A bit morbid, but have you seen The Layoff List? This follows-up Rosie's post about Ford yesterday. The BLS indicates that as of December '01, unemployment is at a six-year high of 5.8 percent.

"...the more time intellectuals spend getting their names in the news, the less likely they are to do serious scholarly work," says Judge Richard Posner about the decline of intellectuals in public life.

"The central inquiry must be whether the claimant is unable to perform the variety of tasks central to most people's daily lives," not just those of a particular job, said Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in what could be another landmark decision for people with disabilities in America. Since 1990, the scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been narrowed significantly, easing the compliance burden for employers and property owners. Somehow, over the next several years, a clearer line will be drawn between claims that are reasonable and unreasonable--this is a very difficult task. Will conservative politicians attempt to steer the law too far in favor of employers? (NYT; user name: opensewer; password: iswatching.)

Simon Brown and Oliver Shaw, two London based interactive designers, became frustrated with the amount of photographs they weren't doing anything with. So they built Photo-genetic and dedicated their first issue to exploring architecture and texture. The results are absolutely beautiful. Makes me wonder about everything sitting around my apartment that I'm not doing anything with. (via Digital Web)

In the New York Times, Patriotism On The Cheap (login required; user name: opensewer; password: iswatching). A few quotes:

We all applaud our selfless men and women in uniform, whether at ground zero or in battle, but we are not inclined to make even a fractionally commensurate sacrifice of our own. We have no interest in reducing our dependence on the oil from the country that nurtured most of the hijackers, Saudi Arabia, or revisiting an upper-brackets-skewed $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut to find the serious money needed to fight future hijackers and bioterrorists effectively.

In the new p.c., anyone who says anything critical about the president or his administration is branded an anti-American akin to the Marin County Taliban.

Agreed. We've been saying the same thing on Opensewer, slightly less eloquently, for quite some time.

I'm not a vegetarian, and to be honest I don't have any immediate plans on becoming one. However, this article on Alternet presents a pretty cohesive argument and some startling statistics about the impact of our meat-consuming habits on the planet. In fact, some of the stats are a bit too incredible to blindly accept without a source citation. Still, when you hear about a Utah pork producer hosting a three-million gallon waste lagoon to manage pig excrement, it makes you question just how healthy "the other white meat" really is. And don't even get me going on the beef statistics.

Curious bits: The Polaroid Collection of images is at risk. Adolescence is being extended.

As most of you know, Opensewer is a passionate supporter of Art (yes, with a capital "A") in its many forms. The definition of art is a continuum, and it seems that perhaps there exists somewhere within this continuum a point where art becomes bullshit. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Let's talk about it some time. Here and here are a couple of very interesting articles on the state of Art, via Arts & Letters Daily.

“I want to enjoy everything and not worry about cutting back,” says the Average American. Unsecured consumer debt is at an all-time (and dangerous) high, and credit card companies show no signs of cutting back the availability of credit. Case in point: Captial One Financial Corp. is the nation's single largest generator of mail. “People are under the impression that something is wrong with them if they aren’t getting preapproved credit-card applications,” says one credit counselor.

The Internet bubble burst, and this one will too. The scary part is that the fallout from this will be much more far-reaching then the collapse of the high-tech sector, since so many Americans have credit cards.

When is death not the final act? Answer: when Madison Avenue runs the show. On The Media examines the use of dead celebrities in our advertising. You weren't the only one angry to see Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner. Listen or read the show here.

The latest in a series of Ohio mosque vandalisms happened in Columbus Sunday night. Thankfully, several non-Muslim groups have already offered aid. We hear about vandalism almost every day, but when it's a hate-crime that happens to the oldest mosque in your city, it really pisses you off.

Happy New Year! (…to the Western world, at least.) Sorry for our silence over the past couple of days, but we're having such a nice vacation! Meanwhile, why don't you read this little informative piece about how our contemporary (Gregorian) calendar came into existence.

Another example of myopic corporate behavior: Number-two national drug store chain CVS is closing around 200 stores in various markets. This comes after the company (along with Walgreens and Rite Aid) went on a building rampage, often tearing down historic buildings in order to construct their plain vanilla, anti-contextual monuments to banality. The situation is a good illustration of dumb capitalism. Not only did they forgo their market research (the stores don’t have enough customers to support them), they also often enraged the communities in which they began operations. Now, that’s a sure way to win over a customer.

On Christmas, my sister gave me a CD by the group Si-Se. Inside the jewel case was a small product catalog from the label, Luaka Bop, with the note "Listen globally, buy locally." After doing much of my Christmas shopping online, it was a pleasant reminder to pay my local music and book shops a visit soon.

Happy Holidays!

Well, we hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday so far. We’re going to be taking a break from our daily commentary on OS for a couple of days. Enjoy the break, use it to rejuvenate, enjoy your time with family and loved ones, and give your mousing hand a rest! We’ll talk to you again shortly!

Do you know the meaning behind the song The 12 Days of Christmas? I didn't, before I read these pages. The 12 Days are the days between Christmas and Epiphany (January 6), not the 12 days before Christmas as I had previously thought. The song was a mnemonic device used to help children remember the tenets of the Catholic faith. Interesting.

The long-awaited details for Opensewer 11 have been posted. Ponder the subject, won't you?

There are a lot of innocent people being killed by American bombs in Afghanistan, people are noticing, but America still doesn't want to hear about it.

“Activists have long complained that poor communities bear a disproportionately large share of the pollution burden.” The California Air Resources Board recently approved a policy that could help change that. How is your state enforcing environmental justice?

Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever. That is the significance of this blessed moment. Color and I are one. I am a painter.

Today is 20th C. artist Paul Klee's birthday, a painter whose childlike works seemed inspired by dreams and music. Reflecting upon his art, one is reminded that being curious and wide-eyed is perhaps not such a bad way to exist in this world.

Wonderfully deranged photographer Lori Nix constructs miniature worlds--insidious landscapes of quiet turmoil--and then photographs them for us. Beautiful and unsettling, her images illustrate the anxieties and absurdity of modern life.

Lori was one of the very first artists to exhibit on Opensewer back in 1999. We are proud to continue to represent her by publishing her most recent series of images, “Ill Winds And Sour Waters.” Her earlier work, “Accidentally Kansas,” is also still available on Opensewer. We hope that you enjoy Lori’s work as much as we do.

After 12 years of engineering work and careful construction, La Torre di Pisa has once again opened for visitors. I'm very happy about this, because it was still closed the last time I was in Italy. Unfortunately, however, this very likely means that we'll all have to endure more of these kinds of cheesy photos than ever. Why don't more people pay attention to the amazing Duomo and Baptistry? The leaning tower is merely one part of the wonderful Campo dei Miracoli (Quicktime VR link).

Special for the holidays: Flrt offers a PSA 01 about the christmas tree industry - What Do Trees Want? Flash required.

Tip of the hat to Get Crafty for the link.

People in those old times had convictions; we moderns have only opinions. And it needs more than a mere opinion to erect a Gothic cathedral.

--Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

Lance Arthur, a pioneer of the personal Web, has inspired tons of independent content and design producers worldwide, including Opensewer. This month marks the end of an era for his site, Glassdog. At the beginning of December, he said that he would write something new on Glassdog everyday this month – quite industrious for Lance. The occasion? He claims that he will be rebuilding Glassdog from scratch at the beginning of next year. So take this opportunity to check out Glassdog, read some classic Lance and remember why we do what we do. Thanks Lance, for continuing to be an inspiration to all of us.

I know that I'm not digging very deeply for this, but how can I not link to this great article on Alternet about the manipulation of public opinion in times of crisis. Alternet is a great resource that must continue. Give them some money--we did.

Well, weather-wise today should be a fairly mild day for most of us in America—temperatures somewhere in the 40s or 50s, with little or no precipitation. Today would be a good day to read this funny article about art, and then maybe go take a walk outside. Be sure to wear you big comfy sweater. (NYT article; username: opensewer; password: iswatching.)

According to yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, sub-prime or “predatory” lenders are encouraging low-income households to refinance their homes in order to consolidate debts. These companies, including Countrywide, Citigroup, Ameriquest and H&R Block, are promising borrowers that they will finally be able to pay off their mounting credit card debt, get some cash, and maybe, just maybe, buy some Christmas presents for the kiddies this year.

While these types of home equity loans can, in theory, help individuals consolidate their debts and pay off credit cards at a lower interest rate, they often end up costing borrowers tens of thousands of dollars over the course of the new loan—which is always longer and at a much less favorable rate than the original. Many borrowers are replacing loans originally issued by Habitat for Humanity, with interest rates as low as 1 or 2% over 20 years. The new loans are often issued at 12% or higher, with terms of 30 years. As a result of a recent swell in this activity, many low-income borrowers cannot meet their new debt service and face the risk of losing their homes to foreclosure.

Why are lenders doing this? Because they have developed sophisticated algorithms that accurately predict the default rates of “sub-prime” borrowers. Since the companies know the probability of their financial loss, they can hedge against it and continue to make money by exploiting the least affluent (and often least financially sophisticated) members of our society. Hence the term “predatory lending.”

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a non-profit citizen group, is fighting this trend, and the Federal Reserve Board is currently examining various courses of action to cure the problem. So, next time you see that television commercial urging you to consolidate your debts, think twice.

As we all know, stem cell research has been very controversial, especially as it relates to cloning. Since so much has happened over the past two weeks I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the instant replay. A little over a week ago Advanced Cell Technologies announced that it had cloned a human embryo. Bush calls it “morally wrong”, calls for a ban and then three days later creates the White House Council on Bioethics. On Monday, the Senate voted on an amendment to impose a 6-month moratorium on human embryo cloning. It was defeated 1-94, mostly because it was bundled with another controversial measure that would have allowed oil drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. It’s scary how fast obviously beneficial research can be banned without much discussion beforehand. Just a reminder that it's never too late to let your elected officials know how you feel about this research.

What can be said that hasn’t been said already? Today is World AIDS Day, and it is being observed by concerned citizens all over the world (including artists and webloggers). Forty million people currently have HIV, and the disease is spreading at an alarming rate in many places—most notably Sub-Saharan Africa (BBC stats page). The search for a vaccine continues, as human rights groups and drug companies argue over the definition of fair access to AIDS treatment drugs.

To me, the most frightening aspect of all of this is that while AIDS has been transformed from a death-sentence to a potentially survivable illness by expensive treatments, the availability of such treatments seems to have placated the Western World’s concerns about the spread of the disease. The epidemic has not been turned back. Focus on prevention should take priority above all other efforts.