It’s actually pretty cool to be able to listen to all this stuff for free and compile playlists. The product itself is definitely rough around the edges, but overall it’s not bad.

It’s been a while since I’ve come across any new music I liked. If you’ve got any recommendations, feel free to throw in their MySpace URLs in the comments.

It turns out they’re one of 25 finalists in the Members Project from American Express. If Kiva is selected as the winner, they’ll get a million or two from American Express. Kiva makes no money off the micro-loans, so a windfall like this would go a long way toward paying the rent, doing the legwork with micro-lending institutions in developing countries, and helping a bunch of do-gooders get their paychecks. $1.5 million translates into 60,000 $25 micro-loans!

If you have an American Express card, go vote for Kiva’s entry, Loans That Change Lives, at the Members Project.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, both Dorcas and Lan Thi are repaying their loans.

About parts per million:

“At her thirtieth reunion, Horowitz was astonished to learn that so many of her former classmates had cancer. Oil wells under the town of Beverly Hills and the highly regarded high school were apparently the cause. She had some difficulty getting access to documents because of ongoing lawsuits initiated by famed environmental activist Erin Brockovich. Still, Horowitz draws on interviews with cancer specialists, geologists, toxicologists, and former teachers and classmates to relate an amazing story of environmental hazard in one of the nation’s most storied towns, proof that it can happen anywhere. For years students had been living with oil-tinged clothing following workouts on the athletic fields, with oil pumps looming in the background. But town residents, enjoying royalty checks and the tony image of their community, refused to connect the presence of oil pumps and rising reports of cancer in their youth. Horowitz chronicles the residents’ range of emotions, from anger and denial to shame at having done so little to protect their children, as she examines the role of money, image, and continued uncertainty in a community grappling with environmental hazards.”
–Vanessa Bush, Booklist

An acquaintance of mine had a brother who passed away last year from brain cancer. Both of them had attended Beverly just over a decade ago.

Online Communities

Click for full-size original.

And this awesomer comic:

M.C. Hammer Slide

They is probably he.

Son of a bitch. I just realized there’s additional commentary in the title attribute of every image.

They Didn’t Study

NPR: Biotech Industry Touts its ‘Green’ Credentials

Green Plastics – not to be confused with Green Plastic, a Radiohead site.

Yeesh. You can buy them and a convertible top on eBay.

Here’s a sample:

My hero, George W. Bush, told the world yesterday that the systematic torture and sexual humiliation of the Abu Ghraib prisoners in Baghdad is abhorrent (he pronounced it “aphorrent” but we’ve got bigger fish to fry). He all but actually apologized in the two truncated videos I’ve seen drifting around the net.

I believe he is sorry. Sorry that this is a fucking PR nightmare in an election storm. Sorry that even republicans are currently calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation. Sorry that they only started the Military Intelligence investigation (one of six) a little over ten days ago even though CBS’s 60 Minutes contacted the Pentagon three weeks prior for a response. Very very sorry.

Why I’m not buying the president’s moral outrage has a lot to do with the hard truth about abuse in Texas Prisons under his Gubernatorial watch and the fact that he never apologized to the impoverished Texas prison population. But then he doesn’t see all of them as potential suicide bombers sitting on a shit load of oil either.

It’s obvious what direction Machine Samba will be taking in the months to come.