September 05, 2006

take it easy

It is not always easy to explain our views.

It is not easy to explain, to a kid for example, that geckos are fun and friendly animals.
It is not easy to explain to an adult that not all that makes sense is necessarily to be pursued and fight for.
It is not easy to explain why the primary and most likely result in not a distant future of the so-called war-on-terror is America drifting to isolationism rather than further gaining in global confidence.

And the most difficult thing for me to explain to others is how I approach the use of white on a web page successfully, that is:

1) embrace CSS circumventing the risk to fall into an obvious and unwanted blog-esque look
2) deliver a minimalist image without turning into provocation
3) give the user hints and hooks without the support of background color panels

I recently redesigned Coruscus, our Agency, following the above conditions and possibly goals. I was not expecting a lot of attention but indeed attention was. I did not explain the following minds what was not needed and because it was not I would like to thank them publicly for the kindness and support:

Carol Guevin of netdiver for including coruscus.com in the Portfolios section, the people behind DailySlurp and DesignMeltdown for showcasing the site, WebCreme for including our site in their beautiful gallery, Thomas Marban of tom.ma for including Coruscus as part of his screen-blog, CSS Smooth Operator for carrying our logo on their home page, Nick Dunn of css-galleries for the work on his CSS aggregator which includes our site.

To all these fantastic people (and the other people, designers and not, that have been supportive of this redesign) Thank You.

Posted by lck at 01:24 AM | Comments (0)

August 30, 2006

goople

A pinch of salt in the news enchilada may pass undetected: Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, joined Apple’s Board of Directors today, August 29th.
Speculation is green for this occurrence but I remember last time Steve Jobs joined a Board of Directors that was not Apple’s, Pixar was sold to Disney the day next. Not to say Apple will be sold out to the Juggernaut of search engines but possibly something else of the most interesting kind: integration.

1 Two of the coolest brand in IT are partnering on betting that Microsoft Vista is going to be a major embarrassment to Redmond’s agonizing monopoly but see the Zune initiative as a threat in the long run (AAPL needs GOOG).

2 Apple is from now on going full-frontal against the former Gates company (Bill’s out gardening with Melinda) and the miserable states of affair that is called the disbanded Microsoft Software Division (GOOG needs AAPL).

3 Google is going to switch to Apple hardware for most of its numerous factories (AAPL needs GOOG).

4 Google is going to buy on the dozen or so multimedia-oriented and Apple branded software pieces that are iLife and iWork (GOOG needs AAPL).

5 Google is going to embrace the iTunes Store for audio and video replacing the miserable Video store have now (they both need this).

6 finally The Googlians are going to fix .Mac and integrate it with their services once and for all (AAPL needs GOOG).

But the whole package of semi-obvious predictions looks possibly too predictable. Apple is set for exploding sales next year with both audio, video and PC products, what they are going to need is sit side-by-side on the couch with the only other company that is an established nightmare to MS and MS’s lack of understanding of web-as-a-service. WAAS has so far been a thorn on the side in Apple’s crown of jewels with only two, masterfully executed and very successful exception: the iTunes Music Store and the Apple Store.

Some very sweet goo is dripping in Cupertino with new iPods, faster Mac minis and now the right infrastructure to jump 2.0.

A small notch on the paper, one with consequences. Expect a lot of them.

Posted by lck at 02:14 AM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2006

Interesting Times

Was it not for the insane-wet-wave-hot of the week past, on the way to (aspiring at) getting a taste of Siberia, I should call these interesting times. Perhaps interesting in an unusual way. We have a few answers and a reminder: I have to teach kiddo the proper spelling for big-bang; her big-boom is flatteringly French sounding and unfit to an educated 6-years old. Make note.

Dark Matter Exists. The great accomplishment documented on Chandra Chronicles here (also check Sean's post on cosmicvariance) and the mandatory press release here. As you can read, a fine understanding of the nature of Dark Matter is too much rush but the old hypothesis is no more: we know now what to look for, where and what it looks like. The object that put an end to secular uncertainty is 1E 0657-56, known as Bullet Cluster, a supercluster consisting of two colliding clusters of galaxies and the most energetic cosmic event known beside the big boom. The discovery takes us back firm on our feet and under comfortable old-school experimentalism. The baby inside can breathe relieved.

On the other camp the very people who should give us a draft of the bigger picture, calling String Theorists, are pic-nicking with new languages (again?) and again: enumerating: torsors (a sophisticated new branch of tensors), granular Homotopy (a trendy variant of old K Theory), Lie-3 algebra and topological dualities, one of which contributed by Richard Superman J. Szabo. Some of this stuff smells promising, what it does not is showing the ability to connect any of the many loose mono-poles that String Theory has become. We grant ST the time it takes and the patience but the field is sore in full stagflation. The brilliant connections a decade old are long gone and the road ahead murky. Hope the first few observations at LHC, operational starting in 2007, may shake the tree, for better or worse. The recent discoveries in astrophysics all put growing pressure on ST for a bit of convergence.

Topologically interesting is Russian Grigory Perelman, a 40-year old from St. Petersburg won the Fields Medal, often described as the math equivalent of the Nobel prize, and he declined to accept it. Perelman is famous for a break-thru (papers of 2003) in the study of shapes and for proving the one-century old Poincare conjecture. The Poincare conjecture essentially says that in 3D space you can not transform a doughnut shape into a sphere without ripping it. The original papers by Perelman are a bit obscure. Two attempts have been made to clarify the original demonstration, both successfully, the most synthetic by Huai-Dong Cao and Xi-Ping Zhu. The proof presents some prosaic aspects, especially at the intro stage but still is a complete step-by-step proof of a geometrization conjecture. The paper is 328 pages. (linked here courtesy of the insane amount of space MT gives us for 9$ a month) Such extensive undertaking not only depicts a brilliant (and eccentric) mind but also lays down a final verdict on accessibility of science and its model of choice: if the full proof to a conjecture on a fundamental property of space requires something of a soap opera (a space opera, specifically) the connection to social function is lost, dramatically and forever. As each chapter in this brilliant (if tedious) epos sucks from sub-modules underneath of at least comparable complexity the scenario is a world away from General Relativity where some of the big nodes are transmissible and social-able. Here, and possibly in most of future science, accessibility is lost and an army of Brian Greene bots is nowhere to be found.

On Pitchford’s Review a recent post puts out the complain that we lack a handful of those minds that in recent past were able to filter and put art in critical perspective to a big audience. Widening the scene the complaint applies to music, literature and most other forms of expression. Turns out the lack of discriminating capability is related to the heavy role technology plays on these fields and how it affects us. Deeper in the hole we find:

1 We do not like to admit that technology affects the way we perceive reality. We are more lax in admitting the role drugs play, do not like to concede that ubiquitous low-fi (ipods, youTube, google and content at-a-glance) is changing the way we structure our experience.

2 On judging, filtering and disseminating to audience it is critical that we are aware of technology and its role but what do we know about technology? How many phone numbers do we recall without the help of our Blackberry, how many movie plots without the help of imdb.com?

3 And last, what is an audience? Defined by the ritual TV spread on the couch now that setting up your youTube account and buying tracks on iTunes is easier than operating and set up your dolby surround TV center?

My kiddo does that, I’m surely not messing with her VCR.

Science, a human construct after all, is no different. Sorry, you need at least being able to read a few differential equation and have a clue of topological transformation in a Riemann-ish space. We’re so sorry.

It’s easy to make a lemon float. Cut out a square section, remove content and seal it back with silicon. The surprising part is that now people think Sicilian lemons float because they have a bigger oxygen core. How disappointing is that.

Posted by lck at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2006

war by proxy

It's hot out, wet and windless.

I missed Valentino Rossi's victorious race and I'm happy he made it with half a wrist and starting from a remote behind everybody. This brings the tournament back to fun with the "Doctor" catching up to the hotspot and on his way to (maybe?) another World Cup. At the other end F1 is behind my back. I can't say for the life of me why or when I grew so unaffected by car racing. Schumacher and his low-charged stamina load, the equally cold and polite Renault crew or the smokey Mercedes, them altogether or is it the weather.

While impressing/freaking the kid with Chris Angel on YouTube I learned that Coruscus Design, which site I released yesterday in its new single-pager CSS incarnation has been picked up by Netdiver and has now his own spot in Netdiver's Portfolios section. It is a pleasure and honor to be picked up in such high consideration by one of the most focused person in contemporary Design. We were taken in with equal consideration in recent past on PixArtisan, an Online Art Gallery, but having our firm's website linked permanently is there for a double toss. Very rewarding of much sweating, listening, talking, emailing and eps-ing. Equally rewarding to know that there is somebody that everyday, with little return, takes care to listen, advise, promote if you just email and politely ask and has the patience to email back with properly wise feedback. Thank you Carol.

Now, as you know if you were heading to the white beaches of Tel Aviv this summer, your reservation may be in danger and a refund possibly on the way. Why? Why, kids know better, is often the appropriate question. Remember things happen for a reason, war, peace and even the rain and life is not the crazy chaotic gothic novel you were dreaming about at 16. Those who ask Israel for moderation have not idea what this is about. Do we? Jump to the always excellent Belmont Club [July 15 post, Israel's Strategy, has 469 comments] for a refresh but after that please read this and after that sit down and take a deep breath.

The ultimate threat, though, isn't Hezbollah or Hamas but Iran. And as Iran draws closer to nuclear capability--which the Israeli intelligence community believes could happen this year--an Israeli-Iranian showdown becomes increasingly likely. According to a very senior military source with whom I've spoken, Israel is still hoping that an international effort will stop a nuclear Iran; if that fails, then Israel is hoping for an American attack. But if the Bush administration is too weakened to take on Iran, then, as a last resort, Israel will have to act unilaterally. And, added the source, Israel has the operational capability to do so.

For Israelis, that is the worst scenario of all. Except, of course, the scenario of nuclear weapons in the hands of the patron state of Hezbollah and Hamas.

After which, and we're almost there, conclusion: The US have all good interest to cover a potential escalation, once again, and let it go as far as it gets, Syria and then Iran, but since they are partially behind this operation may the case be they will run in support, openly, without license from the over-confused and inter-competitive EU block. This confrontation was planned, clearly months in advance and it fired just days before strict cooperation (followed by mutual agreements) between Iran and China was officially inked. The financial consequences may soon be visible with massive dis-investment on the part of China of US debt which could trigger a second bubble burst of US stocks, a clash some fear inevitable.

This scenario, which gets more and more legible by the hour, reminds me how blind the Europeans must be when they publicly request Iran to mediate between Israel and Hezbollah, ahem... Iran.

I received a link to a romantic post from an Egyptian blogger that you can read here. The smell of human is of course welcome, Sandmonkey digs the "med" part.

Posted by lck at 01:11 AM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2006

going 6

I was between Thievery Corporation and very very old and to me quasi unrecognizable Red Crayola when I stumbled into the equally old King Crimson's Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973). This is a very much unknown by KC Mark II, followed by the equally unknown Starless... and the solid and M.O.R. deadline album Red (1974). It makes me wonder why Fripp started with the metrics in this album for his solo carrier, debuting Exposure of 1979, only mitigated by two looping Revox, inheritance of the brief and flashy adventure with Eno, No Pussyfooting and Evening Star.

I spent hours at the beach with the almost 6 years old Melissa and W. We were observing the minutiae of the place and collecting short over-lived sticks, easy to pull together and tie up with a used up nylon string or net. Mine was calibrated on my fist like a baton relay, her was built in a similar fashion with a bright orange plastic rope. I remember that at one point in the discussion, when I was not grasping her point although trying to she served me with a never-mind. Calling a raw phrase a turning point is a clear exaggeration or not. She's growing old and getting tired of detailing the whole picture to the grands. Grabbing hands and nevermind.

After getting over with a big assignment from our client in Abu Dhabi, a packaging work for which we produced more concepts than for any other work ever, I believe it is time for some clean-up. Here come the Beatles, a good reading of past languages a bit before pushing the corners of the next framework. Coruscus is going CSS and is near, white, menu-less, portfolio-centric with samples of a size that scares, I'll be on that thru the next update for PixArtisan. Speaking of which, stats inform PixArtisan has received on average above 1000 unique visitors a day for 10 days in a row now. These are very interesting news considering Angela Rohner wanted to include the site in her gallery of the best designs and that we are simultaneously on netdiver.net, defrost.com and the excellent webcreme.

to google was finally included into the standard body of the Oxford Dictionary today, a verb. For how long have we been using that very verbiage, three years? Google it!, more than anything a "no-excuses" call to coworkers and friends who still don't get it. When I use to decline their questions with this now-famous short for "the-tool's-out-there-just-use-it".

Back to the kid, turning 6 on the 7th of July, what is she getting? Lots of very girl-ish stuff of course, mitigating her wandering ego is an assignment, an arch with arrows to check her homicidal tendencies, but two things I point out: phones and cameras. We're giving her a phone, no bells and whistles, I said phone. She's already our bilingual secretary, she can have her own phone. Most important she's getting a digital camera, a 3MP simple automatic white-balance not-too-many-presets digicam with a 15 MB memory that she can hook up to her Mac. She uses Photoshop, at her age it is important to understand where the input comes from and that it's all digital on the source. Kids need push, not over-protection, before somebody spells the word they have to print their photos. Technologies that make sense, are convenient, flexible and do not rip your time from you need to be embraced and experienced in full. What would you do with your photo prints when half your friends are in the US and the other half spread all over EU? Photo-blogging is in not because it's trendy but because it makes sense.

Now for something that does not make sense. So dark the con of man... you're missing The Da Vinci Code, not the book, the pelicula. Stay away, crap head to toe, do you want me to swear on the keyboard? No link for you!

Posted by lck at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2006

Now you gotta do her

They're both good at pointing, arent't they?



This is where she is asking for consolation (119 minutes passed).




BZ to all of you guys, err... well done!!! (ah Angela baby blue eyes, I can't stand those watery eyes, 120 minutes passed)


Great shot on of our golie!

More sex inside...

Posted by lck at 01:03 AM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2006

Cowboys moving to L.A.

After homo-sex on colt 45 (known to miss its 5th shot by 5 degrees from zero-in, what could be more allusive than a western when it comes to the gun?) cowboys are moving to the San Fernando Valley (L.A.) for some straight time with the girl. The trailer for Down in the Valley is available here. Don't need to point how close this is to O.C., with an obvious avalanche of Oscar nominees. An hilarious movie, I do take my laughings seriously but then is the gay market saturated already?

Say Uncle is a comedy dangerously playing on the edge with the child molester's role to which missing Straysand would positively add. The outraged community screams if anything. Trailer here. Good sign or last season's revival already?

The King (by ThinkFilm, Official selection to Cannes 2005, Un Certain Regard) is an interesting pot hold together by huge performer William Hurt as the father-pastor of just-relesed-seaman Gael Garcia Bernard. The father, literally, wants nothing to do with you. Consequences are enticing. And Hurt's mumblings are a joy to go thru.

The War Tapes is being sold as very touching, very real. Following the likes of Black Hawk Down TWT is one of the most boring war document I have seen in years with a kamikaze booming every 10 minutes and the regular backlash on GWB. What new this says about Iraq or even the daily life of troops there is mystery.

Glory, Glamour and Controvery is the salt in Once in a Lifetime, the story of the NYC Cosmos, the first US soccer team. A look back into the greedy 70's and the polished face of Henry Kissinger all over the silver screen, Pele' and Giorgio Chinaglia. An enjoyable documentary detailing the US public on the surroundings of a new type of stardom, one alien and destined to implosion.

Directed by Patrick Stettner The Night Listener is a psychological thriller based on the bestselling novel by Armistead Maupin. Revolves around a celebrated writer and popular late-night radio show host, Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams), who develops an intense phone relationship with a young listener named Pete (Rory Culkin) and his adopted mother (Toni Collette). The downward spiral is driven by questions on a boy's identity and is all to enjoy in its frightening geometrical precision and progression. Another excellent performance by aging-well Robin Williams. Trailer here.

New England's smalltown's mysteries The Wicker Man is the jam Nick Cage is sticking with this time and it is not a pleasant. After the excellent Man of War Cage had so many options back in business and he nodded the worst. This is a pity of a movie, hi-res scary trailer here.

To leave on a black note The Descent is a copycat for girls only of Alien One. Being marketed as the best horror-thriller since Alien the pot is plain but generously gore, claustrophobic, with a good script and sound-effects from better-than-average hardcore porn. Bring a girlfriend.

Posted by lck at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2006

porn-sellsell-porn

Going thru banging my head on the CSS'ed Coruscus out presumably July and kid's anniversary and thru Sonic Youth's A Thousand Leaves, right before they got their equip stolen at CBGB's NYC 2004, just learned the planet has got a quick satellite upgrade by 2 units, not one, and wikiCalc was released in beta form today.

My Sony-Ericsson "bigboy" ear appendix got crushed (finally) in 4 distinct pieces, with keys still lighting blue up to the faraway LC display via the Bluetooth survivor. I have been looking for a replacement for this bulk for a year. I did not want to get too deep with another Sony nor with the heavy and thick Razor V3x, so I gently declined for the original V3, black, 199 on the pocket. We already ripe on a 8MP Nikon camera that holds the job outstandingly and a variety of iPods. Moto has made the Razor a family, why not ridding of the camera a mystery. It lies blackly on the bamboo tap now sucking electrons out of mother cable, claiming 90 grams barely with the prominent logo god knows why Moto wanted boobs in their logo. But I like boobs... and nipples... actually what happened to nipples in the USA? Support and extend the_nipple_project

Linzie Hunter asked me to add pics of my desktop to her new blog-adventure but I'm such a mess right now I dare not to unravel in public. A slimming device, 76 pounds exactly and a wheel lies in the entry waiting for me to unfold manual and learn. That's what I'll send her and excuses.

Salad, sweet Taleggio and beer over Geogaddi, Boards of Canada, work for the evening short just before a shot of Johnny Rotten. Descript-o-logy, which I apparently excel at, keeps me away from eye contact as an archeologist, observation prevents contact, encrypts reality in a convenient scheme, deconstruction is lovable down to signature and sign, single rip and gesture and game.

This website advertises apparel with hardcore porn video. It's a serious job, good photo and good art direction but then again maybe we're growing old and lack the balls to go unabashed the way they do. These days ipods, DRM and certain types of free thinking are taboos, alcohol and sex are collateral.

Ripley once told me we are expendable.
But then again, maybe she was wrong.
Except, she never was.

Posted by lck at 02:29 AM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2006

Poetry takes time, we know that.

Poetry takes time, we know that.
Music (pop, puff) takes sometimes even more time.

On July 20th, 2005 I posted (under Creative Commons) the following post as part of Dead Engine. The plan was to have UnderWave, a local band, use the lyric for a song of theirs. I'm happy to report they finally did it and the track is now in the wild.

It is here

I like their blend of early Smith with moderately polished Velvet Underground. Can't complain about the English as that's possibly the best you can get around here - Amen.

Poetry takes time, we know that.
But sometimes poetry knocks down early. So it is for Sara Carothers, which first and only piece is here. I read and read this piece and how can I believe this is coming from a 17 years old? Would you? So I asked her. And she sent me 6 unpublished pieces. Sara is on PixArtisan. In a few more days.

In 10 or so years nothing called literature has surprised me more than these 6 little poems of her.

Poetry takes time. Sometimes doesn't.

Posted by lck at 01:40 AM | Comments (1)

May 30, 2006

Annoying

This post took a total 30 second to build including screenshot and resize. It is known that average scanning of a website is around 6 seconds. Take a chance to learn why you should not do a website the way they did.
End.

Not, actually. To make things a lot worse The Indipendent, a respected and often stimulating source for debate, reports in the Online Edition that... " First major study of online pornography reveals 1 in 4 adults, including 1.4m women, downloaded images last year".
Here. And I wonder is that news?
End. Hopefully.

Posted by lck at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2006

Hel-Looks

HEL LOOKS is selected street fashion from Helsinki, Finland. The pictures are taken in the streets and clubs of Helsinki from July 2005 onwards.
HEL LOOKS is a hobby project of Liisa Jokinen and Sampo Karjalainen. The project is a tribute to Fruits and Street magazines, the pioneers of street fashion photography. And is very addictive.

At least as addictive as this absurdity. Karoli Kiralyfalvi (Budapest?) is not exactly bad and at least a very productive. But 411 500x500 px images weight from 70 to 150K each on the same page? The trend is being pushed somehow to limits and if that is we may want to ask Dell, Logitech and HP to use BIGGER wheels on their mices.

Posted by lck at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2006

Barbarians

Between a sunny day and then more and family screaming "more of Lost" on the deserted beach not yet stuffed with sweating passengers heading to another holiday season...
Between reality, well packaged into comfortable, acceptable and economical "units" and the equally assuring, impossible and unacceptable Lacan game of hide and seek, so accurate and afar from our psychological needs to buy balance, compromise and acceptance...
In between String Theory and No Theory is a glimpse of History. The ability to read back language and carve sense out of our childish time of panic, reading back fractures, lines and reversals. Legible and usable.

I have been eyeing for two days now the pamphlet an Italian writer started on one of our newspapers, daily. I have never been foggy about Alessandro Baricco's writings. No mystery. In this pamphlet, a most welcome to a major newspaper going to sell it as "enough-entertainment" by the pound and under the umbrella in the coming months, Alessandro is looking to define, or at least inquiry about, what he calls "new barbarians". Alessandro, 48, is himself a writer and runs courses on creative writing in Turin, Italy. He has noticed, his words, as of recent (but according to his own observations as far as 5-years back) his scholars changing. He perceives the change tangible and important up hill to call it a "mutation". As a metric he identifies (in the second shot of this promenade made very clear) Beethoven ninth's Symphony as the "citadel" that, supposedly, defines our culture, times, shares and incontrovertible achievement, Byron and all the way down to Madonna. He also points out, handing some comfort over, that Beethoven's piece #9 was perceived at his time (written 1822-1824) as a disgrace, a barbaric acceleration, away from consolidated rules and values. The noise of today the "C" of tomorrow.

First question is: how many times did we experience this AFTER Beethoven?
An honest answer should have been: every day (with no exciting bangs)

Second question is: why is Alessandro (and legions after him) so enamored with Apocalyptic clashes?
An honest answer should have been: because historical facts and processes are easy to read once latent anthropomorphism is expressed as a fact, not methodology.

Is this in the end about our kids, our cold-blooded un-romantic unemotional tax-hater small branches scattered in-to the world without a (desirable?) sense of tragedy, direction, time, space and, most important, don't like Beethoven? Don't know who he was? Could they care if Madonna sits side by side with the iconic said Uber-Composer on the same shelf?

The questions above are naive, the answers are even more obvious. From an editorial point of view we may have appreciated more a long, articulated article than this long, foggy, vague and non-descriptive event horizon. But, fear not, the trend is real (Ludwig Van is LOL) .

The new barbarians own a free Gmail or Hotmail account, are part of an Internet community of some sort, have a blog they often update, experience some sort of virtual sex, have replaced art with graphic design, browse while at work, are on a short term job contract, maybe/sometimes a disqualifying position. They drive an SUV or a Mercedes-made city-car, have no particular concern for pollution, global warming and related geopolitics. The new barbarians do not buy CDs, catch individual songs on iTunes or grab them on the illegal underground, express acceptance/rejection to a website in average 6 seconds and have their first sex experience on the floor or on a couch, often at a party with same sex counterparts. The new barbarians express stable sex preferences around 30, with a wide range of uncertainty, often persistent beyond that age. The new barbarians do not read or buy books, they write. Their inevitable blogs and journals are all along a marketing tool, a psychological backpack, a connecting lane to the only social side of their life, a tie to a closed (and sometimes suffocating) self-referential community.

The landscape is clear.

Should we support? Influence? Get influenced? Slam the door?

People like me, 42 of age, Alessandro, 48 (I could be wrong, sorry :-), we have been going thru a lot. We may have kids, I do. We have answers to the above four questions, respectively: Yes, Inevitable, Sure, Never. But, kids aside, if we have not learned already, at our age, that "open mind" has a broader, deeper and larger meaning, we have failed. If we can not listen, if we are to read the earthquake ahead as "fracture" only and not as an everyday necessity, we have failed.

In the end, dear Barbarians, fear not, you won't be alone. In good company you are. Indeed!

Posted by lck at 02:20 AM | Comments (0)

May 07, 2006

com·mu·ni·ty

com·mu·ni·ty (kə-myū'nĭ-tē)
n., pl. -ties.

A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government.
The district or locality in which such a group lives.
A group of people having common interests: the scientific community; the international business community.
A group viewed as forming a distinct segment of society: the gay community; the community of color.
Similarity or identity: a community of interests.
Sharing, participation, and fellowship.
Society as a whole; the public.
Ecology.
A group of plants and animals living and interacting with one another in a specific region under relatively similar environmental conditions.
The region occupied by a group of interacting organisms.

Flip page for more...

If you are unfamiliar with the buzzword Web 2.0 consider yourself lucky.
If you want to know more this is a good source
If you are a designer and want to grab loose hints from peers without hitting the wall this is a good start.

There is no much critical debate about the focus communities bear in this scenario, subsequent business models, etc and the word has clearly become a meme, pasted everywhere inadvertedly as a marketing tool.

The Wired game comes to mind, sometimes a mere juxtaposition of fresh terms as opposed to old, spent ones. Wikipedia's radical trust in "collective intelligence" opposed to Britannica's academics.

oReilly again:

If an essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence, turning the web into a kind of global brain, the blogosphere is the equivalent of constant mental chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of our heads. It may not reflect the deep structure of the brain, which is often unconscious, but is instead the equivalent of conscious thought. And as a reflection of conscious thought and attention, the blogosphere has begun to have a powerful effect.

First, because search engines use link structure to help predict useful pages, bloggers, as the most prolific and timely linkers, have a disproportionate role in shaping search engine results. Second, because the blogging community is so highly self-referential, bloggers paying attention to other bloggers magnifies their visibility and power. The "echo chamber" that critics decry is also an amplifier. [...] If it were merely an amplifier, blogging would be uninteresting. But like Wikipedia, blogging harnesses collective intelligence as a kind of filter.

Implications are profound, interesting and also open to deep misunderstanding. In some cases we may be tempted to paraphrase the recent "Lord of War", excellent script and excellent Nick Cage's act there's a blogger out of every twelve people in the world... the question is how do we get the other eleven

As participation becomes mandatory as an undiscredited value and getting involved is not an option, where value is to be judged, pushed and emphasized, what tools of the trade can we count on but just plain-old mass appeal?

Please see this by Janice Fraser of adaptivepath and a slight rebuttal by jason Kottke here.

The path is thin, as blurred as ever. (see how USPTO indends to use a Wiki here)

But there is always a short novel of enlightenment.
It's venerable Theodore Sturgeon's Need (1960) • [Hugo Award 1961]

Disconnect from your preferred online com·mu·ni·ty and dig it

Posted by lck at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

May 06, 2006

Do the strand

Waiting for Lost S02E20 "Two for the Road" to hit the plate off iTunes mandatory it is to go back a few strands to Where-It-Began.

A plane crash between Sydney and L.A., realistically off the coast of Madagascar, fuselage splits in three (that's how B-757 are built), a good chunk of pax payload stranded all over across a not-so-small island, alien presence all over the place from the start to include polar bears at tropical latitude and miracle healing, transceiver only catches a glimpse of a re-played message, in French, coming from the island self. Although French at subtropical spells nuclear, as you may find in subsequent developments related, is initially relegated to Eiffel's tower postcards for tourists.

Lost is approaching edge of second season's closure with no answers but a War to chew on. The show is now running most of Europe, Italy included with terrible dubbing on top, soon to spread across non-EU-ized East Europe.

I find Claire sexier in her 8-months pregnancy than now, on the kid's seasonal temp vars. But the approaching finale means at least one of the main char's inevitable demise, be it Lock, Ana-Lucia, Charlie, you name. But at times of war casualties may spell plural. I only hope Kate makes up her mind and gear up with either John or Sawyer or any of the polar bears. Please settle down now it's time to stabilize it and we've had enough of the wandering round.

From the blackened smoking plane's giant carcass drowned ashore to our art gallery online. We are very happy with PixArtisan so far. Great feedback, polite inquires from known and unknowns and great contributions. I am motivated to carry this one on, much will come with the upcoming May 15th update, which could be (power)grrls only.

By the way, everything happens for a reason when you're 40. If you're not, nothing is true and no reason is better than no reason at all. That is why a remarkable Hollywoodian like Clooney got engaged in an issue that is (unfortunately) entirely political. "If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it will all disappear then they will - all of them, an entire generation of people. And we will have only history left to judge us." Clooney on SaveDarfur.org.

Apple wins a major struggle with the majors for individual song's prince, .99 still and running some of the coolest switching ads ever, gaining on yet another inevitable delay to Windows Vista. Microsoft noted only is for the recent miserable Explorer 7 update.

Winner both hands is Vladimir (Putin) for being able to sell an air-defense rocket-based system to Iran and putting an Israeli's spy satellite into orbit using a Russian vector. If this is a mean to shrink the window to the next war or one to blackmail both, is hard to say.

Firefox is done open-sourcing its own advertising. It's over but take a look here. For now winners are: honorable and absolute.

Who's going to open-source advertising next? And...

Would it not be nice to have a European Portfolio Night? I am late re-porting this I realize, source the always excellent NetDiver. The idea is worthy. Xerox it. Anybody with a portable portfolio and decent shoes?

Posted by lck at 01:18 AM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2006

I (double dog) dare you

Life is sometimes like a fluff, a cloud, an invitation and an apology, to what you've done and focused on cheeringly for some time. It is good, always, to see your words spreading on by third-party choice to many more, clear or not, bloody or soul and it is just silly to say writing is disconnected from an ear, an audience.

After a year almost Bernard Dewley, Managing Editor of handtoothnail.com finalized finally the second issue of this online poetry mag. I may have different views than Bernard but it is after all a joy to see my most recent flash prose unleashed to the public on handtoothnail. I appreciate what Bernard is doing. Walking Distance and Red Vs. Tan for which I have a special affection, you can find them on handtoothnail.com, April 2006.

The other gift is an easter's Egg. PixArtisan is live, finally. Enjoy.

PixArtisan is being linked from scene360 and reviewed by netdiver

Posted by lck at 02:19 AM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2006

United we fall

It was the first time ever we follow Italian Political elections start to end on our macs, sack TV. And it was surprisingly good. Thanks to La Repubblica and the Corriere della Sera, both with an informative and agile web presence.

Despite the very close results, a first for Italy, Prodi won the Deputy Chamber with some 24,000 votes over Berlusconi, which gives the Left coalition 340 Deputies versus Berlusconi's 277. The other chamber, the Senate, was also won by Prodi, 158 to 156.

This is a very close margin. Unusually close. It is remarkably important that one coalition has got both chambers, our constitutional procedurals would otherwise nightmarishingly stall. And still this is not what both parties were expecting.

The election law is new, wanted and drafted by Berlusconi, a tailor-made return to the past and to him, paradoxically, suicidal. On the other camp much more was expected that did not happen. If these elections were a call for voters to make a definite choice they didn't.

It is quite predictable now that chunks of the House of Freedom (Berlusconi's coalition) will quietly migrate from one camp to the other. It's Italian genes to follow the power where-ever power goes.

Berlusconi is still the guts and soul to millions. He is only fading, inevitably, away.

Startling and disturbing is, in the news today, Bernardo Provenzano finally captured. Undiscussed boss of bosses, the Padrino from Corleone was missing for 43 years and in power for that long according to informants. Provenzano was captured today by police in... Corleone, the place where he was born. With typical, possibly the only good left to what these men represent, he elegantly and nonchalantly responded to the obvious brigadiere's question, simply: "Yes, I am".

He was captured today. I am sure this is just a coincidence.

In a previous post I was recalling The Economist and the paper's open call to Italians to screw Silvio and sack him from job. He was. But he does not fall alone. Two men fall today. United by circumstances together they fall.

The long-term task of dealing with the ruins he has left behind for us to cope with has begun. It is now up to Mr. Prodi and his very diverse coalition to grow stronger and learn to talk to the other half of this country. This is the daunting task the winners are up to.

Fair winds, Professor Prodi.

Posted by lck at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2006

sack him

When The Economist comes out with a cover such as the one above (bigger banner for the occasion) it could signal a few different things:

The Economist is a socialist publication controlled by what's left of the former Russian Politburo (the paper's logo makes this pretty obvious, can't you see?)
or
John Peet (The editor) hates Berlusconi for his much overflowing power and wealth
or
Berlusconi secretly controls the Economist and is coming with an issue that will inevitably inflame the internal debate here in Italy, as he knows well victimization further divides, further conquers (just in case, you never know)
or
None of the above and the Economist is right, plus Peet is so immensely bored and shattered by how much time he is forced to waste everyday on the everyday BS coming from said celebrity's mouth.

Which wins?
The last one wins.
Hands down.

It is difficult to explain how Italians got so flexible, so indifferent and tolerant to their Prime Minister and his Juan Peron-like obsession to be loved, appreciated, every day over every pipe and every channel, apt to almost anything coming from what is inherently a seductive and rules-hater businessman, not a politician by any rate. Impossible, probably, to explain how today still such man can be trusted after countless proofs of his inability to produce any coherent vision and sell that and implement that to a country running on empty.

Mr. Berlusconi requested today that UN observers have a good eye on the incoming elections. Usually the contenders do that call, not the incumbent. But UN observers for... Italy?

Yesterday, in his grungiest and surreal call ever, he called opponent voters "dick-heads", a good approximation in English of the Italian term "coglioni". All said during public debates, newspapers everywhere on the daunting task to translate the term "coglioni", Spanish and French an easy job, a near-nightmare to others. A term once forbidden from public shows, debates and general conversation then literally everywhere overnight. My daughter came to me and asked...

I don't ask politics to solve much, especially under current trade of events and developments that are played more at the global level that any local can cope with. But, yes, I had enough.

Sack him. Legally, decisively and for good.

Thank The Economist to be in agreement with me.

P.S.: It is good practice to always give your P.M. a second chance. A good editor would go and see what other newspapers have to say about. I did. I have been for several days. International Herald Tribune, the New York Times, Financial Times. Apparently, if I can still read English, nobody is crying at the prospects of Berlusconi's downfall. And if the business community is not in tears then the following is also true: You call voters dick-heads, you'll have a chance, Monday night, to call us something else. How about fucking bastards?

Posted by lck at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2006

Onother one bites... the dust

Posted by lck at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2006

Google Current

Google Current airs every half hour here and provides a look at what the world is searching for on Google. There's nothing like it on television. When Googlians exert criticism "a-la-Wired" CNN-stile with Conor Knighton and Kinga Philipps playing the game things get quite interesting. Highly recommended and highly addictive.

In the meanwhile origami paper was given to the MIT students. This is what happened.

Posted by lck at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2006

revival

enough is enough and this is a quickie, no Capitalization but, at least, some punctuation, 2 weeks?

it's night revival in casa Zib with Lavigne pumping really loud, that's revival all-ready, and a good load of Warsteiner and Cabernet Franc.

we're split.

how blissfully desperate Avril was. kids can still buy their soft apocalypse for .99 and she's not coming back. what then?

re-play. pouring down. sweet.

enough is enough, my template for PixArtisan is locked-down, I can't make a white whiter than this. which is enough. my whitest.

this online art gallery is going to kick with Adriana de Barros, Liz Wolfe and the lovely Christian Lindemann just to start. The girl at NetDiver that is suggestive to us all and which blessing is pricey has signed her agreement, so I'd be expecting for her portfolio material on the 17th, Green Beer Day.

but Avril, wow, how sweet she was.

[Chorus]
If you're trying to turn me, into someone else
It's easy to see, I'm not down with that
(I'm nobody's fool) I'm nobody's fool
If you're trying to turn me, into something else
I've seen it enough, and I'm over that
(I'm nobody's fool) I'm nobody's fool
If you wanna bring me down
Go ahead and try - go ahead and try

Posted by lck at 01:15 AM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2006

Iranium

Here we go again. This time we're all up with those tiny exotic radiant compounds Ma'm Curie was in love with. They used to make her counters go blip. They still do.

The people who want permission granted to enrich uranium, this time, are mostly the same people who sell you gas.

Whether or not Iran has the strength to pose a semi-embargo on its clients is uncertain. Whether or not the US has the power to set up a second attack on the same front, everything considered including broader support from the UN this time, is also uncertain.

Do you see China, who has been financing the US huge federal debt so far with massive acquisition of currency and bonds, backing up a second crusade?

Chances for a settlement are good. The US may want to postpone this mess on to the next, sometime in November 2008.

In the meantime this blog has been affected by a spike of traffic coming from wife's friends. My fault was to spin yarn for her using a tool she made herself, something called "a spindle". What it does is spinning raw fibers of yarn (silk, in this case) to make a hank. More on the whole shebang here.

I'm not starting a knitting carrier anytime soon. But if you wanted an interlude, an intercourse, that is what it was. A family trial. Somehow.

What is that for?
A spindle.
A spindle?
Ya know, to spin yarn.
And what are the coupled DVDs for?

She had built a bottom-whorl spindle. Using the kid's DVDs. At home. I first saw it on her blog when I was at the office. There was also a first comment from a friend of her which I thought was translating my nightmares already with more human words. Beautiful, now, how does that work?

Which DVDs did you use?
I used Finding Nemo.
You hate that movie so much?
No, they weren't working anymore.

Talk about naive Americans...

The kid pointed out that DVD 1 was scraped and dead but DVD 2 was fine, and added a pissed face on top of it like rancid tomato dripping hate and fury without saying a single word.

Then I recalled the commentaries' observation: how does "that thing" work?

The day next I was spinning yarn acrobatics, joining the roving, poking a hole in the hankies, playing with the torque and discussing the thickness of the resulting. Even better this one was silk. Spindling away like a sufi which is all you want to be in a rainy day.

Do you know a spinner uses gyroscopic principles?

The kid was given her ration of hankies, which she helped coloring but started being loud when she discovered how difficult was for her to "make a hole" with her tiny hands. It only got worse when she saw me spinning.

Are you envious?

We made some 22 yards of silk and then she swifted it up into a tidy hank, then soaked in cold water to set the twist. Now it's hanging on a hanger and damn it's nice.

The bed is covered with silkworm memories and my nails too. Raw silk is darn easily attached to the host like not even viruses. That is the bad part.

Now we're browsing the web looking for spinning machines and I know she has plans. What does not happen when you let the enemy infiltrate your dailies?

By the way, the spinning business, including converting a membrane into a closed string can be described by good mathematics with a high degree of precision. They do it everyday, over at Stanford

Today, surprisingly, we woke up in a sea of snow. It was snowing.

When I started web-designing some ten years ago white was an obvious choice for a neutral background. The first, second and third instances of our agency's website were all based on white. But in time you learn that white is not as neutral as it may seem.

For one you'll never see white on a consumer's grade monitor no matter how hard you try. Why?

Because your monitor's phosphors combined output tends to aging on the yellow.
Because your monitor likes dust.
Because you like to leave fingerprints on the screen and think that's sexy.
Because white point calibration is a variable of just too many things, including a cloudy day.
Because perception of "neutrality" depends on age, temper and usage.

And finally because blogs and CSS-based content systems use white as if it was for free.

It is not.

Now I'm coping with an online gallery. An (art) gallery's identity stems from its walls. Bare white walls.

So, next in line is, in the process of making this website, what am I going to do? Or, what am I doing?

Posted by lck at 06:41 PM | Comments (2)

March 01, 2006

Behind enemy lines

1 out of 12 people in the world have a weapon. The problem is how to arm the other 11.

After Fascism, Stalinism, Stat-a-lism and neo-Colonialism we just needed a new respectable enemy that does not just talks-the-talk. Aloha, Islamism.

Puff! Are we a democracy now?

And what shelves should I get and what shoes should I wear when my portable is lying on the two hard-disks-enclosures-combo on top of the ethernet modem which is on top of the hi-fi and did I tell you that boom-boxes were on a returning leg? Your iPod can finally feed the family on Apple-approved speaker-dome. Special events are just to introduce these tiny i-Fi evolutions. here

Tiny evolutions are what Tom Jenkins, a.k.a. Squarepusher, has been delivering for a while. Since "Hard Normal Daddy" and "Big Loada" he's been thru his own "White souls..." with "Music is rotted one note" and now "Ultravisitor". In a few years Tom may be delivering his "Bitches Brew Revisited". Please bring that on. And may Miles Davis understand what we don't.

Our prime minister went to see George. George did not say shit about our prime minister. National newspapers emphasizes Berlusconi has a close deal with the Bushes. Is that gas? Maybe methane.

The 1st of March is set aside especially for pigs. It was started by Texas art teacher Ellen Stanley in 1972 to honour and give thanks to our most intelligent domesticated creature. On this day, remember the good things pigs have brought to us; remember that pigs are sociable, intelligent mammals. They are much like us in many ways, they have noticable personality traits and soaring emotions. You might want to visit a farm sometime in March for a day out (with the kids) and pay your respects to these marvelous animals.

here

There's one thing I like about George Bush. His plane. AF-One, a heavily modified 747-400 is the most beautiful flying machine on earth and you won't find it on Google with its current look. To kill a very widespread misconception, the 747 we associate to the US president is not always the AF-One. Any aircraft that carries the US president bears the call-sign Air Force One. It could be a DC-9 or a little Augusta A109 helicopter. Helos and planes, lots of which draw the line for Lord of War. In the end, Lord of War, the movie, isn't for everyone. In a sense this film is kind of like "Blow" because it's about a man who feels his life isn't complete without selling something that is bad. He has everything he could ever want but still needs to sell the firearms. It's a powerful story which I feel really puts things in perspective as far as Americans look at things. Nicolas Cage's performance is incredible as he seems to not care at all for the people's lives he puts at stake every day and when it comes to his own life he still seems unemotional and doesn't seem to worry. I think this is one of the best film's of year. If you have an open mind about things and enjoy movies that will make you think check out "Lord of War" because it's well worth the price.

In the meantime A. Baricco, one of our Italian novelist-fantastique, is praying for objective criticism, alas "read me before you bash me". Can you read it to me? You want me to buy your story, please read it to me... tell me your story... (no-link-for-you)

I understand you are going to ask for new designs, talents, snapshots of things to come. That has been lagging on Timeline lately. A new project is in progress that will get its wings on pixartisan.com in April. So, be patient, I'm working hard on that.

Posted by lck at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2006

Chicken Licking Good

Rain falls on everyone, the same old rain...

The sun will shine again, one day, and tropical storms will be a thing of the past. Just not yet. And all familiar and fair unless it's Carnival time and kiddo has got herself a princess's suit along with all garments and jewels that fit the trade, schematics of what the princess, prince, queen and king are supposed to look like and Wizard of Oz on, on her G4, with new spanking 160GB of additional storage space. It shines at her place with the firstborn's privileges and the casual nap, deep in the car, back from the store.

Life is grim if your name is Callahar.

Hello, my name is Kallahar (well, it's an alias, but Kallahar really is a family name of an 1800's Irish family Ancestry of William Kallahar, born 1830). I recently tried to create a user on Yahoo with my name. Unfortunately, Yahoo said it was unavailable...

Kafka reborn under the american flag and on the Kodak filtering. More rejoicing can be found in the full PDF with Mrs. Kallahar's narrative here.

Why Allah? Why now? And why an eyebrow when corporations keep shaping the body legal and ethics as they have been for a century, around the economics and an avalanche of lawyers? Or praise American ingenuity vs. opportunity, hailing to First Amendment again and again over our thousand-islands-mushroom-guacamole with taleggio on the toothbrush.

We know where we are going, we just don't know where we are.

Busy as he is in the daily command-post-like blog reporting, Juan Cole gives his best from a comfy spot at MetroTimes. It is an excellent, long interview that expands the topic to American psychology, motivations and trade strategies.

The debate is big about subcontracting handling of major American ports operations to a UEI (United Emirates) contractor. The anger in the face of the possibility that Arabs may acquire control of such operations is visible all over the blogosphere. It turns odd to me that no debate exists over the fact, not just a possibility, that 15% of McDonald's is currently owned by Pakistanis. Hush, your cheeseburger may be listening...

As you can imagine, with no big support from quantum mechanics, shares don't mind what religion you like.

Do you really want to know who owns the remaining 85% of McDonald's? I know you won't. The jucy part is unrelated to Terrorism. Joshua M. Marshall explains it well here.

The administration did not require Dubai Ports to keep copies of business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to court orders. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate U.S. government requests. Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries...

The failure to require the company to keep business records on US soil sounds like a pretty open invitation to flout US law as near as I can tell. Forget terrorism. This is the sort of innovative business arrangement I would think a number of Bush-affiliated American companies might want to get in on. Perhaps Halliburton could be domiciled in Houston, pay its taxes in Bermuda, do its business in Iraq and keep its business records in Jordan.

Does that sound better?

Originally on Samizdata a collection of amazing aerial photos of Mexico City, here. Bizarre.

Macs are good at sharing resources with minimum effort on the user. We are sharing our ADSL via Firewire on several macs. The good is Firewire is extremely fast and the whole family can go online simultaneously from several computers. She is playing a DVD but does not really know where the physical disc is actually and I am sucking in data from one of the two storage units that I am not physically connected to and the kid is streaming Disney off of the shared Internet comm. I guess you can do the same on a PC but then again you probably have to be a Microsoft Certified Engineer with lots of days off and a double pack of painkillers. 3 macs just in the bedroom and the kid knows what works on mine must work on her.

Go explain kids to Microsoft.

Fear not, we have an update the finest. here. Yes, Yahoo Mail reverses ban on 'allah' in usernames. As everybody but some know, gods are celebrities. Left out of the grapevine? No way.

Posted by lck at 11:29 PM | Comments (1)

February 12, 2006

Swan, swan, hummingbird

It finally made it. It made it and I mean here. 21 swans out of a flock of 18 (which is, there's going to be more) found dead by the so-far-deadly H5N1, a.k.a. bird flu, within the range of this province. The event, predictable and in fact predicted, with Sicily main route for these birds to and from Russia on an average path that goes thru Southern Italy (Calabria and Puglia, 3 swans reported dead today), Albania and Yugoslavia, Ukraine and Romania and Bulgaria and, finally, indeed, Russia.

Reasons to be concerned? Cool it there maybe. Several different formulas are being final-tested for a working vaccine, including an Italian and an Israeli, the latter, apparently, very effective. The more the virus is learning from us the more we learning from him. Meanwhile avoid that swan-brushing...

I found Repubblica's special, also outlined by Zib, to be x-specially ineffective and confusing as it tries to merge a forum with structured ambientation. A better source for non-Italian readers may be this.

Did you know that the H5N1 flu virus has been circulating continuously in poultry in south-eastern China for a decade?

A massive genetic analysis shows the virus has mainly been spread by poultry, but also that wild birds carried it from southeast China to Turkey. Yi Guan and colleagues at Shantou University, plus scientists in Xiamen and Hong Kong, say the only way to stop the virus is to control it in southeast China. The Chinese authorities have denied the country is the epicenter of the virus and opposed independent flu research.

One overshadowed aspect so far is the impact bird flu is having in Africa, as detailed in a report from Nigeria, where birds are being toasted by the tens of thousands, indiscriminately. In a strange twist the Nigerian government now claims H5N1 did not reach the country via migratory birds, but through smuggled "pets and birds". Which is???

Small poultry farmers in Nigeria close to where the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus was detected said on Thursday birds were dying in large numbers and they did not know why.

The west African state is the first country on the continent to report the virus that is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia and has killed at least 88 people since late 2003.

The unexplained poultry deaths raise the possibility that the virus has already spread from four big commercial farms to small farms and even households in Africa's most populous country, posing a greater threat to human health.

[...] The Agriculture Ministry said 45,000 chickens had died at Sambawa Farms in Kaduna state, and confirmed cases of H5N1 had also been found at two farms in the neighboring Kano state and at one farm in Plateau state, which also borders Kaduna.

We still lack a single case of human-2-human transmission that we can demonstrate beyond doubt. Viruses, in their struggle for new flesh, can be very patient. Unless they can not figure it out.

Detailing the first significant outbreak (of a disease believed to be deadly) in the country with a constellation of mp3 audio and video galleries that most times break depending on your PC platform and plug-in type is a very unprofessional approach. Italian press is using flash video and WMV and intermixed. Let's hope next time they will get the story in a more old-fashioned way than this.

I can still count on North Korea for the best in denial arts. NK may deny Earth orbits around the Sun along with a sleuth of fancier things, like Microsoft's own anti-virus product (still in beta but being distributed as if it was not) tagging Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus as a virus and prompting you to delete it. Which is crazy enough to an already busy IT staff. But the best is that it is indeed possible (practically) to travel at near-speed-of-light, no headaches. Available here and quickly getting into mainstream. And for once NK would be with the wise guys.

Beam me up.

Posted by lck at 12:41 AM | Comments (2)

February 04, 2006

A fish for a fish

The day is a feast-full of the weirdest, from a flower-shaped rock spotted on Mars soil, a volcanic formation possibly, to the astronaut's suit filled up with dirty socks and let go to float out and around the ISS space station. By gravity's courtesy the suit won't go far and by way of temperature the batteries will freeze after an hour or so. The so-called "experiment" was videotaped by ISS personnel and available on the web. The narration all but clarifies what the experiment was for.

Do we need to remind our muslim friends and neighborhood that religion is a form of expression? As a form of expression in all its genres, its visuals and not, religion can any other day collide with others, who possibly express their ways differently. Unless we crave to grant religion a special status and protect it legally from collision, which we have been bordering for a while with political-correctness, a common ground has to be found. Burning flags, taking down embassies and threatening journalists does not make anybody better. Common ground to life is that it ends and if you we not cope with the simple idea that religious beliefs are a form of psychological self-shelling ourselves from the unknown and unbearable we need to find a good psychiatrist. This is true not just for muslims, which I am far away from targeting here, it is true for anybody. How great would it be if we all give up and focus on "here and now" versus the "there and after", a place we all know biologically impossible. Don't ask yourself if you are tolerant of others but do ask yourself what you want to do before you die.

The baby wanted a goldfish today. Initially she thought to give it to the turtles and enjoy the slaughtering as she discovered that turtles are predators. The wife was nodding on the same murky design. I hated both and especially their convergence. So there we go and buy a little anonymous goldfish that the kid could carry at home. While carrying it she changed her mind, now she wanted to keep it. Wife hated to push for a second fish to satisfy her need for a grand show. Now we're all starring at little Pierre going circles in a glass bowl soon to be forgotten as fishes don't do anything exciting besides circling around. I guess we all miss the original gruesome intentions now.

Posted by lck at 07:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2006

The Slide

February is looming and the slide to Summer is on the run. Clues are available as to what we're up to. Let me first hand out the template for Calendaring Feb 06 (PSD file) here. "Save Target" in Safari as it now supports layered PSD display.
And my Feb 06 contribution here (In the Gallery by Feb 1st):

1024 x 768
1140x900
1152x768
1280x854
1440x900
1600x1200

STU tell me if you want me to take care of the Illustration you sent.

Back to the slide(s).

Slide One: ArsTechnica is running a Jobs vs. Gates discussion. Is Jobs the greedy capitalist (bad?) and Gates along with wife Melanie the charity champion (good)? Look at the numbers that are available to public, the Gates family surely gives a lot in charity while Jobs is nowhere listed. According to the article, the Gates Foundation has a US$29 billion endowment in fighting racism, poverty, inequality or war. Jobs started a charitable foundation in the 1980s but gave up once he "discovered how time-consuming such business can be." Thanks, Steve, for being honest. And thanks for being a "greedy capitalist". The least we can say is that greedy ones like Jobs who strive to make better products, find elegant solutions and have the balls to drive them to the market and influence many for the better while making a profit are the good ones. On the other side no ballistic amount of charity is going to save Gates from the catastrophic mess his products, practices and commercial behaviors are and have been for the past two decades. Bill, use your money better, to cherish the crowd from Times Mag pages with Bono is as little as nothing. Here we know who is doing a good job and who is not.

Slide Two: Push for Elections and market the idea as synonym to Democracy, make it happen and find yourself trapped in an unmarketable mess. The victory of Hamas over Fatah in recent elections for Palestinian government will drive nuts many. Consolation may be something as a civil war within Palestinian borders is already in progress and may distill a better approach on the long run. But as far as things prospect outside of the borders in the short, that's a long standoff. Juan Cole describes Bush's faults in his Salon piece here. And also look for Gilbert Achcar's guest editorial of January 27, 2006 at Cole's place. Let's try now to put pressure for negotiations based on good faith (and who is to convince Israel to do so?) and ask for no machine guns on the table. Can Europeans speak loud on this? The "other" approach, detailed here on TCS Daily is not going anywhere. In deep and focused discussion on Belmont Club here

Slide three: Soaps. The big guns are all set for some color of tragedy. "The O.C.", finally a chance to cut Marissa out of the landscape, now that the little sister is running the show. The one-that-does-not-shake, Ryan, now the wisest man in town, progressively replacing Sandy, whose role has become minimalist, which is sad. So much for the Rumble Fish. "Lost" is midway to the fall with the community half set for all-out-war with the land owners and the other half entangled into a spreading turn for private matters, sexual intercourses and drug rehab without the facilities. Both Saeed and Sawyer are on the rise, is this army to be Iraqi based? What to say about "Desperate Housewives"? At this point we are running circles around daily routines, despite the killings, mean gay children's revolts and Internet porn. The show is begging for a big dip into something that we can not forecast successfully.

Slide four: The loudest political campaign in the world, Italy, is set to spark in a few days. If I was not living here I would rather laugh about. A bloodshed will be, with no particular side detailing a coherent strategy for a country which economy is clearly on a landslide to irrelevance. The "left" conglomerate, apparently with better ties to the EU burgs, will do all it can to lose. Berlusconi, obliterating its allies, will spend whatever it takes and go as far as he can get. Let's only hope it's April soon. What about a standoff reminiscent of Germany a month ago? Is that ugly enough?

Slide five: Google is likely to shape the market's mood next week, when it comes through with its fourth-quarter results. The online search giant has blown Wall Street targets away through its first five quarters as a public company, thanks to a potent combination of improving fundamentals and an insistence on keeping mum when it comes to providing guidance to the investing community. But let's be realistic. After being humbled for five straight quarters, analysts are getting aggressive with their optimism by raising their projections and profit targets almost monthly. In fact, over the past three months, Wall Street consensus estimates for Google's 2006 profitability have grown from $8.36 to $8.76 per share. That means Google will miss, and when it does, it won't be pretty. Away from the coin count and on the flip side, recent snafus suggest not just estimates are being missed. A nasty one was recently found with Gmail forwarding from an x.y account to the corresponding xy account without user's knowledge. Another one was the now famous Google video store, the store with a price policy wholly onto the distributors. I bet anybody to buy anything on a store set up with such business logic. Cherry on the cake is Google China a.k.a. how an engineer's based company deals with censorship. Check this post on LGF to find out how Google Search works from China. It is pretty striking. Here. Amen. It is true when Google screws it, it does it big time.

Slide six:A large set of email messages, the Enron corpus, was made public during the legal investigation concerning the Enron corporation. This dataset, along with a thorough explanation of its origin, is available here. The raw Enron corpus contains 619,446 messages belonging to 158 users. Academic researchers quickly realized the e-mails were a unique and open data trove that could be exploited by researchers interested in social networks and information analysis and retrieval. The Enron Email Analysis Project at Berkley is here and includes search interfaces, specifically developed search algorithms, categorization styles and subset annotations, an email visualization and clustering tool and a database representation built by Andrew Fiore. Dig it.

Off to iTunes.

Posted by lck at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2006

Ipod Killers Where Are They?

This op-ed (copyright Smart House Magazine) dares to draw a line. The topic is one of the hottest in the industry today: the future of the iPod. According to Chris Seybold and David Richards the outcome is very clear. At least for this year :)

Ipod Killers Where Are They?
Chris Seybold & David Richards - Sunday, 22 January 2006
© Copyright 2002 - 2005 Smart House Magazine. All rights reserved.

If there is one thing that Bill Gates and Companies like Creative or Samsung or any one hundreds of organisations who are trying to emulate Apple's iPod success can not do and that is win market share up against Apple.

Chris Seybold of Apple Matters a web site that tracks the Apple market daily writes. There are a million iPod killers floating around. Some feature more capapcity, some feature more gizmos, and some feature lower price points. None of the iPod killers are actually doing any iPod killing because they're too busy trying to be more iPodish than the iPod.

Even with the consistent lack of success the iPod wannabees have had, there are still plenty of companies willing to make iPod knockoffs. Some of the manufacturers labor under the delusion that the next iteration of their player will dethrone Apple. The more rational mp3 player producers are intent on scooping up the lion's share of the crumbs left by the market dominating iPod. For all the bluster and imitation the competition has consistently failed to dent the iTunes/iPod stranglehold, few expect that to change. Why has every attempt failed so miserably? Because if you are truly desirous to do to the iPod what Windows did to the command line there's only one company who can pull it off. Their name is Microsoft and it is only a matter of time until they make a serious effort. At least, that is Steve Jobs' take on the situation as evidenced by the following quote:

The problem is, the PC model doesn't work in the consumer electronics industry, where you've got all these companies and some does one thing and another does another thing. It just doesn't work. What's going to happen is that Microsoft is going to have to get into the hardware business of making MP3 players. This year. X-player, or whatever.

Mr. Jobs' logic is transparent. He reasons that since iTunes and the iPod use the vertical integration model that Microsoft could use the same tactic to finally relegate the iPod to the technical trash bin. In theory, the system would work as follows: Microsoft would bundle a music playing program with every PC that, of course, pointed to an iTunes like music store. The model would be completed when people buy a Microsoft produced digital audio player. Consumers, being the lazy slugs they are, would take the path of least resistance. Inevitably, iPod marginalization would ensue.

The normal objection at this point is to state, with a certain naiveté, that the iPod is much too well designed to be toppled by any music player that Microsoft could produce. That notion gives people a little too much credit for desiring slick interfaces and elegant design. Likely, any audio player designed by Microsoft wouldn't match the iPod's streamlined looks but would remain desirable. Microsoft, after all, already designs some of the best mice and keyboards and has shown certain hardware engineering skills with both editions of the XBox.

At this point, it is time for a little hand wringing. If the only thiing that is required for Microsoft to decimate the iPod is a Microsoft branded mp3 player then the future is bleak. That assessment is a little too dark. Steve may have made the path to iPod irrelevancy seem straight enough but, if Microsoft takes the gamble, they will surely find the trail full of blind turns, deadly snakes and crumbling footholds.

The logistics, of course, won't be problematic for Microsoft. They have scads of cash for development and other associated manufacturing costs. Rather, the issue would be with those who already manufacture digital audio players and license Microsoft's DRM. Suddenly, these manufacturers would find themselves competing directly with Bill Gates and his well-paid minions.

With this realization, we now see Steve's comment not as a roadmap but as bait. Were Microsoft to jump headlong into the digital audio player market there would be strong incentive to Apple to begin licensing FairPlay. Manufacturers would be forced to choose between two mainstream options: A) go with Microsoft or B) Go with Apple. In the past, the no-brainer has been to go with Microsoft. This time the obvious choice is different.

The folks who stick with Microsoft get to fight over, roughly, twenty percent of the market. The folks that go with Apple would be aligning themselves with what has become the industry standard. The players that license FairPlay would have access to the iTunes store, backwards compatibility with the songs consumers have already purchased, and a chance to compete on a perfectly level playing field with the iPod. It doesn't take a Stanford MBA to deduce that the potential rewards of opting to use FairPlay far outstrip the rewards of going with PlaysForSure.

When the vast majority of manufacturers stop supporting PlaysForSure and start supporting FairPlay, as would likely happen, then the battle is over. Microsoft will be relegated to side player in the digital content delivery market. Their DRM, the most coveted part of the deal for Microsoft, will have been shunted to a distant, irrelevant second tier player.

Why doesn't Apple go ahead and slam the lid shut on Microsoft right now in an effort to retain ownership of the growing market they already dominate? Currently, and likely until Microsoft makes a push with their own player, there isn't a reason to share the wealth with anyone. It is feasible that Google, or some unidentified third party, could begin challenging the iPod/iTunes dominance through some heretofore unthought-of bit of innovation but the end result, Apple licensing FairPlay, would remain the same.

Of course, there is a wildcard. What if Microsoft could convert FairPlay tracks so that they would run on players besides the iPod? Would that be enough to drive people away from the iPod? That functionality has been hinted at and, undoubtably, Microsoft believes that is the key to dethroning Apple. In reality, it is simply a tacit admission that competing directly with the iTunes Music Store is too much to ask of even Microsoft. If the plan goes through, the end result will be another round of supposed iPod killers showing up and being quickly forgotten.

Nothing lasts forever, certainly some day the iPod/iTunes duo will be challenged and soundly defeated. That day isn't today and unfortunately, if you're Microsoft, it isn't even this year.

© Copyright 2002 - 2005 Smart House Magazine. All rights reserved.

Posted by lck at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)

January 09, 2006

Create an e-annoyance, go to jail

Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

Read more on cnet here, by Declan McCullagh.

A good definition for "annoy" can be found on Answers.com here. Quite a wide range ah?

Just a ridiculous prohibition?

Let's move to deeply interesting (and highly controversial) matters with Leonard Susskind, one of the fathers (and prime discoverer) of String Theory, panning over his recent book. The video, on Edge.org is here and I highly recommend watching it as it depicts clearly at least the following:
1) how wildly open-minded one can be at 70
2) how bad David Gross and Edward Witten must feel about their whole carrier in lieu of the recent developments in String Theory (badly looking like a re-run of Einstein's God playing dice debating)
3) if we believe and embrace arms into Susskind territory we are (necessarily?) waving goodbye to mathematical physics as searching for certainty. Un-less, here comes Susskind hardcore view, the Theory predicts ONLY local landscapes with their own local laws BUT predicts ALL of them (10 power 500 or so).

Quantum Mechanics (re-born)?

Posted by lck at 06:51 PM | Comments (1)

January 08, 2006

Bound for Glory

Bound for Glory: America in Color is the first major exhibition of the little known color images taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI). Comprised of seventy digital prints made from color transparencies taken between 1939 and 1943, this exhibition reveals a surprisingly vibrant world that has typically been viewed only through black-and-white images. These vivid scenes and portraits capture the effects of the Depression on America's rural and small town populations, the nation's subsequent economic recovery and industrial growth, and the country's great mobilization for World War II.

The photographs in Bound for Glory, many by famed photographers such as John Vachon, Jack Delano, Russell Lee, and Marion Post Wolcott, document not only the subjects in the pictures, but also the dawn of a new era -- the Kodachrome era. These colorful images mark a historic divide in visual presentation between the monochrome world of the pre-modern age and the brilliant hues of the present.

The Photographs of the FSA/OWI

Approximately one dozen photographers were employed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA), and its successor agency, the Office of War Information (OWI), from 1935 through 1944. The original goal of the government project was to record through documentary photographs the ravages of the Depression on America's rural population and were intended to spur Congress and the American public to support government relief efforts. Over the years, with an improved economy, increased industrialization, and the onset of World War II, the photographs increasingly focused on an America that was productive, beautiful, and determined. The photographs originally intended to have a narrow focus developed into a noteworthy broader national record.

In additions to their documentary and historic value, the color images in the FSA/OWI Collection provide a remarkable opportunity to study the early use of color film as it was employed by a dedicated group of professional photographers -- who generally took black-and-white images. It is revealing to compare monochrome and color images taken on the same shoot, or to identify particular landscapes or subjects that caught the photographer's eye in such a way that he or she chose to use the medium of color to best represent their essence.

EXHIBITION CATALOG

Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939–43. New York: H.N. Abrams in association with the Library of Congress, 2004.

The complete collection of FSA/OWI photographs -- 171,000 black-and-white images and 1,602 color images -- are available on the Library of Congress website.

Posted by lck at 02:38 AM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2006

MacWorld, here we go again

The first and early run of renderings for Caledaring 2oo6 runs very much in the family, while other friends are working on it. The Gallery is available here and a permanent link to it is now available on the main menu. Zib gave a boot to the photo illustration chapter as limited to yarn with her close-up, at which is very good, followed by Elizabeth Morrison, with a sample of lower contrast with good weaving and a rich bordeaux. Peter, a design student based in London sent his contribution, a raw sandy drawing that I appreciate for its simplicity and impact. A template for February will be made available around the 10th as well as my first sample for that month. The gallery is not optimized for Explorer. I've had it up to here with the pesky uber-abortion and Richmond-made.

In a few days Apple will kick off Macworld at Moscone, San Francisco. Everybody expect about everything but few are clear. Apple has been selling 100,000 iPods (figures are for the nano only) every day throughout December.

The Shuffle will come redesigned, lighter and possibly in colors, the offering of TV material will increase sharply with ESPN and more Disney available via iTunes, the Mac mini will be retargeted to the living room on Intel cypher processors and several software packages will receive updates, notably Final Cut, iLife (a spreadsheet anybody?) and Front Row.
All expect Intel-based iBooks, it may be early for that. And several things nobody is talking about, or else. The Motorola ROKR was a fiasco, doubt about it? Apple put its iTunes client on the phone, Motorola put its own mp3 client and the poor thingie is the only phone on the market with two players. Embarrassing. Jobs may come with radical clicks on the matter, why not a phone inside the iPod? Would you not love to flip your nano and find a thin phone pad on the back of your player? Without cheapo cameras to bother? iTunes, the flagship and core of the shift to consumers electronics should get a makeover. The app is growing bloated, and it shows. Better do it now. Demoing of an early build of Leopard is possible but with Microsoft copy-catting left and right, demo may as well be skipped until Vista gets to the point when even cosmetic changes can only make the matter worse. Jobs has to play smart this year. Here Apple either falls or puts a big hold on the market that was once Sony's. Intel-based Powerbooks now? No. An apple-cooked 3D app to complement the fast-fast quad-G5, with help from Pixar? Possible. The marketing hype is high enough, with room for some last-minute buzz, which is typical Apple. Hold your breath.

And finally, the parrot everybody would love in the house, here. He yawns and gets down too.

Posted by lck at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2006

Sleep© kicks off 2oo6

Frozen, a piece from The Bamboo Book kicks off the 2006 premiere issue of Sleep©, an alternative magazine in London, UK. All the best to the mag. I'll be standing and waiting for my copy. That's a good year!

Posted by lck at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)

The Back of Beyond

Belmont Club has so far the best commentary on the current gas war between Ukraine and Russia. The post is followed by a massive discussion, spanning several topics from the emerging role of Iran to China's supply plans. For more on Gazprom here, via Jeff Kouba's "Peace Like A River" or Martha Olcott's paper study for Rice University here (PDF).

Posted by lck at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2005

Raindrops, 2006

Was it a good time? Did you miss anything? All you could to make happy? Of course not, and yes.

For my crew and agency, it was a good time. 2 major assignments delivered to overseas clients and a third one in progress. A host of side-projects, smaller, with more freedom and for which inventions and turns were in the game. Cashed in, grown up, harvested well and, hopefully, seeds and occasions for new growth that will materialize in the future.

W., partner in life, gone from amateur fabric design to partnering with distributors on yarn designs and projects. That's the growing-fastest. And a sweet dealing daily, complications considered, I'm in love with a beautiful mind.

M., now 5, speaking both lingoes, with her astounding on-the-fly switching that impresses and scares and now learning French and getting confident with the parent's tools: Photoshop, Painter, her G4, as well as drawing and sketching in the real world, reminding us that she is a baby, still.

Timeline, once private place, grown from few afics to few hundreds of curious minds enticed to buy and come back, enjoying the widescreen and colorful plethora of emerging talents from around the world.

To all of you a big high-6 and the same enthusiasm for life.

Now for a few more bullets:

8 The Kenyon Review
Solid website design, conservative, balanced color matrix.
The mission of The Kenyon Review is to identify exceptionally talented emerging writers, especially from diverse communities, and publish their work (fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, reviews, etc.) alongside the many distinguished, established writers featured in its pages.

7 Andrew Kreps Gallery, NYC
Clean, almost bare site and an impressive array of non-compromise visual artists.

6 Stereohype
Pop tarts.
Stereohype.com is an online boutique offering limited editions and rare products. The stereohype range is focusing on fresh, innovative and inspirational works and expands regularly. Products include exclusively commissioned artworks for stereohype. London-based stereohype.com was launched in October 2004.

5 Inksurge, updated
Brewed in Manila, Philippines since 2002, a bigdaddy to anybody in the field.

4 Tronic Studio, updated (broadband required)
NYC directing, design and animation studio founded 2001 by Columbia Architecture graduates Jesse Seppi and Vivian Rosenthal.

3 The Stubbins Associates
Very strong and edgy website and copy.
The Stubbins Associates is a full-service architecture, planning and interior design firm with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

2 Violet Blue
Podnography
The internet is an amazing thing, nowhere else in the world can you find this much porn.
Former SRL member, Fleshbot assistant editor and podcaster extraordinaire Violet Blue. (for mature adults only) Her blog has earned an immediate attention and is listed off 2005's top ten sexiest geeks (Wired).

1 The Book of Tags
Sharp and clean website for this DROPDROP project.
The Book of Tags is a DROPDROP project, published by KITCHEN 93 and made possible by the collaboration of over 300 worldwide graffiti writers. The project attempts to analyze and also give voice to one of the most demonized yet pure means of expression within the graffiti world, the Tag.

0 If you have not noticed yet, our grand 06's postcard (go top and banner-click or)

-1 In 1973 when Brian Eno had more and better stuff to care of than producing Bono Vox, he came out with this

We hit the floor, off to drink some, thirst is timeless, see ya next year. No, before that drive to one of the boss's favorite, this girl that always cracks me up. The making of a loser. Crack.

Posted by lck at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)

December 24, 2005

Highway Robbery

thread will be updated continuously thru the night, long as it goes

Given the socioeconomic significance of this time of year, not to mention the psycho-pathology embedded, it is worthy to dig into the Bible, at least once. A good source is Slate.com. Jesus and the Gospel, What Really Happened is a good start. The idiosyncratic habits of the American consumers, with special regards to the Christmas dinner is another, ergo, What Beast is This?. Third in my list is The Meaning of Life, who does not want to dig that? Alast, The Maccabees and the Hellenists or Hanukkah as Jewish civil war.

While Slate does a good job at offering interesting views on a matter that is after all relevant to believers as to non(s), my shopping spree sports a short list of essentials that has no much to do with the deep thinking.

If anything you want me to buy just convince me and I shall.

List below, gifts included unless undisclosable. All acquired via 2 separate runs, one in the morning, another between 1400 and 1600 (when traffic rating is low). At evening last-minute shoppers are packed in their cars in a horrible smoky mess. You want to stay away from this war of nerves.

Here we go, by brand and/or country of origin:

6 avocados, Israel
2 plates, mushrooms, large, local produce
2 boxes of falafel, Lebanon
sev, refried beans and tortillas, imported, Texas, USA
sev, Ice Cream, which must include, for the joy of many, Amen, chocolate
2 green tea and 2 "turkish" tea boxes, Aze Baba, Istambul, Turkey {a real kick-ass}
1 "fedora" hat, dark blue, size 57, by Fred W. Taylor, made in Italy (gift to myself)
3 2 x lit. carton boxes of juice, Pfanner, Austria
2 bottles of Domaine Capendu, 2003, France (N/A in Italy, thanks Mario, my wine pusher)
2 bottles of Chateau Tarreyrots, 2001, France (same + thanks as above)
2 bars of Lindt Chocolate, Swiss
1 kg Cous Cous, unbranded
1 kg long grain Basmati rice, India
1 "box turtle", our second barnyard animal (gift to Rosie), referred to as "Romeo". If these guys end up in a friendly couple, they will be reffered to as "Rolls Royce" (they were spotted taking the sunbath together today [they have a lamp just for that])
1 fluffy cat, white, black, gray and pink by LR-kids, Italy (gift to Melissa who wanted a REAL one)
1 box Walkers, shortbread, Scotland, UK
2006 Calendar, Fairfax Photos, Sydney NSW (gift from Fairfax, a just-in-time)
6 skeins of wool, 127 Print (for Wendy's scarf project), Italy
8 skeins of Grinordette, Shetland (for Wendy, TBD), Italy
6 skeins of Brilla, three yellow and three purple (for a striped top project that I pushed on the spot), Italy
1 can giant pickles, Poland (startling new entry in my list)
Warsteiner, Germany (enough to support 6 people for 2 days)
6 bottles of Corona, Mexico
6 bottles of Fisher, Germany
1 "Patrick", balloon, the Spongebob's Cartoon Series (gift to Melissa)
4 corn-on-the-cob, USA
Rambol, soft herb cheese, France
Taleggio, soft cheese, Italy
2 Pinot-Chardonnay, Italy
1 Malesan, bordeaux, 2002, France
2 Sanderman, port, Portugal
1 Sheridan's, Portugal
2 kg tuna, sliced, bloody and local
Feta, Greece (heavily used in our salads)
sev, swordfish, thin-sliced, local (I will be basically make "sushi" with these. I'll explain Sicilian sushi on another occasion.)

Glaring omission (could not be found): Cointreau
Down this year: vodka

Not in the list, accessories or prime necessities. Absent is meat, this year, we have stock sausage and steaks for the carnivore friends, absent is pasta, which we rarely eat.

colors of this week: bore brown and crimson red

suggested local policy amendments (active thru the week):
#1: mandatory 1 hour aft. nap (kids may skip this)
#2: give up the car and walk
#3: do not ALLOW guests to turn TV on during lunch/dinner

what made us so happy: advance deposit from xxxxxx.xx

2345: fireworks - what are we watching: Constantine, 2005... taking from Dante's Comedy... The Spear of Destiny has been missing... Kiddo gives it for sure that Santa is not bringing ME anything, not because I've been bad but because Santa only makes toys. Brr... but I know 2 beer mugs and a shirt are on the way. (kiddo will get a Musical Box, glass-made, and truckloads of beads)

2355: First bottle of Capendu to hit the deck. Is almost impossible to rate this wine. The entry smell is balanced, distinct, the body amazing. A rose' that is almost peachy.

It's midnight. If anybody wants to go to the mass I am available to escort, my iPod is fully charged. None of the crew seems to be interested (a church is 2 blocks South).

0010: Osama Bin Laden's niece is a cute black headed 26 old that has never met the Uncle. She experiments with pop, guitar, pic of guitar between skinny legs and another, spreading in bed on a pose worth a "fatwa". The cherry ice cream fits the soft-porn niece's pics. Not looking bad.

0015: I love Tilda Swinton. Here they get as close as 2 inches, lips by lips. She is Gabriel, the Archangel, unfortunately, the only sex they have is when she spits it out about his lung cancer, You're fucked. Is baby Jesus born yet?

0025: I have to remember not to wear my hat with my black leather jacket. If I do people are really gonna expect me to be hiding a cow or horse under the back pocket.

0035: Kiddo crashes with a smile, faithful that she's getting her gifts soon. We have to be careful about timing here. To assure her I called Santa right before closing time and he told me he'll be around and loaded by 0300. First bottle of port hits the deck.

0045: Constantine is in Capitol Hell, reading into the future. Even the cat is scared when he comes back to life smoking. And hungry. The weed must have been of the best quality.

0100: We know now that Heaven and Hell are real, the newfound revelation clears out the scene. Rachel Weisz is kind of stiff in this movie, despite the twins complication in the plot. Part 1 over and break granted to all the present. Gifts are (secretly) being laid out under the tree.

0115: They have bibles in Hell! And those who can read it get killed the most bizarre ways. Jews don't have the bible (actually they positively lack the Gospels). Hence: no scary demons movies. And no porn tax. Moses talks to God and he gets scared, in the Gospels Jesus talks to the Devil (who wishes to negotiate). You can see, a different scale of gore. Quiet town, on beer and newfound (d)ope.

0125: Conservation of energy is possibly the most important, and certainly the most practically useful of several conservation laws in physics. To actually get born you have to die first. Something's missing in the books. Red Bull time. The burritos are coming back in "spirit" form. We're all laughing and is nobody's fault.

0130: Brass knuckles are for hard-boiled. With crosses on them they kick asses. It's time to die. Corintians, 17. Is there a witness protection program for deamons?

0135: Where did she go? Constantine can not jump like Neo thru buildings. Too bad. We need to use the chair. To use the chair (back in Hell, boy) you need cold feet, Moonshine, gin and well, balls. Now it's getting cheesy. Bullets are being made out of holy brass crosses. Is it gonna work? Need more beer to believe what I see.

0140: After the machine gun scene with the demolishable zombies, the very maternal Gabriel the Archangel, and out of her mind, is back reclaiming the baby on a primitive scapel. But she's to be floating with the dead, despite her beautiful rolled-up tongue English. I dunno if it is God or the Devil himself, maybe both. He's dressed in white like a dove. The girl gave birth to something and Daddy wants it back. The Devil has feelings for his kids.

0150: The man in white has been going thru too many sleepless night, as it seems. After an intermission with cashews and a cold enough Corona everything boils down, lungs are replaced, cancer removed, extension granted. Isn't that what everybody wants anyway? An extension?

0200: Reeves has been going thru a lot of stuff: tragedy in the family, girlfriend killed in a traffic accident, we almost are relieved that he still is alive. It must be visible, right on his face, so sad (and woody) when it's to kill an angel. And he DOES NOT kill her. Choose a higher power if you have to be slave to one.

0220: Baby Jesus is born. Heaven(s) and Hell are happy. The wheel resets, fowarding for Spring. We're going to quietly rest down to wake up again tomorrow. A lifetime-long embarrasment has vanished by a ritual worth an hour. We can party until New Year's now. For the day, the lights die down. And my Corona is still half full. I'll do the dishes in the morning, for breakfast.

Posted by lck at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2005

Post-Millennium-Rebellions

J. G. Ballard has been writing the same novel ad nauseam. The curious about Ballard's writings is that structural repetition doesn't matter. The detective story will have readers guessing the solution long before the narrator, whose assumptions are painfully inept. Even the temporal structure of the novel revisits familiar territory; and the clunkiness of much of the prose should come as no surprise to anyone who has read any of the author's recent novels. But nobody reads Ballard for structural innovation or stylish prose. They read him for the ideas and the ideas are the most interesting.

Millennium People tells the story of a middle-class revolt. Action takes place in Chelsea Marina, whose residents - middle-market professionals being slowly priced out of the London housing market - are sick of paying exorbitant maintenance charges and excessive parking fees; sick, moreover, of being relied upon to be tolerant and liberal, of being forced to enjoy the right kinds of activities, eat the right foods and wear the right clothes.

Ballard has identified the stress points of modern British society - from