I just kinda thought this was funny, though perhaps a bit sad too.

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has ordered jailed punk rocker Gorki Aguila, an outspoken critic of Fidel Castro and the communist government, to stand trail on Friday for “social dangerousness,” a charge that could carry up to four years in prison.

Authorities arrested the 39-year-old lead singer of the band Porno para Ricardo at his Havana home on Monday as he was working on a new album. Cuban law defines “social dangerousness” as behavior contrary to “communist morality,” and authorities use the charge to detain offenders before they have a chance to commit a crime.

To the druids, it means this.

To you, Flagstaff, it probably means this.

I, on the other hand, am happy enough to play outside and howl under the beautiful yellow moon.

Last week, just before I hopped in the shower, I noticed a giant water beetle perched on my towel, which was neatly folded on the rack. I don’t know much about beetles. Maybe it wasn’t a water beetle, but it was black, six legs, and about 2 inches long. Anyway, I couldn’t bring myself to kill it and, knowing how cold it was outside, I knew throwing it outside would have been more cruel than smashing it.

1. Today I woke with the sun. I stumbled into the kitchen, grabbed a glass from the cupboard and, in the dark, mixed up some emergen-C. Upon the first sip, I felt something crawling in my mouth. When I spit it into the sink, low and behold, a wolf spider!

2. Everybody in the United States should watch the film, Trade. Some films are just important.

3. I’ve been listening to the new Japanther album non-stop for a week. There are lots of familiar stuff from other albums and singles, but it’s soooo good.

I took a post-snow walk today, saw this, and laughed for the rest of the afternoon. It was nice to know I’m not alone (By the way, go rent Michael Franti’s new film, I Know I’m Not Alone). Seriously though. Just yesterday, I helped two people push their cars out of the snow and witnessed three car accidents. Here are other sticker ideas for this masked bandit.

STOP Racism
” ” ” Homophobia
” ” ” Sexism
” ” ” The Global Economy

… other ideas?

Speaking of not driving, I just got my new snow-tires today. I went with TIOGA. They’re for downhill bikes, but because my bike is much lighter than most of those bikes, I should be pretty unstoppable in the snow. I also got myself a new chain. I’m still in the market for a rear derailleur, but the one I got should last me through the winter.

This is my Hummer. Ride safe out there.

Hey, I’m back! I took a small, unannounced hiatus. Expect a whole lot to read this week.

I hope everyone had a great New Years. Mine was all over the place. I showed up at Casebeers late and I missed This Runs on Blood (sob), but managed to see a few others and made some new friends. Before midnight, I walked downtown and managed to meet up with some peeps despite not having a phone on me. That’s Flagstaff I guess. I wanted to see that stupid pinecone drop because I’ve never been in Flagstaff for New Years.

Somehow, I managed to get to the second floor of the Weatherford, dodging drunken mayhem along the way. I looked down on a sea of heads bobbing to whatever generic-ass band the city had playing in the street. There had to be at least a thousand people standing in the freezing cold, watching a paper mache pinecone sway in the breeze. It would have been a good time for a crime spree.

The whole thing was pretty ridiculous, but quite the spectacle. When the clock struck 12, everyone of course went nuts. Some guy ran up and put his arm around me and, with his other arm, grabbed the ass of the woman in front of me….making it seem like I did it. I was pissed and shoved the guy. There must be a 5 second window during this time when people know they can get away with anything. The woman didn’t even care.

Don’t get lost in the snow out there!

This is the cutest animal I’ve ever seen. (BBC news video)

“The cartoon generated a huge amount of filth, intolerable filth.”
– Senator Bill Napoli, sponsor of abortion ban, South Dakota
(Rapid City Journal)

Stephanie McMillan rocks.

My tail light recently fell off my bike and shattered on the pavement. Carrying that thing around was just another thing to worry about anyway.

“okay, I’m late; I’ve got my helmet, my head lamp, my lock, gloves, hat, change of shoes…blah blah.” I think these lights are a pretty good partial-solution to the havoc of accessories.

Designed especially for drop bars, these ingenious little lights are easy to install and replace the end plugs in your current handlebar.

-Super bright red LEDs can be seen for up to a mile away
-Flashing or steady modes
-Batteries included

I have become intimately acquainted with the “freedom complex” many freshmen comp students feel upon hearing the phrase, “write about whatever the hell you want.” I always hated having to pick a paper topic from a list generated by my instructor because there is an obvious difference between freedom and choices. Nonetheless, many of my students thought it would be a good idea if I came up with a list of topic ideas.

I said I would, though reiterated that any list I came up with would be topics I would be interested in reading or writing myself. The following topics would be of interest to me either because I’ve already formed an opinion on the topic (which should be pretty apparent) or they are framed around real questions that I have.

So the list is meant to generate ideas for them. They are, of course, free to choose (or modify) one of my topics. I just hope everyone settles on something they’re passionate about. I encouraged them to generate their own list; here is mine–everything from serious to ridiculous.

50 loaded questions

1. Can uranium be mined on the Navajo reservation while still maintaining and
respecting human rights?
2. Are social networking sites like myspace and facebook further separating
us, both from ourselves and the real world (hmmm, what is the real world anyway?)?
3. Is the “green speak” rhetoric of advertisements for “eco-friendly” products
misleading to consumers?
4. There is a lot of emphasis lately on individual consumption choices (i.e.
take shorter showers, change your light-bulbs to CFL’s, buy a hybrid, recycle…etc). Is it right for individual citizens to take responsibility when agriculture and industry use way more resources than citizens ever could?
5. Should we continue to produce petroleum based plastic bags?
6. Cancer is now the leading cause of death (recently surpassing heart
disease). Is cancer a disease of civilization? (i.e. are the majority of the cancer’s we face today the result of our own actions, such as the toxification of our environment? Or is there some hereditary explosion?)
7. Is the sound quality better on vinyl or digital recordings?
8. Are women exploited in hip hop videos?
9. What kind of man is represented through contemporary advertisements (for
this one, you might focus on one ad campaign: i.e. the Mitchem Man ads, Jim Beam ads, Toyota Tacoma ads…etc.). Is this representation a positive one?
10. Would our country be better off without a two party system?
11. Is representative democracy the best form of democracy?
12. Does the designated hitter rule in baseball allow for coaches to sidestep
difficult decisions?
13. Is animal testing still helpful in progressing science? 14. Should traffic laws be changed to address bicyclists? (an example of the
“pro” side might be: Bicycles should be able to treat stop signs as yield
signs and traffic lights as stop signs.)
15. Should all major roads be equipped with bike lanes?
16. Does globalization exploit third world workers and destroy communities?
17. Is the electricity provided by dams worth the destruction of the river and
the species that rely on free flowing rivers to survive (such as salmon, steelhead, sturgeon…etc)?
18. Should Lake Powell be drained?
19. Is Starbucks as ethical as they promote themselves to be?
20. Should water from the Navajo aquifer be used to carry raw coal
from the Black Mesa mine to the Peabody coal plant? (stoppeabody.org)
21. Is bio-technology a good idea?
22. Has Hot Topic exploited the aesthetics of the punk rock subculture to make money?
23. When public schools are cutting their budget, art and music are
notoriously the first to go. What does that say about what our culture values?
24. Regarding anarchism, Alexander Berkman said, “I must tell you, first of
all, what anarchism is not. It is not bombs, disorder, or chaos. It is not robbery or murder. It is not a war of each against all. It is not a return to barbarianism or to the wild state of man. Anarchism is the very opposite of all that.” If it’s not disorder and chaos, what is it? What is the difference between anarchism, the political philosophy, and anarchism, the stereotype?
25. A recent U.N Report concluded that emissions from the industrial meat
industry (i.e. factory farms…etc.) contribute more to global warming than world wide transportation emissions (from cars, planes…etc.). Why all the emphasis on changing transportation habits and not much on eating habits? (Google: “Vegetarian is the new Prius” for an essay that discusses this).
26. Should police officers be better trained to respectfully handle gender
violence issues?
27. Environmental racism: is it right to place toxic industry near low income
housing or vice versa?
28. What are the benefits of xeriscaping your yard (utilizing native plants
for landscaping, xeriscape.org) verses planting items based simply on aesthetic appeal?
29. Has technology decreased our use of paper? (Many sources I’ve read have
actually said that technology has resulted in increased paper use/wastage). 30. Is it important to support local businesses? Why? How do local businesses enrich small towns like Flagstaff?
31. Are people with tattoos and piercings wrongfully stereotyped in our
culture? Why? Where did this craze come from? How is it treated in other cultures?
32. Does a consumerist culture promote unattainable happiness?
33. Could capitalism function without a lower class? If not (or not in the
same way) how does our society guarantee a steady supply of low income workers?
34. Should American businesses offer a “paternity leave” for new fathers? (NAU
doesn’t even offer maternity leave, btw.)
35. Apple computers v. PC’s, the never-ending debate…
36. Remember when we all knew each other’s phone numbers? Has the rise of
cell-phone culture been a positive change in society or a negative one?
37. I heard that the removal of body hair in our culture is linked to
prostitution—that early prostitutes started shaving their body hair to appear like younger girls. They did this to extend their own profitability as younger girls “sold” better. It would be interesting to read a paper delving into this
issue. Hell, you could also write about why younger girls “sell” better in the
first place.
38. Is “the American Dream” (and you’ll have to define it, and quote others)
compatible with a living planet? Why or why not?
39. Who is the best presidential candidate for 2008? (Careful with this one;
it’s probably a harder paper to write than you think!)
40. Does legalized gambling reinforce a false “something for nothing” mentality that is destructive to our perception of true value?
41. Can coozies? I’m for ‘em!
42. Should the legal driving age be moved up to 65, with the exception of the
handicapped, public transportation, ambulances, and pizza delivery?
43. Are police unnecessary if we build community? (You would obviously have to
define community with quotes..etc).
44. Isn’t Nicholas Cage the worst actor ever? 45. Wouldn’t Flagstaff be a great candidate for wind and solar power?
46. What are anti-oxidants anyway? What foods have them and why are they
important?
47. Do zoo’s allow us to develop relationships with nonhuman animals or do
they reinforce our power over them?
48. Is it hard to start mulching your biodegradable trash?
49. Is the usage of the word “terrorist” today similar to the way in which the
word “communist” was used in our countrys’ past?
50. I have observed a serge in “superhero” films after the 911 tragedy. Could
these films be a response to the attacks some how?