At Burning Man 2009

Very cool concept for the temple project this year!

http://temple.communityartmakers.com/temple.pdf

NPR: Forum: The Marriage Go Round

Nearly half of all U.S. marriages end in divorce, and yet America's loyalty to the ideal of marriage seems rock-solid. That's one of the contradictions explored by sociologist Andrew Cherlin in his new book, "The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today."

Guest:
Andrew Cherlin, author and professor of public policy and sociology at Johns Hopkins University



Notes while listening to the program:
* Americans are more likely to monitor their marriages and walk away from them.
* Americans are more conservative about marriage, but in Europe the gay and lesbian activists want nothing of the oppressive institution of marriage.
* Americans are very contradictory about marriage.
* People in Europe who live together tend to have more stable relationships than those here in the US who are married.
* Divorce rates in step-families are much higher.
* American individualism tends to get in the way of formulating long term relationships. We put our personal growth before the idea of commitment compare to that of other countries.
* Highest divorce rates in the US are in the Red States. (8:43)

The six word short story.

For sale: baby shoes, never used.
—Ernest Hemingway

The original short short story and the inspiration for this website. In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway’s colleagues bet him that he couldn’t write a complete story in just six words. They paid up. Hemingway is said to have considered it his best work.

Video: Beat Box Girl

Watch Amazing Beat Box Girl and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

Video: Passion Pit "Sleepyhead"

Passion Pit, "Sleepyhead" from Neon Gold Records on Vimeo.

Practically shot and painstakingly put together with photographs and real objects, the concept of this video was that "of creating a light space modulator — a mechanical, kinetic sculpture that demonstrates and harbors movement and light."

Video: Inspired Bicycles

H5 = The people who brought you the incredible Royksopp video

More stuff from H5 (the French graphics company that made the video)

http://www.h5.fr/
Click on film, then clip

Music Video: Royksopp - Remind Me

This is a great video with amazing graphical illustration.

Sadly I cannot embed it from YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o

From the person who posted this on YouTube:
May be the most fascinating music video ever -- you can watch it twenty times and still not catch everything. A day in the life of an average working Jill, broken down into its minutest component parts. The unstated joke: mankind has erected immense, resource-devouring systems of almost incomprehensible complexity just so you can sit in your cubicle.

Music Video: Lilly Allen - The Fear

I wanna be rich, and I want lots of money
I don't care about clever, I don't care about funny
I want loads of clothes and fuck loads of diamonds
I heard people die while they're trying to find them
And I'll take my clothes off, and it will be shameless
'Cause everyone knows that's how you get famous
I'll look at the sun, and I'll look in the mirror
I'm on the right track, yeah I'm on to a winner

I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
'Cause I'm being taken over by the fear

Life's about film stars and less about mothers
It's all about fast cars and cussing each other
But it doesn't matter 'cause I'm packing plastic
And that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic
And I am a weapon of massive consumption
And it's not my fault, it's how I'm programed to function
I'll look at the sun, and I'll look in the mirror
I'm on the right track, yeah we're on to a winner

I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
'Cause I'm being taken over by the fear

Forget about guns and forget ammunition
'Cause I'm killing them all on my own little mission
Now I'm not a saint, but I'm not a sinner
And everything's cool as long as I'm getting thinner

I don't know what's right and what's real anymore
And I don't know how I'm meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
'Cause I'm being taken over by the fear

Edit on LyricWiki.org

Artist: Adam Wallacavage and his amazing octopi chandeliers!

Adam Wallacavage is a Philadelphia artist who creates fabulous Octopus chandeliers. Additionally, he's a photographer for Swindle magazine. His work is really colorful and worth taking a peek at!

Video: Thru You!

Did you all see this posting Andrew made?! This is the rad-est thing I've seen on the interwebs in ... well, at least 3 days!

It makes all those amateur musicians posting their stuff really relevant! This is exactly what was meant to be done with youtube!

http://thru-you.com/

An Israeli producer went and found hundreds of random,
unrelated YouTube clips of people playing instruments --
eager amateurs, instructional and performance videos --
and spliced and mixed them together into some amazing shit.

Just remember: everything you're seeing, you're HEARING.

My faves:

#1 (Fatboy Slim-ish Funk)
#4 (Sick drum-n-bass)
#6 (Vocoder crunk)

... and the 1:20 moment in #5 is just poignantly beautiful.

Anton Chekhov Phrase

I really like this line that Anton Chekhov wrote to the woman he ended up spending the rest of his life with: 'Hello, the last page of my life.'

Cool way to search

Very cool way to search for information.

searchme.com

video: Royksopp: Happy Up there

Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

Video: Breakdancing in the Russia set to RunDMC

Look how energetic this is! WOW!

App for Iphone : Font Finder

Ever wonder what font is being used in the real world? With this easy to use iphone app, you can find out pronto!

The process is really easy-snap a photo, crop it down to the area where text is the clearest, then help the app's text recognition divine which letters are which, and presto, your identification comes back with a list of choices. The app nailed each font I tried with black text on a plain white background, but it has a little trouble when different colored backgrounds enter into play (like when I tried to identify the font for the Gizmodo logo on our page).

http://i.gizmodo.com/5152317/whatthefont-for-iphone-ids-fonts-from-text-in-snapped-photos

Video: Mighty Putty Re-Dub

Green putty sold with solid voice over.

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Word Cloud Analysis of Obama's Inaugeral Speech

This is a very interesting piece analysing the text from Obama's inaugeral speech compared to others in the form of a word cloud. It really shows the focus of the speeches.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tag_clouds_of_obamas_inaugural_speech_compared_to_bushs.php

Philosophy Talk

This local san francisco radio program hosted by 2 Stanford professors proves to have an interesting dialog on the topic of philosophy.

http://www.philosophytalk.org/

Art: Awesome Diorama Art

Martin Munoz http://www.martin-munoz.com/main.html