what to do?

listening in on a radio broadcast with Wil W, and surfing up on some old notes, so a little jumbled and mixed once again. But hey, thats life

First off - if you enjoy crypto and want to share it with someone younger, check out the NSA Kids site (example image "task")


And then there is the acting professor Cornell West, who did a stint in Matrix and teaches at Princeton [rather well 5 for 5 on clarity and helpfullness(beware of pop-up and flashing ads)] in religion.

Anime is still gaining in the US - now there are several regional convenitons going on - such as Otaku in Miami (now renamed to Kunicon and heading for St Louis, Atlanta and Denver)

Visualize

Before xmas there was a page in Wired about an artist making laser-etched 3d sculptures of proteins (and hence dna). Her name is Bathsheba Grossman and they are back on track (after being initialy swamped i'm guessing - way cool geeky gift...)
The best thing? They can be made directly from any PDB file

It the stupids
USA and debts - read a digest-NY TImes article on the state of the nation (or the homes of the nation anyway); the US is a $11 trillion econmy - 2/3 of this is from consumer spending.
Currently the avgerage household: spends 13% of after-tax income on debt-repayment - the highest level since 1986, and has more than $8000 in credit card debt. IN AVERAGE!
No wonder that the estimate says that every 15 seconds someone bankrupt - five times the rate of 1980... back in the old, hard days.

Maybe edit this later? Have to run - need to fix and reinstall that d... phone.

On a sidenote i'm not to happy with my phone right now - the otherwise rather useful P910i smartphone - trying to do a restore, and it is taking for ever to put 12 mb back on it. AvantGo is getting dumped so fast when (if) the phone is back up.

And on that note - it is incredible how mmuch they've built into the 910, using uiq and Symbian 7. But boy is it slow at times, compared to the old Palm V or the second gen. Compaq iPaq I used for a while. But hey, it sure beats lugging around on a bunch of different devices and chargers. Worth the reduced functionality for the added portability.

...and the sun is going down, darkness spreading fast...

What is creation?

Or innovation for that matter? When can we say that we go beyond combining possibilities or options, and add something new to the end product?

Should "robots" (or adaptive/evolutionary systems) be granted copyright or patents? Do they create when they make something new - or are they just "cogs in the big machine"? Is it the user/owner or the creator who holds the key to the creation?

And can you put a claim on evolution?

Poe: "Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore"
160 years ago today, the Raven was first published. Only that and nothing more.

Crazy Cute Bear

The teddy they tried to ban... of the 36 various valentine bears from Vermont - one is called "crazy for you" and comes with a straight-jacket... so cool! And sort of cute. But obviously too much for some people - how do I know? 'Cause it made the front page of our local weekly NY Times Digest today. But hey, great pr for the company - there might be a nice bear heading over this way during the spring. Sometime after the mad mad valentine rush.

Vermont Teddy Bear: "Sending a Vermont Teddy Bear to your Valentine is a fun and creative alternative to flowers that lasts forever"

sang real - sangeria - san greal

Holy Blood, Holy Grail : "a New York Times bestseller and pseudohistory ", or so says Wikipedia in its current edit. I recently finished the (revised/1996) paperback edition, and found it quite a fun read. The focus on names, blood relation and so on did get a bit tedious, but the stuff about the various "editions" of the Bible and the lacking "facts" was really well written.
How many people of so called Christian Faith have actually read all the main text, in recent translations - never mind some of the "excluded" stuff. Like the Gospel of Thomas?
Conclusion? Faith is still mainly a matter of... you guessed it: FAITH, not "facts". And i'll probably have to pick up Dan Browns books just to see what the rest of the fuss is all about!

This is before xmas, but now the snow is really back (even downtown) - and the path-lights outside make a nice pattern with "snow shine"

need a drink?

And don't have the right place to have it? Fear not, your friends in Wales have come up with the perfect solution; The Inflatable Pub " is 40ft long, 19ft wide and 22ft high. ... use as a fully working pub, with room for a bar and 30 customers" Neat!

And Wired also featured the RvB team - portraied as Sims charcters in recognition of the (future?) success with Strangerhood. The had even snuck in a sneaky poster ad for the RvB dvd - but it was mostly covered by the Wired pagination :D

Heading to florida? Check out the FX Show for a fun mix of moviestars like you've never seen them (but like they really are - basically people who are most "known" for very special-effected persona; Greedo and Bobba Fet from SW, Jason from Friday13 and so on)

Or want to know more about games (in a wide definition of the word)? Have a browse over at the Asia Society and their "Art of Contest" - built for an exhibit in NY, but nice background online for all.

time on your hands?

- if you want to make it big, make an impact...
be it as a prank using post-its or wih Legos (like the football stadium I wrote a time ago)

...and the sun is here longer every day - feels like spring...

Another year

- has just begun, but the change from the last is still not apparent, tsunami news - even if they are getting "better" (less people missing and unknown, at least from Norway) and a bit of snow struggeling with the windy weather to stay around.

Inspiration? nope
...and the sun ...