the elvis of birds, seen again!
This is earth-shaking news if you’re a birder: ivory-billed woodpecker flies back from the dead. Nobody had seen one of these crow-sized, black-and-white wonders since 1944, but one has been videotaped in a wooded corner of Arkansas. I stayed up late playing with my computer synth, so I’m too pooped to bloviate. But here’s to the Good Lord bird (because those who see it say “Good lord, look at that bird!). Huzzah!
Filed under bio, but Lost And found would make sense too, heh.
“chi?” chiedete
the deconstructing lichtenstein thing recently resurfaced over at drawn! which got me thinking about pop-art… mainly how i never much liked any of the artists i’d come across who were crammed into that category… with one glaring exception that is: valerio adami. (though to be honest i never really thought of him in terms of a pop-art.) “who?” you ask. he’s an italian artist who came up in the 50’s, made a decent sized splash in the 70’s, and who today is most likely to be filed under the “one of the most talented artists no one’s ever heard of” category, which is unfortunate, especially considering how relevant his style would seem in today’s circles, if not his subject matter.
the only reason i came across him myself was that 10 years ago i worked for a short time in a (now defunct) 57th street gallery called marissa del rey which represented him. i was blown away by his work and had to spend quite a while trying to shake off his influence. anyhow, even though he’s been written about by octavio paz, italio calvino, and jaques derrida, among others, i was hard pressed to come up with anything substantial written about him in english. considering the bits i did find ( i.e. “The fetishism generalized by Adami turns to derision the classical logics of fetishism, the opposition of the fetishized bit and the thing itself, and God, and the original referent, and the transcendental phallus.” -from derrida’s truth in painting) perhaps that’s for the best. see below for some images (click all for larger verisons) and a few scant links. it was hard to decide which images to scan, there are so many gorgeous images to choose from, but i hope you enjoy these…
here are a few links-
4 pages on adami via spaightwood galleries
15 images via galleri gkm
18 images via postershop uk
very spotty google translation of a long piece derived from derrida. and here are 11 associated images
11 more via saletta galaverni.
and that’s it. can’t find anything more in depth. if anyone has better links on adami by all means send them my way or drop them in comments. ciao.
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an american heresy
evidently al gore delivered a speech in washington on wednesday. salon is offering the full text which they’ve titled an american heresy, in which gore characterizes the gop push to dismantle the current filibuster in the senate as part of “a larger movement to undermine the founding principles of the united states.” i realize most of us feel so battered by the endless stream of disingenuous rhetoric coming from on high that we go into a kind of defensive coma on hearing proclamations about our “founding principles.” there were certainly “founding principles,” there must have been, it just so happens that no one seems to care what they actually were, only what agenda, no matter how counterintuitive, can be invoked in their name. i think this piece is worth a read if for no other reason than to remind us, after last nights bush press conference, that intelligent sentences can actually be strung together, in english, on such subjects. i’ve excerpted a section below which touches on the ever escalating trend of pandering to religious zealots, a dagger that’s particularly close to my heart.
“It is no accident that this assault on the integrity of our constitutional design has been fueled by a small group claiming special knowledge of God’s will in American politics. They even claim that those of us who disagree with their point of view are waging war against “people of faith.” How dare they?
Long before our founders met in Philadelphia, their forebears first came to these shores to escape oppression at the hands of despots in the old world who mixed religion with politics and claimed dominion over both their pocketbooks and their souls.
This aggressive new strain of right-wing religious zealotry is actually a throwback to the intolerance that led to the creation of America in the first place.
James Madison warned us in Federalist #10 that sometimes, “A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction.”
Unfortunately the virulent faction now committed to changing the basic nature of democracy now wields enough political power within the Republican party to have a major influence over who secures the Republican nomination for president in the 2008 election. It appears painfully obvious that some of those who have their eyes on that nomination are falling all over themselves to curry favor with this faction.
They are the ones demanding the destructive constitutional confrontation now pending in the Senate. They are the ones willfully forcing the Senate leadership to drive democracy to the precipice that now lies before us.
I remember a time not too long ago when Senate leaders in both parties saw it as part of their responsibility to protect the Senate against the destructive designs of demagogues who would subordinate the workings of our democracy to their narrow factional agendas.
Our founders understood that the way you protect and defend people of faith is by preventing any one sect from dominating. Most people of faith I know in both parties have been getting a belly-full of this extremist push to cloak their political agenda in religiosity and mix up their version of religion with their version of right-wing politics and force it on everyone else.
They should learn that religious faith is a precious freedom and not a tool to divide and conquer.
I think it is truly important to expose the fundamental flaw in the arguments of these zealots. The unifying theme now being pushed by this coalition is actually an American heresy—a highly developed political philosophy that is fundamentally at odds with the founding principles of the United States of America.
We began as a nation with a clear formulation of the basic relationship between God, our rights as individuals, the government we created to secure those rights, and the prerequisites for any power exercised by our government.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” our founders declared. “That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights…”
But while our rights come from God, as our founders added, “governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed.”
So, unlike our inalienable rights, our laws are human creations that derive their moral authority from our consent to their enactment-informed consent given freely within our deliberative processes of self-government.
Any who seek to wield the powers of government without the consent of the people, act unjustly.
Over sixty years ago, in the middle of the Second World War, Justice Jackson wrote: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.”
His words are no less true today.”
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what ever happened to machines that think?
interesting new scientist article. “clever computers are everywhere. from robotic lawnmowers to intelligent lighting, washing machines and even car engines that self-diagnose faults, there’s a silicon brain in just about every modern device you can think of. but can you honestly call any machine intelligent in a meaningful sense of the word?” i’d have to say no, but then i have some doubts about human intelligence as well.
highbrow gets the bozack!
you know, sometimes blogging about all the cultural, philosophical, artsy, and old dusty type shit i’m drawn to gets a bit heavy on the eyelids. thought today i’d link some music related stuff. first off: mastermix.org (via waxy) which offers up some fine, authentic, 1980’s mixes in mp3 format. think kiss f.m., grandmaster flash, herbie hancock, man parrish, etc. get em’ while they’re hot. been meaning to do this with my old w.k.c.r. stretch and bobbito tapes… but well… on to the next thing… for some close up history check out jayquan’s the foundation. he’s got some great tapes, but not available yet. for some more music check out the hype machine an aggregator of tracks posted on audio blogs. speaking of which…
here are some of the audio blogs i check out occasionally, almost all of this batch are soul/funk/hip-hop related…
soul sides “precise laser beam technique to touch something”
(the admiral turned me on to it.)
cocaine blunts. “hippa to da hoppa and ya just don’t stoppa”
ear fuzz “if ya head ain’t bobbin by now either you dead or a mannequin”
we eat so many shrimp “never put me in your box if ya shit eats tapes”
funky 16 corners “more props and stunts than bruce willis”
can i bring my gat? “wanna grab my dick, too lazy, hold it for me”
home of the groove “those that know not doze and it shows”
the naugahyde life “layback on the playback, evolve, rotate the gates”
freemotion “controlled by gamma light”
funk and soul “doo doo doo doo doo, that’s an audio daily double”
the rookie “make the head hurt, from the super duper leg work”
comboplates “casting shadows over the sun for fun”
aurgasm “phone is ringin, oh my god.”
moistworks “C’mon wit da c’mon git down wit da git down”
there are more, but that’s it for tonight. see ya.
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art of the apparatus
this evening i found a hole in the internet, or at very least my search-fu failed me spectacularly. i was planning on doing another installment of in search of this time on anamorphosis… no perceptually distorted dice. though i found almost nothing worth sharing on the subject (i’ll keep at it) what i did find was well worth the effort. the physics museum of the university of coimbra. absolutely incredible. “this Museum houses an unrivalled collection of scientific and didactic instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries. The patrimony consists exclusively of instruments used in the Physics Cabinet of the University of Coimbra since its origin in 1772.” and when they say unrivalled they ain’t kidding. this collection makes the plastic molded, chip crammed, gadgets we all lust over seem positively vulgar. aesthetically at least. here is an index of the collection (be sure to click the thumbs for larger images and in some cases technical drawings.) here are some quicktime movies of instruments, and hell, why not take a virtual tour? highly recommended.
the trophy room
sculptor michael combs has a new show up at the parrish art museum in southampton, a site specific instillation, called the trophy room. the museum blurbs the show on their own site this way: “combs focuses on the ultimate male retreat, the “trophy room,” where masculinity, aggression, and acquisitiveness converge in a compelling commentary on social and environmental concerns.” that’s all true, if a bit antiseptic and coy. i made the trip out to southampton a couple of weeks ago to see this temple to masculinity for myself. no small feat if you know me.
first a word on my trip. it began with two opposing omens which seemed to cancel one another out. 1) i’d forgotten to strap on the ol’ timepiece. worst mistake a public transport reliant traveller can make and still continue in his travels. trying to catch a bus somewhere across town without a watch? bad omen. 2) it’d been raining heavily all day. when i hustled out of the house in a mad rush, buttoned up, hat on head, the rain simply stopped. the streets were soaked, a singularly beautiful state for new york’s grid, and though the sky remained heavy with low, fast moving, clouds, the light was amazing. that certain light that is so hard to capture on film: two notches brighter than dusk and two notches darker than dawn. it seemed the perfect weather for visiting a bayman’s island to see the art of a bayman’s son, grandson, and great grandson. good omen. now fast forward…
the instillation is a large, self contained, room built in the center of the parrish’s transept gallery. the entire exterior, with the exception of the entries at each end, is completely covered in huge leafy swaths of neoprene camouflage netting. in an ideal world this sight would be happened upon it’s it’s native habitat rather than in the center of a pristine museum. you can imagine walking through some far flung marshlands on a rainy evening and happening upon this shrouded structure, noticing it only because of some flickering firelight escaping from within. even in a gallery setting the netting and positioning of the doors away from your approach do a good job of suggesting this. you are afforded a few moments on the mysterious outside to wonder what might be contained inside.
creeping to the doorway you’d peer in to see a warm, luxuriant, victorian style room, furnished in deep reds and rich dark woods. your first look would reveal the buck heads adorning the walls, the bird carvings lining the shelves, the hoof-footed lamps, the chairs made of horns and covered in skins, the garbage can made of an elephant foot, the tusks flanking the opposite entrance. you’d be surprise to say the least. “what is this place? some kind of hunting lodge in the middle of nowhere?” a discovery which would otherwise feel off-putting and creepy might, because of the warmth and richness of the interior, circumvent your better judgment and manifest as a fascinated curiosity. further inspection, however, would almost certainly reveal the more appropriate reaction to be fear.
where as i think people are willing to make concessions for ostentatious celebrations of violence the open fetishistic sexualizing of that violence is a a different matter entirely. you see, in the trophy room, in amongst the classic trophies of the hunters sport are mingled trophies of a different sort. bucks, arctic terns, and ducks reveal themselves to be fitted with snug, zippered, black leather and rubber fetish gear, only their eyes, or points, or tails uncovered. a group of swans to each side of the fireplace have had their bodies below the neck replaced with antique bedpans. in the corner a dove sits on a branch piercing through the side of an oversized black leather go-go boot. on the wall a long rubber covered goose neck attached to a harness creates a strap-on of sorts. the tusks flanking the doorways are studded with pearly knobs like some huge textured dildo and smaller dildos made of bird necks, one double headed, dot the room. what on first glance appears to be wallpaper with a decorative scrolling motif turns out to be an endless intertwining mass of erect penises and spreading vaginas, a motif mimicked in the black eel pots to either side of the hearth. in short the trophy room is the hideaway of a guy who not only hunts with a metaphorical hard on for power, but with a literal one, and tingling balls as well i’d venture to guess.
in any case, a gallery is not a place for suspension of disbelief. you are not encouraged to feel that what is on display is real, but rather the opposite, that the thing it is better than real, beyond real, above real, or in the vernacular, that it is art. the setting tips the scale in favor of a theodore roosevelt vibe, rather than a leatherface / tin-death-shack in the woods vibe. seeing the trophy room at the parrish wouldn’t creep you out the way it might if you really happened upon it. you are free therefore to set aside the obvious and base appraisal, as i’ve laid it out, sip some wine, and delve deeper into the many layers of meaning, symbolism, and historical context of the work. i am no art critic, so i’ll leave that sort of thing to the professionals.
from Alicia G. Longwell:
At the turn of the twentieth century, a now widely-recognized social phenomenon called the feminization of America culture caused men to make a hasty retreat from the parlor to establish a private domain elsewhere in the household. The ascendancy of women in the public spheres of politics and the arts became such a hot-button issue that President Theodore Roosevelt himself was compelled to publicly advocate for the vigorous, outdoor life necessary to preserve the male of the species. The trappings of the big game hunter filled the Trophy Room at Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s estate in Oyster Bay on Long Island’s North Shore. Closer to home, Standard Oil heir H.H. Rogers built a hunting lodge in Southampton, calling it the “Port of Missing Men” after the title of the popular 1907 novel.
It would take the finely-tuned sensibilities of a young sculptor named Michael Combs to sense the currency of this phenomenon at the turn of the most recent century. Rather than perceiving the divide between the sexes, Combs finds the fault line elsewhere. An artist who lives and works both on Long Island’s North Fork and in New York City, he comes from a long line of boat builders, decoy makers, fisherman and market gunners who for generations made their living on the Great South Bay. In his artistic practice, Combs investigates the quintessentially masculine pursuits of his forebears as well as the 21st-century hunter’s preoccupation less with the capture and the kill and more with the paraphernalia of hunting. No longer a divide along gender lines, Combs’s Trophy Room symbolizes the realm where the hunter and the hunted now converge and where the aggression and acquisitiveness that fuels much of our 21st-century social, political and environmental discourse is played out.
You are invited to enter The Trophy Room. The artist’s wry take on prim Victorian wallpaper deftly sets the tone. Combining historic decoys from his family collection with the stuffed heads and horn and hide furniture that are the literal trappings of the big game hunter, Combs further colonizes the room with his own carved and painted sculptures, objects that at first glance read as decoys or trophies, but on closer regard reveal their poignant and multivalent meanings.
that’s all true enough i suppose. certainly rolls off the tongue. i tend to think of it in far less flowery terms. less “hasty retreat from the feminization of america” and more “glorying in death and power to the point of fetish.” less “poignant and multivalent meanings” as “my cock is soooo huge.” but then, as stated, i’m no art critic. at the opening both the curator and mike himself gave talks. many questions were asked which poked around the sexual overtones of the room, the implications of worshiping violence. everyone involved danced elegantly around the issue, letting it be an implication, something soft to tease rather than something hard and explicit. it was both admirable to see it handled so deftly and somewhat amusing. i kept waiting for someone to just blurt out, “hey, listen, a real sick, dangerous, motherfucker hangs out in this room, sits on this couch surrounded by his freaky taxidermic sex toys. it may be made explicit for arts sake, but this is not totally fiction. people really do revel in this shit, people love violence, love macho trophies, and love waving both their guns and their dicks around! watch out!”
anyhow, from a strictly aesthetic standpoint the room and the objects inside are fantastic. i think artistically this instillation represents a real leap forward for mike combs. it breaks away both stylistically and conceptually from his roots in decoy and decorative bird carving, and propels the work into a more exciting place. it’s a road he’s been moving down since i first saw his work, step by step, but i feel with the trophy room he’s finally made it out of the woods. the work is riskier, more dramatic, and better honed conceptually. it seems almost as if, in collecting together all the elements for it, the room is at once a loving homage to the historical forces which formed him and a statement of his intention to take control of them and steer them in a new direction. mainly, and most importantly, the work is beautiful.
if you happen to be in the hamptons before may 15th go check it out. as for me, after a nice dinner of charred meats with some of the folks involved i managed to avoid any more bus trips and snag a ride home with a yale masters program architect with whom i shot the shit at length about art, religion, and our nonist ideals… all in all a good time. if you’d like to learn more about mike and see some of his work, as well as his families work, check out his site, and the combs decoy museum site. i gotta run and wrap a few bunnies i just murdered in latex. toodle-oo.
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4473 ounces of prevention
while researching a post on another subject altogether i got sucked down an internet sinkhole. that sinkhole was the u.s. national library of medicine’s history of medicine database. specifically their archive of 4473 medical, warning, and public service posters from around the world. i never did gather the info i’d set out to, nor did i make it past the first thousand images in the archive, but it’s o.k. it was worth it. see below for a sampling.
war or peace?
article from a magazine called science & spirit (whose mission is to “explore the integration of the scientific and spiritual aspects of our culture in a way that is accessible and relevant to everyday living”) in which a science writer answers the question, “what is the most important unsolved scientific problem?” in his opinion: war. its bi-line: “neither doomed to violence nor peaceful by nature, we are shaped by the civilizations we create. modern society spends a good deal of time, effort, and scientific resource on finding better ways to wage war. what if we directed just a fraction of that energy toward finding a better way to wage peace?” pretty interesting though he does express a very naive desire for the u.s. to “establish a kind of manhattan project aimed at solving (the problem of war) once and for all.” he must have missed george c. scott’s speech from patton. whoops! now where is that… (sounds of rummaging) here you go.
bill mauldin: up front
site member tbuckner was kind enough to send me a wonderful, hardback, 1945 edition of a book called up front by a recently deceased cartoonist named bill mauldin. the book is about the infantry in world war two, in which maudlin served. he offers lot’s of insight into the life and days of an infantryman, but as he states himself, “my business is drawing, not writing, and the text is pretty much background for the drawings.” and it’s chock full of his evocative and funny/sad one panel comics. i thought i’d share a few of them with everyone
hope you enjoyed. thanks tom!
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pope smear
I’ve been predicting Cardinal Ratzinger would be the next pope, and ha, right again. (there’s a certain type of personality that gets hir rocks off whenever proven right, even over the smallest detail; it’s a vice; I’m one of those). Anyway, he’s a jerk. Check out this op-ed piece from the last day or so: ratzinger, what an appropriate name. He says he’s a uniter (where have we heard that before?) but I bet he drives people out of the catholic church like a stink bomb.
the science of pure motion
paraphrase: “kinematics (the study of pure motion and a forerunner of modern design theory of machines) flourished in the 19th century as machine inventors learned to transmit information and forces from one element in a machine to another. steam and water-based machines generated circular motion which was limited in its application. practical inventors as well as mathematicians took up the challenge to create devices that could convert circular motion into noncircular, complex, three-dimensional, intermittent motions. thousands of mechanisms were invented, designed, and built, nurturing the widespread use and manufacture of machines.” if that peaks your interest check out this gallery from cornell university of franz reuleaux’s kinematic models. if that tickles your fancy head straight
over to the kinematic models for design digital library (or kmoddl) which is the mother load of kinematic goodness. or at very least click the thumbnail. enjoy.
mysterious, plentiful, and space faring: tardigrades
file this post under; “things i must surely have learned in school but at some point forgot, or more likely forgot instantly during a flurry of doodling, note passing, and brooding.” this particular offshoot of that huge category concerns some fascinating little buggers called tardigrades. I’m slightly embarrassed to say my re-introduction to tardigrades, or “water bears” as they are commonly called, came from a less than high-brow source, namely: the fortean times. they have an article in their science section of this month’s issue. they are very tiny (typically 0.3 to 0.5 mm). they are extremely widespread being found across the planet. They live in mosses, lichens, and liverworts. a few species live on plants in fresh water. they have a mouth, head, brain, legs, eyes, nerves, claws, and muscles, their control of which is precise in that they move like “higher animals.” what is most interesting about them, however, is that they are nearly indestructible.
“indestructible?!” you exclaim. if you happen to be a stuffy british type you likely say, “pah! rot! utter poppycock! fortnight’s old treacle my good fellow!” with much mustache twirling and harumphing. in any case let me explain. what makes them so tenaciously attached to life is their ability to reversibly suspend their metabolism. they can enter a truly deathlike state known as cryptobiosis in which their Metabolism lowers to 0.01% of normal or is entirely undetectable and the water content of the body decreases to less than 1%. they are capable of 4 types of cryptobiosis depending on what environmental extreme they are faced with—anhydrobiosis, cryobiosis, osmobiosis, and anoxybiosis. these states make the bear’s hibernation seem like a daydream on a dmv line. tardigrades have been revived after a period of 120 years from dry moss samples in a museum. it is estimated that they may be able to revive after periods as long as 1,000 years. very tenacious indeed.
according to one article: “scientists have tested the tardigrades’ ability to survive other conditions too: dunking them in liquid helium close to absolute zero, zapping them with x-rays, exposing them to hard vacuum, and blasting them with an electron microscope. they can survive all of these.” so essentially not only can the water bears survive lack of food and water but they can survive a deep freeze, lack of air, and extreme radiation. interesting skill set no? it also so happens that the commonly accepted theory as to how these tiny earthbound creatures managed to spread over the earth is as follows: “they travel on wind, surviving the freezing temperatures of the upper atmosphere and riding the jet streams, before falling 50,000 ft harmlessly to earth.” sound like the prefect astronauts don’t they?
and this idea is likely the crux of the tardigrade story being included in the fortean times. their article goes on to say: “...this leads to an interesting question- tardigrades are in a phylum of their own, recognized as being separate from any other type of animal. could they have come from another planet?” this seems a natural enough question. why would an animal need to develop a resistance to vacuum, near absolute zero temps, and hard radiation? are those defenses just happy side effects of their other abilities?
the article goes on: “molecular biologists who have studied tardigrade dna doubt it. tardigrades share dna with insects and crustaceans, suggesting that all three probably come from a common earthly ancestor.” o.k. fair enough. though it should be noted on the whole tardigrades still remain somewhat of a mystery. everyone seems to agree they need more study.
the really interesting thing about their story, to me, romantic fool that i am, still has to do with space however. again, being interested in just that this sort of conjecture, fortean times sums it up well: “the meteorite known as alh8401 that brought possible martian fossils to earth was blasted off of mars by a meteorite impact. in the same way meteor impacts on earth, like the one that possibly wiped out the dinosaurs, will have sent tardigrades into space. they are so ubiquitous and plentiful (as many as 500 per gram of soil in some places) that any impact will have sent out millions as involuntary miniature astronauts. after all this time they could have travelled quite some distance - in theory, some light years.”
“pah! rot! utter poppycock! it’s all conjecture!” sure, every last bit of it. but boy that’s the kind of conjecture i like! imagine them out there… good stuff. while you ponder it, here are some water bear images collected from all around so you can put a tiny body and face on your miniature astronaut fantasies.
finally if you are interested in knowing more about them here are some links-
a nice article called extreme animals from astrobiology magazine.
tardigrade facts from the species distrobution project.
here’s a long link list offered by agerman site.
and last but not least, the home of tardigrades on the net, tardigrades.com.
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announcing the first nonist activity book
the first in our series of activity books, the old testament edition, is complete. we are very proud to offer you these 15 pages as a free download, including 5 pages to color, a maze, a rebus story, a mad-lib, a “find the hidden picture,” a word search, and fun do-it-yourself project (answers included for your young ones.) it’s our way of giving back to the community, of doing something for the children, and of bridging the gap between us (the atheists, the agnostics, the nonists) and our righteous brothers and sisters of faith. all content is drawn directly from the old testament so it is safe, educational, and hopefully will provide good clean fun the whole family can enjoy! please see below for previews of each activity page and links to the full printable version.
in order to complete this project we needed to spend a good long time brushing up on that greatest of all books- the old testament. inside it we found the stories which have shaped our culture, served as compass to our moral center, and provided the strong thread of which the very fabric of our identities is woven. it was a pleasure to return to these tales of morality and law, and we do not exaggerate when we say, it is with perhaps an even greater pleasure that we offer you, the community, and the world, our humble nod to this towering book’s continuing influence on all of humanity.
please note friends that each of the thumbnails below can be clicked on for a larger view. we recommend downloading the entire pdf version if you plan on making use of the activity book. the pdf is print quality and contains 4 extra pages with solutions for all the word games and puzzles. please contact us if you encounter any problems.
presented by: the nonist. coloring and activity series 1:
the old testament edition. not for sale.
coloring page inspired by leviticus 26:29
a maze inspired by deuteronomy 7:5
a “popular old testament word” word search
a coloring page inspired by numbers 11:1
a rebus story version of isaiah 34:1-34:10
a coloring page inspired by deuteronomy 28:22
a fun, outdoors, do-it-yourself inspired by leviticus 1-7
a mad libs version of genesis 1:24-1:31
a hidden picture game inspired by numbers 14:33
a coloring page inspired by leviticus 24:16
for the higher quality print ready version of the whole book, inculding the solutions pages, please download the pdf. we hope you enjoy this book. look forward to additions to this series in the future, and have a great today!
let us know what you think.
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the book meme strikes
there has been this blogger book meme making the rounds for a while now. don’t even know where it originated anymore. i’ve seen it on many a blog i visit. was beginning to think no one was ever going to get around to passing it over our way, but matt over at eye of the goof was kind enough to think of us so with no further adieu… a few pointless book related questions, answered!
1) You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451; which book do you want to be?
the new testament because, though i’m not sure about the book nazi’s religious leanings, i figure it plays out in one of two ways: either i don’t get burned and continue to exert my powerfully destructive influence over the world of puny humans (i’m power mad you see), or i get burned quick, fast, in a hurry, hopefully allowing at least a section of humanity to evolve beyond the superstitious, self-flagellating, 2000 year mental rut they’ve been in (a public servant you see.)
2) Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
every crush a person has in on a fictional character isn’t it? that’s why crushes are not sustainable states.
3) What are you currently reading?
i tend to read a few things at once so: just finished babel 17 by samuel r. delaney, have been slowly digging into the age of spiritual machines by ray kurzweil, the end of art by donald kuspit , as well as lonely planets, the natural philosophy of alien life by david grinspoon, and had just dipped into cory doctorow’s eastern standard tribe but 2 books arrived in the mail from nonist member tom buckner this morning (one called blues for robots, written by tom himself) so i think i’ll be veering into new territory this evening.
4) The last book you bought was:
this immortal by roger zelany
5) The last book you read was:
well since i already mentioned babel 17 before that was… let me see… exultant by stephen baxter.
6) Five books you would take to a desert island:
hmmm… let’s see… ok,
1- my high school library pilfered copy of emerson’s essays, by, of course, ralph waldo emerson
2- my copy of three novels: molloy, malone dies, the unanmable by samuel beckett because
a) though i love it, i have never finished it, and
b) i think these books would be uniquely suited to speak to a lonely, half mad, island dweller.
3- big sur and the oranges of hieronymus bosch by henry miller since to my knowledge sexus, pluxus, and nexus have never been published in a single volume.
4- skinny leg’s and all by tim robbins because even loony castaways need to laugh sometimes.
crap! only one left! uh… can i remove skinny legs and all? no, too late… ok… should it be something huge and bulky that would take forever to read? a science book (or hell a loompanics book) about surviving on an island? an art history book with a zillion color illustrations? olaph stapledon’s combo last and first men & star maker so i’ll finally read the fucking thing? another copy of one of my previous choices but printed in another language so i can learn it? an “erotic” novel to get me through the lonely island nights?
5- o.k. i’ll pull the same stunt i did on ookworlds desert island disks poll- i’ll accept one wildcard book perhaps misplaced or planted by a by a customs agent or baggage handler. that way i’ll get something unexpected.
7) Who are you going to pass this stick to, and why?
I’m going to pass the stick to a few different folks.
1- jeff vandermeer. be curious to know since he’s a top notch writer and all (but of course jeff happens to be travelling at the moment so it may have to be addressed by his sister, who is guest helming his blog at the moment.)
2- f (name hidden to protect the guilty), over at onemansafari to see if i can break up the flow of all those beautiful images with some ugly text.
3- all of our blogless (or otherwise) members here, specifically, tom, rich, tom, dave, james, cast (and o.g. if you’re willing to interrupt your vacation).
Read Less...
the right stuff?
not sure if anyone noticed the announcement of the “x-prize cup and personal spaceflight expo” recently (or xpc&pse.) it’s to be an annual event cosponsored by the x prize foundation and the state of new mexico (yes, home of the alien humping city of roswell. tin foil hatters start your engines). the description of the “personal spaceflight expo” leg of the event sounds fun. i imagine it as a mixture of 1940’s world’s fair (in no small part because of the accompanying illustrations), smithsonian n.a.s.m. exhibit (with better lighting and a good thorough vacuuming), and sci-fi convention (it’s in new mexico for titor’s sake!) the x-prize cup section is an expansion of the ansari x-prize including a slew of different competitions. i really love the idea and love the spirit of the thing. i can’t help but wonder though if there are enough rebel millionaires to fill 5 days worth of racing forms? seriously. the sponsors say, “think of it as a cross between champ grand prix racing, the america’s cup, and the olympics!” let’s hope there are enough qualified folks with “the right stuff” otherwise it might end up being more of a cross between wacky races, yogi’s space race and scooby’s all-star laff-a-lympics. here’s hoping.
proud and insolent youth incorporated
not sure if this story was big news these past couple of weeks but it is extremely odd and deserves mention one way or the other. evidently a graveyard shift policeman named david mobilio was shot three times and killed on november 19th of last year. beside the body, someone left a “don’t tread on us” flag. it was a killing that might have never been solved. that is, until a confession appeared on the Internet. a confession in the form of an anti “corporate irresponsibility” manifesto. from that manifesto: “prior to my action, i formed a corporation under the name ‘proud and insolent youth incorporated,’ so that i could use the destructive immunity of corporations and turn it on something that actually should be destroyed.” essentially the killer, andrew mickel (pictured), a student at a liberal arts college, incorporated before the killing to shield himself from prosecution. his ultimate goal? a revolution against the united states government. here is the story via the washington post, and here is the text of the manifesto. apologies if this is old news to everyone. but wtf? thoughts on this?