Quote: "There is no Information Overload, there is just selection failure!"
Really? Internet nerds and the Generation Web loves to brag about all the information revolution, how it empowers users and saves the world. But instead we are polluted with information noise …
Yeah, the future is upon us – including pictures and comic strips (watch the video and you know what I am talking about).
Too bad that newspapers hardly profit from feeding so much information into the internet today.
PS: I feel very old right now.
Apart from being a never ending source for sarcasm, pain and humor we won’t miss ya …
Time to clear a lot of brush in Texas.
So many events are snapped and recorded by hundreds if not thousands of gadgets – and beamed all over the world.
The best example is Obama’s recent Inauguration. The event was recorded from a gazillion angles (or literally points of view). They were saved in our shared digital memory to be be digested by the intranets.
But there is more.
Microsofts Photosynth shows how these collective recording can be merged / synthesized into a fuzzy hyperlinked historical "space".
Click image for more details.
You can experience this new technology on the CNN website – but you need to install a new plug-in for your browser for the magic to work.
Photosynth creates this virtual environment from hundreds of pictures. It’s like a walk able picture space. Amazing, but not very useful yet. But I am sure future versions will be able to synthesize videos, audio and images into one "space".
But once again there is more.
With additional facial recognition you will not only be able to pick people out of the crowd, but each person will be linked to their available data all over the intranets as well.
Just like Google Maps currently records every street view in major cities all over the world – so will we ourselves share moments of our lives online by recording videos, sharing our photos, our travel reports on blogs and locations via Twitter or similar services. And EVERYTHING will be stitched together by "intelligent" software.
A few years in the future our real lives are more or less publicly recorded by our gadgets and saved on the internet.
Information at your fingertips? Nah, more like "Your life on my screen in every detail."
Amazing how quickly some of these celebs amass their followers and fans on various sites. This a strange real time parasite relationship between followers and alpha twitters. Can you really have a real dialogue with tens of thousands of people?
But I am sure it’s a great ego boost for these celebs and followers alike.
PS: Full disclosure – I am following Stephen Fry, because I think he is worth it.
If you can’t shave you don’t deserve a "manly" beard.
These soldiers should defend their country and shoot any arriving politician as soon as he sticks his or her nose out of the plane. After that they should finish the job by sending the local bigwig to heaven too.
How many "great leaders" do we really need?
Just because you deliver a stunning performance doesn’t mean you will be generally admired.
Today’s rich athletes either excel in popular sport many people enjoy themselves (like football, golf or tennis) or a totally mad and dangerous sport (like FMX).
Less exciting sports hardly get covered in the media and therefore it’s athletes hardly make any money.
Politicians and the Internet – not necessarily a love affair. Look at Saudi Arabia, China and many other depressing nations. Even democratic countries like South Korea politicians hate the Internet and try to suppress freedom of speech and grassroots movement via the net.
Many American Millenials and Webaddicts love to praise their toys as the transformative element that pushed Obama ahead.
But the numbers simply don’t add up: Obama has a massive 144,000 followers on Twitter. This sounds pretty impressive for a generation that measures it’s self-esteem by it’s friend counts on Facebook and MySpace.
But compare 144,000 Twitter followers to staggering 231,229,580 people in voting age in the USA. Even compared to the meager voter turnout of 132,618,580 people it’s a joke. Most of them have never heard of Twitter or own an account on Facebook. Many won’t even own an computer.
Sure many of Obama’s political ads and related videos got millions of views on YouTube, but these figures reflect a global audience – not just an American one.
Obama’s real victory was not on the Internets, but based on good old fashioned neighborhood help. His foot soldiers knocked on many doors and inspired others to vote for him.
The Internet and all it’s gimmicks certainly helped a lot organizing the effort, but the battleground was still this odd thing called reality.
Mousetivism is a great thing, but not as effective as it’s followers claim.
BBC News: New phone features ‘baffle users’
Apart from the phone designers – is anyone surprised about this?
Most touch screens are only meant for the tiny fingers of 12 year old Asian girls. Most people press at least three functions operating these touch mine fields.
The interfaces are fully Disney-compatible – full of eye candy instead of clear and easy to understand visuals.
To configure mobile internet application or simply the included synching software is often a nightmare. Add Bluetooth networking to make it even more confusing and you have the perfect consumers nightmare.
Those smart phones are hardly smart – most of the intelligence has still to come from the user to make these bloody things work.
"Ey, Swami Tamtam, I just had this amazing vision! I would work in a safe and warm office in a comfy chair, stuffing sugary things into me all day and pushing a piece of plastic tied to string from one side of the desk to the other."
| 1. Click player below to start the music.
2. Click the image to dive into the art. 3. Study for two and a half minutes this great piece of art and all the drama. |
It’s been a long time since I posted one of these fascinating mathematical creatures.
Does anyone know the fractal’s artist?
The Music is from the great musical visionary Raymond Scott.
I am just thinking back. I was never elected into anything. Never liked to lead the herd – although I had to several times for smaller ones.
Public Negro #1
It’s done: Bush out, the dynamic black dude sworn in and ready to rock the world. The Obama-Mania at it’s zenith.
But the backlash is already waiting for America and it will be ugly …
There is a big difference between engaged, being excited and being passionate about something.
Most people simply tolerate life, but only a view people know their passion and even fewer follow it.
Do you know your passion? And do you follow it?
Just because you bring me presents doesn’t mean I like to be touched by you – creepy old man.
In face of mass destruction, murder, rape, huge amounts of death people … how can you resist the surrealism of the situation.
Is it sarcasm? Cynicism? Or simply the mind protecting itself against the horror it experiences?
The health system is mostly about keeping the system happy and running – not making you healthy.
Don’t wait for the Knight or other fantasies little princess or you may wait for a very, very, very long time …
Raymond Scott was far far far ahead of his time. This song is from the 1950’s when he already experimented with electronic sounds. Add to this sound some heavy beats and it would perfectly electro pop modern.
I am sure the CNN editor thought this is a hilarious question for a poll, but it’s rather obvious and lame.
Click image for a larger view.
What an amazing image – I never get tired looking at our planet. Snapped by Apollo 11.
*thanks to edosan for sending this one*
Just because everybody else is doing it to be cool doesn’t mean it’s not stupid. People do a lot of stupid stuff to be adorable or to belong to the "it" crowd.
And once again Russia finds an excuse to stall. Since Gazprom is under the direct order of Putin and his apparatchiks this is once again a political attack with harsh consequences for millions of people here in Europe.
And so far the EU keeps kissing Putin’s ass.
Europe needs energy independence asap!
Although the cold hardly inspires me – I am slowly coming back to life and creativity. The flu really took away a lot of energy. I am still amazed how drained my batteries are – physically and mentally. Looking forward to a good month – now that everybody is back from vacation and life can continue as usual.
Modern life has created a paradox situation (for example here in Thailand): many Mahouts and their Elephants don’t find work.
Since they don’t have any money to feed their beloved beasts they let them go, but the elephants don’t return to the jungles, but stay near or in villages and cities.
Chaos ensues.
I am sure it’s a great thing that machines have "freed" these gentle beasts, but I wonder if the ancient work team man & elephant was not better for the environment anyway?
Click image for more horns.
I think modern funerals are boring – when I am dead I want a proper Viking funeral with Virgins to be burned on my funeral ship.
Is that too much to ask?!
I know it’s silly, but it cracks me up every time I watch it. I am such a simple creature …
Just like whales and seals I like to add additional fat to my body to protect me against the winter cold. Hey, I take any lame excuse to stuff yummy food into my belly!
Why Do we find such hair so sexy? Shiny long hair is a sign of a healthy person – so it’s an obvious indicator if that person is suitable for procreation. Just like for Makeup we spend gazillions of Euros for hair care products although that final piece of "warming fur" hardly needs to be pretty to warm our brains.
Since hair is tied to individualism and sexuality the military and many religions love to shave it off.
Like the great Bill Connolly said: "I am naked, I have an erection and I will open the door in 10 seconds! Ten, nine, eight… "
Click image for a bigger classic moment.
Once again one of these eternally graceful moments of Hollywood beauty and excellent photography.
I admire Maestro Hurrell – he is simply one of the greatest light catchers of all time.
Boy, that game was stressful and I never really mastered it. But it was worth every "Pfennig" I put into the arcade machine.
