April 3, 2005
Knives the FBI doesn’t like
Knives (and their X-rays) the FBI doesn’t like (PDF, .htm here). Some plastic, some not; Some widely manufactured, others handmade. None of them seem likely to go the way of the "non-existent" all-plastic gun.
U.S. Army Female Attire
U.S. Army Uniforms for Females. While searching for late 50's and early 60's formal wear I came across this gem.
Our whole history is treason; our blood was attained before we were born -- Theodore Parker
"Hanoi
Jane"
Fonda:
the
traitor
stands
in
worse
case
of
woe. "… sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal," she said.
Treason or higher loyalty: her country right or wrong? Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. --Mark Twain
Treason or higher loyalty: her country right or wrong? Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. --Mark Twain
DJ Format meets Dance Dance Revolution
DJ Format meets Dance Dance Revolution Director Keith Schofield turns out a blazing video for British DJ Format and his top notch crew of pasty Canadian rappers, turning their song "3 Feet Deep" into a high adrenaline arcade hi-score smashing rampage.
The Making of the Twenty-First-Century Soldier (Part 1)
The Making of the Twenty-First-Century Soldier (Part 1) "In which a dope-smoking, valet-parking skateboarder living at home makes his way into the infantry, and into Iraq." By Colby Buzzell, author of the My War weblog we've discussed previously. The Army Times mentioned his blog in a recent article on weblogs by military personnel.
Buzzell stopped posting personal accounts to the weblog after getting busted by the Army (Google caches are still available), but he's writing a book.
Manufactured Beachfront Paradises
The World Islands
A man-made island project from the folks that brought you the Palm Islands (mentioned in the blue here).
Think 250 to 300 small private artificial islands ranging in size from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet with the key cool factor of the islands being arranged into the shape of the world's continents. It is located four kilometres off the shore of Jumeirah, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (Also the subject of an FPP).
Starting at a mere $6.85 million, you can find your place in The World (QT video sales pitch and the WMV version), construction should be completed by the end of 2005. Thinking about relocating to Dubai? It is a cutting edge city with a strong economy, imagine Maine generating $57 billion a year from oil production primarily.
A man-made island project from the folks that brought you the Palm Islands (mentioned in the blue here).
Think 250 to 300 small private artificial islands ranging in size from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet with the key cool factor of the islands being arranged into the shape of the world's continents. It is located four kilometres off the shore of Jumeirah, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (Also the subject of an FPP).
Starting at a mere $6.85 million, you can find your place in The World (QT video sales pitch and the WMV version), construction should be completed by the end of 2005. Thinking about relocating to Dubai? It is a cutting edge city with a strong economy, imagine Maine generating $57 billion a year from oil production primarily.
Blind student earns M.D.
Blind student earns M.D. A fascinating article about a guy who overcame innumerable obstacles, not the least of which was people's preconceived notions about what a visually impaired person is capable of. [via linkfilter.]
Here There Be Monsters
Thomas L. Friedman, award winning NY Times columnist and author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Longitudes and Attitudes, and From Beirut to Jerusalem, will publish his fourth book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, this week. An article adopted from the book, "It’s a Flat World After All", was printed in the NY Times Magazine today:
In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail for India, going west. He had the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. He never did find India, but he called the people he met 'Indians' and came home and reported to his king and queen: 'The world is round.' I set off for India 512 years later. I knew just which direction I was going. I went east. I had Lufthansa business class, and I came home and reported only to my wife and only in a whisper: 'The world is flat.'
In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail for India, going west. He had the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. He never did find India, but he called the people he met 'Indians' and came home and reported to his king and queen: 'The world is round.' I set off for India 512 years later. I knew just which direction I was going. I went east. I had Lufthansa business class, and I came home and reported only to my wife and only in a whisper: 'The world is flat.'
Alexander the Corrector
The Man Who Unwrote the Bible. In the mid-1720s, Alexander Cruden took on a self-imposed task of Herculean proportions: he decided to compile the most thorough concordance of the King James Version of the Bible (777,746 words). The first edition of Cruden's Concordance was published in 1737. Every similar undertaking before or since has been the work of a vast team of people. Cruden worked alone in his lodgings, writing the whole thing out by hand. Cruden's day job was as a "Corrector of the Press" (proofreader). He would give hawk-eyed attention to prose all day long. Then he would come home at night to read the Bible—stopping at every single word to secure the right sheet from the tens of thousands of pieces of paper all around him and to record accurately the reference in its appropriate place. He had no patron, no publisher, no financial backers: his only commission was a divine one.
Cruden's Concordance has never been out of print. A new book tells the tale of Alexander the Corrector's bizarre, sad life (scroll down to about half page).
Bare NESessities
I am 8 bit is a celebration of the pixelated graphics of 80s videogames, at LA's Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight. A hundred artists have produced paintings, sculptures and designs inspired by the two-dimensional imagery of the pre-PlayStation era. The exhibition runs from April 19 until May 20. More information, including highlights from the gallery, appear at Game Informer. It remains to be seen if the other ninety-nine artists can match the quality of Sean Clarity's exceptional reworking of the cover to NES classic Excitebike.
We're all living in Murakami's world.
The Murakami Method : hailed as the Japanese Andy Warhol, Takashi Murakami (previously discussed here) lives in his factory wherein he "makes art and sleeps." Murakami spans the artistic spectrum as both a proponent of Japanese otaku culture - the "geek" culture of manga and video games and the author of a PhD dissertation of Nihonga - a style of Japanese painting whose name literally translates to "Japanese painting." Further bridging the gap between "high and low culture," Murakami shows his work in museums and in the Louis Vuitton store in Tokyo.
All the News
Adam Steele was not a loved or lovable guy in his hometown of Bemidji, Minnesota. But is lovableness a requirement for journalists? Part 2 here.
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