(via Notes From Somewhere Bizarre)
See also: Techno Buddha and Other Video Sculptures by Nam June Paik
MonthFebruary 2006
Long article on happiness science:
One thing makes a striking difference. When two American psychologists studied hundreds of students and focused on the top 10% “very happy” people, they found they spent the least time alone and the most time socialising. Psychologists know that increasing the number of social contacts a miserable person has is the best way of cheering them up. When Jean-Paul Sartre wrote “hell is other people”, the arch-pessimist of existentialist angst was wrong.
Many art historians and anthropologists believe Paleolithic cave wall art was done by accomplished shaman-artists, but mixed in with the finer paintings are graffiti-like scenes of sex and hunting.
An analysis of thousands of paintings from the late Pleistocene epoch suggests the graffiti artists back then were likely the same as today?teenage males.
LVX on meeting Grant Morrison:
Me and two buddies hit the scene Friday night at Isotope Comics in San Francisco. They were hosting the first of two big party’s for the annual Wondercon comic convention and Grant Morrison was the guest of honor. Packed in amongst the fanboys (and occasionally their women), we gawked at original artist renderings on the walls, leafed through unknown comics, and drank freely from the open bar. While standing outside Grant and his wife Kristan hopped out of their cab looking appropriately dashing, said “good evening” to those of us hanging about, then moved into the store to meet the fans.
LVX23: Grant Morrison’s International Guide To Living Fabulously
Very interesting:
That’s not to say that excellent journalism doesn’t still happen, often, in alt weeklies. But publishers don’t give the proper respect to the people who do so, and it’s part of the reason why these papers are vulnerable to the growth of community websites in the first place. Column inches are short, and if you’ve got writers who are passionate enough to want to work for the low pay in the paper, let the writers write! Give them blogs, expand the columns online, let them cut loose.
And live up to the standard you’ve set, Tim. You say “And he puts nothing back into the community: He doesn’t, for example, hire reporters or serve as a community watchdog.” Craig spends hours every day tracking down scammers and shady characters in communities he doesn’t even live in. He turns down more money in buyout offers every year than a typical alt weekly has earned in profits during its entire existence. But somehow I can still go to the SFBG homepage and see a tired, unpersuasive, preaching-to-the-choir rant about how Bush should be impeached. Even the people who are in complete agreement can find a better version of the same thing in any one of dozens of left-wing blogs. Where’s that deep pool of resources you’re investing back into your community? […]
My advice? If you have a newspaper, publish something that’s unique to your community; Write something that nobody running a website on the other side of the country would have enough knowledge or information to create. Find a business model that makes your work seem valuable instead of worthless. Free the smart, creative people on your editorial staff to express themselves, especially online, without having to obey seniority rules or arbitrary limits.
Anil Dash: ALT WEEKLIES, SAN FRANCISCO, CURIOSITY, AND BULLSHIT.
1. PROVISION OF PURE WATER AND EFFECTIVE SEWAGE TREATMENT
2. THE ISOLATION OF DANGEROUS AND DISHARMONIOUS LAND USES
3. THE ABOLITION OF CORRUPT “BOSS” GOVERNMENTS
4. DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED ROADWAY SYSTEMS
5. THE ELECTRIFICATION OF CITIES AND REGIONS
6. THE ADVENT OF UNIVERSAL COMMUNICATIONS
7. THE WIDESPREAD EXTENSION OF HOME OWNERSHIP
8. THE REALIZATION OF METROPOLITAN AND REGIONAL PARK SYSTEMS
9. THE CONTROL OF LAND SUBDIVISION
10. THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT
Plus, the Fannie May Report:
1. The 1956 Interstate Highway Act
and the dominance of the automobile
2. Federal Housing Administration
mortgage financing and subdivision regulation
3. De-industrialization of central cities
4. Urban renewal: downtown redevelopment
and public housing projects (e.g.,
1949 Housing Act)
5. Levittown (the mass-produced suburban
tract house)
6. Racial segregation and job discrimination
in cities and suburbs
7. Enclosed shopping malls
8. Sunbelt-style sprawl
9. Air conditioning
10. Urban riots of the 1960s
Bill Graves a great front page story comparing Washington and Oregon in last Sunday’s Oregonian. The good news for Oregon:
Drawn by Portland’s strong neighborhoods, openness, affordability and proximity to wilderness, more than 40,000 young adults, many with college degrees, have poured into the city in the past 15 years.
The influx promises to boost Portland’s economy by fostering innovation and giving businesses an edge in the coming scramble for skilled workers as baby boomers retire, says Portland economist Joe Cortright.
[…]
Oregon’s sportswear, wine and semiconductor industries show promising growth. The state is making its mark in nanotechnology research and open-source software, ranks among the top 15 states in per-capita exports and ranks in the top 10 states for new patents per capita.
Oregon Live: Two states, two directions.
There was a good piece on Portland’s economy a while back in Willamette Week.
BBC:
Archaeologists have discovered an intact, ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first since King Tutankhamun’s was found in 1922.
A University of Memphis-led team found the previously unknown tomb complete with sarcophagi and five mummies.
BBC: Haraonic tomb find stuns Egypt
(via Vortex Egg).
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