infobong.com the absurd courts the vulgar

• Graffiti Taxonomy
  “The intent of these studies is to show the diversity of styles as expressed in a single character.”
  (del.icio.us tags: typography streetart)
• The Great Porteño Smokeout
  This account is interesting for many reasons, but I’m posting this because I learned that Argentine ranchers would rather raise soybeans than cattle, but the government has policies that coerce them into making meat.
  (del.icio.us tags: Argentina agriculture economics)
• Photoshop Brushes: Your Number one source for Photoshop Brushes
  This site has oodles of no-cost Photoshop brushes.
  (del.icio.us tags: useful design photoshop)
• Victim Complex: Coping With Bike Theft
  BikeSnobNYC offers some sound advice for dealing with bike theft that makes a lot of sense for computers as well.
  (del.icio.us tags: crime cycling)
• Honda Navigation System Warns of High Crime Areas
  If this weren’t being rolled out first in Japan, I would flag this system that alerts drivers to bad neighborhoods as automated racism. Still, I suspect that would be the case in the states.
  (del.icio.us tags: racism creepy crime GPS)

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• AP: Charges dismissed against NY professor who obtained bacteria for art
  A judge did the right thing and dropped the charges against Steve Kurtz of the Critical Art Ensemble.
  (del.icio.us tags: lawenforcement art)
• Rough Type: Open source as corporate joint venture
  A recent study shows that most Linux contributors are not hobbyists, but employees of software-development organizations.
  (del.icio.us tags: opensource economics linux)

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• Tim Robbins’ NAB Keynote
  Here’s an mp3 audio file of actor Tim Robbin’s address to the National Association of Broadcasters convention. In the speech, he decries the current state of discourse in the media.
  (del.icio.us tags: broadcast celebrity media)
• Introduction to Whiteness Studies
  In this short essay, Gregory Jay outlines what whiteness studies studies and its goals.
  (del.icio.us tags: race cultural_studies whiteness academic)

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This Saturday is Record Store Day, which celebrates the role of local, independent record stores in music and local cultures. I haven’t run across a page that aggregates the Austin stores observing Record Store Day, so I’m posting a list here.

My favorite Austin record store, End of Ear is celebrating the day with swag giveaways and in-stores by the Shackeltons and Nic Armstrong. If you’re looking for a little eastside flavor, Music Mania has a celebration planned, and while Trailer Space Records is not on the record with an event, I definitely recommend this new store.

Other Austin stores observing Record Store Day include Waterloo Records, the dance-focused Backspin Records, Out of the Past Collectibles, and The Screw Shop, which is new to me, but I presume specializes in Texas chopped-and-screwed hip-hop.

Regardless of what record store you visit, I hope you get out Saturday, buy some hot wax, and meet new people on Record Store Day!

Update: Here’s another run-down of the event. It looks like Trailer Space will be celebrating it after all.

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• techPresident: Truckers are Organizing Online: Is a Nationwide Shutdown Coming?
  If this involves Ali McGraw in a halter top, I’m all for it.
  (del.icio.us tags: energy transportation labor economics)
• Errol Morris: Play It Again, Sam
  In this blog post, Errol Morris discusses his controversial decision to use re-enactments in documentaries, arguing that he can’t make his case to the viewer without them.
  (del.icio.us tags: thereal memory documentary)
• Design Observer: Underground Mainstream
  Steven Heller explores how advertisers and marketers have made a practice of appropriating avant garde and underground styles into mainstream commercial culture.
  (del.icio.us tags: co-optation youth streetart advertising)

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• Next American City: Respect for the Human Scale
  In this interview, James Howard Kunstler discusses how the scarcity of petroleum will lead to cities becoming less mechanized, but not before an effort to keep car culture intact.
  (del.icio.us tags: urban_planning sustainability transportation)
• Stanley Fish : French Theory in America
  This NYTimes blog post should be titled, “How to talk to your children about post-structuralism.”
  (del.icio.us tags: epistemology academic)

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• Identi-Tape - 2-inch Safety Reflective Tape
  This is the best source for black reflective tape I’ve found so far.
  (del.icio.us tags: shopping useful cycling)
• Outlaw Design: 63 Must Have Grunge Fonts
  I’m counting the days until the nineties come back. I never quit wearing flannel shirts, so I am ready!
  (del.icio.us tags: silly webdesign typography font)

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• CHDK Wiki
  CHDK is hacked firmware for Canon digital cameras that expand the cameras’ range of features.
  (del.icio.us tags: opensource hack photography)
• NYTimes: You Use It Every Day. But Can You Make It Cook?
  I’ve been steaming vegetables in the microwave for years, but this article is a nice reminder. I may have to try that eggplant recipe.
  (del.icio.us tags: technology food cooking)

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• Woopra
  This looks like a nice traffic-tracking service for blogs and whatnot.
  (del.icio.us tags: blog visualization Web_publishing)

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• Campus Technology: USPTO Rejects Blackboard Patent Claims
  Although Blackboard won its suit against Desire2Learn, the USPTO has denied Blackboard’s courseware patent on re-examination.
  (del.icio.us tags: patents courseware education)

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