http://allston02134.blogspot.com/2009/12/seasons-greeting-from-harvard-yard.html

After all that has happened this year, I guess it is sweet that Drew Faust still has me on her holiday card list.

warren_ellis

• Scientists discover tsunami on the Sun
  "In what is a surprising discovery, scientists have found tsunami-style towering waves that race across the face of the Sun."
  (tags:space )
• Ancient Volcano’s Devastating Effects Confirmed | LiveScience

  (tags:history )

• Controversial Signs of Mass Cannibalism | Wired Science | Wired.com
  "At a settlement in what is now southern Germany, the menu turned gruesome 7,000 years ago. Over a period of perhaps a few decades, hundreds of people were butchered and eaten before parts of their bodies were thrown into oval pits, a new study suggests."
  (tags:history )
• Wonderful Wooden Reasons
  #30 (click on "current issue" once you're through the front page) has been released. Excellent review of fringe musics by Ian Holloway.
  (tags:music )

warren_ellis

• Scientists discover tsunami on the Sun
  "In what is a surprising discovery, scientists have found tsunami-style towering waves that race across the face of the Sun."
  (tags:space )
• Ancient Volcano’s Devastating Effects Confirmed | LiveScience

  (tags:history )

• Controversial Signs of Mass Cannibalism | Wired Science | Wired.com
  "At a settlement in what is now southern Germany, the menu turned gruesome 7,000 years ago. Over a period of perhaps a few decades, hundreds of people were butchered and eaten before parts of their bodies were thrown into oval pits, a new study suggests."
  (tags:history )
• Wonderful Wooden Reasons
  #30 (click on "current issue" once you're through the front page) has been released. Excellent review of fringe musics by Ian Holloway.
  (tags:music )

charitypomaybo

Originally published at Unicorn Tea Party. You can comment here or there.

warren_ellis

A snapshot of what friends and acquaintances have been doing and looking at, via their Flickr accounts:

1. League of Extraordinary Steampunks, 2. Crane, 3. All Good Mermaids Have Jazz Hands, 4. super suit.jpg, 5. About to fly home., 6. Private pod

warren_ellis

On my message board Whitechapel, Kieron Gillen (writer of PHONOGRAM. S.W.O.R.D. and THOR) and R Stevens (creator of DIESEL SWEETIES and the best t-shirts and socks on the internets) are both doing open Q&A/conversation sessions.

The Kieron Gillen Week, and The R Stevens Diesel Sweeties UFO Shack.

Go and say hello to them.

warren_ellis

From Brandon’s latest blog entry. I warn you: Brandon’s blog entries are one of the greatest things on the comics internet, but each one is nine feet long and very graphics-intensive.

warren_ellis

I am completely failing to keep track of the volume of stuff entering my house lately. I think I’ve even lost the last issue of THE WIRE, still sealed in its plastic bag. So I’m making Received Goods its own category, in an effort to force myself to at least log the physical objects being shoved through the door most days.

I pre-ordered this, and am looking forward to digging into it tonight:

Publisher Creation Books (so glad to see them still around!) have a nice little page on the book:

Starting with the guerrilla media tactics of Industrial music in the late 1970s, the author charts an ongoing trend in electronic music: an increasing amount of sonic quality, recorded output and international contact, accomplished with a decreasing amount of tools, personnel, and capital investment. From the use of laptop computers to create massive avalanches of noise, to the establishment of micro-nations populated largely by sound artists, 21st century sound culture is expanding in its scope and popularity even as it shrinks in other respects. The text of MICRO-BIONIC is built up from exhaustive research into the world of audio extremity, including physical travel to the various ‘hot spots’ where these new sounds are made…

–

The author keeps a blog on the book, MICROBIONIC. He seems to be having a bit of a rough time at the moment, in fact.

I’ve always loved electronic music. I have a theory that anyone who lived in Britain through the same period as me has it kind of embedded in them, as it seemed like all children’s tv was scored by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop or their peers.

warren_ellis

TOTW is basically a joke that Ariana and I pull each week in our joint guise as the International Electrophonic Unit. Basically, we take some of the stupider things I’ve said on Twitter and elsewhere, often in a state of extreme alcoholic refreshment or severe sleep deprivation, and put them on a t-shirt. Ariana set up a Cafe Press store (because this is a joke and engaging with a serious maker of t-shirts would be less funny to us), and… well, once a week, here we are.

Through this website and this Cafe Press store, we’re going to release one t-shirt a week. It’ll go live on Monday… and it’ll die Sunday night — midnight UK time, more often than not. Each one lives for a week, and then it’s replaced by the next week’s shirt. Until I either run out of dumb ideas or Ariana’s brain explodes.

So, every Monday, I’ll post the new shirt here, and you can peer at it more at http://www.cafepress.com/electrophonic.

Anyway. I present to you T-Shirt Of The Week #007: I ATE THE BABY:

(apologies to the spinning ghost of William Carlos Williams, yes)

We also offer a couple of perennial items. Mostly because I wanted one of these for myself:

(And also a MAN COOK MEAT WITH FIRE "splatter-shield", because Ariana’s crazy)

Thank you for your kind attention.

http://mt.wiglaf.org/aaronm/2009/12/pasquale-bruni.html

http://allston02134.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-i-support-alan-khazei-for-senate.html

After spending two great afternoons this weekend knocking on doors and making phone calls to talk with voters about what Alan Khazei can offer to Massachusetts and our country, I would like to share with you why I - along with the Boston Globe, General Wesley Clark, BlueMassGroup.com, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, the Cape Cod Times, Max Kennedy, Vicki Strauss Kennedy, Senator Sam Nunn, Senator Harris Wofford, and over 500 citizen leaders - support Alan Khazei. (The Globe endorsement is at http://www.alanforsenate.com/globeendorsement)

* Why Alan? Alan has the potential to be a game-changing U.S. Senator, a senator who can build and lead coalitions and marshall citizen power to drive progress on the urgent issues of our day. Alan has deep experience affecting change by engaging people and changing politics, best exemplified by his co-founding of City Year. As a citizen activist he has worked with Senator Kennedy and four U.S. Presidents to pass three major pieces of service-related legislation and to successfully rally a citizen movement to fight back against former Republican leader Tom DeLay, who tried to dismantle AmeriCorps.

* How Is Alan Different From the Other Candidates? While all the Democrats share some policy positions, Alan sets himself apart from the other candidates on a number of crucial issues. According to Newsweek, Alan is "the only candidate in Massachusetts who stands fully with the President on education," in looking to offer great options to all of our children, through higher pay for teachers, differentiated pay, and expansion of successful charter schools in high-need communities. On health care, Alan is a strong supporter of a reform plan with a robust public option, and, unlike Martha Coakley and Mike Capuano, he has said he would vote for the current house or senate health care reform plans, while imperfect, because they expand coverage to 36 million Americans. And on the economy, Alan has laid out detailed plans to stimulate the economy through a comprehensive green jobs initiative, a small business hiring tax credit, a main street stimulus initiative and fully funding the Kennedy-Hatch ServeAmerica bill to create more than 250,000 service jobs.

* Can Alan Win? The answer is yes. Only one sixth of the 3.7 million eligible voters are expected to vote in this election; that means as few as 200,000 voters could win the election. Recent polls have charted Alan's rapid rise, which is a testament to our unmatched grassroots field operation. Our citizen field teams have knocked on tens of thousands of doors, with many more on the way. With the majority of voters still undecided, we absolutely can win this race.

* What Can You Do To Help? I hope you'll join me over the next few days by canvassing, emailing your friends, posting on Facebook and Twitter, or building support for him in any other way you can: http://www.alanforsenate.com/gotv.

You can find a complete list of upcoming events where you can volunteer at http://www.alanforsenate.com/page/event/search_results?orderby=date

Another way to help is to make a donation at http://alan.helpmycampaign.com/HarryMattison/donate. Alan is not accepting money from PACs, lobbyists, and special interest groups, so it has to be contributions from citizens like us who fund this campaign, put ads on TV, and spread the word. Together, we can make a difference!

I hope you will support Alan on Tuesday -- let's take this chance to elect a real reformer to represent us in the Senate.

Thanks for your consideration,
Harry
www.AlanForSenate.com

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/12/what-i-plan-to-do-this-week.html

Write.

Walk the dog. (Seen here being walked by me half an hour ago. I was not wearing special protective warm clothing. It was remarkable.)

Not go onto the internet except occasionally to email people things they are waiting for.

Sleep.

Posted via email from Neil's posterous

http://mt.wiglaf.org/aaronm/2009/12/a-most-unusual-setting.html