Still, Mr. McElheny's fascination is more with stories than with science. A second sculpture in the Rosen show, for example, is part of a continuing series based on a conversation that supposedly took place in 1929 between the Modernist sculptor Isamu Noguchi and the utopian architect and visionary Buckminster Fuller. Their exchange is believed to have posited that the only way to create an object that wouldn't cast a shadow was to make it totally reflective and place it in a totally reflective environment.

So for two of the works, Mr. McElheny built a wall-mounted landscape model in which abstract reflective forms are arranged on a mirrored plane. "It's really a horrible proposal," he said. "You couldn't live in this world. You couldn't escape your own reflection."

Mr. McElheny, who was born in Boston, became involved with glass in 1984, as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design. "I heard this story," he said, "that glass blowing came out of an oral tradition, and that this tradition was passed down from generation to generation. There was an aura of romance and secrecy about it. I wasn't interested in making glass so much as I was interested in this story."

In pursuit of what he felt was "exclusive knowledge, impossible to learn from a book," Mr. McElheny secured an apprenticeship with Ronald Wilkinson, then the head of the White Friars Factory in Britain. "It was a unique opportunity at a historical moment," he said, explaining that many of Europe's family-owned firms were soon to close.

rita hayworth in gilda tonight at 8 on tcm.

penn & teller do ground zero

This won't last long. But while it does, peekvid provides a very simple interface to usenet videos hosted by guba. In other words, this is a bunch of illegally downloadable television shows being provided on someone else's dime. Enjoy.

Porter Goss resigned from the CIA! What are the odds he was at the one of the "hooker parties?" Great news!

rope a dopeing rummy

noticed on huffpo but posted here

"We Americans have never outgrown the narcissistic notion that the rest of the world wants (or should want) to emulate us. In Iraq, bringing democracy became the default excuse for our warmongers -- it would be perfectly plausible to call them "crusaders," if Osama bin Laden had not already appropriated the term -- once the Bush lies about Iraq's alleged nuclear, chemical, and biological threats and its support for al Qaeda melted away. Bush and his neocon supporters have prattled on endlessly about how "the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East," but the reality is much closer to what Noam Chomsky dubbed "deterring democracy" in a notable 1992 book of that name. We have done everything in our power to see that the Iraqis did not get a "free and fair election," one in which the Shia majority could come to power and ally Iraq with Iran. As Noah Feldman, the Coalition Provisional Authority's law advisor, put it in November 2003, "If you move too fast the wrong people could get elected.""

I saw the "Rumsfeld getting some tough questions" story all over the place, but I didn't read the transcript until just now. Worth a look.

Come on, these people aren’t idiots. They know the story.

Three Simpsons writers have science PhDs. What's so funny about scientists?

Jean: It's an even higher percentage on Futurama.

Cohen: We had quite a batch of scientists, if I can use the term scientist loosely to include those who meet the criteria partway, such as myself. Out of 12 writers, I guess we scientists [on Futurama] were a plurality, you could say, which is an annoying use of that word.

Jean: There's a mathematical structure to comedy when you look for the perfect line or natural expression for a joke. It's not a one-to-one correspondence but there definitely exists a similarity. Of course, I don't want to give the impression that you need a Harvard or math degree to write good comedy, but it's helped.

Rush was quoting this WSJ op-ed at length this AM ... It began, I believe, in a late-20th-century event that transformed the world more profoundly than the collapse of communism: the world-wide collapse of white supremacy as a source of moral authority, political legitimacy and even sovereignty

anybody notice some car ads on tv are suddenly touting gas mileage again?

Top 10 Gas Unguzzlers:

1. Honda Insight — 60/66
2. Toyota Prius — 60/51*
3. Honda Civic Hybrid — 49/51*
4. Volkswagen Golf TDI — 37/44
Volkswagen New Beetle TDI — 37/44
5. Volkswagen Jetta TDI — 36/41
6. Toyota Corolla — 32/41
7. Scion xA — 32/37
8. Hyundai Accent — 32/35
Kia Rio — 32/35
9. Honda Civic — 30/40*
10. Pontiac Vibe — 30/36
Toyota Matrix — 30/36

great movies on tcm for the next 24+ hours starting at 8pm.

in order:

casablanca
dr strangelove
citizen kane
the graduate
network
sullivans travels
philadelphia story
his girl friday
double indemnity
sunset boulevard
third man
maltese falcon
and at 8pm birth of a nation plus other race oriented movies to follow.

Kottke linked to the 2006 Bryant Park summer film calendar.

tv guide goes blog wild.

"Theoretically, Stirling dish farms with a total area of 100 miles square could replace all the fossil fuels now burned to generate electricity in the entire U.S. What happens in the California desert over the next few years could determine whether thermal solar power can help end the dominance of fossil fuels."

colbert emcees white house correspondents dinner.

video @ crooks and liars

"Here's a story of importance, via Matthew Yglesias, who doesn't seem to appreciate the gravity of what he's discovered. Francis Fukuyama, the apostate neoconservative, says that in the 1990s, neocons tried to manufacture an enemy, because they felt that the Republican Party "didn't do as well" when there wasn't a ruthless, monolithic pinkomuslimcommienihilist threat to America."

i was all for this immigration rights nonsense until my food delivery service was inconvienced by some ridiculous boycott. get back to work. i need my asparagus, dammit. god damned commies.

blue/green organic juice cafes

this is one odd juxtaposition but im sure its just a coincidence that an african american congresswoman is onscreen in handcuffs. but seriously, how gruesome must you be to get turned down by a prostitute?

feature on kos blogger georgia10.

Kristol squirms on the grill as Colbert peppers him with questions about the PNAC.

download superstar the karen carpenter story / dont know whos ok with this and who aint

future kos series on renewables.

fuel sells