randomWalks

Controversial Black Panther t-shirts.

originally posted by xowie

The lower leaves of the trees
Tangle the sunset in dusk.
Awe spreads with
The summer twilight.

originally posted by xowie

Jack, or "Ti Jean" ("Little John"), as he was known, was born on March 12, 1922, at 9 Lupine Road, in the upstairs apartment of a shabby duplex building in a Lowell slum called Centralville. He was delivered at home by Dr. Victor Rochette, whom Kerouac later described as a lonely, desolate man, unwanted and unloved. According to a neighbor, Reginald Ouellette, Dr. Rochette's wife had died in childbirth and he'd never remarried, which struck Jack, who grew up in a close-knit family that spoiled him, as tragic. In a December 28, 1950, letter to Cassady, Kerouac disclosed that his birth occurred at 5 P.M. and that Gabrielle later gave him a blow-by-blow account of his delivery. As Jack was born, his mother could hear Pawtucket Falls a mile away, crashing into the Merrimack River, heavy with spring-thaw snow and ice. Her lurid description of the way he was forcibly dragged from her body, and then yelled at and spanked into life, led to his belief that birth was the beginning of the tragedy of consciousness, the dance of life that ends in death. The processes of nature, which most writers extol as symbols of renewal and eternal life, were always seen darkly by Kerouac.

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:

• The Long Haul - on trucking, from the Magazine
• What Exit? - in anticipation of the beloved New Jersey Turnpike's 50th.
• The Walken Shtick, Creepy ... and Cool - Christopher Walken
• Driving the Appalachian Trail - in case I don't get around to walking the trail myself.

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.

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.

It could be shipping right now.

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.

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?

I’ve been using Google in Esperanto for a while now but I can’t figure out how to link to it. I’d have to delete my cookies to be sure, but try this Google preferences link.

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.

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.

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.

Dmitry makes bail.

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.

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:

• an anarchist FAQ
• Chomsky on anarchism
• Utne's Anarchism 101

washingtonpost.com: On a Small Farm in Maryland Botanist James Duke Champions The Healing Power of Plants

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
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."

“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!