30.8.01

A cubicle designed by Dilbert's Scott Adams. It has a biofeedback flower, a hammock, and a private cooler so the dirtbags can't steal your lunch. Also - closed circuit view of the boss' door. Read the story at CNN.com

27.8.01

"The [Federal Civil Defense Administration] constructed "a typical American community" complete with houses, utility stations, automobiles, furniture, appliances, food, and even mannequins simulating the people who might live in the town."

Then they dropped an atomic bomb on it
Not much going on here at this weblog this week. Why don't you check out Ensign Wesley Crusher's ? (Warning: He's at a bit of a low point and looking for support.)

22.8.01

Here is a primer on fabric intended for bachelors ("of any gender") who might want to upgrade their wardrobe. Elsewhere on this site is a long series of articles on reconstructing the absurd hats of the middle ages.

20.8.01

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary.

- Adam Smith - Book 1, Chapter X of An Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 5th edition, 1789

Such as, for example, the assembly on NAFTA or on Energy Policy or on Internet Privacy...
Please visit my Yahoo! photo album for the rest of my photos from Istanbul, including the wedding of Morgan and Nesteren. The wedding this past weekend of Walter and Irmak will be available soon, I hope.

BTW, Yahoo! frustrated me today by renaming the pictures I uploaded. Actually, it gave them the names I typed in, but it put shifted the names to the wrong photos. If this happens to anyone else, please let them know. I don't feel like talking to them to complain about a free service.

15.8.01

Most people would never think to make a "hurricane of fire" by molding five jet engines into a circle. The jets have about 130 pounds of thrust apiece, so when they are turned on, they create a stationary tornado with wind speeds up to 300 mph. Gas then gets shot into the wind, where it is ignited creating, well, a hurricane of fire.

A short article on Eckerd College grad Mark Pauline and his fabrication/performance art group Survival Research Laboratories

12.8.01

More on the political control of water resources: Here is a critical summary of some declassified US Defense Intelligence Agency documents outlining our best guess at how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children have died of disease as a direct result of the Gulf War. (Bombing of water purification infrastructure and subsequent sanctions against importing purification material into Iraq.) At least a few of our elected representatives have expressed concern that this is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention, but the policy remains unchanged and 5000 children per month are dying for lack of clean water.

9.8.01

Here are two more tidbits on corporate attitudes about water:

First, (via Pigs and Fishes) a cached page, formerly on a Coca-Cola site, describing their "H2-NO" program to discourage restaurant customers from choosing to drink tap water instead of more profitable (and Enjoy™-able) beverages.

Second, a report summary from the International Forum on Globalization describing the havoc being caused by the commercialization of water resources. The author, Maude Barlow, (a former senior advisor to Canada's Trudeau administration) advocates treating clean water as a human right rather than as a market commodity.

Such ideas fly in the face of today's corporate influenced "public" policy. Want a good example of such policy? Examples are easy to find, here's a lucid and penetrating historical critique of how corporations have restructured America's income tax for their own benefit. It was co-written by the brilliant economist Jonathan Rowe who has elsewhere proposed a fundamental redefinition of the GDP. At least somebody is thinking.

7.8.01

The ongoing story of a nice and wonderfully resourceful girl, her friendly dog, her neighbor, and his arsenal of high-pitch sonic devices.
I'm back from Istanbul. The wedding was happy and functional, the party afterwards was splendid, full of smiles, raki, and wonderful ottoman music.

The city itself is paradoxical: Chaotic and restful, impossible and simple, polluted and pristine. If there is one unifying concept behind Istanbul, it would have to be "negotiation" - apt for a city of traders. A few of my pictures of Istanbul are available here. Pictures from the wedding itself and the following days will follow.

1.8.01

Tomorrow I am off to Istanbul to witness the wedding of my good friend Morgan to his Turkish sweetheart, Nesteren. The wedding will be on Saturday somewhere in this neighborhood of Istanbul. I will bring back some good photos for you.