#And We’re Back…

It’s been a little while, but I’ve been busy with a few things, namely this:

this:

this:

oh yeah, and this guy:

So yeah, it’s been a busy semester, with writing a thesis, being a teaching assistant, finding a job, and having a baby. Everything’s turning out pretty well, though, especially since I’ll be working here:

More on that in a later post!

#Gov. Buddy Roemer’s Campaign Challenge to Obama

I wish this guy had more votes. Depending on where Paul is by the time Mississippi’s primary rolls around, I just might cast mine for him.

What he says, and what he challenges Obama to do, is incredibly important, and, if Obama was to do it, would be hugely influential. My case to Obama for accepting Gov. Roemer’s challenge is this:

• Everyone knows who you are. No one needs to see $1 billion dollars worth of ads to know who you are. Use the name recognition you have as President to make a point.

• The group you make angry by doing this are people that aren’t going to vote for you anyway. And even if they were, is there a million of them? 500,000? 100,000? Who, exactly, would you be upsetting by putting these rules for yourself in place? And are those people a large-enough group to make a difference in the election? No. Not a chance.

• Are you really that worried about losing? Have you seen who you’re going to run against? The only potential nominee that could steal votes from you is Ron Paul, and, barring a miracle, he’s not going to be the nominee. And what better foil for Romney than a campaign run like this.

• Use your newfound freedom from special interest money to preach, preach, preach how it’s corrupted Washington. Only 9% of people even like Congress anyway; show people the change you said you were bringing 4 years ago.

Sadly, this won’t happen, because Obama lacks the fortitude to do it. But if he did, he’d guarantee himself a win.

#Top 25 of 2011

This isn’t in any particular order, as my favorite varied throughout the year. Instead, I chose the alphabet. Here’s a link to a playlist where you can listen to the best tracks from each album.

A. A. Bondy - Believers // Best track: “Skull & Bones”
The Antlers - Burst Apart // Best track: “Rolled Together”
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Scandalous // Best track: “Livin’ In The Jungle”
The Black Keys - El Camino // Best track: “Gold On The Ceiling”
Bon Iver - Bon Iver // Best track: “Michicant”
Bright Eyes - The People’s Key // Best track: “Approximate Sunlight”
Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming // Best track: “The World (Is Going Up In Flames)”
David Bazan - Strange Negotiations // Best track: “Strange Negotiations”
Death Cab for Cutie - Codes And Keys // Best track: “You Are A Tourist”
Deer Tick - Divine Providence // Best track: “The Bump”
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues // Best track: “Helplessness Blues”
Foster the People - Torches // Best track: “Houdini”
Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones // Best track: “I Am Disappeared”
Generationals - Actor-Caster // Best track “Greenleaf”
James Blake - James Blake // Best track “The Wilhelm Scream”
M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming // Best track “Midnight City”
Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math // Best track “April Fool”
Metronomy - English Riviera // Best Track “The Bay”
Mutemath - Odd Soul // Best track “Quarantine”
Portugal. The Man - In The Mountain In The Cloud // Best track “All Your Light (Times Like These)”
Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin’ // Best track “Stone Rollin’”
Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire // Best track “Do I Wait”
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy // Best track “Cruel”
Tune-yards - W H O K I L L // Best track “Gangsta”
Wilco - The Whole Love // Best track “Art of Almost”

#Linkages/122411

The Folly of Corporate Relocation Incentives “’”It’s economically moronic, even though it tracks a nationwide trend of Big Government handing over money to selected big businesses,’ writes Thomas Patterson, chairman of the Goldwater Institute. ‘The subsidies are touted as necessary for job growth, to stimulate depressed regions and promote economic development. Unfortunately, they just don’t work.’” (via Atlantic Cities)

Michael Reynolds’ Beer Can Houses “Unskilled labor and the cheapness of materials will allow the structure to be built as much as 20% less than conventional housing.” (via Root Simple)

A Happy, Flourishing City With No Advertising “Within months, city authorities had removed tens of thousands of ads both big and small—much to the dismay of business owners, who said the ban would surely ruin them. Five years later, have all the businesses in São Paulo gone under? Hardly. In fact, most citizens and some advertising entities report being quite pleased with the now billboard-less city. A survey this year found that a 70 percent of residents say the Clean City Law has been ‘beneficial.’” (via GOOD)

You Create Bluebrain’s Landscape Soundtracks “Leveraging the global positioning system (GPS) technology of smartphones, Bluebrain serves up hours of music based on the physical location of listeners. As listeners move through these landscapes, they enter different zones, each with different electronic yet soulful song. For the National Mall app alone, there are some 264 zones. Staying put will turn the song into a loop: a two-to-eight minute segment will simply repeat. Ryan Holliday said: “It’s like a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ of an album.” (via The Dirt)

Painting Mountains White to Fool Them into Painting Themselves with Snow? “Eduardo Gold had a harebrained theory, or at least one that some called overly simplistic: If dark buildings create a “heat island” in cities, might the same thing be happening in the mountains? And, if you can paint the dark rock of a denuded, once glacial mountain white, would it cool enough to bring back snow?” (via Adventure Journal)

#Linkages/121411

What’s a National Park Worth to an Area? Quite a Lot, Study Shows “‘In fiscal year 2009, area national park visitor spending contributed to an estimated $44.7 million in labor income while NPS payroll contributed another $8.8 million in labor income, resulting in $53.5 million in total labor income. To put this in perspective, total labor earnings in Grand County (Utah, near Canyonlands NP) for 2009 were $192 million.’ More so, jobs created by the park visitors and the parks’ payrolls totalled nearly 2,200 in FY09, which generated a related $135.7 million in spending, the study added.” (via Adventure Journal)

A Rapidly Sprawling Community Tries to Save Itself A generally heartening (especially in the South) article about a suburb of Atlanta taking action to curtail sprawl. (via Atlantic Cities)

Is Your Fleece Killing the Ocean? “…a recent study show(ed) that ‘nearly 2,000 polyester fibers can shake loose from a single piece of clothing in the wash and, unfortunately, those tiny plastic bits are making their way into the ocean.’

Just how prevalent are they? In a recent Science study, researchers took sand from 18 beaches over six continents, Clare Leschin-Hoar reports. The results?

Every beach tested contained microplastics (particles about the size of a piece of long grain of rice or smaller). Of the samples collected, nearly 80 percent were polyester or acrylic, though without further research, it’s impossible to know exactly which type of clothing—whether it’s your stretchy yoga pants or that super-soft fleece blanket—is causing the most problems.” (via Mother Jones)

Spaces of Banana Control “Nearly two million bananas pass through these ripening rooms on their journey to New York consumers each week — a vital link in the largely invisible, highly specialized architecture of artificial refrigeration that has enabled the banana to become and remain America’s favourite fruit.” (via Edible Geography)

Thank You, Public Plaza “Thank you public plaza, for your circuitous accessible path. I enjoy walking very slowly up these steps in a straight line while Nana scurries onto the ramp to my left and then onto the ramp on my right on her walker. Nana needed some exercise, and frankly, I needed a break from her. Thanks for that.” (via ArchDaily)

The Federal Government Wants to Bribe You to Drive to Work “The federal government is essentially bribing people to drive cars. Commuters who drive to work will see their monthly parking benefit increase $10, to a maximum of $240. Meanwhile, those who choose a healthier, safer and more cost-effective alternative — transit — will see their tax benefit drop from a maximum of $230 to $125.” (via Streetsblog)

And for fun:

Google Shoot View is “a pretty extraordinary web-based first-person shooter that takes Google Street View as environment. The game encourages players to ‘explore the beauty of the world’s cities, towns and villages through 360-degree street-level imagery… and fire a M4A1 assault rifle.’” (via The Pop-Up City)

#Nothing is New

In George MacDonald’s book Lilith, an exchange takes place between the main character, Mr. Vane, and a woman of the town of Bulika, the capital of the strange world Mr. Vane is in. It’s a fairly desolate city, in ill repair and sparsely populated with inhospitable people. Mr. Vane finally finds someone who will talk to him, and this is their conversation. Even though this novel was published in 1895, it should sound very familiar to modern ears.

I asked her many questions. She told me the people never did anything except dig for precious stones in their cellars. They were rich, and had everything made for them in other towns.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because it is a disgrace to work,” she answered. “Everybody in Bulika knows that.”

I asked how they were rich if none of them earned money. She replied that their ancestors had saved for them, and they never spent. When they wanted money they sold a few of their gems.

“But there must be some poor!” I said.

“I suppose there must be, but we never think of such people. When one goes poor, we forget them. That is how we keep rich. We mean to be rich always.”

“But when you have dug up all your precious stones and sold them, you will have to spend your money, and one day you will have none left!”

”We have so many, and there are so many still in the ground, that that day will never come,” she replied.

I asked her why her people had such a hatred of strangers. She answered that the presence of a stranger defiled the city.

“How is that?” I said.

“Because we are more ancient and noble than any other nation. Therefore,” she added, “we always turn strangers out before night.”

“Is there no place in the city for the taking in of strangers?”

“Such a place would be pulled down, and its owner burned. How is purity to be preserved except by keeping low people at a proper distance? Dignity is such a delicate thing.”

Nothing is new.