July 4, 2009
In which New York is invaded
Currently at the Jonathan LeVine gallery, Invader's exhibition Top 10: >TOP 10by extermitent... Read more
Cantor Set, Kevin van Aelst
. Also, a logarathmic spiral and the golden spiral. And many more.... Read more
June 25, 2009
June 15, 2009
Motel Art Improvement Service
The final instalment of the intrepid Bee-Jin's second adventure, "Motel Art Improvement Service" appeared today. I enjoyed the occasional appearance of this comic, which began over four years ago, and read it compulsively. I already await her next appearance ... and wonder whether this adventure will join "Shutterbug Follies" in hardcover.... Read more
May 31, 2009
Erster Preis: ein Käse
The Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake is held annually near Gloucester, England. I learned about this through boston punto com's The Big Picture.... Read more
May 5, 2009
In which there is no second-guessing
One of my fave-rave summer tunes from '08 reappears. Be sure to use the Track and Pan buttons for extra nuttiness.... Read more
April 20, 2009
April 18, 2009
In which we do not make an ass of ourselves
“I would ask people to actually go see a donkey basketball game before they jump on the bandwagon of trying to put it down." The truth, my friends, is stranger than any fiction. Dwarf-tossing, quadriplegic rugby, midget-lifting, cock-fights — donkey basketball?... Read more
April 17, 2009
On spectacles and what they see
The Maysles Institute in Harlem moved a few months ago; I have not yet visited it.... Read more
March 27, 2009
In which brevity is the soul of wit
787 Cliparts by Oliver Laric.... Read more
March 21, 2009
Muto, a wall-painted animation by BLU
Muto is an animated film with public walls for cels, drawn and photographed by Bolognese graffiti artist Blu.... Read more
S[c]hluffing
Provides a splendid opportunity for picking off inane cyclists. I am somewhat embarrassed that Robert Sullivan, whose journalism I enjoyed in Rats, his account of New York City's most popular rodent (the bird is the most popular finger), endorses such pablum. I do not think that the Thoreau I know would have encouraged use of a push-cycle on a roadway shared with the fair sex. The folksy fiddle music adds a ludicrous air to the proceedings.... Read more
March 17, 2009
A Subway Tale
This man tells a tale of his humble heroics: “I was waiting for the C to go downtown to a reading,” he said from his office on West 30th Street, where he works as a proofreader. “I’m an actor — shocker.” He said most everyone seems to be an aspiring actor nowadays, but in this case, it is a critical point to the story: Mr. Lindsey currently appears in an Off-Broadway show called “Kasper Hauser,” in a role that requires him to repeatedly lift a character who cannot walk. [ ... dramatic rescue as train approaches ... ] Then I sort of freaked out, and I was nervous and shaky. These five women opened their purses and gave me Handi-Wipes. I was covered in blood and dirt from the subway tracks. One woman was a nurse, and said, ‘Don’t have caffeine or cigarettes for an hour and a half,’ because of the adrenaline in my heart.”... Read more
March 13, 2009
In which a turk sings a bicycle
A bicycle built for two thousand.... Read more
March 11, 2009
Time Piece
One of my favourite shorts, Time Piece received an Academy Award nomination in 1965. The staccato paces combines with the visual and aural effects for an amusing and thoughtful film. I was glad to find this online, finally; the DVD copy I have no longer plays reliably.... Read more
March 9, 2009
March 6, 2009
In which we make a joyful noise
Or, The Mother of All Funk Chords (and then some).... Read more
February 26, 2009
In which someone did not scoop the poop
... oddly reminiscent of the chalk body outlines from homicides — only more blob-shaped. This morning I saw this sign. More.... Read more
January 29, 2009
Three pieces by Walter De Maria
The Equal Area Series, The Broken Kilometer, and The Earth Room.... Read more
January 14, 2009
Facebook, phones, and genius
How to use a mobile telephone* vs. How not to use the cellular telephone. * well, Facebook. But the 'phone figures into the analogy. The first describes use of Facebook as inevitable; the second describes the use of a mobile telephone as the act of an enslaved man. What's the social utility to Facebook—why should you join? Like with e-mail and cell phones, there are many, and as you begin to use it, you'll notice more and different situations in which it proves helpful. In general, Facebook is a lubricant of social connections. With so many people on it, it's now the best, fastest place online to find and connect with a specific person—think of it as a worldwide directory, or a Wikipedia of people. As a result, people now expect to find you on Facebook—whether they're contacting you for a job or scouting you out for a genius grant. Ken Vandermark is not on Facebook. QED. (but he is on twitter)... Read more
January 9, 2009
In which we have an impeachy idea
This photograph has made me laugh aloud, roll on the floor laughing, and blow milk out my nose. Now imagine saying Blagojevich with a nasal, Jerry Lewis voice, and be sure you are not drinking milk when you think this. Thanks, Aram, for pointing out this photograph and bringing untold chuckles into this apartment.... Read more
January 5, 2009
In which this has more than seven layers
The Great British Sandwich: Currently taller than a phonebox, shorter than a Routemaster, this promises to become the world's tallest sandwich. I added a layer.... Read more
January 4, 2009
In which the picture is worth a word
The Photographic Dictionary project entry for growth, nervous, queue. compare garbage and trash.... Read more
January 1, 2009
In which the confetti is the beginning of the party
I like street-cleaning equipment, and photos of ditto.... Read more
December 30, 2008
In fear of fear
A most excellent series of ink drawings appears online, each depicting a certain fear (of bears, of beards) or a child in a certain fiendish scene: "Sadie's Hades", for example.... Read more
December 29, 2008
Vintila Banescu
The New York Times rarely comes close to the tenor and topic of a Paul Auster story, but consider this: The 1975 Alfetta was hardly pristine. Panels had been replaced, its body was pierced by splotches of rust, and its maroon coat was faded by the sun. But it was still an Italian sports car, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, and it still made people stop. Mr. Banescu, who often wore a beret, was shy but friendly. Sometime in early May, the Alfa stopped moving. Neighbors noticed, but then perhaps forgot: In Brooklyn, it was the summer of the parking spot, when the city announced that it was suspending the alternate-side parking rules in various neighborhoods as it replaced street-cleaning signs. Mr. Banescu’s car became one of dozens, maybe hundreds, of cars allowed to sit in the same space for months this summer.... Read more
December 10, 2008
Of courtesans and fish-cakes
[The Max Planck Institute] wanted Chinese classical texts to adorn its journal, something beautiful and elegant, to illustrate a special report on China. Instead, it got a racy flyer extolling the lusty details of stripping housewives in a brothel. Chinese characters look dramatic and beautiful, and have a powerful visual impact, but make sure you get the meaning of the characters straight before jumping right in. ... The use of traditional Chinese characters and references to "the northern mainland" seem to indicate the text comes from Hong Kong or Macau, and it promises burlesque acts by pretty-as-jade housewives with hot bodies for the daytime visitor. To be sure, the Romans of yore had courtesans; I expect classical Chinese society ditto.... Read more
December 5, 2008
The revolution will be televised
Different revolution, different cube, still fascinating. Also: JP Brown's Serious LEGO, All Too Flat's Astor Place Rubik's Cube.... Read more
H.M.
In 1953, he underwent an experimental brain operation in Hartford to correct a seizure disorder, only to emerge from it fundamentally and irreparably changed. He developed a syndrome neurologists call profound amnesia. He had lost the ability to form new memories. For the next 55 years, each time he met a friend, each time he ate a meal, each time he walked in the woods, it was as if for the first time. And for those five decades, he was recognized as the most important patient in the history of brain science. As a participant in hundreds of studies, he helped scientists understand the biology of learning, memory and physical dexterity, as well as the fragile nature of human identity. A few months ago, the City Editor of The New York Times published comments on how the paper chooses subjects for its obituaries. And Bruce Weber wrote about writing obituaries.... Read more
December 4, 2008
In which weasels ripped my flesh
Necessity is the mother of invention.... Read more
December 3, 2008
An adventure, with coffee
Christoph Niemann is a genius. From the adventure of The Boys and The Subway to the story of coffee, his illustrations and dry prose make me laugh, make me think.... Read more
November 26, 2008
November 23, 2008
In which we pour a Pernod on the kerb
The New York Times sounds the death knell for the French café: In 1960, France had 200,000 cafes, said Bernard Quartier, president of the National Federation of Cafes, Brasseries and Discotheques. Now it has fewer than 41,500, with an average of two closing every day. In Paris, Bernard Picolet, 60, is the owner of Aux Amis du Beaujolais, which his family started in 1921 on Rue de Berri. “The way of life has changed,” he said. “The French are no longer eating and drinking like the French. They are eating and drinking like the Anglo-Saxons,” the British and the Americans. “They eat less and spend less time at it,” Mr. Picolet said. People grab a sandwich at lunchtime and eat as they walk or sit at their desks. They stand in line to buy prepackaged espresso sachets, to drink coffee at home ....... Read more
November 14, 2008
November 6, 2008
November 5, 2008
In defense of levers
Richard Hayes has a good piece on the reliability and accuracy of mechanical voting machines. Compare to the Village Voice's running discussion on the coming generation of super voting machines.... Read more
November 1, 2008
In which we choose honesty over bribery
The New York Times" has some coverage of Rachel Trachtenburg's testimony.... Read more
June 20, 2008
In which you can never have enough hate
Hatred for stroller-pushing latte-sipping line-cutting moms in Brooklyn bike shops; hatred for the disappearing, long-forgotten past; and hatred for things in general, dammit. Warning: Some links more bilious than others.... Read more
June 18, 2008
In which we have no bananas
Dan Koeppel, author of the outstanding history Banana, has an editorial piece in today's New York Times. He suggests that the rising price of fuel and the ongoing floods in Ecuador will combine to produce $1/lb. bananas, a significant price threshold for this ubiquitous food. He discussed the factors that have kept banana prices low, and the monoculture that makes the contemporary consumer banana extremely vulnerable to blight, and draws the conclusion that we ought to look for a different fruit to enjoy on our bicycle rides. His book (full title: Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World) does not directly answer a question that pops into my mind almost every day: why do bananas from the street vendors always cost a quarter? His methodical research and vivid writing have brought me a more clear understanding of the supply chain and shenanigans of getting a banana to the cart. Last week I tried a short red banana, a different variety from the standard Cavendish, and found it surprisingly difficult to eat. After having eaten at least a banana a day for decades, I am completely accustomed to the specific taste and texture of a particular banana; this Red Banana (PLU 4236) took me by surprise. The editorial is a reprise of themes from his book, written with a more moral tone than the book itself. … the Cavendish is the only banana we see in our markets. It is the only kind that is shipped and eaten everywhere from Beijing to Berlin, Moscow to Minneapolis. By sticking to this single variety, the banana industry ensures that all the bananas in a shipment ripen at the same rate, creating huge economies of scale. The Cavendish is the fruit equivalent of a fast-food hamburger: efficient to produce, uniform in quality and universally affordable. … In recent years, American consumers have begun seeing the benefits — to health, to the economy and to the environment — of buying foods that are grown close to our homes. Getting used to life without bananas will take some adjustment. What other fruit can you slice onto your breakfast cereal? But bananas have always been an emblem of a long-distance food chain. Perhaps it’s time we recognize bananas for what they are: an exotic fruit that, some day soon, may slip beyond our reach.... Read more
June 16, 2008
In which we chuckle at the ordinary
Like Emily Jo Cureton's daily crossword-inspired sketches, Steven Frank draws inspiration from the electronic everyday. His muse: SPAM Subject: lines. Some favourites: thank snoop, Bug Message, and like flipping a switch that will allow you to get exactly what you want. Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!... Read more
June 13, 2008
Out of Gas
Over three decades, Camilo José Vergara has photographed decaying gas stations. The New York Times published a slideshow of his photographs. Vergara photographs many aspects of decay and blight across America; the Chilean-born photographer received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002.... Read more
June 11, 2008
June 10, 2008
Tom Sachs vs. Tom Sachs
Although I have not seen Tom Sachs's massive bronzes at Lever House, I did walk through the Animals exhibition at Sperone Westwater. The title of the exhibition might as easily have been Sounds, rather than Animals: the sounds of an absent cat, of tools on their racks, or deadened (or amplified) pianos, and especially of animals becoming extinct -- all these sounds played an important role in the pieces. The Waffle Bicycle broadcast the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, from loudspeakers mounted to a massive modified bicycle. The bicycle has all of the necessary ingredients for making waffles, from the live chickens for producing the eggs to the refrigerated whipped cream for topping the end product. I first encountered Tom Sachs's work in the infamous Barney's Nativity display, and more recently on the cover of Dana Thomas's Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. I am still uncertain about my grasp on the intersection of consumer culture and art as Tom represents it, but I enjoy the very visceral presentation of his work in the gallery setting. Tom brings a lot of surprisingly frank and violent ideas to his outwardly-calm pieces, such as the wood block with King Heroin burned onto gold leaf.... Read more
June 8, 2008
In which the web is our foley
Instant Rimshot vs Sad Trombone. If only the iPhone supported Flash ... well, that can be fixed: I recorded these into .mp3 files and made them easily accessible for my own nefarious purposes.... Read more
June 7, 2008
In which we face the end of guano
“It would be an inglorious conclusion to something that has survived wars and man’s other follies,” Mr. de la Torre said. “But that is the scenario we are facing: the end of guano.” An article in The New York Times discusses the precarious position of the guano-collecting industry off the Peruvian coast. I learned of guano from the Tintin adventure Prisoners of the Sun.... Read more
June 6, 2008
How many Luxemborgs is Wales?
Arf's Sensible Units web site elegantly converts one measurement — 181 cm, say, — into something less abstract: 1.3 Alaskan moose antler spans. 15 CDs side by side. A little less scientific (and more joyful: "Convert boring units to real objects as you type!" is its slogan) than the sensational Google Calculator, but no less useful. For the record: 1 Wales is 8.0 Luxemborgs.... Read more
May 19, 2008
In which we make all languages one
Google's new translation tool has more languages and more shine. This tool has helped me read through innumerable web pages in the past. Although it does not answer all questions about internet sites in other languages, it provides excellent tools for reference-checking and for aiding me in understanding foreign-language posts. The new languages include Bulgarian and Greek (although not Attic, or classic, Greek; I am encouraging Google to apply statistical machine-translation methods to the corpus of Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit literature), as well as improvements to the existing languages' translation facilities. I didn't say babel fish, nor babelfish. Nor 72 views of the tower of babel (I have been waiting for a while to incorporate that into something. Now is the opportunity!).... Read more
May 15, 2008
May 12, 2008
In which more is more
Andrew Bird wrote a piece about recording songs for his new album. Part of the New York Times's Measure for Measure blog, it has insight and humour and beauty. I love reading about the minutiæ of recording, especially about the contemporary music I really enjoy. Seeing large tape machines rolling, thinking about sliders and pots and mics and speakers and amplifiers, it's all quite exciting. Thanks, Aram, ever keen to the intricate technology of sound recording, for pointing this out.... Read more
May 8, 2008
In which I look at photographs
In looking over photographs on the internet, the short attention span in me enjoys many of the amusingly-captioned contributed-photography sites. LOLCats, of course; and also Man Babies, photobombing (not photobombing). Of course, plenty of stuff on flickr: sticker art, smashed cars, bicycle parking: something for everyone, especially for me.... Read more
May 7, 2008
In which I found that essence rare(r)
Aram pointed out, via the excellent Brooklyn Vegan, that stalwart Gang of Four rockers Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham are leaving the band (again). Did I write stalwart? I meant totally awesome. I could hope to fit all of that cool and kickass into my whole lifetime — they stuck it into each of their records. I got a copy of their first record from a girl at my high school who was moving to California (to attend Berkeley, if I remember correctly); I was a couple of years younger than she, and received a stack of her hand-me-down records (Psychic TV amongst them) when she cleaned house. I was not prepared for what came over the speakers when I first put the needle down: the rhythm! the energy! the anger! Give me punk rock! Give me funk! The first video is from The Old Grey Whistle Test television programme twenty-five years ago, the second from the Electric Picnic festival recently.... Read more
May 5, 2008
In which we see a clam in a jam
Emily Jo Cureton takes a few clues from each day's New York Times crossword puzzle and illustrates the resulting, sometimes fragmentary phrase. Favorites, though I needn't pick: bonsai egret, lets dropit, and ALIEN SOUSA.... Read more
April 30, 2008
In praise of the cooky
I appreciate the cooky as a unit of measure, as a mathematical proof, but mostly as a chocolate-laden treat.... Read more
April 29, 2008
In which we honor Mariah Carey; Or, lies, damn lies, and number-one singles
A few nights ago, the Empire State Building was lit in honor of the singer (and, lest we forget, actress!) Mariah Carey. With her new album (E=MC2) and its first single, she now stands second only to The Beatles for number-one singles on the Billboard Chart. (Does her new album count as "math rock"?) I like Mariah Carey: her voice, her songs, and how criticism about her enriches my vocabulary. I wonder how she ends up driving the music industry and having the lights on the Empire State Building honor her; why not Thurston Moore?... Read more
April 21, 2008
In which we valet-park, with robots
From JapanProbe: "Customers who come to the station by bicycle need only place their bike on a small platform and hit a few buttons, and the system will automatically store their bike in an underground parking garage that can accommodate 9,400 bikes. When the reporter asks the machine to retrieve his bicycle, it only takes 23 seconds to accomplish the task. The parking system costs 100 yen for a single use, or 1,800 yen for a monthly pass." More video at the JapanProbe site. San Francisco's own master bicycle valet parker kash runs the Warm Planet bicycle shop at the Caltrain station in San Francisco [PDF].... Read more
April 20, 2008
In we doff our hat
Seeing Adam Albright's name at the top of the new Language Log brought a smile to my face. The Language Log, long a favorite of both esoteric and popular linguistics, brings together academic writers on a delightful variety of topics. It also introduces me to other language-related blogs, including Mr Verb.... Read more
April 17, 2008
In which my eyes are plate-wide
Aram brought to mine attention this month-old post on Craigslist (San Francisco, for reasons that will become quite clear): http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/608546617.html. Craigslist has collected it under the "Best-of", which is a user-driven distinction. This post is a splendid successor to Theodocious Ferocious's "One Less Fixie" post of a few years ago, which commemorated the brief popularity of freewheeling front-brake-only pista bicycles and their numbskull riders. "my eyes are usually plate-wide with terror"... Read more
April 15, 2008
A few words on growing up Scots
In my younger years, I often fell asleep hearing pipers practicing on a nearby hill, and a subliminal message has since compelled me to avoid wearing pants -- although I missed last week's Wear a Kilt To Work Day, part of the Tartan Week festivities. Some words on the historical importance of the kilt (and of whisky), from The Glenlivet's advertising posters: The Glenlivet and the kilt share more than just Scottish origins – both were once against the law! Under England’s King George IV, the 1746 Dress Act banned all items of Highland dress. The same monarch imposed excise laws banning all production of whisky in 1781. Despite this, when King George IV visited Scotland in 1822, he himself insisted he would drink no other whisky than the “illegal” The Glenlivet. On this same trip, the king and his retinue also donned tartan outfits, reinstating both Scotch whisky and the tartan in the same visit. Kilt is a Scottish word that means “to tuck up the clothes around the body.” The word derives from the Old Norse kjilt, which means “pleated.” A 1746 description of the versatile garment states: “The garb is certainly very loose, and fits men inured to it to go through great fatigues, to make very quick marches, to bear out against the inclemency of the weather, to wade through rivers and shelter in huts, woods and rocks upon occasion; which men dressed in the low country garb could not possibly endure.” Today, the kilt is generally regarded as formal dress and can be seen at wedding and black tie occasions. The mutual vocabulary of Scots and Swedish intrigues me: words such as bairn and the comparable formations of sijkhus stand out. Through reading about the history of Scots, I came upon the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages, which promotes languages and linguistic diversity.... Read more
April 14, 2008
Is it not art? We are artists!
Consider Levi van Veluw; consider The Enigma. Art? performance? photograph? Does a specific application of technology equal art? Does art require the skillful and expressive match of technique to technology? Pete Goldlust's carved crayon series may be the result of advanced industrial automation, but the skill, vision, and execution are artistic. Finally, keeping it old-school: this morning's New York Times reported on Leonardo's having illustrated a chess book: The book, “De Ludo Scachorum,” or “The Game of Chess,” is by Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan friar and Renaissance mathematician who was a friend and collaborator of Leonardo. One of the earliest chess books, it contains 114 diagrams of chess problems drawn in red and black. Long thought to be lost or destroyed, it was discovered in 2006 in a 22,000-volume library in northeastern Italy that belonged to Count Guglielmo Coronini, who died in 1990. The last part amuses me greatly: the book was long thought lost. With the instantaneous (well, hundredths-of-a-second) speed of information retrieval, the thought of something being lost in a library charms me.... Read more
April 12, 2008
MADison and 56th
View Larger Map The unusual engraving on the surface of Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass show the location of the piece: 590 MADison Avenue. A-propos: within minutes of my having posted these photographs on flickr, web search through Google had indexed them (well, the text at least). The complete set is available; I took them in part because I have not been able to uncover good, publicly-available photographs of this sculpture.... Read more
April 5, 2008
In which we find the penny dreadful
Every few weeks, I haul the pocket-sized sack of coins that I have accumulated to the store around the corner; there I exchange them for a certificate I can redeem at a favorite online merchant. Many of the coins are pennies, but some of the sackful includes nickels, dimes, and quarters; half-dollars rarely circulate (and, I imagine, annoy cashiers at least as much as the Sacagawea dollars and Jefferson twos I cheerfully use to pay). The United States' approach to coin and paper strikes me as woefully sentimental. David Owens's penny piece in the New Yorker touches on points historical, technical, and social. It's great, including the misquotation (eggcorn?) of "hordes" for "hoards". I appropriated the new Jefferson nickel as an illustration, rather than the similarly expensive penny, because it is a truly impressive piece of engraving.... Read more
April 4, 2008
In which we see the b of the bang
The genius of this sculpture outside the site of the 2002 Commonwealth Games comes from a quotation attributed to the British sprinter Linford Christie (who is eminently quotable, and apparently ready to rumble): I start running at the 'B' of the Bang from the starter's pistol. Never mind that the whole thing is slowly falling apart, and even when I walked past I thought it was still under construction (it's not; it's under litigation).... Read more
April 2, 2008
On the tribulations of language: words and punctuation
This fellow read the OED from soup to nuts (perhaps from alpha to omega?) and is now blogging about it; this fellow documents the inconsistent treatment accorded to the letter L in hand-written signs, and blogs about it (with photos!); me, I am fond of the grocer's apostrophe and puzzling punctuation. ... as are other people: Apostrophe Abuse illustrates the perils of modern-day puncuation; ritual observation of the importance of punctuation happens on National Punctuation Day; and the "emphatic" use of quotation marks in signs and signage. And the most excellent writers of The Language Log share this gem: Proofreaders rejoice! The missing apostrophe on the granite base of the new Ernie Banks statue is now in place. It took a stone carver about 30 minutes Wednesday morning to complete the work, said Lou Cella, the sculptor who made the statute. The missing punctuation was noticed when the statue was unveiled on opening day at Wrigley Field Monday. later corrected to... Read more
March 3, 2008
In which proof of the Almighty is just a Calendar Book away
Read more at http://jameth.livejournal.com/3982795.html.... Read more
February 28, 2008
In which a photograph is worth a thousand wiretaps
The Billboard Liberation Front helps put things into perspective.... Read more
February 27, 2008
On finding and sharing over the Internet
I enjoy reading both passive-aggressive notes (especially this fine example!) as well as mis-cased &mdash not merely mis-spelled! — posters. Of course, I also enjoy puzzling puctuation, grocer's apostrophes, and signs showing food eating itself.... Read more
February 26, 2008
On tits and ass.
Did Apple make a clbuttic mistake? Whose conbreastitution does President Bush trample? Whose parish buttets are up for sale? Although spell-checkers are a boon, arbitrary use of global replace can be devastating. Take it from me, who removed all of the us from a client's web site some years ago.... Read more
February 19, 2008
Fidel Castro!!!
To borrow from another playbook: I mean Fidel Fucking Castro!!! I get really worked up about Cuba, partly from my romanticized notion of how the socialist ideal has played out. I saw Mikhail Kalatozov's Soy Cuba and fell in love with the stories, the colours, the tracking shots; I read Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana and thought about the intrigue of the island. The photograph and implied capitalist-style product placement come from The New York Times.... Read more
February 1, 2008
In which high taxes fit in to the Algebra
I enjoyed reading this NYT article about declining use of plastic bags, and feel encouraged by the suggestion that a very high tax on the consumption of bags will The Alegbra of Need, expressed by my friend William S. Burroughs, describes how this works: so long as demand exists for the item, suppliers will find a way to bring it to market. Eliminate the demand, in this case by jacking up the cost suitably high and by providing a reasonably-priced alternative, and hey presto! consumers switch to the alternative. Last year, San Francisco enacted a follow-up piece of legislation that requires large stores to cease using plastic bags; previously, the large stores (the definition is along the lines of how many outlets a particular store has, or how many square feet the store is) needed to provide a "recyling" facility for plastic bags. New York has now taken this same step, and hopefully will move quickly to the second, and discourage the use of plastic bags entirely. 2% of our landfill mass that will stay with us forever; hundreds of millions of carrier bags stuck in trees from Bryant Park to The Siq; a whirling mass of tangled plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean.... Read more
January 29, 2008
In which we go into the fold
Robert Lang writes on origami art and science. He makes mathematical, handsome arthropods from paper.... Read more
January 25, 2008
In which we wonder: art or technology?
I appreciate the skilfull application of colour and symmetry to a project of technology, and wonder: is it art? Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder; lately I have visited some galleries and museums which make me wonder about the optical receptors these people must have, for I see little beauty in a scrap-heap of cardboard on the floor, or a "sculpture" of pasta and glitter, or a piece that looks exactly like the bunch of keys I have in my pocket. However, I enjoy looking at pictures of neatly-cabled datacenters and server racks, and am thankful that I do not run cable or crimp connectors. Nor shall I, now that slackers has moved out of my closet and into a real colo.... Read more
January 18, 2008
On maps
An image that maps each state in the Union to its counterpart in GDP, showing the formidable economic power of the United States. Upon checking in to a hotel a few days ago. I arrived in the dead of night, and the night clerk was reading a slim volume with an attractive cover. I eyed it while we went through brief formalities, and then asked about it. An Atlas of Radical Cartography: turns out that I know the editor, if slightly, through Lize Mogel's excellent map of green space in Los Angeles. I spotted this map several years ago on a bus shelter near the Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax, and subsequently obtained a copy.... Read more
January 15, 2008
January 9, 2008
In which we have some language lessons
The New York Times Book Review had an all-Islam issue on Sunday, with an interesting essay on learning Arabic by the Times's Beirut bureau chief, Robert F. Worth. I have been studying Arabic intermittently for the past few years, and many of his observations ring clear and true. For anyone who knows only European languages, to wade into Arabic is to discover an endlessly strange and yet oddly ordered lexical universe. Some words have definitions that go on for pages and seem to encompass all possible meanings; others are outlandishly precise. Paging through the dictionary one night, I found a word that means “to cut off the upper end of an okra.” There are lovely verbs like sara, “to set out at night”; comical ones like tabaadawa, “to pose as a Bedouin”; and simply bizarre ones like dabiba, “to abound in lizards.” Dabiba (presumably applied to towns or regions) is medieval, but I wouldn’t put it past Dr. Zawahri to revive it. ... At the same time, all Arabic words have simple three- or four-letter roots, with systematically derived cognates that allow you to unfold a whole range of meanings from a single word. The word for “to cook,” for instance, is related in a predictable way to the words for “kitchen,” “dish,” “chef,” and so on. Arabic speakers are often dismayed to discover that the same principle is less common in English. As the months passed, the sounds of the language were gradually transformed. Arabic’s hard “h” letter, so difficult to pronounce at first, began to seem like a lovely breath of air, as if countless tiny parachutes were lifting the words above their glottal base. The notorious “ayn” sound, which often takes months for English speakers to produce, lost its guttural edge and acquired, to my ear, the throaty rumble of a well-tuned sports car. Like the author, when I first began learning Arabic I tried out my meagre conversational phrases on everyone I could, but my enthusiasm tapered off as I realised that I could sustain very little in the way of constructive dialogue. Sure, I could ask after the health of obscure relatives (the vocabulary for family is very rich), but I could not easily understand the answers, especially if they were spoken fluently. I was very surprised a few months ago when, sitting in the front seat of a downtown-bound cab, I not only got the gist of our cabbie's conversation, but understood entire sentences. His Arabic was remarkably clear and dialect-free, and he must have hailed from the Levant (alas, the group with me in the cab were all hurrying to catch a ferry, so I could not stop and make chit-chat with the driver).... Read more
January 7, 2008
In which I begin to understand
During a visit to the Dia Arts' Riggio Galleries in Beacon, I discovered the work of Michael Heizer in person. I had read about his ambitious terraforming earth sculptures and heard about his Levitating Mass (link goes to overview and criticism of public art in New York City). The ubiquity of satellite imagery on the Internet allows us to peek at Michael Heizer's City, a work in-progress in Nevada. Heizer has not made the work widely available to the public, and looking at aerial photographs feels like something of a spoiler; I shouldn't have looked for it. Heizer expects to complete City in 2010, but visits to its remote location might be as tricky as seeing his contemporary Walter de Maria's Lightning Field or Robert Smithson's . All of these pieces also receive support and curation from the Dia Foundation. The Foundation, long a supporter of visionary installation art, takes its name from the Greek δια, meaning "through": "chosen to suggest the institution's role in enabling extraordinary artistic projects that might not otherwise be realized." After not quite understanding two holes-in-the-ground, one at the Tate Modern and the other until recently at the Gavin Brown Gallery in New York, seeing Heizer's North, East, South, West, 1967—2002 at dia: Beacon caused my jaw to drop. Beholding the installation in its context revealed the art as transcendent, and seeing several galleries of similarly massive, innovative works was an epiphany. I need to go back to the Warhol Museum. All the exhibits at the dia: Beacon have developed with the collaboration of the artist, or with the artist's intellectual trustees. Gerhard Richter's grey mirrored panels appear in a beautiful rectangular gallery, lit by a glorious clerestory; Joseph Beuys's energy-channeling Fond series is in a sombre, dim room, and Dia has installed his Aus Berlin: Neues vom Kojoten in a room built to the specifications of its original début. Seeing galleries of such organization brought remarkable clarity to the works. One specific experience: walking in to the massive central gallery, ringed with isomorphic canvases in Andy Warhol's Shadows series.... Read more
January 5, 2008
In which I see arctic technology
The photography of Christian Houge, now in his first State-side show, at the Hosfelt Gallery, made a huge impression on me. He captures the hues of snowy landscapes marvellously. He combines the quiet natural beauty of Norway with the stark colours of man-made antennae. There is an island located between Greenland and the North Pole called Spitsbergen or Svalbard (“the cold land”). The seclusion of the island results in its having the cleanest atmosphere in the world and being one of the best places to do astronomical, meteorological or climate research. Hence, the remote and pristine landscape is marked by installations of technological and scientific equipment. The photographers who have most excited me all combine specific mechanical or technological elements in their work: O. Winston Link, who photographed steam railways; Edward Burtynsky, who photographs 'infrastructure' and especially strip mines and ship-breaking yards; and Christian Houge, capturing the systems used for searching the skies.... Read more
December 28, 2007
In which we offer money for our own subjugation
This online-only piece in the New York Times's JetLagged column surprised me with its frankness and length: The airlines, for their part, are in something of a bind. The willingness of our carriers to allow flying to become an increasingly unpleasant experience suggests a business sense of masochistic capitulation. On the other hand, imagine the outrage among security zealots should airlines be caught lobbying for what is perceived to be a dangerous abrogation of security and responsibility — even if it’s not. Carriers caught plenty of flack, almost all of it unfair, in the aftermath of September 11th. Understandably, they no longer want that liability. As for Americans themselves, I suppose that it’s less than realistic to expect street protests or airport sit-ins from citizen fliers, and maybe we shouldn’t expect too much from a press and media that have had no trouble letting countless other injustices slip to the wayside. And rather than rethink our policies, the best we’ve come up with is a way to skirt them — for a fee, naturally — via schemes like Registered Traveler. Americans can now pay to have their personal information put on file just to avoid the hassle of airport security. As cynical as George Orwell ever was, I doubt he imagined the idea of citizens offering up money for their own subjugation." Despite glaring systemic and amusingly obvious holes in the security of airlines, the agenda continues to be both reactive and unnecessarily disruptive. As cynical as George Orwell ever was, I doubt he imagined the idea of citizens offering up money for their own subjugation. The prevailing notions of physical security around air travel stick in my craw not only because I spend an inordinate amount of time and energy flying from place to place, but also because the notions are wrong. Wrong-headed, and with the worst sort of ignorant, wrong intentions: these are measures that reflect no sophistication on the part of policy-makers or of law-enforcement, reinforcing the glorious stereotypes the legislative and executive branches have as dunder-headed troglodytes. We have massive models for the prediction of weather and traffic; and we have the ability to place a massive yellow first-down line underneath the image of football players onscreen; but we cannot reliably secure our transportation, merely provide the irritating illusion that we are doing something.... Read more
December 23, 2007
In which I cheat, and enjoy it
Rex Parker, who Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle, is not only a welcome helpmeet, but his commentary both illuminates and amuses. He adds clip art, relevant movie posters, and welcome exegesis for the daily puzzle. I first found him when, stuck in a particularly nasty puzzle (must have been Thursday, the utter limit of my ability), I needed to cheat; now I enjoy reading his analysis after all the cheating is done and accounted-for. I don't now how the one-nine-hundred toll line ("$1.49 a minute") survives.... Read more
December 19, 2007
In which there are a lot of artholes
The new installation at Gavin Brown Gallery: a whacking big hole in the ground. Not as impressive as Doris Salcedo five-hundred-foot crevasse at the Tate, but I suppose space in the West Village is more dear than in Bankside (no! can't be!).... Read more
In which we cycle past
The Science Times article about Donald Norman and usable design mentions Delft, a Dutch town of which I am especially fond. Norman discusses the goals of usability, and how predictable behaviour manifests in many aspects of everyday life: To get along with machines, Dr. Norman suggests we build them using a lesson from Delft, a town in the Netherlands where cyclists whiz through crowds of pedestrians in the town square. If the pedestrians try to avoid an oncoming cyclist, they're liable to surprise him and collide, but the cyclist can steer around them just fine if they ignore him and keep walking along at the same pace. "Behaving predictably, that's the key," Dr. Norman said. "If our smart devices were understandable and predictable, we wouldn't dislike them so much." Instead of trying to anticipate our actions, or debating the best plan, machines should let us know clearly what they're doing. The ordinary should be ordinary.... Read more
December 18, 2007
In which everything is less than zero
Another piece of artistic rebellion ("You had better do as you are told / you had better listen to your radio!"): Wikipedia sez: Costello wanted to play "Radio Radio" on SNL. Columbia Records, Costello's US label, on the other hand, was interested in having an already-established song performed on SNL, to stoke the fires of interest in the band prior to the American release of My Aim Is True and This Year's Model. In the event, Costello began the SNL performance by playing "Less than Zero." However, after a few bars, he turned to the Attractions, waving his hand and yelling "Stop! Stop!," then said to the audience, "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's no reason to do this song here," possibly referring to the obscure story behind "Less than Zero," which was written as a reply to British fascist Oswald Mosley. He then led the band in a performance of "Radio Radio." Costello was banned from Saturday Night Live for twelve years. This version of "Radio Radio" (fading into the "false start") can be found (in monaural) on Saturday Night Live: 25 Years of Musical Performances, Vol. 1. This happened thirty years ago, and I knew naught. The first Elvis record I picked up was the four-track EP (12"!) of "Less Than Zero" on Stiff Records, probably from the musty and dusty basement record shop adjacent the musty and dusty Carribean restaurant (who puts a restaurant in a basement?) on the once-glorious main drag of "upstreet" in Squirrel Hill.... Read more
December 15, 2007
In which he has to go when the whistle blows
I had not been following the shenanigans around Dr David Kessler and UCSF, and the news of his dismissal took me aback (the official press release is marketing crap). Dr Kessler's energetic work at the FDA led to the very thorough implementation of new food-labelling act, which first made me aware of what it was that I was hustling down my gullet.... Read more
December 12, 2007
In which the art is what you make [of] it
&tThe current installation at the Tate Modern fascinates me, although I have not seen it. Reading about the reactions that visitors have to seeing Doris Salcedo's massive five-hundred-foot-fissure in the imposing Turbine Hall reminds me that art is in the eye (and sometimes dexterity) of the beholder. Word of [another] mishap prompted a discussion among visitors of whether it might be wise to erect barriers around the exhibit, or seal it with some kind of Plexiglass-type material. No, was the consensus. “I think that would completely ruin the excitement of it,” said Rachel Laine, whose 2-year-old son, Charlie, was peering into the crack, searching for crocodiles. “The whole concept of why people are coming here is to see a huge concrete floor with a crack in it.” I take this quotation, and the preceding narrative, from Sarah Lyall's excellent article in yesterday's New York Times, which I am only reading today. Art is subjective, as is pornography, as is marketing (or is that art?). Eye of the beholder, caveat emptor, look before you leap.... Read more
In which the tough gets weird
One obstacle that Josef K. did not face was the thrill of waiting hours, time and again, to enter the court of justice. [ ... A ] construction flagger for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said his custody and child support case against his wife had been dismissed three times because each time he was delayed in line and missed a hearing. Each time he had to petition again to restart the case. Now he carries the court clerk’s number with him, so he can phone in when he is downstairs. Even with the steady rain beating down on his coat, he said this morning wasn’t that bad. He was standing only 20 yards from the entrance of the building. Even with the long line inside, he would probably be upstairs in about an hour, certainly less than two. The thought cheered him. “Sometimes I arrive here and I am standing outside Law and Government High School,” he said, referring to the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice several hundred yards away.... Read more
December 4, 2007
In which everything's gone green
The Landprint project [ English version here ] renders photographs on meadows, greenswards, lawns, and pastures by using robotic mowers. The projects uses specially-cultivated grass, having studied the growth patterns and appearance of various plantings, as well as the modified lawnmower. Crop circles have nothing on this -- ? Another foreign-language website with a succinct artistic idea: Face Your Pockets (in Russian and in English). Scan your face and the contents of your pockets. Some of the scans are striking beautiful in the juxtaposition of material goods and fleshy faces. For several months I kept a (paper) inventory of my pockets, in the days that I wore a field jacket and pocket-y pants. Now all one finds in my pocket are a wooden-handled folding knife, billfold, key, and telephone; everything else is in my briefcase.... Read more
December 3, 2007
In which we preload
A slogan generator (mine: "Take Two Bottles into the Solitude?"; one can also seed the generator); the web economy bullshit generator; the bullshitr, a bullshit-generator 2.0 (ha! bloody ha!); and the do-it-yerself demotivational poster. There. Now you are ready for the working week.... Read more
November 26, 2007
On manhole covers
Manholes have long fascinated me, and just a few days ago I noticed a large "Made in India" stamp on a ConEd manhole cover in Midtown. Today, the front page of the New York Times has a stunning photograph of a foundry with neat rows of naked men carrying buckets of molten metal to pour into moulds. The article and its accompanying photographs are stunning, reminiscent of Edward Burtynsky's beautiful industrial landscapes of shipbreaking in Alang. The author and photographer J Adam Huggins narrates a audiovisual slide presentation of his photographs. The article raises questions about the ethical aspects of contracts between municipal agencies and employers who do not provide even the most basic safety equipment ("We can’t maintain the luxury of Europe and the United States, with all the boots and all that,” said Sunil Modi, director of Shakti Industries. He said, however, that the foundry never had accidents.). I wonder, however, how many of the small pieces that make up our massive municipal machinery come from similar factories spread across Asia, Africa, and South America, where working conditions are not as closely governed or regulated as in the United States? Several years ago I picked up a copy of Manhole Covers (which you can buy from Amazon), a coffee-table book with lavish over-size photographs of steam-pipe covers, access panels, and all manner of plates that fall under the heading of manhole cover. More recently, a friend gave me a copy of Designs Underfoot: The Art of Manhole Covers in New York City.... Read more
November 8, 2007
Radio, live transmission
Yesterday, at the Computer History Museum: ABSTRACT OF TALK A major internet milestone occured on November 22, 1977. On this date the first known three-network transmission took place among SRI International, Menlo Park and the University of Southern California via London, England. The networks involved were the ARPANET, the Bay Area packet radio network, and the Atlantic packet satellite network. This inter-network transmission among three dissimlar networks is generally regarded as the first true Internet connection. It was also a major milestone in packet radio, the technology behind WiFi and other kinds of wireless internet access.... Read more
November 7, 2007
HOWTO tell if you are a quant
"If you’ve heard of Leonardo Fibonacci and Henri Poincaré, but have never heard of Georgio Armani and Louis Vuitton, you might be a quant." More witticism from Andrew W. Lo (.pdf link; as HTML here).... Read more
October 30, 2007
In which we diagram the sentence
A teaser on the front page of today's New York Times, print edition: "The New York Public Library is being given a cache of personal papers from the estate of Katharine Hepburn that focus on her stage career." The story itself.... Read more
October 20, 2007
In which we have social security through fahion obscurity
Through the always-worthy News of the Weird email circular, I learned a little about the intersection of fashion and invention: That is a purse in the guise of a manhole. The New York Times article features such other items as a children's backpack that converts into a typical Japanese fire-extinguisher and a slender skirt that folds into a ersatz vending machine (and completely conceals the wearer). The idea is that the wearer of these clothes feels more comfortable walking alone in deserted areas, knowing that they might easily blend into the urban streetscape if they feel threatened. This concept might not work as readily around here: one sees few out-of-doors vending devices on Manhattan sidewalks; whether this is due to the ubiquity of bodegas, or the fear of vandalism, or some economic reason, I do not know. If the skirt converted to a nitrogen canister, or something more typically New York and non-interactive (neither a wire trash basket nor an umbrella vendor would pass muster), it could work. Also through News of the Weird, and also security-related: catch a thief, receive beer for life*. *"for life" works out to a carton per month, which does not really seem like a whole lot, really. But still: Croucher Brewing sound like they make some tasty beer, and I sure hate to hear that "some blighters" took off with their laptop.... Read more
October 13, 2007
In which we go round and round
It is like a song by The Cure. I found this site while looking for a book on the portraiture of Jenny Saville, who "wallow[s] in the glory of expansiveness". I do not know whose photograph appears above, but I really like it. I paged through hundreds of photographs on flickr answering to the "spiral" description, to no avail.... Read more
In which this is the Modern world
In London's Underground, one hears the admonishment "Mind the gap!" One hardly expects the same advice at the Tate Modern, but then one doesn't anticipate Doris Salcedo's Crevasse installation in the famous Turbine Hall. According to Salcedo, the fissure is "bottomless... as deep as humanity". However, it appears to be around three feet at its deepest point.... Read more
October 9, 2007
In which we mourn the hyphen
This piece by Charles McGrath on hyphens disappearing from the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary strikes me as ironic, since the New York Times is no bastion of punctilious punctuation (pardon my hypallage). What’s getting the heave are most hyphens linking the halves of a compound noun. Some, like “ice cream,” “fig leaf,” “hobby horse” and “water bed,” have been fractured into two words, while many others, like “ bumblebee,” “crybaby” and “pigeonhole,” have been squeezed into one. That “ice cream” and “bumblebee” ever had hyphens to begin with suggests an excess of fussiness on the part of older lexicographers, and may explain some of Mr. Stevenson’s annoyance. The issue of proper hyphenation has always been vexing for the Brits, far more than it is for us, and occasioned perhaps the single crankiest article in Fowler’s “Dictionary of Modern English Usage,” first published in 1926. I am re-reading "Murder Must Advertise" and have been keeping a short list of the unusual words that appear, formed entirely of ordinary words linked with hyphens: guard-book, bosom-pal, shirt-sleeves, lunch-hour, block-maker, — a handful more. Probably through repeated reading of novels such as Sayers's, with their splendid punctuation, I have a dogmatic approach towards my own punctuation, from commas to emdashes, exclamation marks to obelisks.... Read more
October 8, 2007
In which he should not have kept the pipe, nor the hands
The CIA agent who tracked and arranged the killing of Che Guevara wishes he had kept Che's last pipe. Perhaps he could have arranged them with Che's severed hands, and formed a more perfect trophy? When the Gang of Four sang "See the Girl on the TV dressed in a bikini, She doesn't think so but she's dressed for the H-Bomb" little did they know that the essence of Cold-War fashion would be dressed up with a Marxist icon, post-modern to the hilt. Post-modern, or simply iconic?... Read more
In which we reach the rock
The New York Times's piece onYukihiko Ikumori, a venerable climber of Rat Rock in New York City's Central Park. This brings up essential questions about journalism: how did the reporter find this story? It is a human-interest piece, rather than breaking news or analysis, yet surpasses 'most anything the Times has printed in the past several months (or years, perhaps; Neil Straus's Mingering Mike story of a few years ago was another highlight).... Read more
October 4, 2007
In which we land a man on the moon
My sister Anar, reporting on space exploration and the terrestrial applications of satellites since Sputnik!... Read more
October 2, 2007
In which baby's got the bends
Radiohead have decided to provide their new album online and to charge whatever fans are willing to pay, even $0.00. 0¢. Seven years ago, the band made Kid A freely available online after pre-release copies leaked to the Napster download network. It subsequently went platinum in the first week of its US release, thereby suggesting that Radiohead are not entirely off their commercially-successful nut.... Read more
September 28, 2007
Salim is a moron.
Your search - "salim is a moron" - did not match any documents. update A few hours later:... Read more
September 25, 2007
In which we read a long ass-bug
The blog of Randall Munroe, author of the unpronounceable xkcd, pointed me in the direction of the most amusing Mozilla bug report I have read in a long time, about the "Long tooltips should wrap instead of being cropped" issue.... Read more
September 18, 2007
In which we pass through security
The current installment of Opus says it well:... Read more
September 16, 2007
The problem with Wikipedia
which explains how I started reading the cast list for Sidney Lumet's 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express and wound up staring at descriptions of the (first) Gulf War in one window and "Cultural references to Frank Zappa" in another: "A number of animals have been named after Zappa including a goby fish (Zappa confluentus[4]), a jellyfish (Phialella zappai[5]), an extinct mollusc (Amauratoma zappa) and a spider with an abdominal mark supposedly resembling Zappa's mustache (Pachygnatha zappa[6])."... Read more
September 13, 2007
HOWTO: Make an urban park in a parking space
The Rebar Group have a fun, illustrated write-up describing how to make a park out of parking. Got your Parking Day project all sussed out? Here's a map, a call for volunteers, and an inspirational video (from San Francisco, last year).... Read more
September 7, 2007
In which we have a lousy dinner
Stephen Holden's review of Romance and Cigarettes knocked me out. Not only do I want to see the movie, I really enjoyed reading the review itself. Sometimes criticism really shines, and Holden's prose dances across the page (or screen, in this case -- although it's on page ten of the first Arts section, somewhere in my bag, but I first read it online).... Read more
August 29, 2007
In which we go insane
From http://sane.nl/: After the glorious early years, starting in '98, the SANE conferences over the years have shown a slow decrease in the number of attendees, approaching a level where organizing a next SANE conference might become more a financial challenge rather than a nice conference with the rock solid content that you were used to find at SANE. The bad news is: there will not be a SANE 2008 conference. The SANE organizers will take some time off to analyze the possible causes of the decrease in interest for the SANE conferences and are looking for fresh opportunities and novel ways to reverse the negative spiral. If you think you can help us in any way, please don't hesitate to contact the SANE organization by email to: To be honest, we'd love to be able to continue the successful series of SANE conferences. We're hoping and aiming to be back with a SANE event in 2009. You can see me looking attentively (during Walter Belgers's Black Hat session) at the most recent SANE get-together.... Read more
August 24, 2007
In which Crack is Wack!
Reading about Keith Haring's "Crack is Wack" mural led me to an article on protecting graffiti from graffiti, and to the current patent-holders of this mysterious formula, who mention nowt the natural ingredients. I like graf in its many forms, and many others celebrate it. Why do some people deface murals and other public works of art?... Read more
August 22, 2007
In which we look to the stars
I am never getting work done again: Google Sky, an interactive browser of celestial photography, plus a massive flat-panel display and a fast processor have been making my entertainment heavenly.... Read more
August 21, 2007
In which we riff on the old, familiar, and uncomfortable
The Nietszche Family Circus, The Perry Bible Fellowship, Dysfunctional Family Circus, the end of parody?, and, of course, Ivan Brunetti (no longer available online, alas).... Read more
August 17, 2007
Plus ça change
Damon Schreiber has snapped a hypnotic series of photographs revisiting Toronto, thirty years after Shige Sakamoto captured the city during a weeklong visit. I don't know either of these people or their other work, but the juxtaposition of photographs is fascinating. My favourite: Elizabeth and College. Plus ça même chose.... Read more
August 16, 2007
In which we have a spade and an umbrella
Can you see the code in the tracks? The rain on the umbrella? The skeleton with a spade? (Props to Vesalius)... Read more
August 10, 2007
In which we litter by the billions
Great. Another plastic bag. Somewhere I have a photograph of a carrier bag fluttering high up on a tree growing from a crevice in The Siq. Some numbers, since statistics ne'er lie: "There are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. In the Northern Pacific Gyre, a great vortex of ocean currents, there's now a swirling mass of plastic trash about 1,000 miles off the coast of California, which spans an area that's twice the size of Texas, including fragments of plastic bags. There's six times as much plastic as biomass, including plankton and jellyfish, in the gyre." I read once that 1% of the pellets used to extrude the plastic "t-shirt" bags are lost in transit, and many wind up in the sewage system in San Pedro.... Read more
In which we make a bad request: 400.
If I have not made my admiration for Adam Koford's artwork clear: the guy is a genius. And he uses aCreative Commons licence to distribute some of his work (like the set illustrating HTTP response codes).... Read more
July 31, 2007
In which you can't get it back
If you are ever in need of audio files of various people hiccuping, look no further than Hiccup (sic) Lovers dot net, the project of one Eric Clapton. Video, too. This is it. I spell the word hiccough.... Read more
July 30, 2007
In which we memorize awkward phrases
Another good Step Five. The one I saw previously was amusing; this one is useful. Phrases I use frequently include: "No." "Show me the log messages that indicate my code is at fault." "A lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine." "Let's drink."... Read more
July 28, 2007
In which I write like a king
Although I don't like rollerballs, I dig the technology behind them. I also dig hacking on things. Put the two together, and voilà: awesome pen for not much cabbage. I especially like Step Five (of twelve).... Read more
July 20, 2007
In which we work from home
Wired Magazine published an article about working from home as an independent web hax0r, and how the informal collective Jelly has got something going on. I couldn't sit in a cramped room with people that I was not collaborating with, and I have enjoyed no success with my own get-rich-quick^Wweb2.0 ideas (the Get-Into-Heaven cards, notably).... Read more
July 19, 2007
In which we flout the arbitrary constraints
One, two, three, four, or five? Prescriptive behaviour, adherence to arbitrary policy such as this, smacks of a personality without discipline. If one has discipline, one certainly does not advertise it. As Mildred asked Johnny, "What are you rebelling against?"... Read more
July 6, 2007
In which we have a winner
The Perry Bible Fellowship is my new favourite comic. It joins Sam Hurt's Eyebeam, the "minimalist computer art" and ;nonsequiturs" of Pokey the Penguin, the math, sarcasm, and romance (all equally important!) of xkcd (who today name-checks one of my favourite internet memes).... Read more
June 26, 2007
On liking things on the web
Information I can get through Swisstrains, a fantastic fan-site that the SBB should integrate, if they have any sense whatsoever!, might not be useful to me specifically, but the design and beauty of the site amaze and fascinate me. Wow! So clever. updateI broke this page, through a poorly-chosen default value for a new variable in an outer loop. That'll teach me. (Teach me what, exactly?)... Read more
June 19, 2007
In which we get all grumpy
Although I will never approach the public visibility nor the biliousness of Camper's Hate Blog, I do confess that I barely suppress rage at the inadequacy of some written communication -- and, very specifically, when people who respond to an email message respond to the poster and misspell their name, substituting the common spelling ("Rachel") for a less-common one ("Rachael"). Aside: Bitch Magnet is an excellent name for a band. I went to a show of theirs at CMU when I saw a poster bearing the band's named and laughed aloud. I do not keep the assiduous records what bolsinga does, but I suppose this was in '89 or thereabouts. I don't even remember the other two (or three?) acts on the bill.... Read more
In which we need to get to the J-Church on time
From the June issue of the Noe Valley Voice, something priceless and amusing: Like the J-Church line itself, the project to determine just what makes Noe Valley's main train late has fallen behind schedule. In a memo issued May 8, the team in charge of the J-Church Pilot Project announced that it required a six-week extension because the opening of the new T-line had caused problems with rail operator availability and schedule changes. According to the memo, which was signed by TEP Program Manager Julie Kirschbaum and Chief Operations Officer Kenneth McDonald, "Reports from regular J-Church riders...indicated that the first weeks of the [three-month] pilot were a success. They observed more trains, shorter headways, and greater reliability on the J-Church Line." During the week of April 1, on-time performance averaged 72.5 percent, with 84 percent of trains on time during the morning commute. Unfortunately, that success soon ground to a halt. During the week of April 19, on-time performance reached a low of 55.9 percent. The team believes that it can evaluate improvements to the J-Church line after the complications due to the T-line are addressed, so they plan to re-evaluate the J-Church Pilot Project in early September instead of mid-July. Anyone who has questions about the extension should contact Kirschbaum at 701-4305.... Read more
June 17, 2007
In which we laugh out loud
Apelad's Laugh-Out-Loud Cats vintage-style comic is one of the best (internet) things ever. I'm adding it to the list of things that make me laugh.... Read more
June 12, 2007
June 1, 2007
In which we find a magic number
Mental Floss Magazine offers Fifteen Reasons to Love Mister Rogers, including "writer Tom Junod explained that Mr. Rogers weighed in at exactly 143 pounds every day for the last 30 years of his life. He didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t eat the flesh of any animals, and was extremely disciplined in his daily routine. And while I’m not sure if any of that was because he’d mostly grown up a chubby, single child, Junod points out that Rogers found beauty in the number 143. According to the piece, Rogers came “to see that number as a gift… because, as he says, “the number 143 means ‘I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’ One hundred and forty-three.”". Awwwwwww!... Read more
May 23, 2007
In praise of Malmö
To replace their beloved Kockums Crane, the weeping Swedes of Malmö turned to Santiago Calatrava, who drew inspiration from his sculpture and built the Turning Torso skyscraper. Calatrava has a fascinating design process and a predliection for pragmatism, despite the fantastic appearance of his structures.... Read more
In which we dig on pop
Although I was not at last weekend's Maker's Faire, I was glad to see these (high-speed!) pictures (of people popping balloons!):... Read more
May 20, 2007
In which the Cutty Sark burns
Blaze ravages historic Cutty Sark. A fire which swept through the famous 19th Century ship Cutty Sark may have been started deliberately, police say. The vessel, which was undergoing a £25m restoration, is kept in a dry dock at Greenwich in south-east London. An area around the 138-year-old tea clipper had to be evacuated when the fire started in the early hours. A Cutty Sark Trust spokesman said much of the ship had been removed for restoration and the damage could have been worse. Half the planking and the masts had been taken away as part of the project. Chris Livett, chairman of Cutty Sark Enterprises which is repairing the clipper, said at the scene: "From where I stand there is not a huge amount of damage to the planking that was left on. "There are pockets of charred planking and some have gone, but it doesn't look as bad as first envisaged." The chief executive of the charitable Cutty Sark Trust, Richard Doughty, said: "What is special about Cutty Sark is the timbers, the iron frames that went to the South China Seas, and to think that that is threatened in any way is unbelievable, it's an unimaginable shock." Following an inspection of the site on Monday afternoon, Mr Doughty said: "Buckling of the hull remains a big fear but until we do the measurements we are not going to know. "With my naked eye, as far as I have been able to see, the structure of the ship seems to be intact." Insp Bruce Middlemiss said detectives were looking into the possibility that the fire had been started deliberately. Special history Police are analysing CCTV images which are thought to show people in the area shortly before the fire started. Firefighters were called to the scene at 0445 BST and the flames were put out by 0700 BST. "The cause of the fire is now under investigation by London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police," a London Fire Brigade spokesman said. A number of witnesses have already come forward and the police are urging anyone else who may have been in the area to contact them. A silver car was seen leaving the scene but police said there is nothing at this stage to link it to the fire. CUTTY SARK Built in 1869 at Dumbarton on the River Clyde Designed by Hercules Linton First voyage February 1870 210ft (64m) long Main mast stood 152ft (46.3m) above the deck Has had 15 million visitors Preserved as a tribute to merchant navy workers Greenwich Council leader councillor Chris Roberts said: "This is a devastating blow for what is a truly iconic symbol of Greenwich across the world. "The Cutty Sark has a unique and special history, which helps to draw millions of visitors to Greenwich every year." The Cutty Sark left London on her maiden voyage on 16 February 1870, sailing around The Cape of Good Hope to Shanghai in three-and-a-half months. She made eight journeys to China as part of the tea trade until steam ships replaced sail on the high seas. The ship was later used for training naval cadets during World War II, and in 1951 was moored in London for the Festival of Britain. Shortly afterwards, she was acquired by the Cutty Sark Society. The ship was undergoing conservation work because sea salt had accelerated the corrosion of her iron framework. Dr Eric Kentley, curatorial consultant to the Cutty Sark Trust, said of the ship: "It can be saved. It's certainly not completely devastated. "We will put her back together - but it's going to take much, much longer and a lot more money than we originally thought." Visit London's chief executive James Bidwell said: "The ship's need for vital conservation has put it in the public eye recently and we can only hope that this terrible fire will redouble all our efforts to preserve this wonderful part of London's heritage." The Duke of Edinburgh is due to visit the Cutty Sark on Tuesday. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell inspected the remains on Monday afternoon. The Cutty Sark Trust is appealing for funds to help repair the fire damage and complete the restoration.... Read more
May 17, 2007
In which we consume the quantity
UPDATE: Chris Jordan understandably disables linking directly to images on his site.... Read more
May 12, 2007
In which we read the newspapers
Four Saved From Giant Vat of Fish Feces (05-11) 15:52 PDT Turners Falls, Mass. (AP) -- This nasty rescue is no fish tale. Rescuers cut through a filtration tank of dense fish feces to reach four workers who fell into the sludgy dung Friday while cleaning the 18-foot tank at a western Massachusetts farm. The workers became trapped for 45 minutes after a bracket holding a plastic filtration pad collapsed as workers stood on it to clean the fiberglass tank at the Australis Aquaculture fish farm, said Capt. David Dion of the Turners Falls Fire Department and the fish farm's manager Josh Goldman. One of the farmhands fell below what Dion described as a sand-and-feces mix, while the other three had their heads above the sludge, he said. Goldman said the workers and the pad, which collects bacteria created by fish urine and feces, like some household aquarium filters, fell to the bottom of the tank. "Everybody's present and accounted for," Goldman said. "A couple of the guys even came back to say hi." Rescuers slashed through the feces mix until they were able to pull out the workers, Dion said. "It was very slimy and it was heavy," he said. "Never seen anything like it in my life." One worker who became submerged in the feces was airlifted to Bay State Medical Center in Springfield, but was talking with paramedics and did not appear to have life-threatening injuries, Dion said. The other three were taken by ambulance to a local hospital with minor injuries. Dion said rescue workers cut a hole in the side of the tank at the farm which raises barramundi, a new fish farmed as a replacement for grouper. And Bay Area newspapers report that the City of Berkeley has finally issued The Shipyard a cease-and-abate order. The Shipyard is an artists' and engineers' collective, housed in shipping containers at the western edge of the city.... Read more
May 11, 2007
In which I rofflemayo
I swear that no two neurons are connecting right now. Invisible LOLcat gags are making me chuckle (even with macro).... Read more
May 2, 2007
April 25, 2007
April 22, 2007
In which this duck could not dance
... because he had two left feet. Not the past tense, but he's still a lucky duck. "He's now only got three legs and a stump which means he's Stumpy by name and stumpy by nature."... Read more
April 14, 2007
In which I take delight in sharing
Thanks to the Creative Commons licence, I see works building on my photographs on flickr: a snap of elephants at the Buenos Aires Zoo turned in to a political cartoon; American Express used a photo of a boutique in Paris to illustrate a print and online publication; and random snapshots turn up in blogs 'round the world, near and far.... Read more
April 11, 2007
In which yes, it is recognizable
You cannot have a revolution without babies, you cannot have a revolution without bloodshed, and you most definitely can not have a revolution without Che. UPDATE: After receving remonstration that this post was useless without the photograph, I added a link to it. I also saw the Guerilla Drive-In project on BoingBoing.... Read more
April 7, 2007
In which we hear a good bed-time story
I have heard various versions of this gag, some with a serious tone, others completely comical. Snopes has the scoop.... Read more
March 30, 2007
In which we wonder about swimming across Lake Baikal in woolen bathing gear
The Google Maps application gets more environmentally-friendly, as these directions for getting from Chicago to London indicate. I did not know that a swim across the Atlantic was in any way feasible. I always figured the Strait of Gibraltar, the English Channel, or even the Alcatraz-to-Aquatic-Park to be boundaries of human effort. Benoit Lecomte swam from Cape Cod to Quiberon, France: "Navigated through the 40th and 50th latitude by two French sailors on a 12m (40 foot) sailboat and protected by an electronic force field, Lecomte swam 6 to 8 hours a day at two-hour intervals. He mainly used the crawl stroke, switching occasionally to a mono fin and using an undulating dolphin kick to carry him over the 5 600km (3 736 nautical miles) of relentless waves. 72 days later, on 28 September, he swam ashore exhausted but heroic at Quiberon, France. "Lecomte probably could not have done it without the modern techniques and clothing that have helped athletes reach astonishing levels of performance. The latest swimming costumes reduce drag resistance by 8%, resulting in a performance that is even better than when swimming naked. Consider that when Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel in 1875, his waterlogged woollen swimwear weighed about 3kg (lOlb). By contrast, the new Speedo one-piece weighs just a few ounces, even when soaked."... Read more
March 29, 2007
In which we wonder about the combination
You got any of that beer that has candy floating in it? You know, skittlebrau. To celebrate the arrival of The Simpsons movie, some 7-11 convenience stores will dress up as Kwik-E-Mart shops.... Read more
March 27, 2007
In which we blog too late to save a drowning which
One of my favourite images is the deceptively simple illustration on the cover of Frank Zappa's album "Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch". A few months ago, Aram described how the image is not unique to this album, but one of a series of Droodles, the brainchild of a comedian, not a cognitive scientist. Roger Price also created Mad Libs, thereby providing me with endless fun for very little effort. Just the thought of this image gives me a fit of giggles. Is micro-blogging a term? Twitter fascinates me with its strict limit on length of entries (140 characters, the multiple input methods (text-message, IM (!!), and web form) facilitate addiction^W stickiness, and the cosy UI make watching others' activities fun.... Read more
March 23, 2007
In which we have a Manhattan murder mystery
Through the vibrant and nostalgic world of subways and pay-telephones, Canal Street Station, a pay-phone murder mystery, begins with a call placed from a subway station (the web site notes that "This mystery takes place on the NQRW, 6, and JMZ platforms, NOT THE A C E Station.").... Read more
March 19, 2007
In which we skip the Forever part
As US postal rates increase, the Postal Service has plans to issue a "Forever Stamp" to allow customers to hedge against future franking costs. I know that, from the number of yellowing, adhesive-backed F, G, and H stamps in crystalline envelopes at home, that I rarely keep postage for long enough to make use of a Forever Stamp. Nor do I want to make what is effectively a loan to the Postal Service. I also recall the frustration I felt at the last rate increase, when the Los Angeles post office I went to did not have the new post-card stamps, not the 2¢ (or was it 3¢?) stamps needed to make up the difference from the old to the new rates.... Read more
February 26, 2007
In which the currency gets local
The New York Times ran an article on a currency experiment in Western Mass: "... several dozen businesses agreed to include an alternative currency in their daily transactions and give a discount to those who used it. "Now people can pay for groceries, an oil change, even dental work with currency bearing the likenesses of local heroes like Herman Melville and Norman Rockwell. ... Amazon [dot com] does not accept BerkShares, for example, but the Bookloft on Route 7 does."... Read more
February 16, 2007
In which the eaglets fly
Belltown, dateline Tuesday: eaglets appear next to Calder's Eagle. Seattle's attitude towards renegade art seems more enlightened than Beantown's.... Read more
February 15, 2007
In which we suffer embarassmint
Another item on the list of things the United States Treasury could do better: dollar coins. The new coin, first in a series, features George Washington, our nation's first President; subsequent coins will feature the succeeding Presidents (including the ephemeral William Henry Harrison! the dictatorial Roosevelt! the disgraced Nixon!). The old, golden coin had a much-lambasted three-quarters (hah!) profile of Sacagawea. Now, don't get me started on the Treasury and the problems with United States paper currency ...! The National Academies Press has a list of features that address currency accessibility issues. I am glad that Aram reminded me of the new coin this morning. (Did you know that he met a guy who had a spiritual vision?) And if you find yourself hankering for a golden dollar coin, head to that refuge of the disenfranchised and helpless: MUNI. MUNI dispenses dollar coins from machines in some of its subway stations, because it has neither the facilities nor the wherewithal to accept paper or electronic payment.... Read more
February 13, 2007
February 7, 2007
In which it's like a ring around a rosy
A portion of the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh collapsed under the weight of a pickup truck. Or something like that: the engineers are still sorting out how to extricate the truck from the mess. "A 6-inch-thick section of concrete flooring in the second-floor loading dock of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center collapsed yesterday under the weight of a tractor-trailer, sending steel, debris and equipment crashing 30 feet down into a walkway and a water feature below. ... We have a crane company that we're talking to [about] how do we remove this [truck] or at least shore it up? But from a structural standpoint, it isn't going anywhere. It's lodged in there real good." The American Institute of Architects published a list of "one hundred and fifty favourite buildings in America. The Golden Gate Bridge is high on the list.... Read more
February 6, 2007
In which he breaks the record
Josh Wolf is still in prison. Josh Wolf, 24, spent his 169th day in a Dublin federal prison after declining a subpoena to turn over unaired videotape he shot of the chaotic 2005 San Francisco street protest against the G-8 summit happening a continent away in Scotland. Wolf's stint surpassed that of Vanessa Leggett, a Houston-based freelancer who served 168 days in 2001 and 2002 for declining to reveal unpublished material about a murder case. Wolf sold some of his footage from the event to local television stations and posted parts of the video on his Web site. He and his lawyers have argued that the First Amendment gives him the right to refuse the subpoena to turn over the rest of the tape. But judges have repeatedly turned down motions for Wolf to be released, citing a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the U.S. Constitution does not entitle reporters to withhold their confidential sources or unpublished material in a grand jury investigation or criminal trial.... Read more
February 5, 2007
In which we gild refined gold
Dick Cavett starts out picking at Bush's pronounciation and use of language, and works towards some interesting ideas about the devolution of English. Not only the oral form, but the written: Certain misquotes are rooted in marble. It would take another act of Creation to restore “gild the lily” to Will Shakespeare’s “paint the lily.” (“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily.”) There are hundreds of these. I don’t see the future as bright, language-wise. I see it as a glass half empty — and evaporating quickly. Almost daily irritants, like the dumb cluck’s beloved, “between you and I” will never be expunged, it seems. “Loathe” and “loath” will continue to change places, and “phenomena” and “phenomenon” will still be used interchangeably. But, finally, what the hell? It’s only language. It’s only what we live by. I shudder at a lot of contemporary usage, and changes in the English language, but really enjoy watching the words evolve too: it's like watching a car wreck.... Read more
February 1, 2007
In which I was listening, listening to the rain
A massive digital camera system takes beautiful stitched photographs of Golden Gate Park, amongst other things.... Read more
January 29, 2007
In which we get all cheery about the vocabulary
Mike Solomon points out this gem of a phrase: Cream of the crap, from a pretty damn funny IM exchange with someone who, looking for a thug to settle someone's hash, stumbled instead upon Mike's homepage. Mike develops cool software, such as SIMBL, the Smart InputManager Bundle Loader. But he doesn't wallop wiseguys. (That photo isn't Mike. It's Frank, from a poster advertising a 1972 show at Cal State Fullerton, co-headling with Alice. The advertised show didn't take place in '72, but in '68.)... Read more
January 27, 2007
In which we get all huffy about the vocabulary
A list of pompous-ass (hyphen mine) words, including citations and deconstruction. The site's author rails against these words, suggesting that they are the enemy: we should know them, and never use them. An example: Word: in medias res Synonymous with: (Latin) In the middle of things: used esp. of a narrative that opens in the middle rather than at the chronological beginning. Example: Time magazine took care of it in its review of installment 2 of Lord of the Rings. From http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021202/story.html: It begins in medias res, as though you had just stepped out for a few seconds to get more popcorn. If you didn't see last year's The Fellowship of the Ring, Peter Jackson, the trilogy's wizardly director, isn't about to cut you any slack. Even though it's clear enough in context, it could have been removed entirely with no loss of meaning. Having it in there broke up the flow at the very beginning of the article because I stopped to wonder "what is that?!" Makes me wonder what my very-expensive liberal-arts education was for, if not to read bloody Time bloody magazine. Oh, yes, it's for reading comics online. Smartass. For my part, I consider certain contemporary notions disrespectful to, inconsiderate of, or resulting from a misunderstanding of, English. Turning a perfectly good noun, such as contact into a verb (a phenomenon); or creating a verb like burglarize out of burglar, when one could use the extant burgle (whence the burglar himself); or ravaging the verb to make a noun, such as utilization, while use, a poor monosyllable cousin, sits idly by. But English, she evolves, and I shrug.... Read more
January 26, 2007
In which we slice it and dice it
The Will it Blend? website has scads of amusing videos featuring all sorts of junk, in a blender! You can try some of these at home, too. In fact, all sorts of stuff can be blended or shredded, from refrigerators to royalty; from pigs feet to printers; and, of course, tonnes of AOL CDs and cars.... Read more
January 24, 2007
In which we see the places
Google Books now offers summary pages with books and maps extracted automatically: Around the World on A Bicycle, Just Keep Pedaling: A Corner-to-corner Bike Ride Across America, " title="Offsite: Google Books">French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France, Miles from Nowhere: A Round the World Bicycle Adventure.... Read more
January 18, 2007
In which I wonder
Reading about Classfull networks and thinking about /8s, I wonder: where am I? And lo: I am here.... Read more
December 23, 2006
In which the lights in the city are art
The New York Times's Elain Sciolino ran a profile of François Jousse, the man responsible for lighting the fantastic buildings and avenues of Paris.... Read more
December 20, 2006
Our band could be your life
God bless YouTube. I found dozens of short pieces of Minutemen concert footage, including a seafaring concert, "Joy at Sea", in gorgeous sepia-toned grainy video; the video for "This Ain't No Picnic" (with the antagonist airplane pilot, Mr Ronald Reagan!); and some amped-up concert footage. The site has a slightly confusing but very pretty acoustic version of "Corona" -- confusing because of the Mike Watt spiel at the beginning and subtitles in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Plus seeing George Hurley sitting in front og a pair of bongo drums on the floor is kinda unsettling. (I first saw him play on my twenty-first birthday, at Lounge Ax; he was part of the Red Krayola touring ensemble. No stranger than Mike Watt picking up bass and hitting the road to Iceland with The Stooges.) Joy at Sea was a concert-on-a-boat based from San Pedro (but of course!) on June 15th, 1984. Our Band Could Be Your Life is a book by Michael Azerrad about the American punk-rock scene, and takes its name from the Minutemen song "History Lesson Pt. II". I made a small update to punkrock dot virji dot net (old page here) and will take advantage of the ample bandwidth that YouTube has. Tomorrow is Mike Watt's forty-ninth birthday (Happy Birthday!). Rumour has him talking with Greg Ginn about a reissue of the original, forty-five track "Double Nickels on the Dime", including all three covers and all four "car jam" bits. Oh, and "Little Man With a Gun in His Hand." That would be all sorts of swell.... Read more
December 18, 2006
In which we may have beluga barf!
A woman in Long Island may have received four pounds of whale vomit, ambergris worth about $18,000, as a gift from her landlocked sister. She almost certainly cannot sell it, though, as the US Endangered Species Act prohibits trading in ambergris and other whale by-products. I'm pretty sure I first learned about ambergris through the adventures of Encyclopedia Brown, boy detective (RIP), in "Smelly Nellie and the Ambergris".... Read more
December 17, 2006
Name that Dictator!
A game I enjoyed as a young 'un was "Name that Dictator!" The Radar Report (gotta love palindromes!) has a feature on autocrats and their trappings of power.... Read more
December 14, 2006
Man bites dog
This song is called pump it up, as in standing. Up. Up. Up! Area man hits seven-legged hermaphrodite deer; a Mongolian man (world's tallest!) operates on a dolphin; does news get any weirder than this carnival atmosphere? One can almost hear the barker: "Come see the bearded dwarf woman! The man with three eyes, who sees into the beyond!" And so on. UPDATE: The dolphin saved by the Mongolian Massive was not this, now-extinct white river dolphin.... Read more
December 11, 2006
In which it's not against any religion to want to dispose of a pigeon
I am notoriously uncharitable towards pigeons, and am delighted to see that others share my distaste for these foul creatures. The comments in the story, about the need to cull the pigeon population in Kingston, illuminate the community's disposition towards the bird: I agree with this action. Pigeons carry all manner of diseases like AIDS, malaria, rabies and mad cow disease to name but a few. They are also very aggressive and I can vouch for this as I was attacked by a flock and pecked severely while on my way home from flower arranging classes. In fact I would be more than happy to help in the killing of these evil creatures. Well done Kingston council keep up the good work. Why not just round these flying rats up in a big net? Surely the council could find some practical use, for example setting up a tasty pigeon pie stall in the centre of town. I for one would be grateful to see these horrific beasts removed from the Royal borough altogether! They are a nuisance, and also the flying wizards of Satan. There, I've said it. I think the correct solution would be to hack the wings off as many pigeons as possible before joining them together to create one large wing. This could be wafted at the pigeons by any member of the townsfolk when numbers got too high. Children could also shelter under it at times of heavy rain or possibly loud thunder. The opposing viewpoints: Pigeons can be very intelligent creatures. This is because they are actually bred from dolphins and can travel vast lengths underwater as well as through the air. I warn you now Council folk, if you so much as dare remove or cull any pigeon from Kingston or the surrounding local I shall withhold my council tax! I'm prepared to go to prison to save these beautiful specimens of birds so just forget it ok? Continue reading and laugh.... Read more
November 23, 2006
In which we bounce on the Reload
The Nietszchean Family Circus: Not quite a web comic, but entertaing (in the I'm-glad-it-didn't-happen-to-me sense), well-written, and neatly-illustrated: The Worm Within. An excerpt: My tapeworm did not pant, did not throb, did not shake or tremble. It lay tangled in itself, seemingly harmless, and I had a momentary urge of scientific inquiry, wondering whether I should not scoop it out with my bare hands, place it in an airtight jar, and take it with me on trips to show to people when I tell this story and relive this life-changing experience. Share. Publish it online or in learned print journals. With illustrations.... Read more
November 22, 2006
In which we get a quote
The inappropriate usage of quotation marks has long held a fascination for me, and I have a small collection of photographs on this topic. Erik pointed me at this flickr pool and flick group which both collect photos of unconventional and incorrect punctuation.... Read more
November 20, 2006
In which we suffer the Mint
The US Mint once again tries its hand at issuing dollar coins. In their write-up of the dollar coin's history, CNN helpfully refers to Susan B. Anthony as a "sufferage (sic)" pioneer. I have long figured that the US Mint should consider a series of historically significant as well as culturally relevant coins, and make them according to some reasonable numismatic guidelines. None of this three-quarter profile Sacagawea stuff.... Read more
November 18, 2006
In which the headline has written itself
Sausages affected by draconian trade laws. A spicy sausage known as the Welsh Dragon will have to be renamed after trading standards’ officers warned the manufacturers that they could face prosecution because it does not contain dragon. The sausages will now have to be labelled Welsh Dragon Pork Sausages to avoid any confusion among customers. Jon Carthew, 45, who makes the sausages, said yesterday that he had not received any complaints about the absence of real dragon meat. He said: “I don’t think any of our customers believe that we use dragon meat in our sausages. We use the word because the dragon is synonymous with Wales.” His company, the Black Mountains Smokery at Crickhowell, in Powys, turns out 200,000 sausages a year, including the Welsh Dragon, which is made with chili, leak and pork. A Powys County Council spokesman said: “The product was not sufficiently precise to inform a purchaser of the true nature of the food.” If only this were St George's brand, the confusion would be utter.... Read more
November 15, 2006
In which we superimpose
Photographer Michael Hughes and his hijinks: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_hughes/sets/346406/show/. This stuff has a nice physical sense of comedy to it, especially the bobby helmet and the girl eating the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The whimsical coloured Eiffel Tower and the croissants-in-perspective amuse me much.... Read more
HOWTO watch al-Jazeera's English-language broadcasts
Although no U.S. broadcaster has begun carrying al-Jazeera's new English-language channel, you can watch it over the internets -- for free, if you can stand the tiny video frame that Real supports. Ignore the instructions on their web site -- these are confusing, if colourfully illustrated, and do not apply to viewers in the States. Don't expect stories about the States, though; the anchors and analysts may be speaking language we recognise, but that does not mean that they are talking about you. You will hear about stories that American stations simply don't cover. You will also hear commentary and perspectives from sources that American broadcasters rarely interview. This is a different perspective on world news, available in English. Although I am tempted to compare it to the propaganda-laden Voice of America, al-Jazeera does not speak for a specific political entity. You will hear stories that my sister produced! Big up to the lil sis. UPDATE: Google Video has the goods.... Read more
November 14, 2006
In which the mystery of wallet corrosion deepens
This BBC story explains why my fifty-euro bill disintegrated neatly when I first pulled it from my (now-rusty) wallet. Sulphates used in the production of [crystal methamphetamine] could form sulphuric acid when mixed with human sweat, they say, causing banknotes to corrode. Drug users sniff powdered crystals through rolled up banknotes. About 1,500 banknotes have crumbled after being withdrawn from cash machines, German banking officials say. Much of Germany's supply of crystal methamphetamine is believed to come from eastern Europe, and has a high concentration of sulphates. Its corrosive effects are also spread between contaminated notes and clean notes in wallets and purses. The Bundesbank announced in early November that reports of bank notes worth between five euros and 100 euros disintegrating began to be received in the summer. A 2003 report by the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in Nuremberg found that 90% of German euros were contaminated with cocaine. Amphetamine Reptile is such an awesome name for a record label.... Read more
November 7, 2006
In which I didn't think of this
The ideas of permutation, of duplication, and of parallelism fascinate me, but I have never expressed these ideas as artistic impulses. Cue Simon Pope, an artist whose most recent installation is "Gallery Space Recall", an exhibit which invites the audience to an empty room where they can contemplate other art exhibits they have seen. Not.... Read more
November 4, 2006
In which the headlines write themselves
Police: Nude Man Hides Awl in Buttocks. (11-03) 19:35 PST El Cerrito, Calif. (AP) -- A naked man was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after telling police he had a screwdriver in his buttocks. The man was lying on a tree stump masturbating beside a nature path near the El Cerrito Bay Area Rapid Transit station Thursday, police said. John Sheehan, 33, of Pittsburg was initially arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure. But when asked if he was carrying anything police should know about, Sheehan mentioned the tool, said El Cerrito Detective Cpl. Don Horgan. "You can't get much more concealed than that," Horgan said. Officers drew their weapons and firefighters were called to the scene, but Sheehan removed a 6-inch metal awl wrapped in black electrical tape without incident. Sheehan, who was paroled from state prison last week, was then booked into the county jail in Martinez on suspicion of parole violations, indecent exposure and one felony count of possessing a concealed weapon. "When you're talking about an awl or an ice pick and you're dealing with somebody who's fresh out of prison, it's a weapon. That's a stabbing instrument," Horgan said. He noted that the rear end is a common hiding place for weapons being smuggled into prison. It was not immediately clear what Sheehan was on parole for.... Read more
October 27, 2006
In which we meet at the gate
Make a fake boarding pass and "demonstrate that the TSA Boarding Pass/ID check is useless". Or meet your loved ones at the gate -- remember that romantic feeling, of walking down the jetway and seeing your beloved's face at the gate? I sure don't. UPDATE: Christopher Soghoian, the graduate student and security researcher behind the boarding-pass generator, had his apartment searched and computers seized by the Federales. Boing Boing have the scoop and follow-ups.... Read more
October 25, 2006
In which this song is only six words long
"Weird Al" Yankovic sang about this, Hemingway wrote about it, and several science-fiction authors have stepped up to the challenge: express a story in six words. My favourite: Eileen Gunn's submission. Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer? — Eileen Gunn... Read more
In which America is Stolen
I watched Stealing America, Dorothy Fadiman's documentary about the electronic voting irregularities in the 2004 US Presidential election. She skirts around some of the other problems with voting in the recent election, especially about how many inner-city voting precincts faced disproportionately lengthy waits (eight or more hours) to vote; disenfranchisement of US military personnel; and the unusual disinclination of mainstream American media to cover the electronic voting problems. The film does delve into the systematic and political problems with electronic voting, and exposes the grave doubts that many Americans have in the entire voting process. I was amused and dismayed by the film's extensive use of footage from Comedy Central. Although the comedy bits from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert provided relief from the sometimes dry investigative commentary, they also made the gravity of the film weaker. The film only touched on Robert Kennedy's excellent Rolling Stone piece Was The 2004 Election Stolen? via his interview on The Daily Show, in fact.... Read more
October 18, 2006
In which computers meet containers meet construction
Sun announced their Project Blackbox, which will deliver a datacenter-in-a-container. Containers are re-used everywhere, for offices and for stores, for restaurants and for computing facilities. Containers and cranes are ubiquitous in the delivery and construction of our infrastructure, and I always want to point people at a decent, illustrated explanation of tower cranes, the poetic and succinct , metonymy for a growing city. I found a good presentation at How Stuff Works dot com.... Read more
October 17, 2006
In which computers meet containers
Sun announced their Project Blackbox, which will deliver a datacenter-in-a-container. Containers are re-used everywhere, for offices and for stores, for restaurants and for computing facilities.... Read more
October 15, 2006
In which evolution triumphs
Tom Lehrer sang "It's not against any religion to dispose of a pigeon", and got me started on the notion of urban wildlife. In the pigeon, have we humans produced the ideal pest, one who lives symbiotically off our excess food, our wasted resources, and our tall urban buildings? Once a source of food and a means of communication (really!), the pigeon has become a scourge on buildings and public squares in every metropolis. The Public Art Program of the San Francisco Arts Commission has struck me as hit-or-miss, but the current kiosk exhibit along Market St. wonderfully reflects the challenges of urban art. One of the six posters shows a proud peregrine falcon, which eats pigeons and also prospers in downtown San Francisco. This exhibit, which I see while traipsing the unfriendly blocks of Market St on my way home, coupled with an interesting piece on urban pigeon control in today's New York Times Magazine brought to mind the Tom Lehrer song "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" (mp3 recording), which first made concrete the inchoate notion I had that yes, pigeons are expendable pieces of Nature.... Read more
October 13, 2006
From little things big things grow
Muhammad Yunus, a proponent of microfinancing as a means to economic self-realisation, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his development of Grameen Bank, "banking for the poor". He is a powerful and passionate speaker, a humble man, and has great and patient vision. I am a little surprised that he did not win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics -- although I am not certain that the theory of microcredit is a great advance in economics, it certainly marks a departure from the mind-boggling statistics that dominates the field.... Read more
October 7, 2006
More about containers
The new Freitag boutique in Zürich (cool photos here) is constructed of containers. Freitag makes messenger-stylee bags from old truck tarpaulins; their designs do not captivate me as much as the Barcelona stylee, such as Demano and Vaho (Vaho means "the breath of air that frosts a mirror", or something like that -- a concept I do not think English represents with a single word), but are distinct and bright. Shipping containers can find reuse in lots of innovative ways. And shipping containers are eerily beautiful, as in Edward Burtynsky's large-format photographs of containers and other elements of the commercial infrastructure.... Read more
October 4, 2006
In which we take a guided walk
ask.com now offers pedestrian directions as part of their mobile widget, and another (Flash-based) site offers excellent walking direcions through most of London. Having walking directions available may prove a phenomenal application for mobile devices, and probably also a windfall for advertising. I would probably appreciate an expert-informed recommendation for a good café when walking around an unfamiliar city, and possibly also an advertising incentive. Having the directions, and making them rock-solid, is a great start towards even better local, targeted advertising.... Read more
September 20, 2006
In which my hovercraft is full of eels
I sometimes feel this way when travelling (link provided in case the embedded widget, above, does not render, play, or otherwise float yr boat). Often, I feel confined, threatened, handicapped, hampered, and hemmed in by a phrase book, but also know that the small collection of vocabulary and sentence fragments is the only toolkit I have to participate in the culture while abroad. Having said that, I left the following otherwise useful phrasebooks in San Francisco: Gaelic; Catalan; Spanish. I am flying by the seat of my pants.... Read more
September 12, 2006
On signs and photographs
Reading the Evil Signtist's summary of the "Fell is Hella" sign phenomenon, I clicked through some of the links on the site and found Pittsburgh Signs, a site which sentimentally evokes Pittsburgh through signs and decorative arts photos. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote about the project three years ago. I was looking through flickr, and a newish feature on the site shows me the comments made on my photostream. I saw that someone had commented on a sign that I particularly liked, and started looking through her photographs. A few pictures further, I saw a giddy snapshot of a friend I haven't seen in years: I last bumped into him, part-way through his world travels, on a bench at Zeitgeist. The world may not be small, but it is only a few clicks from one side to the next. The photographs I post on flickr are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence. This means that anyone can copy, modify, and re-use the photographs as they wish, as long as they attribute the source (me) and retain the licence for all derivative works.... Read more
September 6, 2006
In which we are welcome to Loony Valley
The Chronicle explains the story behind this picture: Harry Aleo's mild invective against the stroller-pushing retriever-walking earth-shoe wearing liberals of Noe Valley has long fascinated me, but I did not know about his race-horse hobby nor about his history with 24th Street.... Read more
August 31, 2006
In which we set dummy type
The history of lorem ipsum, the placeholder text one sees in mock-ups, on web sites, and, apparently, in mediaeval Latin text. The web site has links to all sorts of widgets; the maintainer even has a Firefox extension.... Read more
August 24, 2006
In which we examine the art of the shiv
The Art of the Shiv illluminates one of my favourite words, shiv.... Read more
August 21, 2006
August 17, 2006
In which freedom is not free
Ted Rall's comic today echoes my current political idea: forming the Fascist Party of America (a cursory check via OFSE turns up zilch). What perverted idea of Freedom might a Fascist have that our beloved Democrats and Republicans (oh, and Independents, too, right) have not already thought up? Our civil liberties are eroding faster than a Malibu cliff, and all in the name of preserving freedom. I looked up the lyrics to that annoying song but they mention nothing about this bitterly ironic justification for imposing mindless regulation on quotidian aspects of American life. I am not concerned that the American Way of Life is disappearing: I worry that it has changed to resemble the iron fist of fascism. We have a secret police, we have detention, we have government control of newspapers; we, the American public, have legitimized much of this through our election of figureheads who weakly act as conduits for the interest of big business, of central power, and of money, money, money. We endorse it tacitly by wallowing in our fear, allowing misinformation to sweep over us and render us helpless. The current administration reminds me most of the reign of The Great Communicator, in which the United States was parcelled out to private interests, rather than the interest of the community. The illustration comes from David Lance Goines, and is one of my very favourite images. I first saw it hanging above the desk of my third-year Greek professor, Laura Slatkin: we were reading the Antigone.... Read more
August 14, 2006
In which I note the signs of the journalistic apocalypse
I have long felt sad about the waning of the newspaper, even before the advent of news-over-the-web (n.b.: not nntp newsgroups). Local newspapers fold under joint operating agreements gone stale, editorial boards fail to uphold once-proud standards, and the quality of the written word deteriorates. I am also mad quite specifically about the United States's "paper of record", the New York Times: Although Charlie LeDuff's writing for the New York Times has been discredited as the result of plagiarised rather than original work, he continues to write for them. The Metropolitan Diary, where once appeared delightful vignettes of New York city life, no longer features Phil Marden's poignant and witty illustrations. The single large illustrations no longer have the brevity that fits the stories, and the stories themselves have lost their verve. A new editor, perhaps? The byline has disappeared, too, in the past two years. The persistent use of an apostrophe to denote a quantity following an acronym is wrong: the New York Times has been writing "New DVD's", rather than "New DVDs". This sort of poor editorial style has led to an unwelcome dumbing-down of the newspaper. I once considered that reading a newspaper was an achievement, representing one's ability to grasp current usage in valid context, but no longer, at least no longer with The Times. UPDATE: After some thought-provoking comments from Aram, I need to remove the criticism of Charlie LeDuff while I reëvaluate the merits of the plagiarism charges. The New York Times has made quite a fuss recently about rediscovering their journalistic standards, and holding reporters accountable for vetting their sources, but I still have doubts that the newsroom is doing all it should to foster sincere reporters. Aram also noted the change to my comment form. Wait 'til you see what happens next.... Read more
August 13, 2006
On the Burry Man
The quasi-mythical Burry Man of Edinburgh needs to answer Nature's call. South Queensferry hosts the strange annual procession of the Burry Man during the Ferry Fair. This unique pagan-like cultural event is over three hundred years old, but its true origins are unknown. The name "Burry Man" is arguably a corruption of "Burgh Man", since the town was formerly a royal burgh. A local man is covered from head-to-toe in burrs - the hooked fruits from the Burdock plant - which adhere to undergarments covering his entire body, leaving only the shoes, hands and two eyeholes exposed. On top of this layer he wears a sash, flowers and a floral hat and he grasps two staves. His ability to bend his arms or sit down is very restricted during the long day and his progress is a slow walk with frequent pauses. Two attendants in ordinary clothes assist him throughout the ordeal, helping him hold the staves, guiding his route, and fortifying him with whisky sipped through a straw, whilst enthusiastic children go from door-to-door collecting money on his behalf. The key landmarks on the tour are the Provost's office and each pub in the village. I wonder if "Burry Man" is an eggcorn, from "Burgh Man", or an eponym from the ceremonical character's covering of burrs. Either way, the idea of walking about all day with one's arms outstretched, drinking whiskey through a straw, is far from tantalizing. And now for something completely different: trivia about Gloucester cheese rolling. Pass the scrumpy.... Read more
July 19, 2006
In which we are profiteering
To get on board a ship or helicopter, Americans must sign a note pledging to reimburse the U.S. government. They will be charged the price of a single commercial flight from Beirut to Cyprus — usually $150-$200, although officials refused to specify. If they have no money to fly onward, they also will be asked to guarantee reimbursement of the price of an airline ticket from Cyprus to the United States. $150 is about the amount that Halliburton makes in a fraction of a second. You can see the monetary cost of the Iraq War to the United States in action at Cost of War dot com.... Read more
July 15, 2006
In which the snowbank is moving
This New Yorker story about accused tree-killer Grant Hadwin fascinates me, not least because of the protagonist's forceful personality: [Grant] Hadwin was well known for outdoing his co-workers. Paul Bernier, a longtime colleague and close friend of his, told me, "He was in the best condition of any man I've ever seen." Bernier was with Hadwin when he outwitted a pair of charging grizzly bears by dodging across a stream and feinting upwind, where they couldn't smell him. In addition to consuming prodigious quantities of chewing tobacco, Hadwin was known for buying vodka by the case and going on spectacular binges that, even in freezing weather, would leave him unconscious in the back of his vintage Studebaker pickup or passed out in a snow-filled ditch, dressed only in slacks and shirtsleeves. There was a local joke: "Look, that snowbank is moving. Must be Grant." Green Seattle also reprints the New Yorker story.... Read more
July 13, 2006
In which I twttr with laughter
Kind of like dodgeball (the web thingy, not the game we played at recess in grade school), but ... yeah, kind of like dodgeball. UPDATE: I changed to the fancy 'chrome' badge. Duh.... Read more
June 18, 2006
In which we become stowaways in our house
Carol Lloyd has an article, with some nice photographs, on residential buildings made from shipping containers. Shigeru Bau's striking Nomadic Museum is an outstanding example of a building -- a massive yet portable building, in fact, made from containers. Aram, check out the photographs!... Read more
June 16, 2006
In which we map our past
The BBC have a very cool map showing the growth of urban areas.... Read more
June 10, 2006
In which I hear talking but I do not see dancing
The continued presence of Pokey The Penguin (archive) on the Internets amuses and gladdens me. One of my favourite, classic, episodes is Adieu Mr Debussy! Somewhere I have a delightful t-shirt from Nutty Industries with a large-as-life Pokey saying "Yes!!!". Other Art You Can Use: the Portable Cell Phone Booth, a sculpture by Nick Rodrigues. Last week-end I was walking around in search of a friend's new abode (hi, Erik! hi, Chiara!) and had a phone running on empty. I could not find a pay-phone anywhere.... Read more
June 9, 2006
On practical applications of the dog
Two stories on the news wire caught my interest: "Dog Feces Left at Congresswoman's Office": a Democratic activist Thursday of leaving an envelope full of dog feces at Musgrave's Greeley office. Musgrave spokeswoman Shaun Kenney said someone stuffed the envelope through the mail slot in the door on May 31 and then sped away in a car. Kenney said most of the preprinted return address was blacked out, but staffers used the nine-digit ZIP code to trace it to Kathleen Ensz, a Weld County Democratic volunteer. Ensz told The Associated Press she left the envelope at Musgrave's office but said it "wasn't in the office doors, it was in the foyer." Asked what she meant by the act, she declined comment. and " Woman Attacks Dog Breeder With Chihuahua": Early Wednesday, the woman went to the breeder's home, pushed her way inside and began fighting with the breeder as she tried to make her way to the basement to get another puppy, police said. The breeder wrestled the woman out of her house to the front porch, where the woman then hit the breeder over the head numerous times with the dead puppy, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, citing police. As the woman drove away, she waved the dead puppy out of the car's sunroof and yelled threats at the breeder, police said. And Aram Saroyan Armstrong's Pooptopia is a game exploring how "poo can be harvested to create energy or it can spread disease". For a stinking-to-high-heaven example of the latter, just consider a picnic in Duboce Park. Another outstanding use of poop: poop as political commentary.... Read more
June 8, 2006
On water and corn
A bottle of Biota Spring Water advertises that the bottle is biodegradeable. In fact, the bottle is "made from a 100% renewable resource, corn". Although corn is renewable, that fact does not endorse our approach: that we should renew corn corps in the way that we do. Since the 70s the United States has contributed to a national surplus of corn without increasing the world's ability to feed its population, and has increased the corn supply specifically for the benefit of few. Many of the corn products we see and consume in our everyday chores are a direct result of the gross corn surplus: the necessity to consume the surplus became the mother of invention. In this case, the invention is the bottle: NatureWork ™PLA uses 30% to 50% less fossil fuel to produce than petroleum-based plastics. Although it decomposes naturally, the bottle still requires energy to produce, and from a source that we renew at great expense to the American taxpayer: $5 to $20 billions annually. Other by-products of the corn surplus include high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS, chemically guided to taste exactly like naturally-occurring sugars); corn-fed beef, and accordingly lower beef prices (and quality); and, perhaps most damning of all, monocultural agribusiness which encourages the industrialization of all aspects of the food chain, at the expense of agricultural diversity and of environmental stewardship.... Read more
June 5, 2006
In which I was separated at birth
I was busting a move on the myheritage.com online facial-recgonition software (scary stuff! use bugmenot, perhaps!) only to discover that the "celebrity" I most closely resemble is Brian Aldiss, the octogenarian British science-fiction writer. I have read a few of his works, including the title story from the anthology "Who can replace a man?". Apparently computers are not yet up to the task: he and I are markedly different in facial colouring, age, and other physical characteristics represented in the photo -- does he have a moustache?!... Read more
May 19, 2006
In which we meet The London Police
I saw several pieces by The London Police over the past few days; thanks to the community on flickr, who immediately identified the artist of the above. Some of the larger outdoor pieces were absolutely glorious; the smaller, indoor pieces -- some on stickers -- were intricate and bold.... Read more
May 7, 2006
In which the good-looking trees are staying indoors
The Toronto Star has a story on why suburbs are deracinated: Why suburbs will never have tall trees explains the geology of suburban development and the resulting arboreal shortcomings.... Read more
May 4, 2006
In which we the heroine returns to the funny pages
Beekeeper Comics' second instalment ("Motel Art Improvement Service") follows the our heroine as she cycles from Manhattan to San Francisco. The first book, Shutterbug Follies, appeared several years ago, and the online strip petered out last year.... Read more
May 1, 2006
In which we read the comic strip's
I knew there was something I really liked about the Language Log. Their writers slag on punctuation propriety as often as I do.... Read more
April 20, 2006
In which we investigate the public art
The bicycle-and-sculpture photo comes from public art on a pier in Weihai, China.... Read more
April 1, 2006
March 23, 2006
In which we have no cache nor context
... but ebay will happily sell us batasuna. Click on the image above to see how the Basques are'n't cached, aren't a recognised file format, and are handily available for purchase online.... Read more
March 20, 2006
In which I make a difference, engine
The geek bandname generator is a little formulaic, but made me chuckle. I always wanted to be in a post-math-rock band called "The Difference Injun". UPDATE: Ten Thousand Statistically Grammar-Average Fake Band Names provides such gems as "Alibi Encyclopedia" (which could be a Hall & Oates album, actually), Cluck Glen, These Myrtle, and Northwest Broom (fantastic!).... Read more
March 17, 2006
March 10, 2006
In which we find our wallet a little thin
GREEN BAY, Wis. - A rare $10,000 bill is getting a new home. The bill — one of 15 large-denomination bills at a Chase Bank branch in Green Bay — was shipped to the bank's corporate archives in New York for safe keeping. The $10,000 bill bears the likeness of Salmon P. Chase, for whom the bank was named. Chase was a U.S. senator who served as treasury secretary under President Lincoln. The large bill was discovered in a bank customer's safety deposit box after the owner died 20 years ago. The woman's family exchanged the currency at face value, and the bank stored the bill in a plastic sleeve for protection. But bank officials decided the bills would be safer at the JP Morgan Chase & Co. corporate office in New York. The bank sent the bills there last month by armored truck. The government stopped printing bills larger than $100 in 1945 and hasn't issued any since 1969. The Green Bay bills were printed in 1934. "The bills had been in our vault so long that many of us were sad to see them go, but we're glad to know that historic bills will be properly preserved," said Green Bay branch manager Carrie Liebhauser. Pick one up for ninety-three-and-a-half.... Read more
March 2, 2006
In which I stuff the slang into my wallet
Aram and I are both excited about the United States' new ten-dollar bill. I stopped at the bank on Tuesday to see when they will have some, and they said probably over the next few days, but that they could not promise me any until next week. The five is a finif, the twenty a sawbuck, the fifty a nifty, the hundred (recently, I suppose), a benjamin. Even the lowly one-dollar-bill has a moniker: the single. What of the ten? Do Americans call it a tenner? And let us not speak of the two-dollar-bill. And I suppose that I should fess up: finif is my favourite of the slang names, not for what it's a palindrome and all, and also quite pleasant on the tongue. Sawbuck ... ugh! Gives my mouth the shivers just to say it. UPDATE: Aram says that "ten-spot" is what he calls the bill, and Greg calls them "Hamiltons".... Read more
February 28, 2006
In which I air grievances
* the ongoing dumbing-down of articles. The average article length shrinks; the vocabulary becomes less descriptive and more bland; and the sentence structure becomes less compound-complex and more boringly compound. * the absence of location maps, and the constant referral to "Africa" rather than specific countries (this latter bit is a particular axe I have to grind) * the incredibly complicated homedelivery web site, which does not work with Safari (fails to set necessary auth cookies); which perpetually tells me that for my security my password has been reset * the silly TimesSelect change of access, which restricts what articles non-print-subscribers can see... Read more
February 26, 2006
In which we press our trousers
Ira Robbins, dean of modern rock critics, has a nice listing of new and updated reviews at the online Trouser Press record guide. Robert Christgau, self-styled "Dean of American Rock Critics", also has a searchable online database of his reviews.... Read more
February 18, 2006
In which I bless government regulation
Under the general heading of "Things for which I thank the government" you will find few entries in my ledger, but California Public Utilities Commission has online complaint forms that make the task of arseing about a great deal easier.... Read more
February 17, 2006
In which 'gullible' is not in the dictionary
How have I not been reading gullible.info? I re-re-discovered it through a Google Widget. • To win a bet, composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886) died standing upright. • Biologically, zebras are black with white stripes, not white with black stripes. and so on, to the point where one dubiously calls Shenanigans! and then is up all night wondering anyways. Now, thanks to the wonders of the widget, rss, and whatnot, I can see more mindless nonsense than in a month of Sunday visits to the Museum of Jurassic Technology.... Read more
February 16, 2006
In which I like things
The plan for the Dublin Grand Canal and the two-dollar bill. F'r crying out loud, I am exhausted. My eyeballs are blistering from debugging (build, run, debug; code, build, run, debug; usw.), from stress-testing, from unraveling the threads that cause tangles in the network and deadlocks in the kernel. My legs should be tired from running back and forth, and my lower back from sitting nervously. I am exhausted, and one of the United States Treasury Department's most frequently-asked questions is "Why did the Treasury Department remove the $2 bill from circulation?" The last time I rode MUNI, I paid the exact fare with two coins.... Read more
February 13, 2006
In which you cannot have revolution without babies
We are all going to hell: The Che Guevara onesie, from Lalaling, the same shop that brings you Paul Frank baby hoodies and Bob "One Love" Marley baby rasta hats. I guess it balances the hilarious Communist Party t-shirt at threadless.... Read more
February 7, 2006
In which I become a television personality
Five minutes here and I was a super-star:... Read more
February 4, 2006
In which we call the Penny Black
Microsoft Research are developing an anti-spam measure they call "Penny Black", a reference to the late nineteenth century shift for postal rates to the sender, rather than the receipient. The premise is that the senders of email, bulk ("spam") or no, should bear the costs. Microsoft's ideas are similar to the hashcash concept, which is implemented in SpamAssassin mail filters.... Read more
January 31, 2006
Nam June Paik
One of the unexpected and interesting assignments I received during junior high school came as part of an art class: visit the modern art museum, and write about one of the pieces we enjoyed. I saw a breathtaking and startling three-dimensional installation by Nam June Paik. Paik died yesterday.... Read more
January 27, 2006
In which it is "outsider" art
A tree made from junk mail, by sculptor Hector Dio Mendoza. The sculptor planted the tree at the Sunset Scavenger recycling facility in San Francisco (I am still waiting for my tour -- a representative from the company, curiously named "Lolita Sweet", left a message promising to schedule a site visit and has not returned my calls since), which promotes an Artist-in-Residence scheme. Sirron Norris, whose bright, cartoony murals decorate our local cheese-steak-ery, recently participated in the program... Read more
January 25, 2006
In which we have a personal mythology
As modern-day literary liars James Frey and JT Leroy raise public awareness of truth vs. falsehood (or, as Herr Dr Strasser would put it, "Richtig oder Falsch?"), one thinks back to great literary identity crises: William Shakespeare, for example. Frey created a milquetoast personal mythology; he followed up with a weak story of redemption, one calculated to bring a tear to a certain eye. JT Leroy is a composite designed to fit the personality that would write the books published under his (her) name; the blame for this equally rests with readers and the media, who fan the fires of celebrity: who is behind the books becomes as important a question as what does this book mean? The character of an author cannot be completely divorced from the author's work: think of what the Divine Comedy would be without Dante and his Beatrice; or, for that matter, without its translators? Don Asmussen's Bad Reporter -- the only reason to read the Chronicle! -- sheds light on the public perception of memoir embellishment.... Read more
January 23, 2006
In which you really can say it with a card
Greeting cards, as funded by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. I fondly remember the "Syphilis 2004" campaign, complete with a cartoony penis and sores, but the web site appears to have gone away. UPDATE: My memory is good, but my dates were bad. The cartoony penis was from the Healthy Penis 2002 campaign. An excerpt from the comic: "Syphilis sore? You told me you were a sales rep from Ohio!"... Read more
January 13, 2006
In which we tell the joke slowly
This one's for Aram: the best blonde joke evar. And this one is courtesy Aram: Three fonts walk into a bar. The bartender says "Get the Helvetica out of here!" I started off telling it as "The bartender says 'We do'n't serve your type here!'" but I think Aram scores the point. Maybe I get the assist.... Read more
January 6, 2006
In which I get pissed off
Artist Arrested for Vandalizing Urinal, which brings to mind headlines like "Police seize excrement catapault" and "Missing monkeys found shaved", was the lead for a news story about performance art involving modern art. Friday, January 6, 2006 (01-06) 13:40 PST PARIS, France (AP) -- A 76-year-old performance artist was arrested after attacking Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" — a porcelain urinal — with a hammer, police said. Duchamp's 1917 piece — an ordinary white, porcelain urinal that's been called one of the most influential works of modern art — was slightly chipped in the attack at the Pompidou Center in Paris, the museum said Thursday. It was removed from the exhibit for repair. The suspect, a Provence resident whose identity was not released, already vandalized the work in 1993 — urinating into the piece when it was on display in Nimes, in southern France, police said. During questioning, the man claimed his hammer attack on Wednesday was a work of performance art that might have pleased Dada artists. The early 20th-century avant-garde movement was the focus of the exhibit that ends Monday, police said A 2004 poll of 500 arts figures ranked "Fountain" as the most influential work of modern art — ahead of Pablo Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," Andy Warhol's screen prints of Marilyn Monroe and "Guernica," Picasso's depiction of war's devastation. "Fountain" is estimated at $3.6 million.... Read more
January 4, 2006
In which what goes around, comes around
Mr Marion Barry, the former mayor of a city which really deserved so addle-pated a politician at its head, suffered the ultimate indignity: having his lunch money taken away during a robbery. WASHINGTON - Former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry was robbed at gunpoint at his apartment by some youths who had helped him carry his groceries. Barry, who wasn't injured in the Sunday night robbery, said he gave the youths a couple of dollars for helping him with his groceries and they left. They returned, however, and pointed a gun at his head and took his wallet, which contained cash and credit cards, Barry told WRC-TV. Barry, 69, is a member of the City Council and served four terms as mayor. In his third term, he was videotaped in 1990 in a hotel room smoking crack cocaine in an FBI sting. The following year, he served a six-month prison sentence. He is awaiting sentencing later this month in federal court on his guilty plea to two misdemeanor counts stemming from his failure to file income tax returns in 2000. I laughed aloud when I read about Barry's felony conviction for crack possession, and chuckled some more when I heard of his subsequent coke-and-marijuana arrest. But I laughed hardest when the citizens of DC re-elected him.... Read more
December 27, 2005
In which the old lady shows him what for!
Old Lady Pwnz Mercedes Guy. I also advocate walking over the hood of cars parked across the sidewalk.... Read more
December 15, 2005
In which money is an old boys club
The Boston Globe, amongst others, report that the US Mint will produce 37 new dollar coins, each bearing the image of a president dead more than two years (sorry, Reagan!). So much for numismatic feminism. Who uses dollar coins, anyway?... Read more
December 12, 2005
In which we kill
"I don't want food or water or sympathy from the place that is going to kill me," [Stanley Williams] said in an interview with the paper last month. "I don't want anyone present for the sick and perverted spectacle. The thought of that is appalling and inhumane. It is disgusting for a human to sit and watch another human die.''... Read more
In which the idea falls short of the mark
TrafficGauge are selling their shiny new handheld communications widget. Its sole purpose: to provide a way for drivers to learn about freeway congestion. Although very nifty -- it draws information from public CalTrans sensors, and combines data from several third-party sources -- it falls short of being useful because it's a handheld without any additional interface. How to use it, safely, as a driver? And why not make the software available for mobile-phone and pda platforms via Java? (This is one of the few times I will endorse Java!) Cool, but ... so what? Were data available for secondary streets, the device might be able to indicate alternative routes -- but the state does not yet collect this data, so this feature is lacking. Even were recommendations made for alternative routes, surface and feeder roads are not always able to handle sudden, massive overflow from freeways (that would lead to even more and disparate congestion, and, instead of isolating the problem to the freeway system, which is self-contained, it could affect traffic on a much larger scale; so perhaps the lack of alternative routes is a good thing).... Read more
December 5, 2005
In which we hear a public service announcement, with guitar
Know your rights, thanks to the Flex Your Rights web site. All of which has reminded me of Cody's experience with the man and the Mint, and a subsequent, similar scene at One Bush; and of the misbegotten MTA photo ban (and ditto in San Francisco); these incidents spurred me to carry a cheat-sheet of First Amendment rights as they pertain to photography. The ACLU had something similar and more wallet-sized, but I no longer find it on their site. The path to protecting ephemeral rights is not through eroding existing privileges. To wit: He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression. and Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it. Mr Thos. Paine, Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Thomas Paine. Other rights that are inconveniently disappeareing include the right not be be sniffed by a machine while waiting in line. Airline Security a Waste of Cash reads the title of the Bruce Scheier editorial on airline security in Wired. Never mind that we can again take fingernail clippers on commercial flights: "These programs are based on the dangerous myth that terrorists match a particular profile and that we can somehow pick terrorists out of a crowd if we only can identify everyone. That's simply not true." John Gilmore's hearing before the Ninth Circuit Court takes place this week: he is suing the US Government for prohibiting anonymous interstate travel.... Read more
December 2, 2005
November 28, 2005
In which I repurpose content
In late '82, I was already a denizen of the remainder table at the local booksellers, and picked up a copy of Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year (1981 Edition). Fantastic stuff lay within: not only had Reagan trounced Carter in the recent national election, but all sorts of exciting governmental shenanigans, both on the federal stage (Stockman was getting worked over in Congress about his fantastic supply-side economics proposals) and local (Californians feared the medfly) provided cartoonists with fodder. I began to read editorial cartoons avidly, and looked forward to the brief chrestomathy presented each Sunday in the New York Times' Week in Review. rss feeds of various editorial cartoonists, such as Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World, satisfy but a small stretch of itch. Happily, isnoop comes to the rescue. The comic-strip snagger even allows a zoom level, so mine tired eyes can see the venerable drawings of Charles Schulz and Al Capp double-size!... Read more
November 19, 2005
In which we get no dessert (as we ate not our vegetables)
Although I doubt that David "Ketchup is a vegetable" Stockman would agree with the accuracy of this cartoon, the sentiment is true.... Read more
November 13, 2005
In which these are a few of my favourite things
Queen, air-guitar, MIDI, and come together to form a truly horrible piece of Flash animation. And while I was enumerating the web widgets that make me chuckle, how, how could I omit the Alkulukuja Paskova Karhu, The Prime Number Shitting Bear?... Read more
November 1, 2005
In which I jump the turnstile and you have to pay the fee
Some of the tit-bits wot make me larf: HarMar Superstar; All Your Base; Rather Good's animation for "Gay Bar"; Camper's Hate Blog; the much-missed suck (bless that Mr Terry Colon), the first site, afaik, that hyperlinked to mine (!!). I am thinking about things which make me chuckl because I have a nascent bad attitude. California.... Read more
October 28, 2005
In which Ich bin ein Wasserkopf
Two calculators to estimate one's emissions, and environmenal impact, at airhead and Caltrain.... Read more
October 24, 2005
In which graffiti jumps the shark
Street art has been on the cusp of mainstream media recognition for some time now. (can't fool me: that picture is from Barcelona. Note the distinctive street sign, the BCNeta bin, and the two grinning fish from Pez. Barca has glorious street art: I suspect that city, not subway taggers in New York, is what sparked my love of graf.). And I ask myself: hath ye shark been jumped? The rhetorical answer is, "Whatever. So long as people continue tagging and pasting-up and acid-splashing, and as long as fancy hair salons contract street artists to decorate their windows, then all is good in God's world."... Read more
October 20, 2005
In which it is Welsh, of course
llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf.org.uk lays claim to the World's Longest URL. Charming, wot.... Read more
October 12, 2005
In which there's someone who knows and trips you when you fall
The San Francisco Museum of History screened Trina Lopez's short documentary, A Second Final Rest: The History of San Francisco's Cemeteries. The film garnered awards at the Womens Film Festival and at the Documentary Film Fest. Afterwards the film-maker answered questions -- she has great poise, and the Q&A session was as informative as the film itself. Beginning in '01 with a Health Ordinance, San Francisco city fathers began pushing the various burial grounds: first westwards, and then south'ards. The public rejected the first official edict, in '14, to clear out completely, but by the mid-century all the interred had been moved to Colma ("City of the Dead"), a necropolis with its own BART stop. Several years ago, I began writing a story in which the citizen of Colma, some 2 million strong, rose up and persecuted the grey-bearded city fathers, and especially "Sunny Jim" Rolph, who worked the hardest to shoo all them bones. San Francisco still has bodies in The Presidio, a military graveyard; in the church-yard at Mission Dolores; in the Columbarium; and a one-off, Thomas Starr King, interred at the church on Franklin and Geary. Jim Blackett's San Francisco Cemeteries is a handy reference site; Ms Lopez drew her inspiration from Dr Weirde's Weirde Guide to San Francisco, now online at sfgate.com.... Read more
October 11, 2005
In which the infrastructure is built anew
A new Edward Burtynsky exhibition arrived at the Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco. Edward Burtynsky's photography continues to amaze me with its powerful details of the man-made landscape in industry and urban renewal. The Chinese series has some breath-taking portraits of cities teeming with factory workers, seemingly stripped of their individuality, just as his earlier landscapes of mining areas showed a denuded earth without its once-proud trees, hills, and rocks. Burtynsky's first solo retrospective, Manufactured Landscapes, runs at the Brooklyn Museum through January; it showed at Stanford University earlier this year, and had a marvelous exhibit catalog, Yale University Press.... Read more
October 8, 2005
In which it is like a violet
From Bob the Angry Flower to Frazz, it's all about my favourite piece of English punctuation.... Read more
October 6, 2005
In which we count up to sixty-six
As evidenced by the mixture of joy and rage when reading (of all things!) the beer menu at the outstanding Porterhouse bar, I cherish the unflattering memories of Ronald Reagan. Aram turned up this list when I muttered something about James Watt, and I figure that it is just the sort of convenient one-sheet to start printing on various networked printers around the globe. Lest we forget. As for the menu at the Porterhouse: it contains a delightful invective (not reproduced in the online version) railing against American politics and beer. I read it after a few glasses of their (delicious!) XXXX stout.... Read more
September 25, 2005
In which we are stranded in Waterloo with nothing to do but eat and drink
Giles Coren's writing in The Times is beginning to crack me up. His writing reminds me of the frustration of Nobu, cast and re-cast at the gastro pub-of-the-moment, The Anchor And Hope (or has its moment already past?). His writing is effusive, and his tendency to ramble often undermines the fact that he is writing about food, but then again so much of a restaurant is not whether the bacon-and-warm-snail salad is "like teenage sex" so much as the fancy and famous people one bumps up against at the workmanlike butcher-block tables in front of the open kitchen. And he makes a case against opening a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. This must be why Thomas Keller buggered off to New York City for Per Se. $210 my arse.... Read more
September 7, 2005
In which it comes in three flavours!
bhs pointed out that chicken now comes in three flavors, thanks to a popular fast-food restaurant. Better yet, learn how to fold your t-shirts. Do'n't click here.... Read more
September 3, 2005
In which cold pizza, like the earth, has no ownership
If there's one thing I learned from reading comix -- specifically, Sam Hurt's magnificent Eyebeam series -- it is that cold pizza has no ownership. Much to his chagrin, the fellow in the online story (videlicet) found that taking leftover pizza led to his termination: I had been working for a mortgage company as a developer for 18 months and things were going well. Then, one day I saw that a different group in my company had just finished up a pot-luck and had some pizza left over. I thought they would probably end up throwing it away and I was kind of hungry so I went for it ... I took a slice of pizza. Apparently the employees who threw this pot luck were planning to take it home and were offended by my action. Now I thought we were all basically on the same team and if someone didn't like what I did they would tell me so and I would apologize and maybe offer to pay for the pizza. These employees ended up telling their manager, who told her vice president about what I did. The worst part about this is that I wasn't told about any of this until a month after the incident. No warning, no second chance. I know that I left an impression because to this day my former coworkers refer to unattended pizza as "programmer bait".... Read more
August 29, 2005
In which we play catch-up
I cleansed the past few years of half-written journal ("blog") entries recently, and posted one which will no doubt appeal to Greg, and one for Anna about Critical Mass. I also corrected the title in the post on yo; and realised that I really like Adam's photograph of an MBTA sticker and accompanying exegesis.... Read more
August 28, 2005
In which Duboce Park hits the big-time.
A film production will build a set in our very own Dogshit Duboce Park. Filming instructions include the filmmakers saying that they "respectfully request that [residents] park [their] cars in the garage". Unless I missed something major in the past six years, street parking is often the only parking in a neighbourhood of Victorian buildings. Film production in the area has waned of late; one of my favourite films (The Lineup) and many others have filmed here. I for one am excited to see a BART station built at the corner of Duboce and Steiner. Hell, if the café-formerly-known-as-Coopers ever opens again, this might infuse good business. Especially if a parking garage opened underneath the park.... Read more
July 21, 2005
In which he had an interview with TIME magazine
At times I would forget where I was. Cairo? Jakarta? Mexico City? Everywhere there are those same islands of wealth amid the poverty, like the green areas of Manila that are private golf clubs instead of public parks. More of Salgado's photoessay at TIME magazine.... Read more
June 27, 2005
In which we preserve the environment for innovation
This afternoon I attended a talk by Wendy Seltzer of Electronic Frontier Foundation and Chilling Effects Clearinghouse fame. She spoke about endangered gizmos and other abjecta of intellectual-property law; about cease-and-desists notices, which are archived and available for analysis through Chilling Effects; about the anti-technology tendency of US law (well, she did not phrase it like that, but that is what I heard); and about brand dilution, or why I cannot, for example, sell Intel-branded chewing gum, or Levi-Strauss-branded microprocessors ... unless I move to Italy. She did not explicitly discuss today's SCOTUS decision against Grokster.... Read more
May 16, 2005
A public telephone
The IMDb biography of Lawrence Tierney really impresses me. Drunken brawling, tough-guy attitude on- and off-screen, and impressions of his throaty, growling voice make for an interesting write-up. Not to mention that he had the best line in Reservoir Dogs, and the last line in Hill Street Blues. When he guest-starred on "Seinfeld" in "The Jacket" episode as Elaine's father, he scared the cast so badly that they never had him back on. "He stole a butcher knife from Jerry's TV kitchen & hid it under his jacket. When Seinfeld asked him about it, Tierney pulled out the knife & started making the 'Psycho' slashing-violins sound."... Read more
May 6, 2005
Search for my family history
The Scotsman has made their entire archive available online.... Read more
May 1, 2005
To eat, under the sea
A restaurant that would entice Captain Nemo: the first ever all-glass undersea restaurant in the world opens its doors for business at the Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa. Ithaa* will sit five meters below the waves of the Indian Ocean, surrounded by a vibrant coral reef and encased in clear acrylic offering diners 270-degrees of panoramic underwater views. No word on whether the restaurant features a "dive-through" window.... Read more
Bridgewater's brave new world
Bridgewater state college will make its students full-time learners: It was a few years ago that the lab entered the brave new world of WiFi (shorthand for wireless fidelity standards), but great strides have already been made toward making Bridgewater the only completely WiFi college and town in America. The placement of antennae around campus means that students can use their laptops on the college's buses. This will turn downtime into productive time, Mr. Harman said. Must we do everything all of the time? May in San Francisco is mural awareness month -- and we have many, many beautiful murals, on shop buildings and alley walls and derelict warehouses -- but I cannot find any current information about it.... Read more
The Girl From Monday
Hal Hartley introduced his latest project, The Girl from Monday at The Roxie. After the screening, he cheerfully fielded questions, discussing his methods when filming film stock vs. digital video, on which TGFM was shot; his approach to music composition and film scoring ("I wrote the music first, then shot"); and whether he and Martin Donovan, one of his frequent collaborators, will work together again ("Yes." I was quite glad that someone asked). The film was evocative, the plot funny, and the music a good complement. Bill Sage, carving the handsome, do-good profile of a latter-day Cary Grant, plays an adman caught up in the new economy he helped create, where citizens are stockholders in the corporate machine of consumerism. Disposable income is a driving force behind the market, until The Company (known as Triple M) develops a method for using sex to increase shareholder value. Many of the grainy exterior scenes were shot in Lower Manhattan and the Lower East Side, and evoke the timeless business of a city. In an interview with Green Cine, Hartley remarked that he draws inspiration from the textures of Sonic Youth. And before the show, Greg treated us to a rendition of the dance from Hartley's Simple Men, set to Kim Gordon's crooning of "Kool Thing". I'm posting this for Joseph, who had to bail at the last minute in order to save the world from stale search results (his heroics succeeded! hurrah!).... Read more
April 26, 2005
Punk rock in the Holy Land
Liz Nord's documentary on punk rock in the Holy Land, Jericho's Echo, had its San Francisco premiere last month. Punk historians quibble about the exact origins of punk music, but for more than 30 years it has surfaced across the world, from the United States and Great Britain to the People's Republic of China. In Israel, a vibrant punk scene has emerged in a society torn apart by the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. In these four candid video interviews, FRONTLINE/World reporter and filmmaker Liz Nord talks to the musicians driving the movement. Like other young Israelis, the punk rockers have been affected personally by the conflict. They have fought as soldiers and lost friends and fans killed by suicide bombers. Bands from both ends of the political spectrum use their music to comment on Israeli society. Others make music just to have fun. But all of them agree that punk rock represents freedom.... Read more
April 7, 2005
Oh no, Mr Yuk!
Childhood favourite Mr Yuk has jumped on the trendy silcone wristband bandwagon. The adorable and effective stickers punctuated my childhood.... Read more
March 27, 2005
I loves Alien Loves Predator
High-larious. A photo-realistic comic comic strip which features Alien (of Alien) and Predator (ditto) as room-mates.... Read more
March 17, 2005
like a cop loves his donut
I'm so glad that Ivan Brunetti has a web site. I anxiously awaited "Misery Loves Company" and "Biff Bang Pow!" editions when I was in college, and was cheered to see some of his work in a Cartoon Art Museum (or was it Yerba Buena?) retrospective in San Francisco a few years ago.... Read more
March 9, 2005
Meine schwesterchen hat ein blog
My sister has a blog. I also realized that, because it's so expensive here, I also have not had broccoli in almost four months. It’s one of my favorite vegetables; I can eat a head for dinner. I heard someone asking about it at the vegetable stand today, which is what reminded me that I haven't eaten broccoli in a long time; its name in Arabic translates as ‘foreign cauliflower’.... Read more
February 24, 2005
a fish, a barrel, and a smoking gun
I miss suck. Aside from being the first web site to link to me (!!), it had great graphics by Terry Colon, witty pre-pomo cut-up commentary, and a snarky attitude that presaged everything. Everything.... Read more
February 15, 2005
February 10, 2005
The ouija anaconda
I was late to work this morning because I was in line for the Ronald Reagan commemorative stamp. I found out that there really wasn't any need for haste, as the Post Office (which Reagan sought to privatize) has 170 million of these stamps at hand. A nice counterpart to another relic of that time, "We Jam Econo". While Aram was buying tickets to the film's San Pedro premiere (at the beautiful Warner Grand, which I've only seen from the outside), I was belly-aching about how we'll be paying off the cost of these stamps for generations to come. Or how the fatcats who make money off the stamps will trickle down their profits to the masses. Et cetera.... Read more
Rogue photographers
Photo Rogue assigns photographers to snap snaps of scenes that users request ("squirrels ravaging a rabbit shaped cake", "a picture of any of the street performers in the main square. Especially the guy that dresses as a Cossack on a horse."), and publishes the results through Gallery.... Read more
February 7, 2005
Sit tight and await the cavalry
Your name alone strikes fear into others; but maybe, just maybe, there's a little vulnerability and weakness beneath that stoic, fierce exterior of yours. Take the What Pulp Fiction Character Are You? quiz.... Read more
February 3, 2005
January 24, 2005
Snowflake jamz
This record-playing hippie bus is scooting around an image of Floquet de Neu -- wonder which record it is?!... Read more
January 20, 2005
Is that possible?
Will Toni finally ditch Dirk, her abusive, controlling boyfriend? I'm on tenter hooks! (Really!)... Read more
January 14, 2005
Your message here
St Claire's online Sign Builder application produces OSHA- and ANSI-compliant signs in several languages. Endless fun, and practical too.... Read more
January 5, 2005
I want to know whose name is on the handle!
What better way to understand how a professional works? I'm watching Reservoir Dogs to pick up tips on team-work. It was raining in the Lower Haight, so I took a bus to work.... Read more
December 29, 2004
Donate to the Red Cross
Amidst all this disaster, I was again cheered yesterday when I realised that my employer matches my charitable donations.... Read more
December 24, 2004
Jesus don't cry, Or, Where Are the Satanists?
After your local newspaper inserts "advertisement" New Testament editions into your daily delivery, you want a sticker that says "God is on my shit list". You'll find it at Unamerican, celebrating their tenth irreverent anniversary. Most national newspapers allow religious advertising on their religion pages, but it's unusual to see a Bible giveaway, said Aly Colón, a teacher at the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school and think tank. If newspapers are going to accept that type of advertising campaign, they must also make sure that the newspaper maintains impartiality in its news section, he said. Editors might want to place a disclaimer in the news portion of the paper to let readers know that the Bible they are receiving is an advertisement, not an editorial endorsement of a religion. "The key thing is how the newspaper maintains its independence from their product and pays attention to their readership and how it maintains that clear separation," Colón said. Messages left with the Colorado Springs Gazette for comment about the issue were not returned late Thursday. Theoretically, members of a another group, such as Satanists, could seek to raise money and distribute copies of the Satanic Bible in newspapers, and publishers who deny them the advertising opportunity could be accused of discrimination.... Read more
December 12, 2004
"Let the slaughtered take a bow ..."
A group calling itself "Audiences in Action" has asked San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to proclaim December 18th "Anita Monga Day" and identify with the Castro Theatre's recently-dismissed program director. The Castro Theatre is a local treasure (and historic landmark). As a result of the turmoil, Eddie Muller is moving his fabulous, four-year-old Noir City festival to the Balboa Theatre. The text of the letter follows.... Read more
November 18, 2004
Note to Turin
Dear Turin: You can have your blessed shroud. We've got a grilled cheese sandwich. Signed, Miami. Aujourd'hui, j'ai reçu une télègramme: TURIN TO MIAMI RESEMBLANCE HEDY LAMARR POSSIBLE LILLIAN GISH STOP DEFINITELY NOT VIRGIN MARY STOP USE SPELLCHECK WHEN POSTING TO EBAY... Read more
November 14, 2004
Where ye be shopping, matey?
Worth1000's photoshop contest "If Pirates Ruled".... Read more
November 11, 2004
He drinks a whiskey drink
Something to keep your eyes on, especially if: you have kids, you like kids, you are a kid, you cherish freedom, you enjoy having all your limbs, you enjoy not killing other people, or you value not being shot at by other people. Note that sentence contains clauses conjoined with an option. And the 'e' in whisk(e)y is for Canada, eh, you dodgers.... Read more
November 10, 2004
Urban post-mortems
Exercises in Forensic Archaeology, but really they're just really nice pictures by Julia Solis.... Read more
November 4, 2004
Els Quatre Gats
barça. It's also available via Atom/RSS. I'm in heaven. I gotta figger out how to feed this in to my screensaver, and then I can run three monitors' worth of barceloca while I daydream. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who snaps photos of stray cats in Barcelona.... Read more
October 29, 2004
flickr del sol
1001 is an OSX client for flickr ... but it crashes, which uploadr, flickr's own tool, doesn't. I really like that flickr put the OSX tool at the top of the page.... Read more
October 28, 2004
Scruitinize every word
Greg, as excited and mysterious as I've ever seen him, showed me Eminem's new video yesterday. Download the video or get the torrent.... Read more
October 25, 2004
Photographing your city block
Heard a talk by Marc Levoy et al. from Stanford today, presenting their CityBlock project. Some other sites which present panoramic city views: Cambridge Live; and Seamless City, in which the photographs are manually stitched together.... Read more
Selling secondhand tobacco?
Phillip Torrone posted about Jeffrey Early's gpsphotolinker, which uses a GPX file to stitch lat/lon information into your photograph's EXIF data. This is exactly what I wanted. Well, ideally I'd have the GPS embedded in the camera. Soon.... Read more
October 18, 2004
An argument carried out by other means
Saw Walter Salles' romantic adaptation of Ernesto "Che" Guevara's early diary (the Motorcycle Diaries). Che and a friend rode a dilapidated beast of a Norton around South America, tramping, working, and learning about leprosy. The 1952 journey was one which Guevara undertook expecting it to change his outlook on life, and it did: it opened his eyes to the plight of the proletariat, and he decided that the mass of them live lives of quiet desperation. Of futility. The adaptation doesn't hide much, but certainly glosses incidents (Che doesn't eat empanadas in his memoir, although in the film two pretty Chilean girls treat him and his hungry traveling companion to a dozen of the savouries. They also give him the nick-name "Che", an apparently common term in Chile for Argentinians; et cetera). The film shows South America harshly: a continent of hard-working people beaten down by Spanish imperialism and subsequent brutal colonialism. Rather than dwelling on past injustice, the diary and the movie focus on vignettes: an old waitress dying of asthma; day-labourers looking for work in the mines; a festive evening party in Chile. The cinematography is beautiful, and Che's bosom-friend Alberto Granada dances beautifully.... Read more
October 15, 2004
Everybody stop moving.
What's going on at LAX? I'm heading out of the United terminal, and first TSA personnel and now LAPD are combing through the area. We've been asked to stop moving and stand where we are, but I fancy sitting.... Read more
October 10, 2004
Collect them all!
The Zoomorphs web site is now in full Flash effect!... Read more
October 8, 2004
Two scoops!
The San Francisco Chronicle lamely picked up a story featured in yesterday's Examiner. It's a good 'un, though. The original story, from the Examiner: Reached at her Miami studio Wednesday by The Associated Press, Maria Alquilar said she was willing to fix the brightly colored 16-foot-wide circular work, but offered no apologizes for the 11 misspellings among the 175 names. "The importance of this work is that it is supposed to unite people," Alquilar said. "They are denigrating my work and the purpose of this work." but then, the follow-up in the Chronicle: The artist who misspelled the names of famous people in world history on a large ceramic mosaic outside Livermore's new library can spell one word with ease: N-O. That's Maria Alquilar's new position on fixing the typos. She had planned to fly to California and put the missing "n" back in Einstein and remove the extra "a" in Michelangelo, among other fixes. But after receiving a barrage of what she called "vile hate mail," Alquilar said Livermore is off her travel itinerary and there'll be no changes by her artistic hand. Silver lining: perhaps she was giving a shout out to San Francisco's postmaster, Charles H. Gough.... Read more
October 6, 2004
The fight in the dog
Today, the Nobel Prize in Physics went to three American scientists, one of whom commented on education: "Dr. Wilczek used the Nobel occasion to put in a plug for reviving the commitment to excellence in American schools. "I want to thank the U.S.," he said, "for supplying the system of public education that did so well by me." Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. I'm not mad at Dwight D Eisenhower any longer. I found that quotation -- his, apparently -- at the Cost of War site, which features dismal accounting for the current US military involvement: "we could have hired 275,837 additional public school teachers in California for one year."... Read more
See me got photo photo
After about 30,000 shutter clicks, my trusty camerastarted to register errors. So I got a new one. And here, of course, is the inaugural photograph: I was a little upset about the old camera bugging because I saw a beautiful chopper outside the Toronado: a bicycle in the shape of the Golden Gate Bridge! Nico finds the words. And a picture is worth a thousand words.... Read more
September 26, 2004
It's in the can.
The Future of Food will play two nights at the The Castro; Bikes Against Bush: video shorts will play as part of the 2004 Bicycle Film Festival in San Francisco. How many clowns can you fit onto a conference bike?... Read more
September 17, 2004
Story-telling
I Found Some of Your Life, a Auster(e) chronology through pictures.... Read more
September 16, 2004
Let's have Carter our President!
Jimmy Carter told us about how he saw a UFO in 1968. He also spoke today about his programs to eradicate common parasitic diseases, promote democracy and human rights. The cadence of his speech is wonderful, and he's a very witty speaker -- sharp, incisive, and thoughtful. And he loves his wife. Afterwards someone pointed out that I was wearing an old Habitat for Humanity t-shirt.... Read more
September 14, 2004
I think I know my geography pretty damn well
This map of Springfield even has my office, just a wee bit southwest of the Mall.... Read more
September 9, 2004
It is an art thing!!!
Pinball machines, roller-coasters, and making art with other boardwalk amusements. Fiore's own roots, as demonstrated in past projects, never stray far from this notion of collaboration with the machine. In 2000, she removed the glass from an Evel Knievel pinball machine, overlaid cut vellum around the bumpers of the "playboard" (1,000 points when lit!), and played a full game with three balls she had doused in red, white, and blue oil paint, respectively. The resulting painting, a lavender oblong that looks like a hallucinated skull, testifies to Fiore's ability to excavate or "see" the buried image within the machine, almost as if it was written in invisible ink. In the same way that Michelangelo envisioned David's sensuous curves within the notoriously busted Duccio stone, Fiore anticipated a painting that would conjure the first celebrity superhero made flesh: a daredevil who motorcycle-jumped over a tank of live sharks and is listed in the Guinness Book of World's Records for having broken thirty-five bones. I love Pokey comics. How nutty!!!... Read more
September 4, 2004
One Tree
According to FraudFrond, There are 130,000 cel towers in the USA alone. A whopping 25% of these are "stealth" towers -- i.e. Lying Lumber -- so that's over 32,000 fake trees.... Read more
August 31, 2004
No Man's Land
Edward Burtynsky in Charleston, as part of a three-man exhibit, "No Man's Land".... Read more
August 15, 2004
Unnecessary interface
Surely most ATM users would understand if these two ATM screens became one.... Read more
For more information on Grand Funk, consult your school library!
Technorati searches blogs (XML? RSS?) in something close to real time. That's how I found Travis' blog, and how I discovered another salim. Aside: Was the Alan Parsons Project really "some sort of hovercraft"?... Read more
August 9, 2004
Lewis Carroll, blogger
The Library of Congress have posted Lewis Carroll's collection of clippings. The historian Edward Wakeling contribues an essay on the significance of this scrapbook: Scrapbooks were, without doubt, a source of anecdotes and ideas that Carroll could weave into his conversations and literary works. It is fortunate that this scrapbook has survived intact, and in the state that Lewis Carroll left it. It is incomplete as there still are loose items waiting to be pasted in. The scrapbook was put aside sometime in the 1870s ... The clippings, pasted over 70-some leaves, include poetry, obituaries, notes on linguistics, and Victorian ephemera.... Read more
July 28, 2004
July 23, 2004
Safety in numbers
On the hourlong trip from Mountain View to San Francisco yesterday evening, I was multi-tasking: using an AT&T GPRS modem (in the form of a PCMCIA card), I was doing some work, while watching video clips from yesterday's breath-taking Tour de France time trial, and watching the fog roll over San Bruno Mountain. A fellow sitting across from me started talking about Macs, and free wireless access points in San Francisco, and sent me a white paper from the Bay Area Wireless Research Network.... Read more
July 22, 2004
Still on the payroll?
A few months after the Chronicle ditched Zippy the Pinhead (again), my father pointed out this comic: I've written the Chron (again and again), only to receive in response semi-literate boilerplate about how periodic reader surveys determine which comics run in the 'paper. Do these same myopic readers suggest the microscopic size at which the Chron crams several dozen strips onto a single page? Even more so that most local newspapers in this day and age, they dishonour comic strips and artists by pushing the reproductions towards illegibility. Bill Watterson, champion of the art-form, refused to cave in to this practice a decade ago; now he no longer produces serial comics.... Read more
July 16, 2004
Tomorrow's man and me
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts opens a new exhibit, featuring Twist. His one-man show at Brandeis was written up in the New York Times earlier this week. He's been written up in lots of fun places. Although I haven't yet been to The Independent, the successor to the Justice League, word is that the beautiful Twist murals have vanished. Alas!... Read more
July 13, 2004
Reduce, reuse, and ...
Today is a five-newspaper day: The Wall Street Journal (courtesy Aram), The New York Times, the San Francisco Independent, the venerated San Francisco Examiner, and the suitable-for-puppy-training San Francisco Chronicle. If I jump on CalTrain, I can also pick up a copy of the San Mateo Daily News. And what of all this newsprint? Almost two pounds that I'll haul back and forth, and then dump into a recycling bin. Why do I prefer the newsprint editions of these 'papers, all of which are available (in some form) on-line? And why do I contribute to the consumption of our limited paper resources?... Read more
July 12, 2004
2005 Sunrise
From C|Net or the New York Times, come reports that American hegemony of the bar code is slipping away with the adoption of new international standards. Global trade depends on uniform identification of products, and the UPC symbol -- developed half a century ago -- forms the basis of a robust system for tracking inventory and prices. However, the U.S. has stuck to its 12-digit UPC code, How much instant-recgonition and automated tracking does our world need? Do bar-code concepts extend to fingerprinting human faces?... Read more
July 11, 2004
The Future of Food
How does one eliminate seed that becomes genetically-intertwined with one's own crops? Can multinational conglomerates push the world's 1.2+ billion subsistence farmers out of their traditional farming roles, and into poverty at the edge of ever-growing urban areas? Deborah Koons Garcia's documentary The Future of Food addresses these issues, through a history of humanity's interaction with farming, and a thorough dressing-down of the large companies that are privatizing genes. And in protecting their patents, they are suing family farmers whose seed has become polluted with patented (and sometimes) experimental stock from these corporations, whose tactics are shamelessly profit-oriented ("buy the herbicide that kills everything! then buy the plant that is genetically resistant to the herbicide! and oh yes, we own the herbicide. And we own the seeds."); when subsequent generations of their patented corps mutate and are no longer uniformly pesticide- and herbicide-resistant, farmers end up using increasingly toxic sprays on their crops. Nosireebob. One of many reasons I'm glad that farmer's markets are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, that markets and retailers are labelling foods (well, at least in the EU) ... but what about countries outside of the "First World"? The film did not touch on many of the public-health problems raised by genetically-engineered foods: what of the addictive properties of corn syrup? Sara invited me to the San Francisco premiere of the film. Hooray! Hearing her dulcet tones in the narration was a pleasant surprise.... Read more
July 10, 2004
And like that, *poof*, it's gone.
Beginning in October 2003, solar storms of unprecedented vigor have pummelled the Earth. The solar eruptions were so powerful that billions of tons of electrified gas shot into space at speeds of up to five million miles per hour, the fastest ever measured from the Sun, scientists said. The blast waves from the series of explosions merged as they moved out, creating a front that is now moving toward the edge of the solar system at about 1.5 million miles per hour, they said. I think they're responsible for the sudden disappearance of my Keychain and the almost concurrent iSync vaporization of my iPod.... Read more
July 5, 2004
... and not a drop to drink
The Center for Land Use Intepretation in Los Angeles conducted a bus tour of the Owens Valley, subvertings its subtexts.... Read more
July 1, 2004
June 14, 2004
Good for the dIeT
A trade publication ran a story on story on Iceland's drive to bring fiber to all 65,000 residences in the capital, Reykjavik. Wonder if this means that GarageBand files will transfer easily amongst the budding indie-rock bands.... Read more
June 9, 2004
Something I hope to understand in a few days
Took in a screening of Lars von Trier's latest, The Five Obstructions. This pits the idiosyncratic Danish director against Jørgen Leth, whom he cudgels into directing short films. Each film is a permutation of Leth's early short, The Perfect Human, with constraints imposed by Trier. Permutation of music, film, and painting intrigues me: as Mark E. Smith records many versions of the same song, changing the pace, wording, instrumentation (Slang King#2), so did Michelangelo sculpt many slaves, so did El Greco paint many gentlemen of quality.... Read more
May 16, 2004
The demand for their real happiness
Published: May 15, 2004 To the Editor: The Mormon student at the University of Utah who was forced out of a theater program after refusing to read a script containing profanity is wrong to suggest that the university violated her constitutional right of free exercise of religion (Religion Journal, May 8). The student could have dropped the class if she was offended by it, or she could have gone to a private school organized around her religious beliefs. Public universities have a constitutional duty not to tailor their curriculums to religious dogma. A student who takes a geology class and writes on the final exam that the earth is only 6,000 years old is probably going to fail the class, even if the student insists that being compelled to give any other answer would force her to renounce her religious beliefs. DAVID R. DOW Houston, May 8, 2004 The writer is a professor at the University of Houston Law Center.... Read more
May 10, 2004
The Lake Project
Some sculptors (photographers?) have an obsession with interpreting the implications of environmental degradation. Like the Spiral Jetty, the physical evolution of the piece is important; as with Andy Goldsworthy, photography is integral.... Read more
April 27, 2004
April 26, 2004
Where my peeps at?
You can see where my friends (at least, people who have acknowledged me through Google's social-networking project) are.... Read more
April 14, 2004
If you can't say anything nice about someone ...
The best way of losing a cause is to abuse your opponent and to trade upon his weakness. You assist an administration most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil administration never deserves such allegiance. -- M K Gandhi, Mahatma, the Great Soul Some of the debate really centers around the fact that people don't believe Iraq can be free; that if you're Muslim, or perhaps brown-skinned, you can't be self-governing or free. I'd strongly disagree with that. -- Geo. W. Bush, President of the United States of America, 13 April 2004... Read more
April 11, 2004
... is for death, said she;
Today is (yet another) Easter Sunday, as my neighbour Mark pointed out, by way of explaining why the 'hood was so eerily quiet. Does this mean that sales of bauhaus' "Stigmata Martyr" are going up on eBay? Don't kid youself.... Read more
April 5, 2004
Three words that changed my world, (times two)
Proudhon's anarchist statement that " ... ownership is theft" has been ringing between my ears. Curiously, the first hit from a Google search resulted in a recent column from the vaguely fascist and often inaccurate Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. And the rabble-rousing motto "Qui Tacet Consentit", perhaps adapted from Goldsmith, makes a spendid caption for a poster by David Lance Goines. I first saw this powerful grainy image in Laura Slatkin's garret office somewhere at the College of the University of Chicago.... Read more
April 1, 2004
Lies, damn lies, and the Chronicle.
Don Asmussen'sBad Reporter makes the Chronicle worth buying. Since my comrade Mark and I can no longer commiserate over the local print media while downing crumb donuts (me) and blueberry muffins (him) at Bob's Donuts, it's up to me to belly-ache about how his comic ("The LIES behind the TRUTH, and the TRUTH behind those LIES that are behind that TRUTH") amusingly underscores all the crap that is the Chronicle. Both the L.A.Times (frustratingly not available for home delivery in my 'hood) and the Examiner ("Since 1865") have more solid regional coverage.... Read more
March 29, 2004
March 18, 2004
Catch, Twenty-two!
Stanford University, amongst others, refuse blood donations from people who have spent more than three months in the UK over the past two decades (!!) . This is because of variant Creuzfeld-Jacob ("mad cow") disease, for which there is no blood test. ... but there isn't a blood test because vCJD is transmitted through spinal matter, not the bloodstream (-- insert gag about blood sausage here --).... Read more
March 12, 2004
Filet of soul.
Dave Blood committed suicide yesterday. Punk rock is what we make it.... Read more
February 27, 2004
Bless this Old Tub.
The New York Times' Obituaries section always evinces a bittersweet smile: I enjoy reading about the unusual and strong people on these pages, people who have, perhaps quietly, made a difference in our understanding of the way we live. Under the headline Master Bourbon Distiller, today I read that Frederick Booker Noe, whose name I first encountered on a bottle of bourbon, died. The 6'4" Booker said: "A respectable amount of bourbon to pour in a glass is about two fingers' worth. Lucky for me I have big fingers." (sound clip at the Small Batch bourbon site).... Read more
... silver screen, can't tell 'em apart at all ...
Listening to Bowie this morning, thinking about a painter from Pittsburgh. Scott Blake's digital pointillism might be making a weighty statement about how we have trapped ourself in the measured black-and-white of the automated world, or he might be making cool collages. Or both.... Read more
February 26, 2004
History Lesson Pt. II
Thanks to aram, we have something else to argue about: The Real Top 100 Albums of All time... Interesting Facts The appearance of two Sonic Youth Albums, Slint's Spiderland, and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless in the top ten illustrates the strong influence of thirty-something indie-rockers. Bands with the most appearances on the list The Beatles - 5 Albums David Bowie - 4 Albums Radiohead - 4 Albums Talking Heads - 3 Albums Velvet Underground - 3 Albums... Read more
February 21, 2004
Marsh Arabs
This picture appeared on the front page of today's New York Times. A few months ago, the Week in Review section had a heartbreaking series of photographs on a similar theme.... Read more
February 20, 2004
Slave to the turntables
Who thinks these are candidates for worst album covers ever? I need to find and scan the beautiful cover of Las Limonadas Verdes, the polyester-suited crooners from south of the border.... Read more
February 17, 2004
Don't you know how time zones work?
If only this Flash applet took an argument. So many puerile jokes ensue ...... Read more
February 12, 2004
I prefer men to cauliflowers.
Began reading the much-acclaimed novel The Hours. I was lost by the second word ("hurries") in the Prologue; I've a prejudice against fiction written in the present tense. It's difficult to accomplish, because the immediacy it conveys is muted or contradicted by the fact that the action is obviously in the past (the Prologue describes a death; the second chapter helpfully declares "It is Los Angeles. It is 1949." within a few sentences). I hoped that Michael Cunningham would abandon the conceit after the Prologue, for which I could have forgiven him. I have read, quite recently, a novel which pulled off the present-tense quite surprisingly, but now I can't remember which.... Read more
Book of Illusions, Nr. 2
I perused Oracle Night yesterday, but was disappointed. The book-within-a-book1, and the book within that, was brilliant, but everything tapered off so suddenly that I couldn't but think, as I approached the last few pages, that I had a truncated copy of the book. Perhaps this printing left out a hundred pages? I wondered hopefully as the antagonist became clear. But no. 1 The multi-page footnotes quickly irritated me. The digressions might have been more effectively worked into the narrative; Auster has shown that he's good with quick asides. The amount of detail worked into the footnotes was unnecessary and disrupted the succinct flow of the narration.... Read more
February 10, 2004
Tic-tic-tow.
I'm re-reading Motherless Brooklyn. The action of this book takes place almost entirely in New York City, in the Boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, in a two-day period. Towards the end of the narrative, the protagonist (and narrator) takes his first trip outside of the city limits.... Read more
Where iTunes end and you begin.
From this morning's Business Day (which on Mondays for the past decade has carried the unnerving subtitle, "The Information Industries"): Steve Halberstadt of Raleigh, N.C., made such a purchase last week after discovering that Apple's iTunes store, the Web's leading downloadable music outlet, had added "The Whitey Album," a 1995 release by Ciccone Youth, a jokey side project of the rock band Sonic Youth. The album's second track album, "Silence," consists of 63 seconds of exactly that. (The band has said, with tongue in cheek, that the track is a version of John Cage's famous silent composition "4'33"," only speeded up.) After checking out the 30-second preview, which "seemed to be very representative of the rest of the song," Mr. Halberstadt said he could not help but make the purchase. He described it as "the best 99 cents I've ever spent'' Using the readers' suggestions, Mr. Miller compiled a playlist of "nine tracks of professionally encoded silence, a total of 6 minutes and 44 seconds of the yawning void," downloadable from iTunes for just $8.91. He noted that as with all iTunes purchases, antipiracy measures allow the silence to be enjoyed on no more than three computers.... Read more
February 7, 2004
Do you have any room in that hand-basket?
While playing the Boggle Deluxe smackdown at Chez Shumavon-Riley, Aram could not be stopped from putting on the Ritz.... Read more
January 30, 2004
Strip-mining the city.
Racine Port, Montréal, Québec 2001"> The photography of Edward Burtynsky grabbed my eye when an announcement of an upcoming (well, 2005) retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum of Art appeared in the New York Times. His photography explores the displacement of nature through the works of man: highway interchanges, landfills, cargo commerce.... Read more
January 23, 2004
All my troubles seemed so far() away ...
Trying to algorithmically determine when "yesterday" was.... Read more
January 16, 2004
Slang King Nr. 2
SPAM filters are failing against the latest round of randomly-generated Subject: headers. Some recent favourites: "cyclades manic repairman motherland" "portage operating ineducable magnitude" it's like poetry. "imprompty amnesia falcon" "explicable bullet scold" AND: radian frescoes bobcat alsatian expositor (sounds like a Fall song) fascinate pontiff antipasto ineradicable coalition but "magneto snoshage links" was from aram :-) February 5, 2004 UPDATE: The New York Times has a nice article on this phenomenon in today's Circuits section... Read more
January 13, 2004
What time is it?
While German police are investigating for fraud a man who sold potatoes as computers, even more enterprising youth are installing sound systems run by russets and building a tuber-powered web server, which feature a 220uF capacitor which " ... can power the server for about 10 seconds, long enough to swap in a new potato or simply stab one of the nails or copper wires into a fresh, juicy area." So much for my gags about a potato clock. UPDATE: Down at the pub, Aram set up a full-scale potato clock while we quaffed whiskey and ate tiramisu with a bar spoon. Reading found the scientific explanation for all this tomfoolery.... Read more
January 8, 2004
January 5, 2004
The year of the monkey.
Toddler triumphs in National Monkey Face Championship A 2-year-old boy has won the National Monkey Face Championship held at the Yomiuriland amusement park in suburban Tokyo to commemorate 2004 as the Year of the Monkey. The boy, whose parents did not want to be identified, won for the face he pulled as he screeched, "I love bananas. I eat five bananas a day." He was awarded with one month's supply of bananas for his victory and appeared delighted to have won the prize. Competitors ranged from infants to high school students.... Read more
December 24, 2003
Everything in its right place.
From my phone to the internet in two clicks: I've started a photoblog. The first entry was, naturally, a photo of sprout.... Read more
December 20, 2003
My list of things to do today.
Movies with Scottish characters and thick talk: Gosford Park (Mary Macheachern) Rushmore (Magnus Buchan) Trainspotting... Read more
December 19, 2003
For cribbin' out loud.
The thoroughly enjoyable Charlie LeDuff article on the Los Angeles River may have been plagiarised. Consarnit.... Read more
December 12, 2003
Adventures in number portability.
After a few weeks of using different mobile services (and myriad phones), I decided to switch my phone number, oh that remote yet vital part of my identity, to a new carrier. The trouble arose when I mentioned that I'd like to switch two existing accounts back and forth, swapping between t-mobile and SprintPCS. But I wanted to keep both accounts. I balked at having to provide the password to my Sprint account to the t mobile representative, and she agreed that it was stupid ("why don't we just use one-time confirmation numbers?" she asked, sensibly).... Read more
November 27, 2003
The answer, my friend ...
I'm glad I'm not the only one this happens to.... Read more
November 24, 2003
November 10, 2003
Meat is a felony.
Drinking scotch and wandering through the Mug Shots section of The Smoking Gun (motto: "Paving the paper trail"), I found this unappealing mugshot and amusing vingette: Meet Lindsey Blackledge .... arrested in July 2002 for possession of a stolen, 14-ounce tri-tip steak ... a 38-year-old San Andreas woman ... called cops after discovering her meat was missing ... a trail of "meat juice" leading from King's grill to an upstairs apartment ... where they found the purloined sirloin hidden in a cabinet below the sink. Blackledge--who was found in the apartment--was charged with a felony.... Read more
November 6, 2003
His name was Stampy, you loved him very much.
After 20 years at the Baltimore Zoo, Dolly and Anna are becoming orphans. As a result of budget difficulties, the two African elephants must seek new homes -- or new mates.... Read more
October 22, 2003
Cereal, pen, and ink.
Rob Rogers' amusing take on Pittsburgh is Da Burgh to the core. I'm glad that he found better things to do than stick Cheerios up his nose. UPDATE: Other cartoonists are getting into trouble in their treatment of Da Burgh. Me, I've long found "Get Fuzzy" to be teetering on the edge of funny. I want to laugh, but then I realise, "Oh, this isn't actually comical." Worse now that the Chronicle is now fiddycent, right where we were three years ago.... Read more
October 11, 2003
It could be closer than you think.
Running errands earlier this morning, I stopped in the record store on a lark. A colourful display marked "Classic Goth" caught my eye, and I laughed aloud at the name. But I stopped laughing when I noticed some of the on-sale titles: Bauhaus' Mask; Love & Rockets' Express: remastered and with the excellent bonus tracks, including a cover of Syd Barrett's Lucifer Sam. Hey, Bauhaus had already covered T. Rex's "Telegram Sam", and this song logically followed. After hearing "Double Dare" at the jukebox at the Edinburgh Castle on Weds., I've had bauhaus and related on my mind. It's all in my mind. In addition to the L&R, of which I have a vinyl copy gathering dust, I got a copy of the new Killing Joke album with Mr Dave Grohl, and a copy of Rough Trade's Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before anthology, with young bucks covering old toons by the likes of Cardiff's favourite brawlers, The Young Marble Giants and The Fall (no hyperlink; who'd put together a web site for these punters?). And Elizabeth Fraser singing Robert Wyatt.... Read more
October 8, 2003
The polls are now closed!
The town crier just rode by, bellowing "The polls are now closed" at the top of his lungs. I'm sitting on the stoop, drinking the dregs of a case of Miller High Life (The Champagne of Beers, available $8.99 from the New Santa Clara Market on the corner) with Aram, who's on the phone for a legal hearing. At 8 o'clock in the pip emma. Everyone's trying to claim the short short spot in front of the house; some idiot parked poorly, and took up two good spots with one ugly Subaru. And some clown driving a pimped-out late-model Camaro convertible parked across the sidewalk, blocking pedestrian right-of-way. After about half an hour, a kid suddenly charged at the car and rolled capably across the hood. The annoying car alarm went off, and the enraged car driver had to interrupt his Scott St. booty call to turn off the alarm.... Read more
