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Videoclip: Birdy Nam Nam - The Parachute Ending | Digital Tools: ""
Monday, June 15, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
My new favorite blog
Rudy Rucker, that eminently crazed SF writer/mathematician, recently posted a great piece called Weird Science on boingboing. Among other fascinating items, he points us to the cyberhome of quantum physicist Nick Herbert:
I'll be busy for a while catching up with the archives there...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Twitter reaction time
Cool changes coming to Twitter Search | Webware - CNET:
"Finally, a real-time search story from Jayaram, which he used to illustrate the immediacy of Twitter Search during the panel discussion: he told of being in the Twitter offices in San Francisco on March 30, when the Twitter engineers noticed that the word 'earthquake' had suddenly started trending up. They didn't know where the earthquake was. Several seconds later, their building started to shake. The earthquake had been in Morgan Hill, 60 miles south of San Francisco, and the tweets about the shaker reached the office faster than the seismic waves themselves."
(Via @PragueBob.)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Cabinetry and Locksmithing
A truly thought-provoking conceptual artist:
Lucas Murgida at 667 Shotwell
from Chris Sollars.More at lucasmurgida.com.
(Via @frauenfelder.)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Pandemic Influenza
Terry Jones offers a very level-headed, knowledgeable look at what we might be facing:
"I also feel it’s good for someone like me to comment because I’m outside the flu world and the people inside it will be unlikely to say much. Flu is a highly political issue, to put it mildly. People working in the flu research community will be reluctant to speak up. So I should make it very clear that the comments below are just my opinions, and don’t represent anyone else’s thoughts.
I’ll try to just make a few points that I think are fairly sober - neither alarmist, nor dismissive - and to keep speculation out of it."
fluidinfo » Blog Archive » A few comments on pandemic influenza
Sunday, April 19, 2009
A different look at small business in crisis
The creative ideas here go far, far beyond photography.
David Hobby on Stepping Outside the Box of the Business of Photography:
"Granted, there are a lot of things to be depressed about in the current photography environment, when it comes to the business side. But more and more, I am starting to believe that as each of the old business models seems to evaporate, a new one emerges to take its place. Even if it may seem like you have to stand out in left field to see it."
David Hobby is renowned in photography circles for teaching (some would say inventing) off-camera lighting techniques and effects based on small flashes rather than large studio strobes. In this long post he talks about using the free time from diminished commercial assignments to do self-assigned pro bono projects which benefit both the subjects and the photographer. The subjects (NGOs, small businesses, or student actors for example) get free or low-cost professional level photos while the photographer gets creative freedom, technical stretching, and portfolio photos which often lead to new kinds of professional assignments.
Established professional photographers often see such projects as beneath them, suitable only for newbees just breaking into the field. Hobby argues that there are huge benefits even for the old pros.
I will certainly be thinking about how these ideas can apply to my situation.
(Via Strobist.)
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
These modern times
We are now officially living in what once was science fiction:
Batteries built by viruses - Boing Boing
Interesting times, indeed.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
A Deep Thinker
"Mary Elizabeth's law: There are two kinds of food -- those that can be improved with bacon, and those that can be improved with chocolate.
Mary Elizabeth's paradox: And yet, bacon and chocolate do not mix.
Mary Elizabeth's addendum: But butter goes with everything."
Gimme Shelter: Mary Elizabeth Williams
(Via @tigoe)
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Dream Office
"... a video by Internet pioneer Howard Rheingold, who's a writer, artist, and futurist. The video is a guided tour of his 'dream office,' the space behind his house where he does his writing, thinking, painting, and sculpture."
(Via MAKE: Blog.)
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Epilepsy is dancing
A haunting music video for a song by Antony and the Johnsons, who are completely new to me:
Larger version at Pitchfork: TV
(Via boingboing.)
Monday, March 23, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Water irony
John Thackara's Designer Tweets from America:
"Obama's new energy secretary, Steven Chu, has just stated that 'we're
looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California'.
Immediately following our workshop, a state-wide water state of emergency
is declared.
http://www.vimeo.com/3195518
http://www.flickr.com/gp/92494461@N00/6161Hi
Chu's warning about 'no more federal water' contains an irony: The Central
Valley Irrigation Project, which enabled Caifornia's agriculture to flourish,
was authorised in 1935 as an infrastrucure project to beat the Great Depression.
Eighty five years later, the state's dependence on long-distance irrigation is
a structural impediment to sustainable water and agriculture. Now Obama
promises to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure -
to beat the depression.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-warming4-2009feb04,0,7454963.story"
More about John Thackara.
(Via Beyond the Beyond.)
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Not like my drive to work!
Heart-stopping gymkhana session. The real excitement starts about two minutes in. Be sure and hang around for the Segway.
(Via The Presurfer.)
Monday, March 2, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Why we do it
A stunning, stunning film by photographer Zack Arias. Ten minutes of why we press on. (And something I really needed to experience just now.)
Transform :: A short film for ScottKelby.com
"I was recently asked to do a guest blog post on Scott Kelby’s site. I had free reign to talk about anything I wanted to talk about. I took it as an opportunity to get off my arse and make something that was new and fresh for me. I decided I would do a video"
(Via DIY Photography.)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Red states consume more porn?
Red states consume more porn?: "According to a new Harvard Business School study, eight of the top ten states in terms of online porn consumption were ones where McCain won in the presidential election. Professor Benjamin Edelman analyzed anonymised credit cards receipts from a large online porn company. Based on their limited data, the largest consumer is Utah. Other interesting possible correlations emerged too that Edelman outlines in his paper, 'Red Light States: Who Buys Online
Adult Entertainment?' published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. From New Scientist:
Church-goers bought less online porn on Sundays – a 1% increase in a postal code's religious attendance was associated with a 0.1% drop in subscriptions that day. However, expenditures on other days of the week brought them in line with the rest of the country, Edelman finds.
Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage.
To get a better handle on other associations between social attitudes and pornography consumption, Edelman melded his data with a previous study on public attitudes toward religion.
States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement 'I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage,' bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement 'AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behaviour.'
'One natural hypothesis is something like repression: if you're told you can't have this, then you want it more,' Edelman says.
'Porn in the USA: Conservatives are biggest consumers' (New Scientist),
(Via Boing Boing.)
Monday, February 23, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
More Seth
Seth's Blog: How to make money using the Internet:
"The essence is this: connect.
Connect the disconnected to each other and you create value."
Seth Godin on great stories
Seth's Blog: Ode: How to tell a great story:
"Most of all, great stories agree with our world view. The best stories don’t teach people anything new. Instead, the best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure when reminded how right they were in the first place."
Thursday, January 1, 2009
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