podcasting

hey friends,
not many people i know seem to be into podcasts, but i found one in particular that i really really like.

it's called freedomain radio.

Topics range from politics to philosophy to science to economics to relationships to atheism - and how to achieve real freedom in your life today. Passionate, articulate, funny and irreverent, Freedomain Radio shines a bold light on old topics, and invents a few new ones to boot!

i've only listened to a few, and they were mostly about theories and concepts about life in a stateless society. just very interesting and easy to listen to. he's in canada too so it's extra relevant.

more bike shit!

last night paul and i spent maybe an hour on the path near eau claire nearing 2 in the AM, effing around on our bikes, and i am very happy to report (brag) that i can finally put my "nuts" to the handlebars and skid. i also learned a less geeky way to mount my fixie. trackstanding and to a greater degree riding backwards still elude me.

also big news, i made my first ebay purchase ever! i got a leather cardiff seat. annnnnd my second ebay purchase ever is going to be a biggie. i need a touring bike for the trip so... meet the raleigh sojourn:



can you believe it comes with the rack, seat, frame pump, and the fenders. for $800!

do you realize?

this song always makes me cry in a good way and feel better.

i <3 cunspircy th33ri3s

i was looking for some information about censoring the internet, when i came across a story on with the headline "Obama Information Czar Outlined Plan For Government To Infiltrate Conspiracy Groups". i downloaded the paper written by cass sunstein. it was written in 2008 and is called "Conspiracy Theories".

the whole thing is crazy, but here is one paragraph from pg. 14.

What can government do about conspiracy theories? Among the things it can do, what should it do? We can readily imagine a series of possible responses. (1) Government might ban conspiracy theorizing. (2) Government might impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories. (3) Government might itself engage in counterspeech, marshaling arguments to discredit conspiracy theories. (4) Government might formally hire credible private parties to engage in counterspeech. (5) Government might engage in informal communication with such parties, encouraging them to help. Each instrument has a distinctive set of potential effects, or costs and benefits, and each will have a place under imaginable conditions. However, our main policy idea is that government should engage in cognitive infiltration of the groups that produce conspiracy theories, which involves a mix of (3), (4) and (5).

taxing conspiracy theories?!??! infiltrating groups?! geeeezuz.

here's the link to the abstract and where you can download it:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084585

the paper is does talk about the proposed "infiltration" and claims it wouldn't be secretive and all affiliations would be made known. and this isn't actual policy or anything, just an article written for the Journal of Political Philosophy. but still... fucked up. but so are a million other things taking place right now. terrorism, terrorism, terrorism (apparently books are banned on flights to the US, if you have an unlucky name, good luck at the airport, sucka , try not to have a seizure around any cops or you might get tazed, bro)

oh well, what can you do...

so, i've had a shitty week and i'm taking refuge in planning our B(ike).C. trip. one part of that is figuring out what to do with all the stuff we have collected. let me know if you want to take any of my worldly possessions. maybe i'll put a list of books and records and movies and crystals and other shit up in a bit.

i'm also hyped up and respectfully nervous about our weekend plans - ayahuasca! i'll let ya'll know how it goes. phew.

love and silliness,
kelsey

ps - THE CIA KILLED JFK!!!