randomWalks

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.

Police ordered the removal of gay artwork from Burning Man.

originally posted by xowie

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.

originally posted by xowie

scene.textfiles.com: the ascii edge

Two from Westchester Weekly: The Zen of Being Poor and an interview with John Stauber.

originally posted by xowie

The last delivery by Mr. McFeely -- Rogers's middle name is McFeely -- was a videotape of artists at work, which Mister Rogers showed as part of the day's art theme. Then McFeely shook Rogers's hand, the first handshake between the two characters in 33 years. It was the only clue that this was the end of something, Newell explained yesterday.

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.

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.

Over and over again, articles about Burning Man claim Black Rock City as the writer's "community," a "home." In fact, the writers seem almost proud of themselves for being able to survive a week in the desert. That's great. I'm glad the writers feel like a part of something. But when was the last time you read an article about so many people putting all of their creative energy into San Francisco or Oakland? Maybe we should do something for the place in which we live the other 51 weeks of the year. Maybe we should, as the old blues singers say, "Make this goddamned house a home."

originally posted by xowie

• Yahoo UN Full Coverage
• HRI's Daily Updates from Durban
• Canadian Secretariat
• Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
• ICARE daily reports
• BBC News Africa
• WP Africa

originally posted by xowie

The World Conference Against Racism is officially underway in Durban, South Africa today. Good coverage:

• the South Africa IMC
• the Guardian weblog

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.

Bad jobs.

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."

"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?

originally posted by xowie

"Why are you starting with that gay stuff?" Lewis asked Rahman. "I'm 100 percent a woman's man. If he has worries about that bring your sister, bring anyone."

originally posted by xowie