The Cartoonist
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Saturday, April 5, 2003 |
Last entry for this week. I promise. And this is a repeat from November, 20th, just because it's so beautiful: Andre Franquin's Turbot sports car. Wonderful. Gorgeous. Tasty. Delicious:The car that never was. A probably very expensive portfolio about Andre Franquin's Turbot Traction 1. Pure art. And now I'm really off to Brussels and will stop pestering you.
11:37:29 PM |
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Friday, April 4, 2003 |
Submit your own. An anti-war poster exhibition; artists, designers and students can submit their own designs."This project was started in early March on a public design forum, in the midst of spirited debate over the impending war in Iraq. One member of the design forum suggested that the other members offset their war anxieties by focusing their energies in a more positive way. He encouraged everyone to create posters that expressed their views of the war."
10:37:25 PM |
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This is Science Fiction. Visco is a visual catalogue of cover art of science fiction, fantasy, weird and horror fiction magazines from the early twentieth century to the present day. And it's simply fantastic."When it is fully developed - it will never be finally complete - it will display an image of the cover of every magazine of the genre in the English language that can be located. In these early versions of Visco, we are a long way from that aim. About 1200 magazine issues are depicted out of a possible 9,000 or more."
6:37:31 PM |
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The Cambridge Four. Interesting article in 7 parts about the Cambridge spies."There have been no more successful, more dramatically impressive spies than a group of Englishmen who all met at Trinity College, Cambridge University in the 1930s. To one degree or another, they were active for the Soviet Union for over thirty years. They were the most efficient espionage agents against American and British interests of any collection of spies in the Twentieth Century. One of them, Kim Philby, served the KGB for almost fifty years."
11:42:03 AM |
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Thursday, April 3, 2003 |
"bob"Announcement: Spambots, here's some food. Have fun with it. Well, I actually don't believe in this anymore, the spam in my mailbox is growing and growing, but what the hell.opmeg@kgekbko.com, dqxwlsg@yeytlykohcgajh.st, jfxq@ecgeeaqdyiyqpcbnsoy.fr, dxvkdngmkw@jgbkpevoxqdmdv.es, kqvytta@vqontger.edu, sah@ynxknzkssffmhqbomwvt.de, ybgzqcuk@mmzthdipzhlxipu.ar, ghyhqvjxu@xoqlnu.edu, jlzfgoa@msfdwpvja.de, gwabycwvb@duuwoo.de, sjnrf@iguwomscpzv.eu, ppu@thuapdypvxxuqirfwlqa.dk, fyc@tlgowagganikyteut.com, fdxqcd@wfebjma.com, pnirvlppys@tlpauallgv.de, uxzv@wkiwwe.edu, xexbxfn@wnuqhm.dk, chphapvkt@ebwjgjpggxvogsus.dk, vfyfos@nmcusysa.br, evenlm@xenstpntsc.nl
11:45:41 PM |
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Oh, fantastic. The never-ending story of the Central Line. Better than a comedy on BBC. I'll post the whole article. This is unbelievable. Central line fiasco [This is London: London News]"The Central line fiasco continued today as the route was shut down just 30 minutes after a full service had resumed. Various sections were closed because of fire alerts and defective trains. Trains were scheduled to start running at 5.30am this morning, but by 6am the line had been brought to a complete standstill causing chaos once again for London's commuters. All eight stations between Marble Arch and Liverpool Street were closed off because of a fire alert in the Tottenham Court Road area. A second fire alert then took place between 6.12am and 7.37am affecting the same stations and causing the complete closure of Oxford Circus Tube. At 7am the Central line service from Marble Arch to Holborn was closed in both directions because of a continuing fire alert, affecting five of the eight stations. By 11am the Marble Arch to Liverpool Street route was suspended eastbound because of a defective train at Holborn. The Central line has been closed for safety reasons since the derailment at Chancery Lane on 25 January which injured 32 passengers."
7:16:39 PM |
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Interesting, that. Open RTF files in Safari. "I have to open RTF files every now and then, generally Read Me files for applications. But I don't like waiting for TextEdit to launch and then quitting it afterwards.""However, since I keep Safari open all the time, I have s... " [macosxhints]
6:59:18 PM |
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Wednesday, April 2, 2003 |
More things Russian. I know, this is not the right time of the year. However, the exhibition of Early New Years and Christmas Picture Cards at the National Library of Russia is beautiful."First Russian post-cards came out in 1871. Convenient and inexpensive type of mail has quickly become popular. It is no wonder that post-cards of congratulation including New Year's and Christmas ones were in requisition. Remained up to now, they bring us the inimitable sensation of festival and childish credulous expectations of present and the feeling of magic."
4:38:52 PM |
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The good Victorian. Charles Booth (1840-1916) about poverty in London at the Charles Booth Online Archive. Digitised pages of his notebooks and his map of London, showing the 'areas of poverty', can be found here."Charles Booth was one of those remarkable English Victorians who can justly be described as one of the great and the good. Profoundly concerned by contemporary social problems, and not a pious nor even a religious man, he recognised the limitations of philanthropy and conditional charity in addressing the poverty which scarred British society. Without any commission other than his own he devised, organised, and funded one of the most comprehensive and scientific social surveys of London life that had then been undertaken. Booth also added his voice to the cause of state old age pensions as a practical instrument of social policy to alleviate destitution in old age, established as one of the commonest causes of pauperism. Simultaneously he was a successful businessman, running international interests in the leather industry and a steam shipping line."
4:18:44 PM |
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Greasy Spoons. Nice website about Classic Cafes in London."Often dismissed as 'greasy spoons', classic cafes are actually little gems of British vernacular high street design. Here we celebrate the best ones with over 100 vintage formica caffs and associated enclaves, reviewed, revealed and reappraised. A lo-fi fast track insight into the backwaters of Britannia Moribundia. A large-format book based on the site will be published in late spring 2003 by Black Dog Publishing."
3:32:34 PM |
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Tuesday, April 1, 2003 |
Revolution by Design. Russian Posters, online at the International Poster Gallery. And have a look at their main site too; there are gazillions of posters."Although posters were produced in Russia before the Revolution, they were overshadowed by the remarkable propaganda posters of the Soviets. Lenin takes responsibility for creating the first truly modern propaganda machine, from postage stamps and Mayday parades to monumental sculptures. Perhaps its most colorful, dramatic and original form was the poster. Through it, the greatest artists of the time proclaimed government policies, asked for support, and demanded greater efforts -- all with the goal of building Soviet power." Again, found via the Russian xq weblog.
4:36:01 PM |
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Let's go to war. Unprepared of course. Rumsfeld seems to be an even better comedian than Tony Blair or Dubya himself. Amazing. Read the New Yorker article. "On at least six occasions, the planner told me, when Rumsfeld and his deputies were presented with operational plans, the Iraqi assault was designated Plan 1003; he insisted that the number of ground troops be sharply reduced. Rumsfeld's faith in precision bombing and his insistence on streamlined military operations has had profound consequences for the ability of the armed forces to fight effectively overseas. "They've got no resources," a former high-level intelligence official said. "He was so focussed on proving his point" that the Iraqis were going to fall apart. " [...]"The former high-ranking general compared the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Stepford wives. "They've abrogated their responsibility."" If Rumsey, Cheney and Dubbya were employees at - let's say - McDonalds, Burger King or UniLever, they would be fired. Right now. Amazing it is, they are the Government of the US of A. I just can't believe it. And Tony - even the Church of England would have fired you by now. 'Reverend Blair'... yeah right. Do you really like watching your soldiers dying in 'friendly fire'? Good grief - I would like to see both Tony and Dubya dragged into an international war crimes court. Or maybe just an 'incompetence-court'. Phew. Contempt and disgust. Article found via Ye Olde Phart.
12:35:14 AM |
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Monday, March 31, 2003 |
What's left to say? I hate the US? Surely not. World Domination? Surely not. But something similar in that direction. All of this happenend before in a country called Germany, you know. Must have been 1933. Have fun. From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan"U.S. military spending ($343 billion in the year 2000) is 69 percent greater than that of the next five highest nations combined. Russia, which has the second largest military budget, spends less than one-sixth what the United States does. Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Iran, and Syria spend $14.4 billion combined; Iran accounts for 52 percent of this total."
10:46:51 PM |
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Old London. Pictures of a London that once was are at Images of London; you can order the prints or just browse the gallery. More old London pics are here; unfortunately the enlargements of the thumbs come with an ugly red watermark and I am much too lazy to retouch that. But then the photos are much better than those at the 'Images' site.And at GenDocs you will find lots of information about London Churches; Victorian Lodging Houses; London Metropolitan Police Divisions; Victorian London Inns, Taverns & Public Houses; and much, much more. Sadly, no pictures. Damn.
10:32:00 PM |
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Family matters. Paul Joyce is indeed the great grandnephew of James Joyce and like him he was born in Dublin. Not only that, he's also an artist and has produced 18 etchings and oil paintings illustrating the book. That book. The one and only Ulysses."My visual exploration of Joyce's masterpiece has culminated in these eighteen etchings. Pivotal scenes from each chapter of Ulysses are shown, with as much attention to the details of the book as possible," explains Joyce. Each etching displays a different visual style -- such as abstract, realist and cubist -- and corresponds to the literal style used in the book."
2:59:05 PM |
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Sunday, March 30, 2003 |
Fruity. Great. Old postcards with gigantic fruits."FruitFromWashington.com Welcomes you to a Display of Exaggerated and Novelty Fruit Postcards" Via The J-Walk Weblog.
3:25:40 PM |
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