Friday, October 17, 2003

The Army's Three Star Zealot
Another right-wing nutcase is seeing pictures of Satan's face in smudged photographs. This one is an active 3-star U.S. general who believes he's on a holy mission.
An lengthy, fascinating article from NYTimes Magazine on the character of North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il.

The subject of war was raised, delicately. Why, Choe inquired, was North Korea's government spending its scarce resources on ballistic missiles instead of education or other social programs that would directly benefit its starving citizens? The Dear Leader did not hesitate to reply. ''The missiles cannot reach the United States,'' he said, ''and if I launch them, the U.S. would fire back thousands of missiles and we would not survive. I know that very well. But I have to let them know I have missiles. I am making them because only then will the United States talk to me.''

He may be an international threat, but he's also a leisure/partytime triple threat of boozy womanizer, poetic horse freak, and movie addict. Check out the Dear Leader's 5 star Amazon books!

Thursday, October 16, 2003

You know that comedian that acts like a 12 year old kid to annoy people? No, not Adam Sandler, its Angry Naked Pat and he's got a web site.

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

The Indie Rock Photo Gallery
The Museum of Black Superheros
The art of Todd Schorr
Sweet! Crumb mini-statues
Conversations with Homeless Vets: Part 1

It's all about natural resources -- getting control of natural resources?

(Grizzled guy) Of course it is. Money. They wouldn't be there if it weren't for narcotics.

(Andy) Our government is not what you think it is, believe me.

(There is a long pause.)

Any 'Nam vet will tell you that.
Lobsterman to face drug charges.
[Nothing rhymes with "petulant, entitled Daddy's-boy"] GW Bush: Horrible president, even worse poet. (open rejection letter here)

Our sense that the placement of the comma may in fact be merely editorial carelessness is reinforced by the subsequent unveiling of the speaker's attitude toward his lover. While we realize that the phrase "lump in the bed" has a personal meaning that is meant to be endearing (please give the First Lady our regards), we fear that it portrays a, shall we say say, less than progressive attitude toward women. Or is the description of the lover as merely a "lump in the bed" a reflection of her unresponsiveness as a lover?

Friday, October 10, 2003

Selected Discography of Les Baxter including an interview with Les

Thursday, October 09, 2003

Art or a vague, postmodern, random waste of materials?
Unamused Swedes find 70 pair of shoes filled with butter as art installation piece.

Its not even original (artist Yu Xiuzhen did the same thing back in 96)

At least when Yoko Ono screamed and broke teacups with a hammer she cleaned up after herself.
A few months ago it was a black magic marker. Now its just holding down a shift key.
Under normal circumstances, the antipiracy software is automatically loaded onto a Windows machine whenever the Hamilton album is run in a computer's CD drive, making traditional copying or MP3 ripping impossible. However, simply holding down the Shift key prevents Windows' AutoRun feature from loading the copy-protection software, leaving the music free to copy, Halderman said.

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

FBI bugs Philadelphia mayor Street's office.
"Do we believe that the Republican Party, both at the federal level and state level, is pulling out every stop to get Pennsylvania in 2004? Absolutely," Keel said. "Is the Republican Party capable of dirty tricks? I think that is well-documented."

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

U.S. Postsecondary education gap rises.
Could it be the cost?
Walter Cronkite: The New Inquisition
What makes this administration's legal bloodthirstiness particularly alarming is the almost religious zeal that seems to drive it. So, what we are seeing now is a confluence of two streams of American thought. One of those streams represents those who believe security must have priority over civil rights.

Monday, October 06, 2003

Online Museum of Weird, Strange, and Just Bad Art
Putin checks in on Bush's WMD-less oil war, warning that Iraq could "become a new center, a new magnet for all destructive elements." (NYTimes)
Alligator and Tiger found in NYC apartment.

Sunday, October 05, 2003

Emitt Rhodes is not dead.

Saturday, October 04, 2003

Ok, really - What does it take to get fired in the Bush Administration? Is there no limit to how bad you can fuck up? I can't believe they dont just all run around robbing liquor stores for the hell of it.

Friday, October 03, 2003

Think the Segway is cool but can't justify spending more than the cost of a motorcycle on something that does 15 mph top speed? Then build your own.
Scientists study Hope Diamond's mysterious glow.
John Ashcroft is in bed with the villians he's supposed to be investigating.

Thursday, October 02, 2003

Bookmark the brilliant Online Picasso Project, featuring almost 7000 works. Courtesy of Metafilter.
Blaming India for the "jobless recovery" - an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
Please tell me that nobody is actually going around speaking the phrase "best-shoring", and that the journalist just made up this little nugget of trite offensiveness.

NYTimes offers a different perspective of effects of globalized labor today, by examining the life of a girl assembling false eyelashes in a Chinese sweatshop.

Two months later, bitter that the pay turned out to be much lower, exhausted by eye-straining and wrist-wrenching work, and too poor to pay the exit fee the boss demanded of anyone who wanted out, they decided to escape. But that was not easy. The metal doors of their third-floor factory were kept locked and its windows — all but one — were enclosed in iron cages.

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

McSweeneys article on the 'Dear Mr. President' letter project by author Gabe Hudson.
Explanation here. The author's site.

I mean, we have a website for the book, and the government's been tracking it. There's a device on the website that tells us who's been coming to it. We even had a FBI agent lurking around at my recent readings. Also, other little things have been happening. Like the website keeps crashing for no good reason. And each time, my friend, who does everything with the site and who's really good at this stuff, has had to work many, many hours before he could get the site back up. He says whoever is causing this has pretty major skills.

Click here to speak your peace to the radical-right wing court-appointed office occupant yourself.

This is my favorite letter:

Dear Mr. President,

A lot of American citizens are scared to write you a letter.

Make of that what you will.

Sincerely,
Jessica Rabinowitz
"I would have...I would have eaten his shit."
Well. That surely is um... saying something, Mrs. Dr. J. Yeah... Well... Ahem.

Damn.
Hollywood's strategies on digital media always remind me of the picture of the snake eating its own tail. In a story that perfectly illustrates this, MPAA President Jack Valenti has decided that Oscar screeners are likely sources of DVD piracy, and will not be sending screening copies of DVDs this year. This means that independent and small-run films won't get seen, and the field will effectively be narrowed to only the biggest budget films. In doing this, not only is Valenti calling his own industry a bunch of thieves, but he's even further homogenizing an already watered down media by excluding new and different voices. Meanwhile, they'll keep blaming everybody but themselves...
Rancid's new album is available in its entirety via streaming player on the band's website. So get streaming, punk!

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

[Tacky Pro-Bush Garbage] Sickening Bush campaign contribution questions courtesy of Dean's weblog. Throw this dangerous idiot out of the Washington and back onto his daddy's lap.

Question: "Can I use my personal aircraft for campaign business?"

Answer: "No, you may not use your personal aircraft for campaign business. Corporate aircraft may be used, but only if each person boarding the plane pays the equivalent of a first-class airplane ticket."


Who the hell are these people? "my personal aircraft" in a FAQ? It's quite clear who the Bush Administration is representing and it isn't you.
10 Technologies that deserve to die.

Monday, September 29, 2003

["...they have the worst frontman in the history of rock"]
I love allmusic.com. Across all genres they basically try to provide informative, hype-free writing by people who have a breadth of perspective with music. Their evenhandedness dictates that they rarely skewer an artist or band with anything that remotely resembles condemnation. Not so on this piece of critical ass-tearing!
Is there anything so deadening to the soul as a PowerPoint presentation? (NYTimes)

Sunday, September 28, 2003

Diary of a trucker

Saturday, September 27, 2003

Von Dutch - Originator of Modern Pinstriping
"I make a point of staying right at the edge of poverty. I don't have a pair of pants without a hole in them, and the only pair of boots I have are on my feet. I don't mess around with unnecessary stuff, so I don't need much money. I believe it's meant to be that way. There's a 'struggle' you have to go through, and if you make a lot of money it doesn't make the 'struggle' go away. It just makes it more complicated. If you keep poor, the struggle is simple. "

More Von Dutch ("the man, not the hat") links and info at Rumpsville.

There are apparently quite a few people really pissed about how a trend-shop in Hollywood bought the deceased artist's name and trademark and is using them to sell $50 t-shirts.
Beautiful record players at the turntable galleria
The absolutely fantastic ad graveyard
Inconspicuous Consumption
What is inconspicuous consumption? It's about deconstructing the details of consumer culture -- details that are either so weird or obscure that we'd never see them, or so ubiquitous that we've essentially stopped seeing them. This can mean anything from a bizarre canned good, like sauerkraut juice, to a beautifully designed light-industrial object that we've always taken for granted, like the Brannock Device

Friday, September 26, 2003

72 oz. steak
Junker House: Architecture of Madness (from gmt+9)
If you were a Chip's Challenge junkie back in the Win3.1 days, you'll love the telescope game
Ebay confirms that it'll give customers private personal data to the government without a subpoena. All they have to do is ask.
Press any key to continue.
French card deck names most dangerous U.S. Leaders.
I know this is a valid form of political protest, and the French were never known for their sense of humor, but isn't this card deck thing getting kinda stale?
The census data showing that more Americans are slipping into poverty will be released today. (NYTimes)

Thursday, September 25, 2003

New "Get Your War On".
Floys belong to the flocking Alife creatures variety, sharing with them the social tendency to stick together, and the lifelike emergent behavior which is based on a few simple, local rules.
William Blake Online from the Tate
Vote as often as you like in Maryland. Despite troubling security concerns surrounding Diebold's electronic voting system, Maryland says "what the hell... we'll give it a shot anyway." (NYTimes)
Analysis of the system by Johns Hopkins Security Institute, with the team's response to Diebold's writeoff of their concerns.

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives
Mister McCheeseWhiskers lived to the ripe old age of ___
No holds barred oldest mouse contest announced.

This will be especially effective in raising public optimism and interest if the life-extending interventions are only implemented when the mouse has already reached an advanced age, and the prize is partly geared to encouraging such "late-onset" interventions.
Smart Sofa
Gray Davis has his name associated with some good news by passing a privacy law requiring car makers to notify customers of the existence of "black boxes" that spy on driver's and gather stats. (NYTimes)

Monday, September 22, 2003

Recalculating Avagadro's Number and reweighing the Kilogram.
(Nice pic of the original kilogram in Paris, France)
[Gives new meaning to "house-frau"]
Magazine wants its Nazi-loving past burried. (Wired)

Even more strange, the uber-milquetoast rag "Homes and Gardens" is at the center of the controversy. Is this a legit copyright concern, or an attempt for H&G to hide its ugly, fascist-cozy past? Speaking of ultra-right, fascist villians who have no rightful place in public service, who are hell-bent on destroying basic civil liberties, and who shame their countries in the international community, I'd like to see one of these magazines do a piece on John Ashcroft's digs. What's a guy who thinks dancing is satanic and is petrified by a female breast do for a coffee table?

A fawning 1938 article by Homes & Gardens magazine about Hitler's Bavarian mountain retreat remains widely available on the Web, even after the discoverer and original poster of the article took it off his site when the magazine demanded its removal.

(NYTimes article on the same)
Team Overbot: 200 miles through the desert in 10 hours - no driver. $1,000,000 prize.

Sunday, September 21, 2003

Indian Motorcycles closes its doors 50 years after it closed the first time. And its back to the logo-vomiting, conformist Harley monoculture for the U.S. motorcycle industry...
Googie Motels, Diners, Bowl-O-Ramas and huge signs like they don't make anymore: Roadside Peek
Patio Culture!
Red meat and green salads. The patio wasn't just the center of suburban family life, it was a state of mind!
What do hot rodders, physicists, firefighters, fascist groups, religious orders, crusaders, Kustom Kulture junkies and bikers have in common? The Maltese Cross. I used to hear the design referred to as the "surfer's cross" and it's everywhere these days. Sign of a happy-go-lucky free spirit, or something more sinister? You decide.

Thursday, September 18, 2003

Optical illusion graphics (courtesy of memepool)
[Boycott JetBlue] JetBlue is selling private, personal passinger data to the government for CAPPS II testing. The data includes social security numbers and income, which are being fed to the government without any passenger approval or oversight by privacy or civil rights advocacy groups.

This bit of news dovetails nicely with enemy-of-the-state John Ashcroft's recent tour promoting proposed increases in rights and privacy violations via the absurdly-named Patriot act.

"The head of JetBlue (CEO David Neeleman) stepped forward and volunteered for government testing of CAPPS II," Weyrich said. "I don't know if he was trying to court favor with the government."
Reviews of TV Dinners.
Also a great site that has box ad art of food from the past (like this Swanson German-style TV Dinner) Mmmm MMMM!

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Johnny Cash told her to quit her job and write. She did.
"His behaviour was disrespectful to the whole town. A rubber penis is not something that should be brought to parliament."
I strongly agree.
An amnesiac Mr. X shows up in Norway.
Drastic times call for drastic measures, I guess. Lindows is offering you a free PC if you let the sue Microsoft on your behalf. The deal is part of a class action suit for California residents only.

Monday, September 15, 2003

"We put a man on the moon, and we can't even design a robot that implants hair plugs in bald guys?! What's that? We can? " (NYTimes)
Drugs are now terrorist chemical weapons.
In an example of how law enforcement misuses its powers, increasing numbers of people can be handled as "terrorists", whether or not they've committed acts of terror. While drug crimes are certainly criminal acts worthy of vigorous pursuit, use of the Patriot Act permits law enforcement to hold suspects indefinitely with no access to legal counsel.

"Within six months of passing the Patriot Act, the Justice Department was conducting seminars on how to stretch the new wiretapping provisions to extend them beyond terror cases," said Dan Dodson, a spokesman for the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. "They say they want the Patriot Act to fight terrorism, then, within six months, they are teaching their people how to use it on ordinary citizens."
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, olny taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pcleas. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by ilstef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

From Joi Ito's Weblog

Friday, September 12, 2003

Yogurt + Beer + CDs = the laziest remix DJ
[Bush vs America XIV] White House urges Supreme Court to allow state funding for ministry studies.

I wonder if they're as generous to those who want to study other forms of subjectivist, fanatical mysticism. Wicca, Voodoo and the various doomsday cult students should be thrilled at the prospect of having their "educations" funded by taxpayers. Ashcroft may have a whole lot more mosques to wiretap if this POS flies.
The Truth about Torture (Atlantic interview with Mark Bowden, the author of "The Dark Art of Interrogation")
Johnny Cash died today at 71

Thursday, September 11, 2003

No Americans need apply. (Courtesy of /. )

I've heard this type of story again and again from laid-off software developers and IT pros. Don't blame the Indian consulting firms that are staffing up to keep pace with the new demand for IT and software services-- these are American companies that are doing this to American workers, yet they'll drape themselves in the flag at the first marketing opportunity available.

He hoped that at the end of his six-month contract he could join the company full-time. But Soong soon noticed something that would not bode well for his future with the company: It had a lot of workers on H-1B and L-1 visas, and every day their ranks seemed to grow.
In a House technology Subcommittee, John Schwartz, president of Symantec, called for the illegalization of information and techniques that could be construed to aid hackers.

Virus writers and hackers often learn from each other and share automated tools and code on websites. By making it illegal to post malicious code and information, Schwarz implied, the number of attacks would be reduced. He did not say, though, how legislators would determine the difference between malicious information and that used for legitimate security research, or whether such a law might compromise freedom of speech.
From MOMA Online, Artists of Brücke: Themes in German Expressionist Prints
More evidence of the Bush Administration's brutal assault on the environment.
In the email, Myron Ebell of the Exxon-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute writes to Phil Cooney, a senior official at the White House Council for Environmental Quality. He describes his plans to discredit an EPA study on climate change through a lawsuit. He states the need to "drive a wedge between the President and those in the Administration who think that they are serving the president's interests by publishing this rubbish."

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

Strange, Disney-obsessed people
Doug and Roger tell Benji about the woman who is going to wear the Lilo costume this Friday. This leads to a general discussion about dating. Doug and Benji don’t date anyone. Roger is married to a woman who has recently gotten into Disney — but she’s a Pooh fan, Benji tells me, dismissively. “Girls get in the way of the true calling of TWDC,” Benji says. TWDC stands for The Walt Disney Company.
But enough about girls. Benji wants to talk about what’s changed in the park since yesterday.

“Have you seen the new signs in Critter Country?” Benji asks. Roger shakes his head no. “Where have you been?” Benji explodes in a mock rage. “Have you seen the new planters at Tomorrowland?”


Then again, some equate Disney with greed and their assault on U.S. copyright law, flower planters be damned.
One particularly monstrous black hole has probably been humming B flat for billions of years, but at a pitch no human could hear, let alone sing, astronomers said on Tuesday.

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

If research consultants know anything at all, it's what the guys who are writing the checks want to hear. Microsoft pays for a study which finds that developing software under Microsoft's proprietary standards is cheaper than developing under the free, open-source Linux environment. (further commentary from TheRegister)
The consultants at Giga research also asked Microsoft what color they'd like the sky to be when their research results were published.
[Fanged-sheep alert] EFF warns against RIAA "amnesty", meanwhile, the RIAA have sued a 12-year old girl. Is there anyone left other than lawyers who support the motives of people like this? Is this what the music industry has come to? Harrassing small children for listening to pop on their computers?! I hope these predators get what they deserve for this sickening outrage.

"I got really scared. My stomach is all turning," Brianna said last night at the city Housing Authority apartment where she lives with her mom and her 9-year-old brother.
A weed that uses chemical warfare to guarantee its survival. (NYTimes)

Monday, September 08, 2003

Chalupa smuggler fined.

... or "Is that a Chihuahah in your pants or are you just happy to see me..."
... or "Don't these people have to look at enough bad meat at work?"
... or "Man arrested for bad taste in Taco Bell"
... or "I've seen nicer packages in our condiment bin"
... or "No, sir. I can't super-size it for you"
... or (and I'm nuts about this one) "Bottomless man fined in forkless restaurant".
NEPIP.org: Web Site Goes Online to Find Nazi-Looted Art (NYTImes article here)
The Art of the Fake: Egyptian forgeries.
Most museum collections contain a certain number of forgeries, and the collections of the Kelsey Museum of Archeology are no exception. Over the almost one hundred years of museum collecting history, various objects of dubious authenticity have found their way into the collections.
Mysteriously snuffed out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is inaudible to humans.
RIAA Amnesty:
The Recording Industry Association of America is smiling, offering a reassuring piece of mind to users who will admit they have downloaded or shared music files in the past.

Thursday, September 04, 2003

Gallery of Motorcycle Club Patches
Study: CDs going the way of the 8-track. In response, Universal will be cutting prices to under $13. Too little, too late.

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

[Bush vs. America XIV] Poverty opens its welcoming arms to 1.3 new Americans (NYTimes)
At least the newly impoverished have their dividend tax-exemption. Perhaps a few thousand of them could assemble to live in a Bushville on the White House lawn so they can thank him for this act of compassion every day.

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

1968-1980 AMC Javelin Spotter's Guide
Loaded with ad pics of this beautiful car (as well as its cousin, the AMX).
There was even a Javelin cop car. When I was a kid, my mom had a late-70s Gremlin which definitely was not as cool then as it would be now. Proving that things always even out over time she later got a Camaro, which was infinitely cooler then (early 80s) than it would be now. I've always hated Camaros.
Robby Todino wants to build a time machine, and he's willing to pay you to get the parts he needs. He's even sent out 100 Million or so requests.

"What bothers me is that some people are trying to sell him equipment and take advantage of him," said Todino Sr. "He's invested a lot of money into it and has been hurt by it."
3D paper models you can print and build (courtesy of Metafilter)
Examining the role of co-authors in Shakespeare's works. (NYTimes)
MS Delays Longhorn again.
Microsoft grabs bull by horns, turns it around, leads it back to pen.
Ok. Stop. This gadgetry fetishism has gone far enough.
Toyota Japan is selling a car that parks itself.
Ordinary People [from The Atlantic]
H. W. Brands argues that too much reverence for the Founding Fathers is unhealthy—and that it's time to take them down a notch or two

Monday, September 01, 2003

An unusually thorough page dedicated to any and every space monkey toy [Part II]