:: Archipelapogo ::

:: 25.9.03 ::

Fi5e 6ix

Five Six things:

1. Space Art from Children's books

2. Nutty Narrows Squirrel Bridge

3. Pico De Gallo is showing free at SMU on Tuesday at 7:30 (Hughes-Trigg Student Center Auditorium). First come, first serve.

4. Anti-Saloon League Political Cartoons from 1919.

5. The Worst Jobs in Science.

6. If my coworker doesn't stop humming soon he's going to find his next bowel movement obstructed by a Swingline.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Yoink!

Desperate for something to put on here today, I'm stealing Brittney's idea and compiling a list of my own. With the exception of six weeks in Europe and juants here and there elsewhere, I've lived my entire life in the mid-west/mid-south/texas*.

So here we go. 10 things I love and hate about the South.

Love:
1). The Food: I try to eat fairly healthy nowadays, and I very rarely eat red meat at all anymore, but there's something very healing about a meal comprised of solely fried or drenched in butter ingredients. Slap me up some fried chicken, fried okra, mashed potatoes, jalepeno cornbread, and some fresh iced tea and I can be a happy camper. Toss in a bowl of red bean and rice or gumbo, some of the best Mexican food $2.50 can buy and fresh vegetables from local farms and you're hard up to go hungry around here.

2). The latinos: Since the border between the States and Mexico is pretty much the Red River (and moving north) nowadays, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the immigrant and first-generation latinos. But once you step back to enjoy the music, the culture and heritage, the language, and (oh yes) the food, you'll find a fascinating landscape of interesting items to satiate your diversity itch.

3) Farmer Bob and Farmer Jim: I volley back and forth on this one quite a bit, but there's definitely something very intriguing about the classic good old boy hard-working honest farmer stereotype. I'm probably the polar opposite of this class of people, but that's allright, I get along with them just fine, so long as we don't discuss politics. The best part about this is that they aren't even really farmers anymore. With the plight of the traditional family farm and ranch being overrun by giant corporations, they've had to learn to diversify, and diversify they have. One of the greatest examples of the good old boy was my barber back in Tulsa. Yup, a hair-stylist.

4) The music: There's something holistically cleansing about a great blues quartet live, or a gospel choir. The evolution of Southern music from slave-songs to campfire tunes in the Old West to Mississippi Delta blues to rockabilly and classic country to modern day incarnations like psychobilly has left some great music in the wake.

5) The storms: My dad's favorite pasttime is to sit on the back porch with the AM Radio on the weather station, a beer in hand, and watching a massive storm roll in. I've never seen thunderstorms hit with the frequency and intensity as they do where the Gulf Stream hits the Pacific Stream and high-pressure systems hit low-pressure systems and nature roars out an unmerciful downpour of noise on all below. Absolutely fascinating.

6: The Stars: No, not the hockey team (although I do like them well enough). But even living in the middle of a city with more than 2 million people in a metroplex with over 4 million, I can drive for about twenty to thirty minutes on a clear night and see damn near every star in the sky. I used to do this all the time when I was at Baylor, since I could find a field where I couldn't see any lights in about 10 minutes. Very relaxing.

7) The Nature: Trees, animals, campgrounds, rivers, lakes, hiking, all within a less than three hour drive pretty much no matter where you are.

8) Families: Coming from an extremely small family that wasn't very spread out, it was easy for us to get together for various functions. But there's something absolutely amazing about the family reunions of 150+ people that get together every year to catch up on life and spend time together, reliving traditions and passing on stories and advice.

9) The Laid-back pace of life: Again, something that I just notice as for the most part I'm a pretty quick paced guy. But even in the big city, it's rare to find someone rushing about trying to get stuff done for no reason other than that's the thing to do. Most people will take time out to genuinely inquire about your life, and they all have great memories.

10) The manners: This goes along pretty well with number nine, but people in this area are just more polite. You get many more thank-yous and please-s and Ma'am-s and sir-s than other places I've been. And it's not just people working the check-out register or the waiter at Chili's. It's a widespread, even level-playing field.

10 Things I Hate About the South.

1) The Conservatism - Not a shocker, but it gets really old and grating. Racism for the most part has been taken out of the public eye, and glaring examples are few and far between, but being a liberal in the South means, for the most part, that your vote will never count. Frustrating.

2) The trucks - Everywhere, it's duallies and Escalades and F350 Deisels and hopped up Yukons, sitting in three parking spaces marked "Compact Cars Only" and swerving at 90 miles an hour up I-35. Hate it.

3) The Dallas Fucking Cowboys - ...And football in general. The fervor around here, even during poor seasons is nauseating. And it's only going to get worse as Jerry Jones begins to grease up the fans and politicians so he can get public funding for a new stadium.

4) Big hair, big tits, and jeans with no back pockets - Enough said.

5) Drawls - I love accents of all kinds except for the one that I hear the most. There are people in my building that made Jim Varney sound like Tony Blair.

6) Suburban Sprawl - Yeah, it's all over, but I'd wager that some of the suburbs here in Dallas can compete with the biggest and best of them as far as chain restaurant after chain restaurant and households where keeping up appearances is priority number one. And suburban rebels? Forget about it. There's a reason that Plano became the heroin capital of the states in the late 90's.

7) Dashboard Patriotism - It's been hashed over and over again (here and everywhere else). It's not getting any better.

8) The Rednecks - The good old boys' dopplegangers, the rednecks can be some of the most infuriating people in the world. Loud, brash, irreverent, rude, and violent, they don't necessarily have to live in a trailer and unironically wear a trucker hat. They come in all shapes and sizes and can be the most close-minded people you'll ever meet.

9) The near lack of culture - Most every city, even the large ones, will have only one major museum, one natural history museum, one zoo, and, if you're lucky, only one modern museum. A couple of token art-house/ independent movie theaters, and some very small play houses and that's about your options. It's really bad for the high school kids, because little diversion leads to lots of mischeif.

10) The distance between cities and the lack of alternative ways to get there - I got spoiled big time by the trains in Europe and I'm really pining for a similar system here. Please. Soon.

*I get the feeling though that everthing that's not bordering the Pacific Ocean or that wasn't affected by the blackout, plus the D.C. area, is considered 'the South' to most everyone that does live in those areas.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Political Pictures?

Subhankar Banerjee is a nature photographer. He had gone up to the notorious A.N.W.R. and taken some pictures. Then, the Smithsonian offered him a major exhibition in its grand rotunda. However, the exhibit was shortly relocated to an out-of-the-way gallery and the captions, which had already been approved, were stripped from the photos.

The rationale, according to Smithsonian staffer Lawrence Small, was that the captions "Contained statements that might have been constued as advocacy for a particular position on ANWR". Yeah, captions like "Muskox herd on foothills along the Hulahula River; Romanzof Mountains in the background" and "Polar bear approaches whale bones from the previous years' hunt on frozen Bernard Harbor in early June".

Anyways, the photographs are gorgeous, and you can find them here in a slide-show format on the Sierra Club website. Banerjee's personal site can be found here and it includes many more beautiful pictures.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Upcoming.org

The big hullaballoo of the week in the realm o' blogs is Mr. Baio's new upcoming.org. I spent about half an hour digging around on the site and I like what I see. There are quite a few of the usual suspects signed up already for the Texas scene.

I added some events (for upcoming shows) and had to add Trees to the venue list since it wasn't there yet. I also added Denton as a metro, basically for all of the Rubber Gloves shows.

Since it's all user based input, the site is only going to be as good as the people that are on there want it to be. I had a bit of a worry about some kind of viral marketing thing going on, but I figure anyone that has time to add their whole personal tour on there probably could use the free publicity, and that might actually benefit the site (I'd like to see it take on Pollstar-type proportions).

There also doesn't appear to be a way to update information on an event once it's posted, other than leaving a comment.** In the case of changes of information or a mistake in the posting, it'd be nice to be able do amend the regular post. Maybe you could e-mail an admin or something for that purpose, but an easier, quicker mechanism would be nice.

Overall though, it seems like a great idea and a great setup. I hope it sticks around longer than some previous blog ideas du jour as I can see myself using it for sometime to come.

**Update: I see on the sidebar that Andy is working on editing of venues and events. There goes that concern.
:: Scott [+] ::
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"Stop! Your fingers won't grow back! Use the meat-pusher to push in the meat."

Fascinating.

The Poster Museum in Wilanow ( near Warsaw ) has recently begun printing calendars with vintage Polish propaganda posters from the early 1950's - the heyday of High Stalinism. The Poster Museum is a fascinating place - it was the first museum of its kind when it opened in 1968, and it underscores how big a role poster design plays in contemporary Polish art.

I'd love to get my hands on one of these calendars. (via plep)
:: Scott [+] ::
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Random Links

..::I really enjoyed this essay on the Mexican Independence Day (which was Tuesday) by a former citizen::..

..::I'm not quite sure what to make of this 'Guerilla Drive-In' thing. Could be really cool, could be a subversive attempt at a weird form of marketing. Not sure. It's showing in downtown Dallas on the 4th of Oct, though. Anyone with more information, I'd appreciate a note or comment.::..

..::I need to go check out the new Latino Cultural Center that just opened. More of a 'note to self' and link of acknowledgement.::..
:: Scott [+] ::
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Track your charity

Charity Navigator ranks most every charity in the US based on a number of attributes. Good comparison analysis based on "issue" too. Well done site. Glad to see that most of the charities that I toss a couple of bucks to periodically scored fairly well.
:: Scott [+] ::
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About bloody time

So the President finally admits that there is no link between Saddam and 9/11. In further news, he also said that concrete is hard, diamonds are purty, and Lynn Cheney's apple pie tastes good.

This comes after Dick Cheney's Meet The Press interview (full transcript here) which contained the following exchange

RUSSERT: The Washington Post asked the American people about Saddam Hussein, and this is what they said. Sixty-nine percent said he was involved in the September 11th attacks. Are you surprised by that?

CHENEY: No, I think it's not surprising that people make that connection.

Cheney then laughed maniacally and stroked his striped cat with his metal encased right hand.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the administration conceding small things like this periodically leading up to the beginning of next year and the election. There's too much evidence that what they said was either misinformation, an early jump to a false conclusion, or an out and out lie. If they don't do damage control now, it will come back to bite them in the ass. Look for the WMD admission shortly before the State of the Union address this January. We'll see if I'm right, but don't be surprised if I am.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Vancouver to open safe-shooting shelter

It's amazing how vastly different two intrinsically similar societies can be. Vancouver has opened a safe-shooting environment for addicts of needle drugs. This comes after decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana and legalizing gay marriage for civil purposes. Zoinks.

I'm a big proponent of needle exchanges and my intuition is that a safe-haven will likely be a positive thing IF a couple of issues pan out for the best. Ideally, this will provide a safe, clean place for addicts to go with non-infected needles. Also, hopefully, this will give the staff of the haven the ability to develop a relationship with the addicts and educate them about treatment. This will likely prove much more effective, and possibly cheaper, than throwing them into a revolving door prison system. I give you a round of applause, you crazy Canucks.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Hybrids

I found this nice page with a bit of an update and comparison of current and future hybrid cars. I'm not in the market for a new car for a few years (hopefully) but if I were to be there now, I'd take a serious look at the Hybrid Civic. The Civic is probably a bit smaller than I would like my next car to be, but the benefits would most likely outweigh that.

Interestingly enough, Saturn and Ford are slated to release hybrid small SUVs next year, which I think is a great idea. Hope they succeed.

And lest you were wondering, no, hybrids never have to be plugged into an electrical outlet.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Atkins and the market

An interesting piece from MSNBC on how the Atkins diet fad has altered the market for foods. It breaks down the complaints from people like Slim-Fast, who have seen rapidly declining sales, and the beef industry who, among others, has seen increasing sales. Not all of it attributable to Atkins, but it likely is a factor. Good stuff for an econ-dork.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Get your serious geek on

Warning: For serious blog-geeks only, rory kicks it.

Weblogging for posterity
Demands all our austerity,
Consideration, and a cautious tone.
The gentlemanly blogger
Should never stoop to flog a
Nother whose opinions aren't his own.

:: Scott [+] ::
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International Paint Pals

Paintings of peace done by children from around the world. Fascinating stuff. (via amberglow, who I need to remember to read much more often.)
:: Scott [+] ::
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Four More Years!

Denise and I are celebrating four years together. It's a many splendored thing, you know. I'm a lot happier than I ever thought I'd be with someone, and I've only got her to thank. So thanks, you.
:: Scott [+] ::
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WTO Blog

The Guardian has begun a blog to monitor news releases on this week's WTO Cancun conference. I don't like the set-up too much, but there are some good links there including a refresher course from Reuters and a follow-up on the anti-WTO movement post-Seattle from the BBC. I really just wanted to post this here to remind myself to check it, but maybe someone else will get some pleasure out of it too.

It's easy with the $87 Billion tax-bombs and Weapons of Mass Distraction to forget about other important global events, but international trade has a long-lasting and significant effect on everyone's lives, most importantly those that live in easily exploitable nations. You know, just saying.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Interesting Convergence or Coincidence?

This weekend brings about the First Annual Dallas Palestinian Film Festival brought to you by an organization called United for Peace and Justice. The films are all being shown on SMU's campus (excepting one, I believe). A weekend pass is very moderately priced. I may try to make it out to see a couple of them.

Also (hence the title), the 7th Annual Dallas Jewish Film Festival begins tomorrow, September 6th. They are showing all of the films at the AMC Glen Lakes (except for a sing-along viewing of "Fiddler on the Roof").
:: Scott [+] ::
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The Ilios of Diego Garcia

Every once in a while I'll run across a simple sentence or blurb that will pique an interest in me to do some more research. In this case, it was a cursory single sentence thrown out at the end of a book on Henry Kissenger about the Island of Diego Garcia and the U.S. Naval Base that currently exists there. I've spent the better part of this morning doing some research and I'm at once horrified by what I've found and embarassed that I wasn't aware of this beforehand.

Diego Garcia is an atoll that is part of the larger Chagos Archipelago south of India. It was discovered by Portuguese explorers and is is named for either the Captain of the ship, the navigator, or a comibination thereof. In 1776, the Chagos Archipelago became a French Territory, which it remained until 1814 when it was ceded, along with the larger Island Nation of Mauritius, to the British Empire.

While the French were in possession of Chagos, they encouraged colons to move there and inhabit the previously uninhabited islands. They were permitted to import African slaves and work animals, and over the course of the next 180 years, a valid society had grown into its own with their own language and customs. They were called the Ilois.

In 1966, the United Kingdom and the United States agreed on terms to the leasing of Diego Garcia to the US for the purposes of building a military base. In order to facilitate this, the British detached Chagos from Mauritius, which it was in the process of decolonizing, and incorporated it with a few islands off of the Seychilles and formed a new colony called the British Indian Ocian Territory (BIOT), effectively retaining its stake in Chagos while permitting Mauritius to go free.

The United States offered the British a major discount (about $11-$14 million) on a Polaris Nuclear Missile System for British submarines in exhange for a lease on Diego Garcia, by far the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago. In exchange, between 1965 and 1973 the British summarily forced the evacuation of approximately 2,000 native Ilois from Diego Garcia, permitting them to pack one suitcase and bring no furniture or other belongings, and dumped them 1,200 miles away from their native homes in Mauritius and the Seychilles. All the while, the British denied that there was any population on Diego Garcia.

This mass deportation is a major violation of human rights and forced removal that took place not in the heydey of colonialism or slavery but in modern times. Diego Garcia is a favorable location for launching B-52s and storing planes and weapons due to the absence of an indigenous population and it's location close to the Middle East, Africa, and the Indian Sub-Continent.

In November of 2000, a High Court in Britain ruled that the actions that the British had taken were "an abject legal failure" and overturned the 1971 order that bans natives from returning to Diego Garcia. The ruling also gave the Ilios British Citizenship. Unfortunately, the court maintained that the British could still hold Diego Garcia under special military status. The current lease that the U.S. holds for Diego Garcia expires in 2016, and the US has not made any effort to reconcile with the Ilios.

Unfortunately, the Ilios are still fighting to get back to their homeland. The most recent article I could find was this report by the Guardian UK from July of this year:

After a long court battle, the community won the right to full British citizenship several years ago and, after saving for one-way tickets, the Ilois are starting to arrive in Britain. The first group came last September, a second group came in June and a third group arrived suddenly two weeks ago.

The community numbers some 5,000 and, faced with poverty and racism in Mauritius, few want to stay there. Crawley was chosen because Gatwick Airport sits nearby. Now the town is the new home of a thriving community of Diego Garcians strung out in hotels and council estates.'If we were allowed to go back, then none us would ever want to come here,' said Allan Vincatassin, their unofficial representitive.

The Diego Garcians who have made it to Crawley have often sold off all their possessions to pay for the tickets or have worked and saved for more than a year at the poorly paid manual jobs that are their lot in Mauritius. But behind the exodus is simply the desire to go home.

..::Resources and Links::..

-- The Human Right's Observer's History of Diego Garcia

-- CBS News piece from June 13, 2003 entitled Diego Garcia: Exiles Still Barred

-- A Time Magazine piece from 1998 entitled What in the World Is Diego Garcia? - The least-known player in Operation Desert Fox is a secret U.S. Navy base

-- The BBC story following the November, 2000 High Court Ruling entitled Evicted islanders allowed home

-- The CIA World Factbook page on the BIOT

-- General Information on the Naval Base on Diego Garcia from the official website of the Navy and, from the same site, the "official" history of the island which makes no mention of any relocation and glosses over the transistion from the natives to the military.

-- And finally, a well-written yet emotional letter from an Ilios to the people for the UK and the US entitled "The Island of Diego Garcia, B 52'S and You and Me"

I've looked around for some places or charities that benefit the Ilios but my google-foo is exhausted for the day. If anyone knows of any or feels like digging some up, please let me know. Thanks.
:: Scott [+] ::
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Where's Fear's appearance on SNL?

Also from the Guardian, the twenty most requested television archive clips. Only the Brits could put the raising of the World Cup shortly after the funeral of their most beloved native.

And for parity, the twenty strangest TV archive requests. I don't know that they're all that strange, I mean have these people never seen a baby animal piss on Jay Leno? Maybe they're just uncreative. Regardless, I would like to see #'s 4 and 9.
:: Scott [+] ::
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File Under: Well, Durrr!

The Guardian's Marina Hyde on the Britney/Madonna/Christina infamous liplock:

"Yes, partial insertion of the tongue will play well on balance," some sharp suit calculated. "What we lose in Iowa we'll just hoover up in the bi-coastal markets. Groping's strictly out across the board, though - gentle head support only or you can press 87,000 less albums each and forget Oprah promotion."

A well-written no-shit statement.

Update! Britney's Patriotic! Anyone else reminded of the talking Malibu Stacy doll? "Math is hard!" I realize that she can't rail on whatever topic she wishes, but it's pretty sad when she is implicitly saying that loosening her sexuality strings is not as damaging as her presenting a political point of view, whatever it may be. Oh, and especially after noting the source of the article, does anyone really buy that last line?
:: Scott [+] ::
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Tulsa Vision 2025, etc.

I learned over the weekend about a new proposal headed by current Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune for a sales tax increase that would fund four separate things. The main thrust of the four, which fortunately can be voted on individually, is 1) a big loan to Boeing to build the new 7E7 plant in Tulsa, 2) a stipend to American Airlines (one of Tulsa's largest employers) for capital improvements and training, 3) funding improvements mainly in the downtown area (including an 18,000 seat arena) and money for education, and 4) street and tourist improvements.

Jaq pointed out this entry by fellow ex-Tulsan Lynn S that is skeptical about the proposition. And rightfully so. I'm always intrinsically skeptical about using taxpayers money to lure investment by private business (be it manufacturaing, a sports franchise, etc.). Tulsans have been sweating piss for the past two years with American Airlines financial woes and layoffs. Tulsa's been hit hard by layoffs, some 27,000 in this recent economic downturn. That's what happens when you have a very few companies (AA, Williams Corporation and its subsidiaries, BOK and its partners, etc.) employing a significant part of the population. When the shit hits the investment fan and companies, whether they're HQ'd in Tulsa or not, pull back resources and lay people off, it has a major impact on the city. When Williams Communications and AA had rough fiscal years, lots of Tulsans were laid off.

That's what scares me about the Boeing plant. We seemingly have little guarantee that they'll stay past the extent of their loan. We have little guarantee that the 7E7 is going to be a successful plane for a significant period of time. And what happens when the manufacturing of the 7E7 ceases? Again, thousands laid off.

The flipside of the proposals are numbers 3 and 4, which seem to actually seek to give Tulsa some much needed investment in the city itself. Currently, there is not a modern facility the size of what is proposed. Sure, you've got the old Expo Center and Driller Stadium and their ilk, but all of those are seriously outdated and it's fairly easy to see why sports teams and musicians and other touring type things wouldn't want to come to Tulsa. That said, I still have doubts about Tulsans and their desire for stuff like this. I've seen the (larger) semi-pro hockey team play in front of a half-empty crowd. The Arena Football Team won't be there five years from now (call me on it if I'm wrong, but I doubt it). And most of the major music acts will instead play Dallas, Kansas City, or Oklahoma City instead of Tulsa, all of which are larger cities and are for the most part accessible to those in Tulsa.

There has been a big push by the powers that be in Tulsa to redo the downtown area, attempting, as many other cities are doing with varying success, to lure young urbanites down there to replace the low-income residents that moved in during the great flight to the suburbs. They've done a fairly good job, attracting several bars and music venues that appeal to those in the target demographic and giving the young folks in Tulsa some desperately needed places to hang out.

There has been the erection of many new lofts and apartments downtown, replacing dilpidated and unused old housing that had no value. All of this is good, but there are still problems.

One of Tulsa's major problems is the complete absense of a valid mass transit system. If you want me to drive for 25 minutes to get downtown and hang out with friends but then threaten to crack down on drunk driving, give me a valid alternative. Also, there's not even a good way to get downtown from South Tulsa without going way to the East or West, pratically doubling the time it takes to get there (and forcing some drivers to take Toll Roads).

Those are the issues that need to be taken seriously if Mayor LaFortune and his friends want to do something with downtown Tulsa. If you want people to come, give them varying ways to get there. Give them places to park (preferably for free). Also, give them something to see. I'd love to see Tulsa get a major league sports franchise of some kind. It'd be great for the city. But an 18,000 seat arena isn't going to even come close to that.

If Mayor LaFortune wants to make Tulsa a better place, both more desirable for tourists and residents, he'd do well to look at what cities like Ft. Worth have doen with their downtown, creating an area where there's free parking, lots to do, safety, and cleanliness. It's family friendly without being overly cheesy. It's not necessarily someplace that I would like to hang out all the time, but it's good for the masses and good for Ft. Worth.

Fortunately I don't have to make a decision about whether I would support all or any of Vision 2025. Although I'll likely never live there again, I do hope the best for the city and I hope that any or all of the four sections that pass come to full fruition. I would, however, encourage the voters to be careful and not be blinded by idealism. Make sure it's practical, doable, and enforceable.
:: Scott [+] ::
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I just wanted to say this:

I just saw the best/worst bumper sticker ever. It said "Yo ♥ Frijoles". I don't know if it should be offensive or not, but it sure as hell beats the "Welcome to America, Now Speak English or Get Out!" one that I saw a few weeks ago.
:: Scott [+] ::
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