| World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler |
[06 Oct 2008|02:18pm] |
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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/413070803/world-made-by-hand-b.html 
In the sweet and sad novel, World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler, the population of the United States (and most likely, the world) has been decimated by an energy shortage, starvation, plagues, terrorism, and global warming. The story takes place in an unspecified time in the near future (I'm guessing it's around 2025 or so). Kunstler is the author of the non-fiction book The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century, and World Made by Hand is a fictional account of what life might be like if things go the way he describes them in Long Emergency.
The story is told by Robert Earle, who used to be a software executive. Now he's a hand-tool using carpenter living in a town in upstate New York without Internet, TV, or newspapers. The electricity comes on every couple of weeks for a few minutes at a time. When that happens, nothing's on the radio but hysterical religious talk. Rumors of goings-on in the rest of the world are vague.
There's no fuel or rubber tires left for cars, and even if there were, the roads and bridges are shot. Earle can't afford a horse or donkey, so when he needs to buy carpentry supplies, he takes his hand cart to a compound on the outskirts of town called Karptown. It's a trailer park next to the dump that's been taken over by a dangerous gang of former bikers and motorheads who roam the neighborhoods salvaging scrap materials from abandoned houses and buildings.
The town is loosely run by a group of 15 men (no women) who half-heartedly try to maintain law and order, which is hard because no one wants to stand up to troublemakers like the folks at Karptown, who conduct occasional raids on people's homes.
The story kicks off when Earle (who lost his wife and daughter in the plague and hasn't seen his 19-year-old son since the boy took off a couple of years earlier to find out what's happened in the rest of the country) is elected mayor and joins a search party to look for a freight boat and its crew, which disappeared on its way to Albany. Their horse-mounted odyssey takes them on a tour through a post-apocalyptic world of insanity, greed, kindness, corruption, and ingenuity.
While life in Kunstler's world is lawless and harsh and populated with opportunistic characters that make Boss Tweed look like Glinda the Good, it's not without charms. Local communities are active and productive. Neighbors all know each other and look after one another. People grow and trade their own produce and livestock, and meals are tasty -- lots of buttery corn bread, eggs, chicken, vegetables, streaks, fish. They get together and play music a lot, and because people aren't stuck in their living rooms watching TV, they actually attend live performances.
As a budding urban homesteader, I found the way of life in World Made By Hand, fascinating. No one can predict the future, and I doubt our future will be much like the one depicted here, but I think its possible that Kunstler has come closer to showing us what's in store than anyone else.
Buy World Made by Hand on Amazon
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| Trans Conference: Decolonizing Gender and Remaking Trans Access |
[06 Oct 2008|01:09pm] |
cross posted to a few lists.
No idea who is central on this or how this is being organized . Just an FYI....
Sent by: CACS - Canadian Association of Cultural Studies <cacs@lists.mcgill.ca>
Date: 10/06/2008 10:12AM
Subject: [CACS] Call-Out for Trans Conference
Call-Out for Trans Conference
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Bodies of Dissent:
Decolonizing Gender and Remaking Trans Access
November 6 to 8, 2008
Peterborough, Ontario
*****************************************************
Peterborough's Trans Events Committee invites trans and gender variant communities and individuals to submit proposals for workshops, and presentations of various forms for the upcoming trans conference Bodies of Dissent: Decolonizing Gender and Remaking Trans Access (working title).
Bodies of Dissent is focused on decolonizing ourselves from the racialization and gender norms present in our society, as well as from the institutional practices of psychiatry and prison. We are calling for a rebuilding of trans access.
We are aiming to conjure discussion around experiences and issues of (but not limited to) race, health, disability, class, psychiatric institutions and prisons in relation to different trans identities.
Please send one page outlining the nature of your workshop, presentation, or creative project specifying the topic or focus, as well as any materials and/or accommodations required.
Workshops, presentations, films and creative projects will be happening during the days of the 7th and 8th. There will also be performances on the evenings of 6 to 8th. Interested performers are invited to contact us as well.
This conference is brought to you by a collaborative effort between Transmission, Trent Women's Centre, Peterborough AIDS Resource Network, Rainbow Service Organization and the Trent Queer Collective.
Deadline for submissions: Sunday, 12th October, 2008
Email: trans@trentwomenscentre.ca
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| savory apples |
[06 Oct 2008|12:08pm] |
This is a recipe in development. I haven't actually made it yet, so I don't know the approx. measurements. Measurements are always approximate in my recipes anyway- I don't measure anything. Needless to say I am not a pastry chef.
Apple Apricot Chutney
Baked Apple with ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander & fenugreek
Dried Apricot, soaked in water, chopped and simmered
Fennel, steamed and mashed
raisins, soaked, chopped, simmered
or dates simply mashed
red hot chili pepper
sugar
guestimate measurements-equal parts apple and apricot
1/4 the amount in Fennel (I might try this without fennel too)
1/4 the amount in raisins or dates
1/4 the amount sugar
1 chili pepper or scotch bonnet pepper
equal amount of ginger to hot pepper
sprinkle dry spices on apples- enough to cover them lightly.
Soak Apricot and raisins in water, chop and throw in a sauce pan with sugar, red hot chili pepper and ginger
Bake Apple with ginger, cinnamon, coriander & fenugreek
steam chopped Fennel.
mash ingredients together, bring to a simmer in sauce pan.
or
make
Baked apples stuffed with Apricot chutney
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| The problem with the one-eye veil for women, and a solution |
[06 Oct 2008|12:34pm] |
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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/412992908/the-problem-with-the.html Saudi cleric Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan has come up with a solution for troublesome women who wear eye makeup to look seductive as they peer through the slit in the black hoods they wear whenever they step outside. He wants them to wear full veils with a single eyehole.
The problem with this idea, of course, is that every time a woman blinks, men will think she is winking at them. Writing to India Uncut, Amit Varma has a neat solution:
I have an alternative solution to your problem. I suggest that you introduce veils for men that cover both their eyes. That way it will make no difference if the women are winking, blinking or, heaven forbid, naked.
Good idea, no? You’re welcome.
Saudi cleric calls for one-eye veil for woman
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| The Maverick Family in Texas Asks: "Who You Callin' a Maverick?" |
[06 Oct 2008|11:55am] |
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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/412963980/the-maverick-family.html NYT writer and Texas son John Schwartz wrote this very funny piece about the family in Texas who bear the name being co-opted by John McCain's presidential campaign.
 [T]o those who know the history of the word, applying it to Mr. McCain is a bit of a stretch — and to one Texas family in particular it is even a bit offensive.
“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” said Terrellita Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the rights of indentured servants.
In the 1800s, Samuel Augustus Maverick went to Texas and became known for not branding his cattle. He was more interested in keeping track of the land he owned than the livestock on it, Ms. Maverick said; unbranded cattle, then, were called “Maverick’s.” The name came to mean anyone who didn’t bear another’s brand.
Who You Callin’ a Maverick? (NYT)
Image: Mr. Samuel Augustus Maverick, of Texas.
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| PingMag interviws Lullatone |
[06 Oct 2008|11:50am] |
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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/412963981/pingmag-interviws-lu.html 
PingMag, the Tokyo-based magazine about "Design and Making Things" has an interview with a delightful musical duo, Lullatone.
Lullatone are a musical duo based in Nagoya comprised of the husband and wife team of Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida. They make sweet, sleepy, sine-wave-riddled songs with whispered lyrics, poppy melodies, and parse, carefully arranged beats. The Lullas utilise children’s instruments, splashing water, household sounds, and electronic sounds to craft their delightful songs for young and old. From the visual side, they make all of their clips by themselves — a delightful mix of film, stop-motion animation, and video that syncs nicely with their hypnotic, dreamy live shows.
Lullatone: Catch the Bedtime Beat!
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| Paper and pencil better for the brain than software? |
[06 Oct 2008|11:38am] |
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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/412952208/paper-and-pencil-bet.html Dutch psychologist Christof van Nimwegen posits that paper and pens/pencils boost learning and creative problem solving much more than computers do. Van Nimwegen wrote a PhD dissertation, titled "The paradox of the guided user: assistance can be counter-effective", about how software affects brain processes. English professor Michael Leddy summed up the research beautifully in his blog entry about it: "What's crucial of course is not ink or graphite (or paper!) but self-reliance—trusting one's mind rather than the machine." From eNews 2.0:
Van Nimwegen says much software turns us into passive beings, subjected to the whims of computers, randomly clicking on icons and menu options. In the long run, this hinders our creativity and memory, he says.
Van Nimwegen also investigated what happened if, during a task his two groups were working on, their computers suddenly crashed.
"The group that used a computer throughout, felt lost instantly and immediately performed badly when completing the task. The second group, who has used only pen and pencil, simply carried on with its work."
Van Nimwegen says his study demonstrates people may benefit if they continue to study new information by using books and the spoken word.
Paper and pencil, not computer, boosts creativity
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| Abandoned infectious hospital. Russia, Novgorod |
[06 Oct 2008|08:20pm] |
( +20 )
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| Identify this bug? |
[06 Oct 2008|11:39pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 scared |
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Hi!
Could anyone help in identifying this bug? My aunt believes it's a cockroach (and blames me for bringing them in), but my British friend says it's a shield bug... But I'm in Beijing, China, so I'm not sure how common they are here.
( Read more... )
Thanks!
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heartgut's Friends Page
This JFK rug from the 1960s is up for auction on eBay. It's 52cm x 40cm. Starting bid is $2000. 
I suppose I have a pretty unusual way of working -- at least that's what my illustrator friends are always telling me. I start by creating the most basic shapes and then refine with details as I go. To me the process feels completely normal. I look at that stark white space in front of me and can see the entire fully completed image in my head. Maybe I'm just lucky that way.