blahchewy

24 November 2009 @ 03:34 am

Credo: Always be asking questions.

Feral Cities

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JIW/is_4_56/ai_110458726/: The Naval War College's strategic analysis and assessment of urban environments in countries or regions where governmental order has broken down completely. Responsible for putting forward the term "Feral City." The feral city as the next battlefield.

http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/feral-cities/: Synopsis and analysis of Naval War College piece. Identification of Mogadishu, Detroit, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Karachi as feral cities or cities being overtaken by feral communities.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18593528: Archive of an hour long reading and question and answer session with Sudhir Venkatesh, author of the book "Gang Leader for a Day." Eyewitness examination of life in a feral community existing within the greater metropolitan area of Chicago.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/19806/iraq_in_america: The Perfect Storm and the Feral City. Article drawing comparisons between the mishandling of the Katrina Disaster and the mishandling of Iraqi policy. Analysis of New Orleans, Baghdad and Fallujah as feral cities.

In Application

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3629671.stm: Suspiciously sunny take on life in postwar Mogadishu. Key passages for our purposes are the ones speaking about the revitalization of the economy without any government intervention. The Company as Sovereign.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/africa_mogadishu_life/html/1.stm: Pictoral supplement to the previous article. Snaps and facts in brief. Very general overview.

http://www.raffaeleciriello.com/site/pw/39life1.html: Weblog of independent photojournalist. More snaps and facts in brief. Portal to photojournalism in other hotspots and feral communities.

http://tightgrid.com/2007/11/27/david-axe-on-urban-life-in-mogadishu/: Very quick take on life in the city for residents. Skimpy facts and and observations. A few bits to think on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkNScS7VTO0&feature=channel: Last Haven. 30 minute documentary on the state of Mogadishu in 2002-03. Interesting insights on the effects of US blanket edicts on businesses and banks in order to get tough on terrorism.

Media

http://www.jamesgriffioen.net/: Photographer chronicling urban decay and natural reclaimation in places like Detroit. Well shot compositions that leave strong impressions.

http://vimeo.com/2371774: Detroit Wildlife. 30 minute documentary on Detroit as feral city. Different view of a feral city as a city in abandonment. Decay resulting in the complete forsaking of a place by humanity. Detroit as a place of shadows and ghosts.

http://centennialsociety.com/mallpgone.htm: This was a shopping mall, now it's turned into a cornfield. Don't leave me stranded here, I can't get used to this lifestyle.

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22 April 2008 @ 05:46 pm

Research for "Uncrackable Code"

Credo: Always be asking questions.

The University of Cambridge

http://www.cam.ac.uk/: Main page for the University. Important information about its system of confederated colleges and the Supervisory method of teaching involving small class sizes and higher professor student ratios.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/map/: Relatively obtuse map of the Cambridge area and its many districts. Useful for identifying the university's individual colleges and departments. The map's legend is on a completely different page. Keep handy on another tab to use map effectively.

http://www.cambridge2000.com/cambridge2000/html/other/location_map.html: The fruits of the Cambridge 2000 project which endeavored to take an accurate accounting of every last building and place of import belonging to the University. At least one photo is provided for every single listed place. Extensively annotated, factual, well organized and ridiculously primitive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge: A refreshingly usable and concise wikipedia article on the university. Provides a reasonable section on the University's history (a better one available on the University's main page) and plenty of links to notable alumns of the last few centuries.

Cambridge Photography

http://www.pbase.com/compuminus/root: A striking collection of photos from around the University's grounds. A focus on lowlight and night photography and nature shots. A valuable supplement to the photos in the Cambridge 2000 project.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/: An instructional site by the same photographer that features a large gallery with many new photos as well as a few duplicates. Provides concise lessons and tips on digital manipulation of color prints.

http://www.darknessandlight.co.uk/cambridge_photographs.html#photography: Gallery and commercial site of a photographer who specializes in sepia and black and white prints of Cambridge and its surroundings. Nicely sorted by college and region.

http://www.urban75.org/photos/cambridge/thumbs.html: Street level photography and several anecdotes. Seems to be a networking site for the greater Cambridge area.

The Development of Physics and Mathematics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac: A founder of the fields of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Electrodynamics. Became the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics, which more or less means the head of mathematics at the University. Other Chair holders include Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking and Charles Babbage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford: The man who practically invented modern nuclear physics. His work allowed a generation of physicists and chemists to map the behavior of sub-atomic particles and atomic decay. Inventor of the term "half-life." Was the head of the Cavendish Laboratory, one of the world's foremost scientific institutions, for most of the first half of the 20th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._J._Thomson: Discoverer of the Electron and of particle Isotopes. Also invented the mass spectrometer. Went on to become the head of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1918 to 1940.

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02 November 2007 @ 04:52 pm

Music

Credo: Always be asking questions.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

http://brainwashed.com/godspeed/: Hope --> Rebirth. Wonderfully unfrilly and unfriendly website telling you everything you need to know about the band while using none of your fancy webapplets or fascist web 2.0 utopian malarkey.

http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2002/08/godspeed-you-black-emperor-and-the-politics-of-chaos/: "Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the Politics of Chaos." A refreshing scholarly article using the band's music as a parallel to illustrate the development of the philosophy of Anarchy and dissidence. That is the real, middle-class-college-student-free, philosphy of Anarchy and dissidence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aLjup934Rk: The Dead Flag Blues. "I said, 'Kiss me, you're beautiful. These are truly the last days.'"

Hope

http://www.last.fm/music/slow+learner/_/Look+at+your+Shoes: "Look at Your Shoes" by Slow Learner. "I Like to watch people. People on the street. In their time, in their time they are magnificent."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27ey8EU-5Lo: "Falling Into Space" by Don DiLego. "Baby, you won't ever see the coming of your destiny while you're always staring at the ground."

http://www.myspace.com/conjureone: Preview page for the artist Conjure One. "Center of the Sun" is the most approprate closer if you've been listening to the last three songs in order. "When I close my eyes I am at the center of the sun. And I cannot be hurt by anything this wicked world has done."

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13 December 2006 @ 01:54 pm

Ten People to Save the World: Randall Munroe

Credo: Always be asking questions.

Who is Randall Munroe?

http://www.redhat.com/magazine/025nov06/features/xkcd/?sc_cidbcm_edmse=: One of the few interviews Munroe has given as of this date. Linux enthusiast magazine. Fitting place for him to speak.

http://pumix.blogspot.com/2006/10/randall-munroe.html: A small blurb on Munroe and a useful link to his Best Thing project. Also a very good picture of him. Almost quintessentially Munroe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Munroe: An almost completely useless Wikipedia article on him. Links to a few of his other algorythm projects; The Funniest, The Fairest, and The Cutest.

Projects and Contributions?

http://xkcd.com/: Munroe's seminal work. Quite possibly the only webcomic that matters. "When designing an interface, imagine that your program is all that stands between the User and hot, sweaty, tangled-bedsheets-fingertips-digging-into-the-back sex."

http://www.conservegravity.org/: Munroe's important lifelong work for the American Society for the Conservation of Gravity. Truly more relevant than the works of The Gates Foundation, MoveOn.org, and Amnesty International combined.

http://bestthing.info/: Vote early, vote often.

http://blag.xkcd.com/: Randall Munroe's weblog. Definitive proof of the man's intimidating level of intelligence in the entry for December 11th, 2006 "The Map of the Internet."

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23 October 2006 @ 02:24 pm

Society

Credo: Always be asking questions.

The Revolt of the Elites

http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/lasch.html: On the last musings of the great Christopher Lasch, historian and cultural critic. More a synopsis than a review of a compilation of his last published articles. A firm grounding in the man's opinions and beliefs before he died.

http://www.mises.org/misesreview_detail.asp?control=64&sortorder=issue: A sturdy tackling and criticism of many of the points made within the body work of The Revolt of the Elites. Link also a useful portal to the website of the Ludwig von Mises Institute; a very well-funded libertarian think tank that may well be a front for supervillains.

http://www.reason.com/links/links101105.shtml: Namesake article having little to do with Christopher Lasch. An essay detailing the dissatisfaction growing within the ranks of the american conservatives. Useful as a portal to the Reason.com publication, which one hopes is not as screamingly liberal as the cover stories suggest.

http://www.thegline.com/thought/2002/01-09-2002.htm: Exploring the semantics around elitism and the debates of elites vs. commoners. Useful thought exercise.

Christopher Lasch

http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/01/19/reviews/970119.19delbant.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=login: "he describes contemporary America with a phrase that nicely declines to distinguish between greed and lust: we are, he writes, a culture obsessed with ''the pornography of 'making it.' ''

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0412/articles/deneen.htm: Christopher Lasch and the Limits of Hope. "This emphasis upon mercy was, Lasch concluded, perhaps the most difficult virtue for humans generally, and modern man especially, to sustain. And yet, he concluded, it was a message needing repetition and renewal, even in the face of likely failure. Hope demands nothing less."

http://www.policyreview.org/oct05/rosen.html: An incredibly well-reasoned review of american society with the works of Lasch kept firmly in mind. Have we developed into the culture he warned us about? How accurate is his depiction of a diminishing american character? Points addressed solidly.

http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/Lasch/: Index of other links to Lasch's work. Several of the preceding links occur on here as well. Good pull quote from "Revolt of the Elites."

Applied?

http://www3.sympatico.ca/cypher/mistrust.htm: Trust and social contract inspired by and taken from the context of books by Christopher Lasch and Francis Fukuyama. Website also portals to several items of interest.

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30 May 2006 @ 04:42 pm

Living City

Credo: Always be asking questions.

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Living City

http://www.designboom.com/portrait/wright.html: On the creation of Broadacre and the development of the ideas that would be collected in the work "The Living City." Several useful links to places already known about.

http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-wright-quotes.htm: Closing words of "The Living City." pt 5: "Night is but a shadow cast by the sun."

http://www.design-museum.de/museum/ausstellungen/wright/index.php?sid=e376152d20bb760a900489654ca923f9: Write-up for the european art exhibit centering on Wright's work. Link to Yale University professor George Ranalli, and his newly commissioned models of Broadacre City buildings and sections.

http://dasun2.epfl.ch/thu/thu2_4i.pdf: A document seeming to concern itself with the creation of Broadacre either for the purposes of modeling, true construction, or both. Almost entirely visual.

http://www.arch.columbia.edu/DDL/projects/usonia/usonia.html: Summary of the Usonian idea and a link to a computer animated trip through several of the buildings that exist only in Broadacre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadacre_City: Tepid Wikipedia article with a reader's digest version of organic architecture and some of its other founders. Useful as it broaches the subject of the competing idea of Transit-Oriented Architecture. A competition that FLW ultimately lost. The design of all our suburbs since is the result of this idealogical battle.

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20 April 2006 @ 03:54 pm

Research for "Bodhisattva"

Credo: Always be asking questions.

Samsara

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/GLOSSARY/SAMSARA.HTM: Brief but accuraqte Washington State University article on the concept. Links to the definition and implication of several other terms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara: Obligatory Wikipedia article. Suprisingly accurate.

http://www.samsaraquarterly.net/: Now defunct literary magazine. Urban poets and photography? 2 years gone. Where did the editors and contributors reincarnate to?

Thematic Material

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2664032?htv=12: "The Golden Path" by The Chemical Brothers. Video and small yet amusing write-up. Probably on YouTube as well.

http://www.lyricskeeper.com/chemical_brothers-lyrics/214133-the_golden_path_feat_the_flaming_lips-lyrics.htm: Lyrics to the above piece, for those that need such things.

http://www.mvwire.com/dynamic/article_view.asp?AID=10548: The video's director explains a little of the meaning behind what he did. Links to his site and other work.

Mythology

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/sacredplaces/trees.html: On the use of trees in mythology. Multi-cultural research.

http://www.soton.ac.uk/~buddsoc/talk1.html: The life of Siddartha Guatama Buddha. The telling of the meditation under the Pipal tree. Mention made of other buddhist concepts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha: Buddha as a historical feature. Filler for our purposes.

http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/karneval.htm: Carnivals and festivals and what they mean to spiritual traditions. What they mean phsychologically as well. Worth wading through the single spaced 8 pt font.

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16 March 2006 @ 05:27 pm

Raw Materials

Credo: Always be asking questions.

Window dressing for websites/chapbooks/otherf

http://our.imgseek.net/: FInd [picture] of target [noun]. websearch tool that will get better as more people sign onto it and start tagging images. Keep an eye on this one.

http://content-dev.lib.washington.edu/buildingsweb/index.html: Database of architectural images. Maintained by the University of Washington.

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/: Site specializing in the Fine Art. A bit rough around the edges but exhaustive in its offerings.

http://www.fine-art.com/: Warehouse of art for sale. By necessity an enormous gallery of visual arts both classical and modern, accomplished and undiscovered.

Finding local performers

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/: How do you find a six-foot, mongolian-american, transsexual contortionist for an upcoming performance art gig? You ask for one.

http://acting.meetup.com/lists/us/dc/washington/: Actor/performer networking site for DC area. Untested.

Finding artists/performers in the ether of the Internet

http://www.artifact.ac.uk/: Raw information. Lots of it. Articles, contacts, gallerys, reviews, anything that could be conceived.

http://www.deviantart.com/: Venerable old thing. Almost too mainstream now to be included in here.

http://www.altx.com/home.html: "Where the Digerati meet the Literati." Portal to the net's self-proclaimed best offereings.

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10 March 2006 @ 04:15 pm

Counterculture I

Credo: Always be asking questions.

Audio

http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/index.html: The 365 days project. A treasure trove of deviant audio. Produced in 2003.

http://www.ubu.com/: Trackback to the rest of the site. Constantly updating stream of rare and challenging art.

http://www.quietamerican.org/introduction.html: The Quiet American. One minute sound recordings from Somewhere Else. Global atmostphere as audio art.

Video

http://uk.music.yahoo.com/ar-313216-videos--EBN: Earth that was. We who were. 4 Basic samples.

http://fusionanomaly.net/ebn.html: Net that was. EBN as an outline into underground zeitgaist.

http://gnn.tv/videos/: Political videos evolved from EBN's work fifteen years ago.

http://www.pimpadelicwonderland.com/havesgenres.html#Anchor-blaxploitation-47383: Index of rare and weird movies from the 1970's and very brief plot synopses. Is it wrong that this feels like an RPG plot generator? You may also order these movies for a surprisingly acceptable amount of money.

Mind

http://www.physorg.com/news11611.html: The real life groundwork for Asimov's psycho-mathematics and psycho-history. Hack the planet.

http://staff.bath.ac.uk/ensab/replicator/: Prototypical evolutionary robot. The things that are supposed to take over the earth according to all our folklore.

http://www.anathemabooks.com/: Everything you wanted to know about the occult conspiracy but were afraid to get put on a government watchlist for asking.

http://www.barbelith.com/: The supposed new haven for the Underground. Pretty colors.

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09 March 2006 @ 01:23 pm

First Kiss

Credo: Always be asking questions.

What is it about first loves?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/articles/emotions/teenagers/love.shtml: The typically clinical british take on the matter. Links to other BBC science and psych stuff.

http://www.poetrysociety.org/journal/articles/firstloves.html: Poetic first loves. Written by a sampling of many of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century.

http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=108202005: An interview with the exalted british author Ian McEwan. A wonderful recollection of life as it's already happened.

http://www.byz.org/~rbanks/movableType/webLog/trends/archives/001718.html: Technology vs. marriage. Gateway to old BBC article and to the Trends blog -- an enthralling look at what we're all doing right this minute.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1175/is_n5_v26/ai_13220911: Psych and journalistic take. Long long article with some marginally interesting stuff on the rest of the site.

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