Comments or suggestions: Gerard Van der Leun
Be Wery, Wery, Qwiet...



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 31, 2012 8:50 AM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Americans: "Nothing Like Us Ever Was"

"And the wind shifts
and the dust on a door sill shifts
and even the writing of the rat footprints
tells us nothing, nothing at all
about the greatest city, the greatest nation
where the strong men listened
and the women warbled: Nothing like us ever was."

-- Carl Sandberg. 1920.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 31, 2012 7:29 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
An American: Application, Discipline, Focus Or "The America Would Have Happened to Me"

Henry Rollins: The One Decision that Changed My Life Forever

Rollins describes the seminal moment when he decided to leave his job as manager of Haagen Dazs to become the lead singer of Black Flag.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 30, 2012 6:56 PM | Comments (8)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Romney vs the Mud-Sucking Palestinians and Their Flunkies in the Media

I admire NeoNeoCon. I'd like to be able to go into a long and insightful critique of the permanently deranged and outraged Palestinians and their outrage today about Romney, and couple that with my views about the media here that support the Palestinians' pathological droolings ... but if I did it would rapidly wear out my keyboard's

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 30, 2012 1:10 PM | Comments (11)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: Good Night Noises Everywhere
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 29, 2012 8:38 AM | Comments (10)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The United Shapes

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From xkcd: United Shapes

Full size:

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Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 28, 2012 7:11 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The News of the Day

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Powerful Mitchell Falls at Dawn:

A sleepness night on a cold rock ledge overlooking the beautiful, powerful, noisy Mitchell Falls all came down to this. We were there for the pre-dawn morning light, gently illuminating the falls without the harsh shadows we had during the daylight shoot the day before, and themoonlit shoot the night before. Just before the light was almost right, Ken and I decided that it was time to try a new location, as we'd been on that rock ledge most of the day and night before and needed a change of scenery. So we quickly packed up our gear and climbed back up the cliff, heading out further along the gorge to get a more head-on view of the falls. -- Mike Salway

Elsewhere on the dark side of creation:

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Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 27, 2012 12:32 PM | Comments (10)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Chinese Fashion Police
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Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 26, 2012 9:04 AM | Comments (8)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wicked This Way Comes: Obama Supporter Interviews Her 2008 Self
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Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 25, 2012 1:55 PM | Comments (8)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Marks of Cain

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Quirky, quick/unquick and randomly punctuated, but stay with it. At NeoNeoCon, this comment from one Artfldgr to a thread entitled Romney: the authentically nice politician?

The better man he appears to be the more their faults are seen.

Kind of like putting Helen Thomas next to Michelle Malkin…

In fact, this is actually the Left's hate of white males… after all, outside the constant litany of evil whitie etc… you have the example of the creators of modern civilization, the industrial revolution, the enlightenment, and end to slavery in their own sphere (while it still rages elsewhere), chivalry, the invention of written law, modern law, sea law, international law, international business, and on and on and on.

Romney not playing the proper part, ends up being traditional, strong, handsome, winning, nice, etc.

Anyone ever read Qayin and Havel?

Ever hear Obama mention my brother's keeper?

The Left is always trying to do “good things” for others with a hidden ulterior motive they pretend is never there, but is never absent.

They are never sincere

They are socially capitalistic, not economically. That is, they want to wheel and deal favors among plotters not merit among men.

And so, the socialists, the feminists, the communists, the progressives, the nazis, the maoists, etc.

All need scapegoats.

And they ALL select scapegoats that are better than they are, that they cant defeat in open fair competition.

They select the people they represent by their gullibility, moldibility, ignorance, ability to be bought, and negative qualities. while falsely praising them as to their better qualities.

If the Left represents you, you should be insulted, not happy

But ultimately, they all conjure up Moriarty. the infallible Holmes had Moriarty, the one thing that could defeat him and is worthy his opposition.

Well, the Left is forever calling up the same ghost under a different name to scapegoat. Moriarty, patriarchy, white men, Jews, etc.

But ultimately its the Cain and Able story…
(the other terms are Judaic)

Able works hard and his merit and sacrifice are rewarded as they are sincere, full of merit

But the Left. Cain, hates that when he tries to do good, it comes out bad because he seeks reward not doing good.

Able would do good without reward

Cain would not

Shall i point out that all mankind is descendent from Cain, as Able had a problem with his brother.

The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he was downcast.

The Lord. Reality.. as today.. blesses some, and not others. in this case, reality blesses the conservatives and hard working and so the Lord and Reality are one.. and the missives of the bible confer success…

But Cain, doing the same surface cargo cult acts with no substance, can't see why what he does is not worthy of Reality's blessing.

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why are you downcast? If you do right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

And so… the Left seeks to kill the offenders who are good, full of merit and through hard work gain the blessings of reality (God), because they work in line with reality and do not fight it (lao tsu / dao).

i can relate it to a dozen religions and lessons, but unless Joseph Campbell is resurrected for the conversation, most would be lost with my other examples.

Another variant of this same story is when a group of brothers sell their own into slavery.

The prodigal son is also another similar lesson, as the return of the son marks the mastery of the sins, and a return to what's important to reality.

But you can tell its Cain and Able because of Obama’s quotes on my brothers keeper.

“I hear politicians talking about values in an election year. I hear a lot about that. Let me tell you about values,” Obama said. “Hard work, personal responsibility — those are values. But looking out for one another. That’s a value. The idea that we’re all in this together. I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper. That’s a value.”

But Obama forgets who says this and to whom. And the negative in the bible always follows the Left neurolinguistic form… from Genesis and the snake, onwards.

The form of answering a question with a question… and leading the other to an answer without saying it, etc.

The form is first done by the serpent.

But Obama playing Cain, takes up Cain's response and fixes it, hoping this time, reward will be unlocked.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I know not,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

A lie followed by an answering question…

Cain jealously destroys ability in others, murders them, then pretends that the responsible are not responsible as such acts do not cause guilt which would perhaps hint that one should not get that reward.

Then He said, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground! So now you are cursed [with alienation] from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood you have shed. If you work the land, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

And so, that method that Cain acts by, bears no fruit. Its socialism…

Cain wanted to share equally in the blessings of reality, but was not willing to do what reality wants to gain them. so Cain takes cargo cult shortcuts, thinks he is more clever than reality, and so, as long as Cain is Cain, Cain fails.

Down deep this is the hatred of the Left for Romney… to them, his merit and such is evil, and isn't a big deal. so they don't see his reward in money, good life, many children (more than obama), and so on, as earned.

Just as Cain could not see how able earned reward from reality (god).

And just as Cain, the Left thinks if they genocide the problem, it will go away, and in the absence of it, they then can have the merit.

But Reality's merit is for those who act in accordance with the wishes/principals of reality

At that point Romney ceases to be a person for them, and instead becomes an almost religious symbol of what they want but can't have given their choice of methods negates the desire.

And Cain lived in fear of other men (?), who have not been yet… and feared they would take retribution on him… so God, marked him and blessed him.

The good people will not kill Cain (for they are good), and so Cain is reborn to visit ill over and over on the good people.

Cursed to wander, he destroys any home he settles in, and is forced to leave, as any socialist leader eventually angers their people so much they would kill them as Cain claimed when they found out his real nature.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 25, 2012 7:56 AM | Comments (11)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Obama Urn -- An Artifact Whose Time Has Come: "Under one condition; Must also dispense Pez."

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Fills from Base. Personal Cremation Urns for ashes: Personal Cremation Urns The personal urn does not come with hair. For hair we can digitally add hair if you wish, as you can see with our sample of president Obama. For people with longer hair we can add a wig from your specifications. This cremation urn comes on an elegant solid marble base. A Plaque and nameplate are also available.

A company called Cremation Solutions will create an urn that looks like your severed head, so your family and friends will never forget you as long as it's prominently displayed after your passing. -- Gizmodo

I'm sure this is just a prototype, an homage if you will, and there is no reason whatsoever for the Secret Service to conduct those background checks that are sure to commence in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 23, 2012 10:59 AM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
When Bug-A-Salts Are Outlawed.... Flies Rule!
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 23, 2012 10:36 AM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Bill Whittle: The Dependency Agenda

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Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 19, 2012 9:54 AM | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: 135 Shots That Will Restore Your Faith in Cinema

Edited by Jason Bailey. Music by Clint Mansell (Music from the Motion Picture "€œMoon"€). Titles after the jump.

Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 18, 2012 11:05 AM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Where Have You Been, My Blue Eyed Son?
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 18, 2012 1:43 AM | Comments (13)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Cooling Out: From Spare Change to No Change

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Provincetown's "Fresh Sea Clams," 1940.

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." -- Yogi

Summer's at last heating up and so it's time for the cool to get cool by the shore. This will be especially cool this year because, so we hear, the coolest president in history may cool out on Martha's Vineyard. How cool is that?

It's even cooler when you consider that the cool One is sure to take the last final shred of whatever may have once, long ago, been cool about the Vineyard and grind it into fishmeal. When that's done, the Vineyard will look and feel, at last, pretty much like Provincetown, but without the Gay Pride floats and speedos. People worry about the coming fall and the heating up of swine flu, but I don't worry about fevers when I see that the all-consuming chill of "cool" is likely to get us first.

Cool's a funny thing. Before it was cool to be cool, being cool was actually sorta cool. But now that being cool is as required as a tramp-stamp at age 14 in order to gain admittence to a U2 Concert, cool's just not cool. Once "cool" is codified it's kaput. And since cool's not cool, there is no way to really be cool. Once you have a bunch of media lapdogs actually lapping on the lap of the President of the United States, even media's uncool. That would be okay since nothing cool is cool forever. After all, the groove must move to keep from becoming a rut.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Jul 13, 2012 9:24 AM | Comments (24)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Sex: The First and Last Temptation of High Tech

THERE EXIST A PLETHORA of quotes about how things change but remain the same, so I'll spare you. It just seemed to me that two decades in high tech closed in my own little mind this afternoon as I was clicking through some of my back pages. In 1993, Wired was about to be launched and I was asked to write something for the first issue. The article, Wired 1.01: This Is A Naked Lady is found below, somewhat updated as is my habit over time. But what is really interesting, at least to me, is how little updating it needed. What was more interesting, at least to me, was this curious conjunction of Wired's current cover to an article from its first issue that closes with a meditation on the probable rise of robots for other, more wetware uses than just spot welding SUVs.

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It all goes to show that while high tech may be tempting, we'll not see the end of that temptation in our lifetime. Then again, why would we want to?

UPDATE: I'm not the only one out there with memories of the "Naked Lady:"

James @ SciScoop does as well.

"I remember her from back when I subscribed to The Source!!! I accessed it with a diskless TRS-80 Model III and an external Lynx 300 baud modem. Man, those were the days. I upgraded my TRS-80 myself from 16K to 64K (that's K-as-in-kilo, kids!!!) RAM and never did get the RF shield back on right, there was always TV static when I fired it up after that. "

Ah, there's RAM and then there's Mem'ries...

"This is a Naked Lady" -- 1993-2004

Back in the dawn of online when a service called The Source was still in flower and 1200 baud was blazing,, a woman I used to know, would logon to that service as "This is a naked lady."

She wasn't naked of course, except in the minds of hundreds of young and not so young males on The Source, who sent her unremitting streams of detailed wet dreams night after night, hoping to engage her in online exchanges known as "hot chat"; a way of engaging in a mutual fantasy often found only at 900 services. In return, "The Naked Lady" egged them on with leading questions larded with copious amounts of double entendre. She also kept an open file on her computer where she kept copies of all her "conquests".

When we discussed this during the time in 1984 she spent writing a book on information services for me (Confessions of an Infomaniac Houghton Mifflin, Boston), she initially put it down to "just fooling around on the wires."

"Its just a hobby," she said. "Maybe I'll get some dates out of it. Some of these guys have very creative and interesting fantasy lives."

At the start, she was a rather mousy person, favored gray clothing of a conservative cut, and was the paragon of shy and retiring womanhood. Looking at her on the street, you'd never think that her online persona was one that excited the libidos of dozens of men every night.

But as the months online progressed and she became (through the dint of her blazing typing speed) the kind of person that could keep a dozen or more online sessions of hot chat going at a time, a strange transformation came over her. She got a trendy haircut, and had it streaked. Her clothing tastes went from Peck and Peck to tight skirts slit up to the thigh with tight sweaters to match. She began to regale me with descriptions of her expanding lingerie collection, and ask my advice on condoms and other personal items of nocturnal intent.

Her speech became bawdier and her jokes naughtier. Her choice of lipstick changed from Chapstick to "Passionfruit". She started to resemble an aging cheerleader gone to seed. After a while, it dawned on me that I was witnessing the total transformation of her character. In short, she was becoming her online personality; lewd, bawdy, sexy, a man-eater.

After the book was delivered, I left town. The last I saw of her, she was using her online conversations to get dates and favors from the men foolish enough to fall into her clutches.

The bait was an old bait....sex without strings attached, sex without love, sex as a fantasy pure and simple. An ancient profession whose costs always exceed expectations and whose pleasures invariably disappoint. The "fishing tackle", however, was way new at the time: online telecommunications. The "new twist" was that you didn't have to look your best and there was nothing to clean up afterward.

In the two decades that have passed since then there have been a number of other new wrinkles added to the text-based fantasy machine of online sex stories and erotic conversations that consumes an unknown and unknowable portion of the global telecommunications bandwidth. Groups have formed to represent all sexual persuasions. On the Internet for awhile there was a group called alt.sex.bondage.golden.showers.sheep. Most people at the time of its creation thought it was a joke. Alas, it was not, but neither was it's membership limited to Greek shepherds with cable modems.

You can send graphics from here to there and everywhere. NASA sends graphics of the Space Shuttle. Singles groups of all persuasions send photos and state preferences. And, yes, a large amount of traffic in these images is erotic in content. Sounds are starting to be sent. Movies, short clips called Quicktime, are being "netcast". All harbingers of ever more raunchy things to come. Because, for all the ho-ha that grows every louder by the day in our over-connected and soon to be entirely wireless world, the web reveals everything we are and that includes the fact that when it comes to sex, there really is no bottom to the human soul.

It is as if all the incredible advances in computing and networking technology over the past decades boils down to the ability to ship images of turgid members and sweating bodies stuffed with bodaciousness everywhere and anywhere at anytime. Looking at this, it is little wonder that, whenever this is discovered (And someone somewhere makes the discovery about twice a month), that a vast hue and cry resounds over the nets to root out the offending material and burn those that promulgated it. It is especially ghastly to the Guardians of Public Decency that this new technology, the flower of American Research and Development, supported by tax dollars, should have one bit of a byte devoted to shipping the image of an overweight Princess Leia in a leather body-suit brandishing a whip while stoking her beard. High tech is being perverted to low ends, they cry.

But it was always so.

There is absolutely nothing whatever new about the prurient relationship between technology and sexuality.

Sex, as we know, is a heat-seeking missile that forever seeks out the newest medium for its transmission. William Burroughs, a man who understands the dark side of sexuality better than most, sees it as a virus that always is on the hunt for a new host; a virus that always gets there first. There is something hard wired into the human psyche that simply and persistently likes to think about sex and see sexual images. Different genders and psyches have different tastes, but the overall desire seems about as persistent over the centuries as the lust for bread and burgers. To see how this works, lets look back in time to when other media were hot.

We could go back to Neolithic times when sculpture and cave painting were young. We could pick up the prehistoric sculptures of females with pendulous breasts and very wide hips -- a theme found today in pornographic magazines that specialize in women of generous endowment. We could run our flashlight over cave paintings of males whose members seem to exceed the length of their legs. A theme echoed in magazines with alliterative titles such as "Hung,Horny,Humpy and Hongray Honchos Rode Hard and Put Away Wet." We could travel forward in time to naughty frescoes in Pompeii, or across continents to where large stones resembling humongous erections have for centuries been major destinations of pilgrims in India, or to the vine-choked couples of the Black Pagoda at Ankor Wat where a Mardi Gras of stone erotic activity has been on display for centuries.

We could move up a little closer to our time and culture and remind people that movable type not only made the Gutenberg Bible possible, but it made cheap broadsheets of what can only be called "real-smut-in-perfect-English" available to the masses for the first time. You see, printing not only made it possible to extend the word of God to the educated classes, it also extended the monsters of the id to them as well. It is well to remember that one of the first novels, Clarissa, dealt with the seduction and deflowering of a young girl by a reprobate. Hot stuff for the times although it wouldn't make it past the slush pile in today's publishing companies.

Printing also made for the cheap reproduction and broad distribution of erotic images as well. Woodcuts at first, then etchings, then lithographs, and with the coming of chromo-lithography in the 19th century, color got added. All was not Currier and Ives in the 19th century, bogus themes from the walls of Pompeii were also very popular.

Depending on the tenor of the era, the trade in these images was more or less sub-rosa; always there as background noise in the communications mix.

"Psst, got any French postcards, my good man?"

"Come up and see my etchings sometime."

"Lord,check out this deck of playing cards! That's what I call a one- eyed Jack, if ya know what I mean. Nudge. Nudge. Wink. Wink."

All these widely distributed images were carefully drawn and portrayed, in various positions and acts, to excite the libido of many and make a tidy living for a few.

And then along came photography, a new medium and one that, until recently, did more to advance the democratic nature of erotic images than all the previous media combined. When you joined photography with photo-lithography, you created the first medium that could be used by many. It suddenly became both economic and possible for lots of people to enact and record their fantasies and then to reproduce them for sale to many others. Without putting too fine a point on it, the Stroke Book was born.

Implicit within these early black and white tomes featuring a lot of naked people with Lone Ranger masks demonstrating the ways in which human's could entwine their limbs and conceal large members at the same time, were the vast nascent publishing empires of Playboy, Penthouse, and Swedish Erotica. Still, the point was made that the new medium of photo-lithography was, if not exactly a people's media, at least ripe for the entrepreneur with a vision about what people really wanted to see when they looked at pictures. It may have made them outlaws, but they were at the outset more like Pretty Boy Floyd than Al Capone. It wasn't to last, alas, but what does?

The point here is that all media, when they are new or become cheap enough, are used by outlaws to broadcast unpopular images or ideas. The same printing press that could run off copies of Fanny Hill could also be used to print up copies of The Rights of Man, the Declaration of Independence, The Communist Manifesto and other highly unpopular screeds. When a medium is created the first order of business seems to be the use of it to advance religious, political, or sexual notions and desires.

Indeed all media, if they are to get a jump start in the market and become successful, have to address themselves to mass drives -- those things we hold in common as human needs: Food -- Gourmet Magazine and The French Chef; Shelter --- Better Homes and Gardens, and This Old House; Fashion -- Vogue and GQ and 90210; Knowing the News of the Week, Money.......TIME, LIFE, and FORTUNE.

But of all these, the old stand-by SEX is the drive where it is easiest for the consumer to know if the medium is effective. SEX is like a horror movie or novel in this way. We are talking real basic instincts here. You are either hot/scared, or you are disgusted/turned off. This is why so many people who are excited by the idea of eliminating pornography from the earth have recently fallen back on the saying "I can't define what pornography is, but I know it when I see it." They're right. You can't define it, you feel it. Alas, since everyone feels it in a slightly different way and no one can define it, it becomes very dangerous to a free society to start proscribing it. We can only get about as far as proscribing pornography that involves children, since within limits that is pretty much self-evident, and doesn't have many public advocates outside of the woe-begone ragtag assemblage of NAMBLA.

And now we have come to the "digital age" when all information and images can be digitized; when all bits are equal but some are hotter than others. We are in a land and an age where late-night cable can make a sailor blush. An endless Edgecity strip mall where for every family-style Blockbuster video outlet, you have three Mom and Pop Vid Shops whose prosperity depends on a continuing turnover of "Debby Does Everything In Sight." We are a collection of urban monads where dialing 900 and seven other digits can put you in intimate contact with pre-op transsexuals in wet-suits who will talk to you as long as the credit limit on your MasterCard stays in the black.

It is little wonder that the religious right in this nation is fit to be tied, and has discovered that there is no end to people who would be happy to oblige. SEX has come rocketing out of the closet and into the everyone's terminal. In addition, the sex industry has transmogrified itself from the province of a few large companies and individuals into a massive cottage industry.

It used to be that, at the very least, you had to drive to the local (or not so local) video shop or "adult" bookstore to refresh your collection of sexual fantasies. Now, you don't have to leave home. Just dial it up and pump it in. What's more, you can make it yourself if that's your pleasure and transmit it to others. It is a distinct harbinger of things to come that better "Needless to say..." letters appear online than in Penthouse Forum, sexual images in binary form form one of the heaviest data streams on the Internet, and that "amateur" erotic home videos are the new hot category in the porn shops. People in the digital age are not only reaching out to touch everyone, they are reaching out to touch everyone everywhere.

Since it depends on basic stimuli that is widely known and understood, erotica is the easiest kind of material to produce. Quality isn't the primary criteria. Quality isn't even the point. Arousal is the point, pure and simple. Everything else is just wrapping paper. "Art" is something you add if you are a classy kind of person and don't want to admit you just like to get off. If you can pick up a Polaroid, run a Camcorder, write a reasonably intelligible sentence on a word processor and can set up a BBS, you too can be in the erotica business. Talent has very, very little to do with it. Desire and access is all in this game. This makes the barrier to entry very low, and has a similar effect on the quality of the material.

You have to know a lot to run a good conference on law or even gardening. You have to study. You have to know the territory. But everyone thinks they know how to present sex. To do it well takes talent, true. But to just do it so that it "works" for most people, takes very little ability at all.

The other irritating thing about sex is that, like hunger, it is never satisfied. It recurs in the human psyche with numbing regularity. In addition, it is one of the most commonly stimulated, but never satisfied, drives by the approved above-ground media (Is that woman in the Calvin Klein ads coming up from a stint of oral sex, or is she just surfacing in the swimming pool?) Mature, corporate media can tease. New, outlaw media have to deliver the orgasm. They can't get by on production values, because they have none.

The good news for the eternal guardians of morality is that as any new medium matures, the subject matter expands and the sexual percentage of material tends to become marginalized, even if it is growing in volume. With the VCR the ability to own x-rated tapes through the mails (so that no one would know these "private things") drove the market for a number of years. Now, it is a much lower percentage of the total video market although still sizable. Same thing happened with 900 numbers.

Computer networks are going through the same process that has characterized new mediums since the days of cave painting. First hot chat, then whole BBS systems and networks....perfect for sexual material since it is private and yet somehow communal at the same time. .GIFS came along just in time to revitalize a group that had grown jaded on Cindy's Torment. And now we'll be seeing the advent of QuickTime movies transmitted over the Internet and giving us the best of Marilyn Chambers or a clone thereof.

The author, Howard Rheingold, made some waves in the early 90s with his vision of a network that will actually hook some sort of tactile feedback devices onto our bodies so that the fantasies don't have to be so damned cerebral. He called this vision "dildonics" and had been dining out on the concept for years. It's arrived and Howard has long since moved on to making mad monkey mindlove with young mob-bloggers. Soon you'll have virtual reality and the ability to construct your own erotic consort for work, play, or simple experimentation. On and on it will go. Robotics will in time deliver household servants and sex slaves. Then of course the robots will have a movement for equality and liberation. Every new technology matched by a use for it by the libido of the young, the restless, or the bored. Until, of course, the users and the technology outgrow it.

I saw that "Naked Lady" about three months ago. I asked her if she was still up to the same old games of online sex. "Are you kidding?" she told me. "I'm a consultant on computer security these days. Besides, I have a kid now. I don't want that kind of material in my home."



Posted by Vanderleun Jul 12, 2012 1:39 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Mike Rowe: America Has a Dysfunctional Relationship with Work
Continued...

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 8, 2012 3:29 PM | Comments (9)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Way We Live Now

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Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 7, 2012 2:50 PM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Anatomy Of A Blog Post

I was finishing my first cup of Kopi Luwak shade-grown, fair-traded, passed through the colon of an Asian Palm Civet coffee (@ $160.00 per pound and worth it) while gazing across my lawn to the sun-splashed playground across the way when I came across this:

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By the brilliant Cripes Suzette.

In other news last night Obama signed yet another executive order that would give his government minions and the TSA the power to murder you in your bed.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 7, 2012 9:31 AM | Comments (9)  | QuickLink: Permalink
If You Really MUST Have an SUV: The Bentley EXP 9 F Concept

With the white interior going too far off-road is probably off the menu. Ditto food and kids.

Meanwhile, in the Floating World:

"Two umbrellas fit either side of the rear luggage area for when the rain clouds sweep in."

The luxurious silk wool floormats are reversible – with one side finished in durable, ribbed saddle leather for use when the driver and passengers are dressed for the great outdoors.

The upright dashboard design features a full-width, one-piece wood veneer with a subtly negative surface and instruments with a configurable display. Traditional Bentley ‘bulls eye’ vents have a ‘rifled’ gunmetal inner surface for a more contemporary and functional appearance. The centre console is a blend of functionality and supreme ergonomics with dynamic, architectural layers which help to create a central spine to the cabin.

The flowing roof design with a panoramic glass panel is inspired by the roll cages of rally cars, expressing both strength and lightness.

Rear seat passengers can chose between business mode, with generous legroom complete with fold-down keyboard and full internet connectivity via an iPad or tablet or a more reclined position with powered footrest, drinks table and an infotainment screen for movies.

The EXP 9 F concept features 4 1 seating with a rear armrest lifting to reveal a cooled compartment for champagne and glasses. Seats feature a diamond- quilted shoulder line in soft-touch leather, echoing the traditional appearance of a British field sport jacket. When the rear seats are not in use, they can be powered forward to create a larger loadspace for sports equipment or luggage.

At the rear, the lower section of the two-piece tailgate may be used as a viewing bench or picnic table. Bespoke picnic hampers are stowed neatly to either side of the loadspace when not in use, but are located on rails for easy access. An awning extends over the tailgate to protect those seated there; two umbrellas fit either side of the rear luggage area for when the rain clouds sweep in. -- EXP 9 F Concept : Interior Design



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 6, 2012 1:07 PM | Comments (8)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: Moving the Ghirardi Compton Oak

"The Ghirardi Compton Oak has been a piece of League City's history for over 100 years. The tree stands 56 feet tall, has a canopy that is over 100 feet wide, and is 135 inches around. It also weighs an incredible 518,000 pounds. A county road widening project put the future of the Ghirardi Oak in jeopardy. Council voted to use park dedication funds to hire Hess Landscaping Construction to move the majestic oak. A project that took them just under a month to complete. Watch the incredible process from start to finish in this video."

Question:

What do you get when you combine Italian immigrants, a bag of Louisiana acorns, some determined folk in a historically-minded Texas town and a California native who (along with his crew) moves trees with all the pride and competence you'd expect from an ex-Marine?

Answer:

A feel-good story of the first order. Read on @ Follow the Muddy Dirt Road ォ The Task at Hand



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 6, 2012 6:03 AM | Comments (8)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Obama Launches New Improved Campaign Song

Obama: "We're sending this one out to John Roberts and the Supremes!"

Deep Background:

"George Harrison said, "'Taxman' was when I first realised that even though we had started earning money, we were actually giving most of it away in taxes. It was and still is typical." The Beatles' large earnings placed them in the top tax bracket in the United Kingdom, liable to a 95% supertax introduced by Harold Wilson's Labour government. In a 1984 interview with Playboy magazine, Paul McCartney agreed: "George wrote that and I played guitar on it. He wrote it in anger at finding out what the taxman did. He had never known before then what he'll do with your money."

"Taxman" was included in Harrison's concert repertoire during his solo career; on his tour of Japan in 1991 with Eric Clapton, "Taxman" was on the set list. "It's a song that goes regardless if it's the sixties, seventies, eighties or nineties," Harrison declared. "There's always a taxman." Harrison added more lyrics on that tour, such as "If you're overweight, I'll tax your fat." -- La Wik"



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 5, 2012 7:00 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Strange Scenes Inside the Gold Mine

You'll probably see scenes like this just before Satan collects that soul you foolishly sold to him for 4 more years of the current administration.

The technical explanation, if you must know, is at "This Slit-Scan Video Will Break Your Brain."



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 5, 2012 11:16 AM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Premature Ignitulation: The 28 Second Fireworks Display of San Diego

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Ooops. I said, 'No smoking on the barge!':

A massive fusillade of bright rocketry lit up North Island and the downtown area just before 9 p.m. A YouTube video from the scene showed a gigantic 28-second blast, with rockets and bombs bursting in a random pattern. Then, nothing. "It looked like a planet coming," one spectator told a local TV station. Coast Guard officials said it appeared that entire battery of explosives on three of the four launch barges was launched at the same time, possibly due to a "premature ignition." -- KGTV San Diego

[Via Neatorama]



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 5, 2012 9:39 AM | Comments (10)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Going Up!

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The PNC American Flag balloon is inflated in honor of America for Independence Day on the De Baun Athletic Complex at Stevens Institute of Technology on July 3, in Hoboken, New Jersey. The 53 by 78 foot balloon is the world's largest free-flying American flag, weighs 530 pounds and is being flown in the upcoming 30th annual NJ Festival of Ballooning. -- Stars and Stripes for the Fourth of July



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 3, 2012 12:18 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Hey, it's summer so why don't you, like, pass me a beer.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 2, 2012 9:08 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Truth About This Summer's Movies



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 2, 2012 8:54 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Presidential Homage of the Day: Ronald Reagan Riding a Velociraptor

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"Mr. Gorbachev, I tore down that wall" The famous speech President Ronald Reagan gave after he destroyed the berlin wall. He rode he most trusty steed into battle...a raptor which he had the CIA clone for such an occasion. Practice Reaganomics today and buy this print to show your love for 'merica! -- by *SharpWriter on deviantART

Hey, nobody said artists have to actually know something about history, palentology, or Ronald Reagan. Especially deviant artists.



Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 2, 2012 12:11 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Something Wonderful: Making Knives in Brooklyn

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Sippican Cottage found this and says: "If You Make Things, You Are My Brother. My wife made some people. Think of that. I make furniture. This guy makes knives:

Made by Hand / No 2 The Knife Maker: Meet writer turned knife maker Joel Bukiewicz of Cut Brooklyn. He talks about the human element of craft, and the potential for a skill to mature into an art. And in sharing his story, he alights on the real meaning of handmade—a movement whose riches are measured in people, not cash.
cutbrooklynavailable.jpg Cut Brooklyn - Available: Left to right that's a Prospect 120 in 1095 and blue G10 ($350), a Journeyman 240* in 1095 and black walnut ($575), and a Journeyman 120 in 1095 and burgundy G10 ($350).

Posted by gerardvanderleun Jul 2, 2012 8:54 AM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
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