This is a really good write-up on Elonka's adventures cracking the cryptic (literally) artwork of James Sanborn.

STLtoday - Woman sets sights on code on CIA sculpture

From Elonka:

I spent days scouring the web trying to find some sort of comprehensive list of James Sanborn's artwork, but no dice (Sanborn, btw, is the sculptor that made "Kryptos"). I even contacted his agents and asked for a list, but they said that there wasn't such a thing, and that if they were to ask the artist for a complete list of his sculptures, he'd probably laugh at them since there were so many.

So, I went ahead and made my own list. I guess this makes me the self-appointed head of the Jim Sanborn fanclub. ;)

Artist/Sculptor James Sanborn

] Several 17th-century clay pipes found at the site of
] William Shakespeare's home were used to smoke marijuana,
] a South African anthropologist says. Although he has no
] proof that the Bard was the guy who smoked the pipes, he
] surmises that some of Shakespeare's sonnets and plays
] also lend credence to the possibility that the writer
] smoked marijuana for inspiration.

] Thackeray said his "hobby" developed after he played
] the part of the ghost in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in
] 1998. That renewed his interest in Shakespeare's work.
] He noticed a reference in Sonnet No. 76 to "invention
] in a noted weed." "Weed" is a slang term for marijuana,
] and "invention" can refer to writing. The same sonnet
] refers to "compounds strange," a known reference to
] drugs. In Sonnet 27, Shakespeare wrote about "a journey
] in my head." Sonnet No. 118 speaks of "to make our
] appetite more keen, with eager compounds we our palate
] urge." Perhaps a reference to marijuana as an appetite
] stimulant, Thackeray wonders.

] Intrigued, Thackeray asked the Shakespeare Birthplace
] Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon to allow South African
] researchers with state-of-the-art equipment to analyze
] 24 pipe fragments. Marijuana degrades over time, but
] eight of the fragments showed signs suggestive of
] marijuana, he said. Two also showed evidence of cocaine.

The pot head thing wouldn't shock me in the least.. However, freebasing cocaine dosen't fit my image of Shakespeare.

Anthropologist says Shakespeare might have smoked marijuana

] But we should all be listening. Rumsfeld's poetry is
] paradoxical: It uses playful language to address the most
] somber subjects: war, terrorism, mortality. Much of it is
] about indirection and evasion: He never faces his
] subjects head on but weaves away, letting inversions and
] repetitions confuse and beguile. His work, with its
] dedication to the fractured rhythms of the plainspoken
] vernacular, is reminiscent of William Carlos Williams'.
] Some readers may find that Rumsfeld's gift for offhand,
] quotidian pronouncements is as entrancing as Frank
] O'Hara's.
]
] And so Slate has compiled a collection of Rumsfeld's
] poems, bringing them to a wider public for the first
] time. The poems that follow are the exact words of the
] defense secretary, as taken from the official transcripts
] on the Defense Department Web site.

Selected poems: The Unknown, Glass Box, A Confession, Happenings, The Digital Revolution, The Situation, and Clarity.

The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld - Recent works by the secretary of defense.

] Furthermore, videos with words such as "bomb", "missile",
] "war" or other sensitive words in the artist or song
] title should not be shown at the moment.
]
] Examples include:
]
] Outkast "B.O.B (Bombs over Baghdad)" - song title may
] offend.
]
] Radiohead "Invasion" - song title may offend.
]
] Megadeth "Holy Wars" - song title may offend.
]
] Gavin Friday "You, Me and World War Three" - song title
] may offend.
]
] B-52s videos.

Quick! Construct a firewall between current world events and our art culture! Don't want the kids to get emotional about this stuff. Don't want anything like the 60's to happen again. Nothing about war makes people want to drink pepsi or buy clothes.

One of the many reasons why MTV will not be relevant in the future.

MTV Broadcast Standards blackhole current events from programming

Salon interviews Phoebe Gloeckner, writer and artist of a graphic novel series based loosely upon her own life. She has some very interesting views on the catharsis of creating art and how it affects not only the viewer, but the creator as well. The interview itself is a very good read, even if you never pick up a copy of the "Dairy of a Teenage Girl" series.

"OK," she says, taking a deep breath. "I believe that all art is about the artist," she says. "So, yeah, my work is about me. But being an artist -- art is artifice, it's creation. By reading that book, you're not experiencing what I experienced. You're perhaps experiencing my interpretation of it, but you're bringing yourself to it. In that way, I always hesitate to say this is a true story. I'm not attempting in any way to make documentary. You can never represent everything. It's always a selective process.

"I mean, really, my motivation is, 'This all happened to me. I feel really totally fucked-up. I don't understand any of this. Let's look at it. Let's not look at it sideways or make it look prettier, but let's just look at it for what it is.' I think the reason people relate to it is because I don't avoid things that may seem unpleasant. I don't really judge things ... I just look at them."

Not your mother's comic book

] Digital broadcaster Pseudo.com plans to release a weekly
] TV show hosted by rap star Ice-T on the Internet
] file-sharing network Kazaa, in attempts to start a new
] model of advertising-supported television.

Pseudo spins hip-hop TV show on Kazaa | CNET News.com

Welcome to the exhibition of rediscovered works by the mid 20th century illustrator A.C. Radebaugh.

A very cool exhibit, soon to open in Philadelphia, displaying lots of futuristic graphic artwork from the 1950s. Flying cars, urban airships docked at skyscrapers, and more. This stuff is almost propagandist in its technological optimism.

Philly, eh? Looks like I'm going to have to check this one out.

Radebaugh: The Future We Were Promised

] "I have really never considered myself a TV star. I
] always thought I was a neighbor who just came in for a
] visit."

RIP Fred Rogers

Thus, to supply the virtual gramophone at least one complete revolution of the record, four regions had to be separately scanned. These were later stitched together to form an image of several complete inner tracks of the record.

Gotta check out a few of the mp3's.. Very weird/cool sounding. I'd love to try this with different types of music. Might be able to fit some punk 7" records on the scanner easily.. :)

Digital Needle - A Virtual Gramophone