randomWalks

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 DVD—the company releasing them in the United States only has the rights for one year.

Is there room for another mac rumors site? To be honest, I’ve always wanted to start one myself. In my fantasies, insiders send me blurry jpegs of unannounced Apple hardware and puzzling fragments of overheard conversations at Cupertino pizza joints; I’m guessing that chaosmint shares my perversion. What I find odd is that macrumors is using php and claims to have trained squirrels managing the submission process, which I thought was exclusive to CmdrTaco’s perl-based slashcode…

"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.

“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 spring—forsythias 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.

goodforachuckle.com

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 is—given 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.