November 2003 | Page 2 of 2

MonthNovember 2003

On “Rich Progressive” Kenneth Cole

November 13, 2003 / Klint Finley

And speaking of “rich progressives,” here’s an interview with Kenneth Cole:

“It’s hard to ignore the hand that feeds you,” Cole said, “and today our communities are far more needy than they’ve ever been, and governments neither have the will nor the ability in many cases to provide the services that they need to. So, if the private sector doesn’t step forward, I don’t know who will.” […]

“I’m actually in the process of running from office,” he said in Chicago. “I’ve got so much access and ability to do so much great social outreach and public service as a private person. I think I can do much more where I am.”

Makes me want to read Footnotes.

And then, on the other hand, is this. I’m pretty skeptical about anti-sweatshop people, but the situation in Burma sounds pretty grim. But as always, the question remains… would Burma be better off without these jobs? I wonder what Cole’s reaction to this was, I can’t find any follow up.

Can the Left Trust George Soros?

November 13, 2003 / Klint Finley

After this week’s announcement that Soros has donated $5 million to MoveOne, I’m doing some research on George Soros:

From George Soros: Open Society Crusader in Retreat? (via Wikipedia):

Of course, the real lesson from Soros’s experience may be that civil society building efforts in countries with few strong civil society institutions requires a much larger and longer term commitment of resources than that which the West made to the former communist world. Soros never claimed to be able to do this job by himself, and he often criticized Western governments for not duplicating his efforts on much a greater scale. Through his own heroic efforts, Soros sought to shame the overly cautious policymakers of the United States and Western Europe. As time passes and major transition problems persist in parts of Eastern Europe and in many of the New Independent States, most notably Russia, Soros the philanthropist stands as an ever larger figure of late 20th century history while the leaders of the West look ever more ineffectual.

Bill Seitz’s Open Societies Node (also includes Seizt’s ” priorities for making the NYC/USA society more open”)

An anti-Soros article on Indymedia (haven’t read this yet… via Wikipedia).

Barlow, Abe, and Tobias on Burning Man

November 12, 2003 / Klint Finley

I’ve been meaning to write something about Barlow’s essay about Burning Man, and Abe’s comment about the essay. Gotta put it off a bit more to think about what Tobias said. I strongly agree with this bit:

For whom do the Burning tribes come out of the desert, wandering for the promised land, and for what? For their future? The answer is, truly, a de-focusing on Burning Man. But not to ‘turn serious’–rather, to sample Burning Man back into all aspects of life.

I’m not entirely sure I agree with him about embracing secrecy. I will need to think about it.

The Value of Jay Walking

November 9, 2003 / Klint Finley

This one’s for you, Ben. Christopher DeWolf on jay walking:

According to a 1995 Transportation Alternatives study, only 18.3 percent of pedestrian accidents in New York occurred when the pedestrian was crossing against the light; 35 percent happened when the pedestrian was crossing legally. A 2001 Transportation Canada study revealed that, between 1988 and 1997, there was an average of 486 annual pedestrian deaths, 70 percent of which were in urban areas. Nearly half of the pedestrians killed in 1997 were drunk, which seems to indicate that the everyday type of sober jaywalking you see on downtown streets is not a leading cause of death. Jaywalking, after all, is a necessarily interactive process. It forces drivers and pedestrians to acknowledge each other, making them more conscious of the other’s presence. It’s probably pretty safe to say that drivers on streets like Ste-Catherine in Montreal become more cautious when they know there’s a high possibility of someone wading out into traffic. On streets with few pedestrians, on the other hand, or one-way roads engineered for maximum traffic flow, drivers speed up and become lazy, making the few who dare to jaywalk far more vulnerable. Jaywalkers, basically, put drivers in their place, reminding them that the city isn’t their own personal speedway.

America’s Heroes: Freedom Force

November 9, 2003 / Klint Finley

Web site with a huge amount of information about the Marvel mutant team Freedom Force. Including a long document detailing every appearance of the character Pyro.

Freedom Force is a long-defunct U.S. government team originally made up of Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (plus Spiral). They later acquired other members along the way to eventually form a core group of nine in their heyday—which varied depending on who was straying from the team and who, unfortunately, was dead. They were more often than not used as villains. So why do I like them? Well, admittedly I prefer a lot of villains over the various heroes, but FF was an interesting bunch of characters in their own right. When written by Chris Claremont at least, they were complex and motivated people depicted in shades of grey—while they started out as villains, they became more sympathetic during their tenure with FF and many began to lean towards heroism.

This is weird

November 9, 2003 / Klint Finley

“>I don’t know if I should even be propagating this, but…

via Boing Boing

Horrible Lovecraft/Woodring mutant lemon

November 8, 2003 / Klintron

Horrible mutant lemon

More photos: Flickr

(via Boing Boing.

The International Trepanation Advocacy Group

November 8, 2003 / Klintron

For those that don’t know, trepanation is the process of having a hole drilled in your head (“this reminds me of that time you tried to drill a hole in your head” “That would’ve worked if you hadn’t stopped me…”).

Trepanation, by a single act, restores the brainbloodvolume (“BBV”) to the level of childhood, the level at which the ego was originally installed. This benefits everyone, but most importantly the psychotic, whose de-conditioned ego can regain its original strength supported by a childhood-level cushion of blood. The word communication centers are re-floated in blood, and there is therefore less strain on the ego/constriction mechanism, which no longer needs to be permanently deployed in order to maintain self-control. Both the degree and extent of repression can therefore be reduced. The lifting of this burden is often felt as increased energy. The ego, now with more free time, can be used for the purposes of concentration, i.e. the channeling of blood into the capillaries of the brain required to be in action. This is a benefit to everyone, no matter however well adapted they may be, to their stasis of repression.

The International Trepanation Advocacy Group

(via Boing Boing).

Lynch goes from Twin Peaks to world peace

November 7, 2003 / Klint Finley

David Lynch is planning to build 3,000 Maharishi Yogi palaces across the globe, one in each major city. Apparently, he’s been meditating since 1974.

Lynch practises meditation every day and has also tried yogic flying, where devotees appear to hop off the ground in a state they describe as ‘bubbling bliss’. His inner tranquillity will come as a shock to his fans. Lynch’s reputation is founded on his films’ ability to shock with sex, violence and grotesquery.

The Guardian: Lynch goes from Twin Peaks to world peace

(via New World Disorder)