I’ve been of the mind for a while now that there was a hole in my book collection that needed to be filled with a copy of William Hjortsberg‘s Falling Angel. Well, I see where Millipede Press is doing a lovely new edition, and with an introduction by James Crumley, no less! I think, though, that I’ll just get the… Read more →
Year: 2006
Hanging Around The House: Still Unhung
Earlier this month I took advantage of the “50% of custom framing” offer at Michael’s to get a frame put on the large Michael Zulli oil painting, “Na Tire Finne”, that I mentioned previously. I picked it up today, and I think it looks great in the frame: Apparently the frame the canvas is stretched on (as opposed to the… Read more →
Educate Yourself On Darwin
Here’s another way to educate yourself that I ran into online today. The Guardian ran a piece on the opening of an online archive of the complete works of Charles Darwin. Here’s a quote: The collection brings Darwin’s breathtaking range of writing together for the first time, with 50,000 pages of searchable text, and tens of thousands of images, many… Read more →
Educate yourself.
You know, if you manage to avoid spam, porn, and piracy, there are lots of ways to communicate with intelligent people and educate yourself on the internet. The classic example, of course, would be academics. Improving communication amongst academics was one of the first purposes of the internet. Ironically most of the journals are locked up behind a copyright wall–journal… Read more →
Torture and the English Language
Well, it’s official now. Bush has signed the Torture Without Habeas Corpus bill into law: Bush Signs Terror Interrogation Law President Bush signed legislation Tuesday authorizing tough interrogation of terror suspects and smoothing the way for trials before military commissions, calling it a “vital tool” in the war against terrorism. If the facts of the story aren’t already chilling enough,… Read more →
Elegant Anti-DRM Statement
For my money that’s the best of the winners of the FreeCulture.org contest to produce anti-DRM video. So elegant. Read more →
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
My favourite evolution-in-schools story this week: Apparently Michigan has at least some sense. The State Board of Education on Tuesday approved public school curriculum guidelines that support the teaching of evolution in science classes — but not intelligent design. … “The intent of the board needs to be very clear,” said board member John Austin, an Ann Arbor Democrat. “Evolution… Read more →
Unless Your Name is ‘Windsor’
Busy Weekend
It’s the Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada, and I am too busy with my family to be blogging about Cheney’s latest fearmongering, the connections between private industry and counter-terrorism, excellent mockings of the crazy christian lobby, fine insults, or the lessons of Soviet history. Instead, I’m spending my time on stuff like this: (Yes, that is her first time riding.… Read more →
She has jeans?
I know what you’re thinking: that’s a bit “not safe for work”, isn’t it? Well, you can’t blame me on that one–I’ve got it on good authority that it’s fine. At least for Australians: Controversial Lee Jeans Ad Declared Acceptable by the Board In an astonishing development Lee Jeans’ controversial ‘Lolita’ advertisement campaign for spring-summer 2006, has been declared acceptable… Read more →
Signing Statements
So, once again Bush has declared himself above the authority of the legislative branch: Bush says he can edit security reports President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit the Homeland Security Department’s reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists. In the law Bush signed Wednesday, Congress stated… Read more →
Recommended Listening: Absolute Power
This week’s listening material in the car has been the BBC Radio 4 series Absolute Power. The series stars Stephen Fry and John Bird as former BBC executives who lose their BBC jobs and start up a “government media relations” firm. The core conceit is that they take on “image relaunches” and media campaigns for things that are impossible to… Read more →
A Portrait of the Blogger As A (Very) Young Man.
My mom recently sent me some photographs from my childhood, and they are amusing the hell out of me–not least because having now made it through the first two years of parenthood the notion that I was once a baby has some more visceral meaning for me. Anyway, I present Mr. McLaren, age six weeks: And, the slightly less demure… Read more →
Man, Nightshade makes some pretty books
Nightshade has always published quality fiction, but I’ve got to say lately they have also been incredibly pretty physical objects. Let’s look at a couple of examples that have showed up here over the last few days. Take, for example, Liz Williams‘ new one, Demon And The City, which arrived today. It’s so pretty that it lifted me out of… Read more →
Still allowed in America… so far
Ananova – Police hunt farting dissident Police in Poland have launched a nationwide hunt for a man who farted loudly when asked what he thought of the president. Although, I suppose His Highness could just declare such activity a “purposeful and materially support of hostilities against the United States”. Read more →
