an Fella

Campfire on the banks of the northern Ganges.

India

PBS and NPR were never beholden to the US government.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created so that the US government could fund public media without public media being influenced by the government. It was a private non-profit funded by the government, not a part of the government itself. This is by design. This was a good thing. It meant that even small local TV and radio stations, could afford to create media for the public good, without government influence.

This meant TV and radio stations for poor communities. For non-english speaking communities. For rural communities. For minorities. It meant that free and accessible media could be created for everyone, even if the government didn't like it.

That's why conservatives defunded it.

Because if they couldn't control it, and if it helped the people they hated, then they would have to destroy it. Do you really think that a fascist government would defund their own propaganda machine?

Not only is the idea that PBS before being defunded was propaganda wrong, but ignores the fact that defunding it is going to have long-term negative effects on vulnerable communities.

I got the idea from cowcatchers old locomotives used to have.

Anyways, yesterday I uploaded the model to Thingiverse, and just hours after uploading it, the Community Relationship Manager of the whole website left a comment suggesting I enter the model into a competition that's currently being held on the site.

So I did... and now it's in third place not even a day later. First place is $500, but the competition still has a month to go.

Then the Community Manager contacted me again, telling me they want to feature my model in an upcoming design promotion.

Just, what is happening? I mostly made this thing for myself in, like, an hour, and now it's suddenly super popular? This is all a little bit overwhelming 😵‍💫

Other models I worked on for weeks didn't get nearly as popular. I swear, it's impossible to predict what people will like.

Anyways, if you want to print the wheel guards yourself, you can get the model here or here.

I also made a quiet version you can stick furniture felt pads on.

"Let's take a word from our sponsor."

*Skip ahead a minute* "You can-"

*Skip ahead a minute* "Use code-"

*Skip ahead a minute* "300,000-"

*Skip ahead a minute* "300,000-"

*Skip ahead a minute* "T-shirts-"

*Skip ahead a minute* "Motherfuck-"

Hugh Harriss made some of my favorites.

I especially love that last image from the first post:

I have it saved to most of my computers so I can use it as a desktop occasionally. This tiny human figure standing back in awe of this cityscape view that absolutely dwarfs them, this mass of concrete and light that looks like a dawn beyond them. 

And, yes, this is from an early 20th century dream of a future that would have been incredibly bad for us, but the imagery. This is the city as a mass, as an entity, as a pillar to the heavens, as a radiance, as a dawn. The solidity of it. These are cities as the epitome of humanity’s ability to say ‘I built this’. I made this mountain, and I made it radiant. I put this thing here and it is so solid that no wrath of any god could strike this babel down.

(They wouldn’t have needed to. We’d never have gotten them up, and if we had they’d have slowly killed us in and of themselves. But damn they look good)