Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 701

The Breizh Entropy Congress

*They're hacker-maker types. But they're also French. That pretty much explains this.

================================

BREIZH ENTROPY CONGRESS

April 15-17 2010, Rennes, France

Call for Proposals

================================

French version at bottom / Version française en bas

Passionate individuals and non-profit organizations from the region of Rennes,
Brittany, France invite you to participate in the first Breizh Entropy
Congress.
This inter-disciplinary event focuses on free (as in...

Great-grandmother's little helper for her 19th nervous breakdown

*I like the warm, chatty, tweed and handbags way that this British commentator describes a generation of aging Baby Boomers finally vanishing for good into their Artificial Paradise.

*Yeah, I'm going. Me too, sister. If the alternative is Alzheimer's? Lady, I've seen Alzheimer's. Flipping your wig on pills somewhere in Knightsbridge is a picnic compared to that.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/minette_marrin/article6973986.ece

Googling history

*Search engine history. One wonders what hidden horrors and wonders might be revealed by this.

*This piece seems to be attracting a lot of attention, but not because of its implications for the world and how we understand it.

http://www.dancohen.org/2010/01/07/is-google-good-for-history/

(…)

Google Books is incredibly useful, even with the flaws. Although I was trained at places with large research libraries of Google Books scale, I'm now at an institution that is far more typical of higher ed, ...

I'm in Belgrade

*The place looks great — better than I've ever seen it — but connectivity may be a little spotty this month. In fact I'm deliberately seeking out some spotty connectivity in order to get some fiction done.

Dead Media Beat: modern fossils

http://heartlessmachine.com/section/79989_Modern_Fossils.html

*Nice intervention. The guy's whole site is full of similar pranksterism, including spiders made from confiscated scissors at airports.

Music Break: I don't like mashups, but that audience is losing it

Furniture by Rodrigo Almeida

http://spaceinvading.com/entry/project_id/Made_in_Brazil200911171258482108

*Okay, look at these Brazilian furnishings, then check out the way Cibelle is dressed down there, and tell me there's not something going on.

*You know where this Brazilian stuff would look really great? Just terrific? Finland. You pitch all that Alvar Aalto stuff into the snow under the birch trees, and you replace it with this tropicalista favela recycled chic. Then your friends come over, they're like "Jyri…...

Electrosmog Festival

*Here, have some fresh "media carbon."

*Travelling today. Mobile connectivity may be spotty.

A N N O U N C E M E N T

ElectroSmog

International Festival for Sustainable Immobility

Amsterdam / New York / Madrid / Helsinki / Riga / London / Banff / New Zealand / Munich / & on-lIne

March 18 – 20, 2010

www.electrosmogfestival.net

About the Festival:

ElectroSmog is a new festival that explores the concept 'Sustainable Immobility' in theory and practice. Sustainable Immobility is first of all a...

Music break: Ellen Allien

*You're gotta like the way that techno DJ's groove-dance while just, sorta, languidly leafing through a big sheaf of CD's. I could probably do that while blogging, if I left my webcam on.

Bushpunk

*Obviously I'm a little slow to catch onto this latest emanation of the -punk suffix, but life takes its own sweet time out in the bush.

http://bombasticelements.blogspot.com/2009/08/ghana-maker-faire-africa-bushpunk.html