RaRaRiot – Dying is fine
Central Waste Material Co.
From my favorite Saint Louis photoblog.
Babylon the bride
“The tower of Babel was not a myth, it was a real place“. For context, see a clusterchat that has been expanding somewhere else around here.
Freddy Fender, Wasted Days and Wasted Nights
teaching the bible
“a year that judges have declared outstandingly strange”
Announced this morning, the titles in contention include Curbside Consultation of the Colon, a handy guide for doctors, and the compulsively-readable sounding 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais.
Also in the running are the acclaimed Baboon Metaphysics, the product of years of close observation by its authors, the analytical The Large Sieve and its Applications, and Strip and Knit with Style. . . .
. . .
The final contender is Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring, from Woodhead Publishing, an imprint with a consistently strong Diagram showing which last year controversially lost out with the classic Cheese Problems Solved to the eventual winner If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs.
The Guardian reports on Bookseller magazine’s annual Diagram prize for oddest title.
the age of the portrait
Crisis of Credit
The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
Paul Otlet
I have never heard of Otlet until today.
Michael Steele on the GOP’s attempts to target one-armed midgets and other minorities
We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-suburban hip-hop settings.
We need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets.
It will be avant garde, technically. It will come to the table with things that will surprise everyone — off the hook.
I don’t do ‘cutting-edge’. That’s what Democrats are doing. We’re going beyond cutting-edge.
falling model
The Dan Meth Trilogy Meter
No, “Lot” was not the place you played stickball
Andrew Motion, poet laureate, thinks the Bible and other religious texts should be taught in public (or “private,” depending on your side of the pond) schools:
The poet, who describes himself as an atheist, called for an overhaul of the school curriculum to reverse the “depressing” trend which threatened to leave future generations unable to fully understand the works of Milton and Shakespeare or even more recent writers such as TS Eliot.
The solution, he said, could be to include study of the Bible and other religious stories into a new wider general studies curriculum as well as working it into everyday lessons.
Mr Motion, who holds a chair in creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, said that he had struggled to teach Milton’s Paradise Lost to undergraduates because they had no concept of the fall of man.
Daryl, do you have anything to say about this? You teach literature, don’t you?
Dubai, used car capital of the world
With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.
Seemed like a good idea at the time.
No one knows how bad things have become, though it is clear that tens of thousands have left, real estate prices have crashed and scores of Dubai’s major construction projects have been suspended or canceled.
I found some work
$18.25 lay crumpled on the bottom
of my Cafe Bustelo coffee tin
at the end of an afternoon
writing poetry
on a Remington manual typewriter
on a small desk
on the Uptown N-Q-R-W subway platform
14th Street-Union Square, New York City.
And now for some GOOD fucking news about global warming
A laborious study of the girth of 70,000 trees across Africa has shown that tropical forests are soaking up more carbon dioxide pollution that anybody realised. Almost one-fifth of our fossil fuel emissions are absorbed by forests across Africa, Amazonia and Asia, the research suggests.
Simon Lewis, a climate expert at the University of Leeds, who led the study, said: “We are receiving a free subsidy from nature. Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18% of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of change.”
The study measured trees in 79 areas of intact forest across 10 African countries from Liberia to Tanzania, and compared records going back 40 years. “On average the trees are getting bigger,” Lewis said.
Compared to the 1960s, each hectare of intact African forest has trapped an extra 0.6 tonnes of carbon a year. Over the world’s tropical forests, this extra “carbon sink” effect adds up to 4.8bn tonnes of CO2 removed each year – close to the total carbon dioxide emissions from the US.
Talkin’ ’bout Cairo
That’s ‘Care-oh’, Illinois.
Lewis and Clark Memorial Sculpture. Fort Defiance State Park. Cairo, Illinois. 2006.
Cairo folks insist that Lewis and Clark’s expedition really began at Cairo.
Foxes jumping on a trampoline
That is all.
(Via Swerdloff)
“Where’s the map, dear?”
“Did I leave it in your car when we shifted to mine, do you think?”
“No, I recall your bringing it back here when we locked my car.”
“Oh! I know! I bet it’s back here in the box — ”
“In the box with the dildo and the butt plug!”
Et voilà!
Modern Logger Poster
via Coudal
Bookshelves: How To, for Josh
The following is a quick guide for making the bookshelves I posted last night. I realize it may be of limited use or interest, so feel free to ignore if this isn’t your thing. If these directions aren’t clear enough, I may add some photos or illustrations at some point. Let me know if you have questions.
Read more
unbooks
traditional book is released in editions. When a work is revised or updated, a new edition is released. These revised or updated editions usually offer small, incremental changes, such as a new preface or introduction, a new chapter, or small changes to the content.
An unbook is more like software:
1. An unbook is never finished, but rather continually updated, based on feedback from users andtheir evolving needs.
2. An unbook is released in versions. As in open source software, version 1.0 of anunbook is a significant milestone, indicating that it is stable and reliable enough for use by the general public. The significance of a new release is indicated by the size of the gap: For example, the difference between 1.1 and 1.1.3 is minor, while the difference between 1.1 and 2.0 is major.
3. An unbook is supported by a community of users who share their experiences and best practices with each other, and help each other troubleshoot problems encountered in their practice areas. An unbook’s community is a very real part of the unbook’s development team.
An unbook is mindware: software for the mind.
I have been recently toying with David Gray’s unbook Marks and Meaning (see, also, here for more specifics) which requires some patience, not because it is boring but because it requires engagement. You’ll find nearly as many blank pages for sketching and marginalia as you do content. It is a little unsettling at our first since our inclination is normally to be passive while reading.
The best part, however, is the community built into the book. After ordering it, you get an automated email from Dave encouraging you to email him and join the google group. And I’ve found the discussion and responsiveness the group (Dave, included) refreshing and vibrant. In this case, I have stumbled upon a commnity much like clusterflock, a loose aggregation of disparate, brilliant minds, but with a particular focus on visual language.
I recommend the experience, if not with Marks and Meaning, then with another unbook.
Reading Reader’s Africa on the Central Line
More words and images from my failed bid to penetrate the Heart of Darkness…
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I proceed at my own risk, mindful of the possibility of property damage, personal injury, and DEATH.
Posted on the grounds of Bald Knob Cross. Alto Pass, Illinois. February 15, 2009.
Bald Knob Cross. Alto Pass, Illinois. February 15, 2009.
In terms of the public safety around the cross the [Cross and Grounds] Committee will be authorized [by the Bald Knob Cross of Peace Transition Board of Directors] to erect signage and a barricade around the grassy area below the cross to prevent and discourage close proximity to the structure until such time the panels can either be secured or removed.
Bleak House
Sigh. Jo the street-sweep has just died, and it got to me. Dickens doesn’t mind exaggerating for effect, but his sympathies are where we want them to be. Or at least where I want them to be.
On a more cheerful note, I’m getting ready to start Dan Simmons’ Drood tonight.
