Comments Off Gaga Stigmata: Critical Writings and Art About Lady Gaga is a new (begun in March), heavily “theory” laden, online journal that takes the much-discussed pop phenomena of the Lady very seriously (or tongue-in-cheek, it’s hard to tell).
Comments Off In 1957, Frank Herbert was a journalist and writer of short stories, on his way to Florence, Oregon to do an article about the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s attempts to control sand dunes that were shifting. The USDA was searching for something to stabilize the dunes, and they came upon European beach grass. Herbert’s research was for an article tentatively titled “They Stopped The Moving Sands.” The article was never completed, but his research of dune stabilization lead to larger ecological matters, and eventually the novel Dune. This year marks the 45th anniversary that novel. The world of dunes, both fictional and real, has changed quite a bit in the years.
Though never completed, They Stopped The Moving Sands (select pages on Google Books) is now a section of The Road to Dune, a companion book to the Dune novels. The section includes the proposal from Herbert to his agent, as well as letters back and forth. Herbert casts the battle against the endless waves of sand in a larger scope, from The Horizon of Aten to the seemingly endless Peruvian dunes. Thomas Flippin of the Soil Conservation Service, director of the efforts to arrest the movement of the sands, commented that “the sand promises a slow death to everything it touches.” As Herbert mentioned in “Dune Genesis” (Google Quickview / PDF), he saw the struggle over the environment as a key issue in future power struggles:
While this concept [of power structures, politics and the mistakes of (super)heroes] was still fresh in my mind, I went to Florence, Oregon, to write a magazine article about a US Department of Agriculture project there. The USDA was seeking ways to control coastal (and other) sand dunes. I had already written several pieces about ecological matters, but my superhero concept filled me with a concern that ecology might be the next banner for demagogues and would-be-heroes, for the power seekers and others ready to find an adrenaline high in the launching of a new crusade.
If not a full crusade, there was the mentality that dunes could be stopped and made into something more permanent. European beach grass was once used as the first of three stages of succession planting (abstract from a 1975 USDA article). Now, this foreign grass is classified as an aggressive invasive species in North America, as is one of the USDA’s earlier choice for succession plants, Scotch Broom.
Oreagon Dunes National Recreation Area was established in 1963, and is now . Some residents one area carved out a community, and formed Dunes City, Oregon that same year. In Colorado, the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve was established as a national monument in 1932, and later expanded into a national park and preserve in 2000-2004.
Elsewhere in the world, shrinking dunes are seen as environmental oases, the last locations for certain species. And ever-shifting dunes can hide armies for centuries, speaking in short to the archaeological potential for deserts and dunes of sorts.
Back to the fictional side: Frank Herbert created a world that Arthur C. Clark likened to The Lord of the Rings, spanning six novels in the “Classic Dune” (works written by Frank Herbert), eleven novels that expanded the universe, written by Herbert’s eldest son, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson, plus another six short stories written by the duo. The derivitive works of the Dune universe range from much-despised (see also: the comic book adaptation) to still loved, influential classic (note: earlier RTS games do exist).
Comments Off “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.”On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash played two concerts at Folsom State Prison with June Carter, Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, and his band, the Tennessee Three. At Folsom Prison, drawn mainly from the first show, is often ranked as one of the best albums of all time and turned Cash’s career around. Reporter Gene Beley covered the concert and recorded some songs from the audience.
Cash closed both shows with “Greystone Chapel,” written by Folsom inmate Glen Sherley. Cash heard the song for the first time the night before the concerts, and acknowledged Sherley during the shows.
Cash had been playing in prisons since the late 1950s; Merle Haggard saw several of his concerts from the audience at San Quentin. The 1968 concerts were the second time Cash had played at Folsom. He’d done a show there in November 1966. Reverend Floyd Gressett arranged the 1966 concert and gave Cash the tape of “Greystone Chapel” in 1968.
The 1951 movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison inspired Cash to write his 1955 single “Folsom Prison Blues” when he was serving in Germany in the US Air Force. The song’s melody and lyrics are very similar to Gordon Jenkins‘ “Crescent City.”
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison [trailer] is a 2008 documentary about the concerts. (It apparently doesn’t include concert footage.)
In 1969 Cash recorded At San Quentin, which included the hit single “A Boy Named Sue.” In 1973 he recorded På Österåker at Sweden’s Österåker Prison.
Cash’s prison albums started a trend that included B.B. King’s Live in Cook County Jail and Live at San Quentin, John Lee Hooker’s Live At Soledad Prison, Little Milton’s Live at Westville Prison and the Sex Pistols’ Live at Chelmsford Top Security Prison, Thom Chacon’s Live at Folsom Prison, Tracy Nelson’s Live from Cell Block D, and Charles Manson’s Live from San Quentin [AKA White Rasta]. Freddy Fender’s Recorded Inside Louisiana State Prison is a fake live-in-prison album. “If it is a prison recording, then where, praytell, are the prisoners?” AMG
Men singing at women’s prisons was a trend-within-a-trend, with The Moments’ Live at the New York State Women’s Prison, Sonny George’s Live At The Tennessee Prison For Women, Mack Vickery’s Live At The Alabama Women’s Prison. Leona Williams reversed the gender roles with her San Quentin’s First Lady (with Merle Haggard, who’d done time there).
At the time of Cash’s concert, Folsom was a model prison. “Administrators came from New York and Texas to find out how Folsom kept its violence so low and its inmates from coming back.” It’s much worse now.
Comments Off In honor of what would have been the Man in Black’s 78th birthday on February 26, Flavorwire presents 78 Things You [Probably —Ed.] Didn’t Know About Johnny Cash. Number 14: During his act in the 1950s, Cash flaunted a killer Elvis impersonation. Number 36: An ostrich attack in 1983 left Cash with five broken ribs and internal bleeding.
Perhaps the attack was about Cash’s response to being sued for (Number 32) a forest fire he started in Los Padres National Wildlife Refuge, which (Number 33) killed all but 9 of the endangered condors at the refuge. When questioned about the birds at the deposition, Cash replied: “I don’t give a damn about your yellow buzzards.”
Some of the items on the list aren’t terribly surprising or new, but the few that are are worth it. (Number 64, for example.)
Comments Off A woman pushing a shopping cart with with bottles and cans in it was hit by a car on Connaught ave this afternoon around 1:20pm. Moncton Fire Dept. & NB Ambulance were on scene along with Codiac Regional RCMP. Police have Connaught Ave blocked between High street and Jones and a traffic analyst was on scene marking where the woman was hit. Windshield was smashed on the vehicle that struck the woman. In the same area there was a crew of city workers patching potholes, road conditions were wet from melting snow, but for the most part good driving conditions. RCMP said the road would be closed off for awhile while they investigate the accident.
Comments Off UPDATE: The following guide, originally written for Firefox 2, has been used successfully on Firefox 3, Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6. Users of Firefox Portable edition (versions 3, 3.5 and 3.6) also have been successful using this guide.
The Windows computers available at my University permits login only by autenticated users (students) who don’t have Administrator access and permissions.
Installing software on those PC is then not possible.
Recently they finally installed Firefox 2 but without the Flash plugins, which is absolutly useful/needed.
I then tryed to install the Flash Player using the “standard” way (click on the missing plugin link then install the plugin..). However without administrator plugins it was not possible to install.
Then I started doing some tests trying to install the plugin manually. Now I have it installed and working perfectly!
This is how I managed to install it without administrator permissions:
Reference:
Profile folder on MozillaZine Knowledge Base.
Installing Flash in Portable Firefox with no installer at AcidLabs.org Blog.
Comments Off If you’d like to expand your beer repertoire without paying top-shelf premiums, it’s time to capitalize on the revival of the growler and head over to your local micro brewery.
For the unfamiliar, growlers are 64-ounce beer bottles that look more like a jug than a bottle. Many micro brewers across the U.S. are tapping into the rising interest in fine beers by bringing back the growler. Growlers are more economical than purchasing beer by the bottle or six-pack and environmentally friendly to boot—when you’re done with your growler you can wash it out and bring it back to the brewery to get refilled. Who is taking advantage of the growler resurggeance? The New York Times writes:
“In the beginning we tried to figure out, ‘Who’s going to be our market?’ ” said Ben Granger, 32, an owner of Bierkraft, which began filling growlers in spring 2006. “We thought, mullet-heads and beer-bellied dudes. But the first run was ladies with strollers. They will tell you they’re buying them for their husbands. Three weeks later, they’ve got two. One’s his and one’s hers. The next one that caught me by surprise was dads coming in with their kids. Then there’s the beer crowd who’ll rush in to get on this or that before it’s gone. There’s no age limit.”
Michael Endelman, a journalist at Rolling Stone, is one of those growler-loving fathers. “I don’t go to bars too much anymore,” he said, gesturing to his baby daughter Mimi. “It just seems like a great way to be a beer geek without going out.”
Aside from the economical and environmental aspects of the growler, the quote from Michael Endelman above highlights one of the most popular aspects of the growler: you can get interesting and exotic beer for a song and then enjoy it at home.
Check out the full article at The New York Times for more information about growlers and the history behind them. They offer a list of NYC-centric suppliers of growlers and growler refills but you’ll have to call around to your local watering holes and breweries to find out who supplies and fills growlers. Once you find a place, make sure to ask what they’ve got on tap and then head over to previously reviewed RateBeer and Beer Suggest to compare beer notes.
Comments Off Filmmaker Kevin Smith was booted off a Southwest Airlines flight last night for being too fat. Oops, sorry, for some sort of nebulous “safety risk”. Needless to say, Southwest is rapidly discovering what happens when you mistreat a customer with 1.6 million Twitter followers and a lot of spare time (not to mention a movie coming out).
In 1989, Hollywood heavy metal band Rock Sugar was stranded on a desert island. For the last twenty years, the only music they had to listen to was the 80′s pop CD collection of a 13 year old girl. And now, Rock Sugar has come home.
Left to their own extremely questionable survival skills, Rock Sugar managed to salvage several items from the sunken yacht. In addition to their instruments, they retrieved a hot pink battery powered boom box covered with stickers of Hello Kitty, a crate of batteries, 158 cases of schnapps and numerous articles of teenage girls clothing, most of which the band admit to trying on and several pieces of which apparently fit and looked “pretty frickin’ awesome.”
While you may be able to at last take the metal band off the deserted island, apparently you can’t take 20 years of exposure to 80’s pop out of the metal band. Prepare to have the line between pop and metal blown to smithereens and pour yourself a shot of Rock Sugar.
Take it as a given that Twilight is critic-proof. You can say what you like about it. You can say that it’s a Harry Potter rip-off. You can say that it’s a deliberately manipulative and poorly-concealed conservative manifesto written in the form of a schlocky fantasy book. You can say that even thinking the word ‘Twilight‘ will immediately bring you out in 19 different types of ulcers.
But it doesn’t matter. So long as there’s at least one scene where Robert Pattinson gets to suck his cheeks in and look away into the middle-distance, millions of teenage girls will snap Twilight up and spend the next few hours urinating themselves and sighing wistfully at the same time.
However, just because Twilight is critic-proof, it doesn’t mean that some critics aren’t having a go. Specifically Stephen King. Since he’s a) “not 14″ b) not female c) is capable of rational thought, it’s no surprise that Stephen King isn’t a Twilight fan. But what might be a surprise is that he’s starting badmouthing Twilight’s author Stephenie Meyer in public. The Guardian reports:
King compared the Mormon author to JK Rowling, saying that both authors were “speaking directly to young people”. “The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good,” he told an interviewer from USA Weekend.
What prompted Stephen King’s outburst? It could be jealousy – Stephenie Meyer’s books get turned into hopeless films that make millions of dollars, while Stephen King’s books get turned into hopeless films called The Mist that everyone ignores. It could be a generational thing – Stephen King remembers when he was the author of choice of creepy teenagers who smell like old towels, and he doesn’t like that someone else has taken his position. Or it could be that Stephenie Meyer actually is a terrible writer.
I really couldn’t say for sure. Because I’d need to read a Twilight book to find out, and I’m not mental.
Comments Off Men constantly think about sex – or do they? Globally, people generally lose their virginity in their teens and as adults have sex an average of 103 times per year. While more men than women are satisfied with their sex lives, overall 44% of all people say they are pretty happy. Have a look at Sex by the Numbers for a graphic look at sexual gratification.
Comments Off Every year around Spring Break and Mardi Gras young women contract Girls Gone Wild syndrome at alarming rates. The GGW Clinic in Sarasota Springs, NY is doing its part to keep this terrible illness from becoming a pandemic.
(Yes, it takes a moment for the video to load, stop emailing me.)
Comments Off Comments Off Being Canadian is great, all the benefits, 98% less fanatical patriotism. We love our country, but we’re more understated in the pounding that love into your face.
The only thing that kind of sucks about the internet, is that most content is US based, and we’re not American (despite what our politicians might think). The following add-on for Firefox changed the header that the majority of sites use to verify where you’re coming from. IE, I no longer have to go ‘aww damn, can’t view that one!’ when it comes to an online video.
For Foreign viewers, if you are using Firefox, install the following add-on:
Modify Headers then:
1) In Firefox, Go to tools->modify headers
2) From the drop down box on the left select add
3) Then enter: “X-Forwarded-For” in the first input box without the quotation marks
4) Enter: “12.13.14.15″ in the second input box without the quotation marks
5) Leave the last input box empty, and save the filter, and enable it
6) Click the ‘Configuration’ tab on the right then proceed to check the ‘always on’ button.
Close the Modify Headers box and you’ll be saying “wow it’s like I am really American!” in a matter of moments.
Comments Off Here’s the entire video of Jon Stewart’s Fox interview with Bill O’Reilly. I know I’m biased, but I think that Stewart comes across as smart, funny and substantive and O’Reilly comes across as a defensive, deluded nut.
Comments Off I Got Glasses.
Oakley Wingspan – Prescription Eyewear
Check the specs on the element called titanium and you’ll see stuff that’s straight out of sci-fi. Freakishly low weight and miraculous durability make it the metal of fighter jets, so it was our first choice for a sculpture inspired by machines that carry thunder and rip the sky. Oakley WINGSPAN puts up attitude and pulls the ripcord on whatever keeps you grounded among the uninspired.
Along with all those sculptural contours of ultra-lightweight titanium, WINGSPAN comes with spring hinges made of the same durable metal. The right feel is just as important as the right prescription, so we designed this frame with adjustable nose pads and a Three-Point Fit that touches your head only at the sides and the bridge of the nose. UNOBTAINIUM® sheathes the stems with a comfortable grip that stays in place through whatever activity is thrown your way. This Oakley original comes with a case for transport and storage.
Comments Off 
“Forced to make a landing and surrounded on all sides by the enemy, who called on him to surrender, he drew his automatic pistol and defended himself gallantly until he fell dead from a wound to the chest.”
- Medal of Honor citation
Lieutenant Frank Luke of the United States Army Air Service had earned a reputation as a lights-out “balloon buster,” which sounds kind of like a lame-ass Atari game but was actually pretty hardcore. Back before the days of UAVs, satellite imaging and Imperial Psykers, artillery spotting and intelligence gathering was usually just obtained by some dude standing around in a hot-air balloon with a pair of ‘nocks and a radio. Taking one of these bastards out usually meant you were saving trenchloads of infantrymen. Since the tethered balloons were also relatively-stationary, high-priority targets, they were also usually escorted by fighter squadrons and surrounded by ground-based anti-aircraft batteries, making them pretty tough to get to. So, as lame as the name might be, the guy’s job was basically the Death Star trench run at the end of Episode IV with the added bonus that you got to turn an enemy target into the Hindenburg.
Frank Luke: Earth’s Luke Skywalker.
He was damn good at it, too–in just 17 days of combat he took out 18 enemy aircraft, including one battle where he shot down two balloons and three fighter planes in the span of 10 minutes. Another time he was on one of his trademark “lone wolf” missions and his gun jammed, so he climbed out, fixed it in mid-flight, turned BACK AROUND, hunted his target down and killed him.
Being such a balls-out deathmeister eventually caught up with Luke, however, and his last stand began in the skies above Murvaux, France in 1918. He was alone, deep behind enemy lines and intent on taking out a large cluster of enemy aircraft and balloons. He started with a low run that barely cleared the tree tops, but handily turned two German observation balloons in to raging airborne infernos. However, while dodging ground fire from anti-aircraft batteries and machine gun towers, a squadron of eight German fighters dove down from above and began pursuing him as well. It was beginning to seem like Frank Luke had gotten in over his head here.
Well, if you know shit about Luke, you know that he wasn’t going to piss his pants just because a couple hundred German soldiers were filling the air with more bullets than a Gradius boss battle. Luke continued to press the attack, surrounded on all sides by gunfire, and managed to take out the third and final balloon stationed at this aerodrome.
By this point Luke had been hit by enough gunfire that his plane, and his body were both beginning to fail. Deciding there was time for one final run, and realizing there was nothing left in the sky for him to kill, he picked off six enemy infantrymen before crash-landing in an open field. Luke, never one to show any mercy or ask for quarter, now found himself surrounded on all sided by the heavily-armed German soldiers that were closing in on his position. Badly wounded and in hostile territory, Luke defied authority to the end. When the assembled enemy troops called for his surrender, he responded by unholstering his pistol and picking off a few more Germans. After he died from a chest wound, he became the first member of the USAS to ever receive the Medal of Honor.
Further Reading:
Cooke, James G. United States Air Service in the Great War. Greenwood, 1996.
Guttman, Jon. USAS 1st Pursuit Group. Osprey, 2008.
Hudson, James J. Hostile Skies. Syracuse Univ. Press, 1997.
Roberts, Priscilla Mary. Encyclopedia of World War I. ABC-CLIO, 2005
“Another comrade, withdrawing, offered assistance. Sgt. Baker refused, insisting that he be left alone and be given a soldier’s pistol with its remaining eight rounds of ammunition. When last seen alive, Sgt. Baker was propped against a tree, pistol in hand, calmly facing the foe. Later Sgt. Baker’s body was found in the same position, gun empty, with eight Japanese lying dead before him. His deeds were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army.”
- Medal of Honor citation
Sergeant Baker was part of a combined Army and Marine Corps expedition to capture the Mariana Island of Saipan from the Japanese. In the days prior to his final stand, when his squad was pinned down by heavy machine gun fire, Baker grabbed a rocket launcher, ran within 100 yards of the Japanese bunker and turned it into cinder-block dust with one shot.
On the day he died, Baker found himself facing down an INSANE banzai charge of roughly 5,000 Japanese infantrymen flying bayonet-first out of the jungles and screaming, “Long Live the Emperor” Imperial Space Marine-style. Seeing the enemy closing in on three sides, Baker simply cracked his knuckles, swore under his breath and changed a clip into his weapon.
The initial wave left Baker seriously wounded by enemy rifle fire, but he refused to run or back down or show any emotion other than anger. He stood his ground, firing like crazy with any weapons he could get his hands on, sometimes from as close as point-blank range. When he ran out of bullets, he Hulked up (Banner or Hogan, your choice) and beat off the attack with his hands, an admittedly ballsy move that left him even more fucked up.
Why not both?
His weapon was smashed and he was bleeding profusely from a number of gaping wounds when some of his men came up and started carrying him from the battlefield. By this time the perimeter was buckling, the fight was lost and the Americans were falling back to regroup, but Baker didn’t give a shit. He knew that dragging his half-dead ass along the ground was only slowing down the withdrawal, so he told his men to prop him up against a tree facing the enemy. He borrowed a Colt 1911, made sure that it had a full eight-round clip and told his men to get the fuck out of there while he bought them some time.
Standard issue Colt 1911. Not standard issue: being super hardcore.
When the final American advance pushed forward and captured Saipan later that same month, they found Sergeant Baker’s body propped up against the tree, facing his enemies right where they’d left him. The eight rounds they’d left him with meanwhile, were now in the eight dead Japanese soldiers scattered before him.
Further Reading:
Goldberg, Harold J. D-Day in the Pacific. Indiana Univ. Press, 2007.
Sinton, Starr, and Robert Hargis. World War II Medal of Honor Recipients. Osprey, 2003.
Comments Off 
People are obsessed with how the Na’Vi people do it.
Alright now, do we all have this blue people having sex with each other fetish finally out of our systems? No, probably not. Until the Hustler Avatar porn DVD release, then.
Sponsored by the lovely folks over at
If you like animations and games and have never been to Newgrounds before; check it out! It’s a lot better than Youtube, because unlike youtube, not every other video is some androgynous loser regurgitating celebrity news into a webcam. Bitter much Harry?
I wanted to make this due to the fact it bugged me in the movie that Jake managed to nail Neytiri with little to no knowledge of Na’vi mating practices. I mean, I’m assuming it’s pretty similar, but considering they have magic hair veins that connect with nature, there’s obviously some pretty big anatomical differences…
Wow, there’s people starving in Ireland and it’s stuff like THAT which keeps me up at night.
If you’re curious as to what I thought of the movie, I thought it was okay. Same old “white guilt” story we’ve seen before but the effects made it a pretty thrilling moviegoing experience. It’s no Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen though…
This marks my first animation of 2010, a year which I am determined to make my busiest. I want to upload every month or more if I can, so expect much.
Love to all
Harry
Comments Off 
Preschool Pwn’d… it’s only downhill from here kid. – How emo’s are made.
What’s so wrong about these cute, cuddly stuffed animals?
- See the (slightly NSFW) WTF after the jump
Continue reading 'WTF Stuffed Animals Gone WRONG!'»
Comments Off I just happened to be in the livingroom with the camera when Luna and Arty started beating the snot out of each other.
The Woman Buddhist Thought of the DayPanorama Theme by 
Themocracy
