spectacular jellyfish

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that veiled gazette issue #325

photograph of tinfoil i shot recently...

MUSIC, MP3, ALEXANDRIA IS OPEN: bolachas grátis is back! beat does it better (albums up for three days only). local (to pittsburgh) hip hop dj archives his tape collection... recently i've been downloading great stuff from torrentech... it's invite-only, but if you love electronic music and are cool with uploading to stay on (need to upload 30% of what you download...) email me for an invite. great research into some dubstep sample sources here (and right on time, apparently). and MUZAK FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY!!! anyway, here are this issues mp3s, all .zipped up on mediafire like usual...

(mp3) atom™ - "insulting the dj" - cheeky minimal banger
(mp3) lv - "takeover (dub)" feat. dandelion? - beautiful epic dub reggae
(mp3) dj mujava - "township funk" (radioclit remix) - funky hipster shit
(mp3) alarm will sound - "4" - 20-piece orchestra covering aphex twin

ANARCHY, BABYLON, POLITICS: i definitely believed some of these 5 myths about U.S. prison growth. pentagon hiding torture information from obama. speaking of obama, you can track how he's doing on his promises here at the obamameter. at least he's bringing back the FOIA. given that 8 in 10 corporations use off-shore tax havens, it's pretty cool that swiss bank accounts may not work so well anymore. iran's people are A LOT more moderate than their overlords. this article about french radicals is both hilarious and disturbing. confrontational graffiti on headless fuck-object advertisements. other people are pissed off at virgin mary fashion spreads and pron spreads. and did you know you are being lied to about pirates?

ART, ARCHITECTURE: the architecture of takis zenetos is profiled in bldgblog... fragile, desert dwellings and nice canyon turbine design there... i recently touted the art on basic_sounds, but if you haven't seen it check it out (albums there, too...) this art is sure to piss some people off, but the event that inspired it was one of the best performances of 2008. following the election... a group of people turned bush street in SF into obama street. incredible, colorful graffiti from guatemala. the designer's republic is dead, sort of. if you aren't familiar with their (mostly awesome design) work, you can see some here.


ECO, TECHNOLOGY: riding a bike is great for the planet, but it's a lot safer with a laser bike lane (pictured above). google's powermeter seems cool. this person seems to think it's better than wind and solar energy combined. also, 7 "green" daily show moments. the first video is classic, if infuriating. i've blogged about living buildings, but this may be easier to implement: living walls. i met solar cooking designer bart orlando at the oregon county fair... watched him boil water with the sun. there is a very non-eco side of me that loves insane research vehicles like the maximog and the unibox. btw, bush actually did something cool before he left office.

WEIRD, HUMOR: one of my favorite headfucks is telling people about the pagan origin of the days of the week. rufus is awesome at slingshot. far out lindy hop. terry pratchett becomes a knight. this woman clearly isn't afraid of scorpions. cracked occasionally has awesome content, like this "6 insane discoveries science can't explain". finally some potential justice for this weird tale of geronimo's bones. and of course, drunk pigs.

VIDEO: steal video off youtube with pwnyoutube. and here is great darbouka playing, great mouth playing and great editing... triple great!

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i'm not dead...

image by peter callesen

we just went east for thanksgiving, and now we're west for early december (and then north for christmas). as such, blogging has been tough and may be tough. no promises for now. so i will just toss a smattering of stuff again out there for chewing... mp3s at the bottom.

absolutely DO NOT MISS laura's awesome nature find. it let's you put in your zipcode and gives you pictures and information about all the species that live there. super cool. get your naturalist on, people!

i read this fascinating article this morning on how the web was almost completely compromised, and the security threats to come. surprisingly readable...

this is good news from the president-elect. obama is going to post the groups he meets with on change.gov, along with the policy wish-lists they bring with them and allow the public to discuss them. he doesn't have to listento the public, but at least he's sharing the dirt. can you imagine bush (or mccain) doing that?

my good friend the yinsurgent posted this thought-provoking letter to anarchists who voted for obama. i disagree with much of his assessment, but it's worth a gander. the comments get a little feisty. i'm waiting to post my detailed response to the yinsurgent, because there are a ton of points to cover, but in the meantime, watch this video showing bush knew katrina was a big danger before the levees were breached. if nothing else, it makes me feel like the choice of president, while certainly not offering the choices we may prefer (say, "none of the above"), does still have some impact on people's lives. it's three minutes. watch it.

Hurricane Katrina - Tape Delay

More Funny Videos
Comedians on Tour

Get Funny Ringtones
Stand-Up Comedy

i find this collection of photographs a funny twist on this style of photograph.

if you've ever known someone to get hurt because of stupidity about drugs, consider buying one of these glass molecule reproductions from erowid.org, the webs premiere clearing-house of unbiased information about drug health and law.

and these are the dubstep tunes that have been making me explode recently. they are all .zipped up. whine in the comments if that makes it harder for you. if you are the artist and want your track taken down, no sweat. email me. i took down l.v. and dandelion's track "cctv", but it's still hot.

(mp3)shackleton - el din pt. 1
(mp3)bassnectar - heads up
(mp3)modeselektor - the black block (rustie remix)
(mp3)subswara - alabaster dub
(mp3)clouds - too much
(mp3)osc - evolution

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picture of the night

christine king farris, sister of martin luther king jr. reacts to the news in atlanta... precious.


it was crazy here in pittsburgh, crowds of people in the streets, horns, gunshots, fireworks...

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sol

absolutely stunning pictures of the sun in this collection. a must-click. awesome movie showing solar flares in fancy imaging. as always, click the image for a full-res version.

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needed a break

i've been working long days of construction for a lot of money, which i will spend on lead remediation so my child doesn't get sicker... blogging has been hard. the bush bailout is an awful idea, as far as i can tell, and we still live in a world with these...

but keep your head up... obama is kicking ass in the polls that count, and this week i'll be back with weird science, great music and scintilating sensorial sumptuousnesses.

photo of me and my baby by ryan sigesmund...

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water

water.
so nice it is... (video)
masuro emoto may have psychically influenced water crystals.
here's a mix by my friend thermos, make it rain... all songs relating to water.

sufism often discusses itself as a river leading to an ocean... here's rumi (and his pal...)

"ask the way to the spring, your living pieces will form a harmony. there is a moving palace that floats in the air with balconies and clear water through, infinity everywhere, yet contained."
-mevlana jalaluddin rumi

"how many words the world contains! but all have one meaning. when you smash the bottles, the water is one."
-shams i tabriz

thoughts have capillary action...
but don't miss the "frost beards"

macro bubble shot by sophie via.
pacific ocean shot by yours truly.

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photographer pwns McCain!!!

my diary over at the daily kos has the rest... and the backstory on this... the jist is that the atlantic hired jill grenberg, a committed democrat, to shoot john mccain for a recent cover story... he didn't notice that while she had vanity lights set up she was really firing under the chin strobes... HA! pwnd... he looks like an evil super-villian...


UPDATE: i had to delete my diary on the kos because of copywrong issues, so... jill greenberg's site (with these shots frontpaged for now) is here, the original photo district news article is here, the pictures are here (WARNING... some REALLY FREAKY shots with shark mouths, blood etc...) a lot of people claimed that posting these images didn't help obama, or reflected badly on kos... i bowed to the will of the community, but it was an complicated issue in my opinion. i think that anyone who is as pro-bloodshed as john mccain should have to deal with getting a sharkmouth photoshopped in by a professional photographer... there is similar hubub over at the metafilter page where i found these photos...

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in motion beautiful

stunning collection of images using motion blur. i love to shoot at slow shutter speeds, but it's tough to get the right exposure. this collection has it all, nature, water, human movement, kids, lights, fire, even a gunshot... nice work. via popurls

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miscreants

photos of ne'er do wells... "young and blunderous" via notcot.

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calligraphy with light

i think the beautiful calligraphy created with light pictured above means "think".

the stunning work of julie briton.

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travel update - oregon

above is the stunning crater lake national park. the blue is even deeper in person. below is my sister in front of a 16 foot diameter redwood at jedediah smith redwoods state park. her hair is even bluer in person.


we've been to merlin, gold beach and various parks in southern oregon. we're now checking out eugene. i have my first decent internet access right now and tommorow, so i will try to post a few times. looks like others in the blogosphere have been pretty busy too, so i don't feel too bad.

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enough said.

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sadhus for you!

i ate too much indian food this morning. ( i know, there's no such thing right? but you've never been to this buffet on my street, have you! ) well that pain is nothing compared with the difficulty faced by many sadhus. they are legally dead to the government of india, and often undergo tapas (austerities not spanish finger-foods)... like rastafarians, they often have dreadlocks and some smoke cannabis (like many other religions), but that's really where the comparison ends. they are really closer to sufis... anyway, they look awesome, so check 'em out... the fourth one down makes me really happy...

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chinese reproduction artists make self portraits

apparently dafen in china is the source of most of the world's oil painting reproductions. this is a collection of self portraits by a handful of these artists, with a photo of the artist and an example of their work.

it's an interesting blend of the appropriated style and personal imagery.

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sierra leone haute couture

my friend damian pointed me to his friend vanessa's blog (vanessa without borders), where she has a small but awesome collection of fashion shots from her recent travels to sierra leone. notice the black sabbath t-shirt above... the quote from this photo is "Can't you just see this guy on the Lower East Side?". i could.

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beautiful close up photos of individual grains of sand

from the photo series "each individual grain of sand is a work of art" by discover magazine. via popurls

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looks like friendly crustpunks

they get a lot of flack, but traveler kids have beautiful aspects to their culture (which, like most cultures is hardly homogeneous). this collection of photographs shares some joy (roadkill cookout at the very bottom, watch out...)

update: that's our friend amber in the 12th picture down (in the back)... didn't recognize her at first, but laura picked her out... same chest tattoo and everything. that makes two traveler friends in two major collections, amber in this one and lizzie the whiz kid in this one.

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getting high

imagine that...


tiger's nest monastery, bhutan...



another view...


people power...

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personal post

today we took a break from construction and went to blythe's sunday dinner. blythe is a person who i got immediate "karass" or kindred spirit vibes from. i kept bumping into her and eventually decided to break the ice and introduce myself. laura and i had a great time, ate good food, played music (including nice didjeredoos and a mandolin.) i got my first i ching reading, and noticed further similarities of interests, including sacred geometry, tarot, tesla, baking, overtones, shrines, aesthetic style and interest in children (got a little wiki-happy there...) next time blythe is going to come over to our new place, and we're going to bake sweets while we hang out!

also, check laura's blog for "before" pictures of our new place... after pictures coming soon...

also, because i try to post a picture every time, here are some awesome butterflies i stumbled...

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