A Playful Narcissist's Song of Himself. Lucas Samaras makes magic with his androgynous form and extraordinary sense of craft in his myriad of self-portraits as seen at the Whitney Museum of Art. By Roberta Smith. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

A magician of the chemical mirror, Lucas Samaras's self-portraits and manipulated SX-70 photos have been an inspiration for an entire generation of artists; photographers, sculptors and performers, have all have drawn from Samaras's playful, mystical self-examinations and manipulations.

If you're anywhere near New York, check out his show at the Whitney.

9:27:01 PM     leave/read comments []

Alan Lightman, you have competition!

Climbing the invisible worldline

It's happened to all of us. You call your boss a "flesh eating virus" (or far worse) to his/her face. In an exhausted stupor, you pour orange juice all over your cereal. You accidentally run a busload of nuns off a cliff. You decide to become a betamax salesman.

All of these things are easily remedied by travelling through time, stopping the event before it can be written into the fabric of your destiny, and thus preventing you from being remembered as an idiot.

[ From Epiphany in c ]

5:46:37 PM     leave/read comments []

Don't look now, but the dean is watching. Pressured by the double whammy of feds looking for terrorists and the music industry chasing file sharers, universities are keeping a close eye on student Internet use. [Salon.com]

Even worse than Vernon Wormer is our pal (not) the USA-PATRIOT act. Or, as I like to call it, Duby's little STASI:

Some schools, including MIT, have refused to hand over the information by arguing that it is protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. FERPA is designed to stop students' personal data from being handed over to third parties, and no one has yet challenged the use of FERPA in these copyright cases.

But there is a little-discussed section of the USA-PATRIOT Act that renders FERPA completely useless when federal officials subpoena personal student information for terrorism-related investigations. Not only do these federal subpoenas bypass FERPA, but the people served are not permitted to discuss them with anybody.

"You can't challenge [these subpoenas] because you can't tell anyone you've received them," says Lauren Gelman, an attorney with the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford. "At a university, one administrator can't even tell another administrator about these subpoenas, so there is no way to know how many have gone out." While university administrators want to comply with federal laws, many are wary of handing over private data in such a secretive manner.

The Secret Police will see you now, Herr Professor.

4:23:04 PM     leave/read comments []

Here's what they have so far:

Whattya think folks?

2:57:26 PM     leave/read comments []

Enter The Meatrix.

2:43:20 PM     leave/read comments []

Source: Boing Boing Blog; 11/13/03; 12:26:25 PM.

Naked Sushi Lady history, part three.

Don't forget Stanley Kubrick: the milk ladies in Clockwork Orange. Okay, they're serving dairy products, not California rolls, but you get the idea. Link to full-size image, Link to previous BoingBoing post on the Naked Sushi Lady Controversy: one, two. (Thanks, Janet!)
[Boing Boing Blog]

2:42:04 PM    

Source: Boing Boing Blog; 11/13/03; 12:26:26 PM.

Naked Lady Sushi parody website from Japan.

BoingBoing pal Geisha Asobi points us to Takako Umemiya's NYO-TA-I-MO-RI-Project (Link), and says, "She is very funny!!!!" I don't speak or read Japanese, but maybe a better-educated BoingBoing reader can contribute a partial translation. Takako's website features her sashimi-clad body in an apparent spoof of the ongoing International Naked Lady Sushi Controversy (marginally work-safe, I suppose).
[Boing Boing Blog]

2:41:09 PM    

Wow, Alvin is almost 40! Originally constructed by General Mills (yes, the cereal company in Minneapolis), the wee submersible has been doing yeoman's work, discovering everything from lost H-bombs to ocean floor geothermal vents with giant "chimneys" and bustling ecosystems that form around them.

Alvin, the submersible that for decades led the American effort to probe the depths of the seas, illuminating such things as the rusting hulk of the Titanic and bizarre ecosystems lush with tube worms, should be upgraded, replaced or joined by a new vehicle that can take people even deeper, a report to the government said on Wednesday.

Alvin can carry a pilot and two scientists down to 2.8 miles, providing access to 62 percent of the seabed. The improved vehicle would push the frontier considerably deeper, to 4 miles, opening 99 percent of the ocean floor to exploration.

The report from the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences also called for the craft to have improved visibility as well as neutral buoyancy at various depths [~] Alvin has had difficulty with these [~] so that scientists could pause repeatedly to study the creatures that live between the surface and the seafloor.

1:46:54 AM    

Bishops Open a New Drive Opposing Contraception. The nation's Roman Catholic bishops, acknowledging that American Catholics pay little heed to the church's ban on contraception, undertook an effort to reinforce it. By Daniel J. Wakin. [New York Times: Health]

Welcome to the 19th Century! Or maybe it's the 12th Century? Who can tell exactly?!?!

The nation's Roman Catholic bishops, acknowledging that American Catholics pay little heed to their church's ban on contraception, undertook an effort Wednesday to reinforce it, and linked it to the anti-abortion campaign.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in session here at its regular fall meeting, also tackled another sexuality issue, approving the text of a brochure that lays out the church's condemnation of same-sex unions.

Damn those women and homos! Who do they think owns their asses? (And other parts.) That's right, the big guy with the funny hat.

1:24:48 AM     leave/read comments []

After reading the items in today's blog, Scooter is left shaking her head at humanity.

12:17:36 AM     leave/read comments []