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I Like Berlin Part 2: Blankets on Cafe Terraces

je sais pas où j'habite

via Alexis Ipatovtsev more

bloggingheads.tv

I like Bloggingheads.tv, a wonky thing where two opinion-type people talk about a certain list of topics over the phone while each is recorded on a webcam.

Things I like about it:
- the deliberate low-tech, no-style style, where people are ugly but it's ok
- the deliberate boringness of the entertainment, where people can take their time and talk about geeky topics
- the dialectic approach, where people of generally opposing viewpoints discuss in a supportive way without getting into fights
- the smart interface, featuring nice ways to link to a particular segment (yeah multimedia is one area where Flash really is irreplaceable so far)

I was thinking it might be a nice thing to do on cognoshanty. Two people agree beforehand on some list of topics, chat for a while, and voilà! a blog post, interesting to at least 3 or 4 other people.

As far as I can tell the bloggingheads.tv technology isn't available for anyone else's use, but we might be able to cobble something together.

(Vade?) Retro

Zombie JFK Calls for action against climate change (via wattsup).

In other Halloween season news, I've often thought Obama's persona is very retro. His look and voice are pleasingly 60s, a bit Malcolm X and Gil-Scott Heron, as is some of his marketing (e.g. looking like the Che). Colbert had him looking like the guy in the Twilight Zone.

Another Way To Suck

My lousy musical taste, part 34,257

I like this song. Also the so-double-entendre-they're-goofy lyrics.
I don't even like Bond movies.
And yes, it would have been better with Amy Winehouse.
Guess I remain a sucker for Jack White's Led-Zeppelin riff-offs.

"Another Way To Die" featuring Alicia Keys and Jack White

I'm such an idiot I even like the Coke ad. Certainly the video is better.

Am I Just Paranoid?

Does the graphic design here read to anyone else: Barak (Obama) Black (s the experience)?

Computers and the economic crisis

OK I just want to get these thoughts down real fast

1. What about all that talk of computer trading in previous stock market crises? Haven't heard a word.

2. What is this, 1950? I mean there's no talk of computer anything, of new tech, of nothing. Everywhere it's all these old dudes and politicians and economists saying what they're going to do.

3. Its like all of a sudden the grownups are in charge again, and we're not gonna talk about anything virtual, we need stuff we can touch and kick the tires of. So shall we bring the gold standard back?

4. There's wildly varied explanations (see list at bottom) for why everything went to hell. But more than anything I am reminded of hard-to-find software bugs. The financial system is like this big old many-layered software system, and no one knows how it works, nor why it stopped working and is exhibiting chaotic behavior.

5. OK here's my main point. A long time ago, I heard someone, maybe the head of Red Hat, or Linus Torvalds, say something like: "My goal is to turn a 30-billion-dollar industry into a 3-billion-dollar one." That blew my mind. Now I wonder whether growth as we know it is not ending. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for gratuitous, conspicuous consumption and waste. My argument isn't a moral one (hell no!). I'm just thinking maybe people won't really want to be buying that much stuff (and I realize that may be a clueless bobo thing to say). I'm wondering whether the information glut created by the Internet isn't making everything so productive and interesting that people aren't that interested in a lot of expensive stuff that people used to be into.

Here's an analogy: suppose cheap matter generators became available and plentiful. You could just press a button and out would come any raw material you wanted, and heck, any finished product as well. Such an invention would be a huge improvement in productivity. But wouldn't Wall Street tank, since entire industries would immediately become obsolete? Isn't it at least possible something like that is at play now?

OK, I realize everyone explains the crash according to what axe they have to grind. This is why I'll tell you my real explanation for the crash: the Singularity is here!

I like Berlin Part 1: My Bike Basket

I'm thinking I might write a series of posts about things I like about Berlin. Probably I'll just write this one, but it's good to have dreams.

Yesterday I bought a basket for my bicycle that fits onto the back rack. It has two little u-shaped hooks on the bottom to hold onto the rack. There's a spot on the back that is designed to hold the part of the rack that has springs attached to it and normally holds your bag from falling off. This part of the basket helps ensure that the basket doesn't jiggle from side to side. The front of the basket has a lower edge than the back, so it fits under your seat.

None of that is particularly exciting, really. What makes the basket so keen is that it has a handle. This way you can quickly remove your basket, carry it through the market or take it into the grocery store, fill it up with stuff, carry it back out, and stick it back on your bike. In a country where groceries don't generally come with bags to carry them in, this is just great.

I knitted a cushion for the handle, to make it more friendly to the crook of my am and to help me recognize my bike in a crowd.

On the Road

It has been brought to my attention that some Cognoshantiites may not be aware of the fact that Vigo and Erik (and Sam) are on a cross-country road trip and that they are blogging from the road. Their trip blog is called On the Road with Vigo.

There's also another new blog in our family self-publishing universe. This one is meant mainly to help Vigo keep in touch with all his great friends back in Somerville after we're gone. It's called simply Vigo Brunar.

Trouble in Paradise

I think Ingunn forwarded me this video on Facebook (embedded because the title is a spoiler):

I found it both funny and sad. Also I didn't get the point of the ad, but it doesn't matter.

Ali G Interviews Noam Chomsky

Happy with Firefox RC1

jwz's DNA lounge has a great uh, how you say, litote? legally-mandated understatement? not-saying warning? about his streamed mixtapes

Fractal Cookies

Our friend Eric sent me this great recipe today for fractal cookies. If you want your kid to grow up to be a genius, you must feed them fractal cookies.

Uncommon Typography

Somehow this morning I ended up looking at a page on Wikipedia that has a sidebar list of Typographical symbols, including "uncommon typography" which almost could be called "fantasy typography." My favorite among these is the irony mark.

I wonder why :) didn't make the cut. It deserves to be listed more than the interrobang. I wonder if there's a debate among wikipedia typography geeks about including :). Can a symbol make a crossover from emoticon to punctuation mark? I'd say it already has.

The Lost Drawings of George Wachsteter

The Lost Drawings of George Wachsteter 

A 30 Year Retrospective
March 10 - April 10, 2008
Lecture: March 28, 6-7 pm
Reception: March 28 7-9pm

Self-taught New York illustrator and caricaturist George Wachsteter drew extensively from 1937-1967 for the New York Times, the New York Herald, the New York Journal American, the New York World Telegram and for the NBC, ABC, and CBS Radio and Television Networks. Next to Al Hirschfeld, he was one of the most prodigious theatrical caricaturists working in New York during the '40s and '50s.

[More inside]

Do not panic for the storm

I was in Taiwan last week and was bothered, then intrigued, by a DPP song (lyrics) periodically blaring in the streets from small campaign trucks. It's in 6 different languages... An interesting romanization and translation challenge... Here's my attempt:

Helvetica

Erik and I watched a documentary called Helvetica, about the famous font. Much of the film was about how Helvetica has become ubiquitous. I woke up the next morning wondering how much Helvetica I might have around the house, so I went poking around.

There isn't much, but there's more in the bathroom than there is in the kitchen, and more on magazine covers than anywhere else.

Putting the lib back in Velib

Note: Some lunatic who's probably spent too much time watching the primaries sent me this text. I would have deleted it, but he threatened to puncture my tires, so here it is.

Vélib is a communist system. You don't own a bike, you just borrow it for a short time, then return it to the Borg-like collective. Scary? No doubt. What do you expect from a system first installed by Socialist mayors in La Rochelle, Rennes, and Lyon, and inspired by various Nordic or Germanic über-collectivist states like Holland and Denmark?