Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 681
February 26, 2010
Exiled by Hindu Kulturkampf
*They'd usually rather beat-up on Bollywood (because it pays off better), but they'll put the boot into a ninety-year-old painter if they get the chance.
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/26/stories/2010022654971000.htm
NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday said eminent artist M.F. Husain — who has been conferred Qatar nationality — was welcome to return home whenever he chose.
The "welcome home" came with a promise of security from Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai.
The Home Secretary said he was...
Favela Chic Printing
*It's typical of the Economist to write its stories upside down and put the lede in the last line. That's 'cause they figure the executives get tired after the first two paragraphs, while the brainier policy-wonks will hang in there long enough to deal with the cognitive dissonance.
*Who really NEEDS print-on-demand books? Guys outside the distribution chain. And where do THEY live, one wonders. Oh wait, look. Here at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Those young guys with the cellphones....
Japanese dieselpunk from Pink Tentacle
*Get a load of those Japanese science-fair posters from the 1920s. They're bleeding off-modern enlightenment.
The Ivory Bangle Lady
*She's an eo-globalized sister of today's global populations. Sorry that she died so young; hope it wasn't a drug OD from the Britanno-Roman orgiastic niteclubbing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/feb/26/roman-york-skeleton
One of the richest inhabitants of fourth century Roman York, buried in a stone sarcophagus with luxury imports including jewellery made of elephant ivory, a mirror and a blue glass perfume jar, was a woman of black African ancestry, a re-examination of her skeleton h...
After the Lost Cyberwar
*This is quite interesting, because it looks beyond a standard global-guerrilla cybarmageddon (which becomes, as one might guess, a sharp defeat for the whatever's left of current global order). After this lost cyberwar, the formerly global Internet becomes a relentlessly secured nationalist police-state operating system. A "dot-secure."
*A "dot-secure" is kind of a China model, really. Everybody behind the Great Firewall in their own Middle Kingdom. Makes you wonder who would want to...
Tough break for the evil Waledac botnet
*Gosh, it's handy that American courts can secretly shut down Internet domains. Great hack! Imagine if you were a Chinese court, and you wanted to secretly shut down a few hundred criminal Internet domains. Why, I bet that Chinese, Russian, Arab, Israeli, Pakistani, Indian, Georgian, Estonian, and Ukranian officials are contemplating those prospects right now.
*Good thing they still lack the Internet clout of the Big Blue Monster! Maybe the only guys in the world who have literally...
February 25, 2010
Atemporality for the Creative Artist
*An unrepentant sympathizer took the trouble to type up a full transcript of my speech at Transmediale 10 on February 6..
*Since this volunteer made such an effort, it deserves to be pitched into the "Internet meme ooze" of blogs and social media. Here you are.
"Atemporality for the Creative Artist"
Bruce Sterling
Transmediale 10, Berlin, Feb. 6, 02010
I would like to talk about this slogan 'Futurity Now,' and how the idea of 'futurity now' might become common sense. Not a contradiction i...
The Unrepentant Patriotic Spam
*You gotta love it that the primary grief of these daring refuseniks is that they are torn between Google and Yahoo.
Fellow Patriot:
For the last 18 months, a collection of several thousand dedicated patriots has worked strenuously under the auspices of a Google group known as The Unrepentant Patriots to peacefully and philosophically oppose the efforts of the Legislative and Executive branches of the United States Government as those bodies have attempted to subvert and circumvent the letter ...
Music Break: Jazari
"Musical group Jazari consists of one human, a variety of percussive instruments, and a whole lotta solenoids. Patrick Flanagan directs his mechanical bandmates by way of two Wii remotes sending data via bluetooth over to Max/MSP software. Actual note data is sent out to Arduinos which handle all that solenoid switching seen above. Patrick provides a more detailed explanation of the setup for us gearheads." [via MAKEZINE via Create Digital Music:]
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