MailArt Forum
The Commodification of MailArt and MailArt scams

"On July 23, 2002, a skinny, bookish physics professor coughed up th slop of his internal organs and drifted off into a permanent sleep. Surrounding him were mountain men, skinheads, and former commies and anarchists who had given up their lives to hunker down in this godforsaken West Virginia compound. All had discovered him, in one way or another, through the written word: a vast legacy of thousands of self-published pages that with the leader’s passing formed the group's most precious asset.

This was the death waltz of Dr. William Pierce, acclaimed by a tiny subculture of "intellectual" racists, neo-Nazis and Klansmen as a milquetoast furher who would lead the white race to victory in the coming Racial Apocalypse..."

Cali Ruchala in Xerography Debt 13

Lee Bontecou

Ralph Hamilton

Tom Uttech

Beatrice Helg

Eccentric Chess Players

Children's art of the Spanish Civil War

"The White House is defending its practice of distributing government-funded video news releases to TV stations with the hopes that the stations will air the segments as real news.

On Sunday the NYT featured an extensive front-page investigation detailing the extent that pre-packaged news releases, produced by the federal government, are being used by television stations across the country. The Times reported at least 20 federal agencies, including the Pentagon and Census Bureau, have distributed hundreds of TV-news segments in the past four years. Many were then broadcast on local stations without crediting the government as the source of the information.

On Monday White House Press Secretary Scott McLelan claimed the videos are appropriate as long as they're factual. Last month the General Accounting Office, however, ruled that the videos violate laws that ban covert propaganda. But the Bush administration is ordering all agencies to disregard the GAO's directive."

from DemocracyNow

Atomic chess is like normal chess with the following modifications:

Pieces explode, leaving squares empty. After a capture is completed, the capturing man explodes. The square that the capture occurs on is 'ground zero'. All pieces (not pawns) that are on squares adjacent to ground zero (horizontally, vertically and diagonally) are destroyed in the explosion...

You can play Atomic chess on FICS

Chess ratings and titles explained

Chess Tip of the Day: "It is often better to leave a permanently weak pawn untaken. The idea is that sooner or later the enemy will be induced to use his pieces to protect it, and perish by cramp." --C.J.S. Purdy's "Fine Art of Chess Annotation and Other Thoughts" (Volume One)

While looking for the light, you may suddenly be devoured by darkness and find the true light. --Jack Kerouac

I occasionally play works by contemporary composers, and for two reasons. Firest, to discourage the composer from writing any more, and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven. --Jascha Heifetz

My talent as an artist is to walk across a moor, or place a stone on the ground. --Richard Long

Whatever speech I hear, no matter who is speaking nor what he says, my mind is already working to find the musical equivalent for such speech. --Modest Mussorgsky

Of course, to start with, I love all my pupils. Then I find the talented ones. They are always the most arrogant. --Alexandra Danilova

Second and Meta- Moore's Laws

Just what is it that psychedelic experiences reveal?

Manos, the Hands of Fate

Guantanamo prisoners stage mass protest, some by strangling themselves and performing "self-harm incidents"... What, I wonder is the formal function of the "behavioral health services unit"

Satirist of Pope fined in Poland

In May of last year Symour Hersh wrote about a secret Pentagon unit that was responsible for the torture going on in Abu Ghraib and around the world.

Today the government reveals the existence of this unit, and Hersh is vindicated.

Hersh, you'll remember, is that reporter who recently revealed there are US special forces units in Iran, scouting for targets in preparation for another war.