or at least that’s what they call these three modest pages. examples of incomprehensible or just goofy technical drawings and directions. ha ha. hope they add more.

there are lots of ways to kill yourself in japan. one way is seppuku, the exuisitely precise ritualistic suicide meant to let you die with your over developed sense of honor in tact. no sleeping pills and whiskey alowed! enjoy this practical guide.

in this world of endless choices where even the most mundane matters are complicated with an overabundance (1407 shampoos to choose from? 900 types of toothbrushes? 300 brands of invisible tape? 2 political parties?!) it’s nice sometimes to have things simplified for you, like in a choose your own adventure let’s say. so with the simple pleasures in mind i offer: choose your own new york, choose your own absurdity, and choose your own philosophical take on existence. if none of those float your boat you might enjoy one of these 1,875,630 choices.

with all the “torture” news piling up around our poor, battered ears i thought this link was relevant. sexual propaganda in psychological warfare since WWII. pretty interesting. enjoyable for the downright quaint images at very least. as far as abu ghraib goes, all i can really say is WTF? seriously. i am not outraged because i am not in the least surprised. mainly i feel befuddled by the whole thing. soldiers forcing naked human pyramids is detestable, but same soldiers walking outside into a country invaded under very questionable pretenses and shooting someone in the head is just WAR. i don’t know, it seems a bit topsy turvy to me. i am also feeling like the word torture is in jeopardy of loosing all meaning at any moment… just my opinion.

feature at anxiety culture which deals with the unconcious metaphysical assumtions (inherent in language and thus thought) guiding so many of our decisions, and which contends that said decisions are invariably stupid ones because of it. it’s brief but interesting, offering deconstruction (yeesh!) and e-prime as methods of combat. a quick look through the site’s other contents reveals many possible goodies, if anyone wants to take a look and report back.

great speech at william & mary given by champion 1984 alumni jon stewart. as an added bonus i offer you a second great commencement speech- conan o’brien at harvard in 2000. (both via metafilter).

interesting essay called hunter-gatherers in a world of machines . “the author considers the odd fact that humans have built a world in which they feel out of place. do we decide that all human progress has been a mistake, not excluding even the invention of agriculture? or is there a more hopeful alternative?” from my perspective, however, the real question is: though a worthwhile mental exercise, isn’t asking such questions really quite pointless? after all, there is zero chance of undoing humanities entire history, unless of course there is a whole big bunch of death involved in the undoing, at which point, who gives a shit?

came across an interesting editorial titled the origion of money (and how it was stolen from you) which seeks to explain what exactly money is and how it got that way. turns out the site where i found it, called strike the root, from a thoreau quote, is actually pretty interesting as well. the site’s creators describe it as follows: a daily journal of current events and commentary from a libertarian/market anarchist perspective. the mission of STR is to advance the cause of liberty, primarily by de-mystifying and de-legitimizing the state. sounds noble. anyhow, check out the site, tons of content from the appeal of conspiracy theories to osama bin laden is a pussy, and lots in between. looks promising.

article over at the guardian unlimited about the long history of new york destruction fantasies, from hitler, to h.g. wells, to the planet of the apes, and beyond. the story is bookended by little slivers about the upcoming disaster flick the day after tomorrow but is more interesting than that fact might lead you to believe.

in this election year, in order to keep from going off the deep end, muttering repetitive phrases like “this is fucking ridiculous” or “holy christ they can’t be serious”, i thought it might be prudent for us to all to reassure our internal logical fallacy spotting apparatuses a bit. read this, and take heart. you are not crazy, we are, in fact, in danger of actually drowning in bullshit.

found this very well done and heavily illustrated history of visual media. of particular interest is the pre-cinema, and early photographic information. includes about every damn thing you can think of including one of my favorite fleeting artistic inventions, anamorphosis. also check out la grande danse macabre des hommes et des femmes. great stuff.

site called american amnesia has nice, lengthy interviews with howard zinn, noam chompsky, errol morris, and the author of a book called junk politics benjamin demott. all good reading. if you’d prefer to chuckle ever so slightly instead of being driven to hopeless moping and muttering, here is an old imaginary discussion between zinn and chompsky about the sociopolitical stances of lord of the rings from mcsweeneys, oh ho ho, those folks are ever so clever. and while i’m on the subject may as well link to chompsky’s new blog, turning the tide as well. enjoy.

said mr. emerson being the great ralph waldo. i heard something on npr this afternoon which had me thinking today was his 200th birthday. turns out it is not. aside from his being dead for 122 years, the other impediment to celebrating today is that his actual birth date is may 25th, 1803. so as is now evident, my planned birthday wishes are a bit late, or a bit early, depending on how you look at it. in any case, today has no particular relevance to the life of ralph waldo emerson. is that clear? ok.

save poor chandan. keep the flies on his eyeballs where they belong! (damn, that was awful)

man writes 233 page book with no verbs. “my book is a revolution in the history of literature. It is the first book of its kind. It’s daring, modern and is to literature what the great dada and surrealist movements were to art,” said mr thaler, an eccentric who refuses to reveal his real name or age, beyond admitting to being in his sixties. the verb is like a weed in a field of flowers, he said. you have to get rid of it to allow the flowers to grow and flourish.” haha. silly bastard.

no surprise there. but in this particular case the octogenarian in question is none other than kurt vonnegut… respect your elders!

ha ha ha. yeah. uh, don’t mean to be sarcastic, really. “i want to believe.”. seriously i do.