Month: July 2005

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Double Barrel

According to the Supreme Court (Grokster case), “software companies can be held liable for copyright infringement when individuals use their technology to download songs and movies illegally.” But the logic is inverted when applied to the gun industry. According to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, “The president believes that the manufacturer of a legal product should not be held liable for the criminal misuse of that product by others.”

So the corporation is liable for criminal uses of a product by its customers when that product involves copyright. But the corporation is not liable for criminal uses of a product by a customer when that product is a firearm (and the stakes could be human lives).

Daily Kos: What’s the common logic holding these disparate concepts together? Massive corporate special interest money. Welcome to your government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations, where a pirated copy of “Hollywood Homicide” is bigger threat than an actual Hollywood homicide.

Not making a point here about copyright or gun laws per se’, but about hypocrisy, messed up priorities, inconsistent logic and double standards.

via Weblogsksy

Music: The Fiery Furnaces :: Leaky Tunnel
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Berkeley’s Silent Menace

Geodog on how the Prius has become the new Volvo, and the danger to bicyclists and pedestrians of having a lot of silent cars on the road (owners say the car is “stealth mode” when runnning on battery power):

With the Prius, you don’t get any warning — the car literally sneaks up on you. After nearly being run over several times in the last month, and again this night on the way back from the Berkeley Cybersalon, I did a little research and turned up quite a few mentions of this problem, the scariest from a blind person’s perspective … the Toyota engineers need to find a way to make the car nosier, even if it involves something as silly as recordings of internal combustion engine noises that the car plays through an external speaker when the car is in battery mode.

While I’ve certainly noticed the local upwelling of Pria (is that a legitimate pluralization? probably not), I personally haven’t had close calls with them. But then I haven’t been biking as much lately due to knee problems. I think the problem is offset by the fact that the kind of person who buys a Prius is likely to be a more considerate driver to begin with. I have a lot more close calls with drivers of SUVs, and with people talking on cell phones (regardless the model of car). Remember too that all cars have become much more quiet in the past decade — it’s gotten to the point that a vehicle from the 1970s seems loud in contrast.

Music: Caetano Veloso :: Genipapo Absoluto
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michaelpollan.com

Birdhouse Hosting is proud to welcome michaelpollan.com, the website of environmental journalist and J-School professor Michael Pollan. “A contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, Pollan is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the James Beard Award for best magazine series in 2003 and the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism.” Site neatly designed by Birdhouse affiliate designer Leena Pendharkar.

Music: Ken Nordine :: Gold
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With This Bone I Do Thee Wed

What better way to show your lifelong commitment to another than by wearing a piece of their endoskeleton as jewelry? London scientists allow couples to extract chips of bone and infuse the samples’ osteoblasts into a baked glass ceramic composite. The bone/glass composite is then grown into a lattice structure closely resembling actual bone, which can then be carved into handsome rings. The symbolism is lovely (at least it strikes me that way) and so are the rings. A nice way to avoid supporting the slavery of the diamond industry, too.

Music: Dave Van Ronk :: God Bless The Child
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Gray Shirt

Talking with Miles this evening about colors. I ask him what colors of clothes go well together.

“A gray shirt.”

Hmmmm, I think. Conservative tendencies. Maybe the makings of a GAP kid. Sigh. I press on: “And what color pants go with a gray shirt?”

“Pink and orange and green and blue.”

“All of those colors together in one pair of pants?”

“Mmmm hmmm.”

“Polka dots or stripes?”

“Polka dots AND stripes!”

“With a gray shirt?”

“Mmmm hmmm daddy, with a gray shirt.”

Keep in mind this is coming from a kid who has never expressed one iota of interest in his clothes, other than to favor boots shaped like alligators.

Music: Mission Of Burma :: Eyes Of Men
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We Jam Econo

Went to watch a documentary about The Minutemen, We Jam Econo, with Roger tonight. Archived gig footage interleaved with interviews — Watt driving his old white van around San Pedro plus dozens of conversations with musicians from in and around the early 80s SoCal punk scene.

The movie reminds you how awkward it is to use the word “punk” to describe The Minutemen — they get lumped in due to their energy and their label and their place in time, but really shared very little with typical punk bands — no mohawks, no punk uniform (check D. Boon’s ridiculous shoes for proof), little in the way of punk attitude. The Minutemen were never crass. They were more complex than that – political without being blunt, musically complex without making “music for musicians” (not that I think art music is bad, just saying The Minutemen weren’t about that). Artful without being arty. Humble, totally honest, real people making music that sounded like nothing that’s come before or since.

The interviews are great – a virtual who’s who of the SST scene, “including John Doe, Thurston Moore, Colin Newman, Ian MacKaye, Jello Biafra, Richards Hell and Meltzer, and a big chunk of Black Flag’s large revolving cast: Greg Ginn, Henry Rollins, Keith Morris, Kira Roessler, and Dez Cadena” (from Pathetic Caverns).

Not enough time spent on Double Nickels, easily the greatest album ever made in the history of humanity (don’t challenge me on that, even though I mean it). But compensated for it with some jaw-dropping acoustic footage (who knew?) — including Hurley on bongos.

Run, don’t walk.

– Interview with filmmaker at the Seattlest
– New Yorker review

Music: The Yardbirds :: Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
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Milk and Cookies

Wondered why I was suddenly getting comments on the old Miles Stuck in the Cat Door and e-i-e-i hop hop videos. Then discovered that Miles has been linked to from Milk and Cookies, with the caption “Crawling baby gets stuck in the cat door and sadistic mommie makes him clean up his puke while videotaping it.”

Funny, we were mildly concerned when we originally posted that video that someone would not get the joke (the deck-cleaning clip was shot days before the throw-up clip; I temporally transposed them in Final Cut to make a funny). No one ever did comment on it, so I assumed everyone got it. Now, two years later, we’re waiting for a knock on the door from Child Protective Services.

Music: Carlton Alphonso :: Belittle Me
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An Evening of Light and Sound

Hard to believe it’s been a decade since Christian Crumlish invited me to become part of a small-ish group of web-based artists and developers called antiweb (ironically, no web site to speak of). Mostly centered around a mailing list that has survived the ups and downs of the internet through the years, antiweb has become one of the few stable aspects of life online for me over the years, as well as a posse of online friends I always know I can turn to with tech questions and observations, confessions, ramblings, etc.

Because antiweb is scattered over the earth’s surface, only small sub-clusters of us have ever met face-to-face. Even though it’s a closed list, antiweb isn’t a clique; it’s loose, ragtag, sometimes seems barely to hang together at all. But I feel strangely close to almost everyone on the list, if only for the amount of time we’ve spent together.

To celebrate our 10th birthday, antiweb founder Malcolm Humes is throwing a Bay Area happening this Thursday night (July 28), public invited.

Hard to say exactly what the evening will become, but there’s some cool stuff planned (click Continue for details). I’m working on a 30-page digital comic mash-up including photography by Amy and me, recklessly integrated with text culled from the antiweb list. Will post the comic at birdhouse sometime after the event.

Hope to see some of you there!
Continue reading “An Evening of Light and Sound”

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NPR Is Following Me

Posted about Steven Johnson’s book “Everything Bad Is Good For You.” Bought the book, start reading it, excellent, more on that later. A few days ago, Fresh Air airs an interview with Johnson.

mneptok sends me a link to a kuro5hin story on kite buggies (something I’d love to try). Later that day, hear Living on Earth piece on wind farms and other wind-harnessing technologies… including a segment on kite buggies. Part 1 of the piece connects up to previous posts here about the Altamont wind farm.

This morning, talked with a friend while kids played at the park about the French Laundry and the slow food movement in general. Listening to the radio while sanding today, caught an NPR piece on the slow food movement (not online), which I mentioned here just a few days ago. The piece included reference to the French Laundry.

At what point should I get freaked out?

Music: Iggy And The Stooges :: Shake Appeal
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The Gilded Inhaler

Must-see mugshot of man arrested for abusing harmful intoxicants.

The 41-year-old Tribett, it seems, had been huffing spray paint and needed a refill. According to a Bellaire Police Department report, Tribett’s pupils were constricted and he replied slowly to their questions. Oh, and “officers observed the paint on face and hands.”

As much as I like pretty much anything spray-painted gold, this guy’s face doesn’t count.

Music: Mission of Burma :: Mica