December 2009
38 posts
Apparently, Pippin shops at the 99 cents store. My first celebrity sighting and in a very weird place.
Heading to downtown LA for the first time… Hope I don’t get lost…
“The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, Cowell’s other vehicle, could...”
– New Statesman - The age of consent A very interesting piece on television impact on culture. The winning part of the argument, however, is that TV is seen not as the reason but as the symptom if what is happening.
RT @warrenellis: Why do Xmas cards never show a woman in a shit-covered cowshed squatting a baby out into a rotting feed trough?
Tattoo Barbie - a bad influence on kids? http://icio.us/kwycey
And just like that we’re in Los Angeles (Venice, to be exact).
So Close
@ Comfort Inn - Barstow, California
Leaving Tuba City, we soon come upon the Grand Canyon and then we turn west on 40, going through desert desert and more desert until we’re stopped at the California border, where they inquire if we have any fresh fruit or vegetables in the car. With the exception of a fruit cup, we don’t (except for a cooler full of tangerines that we have...
Grand Canyon
@ Grand Canyon, Arizona
Grand doesn’t really do justice to the amazing view of the Grand Canyon. I felt more like I was on the top of a mountain, looking down at the surrounding area - not being on ‘ground level’ looking into a canyon.
The Colorado river runs so far below that it looks like a small creek and the canyon floor is dotted with small spots which are in fact...
Honking On
@ Quality Inn, Tuba City, Arizona
We head back into Colorado to see the Mesa Verde, drive down to Four Corners and then head west through Arizona’s arid high desert. Don’t let that fool you, we’re at 5000 feet and there’s snow on the ground but the sun is insisting and without shade. I wouldn’t want to be here in the summer.
The landscape is alien and fascinating,...
Four Corners
@ Four Corners, Navajoland (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona)
Four states meet meet on a distant corner of each of them. Been there, done that, ain’t ever going back.
Mesa Verda
@ Mesa Verde, Colorado
A very large national park, but the drive up the mountain (and down, despite the icy conditions) is simply gorgeous. And then seeing the houses built straight into the rock wall is simly stunning. It looks like a movie set, as if they were built as ruins rather than actual buildings people lived in, but no, 800 hundred years ago people actually did live on these straight...
Turning South
@ Inn at the Canyons - Monticello, Utah
We head our from Eagle in the morning and cross the last of the Rockies, which turn out to be a longer trip than I expected, but the mountains are beautiful, so I’m not complaining. The mountains on this side of the Rockies are layered and more barren than the east side but no less beautiful. As we enter Utah, everything turns flat but unlike Kansas...
Arches Natinal Park
@ Arches National Park, Utah
Any kind of verbal or visual representation of Arches National Park inevitably falls short of capturing not just the scale but the sheer grandeur of the landscape. It is an alien, mind-boggling landscape and coupled with the breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains, you get a landscape like no other.
The rock formations and pillars and arches look so...
Teaching materials for Cory Doctorow books http://icio.us/0gpid2
Rocky Mountain High
@ Best Western/Eagle Lodge - Eagle, CO
So we took off in the morning and headed to Denver to see some friends - Denver definitely seems like a cool town and Colorado is really pretty, and is likely to stay that way since apparently by 2020 it will be the only state in the US where the average citizen is not obese…
After Denver (with no signs of shoulder pads or perms) we inched our way...
We're Not in Kansas, Anymore
@ Quality Inn - Limon, CO
After a comfortable lay-over at Mansion McDonald, it’s time to hit the road but we’re worried about snow and frost across Kansas, so Aunt Sherri - who works for MSNBC - calls their weatherman but is put on hold because… he’s on air doing the weather. Soon enough, however, he answers his summons and can tell us that Kansas is clear. Setting out...
We must now face the long flat of Kansas…
RT @boingboing Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border Boing Boing http://bit.ly/6nGsQL
The McDonald House
@ Kansas City, Missouri (not Kansas!)
We got up in Corydon, showered and got ready to hit the road. I started loading up the car and it’s definitely cold here. I go to the car, put a bag in the frontseat, close it and open up the door to the backseat and my hair is frozen and so is the Tempurpedic pillow we left in the car overnight. Yep, it’s twenty degrees here, and that’s...
The St Louis Arch
@ St. Louis, Missouri
We drove to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, also known as the Gateway to the West and it’s one of those monuments that you just have to see to really appreciate the size of it. It’s well worth a visit if you’re ever in the neighborhood. It’s definitely also a good landmark for our road trip west. Westward ho!
Born with the right to marry?
A woman in New York has decided to sell her right to marry and donate the earnings to LGBT rights. Obviously, it is a gimmick, but it does point out a very legitimate concern. And, her pitch is funny as hell:
I’m an unmarried heterosexual woman, and since I probably won’t be using my right to get married, I would like to give it away. I would like to sell it to the highest bidder and...
Linguistic fingerprinting - interesting, but hardly the final word on literary analyis http://icio.us/pwjee5
The Prostitute Room
@ Super 8 Motel - Corydon, Indiana
We hit 64 after New River Gorge and go north for about an hour before we skirt Charleston, dancing around its western side only stopping for gas and me gawking at an Aldi. Seems Germany’s borders are expanding in strange and unexpected ways. Shortly after doing the Charleston, we cross into Kentucky and just haul ass all across it without ever seeing a...
How the West Was Won and How We Got There - a set... →
All the photos I take during our road trip goes here. N-joy!
New River Gorge
@ New River Gorge, West Virginia
Apparantly, one of the things West Virigina is known for, is the huge bridge at New River Gorge and the New River itself, which is one of the few rivers which runs ‘backwards’. No, it doesn’t defy gravity (and just for the record, neither does Gravity Hill in PA. It’s just an optical illusion, guys, and a bad one at that.) But the New River...
There's Nothing Micro about Microtel
@ Microtel, Gassaway
So, we’re heading out of State College, going west on 99 to catch the 79 south, driving driving driving to beat the weather and what the hell is Pittsburgh doing here? We should have gone south of that but ok, nothing wrong with a little Steel City, except everyone always gets lost in Steel City - we certainly did last time we were here; thanks Google Maps for sending...
Review of Eric Santner’s *On Creaturely Life* http://icio.us/t25awz
http://icio.us/ixb4l0
Klimaforsker advarer mod aftale på topmødet |... →
Der er mange områder hvor markedsøkonomiens logik ikke kan bruges, og klima er naturligvis ét af disse områder. Bare fordi man køber CO2-kvoter, betyder det ikke at man sviner mindre - det betyder at man sviner mere.
Klimadebat splitter Venstres folketingsgruppe -... →
For det er da klart, at vi skal have personlig frihed til at svine så meget vi vil. Naturligvis.
Reality is the processing of layers through frames
Pyramids With Nadja →
Noise / Drone metal i skøn forening.
Test i folkeskolen skader mere, end det gavner |... →
Det er lidt trættende konstant at høre danske politikere sige “nej, det sker da ikke i Danmark.” Og Bertel Haarder ved tydeligvis ikke hvad “teaching to the test” betyder. Det betyder ikke at man bliver god til faget, men at man lærer at bestå prøven. Altså, så snart man konfronteres med noget der ikke er i prøven, ved man ikke hvad man skal gøre.
Europæiske universiteter mister friheden |... →
Nej, det er sikkert ikke for sent at vende regressionen, men er der vilje til det? Især på venstrefløjen?
RT @StevensonSam: Why is it the philosopher who is expected to be easier and not some scientist who is even more inaccessible? #derrida
Rigsrevisionen står fast: De private fik for... →
Det var jo nødvendigt at overbetale de private hospitaler, så man kunne sikre dem en ordentlig startkapital og en fast position på markedet. Ellers ville man jo aldrig få danskerne til at se at private hospitaler er vejen frem.
Mit bud er, at det samme kommer til at ske med de private universiteter - man forfordeler dem i starten, så de får bedre forhold for forskning (og nå ja, det der andet som...
November 2009
41 posts
USA ikke længere Europas beskytter? Fint med mig. http://icio.us/cfedsz