Tragedy of the Commons Explained with Smurfs

from The Science Creative Quarterly, snip:

"So in order to prevent Gargamel from smashing all the Smurfs into gold, or Coal Plants from giving them neurological disorders by dumping mercury all over them, or farms from polluting their water with run off fertilizer we need to establish a market system that approximates the value of smurfs. We need Smurf Credits, which are like Carbon Credits, only cuter..."

Obama in Omaha

barack obama was in omaha last night. mon made it, i didn't, but she said it was breathtaking.

and i found this while looking for a clip of obama in omaha.

Guy In Polar Bear Suit Arrested During Greenpeace Protest

via boing boing

Finally an Update, part 2

here are some pictures of my new studio as it looks tonight. i'm not writing much at this moment because i'm tired and i want to go home and catch up on my reading. which is, currently: towards a philosophy of photography, by vilem flusser; kant and the platypus & the island of the day before, both by umberto eco; latro in the mist by gene wolfe and still plugging occasionally at the fabric of reality by david deutsch.

as a side note, i want to start using this blog to share my ideas as i work on them. i've read numerous accounts of the benefits of this kind of "open source" development and i think it can only make the work stronger. so please, help me by posting comments on the pictures and words your see here.

ta-ta.

Documentary about MMORPGers: Second Skin

from the website:
Second Skin takes an intimate look at computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by the emerging genre of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs). World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Everquest allow millions of users to simultaneously interact in virtual spaces. Second Skin introduces us to couples who have fallen in love without meeting, disabled players who have found new purpose, addicts, Chinese gold-farming sweatshop workers, wealthy online entrepreneurs and legendary guild leaders - all living in a world that doesn't quite exist.

Finally an Update

pardon my lapse. i keep meaning to give you an update, but events conspire, the planets align, butterflies flap their wings and i never seem able to get it done. this will either be two mid-size posts or one really long one...we'll see how much writing i get done before i need to go to the store.

where to begin?

since my last post of any substance, i've visited the radio observatory/research center in dwingeloo, had my assessment, settled on two (or three) projects to work on, seen a houseboat sink, said goodbye to some old friends, and moved to a new, bigger, studio. when i write it down like that it doesn't seem like much, but somehow it has completely filled the last three weeks.

the visit to the radio observatory (lofar/astron) was very cool. astronomy is one of my pet hobbies, but sadly, one that i've seriously neglected in the past 10 years or so. lofar (low frequency array) is essentially a number of small, inexpensive, networked, omni-directional radio sensors that are digitized and combined to emulate a much larger, more expensive conventional antennae. my colleagues and i were taken on a tour of the facility/control center and shown the real-time feed from the small lofar network (6 stations so far, i think). another excellent aspect of lofar is that it is not used just for radio astronomy. because the network is spread all through-out europe they've been developing applications to use lofar as a more generic Wide Area Sensor Network. this project really underlines the implicit power of networks.

my assessment came and went. there's not much i want to say here on the matter. those that know me and have talked to me about know how i feel. i will say this: i have a much clearer idea of what i want out of myself while i'm here.

and with that i think i'll end for today... tune in next time for the exciting conclusion!

Immaculate Rules to Live By

yeah, normally i despise these "rules-to-live-by things" but these are too close to my own ideals that i couldn't pass it up. via boing boing