Jeff Crouse is a Production Fellow at Eyebeam, and an artist and programmer focused on the expressive potential of Internet technologies, specifically art generated in real-time from live data sources. http://www.jeffcrouse.info/
http://www.eyebeam.org/production/production.php?page=midfellows

So in this midnight hour I say farewell with reblog deep thoughts...
on caffeine-
Products that already have caffeine are adding more—in the past few months Diet Pepsi, Jolt and Mountain Dew have all rolled out extra-caffeinated versions. Novelty items, like caffeinated lip balm, caffeinated sunflower seeds, caffeinated beer and even caffeinated soap ("Tired of waking up and having to wait for your morning java to brew?") are also popping up in retail stores and nightclubs.
inside the Happiness Factory -
“ To Refresh the World, Mind and Spirit; To Inspire Moments of Optimism Through Our Brands and Our Actions; To Create Value.”
and Warhol on the Happiness Factory “A Coke is a Coke,” he said, “and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking.”
on fun with Fascism - better ask Amanda. she's better with Aussie satire ; )
on bilingual McD's - better go to the airport cuz if you don't get your receipt your burger is on the house
on faith-based toys - where's my pet holy rock?
on rewriting patent laws - send me your special sandwich recipe and i'll reblog it
on iraq for sale - need i say more?
cheers, stephanie

ps. and don't forget to call your congress person - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that Congress may take action this week on a bill that could rubberstamp the NSA's spying program
boing boing

Up in north central Minnesota the other day, I saw a "For Sale" sign in the ditch in front of a small patch of blue collar recreational land. A working class family had set up a travel trailer as a weekend getaway home -- the Hamptons with wheels, poison ivy -- and without running water.

Immediately below the "For Sale" sign was one of those "Liberate Iraq" signs that were so much in vogue in the redder parts of the country early in the war. The whole thing read: "For Sale Liberate Iraq."

The "For Sale" part was easy to figure. The economy isn't good for working class people. Gasoline prices have doubled since Bush took office. Wages are stagnant. Working people are paying a bigger share of their health care costs. That's money that comes right out of the family's recreational budget. So lots of working class people are selling their recreational land.

A bit harder to parse was "Liberate Iraq." Liberate from whom? Saddamm is dead. Liberate how? Make the surge even surgier?

And how did the two messages relate to one another? I was one more moron looking at one more oxymoron, but I think I've figured it out.

I was looking at political plate tectonics. The Bush economy, grinding hard against blue collar patriotism, has built up pressure on a fault line. It's coming down to "my country right or wrong vs my wallet full or empty," and it's going to blow. Soon.

"They're mad about the way the war is going," reports a man with a seat in a lunchroom full of working stiffs. "They're worried about the price of gas and making their mortgage payments."

Who do they blame for the way the war is going?

"Bush."

These are not effete, college-educated liberals with soft office jobs. These are no bullshit people who spend their days on heavy equipment or down in manholes, maintaining a small piece of the American infrastructure. They end every shift washing to their elbows and beyond with heaping handfuls of pumice.

They don't care about global warming, globalization, or the balance of trade. It's the price of gas, making the mortgage payment, and the mess George W. Bush has made of the war.

It's For Sale. Liberate Iraq, for the time being. But just barely. The pressure is building. And God help the Republicans when the the fault line lets go.

3.23 (H/T: Ressentiment)

Erica Werner | Washington | July 28

AP - Crustless peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, a way to move sideways on a swing, a technique for exercising cats using a laser pointer -- these are among the inventions patented in the United States over the years. Now Congress is trying to cut down on poor-quality or downright ridiculous patents, and at the same time adapt the patent system to a high-tech era in which computers and other electronic devices may contain thousands of patentable parts.

Ian - much as I hate current patent laws, the idea that this Congress will rewrite anything makes me queasy. Watch out for significant expansions of scope, increased penalties and additional expansions of time. My preference would be to go back to 15 or 20 years, reduce the scope and write the "experession of natural law" clause very widely (widely enough to destroy all software patents, at the very least. They're all just algorithims.

If you want to have a Coke and a smile, and you don’t mind being engulfed by an enormous commercial, this museum offers its own puzzles and pleasures.

Instead of Spiderman or Bratz dolls, children in the US could soon be clutching a talking Jesus toy, a bearded Moses or a muscle-bound figure of Goliath.

From the middle of August, Wal-Mart, the biggest toy retailer in the US, will for the first time stock a full line of faith-based toys. (BBC)

Chinese lawyer has sued McDonald's in China for using mostly English, not Chinese, on its receipts, violating his right to information, media reported on Friday.

The lawyer, identified only as Shan, decided to take legal action against the world's largest restaurant chain after he ate at two McDonald's restaurants in Beijing in May and June.

"McDonald's offers food service in China, but it does not use Chinese, which violates the consumers' right to know," the Beijing Youth Daily quoted Shan as saying.

Shan has asked McDonald's to apologize in newspapers and give him symbolic compensation of 1 yuan (13 U.S. cents), the newspaper said. (REUTERS)

Our desire for caffeinated 'energy' products is soaring. July 30, 2007 issue - A few years ago, it dawned on Zach Thomas that coffee didn't have enough caffeine. At the time, he was pulling all-nighters as a student at the United States Military Academy at West Point. (NEWSWEEK)

I LOVE sharks. I could make you sit through the 11 minutes of video of the shark feed and shark swim I was in, but, well, I'll spare you on this occasion. Jaws was my favourite movie of my tween years. Which brings me to area/code's new project (built in nine! weeks!), Sharkrunners.

Sharkrunners, designed for Discovery Channel's 20th Anniversary Shark Week, is a persistent game of oceanic exploration and high stakes shark research. Players take on the role of marine biologists who seek to learn as much as possible about sharks through advanced observation techniques.

In the game, players control their ships, but the sharks are controlled by real-world white sharks with GPS units attached to their fins. Real-world telemetry data provides the position and movement of actual great white sharks in the game, so every shark that players encounter corresponds to a real shark in the real world.

Ships move in real-time, so don't expect any high-speed chases or such; but if you're into shark tracking, or marine biology in general, this is a game for you.

A World Without Oil: Jane McGonigal's (probably) most ambitious ARG yet, one whose result was not foretold by the game designers. Unusual, that, and very, very brave.

Produced by the design team at Writerguy, WORLD WITHOUT OIL leveraged the power of people connected by the Internet to imagine the actual events of an oil shortage, document them and innovate solutions. As the event concluded, the grassroots website at www.worldwithoutoil.org had captured a vivid and visceral picture of what our next oil shock might look like, in the form of 1,500 blog pages, videos, images and audio clips documenting the crisis. “We provided the narrative skeleton,” WWO Creative Director Ken Eklund said. “The players fleshed out the story of this alternate reality game.”

It had a start-and-end date too, I LOVE that. AWWO was funded by public service broadcasting, but played out entirely on the web.

...the creative expressions can be found on YouTube, Flickr, LiveVideo, Blogger, iTunes, and other sites all over the Internet (tag: worldwithoutoil). Approximately 60,000 visitors followed the game’s events, and over 1,800 people signed on to participate, representing every major U.S. metro area and region as well as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Iraq, the Netherlands, Holland, Brazil, Poland, Norway and Venezuela.

Small numbers for (entertainment) teevee, but good numbers for a public service on the web. Not to mention the value of the experimentation in the first place.

“I can’t tell you how many educators and nonprofit organizers I’ve talked to see this as the next generation’s curriculum,” says Jane McGonigal, participation architect for the game.

Mm :)

See the full article over at ARGnet here.

Okay, this actually made me squeal in delight. Some utter genius has mapped out some of the moves that "inspired" the WoW dance patterns: hardly inspiration in some cases, as you can see.

(Via Julian)

Don't miss this one! -SR

“Zombie walks” — people made up like the zombies in George Romero movies — seem to be this summer’s flashmob fad. The San Diego Union Tribune ran a story:

(Photo by Yvette De La Garza)

“Just because they are using mobile phone technology to interconnect in a totally frivolous way doesn’t mean they can’t adopt it for something more serious,” said Howard Rheingold, a Stanford University professor who wrote “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.”

“If you are smart enough to use these tools to organize a zombie walk, when the occasion arises, you can use the same tools for economic, political or cultural organization.”

San Diego zombie walker Kirsten Perrin offers another take.

“It seems to me that everyone in the world right now is so stressed,” said the 26-year-old make-up artist, who plans to walk tomorrow with her 5-year-old son. “We grow up so fast, mentally and physically. Getting together like this is good for your mind, body and soul, which is funny since that’s the part zombies don’t have.”

Four decades ago I quit smoking—and I still remember how hard that was to do. The project Rudy writes about below should be available in every language!

In a tag game blog post, Barcelona mobilist Rudy De Waele describes in item 7 how he quit smoking in 2004 with the help of mobile phones and SMS text messages:

Basically, smokers could send a date they wanted to quit smoking to an SMS short number; one week before you wanted to quit, the system tracked your smoking habit -> every time the user lit a cigarette, he/she needed to send an SMS, then the system sended back a text message preparing the user to quit; when the user finally quit, the system send back a kind of positive ‘haiku’ text message supporting the user in this process; after a week the system knew your habit, thus pushed an SMS to the user at crucial moments. This went on for a week and afterwards on regular times whenever the user needed support. I was the first to test the system and simply quit After delivery, I don’t know how come the project never got out of Spain, I thought it was really great and I still believe it’s one of the better mobile projects I was involved in. Some original press release available here and a website of the current project conelmovil.com (both only available in Spanish!)

The satirical culture-jammers The Yes Men interviewed on Bill Moyers Journal (20 July 2007). I don’t know how they can keep a straight face in their hilarious impersonation escapades (probably because what they parody—neoliberal globalisation— is its own caricature!) but their work is much appreciated, especially as the humour actually works to bring truths to [...]

better late than never! a modest proposal - moyers reflects on survival balls, vivoleum and more...
-SR

News Channel 4 clip from Friday's protest

"...the language of the regulations does not include specific exemptions for amateurs, and critics have warned that vague phrasing could lead to inconsistent and perhaps discriminatory enforcement."


"In the end, some opponents said, the rules could diminish the visual legacy of New York, one of the most photographed and filmed cities in the world. “People look at New York as a romantic and fascinating place,” said Beka Economopoulos, a member of Picture New York. “And part of that is because of all the iconic images that have been created here.”"

from the New York Times

The petition is close to 6,000 signatures in less than 4 days! -SR

Yesterday folks mobilized at Union Square in NYC to protest the new film regulations being proposed by Bloomberg. Check out the videos from the protest and personal video responses - and don't forget to sign the petition!
Picture New York Without Pictures of New York

-SR

Only two of the GOP presidential candidates have agreed to participate in the September CNN/YouTube debate. Here's why.

MIT research fellow David E. Stone is using the Wii controller and Second Life to create training simulators for power plants, pesticide applicators and medical-device manufacturers.

The re-enactment of a speech originally given by Paul Potter, the former president of Students for a Democratic Society, during the 1965 march on Washington fits into a growing subgenre of historical re-enactment as performance art.

mytrip writes "In hopes of avoiding potentially embarrassing incidents, IBM is taking the unusual step of establishing official guidelines for its more than 5,000 employees who inhabit Second Life and other virtual worlds. 'IBM appears to be the first corporation to create rules governing virtual worlds. The move has critics, who say that mandating behavior for the so-called "metaverse" is unlikely to reform impish avatars. They also question why IBM would add a layer of buttoned-down bureaucracy to this relatively rollicking corner of the Internet. IBM executives counter that having a code of conduct is akin to a corporate stamp of approval, encouraging workers to explore more than 100 worlds IBM collectively calls the 3D Internet.'" This regulation may be coming from more than self-interest: IBM sees these environments as management training courses in some ways; working inter-personal skills via chat and human resources via guild activities.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

“The towers are really just giant stacks of money mostly bridging an upper class exodus from Mexico City with the moneyed highways of commerce running in all directions throughout San Diego, pressurizing the nexus of one of the busiest and already most economically polarized borders in the world.” Subtopia Related:...

Rhizome, “an online platform for the global new media art community”, announced yesterday that it will integrate Creative Commons licenses into its online art archive, the Artbase. From here onwards, artists who contribute to ArtBase will have the option to license their work under a Creative Commons License of their choosing, greatly adding to ArtBase’s flexibility. From Rhizome:

“By implementing Creative Commons, Rhizome aligns itself with sites like Blip.tv, Flickr and Digg, who nurture not only a community of free creativity, but of free culture,” says [Fred] Benenson. Lauren Cornell, Executive Director of Rhizome, adds that “It’s in the spirit of Rhizome to foster collaboration amongst artists. I’m happy that Rhizome is able to make these licenses available, and to support the practice of sharing cultural material within the arts.”

It is fantastic that a leading institution in new media art such as Rhizome has added the ability for CC-licensing in its online publishing interface. As more online repositories, be they artistic or otherwise, add CC-licensing options, the stronger the commons grows. As such, licence-adoption from online communities is an essential part of CC’s overall goal, enabling content-creators and content-consumers easy tools to licence and remix larger and larger bodies of work.

You can read more about Rhizome here.

The LinuxWorld Conference and Expo is quickly approaching, and as always, we are incredibly excited. This time though, it isn’t only because of the amazing things we will see and hear about (which are bound to be numerous) but also because it is the first time we are reaching out directly to you in the CC Community to lend a hand.

Our staff is small, and LinuxWorld quite large. We are looking for a few volunteers to help out at our booth by meeting/greeting people and doing some general tasks. CC schwag will be involved and, of course, you get into LinuxWorld Exhibition for free!

LinuxWorld runs August 7-9, from 10AM-5PM, at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco. We are looking for 2-3 volunteers, who will be split up in 2-3 hour shifts through out the day. CC staff will be on hand the whole time, so don’t worry about being stranded in a sea of open-source-dom. If you are interested, please send an e-mail to events @ creativecommons.org with a little bit about yourself (any CC-related items are a plus!) and we will get back to you ASAP.

The rapidly modernizing People's Liberation Army in China has put itself on display. A new exhibit features high-tech weaponry and a heavy emphasis on outer space. It shows that China is moving from a defensive military posture to the projection of force beyond its borders.

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Michele Norris and Robert Siegel read from listeners' e-mail. Topics include an interview with the Iraq Ambassador to the United States, spoiling Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me, and the use of squirrels as CIA agents.

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In the post below Rocketboom reviews Posted by srothenberg at 02:02 PM

story links: you3b, brady bunch 2.0, tractor fight, mortal kombat acapella, welcome back potter, apocalypseoz, crossed lines in india (from steve lambert), will the iphone blend?, long lines for i'm not a plastic bag (1, 2, 3), i'm not a...

Rocketboom reviews Originally posted by yatta from Rocketboom, ReBlogged by srothenberg on Jul 25, 2007 at 01:42 PM

Let the people of world think they know you inside and out with Xposed bags and totes. This eye-catching funky style subtly nods at x-ray technology, revealing faux-contents by design. The three designs reflect an interesting assortment of contents from the expected (cell phone, keys, pills, lipstick) to the unexpected (brass knuckles and booze).

You may even catch a twinkle from TSA when inspecting the liquid contents of your cosmetic bag, or draw the curiosity of a sexy doctor who can't help but admire your tech-savvy taste and humor.

All three styles (grocery, shoulder, cosmetic) are made of sturdy non-woven plastic fiber with a snap closure.

$7.99-11.99 at Perpetualkid.com.

Posted by chrissie    Category: wearables | bags
Tags: fashion  totes
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Immortalized by Van Gogh, staring starry nights is a year-round and timeless pleasure, shared by the Greeks, Galileo, and even us. Planetariums use technology to help your eyes learn how to navigate and detect thousands of stars, planets, constellations, meteors, and more. While you could travel to a planetarium, we've discovered a portable planetarium that you can own.

The Sky Scout Planetarium is a handheld planetarium that reveals the many mysteries of the heavens no matter where an individual stands on this planet. Enjoy astronomy alone or entertain friends and family any day of the year and anywhere--from a rooftop in Manhattan to a beach in Bali.

The Sky Scout is about the size of a camcorder, weighs 16 oz., and includes a target button, intuitive menu navigation, identity function, locate function, GPS, LCD display, talking audio with earphones, SD car slot and USB connection.

Availailable at Amazon for $347.

Posted by chrissie    Category: toys | gadgets
Tags: planetarium
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Everyone's doing it, and now monster companies are finally realizing blogging is a good way to connect with their customers, and sure, along the way, maybe sell more products. Sony just launched their blog this week . Color us not surprised that two women are spear heading Sony's "Social Media Strategy."

In order to understand this initiative, I spoke with Marcy Cohen, who is with Sony Electronics Corporate Communications.

"With the growth and impact of the internet, we realized we needed to be more proactive and have a dialogue with the customer " says the 6 and a half year veteran of the company. "It gives a face to the company and also helps us learn about the customer through unfiltered comments. Besides comments and feedback, we'll have regular contributors ...guest bloggers. Ultimately, we expect it will benefit the consumer."

In the beginning the main blogger will be Rick Clancy, SVP of Corporate Communications at Sony Electronics, who adds to Marcy's comments, "We recognize the growing influence of social media and that more consumers are getting much of their information surfing the net."

I checked the new blog to see the tenor of the comments and whether Sony is editing negative comments. Apparently not.

From a typical post today:

Well, I’m guessing this isn’t the start you were looking for on this blog. But, it is
a pretty fair cross-section of your consumer base, like it or not.

So, here are my suggestions....

Then there's this one:

Blog, blog blog blog. I am 5 days away from jumping to Canon 5d,from KM 7d.

Sounds like Sony should heed these posts, as they say they will. Check it out and brag, whine or complain about a Sony product. They're listening.

Posted by Evan    Category: current affairs | blogging
Tags: sony
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I think people at any workplace can be categorized into two kinds – those who take breaks in between work and those who work in between breaks. If you belong to the latter group (good for you), then concerns about protecting your PC from prying eyes could be quite valid. In which case, the Security Ring by designer Yang Hai could perhaps let you wander in peace.

Essentially, this strange-looking device (still a design concept) consists of a base station which is connected to the PC and a ring which you wear on your finger. So if you wander out of a certain range, the base station gets notified and all your programs on the PC are locked. The concept seems pretty neat. Except, personally, I couldn’t be bothered to wear a bulky ring for long. Unless of course, if the device could get all my work completed automatically as well…

Via SlashGear.

More on computer security for your office cubicle:
Seeing you from my rear view
Hyundai USB fingerprint reader
USB Kitty provides computer security
High security cloth bag

Posted by kanchana    Category: design | conceptual | design | gadgets | devices | peripherals
Tags: security
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I apologize in advance for my growing vulnerability to stupid dog toys (not toys for dogs, but dog-related toys for seemingly intelligent adult humans). You lay this little guy on the ground and he appears to be digging his way to China, together with sound effects -- including farting and barking noises. You can add to our gi-normous affiliate sales coffers by ordering this fun picnic/backyard toy for $17.99 from Amazon. I am bothered by one thing, though: placed in the wrong environment, the headless dog may scare small children or adults with no imagination.

If it appears that I'm heading in the direction of those people who buy little doggie statuettes to line their wndow sills, please help me.

Meanwhile, I blame this one on bookofjoe (note that I've spared you the link for the sound effects, but you can listen on Joe's blog - just make sure your office door is closed tight).

Posted by Hoyun    Category: pets | toys
Tags: dogs
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Social networking website MySpace blocks over 29,000 sex offenders, a four-fold increase on May.

The founder of social networking site Facebook is facing a legal action in the US claiming he stole ideas.

A low-cost laptop, designed for children in developing countries, finally goes into mass production.

Apple’s shares fell 6 percent after AT&T said the early surge of iPhone buyers starting service on its network was smaller than some analysts had anticipated.

The arrests and seizures came at a time American politicians and