you are faced with a terminal disease. One is cure-chasing, where you head off to Shanghai or Brazil or the Dominican Republic to be with these great maestros who can save you. The other thing is to do what you always wanted to do. So that means head to Cape Canaveral to see a shuttle launch, on to sunrise over the pyramids, on to a month in the Grand H?tel de Paris. I wasn't too keen on that, either. My tendency was just to twist another bomber and think about it all.Somehow I missed this article from Wired 8.05: Terence McKenna's Last Trip.
I read arblog today.
Our collective irritation at high gas prices in the US burned hundreds of Nigerians to death today.
Everything I’ve ever read about “how to make a good cup of coffee” says to use 2 tablespoons of grounds for a drip machine per 6 oz. cup. But whenever I try that method, it makes the strongest, bitterest coffee I’ve ever seen. When I use 1 tablespoon (recommended on the can) I end up with a cup that approximates the stuff you get at the office or at a coffee shop. So what gives?
por-tal
n.
I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now – free charts and canned horoscopes and transit reports are available at Astrodienst. thanks, texting.
Dear Mr. Vernon,Rumor has it John Hughes is working on 2 new projects, including a possible remake of The Breakfast Club. thanks, screenshot.
We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is that we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms and in the most convenient definitions.... But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain. And an athlete. And a basket case. A princess. And a criminal. Does that answer your question?
Sincerely yours,
The Breakfast Club.
The Anti-Ad Server “serves up random banner ads that are parodies of actual web advertising or critical of modern day consumer culture capitalism”. Cool!
Some Zippy the Pinhead pages.
This site has been blowing my mind on a regular basis for about 5 years. I think I just found the front door, but I may never be sure.
The New York Times takes you through the looking glass at Big Brother. It’s an interesting read, but I can’t help but wonder who the sad, sick people are who produce this show. Imagine standing in the control room with a dozen other people watching strangers on the toilet for 8 hours a day. I’d be more humiliated to be operating that camera than to be taking a shit. What’s wrong with us?
Escalating its protest against the Pentagon’s ‘Star Wars’ missile program, the international anti-nuclear organization Greenpeace is sending its vessel MV Arctic Sunrise into waters off the launch site at Vandenberg Air Force base where a test launch is scheduled for Friday evening.stopstarwars.org is the Web site. Visit the site, learn about the 50 Nobel laureates in the sciences opposed to the missile defense system, think about raising your children in the midst of another arms race, and sign the petition.
They say the first step towards treating a problem is admitting that you have one, so here goes: when I really let myself dream, there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than traveling the world with a pack on my back and my family by my side. It’s really bad – I have no trouble maintaining my illusion of the romance of such a lifestyle in the face of all kinds of harsh reality. What’s worse is that I can’t even pretend that I don’t know better than to take such a journey. Geez… I thought I’d feel better after admitting that, but I just feel worse.
While many people when pressed would sooner be apologists for slavery than apologize, it’s heartening to see someone take some direct action.
The US Forest Service is fighting to preserve a unique historical record in northern Arizona: thousands of bark carvings done by Basque (French and Spanish) and Mexican sheepherders on aspen trees. The carvings date from the mid-1900s back to the 1880s.
Unfortunately, the practice of advertising for slaves was commonplace in newspapers prior to abolition. We are not proud of that part of our history and apologize for any involvement by our predecessors at The Courant in the terrible practice of buying and selling human beings that took place in previous centuries.The Hartford Courant, the United States' oldest newspaper in continuous publication, ran a front page apology for slavery on July 4th.
The officials found a ball of solidified milk nearly 1 inch in diameter that apparently harbored the growth of the bacteria. Although the valve was supposed to be cleaned out once a week, the company records showed that the last cleaning had taken place on June 2.Japanese health inspectors think they have found the source of an outbreak of food poisoning which left 7,000 people sick last week.
From the New York Press: the best movies of the year, so far.
If you’ve missed the sharp wit of MacWeek’s MIA Mac the Knife column (recently revealed to be officially retired) then check out MacEdition’s Naked Mole Rat Report in which we witness the return of the cutting-edge Mac industry scoops and rumors.
The tendency to sneeze on exposure to bright light is termed the "photic sneeze". It is a genetic character transmitted from one generation to the next and which affects between 18 and 35 per cent of the population. The sneeze occurs because the protective reflexes of the eyes (in this case on encountering bright light) and nose are closely linked. Likewise, when we sneeze our eyes close and also water. The photic sneeze is well-known as a hazard to pilots of combat planes, especially when they turn towards the Sun or are exposed to flares from anti-aircraft fire at night.Aha! I knew I wasn't the only one to sneeze due to bright light.
So why didn't Icebox do something really gutsy and similarly 'original' by calling this show 'Mr. Sambo'? Why not give their character old-time African American stereotypical facial features instead of Asian? Why not make Mr. Sambo a shuffling butler who worships his 'massa?' Why not have Mr. Sambo later get lynched when he kisses his pretty white 'massa?'From a post on Icebox.com decrying the racist "Mr. Wong" cartoon which they refuse to kill. If you visit the site and don't like what you see, be sure to register a complaint through their feedback form. aOnline has been covering the cartoon and the criticism it has received.
BoyCaught suggests that the Black Peoples' Prison Survival Guide is defeatist, but I’d guess that for the tens of thousands of Black men in prison in the U.S., it might be worth a read. Of course, I’m not really in a position to judge, but the document srikes me as a Good Thing, all things considered.
From the Frugal/Mindful Living Resources page: apartment gardening. The open directory has a category with more info which references container gardening and house plants as well.
Tip: if you get something permanently inked into your skin in a language you can’t read, be sure you know what it says.
The Grey Lady weighs in with her version of a weblog! I wonder if this will become a regular feature. Update: the fine folk at MetaFilter have pointed out that lists of links are “as old as the web” (thanks) and that the New York Times has been posting such lists for some time.
Fun with Flash: an exhibit of handheld paintings and a gallery of banner-ad art. The images at both sites are inspired, but don’t forget that interface is art too.
I wonder if Bruce Tognazzini knows that, according to GirlHacker (whose site exemplifies that elusive symmetry of journal and links that I sometimes strive for), a company called Bluelinx is developing a technology, Q-Zone, which is intended to solve the problem he described in his essay “Cellphone Solution in Search of a Champion” of cellphones ringing in inappropriate places.
so i was like "hi, this is Darcy from Kozmo.com and I am sorry but we are out of stock on Buttman's Anal Adventures" and the guy would be all "uh, yeah, i didn't order that, my roommate did" and i would be like "well, can I suggest Buttman in Budapest instead? we'll throw in a few hundred kozmo points good toward your next rental! thanks for using kozmo" it was humiliating!From a discussion about crappy jobs at dot-coms on the Fucked Company discussion board.
The 3,000 year history of the soybean, again from Whole Earth. I’ve long been a fan of tofu and soymilk, but recently I’ve discovered how tasty the soybean itself is – just boil it with salt. Delicious!
Like most migrant mushroom pickers, Nancy has no bank account, no checkbook, no credit card. "In the last ten years I haven't taken a steady job once," she says with obvious pride. "It's pretty much been mushrooms and huckleberries."Whole Earth takes a look at migrant mushroomers, who roam the west coast of the North American continent living by skills that have all but disappeared among modern humanity.
From the National Food Safety Database: storage tips for the top-20 fruits and top-20 vegetables sold at supermarkets. With tips on picking ripe fruit, this one’s going in my Palm for sure.
The other day as I was driving to work I noticed the big print on a historical marker I had never seen before: “Fairfax Nike Missile Site”. Huh? Those words are accompanied by a whole paragraph of teeny text, so the next time I’m not late to work I’ll pull over to read it and take a picture.
Macrumors.com has a link to a couple of pictures of Sony’s new Palm-based PDA to be announced at this week’s PC Expo. Palm Infocenter contributor Mike Cane filed a report from the expo covering many new Palm related products and announcements.
If a man is provided with a length of gummed linen cloth with a length of 12 yards on each side and 12 yards high, he can jump from any great height whatsoever without injury.Despite warnings that the canvas and wood parachute would collapse, Adrian Nicholas jumped from 10,000 feet yesterday to prove that Da Vinci’s design was sound.
The next time you drop a measuring spoon into your in-sink-erator, you’ll sure be glad they have a Web site. We were about to give up on ever using our sink again before I learned I could fix it with a 1/4" allen wrench.
Although it may be unintentional, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines as they exist are really a fundamental form of institutionalized racism in a rather destructive and insidious format.Dr. Milton Mills argues that recommending 2-3 servings of dairy products daily to millions of lactose intolerant people of color is not a good thing for the United States government to do. link swiped from the Daily Churn.
Last Friday’s Weekend section of the Washington Post featured DC hip-hop on the cover. It quotes a local artist speculating that the reason homegrown hip-hop hasn’t taken off commercially is that “go-go is the music of this land… that’s what gets support from the neighborhood kids.” Since that’s the case, why doesn’t the Post cover the go-go scene?
IronChef.com has been reborn as IronSteph.com, “An UNOFFICIAL Site of All Things Iron Chef”. Yay! The Iron Chef world is gearing up for what promises to be an incredible show tonight when the chefs travel to New York City to battle with the Food Network’s Bobby Flay. Time Out New York has a short interview with eccentric millionaire Chairman Kaga – or, rather, with the actor who portrays him. The battle airs at 9pm EST for 2 hours, after which I will be logging on to FoodTV.com for a “tell-all” chat with Bobby Flay.
This illustrated procedure for disassembling a Magic 8-Ball is fascinating. How many sides does the polyhedron inside have? How many positive and how many negative answers? And what does that blue fluid taste like? Find out all this and more…
I saw a woman get arrested at a Restoration Hardware in Palo Alto for yelling at some of the rich customers. She was yelling "You rich bitch!" and things like that. I thought, Here's real social resentment - here comes the revolution!The Atlantic talks to David Brooks, author of Bobos in Paradise, which investigates the pressing question of "whether or not we've reached the end of history and it's all going to end in this tepid, boring, big kitchen."
Subvertise – “this shared web-gallery of radical arts exists to document, develop and promote the artform of the post-corporate millennium - subvertising. Whether you need outrageous illustrations for your campaign literature, graphics for understanding and explaining complex social issues, or inspiration for an action, this website is for you.” If you like the idea, lean about ways you can help out.
indy Magazine turns out to be the independent comic news/reviews Web site I’ve been looking for. Unfortunately they don’t seem to review every issue of every independent comic that comes out every week – even a review of every title would be nice – including of course, all one-shots, compilations and the like. Am I asking too much? With sites like epinions and Amazon.com turning their users into content producers to provide multiple reviews of everything under the sun, I don’t think so.
I’m sorry, but this is hilarious.
Adrian Tomine’s diaries read sort of like his comic, Optic Nerve. I’ve wondered since I was a kid exactly how comic pages were composed (“how do they know how big to make the word balloons?") and Marvel’s How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way wasn’t much help, but Tomine has sprinkled his diary with some glimpses into the method (and madness) of his process.
O’Reilly, known for publishing definitive books on a wide range of computing technologies, has released Mac OS in a Nutshell. The book is sure to appear on the bookshelf of “the Mac person” on whom you rely for troubleshooting and assistance – so why not get a copy for yourself?
I was churned today by the monkey fist, and all I got was a few new lousy friends. If you don’t stop by the #mf channel (irc: monkeyfist.com:6667), you should at least take a gander at the Daily Churn now and then – it’s a log of links that come up in the irc chat. Imagine a random set of links filtered by a handful of uncommon minds – there’s no telling what will turn up, but it’s certain to be interesting.
No Lye, No Soap! Can not make soap without LYE!
Retrogression (“a journal of music and revolution”) is a great weblog. I’d add it to my list of daily reads, but it hasn’t been updated since May.
Hober broadcasts from a geodesic dome in the oak forest just outside Washington DC. There are some strict rules governing which music is aired on Hober. The music should be hand played, without augmentation. A Hober band is people who could walk up to each other with their instruments in the middle of a field and just play their stuff. Drums should be struck by the hand rather than a stick. Hober songs should be musical descendant of melodies and rhythms which people knew, remembered and passed down - before recording machines existed.This is why I love Internet radio. I haven't listened to Hober yet, but I'm sure looking forward to it.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a political prisoner on death row in Pennsylvania, gave this year’s commencement address at Antioch College. You probably missed it today on C-Span at 4pm, but you can listen to it on the Internet (requires the free realplayer) thanks to c-span.org, where you can watch many other commencement speeches including Tom Wolfe’s at Boston College, Oprah Winfrey’s at Salem College, and George Plimpton’s at Hampshire College.
“I hate Northern Virginia. . . . I thought, if I buy a boat, I can always move it.”
Nader believes that it is "the contented classes" who need most to be aroused to indignation. The wealthy plutocrats? They are never going to join the revolution. But the top 10 percent, who live lives of comfort, who when the municipal water supplies become tainted, simply switch to Evian? When the public schools become monuments to failure, simply opt for private schools?Well, it's not Evian, it's Brita, but I'm guilty as charged. The Washington Post speculates as to whether Nader's campaign will impact the Democrats or the Republicans more in this year's race. Nader says the parties are as different as tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, and I tend to agree. I think I could maybe get behind Ralph Nader for President.
Police said the officer thought he saw a flash of metal, perhaps from the cellular telephone, wallet and keys that police said Buruca-Melgar was carrying in his hand.Jose Buruca-Melgar was shot in the gut point blank with no warning from police, a witness says. The Prince George's County (MD) police are counting on the hope that no one in the DC area paid much attention to the details of the Amadou Diallo case -- Diallo was supposed to be pulling his wallet out of his pocket when four cops shot forty-one bullets at him in February of last year. Folks, they can only use these bullshit excuses for as long as we let them.
Sarah Duncan’s What White People Can Do About Racism is required reading. Exceptions will be made only for those who have already written at least 4000 words on the same or a similar topic.
It sounds real -- it sounds like we used to. It sounds like a band. There was nobody there to say, 'Record this, don't record that, and add a keyboard there.' We didn't rehearse or play the songs to death before we recorded them, and that let us catch a freshness and energy level we've never really felt while making records.Edie Brickell talks about the New Bohemians' new self-released live-to-tape the live montauk sessions in an interview with the Austin Chronicle. I wonder if there's any way I'd be able to make it to Vermont to see them perform at Ben and Jerry's One World One Heart Festival next weekend.
Pull your pants up, turn your hat around, and get a job. This was the headline of an article about Napster which was posted to MetaFilter for discussion, and which struck me as rather fucked up. So of course, I said so – and was quickly put in my place by a bunch of well-meaning (I continue to hope) MetaFilter users. Check out this thread to see how it went down. If you’d like to continue the discussion you can post a comment here.
One of the critical barriers to building ever higher skyscrapers is elevator construction: Elevator passengers traveling hundreds of floors would experience inner-ear problems, from severe pain to broken ear drums.You can browse the FEED City Issue on the Web, explore it with Flash, or just read it in rich text format; no matter how you approach it, it's a treat, featuring annotated Quicktime panoramas of six street scenes from around the globe, five examinations of ambitious projects that never were (such as Frank Lloyd Wright's mile-high skyscraper), five profiles of ambitious projects that are underway, and four essays on the theme.
Terrorism against the U.S. -- which is already exceptionally unusual -- would be all but imperceptible if American foreign policy were just and humane. But there's the rub: foreign policy cannot be either just or humane as long as U.S. corporations and elites seek to maintain the U.S. Empire. In other words, if you want to reduce terrorism globally dismantle the American Empire!Kendall of the monkeyfist collective examines the report of the National Commission on Terrorism and comes to a somewhat different conclusion. I couldn't resist giving away the punch line, but this is a really great analysis of a really terrifying document. Highly recommended.
Most people don’t know that the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 guarantees that if you’ve held a job for at least one year and your company employs more than 50 people, you are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year which you may use to care for a newborn child or a family member with a serious health condition. The FMLA further ensures that your position must be available to you when you return and that your medical coverage continues uninterrupted during the course of your leave. It’s unfortunate that paid paternity leave isn’t more common in the United States, but this law offers some assistance to fathers looking to stay home.
Mr. Valdés seems uncharacteristically thoughtful when discussing his friend's life. His friend, he says, has chosen to live as a black man rather than as a Miami Cuban.The New York Times' "How Race Is Lived in America" series starts with this profile of a black man and a white man who were best friends in Cuba but find that their new lives in Miami are circumscribed by the color of their skin.
. . .
"He said that?" Mr. Ruiz asks, lifting his eyebrows. "I don't know why he would think that blacks are delinquents. I know he doesn't think that of me, and I'm black. I've always been black." A pause. He thinks some more. "He grew up with blacks," he says. "I don't understand it. Maybe something bad happened to him. I am sure he is talking about American blacks."
Some compromises with authenticity must be made. Wallpaper paste used to be made with arsenic, and gardens fertilized with lethal pesticides. "We do not want the family to die," explains curator Daru Rooke.The 1900 House, in which one family is picked to live in a house to find out what happens when people stop using deodorant and start wearing corsets, begins tonight on PBS in most areas.
If you’ve seen the movie Fight Club, take a look again through BoyCaught’s eyes.
I like this Gallery of Visual Journal Entries very much. Before you peek at that last entry on the right, try your hand at this logic puzzle.
Who knew the first cyborg would be a fish? This is crazier than cloning, and even that was something I didn’t expect to see in my lifetime.
He leaned his shoulder against a marble wall as he began to speak, his face so close to the cool surface he could have kissed it.Society is struggling to make sense of the sight of people in public talking out loud to increasingly invisible telephones, according to the New York Times.
Pliny tells us that Cicero asserts that the whole Iliad was written on a piece of parchment which might be put in(to) a nutshell. For more origins of words and phrases, check out the Internet Public Library’s etymology pathfinder.
Scott McCloud’s new book Reinventing Comics is available in comic stores today. If his previous book is any indication, this new one will belong on the shelves of everyone working in new media and anyone interested in information, art, design, or literature. After you’ve read the book, check McCloud’s resources page in the next few weeks for online resources and expanded footnotes for Reinventing Comics.
Revealing Things was the first Smithsonian exhibit to be created specifically for the Internet (way back in 1998!) and it’s very, very good. The interface is full of new ideas and old ones done right, and feels natural to use. The site incorporates Flash, frames, and Java seamlessly. Any one of these technologies done well is impressive. The sum of the parts works out to a fascinating meditation on objects, as the title suggests.
These puppets are lots of fun.
A big role that this company is playing in this country is that of a massive school. This company teaches people about punctuality, about following procedures, about teamwork. That's the way I see it. Remember, this country comes from an agricultural base. If it's raining, nobody works. If it's windy, nobody works. If it's a cloudy or a dark day, that's the day you have to put the seed in the ground -- that's the day when people work. The other days, work is over by 10 AM, because the sun is too hot. We're going through a big change of that mentality, and that's what I consider this company -- a big school.Grupo M manufactures clothes for Abercrombie 'n' Fitch, Hugo Boss, and Tommy Hilfiger, and is the largest private employer in the Dominican Republic. A Fast Company article suggests that rather than a sweatshop it's a model of social responsibility, worker empowerment, and indusry reform.
Today slashdot reports that Fuji Television, the creator of the best show on television, has issued cease and desist orders to all Iron Chef fansites requiring that they remove all Fuji-owned graphics and sound. Perhaps rather than writing angry letters to Fuji TV and threatening a boycott (as one slashdot reader suggested,) we should instead take a cue from Apogee and offer them a ride on the cluetrain, so to speak. Apogee Software (makers of the popular Duke Nukem games) has developed a license agreement laying out strict rules under which fan sites can use Apogee trademarks – perhaps the slashdot reader remembers when this came up a few days ago. While the Apogee license in its current form is admittedly problematic, the concept seems pretty groundbreaking. Fuji doesn’t need to issue a half-dozen cease and desist letters to protect its rights – it can simply issue terms under which fan sites may or may not use Fuji property. Hopefully such terms would tend toward allowing fan sites the freedom to celebrate the show, while protecting the rights of the Fuji to conrol how those marks are used.
This situation reminds me of the best observation I heard about the whole Napster/Offspring situation – if Napster were really cool, like Offspring had hoped, they would have sent Offspring a licensing agreement to sell their merchandise rather than a cease and desist.
‘Interactivity’ is one of those neologisms that Mr Humphrys likes to dangle between a pair of verbal tweezers, but the reason we suddenly need such a word is that during this century we have for the first time been dominated by non-interactive forms of entertainment: cinema, radio, recorded music and television. Before they came along all entertainment was interactive: theatre, music, sport — the performers and audience were there together, and even a respectfully silent audience exerted a powerful shaping presence on the unfolding of whatever drama they were there for. We didn’t need a special word for interactivity in the same way that we don’t (yet) need a special word for people with only one head.This is why Douglas Adams rocks.
The refined debauchee shrinks before the gastronomic libertinism of the Baptists. Pie, sensually crusted and voluptuously perfumed with cinnamon, is a devil's snare perfected by the Pilgrims. The Methodist tooth is fleshed daily in succulent pork and rare chines of beef. Young fowls are daintily fed and fattened, they are lured to the block by enticements of corn, they eat their way to death, and die below the axe, victims of the deceptive kindness of their masters. The full udders of cattle, themselves the fruit of bovine immortality, are robbed daily of their lactic treasure. Sunday, among the Methodists, after a formal propitiation of the Almighty in the morning, is given over to a Lucullan celebration of Ceres and Pomona. The fact that Bacchus is excluded from these orgies only serves to taint the ceremonies with a hint of perversion.A version of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel is being republished as "O Lost," incorporating 60,000 words that Wolfe scholars have argued were erroneously cut. The Washington Post talks to one Wolfe expert who says that O Lost is not just a longer book than Look Homeward, Angel, but a fundamentally different book with a greater focus on American culture.
Taco Bell and Wendy's and Burger King are competing for the fastest fast food service; they've become so mechanized and controlling that they glue workers to spots in the assembly line, even requiring them to position their hands in particular ways to shave tenths of seconds from production time.One thing about the monkeyfist collective, it's never afraid to speak it's mind.
Dress it up any way you want, but that's fascism!
The Offspring are selling Napster-branded merchandise from their Web site. They don’t have permission, and are keeping the profits for themselves. Their latest single may have been puerile reactionary trash, but this latest move is a stroke of genius. “It isn’t about money,” a source close to the band reveals to Rolling Stone. Apparently they think Napster’s cool and want to see just how cool they really are.
At 5am South African time, a bomb exploded in the coutyard outside Microsoft’s offices in Johannesburg.
I walked up to the driver's side of the car, to the driver's window, and I said, "May I help you?" The car was a dark colored big suburban, I think it was 4-door. There was a lady driving. She asked me if we, meaning Whitmore's [landscaping company], had put up a fence and I told her no. At that point she staretd to get extremely angry and she called me a "Fucking liar". She asked, "Who put up the fence?" and I said that I didn't know. She then started yelling, "All you Whitmore guys are fucking liars, you're all no good, the bunch of you". She was just screaming at me and yelling that "you and all your fucking illegal aliens are no good". She said she was going to call the police. I said go ahead. The whole time she was yelling at me, I said, "This is not really necessary to be talking like this and don't talk about my guys like that." I kept telling her, "I'm sorry there is nothing I can do about it". She said, "Don't you leave, I'm calling the police and you're going to take that fence down." At this point, she picked up her car phone. Right around that point, I realized that this person was Martha Stewart, who has a house next door. I recognized her from TV.That's not all -- it gets better when Martha Stewart tries to crush this guy with her truck. thanks, boing boing.
Baudelaire was the first to be given like tries to collect what there is "the poetic one in the history" and "of eternal in the transient." Charles Baudelaire is also that which knew to extract the beauty from the evil, it is to say that following Romantic, it opened the way of an esthetics of the suffering. The poet ran his chaotic experiment of the world in ideal worms of harmony and images where the blackest feelings become landscapes afflicted certainly, but also splendid. Baudelaire is well that which "has Petri of the mud and which in made gold."Oh, fickle fish, grant me one wish: to understand what the hell this french Web site about Hugo, Baudelaire, Verlaine and Rimbaud is saying!
Arthur Rimbaud, it is to him the fulgurance, the movement in what it has of more attractive. Rimbaud was still a child that already it dreamed to leave to the adventure, to invest new regions, always further; and it is what it did while travelling towards the most foreign countries which are in its Charleville native. It is also what Arthur Rimbaud did while creating of the poems where the words are not there any more to express with beauty the feelings of everyone, but where they have like role of, literally, to force the reader to invent new emotions.
Did you always wonder how the “Monster in the Popcorn” trick is done? Now you, too, can terrify small children and mortify adults with your odd predilection for jokes that no one but yourself find funny.
Cartoonist Keiron Dwyer was hit with a lawsuit for this one. Fortunately, the court ruled that he can continue using the parodic logo, although he may not profit from it. His Web site is worth a look. Be sure to browse through the funny-as-hell pics section.
Crap. Bullshit. You were a stupid American tourist without the guts or the gumption or whatever small little bit of toenail dirt it takes to actually walk into a strange restaurant in a strange city and try to make sense of the place.In which Grant Barrett quietly launches his new Web project, Mo Nickels, with content mysteriously dating back to November of last year.
Sudama is an acronym? No, it’s not. It’s a name which appears in ancient Hindu literature.
“Cameras have been attached to the sides of rockets before but the images from the rocketcam on the side of the first launch of the Atlas 3 booster must be the most dramatic. They take the viewer on a 1 minute 50 second ride from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida to the edges of space with the curved horizon of the Earth clearly visible.” thanks, davenetics.
Freshly-Ripped: the beat don’t stop until the buffer runs out.
If you decide to stay in your body form - Click Here.The thing about Choose your Own Adventure books was that every time I finished an adventure, I couldn't help but feel that I had somehow lost.
If you decide to be transformed into an energy shape - Click Here.
I'm afraid I can't see much difference between Spielberg's serious movie and his boy's book movies. Schindler's List depends on Spielberg's inflatable, one-size-fits-all myth about how a clever, resourceful character can outsmart a system. Is that what the meaning of the Holocaust boils down to--Indiana Schindler versus the Gestapo of Doom? ... How about a movie that deeply, compassionately entered into the German point of view in order to reveal how regular people with wives and children could be drawn into committing such horrors? How about a movie that showed that, at least potentially, we are them? A film that didn't locate the bad guys in an emotional galaxy far away?Ray Carney, film critic and professor at Boston University, says that dozens of great films have been made in recent years, and chances are you haven't heard of a single one.
When Brent Kennedy started questioning his origins, an aunt doused old family documents and photographs with gasoline and set them ablaze. "I hope you burn in hell," another relative told him.It seems Melungeons (persons of mixed ancestry including European, African, and Native American) have never been very popular.
Even worse than the Q-Tip test: the candiru fish.
Barnes & Noble.com is offering a slew of free eBooks for download in conjunction with Microsoft. It’s a promotion for the new PocketPC, but Palm users can take advantage of the deal by downloading the free eBook reader software from PeanutPress. thanks, PalmLounge.
A shared sense of mortality has been the basis for feeling a commonality with other human beings -- a sense of going through the same life cycle, a sense of the preciousness of time and life, of its fragility. The possibilities of engaging emotionally with creatures that will not die, whose loss we will never need to face, presents potentially dramatic changes in our psychology.Professor Sherry Turkle is researching the ways in which people relate to the new category of objects (Tamagotchi, Aibo, Hasbro's upcoming My Real Baby) which seem to possess intentions, preferences, and other human characteristics. A preliminary investigation into the nature of Furbies reveals that children do feel they're alive -- "not ... in a human or animal kind of way, but in a Furby kind of way."
NBC will likely broadcast the five unaired episodes of Freaks and Geeks in a three-hour marathon this summer. If you appreciate the kind of good TV that comes around a few times a decade, you should check this out.
This movie of a cat getting scared will make you laugh out loud. Poor cat!
When an underwater volcano erupts near the surface, it sometimes forms an island. A team of scientists were lucky enough to happen upon such an eruption recently.
LARS ULRICH: I think that most of what you're saying deals with the record company being these money hungry, greedy, blah blah blah. Remember one thing: I can guarantee you that there's nobody at Napster who is doing as a charitable event for all of mankind. There are investors behind Napster, and there are people sitting and counting the days until Napster puts out an initial public offering, and they'll make millions of dollars in return for their worth.I wish I'd seen this episode of The Charlie Rose Show -- Lars Ulrich made some interesting, though unconvincing, points. Now if only Metallica would get around to answering these questions from slashdot, maybe we could keep the cluetrain rolling. thanks, saturn.org.
CHUCK D: It's always been about the shadow of technology hanging over the entertainment industry anyway. And it's definitely been about two different worlds--
LARS ULRICH: Right. And there's millions of dollars involved in Napster in the same way that there are millions of dollars in your evil music business. I think it's like, if the record company bosses don't take the money, then the Internet people are going to take it. Somebody's going to profit off it, and if it's not the artist, then you're profiting illegally. It's bulletproof--who can argue with that?
Ars Technica weighs in on Mac OS X DP 4 – a must-read for UNIX/Linux users and technically inclined Mac heads.
Scott McCloud’s top ten Web comics are bound to be worth investigating. thanks, bird on a wire.
Gnute.com is a Web based interface to the gnutella file-sharing network.
Go read the new Lynda Barry cartoon at Salon, you turtle-headed sucker-leg.
For each of the past two winters it has snowed at least 36 feet. Feet, not inches. The building is called Begich Towers, a 14-story monolith and a model of drab Army efficiency, rising like an urban transplant amid the town's rail-yard waterfront. City Hall, the Country Store, the U.S. Post Office and Cabin Fever Cures, a combination video store and tanning salon, all sit on the first floor. The tunnel has long been Whittier's lifeline to the rest of the world. In winter, when the ferry service isn't running, a train ride through the two-mile tunnel under a mountain is the sole avenue of access. It runs four days a week, with a single passenger car and a series of flat cars; folks sit in their cars and trucks for the slow ride through the tunnel, then about 10 more slow miles out to the Seward Highway.Foul weather, a fortress of a building and a tunnel. That's this town.The imminent opening of the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel to automotive traffic will expose Whittier Alaska, population 250, to 1,500,000 tourists in the coming years.
I’ve jazzed up the ‘links open windows’ tool a bit: see the linked text next to the checkbox? This is now a bookmarklet, a tool that can live in your toolbar or favorites list for you to use wherever you like. Just drag the link up to your toolbar (a la deepleap) and click it whenever you want links to open windows – on any Web page, not just randomWalks. Enjoy! (Note: these are not the improvements I mentioned earlier. This bookmarkletization I did myself.)
I think I’d rather read a hiking site for amnesia victims than this old blog any day. No, not that one, this one.
Believe it or not, I did come up with that ‘links open windows’ toggle all by myself. Once again, feel free to use it for your own purposes. Someone emailed me recently about some improvements they made to the code, which I’ll share (or at least link to) soon.
Some roots and seeds that were churned up in the landslides came to rest near the surface and soon sprouted. Insects buzzed in, and pollen rode the mountain winds. Tiny pocket gophers, whose burrows had served as bomb shelters, emerged to dig new holes, churn up fresh soil. One forested valley that was transformed into a flat expanse of rubble is today a patchwork of wetlands and plains, home to bright green Pacific chorus frogs, red-winged blackbirds, elk and coyotes. The air is heavy with alder pollen, and noble firs and Douglas firs sprout everywhere. As more plants like the purple lupine flower or the orange fireweed sprout, rebirth gathers momentum. The area should be fully renewed within 100 years, an eyeblink in geological time.It's been 20 years since Mount St. Helens erupted with the force of a 24 megaton nuclear bomb, and life is returning to the devastated area.
Stealing artists' music without paying for it fairly is absolutely piracy, and I'm talking about major-label recording contracts, not Napster. If these major labels aren't going to do for me what I can do for myself with my nineteen-year-old Web mistress Brooke [Barnett], which is drive millions and millions of people in less than a month by just doing that Web site, and providing real content for that Web site, than they can go to hell.Courtney Love, whose band Hole is in the middle of a contract dispute with Geffen Records, spoke out in favor of Napster at the Digital Hollywood Conference in New York last week.
How good was that Simpsons last night, and how bad was that X-Files? I’m so sure Scully is excited about her pregnancy.
DivX (not the DOA Circuit City DVD scheme) is a new codec which just might do for video what mp3 has done for audio. Check out MacDivX for more info.
American Pictures is a narrated slideshow documenting “a Danish vagabond’s personal journey through the American underclass.” Jacob Holdt tours the US in the spring and fall bringing the “mind-shattering experience” to standing room crowds at colleges and universities. I can’t wait to see it.
Sidewalks aren’t natural things. Paving over nature with concrete is the real graffiti. And since when does painting on a sidewalk ‘damage’ the sidewalk? It rubs off after a few months without a trace. Where’s the damage? City workers spray paint all over the streets and sidewalks with flourescent colors because there is a compelling reason for this. They are saying: Do Not Drill Here. There is a Gas line or a water line and if you drill here, there is a clear and present danger. That’s exactly what I’m saying. ‘If you keep building prisons and taking away money from schools and social programs, there is a clear and present danger.’Someone has been spraypainting “no more prisons” on sidewalks in cities across the US… perhaps you’ve seen it? Now find out why.
Sparky the penguin announced his candidacy for president on Monday, “because you could do a lot worse this year”.
“Sewage line feeds into Louisiana water line for 3 months”? Oh no, no no no no.
What some call cube art, I call a monumental waste of time – I feel it’s more descriptive. thanks, larkfarm.
Bjork is not an actor, which was a surprise for me because she seems so professional and really she is not. She is not acting anything in this film, she is feeling everything, which is very hard on her and very hard on everyone. It's like being with a dying person.Lars Van Trier, Danish Dogme director of Dancer in the Dark, had a difficult (but rewarding) time working with Bjork.
“Breaking the Bank”, a video documentary of the a16 DC events, is now available on videotape and online.
Promising new (to me) blog: bjord.org, “which is officially known as the HQ for underground anarchist web developers building ecommerce backdoors for the revolution, running homebrew log software.”
Jason O’Grady of the PowerPage is providing live coverage of Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote.
Several years ago I was trying to educate myself about the Black Panther Party when I came across this so-called “Coloring Book” presented online as an authentic Party creation. It shocked me into thinking that the Black Panthers were too violently prejudiced to be worth my further investigation. Only today did I learn (thanks, monkeyfist) that the coloring book was a product of the FBI’s COINTELPRO – a project the US government undertook almost forty years ago is still undermining dissenting discourse and progressive political thought and action today.
Over the weekend, the Guardian Unlimited reported the almost-unbelievable story that “the US Air Force developed a top-secret plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon as a display of military might at the height of the Cold War.”
Check out this incredible satellite image of the smoke plume from the Los Alamos fire drifting across several states.
Ingolf is a young man with a bathroom obsession. His entire 65-square-metre apartment has been converted into a washroom. And he lives in it, dreaming of his girlfriend Eva, who is as beautiful as the shower attachment, and feels "My bathroom and I are one". He listens to Beach Boys' hits and Handel's Water Music, loves and sleeps in the bathtub. And when he dies, he wants a bathroom sink with pedestal and crossbar taps on his grave in place of a gravestone. Ingolf is the hero of our modern fairytale.Statements is an art magazine devoted to bathroom culture, published by German plumbing fixtures company Dornbracht.
SimplyRadio.com broadcasts Simply Hip-Hop, Simply Electronic, and Simply R&B, Reggae and Soul in both Real Player and MP3 formats.
She’s the author of the best Indian vegetarian cookbook you can buy, but her passion is acting. Madhur Jaffrey talks to Teresa Wiltz of the Washington Post about racial identity, colonialism, and Cotton Mary, her latest film.
Columbia Journalism Review’s Who Owns What is a guide to the holdings of the major media companies. Blah blah blah trite transition blah blah, Working Assets (the long distance company who donates a percent of your bill to progressive organizations – or the progressive organization that offers long distance service) has launched an online radio station broadcasting progressive news, intelligent talk and alternative viewpoints.
The periodic table of comic books? Check out the rare appearance of molybdenum in issue 70 of Flash, January 1993 page 6. Chlorine is key to a plot twist in issue 188 of The Avengers Volume 1, October 1979. With references to every element and a special section devoted to metal men, this site has to be seen to be believed.
Cousin Kim, I say. Which is better? The kindly massa or the sadistic overseer? And Kim doesn't answer. Neither, I tell her. They are the same. Two parts of a whole. Today, folks won't just walk up to you and call you "nigger lips." Well, they might, but mostly it is the benign racists who are killing me softly. They don't recognize themselves in the mirror. They didn't mean anything by it. They harbor no ill will. They just don't care enough to step outside their comfort zone.Another great reason to read this Post article.
In Bob Levey’s latest column, he tries to fend off “a large, friendly, conspiratorial, Caucasian arm.” Mos Def describes the same arm on his latest album. Are you familiar with the arm?
It is early June, and Cousin Kim and I are about to watch "Roots," the landmark 1970s television miniseries about a slave family. Kim says she's heard of the movie but has never seen it. So I go to queue the video in the cassette player, but first I make a cup of tea. And straighten the pillows on my couch. Then I check my voice mail.I haven't finished this Washington Post article about interracial people and families and passing, but I already know it's good. Is it irresponsible to blog things I haven't read? How else am I going to remember to read them? U: Turns out the article is more about black people and racial consciousness, and a little about passing... and I was right, it is good.
I am puttering. Procrastinating. Loath to begin. Because I don't know if our blood ties are strong enough to withstand slavery. And I am scared to watch "Roots" with a white girl. Scared of my anger. Scared of my pain. Scared that she won't get it. Scared of how much I want her to. Scared of the way race can make strangers out of family.
The AltaMeter is a lot of fun: enter two or more words (or names, phrases, etc.) and see how they rank in terms of Altavista hits. This is actually an idea I first saw implemented by my boss (currently Executive Director of BlackPlanet.com) a couple of years ago – he wanted to chart the results of such a query over time as a sort of index of memetic currency. I didn’t think then that the search engines would do a good job of exposing trends in popular consciousness, and this query supports my thesis. I think this is due to a shortcoming of search engines in general – the idea itself is elegant and ought to be possible through the proper application of technology and algorithm.
The latest rumor regarding the Muslim formerly known as Cat Stevens is that a VH1 “Behind the Music” is in the works. As this wire story suggests, the life story of Yusuf Islam would be the show’s holy grail. The former folk singer, whose few hit records can be found on the shelves of most hippies (and their children), dropped out of the public eye when he joined one of the world’s most misunderstood religions.
I hope that last link gets you thinking about propaganda. There’s certainly a lot to think about.
How many reviews of Radiohead’s OK Computer will I have to read before I realize that the only way to know what you think about music is to hear it?
who scribbled all night rocking and rolling over lofty incantations which in the yellow morning were stanzas of gibberish,Allen Ginsberg wrote, revised, and read Howl for the first time in the San Francisco area between 1954 and 55. The Washington Post offers a self-guided tour of Howl's inception.
who threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot for Eternity outside of Time, & alarm clocks fell on their heads every day for the next decade,
who cut their wrists three times successively unsuccessfully, gave up and were forced to open antique stores where they thought they were growing old and cried,
who were burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue amid blasts of leaden verse & the tanked-up clatter of the iron regiments of fashion & the nitroglycerine shrieks of the fairies of advertising & the mustard gas of sinister intelligent editors, or were run down by the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality,
who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge this actually happened and walked away unknown and forgotten into the ghostly daze of Chinatown soup alleyways & firetrucks, not even one free beer,
who drove crosscountry seventytwo hours to find out if I had a vision or you had a vision or he had a vision to find out Eternity.
You’ll probably enjoy this.
Today’s Washington Post carried an article which purported to be about comic books going postmodern in an attempt to revive their failing popularity. The article failed to illuminate any issues facing the comics industry though, and how you can talk about postmodern comics without mentioning Frank Miller’s Dark Knight and Moore and Gibson’s Watchmen is beyond me – oh wait, you can’t. I’m guessing the article was just a reformulated press release for a new DC Comics series called “Realworlds”.
O: So what you're saying is that drugs make you a winner.The Onion AV Club interviews Trey Anastasio of Phish.
TA: Exactly. That's my point. They're the missing link between coolness and uncoolness.
The winners have been announced in the sylloge 5k web design contest. Wow. Check out the hungry little frog, iris, and WAR (the card game). I would have been impressed by any of these even if they’d been 100k.
Tanzanian Peaberry coffee beans are about the size of a pencil eraser. I've got a tad under a pound of them at home, sealed in a bag in my pantry. They're still green -- well, more like a greenish-brown, really -- because they haven't been roasted yet. This morning I scooped about six spoonfuls into my roaster and turned it on while I showered. After 15 minutes the house was filled with the aroma of freshly-roasted coffee. If you've not smelled that, and you like coffee, you are missing out. It's like the smell of coffee beans, or a nice coffee house, but smokier, richer, earthier. Enormously pleasant. I took the beans, still hot, and whirled themin my grinder. Steam was released and condensed back to water in the underside of the domed lid, all in ten seconds. The coarsly ground beans were then transferred into my French Press where they sat in nearly-boiling water for about five minutes. Twenty minutes total from raw bean to brew. To the coffee in my cup I added a spoonful of the freshly whipped cream I'd made for my strawberries and stirred with a piece of freshly cut sugar cane (a gift from my neighbors just returned from Florida. They also brought some segments that were starting to sprout, which I promptly planted in the side yard.)Eric of Kestrel's Nest lives an obscenely sensual life. I can't read his weblog too often, because it leaves me green. When I do read it, I find myself inspired to roast my own coffee beans in a hot air popcorn popper, make my own cheese, and cut my grass with an unpowered push mower.
The US Army expects to build a Star Trek style holodeck within 30 years. Woohoo!
Slashdot will be taking questions tomorrow for Metallica. In the meantime, John Katz has posted a diatribe against the band’s Napster lawsuit which has provoked some interesting discussion, including this post which suggests that the record companies know exactly what they’re doing – it’s not that they’ve missed the cluetrain, they’ve been busy building tracks and commandeering switches.
I’m spending a lot of time at Digital Photography Review’s Nikon forum lately – drooling over photos people have taken with their new 990s, commiserating with folks waiting for their own camera to arrive, and fantasizing about the photos I’ll take when I finally get my hands on one. One post pointed me to the very odd Beyond Red, a collection of photos taken with a 950 using a filter which only allows infrared light to be captured.
Time’s cover story this week, The Truth About the Vikings, is a fascinating though not especially well-written substitute for a field trip to the Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Check out both if you can.
The new Guardian weblog, with links to great stories such as this Boston Phoenix piece by a reporter who spent two nights undercover in jail, will, with some bending, pushing and squeezing, partly fill the hole left by the closing of World New York. On a tangent, it looks like Grant Barrett is working on another project called Mo Nickels which I hope to remember to check out in June.
Without Sanctuary: “Searching through America’s past for the last 25 years, collector James Allen uncovered an extraordinary visual legacy: photographs and postcards taken as souvenirs at lynchings throughout America. Please be aware before entering the site that much of the material is very disturbing.”
This in-depth review of the new Nikon Coolpix 990 describes a way to compensate for the noise generated in images with long exposure times by layering a blurred full black frame of equivalent exposure using the ‘difference’ layer option in Photoshop.
Seven folktales about flatulence from D. L. Ashliman’s collection of hundreds of folklore and mythology electronic texts.
We always think in terms of opposites. But God, the ultimate, is beyond the pairs of opposites. That is all there is to it.
-- Joseph Campbell
Justin Quinnell’s bath, as seen by his tongue? Justin held a film canister in his mouth to achieve this perspective. My new digital camera should arrive any day now, but in the meantime I’m developing a fascination with pinhole cameras. I’ll probably make my first one out of an oatmeal box. Some people get into the technical aspects of pinhole photography, (you can be extremely precise if you wish) but I’m drawn to it for the opposite reason – without a viewfinder, a precision lens, and a computer controlled shutter, you can’t possibly know quite what will develop. I’m also a sucker for anything with such a wonderful history.
Dr. Dre has followed through with his threat to sue Napster. He issued a statement yesterday in which he stated 'I don't like people stealing my music'. I guess it wasn't 'stealing' when Dre made all those mixtapes that used be sold at the LA swap meets back in the early days of his career. I have a couple of those tapes and I don't think Dre got any of the music cleared, nor do I think he sent any of the artists royalty checks for beats used on those tapes.
-- Davey D takes Dr. Dre to task in the latest edition of his FNV Newsletter.
"I learned about black consciousness from Tyson," Gore said. Tyson got him to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice. Gore said he remembered "loooonnng conversations at night in the bunk beds, top to bottom and back again" about the books, and how and why blacks perceived the world differently from whites. "You know, the way concepts of value and worth and beauty and normality are all defined in a majority culture in ways that can be hurtful . . . It was really quite an education."The Washington Post Magazine presents 13 Ways of Looking at Al Gore and Race. John Tyson was Al Gore's roommate in his junior year at Harvard.
This frightens me.
Three things I want to find in the Northern Virginia area: vegetarian restaurants, farmer’s markets, and food co-ops.
I know I won’t find vegetarian Chinese food as good as Hunan Delight in Brooklyn or Vegetarian House of Dim Sum in Manhattan’s Chinatown, but I’m going to keep my eye on the vegetarian resources listed at dcpages.com, and maybe one day make it out to Rockville MD to try Yuan Fu. The Vegetarian Society of DC also keeps a list of area restaurants and groceries.
Since we won’t be able to get great produce by just walking down the street, we’re going to have to figure out the farmer’s market scene.
We never joined the Park Slope Food Coop, probably because they didn’t let non-members shop and membership required a $100 deposit. A membership certainly would have been worth the money, but it never seemed to be the right time. Natural food stores are few and far between, but there’s Straight from the Crate in Alexandria, and The Uncommon Market, a cooperative in Arlington. Kendall at monkeyfist has a good explanation of why I want to avoid shopping at Fresh Fields as much as possible.
We’ll also need a source for fresh bulk spices, and ingredients for Indian, Japanese, and Chinese dishes that we make. This Washingtonian Restaurants and Dining section actually has a good deal of info about shopping for groceries. According to this Washingtonian article on ‘ethnic’ markets, there’s a great Indian spice store in Arlington. So I guess we’ll be alright.
All of our stuff is packed in candy boxes we found on the street on recycling night – Bubblicious, Twizzler, Kablooie Blast, Lemonheads, Gummy Wormz in Candy Dirt, Ludens Cherry Lozenges, Swedish Fish. Sometimes I think I’d rather open a box and find the candy than a bunch of cords and markers and papers and floppies.
Sometimes (like just now) drinking beer gives me the hiccups. That’s weird, but not as weird as my wife, who gets hiccups whenever she eats boiled eggs or french fries. I’ve always found the ‘cures’ (holding your breath, breathing into a paper bag, drinking from the far side of a glass) to be unreliable, but it took google about 3 seconds to find me a cure that worked.
The Onion has a couple
more Easter card designs on their site, and isee isay is celebrating this
Easter with an investigation into the true nature of peeps, those bright
yellow sugar-coated marshmallow ducks which inspire either candylust or
revulsion (occasionally both) in everyone I know.
It's like suddenly learning how to program in C++, only you have to eat the guy from tech support to see the benefits.Genetic algorithms -- programs which are seeded, evolved, mutated, and evaluated rather than engineered -- are finding their way into software (like the game Evolva due out this month) that you and I will be using in the near future, according to FEED's Steven Johnson.
Smash! in DC, some record store in Portland OR, and See Hear in NY are some places I’ve found copies of Cometbus, my favorite zine. Read Punk Rock Love and see why.
Everybody was linking to the Constructor recently, but it didn’t hold my interest. I just found Gravilux, and I’ll probably be playing with it all day.
Harrowing account of attack on Black Zimbabweans, vis-à-vis robotwisdom.
Apparently angling for a picture in the dictionary under ‘myopia’, the Librarian of Congress declared last week that the Library of Congress will not digitize its collection. I guess he misplaced his copy of the mission statement or something.
The appeal of laissez-faire capitalism, as it spread around the world until it vanquished even the Soviets, was simple: You need neither a change in structures nor a change in human nature. Instead, the bad side of human nature -- the greed, competitiveness, and materialism -- could be counted on to magically produce enough wealth that many people could actually enjoy the easy life that the utopians and commissars could only promise. That is the revolutionary idea of our time, and it has cast into a sepia shadow both Gandhi and Lenin. We distrust moralizing as thoroughly as we distrust government; in a cynical age, our ultimate trust is in the notion that trust is unnecessary, that we should each simply advance our own cause.Bill McKibben writing for Mother Jones about the joys of renunciation. thanks, riothero.
Here’s a page of Godel, Escher, Bach resources. One day I’m going to read this incredible book all the way through. Who? Godel, Escher, Bach. Why? Take a peek at what’s inside.
The best pictures yet of Area 51 were recently released. No one can get through to the official site, of course, not even Mulder and Scully.
Bryan Boyer’s Hidden Information Spaces is required reading for Web designers. thanks, invisiblog.
xblog reminded me that Scott McCloud’s new book Reinventing Comics (a follow up to Understanding Comics) is due out soon. I’m going to keep an eye on xblog’s archive of comics links.
William A. Dickey renamed the peak, the tallest point in North America, Mt. McKinley in 1896. Why he got to name it is hard to fathom. Dickey had come to Alaska spurred by discoveries of gold in Cook Inlet. With three companions he made it to Talkeetna and saw Denali, "the great one" in the language of the nearby Tanaina Indians. According to C. H. Merriam, testifying before the U.S. Geographical Board in 1917, "The right of the discoverer to name geographical features has never been questioned," but Dickey was no discoverer. Native people had discovered the mountain thousands of years earlier. Even if only white people "discover," Russians saw it in the 1770s or 1780s and named it Bulshaia Gora, "big mountain." Even if only English-speaking white people "discover," George Vancouver saw Denali in 1794. Dickey was not even the first white American to see it; other Americans had preceded him by a quarter century.Excerpted from James Loewen's new book Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. Read the first chapter at washingtonpost.com.
indymedia: live coverage of imf & world bank protests
studio X live audio coverage of a16
mobilization radio
a16 official site
monkeyfist a16 coverage
yahoo IMF news photo search
washingtonpost.com special report
c-span streaming video of rally & march
kidspost: the protests explained - “Do the two sides agree on anything? They agree there are more than a billion people on Earth who barely have enough money to survive."
wp cameraworks top story
infoshop news (scroll down)
znet a16 coverage & analysis
a-infos news
Some really good Boondocks strips recently:
Gotta remember Teaser anticorporate media and resources.
Romans did not consider male genitalia obscene or pornographic, or even particularly arousing. Instead, erect penises were regarded as a good-luck charm. Painted or sculpted, they stood in every part of the town, and measured all possible lengths, from four feet downwards. They appeared on shops, factories and taverns, above the doors of houses, on statues adorning fountains, gardens and private houses, on lamps, tripods, necklaces, bracelets. Several comic depictions show men - and, on occasion, gods - with grotesquely enlarged penises. In one case, a gladiator is pictured in apparent mortal combat with his own penis.It's funny, the things you don't remember from 4th grade social studies. Closed to the public for 200 years, the "secret room" of the National Archaeological Museum in Naples is now welcoming visitors. thanks, flutterby.
“I can remember waking up one morning in my native Manhattan, all ready to go out and roast a pig’s tail over an open fire, just the way the Ingalls family did. It seemed only natural. More than anything, I longed to see someone construct a log cabin by hand.” Melanie Rehak loved to read as a child.
<img src=“http://www.sitesalon.co.uk/NewFiles/ghettoja.jpg" align=“right” width=“64” height=“96” / hspace=“12”>Now showing at the sitesalon gallery:
“four hundred weddings and an erection showcases a small sample of
the millions of photos which lie uncollected in the backrooms of chemist
shops and developing labs."
According to CNN, some episodes of Iron Chef were taped in New York recently pitting Food Network stars against the Iron Chefs themselves. I would love to see Chin Kenichi kick Sarah Moulton’s ass, and then looked shocked when he won. The best battle, of course, would be Emeril Lagasse vs. Morimoto Masaharu. BAM! I doubt that’s gonna happen, though. The news on IronChef.com suggests that only one such episode was taped, which will air on June 26th. I can’t wait! thanks, rc3.org.
While New York’s high tech industry has all sorts of magazines and mailing lists devoted to it, the only thing I can find for the DC area is a column in the Post.
I’ve never been given a definition of gentrification I was satisfied with, so I’m always working on my own. If you asked me today, I’d say gentrification is when white people occupy a poor neighborhood and drive out residents by increasing costs of housing & goods, such as is happening in the Shaw, Anacostia, LeDroit Park, and Columbia Heights neighborhoods in Washington DC, in Harlem, in San Franciso’s Mission District.
This is certainly a problem in my neighborhood, and a local community organization has come up with a creative approach to the problem – they’ve established a so-called displacement-free zone within which they plan to strategically defend low-income residents against being forced out of the neighborhood.
The day in photos – check back tomorrow for today’s pics.
“On April 12, 1961, Soviet Major Yuri Gagarin, aboard the Vostok I became the first human to travel into space.” What else happened today? How about in Asian history? Radical history? Black history? Rock and roll history?
I’m excited about Upski’s appearance at ABC No Rio this Thursday. I wonder if I’ll also be able to make it a week from Friday when “classically trained composer Evan Hause will perform the entire double LP, KISS Alive! (1975), on solo electric guitar and voice, accompanied by a moderate amount of critical commentary and musical analysis.”
Infolets is blogging “Internet innovations,” which turns out to be a bunch of interesting and useful stuff.
Standing in the middle of a six-lane street with his arms spread, Miremont somehow managed to convince three lanes of traffic to stop, while coercing another crew member to stop the opposing three. The shut-down was mounted five times over a two-hour period, and Meza, used to getting stopped by LAPD on an irregular basis, was sure he would go to jail that day. But with all the blessings heaven could spare, a patrol car never even cruised by, not even when traffic was flowing smoothly. With traffic stopped, Ron (Garcia, who played Leonard) would drive out onto Colorado, speed through a red light into the intersection for certain shots, or come to a complete stop in front of a green light...Why no one called the police is a mystery.From the presskit for "Staccato Purr of the Exhaust", an independent film. thanks, looka!
I’m fascinated by the situation in Zimbabwe but the BBC’s coverage somehow leaves me cold. Perhaps that’s because British colonialism is at the root of the land ownership disputes today between a minority of wealthy white farmers and the government.
On the way back to New York, looking out the bus window, I saw two things I’d never noticed before. The first thing gave me a chill as we reached the top of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. An unmistakable nuclear cooling tower sat on the horizon looking like a cartoon. It seemed impossibly huge and far away, though it was probably quite close. This might have been the Hope Creek plant, or maybe Salem (pictured). I almost wish I hadn’t seen it. The second thing I almost missed as we crossed a bridge over a small creek on New Jersey Turnpike. I stared for a moment before I realized what it was – an old brown riverboat, intact but bare as a skeleton and lying at an unnatural tilt – and in that moment it was gone.
When a white woman in Harlem doesn’t know what the term “police brutality” means, that’s white privilege.
When Black women are strip-searched twice as often as white men and women, that’s institutional racism.
I wonder what the trial of the Chicago Seven would have looked like on Court TV.
Aurorae were seen as far south as North Carolina in the U.S. last night, due to an intense geomagnetic storm. There’s a chance they’ll be happening tonight too, so if you’ve got clear skies and relatively little light pollution, go outside when it gets dark and look towards your nearest pole.
disinformation has compiled a dossier on Terence McKenna.
Ain’t-it-cool says a Prisoner movie is in the works, and here are some sure-fire ways to fuck it up. Be seeing you!
Camera Works, a new feature of washingtonpost.com, offers a smart combination of photos, flash presentations, and streaming video in an attempt at ‘new forms of storytelling … merging the best of print journalism, photojournalism and documentary filmmaking with the interactive properties of the World Wide Web.’
"I hope this doesn't insult current LSD fans, but the last time I did it, it seemed like a Sopwith camel or something. We were airborne, and below us were the green fields of France, but you could hear the air shrieking over the control surfaces and feel the wind blasting your face. What I had become used to was the cockpit of the space shuttle. Yes, LSD is a psychedelic drug. But it's a psychedelic drug in the same way a fruit fly can fly."Terence McKenna died on Monday the 3rd. He introduced the world to the DMT elves and the Time Wave, advanced the study of ethnopharmacology, and wrote the book on magic mushrooms. For a brief introduction, skip all the links above and read this.
A Letter of Apology to Elian Gonzalez from Michael Moore. This is the first thing I’ve seen about this situation which even begins to make sense.
Everyone should know the proper way to slice and chop. Chopping onions is its own reward.
Minidisc resources: minidisc.org and t-station.net.
12th Annual Who Reads What? Celebrity Reading List. thanks, bird on a wire.
<img src=“https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/85682/2023/8f9ffdfdf8.jpg" height=“250” width"162” border=“0” align=“right” hspace=“30” />Monkeyfist, a most excellent weblog on progressive politics, has set up a16.DC, a most excellent weblog on the upcoming April 16th protests in DC intended to focus global attention on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the spirit of Seattle. The Washington Post recently had a cover story looking at how both demonstrators and DC police are preparing for the event.
Want to know what really happened last year? Note: though referred to as news, the stories showcased in Project Censored’s top 25 underreported news stories of 1999 may actually be true.
Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, has been blowing perfect smoke rings. Stromboli on-line has more photos and video footage.
A Tourist In My Hometown, Once Again, in which Susan Kitchens and a digital camera achieve beginner’s mind and then use Bryce.
Speaking of unannounced products, if this Palm-based Sony minidisc player is for real, the digital camera is going to have to wait. One thing that won’t wait however is Kieslowski’s Decalogue on videotape or DVDthe company releasing them in the United States only has the rights for one year.
"The living arrangement Americans now think of as normal is bankrupting us economically, socially, ecologically, and spiritually. The physical setting itself — the cartoon landscape of car-clogged highways, strip malls, tract houses, franchise fry pits, parking lots, junked cities, and ravaged countryside — is not merely a symptom of our troubled culture but in many ways a primary cause of our troubles." -- James Kunstler in The Geography of Nowhere.The current issue of Adbusters suggests ways we can reclaim urban space with symbolic yet transformative gestures. I love the goals and methods of culture jamming—a well executed jam can function as a "wake-up stick", urging the unsuspecting to reflect on their assumptions & comfort levels.
“If we’re boring, and that’s if we’re boring, and I know you’ve come here today just to see for yourself that we’re not boring, then I guess we’re boring by design. We don’t like the word ‘boring,’ obviously. We prefer to say ‘relaxing.’ " Kenny King, program director at WJZW-FM, Smooth Jazz 105.9 in Washington D.C., is just doing his job.
Old Rag is probably the most famous, and nearly the most crowded, hike in Virginia. I can’t wait to do it myself.
Forbes online wants you to know that “Beginning with 250 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, this summer 7-Eleven will offer bill payment, payroll check cashing, money wiring and ticket purchasing for entertainment events and travel–all on the souped-up terminals. Next step (negotiations are under way): Get Web-order companies to send products to the 7-Eleven distribution network for pickup at a nearby store.” thanks, davenetics.
“That’s a mighty big rocket you’ve got there, Uncle Sam,” they said. “Is it as big as the mind? As free as imagination?"
Adbusters asks, “What will you do this fool’s day?"
In Virgina, you can tell it’s springforsythias are yellow as crayons, and trees bear a curious mix of deep red buds and young green leaves, but it’s the cherry blossoms that close the deal. Things are beginning to smell good too. In Brooklyn a couple of weeks ago things were beginning to smell, but not in quite the same way.
When you know as little about anime as I do, one person’s recommendations are as good as another’s. thanks, librarian.net.
The Free Store is back in business – choose a protocol and check out the wares.
Racism is about institutions, history, personal behavior, and privilege, among other things.
The politics involved are pretty overwhelming, but it’s not hard to appreciate the gravity of the pope’s visit to the Holy Land.
Today is the first day of Spring. That used to mean something.
Scott McCloud’s My Obsession with Chess is great autobiographical comic art. thanks, peterme.
I wish I didn’t know that some natural colors are made from bugs. On the other hand, I’m glad that Food Product Design magazine has a Web site.
The “potato safe”?, the “onion cabinet?”… There’s a new Ben Katchor strip online at Metropolis.
I just stumbled across the New York Times' photo galleries. They’ve got a ton of stuff to look through. I particularly like the photos of volcanoes, Malcolm X, this house, this bathroom sink, a church’s observance of the heritage of slavery, and these twins attending their prom.
Recently people have suggested that slashdot is becoming increasingly less relevant. I’ve been reluctant to accept this, but today’s poll (best poll ever) reveals how true this isgiven a chance to vote for their favorite Iron Chef, the majority of voters reveal that they know nothing about the show. If this were a mainstream site, fine… but slashdot can’t claim to be about ‘stuff that matters’ if it’s readership, which supplies 99% of the content, doesn’t know what that stuff is! I did glean one thing from the comments, though: there is a site called rantsylvania which runs weekly recaps of the show.
The Village Voice this week carries a survey of online ‘radio’ stations. I’m not down with their recommendation of using the ugly buggy RealPlayer exclusively for your streaming needs, but the article offers a great selection of sources for less-than-commercial music that you won’t hear anywhere else. If you want to skip the article: luxuriamusic.com, gogaga.com, WFMU, Radio Nova, InterFace, more. Conspicuously absent from the list is Factory 188, the Old Faithful of net radio, providing beats to live by.
“Give me 100 choices of what this could be, and ‘a gift from Helsinki simulating the northern lights’ would be the last one.” An escalator at the Dupont Circle metro station in Washington DC is the temporary host of an exhibit from Finland.
“I’m always immaculately dressed, and my truck is always clean. Still, some people ask, ‘How can you do this?’ I tell them: ‘If you saw my check, you’d understand.'” Pedro Gomez sets up portable toilets in New York City.
“I can see everything now. What I remember of colours, they were all pale, but now everything is so vivid, the colours, and they fascinate me. I had assumed all my clothes would be dowdy beiges and blacks but when I opened my wardrobe I literally cried with happiness at the colours that were mine.” Jean Baxter, blind for 18 years, recently had her cataracts removed.
“I was tossed and pitched about most terribly through the rapids, but that was not so bad as the drop from the precipice. I struck some rocks, I believe, and was hurled about and knocked frightfully. I could tell when the descent began by feeling that something had given out from under me. Ugh! It’s a terrible nightmare. I don’t want to experience it again. I’d sooner be shot by a cannon or lose a million dollars then do that again.” The Buffalo News tells the story of Annie Taylor and the 14 others who have ridden Niagara Falls. This American Life took a look at the town obscured by the mist. Here’s an okay picture (check out the people for scale) that should convey why you really ought to visit at least once.Thanks, Larkfarm.
Astronomy Picture of the Daynot that great today, but browse the archives for some amazing pictures.
I would love to find some of these Three’s Company bubble-gum trading cards. For more pop culture wackiness check out the Objet of the Week archive.
Sequential Tart is a Web zine working to raise awareness of women’s influence in the comics industry. One great feature is the Bizzare Breasts column, in which an anatomically impossible drawing is critiqued and, when possible, repaired.
Now I know how a catalytic converter works. Of course, if you really want to know how stuff works….
WebApps is also tracking browserware. Here’s one I am going to have to investigate further: Zaplet, “the new way to communicate that turns your email into a live, shared place.” I don’t know what that means either.
Ars Technica’s recommendations detail what components you’ll need to DIY good, better, and best boxes suitable for running Linux, BeOS, and various Microsoft OSes. Once you’ve got it, their Complete System Buider’s Guide explains how to put it all together. I’m putting the ‘good’ list on my Palm for quick reference; one of these days I’m gonna build me a linux box. thanks, FactoVision.
Random walk along a line: a simulation.
Feed weighs in on the suburban sprawl tip:
“Do there exist man-made places that are as valuable as the nature they displaced? How about your hometown Main Street? Or Charleston? Or San Francisco? Few would dispute that man has proved himself capable of producing wonderful places, environments that people cherish no less than the untouched wilderness. The problem is that one cannot easily build Charleston anymore, because it is against the law. Even the classic American Main Street, with its mixed-use buildings right up against the sidewalk, is now illegal in most municipalities. Somewhere along the way, through a series of small and well-intentioned steps, traditional towns became a crime in America."
Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, the Archbishop of Bologna and a leading contender to succeed the Pope, said last week that the Antichrist was “already on Earth in the guise of a prominent philanthropist … [who] espoused vegetarianism, pacifism, environmentalism and animal rights,” though he declined to identify the beast by name. Others have identified Antichrists by name: David Hasselhoff, George Dubya, and Pope after Pope, and many more.
“What deeply worries him is that these technologies collectively create the ability to unleash self-replicating, mutating, mechanical or biological plagues. ‘If you can let something loose that can make more copies of itself, it is very difficult to recall. It is as easy as eradicating all the mosquitoes: They are everywhere and make more of themselves. If attacked, they mutate and become immune. . . .'” Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems has come to the conclusion that “advanced technology poses a threat to the human species.” Look for his forthcoming Wired article to be published on Tuesday.
<img src=“https://omega.randomwalks.com/imgs/blog/weeklycatshow.gif" width=“150” height=“82 vspace=” 8” hspace=“6” border=“1” align=“left”> “Actually, you are strong and tough, Robert. But Billy is weak and nervous and crazy about Dance!!” Props to NetDyslexia for turning me on to the incredible Weekly Cat Show.
I’ve been meaning to consolidate my dozen-plus email addresses, and email vs. email looks like the way to do it. An elimination tournament is just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, in early sparring my hotmail account seemed to be able to take any challengerbut certainly there’s a winner among my endless supply of randomwalks aliases! thanks, gmtplus9.
James Fallows asks why the best high schools in the nation didn’t make Newsweek’s list of the best high schools in the nation, and Jay Mathews (who devised Newsweek’s ranking system) responds.
I like nothing better than a good tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of the detritus of consumer culture. Don’t miss the archives. thanks, Boing Boing.
Speaking of rockin', I would do anything for this Microcker t-shirt, but I won’t do that.
What browsers will Mac users be rockin' 6 months from now? Raul Gutierrez has the lowdown.
“‘Frankly, when I hear this claim that in [Silicon Valley] they don’t discriminate, that makes me deeply suspicious,’ he says. ‘Why do people inside high tech think they can filter out their prejudices and only hire based on skill, when people in other industries can’t? To my way of thinking, there’s no industry or group of people who are beyond prejudice and free of discrimination.'” Paul Igasaki of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission knows what time it is.
“The truth is that hardly anything is as real as it used to be. Stone or brick on a building, despite the solidity it connotes from the days when thick piles of stone and brick actually held up the floors and roofs above, is now all veneer, four or eight inches thick and arranged on the outside of an equally thin, hollow, framed wall.” Anita’s LOL introduced me to Ken Friedlein’s wonderful architecture column The Built World.
“The first draft really took shape when I found that I needed to slow way down and distract myself at the same time so I used a paintbrush and Tuscan red watercolor and painted the manuscript on legal paper, trying to concentrate on the calligraphic aspect of writing rather than trying to craft beautiful sentences. I figured as long as the sentences looked beautiful, the rest would take care of itself.” Lynda Barry talks about Cruddy, her latest book.
Lasers in the Jungle is a good site for Paul Simon fans.
It must have been an incredible sight on Tuesday when a huge cloud of ash rolled down the slopes of the Mayon volcano.
Once your form arrives (with a unique 22-digit number) you may be able to fill out the 2000 census online. This census is particularly interesting because to indicate your race, you can now check as many boxes as apply. Salon offered some extremely offensive and ignorant, though sometimes informative, coverage of the issue last month.
I saw Goodfellas for the first time last night, and now I want to watch Animaniacs for all those Goodfeathers cartoons I never quite got.
According to MacDeals, hundreds of lucky jerks got Nikon CoolPix 950’s for only $510 yesterday through Accompany.com. My birthday is coming up, I just might have to treat myself.
You’re our only hope, dude.
“Ganguro want to look black and American, like their idols TLC and Lauryn Hill. In pursuit of a color that’s beyond tan, they frequent tanning salons, purchase sunlamps and smother their faces in brown makeup. It’s not uncommon for a girl of limited means to color her entire face with a brown magic marker.” Salon reports on the latest fashions to sweep Japan.
“42 miles of traffic-free cycling! You’ll start at 8:00am from Battery Park in Manhattan through the skyscraper canyons of Sixth Avenue into beautiful Central Park You’ll ride across five bridges, with breathtaking views of New York and unique ethnic neighborhoods. Along the way, you’ll enjoy dramatic views of New York’s changing skylines and waterfronts, business districts, and parks.” Bike New York (May 7, 2000) sounds like a great way to say goodbye to this incredible city.
We recently saw more examples of how “Black” radio stations (that is, white-owned stations targeting Black listeners) are failing the communities they serve. Washington DC station WPGC mishandled news of the Diallo verdict, and apparently Hot 97 in New York City didn’t even report it.
Lake Effect linked to a bunch of Watchmen stuff yesterday, and at the risk of being rude I’m going to have to link it all right here too, so that I can forever find it when I want to. First up is the Annotated Watchmen, then we have one Watchmen reference after, er… before, another, and finally a graduate paperall devoted to the greatest comic story of all time. In a rare trip to a comic book store the other week, I noticed that they’re re-serializing the book into 12 issues. If you haven’t read it, what are you waiting for?
I have to remember to check out Spank Radio when I get my DSL connection active.
There is a Jamba Juice in DC!yet another indication that we’re making the right decision by moving.
I love outdoor art. Washingtonpost.com has a small photo gallery depicting murals from throughout the nation’s capital. The best murals are probably found in the West and SouthwestLos Angeles (the mural capital of the world), Austin, San Francisco, Tucson and San Diego have some great ones.
“I had only one choice. Shave half of my beard.” Now I’m crying.
Dude, you must read this. I had the EXACT same idea once, and so did some friends of mine. I still think it’s true. There is so much more great stuff at the Portal of Evil I want to cry. Go ahead, dig through the archives… it’s not all grotesque and offensive.
OmniEdit lets you edit files on any ftp site with a Web browser. It’s free and requires no registration or commitment of any sort. What a great piece of browserware.
It looks like the FringeWare store closed just a couple of months after I had a chance to visit. It was a great placeI think I spent $80 there on books, magazines, postcards, a CD of Ghetto Life 101 and Remorse: the 14 stories of eric morse, and a videotape of Waco: The Rules of Engagement.
The current issue of Blu Magazine features women in struggle, including Angela Davis, Bahamadia, Assata Shakur, and Yuri Kochiyama. I have two issues, one from the FringeWare store in Austin Texas, and the other I found, oddly enough, at a small drugstore just a few blocks from my apartment here in Brooklyn. I’ve been meaning to get a subscription, it’s great stuff.
The Reverend Al Sharpton answered one of my questions (about the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association) in a Washington Post-sponsored online forum… pretty cool.
Jakob Nielsen answers 10 questions posed by Slashdot readers. The highlight for me was his prediction that augmented reality and content- and time-based computing will be the next big things in user interfaces. Both of these technologies promise to illuminate patterns of information never before seen.
“All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landings there.” - 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke
Here’s a long, long page about the english translation of the Lone Wolf and Cub comic series. I think I stopped collecting comics right around when First quit publishing this title. Hmm, it looks like the page is part of a larger site.
Another take on reality in the New Scientist: “space assembles itself out of complete randomness.”
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is being filmed in New Zealand by Peter Jackson. Imladris is supposed to be the best unofficial movie site, but I like The One Ring a little better. E Online has a special section devoted to the trilogy that has some good info. When I finish Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age, I’m going to start reading Tolkein’s trilogy again. I might be more excited about this than I was about Star Wars…
I’m hooked on lomo and I don’t even own one! thanks, netdyslexia.
www.usounds.com is a good place to get mp3s. thanks, thewebtoday.
“There is a very committed effort to convert the U.S. into something which has the basic structure of a Third World society, meaning sectors of enormous wealth and a lot of people without security or benefits or jobs and a lot of superfluous people. And … you have to make sure that they don’t notice that something is wrong and do something about it. The best way to do that, traditionally, is to get them to hate and fear one another. So, you get people to worry about crime, not the fact that their salaries are going down and that somebody else has got money coming out of their ears. That’s a technique of social control.” Noam Chomsky talks to David Barsamian about expanding the floor of the cage. thank you, abuddha.
People (subterranean notes, lekhani, xblog, prolific, looka, log nu, upgrade now, phish(tale), a blog by jish (weblog shmeblog) , hit-or-miss.org, web queeries, riothero) like my ‘links open windows’ checkbox. That makes me happy.
Web Sites for Journalists is a virtual Times Square for media junkies. Check out the shameless use of table borders! thanks, memepool.
“I was confused, dazed, numb. A few minutes later stomach pains kicked in. Racist shit is hurtful, insulting, and intolerable. I was uncomfortable with white colleagues. Resentful. I couldn’t talk about the verdict. … White Americans really believe that their anger over the acquittal matters to us. They think that because we don’t challenge their racism that it doesn’t exist.” Wista Jeanne Johnson writes about the Diallo verdict for the Village Voice.
Phil Greenspun’s online photo-illustrated Travels with Samantha makes me long for the open road and the beautiful countryside my wife and I saw on our honeymoon. Her favorite spot was Yellowstone. I’ll never forget skinny-dipping in Lake Powell.
Ars Technica gets its hands wet with the Aqua-fied Mac OS X Developer Preview 3.
More photos of Mount Mayon, including an image of a cloud of ash rising seven miles into the sky!
The BBC has a glossary of US political termsdesigned for those watching the election from abroad, but useful for anyone who (like myself) didn’t pay enough attention in civics class. Haven’t you been wondering for example what exactly a caucus is? (Briefly, “a private meeting of party members designed to seek agreement on delegates for a state or national nominating convention based on which candidate they wish to support”.)
I found a couple of decent comic review sites today. Actually, I found quite a few sites which review mainstream books, but I’m not interested in getting back into the Marvel or DC universesthey suck you in and make you want to read every title. The Mad Review covers mostly mainstream stuff but also includes some independent books, and the reviews have a level of sophistication I haven’t seen anywhere else. I haven’t heard of any of the current crop of titles at Johanna Draper Carlson’s Comics Worth Reading, and that’s a good thing. I was intrigued (and confused) by the first couple of issues of the Invisibles, but decided not to pick it up. Recently though, Barbelith’s incredible Invisibles site and an article I read about Grant’s speech at the Disinfo 2000 convention have convinced me to buy the Invisibles graphic novels when I can.
Mount Mayon is erupting in the Philippines. I want to learn to maintain a sense of awe and respect for the natural world—after all, humans are really pretty powerless in a lot of ways, though many societies go to great lengths to insulate themselves from that truth. What has Mount Mayon been up to lately?
“Feb 22 - Fresh magma is slowly but steadily ascending in Mayon’s plumbing system."
“Feb 24 - The volcano erupted and superheated ash rained seven miles away. Lava with temperatures that reached well above 1,000 degrees cascaded 3 1/2 miles down the volcano’s slopes at 50 mph.” - Volcano World
“Feb 28 - the build up of magma is continuing to push its way up to the crater. He said that boulders as big as cars were being shot 1,640 feet into the sky.” - Discovery Earth Alert
“The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said there were strong indications that the volcano will remain active over the next few weeks. Ernesto Corpuz, head of the institute’s eruption prediction division, said: ‘This is not yet the big one.'” - BBC News
This week I noticed that the days are getting longer. I won’t have that feeling again for a year or so, but this year I still get to notice when: the days are really long; the days are longer than I ever remembered they could get; the nights are getting chilly; the mornings are getting chilly; it’s time to start wearing sweaters; and it’s getting dark early.
caught in between is required reading.
It sucks to have to remove two great links today. My day took a turn for the worse when I received an email announcing that World New York would no longer be published (say it isn’t so!) and then just as I had rediscovered bOING bOING (who is this Mark Frauenfelder and why does everything he touch turn to cool?) I found a note indicating that TV-ULTRA is on hiatus less like Freaks and Geeks is on hiatus and more like Peanuts is on hiatus.
Wow. I’ve been meaning to put together a nice thoughtful post dense with links to all kinds of culture-jamming-media-activist sites but first monday has been nice enough to go me about 10 better. Their Hacking Memes article is quite comprehensive, covering memes, ad jamming, the information war, commercials in classrooms, online activism, and even fan fiction. For good measure (otherwise it would drive me crazy) I’ll throw in a few choice links here, with no grammatical or syntactical support: Adbusters, the Culture-Jammers Encyclopedia, Disinformation, the Billboard Liberation Front, Survival Research Laboratories. thanks, found objects.
I can’t believe how excited I am about the 50 new quarters being minted over the next nine years. Coinworld.com has a sneak peek at the designs of some quarters which haven’t been issued yet. I think I’m going to have to get The Official United States Mint 50 State Quarters Collector’s Map“A topographical state map of the United States with patented push-fit holders in which to collect all 50 State Quarters from circulation. What fun for a child(or you!) to hunt for and collect each new quarter out of pocket change!”
No More Prisons has links to several sources of news and analysis on the Diallo verdict (not guilty on all counts). The best quote I’ve found: “‘The courts have made a very clear decision that the taking of a life of an African-American because of the created fears of white officers is permissible in the state of New York,’ said Lt. Eric Adams, co-founder of the group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.”
With apologies to Shel Silverstein, check out Where the Internet Ends. Ok, not really. Much more fun awaits at the 404 Research Lab.
Iconfactory has announced the winners of Pixelpalooza, its annual icon design contest. The Iconfactory icons are very well done (and some are truly beautiful), but none of them can touch the Mozco !Garash! icons—far and away the best I’ve ever seen.
Monkey Fist (which rocks) notes that there are a slew of “white pride” clubs on Yahoo which violate the Yahoo Terms of Service (section 6a, specifically). You can encourage Yahoo to enforce these terms with an email.
MacAddict is running a comparison of Mac Napster clients, “currently the best way to get MP3s.” thanks, macsurfer.
But can Tama climb a tree when AIBO chases her? thanks, slashdot.
It had to happen: m3tacubed. “What was missing, it occurred to me, was a place that listed some of the better lists of weblogs, so that people could identify the best places to identify the best places to identify the best places to go for actual content.” My brain hurts. thanks, running tally.
Minute Books presents Stranger In a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein Valentine Michael Smith: You people would cure all society’s ills if you’d just “grow closer” to your friends. People: You sick dog. (stone him) Valentine Michael Smith: I don’t get it. Truly, I am a STRANGER in a STRANGE LAND. (dies) thanks, metafilter.
Marlys Magazine carries Lynda Barry’s “Ernie Pook’s Comeek” on the web, updated weekly for your enjoyment. thanks, robotwisdom.
“I really got up this morning and fried an egg for my daughter and myself. There is another world where my daughter and I had cereal. The cereal world is in the wave function of the universe, but it’s not real in the sense that any information I’m going to get will falsify the hypothesis. All the information says we had eggs. Look at my cholesterol level!” Dr. Seth Lloyd tells the New York Times why Schrodinger’s cat is either dead or alive, but not both. A recent experiment has shed light upon how an atom in a quantum state (existing in all possible states simultaneously) decoheres into one particular position. It seems to me that mystical traditions and this branch of physics have a lot to learn from each other; many of the supernatural powers attributed to yogis, buddhas, and christs would seem almost unremarkable in light of this new understanding of the universe. It also seems to me that ‘the wave function of the universe’ is just one of the nine billion names of God.
Do you visit Slashdot at least once a day? …twice a day? …once an hour? Do you have a user account at Slashdot? Do you configure your Slashboxes? Have you ever read Slashdot via ultramode.txt? Do you take it personally when you are moderated down? In the grand tradition of the Purity Test comes the Unofficial Slashdot Purity Test.
Space weather. Space weather? thanks, macintouch.
Grim Reaper’s Age Guesserwhich guessed I was 27 (not too far off)is one of Dan Zen’s fascinating games. This is really fun unique stuff that’s worth a visit; be sure to look around at the other games before you leave. thanks, lake effect.
“frontwheeldrive humbly attempts to bring intelligent reporting to emerging sciences such as Artificial Intelligence, Memetics, Complexity, Chaos Theory and the like with a nod toward design and an open eye on new media. Forever forward in the pursuit of positive stimuli. Information in formation.” It does a good job, and draws some big names. thanks, peterme.
What’s an egg cream? Where does the steam rising from manholes come from? Is Jamaica, Queens named for the island? Does milk spoil more quickly in the city? Carolyn Hahn spent two years researching all sorts of obscure questions about New York City so you wouldn’t have to. Go on, Ask, Already!
A British woman has taken it upon herself to cure her chronic fatigue by drilling a hole into her head, a procedure known as trepanation which is purported to increase brain blood volume and have all sorts of other beneficial results. At the risk of freaking the hell out of my family and friends, I have to admit that I’ve always been quite fascinated by the reports of incredible peace, clarity, and even bliss told by those who have taken the plunge, so to speak. If anyone who knows me doesn’t think it’s a really bad idea (the gift, not the hole in the head,) I’d love to get this documentary for my birthday. The Skeptic’s Dictionary has an informative entry under trepanation, including a few more interesting links. They don’t have a link to the Trepanation Trust, a site which I should probably stay away from lest temptation get the best of me. thanks, davenetics.
I want this t-shirt.
Someone’s selling homemade duct tape wallets for $5. If they were halfway cool, they’d post instructions on how to make your own… it does look pretty complicated though. thanks, baylink.
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This weekend we developed 10 rolls of pictures we took on our honeymoon. We ended up choosing 1 hour developing at Rite-Aid, because it was only a couple of dollars more than dropping it off at the supermarket for 3 day developing. It ended up being a bad choice, not because the photos weren’t developed well but because the people running the developing machine obviously looked through all of our pictures and ended up rearranging them (I hate that) so badly that in one envelope we found photos of Buffalo from Yellowstone, a picture of our friends' house in Winston-Salem NC, and a picture of a deer we saw when we were camping outside of Austin, TX. What’s up with that? Anyway this photo is of the Pacific coast taken during our drive from Santa Cruz down to Big Sur, and it’s one of the ones I’m pretty proud of.
evhead found browserware.org, a site about free software that works through your browser. They don’t have a link to workspot, which looks pretty amazing (I haven’t tried it yet) – a Linux workstation you can use through a browser via either an HTML interface, or a Java-based Timbuktu/pcAnywhere-type deal. Thanks to metafilter for that one.
“The Web may provide us with a way to transcend our current and limited spheres of knowledge to grasp a further and deeper understanding of what it means to be human and to be alive.” Derek Powazek’s contribution to the growing literature about weblogs pointed me to Julie Ann Petersen’s thoughts on some of the ways in which this will happen. This is some of what I’m reaching for when I bore my friends with babble about how incredible, unprecedented, revolutionary, paradigm-changing, blah blah blah the Internet is. I mean, people used to huddle under rocks when they weren’t killing things for food and picking bugs out of each other’s hair. I don’t know what that means.
Butternut squash is my new favorite food. A ripe one will have a sort of dull skin (rather than shiny) and feel heavy for its size. I just slice them in half symmetrically, scoop out the seeds, place them face up on a plate and wrap it with plastic wrap, and microwave the whole thing for 20 minutes. Then scoop it out of the shell and maybe add a little salt. Delicious!
Redesigning your site bit by bit is a little like thinking out loud. I felt that using headlines for each post like pitas does was restricting me somewhat, but now I think my page is harder to read. I guess I’ll keep playing with it. Please let me know what you think at any time.
People tell me I look a lot like this guy.
Props to pitas for creating a tool so simple it got me and my friends logging the Web in no time, but I’ve decided to switch to blogger because it is more powerful and flexible.
Please feel free to use my javascript ‘links open windows’ code in your own pages – and whatever else you find on randomWalks, for that matter. Take it, it’s yours. That’s why I publish on the Web. As I said to Tom, anyone who says people shouldn’t steal code is a hypocrite and a fool.
2 unrelated things that make me happy: we just got free soda at work, and barbelith.
The Alternative Polish Dictionary: thanks, riothero. My grandparents used to speak Polish a lot when I was younger. They don’t really use it anymore, at least not when I’m around. I wonder if I ever understood it on some unconscious level. This is a great dictionary of Polish slang, i.e. curse words and such. I wish I’d had something like this at Christmas dinner all those years.
The Greatest Thing Since… oh, nevermind: thanks, camworld. “Actually, a lot of people who hear about the product usually half- joke about sliced jelly. No kidding. That’s down the road a ways.”
NYC Nuclear Plant Leaks Radiation: “I look at my friends, and I hope we won’t die” - Moby. I know officials say that the amount of radiation that escaped was not dangerous, and this is very possibly true. I also know that the public is never told the whole story, at least not at first – especially in nuclear and other sensitive situations.
intimacy: thanks, memepool. A thoughtful reflection on this new medium.
Bill Introduced to End Privatization of Federal Prisons: “Among the very few functions that we should insist is done by the state, it should be imprisoning other human beings. . . . It is the ultimate exercise of authority by the state to say you have violated our laws and we are now going to punish you by imprisoning you, and it should be the state that in fact, then, imprisons people.” I hope the ACLU offers an action alert on this issue. The Prison Activist Resource Center has more information.
History-Enriched Digital Objects: thanks, peterme. “Consider some serendipitous uses of wear that everyday life presents. The bindings of cheap paperbacks bend and crack in a manner that allows one to find the last page read. The most often consulted pages of an auto parts store catalog are identifiable by smudges, familiar tears, and loose pages. The polished area of an otherwise painted brass door handle shows where others succeeded in grasping it.” Will Hill and Jim Hollan are studying ways we can record, protect, and decipher meaningful patterns of software use.
Rapster: Another napster client for Macintosh. Rapster apparently supports a “download type” that Macster doesn’t. Everyone is going gaga over napster, even friends of mine with 56k modems, but I still don’t get it – I’ve had no luck at all downloading songs with napster; when I do a search, I find what I’m looking for, but inevitably the download stalls or fails. Does it really work for Wintel users?
The Adventures of Action Item: thanks, peterme. Friends don’t let friends say “take it offline.”
Got Soy-Based Beverage?: thanks, robotwisdom. “The soybean beverage makers don’t got milk – never had, never will – and shouldn’t be allowed to claim otherwise.” - Dr. Rob Byrne, vice president of National Milk Producers Federation
Is Black History Month Still Necessary?: “If a Black History Month story is a story only because the source is black, then somebody needs to redefine the story. There are countless stories in our communities that don’t get told because journalists don’t go to those neighborhoods, or those schools, or those parks, or those churches, and never have. But the stories are there just the same, and many of them are about black people.”
McCain Eschews SC University Anti-Miscegenation Policy: George W. Bush made a visit to Bob Jones University during his campaign for the South Carolina primary, but John McCain will not. “The college lost its tax-exempt status in the 1970s for refusing to admit blacks. It subsequently ended its segregationist admissions policy but continues to ban interracial dating. … ‘How could I go into a university like that … when my little brother [Jeb], the great governor of Florida, married a girl from Mexico?’ Bush said.” How, indeed.
Homophobic Frasier Episode: Mired has a good essay tearing apart last week’s Frasier, though to my mind the worst thing about the episode wasn’t the stereotypes it showcased, but the way it played to straight mens' fear of being hit on by gay men. The Onion has another take on machismo.
Apple-branded Palm, no really: thanks, bump. MacUser UK citing “numerous sources” promises that an Apple branded Palm is in the works. They support this claim with such juicy tidbits as “Jobs has his hands all over this” and “Steve has been obsessed with keeping this thing under wraps.” This marvel is supposed to support Airport wireless networking through a springboard-style expansion slot. All I can say is, given Jobs' track record at Apple recently, if we haven’t heard anything official about it, it must be true. One wonders how they’ll top the sexy Visor, but one doesn’t doubt that they will.
Metabrowsing: thanks, robotwisdom. I don’t know if metabrowsing is really the right term for it, but this crop of tools (including the previously mentioned site QuickBrowse) is the first generation of an interesting development.
Vanity Plates: 
I’m not in California anymore but this plate reminds me of when I was young. Go ahead, you know you want one.
Lemonade Stand: thanks, Arjuna. I have some friends who were addicted to DopeWars for a time, (one would play it on his Palm,) but I used to play Lemonade Stand on our Apple II+, and selling sugar water beats pushing candy any day.
Matchstick Rockets: thanks, abuddha. I’m going to go make one right now. Update: My first launch was a success! Using the paper match method (recommended for newbies) I set up the rocket on our bathroom sink, aimed it into the shower, and set it off – with a satisfying THWIPT it shot into the tub. I can’t wait till our housemate gets home so I have an excuse to try it again.
Design Bibliography: thanks, eatonweb. Patrick Lynch has put together the annotated bibliography of design (visual, web, information, user interface) books I’ve been searching for.
Weblog Madness: Larkfarm has the only page of weblog resources I may ever need. Thinking of starting your own? Don’t think, do.
www.randomwalks.com: A couple of changes around here: 1) you can now access randomWalks at our new domain name, and 2) we’re using Atomz.com to make the archives searchable. If you’ve got links to randomWalks please point them to www.randomwalks.com, and of course, thanks!
PliNkIT!: “PliNkit! is a collection of useful links that work very well, or are designed for viewing on a palmtop computer. It is designed to be a no frills easy to navigate listing of these sites.” I’ve been looking for a list like this for a long time. Every day since I got VirtualPC up and running on my Mac, I’ve been using AvantGo each morning to load Today’s Papers, Wired News, Salon, and the top New York Times stories onto my Palm for subway commute reading. The dream, of course, is a wireless modem. Forget the Palm VII, I want unlimited transfers and full TCP/IP baby. I wonder if I could get a job developing PDA-friendly sites?
Palm Pilot FAQ: thanks, rasterweb. I love my Palm, but this FAQ is right on.
Got Junk?: thanks, metafilter. This site is incredible… it may even have more crap you never knew you needed than Archie McPhee! While we’re shopping, did you know that J. Peterman is a real company? I always thought Seinfeld was making fun of old Banana Republic catalogs. I’m still trying to figure out if there really is a store in Florida where you can pick through other people’s unclaimed baggage.
Mr. Yuk: 
“Children are naturally curious. They touch, smell, and taste things as a natural part of learning. Sometimes they learn too late that something is dangerous…poisonous…even fatal. Your home is filled with many products that make life easier and more pleasant as long as they are not eaten or inhaled by children…things like cosmetics, cleaning supplies, and medicines. You can identify these dangerous products with Mr. Yuk stickers and teach your children that his green, scowling face means danger. Mr. Yuk can say no-no for you when your not immediatly available to protect your child. In addition, the Mr. Yuk stickers carries the telephone number of your Poison Center where an expert medical staff is ready to deal promptly with emergencies 24 hours a day. Mr. Yuk is ready to help you. He could save your child’s life.” To request a sheet of twelve Mr. Yuk stickers, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope and a $1.00 donation to: Mr. Yuk Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Marketing Department 3705 Fifth Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2583 or contact the poison control center nearest you.
Worst Episode Ever: Jason Kottke knows why the worst Simpsons episode ever was also one of the greatest. Salon has a look at the subtext or something. Subtext? If I’m using the word wrong, just smack me.
Bloody Ethics: “I went out on a killing/looting binge for a couple of days, I was making a fortune compared to what I used to get as an ‘honorable’ man. It didn’t take me long to figure out that evil gives you a huge advantage over good.”
Weasel Hunt: thanks, eatonweb. “The people who need process, structure and accountability for external stakeholders are the people who get out of the shower when they need to take a piss.”
Dogma 2000: First there was dogme95, advancing a philosophy of filmmaking which produced at least one incredible film, now we have a stab at Dogma 2000, which looks to be guidelines for weblogging. It’s not really fleshed out yet, and I would propose that Kerouac said it first and best in his belief and technique for modern prose.
Rest in Peace, Big Pun: Hip-hop heavyweight Big Pun is dead at 28, presumably of a heart attack.
2 Good Reasons to Visit Yellowstone: According to this BBC article, both you and Yellowstone may soon be wiped off the face of the Earth.
Real Stuff About Organized Crime: no thanks, pigdog. Organized crime scares the shit out of me. Seriously. One of my greatest fears is that I’ll be walking down the street minding my own business, something will happen right in front of me that I’m not supposed to see, and I’ll be kidnapped, tied to a rock, and fed to the fish in the East River. I don’t even like it when I’m out in public and anyone near me says the word ‘Mafia,’ because what if someone hears and thinks I know something I’m not allowed to know … maybe I shouldn’t be living in New York City?
A few people have linked to me from their weblogs or portals, and I’d like to return the favor: Considered Harmful, who started logging for nearly the exact reasons I did, Baylink, who likes my embarrassingly large header gif, and Toby, who considers this site “daily fun”. Thanks everybody.
Movies I’ve seen recently: Hillary and Jackie, on video – a moving story and really well acted, but excruciatingly sad and not the kind of movie I want to watch very often. Cookie’s Fortune, on video – the cast was full of stars, and they all shared the stage generously. Liv Tyler and Chris O’Donnell became their characters and didn’t distract me with their faces, which I had strongly associated with crappy movies and acting. American Movie, in the theater – this movie really didn’t have much of an effect on me when I saw it today, but as I continue to think about it I find myself increasingly glad that it was made. I think it appeals to people because Mark is clearly such an authentic person, which quality is ever harder to find these days.
World’s Biggest, Smelliest Flower: thanks, twernt. “‘It smells like a dead person,’ said one of the crowd. ‘I happen to be a nurse and that is exactly what it smells like.'”
Emotion Eric: As in the words of Adam, “This guy knows how to be famous.”
originally posted by beXn
WebActive: I read somewhere that the guy who started RealNetworks had a social conscience, and had originally left Microsoft (or somewhere) in order to work for social justice. I had assumed, unfairly it appears, that he had given it up when his streaming audio code started to look profitable – but WebActive is “a project of RealNetworks” and provides streaming versions of Democracy NOW!, Pacifica News, and FAIR’s CounterSpin, among other programs, with daily archives going back a couple of years! Now if I could only find the time to listen to this stuff…
Jello Biafra for President: According to Music Insight, Jello Biafra, former lead singer for the Dead Kennedys, is the Green Party of New York’s presidential candidate. His platform? “The creation of a maximum wage of $100,000 per year, withdrawal of the US from NAFTA and the WTO, and end to the War on Drugs, abolition of the military and CIA, destruction of the American nuclear arsenal, and the eradication of all Sport Utility Vehicles.” He’s got my vote.
70s Children’s TV: “When I was a little kid I used to sit and watch TV with my tape recorder running. Sometimes I would even narrate, to fill in the details that wouldn’t be preserved on audio tape (like the names of all the songs that whiz by in those record offers!). Here are some of my earliest and most precious audio treasures, plus a lot of contributions from other 70s kids.” This reminds me of a friend of mine who used to record himself reading the comics in the newspaper aloud. There are lots of sites like this on the Net (TV Party looks incredible), but this one has some great stuff I haven’t seen anywhere else, such as a PSA warning kids not to take pills (even if they look like candy) which brought my appreciation of Busta Rhymes to a whole new level. Now if only someone could help me remember more about Alphabet Soup…
Movie Critic: I liked Broken Arrow more than A Simple Plan, but less than Look Who’s Talking. How much did I like it?
Homo Thugz Blow Up the Spot: “‘Gay culture is a misnomer,’ hip-hop producer Matt Wobensmith once remarked. ‘There isn’t just one gay culture. Gay white people tend to privilege homosexuality as their identity, whereas other people have to juggle several identities.’ According to Wobensmith, this makes it harder for blacks to come out, especially black males.” The Village Voice spends a night at the Bronx’s largest gay hip hop party.
China to Launch Taikonaut into Space: The BBC News is reporting that China may be planning to launch a taikonaut into space as soon as next month, according to sources including editorials in two pro-China Honk Kong newspapers. A launch next month would celebrate the dawning of the Year of the Dragon.
hey! url!: Intelligent smut. This isn’t Nerve, I didn’t say ‘pretentious smut.’ Not for children.
Julius Knipl: An Episodic Radio Cartoon: Audio ‘translations’ of Ben Katchor’s wonderful weekly comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. Metropolis has a strip online – it’s not clear if or how often this is updated. Sadly, I haven’t found any other source for his comics on the Web.
Traffic Wave Experiments: This guy claims to be able to eliminate traffic jams by driving through them. His theories are intriguing enough that I’m going to give them a try the next time I find myself in a car on a congested highway.
Malkovich: This is a terrible place to start surfing the Web. You shouldn’t even go here. BTW, this was certainly one of my favorite movies of all time (Being John Malkovich, that is) – I can’t understand what anyone didn’t like about it.
IronChef.com: I can’t believe I didn’t think to check for Iron Chef fan sites before! This site is a comprehensive resource which includes a complete episode guide, a FAQ, and tons of links. There is even a link to what is allegedly a realaudio file of Chairman Kaga rapping!
Opt Out of DoubleClick: shudder to think. Double Click, a banner ad server, has been tracking Web users by name and address. For what it’s worth (which may not be much) I strongly suggest that you follow the link above and select to opt out of this tracking, if you’re not already taking stronger measures such as filtering/blocking all ad banners and cookies with something like Junkbusters proxy software (the Junkbusters site is also a great resource for dealing with all kinds of unwanted commercial intrusion into your life). The only filtering software I know of for Mac is WebFree which hasn’t been updated in over two years. An instance of NPR’s Talk of the Nation looks at the issue of online profiling for those who would like more information. The Center for Democracy and Technology has a site devoted to opting out, with links to more online opt outs and a tool for generating opt out letters to banks, phone solicitors, and direct marketers – this is a great resource. Did you know that you can tell a telemarketer to “put me on your no-call list” and they are obligated to stop calling for 10 years… that’s what I heard anyway. It’s certainly worth a try next time Citibank tries to get you to pay for the fraud protection that they already provide at no charge by law.
POTATOLAND: who watches the watchmen?. This site is one of the few that really pushes the limits of the web. I came across their Digital Landfill a long long time ago, and more recently was pointed to their new Shredder, maybe by Eatonweb? Rob Malda of slashdot fame wrote a CGI that generates a poem based on an URL. Mark Martin is facilitating collaborative art at his site, including a version of Exquisite Corpse. Anyway, I spent quite a bit of time looking for more neat web tricks, but most of the things I found just aren’t too very interesting. If you have n’t, spend a little time watching other people’s searches at Metaspy or Webcrawler – it’s a unique experience. I do enjoy Meta-HTML’s Zippy Active Filter – politics will never be the same! Of course, here are the obligatory shredded randomWalks and randomWalks poem links. Wow, as I was gathering these links, I stumbled across this great interactive collage toy. Maybe there is good stuff out there, and I’m just not looking hard enough.
Uploading the Human Brain: there’s no turning back…. “Identity is rather like the pattern that water makes when rushing around a rock in a stream. The pattern remains relatively unchanged for hours, even years, while the actual material constituting the pattern – the water – is replaced in milliseconds.” Raymond Kurzweil, inventor of the synthesizer, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines, and widely respected computer scientist suggests that “in 2029, we will swallow or inject billions of nanobots into our veins to enter a three dimensional cyberspace – a virtual reality environment.”
D.C. Taxi Commissioner Encourages Racial Profiling: all you see is… crime in the city. “[Sandra] Seegars called on cabbies to protect themselves from violence by avoiding ‘dangerous-looking’ people. She defined ‘dangerous-looking’ as a ‘young black guy with his hat on backwards, shirttail hanging down longer than his coat, baggy pants down below his underwear and unlaced tennis shoes.'” I’m guessing Seegars doesn’t have a son…. This is perhaps the most horrific development since Danny Glover focused public attention once again on the discriminatory practices common among taxi drivers. John Garvey gives the discussion some context in his New Abolitionist article.
Cruithne: everything you know is wrong. login/pass=cypherpunk/cypherpunk to read this article on an asteroid which British scientists have classified as a second moon of the Earth. It is not a true moon, as it shares Earth’s orbit around the Sun, following an odd horseshoe pattern. To locate Cruithne check out today’s map of the solar system (hint: it’s near Venus, but closer to Mercury’s orbit.) Elsewhere in space, the Hubble telescope can see once again, and the view is truly amazing.
This post is brought to you by the letter B and the number 2: you are not what you own. I just noticed that the new minidisc mix I made consists almost entirely of bands starting with the letter B: Beatnuts, Buffalo Tom, the Beatles, Bill Withers, Billy Corgan’s band Smashing Pumpkins, and Billy Corgan’s band Hole. 2 things I wish someone had told me a long time ago: the Beatnuts make dope beats and Fugazi’s lyrics are wonderful. Recently retired from my minidisc player: Moby Play. If you’re into pretty, homegrown things, check out the Stalkers.
DeCSS/css-auth Source Code: go directly to jail. The DVD Copy Control Association thinks it should be illegal for you to click here – whoops, it looks like Norway agrees. At issue is the right of programmers to write software allowing them to view DVDs on UNIX and related operating systems. If you want to get your hands on some hot code, here is a list of spots. If you’re not sure exactly how ridiculous this is, please read John Perry Barlow’s Economy of Mind article and then head to OpenDVD.org for the latest word on the legal proceedings between the EFF and the CCA.
G-Force: dedicated to God. Andy O’Meara’s G-Force visual plug-in for the SoundJam, WinAmp, and Macast mp3 players is fantastic. I love eye candy, and this stuff will surely rot your mind – I can stare at it and lose myself completely. The author also created the WhiteCap plug-in which is also great. A good standalone program is Cthuga, which has a nice Mac version. One day I’d like to learn to program stuff like this.
FCC OKs Low Power Radio: The Federal Communications Commision today announced plans to allow noncommercial organizations to create low power FM radio stations powered up to 10 (1.5 mile radius) and 100 (4 mile radius) watts. This has the potential to be a really good thing. The New York Times carries an article with some soundbites from the National Association of Broadcasters and such advocacy groups as the Low Power Radio Coalition. I don’t know enough about pirate radio to point you to any great sites, so if you’re interested, check out About.com’s pirate/free radio guide. I’m kind of embarrassed that I live in New York City and still haven’t tried to tune in Steal This Radio… they’re still broadca sting, aren’t they?
Where Was the Color in Seattle?: “I think even Bay Area activists of color who understood [how the WTO affected the daily lives of U.S. communities of color] didn’t want to go to a protest dominated by 50,000 white hippies.” Elizabeth (Betita) Martinez looks at why the Battle of Seattle was waged primarily by white activists. This essay is from an upcoming issue of ColorLines, “the nation’s leading magazine on race, culture, and organizing.” I received the message from their mailing list, which unfortunately doesn’t have publicly accessible archives. The link is to a copy I’ve posted elsewhere.
Quick, browse!: thanks, xblog. Quickbrowse lets you enter a list of URLs and combines all of the pages into one by stitching them together vertically. You have to try it to see if you like it. I have tried it and love it, but I’m not sure how I’ll use it. I was going to link to an example I created, but it seems that their system is pretty buggy, oh well.
“If you think about it, it’s pretty weird.": thanks, rebecca’s pocket. I’ll say.
Instructions for viewing a lunar eclipse: thanks, rebecca’s pocket. 1. Go outside. 2. Look up. The total lunar eclipse begins at 10:01pm EST Thursday Jan 20 and continues until 1:25am. The moon is fully covered by the Earth’s shadow from 11:05pm to 12:22am. If you don’t get to see it, check out this gallery of lunar eclipse photos.
Hey Kids! Comics!: thanks, peterme. “The Web allows artists to extend their reach beyond the physical parameters of sheets of paper. ‘Comic art has always been limited by page structure … with the Web, you’re not limited in that way any more.'” The San Francisco Chronicle examines the impact the Net is having on the comic book industry. The most interesting comic I’ve found online is ThisDJ – it uses the medium of the Web in innovative and effective ways. I looked long and hard for a good general comic book site and have only come up with Comic Book Resources which doesn’t really do it for me in terms of reviews. I’m sure there are dozens of great books being published, but I don’t know how to find them. I mean really great books, like Watchmen, Eightball, Optic Nerve, Acme Novelty Library, Lone Wolf and Cub, the original Groo. Maybe I just need to pick up some superhero books again and start all over. I’m afraid that it’s too expensive these days to develop a comics habit though… I used to buy a dozen a week, when they cost less than a dollar a piece. Now a single issue costs $2.95-$3.95! What’s up with that? GenXorcist dedicates a page to African-American Super Heroes. Steve Conley has scanned several dozen comic book ads, including this classic from Charles Atlas. These days the only book I pick up regularly is whatever Sin City story Frank Miller is writing.
OS X is Beautiful: “Apple has a unique opportunity to make serious, effectual changes to the interface for the first time in sixteen years. It has the opportunity to push the user-productivity of the Macintosh far beyond where Windows now lies.” Will Apple’s Aqua change your world for the better? Bruce “Tog” Tognazzi, lead designer at Healtheon and founder of the Apple Human Interface Group has his doubts.
my.mp3.com: This is big. Huge. And I had a rant about firewalls right here all ready to go when I decided to give it one more try and yes! I can listen to every CD I own from anywhere I am streamed over the Net shoutcast-style! Well, every CD which mp3.com “knows about” and which I have told mp3.com I own by sticking it in my CD-ROM drive at home. What a small price to pay – now I can take my iBook anywhere there’s a net connection and all of my music is a few clicks away. This really blows me away, I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten more coverage. My only guess is that people just don’t understand the implications here. What kind of deals must mp3.com have made with the recording industry? What kind of database of mp3s must they be sitting on top of? I’ve thought for years that apart from backups and temporary local copies and such, only one instance of anything in any media really needs to exist in this digital age. mp3.com has the music locked down, peanut press is working on the books. You know that ad with the bored woman (who acts a lot like Dr. Katz' receptionist) working at a motel in the middle of nowhere, telling a customer that they have “all movies ever made any time any place whenever you want instantly” or something like that? If Steve Case has any vision at all that’s what he sees.
the Web is still cool: A couple of sites that do really neat things with DHTML: Lane Becker’s Monstro (click ‘recently’) and Lost America Night Photography by Troy Paiva. (If you don’t see anything “neat,” your browser probably doesn’t support DHTML/JavaScript.)
E=mc2: “Look here: say you have a disk that can spin, and so you put a pail of milk on it and you make it spin. You will see the milk go up the side of the pail, and fly over and out onto the disk. No big deal, eh? The spin will make a pull. But now what if you said that the pail of milk is your ‘at rest’? Then you have you and the sky and all that in a big huge spin, and the disk with its pail of milk is the only body that is ‘at rest’, yes? How can you say then why the milk goes up? What can make the at-rest milk fly out of the pail like that? " BR903 explains the theory of relativity in very short words of no more than four letters.
Cluck!: “… KFC uses featherless, beakless, and feetless genetically altered organisms that are kept alive by tubes, so different from real chickens that the company cannot legally call them chickens. These organisms have bone structures so small, … that KFC can use more meat and save on production costs.” The Boston Globe reveals the reason KFC changed its name from Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1991.
AOL to buy Time Warner: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” Saint John of Patmos doesn’t think the AOL/Time Warner deal is such a good idea. Here is wisdom. (wisdom requires Java)
Apple-branded color Palm device w/Mac OS X integration?: “A color screen, an expansion slot ala Handspring’s Visor, compatibility with AirPort, and a whole new way of integrating the Palm OS with the Mac OS are to be the product’s highlights.” I was cool to this morning’s Register story about an upcoming Palm with my favorite logo on it, but today’s MacOS Rumors got me all worked up again. I really want to believe this one. An article at MacProvider gives the story a good twist.
The best stuff on TV: My two favorite shows right now are Iron Chef and Malcolm in the Middle. Iron Chef airs on the Food Network Fridays and Saturdays at 10pm and 1am EST. It is the greatest cooking show ever. When I remember that it’s on, I schedule my weekends around it. Malcolm in the Middle just premiered on Fox at 8:30 Sunday night. It comes on after the Simpsons, which I watch every week, so I’ll watch it next week too. I hope the rest of the episodes are as funny and odd as the pilot.
Exploring Your White/Euro American Roots: The New Abolitionist criticism of whiteness studies has never resonated with me. This piece demonstrates the significant changes this kind of study can initiate in white people. To me, educating white people about racism is the most important aspect of the work. People need to revolutionize their personal lives, and this is good revolutionary work for white people to undertake. The January issue of the New Abolitionist Society newsletter is now online.
The Breathing Earth: This is a startling view of Earth. No key is provided, but I assume that blue is water, beige is land, and green is life. This image reminds me of the photo featured on the first cover of the Whole Earth Catalog. I’m not sure why.
What’s happening in Chechnya?: “It would be a bit like the U.S.S.R. winning the Cold War, and the U.S. seeing Canada and Mexico join the Warsaw Treaty Organization, to be followed by Maine, Washington state and Michigan. On the face of all that, if there were a rebellion in East Los Angeles, and the U.S. Army went in there to stop it and failed, and East L.A. became de facto independent, that would be the analogy with Chechnya.” Michael Urban, professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, drops a lesson on leadership, domestic & foreign policy, propaganda, global economics, terrorism, communism, democracy, and other myths of our age.
Look at that hole!: thanks, slashdot. “Scientists were reportedly surprised to learn that [a canyon nearly a mile deep and 6 miles wide] was inside the lander’s projected landing zone. ‘No one on our side knew that canyon was there … All of the sudden, we got this data’ – topographical maps and images – ‘and it was like, Look at that hole!'” An unidentified source at Lockheed Martin believes that the Mars Polar Lander broke apart in a canyon. Some believe otherwise. I want to believe.
Polishing Apple: The wealth of announcements in Steve Jobs' MacWorld SF keynote address left me so stunned I forgot that I had been expecting to hear about new PowerBooks! Apple has revamped their Web site to offer free pop email (yourname@mac.com,) free network disk space, Web site reviews and online greeting cards. In other words, EMail, iDisk, iReview, and iCards. Steve also announced that he will stay on as chief executive officer of Apple, though he will keep the ‘i’ in his title, iCEO. The real jaw-dropper, however, was a detailed preview of Apple’s upcoming operating system revision, Mac OS X – a fully modern OS with a UNIX-like code base and an interface designed to be “easy for a first time computer owner while giving pro users the feeling that they have ultimate power with no boundaries.” That quote is from Mac Media Network’s excellent keynote coverage. Kudos! The streaming Quicktime webcast of Jobs' address should continue to be available for some time to come.
The Uses of Sim Sidewalks: “Great neighborhoods emerge not just because they’ve been zoned properly, or because they’re endowed with a police station; they also grow out of the ‘collectivist machine’ of vibrant, unpredictable street life, of public sidewalks that are engaging and delightful to explore.” Steven Johnson of Feed asks three leading urbanists and city activists to play SimCity 3000.
Alternative-Rock Radio’s Race Problem: “Alternative radio has made abundantly clear its willingness to play rap- or hip-hop-influenced music so long as it’s written and performed by whites.” Nathan Rabin takes the words right out of my mouth.
Inside U.S. Counterinsurgency: A Soldier Speaks: thanks, ZNet. “A liberal will tell you the system isn’t working properly. I will tell you that the system is working exactly the way it’s supposed to. After reflection on my two decades plus of service, I am convinced that I only served the richest one percent of my country. In every country where I worked, poor people’s poverty built and maintained the wealth of the rich.” Stan Goff served in the U.S. military for two decades, much of the time with Special Forces training Third World armies.
Joni Mitchell interview: thanks, robotwisdom. joni mitchell never lies…
Positive Propaganda: thanks, robotwisdom. This is a small directory of excellent independent websites. Categories include anticommercialism, computer security, anarchism, “chemical yoga,” and linux.
NYPD=Microsoft’s enforcers?: thanks, slashdot. A ‘clerical error’ at Microsoft’s WebTV facilities sent a $1 million dollar prototype to Scott Posner in NYC, who had ordered a WebTV unit for his dad – but before his dad could even open the package, the NYPD were at his door demanding it be returned. Your guess is as good as mine. (note: the story showed up as black text on a black background in my browser)
In the Beginning was the Command Line: a short book by Neal Stephenson that’s available for download. it considers the evolution of operating systems over the years and is a great read for anyone who wants to know why computers are so damn hard to use and why that’s a good thing. or something. it’s free. read it.
