w a s t e . t i m e . n o w

Arlington, Virginia’s Freedom Park is home to The Newseum — an ambitious project dedicated to “helping the public and the news media understand one another better”.

Funded by Freedom Forum (a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people) the Newseum is more than a museum. It is also a celebration of the First Amendment — that uniquely American covenant between the government and the people, which guarantees an unrestricted flow of information and ensures the United States will remain forever free.

This wildly successful project outgrew its Freedom Park real estate in 2002, but construction is underway for an expanded Newseum on “America’s Main Street”: Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. Though you won’t be able to visit the new location in person until 2007, the Newseum’s online presence endures as a comforting beacon of freedom.

I specifically enjoy visiting the Today’s Front Pages section. Reviewing this daily scan of more than 300 newspapers from around the United States is a powerful reminder that a free press truly is a key pillar of justice, and the foundation of democracy.

If you don’t know Deerhoof, their Wikipedia entry describes them as an art-punk band that tries to “merge melody with noise” — which is pretty dead-on. How perfectly awesome it is to have them playing Richards on Richards this Thursday night.

Nothing takes the edge off Autumn like melody merged with noise.

Word on the street is The Runners Four is their best album yet. Check out these Deerhoof tracks available for download as MP3s (number six is from their new cd).

New York’s Museum of Modern Art presents SAFE — an exhibition of “more than 300 contemporary products and prototypes designed to protect body and mind from dangerous or stressful circumstances, respond to emergencies, ensure clarity of information, and provide a sense of comfort and security”.

Make sure you have Flash Player installed, then visit the Design Takes On Risk exhibition online.

I admit I’ve made-up some pretty flimsy excuses for abruptly ending a phone call in the past (but never with you, of course). One problem with fabricating reasons for getting off the phone is that I routinely need to escape the same Chatty Cathy — who will only buy my “going through a tunnel” bit once every six months, tops.

Finally, Sorry Gotta Go helps take things to the next level. This website offers dozens of recordings to help one bail in style, all available for download as WAV files. Who could reasonably expect me to keep chit-chatting with those friggin’ kids fighting in the background? Or ignore the wail of my urgently hungry cat?

More than just the obvious screaming jet engine and malfunctioning car alarm, they have a coughing fit, a crying baby and even a passing herd of cattle. For extreme cases, telephone company recordings like “your call cannot be completed due to heavy call volume” will eventually shake the most determined stalker.

But, bwaa ha ha ha… Tom Delay is screwed.

As part of my ongoing efforts to break-up with Microsoft, I’ve ditched MSN Messenger in favour of the younger, better-looking Trillian. Trillian is neat because you can log-in to accounts from many other messaging services as well, including AOL, ICQ, IRC and Yahoo.

The IM project I have a big crush on today is Meebo, a web-based service that allows you to access your AIM, ICQ, GTalk, MSN or Yahoo Messenger account online. This means you don’t need to download the software, which is pretty handy when using computers other than your own.

Nathan Allen, former communications director for COPE, now has a weekly column with Terminal City — and a new project online called Us On Them.

Corinna Liscumb, formerly of Smithers, has had GusGreeper boiling for a while now — but I’d like to plug it anyway.

Cinemuerte, a festival of international horror films and thrillers, will be at Pacific Cinematheque from October 26 to 31. This year’s event features an expanded program that will have you “crying for your mommy by the time the festival is over”.

The Public Dreams Society has announced they won’t be organizing another Parade of the Lost Souls until 2006 — but distributing candy to kids with an unseemly attitude of entitlement isn’t the only way to participate this season. The Mountain View Cemetery will be hosting A Night for All Souls from sunset to 11:00 PM on Saturday, October 29. There are workshops in making lanterns, shrines and prayer flags over the next couple of weeks — visit their site for more information.

Next time you can waste five minutes, take the Political Compass test. My own results were pretty underwhelming, placing me more left than Nelson Mandela economically and more socially progressive than Gandhi (go figure). My final results, in case you care, were -7.88 on the economic scale, and -6.36 on the social scale. At the end of the day, I guess I do agree “it’s fine for society to be open about sex, but these days it’s going too far”.

After you’ve completed the Political Compass, try your luck with Iconochasms — a test of “how well you really know the famous figures that you love or love to hate”. It’s pretty nifty, even if the smugness of some of the questions is unbearable. I’m not too proud to admit I only got 27 of 46 correct. Whatever — these are tricky, yo.

Last weekend, the Yahoo blog announced Yahoo! Podcasts — a new beta tool for searching, downloading and subscribing to podcasts.

I’m back from Smithers, and have posted a few photos from my trip on Flickr. Here’s a series from Mom and Dad’s wedding on October 11, 1980 — and a few photos from their 25th wedding anniversary on October 8, 2005.

I’m off to Smithers tomorrow, where I’m putting on a shindig for my Mom and Dad’s 25th wedding anniversary. Further bulletins as events warrant.

Ben Crane’s Before and After Trade Cards slideshow is really… something. I don’t know that I’ll be picking up the book, but I enjoyed passing the time with these.

Ben Pearre of MIT has done us a kindness — a Free Music page with ear candy we can enjoy thanks to Creative Commons licensing. You’ll find classical music from a dozen or so composers, some available for download as MP3s and others as OGG files. It’s almost that time of year, so be sure to check out the performance of Handel’s Messiah. I’m also enjoying Brahms’ Requiem — not as stirring as Mozart’s, but whatevs.

Some media players (ahem, iTunes) won’t play OGG files, but there’s free software like Easy CD-DA Extractor to convert the files to MP3. OK? Go get yer Bach on.