Man, I wish I had realized how much I could capitalize on this little fetish...

Doesn't everyone do this? I mean, I can't remember a cat that I had over the 2.4 decades of my existence that I didn't bury in random household objects or office supplies. It just seems natural.

Fight online censorship

Amnesty International is starting a new campaign to combat internet censorship.


Chat rooms monitored. Blogs deleted. Websites blocked. Search engines restricted. People imprisoned for simply posting and sharing information.
The Internet is a new frontier in the struggle for human rights. Governments – with the help of some of the biggest IT companies in the world – are cracking down on freedom of expression.
Amnesty International, with the support of The Observer, is launching a campaign to show that online or offline the human voice and human rights are impossible to repress.

via Slashdot

first attempt at g-mail chatting

a typical conversation between bookstore brains, the following summarizes our total synthesis of the works of human literature we have read to date and really, at least in my humble opinion, is a landmark study in the intricacies of the criminally insane book peddlar's twisted labrynthian cortex and what these closet geniuses have to offer back to the world that keeps them crazy:

12:07 AM Ben: you smell bad!
19 minutes
12:27 AM Ben: really
12:28 AM you smell like an anchovie blue cheese malted that was spilled in someones car in arizona two weeks ago
really
i only say this as a friend
12:29 AM me: goats fuck your mother in the moonlight with avocados and feta
Ben: how did you find out?
me: i was the moon
or was i the avocado?
Ben: lucky you!
where are you?
12:30 AM me: huzahh
home on the ranch
shelton
fuckin-A 26 foot u-haul through a hail and wind storm
Ben: yikes
me: so whitman didn't give me any ex-library books...
12:31 AM they gave me this dude's personal library... 78 boxes of it
Ben: wow!
me: ben is typing... this is wierd. i haven't g-mail chatted yet
yeah, it's some cool shit from the 5 boxes i peeked in... oh my god you should have seen the room i got the boxes out of
Ben: its how i keep with klintron
me: whitman's classical antiquarian book collection
12:32 AM Ben: yummy
me: cool
this is quite effective
what are you doink?
Ben: i'm about to go down town
me: i'm smoking and watching a clockwork orange and looking some books up
oh yeah? at 12:30?
you meetin jess?
Ben: we loaded jes's car with the boxes of books we had up at the house
me: cool
12:33 AM wow. what a great movie.
Ben: so i'm gonna take em over to the store
he he heh
me: cool
my g-ma gave me 4 pounds of clams tonight
Ben: nice
me: i think i just e-mailed you
12:34 AM you're coming to the girls' party yes?
Ben: oh yeah
me: say yes
yes!
Ben: you made me join myspace
me: sweet
sucker
good old rupie!
Ben: well actually your daughters did
the little hussys
me: i wonder if rupert murdoch has a myspace account
hee hee hee
12:35 AM Ben: yeah it's titled "I wanna smoke ben's cock"
me: whoa... i never noticed that kubrick's either sister or wife does some of the art and sculpture design for the film
well add me as a friend goddammit, i've smoked your cock
Ben: heh heh
me: how private is this anyway? do we want to take this to the next level?
Ben: i think i already did
me: boo-yah!
12:36 AM ben is typing
Ben: i gotta go time to scoot down town
me: ben is typing
toodles
we should hang out soon
Ben: yer a drunk
me: fukr
no i'm not!
Ben: oh wait that's me
12:37 AM me: you shameless hoodlum
we're not drunks, we just like to celebrate lots of... things
out like trout
Ben: seeya

Reggae star Desmond Dekker dies of a heart attack

Reggae star Desmond Dekker dies of a heart attack - Yahoo! News
Sad day.
Say hello to Boston Jon, will ya Des?

Why There Aren't Many Right-Wing Observational Comedians.

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Why There Aren't Many Right-Wing Observational Comedians.

Ah McSweeney's! How we love thee!

You guys seen Brokeback Mountain? I actually thought it could've been a good movie. If one of the guys were a woman. And they were married. And practicing Christians. And they didn't outsource the directing to Taiwan.

Of course I think most of those right-wing talk-radio guys are hi-freaking-larious! And the fact that so many people take them seriously? Sheer comedic bliss.

Of course I always did have an overdeveloped sense of the absurd....

Every madman thinks everyone else is mad.

Found some cool shit:

Audio Interview w/ J.P. Donleavy from 1988

Donleavy's WikiBio

JP Donleavy Compendium

READ THE GINGER MAN. BUY IT FROM LAST WORD BOOKS NOW AND INSULT ROB IF THEY DON'T HAVE A COPY.

Rebel Bookseller: How to Improvise Your Own Indie Store and Beat Back the Chains

by Andrew Laties

Found this little number down at Powell's about a month ago... it looks decent, a little trad/posh standard for my tastes but hey, at least it's out there. Plus the author also founded Poverty Fighters.com:

A bit about the author Andy Laties: PovertyFighters.com’s co-founder/CEO, has been agitating for power to the people since he grew his hair long as a nine-year-old to protest the Vietnam War. After a stint co-editing his high school underground newspaper, FightForward, he co-founded the Yale Summer Children Theatre, then dropped out to study free-jazz with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and improvisational theatre at Second City Players Workshop, in Chicago. He then studied shakuhachi in Tokyo at Soke Chikayusha and saxophone in Paris at the American School of Modern Music. He spent two years performing original stories by children across the USA, with Child’s Play Touring Theatre.

In 1985, he co-founded The Children’s Bookstore in Chicago, with Christine Bluhm. Their innovative special events captured them the Women’s National Book Association’s 1987 Lucille Micheels Pannell Award. Over the next ten years Chris and Andy sold a million children’s books, presented 2,000 free special events, and raised $300,000 for the Chicago schools. Andy taught bookselling for the American Booksellers Association and was the Dean of the Soros Foundation Latvia’s International Booksellers School, co-hosted by Janis Roze Bookstore.

The Children’s Bookstore was forced out of business by the book superstore chains in 1996, shortly after Andy and Chris opened the nation’s first privatized children’s museum store, at Chicago Children’s Museum. The Children’s Museum Store has generated $700,000 for the museum in the past six years.

Letter From Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, to George Bush

I know a lot of other folks are posting this but shit, it's elegant and interesting and it will be interesting how our administration juggles a response or a lack of response.

Can one be a follower of Jesus Christ (PBUH), the great Messenger of God, feel obliged to respect human rights, present liberalism as a civilization model, announce one's opposition to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and WMDs, make War and Terror his slogan, and finally, work towards the establishment of a unified international community – a community which Christ and the virtuous of the Earth will one day govern, but at the same time, have countries attacked; the lives, reputations and possessions of people destroyed and on the slight chance of the …Read More

Not Your Soldier

Not Your Soldier Action Camps bring together young people who are heavily targeted by military recruitment. At the camps, youth learn how to take action to fight military recruitment, the poverty draft, and the corporations that profit off of war.
In 2006, Not Your Soldier will be hosting a national camp for youth and adult allies.

via bOINGbOING

� Chuck Pahlaniuk on living as a story that you�ve created�Technoccult: � fringe culture scrapbook

Chuck Pahlaniuk on living as a story that you've created

Klintron has linked to a great video of Chuck talk good word magic!

via Technoccult

A car that could save the planet

Business 2.0: A car that could save the planet�fast - May. 5, 2006
The more that cars become technology platforms, the more the future plays into the hands of people like Wright and Eberhard. "Automakers can't do this," Eberhard says. "If you drill into the complexity of an electric car, it's not the motor, it's the electronics and battery system, which car companies aren't good at."
Adds Musk, "The time is right for a new American car company, and the time is right for electric vehicles, because of advances in batteries and electronics. Where's the skill set for that? In the Valley, not Detroit."

via Slashdot

box of chocolates � Ten Smart Moves to Improve your Business

box of chocolates � Ten Smart Moves to Improve your Business

some good stuff here

via LifeHacker

A Syrian monastery lies at the nexus of Islam, Christianity | csmonitor.com

A Syrian monastery lies at the nexus of Islam, Christianity

"The big issue is whether there can even be a future without religious harmony," says Paolo. "To build religious harmony is to build a future for humanity. It's not going to be easy but I say let's do it. Bring it on."