Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 629

Design Fiction: Design Interaction, Royal College of Art, 2010

*It's the latest crop of conceptual design from the students of Dunne and Raby! Oh the unbounded joy!

http://www.di10.rca.ac.uk/

"FOREWORD (((gets popcorn. Fine piece of maestra writing from Paolo Antonelli here)))

By its most commonplace descriptions, design should solve problems, match form with function, produce artifacts, and make people secure and comfortable.

"Conceptual design does not share the same immediate goals. Like good classic design, it cuts to the core of the issue at hand...

Musica Globalista: 1-bit music

*Do I hear a lower bid for zero-bit music?

http://www.1bitmusic.com/

"1-Bit Music (2004-2005), a project by composer and artist Tristan Perich, probes the foundations of digital sound.

"An electronic circuit is assembled inside a CD case with a headphone jack on the side. The device plays back 40 minutes of low-fi 1-bit electronic music—the lowest possible digital representation of audio. Available now from Cantaloupe Music or as a limited art edition.

"Perich works with the same chips to create ...

The continuing climate crisis: northeast Brazil

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/latin_america/10410822.stm

Lula promises massive north-east Brazil flood aid

Page last updated at 02:07 GMT, Friday, 25 June 2010 03:07 UK

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has promised a massive relief effort for north-eastern regions devastated by floods. (((Brazil actually has some money lately, but one has to wonder how many times politicians can go through with this "massive relief" ritual. As disasters multiply, there's just no money. For...

Augmented Reality and Man Ray, together at last

http://www.secondtimes.net/news/japan/20100622_sekaikamera.html

Cecilia, the dynamic New York gal

*Man, only in the 21st century. I dunno whether to laugh, cry or just take careful notes.

Remade in NY: French ex-1st lady has new life

By VERENA DOBNIK (AP) – 2 days ago

NEW YORK — As first lady of France, Cecilia Sarkozy sat in a desert tent with Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, winning the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death on charges of injecting children with HIV.

Three years later, she's a New Yorker — leading a conference on women in distress...

Interaction-design fiction by Bruce Sterling

*A network society is inherently swarming with microgenres.

http://shareable.net/blog/the-exterminators-want-ad

*I like it that one of the "illustrations" in this work of fiction is an entire video.

The 2010 Failed States Index

*Pakistan in at number 10 this year, I see.

*I wonder when FOREIGN POLICY is gonna nerve up and declare a 'failed globe."

http://www.impactlab.com/2010/06/21/the-2010-failed-states-index/

(((This just in: the "John Robb 2010 American Failed States Index.")))

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/06/journal-hollow-us-states.html

The exciting new high-tech Russian T-50 stealth fighter jet

*This is so eerily old-fashioned that I actually find it touching. Okay, obviously the Russians can sell this white elephant to the gullible Indians, but what is anybody supposed to actually do with this Cold War machine? Are we supposed to have stealth supersonic dogfights over the Maginot Line? With whom? Against whom?

*You know who's really scared of this superpower aircraft? Afghan Taliban. Yeah, you bet.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65G64820100617

Putin watched a test flight ...

El Dorado, the cartel with submarines

*Who wants to bet that the price of street dope goes anywhere after this?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/colombia/7838143/Worlds-biggest-drugs-super-cartel-smashed-by-US-authorities-in-Colombia.html

(…)

"The cartel is said to have operated sophisticated drugs labs in the country's jungles, engaged ruthless hit men and used submarines to transport the drugs all over the world.

"As investigators delved deeper into the case, even experienced agents were said to have...

'Social Media' that's sorta like 'Higher Education'

*Until you try to get tenure or some kinda real job, I reckon

http://www.slideshare.net/trebor/social-media-for-higher-education-1146290

The Public School (http://nyc.thepublicschool.org/)

University of the People (http://www.uopeople.org/)

University of Openess (http://uo.twenteenthcentury.com/)

Copenhagen Free University

(http://www.copenhagenfreeuniversity.d...)

Manoa Free University (http://manoafreeuniversity.org/)

EduFactory (http://www.edu-factory.org/)

Radical Education Collective...