The Coming Zombie Apocalypse

The next great threat?

The War Widow

She's a widow at age 20...

The Best Graduation Speech Ever

It's graduation time again, and I thought I would mark the occassion by posting David Foster Wallace's at Kenyon address from 2005. It's a poignant speech, all the more for me as I attempt to figure out what I am doing with my life.

"...The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death. It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over...It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now."

Also, check out my good friend Scott Guenther's remarks from our graduation year ago last February.

Spread the Word...350.org

Mother Jones has this great article about the new grassroots climate change organization called 350.org. The org was founded by Environmentalist Bill McKibben and a small group of dedicated Middlebury Alums. Check them out. Join the movement.

Bert and Ernie for Obama

Say what?

So a friend forwarded me this Youtube video...I'll let you judge it for yourself.

DC Voted Most Improved Cycling City

When I was a middle school basketball player, we used to joke that the most improved award was really the, "you still suck, but you tried hard" award. Still, the fact that DC got the most improved award for cycling friendly cities is commendable. Now if only we could get bike lanes that don't abruptly stop and something besides road signs to lock our bikes to, we'd be on our way. Here's hoping...

Anyway, DCist has this post about which high-powered politicians in DC ride to work.

Screaming Across the Divide

At least some people are speaking out about America's blatant Islamophobia. The NY Times has this great piece today about muslims who are fighting back against America's Islamophobia. Ali Ardekani,33-year-old Web designer from LA created a video blog about the lives of ordinary Muslims, casting himself on his video blogs as, "Baba Ali, an outsize character with a serious religious message who both dissects and lampoons the lives of American Muslims."

America's Islamophobia

Matthew Yglesias recently posted this Youtube video of John McCain's "spiritual guide" Rod Parsley. He shouts to his audience, "Islam is an Anti-Christ religion" and "America was founded with the intention of destroying this FALSE religion." The vitriol he spouts is sad, scary, and completely denigrates the faith of BILLIONS of non-violent, people in this world. Putting aside for a moment the fact that no one has stood up and called these men and out for their unconscionable efforts to smear a venerable faith, how are these men any different from Reverend Wright? Why must Obama be called to task for the mad ravings of a crazy pastor, yet John McCain seems to get a free pass when his own supporters do the SAME thing? John McCain has said nothing to denounce Parsley or equally hate-mongering John Hagee. I wish for once that politicians on both sides would call this shit out for the blatent racism that it is.

Mike Gravel the Crackpot

The man is unbelievable. Although, maybe he can give Hillary a few pointers on how to run a doomed campaign.

Andrew Bird

Songs and blogs. He's a busy man these days.

Volcanic Craziness

Six days ago, the Chaitén volcano in Chile erupted causing nearly 8000 people to be evacuated from their homes. This amazing photo was taken when a thunderstorm collided with the volcanic plume.

Hat tip: MetaFilter

What a crazy creature...

Hillary Clinton's Five Mistakes

What Billary did wrong.

Israel's Arabs

A great report on Israel's Arab citizens and their lives sixty years since the founding of Israel.

Dr. Strings

This an amazing video of Andrew Bird (also here) making a guest appearance on a childrens show. If you haven't heard of Andrew Bird, you are missing out on one of the most unique and talented musicians of our times. I reccomend The Mysterious Production of Eggs and his latest, Armchair Apocrypha.

The Money Quote from the comments:

Although this video seems to teach that music is magical, this is deceiving, as the REAL message is that andrew bird is magical.

Enjoy!

Nebraska Politics

This guy is amazing...

Khalil Gibran Revisited

I've been stewing for the past 24 hours about Daniel Pipes and the Stop the Madrassa campaign that transformed a pro-peace moderate named Debbie Almantaser into an Islamic extremist bent on destroying and subverting American values. Before the school opened its doors, she was forced to resign as principal.  Gershom Gorenberg of the South Jerusalem Blog read my mind with his latest post on why Daniel Pipes is completely insane. What is apparent when you listen to pipes talk about Islam, is that he believes that it is less a religion and more of a subversive political ideology along the lines of communism or fascism. Therefore, any manifestation of Islamic culture in the public sphere is a threat and must be duly squashed. Gershom is better equipped to deal with Pipes, so I will let him debunk Pipe's madness.

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Erected

Billboard Mods in LA... Brilliant!

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Ambiguous Image

The NY Times wellness blog has an interesting post about reversible images, optical illusions that don't have any visual cues. As they put it:

Your eyes will sometimes see the dancer standing on her left leg and spinning to the right. And sometimes they will perceive her as standing on her right leg and spinning to the left. Most people, if they stare at the image long enough, will eventually see her turn both ways.

The most well known reversible image is the necker cube.

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Free Cone Day Today!

WOOHOO!! FREE CONE DAY!!!
Whoever said nothing in life is free? Get to your local Ben and Jerry's today for a free cone.

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A Better Bike Lock

The folks over at Street Films have this great film about how to lock your bike. Watch, and perhaps the next time you leave your bike outside of Union Station it won't get stolen.

Thomas Friedman Creamed at Lecture...Literally

A video has been circulating in the blogosphere of Tom Friedman getting hit by pies at a lecture he gave at Brown by a group called the Greenwash Guerillas. I won't weigh in, but as usual the Onion gets it.

New Bicycle Sharing Program in DC

Washington will soon get a new bicycle sharing program. It will work like the Zipcar system in that for a $40 annual membership fee, SmartBike users can check out three-speed bicycles for three hours at a time. The program will not provide helmets but does encourage their use. With the high price of gas these days ($120 a barrel as of yesterday--eek), I hope that the program will catch on and spread to other US cities. At least here in DC, bikes make more sense. I ride mine everywhere and find that I often get where I need to go faster than if I took a car or public transportation. Plus, spandex is hot.

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Khalil Gibran International School

The New York Times published a story today detailing the controversy surrounding the Khalil Gibran International School in Brooklyn, New York. I am saddened and outraged by the whole mess. The founder Debbie Almontaser sought only to foster understanding between the US and Muslims. Children of Arab descent would join students of other ethnicities,
learning Arabic together. By graduation, they would be fluent and groomed to become new generation of American leaders. They would be
ready, in Ms. Almontaser’s words, to become “ambassadors of peace and
hope.” In my eyes, she was a victim fear-mongers who exploit ignorance to promote their own closed-minded ideology.

Read the article and check out the media section. The Times does a great job of conveying the progression of the controversy.

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On Death and Life...

I ran across this series of haunting portraits taken by German photographer Walter Schels of cancer patients before and after their deaths.

"I wonder if it’s possible to have a second chance at life? I don’t think so. I’m not afraid of death — I’ll just be one of the million, billion grains of sand in the desert…”

[Link]

Welcome to the R Street Dispatches...

I couldn't think of a more appropriate way to kick off my new blog than with one of my favorite SNL skits of all time. Natalie Portman is pretty badasss in this. Warning: This isn't suitable for the kids...