Lucian Freud n' Sue Tilley

Yesterday I discussed Dorothea Lange and the subject of her iconic photo of a migrant mother-- and coincidentally, speaking of artists and models, there's this video from Reuters.

Alternate Focus:The rise and fall of Blackwater in Potrero

from Alternate Focus.(about 27 minutes)

sundry items for profit-inclined bloggers

Merchant Credit Advance has a video explaining their service here, and pingomatic will simultaneously ping you on blo.gs, technorati, My Yahoo, Feedburner and a bunch of other such sites, so if that sort of thing is a big deal to you, one or both services might interest you.

don't forget to vote, parte dos

And, from the "I try to learn something new every day" department: "Smurfing"

Courtesy Gov.(for now)Spitzer of New York.

I don't know whether prostitution is a victimless crime or not. It's especially unclear at the tonier levels-- but I fail to see how Spitzer's behavior warrants impeachment when that of You-Know-Who and Mister Growls-a-lot does not.

this n' that

stylin' in Montevideo. photo: cardomain.com

via groovy Avedon:

Piracy not raiding CD sales" The enforcement arm of the Australian music industry has dismissed damaging overseas research that found illegal music sharing actually increased CD sales. The study, conducted by two researchers at the University of London for the Canadian Government, found people downloaded songs illegally because they wanted to hear them before buying or because they were not available in stores."

and, 3/7ths of a Paul Goyette post:

2. Some interesting analysis of a couple of the presidential candidates' speech patterns by Mark Liberman.

4. A style guide for citing blogs, from the National Library of Medicine.

7. And I wanted to mention, before we get too far along into the month, that it's National Novel Writing Month again. If you have that great idea, you should get started now...

(you still have 21 days and 4 minutes;PG mentioned this on the 2nd, unlike slothful me. If you don't read locussolus regularly, how is that my fault? Anyway, get to work!)

all electric, no bills

photo(andreadoria.com) of the Ile de France leaving New York Harbor, circa 1936.


When I was a kid I loved animals, and big motorized machines of every type, whether it was an airplane or Jackie Stewart's Tyrrell Formula One car or the big ocean liners of yesteryear. It never occurred to me that my holding these parallel interests might somehow be ironic.

I wanted, for example, to someday fly on the Concorde, which last flew in 2003, so I guess I missed my chance. The big ocean liners are mostly gone too, but like the Concorde they're strictly a niche consumer good for the wealthy. I wonder sometimes if the ghosts of Concorde and the old gran luxe ocean liners are a sort of D.E.W. line for a society that still believes that technology will rescue us from today without requiring us to do anything about our multiple bad habits.

Speaking of French things (and motorized machines, etc.), the 24 hrs of Le Mans is taking place this weekend, and there's a pretty good chance that a diesel-powered racer will win it outright. The rules have been finessed for this year to allow a diesel powered car to be competitive, and Audi and Peugeot decided to field diesel-powered entries to meet said rules.(The scuttlebutt, incidentally, is that because of the massive investments these two companies undertook to make competitive diesel racers, they're concerned that the rules stay the same for a few years so as to not render their cars obsolete in 2008. After all, only one company team can win Le Mans at a time.) I still love motorsports like I did when I was a kid, even if I can see the politics I wouldn't have understood when I was seven or eight.



photo: greatoceanliners.net

addendum: oh yeah-- Audi won.

Κέρβερος

William Blake's Cerebrus, the mythological hound of hell.

from channel 8 in Grand Rapids:
"Chrysler workers skeptical of Cerberus' motives in Chrysler deal"

DETROIT -- Billy Boyd, a Chrysler worker for almost 34 years, is so skeptical about Monday's sale announcement that he might not stick around much longer.

Like many of Chrysler's roughly 80,000 employees, Boyd, 51, a machine operator at the automaker's Kenosha, Wis., engine plant, isn't sure what to make of the unusual deal. Parent company DaimlerChrysler AG is paying as much as $650 million to walk away from Chrysler by turning over the keys to his company to Cerberus Capital Management LP, a New York private equity firm.

"It sounds good," he said before work Monday afternoon. "Are they buying us to help us out or to suck the blood? It's kind of scary."

At many Chrysler plants, workers also worried about what it will cost them as word spread about the $7.4 billion sale. Many are fearful of private equity buyers, which in the past have sold off companies in pieces to make a fast buck.

As well they should be. I note that the UAW guy quoted in the Channel 8 story sounded upbeat, so we probably don't need to worry overmuch about his future. On the other hand-- while the democrats are carefully calibrating their response to GWB so that they seem to care about ending the war without seeming "vindictive" or "mean" or any of the other countless things they might be accused of by the millionaire anchormen whose approval they tremble before, couldn't they have thrown in an extra seven billion to protect a few thousand American jobs?


For much, much less than the cost of the damned Iraq war, the US gov't could have bought Chrysler outright, and federalized American healthcare, therebye making each of the big three more globally competitive. But, no, we can't do that, that's what crazy European leftists do. So much better to run our country into the ground proving we're macho.

also:Andrew Leonard, "Chrysler at the gates of hell"

Metacontent for an April Morning

Cannes, c. 1979. the photo above was uploaded to Wikipedia and possibly snapped by"Eric D", who is almost as mysterious as the young lady being photographed, as no one seems to know who she was.

300 the movie "that's so gay",NCAA final four april fool's jokes, major league baseball, Angelina Jolie's telephone number, brunch recipes,(1)an experiment should not necessarily be labeled as such,dendreon corp.(2)enormous breasts, donald trump,

Ocean's Thirteen, Rolexes for sale to the highest bidder, McDonalds Instant Discount;Walmart Free! Buy it Now: You know you want it; George Bush, junior toilet brush, Whetham Knauckweirst?


Lars Ulrich, don't mess with Oprah,

Wikipedia,

or the three tenors. Lindsay Lohan: click her if you don't want to see this message again. Tasting Rachael Ray requires flash player , The Rich Man being led to Hell, what is the name of the sexy mom in that ad?


King o' Zembla: Of course, the piece was much more effective at Bohemian Grove, where it was performed in the nude.(as the King would say: "hello, puzzled googlers!".)

Maha:"privatization gone wild"

who is Shatha Hassoun?(3)Modern audiences prefer to assign their own meanings and simply cannot be fooled by the girl in the dry cleaning ad.

you see, Micah Holmquist used to do this, and I've associated it with him ever since!

hater tonic(on technorati),gmail paper, youtube, joost,"crowdsourcing"

why does Nancy Grace scowl so much?
file your taxes now!

from th' BBC:

"Verka Serdyuchka, who pokes fun at middle-aged women, is loved by many people and is a cult icon in Ukraine. She was chosen as Ukraine's entry by an overwhelming majority in a public vote, but some find her vulgar and offensive."

kathy sierra (also) avalonstar, and avalonstar(ahead of the curve guy: hey, no smirking!)

Why do they hate us? property is theft:Iran, Iran

ritalia. twitter(from kathy sierra's blog)


does Marc Lynch really believe Eminem can save the Middle east?

Jack K:"9 mos. vs. 20 years" (see David Hicks)

"While most Americans believe the situation in Iraq will be judged a failure in the history books, 40% believe the U.S. should take military action to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."-dohiyimir


////////////////////////////////////////////////
and now(speaking of theft), here are some jokes:

from Your Right Hand Thief:

He walked up to me and said, "You know why Notre Dame is similar to Marijuana?"
I said "Sir, no sir."
And he said "Because they both get smoked in bowls".

From cutie El Goodo's defunct 2006 blog(a joke contest):

Do you think there are thieves who justify their actions through the ol' "God helps people who help themselves" adage?

Rob said...

But the better question is, in pantheistic religions, are there deities who go around stealing offerings meant for other deities, and justify it by saying, "Hey, people help Gods who help themselves?"

[The above comment was Rob's entry in the "world's most awkward joke contest" . . .]

A Pantheist stole an apple, and nobody said nuthin'. The wind did not whistle mournfully through the trees, even in the apple orchard. The pantheist said to himself.

This was my entry:

The thief said, God helps those who help themselves, and stole a can of potted meat. it was very good, and he was no longer hungry. God said nothing, and the thief felt vindicated. then the thief stole a Celica, with fancy wheels and a CD changer, even though the area's public transit was pretty good and he even had a bus schedule. He hit a tree and died.