Hi! (Music, and some other stuff)

Trees grow in Brooklyn

2010-11-15T10:54:00.000-08:00

New York recently unveiled a grand plan to clean up its waterways. Instead of spending billions on new tanks and pipes (ie, “grey infrastructure”), which take years to build and never quite address the problem, the city intends to invest in “green infrastructure”, such as roofs covered with vegetation, porous pavements and kerbside gardens. The scheme involves a fundamental shift in approach: instead of treating rainfall as waste to be whisked away as quickly as possible, New York will let it sink usefully into the ground: thereby helping to make the city greener, improve air quality, raise property values, increase jobs and lower water and energy costs, according to studies by the EPA and others.
http://www.economist.com/node/17468409?story_id=17468409&fsrc=rss

Sandia Announces Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion Energy Generation

2010-11-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have announced a breakthrough that could lead to break-even nuclear fusion reactions within 2-3 years. The goal of nuclear fusion research is to make energy from sea water, producing only the harmless gas helium as a result of the fusion reaction. It is the holy grail of clean, sustainable energy, the same process that powers our sun. The nuclear fusion efforts involve research at the cutting edge of physics, where one of the avenues of exploration goes by the name "Z-pinch" (which should gain the technique immediate street cred should it be successful). So what is a Z-pinch? And how could it power the future?

Article continues: Sandia Announces Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion Energy Generation

luuuuv yur vinyl

2010-11-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

From Charles Oliphant: “I will tell you a secret I learned from a German DJ when I was at AFN Europe, in Frankfurt.

Wet Transfer:1)Wash your Vinyl Record with Dish Soap and water, removing all dirt and debris. Blot-dry (don’t rub) with a Paper Towel, then dust off with a Compressed can of Air.
2) Take an Isomerizer/Misting Sprayer Bottle (the kind you use to spray ferns with)
3) Fill it with 50% Distilled Water/50% Isopropyl Alcohol
4) Spray it on the spinning vinyl record until it is totally coated with the liquid
5) Drop the needle on the record
6) The Needle will float it in the fluid, slightly suspending it
7) You will hear no scratches, pops or gouges Record to your computer via a turntable with a USB connector
9) Use a program like Q Base that will record it in analog
10) Enjoy your Vinyl Record Collection on your computer for the rest of your life.

CDs are not Hi-Fi, though DVDs can be.
CDS are compressions, they do not reproduce the Human Audible Range of 20HZ to 20KHZ MP3s are not Hi-FiHD Radio, is NOT!
Cassette Tapes can be Hi-Fi, as can Reel-To-Reel MachinesThis problem all came to pass when the Chairman of Sony, required his engineers to fit Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on one disc.
Compression was required, therefore Dynamic Range was Sacrificed.Vinyl is Final!
[via v. vale's re/search newsletter and bruce sterling]
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/11/the-latest-research-newsletter/

Ten Centuries In Five Minutes

2010-11-14T12:07:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrZvn1qckIs&feature=player_embedded

WATCH: The Funniest Take On The Federal Reserve You'll Ever See

2010-11-13T10:38:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k&feature=player_embedded#!

Fuck Cindy McCain

2010-11-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 10:57 PM
It turns out my take on Cindy McCain's NOH8 video wasn't nearly cynical or bitchy enough. [via slog]

John Aravosis goes ballistic on AmericaBlog:
Did she lie today or lie yesterday? Either way, she's a liar, and she should be removed from the NOH8 video because, as of right now, Cindy McCain is a hater.

Not to mention, great message she just sent to gay youth. If someone pressures you, cave and support hate. I can't believe I defended this woman over the past 24 hours to people who tweeted me, and messaged me on Facebook, and said she was a fraud. I argued that she had a done a great thing. And now we see the real Cindy McCain: Hateful two-faced homophobic fraud.

Her lying homophobic face needs to be yanked from that video immediately.
[via joe my god]

from the stacks- rock 'til you drop, by John Strausbaugh

2010-11-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

Wow, this book made my week. It's a take-no-prisoners attack on the contradictions of the '60s, growing old/getting rich, and bands that still try to rock after 30, the Rolling Stones being a prime target.
http://bad.eserver.org/reviews/2001/2001-12-2-8.40PM.html

Pentagon Sued Over DADT Separation Pay

2010-11-12T10:46:00.001-08:00

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon over a policy that cuts separation pay in half for service members who have been honorably discharged because of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/11/12/Pentagon_Sued_Over_Gay_Separation_Pay/

Rachel Maddow Clashes With Jon Stewart, Civilly, In Hour's Worth Of Interview Excerpts

2010-11-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/11/rachel-maddow-jon-stewart-interview_n_782538.html

Stewart Tackles George W. Bush's Contradictions In Recent Interviews (VIDEO)- http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-november-11-2010/the-decider-returns

How Do We Break It to Texas Governor Rick Perry?

2010-11-11T13:31:00.000-08:00

It looks like Rick Perry lives in a state where men can marry men—via teleconference, but still. Men marrying men! There in the state of Texas! [via slog]

Watch: George W. Bush's 'Decision Points', The Animated Version

2010-11-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23apATPCzMs&feature=player_embedded [via towleroad]

W Has the Self-Awareness of a Bison

2010-11-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

Plus- New Words With George W. Bush - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd2h_ONvOPU&feature=player_embedded

Matthew Norman: How did this wastrel ever find his way to the White House?
It takes a certain minimal intelligence for the truly dim to have a notion of their own dimness, but this is denied George Bush. He has the self-awareness of a bison
Wednesday, 10 November 2010

May the Lord the former president so ostentatiously worships have mercy on my soul, and those in Iraq without water, electricity and medicine forgive me, but I just cannot suppress a twinge of sympathy for George W Bush.

The source of this pity pang isn't the usual one with those struggling bemusedly with the loss of power (Mrs Thatcher literally unable, for example, to dial a phone number). So far as the practicalities, Mr Bush has adapted well. Apparently he concludes his memoir Decision Points with the familiar anecdote of how, within days of leaving Washington, he was picking up his dog's mess with a plastic bag in a Texas park. Evidently he regards this as a cute vignette of the transience of power, as well as his own endearing lack of pomp. Yet what causes the stab of pity is the stupidity at which it hints.

How could anyone in possession of a three-figure IQ (still a moot point with Bush) fail to see what a golden gift that image is to satirists? There he is, in the cartoon in my head, scooping up a couple of Cumberland sausages while following him, shovelling up the Augean Stable-sized steaming pile he left behind in the Oval Office, is Barack Obama at the wheel of an industrial digger.

Related articles
Do Bush's claims stand up under interrogation?
Bush is back – and he has 1.5 million books to shift
John Walsh: Never mind the contents. I can't get past the title
Leading article: We must judge Bush by his legacy, not his own words
Search the news archive for more stories

This blindness to visual imagery is quite a motif, judging by Times extracts and an interview with its editor. Apart from being attacked for indifference to black people by Kanye West, the rapper Obama dismissed as a jackass, all his greatest regrets are pictorial public relations disasters.

His sadness over Hurricane Katrina is not for the victims in New Orleans, as Mr West understood, but for the damage done to his reputation by that snap of him staring blankly and aloofly down on the catastrophe from the window of Air Force One. His paramount distress over Iraq is not over the loss of life, civilian and military, but how that banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" on the aircraft carrier came to make him look naive and vainglorious. He reveals his shallowness and vapidity with these reflections in the most crystalline of clarity, and hasn't a notion he is doing so.

It takes a certain minimal intelligence for the truly dim to have a notion of their own dimness, but this is denied him. Unlike Mr Tony Blair, who emerges from his well-calibrated if often chilling memoir as a man of colossal cleverness (though not intellect), W has the self-awareness of a bison. There seems even less to him than met the eye, and there was precious little of that. Astounding as it appears, we misoverestimated him.

And so the Wagner Question poses itself yet again. Every Saturday when the Brazilian sea monster murders his X-Factor song, 14 million people ask themselves how and why he is there. Reading these ghost-written titbits, you ask yourself the same. How in the name of all the saints did George W Bush, wastrel drunkard son of an East Coast patrician family, find his way to Pennsylvania Avenue by playing the genial good ol' boy from the South, and why in heaven's name did he want it anyway? And answers come there none.

The reduction of Bush's two terms to a satirical sequel to one of those US prep school movies in which the smirking, idiot boy breaks the honour code but is rescued by his Brahmin dad had come to seem shamefully hackneyed. But the one cliché worth trotting out here is that clichés are clichés because they are true. Somehow this half-witted frat boy journeyed, via some jovially preposterous sequence of events involving failed oil deals and baseball team franchises, from japes with Alpha Sigma Phi to possession of the nuclear codes.

Nothing, not even W himself, is ever quite that simple, and palpably there was an edge of madness in the family. In his teens, when his mother Barbara had a miscarriage, he relates, he drove her to the hospital. "I never expected to see the remains of the foetus," he recalls, "which she had saved in a jar to bring to the hospital. I remember thinking there was a human life, a little brother or sister." Enough in that alone, to drive any adolescent to drink, you'd have guessed, yet the tale is told as a homily to his mother's wisdom, and in some impenetrable way to justify his pro-life, anti-stem cell research hard line.

Almost every sentence in the Times extraction (and it does feel like having a tooth pulled) invokes a fatigued he-just-doesn't-get-it. Churchill is inevitably adduced, while W bangs on about his passion for reading history. Inevitably, he fails to make the connection.

"Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft," urged Winston, and while Bush did little as president other than read history books, the stagecraft entirely eluded him. Some of those tomes must have dealt with the British and Soviet experiences of invading Afghanistan, and not a word sunk in. I know how that feels from a tussle with A Brief History of Time. The difference is that I didn't extrapolate my failure to grasp a syllable into a bold attempt to rewrite the laws of quantum physics. He assumed he could rewrite the laws of geopolitics.
The process of historical revisionism has, like everything else, speeded alarmingly in the internet age. The emergence of Sarah Palin as an imaginable presidential candidate, allied to the unending travails of Obama, have induced in the amnesiac, the obtuse and the plain bananas a fondness for the memory of George W Bush.

It will not spread. If this great reader of history is concerned for his place in it – and that, needless to say, is why he hired a bright young groupie from Yale to write this memoir in something approximating English – he needn't fret. In those few lists ranking all the presidents compiled since he left office, W is invariably in the bottom five.
For the two imbecile wars he began, for condoning torture by denying waterboarding was torture at all on the grounds that his lawyers said it was legal; for turning the surplus he inherited from Bill Clinton into the crippling deficit that is bringing the age of American hegemony to a startlingly abrupt end; and for being the pitiably Wagnerian fool who stumbled on to the grandest stage without any apparent clue why or for what earthly purpose, there he will forever remain.
m.norman@independent.co.uk

Senior US appeals court judge says drug war 'lost,' country should try legalizing marijuana

2010-11-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A U.S. federal appeals court judge says the United States should consider legalizing marijuana.

Judge Juan Torruella tells a law school audience in Puerto Rico that experimenting with legalization of marijuana and perhaps other drugs is a better way to reduce drug abuse and crime.

The 77-year-old judge says it's the only "realistic" alternative since the drug war has been "lost" at a high cost to society. His comments Tuesday at the University of Puerto Rico were reported by the newspaper El Nuevo Dia. [via slog]
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jfyVtRpH9HS60T2KCmINiiIHujWA?docId=5090089

mix tape 133

2010-11-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

Willie Bryant - Algiers Blues- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC0P5vwjI3U
Tabby Thomas - Hoodoo Party http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Obd8RE4d4U
Clarence Garlow - Foggy Blues http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq_COV7HdOY

Bon Ton Roula- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iuDzFKHa6g

professor longhair, go to the mardi gras http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wAMr3V5lN4

2. big chief part 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2AmjXOKHZ0

Portland's Bike Use Tops 7%; Are 'Neighborhood Greenways' The Answer?

2010-11-09T10:50:00.001-08:00

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/11/portland-mode-share-tops-7.php

What's the deal with a government shutdown?

2010-11-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

(Chart of national debt by president by viewer Rick Seaman.)

Republicans want to repeal the health reform law and -- so they say -- cut spending. Democrats would like the government to function. The natural strategy for Republicans, then, is to threaten a shutdown of the government if Democrats won't give them what they want.

GOP lawmakers in the House get their first crack at it when Congress has to increase the amount the federal government is allowed to borrow, usually a routine order of business. From Talking Points Memo:

If the debt ceiling is not raised before the federal government uses up its current borrowing authority, then sometime in February the U.S. government will no longer be able to issue more debt. What does that mean? In short all hell will break loose.

For starters, the government would be forced either to slash all spending painfully, immediately, across the budget -- which could plunge us back into recession and cause immense personal pain -- or stop making payments on its outstanding debt, in which event the global economy would keel over. Really, it's that dire, which is why the vote to raise the debt ceiling has generally been a symbolic one. And yes, no one likes piles of government debt, but you can't get two wars, a recession and an economic recovery without it.

Bear in mind, of course, that Republicans are still out hunting in the weeds for spending cuts to fund the $700 billion in Bush tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. [maddow blog]

Watch: Maddow, NYT on Forces at Work Against DADT Repeal

2010-11-09T10:37:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf7Qg7A-Fj4&feature=player_embedded [maddow blog]

MICHIGAN: Assistant AG Andrew Shirvell Fired Over Anti-Gay Stalking Campaign

2010-11-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell was fired this afternoon for his loony tunes campaign against openly gay University of Michigan student body president Chris Armstrong.

Shirvell was called before the attorney general’s staff at 1:30 p.m. today, said Philip Thomas, Shirvell’s attorney. “The only reason they gave was the fact that they felt his actions had made it impossible for him to continue in his role,” Thomas said. The Attorney General’s Office was not available for comment. Shirvell has been under fire for comments he made about University of Michigan student body President Chris Armstrong, who is openly gay. Shirvell has shown up at public events to condemn Armstrong’s “radical homosexual agenda.”

Shirvell met for four hours on Friday with a panel made up of officials from the Attorney General’s Office. Shirvell has claimed his actions were both protected by Constitutional rights of free speech and were conducted away from his work on off-hours. “I think it’s most unfortunate,” Thomas said. “This whole thing has a political aroma to me. I think my client is a victim of the liberal media piling on. In the first stories about this, (Attorney General Mike Cox) was quoted as saying that my client was doing this on his own time. What’s changed since then?”Shirvell still faces a disbarment hearing due to a grievance filed by Armstrong's lawyer.
[via joe my god]

Olbermann Back Tomorrow

2010-11-08T10:06:00.000-08:00

Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 9:13 AM
Good. [via slog]

mix tape 132

2010-11-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Ol Dirty Bastard - Intro - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYnbcibUwHc&feature=related
Ol Dirty Bastard - Goin' Down - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu6a7eYeqzk&feature=related
Ol Dirty Bastard - Shimmy Shimmy Ya - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqM50eqjWFg&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Drunk Game(Sweet Sugar Pie) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_L7GRx-CiE&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Hippa To Da Hoppa - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pubwrWqyfIQ&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Baby C'mon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF-5INisp6k&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Cuttin Heads - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpW8L2Hy0Vs&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - The Stomp - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmQf6_XYeH4&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Snakes- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzHC6dxhVOc&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Brooklyn Zoo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvjIFIsbeec&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Raw Hide - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO9i4vmY4yk&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Harlem World - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlsE2Pz-AoE&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Damage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb4nCe_7W6w&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Brooklyn Zoo II(Tiger Crane) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrrYM0Px7OI&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Protect Ya Neck- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrv3SSpncPM&feature=related

Ol Dirty Bastard - Dont U Know - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOxn0p6zhSU&feature=related

Stephen Teeple Shows That Social Housing Can Be Green and Gorgeous

2010-11-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/11/stephen-teeple-shows-social-housing-can-be-green-gorgeous.php

from the stacks; dishwasher

2010-11-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

Essential, and tough to put down.
http://www.myspace.com/dishwasherpete
http://www.chefseattle.com/articles/dishwasher-pete-jordan.html

Netherlands Will Only Use Certified Sustainable Palm Oil by 2015 - First National-Level Commitment

2010-11-05T10:45:00.001-07:00

In a big boost for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification standard, the Netherlands has committed to only using sustainable palm oil by the end of 2015--and becomes the first nation to do so. Dutch businesses are Europe's largest importer and exporter of palm oil (about 2 million tons annually) with much of it going into products sold throughout the European Union.

Article continues: Netherlands Will Only Use Certified Sustainable Palm Oil by 2015 - First National-Level Commitment

Looks Like The Gay Vote...

2010-11-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

When we open our wallets for Democrats—and vote for them—the hope is that electing a Democratic president and Congress will result in significant progress on our issues. That's not just our delusional hope;

that was an explicit promise made to us by Democrats.

Once the Democrats were in power, everyone from Obama on down promised us, we would see real and significant progress on our issues: an end to DADT and DOMA, action on ENDA, a president willing to use the bully pulpit to aggressively defend our rights. But if, as we've seen, working to elect a Democratic president and give Democrats control of Congress results in no progress on our issues—no action on DADT, ENDA, or DOMA—then why the fuck should we bother?

If we get no progress under Democrats (just empty promises meant to excite their base), but no regress under Republicans (just empty threats meant to excite their base), why should we waste our time—and our money—worrying about who's in charge? [via slog]
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/11/04/looks-like-the-gay-vote

mix tape 131

2010-11-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

am i surprised?

2010-11-04T10:49:00.001-07:00

Via the BB Submitterator, Boing Boing reader Bergjylt says, "News broke in Norway a couple of hours ago: former police officials formed an intelligence group employed by the US embassy to illegally carry out surveillance and gather intelligence on Norwegian citizens. Google translate link to Dagbladet, a major Norwegian newspaper." — Xeni

mix tape 130

2010-11-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

George Takei: Mr. McCance, You Are A Douchebag And You'll Always Be One

2010-11-03T10:46:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UACK93xF-FE&feature=player_embedded [via joe my god]

a few bits from last nights election slog

2010-11-03T10:38:00.001-07:00

RHODE ISLAND: Pro-Gay Independent Lincoln Chafee Wins Governor's Race
Lincoln Chafee, who was the only GOP Senator to ever express support for marriage equality, has won the gubernatorial race in Rhode Island as an Independent. Democrat Frank Caprio had been leading up until two weeks ago, but lost ground after telling President Obama to "shove it" when he didn't get Obama's endorsement. Both Chafee and Caprio had promised to sign a marriage equality bill should one get to their desks. [via joe my god]

RHODE ISLAND: Providence Mayor David Cicilline Becomes Fourth Openly Gay Member Of The House Of Representatives
Providence Mayor David Cicilline tonight became the nation's fourth openly gay member of the U.S. House, joining Rep. Tammy Baldwin (WI), Rep. Barney Frank (MA), and Rep. Jared Polis (CO). LGBT history made in Rhode Island! [via joe my god]

MARYLAND: Pro-Marriage Governor Martin O'Malley Wins Reelection -
Many are looking to Maryland to become the next state to approve marriage equality and with Gov. O'Malley winning reelection, that prospect looks brighter. O'Malley has vowed to sign a marriage bill should it reach his desk. Big win for LGBT rights!

MASSACHUSETTS: Barney Frank Wins, GOProud Wastes Big Bucks Opposing Him -
The best part about Barney Frank's win is that GOProud just pissed away a shitload of money running ads in support of anti-gay teabagger Sean Bielat, who infamously said that since short people don't complain about not getting into the military, queers should just shut the fuck up. Let's all turn and give GOProud our best Nelson Munz: HA HA!

DELAWARE: O'Donnell Trounced, Entire State Masturbates In Celebration -
Democrat Chris Coons picks up Sen. Joe Biden's seat in a rout against "ex-gay" advocate and teabagger whackadoodle Christine O'Donnell, sending the entire state of Delaware off to whack their own doodles in celebration.

And file this under "It Gets Better":

2010-11-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

an openly gay man has been elected mayor of Lexington, Kentucky. [via slog]

Officially, this country is too stupid to succeed.

2010-11-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/11/02/statistically-republicans-almost-certain-to-takeover-house-democrats-almost-certain-to-hold-senate [via slog]

Watch: The Daily Show Mocks 'Cyber-Bullying Victim' Andrew Shirvell Over His Attacks on Chris Armstrong

2010-11-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-1-2010/look-who-s-stalking

Hi, I'm a Tea-Partier, animated

2010-11-01T13:22:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnUfPQVOqpw&feature=player_embedded#!

Istanbul: City of the Future

2010-10-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/city-guides/istanbul-traveler/ [via bruce sterling]

also, Cities in Focus Istanbul - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVL07Ay-bLU&feature=channel

more government snooping

2010-10-29T13:57:00.000-07:00

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the FBI, DEA, and the Department of Justice Criminal Division, "demanding records about problems or limitations that hamper electronic surveillance and potentially justify or undermine" the DoJ's new demands for back doors in all communications systems. If granted, those expanded spying powers would make it easier for the government to snoop on email, webmail, Skype, Facebook, even Xboxes. — Xeni • [boingboing]

from maddow blog

2010-10-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

The two students charged with invading Tyler Clementi's privacy have withdrawn from Rutgers University.

this modern world

2010-10-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

One Day This Kid Will...

2010-10-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

Tyler Green at Modern Art Notes posts this David Wojnarowicz piece and notes that it seems especially relevant at the moment. He writes:

Twenty years ago, Wojnarowicz made this piece, Untitled (One day this kid…). He made it as a 30 3/4-inch X 41-inch photostat, but it’s probably gained more cultural currency as a postcard available at just about every progressive bookstore in New York. This seems like a good time to post it. It also seems like a good time to suggest you visit and support GLSENand that you share Wojnarowicz’s work with, well, everyone you can think of. Especially young people, all of them."
Wojnarowicz died of AIDS-related complications in 1992. [via towleroad]

Bike Sharing Now in 100 European Cities

2010-10-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

First was the news that the London bike share program (conspicuously sponsored by Barclay's Bank) expects to break even and turn a profit in the next few years. Now Spiegel magazine reports that a new record has been reached, with 100 European cities supporting some type of bike sharing program. Why are we so far behind with this congenial form of inner city transport?
Article continues: Bike Sharing Now in 100 European Cities

Twenty-First Century Stoic -- From Zen to Zeno: How I Became a Stoic

2010-10-28T11:09:00.001-07:00

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/10/27/twenty-first-century-2.html

speaking of computers

2010-10-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

*It would appear that a hearty 4 megawatt, 2.5 petaflop machine blows right past the meager, dated, 2007-era, 1.75 petaflop American machine.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-10/28/chinese-supercomputer
*Interesting that it’s WIRED UK picking up on this, as I haven’t seen much in the US about it. Wonder why… [via beyond the beyond]

we need our heroes

2010-10-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

Adding:
Friday 11 September 2009 Gordon Brown issued an unequivocal apology last night on behalf of the government to Alan Turing, the second world war codebreaker who took his own life 55 years ago after being sentenced to chemical castration for being gay.
(If anyone knows the source of this image, please let me know. I'd love to give proper credit.)
[via maddow blog]

Anderson Cooper On Clint McCance

2010-10-28T10:48:00.001-07:00

updated- Arkansas School Board Bigot Clint McCance Resigns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP4QicpjS4A&feature=player_embedded

mix tape 129

2010-10-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

Vote for [Insert Name] for Judge

2010-10-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

Election of judges has always struck me as baffling and downright insane, but 39 states -- including New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan -- elect their judges in some form or another, including through partisan elections (Yikes!). The practice has had many famous opponents, including Alexis de Tocqueville -- who said electing judges would have "fatal consequences" for the American republic -- and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- who more recently brought attention to this issue during the selection process of Justice Elena Kagan. And yet, the institution persists. It persists despite egregious miscarriages of justice and a lack of logical rationales. We appoint our federal judges to lifetime terms and laud the "independent judiciary" that need not bend to the political zeitgeist of the time. We've always done that, right? So, why do we elect our state judges?
http://www.towleroad.com/ari-ezra-waldman/
[via towleroad]

karma...

2010-10-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

Itawamba School District ordered to pay Constance McMillen and ACLU $81,000 in legal fees in Mississippi lesbian prom case. [via towleroad]

Why We Hack: The Benefits of Disobedience

2010-10-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

http://lifehacker.com/5672997/the-benefits-of-disobedience-why-we-hack

Can’t Keep a Bad Idea Down

2010-10-27T10:43:00.001-07:00

“Here is a little dose of reality about where we actually rank today,” says Vest: sixth in global innovation-based competitiveness, but 40th in rate of change over the last decade; 11th among industrialized nations in the fraction of 25- to 34-year-olds who have graduated from high school; 16th in college completion rate; 22nd in broadband Internet access; 24th in life expectancy at birth; 27th among developed nations in the proportion of college students receiving degrees in science or engineering; 48th in quality of K-12 math and science education; and 29th in the number of mobile phones per 100 people.

A dysfunctional political system is one that knows the right answers but can’t even discuss them rationally, let alone act on them, and one that devotes vastly more attention to cable TV preachers than to recommendations by its best scientists and engineers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/opinion/27friedman.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

animated tell-tale heart (poe)

2010-10-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4s9V8aQu4c&feature=player_embedded

Jon Stewart's Rally & The HuffPost Sanity Buses Get The Taiwanese Animation Treatment (VIDEO)

2010-10-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz31FDhY4qw&feature=player_embedded

ha!

2010-10-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

Facebook reportedly shuts down group, 12,000-strong, calling for a kiss-in in front of the Pope in Barcelona on November 7. [via towleroad]

Californians- please vote to legalize cannabis!

2010-10-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

Proposition 19 - The New Leaf from ISHOTHIM on Vimeo.[via slog]

The Perfect Storm That Threatens American Democracy

2010-10-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

Which gets us to the second part of the perfect storm. A relatively few Americans are buying our democracy as never before. And they're doing it completely in secret.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring into advertisements for and against candidates -- without a trace of where the dollars are coming from. They're laundered through a handful of groups. Fred Maleck, whom you may remember as deputy director of Richard Nixon's notorious Committee to Reelect the President (dubbed Creep in the Watergate scandal), is running one of them. Republican operative Karl Rove runs another. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a third.

We're back to the late 19th century when the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators. The public never knew who was bribing whom.

We're losing our democracy to a different system. It's called plutocracy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-perfect-storm_1_b_767387.html

mix tape 128

2010-10-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

(Ja, Gut, mein husband!!)

The King Khan & BBQ Show - Bimbo's Theme - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f6bo6nw7K4&feature=related

MONKEYWRENCH - ON YOUR ARRIVAL - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9PvOEeMufg
The King Khan & BBQ Show - Shake Real Low - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uBM9NkhJ38&feature=related

country teasers - your english - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLJN9HlPDxo

The King Khan & BBQ Show - Pig Pig - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7sQtpTuzM8&feature=related

country teasers - panic holiday - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kP-zvpTfmE&feature=related

The King Khan & BBQ Show - Outta My Mind - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ1Z1j9OYXo&feature=related

The Oblivians - "Let Him Try" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zxN5cuAqyI&feature=related

King Khan and BBQ. Zombies - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Sgq7bnmHI&feature=related

The King Khan & BBQ Show - Get Down - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq6Jf9FLkfI&feature=related

King Khan & BBQ Show - "Tea Bag Party" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_74a6jiIjs

King Khan & BBQ Show - Tastebuds - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdRBAdzNhsw&feature=related

King Khan & BBQ Show - Why Don't You Lie? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZK-27QDVm0

The King Khan & BBQ Show - Invisible Girl - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i3r0Hvsjgw&feature=related

The King Khan & BBQ Show - Mind, Body & Soul - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT6ynG8v8yA&feature=related

Why I want to fuck J. G. Ballard

2010-10-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

In the first half fascism happened and was more or less quashed. In the second half certain unresolved energies left over from the thirties and forties spurted forth and flowered in a thousand weird and rarely wonderful little ways. Ballard absorbed the first half, and then-luckily for us-chronicled the second.

For Ballard, there were two controlling influences: fascism and surrealism - a marriage made, if not in heaven, then at least somewhere north by northwest of there.
http://io9.com/5671001/why-i-want-to-fuck-j-g-ballard

The best way to slow global warming is to stop having babies

2010-10-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

Despite the many possible technological and political solutions to global warming, one highly effective way to reduce carbon emissions is pretty straightforward: stop procreating. More »
[via i09]

Air Force Academy Now Welcomes Spell-Casters

2010-10-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

Just a few years ago, the Air Force Academy was considered such an evangelical hothouse that the place got sued for its alleged discrimination against non-Christians. Today, the Academy is boasting of its thriving pagan community — and its friendliness towards spell-casters.Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/air-force-academy-now-welcomes-spell-casters/#ixzz137iyNNUt
[via boingboing]

rushmore...esque 40

2010-10-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

The Sisters - It Gets Better

2010-10-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

Tweet Of The Day - Lt. Dan Choi

2010-10-22T12:57:00.001-07:00

Mel Gibson film cameo cancelled after protests from cast and crew

2010-10-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

New setback for troubled actor as Warner confirms he won't appear as a tattoo artist in The Hangover 2.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/oct/22/mel-gibson-the-hangover-2

Paedophile former priest jailed for 21 years

2010-10-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

22 Oct 2010: James Robinson, 73, was extradited from California last year to face trial over 21 charges of sexually abusing boys .
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/22/paedophile-former-priest-jailed

French Post Office Aims to Have 10,000 Electric Vehicles in Use by 2011

2010-10-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Established in 1576, the French post office is the oldest mail delivery system in the world and one of the largest employers in France. Now, it's going green. La Poste has made sustainability a major goal for the next several years, with its sights set on serious carbon output reduction. To make it happen, the organization is developing a fleet of electric vehicles adapted to the varying needs of urban, suburban and rural mail delivery. The goal? Have 10,000 of them in use by 2011.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/in-france-going-postal-means-going-green.php

Choi: I Won’t Vote for Obama

2010-10-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

Gay Student Teacher Gets Job Back

2010-10-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

Seth Stambaugh, the gay student teacher removed from his position in Oregon last month after he told a student he was gay, will be reinstated.
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/10/22/Gay_Student_Teacher_Gets_Job_Back/

latest read; chris hedges' empire of illusion

2010-10-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

[2009, Whew! This slim book, 232 p., is a sobering wake-up call to America]

The country's moral decay is manifested in its physical decay. It is not coincidence that our infrastructure- roads, bridges, sewers, airports, trains, mass transit- is overburdened, outdated, and in dismal repair. It is not so everywhere. China opens a new subway system every year. Europeans travel from London to Paris on high-speed trains. Meanwhile, America's antiquated and inefficient rail system cannot maintain its lumbering cars and aging tracks.

"The emergence of what Eisenhower had called the military-industrial-academic complex had secured a grip on higher education that may have exceeded even what he had anticipated and most feared."

War and rampant militarism- we now have 761 military bases we maintain around the globe- drains the lifeblood out of the body politic. The U.S military spends more than all other militaries on earth combined. The official U.S defense budget for fiscal year 2008 is $623 billion, and by 2010 the Pentagon is slated to receive more than $700 billion, once funding for items such as nuclear weapons is included in the budget.The next closest national military budget is China's at $65 billion, according to the Central Intelligence Agency. [...] This belief has corrupted both Republicans and Democrats. The wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan are doomed to futility. We cannot afford them. The rash of home foreclosures, the mounting job losses, the collapse of bansks and the financial services industry, the poverty ripping apart the working classes, our crumbling infrastructure, and the killing of Afghan and Iraqi civilians by our iron fragmentation bombs converge. The costly forms of death we dispense on one side of the globe are hollowing us out from the inside at home.

The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes, and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time. When things start to go sour, when the Obama administration is exposed as a group of mortals waving a sword at a tidal wave, the United States could plunge into a long period of precarious social and political instability.

The defense industry is a virus. It destroys healthy economies.

Mellman coined the term permanent war economy to describe the American economy.

The corporate forces that control the state will never permit real reform. It would mean their extinction. These corporations, especially the oil and gas industry, will never allow us to achieve energy independence. That would devastate their profits.

At no period in Amerian history has our democracy been in such peril or the possibility of totalianarianism as real. Our way of life is over. Our profligate consumption is finished. Our children will never have the standard of living we had. This is the bleak future. This is reality. There is little President Obama can do to stop it. It has been decades in the making. It cannot be undone with $1 trillion or $2 trillion in bailout money. Nor will it be solved by clinging to the illusions of the past.

http://www.nationbooks.org/book/192/Empire%20of%20Illusion

Silence of the dissenters: How south-east Asia keeps web users in line

2010-10-21T10:52:00.001-07:00

Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines are all moving towards Chinese-style internet censorship• Interactive guide: censorship in Asia http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/oct/21/internet-web-censorship-asia

How Can Anyone Be Gay and Republican?

2010-10-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

DADT Appears To Be Dead; DOH!

2010-10-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

"Really, what's in my heart right now is it's going to be really hard for me to vote for Barack Obama," prominent gays-in-the-military activist Dan Choi said in an interview. Choi re-enlisted in the Army at the Times Square recruiting station in New York on Oct. 19.

"Call me a one-issue person, but this is really pissing me off," Choi added. "When Congress has a law that's unconstitutional, it's the job of the courts to call it unconstitutional. That's Civics day one. Obama's giving Don't Ask, Don't Tell mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. For him to do that at this point is upsetting, it's disgusting." [via joe my god]

[business as usual]
Following President Obama's Request for an "Emergency Stay" on the Ruling Overturning 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell': "Federal Appeals Court Reinstates 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' Gay Military Service Members Must Again Hide Sexual Orientation."

Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 4:19 PM
Dan Choi reenlisted this afternoon.

republican-lite

2010-10-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

Administration Working To Make Wiretapping Easier
Federal officials are trying to strengthen a law that could force carriers to delay releasing new services until their networks are wiretap-ready. [via slate]

churches are your friends!

2010-10-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

This Week In Holy Crimes

Over the last seven days...
Washington: Pastor Greg Scott Glover arrested for stealing oxycontin from the home of an elderly parishioner. She busted him with a hidden camera.
Ireland: Father Brendan Wrixon charged with sexual assault of a teenage boy.
Ontario: Reverend Paul Hartig charged with felony theft for stealing from his own church.
California: Pastor Dino Cardelli arrested for molesting a 13 year-old girl. Cardelli was already charged with molesting another child.
Ontario: Father William Marshall to be tried for molesting more than 15 boys. Marshall is 88.
Florida: Pastor Michael Campbell charged with molesting an underage girl in his church's hearse.
North Carolina: Pastor Robert Lee McQueen sentenced to 14 years in prison for dealing heroin.
Michigan: Pastor Stephen Sparks charged with embezzling over $1M from church and family members.
New Mexico: Pastor Matthew Nichols pleads guilty to distributing child porn. Nichols was his church's youth minister and was previously convicted of criminal solicitation of a minor.
Ontario: Father Dale Crampton commits suicide following $2M lawsuit by molestation victim. Crampton was convicted of molesting seven altar boys during the 1980s.

This Week's Winner
Indiana: Pastor Vaughn Reeves is on trial for orchestrating a multimillion dollar Ponzi scheme built around investments supposedly meant for church construction. Reeves and his three sons are accused of bilking more than 11,000 people by luring them into buying $120M worth of property bonds. Allegedly the four paid off early investors with the money of others while stealing millions for themselves to purchase mansions, luxury vehicles, and a plane. The pastor and his sons face over 40 felony counts of securities fraud.
Labels: molestation, religion, scams, This Week In Holy Crimes
[via joe my god]

Hoshigaranai Wakamonotachi — they don’t want consumerism, and you can’t sell them anything

2010-10-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

young people don’t want brand-label goods, don’t drive, don’t play sport, don’t drink, don’t travel, don’t want serious relationships but do like to save and stay at home. (((One wonders why this chaste, low-carbon lifestyle isn’t world-famous.)))

From the rise of NEETs [Not in employment, education or training] to the phenomenon of “herbivorous” men who prefer eating cake and hanging out with their mothers to long-term relationships, this forensic analysis of the younger generation frequently draws its own conclusions, the underlying point apparently being that young people don’t have the motivation or the stamina of their parents.  (((Alternately, maybe they’re not greedhead morons. Same difference?)))
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/10/hoshigaranai-wakamonotachi-they-dont-want-consumerism-and-you-cant-sell-them-anything/

and in other news

2010-10-17T12:11:00.001-07:00

Suburbs Now Home To One-Third Of America's Poor.. Growth Rate Of Suburban Poverty More Than Double That Of Cities.. More News From 'Third World America'

the world from san francisco

2010-10-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

mix tape 127

2010-10-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

mix tape 126

2010-10-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

Drowsy-relaxing, with vibes...
This is one of my favorite Miles Davis releases because of its sensuous quality. Apparently real jazz afficionados don't like it too much because Miles was still using junk, and his playing isn't inspired. But for me, the slowness works for the whole EP. Oh, and it's the only (I think) album of his to feature vibes, which I love. Bonus cool: issued on Mingus' own label...

Miles Davis - Nature boy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDS_nqHaUvc
Alone Together- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6gRQTslQfw
miles davis charles mingus blue moods- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T34gW1AqUDI

Miles Davis Quintet, There Is No Greater Love-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlzrltGXezE

-Trane's Blues- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udL8L_XztNU

-Just Squeeze Me- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK7S150Ix8g

-Diane- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaCcH-KKTmE

-Stablemates- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVKedxJ8kME

-How Am I To Know- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UBYq1trmwk

-Something I Dreamed Last Night- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBYD9BbZ9VE

Johnny Pacheco - Dakar Punto Final (latin)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKXyYFRdgMw

miles davis quintet, no line- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVqsRw-kBiQ

steempy, you eeee-diot!

2010-10-16T10:04:00.001-07:00

Holder There a Minute: According to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department will continue to enforce drug laws even if voters in California approve Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act.

newest book- teenage by jon savage

2010-10-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/apr/14/society

FCKH8

2010-10-15T10:15:00.001-07:00

[via slog]

13th floor elevators, you're gonna miss me (on TV)

2010-10-14T13:27:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_uywVpzXW8

jacob appelbaum

2010-10-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

"I never write checks, becauise they're insecure- your routing number and account number are all that are required to empty your bank account. I don't understand why anyone still uses checks."
-from rolling stone 1112

Norway's grassy roofs

2010-10-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice little collection of rural Norwegian homes whose roofs have been given over to the traditional turf -- and even small forests.

Turf roofs in Norway are a tradition and you will see them everywhere. Roofs in Scandinavia have probably been covered with birch bark and sod since prehistory. During the Viking and Middle Ages most houses had sod roofs. In rural areas sod roofs were almost universal until the beginning of the 18th century. Tile roofs, which appeared much earlier in towns and on rural manors, gradually superseded sod roofs except in remote inland areas during the 19th century. Corrugated iron and other industrial materials also became a threat to ancient traditions. But just before extinction, the national romantics proclaimed a revival of vernacular traditions, including sod roofs. A new market was opened by the demand for mountain lodges and holiday homes. At the same time, open air museums and the preservation movement created a reservation for ancient building traditions. From these reservations, sod roofs have begun to reappear as an alternative to modern materials.

Every year, since 2000, an award is also given to the best green roof proje The Grass Roofs of Norway (via Geisha Asobi)

sf reissues

2010-10-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

Jeter's Morlock Night and Infernal Devices are being reprinted.
http://io9.com/5662612/steampunk-book-covers-are-ornate-dazzling/gallery/

dragon's blood

2010-10-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

Where on Earth do these extraterrestrial toadstool trees grow? The Socotra archipelago is an isolated island chain in the Indian Ocean. One-third of the flora on Socotra grows nowhere else on the planet, including these curious dragon's blood trees (Dracaena cinnabari). More »

from maddow blog

2010-10-14T10:30:00.001-07:00

With Sunday's NYTimes story about robot Google cars driving us around on their own still popping in my head, I saw someone randomly tweet this video about how removing the traffic lights around a traffic circle in Bristol, England actually improved traffic conditions.
This result is familiar by now.

The earliest version of the experiment I am aware of was in the Dutch town of Drachten in which removing the traffic lights and signs (see also "naked streets") counterintuitively resulted in fewer people (actually no one) crashing into each other.
Continue reading this entry ...

anonymous

2010-10-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

"The century has known a few great incendiaries. Today they're dead, or finishing up preening in the mirror... Everywhere, youth (as it calls itself) discovers a few blunted knives, a few defused bombs, under thirty years of dust and debris; shaking in its shoes, youth hurls them upon the consenting rabble, which salutes it with its oily laugh."
-ad for Potlatch, a surrealist/dadaist publication

look at this!

2010-10-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

[...] With "Pretty Vacant", their third single, the Sex Pistols had risen from graves hundreds of years cold as Lollards, carriers of the ancient British heresy that equated work with sin and rejected both. Work, the Bible said, was God's punishment for Original Sin, but that was not the Lollards' bible. They said God was perfect, men and women were God's creation, so therefore men and women were perfect and could not sin-save against their own perfect nature, by working, by surrendering their God-given autonomy to the rule of the Great Ones, to the lie that the world was made for other than one's perfect pleasure. It was a dangerous creed in the fourteenth century, and a strange idea to find in a twentieth-century pop song, but there it was, and who knew what buried wishes it might speak for?
-from grail marcus' Lipstick Traces

oh, christine

2010-10-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

And finally, please enjoy this Taiwanese CGI tribute to Christine O'Donnell, who famously told voters "I am not a witch" (which is exactly the kind of thing a witch would say).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPhvw1LW7HU&feature=player_embedded
[via slog]

good/bad

2010-10-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

In Case You Missed It: A federal judge has ordered the military to immediately stop enforcing DADT (which is wonderful) and the Obama administration is appealing a ruling that strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act (which is crappy). [via slog]

mix tape 125

2010-10-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

Bob Gruen

2010-10-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

"The fact that the [New York] Dolls wore lipstick connotated homosexual, but they weren't. Somebody asked JoHansen if he was bisexual, and he said, 'No, man, I'm trisexual, I'll try anything.'"
-from jon savage's England's Dreaming

Malcolm McLaren

2010-10-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

"Be childish. Be irresponsible. Be disrespectful. Be everything this society hates."

NYC’s Quality of Place Agenda

2010-10-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

Check out this video (via Urbanophile) on New York City’s wide-ranging efforts to improve quality of place. It’s shifting from a car city to a “city for people” – expanding bike lanes into a networked cycling infrastructure and upgrading its bus system. The environment benefits, it’s easier to get around, streets are safer, and neighborhoods are quieter - all of which make the city a more desirable place to live, work, and play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbB5p2KYtyw&feature=player_embedded
[via creative class]

In US, Cutting Carbon and Noise Pollution Go Hand In Hand

2010-10-12T10:40:00.001-07:00

A new report from the National Academy of Engineering states that the US is tops at being too darn loud, and that all the noise is hazardous to our health. It's not terribly surprising news. In fact, naturally quiet places are an endangered species in the US. But the suggestions made by NAE for trimming noise would also help us cut out carbon emissions.
Article continues: In US, Cutting Carbon and Noise Pollution Go Hand In Hand

please enjoy the revamped-by-Banksy opening credits of last night's The Simpsons.

2010-10-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1iplQQJTo&feature=player_embedded

Douglas Coupland, A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years

2010-10-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

6) The middle class is over. It's not coming back

Remember travel agents? Remember how they just kind of vanished one day?
That's where all the other jobs that once made us middle-class are going – to that same, magical, class-killing, job-sucking wormhole into which travel-agency jobs vanished, never to return. However, this won't stop people from self-identifying as middle-class, and as the years pass we'll be entering a replay of the antebellum South, when people defined themselves by the social status of their ancestors three generations back. Enjoy the new monoclass!

32) Musical appreciation will shed all age barriers
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-radical-pessimists-guide-to-the-next-10-years/article1750609/singlepage/#articlecontent

Breakthrough Energy Harvesting Device Successfully Fabricated

2010-10-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

News from researcher Dr. Long Que, at Louisiana Tech University, could be one of the most promising breakthrough in energy efficiency ever, as well as a powerful new tool for realizing alternative energies. Que reports designing and successfully fabricating a device that can harvest energy from heat wasted by electronic gadgets, solar energy, or any other system with heat cycles. Why is this so exciting? This technology could provide a step-change in energy efficiency in almost every tool and product we use, without requiring people to change their behavior.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/breakthrough-energy-harvesting-device-success.php

Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman—Movie 01

2010-10-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poUN_8u3hSo

another idea...

2010-10-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Here in Portland, we've got a few derelict buildings in the Old Town area among others. Why don't we turn these buildings into homeless shelters? They could even help in renovating the insides as a 'fee' for living there. You'd get homeless off of the streets, get historic (and pretty) buildings rehabbed, and, at the risk of sounding cynical, you'd get positive PR. The developers here get all hot and bothered at the thought of razing these homes and building condos on the site. Portland is somewhat famous for its older places, but if these are snuffed out Portland becomes another anonymous McCity. We also have a rep as a more sympathetic city towards the homeless (which the business association would love to move to the hinterlands- bad for business, don'cha know). Solve 2 problems at once. Why not? Can anyone honestly think of a reason not to do this?

steve turner @ myspace

2010-10-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.myspace.com/stivturner