Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 786

It’s Sarko and the French Greens

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/07/france-sarkozy-ump

*Given what he’s been through, he must be thanking God and Carla

that he’s not Brown or Berlusconi. But, until the next elections, it’s him

and the Greens. Meaning, basically, it’s him. “L’etat c’est moi.” The

French Left ran on an anti-Sarko plank and have ceased to matter

because of that decision.

*He’s far and away the most gifted politician in modern Europe. Also
the luckiest — but he made his own luck, because he who dares, w

Want your own augmented-reality geisha?

*If you happen to have read William Gibson’s IDORU, you may be making plans

for matrimony.

http://gamesalfresco.com/2008/07/20/want-your-own-augmented-reality-geisha/

Europe Is A Boutique (and America Is a Farm)

*Special European election-era bonus: contemporary Swedish poetry (in translation).

http://www.lapetitezine.org/Aase.htm

“Mastiff

“The sun bladder hangs high and red: the fever scrotum weighs heavy. The trucks roar down below, the mastiff dog gurgles and growls and tugs at its chain, and it seems like the metals of this powerful city are exploding with anxiety. The amphibians suffer burned and flayed in the hangars, and we hear their shrill throat sounds. The substances are fermenting, the throats

Spime Watch: Alzheimer’s Shoes

http://www.impactlab.com/2009/06/06/shoes-with-built-in-gps-for-alzheimers-patients

(…)

“The technology will provide the location of the individual wearing the shoes within 30 feet, anywhere on the planet,” said Andrew Carle, an assistant professor at George Mason University who served as an advisor on the project.

“Sixty percent of individuals afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease will be involved in a ‘critical wandering incident’ at least once during the progression of the disease — many more than

The Web-Urbanist Thirty-Three-Part Guide to Abandoned Places

*Urban entropy in thirty three parts?! Yeah, and that’s just the sampler.

http://weburbanist.com/2008/12/05/abandoned-deserted-building-town-city/

*The upside here? These locales won’t miss their dead newspapers.

The Many Challenges to the University

(((I hope you weren’t imagining that academia was a safe, ivied harbor

from the general holocaust in media, politics, finance, warfare, etc etc.

Hello, “virtual intellectuals.” One may hope you lot are not as haplessly

scatterbrained as you seem to be on your multilinked websites.)))

http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge288.html#tapscott

(…)

“The Many Challenges to the University

“Most resources of large universities are directed towards research, not learning. The universities are not primari

The latest DOORS OF PERCEPTION report

*It’s no secret that I dote on these.

Doors of Perception Report

Design for resilience

by John Thackara

June 2009

TRANSITIONING
Fui So means “ability to rejuvenate” in Mandarin. I learned this from Wong
Lai-yin, a Chinese participant in last week’s Transition Towns event in London.
Transition initiatives and groups are multiplying at extraordinary speed:
170 communities have been officially designated Transition Towns (or cities,
districts, villages - and even a forest); and a further 600 communities a

Dead Media Beat: The Five Stages of a Blogger’s Life

*Worn to shreds by the commenters and the “community.” That was his

critical error.

*Although the tech obsolescence almost nailed him in stage four.

http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/09/26/5-stages-of-a-bloggers-life/

*One pities a creative so lacking in insight that he can’t outlive a medium

as ephemeral as blogs. Even a PR guy running a ghost-town “brand community”

knows when the hang it up.

*Want another massive assault on media? Check this one out. “Eighteen
Challenges for Contemporary Lit

A Rave Review of an Innovative New Microsoft Product

*Mr Softee kinda catching on BEYOND THE BEYOND today, so check this out.

Gaming with no interface. Get off the dang couch, fat kids.

http://gizmodo.com/5277954/testing-project-natal-we-touched-the-intangible

Natal Hands On Giz from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Dead Media Beat: Ghost Town Brand Communities

*Wait a sec — “brand” “communities”? Logically, those should have all the social liveliness of traditional company towns. Even if they monetize like a bandit, they ought to die at least as quickly as the average Wild West silver-mining “community.”

http://www.bazaarblog.com/2009/05/31/ghost-town-brand-community/

“Have you ever been exploring online and found yourself in a virtual community where crickets chirped and tumbleweeds drifted by? (((Dude, this is Dead Media Beat. Tried community-buil