a pontoon of bamboo

24 hours in pictures:

Damcherra, India: Labourers manouvre a pontoon of bamboo to market using the current of a river Photograph: Bapi Roy Choudhury/AFP

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Villagers in fear of occult killers who deal in flesh Human genitals are the most prized parts and can be used to attract wealth and increase fertility. Children's body parts are believed to be the most potent. They are cooked and ground down, to be used with herbs and other ingredients. Sometimes parts are used whole - it is believed that if a human arm is waved around each morning in commercial premises it will draw customers.

Space 'smells like fried steak' Nasa has commissioned Steven Pearce, a chemist and managing director of fragrance manufacturing company Omega Ingredients, to recreate the smell of space in a laboratory.

also:
The Five Oldest Banks in the World (via)
Logic Exercises - The Three Laws of Robotics
Meetways.com: find a point of interest between two addresses (via)

viddy:
Robert Wyatt & Bertrand Bergalat - This Summer Night
Björk talking about her TV
Allen Ginsberg interview (via)
Don't you put it in your mouth

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'Intelligent' computers put to the test No machine has yet passed the test devised by Turing, who helped to crack German military codes during the Second World War. But at 9am next Sunday, six computer programs - "artificial conversational entities" - will answer questions posed by human volunteers at the University of Reading in a bid to become the first recognised "thinking" machine.

Blake Pontchartrain on Zulu coconuts Everybody wanted a Zulu coconut, but when you shouted 'Hey, Mister, throw me something," and what you got was a coconut thrown at you, you ducked or suffered the consequences. Believe it or not, lawsuits resulted; lots of them. When Mardi Gras of 1987 rolled around, the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club was unable to get insurance, so it was a parade without coconuts. One year, back in the day, I had the honor of painting a dozen or so Zulu coconuts.

costume detail: Stripes "The Medieval eye found any surface in which a background could not be distinguished from the foreground disturbing. Thus striped clothing was relegated to those on the margins or outside the social order - jugglers and prostitutes for example - and in medieval paintings the devil himself is often seen wearing stripes." The Devil's Cloth by Michel Pastoreau (via)

The Avant Garde Project is a series of recordings of 20th-century classical-experimental-electroacoustic music digitized from LPs whose music has in most cases never been released on CD, and so is effectively inaccessible to the vast majority of music listeners today. (via)

also:
How to Photograph the Stars (via)
Original Locations of 15 Mega-Chains (via)
Death becomes him: Kevorkian’s artwork on display at Armenian Library (via)
Another rare Serra interview (via)
Best of History Web Sites (via)
Dickens' London Map (via)
Fight Spam With A Direct Message To Twitter (via)

viddy:
Buckminster Fuller profiled on PBS's SundayArts
Ladislaw Starewicz - Cameraman's Revenge (proto-stop-animation)
Scratching With Tape Decks (cassette and reel-to-reel)
Vinyl Record Manufacturing Explained
Smashing Glass To The Anvil Chorus (via)

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Antiquities smuggling: Growing problem at US ports Three years ago, an elderly Italian man pulled his van into a South Florida park to sell some rare, 2,500-year-old emeralds plundered from a South American tomb. But Ugo Bagnato, an archaeologist, didn't know his potential customer was a federal agent. (via)

Tourist who found Stone Age axes rewarded £20,000 A British tourist who unearthed four Stone Age axes on a beach in Brittany has been put forward for a prize worth more than £20,000 by the Ministry of Culture for not keeping the treasure. (via)

CEO murdered by mob of sacked Indian workers Corporate India is in shock after a mob of workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who sacked them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi. (via)

also:
Cheap Chinese lederhosen anger Germans
a couple of good lists this week: Top 10 Things That Are Surprisingly Good For You & 10 Odd Discontinued Olympic Sports (and don't forget drawing and watercolors)
Flashback: The One Elevator Trick Every Traveler Should Know
Neil Armstrong makes rare speech as NASA turns 50
Erase Cell Phone Data: Free Data Eraser (via)

viddy:
The Mike Wallace Interview: Frank Lloyd Wright (via)
The arty farty show
Sati Audiovisual (excellent VJ performance)

Bohemian Grove

Ronald Reagan, Glenn T. Seaborg and Richard Nixon at the Bohemian Grove (image: Wikipedia)

Is Tricky Dick sporting a 'stache-n-dash?

Bohemian Grove

hat tip: vintagephoto

Fortunes to be Made in Frogs

A Fortune in Frogs AND a Frog Ranch Map...

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How the Music Business Spent the Summer Killing Itself Labels Pull Albums off iTunes, RIAA Goes After Internet Radio -- When Will They Ever Learn? Idiots. I think this lunacy is driven by lawyers who convince behind-the-times executives that the world is ending in order to fatten their bank accounts with the fees they collect filing cease and desist notices, removing videos from YouTube, and prosecuting their customer base.

The mass graveyard of the blogosphere How many dead blogs do you think exist in the blogosphere today? Take a guess… A couple of million perhaps…? Try again. According to Technorati and PC Mag, in 2007 the number stood at 200 million! Yes, 200 million! Which means blogs are now officially abandoned more often than red headed step children. More research from Perseus on blogging abandonment behaviour found that 66% of blogs hadn’t been updated for two months. So why is it that the blogosphere represents a mass graveyard of unfulfilled intentions? (via)

Clueless smugglers find 'gold' is uranium One thing puzzled them. At night, a report on a local government website said, “they were surprised that, when the lights went out, the treasure sparkled and glittered”. One of the men, identified as Mr Wang, “chipped a piece from it and kept it beside his bed — sometimes playing with it”.... “To prevent the sample being lost or stolen on the way, Mr Wang used tape to stick the unidentified treasure to his body, and it never left him night or day.”

Do No Harm To Humans: Real-life Robots Obey Asimov’s Laws European researchers have developed technology enabling robots to obey Asimov’s golden rules of robotics: to do no harm to humans and to obey them.

Shadow analysis could spot terrorists by their walk By analysing the movements of human shadows in aerial and satellite footage, JPL engineer Adrian Stoica says it should be possible to identify people from the way they walk - a technique called gait analysis, whose power lies in the fact that a person's walking style is very hard to disguise. (via)

Dairy farmers: True IT pioneers The dairy industry was an early adopter of information technology, and dairy farms have been among the most aggressive businesses in the agricultural industry at applying IT. Dairy IT got its start in the 1950s, when an IBM mainframe was used to develop the first dairy records management system and a genetics database...

also:
Nazi-era photos surface in Bolivia
The Global Album Cover Map (via)
Psychic investigator looks into spooky painting (via)
Finding a new position as a mature job hunter
John Titor weighs in on the LHC (entertaining) (via)

Apple admits man invented iPod in 1979, but he's still not getting any money

Sketch of Kane Kramer's prototype digital music player he invented back in 1979. It stored 3½ minutes of music. The patent expired in the late 1980's.

Mail Online:

Apple has finally admitted that a British man who left school at 15 is the inventor behind the iPod.

Kane Kramer, 52, came up with the technology that drives the digital music player nearly 30 years ago but has still not seen a penny from his invention.

ht: The Raw Feed

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Out There: People Who Live Without TV For many Americans the thought of life without TV is akin to forgoing food, shelter or, God forbid, the Internet. But about 1 to 2 percent of Americans do abstain from the boob tube, and they might seem like strange bedfellows. A recent study of those who live without found that about two-thirds fall into either the "crunchy granola set" or the "religious right, ultraconservative" camp... I guess I'm in the other one-third. I haven't had cable or air television since 2005. To be honest, I didn't get rid of the TV because I hated it, I got rid of it because I liked it too much. I needed to get some things done and I figured losing it would eliminate a distraction. It worked. I'm far more productive than I was then. I do watch movies and whatnot on the computer, but I practically have to force myself to sit down for one. I have nothing against people who watch TV. Not everyone can sit at home and write a novel or read Shakespeare after a long hard day of work. It's a matter of preference. I was a bit surprised that it was only 1-2 percent that abstain.

It’s Likely That Times Are Changing A century ago, mathematician Hermann Minkowski famously merged space with time, establishing a new foundation for physics; 
today physicists are rethinking how the two should fit together... In a lab, time is simple. You can watch experiments and record what happens as time passes simply by referring to the clock on the wall (or the computerized timers on the lab bench). But suppose you are studying the universe as a whole, attempting to formulate the laws of quantum gravity that rule the cosmos. There is no wall enclosing the universe on which to hang a clock, no external timekeeper to gauge the whenness of being. Yet quantum physics requires time to tell the universe what to do — time is necessary for things to happen. Or, as the famous restroom graffito puts it, time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once. (via)

Heroin addicted elephant clean after rehab Referred to as 'Big Brother' or 'Xiguang' in Chinese media reports, the elephant was captured in 2005 in southwest China by illegal traders who fed him heroin-laced bananas. The traders used the spiked bananas for several months to control him before they were arrested by police. Xiguang was released back into the wild but was soon sent to animal protection centre after his behaviour appeared to suggest he was suffering withdrawal symptoms from heroin, Xinhua news agency reported.

Robot builders seek a little help from sci-fi "It's surprising how often people make nervous jokes about robots taking over the world. I don't want to make too much of that, but I think there's something there." So says one roboticist who thinks finding out exactly how fictional robots influence people can help engineers build real ones.

Bach fan thrills to discovery of lost 1724 pages For 25 years, Teri Noel Towe has deeply treasured a slim volume bound in red morocco that he acquired at an auction house, a volume containing six handwritten pages of a musical manuscript. Pages three and four, containing the last measures of the opening choral movement and all of the following bass aria, cover the front and back of a music sheet presumed lost. Until now. (via)

Digitizing Archives From The 17th Century A researcher on a short trip to a foreign country, with little money, but a digital camera in hand has devised a novel approach to digitizing foreign archives that could speed up research.

also:
The 11 Kinds of Insomnia (via)
How to Read an FBI File (via)
The 100 Oldest Companies in the World (via)
The heaviest and biggest tanks in history (via)

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World's largest machine--the electric grid--is old and outdated The U.S. electric grid is so old and outdated it can't handle the influx of wind power and other intermittent renewable resources.

Space Station Dodges Orbital Junk The International Space Station fired its rocket engines to dodge space junk for the first time in five years on Wednesday.

Is It Possible To Teach Experience? Business veterans claim you cannot teach ‘experience’, but European researchers say you can. (via)

The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn Storytelling is one of the few human traits that are truly universal across culture and through all of known history. Anthropologists find evidence of folktales everywhere in ancient cultures, written in Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Chinese, Egyptian and Sumerian. People in societies of all types weave narratives, from oral storytellers in hunter-gatherer tribes to the millions of writers churning out books, television shows and movies. And when a characteristic behavior shows up in so many different societies, researchers pay attention: its roots may tell us something about our evolutionary past.

also:
Top 10 Amazing Prison Escapes
10 Things Millionaires Won't Tell You
Now Hear This: Don't Remove Earwax (I always suspected that those Chinese candles weren't so good for you.)
6 Funny Things About Asimov's Foundation Series
The Unofficial Stephen Jay Gould Archive (via)

viddy:
Cockfighting and dominoes: Haiti's poor at play (via)
Hackers prepare supermarket sweep
Groucho Marx on the Dick Cavett Show

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We've got our wires crossed: The bizarre stories of people whose brains have rewired themselves (don't miss it) Meet the Englishman who emerged from a stroke speaking with a French Accent, (Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare but recognized medical condition) and the man who can taste words.

Cooking and Cognition: How Humans Got So Smart For a long time, we were pretty dumb. Humans did little but make "the same very boring stone tools for almost 2 million years," he said. Then, only about 150,000 years ago, a different type of spurt happened — our big brains suddenly got smart. We started innovating. We tried different materials, such as bone, and invented many new tools, including needles for beadwork. Responding to, presumably, our first abstract thoughts, we started creating art and maybe even religion.

Is Our Solar System a Rarity in Milky Way? Three Northwestern University researchers have learned that our solar system in which the Earth orbits our sun is the exception in the Milky Way rather than the rule.

A Bridge between Virtual Worlds The first steps to developing virtual-world interoperability are now being tested between Second Life and other independent virtual worlds... I remember hearing a radio interview with one of the founders of Second Life where he claimed that some characters from World of Warcraft found their way into Second Life and started hacking people up. I still can't figure out if he was just bullshitting or not. Maybe not. (via)

Mystery Surrounds Leavenworth's Underground City Some Leavenworth residents have been unknowingly walking around above an underground city, and no one seems to know who created it or why. I'm surprised we haven't heard more about this. (via)

The World’s Six Most Wanted War Criminals
How to Think Like a Genius Thomas Pynchon maintains that genius lives in work rather than talent. (couldn't find the quote, read it years ago) (via)
Jessica Duchen's top 10 literary Gypsies
Excellent post on John Cage (don't miss it if you're a music fan) John Cage died 16 years ago today.
Iain Banks links
Daily Writing Tips (via)
The Prisoner Production Hazard Checklist
Overheard Comments from United Airlines Employees (figures)
The Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites Not quite as "undiscovered" as I had hoped, but there are some interesting items in there. (via)

viddy:
A Day In The Life Of An MC Escher Drawing (silly) (via)
Creepy Mogwai video
The Yodeling Belgian Cowboy (awesome)

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Pirates won't rob writers of riches Of course, if ebooks catch on, most publishing firms will go out of business. But I cannot think of many writers who will be sorry to see them go. Whenever authors gather around a bottle of wine, the sole topic of conversation is how terrible their publishers are. Their editors are illiterates, the publicity departments are staffed by airheads and the people responsible for designing their dust jackets should be shot. I blaze through ebooks about four times as fast I do print. I'm blind in one eye and dyslexic, so the medium is a help for me, but most people I know can't read ebooks. (via)

Warp Drive Engine Would Travel Faster Than Light It is possible to travel faster than light. You just wouldn't travel faster than light. (via)

Glass Does Not Flow. Except in Space? In 1999, Christie’s East in Manhattan auctioned off an assortment of space memorabilia, including a flashlight that Buzz Aldrin used during a Gemini 12 spacewalk in 1966. The auction catalog mentions: The flashlight lens became deformed while in the vacuum of space. I saw the flashlight in person. The lens is definitely deformed, just as if the glass had flowed. It’s not cracked. It’s deformed.

Police: Man Stole Miami-Dade Buses, Drove Them On Routes Police: Teen Dressed As Bus Driver, Returned Buses At End Of Day I really hope they don't send this kid to prison. (via)

Hiphop LX (linguistics) In Hiphop the WORD is the message. Language is a system of sounds and symbols and communication in any language is based on how to use that system. If you know the system, you have power over ideas and imagination. You can build, change, plan, play and destroy. Many words and expressions in hiphop represent regions, neighborhoods and cities. Hiphop Lx is dedicated to representing the words and expressions that represent and serve as a symbol for a region and area. It explores the language system of hiphop and how the word came into being, meanings and the overall development of the word and expression. It challenges everyone to represent their region with true bona fide words and present them to be researched, examined, challenged and celebrated. (via)

also:
Renaissance Men Are Evolving Into Renaissance Networks (via)
Top 100 Executives by Total Compensation (via)
The Top 10 Mad Scientists (via)
10 Things You Should Know About the Internet
25 Ways To Earn Money When You’re Broke On The Road
Dalí: Painting and Film (via)
Frank Zappa's Jukebox out Aug. 4 (via) (via)

viddy:
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Pedal Up (awesome funky)
Wanda Jackson - Mean Mean Man
Dr. Ronald Chevalier – The Art of Relaxating (wth?)
Traffic in Tehran (traffic in UT)
Francis Fukuyama: What Kind of World Power China Will Be?
Marshall McLuhan Quotes
Woz the Wiz meets Captain Crunch (via)
Bill Drummond on Robert Anton Wilson
Man with No Arms Plays Guitar well (via)
Patti Smith Sings 'You Light Up My Life' (don't miss it)
Amazing Audio Illusion (it is amazing) (via)

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8 things Chinese people shouldn't ask Olympic tourists Posters displayed on bulletin boards in the neighborhood which includes tourist magnet the Forbidden City, and which will host Olympics boxing events, counsel locals against a wide range of potentially awkward conversation topics with foreigners. (via)

How to Frame the Internet: Attention and the New News Cycle The challenge is designing a news website that encourage immediate and full attention. The Washington Post’s web chats with authors and public figures is a good example of this. The opportunity to communicate directly with a person of prominence cannot be done later, nor can one participate in a chat with only half his attention. I would also point to the book readings and events staged in Second Life, if Second Life didn’t seem so pet rock to me. A smart website would start using video conferencing software to have its writers interact with readers. The trick is not to archive the footage immediately. Make viewers mark in their calendars for it. Make them miss it if they miss it. Some interesting points in this post. However, what often seems to be missing in the internet news cycle is the follow-up. Posts are archived and we can go back to what was missed, but as we all know, with the blivets of stories that keep popping up, we as the internet audience tend to drift off and not come back. I often hope for follow-ups to many items I find, but they rarely materialize. I think many bloggers fear being the one that beats a story to death and therefore don't give it the proper earthing out. I'm sure we could have learned more about George Carlin apart from the hundreds of YouTube videos and quotes from his comedy routines, but after a while, no one will touch the story because everyone has moved on. Our hyper-awareness seems to lead to hyper-abandonment.

Printer Toner and Contemplative Prayer: Interview with LaserMonks.com Monasteries all over the world have been self-supporting for centuries, and the practice of monks running a small business is nothing new. Most of them, however, don’t end up experiencing 700% annual sales growth, selling 30,000 products, and competing with Fortune 500 companies. Instead of baking fruitcakes for the occasional visitor, the monks from Our Lady of Spring Bank Cistercian Abbey sell laser toner and business supplies throughout the United States. They’ve creatively branded themselves as LaserMonks, but they offer more than just a great story. They also help businesses save an average of 40% off printer ink and toner, and in turn, the monks donate all of their profits to charity. Laser Monks website

also:
China Miéville's top 10 weird fiction books Telling.
How to Read a Book (via)
Literature Map Very interesting, but based on what readers read, rather than what writers write. (via)
Portuguese team makes first paper based transistor (via)
MoocherHunter - Detect & Track Rogue Wifi Users
Couple choose to live off the government grid Some things you might not have known about your SSN. (via)
Cyber Clean Sanitize your filthy keyboard and peripherals.
You Are Beautiful Spread the word. (via)

viddy:
Peter Gabriel Video on the state of the music industry Not completely boring, like this sort of stuff can be.
The future of knife crime A knife that is also a gun.
Flashback: The KLF Burn A Million Quid
Camera-equipped micro air vehicle weighs only three grams

On YouTube, Prince, formerly known, and copyright controversy

The Prince copyright controversy and WMC #54

Jahsonic makes a somewhat convincing, yet flawed argument in favor of artists like Prince being right by blocking their content on You Tube:

Look around on YouTube, how many TAFKAP clips do you find? That’s right, none. TAFKAP is convinced that if you want to be entertained by him, you have to pay him. He is right of course, even if it does not make him very likable.

Why is he right?

Companies such as YouTube (a Google owned company) are making millions of dollars on the backs of “minor” artists (the long tail) who do not have the funds to employ an army of lawyers to police YouTube in search of their content. These minor artists should be paid for their work. TAFKAP may set a precedent for this to happen.

A few scattered points to keep in mind when you read Jahsonic's post:

(update: I shouldn't suggest that you filter his post with these thoughts, rather you should read what he has to say and then view my points as rebuttal.)

a). The YouTube medium barely qualifies as content. The image is small and even in high-res is largely unsatisfying. The sound in usually crap, too. (One could say the same for MP3s.) People that would ordinarily buy music will not see these videos as a viable addition to their music collection.

b). YouTube came well after the P2P piracy issue and doesn't hold a candle to it in relation to volume of appropriated content. YouTube is not the problem in this regard. And remember this: "Pirates" buy more music. (update: You cannot tax YouTube for the damage done by P2P. Let's keep this separate. These two are often spoken of hand in hand by music industry types.)

c). Back in the day of record stores, labels released promo recordings for free. These were usually plain wrapper vinyl and cds that were used as teasers and means of exposure-- a way for reviewers to get the word out, for record store managers to promote and prioritize content and for DJs to get the material out in the clubs. YouTube videos help serve the function of promotion today.

d). Artists like Prince and Madonna make money on reputation, name recognition and exorbitant concert tickets. They might view YouTube as a loss of revenue, but let's face it, the YouTube generation by-and-large cares less and less about these dinosaurs, daily. Look at the most viewed items and you'll see where they're going.

e). "Minor" artists do not have name recognition, reputation or the ability to fetch high ticket prices. They are barely noticed by the media and have to rely largely on word of mouth to get their material noticed. YouTube is now "word of mouth" and I'm sure most "minor" artists are stoked when they see their videos being viewed untold thousands of time on the Interenet. In the process they know they are gaining, not losing. They know that YouTube is not riding on their backs. The benefit is mutual. It's good for business. In the end, they will likely be paid handsomely via this exposure, if they merit it.

f). Established acts like Radiohead understand these models and are well engaged with them. The old-school will fade away, life and commerce will go on.

g). YouTube and P2P help create more educated and savvy consumers. No more blind-buying crap records at the store. This will force content creators to make better music to keep up with the quality standard. Did the record companies ever think that sales might be down because people aren't buying their bullshit anymore? They'd be well served to consider this a probability.

h). Micropayments for YouTube videos? See point a).

i). I would not begrudge the right of an artist to block their content on YouTube. I just think it would be a pointless waste of time and resources and a counterproductive business move.

j). I might add a few more points as they come to mind, including those supplied by my readers. I know some of you have something to say about this.

In light of rapidly dying, old-timey methods of conducting the music business, Jahsonic's argument bears more weight. Transposed to the new economy of the Internet, it loses its lustre. However, it is still a valid and interesting argument and it is very much worth reading.

update: repost: Reality Check: Five Words on Why the Music Industry is Still Scrambling to Cope with Digital Reality: "If we don't, we're dead." (link)

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Engaging and Understanding the Egyptian Street Links to some interesting articles on the real Arab street. Well worth exploring. You know we rarely get the real story from mainstream or agenda-driven media.

Guizhou riots: an overview Chinese state-owned media, journalists, bloggers, and forum posters have all written about the riots that took place in Weng'an, Guizhou Province a week ago. The story, and how it has played out in official and unofficial media, illuminates several aspects of Chinese society and media, ranging from Internet pop culture and censorship, press freedom, the government's attempts to encourage but somehow control 'information openness' corruption of local officials and popular resentment against it, and what happens when crowds get out of control.

New and Not Improved The lustre of The New Hope is starting to wear off. This is happening a lot quicker than I thought. I wonder how long it will take for bandwagon Obama-ites to realize that they were projecting their distressed, war weary, post 9-11 hopes for a better world on a professional politician that really doesn't give a crap about what they think or want. It's nothing to be ashamed of, really. It's a logical reaction to the trauma that was the Bush administration. (via)

Google is doing WHAT? No, not THAT. But just about everything else. Image Gallery

Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition Click! is a photography exhibition that invites Brooklyn Museum’s visitors, the online community, and the general public to participate in the exhibition process. Taking its inspiration from the critically acclaimed book The Wisdom of Crowds, in which New Yorker business and financial columnist James Surowiecki asserts that a diverse crowd is often wiser at making decisions than expert individuals, Click! explores whether Surowiecki’s premise can be applied to the visual arts—is a diverse crowd just as “wise” at evaluating art as the trained experts? (via)

Summer reading: how to pick the right book for any trip A Room With a View might be perfect for a Tuscan villa, but what should you read at the Burning Man festival or while cooped up with the kids in a West Country cottage? Six leading writers select the best books to take with you - whatever type of holiday you're going on (via)

How to tie a tie (including the fabled Pratt Tie Knot) (via)

Daniel Schorr: Economy Reminiscent Of Great Depression Dan, one who grew into adulthood during the Great Depression, remembers... and sings.

factoid: On Wikipedia, the biography of George Costanza is five times as long as that of Tim O'Reilly.

Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment. Buckminster Fuller, Interview, April 30, 1978 (via)

general store architecture

14 Onward Mississippi
jimmywayne22 (comment: This place has the best hamburgers on earth!!!! Seriously...)
via The J-Walk Blog

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Irish company strikes gold with huge find A mining company has found what may be the largest gold deposit ever found in the British Isles, the company's chairman said Tuesday.

Jesse Helms dies, Wikipedia steps right in Jesse Helms died today in North Carolina at 1:15 am, according to CNN. My mother taught me never to speak ill of the dead (especially the recently dead). So I'll let Wikipedia do it instead: Death He died on July 4, 2008, slitting his wrists in a washtub out back beneath the pecan tree and writing "I've been a bad boy" in his own blood. The skins of several children were found drying in his attic, swarms of horseflies going in and out of the eaves. His wife was quoted on CNN as saying "I always wondered about Jesse's collection of little shoes." By the time I had copied and pasted this charming little blurb, it had been edited away. (via)

The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating Well, maybe aren't eating.

Daniel Schorr: Pondering The Word 'Patriot' Patriots may be a good name for a football team or a wiretapping law, but in politics it has become a word corrupted by misuse.

“Chocolate City” - Africans seek their dreams in China

“巧克力城”——非洲人寻梦中国 trans. by Blogging for China:

Clem quickly cuts through the flow of car traffic, like the fish you can never catch. He hesistated when he saw the Southern Metropolis reporter, but finally crossed the road using the pedestrian bridge nearby. He embarassedly stuck out his tongue, saying: “Sorry, I still don’t have the habit of waiting for traffic lights and crossing at pedestrian bridges.” When he’s warned that “Guangzhou’s public security isn’t very good, be careful with your backpack”, his eyes open wide with shock. “Are you joking? Public security here is the best!”

25 year old Clem comes from Nigeria. Before, he saw Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, as heaven. But after he arrived in Guangzhou, he felt he truly stood at the gate to heaven; China is the true heaven.

Africans are finding Guangzhou, China to be a new land of opportunity with goods to be moved and fortunes to be gained. They gather in China-Africa commerce malls and load up on inexpensive goods, knock-offs and tails, products that don't pass inspection, sold on the cheap. And the prices are ridiculously cheap: Dolce and Gabbana jeans are 20 RMB (3 USD), Gucci high-heels and purse together for 100 RMB (15 USD)... as long as it has the proper logo, it's good to go back home, regardless of its provenance.

The Africans, predominantly Nigerians, live in village-districts in the city of Guangdong, collectively known as Chocolate City. The conditions are comparatively good and healthy profits are promised to the clever speculator.

However, along with vibrant commerce, there emerge the inevitable problems of racism, language barriers, cultural clashes and annoyances. The Africans are predictably marginalized and long-term visitors find little meaningful social interaction outside of their own social groups. But life is life and business is business, so things move along at their paces and most shrug it off and find a way to make it work. The options, for most, back home, are non-existent.

I thought this was an fascinating shoes-on-the-ground account-- a thin slice of the global economy in action. Things aren't always right or for the best but we always manage to chug along and find our way through it.

They'll get used to each other after a while, for the most part. There will always be incorrigible, subtle and unwitting racists and xenophobes among us, it's hardwired into us on many levels. We have to accept this for what it is and try to find a way to move beyond it, universally. There is too much important work to do to get bogged down in all that business of hate and disdain. Let's keep our disputes personal and amongst politicians.

It happens when each individual person treats each individual person as a fellow human being, every time, every day.

via Danwei

Google Internet Cafe

Strangest Internet Cafes From Around the World

Edward de Bono on creative thinking

Having more of a background in the arts, I have been conditioned to distrust advice on creativity from business gurus, academics and motivational speakers. However, if I employ lateral thinking and look outside to box, I can find value in the words and ideas of Edward de Bono.

Thanks to Zenpundit



Here's a simple example of Lateral Thinking via Wikipedia:

A man and his son are in a car crash. The father is killed and the son is taken to hospital gravely injured. When he gets there, the surgeon says "I can't operate on this boy- he is my son!" How is this possible?

This is an example of an instant perception blocking the mind's ability to explore alternatives. In this case the instant perception is that most people imagine a surgeon as a male; this leads to the conclusion that either the surgeon or the "father" in the car crash was not the boy's real father.

If you switch your perception to allow for a female surgeon then the answer is suddenly obvious,the surgeon is the boy's mother.

Most people imagine a surgeon as a male, but in this case it is the opposite! Lateral thinking is the method of switching perceptions to allow the alternate view point...

Interesting de Bono nugget:

Edward de Bono is a prolific originator of ideas, only a few of which are listed here.

In 2000 he advised a U.K Foreign Office committee that the Arab-Israeli conflict might be due, in part, to low levels of zinc found in people who eat unleavened bread, a known side-effect of which is aggression. He suggested shipping out jars of Marmite to compensate...

Not sure how that worked out., but it seems like as good an idea as any.

As far as the video goes, sometimes I struggle with the semantics involved with the term "creativity." It seems that the creativity that has value in the worlds of business, technology or strategic thinking is not necessarily the same as that of the aesthetic. This does not make them exclusive of each other, but sometimes the novel, unique or different can have worth outside the realms of utility and cognitive resonance. Therefore, a triangular door might serve no useful purpose, but within certain contexts could conceivably be charged with significant value and meaning.

Sorry, just thinking outside of outside of the box.

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