"These are a few of my favorite links..."

(Sing Along)

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
Spam in my mail box announcing new kinks,
These are a few of my favorite links.

IRAQ NOW: Media Analysis with a Sense of Insurgency.

Max Lyons Digital Image Gallery : Lyons can make images up to and beyond a gigapixel in size and shows you how to do it as well.

Special Report on Marijuana from The New Scientist in England : Tired of the preposterously pro and the cravenly con of this debate? This page is a small island of sanity in a "War Against Some Drugs" that has produced outrages such as this "Police Raid"with guns drawn in an American High School. We suppose it was an exercise to teach American teenagers what a Gestapo driven police state feels like. An overwhelming "success" in that regard. No drugs,of course, were found.

Popular Science: Don't let the age of this magazine fool you. It has undergone a rebirth over the last decade and the website can keep you up to date on the latest in technology, engineering, and -- extra points -- new toys for grown boys.

The Book Art of Richard Minsky: Minsky, for decades, has been one of the world's cutting edge creators of book binding and books in general. Brilliant and intensely quirky, Minsky's online exhibition of his ten volumes exemplifying The Bill of Rights is not to be missed. You might want to save up and order one or two ammendments for your private collection. We're opting for The Fourth Amendment (Neuromancer) for our collection.

Goudy: No, it isn't a soft form of Dutch cheese, but one of America's most brilliant typographers, Eric W. Goudy who worked in the early part of the 20th century. I believe Goudy is the most brilliant American typographer in history. This link takes you to an online, page by page tour of some of his work done for The Village Press & Letter Foundry of New York. Browse a bit and see if you don't agree.

Mark Twain on language and bein paid by the word at Wordspy. "An average English word is four letters and a half. By hard, honest labor I've dug all the large words out of my vocabulary and shaved it down till the average is three and a half. . . . I never write "metropolis" for seven cents, because I can get the same money for "city." I never write "policeman," because I can get the same price for "cop." . . . I never write "valetudinarian" at all, for not even hunger and wretchedness can humble me to the point where I will do a word like that for seven cents; I wouldn't do it for fifteen."

"The Peace Rug": When you need to see how deeply demented new age psychobabble has become and visit some hustlers who are making an old age buck out of it.

David Warren: He's Catholic, he's Canadian, lots of folks like his politics and hate his anti-gay positions. He's also a wise and asture essayist."To my mind, the real story was in the opposition to this war, and how it persisted and developed in Europe and North America even after Iraq had been liberated from its tyrant. That will be the "developing story" in 2004 and years to come -- how the West has turned against its own ideals, and grows increasingly ashamed, even of its own most obvious accomplishments. "

Amazing Art: Beyond, way beyond, Escher

The Wingnut Debate Dictionary: An invaluable resource for keeping up with the widening plague of mental illness on and off the Web, i.e. "Blognostication \blog-"näs-t&-'kA-sh&n\ n (2003): 1) an indication in advance: FORETOKEN, delivered through the internet, via a Weblog, or 'blog. Usually most effective when done after the fact. "

Cool Tools: Kevin Kelly, ex-Wired, ex-Whole Earth Catalog, ex-etc. is still coming up with amazing and useful items in all areas. Short takes on great things in the Whole Earth style. Makes catalogs in general seem, well, very 20th century.

Posted by Vanderleun at January 18, 2004 2:58 PM | TrackBack