November 13th, 2009 | photography
(I feel I must point out that these are really not what are best in life, and that Molly Crabapple should be arrested and probably waterboarded for making me look at this.)
(Cowgirls. Honestly.)
WARREN ELLIS
Brian Wood - 20 Nov 09
Will Blanche, ?The Newly Constructed Towers of the World Trade Center Seen From the South Side on West Street, May, 1973? (via These Americans)
See also: Mitch Epstein, ?West Side Highway, New York City? [looking towards World Trade Center] 1977
Kung Fu Monkey - 20 Nov 09
John Robb - 20 Nov 09
Short Answer: divide it.
It's long been my contention that Iraq was stabilized at an acceptable level of controlled chaos due to a happy accident by al Qaeda (in an attempt to expand/lead the loose insurgency in a new direction). What did they do? They blew up the Golden Mosque in Samara in 2006. This act of symbolic terrorism did indeed disrupt social networks as anticipated, however the consequences were ultimately disastrous for the Iraqi open source insurgency.
The reason for this is it broke the dynamics of the open source insurgency in ways the US and Iraqi government's COIN efforts could not. First, it created a permanent split between Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups/militias. Coopetition ended. Second, it motivated large Shiite militias to start an ethnic cleansing of Sunni areas. This put acute pressure on Sunni guerrilla groups who were too small (by design to avoid US counter-pressure) to defend themselves against large militias operating in the open. The result was an opening, very close to the one I described in my 2005 NYTimes OpEd, that allowed the US to convert Sunni guerrilla groups into militias that were not loyal to the central government (in direct contradiction to its COIN manual).
It's a nice example of the dynamics of many to many conflict, social network disruption, and the development open source counterinsurgency.
See this excellent description at the blog, "Musings on Iraq" for more detail on the ethnic cleansing operations. It also includes this money quote: "the majority of the Sunni insurgency gave up and switched sides to align with the Americans rather than face annihilation at the hands of the Shiite militias, Al Qaeda in Iraq, or the United States."
NOTE: it's pretty clear from the above that social network disruption (either through attacks on symbolic targets or blood and guts terrorism) is like playing horseshoes with live hand grenades. It's ultimately a losing strategy for advancing an open source insurgency. Social network disruption is very likely to break standing order 6: don't fork the insurgency.
Girl Farts - 20 Nov 09
John Robb - 20 Nov 09
Some random items of interest:
Jean Snow - 20 Nov 09
Beautiful (and simple) site design featuring the illustrative work of Yorifuji Bunpei. Via Paul Baron.
Jean Snow - 20 Nov 09
Coming up at the Kakitsubata gallery in Nakameguro is the show “Kodai,” running from November 25 until December 6.
jwz - 19 Nov 09
Crap, my tits hurt just looking at that. Blargh!
Is it weird that the first place my mind went was to improve upon these bad boys with some LED lighting? Because I can totally see these getting into MAKE or WIRED if they lit up.
Also? Sexy!
Uhgh. Is that even male or female, or are such categories useless in the face of such a monstrosity?
Dear Mr. Ellis,
Please tell us what was it that we did to deserve this punishment, so we won’t do it *ever* again and there’s no need to break our brains again with an inline image rather than a link (which we will click, because we’re dumbasses, but at least then we know whose fault it is).
You’re a sick man for posting this Mr Ellis. Completely turned me off the porn I was going to look up.
Please tell me those are glue-ons, please please please please please.
I feel like the person I am now is irrevocably changed from the person I was before I saw that picture.
God help us all.
Also, I think those short-shorts are painted on. Looks like the only thing they’re wearing are horns/ears, shoes, and belts
Another reminder that I can’t look at your site in the office cuz it’s NSFW.
This is so cool. They’re like two little mutant-baby hands reaching out to grab something.
Why I thought of you after coming across an article reporting that fruit bats perform fellatio baffles me more than the article itself.
Here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18077-fellatio-keeps-male-fruit-bats-keen.html