In an interview with UPI about his new best seller "The Blank Slate," Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker was asked about his voluminous curly hair. The interviewer thought Pinker looked like musicians Peter Frampton, Roger Daltrey and Robert Plant, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Pinker saw more similarity to Mark Bolan from the band T. Rex, conductor Simon Rattle, jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and "Bruno," the pianist on the television series "Fame."

in case you missed it over at tmn: My friend, on the payment of a further sum, obtained a curious little box which contained some small black lozenges, consisting of the resin of hemp, henbane, crushed datura seeds, butter, and honey, and known in India as Majoon, amongst the Moors as El Mogen.

buy blue

The question is whether the Pentagon and military should undertake an official program that uses disinformation to shape perceptions abroad. But in a modern world wired by satellite television and the Internet, any misleading information and falsehoods could easily be repeated by American news outlets.

BitTorrent Gives Hollywood a Headache
Dec. 12, 2004 | LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Bram Cohen didn't set out to upset Hollywood movie studios. But his innovative online file-sharing software, BitTorrent, has grown into a piracy problem the film industry is struggling to handle.

One sequence has members of the team watching the 1960 movie Incubus, the made-in-Big Sur all-Esperanto horror movie starring William Shatner and a live billy goat playing Satan. While I'm glad to see this obscurer-than-obscure movie get a little plug, here's a criminal example of the law that you should never cut to a movie that's better than the one you've made. (Blade Part the Third)

lugers is bunk (skinny)

1906 aerial photographs, taken from a kite, of the aftermath of the San Fransisco earthquake.

Pamela M. Lee on Robert Smithson in the new (Dec/Jan) Bookforum:

In its rigor and heft, its scope and illustrations, the new Robert Smithson exhibition catalogue is as compelling as a codex. Published on the occasion of a major traveling retrospective originating at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MoCA), itconveys the gravity of its subject through an encyclopedic array of entries: an exacting survey of Smithson's career by the exhibition's curator, Eugenie Tsai; a scholarly essay by an internationally esteemed art historian (Thomas Crow); an unpublished interview (conducted by Moira Roth) rescued from the dustbin of history; and shorter, more specific takes on diverse aspects of Smithson's practice—the logic of salt in his work; his enantiomorphic chambers; his architectural ambitions; his formative impact on contemporary art. These texts make an unequivocal case for the singularity of Smithson's contribution, detailing a much more complex picture of the artist than that of the cowboy architect behind Spiral Jetty.

"There is no historic preservation district or landmarks commission for hawks' nests. But if there were, the red-tailed hawk's nest at 927 Fifth Avenue, overlooking Central Park at 74th Street, would surely have qualified. Until Tuesday, the nest stood on a 12th-floor cornice with a sublime aerial view of the urban forest in our midst. Since 1993, 23 young hawks have been raised there, sired by a bird called Pale Male. Thousands and thousands of bird-watchers over the years have followed the lives of the hawks in that nest. But this is not an homage to bird-watching - it's an homage to birds.

On Tuesday, workers took down the nest and, apparently, the metal anti-pigeon spikes that had helped hold it in place. So far, no one from 927 Fifth Avenue has spoken up to defend the co-op board's decision to remove the nest. Perhaps residents were annoyed that the hawks didn't do a better job of cleaning up after themselves by using a pooper-scooper or putting their pigeon bones in the trash, the way a human would. Perhaps they simply wearied of the stirring sight of a red-tailed hawk coming down out of the sky to settle on its nest.

It's always tempting to think that a city like New York has utterly effaced the natural ground on which it was built. Most of the creatures that lived on Manhattan Island several centuries ago would stand no chance of doing so now - not in these new canyons of steel and glass. But the presence of a nesting pair of red-tailed hawks, sequestered on the edge of an apartment building, feels like a memory from a past this city has long since forgotten.

The hawks have gone out of their way to learn to live with us. The least the wealthy residents of 927 Fifth Avenue could have done was learn to live with the hawks."

-nyt op-ed pg 12/9/04

design your own superhero.

Typical ideological confusion in today’s Post regarding the baseball steroids issue. They feature this op-ed from a right-wing think-tanker taking a libertarian position: “so what’s the problem?” At the same time they have yet another editorial condemning the scourge, following up their “throw the bum out” rants about Giambi. Personal freedom and non-regulation are always good, except when they’re not. Does this represent a diversity of opinion, or just the ever useful ability to hold contradictory positions at the same time, which serves politicians and moralists so well?

dave

"Have you ever dreamed of being carried into the sky by a giant bouquet of colorful toy balloons?"

a magazine for gothams most notorious butt sniffers

living under fascism parts 1 and 2

pictures of protest from the great white north

"The very reason Mr. Bush had the luxury of launching a war of necessity in Afghanistan and a war of choice in Iraq, without a second thought, was because of the surpluses built up by the previous administration and Congress. Since then, the Bush team has been slashing taxes in the middle of two wars, weakening the dollar and amassing a huge debt burden - on the implicit assumption that nothing will go wrong in the future.

But what if there is another 9/11 or war of necessity? We're cooked. The tax revenue won't be there, so the only option will be more borrowing and a weaker dollar. But what happens if the Chinese and other foreigners, who now hold over 40 percent of our Treasury securities, decide they don't want to hold these depreciating dollars anymore, let alone buy more?"

this has been pretty self evident for a long time. like since the idea of invading iraque originally came up. where does friedman come off with that "It is now clear to me..." shit. didnt he skip covering "the most important presidential election of our lifetime" to sell his book ? after giving bush two thumbs up for the preemptive war in iraque!

v zars @ smr

anyone aware of a good digital photography blog. one that discussed cameras ? im seriously thin king of getting the leica d-lux. i know the draw back, only 3mp. but good lens. small but not too damn small and of decent heft. a camera for life ? all the google results direct you to resources and resources posing as reviews.

A quick glance at some Argentine contemporary:
The Malba ('The Dia of Buenos Aires')
Ruth Benzacar ('The Leo Castelli of Argentina' - they will be in Miami if anyone is going)
Dabbah Torrejon (dealer with an interesting roster of younger Argentine artists)

So I have been sick for the last week or so. Not enough to completely knock me out, but pretty bad. Sore throat, slight fever, and constant achy tiredness. I have been sleeping a lot. But that's not what I am posting about.

Last night, on top of this sickness, I started to feel the onset of another condition I suffer from on occasion. I guess it is acid reflux, or heart burn, or something like that. I get a case of it maybe once every couple of months. Usually after I don't eat for a long time (like all day,) and then eat too much right at once. I am pretty wimpy in terms of enduring pain, but still, this is the most painful thing that ever happens to me. Very sharp upper abdominal pains. I guess a lot of people get this, so maybe you know what I am talking about.

Anyway, I was very depressed yesterday as I felt it coming on. I drank a bunch of malox, which is what I usually do, but I knew it wouldn't do any good. It never stopped it before. It always happens at night, and it means an entire sleepless night of agony. Since I was already not feeling well my mood was even beyond depression into the fear zone. I just didn't know if I could take it.

Well, a little googling dug up a natural food website where lots of people had written in with testimonials for treating this, and innumerable other conditions, with apple cider vinegar. Who knew?

So with a little help I made my way to the local health food store and bought a bottle of Bragg organic ACV. Apparently the mass produced (Heinz) stuff doesn't work and I wasn't about to argue. Got home, put 1 Tablespoon into a glass with about an ounce of water and slugged it down. Let's just say you wouldn't want to drink it for pleasure. But, and I am not exaggerating here, one minute later I could feel the pressure in my abdomen going down. Five minutes and lots of gurgling and burping later I was 90% better. Went to sleep fine and woke this morning with no problems. Incredible.

Even feels like my sore throat is better.

This is such a relief to me that I just had to share. Apparently it works on gout too, so I'm ready for that as well! Does anyone else have any experience using ACV as a remedy?

red cross findings on Guantánamo "torture"

the new Rubin Museum was fantastic (boy liked it), some true true masterpieces are up......and for food notes Barbuto after very good, and Spotted Pig for lunch #2 was even better, we also noticed Wallse is open for lunch.....(skinny )

responsible shopper is an excellent resource to check up on how our multinationals behave in the public sphere.