Ken Layne's Blog, page 24

madeupmemories:Corporations are people.Then can they be...

madeupmemories:

Corporations are people.

Then can they be executed?

"The Obama administration is examining ways to pull foreclosed properties off the market and rent..."

"The Obama administration is examining ways to pull foreclosed properties off the market and rent them to help stabilize the housing market, according to people familiar with the matter. While the plans may not advance beyond the concept phase, they are under serious consideration by senior administration officials because rents are rising even as home prices in many hard-hit markets continue to fall due to high foreclosure levels."

- Government Considering Renting Foreclosed Homes - WSJ.com

"In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything:"Yes,"..."

"

In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything:

"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?"

"Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."

Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere.

"

-

(via Penny Red re: the London riots)

Everything that's wrong with our media in one exchange.

(via anthonyking)

Submitted without comment.

(via laughterkey)

spiegelman:Guide to avoiding prosecution, found on street...

spiegelman:

Guide to avoiding prosecution, found on street during London riots.

Life during wartime.

Ken Layne's Modest Utopia | Commentary | SoCal Focus | KCET

Ken Layne's Modest Utopia | Commentary | SoCal Focus | KCET

Here's a weird thing to find the day after watching 'Lord of the Rings' with your kids

Similar small underground labyrinths have been found across Europe, from Hungary to Spain, but no one knows why they were built. At least 700 of these chambers have been found in Bavaria alone, along with about 500 in Austria. In the local vernacular, they have fanciful names such as "Schrazelloch" ("goblin hole") or "Alraunenhöhle" ("mandrake cave"). They were supposedly built by elves, and legend has it that gnomes lived inside …. It led to a unique gallery with walls made of sand. Initially the tunnel went down vertically for 4 meters, and then it continued in a zigzag pattern. There was a narrow "Schlupf" section at the end of the labyrinth. It reminds the researchers of a vagina.

[Via Cryptogon]

Here's the latest chapter of my California Missions 4th grade history project

Here's the latest chapter of my California Missions 4th grade history project:

Sunset magazine and genocide in a single web article.

The first real review: 'Populist Fatalism - The Rumpus.net'

Caleb Cage, editor of The Nevada Review, has written the first full review of Dignity, for The Rumpus.

Very pleased with this. Cage got right into the guts of the thing: the invented religious rituals, the intentional collapse of the state that brings on the crisis, and the weird housing stock that westerners have accepted as part of the damaged-yet-grand landscape. And he treats the book as a work of philosophy, which is what it is.

'Freegans On the Run'

I did not know (until just now) that Rebecca Schoenkopf's review/feature about Dignity was in Las Vegas CityLife last week.

And for those who asked, my annual camping/hiking trip to Tuolumne Meadows was nothing like this.

Imperial outposts, architecture schools, death camps & tourist traps: A grown man finally does his Fourth Grade California Missions report

This new novel I'm writing takes place, sort of, in the old Spanish missions of Southern California. For research purposes, I went to three missions and one sub-mission, all by train and trolley.

And because I'm now doing this "re-imagining spaces" column for FourStory.org, I wrote about the missions going from Imperial conversion churches/fortresses to stop the Russian/British territorial advances on Alta California to political handouts to unloved abandoned ruins to nostalgic cultural centers in a land that is terribly insecure about its lack of castles and monuments. The column is here.