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Monthly Archives: January 2009

links for 2009-01-31

  • Sometime over the course of a person’s first year in New York, there usually comes that moment. It can happen in the first days or weeks, or after 10 months. It can happen repeatedly, or without people noticing, at least not at first.

    Newcomers suddenly realize either that the city is not working for them or that they are inexorably becoming part of it, or both. They find themselves walking and talking faster.

    The subway begins to make sense. Patience is whittled away; sarcasm often ensues. New friends are made, routines established, and city life begins to feel like second nature. In other words, newcomers find themselves becoming New Yorkers.

    (tags: culture social)
  • Better Place, the electric car/infrastructure start-up, announced today that it closed $135 million in equity and convertible debt, in conjunction with DONG Energy of Denmark. This money will be used to keep the company's plans for electric car infrastructure in Denmark on track.

    Better Place implements and oversees a system for countries wanting to wean themselves from gas powered autos. Rather than refuel your car at a gas station, Better Place wants to create battery switching stations where a driver would get a fresh battery when they were running low for long trips, as well as charging charging stations to power up the car on shorter trips and software to keep an eye on battery power.

  • Copenhagen’s harbour is in the midst of a transformation from an industrial port and traffic junction to being the cultural and social centre of the city. The Harbour Bath has been instrumental in this evolution. It extends the adjacent park over the water by incorporating the practical needs and demands for accessibility, safety and programmatic flexibility. Rather than imitating the traditional Danish indoor swimming bath, the Harbour Bath offers an urban harbour landscape with dry-docks, piers, boat ramps, cliffs, playgrounds and pontoons. As a terraced landscape, the Harbour Bath completes the transition from land to water, making it possible for the citizens of Copenhagen to go for a swim in the middle of the city.

links for 2009-01-30

links for 2009-01-29

  • UC Berkeley? WTF?

    UC Berkeley students with an interest in real-time strategy games and the competitive gaming landscape are encouraged to participate in this class.

    This course will go in-depth in the theory of how war is conducted within the confines of the game Starcraft. There will be lecture on various aspects of the game, from the viewpoint of pure theory to the more computational aspects of how exactly battles are conducted. Calculus and Differential Equations are highly recommended for full understanding of the course. Furthermore, the class will take the theoretical into the practical world by analyzing games and replays to reinforce decision-making skills and advanced Starcraft theory.

  • From Mashable:
    "We’ve seen Digg clones for everything; it’s a highly competitive space and most such sites don’t last too long. Buzzup - by itself - is just another unimaginative tech news oriented version of Digg. However, with Buzzup Docs they might have stumbled onto something.

    It’s a subsection of Buzzup where users can submit documents from sites such as Scribd, Docstoc, Issuu, Calameo, eDocr and Slideshare. Users can see these documents embedded right into the site, and vote the most interesting ones up. Documents are divided into several categories, including business, culture, tech, entertainment, health, fun, law and others. "

  • You gotta love the transparency section for GOOD Magazine…

    Every Sunday during football season, rabid fans gather to root for their team. That same day, people are going to church to pray. This is a comparison between attendance at megachurches and attendance at football games in the five states with the largest megachurch attendance.

  • By applying a sophisticated market research
    approach to the philosophical concept of “purpose,” the MetLife Mature Market Institute (MMI) gained unique insights into the measurable role that purpose plays for people in their lives. This marriage of measurement to meaning explores with a greater level of precision how people prioritize their lives as they face ever-present challenges, including the very important issues that are an everyday part of aging and longevity.

    Covers:
    - common themes in the good life
    - purpose in life
    - priorities shift with age
    - trigger events and transitions
    - life priority segmentation

  • awesome, awesome, awesome website about slums around the world ….
  • One idea I've been turning over in my head lately is around the idea of desire lines. These are the unpaved paths people chose to take and eventually trample, turning what was one person's decision to stray from the pavement into an all-but-official route. I love desire lines as a metaphor because they expose the network of collective decision-making that tends to otherwise go unnoticed in the physical world.
  • A pure form of augmented reality used in this revision text book - placing the red filter over the page view the sentences without the answers. Versions available with blue and green filters.
  • PSFK got the chance to visit the new Google Maps powered New York City information center this weekend, and overall it’s a very cool experience. The space has a clean, minimalist feel. It’s a kind of spaceship-modern, mostly white interior interspersed with neat rows of brochures and colorful glowing screens, which come to life with when touched.

links for 2009-01-28

  • "With 4 million of the blankets already shipped or on order, or just under $40 million in retail sales, Scott Boilen, president of Allstar Marketing Group, Hawthorne, N.Y., is laughing all the way to the bank. The company behind the Snuggie is moving the blankets out the door as fast as it can get Chinese suppliers to crank them out. "
  • Why would anyone use handwriting in today's world?' I write my books on the computer. I discovered two schools of thought: One is that it wouldn't matter if nobody learned handwriting because we all have computers, and the other is that this is an interesting, historic, valuable, and beautiful skill that has been around for thousands of years, and we are just tossing it out."
    (tags: culture)
  • Gawker has a good point there, stating that nice TV ads are on a downslope. Will good TV ads become a thing of the past?

    Have you noticed lately on your television that there are a stunning number of crappy infomercial-quality ads running during prime time? That is because the fancy advertisers are broke. We live in Snuggie's world now.

    The Simpsons last night was replete with ads for 5 Hour Energy that seemed to have been filmed in one take, in a locker room, with a Handicam. Fortunately the NYT today confirms that this isn't my imagination. The collapse of ad sales, and the decline of the auto industry, means that even regular networks—and even, sometimes, in prime time—are increasingly forced to plug empty spots with cheap ass infomercial standbys.

  • Same troupe(?) also did that last year:

    "Ladies And Gents," a site-specific noir thriller set in a public restroom in 1957 Dublin, will be staged in Central Park's Bethesda Fountain Toilets.

    The 35-minute play will be performed from March 17 through 29 with three shows nightly, at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. No seating will be available.

    The play, which was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe a few years ago, is coming to Central Park through the Irish Arts Center and Georganne Aldrich Heller and Semper Fi (Dublin).

    (tags: arts)
  • More on the subway theater
    (tags: art)
  • Think your morning subway commute is unpredictable? Try staging a full theatrical production on those same trains - complete with props, set dressing and a cast and crew of 35 people.

    Yet that's just what "IRT: A Tragedy in Three Stations" will attempt this weekend.

    "The length of the show depends on whether the trains are running express or local," said the writer and director, Brooklynite Jeff Stark. "Our biggest problem has been where to do costume changes, and where to stash our costumes during scenes when they are not needed."

    (tags: art)
  • OK. I get that "banned" ads probably gets more views than normal superbowl spots anyway (and they don't have to pay). But still, i'm always a bit skeptical when presented an ad implying that women love sex with vegetables. How is that suppose to make my eat less meat?!

    PETA's ad—which features a bevy of beauties who are powerless to resist the temptation of veggie love—was deemed too hot for the Super Bowl. NBC rejected the video because of concerns over "rubbing pelvic region with pumpkin," a woman "screwing herself with broccoli," and more!

links for 2009-01-27

  • Flies and moths are naturally attracted to light. This lamp shade has holes based on the form of the pitcher plant enabling access for the insects but no escape. Eventually they expire and fall into the microbial fuel cell underneath. This generates the electricity to power a series of LEDs located at the bottom of the shade. These are activated when the house lights are turned off.
  • Official launch in april 2009, the Leyio is a device allowing you to share music with your friends over a ultra-wide band at speed up to 10 mbps/sec and (and wireless, that is).
  • Great article about hip hop in China, how "famed" artist are taken the trend to boost their sales, the lack of authenticity, the challenge with the censors, …
  • The CICCM was designed by Mansilla + Tunon Architects in collaboration with Matilde Peralta. It will be 110 meters tall and will comprise around 100,000 aquare meters worth of built space in addition to an extensive expanse of green areas. The building is particularly striking due to its radical shape - it is essentially a cylinder that has been stood on its side and partially buried on the ground. The entire building is lined with photovoltaic panels and covered in glass, which will significantly improve the daylight access to each floor.

    The building’s shape will house all the required facilities for the convention center. The six story building will have a 5,000 person auditorium, a number of event halls and exposition centers and some remarkable views. Needless to say, the city of Madrid is hoping that the building’s remarkable shape becomes an icon that will once again put the city in the map.

links for 2009-01-26

  • "I was starting to revel in the benefits of location awareness. By trusting an app (iWant) that showed me nearby dining options, I discovered an Iraqi joint in my neighborhood that I'd somehow neglected. Thanks to an app (GasBag) that displayed gas stations with current prices, I was able to find the cheapest petrol no matter where I drove. And another (WikiMe), which displayed Wikipedia entries about local points of interest, taught me a thing or two about the San Francisco waterfront. (Did you know the Marina District exists largely because a land speculator built a seawall in the 1890s?) These GPS tools were making me smarter.

    Another app, Locale, kicks in when you enter certain zones—you can set your ringer to go silent when you arrive at work, for instance. LifeAware not only tracks your phone, it also allows you to connect with other people running the app on their phones, showing you their current location."

  • "Moving sucks. It sucks, it sucks, it sucks, and there’s no getting around the fact that it sucks. Nobody enjoys upending their life, tossing their belongings in boxes and shuffling off to an unfamiliar, new place that is not yet home. But when I relocated a few months ago, I learned that moving sucks a lot less when you skip the cardboard boxes you have to either buy new or beg used—and instead, rent 100% recycled, post-consumer plastic boxes from a company called RentAGreenBox.com.M
  • 1,474 Megapixel Inauguration Panorama is a Treasure Trove of Candid Captures. Containing over 2GB of photo data and comprised of over 220 images shot from a Canon G10 Bridge camera on a Gigapan robotic camera mount, David Bergman's incredibly detailed panorama is filled with pieces of information that you previously weren't able or bothered to see. Some are just obviously cool—nearly being able to read the sheet music on performers stands, seeing the comically varied expressions in the VIP area behind the President as he speaks—but others are more subtly awesome.
  • Free = Good

    Have you checked out Monty Python’s YouTube channel? It’s got a selection of their brilliant (as always) clips, and it’s got links to buy their DVDs on Amazon. As those crazy Monty Python dudes put it,

    “We’re letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there! But we want something in return. None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.”

    And you know what? Despite the entertainment industry’s constant cries about how bad they’re doing, it works. As we wrote yesterday, Monty Python’s DVDs climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent.

  • Ahem. Must see?

    As part of my object remix series, this stereo forces the music source into the center of attention and creates a radically new user interface.

  • Mega picture from the Obama inauguration
  • Most recent ad from cadbury. As incomprehensible as the gorilla was …
    (tags: advertising)

links for 2009-01-23

  • that are about nothing. really.
  • The elementary schools designed by this architecture boutique are simply awesome. I bet every kid in that school are so happy to be there ..
  • Fashion launches are a bit like romantic comedies; pretty people in pretty clothes in pretty places - and they all start to look and feel the same after a while. Louis Vuitton broke the mould with its latest launch for its new Stephen Sprouse collection. The mega party was held over three venues in New York, starting with a cocktail party at the Louis Vuitton store, followed by an exhibition of Sprouse's artwork. The night ended with a packed after party at the Bowery Ballroom, where Debbie Harry took to the stage for a mini concert.

    Louis Vuitton did the late designer proud, celebrating his unique Punk couture aesthetic by creating mini 'Sprouse worlds' - referencing his work at every turn, from the walls to the ceiling and the furniture, culminating in a spectacular 'hall" of graffiti, a 'tower' of vintage TV sets and custom neon signs. Even the food paid homage to Sprouse - neon coloured hors d'oeuvres and desserts spilled out in a kind of punk colored rainbow.

  • Iconic 80s sports shoe giant Reebok has heard the revival call and is responding beautifully with a mix of classic retro-ism and futurism. Everything about the brand is undergoing a renaissance, from the product right through to the marketing, such as their recent pop-up store in New York which was a feast for the illustrative senses. Good work, we say. Will the brand rise to the dizzy heights of its former glory when a pair of Reeboks was the only shoe any man, woman or child from Dusseldorf to Detroit wanted? Maybe not but we're predicting that the hipsters will give them an excellent run (pardon the pun) this time around

links for 2009-01-22

  • …"
    Finally, this graph demonstrates one other interesting search pattern that we saw: the overall query volume of Google searches dropped in the U.S. from the time President Obama took the oath of office until the end of his inaugural speech, demonstrating that all eyes were on today's festivities."
  • More on Patrick Boivin who created the streetfighter video/game:

    "…the French-Canadian writer, director and animator Patrick Boivin. From his wacky, battle-bot, stop-motion-animation shorts to his more serious live-action work, Boivin has permanently raised the bar for everyone here at Openfilm. In this interview, we discuss how he does it and where he goes from here."

  • this blurs the line between video streaming and video games and could easily lead to "choose your own adventure" kind of amateur videos. it also facilite incredibly the creation of prototype or home-made videogames…
  • The spot will focus on the brand's current campaign that features the burly High Life delivery man who aims to reinforce the brand as a "good, honest beer at a tasty price." MillerCoors notes that air time for a 30-second commercial during the game is selling for as high as $3 million.

    “Miller High Life is all about high quality and great value, so it wouldn’t make sense for this brand to pay $3 million for a 30-second ad,” said High Life senior brand manager Kevin Oglesby, in a press release. “Just like our consumers, High Life strives to make smart choices. One second should be plenty of time to remind viewers that Miller High Life is common sense in a bottle.”

  • Strange advert by Kia. First a tv ad where a guy seem to be checking inside your living room direct you to peerintoasoul.ca. Then. Hum. Let's just say you can sign up to "find your soul".
  • (tags: history)
  • That idea was extently presented and used in Cory Doctorow book, "Down and out the magic kingdom"

    The point is that the pursuit of status can be decoupled from the pursuit of monetary and other economic rewards, and the reputational economy need not ever (though it often does) intersect with the economy in goods and services. Not only is the acquisition of status similar to the acquisition of other forms of property; so, too, are the mechanisms by which it is transferred and protected.

  • Where does the mind stop and the rest of the world begin? The question invites two standard replies. Some accept the demarcations of skin and skull, and say that what is outside the body is outside the mind. Others are impressed by arguments suggesting that the meaning of our words "just ain't in the head", and hold that this externalism about meaning carries over into an externalism about mind. We propose to pursue a third position. We advocate a very different sort of externalism: an active externalism, based on the active role of the environment in driving cognitive processes.
  • In the view of Clark and Chalmers, Inga’s brain-based memory and Otto’s notebook are fundamentally the same. Inga’s mind just happens to access information stored away in her brain, while Otto’s mind draws on information stored in his notebook. The notebook, in other words, is part of his extended mind. It doesn’t make any difference that Otto keeps his notebook tucked away much of the time. After all, Inga tucks the memory of MOMA’s address out of her conscious awareness most of the time too. Clark and Chalmers concluded that real people are actually more like Otto than like Inga: We all have minds that extend out into our environments.
  • (tags: news politics)

links for 2009-01-21

links for 2009-01-20