Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 771

Re/Search Newsletter #83

*For heaven's sake, mail-order something from these veteran

counterculture lunatics. If they starve to death, life in San Francisco

will be unrecognizeable.

WELCOME TO V. VALE's RE/SEARCH NEWSLETTER #83, July 2009

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RE/SEARCH | 20 Romolo #B | San Francisco CA 94133 | 415.362.1465

www.researchpubs.com | http://www.myspace.com/researchpubs | info@researchpubs.com

**IF YOU LIVE IN San Francisco BAY AREA, PLEASE **REPLY** TO THIS NEWSLETTER IF YO

Designer in the wilderness

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/design_in_the_wild_what_a_product_designer_takes_on_an_18day_walk_14025.asp

*That's pretty impressive kit, but I'd be even more impressed if he did some product design in the wilderness. Like, maybe an ergonomic chair made out of bark, mud and leftover twigs.

Here's your golden chance to get rid of that SUV

http://planetark.org/wen/53706

PHOENIX - Having driven the equivalent of six smoke-belching laps of the planet, Tony Metzler figured his aging Chevrolet Blazer SUV would not make a good trade for a new car. Until now that is.

With a $1 billion federal "Cash for Clunkers" program that pays consumers $3,500 or $4,500 in credit to swap aging gas-guzzlers for new, more fuel efficient models, he made the plunge.

"It ended up being right place, right time for me," said Metzler, 42, who traded his eight-y

Sony Ericsson design fiction

*Holy cow! This thing is colossal!

http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/2020-081217/

Web Semantics: E-Poetry

(((I'm unclear as to why the activities described here would want to call themselves "poetry" or "literature," but I guess they'd have to call themselves *something.*)))

(((You won't have to agree with the premises of the argument here

to appreciate those links.)))

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/article.html?id=182942

(…)

"E-literature permits and requires new and different kinds of time-space experience that are inherent in a networked environment. (((Atemporality alert! *pulls up chair*

Gothic High-Tech Giants Successfully Reinventing Themselves

http://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2009/06/the-decline-fall-and-hopefully-reinvention-of-a-giant.html

"stop the bleeding, cultural transformation, compelling vision"

*Man, *if only* our hapless technocrats had enough culture to transform their culture, and enough vision to envision anything compelling. I pondered this screed, and then I looked up at the television screen to see that crowd at the G-8.

*They do seem like intelligent people (the great majority anyway), and I'm sure they would read an ar

San Francisco Vacant Lot Interventions

*Bruce McLaughlin writes in:

"The San Francisco Chronicle took note of vacant lots created by new building projects that have stalled out after tearing down the old building on the site. They asked some design organizations to come up with plans to turn these vacant lots into public spaces inexpensively."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/06/MNUG18GIBE.DTL

"The designer's suggestions are here:"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...
http://ww

Geoff Manaugh, that BLDGBLOG guy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackbeltjones/3699603702/in/photostream/

*Modest soul that he is, Geoff never posts pics of himself on his blog, but this is what he looks like.

*And this is his blog, which accounts for why his London book release was ground zero for brainy cool people.

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/

Anomalies unlimited: Alien writings

http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Alien_Writing.html

*Writings by extraterrestrials and their fellow travellers. Boy, eat your hearts out,

Flarfistas, microsyntacticalists.

Despite his arrest, Bernard NotHaus is still coining the cash

*This is one of the odder phenomena we cover on BEYOND THE BEYOND.

http://www.libertydollar.org/ld/pr_nl/06_30_2009.htm#110

(…)

10. Legal Update - Free the "Liberty Dollar Four"

The awful truth is that a "federal case" takes a lot of time! Currently, Sarah, Rachelle and I are scheduled to appear at 9:30 in US District Court in Charlotte, NC, on July 6. You are welcome to come but most likely it will be boring as our attorneys will request a continuance of six months to prepare our case. So the trial