Sean read and liked MyFleshSingsOut's review of Art Worlds:

"Really, really interesting stuff. I especially like the sections on "Naive Artists" (aka "outsider art"). I used the chapter "Integrated Professionals, Mavericks, Folk Artists, and Naive Artists" as the citation-founda...more Really, really interesting stuff. I especially like the sections on "Naive Artists" (aka "outsider art"). I used the chapter "Integrated Professionals, Mavericks, Folk Artists, and Naive Artists" as the citation-foundation (Like that? I just made it up.) for a paper and subsequent interactive presentation on The Flaming Lips' parking lot and boom box experiments which segued into their tremendous four-simultaneously-played-discs album Zaireeka. (Read about it. Do it. Please.)

I've been digging through the mass grave of my past for the last few hours. Finding books I'd forgotten about. Finding terrible "writing" scribbled upon random things while fucked up and teeming with existential angst, which I saved for some sentimental/unclear reasons. Looking at the cardboard-boxed remnants of my past with a deep wistfulness and near-nauseating, private embarrassment in tow -- they are tag-teaming my mind, working in shifts.

(Look, I'm getting close to writing bloggy reviews! Yay! I'm doing it, Pa! I'm riding all by myself!)

Anyway, that album is great and I have several fond memories of gathering people/boom boxes together to listen to it. My first and only and deeply-beloved/-missed cat was named after it.

I miss you, Zaireeka. May you be happily sneezing on other cats in cat heaven.(less) "

Sean read and liked MyFleshSingsOut's review of The Meaning of Liff:

"When I first encountered this book in a friend's bathroom I definitely thought it was called The Meaning of Life at first glance and this (undoubtedly common) optical aberration made what I discovered inside so much funnier.

This is a wond...more When I first encountered this book in a friend's bathroom I definitely thought it was called The Meaning of Life at first glance and this (undoubtedly common) optical aberration made what I discovered inside so much funnier.

This is a wonderfully creative book. It’s a list of definitions which can be read randomly. All the terms are actual places--many being towns in England and America--and the definitions for things and happenings for which there was no single term for beforehand. In other words it's a list of observations of "the little things" but not in a groan-inducing early 90's Seinfeld stand-up comedy way whatsoever. It's like an intelligent, irreverent, childlike-curiosity-driven, British version of the "Didja ever notice when...", "...airplane peanuts...", etc, tiresome bullshit routine we all know, loathe, and were sick of mocking a decade ago. It combines that basic style of observational humor with an eye for the truly tiny details and a sensitive finger on the pulse of absurdity lurking behind, well, most things in daily life.

E.g. at random:

OSBASTON (n.)
A point made for the seventh time to somebody who insists that they know exactly what you mean but clearly hasn’t got the faintest idea.

OSHKOSH (n., vb.)
The noise made by someone who has just been grossly flattered and is trying to make light of it.

OSSETT (n.)
A frilly spare-toilet-roll-cosy.

OSWALDTWISTLE (n. Old Norse)
Small brass wind instrument used for summoning Vikings to lunch when they’re off on their longships, playing.

OBWESTRY (abs.n.)
Bloody-minded determination on part of a storyteller to continue a story which both the teller and the listeners know has become desperately tedious.

OUGHTERBY (n.)
Someone you don’t want to invite to a party but whom you know you have to as a matter of duty.

OUNDLE (vb.)
To walk along leaning sideways, with one arm hanging limp and dragging one leg behind the other. Most commonly used by actors in amateur production of Richard III, or by people carrying a heavy suitcase in one hand.

OZARK (n.)
One who offers to help just after all the work has been done.

MILWAUKEE (n.)
The melodious whistling, chanting and humming tone of the milwaukee can be heard whenever a public lavatory is entered. It is the way the occupants of the cubicles have of telling you there’s no lock on their door and you can’t come in.

NAZEING (participial vb.)
The rather unconvincing noises of pretended interest which an adult has to make when brought a small dull object for admiration by a child.

PITSLIGO (n.)
Part of traditional mating rite. During the first hot day of spring, all the men in the tube start giving up their seats to ladies and straphanging. The purpose of pitsligo is for them to demonstrate their manhood by displaying the wet patches under their arms.

PLEELEY (adj.)
Descriptive of a drunk person’s attempt to be endearing.

PLYMOUTH (vb.)
To relate an amusing story to someone without remembering that it was they who told it to you in the first place.

PLYMPTON (n.)
The (pointless) knob on top of a war memorial.

Read ABOUT it here.

&

Read the entire thing online here.

"In Life*, there are many hundreds of common experiences, feelings, situations and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for which no words exist.

On the other hand, the world is littererd with thousands of spare words which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing at places.

Our job, as wee see it, is to get these words dow off the signposts and into the mouths of babes and sucklings and so on, where they can start earning their keep in everyday conversation and make a more positive contribution to society.


*And, indeed, in Liff."

-The Authors(less) "

Sean read and liked Eric_W's review of Supertrains: Solutions to America's Transportation Gridlock:

"Joseph Vranich, in Supertrains: Solutions to America's Gridlock describes how virtually every other industrial nation in the world has developed high speed rail lines to solve the problems of moving people without using vast amounts of land and at r...more Joseph Vranich, in Supertrains: Solutions to America's Gridlock describes how virtually every other industrial nation in the world has developed high speed rail lines to solve the problems of moving people without using vast amounts of land and at reasonable cost.
The French and German experience is instructive. TGV (Tres Grande Vitesse) trains in France now cruise at 200 mph and have been tested at speeds of over 300 mph at 10 times the efficiency of airplanes. The TGV has been consistently profitable earning 15% after debt service. It is remarkably economical. The entire cost (at 65% load) of a TGV train running from Lyons to Paris including interest and depreciation, fuel, and staff is less than the jet fuel alone for an Airbus on the same route. Incidentally, all the TGV lines, with the exception of the new Atlantic Line, were built without government assistance. Their safety record has been perfect: no injuries or deaths in over 25 years of operations during which time they carried more than a billion passengers. In the United States, more than 1/2 of all accidents are transportation related and 90% of those occur on highways.
The TGV uses steel-wheel-on-steel-rail technology. (Actually this is quite efficient. A U.S. locomotive manufacturer, as a publicity stunt, hired 4 young women to pull a 355 ton locomotive from a dead stop. They accomplished it easily. The rails and wheels offer little friction.) Maglev (magnetic levitation) technology may be even more efficient and practical. The Germans have several lines in operation. No motors are required, they are absolutely quiet, economical, and have a theoretical top speed of 1,700 mph (although this is impractical for passengers). The maglev trains actually float just above the single "support" which requires almost no "footprint" as it crosses the countryside. They could be easily installed along highways. A 250 mph system currently is operated by Lufthansa from one of their airports. Lufthansa believes it is in the business of moving people. The technology is irrelevant (something the railroads ignored in the fifties when they had opportunities to operate airlines). Lufthansa argues it makes little sense to get people swiftly to a destination only to have them park in gridlock on a superhighway to get into town.
Vranich suggests the U.S. needs to build high speed rail lines to connect cities 300 to 600 miles apart. These short hauls are wasteful for aircraft and actually slower in travel times when one considers ultimate downtown destinations. The Federal government has been woefully short-sighted (if not actually hostile) in developing high speed rail as an alternative.
Several states have begun to take the initiative from a purely practical standpoint. California and Nevada officials are ready to begin work on an Anaheim to Las Vegas maglev train. The maglevs have the advantage in mountainous terrain because they can climb a 10% grade and maintain high speed on sharp corners, reducing the need for tunnels and expensive grade work. Another maglev train is planned from Orlando to Disneyworld. Ohio is planning high speed rail lines for a link between Cleveland and Cincinnati. Pennsylvania has discussed a line to connect Pittsburgh to Philadelphia which would connect to Metroliner service on the Washington to Boston route.
The Eastern megalopolis is perfect for development of high speed rail. Metroliners now operate at about 125 mph and are extremely popular. They consistently outperform the airline shuttles. Vranich estimates a high speed rail line could be constructed up this corridor for less than $30 billion, less than the cost of two aircraft carriers. It would be an excellent and productive way to keep high-tech companies in business that have lost military contracts.
All this without mentioning Japan's "bullet" trains, where intense research into even faster speeds continues. They, too, have an enviable safety record with an incredible on-time record of 99%. Those few times when the trains were late, the average tardiness was 28 seconds. Other countries with intense high speed rail development include Spain, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, and Russia.
Vranich makes a lot of sense. The data is all available; the technology proven. All that is required is a little leadership.

(less) "