spasticrobot

April Fools!

I received a great April fools from the folks at True Majority today:

Close Race Ends with TV Talk Show the Winner
Despite our intentions to spotlight and encourage the positive in politics, we can fall into the trap of being negative and defensive. Too often, we forget that great things are happening even when it seems that the planet is falling apart. That’s why we’re launching our annual Award for Excellence in Broadcasting and News Media.

There are some wonderful publications and news organizations that share our hope for a more sustainable and compassionate world.

But in the end, only one news outlet was left standing—the only news show truly committed to “fair and balanced” reporting. Our winner is the Fox News Network’s O’Reilly Factor, hosted by Bill O’Reilly, for his in-depth coverage on the lack of consensus as to whether global warming is real. For more information on Mr. O’Reilly’s excellent reporting, go to www.fair.org/ohreally.html.

Because Bill O’Reilly presents the news so evenly, we don’t need another radio network like Air America, the new progressive source for talk and news. We’re urging all TrueMajority members to boycott the new network because Fox News provides the only voice our nation needs.

April Fool!

If instead you’d like to hear a fresh voice, check out Air America, especially Al Franken’s new program The O’Franken Factor, which will air weekdays at noon beginning March 31. Other hosts include Marc Maron, Chuck D, Laura Flanders, Randi Rhodes, Janeane Garofalo, and others.

Listen live to America's first all Liberal radio station.

We're more third-world than you!

I've long held the notion that New Orleans is undoubtly more third-world in nature than any other American city and becomes more so at a constant rate. The rampant poverty, massive crime problems, and an ultra-corrupt political system coupled with the surrounding environment of crumbling buildings, warped roads, burned out cars, overgrown neutral grounds and oppressive weather conditions (i.e. hurricanes, floods and sweltering heat & humidity), come together to create one of the most unstable and banana republic styled burgs in these United States.

Well, get a load of this, the 5th district court ruled on Friday that police officers in Louisiana no longer need a search or arrest warrant to conduct a brief search of your home or business. Consider this in light of the NOPD admitting today that they were "dangerously close to a federal takeover", due to a recently concluded 10 year Federal investigation into widespread corruption in the department and the horror of a third-world police state begins to take hold. It almost humorous to consider this. Almost, until you consider the implications.

Spring Cleaning

Spending the weekend working on Humid Beings stuff and organizing all of my data. I've gone through about 50 disks so far. It's great to reconnect with this stuff, some of which I haven't seen since '98 or earlier. I'm dumping everything onto my year old Maxtor 200GB Firewire drive that I've hardly gotten to use yet.

There's something so soothing about listening to good ambient electronic music and sorting through piles of data.

bernal spheres

Great science poster presentation from '77 on 'Bernal Spheres', orbital anti-gravity eco-villages! Link (via BoingBoing)

Unity

The Democratic party Unity Dinner last night was outstanding. Presidents Carter & Clinton, Al Gore and all of the candidates were there last night. Clinton's speech was so rousing that I actually welled up as he talked about the way that the BushCo. has divided our nation, destroying the short period of intense solidarity Americans felt following 9/11. All of the speakers had a similiar message, we must be unified in our efforts to oust the party that has hijacked our nation. America is worse off in more ways than I could have ever imagined when the NeoCons stole the office in 2000. In the words of John Kerry, as quoted by Bill Clinton, "Send Me!". It's time to kick some ASS!

We all need to do what we can to kick the liars out. Register to vote, attend a meetup, volunteer, talk to your firends and family, do whatever you can to help. This is the most important election of our lifetimes and we have to be victorious, the fate of our America depends on it.

New Cox Eletter

Finished work on an eletter redesign I've been working on with Blake Haney of Whence: The Studio. I think it looks great. Link

Science of the Spotless Mind

Steven Johnson, author of Emergence and Mind Wide Open writes about the science of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. It's very interesting to read someone so immersed in Neuroscience analyze this film. Link

10 Things they never taught me in design school:

Acclaimed architect Michael McDonough writes Ten Things They Never Taught Me In Design School. This is a great list. All of it is true and this rule, more than all of the others, always seems to get me;
9. It all comes down to output.
No matter how cool your computer rendering is, no matter how brilliant your essay is, no matter how fabulous your whatever is, if you can’t output it, distribute it, and make it known, it basically doesn’t exist. Orient yourself to output. Schedule output. Output, output, output. Show Me The Output.

finding a sound for each place

Sunday's NY Times featured a great article about Walter Hood, a new school landscape architect / urbanist who is reclaiming abandoned parks and transforming abandoned industrial areas. He's a pioneer of an urban renewal technique in "which streets, squares, plazas, playgrounds and parks are fused into a jaunty new urban form, one resonant of a site's past". He develops the new structures by listening to "a 4/4 beat. Designing is like improvisation, finding a sound for each place." His approach combines the artful sense of a seasoned lanscape architect, the improvisational style of a free jazz player and the dedication of a community advocate. Link

crawfish babies springtime

Just posted my first photo album, here. It's a mini album of photos from my friend Jacqui's crawfish boil this past Sunday. It was a really nice gathering of friends in the amazing surroundings of the lower garden district here in New Orleans. The beautiful baby girl is Eva Saladino, the daughter of my good friends Danny & Merica Saladino.