More Than A Cough Drop

Ricola...  someday by god that product placement will be worth zillions of Euros.  Right now it serves as a lame lead-in to an expression of appreciation for the CBO's March 3 post on search, serendipity, and bricolage.

You might be interested to know that Firefox (ver. 1.0.1) renders the post differently from the way it is rendered by Internet Explorer 6.0. 

Analysis: New Web browser attracting users by RENEE MONTAGNE
source: Morning Edition (NPR), January 6, 2005.

Firefox advocates say it's a Web browser that's faster, better and more secure than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It's free, takes just a couple of minutes to download and it copies your bookmarks and settings so it's very easy to switch over to it.
via: HighBeam Research

Or you might not be interested.  Maybe you're stuck with Safari or something.  Maybe Gecko?

We used to take the boys camping at Lake Pillsbury in Mendocino County.  Those dry sunny California summer days were perfect for the lizards sunning themselves on the logs by the shore.  Matt and Ben made a science out of catching them.  Whether it was a cartoon referent or some other familial silliness, the boys called the lizards "hermes," or perhaps "hermies."  We never spelled it.  But for sure it wasn't pronounced "air-mez."  No, these little lizards were "hermies" and they led the boys a merry chase.

Reading Locke for me is a lot like throwing the I Ching.  The complexity of his work yields meanings that are deeply personal.  Take his use of the word "unalike."  Now, consider the "unabomber."  See what I mean?  Okay.  Bad example.

How better might we focus our understanding on what he calls "the stochastic glitch, the cybernetic analog of grace?"  Sitting here at my little home altar, before the glowing fire of the pixelated idol, mumbling mantras while I touch the keyboard like some kind of monk fumbling with a rosary, I'm not sure I understand what he means.  Yet.  Best read further...

[omm, omm, on the range... and the dishwasher, the refrigerator, lightly hovering attention, moments later I discover...]  Oh shit, the dude's getting into the carpenter rap again... let's hope we're not going into the christian martyrdom darkness.  We'll tread lightly while dropping the occasional lit cigarette into the dry leaves drifting through these postmodern woods... nothing pyromaniac you understand, just a little arson...  now, where did I leave that gas canister?

 Seven-Meter Layer of Natural Gas Found in Dead Sea.
source: Israel Faxx, April 2, 2004.

A seven-meter layer of natural gas has been found in the Dead Sea, Ginko Oil Exploration Ltd. announced on Thursday. The gas was found while the company was drilling for oil and gas in an area adjacent to Kibbutz Ein Gedi.
via: HighBeam Research
COPYRIGHT 2004 Electronic World Communications, Inc.

Bricolage decorates the walls in the rooms of our minds.  Shifting overlays of meaning and intention, serendipitous juxtaposition and occasional lightning strike gestalt events.

Surrealism is a rattling of furry teacups, a heavy breather on the lobster telephone. The surprising, shocking thing about surrealism is that it no longer terrorises. Its adventures into the territories of desire, into dreams and the unconscious, into taboo and transgression, are now the commonplaces of advertising, fashion shoots, movies and computer games: it is a dream that has turned into a thousand commercials.

Thanks to Chris for sharing this exercise in serendipitous creativity.  I'm an ironic juxtaposition man myself, but that stuff gets old fast.  Here we have Locke at his finest, his mind flowing free, his design supported by Mandarin Design and typoGenerator, two other great stops on the web design railroad.  Thanks then also to Michelle at Mandarin, and to ladyK at the typoGenerator.

 

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