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April 30, 2006
Pattern and Knitlicious kisses from Vickie Howell
Posted by cat at 08:50 AM
Leftist trio seals Americas pact
The left-wing leaders of Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela have signed a three-way trade agreement aimed at countering US influence in Latin America. The pact was signed in Cuba by Bolivian President Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and their host Fidel Castro. The initiative, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, was drawn up by Cuba and Venezuela.
Posted by cat at 08:42 AM
April 25, 2006
Theresa Honeywell
Theresa Honeywell's knitgoods are on view through April 30th at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia via Extreme Craft
Posted by cat at 10:10 AM
April 22, 2006
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Mapping as an Infill Tool
We need a bright green future, but the future we are actually building sometimes looks more dark gray. Particularly in North America, we still employ a whole suite of outmoded designs and technologies which we know are destabilizing the climate, undermining living systems and exacerbating social inequalities. It's hard to pick a favorite in this category, really -- coal-fired power plants? SUVs? manicured lawns? -- but in terms of its long-term impacts, it may be hard to beat suburban sprawl. Among its many other contributions to unsustainability (longer driving distances, social stratification, wasted government subsidies) sprawl is one of North America's leading destroyers of healthy farmland and natural areas
Originally posted by fruminator from del.icio.us/fruminator, ReBlogged by cat on Apr 22, 2006 at 09:44 PM
It's Earth Day -- so don't just toss your old computer!
It's Earth Day today, and the consumer electronics industry isn't above a little shameless self-promotion to show off their green cred. And, we have to admit, recycling your old gear is a lot better than just tossing it into the basement -- or worse, a landfill. So follow the examples of these companies, and make your gear green!
Originally posted by Ryan Block from Engadget, ReBlogged by cat on Apr 22, 2006 at 09:32 PM
April 18, 2006
iMigrate
related links: deletetheborder.org, indymedia.org, and nohr4437.org
Posted by cat at 06:33 PM
April 17, 2006
Space Invaders Beading
A girl named Amy sent me these and I have forgotten where she is from... She used knitPro for it. I tried to get her among many others to exhibit their work in the knitPro Needlecraft Art Show, but most of the knitPro hobbyists I corresponded with were making gifts and said didn't really want to be in an art show! S'okay... grateful for the submissions we got! Still -- send us images of what you made, we will post it here. This is an image of the knitPro pattern I made from this beadwork... 
if you want a pdf upload this image: 
Posted by cat at 04:54 PM
April 13, 2006
Bush Signs NAFTA-Style Deal With Peru
Yesterday President Bush signed a "free trade" agreement with Peru. This agreement is the exact same failed NAFTA and CAFTA model - guaranteed to cost more good paying jobs, making more farmers bankrupt and give more power to corporations to use international trade tribunals to attack environmental laws. The deal has seen widespread opposition in Peru. After the first round of the presidential elections there on Sunday April 9th, the leading two candidates who will likely face each other in a run-off - and whose parties will make up the largest bloc in the new congress - have both campaigned in opposition to the trade agreement. But the Bush administration and the outgoing Peruvian president signed the deal three days after the election, and are attempting to ram it through before the new Peruvian president and congress can take office.
Continue reading "Bush Signs NAFTA-Style Deal With Peru"
Posted by cat at 02:52 PM
April 12, 2006
These Flocks
Posted by cat at 10:59 PM
April 11, 2006
Fortune 500 List - Apparel
Just got the Fortune 500 List today in the mail and it's posted on-line! Last year you had to PAY for it! Check out the top apparel companies -- looks like Nike is on top once again! These are 12 from the top 1,000 list, companies capitalizing the most on cheap labor. Fortune Magazine (not sure it's on-line) also has a really negative review of the former CEO of Disney Paul Pressler, now the CEO of Gap (this magazine is so INFORMATIVE) . The main argument is spelled out in the article's title "Fashion Victim". The problems with making decisions based on data driven market research, (send more XL to the stores that buy more XL) and less on style emulating high fashion, classic professional dresswear, etc. This article really helped me understand the machine, very sinister from a fair labor perspective.
Posted by cat at 10:12 PM
Graffiti Research Lab: Geek Mural
The Geek School Bus Mural will demonstrate that state-of-the-art in graffiti technologies developed by The G.R.L. for urban communication and expression. The Geek Mural will be created during the conference by agents of the G.R.L in collaboration with G.R.L. workshop participants and other interested faire spectators on a walk-up basis.
During the two-day event, members of the Graffiti Research Lab will create a geek graffiti mural consisting of a number of G.R.L. developed technologies, including the electro-graph, LED throwies, the night writer, postal label circuit stickers and even animated graffiti. These works will be combined with workshop participant created electro-grafs and throwies to create the final collaborative Geek Mural on the side of an old school bus. The Geek Mural will demonstrate DIY applications for conductive spray-paint, magnet paint, rare-earth magnets, LED arrays, custom electronics and even mechanically generated power. Participants in the G.R.L. workshops and interested fair attendees will be encouraged to create their own techno-graffiti-tag and contribute to the mural.
Related site via make zine
Posted by cat at 09:01 PM
Governors' Coalition for Sweatfree Procurement and Worker Rights
If all states joined together to use state government procurement as a catalyst to promote worker justice we could create a market for goods and services made in humane conditions that might rival even Wal-Mart in sheer economic clout. This is the vision behind the Governors' Coalition for Sweatfree Procurement and Worker Rights proposed by Maine's Governor John Baldacci. The first step is a simple conference call among governors. The more governors that join Maine's Governor John Baldacci on the very first conference call to discuss the creation of a state coalition for sweatfree procurement the more likely that this bold anti-sweatshop campaign will succeed.
Continue reading "Governors' Coalition for Sweatfree Procurement and Worker Rights"
Posted by cat at 03:20 PM
April 10, 2006
Blind Spot
Recent photos of the microRevolt projects displayed in the Blind Spot exhibition in Dundee Scotland, featuring: The Institute for Applied Autonomy, Jackie Goss, microRevolt, VynilVideo, The Bureau of Inverse Technology, and PainStation. Photo credit: Peter Dibdin
Posted by cat at 10:44 PM
Si, Se Puede! Yes We Can!
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a conference hosted at the Resource Center of the Americas in Minneapolis for the Sweat Free Communities conference. After the conference, which I will post images, videos, notes from very soon, we went to the immigrant rights march in St. Paul. It was unbelievable! Just heard on Democracy Now! that 30,000 people attended. Here's the best snapshot I took.
Posted by cat at 08:54 PM
April 05, 2006
Saviour Scraps
Saviour Scraps is a collaboration between four artists who reuse collected fabrics and clothing from friends to create fantastical environments. They're having an open call called SECRET PROJECT: C A B I N Send submissions now through APRIL 14th. They need "artists to furnish our walls with pictures, our shelves with objects, our clotheslines with wearable art, our cobwebs with jewelry, and our bookshelves with videos, books, zines and music. We need people interested in building furniture suitable for the space, along with things like homewares, lighting, rugs, craftwork, ceramics, electronics, snowshoes, pies, the list goes on. Just as houses are full of ephemera, our space will need to be filled with its own objects - functional, decorative, nostalgic, and sentimental."
Posted by cat at 09:54 PM
knitPro NEEDLECRAFT ART SHOW
Winners and needlecraft accessed at this link http://www.microrevolt.org/KNAS SPECIAL THANKS TO: Sabrina Gschwandtner, Catherine Tedford and Carole Mathey, Mike Bonnano, Eric St. Onge, Natalie Zee
Posted by cat at 08:53 PM
Massive protests for social and economic justice are rocking the hemisphere.
While hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in the U.S. over the immigration issue, not forgotten are small farmers in Peru who called a national strike to try to stop the Peruvian government from signing a proposed "free trade" agreement with United States.[1] Days earlier, thousands of indigenous people and small farmers in neighboring Ecuador shut down major highways with massive protests to block their government from agreeing to a similar pact, one that negotiators hope to package with the Colombia and Peru deals into an Andean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA).[2] AFTA would extend the failed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) model to South America.
Sign petition via Public Citizen
Continue reading "Massive protests for social and economic justice are rocking the hemisphere."
Posted by cat at 03:30 PM
April 04, 2006
My Psychic Friend Carrie
This is an email i just got from my friend carrie: "On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be: 01:02:03 04/05/06." Carrie Dashow: artist, magician, video maker, driver of Unseen Machine, practitioner of Vidiviation and other oddities... see more here
Posted by cat at 11:56 PM
Knit Miniatures!
Knit Miniatures! by Althea Merback-IGMA Artisan
Posted by cat at 01:29 AM
Email on the Cisco 7960
The Cisco Unified IP Phone 7960G is becoming fairly common in corporate environments. The phone has a built in XML browser for navigating menus. [Nick] decided to hack together a PHP application that will let the phone display email messages in a POP3 account. In its current form it works with most text-only messages, but limited filtering means it could fail on some.
Originally posted by Eliot Phillips from hack a day, ReBlogged by cat on Apr 4, 2006 at 12:09 AM
Weighted Crafts Stuffing
Last Stop: Michaels
Originally uploaded by kpwerker.
There's a discussion in the comments on the Amigurumi, Deconstructed page about the perils of using organic materials to weigh down otherwise top-heavy amigurumi (I'd originally suggested using dried beans, but have been convinced it's not a good idea). I found the suggested weighted stuffing at Michaels this weekend, and I'm looking forward to trying them out.
Originally from Crochet me: The Blog, ReBlogged by cat on Apr 4, 2006 at 12:07 AM