Art - or artfull

Thomas Kinkade is an artist. A very successful one at that. He has sold probably millions of his works. The titles give a good idea of the tone and subjects; "Make a Wish Cottage", "Blessings of Christmas", "City by the Bay" and "The Old Fishin' Hole" being just some of them (from Gallery)

"RARE ONLY 980 Signed and Numbered of this edition were produced." (1) ... and that sets the tone; he makes mass-art, combining printing with a personal touch (highlights, signatures and numbering) in order to make it something more than "just a print".

says Kinkade "We view my work and my cultural identity, in a way, as heir to the Walt Disney kind of tradition" (CBS) - hitting the common soul of americans, and making a bit while doing it. Time to paint.

Who are you?

Q - the book without a known author is back in the spotlight in Norway. First published in 1999 and linked to Watford (and Inter Milan) footballer Luther Blissett - or at least his name. The main people behind the "experiment" / "statement" have now changed their "name" to Wu Ming... which translates into "no name". Sort of like Clint Eastwood in those good old spag-westerns; "My name is nobody"

And the point? A name is not just a name, but also a statement of who you would like to be seen as.

...and the sun makes it hot - summer is here...

Newspeak - and old writing

The Newspeak Dictionary: "Propaganda - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" is a nice part of the site, giving you various downloads of both Orwells works and other "significant" works, from Marx to Sun Tzu and beyond.

Beale treasure

The UnMuseum - The Beale Cryptograms: "somewhere six feet under the ground in Virginia is over $30 million in gold" ... just finished reading the brilliant "Code Book" and one of the more interesting passages was the bit about the possible treasure hidden by mr Beale.
The second of his "clues" was coded using the Declariation of independence - so perhaps the other to are simple variations on the same? Counting backwards? Or the number of vowels? Or adding one for every G in the text? ...would make sense not to have to many different papers - but still not use it straight forward (to insecure - a lot of money even now!)

imagine - and compete

Imagine CUP: "Fifty teams across four invitationals will represent their country in Brazil" - a tech focused competition, check out China doing it BIG in algorithms!

100 years and then some

100 years of history - or a hundred years since the team of professor Gabriel Gustafson dug up the Oseberg vikingship - built around 820, they golden age of viking exploration. A stunning view if you visit Oslo [facts]


Swedish dead
They are re-investigating parts of the material collected during the investigation of the Palme-murder (Swedish primeminister at the time, back in 1986) - new advances in DNA methods are giving them new hope, as the case is "cold" (no culprit convicted) Bring to mind the Discovery Shop and their DNA for kids kit - and of course C.S.I - television at its finest? Good stories, slightly expanding characters and just a tiny bit of moral imperatives; "remind me not to do drugs". The first game is a bit fun, at least a social activity and tv-aternative. You get to try for yourself, but you don't really need to think too much.



...and the sun pops out from a cloud - time to move on...

Noise - less

Brigham Young Uni in Utah using anti-noise to cancel out the hum of PC-fan, Scott Sommerfeldt creted system with microphone to detect noise and speakers to send out opposite waves. Also using some custom crafted algorithms to cancel the noise "properly" - not only at the source but also a bit away (ie where the user is actually sitting). So, look out for new custom made cabinets sporting their own fan-supressing systems? Or will water remain a crowd-pleasing favorite among case-modders and builders?

(read in IHT month ago- original story in New York Times by Anne Eisenberg, extract free here)


And a follow up on previous gaming notes; use your brain for controll - new experiments, detailed in journal of neural engineering [abstract], short in Norwegian by Aftenposten
Dr. Eric Leuthardt at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis
and Daniel Moran, got patients to do "target practive", and achived between 73 and 100% accuracy! One subject hit 33 times in a row!

Finally at the top

Husovd did it yesterday - capturing the yellow jersey as first Norwegian in the 101 years of Tour de France (actually the actual yellow has "only" been in use for some 85 years....) And he did it after falling some 20 km before the finishline - but he got up, got back and finished second on the leg.

Go Norway!

Crash and run

Minor update on the outcome of the DARPA "great robo race" - where an unmanned vehicle should cross a distance of 142 miles in the desert outside Las Vegas.

All told 13 robots were allowed to start the race - a lucky number for the premier event - and the "winner" travelled a whooping 7,4 miles, or around 5% of the total distance... way to go Red Team!

can't wait for next year, maybe they'll make it to 10 or 25% of the course? Now, if I could only find a Lego Robotics Invention kit!


A short sidenote, also from Wired, really fascinating photo techniques used by Matthew Pillsbury - we move but the computers stay (wired 12.05 - just finished the may issue due to travelling, june and july are lined up - good times!)

...and the sun stays close by all night - making it light yet dark...

go figure

Jason Siu has some radical "dolls" on his site - or (action) figures as they are called. Check out the "Gravity" series of DJs - love the grin on Kurt (red cap) He also has some decent artwork - especially under "illustration". Beware of bgsound if at work...