The road is now like television, violent and tawdry. The landscape it runs through is littered with cartoon buildings and commercial messages. We whiz by them at fifty-five miles an hour and forget them, because one convenience store looks like the next. They do not celebrate anything beyond their mechanistic ability to sell merchandise. We […]
All In Favor of Doomsday Proposal…
It’s not everyday words like “doomsday proposal” get tossed about semi-casually in the news headlines. (BoGlo/AP: “House rejects doomsday proposal” by Jim Abrams [June 3, 2004])
Posted by Ben on June 9, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/doomsday/
Transit of Venus
info quicktime video (1.4mb)
Posted by Ben on June 8, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/transit-of-venus/
Ecomiscellany
Disfiguring Seafood Diseases. They don’t know what causes the dread ‘ugly lobster disease’ (which is actually called ugly lobster syndrome or black spot disease, if you can believe that), but at least they know it doesn’t harm the meat. Phew. (AP: “Baffling Disease Makes Lobsters Look Ugly” by Jay Lindsay [May 25, 2004]; CBC: “Lobster […]
Posted by Ben on June 8, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/miscellaneous-crap/
Fighting Techniques of Rumsfeld
You may have defeated my Southern Hook Palm technique, but can you defeat the 1000 styles of Rumsfeld? A few of my favorites… Drunken Temple Boxing Mirror Swan Palm Sleeping Dragon Technique Twin Cobra Fist There’s more where that came from. (via Memepool)
Posted by Ben on June 7, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/fighting-techniques-of-rumsfeld/
What Happened, Is
You know how it is when you write something, some kind of journalish thing on a piece of paper, that, in a matter of months becomes completely incomprehensible? traveling allows you to be abstracted from the landscape you’re an anomalous critter. …you don’t know what item doesn’t fit, because you don’t understand enough about the […]
Posted by Ben on June 6, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/not-fiction/
Solaris (***1/2)
(2002) Steven Soderbergh – w/ George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Jeremy Davies, Viola Davis, Ulrich Tukur Synopsis: It’s the future. Strange things are happening on the privately-owned space station Prometheus, stationed above planetoid (and potential natural resource) Solaris. “Strange things” as in, the crew’s turned a little batty; people have been sent to fetch the crew, […]
Posted by Ben on June 5, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/solaris/
Survey Says, Global Warming Rocks!
Another one of the billions (well, not quite) of climate-themed articles sparked by The Day After Tomorrow. Interesting thing about this one being the figure(s) it cites: “While 72 percent of Americans said they were concerned about it [global warming] in 2000, only 58 percent say so now, and only 15 percent believe it has […]
Posted by Ben on June 5, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/survey-says-global-warming-rocks/
True Story
“CHARLES WYCKOFF: Hello. KEVIN B. WYCKOFF: Hey, Dad. CHARLES: Huh. Well damn, boy. We just had your funeral today. KEVIN: Yeah I know, I heard. CHARLES: Well, what the hell is going on?“ (Harper’s, via MeFi)
Posted by Ben on June 5, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/true-story/
Massively Negligent Rundown
Stranger Danger. Wonder of all wonders, miracle of all miracles, children stay inside because they’re afraid of the outside world; I wonder how they got that way? Not only that, but (also unsurprisingly), most of their fears—and their parents’ fears—are based on “an unrealistic estimate assessment… of the risks of the outside world.” Writes Amelia […]
Posted by Ben on June 4, 2004
https://www.swordbilled.com/massively-negligent-rundown/