ryan is hungry

By Mark | August 30, 2006

Following a short trail that started at Calibog, I just stumbled onto a relatively new site called Ryan is Hungry, which, if I understand correctly, is the project of two ex-television producers from the east coast who recently relocated to the Bay Area, where they’re working to bring videoblogging to the masses. I’ve just been poking around for a few minutes and I’ve already watched three very interesting video pieces; one a behind the scenes look at Technorati, one a look at the Josh Wolf case, and the other an exploration of the Hat Factory, the collaborative workspace the Ryan is Hungry folks share with a number of other likeminded geeks. (The Hat Factory model is an interesting one. They charge $200 a month for access to shared facilities. Single-day access is $10.) Anyway, it seems pretty cool and look forward to visiting often. Hopefully, they can keep up the energy. (I’ve even added a link in the right-hand column.)

Posted in Media | 4 Comments

altoids survivalism

By Mark | August 30, 2006

Would anyone out there be interested in getting together at a bar some Saturday afternoon to make survival kits in Altoids tins? I’m thinking that it might be pretty easy to do if we got a few people together, did a bit of advanced planning and each brought multiples of a few items. (This link to “Field & Stream” comes by way of BoingBoing.)

And here’s a question… How might we consider altering these survival kits so that they’re “optimized for Ypsi?”

Posted in Ypsilanti | 9 Comments

the yes men weigh in on post-katrina efforts to bleach new orleans

By Mark | August 29, 2006

I’d been waiting anxiously to see how our friends the Yes Men would respond to the Bush administration’s handling of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and, I’m happy to announce, the wait is over. Yesterday, on the eve of the first anniversary of the hurricane, Yes Men operative Andy Bichlbaum, posing as Housing and Urban Development (HUD) spokesperson Rene Oswin, took the stage alongside New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, to announce:

“Our charter here at HUD is to ensure access to affordable housing for those who need it the most. This past year in New Orleans, I am ashamed to say that we have clearly failed to do this.”

Bichlbaum, in the character of the apologetic Oswin, then went on say that HUD would, among other things, scrap plans to tear down 5,000 low-income housing units which had been slated for demolition despite the fact that they’d been undamaged by the hurricane.

Video of the event seems to be down right now, but it should be available again in the near future.

(According to the “LA Times,” they used the alias Rene Oswin because “Rene” means rebirth in French and “Oswin” is the Catholic patron saint of victims of betrayal.)

True to form, the Yes Men then went one step further and issued a false response from HUD on the subject of the agency’s forced “Identity Correction” at the hands of the Yes Men. It included the following points. (Unfortunately, I can’t link to the whole thing as I received it from the Yes Men in the form of an email.)

“We are destroying those homes for good reason. It is terribly sad that some people can’t understand that. That lack of understanding speaks for the low level of government education in this country.”

…HUD is NOT encouraging Wal-Mart to withdraw from low-income neighborhoods in order to “stanch” the flow of money out of these neighborhoods, nor does it prefer “local” businesses…

…A national tax base for public schools is NOT on the horizon of HUD or the Department of Education. U.S. public schools will continue to be funded from local taxes, which will continue to mean commensurate and proportionate levels of funding for schools in rich and poor neighborhoods. HUD does NOT believe equality of opportunity must begin in grade one, but believes it is a far more flexible concept…

…Also, Exxon has asked HUD to make clear that it will NOT pay $8.6 billion from its $35 billion in profits this year to close down the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and otherwise repair the damage caused by the oil industry to the natural protections surrounding New Orleans…

Will it change anything? Maybe not. But at least it has people talking, even if temporarily, about the forced takeover of former black communities instead of about stupid shit like the man who drove from New Orleans to DC to tell the President face-to-face that he was doing a “great” job. Hopefully, thanks to the efforts of Spike Lee, the Yes Men and others, the administration won’t be successful in hiding the truth of what really happened, and continues to happen, in New Orleans, behind staged photo-ops and phrases that have tested well with focus groups.

Posted in Art and Culture | 4 Comments

pander watch: florida

By Mark | August 29, 2006

As Congresswoman Katherine Harris falls further and further behind in her Senate race (after news of her dealings with corrupt defense contractor MZM Inc. broke), it looks as though she’s being forced further and further toward the extreme right. A few days ago, Harris had the gall to tell the “Florida Baptist Witness” newspaper that the separation of church and state is “a lie”, and that God and our founding fathers never intended for America to be a country governed by “secular laws.” She then went on to further enflame her paranoid and xenophobic neoconservative base by stating unequivocally that electing non-Christians is a “legislative sin”… And this, my friends, is what desperation smells like. (It should be noted that the Bush brothers, having gotten what they wanted out of Harris, have cast her aside like an easy frathouse conquest.)

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments

skeksis found in russia

By Mark | August 29, 2006


After several days of tedius research, I feel confident when I say that the mystery carcass which recently washed up on the Russian coastline is that of a full-grown, male Skeskis… The pride I feel at having cracked this puzzle is, of course, somewhat tempered by the realization that I, and everyone I love, will soon be enslaved by these vile creatures. (And, suddenly, the Bush administration isn’t looking all that bad.)

Posted in Observations | 8 Comments

charter schools get a failing grade

By Mark | August 28, 2006

I suppose the comparison might not be completely fair, as the charter school movement is still somewhat new, but according to this piece in today’s New York Times they’re failing miserably compared to public schools. Here’s a clip:

A federal study showing that fourth graders in charter schools score worse in reading and math than their public school counterparts should cause some soul-searching in Congress. Too many lawmakers seem to believe that the only thing wrong with American education is the public school system, and that converting lagging schools to charter schools would cause them to magically improve.

The study, based on data from 2003 on students’ performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, found charter school students significantly behind their non-charter-school counterparts. But it also showed that not all charter schools are created equal.

On average, charter schools that were affiliated with public school districts performed just as well as traditional public schools. That may be a disappointment to advocates who expected them to show clear superiority. But the real stunner was the performance of free-standing charter schools, which have no affiliation with public school systems and are often school districts unto themselves. It was this grouping that showed the worst performance.

Free-standing charter schools often bite off more than they can chew. The presumption is that without the bureaucratic restraints of the public school system and the teacher unions, charter schools can provide better education at lower cost. But the problem with failing public schools is that they often lack both resources and skilled, experienced teachers. While there are obvious exceptions, some charter schools embark on a path that simply recreates the failures of the schools they were developed to replace…

Posted in Other | 2 Comments

on gardenias and orangutans

By Mark | August 27, 2006

Clementine continues to impress and terrify us. This week, it’s with discussions of “gardenias” and “orangutans”… I’ve yet to verify this with my mom and dad, but, while I’m pretty sure I’d come to understand that there were such things as monkeys and flowers by the time I’d turned two, I’m almost positive that’s where my understanding stopped. I may have been able to jump and made “monkey sounds,” but I sure as hell wasn’t able to differentiate between different primate species… Clementine is freaking me out. She was asking for nuts a few weeks ago and I handed her some. She tossed one into her mouth, looked up at me happily and said, “Mmmm… Cashew.” Who the fuck knows what a cashew is before they turn two? Is that kind of thing normal? I’ve got to get some of this on video. (Here’s a photo of Clementine and Linette at the museum yesterday.)

update: The possibility that she could develop into a little Harlan Pepper hadn’t even occurred to me! Here’s a comment from the Anonymatt:

Clementine’s starting to remind my of Christopher Guest’s character in “Best in Show”:

Harlan Pepper: I used to be able to name every nut that there was. And it used to drive my mother crazy, because she used to say, “Harlan Pepper, if you don’t stop naming nuts,” and the joke was that we lived in Pine Nut, and I think that’s what put it in my mind at that point. So she would hear me in the other room, and she’d just start yelling. I’d say, “Peanut. Hazelnut. Cashew nut. Macadamia nut.” That was the one that would send her into going crazy. She’d say, “Would you stop naming nuts!” And Hubert used to be able to make the sound, he couldn’t talk, but he’d go “rrrawr rrawr” and that sounded like Macadamia nut. Pine nut, which is a nut, but it’s also the name of a town. Pistachio nut. Red pistachio nut. Natural, all natural white pistachio nut.

Posted in Mark's Life | 11 Comments

at the university of michigan museum of natural history

By Mark | August 27, 2006

Linette and I took Clementine to the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History to see the stuffed, dust-covered monkeys and mastodons yesterday. While there, we were happy to see that there was also a temporary exhibition on evolution. Before heading into the room that housed it, I noticed the above sign. I’m not sure if there have been instances of anti-scientific vandalism since the exhibit opened, but my guess is there have at least been threats.

I had the occasion to speak with a paleontologist while at the museum, and, when asked, he confirmed that an ever-increasing portion of his job as a professor was being taken up responding to the questions of biblical literalists among the student body, unable to accept the possibility that the earth is a day older than 6,000 years old. It’s amazing to me that things like this are taking place at centers of higher education. (I mean, the questioning of the status quo is great, and that’s what going to university should be about, but when those pursuits begin to significantly eat in to the class time of others, and when they threaten the existence of exhibitions meant to educate, in my opinion, they’ve gone too far.)

(note: No other exhibits within the museum contained similar signage.)

And, in related news, “evolutionary biology is missing from a list of majors that the U.S. Department of Education has deemed eligible for a new federal grant program designed to reward students majoring in engineering, mathematics, science, or certain foreign languages.”

Posted in Observations | 9 Comments

fratboy-in-chief

By Mark | August 27, 2006

I usually like to report real news, but I found this piece in the Boston Herald on Bush’s love of flatulence humor to be kind of telling, and thus worth sharing. Here’s a clip:

…U.S. New & World Reports’ Paul Bedard says our commander in chief “loves flatulence jokes . . . can’t get enough of fart jokes. He’s also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides.”

In an interview yesterday, Bedard, who writes “Washington Whispers” for the weekly newsmagazine, also said he’s heard about Bush’s full-salute “Austin Greeting.” That’s when new aides come in for their “meet and greet.”

“Word is,” says Bedard, “he likes to gas a couple, and then bring the aide in and see what the kid’s face looks like.”

Naturally, the aide can’t accuse the President or grimace or hold his nose. This dilemma apparently drives the presidential funny bone wild…

The blatant disregard for others demonstrated here reminds me of that time when candidate Bush was caught on tape wiping his glasses on the sweater of one of David Letterman’s unaware producers.

All hail the Fratboy-in-Chief. (One wonders if he’s ever made the cabinet members convene over a soggy biscuit.)

Posted in Politics | 6 Comments

the monkey power douchebags approaching the summit of mt. hood

By Mark | August 25, 2006

(Don’t worry, the grafitti, which references a song we did this session called “Ballerinas are Forever,” isn’t permanent. It was written in cocaine.)

Posted in Monkey Power Trio | 2 Comments