news, etc:
Arts & Letters Daily
Drudge Report
SalonHerringWiredFool
Slashdot
Solar Data
USGS Quake Info
Wired
Yahoo! Top Stories
cams:
my cam
BC's Cam
Pittsburgh
Popocatepetl
S.F. Bay
UCLA Solar Tower
Vegas Wedding Cam
weblogs:
Bubble Chamber
linkwatcher
memepool
metafilter
Robot Wisdom
December 25, 1999
ho ho ho:santa has a meltdown
December 16, 1999
feel the love:A Little White Chapel, located on the glittering Las Vegas Strip, is perhaps the most famous of the nearly 100 chapels specializing in one of Las Vegas' most enduring traditions, the quickie wedding. Vegas Wedding Cam
vibe:
new levi's commercial features a wey kewl puppet w/background loop from Armand Van Helden's Boogie Monster
December 15, 1999
word/art:from the Transhumanist Art Statement 2.0/FAQ -
"Our modes of expression are merging with science and technology in designing increased sensory experiences. We seek more critical thinking and less mysticism as we continue to evolve.... Transhumanist Artists want to extend life and overcome death. We plan to do so with vitality and amplified creativity. Emotions are integral to sensing and understanding life. We exercise a transhuman ecology of self-awareness and the pursuit of truthfulness."
origins of transhumanistic vision in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 [passage quoted]
definitions of transhumanism
trog:
article/overview of XML (Scientific American)
December 14, 1999
word:ads go for the soul - Zen Sells:
"As it preaches the salvation that comes through buying and having, advertising also is subtly changing how we think about spirituality and ourselves. Just as it did with sex in the fifties and sixties, advertising is well on its way to taking our highest spiritual yearnings and transforming them into the profitably banal."
in an equally disturbing vein - The Return of the Hidden Persuaders:
"To craft a more potent appeal for its brand of gasoline, Oeschle concluded, Shell would have to go deeper -- much deeper. Oeschle decided to call in Hal Goldberg, an Irvine, California-based consumer researcher who specializes in focus groups conducted under hypnosis.
The decision to put respondents in a trance, Oeschle recalls, was a controversial one. "My own research staff fought me on it," he says. "A number of people at Shell said, 'What the hell is this?' They thought it was unethical."
vibe:
new dj site launched yesterday -
"In order to promote the global skratch community, the Skratch.org site will include an MP3/Real Audio directory where artists can post their clips and receive comments; Skratch Radio that features live streaming skratch music 24/7; skratch news and articles by industry writers; archived poll; world events calendar; the world popular Turntable News Network; and monthly e-newsletter covering the latest in skratching." (press release)
December 13, 1999
word:Laura Martz' Free Time! Ludicity and the Anti-work Ethic: an excellent critique of consumer capitalist ideology through the eye of situationist theory; notes the differences between cynicism and kynicism (in the manner of Diogenes of Sinope).
"Cynicism is a pervasive mode of disillusioned survival. Sloterdijk's project is to recuperate enlightenment in the sense of a collective struggle forward by giving cynics a kynical shot in the arm. Kynicism and "situationism" (one of its forms) refuse to take things too seriously in their ludic practices of resistance. Sloterdijk calls for a return to embodiment, the reintroduction of the body into thought. We must live our philosophy and our politics."
wto:
Michael Moore on the WTO demonstrations -
Dear Friends,
They never knew what hit them. They had assumed
it would be business as usual, the way it had
been for decades. Rich men gather, meet, decide
the fate of the world, then return home to amass
more wealth. It's the way it's always been.
Until Seattle.
December 12, 1999
web fun:This is not some cheesy imitation 8 ball written in a web script. This is a real 8 ball being shaken and read just for you. I mean, you wouldn't use a voice-mail psychic, right? ...
50,000 years of technological advancement has culminated in a system to bring you mysticism on demand.
y2k h2o:
study says half of U.S. water utilities not ready for y2k:
Norm Dean, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Y2K &
Society, a nonprofit group seeking to cushion Y2K impact, said the industry data
presented a "real cause for concern."
Since the report did not predict which water suppliers may be disrupted by Y2K,
the center recommended households store 10 gallons of water per person for
the date change, or enough to last 10 days.
om:
how Buddhism came to America:
Religions--not just Buddhism--travel in
three major ways: as import, as export, and
as "baggage." (They may also be imposed by
conquest, which, happily, is not a factor in this
case.) Religions transmitted according to the
"import" model are, so to speak, demand
driven: the consumer (i.e. the potential
convert) actively seeks out the faith. "Export"
religions are disseminated through missionary
activity, while "baggage" religions are
transmitted whenever individuals or families
bring their beliefs along when they move to a
new place. It is these divergent styles of
transmission, not matters of doctrine, practice,
or national origin, that have shaped the most
crucial differences within American Buddhism...
December 11, 1999
word:page full of Jorge Luis Borges quotes:
Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song. -- Lecture entitled "The Divine Comedy," 1977
Whosoever would undertake some atrocious enterprise should
act as if it were already accomplished, should impose upon
himself a future as irrevocable as the past.
-- "The Garden of Forking Paths"
December 10, 1999
420:Carlos Santana tells Mex press: "Marijuana is not a drug and if factories are set up here to make clothes, tofu, cheese, medicine and paper from marijuana, we won't have to chop down so many trees."
...also talks about a vision/conversation with the Virgin Mary....
December 09, 1999
crazy moon:spotted in rec.music.gdead:
"For the first time in the life of anyone around today, we'll see a full moon occur on the Winter solstice, Dec. 22nd. Since a full moon on the Winter solstice occurs in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth), the moon will appear about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in its elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth). Since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at this time of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the moon is about 7% stronger making it brighter. Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon of the year since the moon's orbit is constantly deforming." (flashy@ripco.com)
The last perigee of a solstitial full moon was December 21, 1866 - 133 yrs ago. Lakota & Cheyenne warriors took advantage of the moon's brightness that night in a planned ambush of a U.S. column near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming. Captain William J. Fetterman and his 80 men were led by Crazy Horse into a trap of 2000 or so waiting warriors. Whites remembered it as "The Fetterman Massacre"; the Lakota called it the "The Battle of the Hundred Slain".
b-ball:
Sir Charles' career ends w/knee injury. "Just what America needs," he said. "One more unemployed black man."
e-bots:
these cats showed up in my log file. ew.
December 07, 1999
word:how to deconstruct almost anything:
"You get maximum style points for being French. Since most of us aren't French, we don't qualify for this one, but we can still score almost as much by writing in French or citing French sources. However, it is difficult for even the most intense and unprincipled American academician writing in French to match the zen obliqueness of a native French literary critic. Least credit is given for a clear, rational argument which makes its case directly..."
December 06, 1999
paranoia:HTML based email privacy hole.
email David