Remember: today is red panties for reproductive choice day…
reminder: red panties
a brief history of timelessness
A few weeks ago, i read an interesting cover story about psy trance that i’ve since seen passed around a couple dozen times, which reminded me that it belonged up here, for all of you curious about the silly music that i so adore.
horoscope
This week’s Village Voice Horoscope reads like one of my Zen tarot cards… Interesting.
I’m going to suggest an “as if” exercise, Sagittarius. It’s meant to take place entirely in your mind’s eye and most definitely NOT be acted out, at least not yet. Here’s my proposal: Spend four days imagining what your life might be like if you decided you were no longer saving yourself for a mythical “later.” See yourself doing exactly what you long to do most, passionately carrying out the mission you came to Earth to accomplish. During this brief sabbatical, you will banish all excuses about why you can’t possibly follow your bliss. You will act as if you are aligned with the heart of creation-as if you’re a genius in love with your life.
sex columnists
Yay for sexual awareness! The NYTimes reports a fun trend: more and more colleges are maintaining sex columns in their school papers.
street harassment project
The Street Harassment Project is a cool little thing, similar to Take Back the Night, vowing to make the streets a women’s place too…
mmmm… geeks
Through a funny set of events, i was just pointed to a geek who writes a colum called techsploitation, which is absolutely entertaining, even if she is a bit too enthralled with MIT. But then again, it’s my awareness of MIT culture that makes things like “Fear of Necco” utterly entertaining…
marijuana campaigners experience lack of freedom of press
We’re Jeff and Tracy
We’re Your Good Neighbors
We Smoke Pot
Not very different than the NORML campaign, these two took to the media to express that lots of average folks smoke dope without impeding on anyone else’s lives. Too bad that they couldn’t get their message out because all of the typical advertising venues refused on the grounds of their message. Freedom of press? I think not…
not in our name
If you happen to be in New York City on October 3, check out “Not in our Name” – a discussion with folks who are consciously against war and repression. They also are doing a lot of really good public conscious raising, including a New York Times ad explaining their position, whereby Bush does not speak for all Americans (signed by lots of famous folks).
U.N. upholds “dwarf throwing” ban
Since that last one was a bit serious, i thought i’d throw in an entry just for fun.
U.N. upholds “dwarf throwing” ban. A tiny stuntman who protested against a French ban on the bizarre practice of “dwarf throwing” has lost his case before a U.N. human rights body which said the need to protect human dignity was paramount.
death of software pioneer
A former student of my old advisor passed away last week and a friend sent me the obituary so that i could send him my condolences, as i did not know. This man seems to have done a lot of good things, most notably inventing “shareware.” Death is always a somber thing, but i couldn’t help at laughing at two different parts to the obit because they just made me think so much about my relationship to Brown and to my old advisor.
First, was my advisor’s description of him: We would have these long arguments about what was good for the user. He had this very gentle flower child demeanor and philosophy. This probably seems like a perfectly reasonable statement to be read in the NYTimes. Yet, when i read it, i can picture him saying it in his funny “i love you but i’m going to mock you” way that makes me immediately hug the man. It is exactly this ability that makes me adore him so very much, and i do wonder what he will say about me in my obituary, as i know it will be teasing no matter what.
The second part of the obit that made me giggle was: Mr. Wallace had a long interest in psychedelic drugs, which he thought were misunderstood in the United States. In 1996, he started Mind Books, a source for books about psychedelics. In 1998, he founded the Promind Foundation to support scientific research and public education about psychedelics.
Ok.. Brown computer graphics somehow automatically equals interest in psychedelics for so many of the people that i know. Plus, as this guy definitely had a political direction to his technology (shareware), this just rang so many bells. I think i would’ve liked the crazy technophiles who were at Brown in the “golden years.” Can you just imagine? A whole group of folks trying to invent ways to make the computer do amazing graphical techniques while believing in the power of technology and the mind expansion qualities of psychedelics? In my head, technologists equal the stereotypes that are embodied in this notion. Yet, as i’ve learned, this is *not* the reality of technologists today….