Lifestyle & Culture
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Freedom Of Oppression And The Right To Dissemble
[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 1, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Monday, September 1st, 2008Cop circles found in Minnesota
So, you’re thinking you want to get more politically active, maybe join some protests. Before you embark on your new activist career, ponder for a moment how you feel about spending some time in barbed-wire cages and maybe getting tased or pepper-sprayed a little bit. Smart protesters already avoid the designated protest areas; they’re usually set up well away from the politicians being protested. This practice presumably has its roots in events like the rabidly protested 2001 inauguration parade. Freedom of speech? Freedom of the press? These are the imagined reasons I’ve always been happy to be American, but do these freedoms exist any more? I personally haven’t tested them with any vigor, but just look at the picture at left, for instance. In addition to the DNC preparations linked to above, the police have gone a few steps further prior to the RNC, and conducted sweeping raids, in at least one case without a warrant, and often prior to any protests actually taking place. Where is the corporate media as all this is going on? As activist Sheri Honkala pointed out in this Minnesota Independent piece, the police are rounding up so many independent journalists that at one event, the only reporter on hand was from Sweden. “So we had to go by way of Sweden to get news on the television,” she said.
Color Blindness Still Rare Internationally
[ Comments Off ]Posted on August 28, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Thursday, August 28th, 2008Whatever happened to the United Colors of Benneton?
Yesterday I found myself wondering whether people would be saying so much about Barack Obama’s elitist attitudes if he were white. For the answer to that question, all you have do is look around the world a bit. The racist commercial at left (from FunnyOrDie.com; is it funny, or dye?) is not unique in southeast Asia. It wasn’t very long ago that they changed Darkie brand toothpaste to Darlie, and (as pointed out in this article by Tamara J. Walker), one of the most popular snack brands in Mexico is Bimbo Negrito, traditionally promoted with a blackfaced native girl holding a spear (they’ve since updated to a hip-hop kid with a ‘fro). So, since it seems to be here to stay, here are some charts to help you draw the lines of color in your life. First, the UN Environment Program has conveniently provided a geographical skin tone map, so you can move to an area that best suits your level of prejudice. Once you’re there, fine-tune your skin color preferences with von Luschan’s skin color chart. Don’t worry, wherever you move, they’ll probably still sell your precious Uncle Ben’s and other racist products. Happy coloring!
Darwin On The Playground
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on August 26, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008That which does not kill me…
will try again a minute later.
- Eric Brown
I’ve joked for some time that the recent generation which has grown up with padded playgrounds would be the dumbest generation since the dark ages. It’s just common sense that natural selection killed off all the dumb kids of my generation by letting them play on our lethal playgrounds. Seems like this sentiment is gaining some popularity. Good Magazine has an article in the current issue that addresses the topic a little more seriously. Referring to an experimental “Adventure Playground” in Berkeley, CA: “…There are no hidden risks here…by forcing kids to assess the possibility of risk, they play more safely while also learning how to take care of themselves…” and “…You kill their creativity by hovering too close…”. Makes sense to me, but as a kid I did experiments like jumping off the roof to see if an umbrella would work as a parachute. Cost: sprained ankle, wind knocked out. Benefit: Immense fun, and proof that rough play doesn’t ALWAYS kill the stupid kid. In a similar vein, this LA Times piece reminisces about simply going out to play, apparently a lost art. Hell, in my day (I love saying that), when adults weren’t busy throwing us off the dock as a swim lesson, they were fond of telling us to “go play freeze tag on the freeway”. Most of us survived.
Become A Permanent Tourist
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on August 19, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008Who needs that pesky citizenship, anyway?
Tired of paying taxes and answering to some massively voyeuristic bunch of control freaks that some people call a government? Well, there’s an alternative. Forget being a Hobo or Freegan, now you can be a Permanent Tourist (or: Practically Transparent, Privacy Trained, Paranoid Taxdodger, Perpetual Traveler, etc.) by joining the ptClub. The club that’s not a club. In their words: “…ptClub is not a company. We have no base, no registered office, no mailing address, no phone number and none of the normal restrictions…” and “…In a nutshell, a PT merely arranges his or her paperwork in such a way that all governments consider him a tourist. The advantage: a PT is not subjected to taxes, military service, lawsuits, or persecution for partaking in innocent but forbidden pursuits or pleasures. Unlike most citizens or subjects, the PT will not be persecuted for his beliefs or lack of them…” Learn how to get a camouflage passport or do anonymous banking, among other things. Before you know it you’ll be meeting James Bond for a Vesper in your tax-free Bugatti.
(Barbed) Wired News: How To Be A Criminal
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on August 19, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008Wiki wiki wiki
Wired seems to be on a kick lately to prove that they’re still “edgey”. Exploring their How-To Wikis, you can learn how to Tap a Phone Line (without getting a government job), how to Hot Wire Your Car (they place some emphasis on the word “your”), how to Cheat on a Drug Test, and how to Disable Your Passport’s RFID Chip. So far I haven’t found a “How to Break Out of Jail” wiki yet, except for the iPhone Jailbreak hacks . By the way, if you enjoy the idea of hacking phones, you can totally Phreak Out here.