27-Aug-02

The Alaina Rautio Interview. A controlled rainstorm, dolls that come to life, an accidental fire. Joshua Allen talks with architect Alaina Rautio about a house she built in a bottle in Portland, Maine. [The Morning News - Features] comment [] 3:21:27 PM | permalink

'I read you, but ...' Occasionally I meet someone who says to me something like: "I read you -- though I can't say I agree with you."  'Junk science'? Not quite West Nile virus is coming! Help! Look out! The virus, which is having less impact on mortality statistics than the incidence of people falling into wood chippers, is nevertheless winging its way up the continent in the pernicious little snouts of mosquitoes, and the media is tracking it like O.J. Simpson's Bronco on the freeways of L.A.  Here comes the spree Last Thursday, on the first day of his 18-month farewell tour, Jean Chrétien was in Saguenay to announce more than $100-million of new funding for the twinning of a Quebec highway. The announcement seems defensible: The road is known to be dangerous. But the timing worries us. Signs indicate this may be just the first salvo in a long spending fusillade aimed at bolstering the Prime Minister's legacy.  comment [] 8:32:21 AM | permalink

Brothel to put MP to work. (Yahoo! News: Oddly Enough Reuters UK) A conservative Australian national politician may have to spend a day cleaning a brothel in the Western Australian gold fields after its madam won him for a day. [News Is Free: Offbeat] comment [] 7:49:39 AM | permalink

Canadian town puts up "closing down" sign. (Yahoo! News: Oddly Enough Reuters UK) Residents of a remote Quebec mining community have voted to shut down the town, the mayor has said, following the closing of a local copper smelter, the area's main employer. [News Is Free: Offbeat] comment [] 7:45:32 AM | permalink

Americans have always recoiled at the idea of a secret police. Yet they have come near to having one with their most dangerous institution, the FBI... [more] (Arts & Letters Daily) Friday Night August 23 (all shows are reruns) Leno Over the weekend Michael Jackson held a protest because he says the record industry is racist, the industry isn't fair to blacks. Doesn't he own the Beatles now? He owns the Beatles! comment [] 4:45:09 AM | permalink

Coppola to film Kerouac's "On The Road" comment [] 4:38:03 AM | permalink

Ha bloody ha. A lot of people, as it happens, have been playing up the purported link between driving your car and financing global terror. You may have believed the propaganda: you may feel queasy taking your SUV to the golf course, knowing that somewhere Osama is cackling over your decadent, dirty American consumerism. You may have thought "Will the money I spend at the pump today fund a jihad against my grandchildren?" Well, my American friends, the truth is far far worse. In actual fact, the money you spend at the pump funds this website...more comment [] 4:30:07 AM | permalink

Time To Get Rid of Telephones. I hate telephones. I hate being a slave to a dumb box that cries like a baby for attention. When I'm in the midst of thought, or simply sitting on the toilet, the phone rings to summon me before it. In this day of nearly unrestrained telemarketing, I dread answering the phone for the fear of the colossal waste of time. [kuro5hin.org] comment [] 4:19:34 AM | permalink

60s music week on FreshAir. FreshAir all this week will have interviews from their archives "about the singers, songwriters and musicians who created the hits... [Blogcritics] comment [] 4:13:16 AM | permalink

Making Melodies Dance With a Basque Accordion. Like the accordions used in Irish and Cajun traditional music, the trikitixa puts a bite behind each reedy note, and Kepa Junkera uses that bite to make melodies dance. By Jon Pareles. [New York Times: Arts] comment [] 4:01:22 AM | permalink