Month: November 2008

Behold the SpeedFit. Burbia isn’t sold:

The proud creators of SpeedFit are now looking for investors. Seriously — and this vid is their pitch. Sure, if you want to walk or run down the street for exercise, you can…walk or run down the street. But, with SpeedFit, now you can do the exact same thing only on a contraption that costs a ton of money, is a pain in the ass (it’s one heavy mo-fo), is a potential traffic hazard and can only barely turn corners. Kind of like marketing a spanking new heart-lung ventilator-machine to 100% healthy people who are perfectly capable of breathing on their own. Sign us up!

(Hat tip: 3QD).

An image of Eric Nyhammer from Corey Arnold’s series on fish-work in the Bering Sea. A bit from an over-written press release for a show in Portland:

These photographs capture moments from Arnold’s grueling annual retreats to the Bering Sea and arctic Norway. With scenes of boat life so vivid that some shots can induce fear or seasickness, the artist’s perspective also reveals the tender soulfulness of a fisherman’s extended life at sea. His skillful compositions depict the simultaneous bravery, toil, humor and gumption that “fish-work” demands. Yet the series also illuminates the aesthetic sublimity that can only be experienced, ultimately, by those willing to risk their lives where the sea breaks its back.

An art project by Matthias Gommel, Martina Haitz, and Jan Zappe. A description:

The installation ‘bios [bible]’ consists of an industrial robot, which writes down the bible on rolls of paper.  The machine draws the calligraphic lines with high precision. Like a monk in the scriptorium it creates step by step the text.

Starting with the old testament and the books of Moses ‘bios [bible]’ produces within seven month continuously the whole book. All 66 books of the bible are written on rolls and then retained and presented in the library of the installation.

From an upcoming exhibition’s website:

The original media used by religions were scriptures and books, assigned the…task of distributing belief. Text served, additionally, to canonize belief. Without writing there is no church; without scrolls, no belief. Thus, right from the start, through the demand for repeatability embodied by the ritual, religion was not only bound to media, but was itself a medium…

Commentary can review The Dark Side. But only for subscribers.

Gregg Easterbrook’s 1983 article on unions still holds some truth:

…automatic raises such as those provided by the ENA became the goal, and most big-labor contracts began to include inflation indexing and cost-of-living escalators that triggered automatic raises regardless of a company’s financial outlook. Thus, by 1980, although U.S. manufacturers sold fewer cars than in 1970, the wages of auto workers, in real terms, had increased 15 percent. The wages of union workers in the tire industry increased by 7 percent between 1970 and 1980, while total production fell 16 percent.

By providing raises for many years and boasting about more to come, labor leaders have given members the impression that raises are mandatory. According to Schlossberg, "At some point, items like indexing and COLAs [cost-of-living allowances] became rituals. We didn’t even think of them as contract gains anymore—they were just rights."

Workers aren’t the only ones who have been led to expect more money regardless of the economy. Business managers, who also have enjoyed steady raises, bonuses, and benefits over the years, have come to think the same way. From 1970 to 1980, executives of major manufacturing firms gained an average of 16 percent in real income. David Roderick, the chairman of U.S. Steel, received $821,322 in 1981, which, adjusted for inflation, was 29 percent more than his predecessor earned a decade earlier—the same percentage of increase enjoyed by steelworkers. Frederick Jaicks, the chairman and chief executive of Inland Steel, received $330,000 in 1982, despite his company’s shaky financial outlook and the fact that it lost $119 million that year. Edward Jefferson, the chief executive officer of Du Pont, who presided over the company’s merger with Conoco in 1981—a decision viewed by many as a disaster for Du Pont’s fortunes—received $887,299 that year.

Freddie DeBoer explains why science can’t solve the abortion debate.

Sculptor Kris Kuksi in his own words:

I get inspired by the industrial world, all the rigidity of machinery, the network of pipes, wires, refineries, etc. Then I join that with an opposite of flowing graceful, harmonious, and pleasing design of the Baroque and Rococo. And of course I add a bit weirdness and the macabre.

It’s all about how I see the evolution of what man makes his created environment look like. I had such a major emphasis in painting and drawing earlier in my career, and had a great time with it but I always felt something was missing. I knew deep inside I was a builder, and so my 3-d work is the expansion into that realm. I still enjoy painting and doing figurative work, but those moments are reserved for special times. Yet sculptural works are wonderfully intricate constructions of pop culture effluvia like plastic model kits, injection molded toys, dolls, plastic skulls, knick-knack figurines, miniature fencing, toy animals, mechanical parts and ornate frames or furniture parts; assembled into grotesque tableaux that look a bit like an explosion in Hieronymus Bosch’s attic.

(Hat tip: Notcot)

"The rehabilitation of conservatism cannot begin until conservatives are candid about their complicity in what government has become," – George F. Will.

The president-elect may be balking at his own church’s teachings on civil marriage equality, but his election, and the forces behind it are very much behind the new gay awakening. The invaluable Rex Wockner reports from the massive San Diego demonstration – the biggest yesterday – and its Obama atmosphere.

The tone of all the protests was very positive, and the few shards of nastiness and bigotry that had occurred on the fringes in the past week or so were nowhere apparent. I think Obama’s positive tone helped inspire that. And I think the leadership of many religious figures in the marriage equality movement has helped reinforce its core nature as a civil rights movement, fighting for deep moral change in people’s minds and hearts.

And we’re here for the duration. Because what we’re doing may not always be popular or uncontroversial, but because we know in our hearts that we are pursuing what we believe is right.

Joe Carter basically calls Obama a fake Christian. By Carter’s lights, who isn’t? Freddie differs.