stargeek
FC Now: B Style for SaleFC Now: B Style for SaleFC Now: B Style for Sale 09/14/2004 05:38 AM David Carr writes in the New York Times today that American Express is publishing a no-name magazine that's sent out exclusively to Centurion cardholders. With... This is a GrokNews Entry: (what is grok?)FC Now: B Style for SaleGrok Headline matches for FC Now: B Style for SaleSoup imitates art: Warhol-style
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 If
you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that I'm
opposed to unregulated 'free' trade, very worried about the
extraterritoriality of the WTO, NAFTA, Davos and other corporatist
captives, strongly opposed to domestic corporations 'offshoring' jobs,
using influence with the Bush regime and other right-wing governments
to circumvent social and environmental laws and responsibilities, and
a
great believer in taking the pledge to buy local, and in community
self-sufficiency.At the same time, I'm a strong supporter of the UN and other multi-lateral NGOs, and I believe that we each have a responsibility for the well-being of all the people and creatures of this world. Some readers have said this view is inconsistent, and I wasn't quite sure how to respond to such charges. Fortunately, Peter Singer, in his recent book on global ethics, I'll have more to say next week about Bush's fraudulent and despicable Earth Day media blitz, and the major media's shameless lack of critical evaluation of the utter nonsense that his propaganda machine has been churning out this week on the environment -- newspeak of Orwellian proportions. The first part of Singer's book deals with environmental responsibility, and his prescription for increasing it -- immediate ratification of Kyoto by the US and other holdout countries, and introduction of an emissions trading mechanism to make the realization of Kyoto feasible (subject to the need for some oversight on the disposition of the proceeds of such trading when it involves autocratic governments). The second part of the book deals with the global economy, and Singer adroitly tears apart the Economist's (and other neocons') naive assertion that economic globalization somehow benefits both rich and poor countries. He then goes on to prescribe a substantial reform of the WTO and the GATT, which could actually lead to more equitable distribution of wealth and more efficient production of economic goods, while safeguarding human rights, labour and the environment. Unfortunately, the multi-national corporations and corporatists who hold sway in the WTO would never tolerate Singer's prescription, since it would entirely divert the benefits of economic globalization from their pockets to those of the world's poor. The third part of the book deals with international law, and Singer lashes out at Bush for his unconscionable refusal to ratify the International Court of Justice, and for the UN's continued hesitancy to accept a duty (not a right) to intervene in situations of genocide and other humanitarian crises, even within a single nation. Singer is sanguine about the limitations and dangers of 'global government', but supports strengthening the UN to enable it to act as a 'protector of last resort', and including in its mandate the responsibility to supervise elections in all member nations. The fourth and final part goes back to ethical principles and proposes that countries must, in this world where national boundaries no longer have any logistic meaning, set aside national interest and embrace, once and for all, global interest, impartially. That does not mean cultural homogenization, but imposes a responsibility for the reduction of inequality, both of economic resources and personal rights and freedoms. Always the pragmatist, Singer concludes by worrying out loud about how the responsibility for a global ethic could be managed: It
is widely believed that a world government would be, at best, an
unchecked bureaucratic behemoth that would make the bureaucracy of the
EU look lean and efficient. At worst, it would become a global
tyranny,
unchecked and unchallengeable. These thoughts have to be taken
seriously. How to prevent global bodies becoming either dangerous
tyrannies or self-aggrandizing bureaucracies, and instead make them
effective and responsive to the people whose lives they affect? It is
a
challenge that should not be beyond the best minds in the fields of
political science and public administration.
I'd like to believe that this was possible, because if it isn't, we're in serious trouble. We cannot expect national governments to set aside parochial interests, especially when this entails accepting a responsibility that would, for the richer nations, inevitably lead to a drastic redistribution of wealth to poorer nations and hence a sudden and sharp reduction in, at least, economic living standards (if not necessarily well-being). But as John Ralston Saul has so eloquently argued, larger organizations and institutions, whether public or private, are almost always, and inherently, less efficient, less agile, more resistant to change, more hierarchic, and less transparent than smaller organizations. So the challenge is to achieve the best of both worlds, having organizations of global scope and authority and responsibility, but broken up into sufficiently small, autonomous and dynamic units that they are sensitive, resilient, responsible and responsive to the people and communities they serve. We can only hope that "the best minds in the fields of political science and public administration", wherever they are, are up to the task. |
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I picked up issue #6 of
Comic Art magazine last week. What a treat. 
There's a long
article about Seth (creator of Palookaville) with plenty of
pictures, including a cardboard city he built (seen on the cover) and
a page from his sketchbook (which I scanned here -- incredible! Click
on thumb for enlargement). Unfortunately, no pictures of Seth. I've
only seen other people's drawings of Seth. (He's always wearing a
vintage hat and suit and chain smoking when people draw him.)
There's another
article about Virgil Partch (aka "VIP"), a delightfully wacky
cartoonist from the 40s and 50s. If you look closely at the hands on
VIP's characters, you'll notice that they have more than five fingers.
Sometimes they have as many as 12 fingers on a hand! He did this
because he used to work at Disney, where he was forced to draw
four-fingered characters. The extras fingers were his way of evening
the score.
The price of Comic Art is $9, which is a good deal, because it's
glossy color throughout.
Link
You can buy a Japanese rescue-mecha: "it's 10m wide with its arms
fully outstretched, is powered by an onboard water-cooled three
cylinder direct injection diesel engine, has a maximum speed of 3Km/h,
and carries seven 680,000-pixel CCD cameras with a separate monitor
for each camera. If no whiny 14-year-olds are available to pilot it,
it can be remotely controlled (with a dummy plug in the cockpit,
presumably)."
Link
(via /.)
The Mobinote DVX-Pod 7010 is one sale from at least
one Taiwanese retailer, it seems. For $19,000 Taiwanese New Dollars
(about $585), you can take one of the stark white hard disk video
players with a 7-inch screen firmly into your hands. Both hands, I'm
saying, and with a tight grip. Because it's big, you see. Quite large.
Very big.
Hefty.
But the thing is, even though I am a Champion of Small - see today's earlier comments about the Gmini 400, for instance - the DVX-Pod 7010 does a lot of things right, like having a high-resolution screen (720 by 480 pixels) and built-in PVR functions. It won't fit in your pocket, unless you're some sort of man mountain, but it's not pretending otherwise, either, and that goes a long way.
Will it ever stop (in the US)? Yo, I don't know. (Thanks, Ben!)
Re ad - Product Page (Not English) [Shopping.PCHomeTW]
Related
More MobiNote DVX-POD 7010 Details [Gizmodo]
More Personal Video Players from Computex
[Gizmodo]
Archos Gmini 400: Everything But A Price
[Gizmodo]
P.S. Turn out the lights, and it glows.
Direct and Related Links for 'Garage Sale Zen'
Somehow I can tell that Matt had a deprived childhood. Or maybe one that was too rich. In either case, he doesn’t understand the Zen of garage sales, that much is obvious. The Zen, my friend, is not in getting an ‘antique’ from the 1950’s or a third-hand copy of the original Atari release of Pac-Man, but in the hunt and the entire day spent in the outdoors with people you want to spend time…allaboutgeorge.com/a2g/archives/000644.html
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KITT (Knight Industry Two
Thousand), from the 1980s TV series Knight Rider, is up for auction on
eBay. Apparently this was one of the tricked-out 1983 Trans Ams
actually used in the show:
"After being released from its film duties, KITT found its way into the show circuit by promoting many Budweiser World of Wheels car shows for a number of years. After its tour of duty, the car was in need of restoration and in 2001 the owner approached Mark Scrivani of Mark's Custom Kits to restore the vehicle. The original, futuristic dash built by universal would only illuminate and was not intended to be functional; the owner commissioned Scrivani to make the dash fully functional, thus, the various non-functioning consoles were removed, cleaned up and made functional with pushable buttons, sound and visual effects. The dash received fully operational gauges and instruments, as well as an in-car camera tied into one of the two dash-mounted LCD monitors. The other monitor is wired into a trunk-mounted VCR for running and viewing tapes for future car show use. The original scanner mounted in the front of the vehicle was restored and functions properly. The scanner sound effect is also added to external speakers so it can be heard while the scanner is running. Besides the original Universal registration, the car comes with the original stamped steel "KNIGHT" license plate..."Willi am Daniels not included. Link (Thanks, Alan Rapp!)
At one point or another I thought I may have a use for these domain names. I knew then that I probably wouldn't ever use them. Thus in an effort to try to pay some bills, I offer them to you for their registration price, thirty-five dollars US ($35.00) each. Let me know if you are interested in one or more of them. I can accept payment through PayPal. Here is a list of the domains I would like to sell:
The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry:
To commemorate the
work of Andy Warhol, Campbell's is selling four packs of tomato soup
with Warhol-esque labels.