Jean Baudrillard, the French philosopher who put postmodernism on the map (which isn't the territory) died yesterday at the age of 77 after a lengthy illness. Baudrillard was known for his deconstruction and analysis of global culture in the last decade of the 20th century and what has come to pass so far of the 21st century and the statement that left many scratching their heads - that nothing is, in fact real because we no longer understand that there are choices beyond those They tell us we have. Possibly his most famous essay is entitled On Nihilism (from Simulacra and …
Its seems that another media star, Anna Nicole Smith, has shuffled off of this mortal coil. Her body was found in the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida, amidst a personal pharmacy containing compounds both legal and not in this country. Ironic, given that it's just a couple of weeks after her son died of an arcane drug interaction. Paramedics were unable to revive her; a video of their attempts went for a cool half-million dollars US, and will no doubt hit the Net minutes after broadcast. Love her or hate her, she died at the age of thirty-nine... that's …
James Brown, requisat en pace When I get home, I'll play some good, old fashioned LA Style in your memory, because it was That Song, the first track of Best of Rave volume one that got me listening to you after all.
Lyssa and I got up around 0800 EST/EDT, when our circadian rhythms had decided that we'd gotten enough sleep, and got ourselves going for the long haul back to Pittsburgh to visit my family. Lyssa's father had gone to the nursing home to visit Grandma Pat before we'd awakened, so we waited for a while until everyone …
Lyssa pointed me at an article that brought up something that never occurred to me - how libraries manage the limited amount of space they have for all of their materials. This is to say, they keep track of how often each book is checked out (much easier to do since card catalogues and patron records went digital in the mid 1990's) and if it isn't touched for longer than a certain time, they either throw the books out (dumpster diving at the local library is how I got most of my books when …
For those of you wondering if winter's ever going to arrive, wonder no more! Someone in Fort Collins, Colorado is selling samples of snow from the blizzards they've been having all season. He's selling ten (10) samples at $0.99us each, shipped in sealed one gallon baggies. So far, he hasn't decided if he's going to pack the in dry ice for preservation.
E. Howard Hunt, the legendary spook who planned the Watergate burglary that took down Richard Nixon in the 1970's, founder of the Operation of Strategic Services (which later became the CIA), and masterminded the execution of Che Guevara in 1967 died of complications of pneumonia yesterday at the age of 88. Hunt was instrumental in planning and executing operations against the Soviets, Cuba, and Guatamala during his career of almost threed decades, and gods only know what else he was involved in that hasn't been declassified yet. After he got out of prison for his role in the Watergate break-in …
