Ain't No Method

May 15

“

The late UAW President Walter Reuther was touring a highly automated Ford Assembly Plant when a company executive said, “Walter, you’re going to have a hard time collecting union dues from all these machines.” Reuther shot back, “not as hard a time as you’re going to have selling them cars.”

As the middle class goes, so goes Capitalism.

”

Jan 28

“I couldn’t really begin to say why, but in the process of working myself up to buying an iPad I became slightly addicted to these strange, homemade videos, with their mildly intoxicating mixture of smugness and exhilaration. I started off watching iPad unboxings, and then worked my way haphazardly outward toward the fringes of the technological orbit: to webcam footage of people unboxing leatherette iPhone cases, Kindle reading lights, limited-edition Nintendo DS replacement styluses. I saw a well-heeled New Jerseyite named Lance Linton unbox a Dualit brushed-steel toaster; I saw a nervous and bespectacled Irish schoolboy unbox a Russell Hobbs Glass Touch cordless kettle; I saw a tracksuited and baseball-capped East Londoner unbox a Gamucci Micro V2 Electronic Cigarette starter kit; I saw a pallid old Texan unbox something called a Medtronic Carelink Monitor, a modem-linked device whereby cardiac patients can send data from their pacemakers to their doctors; I saw a young American kid loquaciously unpacking first a stapler (‘contoured for handheld use’), then, in a companion-piece video, the separately-sold staples with which he intended to load it. I saw every conceivable consumer durable unsheathed and admired, I saw the broken labyrinth of the Internet itself, and I saw the face of the free market, saw my face and my viscera reflected back in it, saw your face, and I felt dizzy. Mostly, though, I just saw a lot of Apple products and Sony games consoles being taken out of their boxes and exhaustively talked about by young American men.” Every Man His Own Shopping Channel | The Dublin Review (via new-aesthetic)

(via new-aesthetic)

Jan 10

“So far all my interactions at the rally were only reinforcing my private theory—I suppose you might call it a prejudice—that liberals are the ones who went to college, moved to the nearest city where no one would call them a fag, and now only go back for holidays; conservatives are the ones who married their high school girlfriends, bought houses in their hometowns, and kept going to church and giving a shit who won the homecoming game. It’s the divide between the Got Out and the Stayed Put. This theory also accounts for the different reactions of these two camps when the opposition party takes power, raising the specter of either fascist or socialist tyranny: the Got Outs always fantasize about fleeing the country for someplace more civilized—Canada, France, New Zealand; the Stayed Put just dig further in, hunkering down in compounds, buying up canned goods and ammo.” Tim Krieder, We Learn Nothing (via timoni)

(via arkanciscan)

Dec 21

(Source: astrotastic, via project-argus)

Dec 21

“Next time you find yourself cussing under your breath, however, or even aloud, at the driving laws or the police who enforce them, consider what driving was like before there were any laws. The Farmers’ Anti-Automobile Society in Pennsylvania became understandably upset at the increasing number of fatalities at the turn of the century. They decided to take measures to improve driver safety. Night drivers had to stop and send off a Roman candle every mile, wait ten minutes for the road to clear and then proceed while blowing their horn. If the driver still encountered horses, he was required to stop and cover his vehicle with a camouflage cover. If any horse was too spooked to pass his car, the driver was obliged to strip the vehicle and hide the pieces in the undergrowth. Members of the society were also invited to chase automobiles on Sundays, shouting and/or shooting at the drivers and threatening them with arrest.” Traffic School Wisdom

Dec 19

“The first rule of FOIA club is that information regarding FOIA club
is exempt from disclosure pursuant to the fourth, fifth and six
exemptions of the FOIA Act (5 U.S.C. Section 552(b)(4),(5),(6)).
Subsequent rules are exempt from disclosure pursuant to the second
exemption (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(2))” Danny O’Brien, noisebridge-discuss

Dec 3

New York City

Dec 3

New York City

Nov 6

Sep 29

cabinporn:

Barn in Iceland. Submitted by Raya Stefanova.