Time for you Americans to mail your Senators and Congressional representatives, if you want to have a true understanding of America's past. Progressive Reaction: "Was" vs. "Is" reloaded, revealed.  ¶ 4:09 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Sadly, this is probably as good Star Wars III will be. I personally like the "Sphere of Fear" and "Deathticle" best.  ¶ 11:29 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Funniest quote of the week, and the week's not even over! Link  ¶ 11:24 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Sadly, this is probably as good as the real Star Wars III will be. Ban This! - Delivering the funny since 2002 Star Wars III: Lost Hope  ¶ 4:39 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 087 - March 29, 2005

Orbital - Pants (ATO)
Cujo - Northstar (Ninja Tune)
Six by Seven - Eat Junk Become Junk (Rude Solo mix) (Rotters Golf Club)
Felix da Housecat - Silver Screen Showere Scene (Emperor Norton0
Lost and Alive - Feels Like Love
Scissor Sisters - Filthy Gorgeous (Martini Bros. mix)
Depeche Mode - Photographic (Rex the Dog dub) (Mute)
Tiefschwarz - Issst
Ricardo Villalobos - Dexter (Two Lone Swordsmen mix)
AFX - Klop Job (Rephlex)
Lucien n Luciano - Alain Brito
Random Factor - Broken Mirror (Acid Jesus mix) (Playhouse)
MRI - Sane and Sound (Force Tracks)
Four Tet - My Angel Rocks Back and Forth (Domino)
Radioactive Man - Fed-ex to Munchen (Rotters Golf Club)
Peace Division - What is That Sound? (King Unique edit) (NRK)
Prototype - Control of Sound
Yoshimoto - Do What U Do (Trentemoller mix)
Joel Mull - Emico (Fabric)
Telefon Tel Aviv - My Week Beats Your Year (Hefty)  ¶ 11:29 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  just how sick are you?
we're not talking colds – exactly how warped is your brain? Hard to believe this comes from the CBC.  ¶ 4:13 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  The greatest event in the history of Canadian television.

  ¶ 10:50 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Here's a New York Times on the change of small drawings throughout the magazine from isolated pieces to ones that now contain small stories. The New York Times > Arts > Art & Design > Talk of the Town (Make That Whisper)

It's worth noting that Mad Magazine has had "marginals" for years, since 1963, actually. They were drawn by Sergio Aragones, also well known for his Groo comics. Here's an excerpt of his wikipedia entry.

Aragonés became a contributor to MAD Magazine in 1963. He was famous for his wordless "drawn-out dramas" or "marginals" appearing in the margins and between panels of the magazine, both horizontally and vertically as well as occasionally around corners. Prior to Aragonés' work for MAD, the marginals had been text jokes. According to Aragonés the staff of MAD enjoyed his marginals, but expected to only last one or two issues. They did not expect him to be able to maintain the steady stream of small cartoons needed for each issue. Aragonés has provided marginals for every issue of MAD since 1963 excepting one [1] (http://www.sergioaragones.com/ask.htm). In addition, Aragones has a feature section in the current issues.

So I guess after 42 years, the New Yorker has caught up to Mad.  ¶ 11:36 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  The New York Times > National > At Harvard, an Unseemly Display of Wealth or Merely a Clean Room?

Here's an interesting story that becomes even more interesting when analyzed economically. Basically, the New York Times writer and people she quotes look at it as a sociopolitical story. If you try it from an economic viewpoint, it comes out a little different.

Scenario 1: lazy students clean their own rooms irregularly, or, as the story notes, almost never. Benefit to them, no time wasted. Downside - living in filth, time wasted cleaning.

Scenario 2: lazy students pay commercial services to clean their rooms. Benefit to students - cleanliness, more time for studies and beer drinking. Downside, must pay DormAid money, but if student is more productive than would have been cleaning for same period of time, then it's a benefit. Benefit to DormAid - money. Benefit to DormAid contractors (i.e. maids) - money and employment (barring concerns about low wages).

Which would you choose?   ¶ 1:16 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 086 - March 21, 2005 - A Bit of This, A Bit of That

Smith & Mighty - Higher Dub
Casino vs. Japan - Summer Clip (Carpark)
Two Lone Swordsmen - The Lurch (Warp)
Metal Beast - Complux (Isophlux)
Black Leotard Front - Casual Friday (DFA)
Alter Ego - Decoding the Hacker Myth (Two Lone Swordsmen mix) (Rotters Golf Club)
Depeche Mode - Lie To Me (LFO mix) (Mute)
Lederhosen Lucil - Semi-sweet (Kid Koala mix) (Hypo)
Bola - Ellipse
Akumu - mnmlsms (Spider)
Akumu - isolate (Spider)
AFX - Boxing Day (Rephlex)
NAW- Dawn Bike Maneuvers (Noise Factory)
Jackmate - Wolfen (Resopal)
Saint Etienne - Nothing Can Stop Us (Sub Pop)
BJ Cole - Elle Sait Ou Elle (Cooking Vinyl)
Aphex Twin - Alberto Balsalm (Warp)
Deadly wiz da Disko - Bumble Beez (K7)
Electronic Dub - Electronic Dub 4 (Rising High)
Dictaphone - Tempelhof (City Centre Offices)
Black Dog Productions - Caz (Warp)  ¶ 11:28 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  A front-page story in the Washington Post on intelligent design had a few howlers that are worth examining.

First of all, it's important to note that 99.99% of the people in favour of teaching intelligent design to students are not scientists.

Battle on Teaching Evolution Sharpens
Mon Mar 14, 3:26 PM ET

Top Stories - washingtonpost.com
By Peter Slevin, Washington Post Staff Writer

A prominent effort is underway in Kansas, where the state Board of Education intends to revise teaching standards. That would be progress, Southern Baptist minister Terry Fox said, because "most people in Kansas don't think we came from monkeys."

Well, you can think what you want, but the evidence is we did.

"It's an academic freedom proposal. What we would like to foment is a civil discussion about science. That falls right down the middle of the fairway of American pluralism," said the Discovery Institute's Stephen C. Meyer, who believes evolution alone cannot explain life's unfurling. "We are interested in seeing that spread state by state across the country."

Yes, it is an academic freedom issue. It would be nice if academics had any evidence in support of intelligent design, but they don't.

Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record) (R-Pa.), a Christian who draws on Discovery Institute material, drafted language accompanying the law that said students should be exposed to
"the full range of scientific views that exist.""Anyone who expresses
anything other than the dominant worldview is shunned and booted from the academy," Santorum said in an interview. "My reading of the science is there's a legitimate debate. My feeling is let the debate be had."

Santorum is wrong. There is no debate that evolution is wrong, or that intelligent design has a chance of succeeding. I think the debate should be had -- among scientists, not high school students.

That approach appeals to Cindy Duckett, a Wichita mother who believes public school leaves many religious children feeling shut out. Teaching doubts about evolution, she said, is "more inclusive. I think the more options, the better."
"If students only have one thing to consider, one option, that's
really more brainwashing," said Duckett, who sent her children to Christian schools because of her frustration. Students should be exposed to the Big Bang, evolution, intelligent design "and, beyond that, any other belief that a kid in class has. It should all be okay."

And for the final howler, Mrs. Duckett wants her children to have more than option, yet she sends them to Christian school to get away from other options. Hypocrisy? Yes, and nicely done!  ¶ 9:31 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Last week's Swoon (084) can be heard here. I thought it was good enough that it was worth sharing online.  ¶ 9:30 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 085 - March 14, 2004 - Ambient and Experimental

Freeform - unknown (Mask)
Boy from Brazil - Condoleances (Transsolar)
Vincent Gallo - No More Papa Mama (Warp)
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 2, disc 2, track 3 (Warp)
Jello - Pi Knipple (Peacefrog)
Luc Ferrari - Music Promenade
D'Arcangelo - Diagram XI (Rephlex)
Robag Wruhme - Mensua (Musik Krause)
NAW - Underpass Tunnel Corridors (Noise Factory)
The Juan Maclean - Less Than Human (DFA)
Cursor Minor - Library (Lo)
Bochum Welt - Automaticesk (Rephlex)
Speedy J - IEEE Mitten Menu (Mint mix) (Mute)
Wagon Christ - Receiver (Ninja Tune)
The Black Dog - Frisbee Skip (Warp)
Junior Boys - When I Am Not Around (Domino)
Christian Kleine - Crystal (City Center Offices)
Telefon Tel Aviv - TVV
Brian Eno - Variation #1 on Canon in D by Pachelbel - Fullness of Wind
Martini Bros - Ultrastar (Poker Flat)
Squarepusher - Tommib Help Bass (Warp)
Squarepusher - Every Day I Love (Warp)  ¶ 8:52 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Some reviews:

I watched the movie Signs this weekend. Spoiler alert: I allude to, and make fun of, the ending. In between gaping silences and mumbled, whispered lines (luckily I can use close-captioning on my tv), at the end, Mel Gibson essentially thanks God for his kid's asthma, his daughter's weird habit of leaving water glasses around the house and not cleaning them up, and for the medicine to cure his son.

In reality, Mel probably shouldn't be thanking God for his kid's asthma; L. Frank Baum should be getting royalties or at least some credit for the use of water to vanquish one's enemies; and Mel should be thanking medical scientists who developed drugs for asthma.

Don't rent it, even if you're really bored.

Kelsey Grammer Presents The Sketch Show: This premiered last night on Fox. Funny stuff. Fast-paced with unexpected jokes. If they can continue like this, it could easily become a cult classic, like the Ben Stiller show.  ¶ 1:49 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Maybe I've already mentioned this, but Strictly Kev's Raiding the 20th Century is truly amazing. I finally got around to listening to it, and as cutup mixes go, this one stands above many of the others out there. In 40 minutes there's about 150 songs. That is not a typo. It's not currently available from their site, but they suggest getting it as a torrent or an p2p network.

If you like it, check out Spector Sessions by DJ Spector. Only 50 songs in 60 minutes, but still faster than I mix.  ¶ 1:05 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 084 - March 7, 2004

Faithless - Mass Destruction (Tom Middleton mix) (Cheeky)
Random Factor - What I Need (Chicken Lips mix) (20:20 Vision)
John Dahlback - Sugar (RZ)
Tigerskin - Tigerdance
Steve Angello - Acid (Subliminal)
Tiefschwarz - Blow (Gigolo)
Sieg Uber Sie Donne - I'm Not A Sound (Multicolor)
Knife - Heartbeats (Rex the Dog mix) (Rabid)
Drama Society - Crying Hero (Turbo)
Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom - Rise (DFA mix) (DFA)
Casino vs. Japan - Warm Windows (Wobblyhead)
Trentemoller - Beta Boy (Out of Orbit)
Dominik Eulberg - Basstoepfel (Robag Wruhme mix) (Raum)
Audioholics - External Key (Ozgur Can and David West mix)
Kasey Taylor and Chris Meehan - Between the Lines
The Killers - Mr. Brightside (Thin White Duke mix)
M83 - Car Chase Terror (Mute)
Boy From Brazil - Collision (Transsolar)
Aphex Twin - To Cure a Weakling Child (Warp)
Bola - Eluus (Skam)
Tim Hecker - Kaito (Alien8)
re: - Pawk (Constellation)
Depeche Mode - Little 15 (Ulrich Schnauss mix) (Mute)  ¶ 9:38 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

 
I caught the occultation of the moon and Antares this morning from my driveway. That's the brightest star I've ever seen occulted. The disappearance was great. Antares just hung there, and hung there, then blam! gone. That was 6:00 a.m.

Reappearance at 7:16 was a little more sketchy. It was daylight and there were occasional clouds. It was suddenly there, but I don't know if I saw the reappearance or noticed it a few seconds after. The orange color was easily apparent. No chance at the secondary in daylight.

This shot was with my 85mm Stellarvue refractor.
  ¶ 11:35 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Don't worry, we'll only exploit you with church-approved technologies. After that, your own emotions will do the rest of the work. Science News Article | Reuters.com  ¶ 2:54 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  It's not the industrial music you're thinking of, but it's interesting all the same. Yahoo! News - Industrial Musicals Offer Odes to Tractors, Toilets  ¶ 10:15 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  I have made my first listing ever on ebay. It's for 12 books by husband and wife science fiction writers Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore. The listing is here.  ¶ 2:19 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Swoon 083 - February 28, 2005 - (Some of) The Best of the 90s

Polygon Window - Polygon Window (Warp)
Reload - Le Soleil et la Mer (Infonet)
Bola - Forcasa 3 (Skam)
u-ziq - Tango n Vectif (Rephlex)
Bochum Welt - CH Riot on Proxima Centauri (Rephlex)
Caustic Window - On the Romance Tip (Rephlex)
Balil - Parasight (Rising High)
Vapourspace - Gravitational Arch of 10 (Plus8)
FUSE - Mantrax (Plus8)
Slacker - Scared (XL)
Orbital - Lush 3 (ffrr)
Sasha - Xpander (deconstruction)
Rabbit in the Moon - East (Rising High)
Way Out West - Domination (Way Out West Dub) (deconstruction)
Air Liquide - Liquid Men With Liquid Hearts (sm:)e)
Union Jack - Red Herring (Platipus)
LSG - Fragile (Superstition)
The Orb - Into the Fourth Dimension (Attic)
Aphex Twin - Heliosphan (R&S)
Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea (Hypnotic)
Hardfloor - Acperiance (Harthouse)
Rollo Goes Mystic - Love, Love, Love, Here I Come (Big mix) (Cheeky)
Boards of Canada - Everything You Do Is A Balloon (Skam)  ¶ 10:32 AM 0 Comments Links to this post