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November 29, 2006
That's between me and my boy, Mr. President
(thanks jf)
Posted by cat at 12:24 AM
Ecuador Becomes Latest Domino to Fall Leftward
"As important as any other aspect of the presidential race was that its outcome represented a stinging defeat for Washington's Latin American policy, which already had hit rock bottom throughout the Bush presidency. Key U.S. policies like free trade, privatization and market integration, anti-drug trafficking, increased regional military presence, and the pursuit of isolating Cuba and Venezuela, were being challenged and dismissed as being irrelevant." ... (thanks jf)
Posted by cat at 12:21 AM
November 26, 2006
SAW: Street Art Workers
"Based in the U.S., SAW is a network of printmakers, stencil artists, graffiti writers and designers who use the streets for art and activism."
They have a knit poster from 2003:
Posted by cat at 01:43 PM
Sweat Free Communities Newsletter
*Contents:
1) Holiday Shopping List Launched
2) Give the Gift of Justice
3) Campaign Updates
4) New Resources from SweatFree Communities
5) State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium Campaign
Posted by cat at 01:27 PM
November 23, 2006
Using Cell Phones for Food Traceability
When the E.coli spinach scare swept the nation, we talked a bit about the importance of knowing the backstory about the things we eat and buy. The best way most of us have to do this is by purchasing food directly from the grower at farmer's markets and through CSAs.
Originally posted by Ethan Zuckerman from WorldChanging: Another World Is Here, ReBlogged by cat on Nov 23, 2006 at 10:33 PM
Fresh Stuff From BrokenCrow
Originally from Wooster Collective, ReBlogged by cat on Nov 23, 2006 at 10:31 PM
Yarn Museum
Posted by cat at 10:18 PM
patchwork coasters
I've been looking forever for a cool coaster pattern. I went through all my Marthas and all my craft books and all the blogs and have been unable to find one that I really like. Today while I was walking out to my car from lab, I finally came up with an idea. I am super happy with them, and I went from vague idea to sketch to picking out fabric to endlessly rearranging fabric strips to making them (and ripping them out a couple of times and making them again) in just a couple of hours. I haven't been feeling the crafting bug like usual lately, so these made me feel back in the groove. I also love how I have a nice enough fabric collection now that I can just find what I need when inspiration strikes. Now I'm thinking matching placemats....
Originally posted by fruminator from del.icio.us/fruminator, ReBlogged by cat on Nov 23, 2006 at 10:14 PM
November 17, 2006
Storm over 'pig-for-name' artist
A Ugandan minister has condemned a Danish artist as "racist" for persuading villagers to adopt his name in exchange for a pig or a goat... He said his proposal to the villagers was an example of free trade, which left the villagers better off.
Posted by cat at 08:43 AM
November 15, 2006
Youtube Video Prompts FBI Probe of LAPD
PachecoJ writes "The AP has a story of a Youtube video showing police brutality that has sparked an FBI probe of the LAPD. A group called 'Cop Watch LA' placed the video online to draw attention to the actions by officers. The officers pictured in the video are now being defended by police defense attorney John Barnett, who defended the officers in the 'Rodney King' trial of 1991." From the article: "A search on YouTube for the terms "police brutality" found more than 500 videos, including ones that claim to show police violence in the U.S. and as far away as Egypt and Hungary. A search of Google's video site also yielded hundreds of videos. In response to the surge in amateur videos, some law enforcement agencies have installed cameras in squad cars to protect officers against false allegations."
Originally posted by Zonk from Slashdot, ReBlogged by cat on Nov 15, 2006 at 10:59 AM
November 11, 2006
Random Acts of Luddite Celebrities!?!!
Posted by cat at 11:45 PM
humans taste like bacon....
Researchers at NEC System technologies and Mie University have designed the cute little guy to the [above]: a metal man gastronomist, "an electromechanical sommelier", capable of identifying wines, cheeses, meats and hors d'oeuvres. Upon being given a sample, he will speak up in a childlike voice and identify what he has just been fed. The idea is that wineries can tell if a wine is authentic without even opening the bottle, amongst other more obscure uses...like "tell me what this strange grayish lump at the back of my freezer is/was."
But when some smart aleck reporter placed his hand in the robot's omnivorous clanking jaw, he was identified as bacon. A cameraman then tried and was identified as prosciutto.
Absolutely horrifying. Like cows, once robots taste blood, their hunger for human flesh can never be satiated. Japanese unveil robot wine steward [South Coast Today]
(thanks Bettina)
Posted by cat at 10:19 PM
November 08, 2006
Free Yourself
Originally from Wooster Collective, ReBlogged by cat on Nov 8, 2006 at 10:48 PM
Verizon YouTube to Exploit Video Producers
Verizon near content deal with YouTube: WSJ|Reuters.com:"Verizon Communications Inc., the No. 2 U.S. telecommunications company, is in advanced talks with YouTube Inc. to bring the Web site's videos to cellphones and television sets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday."There's a good idea, make a ton of money off the premium V Cast service based on free content from users. Read the article and you'll see no mention of compensating YouTube video producers for their work. They'd better have a mechanism in place to restrict the use of Creative Commons Non-Commercial videos.
Originally from unmediated, ReBlogged by cat on Nov 8, 2006 at 10:43 PM
BREAKING NEWS: Rumsfeld RESIGNS!!!!
Posted by cat at 12:56 PM
November 06, 2006
On Mutaphobia
I try never to miss Adam Zaretsky speak on Mutaphobia, he is mind blowing! Lucky for NYC people, there is a Panel Session Saturday, November 11, 2006 from 9:00 - 10:30 - On Mutaphobia--(ch. Zaretsky) Zaretsky, Bakke, Catts, Badion - Steinhardt, School Room 508, Steinhardt School of Education of NYU, Barney Building, 34 Stuyvesant Street, New York, NY 10003, Just off of East 9th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. More from Adam here!
Posted by cat at 02:03 PM
November 04, 2006
Wicket!
Posted by cat at 03:45 PM
The Micropolitan Museum
From the the Institute for the Promotion of the Less than One Millimeter, The Micropolitan Museum! - "For several centuries artists have depicted the human figure, still-lifes, landscapes or non-figurative motives. One subject has been widely neglected all those years: Micro organisms!
Micropolitan Museum finally exhibits these often overlooked works of art which are only visible with the aid of the microscope. Curator Wim van Egmond has collected the finest microscopic masterpieces nature has ever produced during eons of natural selection." [via] - Link.
Originally posted by Conrad Quilty-Harper from Engadget, ReBlogged by cat on Nov 4, 2006 at 03:42 PM
November 03, 2006
paraSITE
POP-UP reminded me of another awesome project paraSITE, designed by Michael Rakowitz ~ architecting inflatables for shelters for the homeless. Here's another article about his work.
Posted by cat at 12:57 PM
POP-UP STUDIO
Posted by cat at 12:47 PM
November 01, 2006
EXUVIA
EXUVIA is a mixed media installation by Alessandro Capozzo and Katja Noppes. It consists in a semitransparent synthetic material mould of a desktop computer (connected to its peripherals) and an LCD display with an epoxidic resin layer mounted on. A dragonfly wings representation has been imprinted into the resin by several analogue processes. A semi generative software is visualized on the prepared LCD display: a set of attractors "drive" a cellular automata flow through wings lines of force. Interaction between an analogue medium and a digital one let some properties of these two elements making a synthesis, anyway it goes over mere software objectification and materials dynamization: the installation focus is suggesting a narrative flow starting from a metamorphosis - not represented but referred by empty chrysalis (exuvia) as the printed memory of an absent object - till the spreading wings climax: vital, delicate and ephemeral as software could be.
Posted by cat at 12:23 PM
Wal-Mart Corporate Thugs
Factory Workers on Strike (one month later)!
On September 25, 2006, the United Workers of Chong Won in the Philippines declared a strike demanding that factory management immediately begin to negotiate with their trade union. The management of garment factory Chong Won Fashion Inc. has violated workers' freedom of association, forced workers to take on 24 hour shifts, and does not allow workers to drink water or go to the bathroom during work hours. As the primary buyer from the factory, Wal-Mart is responsible for protecting the human rights of workers at Chong Won. Go to ILRFs website for more background info.
Posted by cat at 12:16 PM