Cupidity

Cupidity is an art exhibit by 34 regional artists and writers. The art is inspired by personal ads of individuals attempting to reconnect with passing strangers. The second component of the exhibit is a second ad composed from the perspective of an encouter with a stranger near the artwork. The art exhibit runs from Febuary 9 through March 4. Cupidity includes the following sets of artists/writers:

Albert Schweitzer / Katherine Thompson
Alexandra Silverthorne / Heidi Mordhorst
Anna U Davis / Susan Leonardi
Dana Ellyn Kaufman / Charlie Barnett
David Wallace / Mary Kay Zuravleff
Ed Bisese / Levi Asher
Elaine Langerman / Caryn Thurman
Glenn Friedel / Patrick Holway
Greg Ferrand / R R Angell
Helga Thomson / Rebecca Pope
Jean Beebe / Dennis Greza
Kim Bentley / Katie McCaskey
Kirk Waldroff / Dorian Hamilton
Matt Sesow / Doreen Peri
Mike Janis / Claudia Rousseau
Scott Brooks / Frank Warren
Warren Craghead / Roger Noyes

Wall Snatchers

An art exhibit called Wall Snatchers opened up in a former Georgetown Staples store at 3307 M St. presented by Washington Project for the Arts\Corcoran. The exhibit is showcasing graffiti and street art from Boston, Florida, New York, and DC. The exhibit runs until March 26; gallery hours are Friday 6-10 PM and Saturday and Sunday 12-8 PM. The artists being featured include Bask, Eon, Faile, fi5e, Mister Never, Nick Z, and Tes One.

A Native American Hanukkah

Not quite the Hanukkah reception the White House had in mind. Time magazine has posted the first picture with Bush and Abramoff; it is less dramatic than one would hope. It was taken at a meeting in May 2001 in the Eisenhower Building next to the White House with Native American tribal leaders. The White House insisted Abramoff wasn't there.

MD Abduction-Robberies

In four related incidents, teens were abducted by armed men and then forced to rob banks. The teens were entered banks with notes announcing the robberies, and then walked out with the bags of cash. One incident occurred last Wednesday around 4:20 PM at the Chevy Chase Bank on 7501 Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, a 14-year-old boy from Landover was arrested after suggesting to the teller that he was armed and he left with an undisclosed amount of money. He was picked up around 5 PM at 11530 Rockville Pike (Wisconsin Avenue). He is being considered a victim and not charged with the crime. The previous incidents occurred in Price George County, on Jan. 20,one teen was forced to pass a note demanding money to a Wachovia Bank teller and then a Suntrust Bank. On Feb 6, another teen was also forced to pass a note to a Suntrust Bank teller after being abducted from a Metro bus.

Evolution Sunday

Several hundred events around the world are planned to celebrate the birthday of Charles Darwin, Feb. 12. Everything from badminton parties (reportedly Darwin's favorite game) to church sermons are planned. Over 400 churches will be preaching sermons about the compatibility of science and religion.

Dealing With Backseat Drivers

South Philadelphia transit bus driver, Mario Edney, grabbed a woman by the hair, slammed her head into a pole, then threw her off the bus into oncoming traffic at 20th and Washington street after the woman yelled at him for missing her stop. Edney was charged with assault, reckless endangerment, and making terroristic threats. The woman suffered a broken shoulder.

Firefox Software Installation Disabled

If you try to install a Firefox extension and see this message "Software installation is currently disabled." Type about:config in the Location Bar and hit enter. Type xpinstall into Filter and look for "xpinstall.enabled," if it says "false" double-click it to toggle it to true. Restart Firefox and you should be able to install extensions.

Privacy For The Masses

Overview

Tor is a software created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that creates a network of virtual tunnels allowing improved privacy and security and privacy on the internet. Tor can be used to keep websites from tracking individuals users or to connect to services blocked by Internet providers.

Tor creates a private network by creating encrypted connections to servers on the Tor network where no individual server knows the complete path the data has taken. Tor can be used with any application with SOCKS proxy support.

Getting Tor

Tor can be downloaded for free for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD. Using Tor depends on two basic programs Tor and Privoxy which can now be downloaded as a bundle for Windows. Privoxy is a program that modifies web page content by removing ads, banners, and popups, it allows software to interact with the Tor network. The bundle also includes TorCP which lets you monitor and control Tor.

Configuring Applications

In order, to use Firefox or Internet Explorer with Tor follow the instructions below:

Firefox 1.5

On the menu bar click on Tools -> Options. On the Options dialog that pops up click on General, then Connection Settings. Another dialog with come up, click the radio button "Manual proxy configuration". For HTTP Proxy, type localhost, and for Port 8118, then click "Use this proxy server for all protocols. Click OK to exit the dialogs.

Internet Explorer 6

Click Tools -> Internet Options. On the Internet Options dialog, click Connections -> LAN Settings (if you are using a broadband connection). In the dialog that comes up, check the box that says "Use a proxy server for your LAN". Then click Advanced, for HTTP the proxy address to use is localhost and the Port 8118. Check the "Use the same proxy server for all protocols". Click OK to exit the dialogs.

Miscellaneous

Sometimes Tor can be sluggish, it may be necessary to navigate a site without Tor, or an alternate proxy may be preferred, such as I2P. The Firefox extension, SwitchProxy, can be used to switch between Tor, other proxies, and connecting to sites directly. Install SwitchProxy by clicking on "Install Now" on the SwitchProxy extension site. Restart Firefox to start the extension. On the SwitchProxy toolbar, click Add and select the Standard Proxy Type, then click Next. Select a name for the proxy, such as "Tor," then enter localhost for each of the proxies and 8118 for each port. Click OK. The dropdown menu on the SwitchProxy toolbar can be used to switch between proxies, after selecting a proxy click Apply on the toolbar to apply the proxy to the current page.

Websites use IP addresses to determine your physical location and can use this information to alter the content of the website according to the location. Google, in particular, uses this information to redirect users to localized pages of their website in the language of the country from which the connection was made.

Candy Strikers

Fourth and fifth-graders at North Side Elementary school students in Fort Lauderdale, FL refused selling chocolate bars and potato chips because of the unhealthiness of the snacks. The childern were raising money for a weeklong trip in May to Williamsburg, VA and Washington, DC. Ten-year old, Daphnie Auguste said:

If they tell us to don't eat junk food and then after school we sell it, that disobeys what they said. I'm happy because people won't get fat. But I'm sad because how are we going to get the money to go on our field trip?

It Was Stress; Not Crazy, No Drugs

Last May, Chapelle left his show in mid-production. In his first interview since leaving Chapelle told Oprah that too many people were trying to control him and the direction of his show, and it was not mental problems or drugs. Comedy Central will be airing 4 new episodes of the show this spring from the material that was taped before Chapelle left. Of course, his appearance on Oprah may be the continuance of a conspiracy against Chapelle enacted by the "Dark Crusaders", a group of individuals who felt the material of his show did not reflect well on the black community.

Knee Replacement Surgery Is Painful

From the Wonkette:

On Wednesday, my physical therapy session in Silver Spring found Jack Abramoff on the table next to mine. Somehow I restrained myself from assaulting him -- I remembered the possibilty of his testimony.

My self-restraint was difficult. While I felt that it would be inappropriate for me to interfere with his health care, I cannot but think of the millions denied access to health care by the actions of the system that he financed; while I felt it wrong for me to violate his privacy, I thought of the privacy of us all violated by this administration that he did so much to bring to power; while I believe that he ought not be denied his rights, his accomplices have violated and eroded the rights of millions: he enjoys all the benefits of the civil society against which he conspired. And these people have the gall to suggest that Liberals hate America.

Jack was there because of his knee replacement operations. A painful procedure. He commented that they were hurting. Good.

Pimpin' Tiger And John Stewart, The Psychic

On Monday night's episode of the Daily Show, John Stewart spoke about Exxon's record breaking profits of $36 billion dollars, the largest year-end profit for any company in US history:

They're making so much money, they're literally buying two tankers to fill with oil to just crash into Alaska. Because they have the money, they feel like f*ck we'll pay for it. Let's have some fun.

While his exact prediction didn't come true, today the Tesoro-chartered oil tanker, Seabulk Pride, carrying 5 million gallons of oil and gasoline ran aground in Alaska causing a spill.

A Night of Human-Animal Hybrids and Telling T-Shirts

There were few interesting moments of last night's State of the Union speech. The first occurred before the President's speech when Cindy Sheehan was thrown out of the House Chambers for wearing an anti-war t-shirt. Sheehan described the incident on Michael Moore's blog, the t-shirt read "2,245 Dead. How many more?". Sheehan plans on filing a First Amendment lawsuit for what happened. She wasn't alone, Republican congressman Bill Young's wife was also removed from the House chamber 45 minutes into the speech for wearing a shirt reading "Support the Troops: Defending Our Freedom." House rules prohibit demonstrations in the Capitol, but Bill Young later stated that he didn't believe wearing a t-shirt constituted a demonstration. Today, the Capitol police apologized to Sheehan and Beverly Young and dropped the charge of unlawful conduct.

Towards the end of the speech Bush said

"Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research, human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling or patenting human embryos."

Eighteen hours later, a website selling "Human-Animal Hybrid" t-shirts was created to help the President raise awareness about the terrible half-man/half beast creatures and the phrase "human-animal hybrids" gained acclaim on Technorati.

Interface

The Fraser Gallery, one of Bethesda's 11 art galleries, has an exhibition, which is a mix of contemporary art and technology.


Philip Kohn's ~$3000 piece, the Looking Glass, uses a tablet pc, a video camera, and custom software to produce small video clips that are played and overlayed with other video segments.


Blame by Thomas Edwards is white hand with a small sensor attached to which stops when a person passes in front of it and blames him/her for various problem in society: "I blame you for corporate scandals", "I blame you for suburban sprawl,", etc.


A strange device reminiscent of an engine hoist entitled Hopscotch by David Page uses two persons placed in restrictive suits: one is attached to from a hook on the arm and another one is strapped to a rolling buggy. The suspended person is lifted out of the way of the buggy-riding person at the last moment and then the process is reversed.


Claire Watkins's Flock of Needles uses rotating magnets to move and sway needles that have been threaded into her piece which is a collection of small paintings of sea anemone-like creatures.