Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Man will not stop messing with the simple pizza until it's an inedible pile of preservative-laced preformed saturated fat. This hideous vending machine is the latest, making even monstrosities like Pizza Hut look wholesome in comparison (who eats Pizza Hut? Is there one person who even eats this stuff?! Why the need for stunt-food? Cheesy Lava Pizza? Who the hell are you people?!)
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
C'mon party people! Give me a good vote on threadless.com! Click 'I'd buy it'! It's cool! How many other shirts do you see with broken down hillbillies grousing over spilled moonshine?
Followup: YEEE HAH! Thanks, and keep it coming!
Followup: YEEE HAH! Thanks, and keep it coming!
Another NYTimes must-read on the Bush Administration vs. National Parks
Consistently, this scam involves secret backroom deals, partisan scheming, a link to Dick Cheney, embedded cronyism, and private profiteering from preserved public property.
Recently, a secret draft revision of the national park system's basic management policy document has been circulating within the Interior Department. It was prepared, without consultation within the National Park Service, by Paul Hoffman, a deputy assistant secretary at Interior who once ran the Chamber of Commerce in Cody, Wyo., was a Congressional aide to Dick Cheney and has no park service experience.
Within national park circles, this rewrite of park rules has been met with profound dismay, for it essentially undermines the protected status of the national parks. The document makes it perfectly clear that this rewrite was not prompted by a compelling change in the park system's circumstances. It was prompted by a change in political circumstances - the opportunity to craft a vision of the national parks that suits the Bush administration.
Read the LA Times piece on the same.
Meanwhile, these black-hats also proposed fuel economy standards that would actually incent light truck manufacturers to make their trucks more heavy and less fuel efficient by bumping them into higher categories (newly created, of course, so as not to put any pressure on the industry to create more efficient vehicles)
Consistently, this scam involves secret backroom deals, partisan scheming, a link to Dick Cheney, embedded cronyism, and private profiteering from preserved public property.
Recently, a secret draft revision of the national park system's basic management policy document has been circulating within the Interior Department. It was prepared, without consultation within the National Park Service, by Paul Hoffman, a deputy assistant secretary at Interior who once ran the Chamber of Commerce in Cody, Wyo., was a Congressional aide to Dick Cheney and has no park service experience.
Within national park circles, this rewrite of park rules has been met with profound dismay, for it essentially undermines the protected status of the national parks. The document makes it perfectly clear that this rewrite was not prompted by a compelling change in the park system's circumstances. It was prompted by a change in political circumstances - the opportunity to craft a vision of the national parks that suits the Bush administration.
Read the LA Times piece on the same.
Meanwhile, these black-hats also proposed fuel economy standards that would actually incent light truck manufacturers to make their trucks more heavy and less fuel efficient by bumping them into higher categories (newly created, of course, so as not to put any pressure on the industry to create more efficient vehicles)
[check her out] A Swedish library, realizing that books are not the only things being judged by their covers, will give visitors a different opportunity this weekend—to borrow a Muslim, a lesbian, or a Dane.
Borrowing a person will be free, and the library will also provide coffee at its cafe where the “living books” will answer questions about their lives, beliefs, or jobs. “It’s supposed to be relaxed and human-to-human,” Noren said.
Borrowing a person will be free, and the library will also provide coffee at its cafe where the “living books” will answer questions about their lives, beliefs, or jobs. “It’s supposed to be relaxed and human-to-human,” Noren said.
StencilRevolution: Good site for street stencil galleries, howto, etc.
Also see Cooper Union's Ambush in the Streets site, which has a few artist profiles and historical info, as well as this gallery tracking the work of London's Banksy
Also see Cooper Union's Ambush in the Streets site, which has a few artist profiles and historical info, as well as this gallery tracking the work of London's Banksy
[apes pondering, flying skulls, angry robots] The Daily Jive has a bunch of prospective tshirt designs going up soon on threadless. I'm counting on you guys to give me some good votes in hope that at least one of them gets printed. More when they get approved.
Monday, August 29, 2005
How to screen print a poster: start to finish
The Daily Jive loves silkscreened art. Do what the page says and make a print. Send me one when you're done.
The Daily Jive loves silkscreened art. Do what the page says and make a print. Send me one when you're done.
Vandals burned swastikas into the lawn of a Jewish family in Georgia. Officials aren't sure whether to call it a hate crime.
Trees don't suck Carbon Dioxide (Nature)
"Some scientists and politicians cling to the idea that a carbon-dioxide-rich future might favour the greening of planet Earth. It's time to disillusion them," says Christian Körner, a plant ecologist at the University of Basel who led the study. "What remains is the greenhouse gas effect," he adds.
"Some scientists and politicians cling to the idea that a carbon-dioxide-rich future might favour the greening of planet Earth. It's time to disillusion them," says Christian Körner, a plant ecologist at the University of Basel who led the study. "What remains is the greenhouse gas effect," he adds.
The Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft captured several stunning images of Earth during a gravity assist swingby of its home planet on Aug. 2, 2005. Several hundred images, taken with the wide-angle camera in MESSENGER’s Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), were sequenced into a movie documenting the view from MESSENGER as it departed Earth.
Don't mess with the profiteers. If you step between Haliburton and their cozy insider, no-complete guaranteed deals with the Army, you get squashed. (NYTimes)
Ms. Greenhouse fought the demotion through official channels, and publicly described her clashes with Corps of Engineers leaders over a five-year, $7 billion oil-repair contract awarded to Kellogg Brown & Root. She had argued that if urgency required a no-bid contract, its duration should be brief.
Ms. Greenhouse fought the demotion through official channels, and publicly described her clashes with Corps of Engineers leaders over a five-year, $7 billion oil-repair contract awarded to Kellogg Brown & Root. She had argued that if urgency required a no-bid contract, its duration should be brief.
Univ. of California sued over Creationism (Salon, free day pass req'd)
The Fundamentalist ignorance machine goes into assault mode.
The Fundamentalist ignorance machine goes into assault mode.
Friday, August 26, 2005
Thursday, August 25, 2005
"There are liberals under my bed!" More toxic vitriol about how everyone isn't a free-market spouting, big industry coddling Republican. You know... like Jesus.
This time, though, they're doing it for the kids. Tremble as Hillary "Clunkton" assaults kids at a lemonade stand (with her "stubby little finger", no less!). Why not just cut to the chase and have Clunkton blow up the kids? You know, like the civ-casualty kids in Iraq? Except they don't have lemons and sugar. Or ice. Or clean water.
This time, though, they're doing it for the kids. Tremble as Hillary "Clunkton" assaults kids at a lemonade stand (with her "stubby little finger", no less!). Why not just cut to the chase and have Clunkton blow up the kids? You know, like the civ-casualty kids in Iraq? Except they don't have lemons and sugar. Or ice. Or clean water.
War of the Future: How Oil Drives Genocide in Darfur (mojones)
"When countries with few other resources of national wealth exploit their petroleum reserves, the ruling elites typically monopolize the distribution of oil revenues, enriching themselves and their cronies while leaving the rest of the population mired in poverty -- and the well-equipped and often privileged security forces of these 'petro-states' can be counted on to support them."
Compound these antidemocratic tendencies with the ravenous thirst of the rapidly growing Chinese and Indian economies, and you have a recipe for destabilization in Africa. China's oil imports climbed by 33% in 2004, India's by 11%. The International Energy Agency expects them to use 11.3 million barrels a day by 2010, which will be more than one-fifth of global demand.
"When countries with few other resources of national wealth exploit their petroleum reserves, the ruling elites typically monopolize the distribution of oil revenues, enriching themselves and their cronies while leaving the rest of the population mired in poverty -- and the well-equipped and often privileged security forces of these 'petro-states' can be counted on to support them."
Compound these antidemocratic tendencies with the ravenous thirst of the rapidly growing Chinese and Indian economies, and you have a recipe for destabilization in Africa. China's oil imports climbed by 33% in 2004, India's by 11%. The International Energy Agency expects them to use 11.3 million barrels a day by 2010, which will be more than one-fifth of global demand.