randomWalks

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.

Eric of Kestrel’s Nest, how does your garden grow?

The partnership of Cannabis and man has existed now probably for ten thousand years — since the discovery of agriculture in the Old World. One of our oldest cultivars, Cannabis has been a five- purpose plant: as a source of hempen fibres; for its oil; for its akenes or ‘seeds,’ consumed by man for food; for its narcotic properties; and therapeutically to treat a wide spectrum of ills in folk medicine and in modern pharmacopoeias.

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?

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."

listen missy has the longest list of DC area bloggers that I’ve seen. Inexplicably, randomWalks is not included.

What’s the word? New iBook.

45 minutes until Apple’s just-announced, invite-only “press event” (promising “exciting announcements,” of course). Everybody expects a new iBook, since the old ones have disappeared from retail channels & the Apple Store alike, but beyond that it’s anybody’s guess. ZDNet rounds up the rumors that seem grounded in reality, and if that’s not enough reading for you then keep an eye on MacSurfer for the latest headlines from the best of the Mac news sites.

I’d really love to know who gets invited to these things – I wonder how Apple treats sites like MacCentral and Macintouch which have all but replaced the mainstream media as the papers of record – so to speak – in terms of Apple news.

"I still wish we had been able to buy [Palm]," he says. Okay, then, how about making a run at Handspring, a maker of Palm-compatible handheld computers? Or co-branding with a maker of portable MP3 players or digital cameras or camcorders? After all, wouldn't Jobs like to have Apple profit more broadly and directly from this new digital lifestyle? And wouldn't that strategy work best if Apple's own stores were stocked with a wide array of Apple-branded digital gadgets? "I don't know what you're talking about," Jobs replies, looking at the ceiling. Then he smiles and changes the subject.

"He's Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney."

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.

The Guardian Weblog is carrying a special May Day edition offering “analysis from the corporate and alternative media around the web” on expected May 1 “anti-capitalist” protests and on the broader protest movement. Meanwhile, across town… Apple is expected to announce everything from world peace to OS X on X86 at the May 1 “Apple event”, so keep your eyes on randomWalks (or any of a dozen better Mac news sources) to see what the big deal was.

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.

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.

This is what rubber bullets look like.

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.

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.