randomWalks

The Spector Watch by Alison M. Rosen.

originally posted by xowie

Fabulous l.a. travel pullout, Judith Lewis, ed.

originally posted by xowie

StrangeBanana is a website design generator which creates a new mostly-random set of CSS rules every time you reload the page. The designs are frequently horrendous, but it’s a nice surprise that at least one in ten are pretty effective.

In the past 25 years the number of C.C.D. pixels in all the world's telescopes has increased by a factor of 3,000, with each pixel acting as a miniature astronomical instrument. The result, Dr. Szalay says, is that the total amount of astronomical data collected every year is doubling even while the amount spent on astronomy remains constant.

originally posted by xowie

Full text of Arundhati Roy’s recent speech, Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free).

originally posted by xowie

He turned. He saw me. He recognized me. The noise was deafening but he spoke to me. I couldn't hear a thing, but I read his lips, and I'm pretty sure what he said was, "How are you coming along?" But I wasn't positive. So I replied as best I could. "What?" I said.

originally posted by xowie

Are most of the people who elect our next President going to grasp, or care, that an insidious pro-authoritarian philosophy is the altar at which the Bush zealots worship?

Electronic Entertainment Expo is the big video game conference. Who is covering it?

• games.slashdot.org
• game girl advance

"The worst fad has been these stupid little robots," said Minsky. "Graduate students are wasting 3 years of their lives soldering and repairing robots, instead of making them smart. It's really shocking."

originally posted by xowie

What I did that day should not be illegal. Adults seeking solace or insight ought to be allowed to consume psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline.

Abraham Lincoln went to Gettysburg to consecrate that ground, and to give the horrible carnage of that battle meaning--to provide a sacred purpose for America. Can you imagine Lincoln going back to that battlefield, setting up a Chautauqua Tent and using that ground to re-nominate himself in 1864? Can you imagine Franklin Roosevelt giving a fireside chat on Normandy Beach, as a way to insure his re-election in 1944? Americans died here, people. They didn't die so that George Bush would have a swell place to rally the faithful for four more years of Middle East wars, swelling deficits, tax cuts for billionaire campaign contributors, and environmental plunder.

Young gamers today aren't training to be gun-toting carjackers. They're learning how to learn. In Pikmin, children manage an army of plantlike aliens and strategize to solve problems. In Metal Gear Solid 2, players move stealthily through virtual environments and carry out intricate missions. Even in the notorious Vice City, players craft a persona, build a history, and shape a virtual world. In strategy games like WarCraft III and Age of Mythology, they learn to micromanage an array of elements while simultaneously balancing short- and long-term goals. That sounds like something for their résumés.

The secret of a videogame as a teaching machine isn't its immersive 3-D graphics, but its underlying architecture. Each level dances around the outer limits of the player's abilities, seeking at every point to be hard enough to be just doable. In cognitive science, this is referred to as the regime of competence principle, which results in a feeling of simultaneous pleasure and frustration - a sensation as familiar to gamers as sore thumbs.

I’ve been prophesying (mostly to myself, sometimes to the coffee cup) that 2003 would be the year of the garden blog. At the time, I was sure that Garden Kids and the 13 Labs Garden represented no less than two-thirds of the garden weblogs out there. Little did I know! Sheila Lennon at the Providence Journal has done the hard work I’ve been putting off of unearthing this year’s crop of garden weblogs, the seeds if you will of a gardenblog revolution. I can taste it now.

Steve, don't take it entirely personally. Your arse, up which I gleefully would shove every bit of your music service, was a trope.

Page 24.

originally posted by xowie

Bennett's behavior also reveals something more insidious than hypocrisy, though it is a very old tale. Those who argue most loudly that, were it not for state coercion, people would go to hell in a hand basket have long been suspected of speaking knowingly from introspection. Think Jimmy Swaggart. Bennett provides an even better example. Bennett has had three consumptive vices of which we know: cigarettes (which he had to give up to take the drug-czar position), gambling (which he now has to give up to preserve his viability on the lecture circuit as virtue authority) and, obviously, food.

originally posted by xowie

Virginia’s state soil is Pamunkey.

There are no animal "owners" here. Anyone who cohabits with an animal is known as an animal "guardian." People who are disabled or senior citizens sharing a rent-controlled apartment with an animal in West Hollywood can't be evicted. The city even provides pooper-scoopers and trash bags in parks so pet owners can clean up after Fido. And other measures are under consideration to prohibit what many see as mutilations, according to City Council members.

originally posted by xowie

Bill Bennett should not be pilloried because he maxed out his credit line in Atlantic City, Vegas, or even Reno. Bennett should be taken to task for undermining teacher's unions while Education Secretary. If it weren't for the work Bennett did as Drug Czar, the federal government might not have a pretext to build a police state around combating blunts and bongs. Over two million in jail, many for weed busts, and Bill Bennett served as the Thomas Jefferson of the Drug War. These are serious gambles that the American people lost.

originally posted by xowie

The five-story dormitory was riddled by gunfire. FBI investigators estimated that more than 460 rounds struck the building, shattering every window facing the street on each floor. Investigators counted at least 160 bullet holes in the outer walls of the stairwell alone -- bullet holes that can still be seen today.

originally posted by xowie

I keep a tub of miso in the fridge at work for days like today when I didn’t eat breakfast, can’t leave for lunch, and (my wonderful wife) only packed some snacks before I rushed to catch the 10-minutes-late bus. I asked Google, “how long does miso keep” and was pleased to discover not only that “because of its salt content, miso will keep indefinitely under refrigeration, and it is OK to use miso that has been in the fridge for a year or more,” but that South River Miso has a 26-page recipe booklet online in portable document format.

With a dance remix of Madonna's "Die Another Day" playing on his computer's hard drive, he took a miniature torch to the end of a glass pipe and inhaled the ghostly smoke, proclaiming it "the martini of the future."

originally posted by xowie

Let's also be honest that gambling would not be our first-choice vice if we were designing this fantasy-come-true from scratch. But gambling will do. It will definitely do. Bill Bennett has been exposed as a humbug artist who ought to be pelted off the public stage if he lacks the decency to slink quietly away, as he is constantly calling on others to do.

originally posted by xowie

“Ebon-Aide is the adhesive bandage specially designed for people of color. From the licorice look to mocha, coffee, cinnamon, and honey skin, new Ebon-Aide blends with your skin to help conceal as you heal.” [Pop Culture Junk Mail]

I wouldn't make some false claims to safety now that the neighborhood's changing dramatically, in the same way that I wouldn't take credit for being a gentrifier.

But, the reality is, I was one of the "first-wave" gentrifiers. In real estate lingo, according to my co-worker Ryan, I exemplify "the risk oblivious." As the Saint-Ex crew builds up strength in my neighborhood, I will no doubt begin to lament the changes taking place.