Bloody Old Britain: O G S Crawford and the Archaeology of Modern Life

By Kitty Hauser

Granta Books, 286pp

Amazon: Link

ldquo;Future archaeologists will perhaps excavate the ruined factories of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when the radiation effects of Atom bombs have died away.rdquo;

- O. G. S. Crawford, from Archaeology in the Field (1953)

O. G. S. Crawford @ Wikipedia: Link.

~ Karl Jones

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Rome: Itrsquo;s beautiful and itrsquo;s not. Kinda like everything else in life.

ldquo;La prossima fermata è Roma Termini.rdquo;

I moved to Italy to live at the end of September last year. I lived in Brescia (a medium-sized city in Northern Italy) until March 1, when I moved to Siena.

(I am once again back in Brescia, but thatrsquo;s a story Irsquo;m going to save for another day.)

I picked up some vocabulary during those first five months in Italy, but it wasnrsquo;t until I started attending an Italian class for immigrants in Siena that I really started learning the language.

Now, finally!, I understand much of what is being said either to me or around me. The language no longer sounds foreign or like pretty sounds flowing forth from peoplersquo;s mouths. Although Irsquo;m more motivated to learn the languagendash;because it finally seems like an achievable goal to converse fluentlyndash;the glossy veneer of the nonsensical musical sounds has dulled. I donrsquo;t know, therersquo;s something about understanding when somebody complains about the weather (or conversely, the ease in which I can complain about it) that makes any language sound less romantic.

Shiny glossy veneers are so overrated. Donrsquo;t you think? I mean, a veneer is just a thin expensive sheet of wood (or metal) with layers upon layers of unusually toxic clear varnish. If it wasnrsquo;t for the common cheap material beneath (like pine or regular mild steel), the veneer would have nothing to attach itself to.

And Irsquo;ve always preferred the look of a dull, used or aged finish anywayhellip;and now that Irsquo;ve exhausted my analogy Irsquo;m finished with this post.

But one more thing before I go to bed on this hot summer night: it is nice to know that you can simply listen to the conductor to know when your next stop is and not have the nervous wondering of whether yoursquo;ve missed it or have yet to arrive.

Arrivederci a dopo.

~Janelle Renée

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So touched by such inhuman treament to people because of their inability to defend themselves or provide proper accomodation for themselves,and even a source of livelihood was traumatic,hence,my decision to get the NGO (NATURAL TOUCH) started,with the aim to provide food and shelter for the hanicapped.Make sure there is a future for them and security of life for them.

Upon our inception,we had limited our intention to mostly the young ones and average aged.Although we could not provide accomodation for them but we  provide the basic needs which is food for them atleast once a day.

It is our aim to increase the feeding arrangement to twice a day and also build a home for them.It is our aim to accomodate at least 2000-5000 handicapped people of difiers ages in the home,and Animals too.

With support from other Organisations/Individauls that are touched just as we are.We will establish a school or a handicraft centre for them to study and become independent of their own in future.

Suffice to say here that most of them roam the street with torn cloths and look unkept,We also provide clothing where necessary and affordable to them.

Based on our inability to sustain the financial burden,we are looking forward to Groups or Individuals with similar passion as we have towards uplifting the living standard of these hadicapped and also thinking of ensuring their future.

We are planning of building a home for them in Calabar to accomodate the handicapped and also recruit personnels to take care of their cooking and tranining.

We look forward to support  from passionate groups and individuals.

Thanks,

Dennis

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• The Outquisition


• Engineers Without Borders


• MIT International Design Summit


• Free/Open Appropriate Technology


• Transition Towns


• Technology for Humanity

(...)
Read the rest of Technology for Humanity (735 words)

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In Las Vega$ yesterday, Citibank Mucky Muck and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin showed up at the National Clean Energy Summit to give a keynote speech on our floundering economy and how a good energy policy can help alleviate the problems.

The only problem was that Citi is not the best representative of a true clean energy economy. They fund twice the amount of coal as their next closest competitor. The biggest funder of coal from the cradle to the grave etc etc. you hear me say it all the time.

But after his greenwash friendly speech, Mr. Rubin opted to take few questions.

Bad move. In the audience, Rainforest Action Networkrsquo;s Global Finance Campaign Director, Rebecca Tarbotton asked the first question.

ldquo;How do you reconcile that Citi is the largest funder of coal plants around the world?ldquo;

And Rubin, the very solid one-time master of the universe, stuttered and looked completely exposed.

ldquo;Itrsquo;s a commercial institution. We have to have energy.rdquo; He then spun on about Citirsquo;s efforts to raise standards and create a new regime and blah blah. According to David Roberts at Grist, it did not look good.

She then followed up with- ldquo;Can we expect to see a quick drop-off in Citi’s investments in coal?ldquo;

Rubin replied ldquo;No.ldquo;

More questions pressed Rubin on similar issues.

I guess the corporations think if they talk green they will be in safe spaces. Obviously not.

You have the amazing opportunity to be part of a totally radical, but just plain practical new project: Getting wind farms on potential Mountaintop Removal sites. After a mountain has been blown to hell, well, itrsquo;s not so good for wind. But if we can prevent the destruction of the mountain, we can fuel our country while stopping dirty coal.  This wind farm would power 150,000 homes, provide 200 construction and more than 50 permanent jobs, and prevent 6,600 acres of mountaintop removal coal mining destruction.

The only thing cooler would be to find a way to harvest the hot air put out by coal companies trying to convince us that coal is chock full of ldquo;Clean.rdquo;Go to www.coalriverwind.org to sign the petition and learn how you can help more, and then email all your friends.

I am totally inspired by this truly grassroots effort to get some economic and energy alternatives in their community mdash; Sign the petition, volunteer, donate, join our mailing list, conserve energy in your own home and learn how you can support this landmark alternative to mountaintop removal mining at www.coalriverwind.org.

This would save Coal River Mountain for wind development, protect more than 10 miles of streams, and help to reduce global warming by preventing the release of over 80 million tons of CO2 over the next twenty years. Unfortunately, a major Appalachian coal company, Massey Energy, has already applied for 4 permits to mine this land for coal using the dirtiest and destructive form of coal mining known - Mountaintop Removal.

This is our chance to be part of a landmark decision mdash; a decision against global warming, for clean water, for a new and healthy energy economy and against the destruction of an entire mountain. Community members are working together to inform local and state government about how wind power stands as a better option. They are meeting with local leaders, union leaders, churches, and in the near future, the state and even national government in order to ask them to support Wind Energy and deny the mountaintop removal mining permits on Coal River Mountain.

Please help us save one of West Virginiarsquo;s finest mountains.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) told the convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Tuesday that he supports Sen. Joe Bidenrsquo;s (D-DE) call for an additional $1 billion in reconstruction aid for Georgia.

Luckily, the students at my college are open-minded. When I considered participating in the school’s annual Drag Ball, no one laughed at the thought, no one questioned my orientation. Even though it is more acceptable for a female to dress within the male image, it was not even stigmatized for guys to dress like girls at the event. Upon learning that my fellow students were so tolerant, accepting and lax, I knew I had to join in on the fun.

I spent most of the time prior to the big evening passing out feminine beauty tips like free mini-sausage samples in a grocery store to very hungry men who needed pointers on corresponding tops to bottoms, purses to shoes and eyeliners to mascaras. Since most of my friends are guys I was not surprised in the slightest that I instantaneously became the style expert, being the token chick and all. It was nice to be asked for my genuine opinion as well as trusted with my answers. I enjoyed taking time to help out my friends with something that they had absolutely no prior experience with. Unfortunately for them, I already knew damn well what I was in for.

My partner Chris and I decided to dress as one another in order to add a role-reversal aspect to the experience. While he donned fishnet stockings, a leopard print skirt and bright purple eyeshadow, I played down my female characteristics by wearing oversized Carhardt slacks, a black t-shirt (free boobin’, mind you) and a scrawled-on brown marker beard. I also stuffed my hair under one of his old ratty hats to ensure my pink and black Chelsea wouldn’t give me away. “Unisex” band t-shirts constitute most of my wardrobe so I still felt in my physical element but at the same time I had never dressed so typically masculine before. And I really didn’t like it.

For the guys, wearing feminine getup was fun. It allowed them to participate in good old-fashioned dress up time that they had always been denied. It opened their eyes to what females regularly go through in order to get prepared for going out. They were lavished with compliments all night long and felt the pressure to look better than one another. The contest at the end of the night to determine the ball’s ‘Drag Queen’ was seriously about who made the prettiest girl. My friends were all vying for the title and picked their own favorites for who should walk away with the tiara and flowers. They had a great time and recounted the experience for weeks past.

I cannot say the same for myself. It took me a whole 3 minutes to put on the clothes and another 2 to scribble on my “beard”. There was nothing glorified about the process, no one offering to help me with any aspect of my attire. The title of ‘Drag King’ was given to a girl clad in a plaid shirt, aviator sunglasses, a furry snow hat and a fake moustache. In real life, is that an ideal image? Not exactly. For us girls, it was more about who could look the most ridiculous and get more laughs. In the end, more attention was paid to the guys. I didn’t realize it at the time but it actually really bugged me.

As a female, I am used to constant attention and the immense pressure to look beautiful to some degree. In theory this irks me. I feel that women should not have such rigid and elevated standards to conform to and more emphasis should be placed on inner beauty. Being out of the limelight was a very eye-opening experience for me; I felt downright ugly. I felt pangs of strange jealousy towards my friends because they were obtaining such copious amounts of praise and focus. I felt practically invisible.

In retrospect, I suppose I disliked this experience because it made me deal with the fact that I have come to accept my place as a visual object to be contrasted against American beauty ideals. I never realized it until afterwards but I enjoy the feeling of people paying attention to my physical being. Even though I am very far from the decimated, white, blonde, plastic look that seems to permeate every aspect of the media, I still have to factor this in when preening in the morning and I am okay with that. I love being a woman even with all its ups and downs and I would not change it for anything. It allows me to be especially creative with my style and toughens my skin against the harsh reality that I do not fit a cookie cutter mold (what a drag!). I think the guys realized this fact as well as obtained a higher appreciation of what females go through to become visually appealing. I think they would relive the experience again, but all the time? I’m sure they’d reply: too much work!

·         Service. Convention events on September 1 will emphasize Sen. John McCainrsquo;s ldquo;record of service and sacrifice,rdquo; according to the conventionrsquo;s website. President Bush and Vice President Cheney will be among the convention speakers that day.

·         Reform. Former 2008 presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, and Fred Thompson are all slated to speak on September 2.

·         Prosperity. The third day of the convention will focus on McCainrsquo;s economic recovery plan. McCainrsquo;s as-yet-unannounced vice presidential pick will speak, as will former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and other party leaders.

·         Peace. The conventionrsquo;s final day will be address U.S. challenges abroad. McCain will wrap up the convention by delivering the final speech. Former presidential candidate Sam Brownback is among the other speakers.

ndash;Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), in a speech Tuesday at the convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

ldquo;Wordle is a toy for generating lsquo;word cloudsrsquo; from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.rdquo;

Link to Wordle.

Via Design Observer.

copy; karl_g_jones for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2008. |
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(A story in pictures and some words).

Armed only with a spiral or two and a few spheres, over the next few days, I will visit some of Europersquo;s greatest monuments and transform them.   Are you ready?

David Arthur-Simons

copy; David Arthur-Simons for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2008. |
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A guest post by Amalie Malochée for Swing Semester.

Derrick Ashong is a social media entrepreneur, musician, and voice for a generation of young people who achieved YouTube fame during this interview. He’s back with a call to action because he understands we have an opportunity to define not just this moment, but our generation.

If you’re reading this, you’re part of the wave of young people expected to make 2008 the largest youth turnout in decades. As you know, the election season itself provides an opportunity far beyond showing up at the polls. Swing Semester is not just mobilizing the Millennial generation to lead up to one November day—we harness that energy and give it direction for a lifetime. You can read more about the program here: check it out.

[Editor's Note: You can request placement at progressive and environmental organizations working to build a clean energy economy or tackle global warming. Hopefully soon, including Power Vote, working to engage a million young people to demand clean and just energy.]

A guest post by Amalie Malochée for Swing Semester.

Derrick Ashong is a social media entrepreneur, musician, and voice for a generation of young people who achieved YouTube fame during this interview. He’s back with a call to action because he understands we have an opportunity to define not just this moment, but our generation.

If you’re reading this, you’re part of the wave of young people expected to make 2008 the largest youth turnout in decades. As you know, the election season itself provides an opportunity far beyond showing up at the polls. Swing Semester is not just mobilizing the Millennial generation to lead up to one November day—we harness that energy and give it direction for a lifetime. You can read more about the program here: check it out.

[Editor's Note: You can request placement at progressive and environmental organizations working to build a clean energy economy or tackle global warming. Hopefully soon, including Power Vote, working to engage a million young people to demand clean and just energy.]