:: Archipelapogo ::

:: 30.11.04 ::

Some quick Tuesday linkage

..::This MetaFilter thread has ton of links to one man band sites, many/all of which have some video footage. As a caution though, and as I pointed out in the thread, one of them is NSFW::..

..::and via MeFi, the Famous Trials website has some great concise information on many famous trials throughout history. I've only made it through the Chicago Black Sox, Chicago 7, Lenny Bruce, and Sacco and Vanzetti, but I fully intend to dig through it all in the next few days::..

..::This David Sedaris story from the New Yorker had me captivated for about 20 minutes this morning. Well done, there. (via)::..

..::Filmoculous is doing their annual wrap up of Best of Lists. It'll grow over the next few weeks (by leaps and bounds) so it's definitely worth a bookmark. (via)::..

And on my "to read" list tomorrow:

..::This CorpWatch piece on the possible positives and negatives of Corporations buying up and consolidating small organic farms should be a great read, but I have to go to the Mavs game now::..
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Felicidades

Wow. This is good news:

The Chilean government has offered lifelong pensions to more than 28,000 people tortured by agents of Gen Augusto Pinochet's military government.

President Ricardo Lagos made the offer as an official report was published on the internet detailing abuses committed between 1973 and 1990.

Mr Lagos said the report, based on survivors' testimonies, proved that torture had been state policy.

The document says the victims included some 3,400 women and even children.

It lists 18 major types of torture, including suffocation, electric shocks and repeated beatings.

Many of the crimes were carried out by the Chilean army and police.

The United States', and mostly Henry Kissinger's, involvement with the Pinochet regime is one of the darkest marks in 20th Century US History and is topped off with the inaction following a 1976 carbomb/assassination in our own capital. Although this country hasn't had any involvement in rectifying what happened during Pinochet's reign, I'm very glad to see some of the victims are being compensated. Here's hoping that prick stands trial and finally receives his punishment.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Theban Mapping Project

The Theban Mapping Project is a fantastic site documenting Thebes, Egypt, the capital of Egypt during the middle and new kingdoms. Be sure and check out their Atlas of the Valley of the Kings and the Atlas of the Theban Necropolis (can't direct link to those, but they're on the front page). They've also got some handy resources for those who are not as familiar with Egyptology as they'd like to be. Fantastic, fantastic site.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Moments of Immaturity on a Highway Drive

I’m not sure why exactly the town of Henryetta, Oklahoma decided that banker W.R. Stubbs merited the honor of naming the stretch of Highway 69 that runs through that town after him That said, every time I drive from Dallas to Tulsa and back, I giggle like a middle-schooler when I see the sign informing me I’m on the Dick Stubbs Memorial Highway.

:: Scott [+] ::
...

Running update

So the group run went alright, except for the fact that said L. and I are, apparently, the two most prepared for this shindig. Turns out she’s a smoker too. Black lung duo, representing. So I’ve been tasked with, most likely, the second six-mile stint which, in addition to being six point two miles (basically a 10k), is also the final leg, meaning that yes, I’ll get to cross the finish line and get the medals/cigars/snifters of brandy at the end, but I also have to stand around for two and half or three hours before I get moving. Plus, look at the first mile of my shift (scroll down to the elevation chart, start at mile 20). So, my plan is to connect a barrel to some shoulder straps, trod up the hill, and then just climb inside and roll the rest of the way. It’s flawless, I tell you.

I actually feel fairly confident I’ll be able to knock out six miles in a decent time. Outside of the fact that I hate running in the cold and my nipples were platinum-engravingly hard (along with the fact that somehow, around mile 2, my *teeth* began to hurt), I was able to knock 3.5 decent miles on Friday. For the second run I’d taken in about two months, that suited me just fine. I wussed out and only did two miles last night, but it was 10:00 PM, so what do you want? Plus, I finished in about 18:45, which is around the pace I want to keep on race day (less than an hour, that’s all I ask). It probably would’ve been better had I not started to burp up my jalapeno-laden dinner and slowed down for fear that I’d asphyxiate on my puke in a way that came nowhere near as sexy as the manner of Jimi Hendrix’s death. Fortunately, I made it home.

:: Scott [+] ::
...

Nota Bene

When you're trying to be all classy and spell things like 'Soupe', sticking coupons in the Sunday paper that fall inbetween the flyers for Mervyns and Mattress Giant just doesn't work. Yes, I'm looking at you, La'Madeleine.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Partners in Freedom

This is the greatest site ever. Tons of Simpsons clips (in .mov form, so you'll need Quicktime, or, if you're like me, Quicktime Alternative). I can now watch the Meat Council film at will. This is the happiest I've been in ages. (via)
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Shiver me nipples

A conversation while watching the Mavs game on Tuesday night:

me: "so, somehow I got roped into doing some team relay marathon thing next month"

n: "that's cool. who's it for?"

me: "eh?"

n: "who's it for? who does it benefit?"

me: "I dunno....society?"

But yeah. I've got thirty days to build up to doing 5-6 miles at eight in the morning in the bloody nipple cold. Let's put this in perspective: I ran two days ago for the first time in, oh, two months or so. Struggled to finish my two miles. And that was on what was probably the last mild day of the year. Tonight, glory of glories, we're all meeting together for a group run.

We've kind of been organizing this via e-mail, since I have absolutely no clue who two of the people on my team are. Sadly, it was determined that we would do a group run, so I chimed in with a "Eh, I could go for three miles or so", and one of the other girls, whose names all start with L, agreed to a three or four miler. This led one of the other L's to chime in with "Looks like Scott and L are going to be our advanced runners."

Yeah, Mr. Smokey's going to be "leading the pack". This team's in trouble.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Viewropa

I've kind of waited for a good opportunity to link to Viewropa - a European based and centred community blog. This thread contains a great timeline and plenty of fascinating links on the chaos erupting the Netherlands the past week or so. Kind of a scary situation that's not getting much coverage in the US.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

It was only a matter of time

The Limo Mini-Cooper.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

A Long Ride

Dusty Davis (SpoFi's dusted) took a month long 9,910 mile long trip by himself on his motorcycle. He blogged the trip and posted some fascinating pictures on his website. Too bad he drove a Yamaha, or he could have called it "Travels with Harley". Something tells me that Aaron would enjoy the read. In reality, I think you all will.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Feeling all the bumpers, got to play it clean

Okay, I'll fess up. I *really* want to go to the 2004 Texas Pinball Festival. Feel free to mock me. Let's just hope there's not some strange string of events in Arlington this weekend that leads to some slaphappy mix of the Three Stooges and West Side Story, what with the Wizard World Tour down the road at the same time.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

EnviroBlogs

I spent another motivationless afternoon in the Office of Government Slack recently doing some research on Environmental Blogs. I'd asked MetaFilter quite some time ago for some recommendations, some of which I knew, and some of which I didn't. But I was left a bit...disatisfied with the quality of linkage my question elicited. Sometimes you just gotta do things on your own. Anyhow, I found quite a few that I dig and slapped their feeds into My Bloglines. For your convenience, here they are, in no particular order:

..::Gristmill - Grist Magazine's new user-submitted blog::..

..::The Sierra Club's Daily Scoop::..

..::WorldChanging::..

..::The GreenPeace blog::..

..::TreeHugger - who focuses on Eco-Friendly goods and services::..

..::Howling at a Wailing Moon - Bob from HaaWM commented two posts below. Hi Bob!::..

..::Nature Guy's Blog - he's Canadian::..

From these feeds, I get a pretty good dosage of Environmental news, analysis, and trends. If there's anything else out there you think is abosolutely essential, lemme know, okay?
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Night after election night

Election commentary abounds. Rudie is of course among my must reads in these days. I've little original to offer, because, really, I think about everything has been said. Fortunately, my Polly Pocket Court Reporter managed to take notation of the disgruntled goat and I's conversation last night. It's like this:

Me: @#*@& @(#*& &#&@* &@*#&* *@&#&

Distgruntled Goat: *bleats loudly. stomps back left hoof*

Me: #*$#& &$#*& &$& &#*&$*#&-ing #$*&

DGoat: *continues to bleat. increases to the point of baying. continues to stomp back left hoof*

Me: What kind of #*&# &$*&(&# (*&#(!&% $&#*$(&# #(*&!(#@*$&'s?

DGoat: *bays. knocks cd racks over with horns. begins to gnaw on unfortunately purchased George Thorogood Live! CD*

Me: *sighs* ##@$(*&#(@*$ (*@#&$(*@#&$(&@#($*&#(@*&$(*@#&$(*@#&$(*&@#(*$& (@#*$ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DGoat: *bored with unfortunately purchased George Thorogood Live! cd, moves to kitchen to reach lushily for empty beer cans awaiting trip to the recycling station. knocks a few into the floor wherein he manages to split a few in a vainglorious attempt at elicting some of the sweet remaining nectar inside*

Me: #$*&! *spots DGoat, eyes sympathetically, coaxes DGoat over to couch*

DGoat: *bleats. comes over to couch to rest head in my lap. sighs*

Me: *Sighs. Pets DGoat in a tear-inducing moment of weariness and solidarity*

Camera: *Starwipe!*

So we USians - and, to an extent, a large part of the world - are going to be left with a four year hangover. Chin up, ye who have lost faith. There's still a lot of good to be done. Disgruntled goat and I are ready to keep this massive groundswelling of activism moving. Moving towards 2008.

Nota Bene: No offense to the good fans of George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers. Disgruntled Goat is infamous for having a rash and fickle music taste, which sets a tremendous amount of lamentation in his poor, sweet head.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Election Night



Disgruntled goat and I are nervous yet cautiously optimistic. Don't let us down, America.
:: Scott [+] ::
...

Crappy, and I don't mean the fish

From Snopes:

Yesterday a friend voted early at a polling location in Austin. She voted straight Democratic. When she did the final check, lo and behold every vote was for the Democratic candidates except that it showed she had voted for Bush/Cheney for president/vice pres.

She immediately got a poll official. On her vote, it was corrected. She called the Travis County Democratic headquarters. They took all her information, and told her that she wasn't the first to report a similar incident and that they are looking into it.

I didn't vote straight ticket, and I checked my stuff before hitting the big red vote button, but just in case you haven't voted yet, and are in TX (or Austin), please be careful on Tuesday.
:: Scott [+] ::
...