Food For Thought

The Quotations Page, created by michael moncur, is the web site for quotations.

Fagan Finder, created by Michael Fagan, is another site useful for research and, like the previous site, links to this site!

Tim Kreider's The Pain -- When Will It End? archives his very funny, politically astute comics.

Secrecy News is a email publication of the FAS [Federation of American Scientists] Project on Government Secrecy. It provides informal coverage of new developments in secrecy, security and intelligence policies, as well as links to new acquisitions on our web site. It is published 2 to 3 times a week, or as events warrant.

Silicon Mirror & Kaleidoscope are two programs used to create and display kaleidoscopic images. The Silicon Mirror operates on .bmp or .jpg images to produce a kaleidoscope effect. The Silicon Kaleidoscope is a screen saver that uses the Silicon Mirror to create a kaleidoscopic real time animation. I like to use colorful images like Huichol yarn art, album cover art (try Weasels Ripped My Flesh by The Mothers) - even something you probably would not consider beautiful, like this happy guy (really, try it - no one will know but you). My favorite uses a beautiful Dutch banknote. The software has a free 30-day evaluation, and is only $12.

Alex Grey asks the big questions, and you can see what kind of answers he's gotten in his incredible paintings. It's difficult to describe his work without sounding hyperbolic: it is beautiful, spiritual, psychedelic. If you ever have a chance to see him or his art in person, Go!

Medical marijuana? "Bullshit!," say the assholes bureaucrats in charge. "All anecdotal, no scientific evidence," they say, while denying all research proposals. MAPS has valiantly battled this attitude since 1988, and has attained approval for (and funded) studies on marijuana, LSD, MDMA, and other "dangerous drugs." If you care at all about the damage done by The War on (some) Drugs, you should support MAPS.

If you hate commercial radio, and are bored by public/college radio, listen to radio over the Internet. My favorite stations are WFMU and WNUR.

WFMU, based in New Jersey, is true freeform listener-sponsored radio. Tune in anytime to hear stuff you will never hear on commercial broadcast radio. You can also listen to archived shows - many include playlists!

WNUR, "Chicago's Sound Experiment", is sponsored by Northwestern University's School of Communication. Their schedule is misleading - the "Rock" and "Jazz" shows play music never heard on the commercial stations. Discover the really good music you thought didn't exist.

These final blurbs are the closest thing to advertising you'll find in FFT (I wrote these without their knowledge, and don't/won't get paid for doing so):

If you like music - classical, jazz, rock, progressive, world, improvisational, and/or experimental (don't categories suck?) - and don't live close to a good store, try shopping at Wayside Music. Their thumbnail reviews are a hype-free guide (with very helpful descriptions) to everything they carry. Prices are good, and service is fast.

If you don't already have a favorite independent bookseller, visit Mark V. Ziesing, Bookseller (and Publisher). His showrooms will soon cover the planet (Bored-ers, Bowels 'n Mobile, Mooks-a-Billion), but sales are strictly mail order. He also carries titles the big stores never carry: while the biggies Wal-Mart-ize the marketplace, indies like Ziesing offer truly alternative, truly literary titles. You can even special-order the latest Danielle Steele or Sidney Sheldon title, if you, uh, need one for a gift - just don't look for that kind of thing in his catalog.