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Diaries up for rescue tonight:

• PaulVA´s A Swop Clause That Suppresses the Common Good looks at a little-known trade clause in NAFTA that allows individual multi-nationals to sue governments for monetary damages if their regulations disallow their corporate practices.
• judasdisney´s How Mass-Murderers "Take Responsibility" reflects on the death of Pinochet and the language that authoritarians use to shift accountability for their atrocities.
• Conceptual Guerilla´s None Dare Call It Imperialism explores the connection between die-hard Iraq war supporters and "cheap drive conservatives" - and discovers they´re often one and the same.
• davefromqueens´ Celebrating Popular Diversity in Congress provides some interesting statistics on the party breakdown of Congress by religion and cultural group.
• sandlapper´s Howie Rich´s ´06 record undergoing renovations follows the rehabilitation of Howard Rich´s character and success record in the rightist press.
• cowgirl´s Single Parents looks at the voting patterns, demographics and issues of singles and single parents.
• dhonig´s Pawning an Entire State provides a dispatch from the state of Indiana on all the privatization schemes being considered and endorsed by Governor Mitch Daniels.
• Land of Enchantment´s House NATURAL Resources Returns looks at the agenda and personnel of the incoming House Natural Resources Committee.
• zcaron´s The U.N. Nitty Gritty: Report Back from the United Nations Climate Change Conference provides an interesting first-hand account of attendance at the UN Climate Change Conference, from a member of a contingent of Canadian youth.
• RichardR´s A Second Protestant Reformation? draws intriguing parallels between the current upheaval in Protestant churches over gay rights and Martin Luther´s original reformation.

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I´ve blogged some pretty wild thingies to adorn your head in the past: sensational hats made of human hair, a pair of mutant ears that amplifies and augments ordinary sounds; FlirtBunnies that send flirty signals of love to each former even when they are apart; reach out hats that share textile patterns or sound (music) when populate tiring them are in close proximity with each other; super flattering Robotic Ears, etc. But nothing had fain me for Kate Hartman´s Muttering Hats (i might sound sarcastic but i love her idea.)

The project considers internal mutterings - indistinct and intertwined thoughts that get trapped within your own head. So often we get caught up in thought, walking around accompanied by the soundtrack of our own musings. (...) Slivers of these unspoken utterances may slip out through facial expressions, body language, or references made in conversation, but for the most part they remain contained, internal, unexposed.

A system made of hacked MP3 players, headphones, speakers, plastic funnels and other elements are used to draw the mutterings out of the head and expose it to the world. According to Hartman, it might sound like this.

The Muttering Hats take on two forms based on models of thought processes that we engage in with ourselves:

1. The Voices in Your Head Hat: a pair of muttering balls are tethered to the hat. They may be stuck to your ears, so that all other noise is obstructed by the mutterings, or they may be detached, providing the opportunity to escape from the mutterings or to share them with a friend.

2. The Talking to Yourself Hat: Through the use of a communication system embedded in the hat, you may speak outloud to yourself while retaining the right to a somewhat private conversation.

Video.

The hats will be available to be worn at the upcoming ITP Winter show, on December 17 and 18, 721 Broadway at Waverly Place 4th Floor South Elevators, New York.