19/11/2009
18/11/2009
Links & A Video or Two
Bionic limbs are getting better and better. Soon they might even be better than our original ones. In the future all firemen will be former amputees.
Io9's got some more medical news.
The Guardian writes a bit about crime in Rio.
Warren Ellis tries to guide us trough his mind. At least for a little while.
Anatoli Burgorski learned that sticking your head inside a particle accelerator doesn't give you superpowers the hard way.
People are trying to figure out how to land a wing-suit. Seriously.
Dark flow means our universe close to another?
Io9's got some more medical news.
The Guardian writes a bit about crime in Rio.
Warren Ellis tries to guide us trough his mind. At least for a little while.
Anatoli Burgorski learned that sticking your head inside a particle accelerator doesn't give you superpowers the hard way.
People are trying to figure out how to land a wing-suit. Seriously.
Dark flow means our universe close to another?
07/11/2009
Actor
It's one of those days were I've decided that today is the day I get things done.
And then I sleep until 2 AM/1400 and do my utmost to make the day dray by without getting anything done at all.
So now, a few hours later, things are finally starting to move again. A long shower took care of my somewhat passive disposition, and also made me think a bit.
I was thinking about actors. You see, I've recently become a bit of one myself. Nothing fancy or anything, school related productions only so far, but I've got a friend who wants me to play a part or two in things he's planing to make, so who knows?
And while standing there with water running down my face and body and distorting my vision I realized what an actor is.
An actor is someone who pretends to be someone else than themselves. Some even become someone else. And with this realization the way we adore and obsess over movie starts suddenly becomes something sick and twisted in a way. Because what does it mean if someone is obsessed with a person who make a living by being someone else?
What about identity then? Who we are suddenly doesn't become very important at all, it's who we pretend to be that suddenly matters. No wonder psychology is the new religion when you think about it.
Then again, it is fun to be someone else for a while and I'm pretty sure we've all have thought about changing our lives and becoming someone else once or twice. Maybe it's a natural behavior that helps us relate to others even?
I would go read up on it, but maybe it's time to actually do some of the stuff I've been avoiding all day now. We'll see, I suppose.
And then I sleep until 2 AM/1400 and do my utmost to make the day dray by without getting anything done at all.
So now, a few hours later, things are finally starting to move again. A long shower took care of my somewhat passive disposition, and also made me think a bit.
I was thinking about actors. You see, I've recently become a bit of one myself. Nothing fancy or anything, school related productions only so far, but I've got a friend who wants me to play a part or two in things he's planing to make, so who knows?
And while standing there with water running down my face and body and distorting my vision I realized what an actor is.
An actor is someone who pretends to be someone else than themselves. Some even become someone else. And with this realization the way we adore and obsess over movie starts suddenly becomes something sick and twisted in a way. Because what does it mean if someone is obsessed with a person who make a living by being someone else?
What about identity then? Who we are suddenly doesn't become very important at all, it's who we pretend to be that suddenly matters. No wonder psychology is the new religion when you think about it.
Then again, it is fun to be someone else for a while and I'm pretty sure we've all have thought about changing our lives and becoming someone else once or twice. Maybe it's a natural behavior that helps us relate to others even?
I would go read up on it, but maybe it's time to actually do some of the stuff I've been avoiding all day now. We'll see, I suppose.
29/10/2009
The Horribly Slow Murder with the Extremly Inefficent Weapon by Richard Gale
Awesome short. You should watch it at least twice.
27/10/2009
This is your future!
I've decided to try and follow a theme of sorts in an attempt to try and post at least semi-regularly.
And if this doesn't feel like an alternative dystopian future where everyone is a potential eye of the state, I don't know what does.
It's got a basic psychological appeal though. When you're threatened you tend to switch focus from the individual to the group. Becoming as identical to the members of the group becomes more important than being an individual. The expression "safety in numbers" comes to mind.
In this case the group is Americans, and the threat is terrorists. Problems arise thanks to the ambiguity these two groups posses. There are, for instance, American terrorists which makes the division more or less useless... Unless we generalize terrorist into something else. Why not a middle eastern man wearing traditional clothes? If you do it becomes a lot easier to tell who to keep out of your group. And the thing is that this sort of group behavior, were a big and strong group under threat decides that it needs an enemy, rarely targets the weakest group in society. Usually it some other group in the middle. They become the target of something of a propaganda campaign aiming to show just how low and evil they actually are. This is done to strengthen the main group bu giving it something to fight against.
Anyway, enough psychology for now. Hopefully someone found that interesting. Neo-Nazis, violent political activists, and probably quite a few others would fit into this kind of group behavior.
22/10/2009
20/10/2009
07/10/2009
05/10/2009
03/10/2009
Zoudov by Clement Bolla, Aurelia Vernhes and Laurent Gillot
Zoudov from Clement Bolla on Vimeo.
Another cool example of animation. This one more centered around the cold war and espionage.
Red Rabbit
Red Rabbit from Egmont Mayer on Vimeo.
A really good little animation about a man and the giant bunny rabbit he lives with.
02/10/2009
01/10/2009
Links
According to Wired: Soviet Built Doomsday Devise
It's essentially a automatic retaliation system for nukes. Which makes it a lot more realistic than lasers or zombies. Or zombies with lasers fighting sharks on land, for that matter.
Guardian: Increasing Sea Levels Lead to Ghost States
It's essentially a automatic retaliation system for nukes. Which makes it a lot more realistic than lasers or zombies. Or zombies with lasers fighting sharks on land, for that matter.
Guardian: Increasing Sea Levels Lead to Ghost States
29/09/2009
The Dawn of Superheroes?
A unspecified number of months ago I encounter Real Life Superheroes for the first time. At the moment it's still a pretty new and media friendly phenomena, but personally it both scares and inspires me to some degree. More on that soon though.
Like I said, it's new, and since it's popping up locally in various cities in the US (for the most part at least) it's getting at least some local attention.
In the case of Master Legend, it's international even, with an article in Rolling Stone magazine.
And even if it's not the glamorous playboy lifestyle of Bruce Wayne, it seems like he's doing some good at least.
Master Legend appears to be more of a "traditional superhero" you might say. Fighting bad guys, working with the police, things like that.
Then there's others who do more of a community service, neighborhood watch sorta deal. They put on a costume and go around helping people basically.
Like The Black Monday Society:
This sorta thing is what inspires me. Fighting crime is all very well, but in my mind crime is a symptom, not the disease. People turn to crime mainly because of social factors. They can't get a job because of a lack of education, because they end up with people who only want get rich as quick as possible, gangs, drugs, and so on. Making sure the streets are safe, helping the homeless, and just being a nice person might not seem like fighting crime, but the purpose isn't to stop crime. It's to prevent it.
This is done by becoming a symbol of what is good. You do good, because it might inspire someone else to be a little nicer to others. If you're lucky they might even help someone who really needs it at the right time. By proxy you might be changing lives.
It affects both the people you're helping, and the people who see you helping. They might dismiss you with "Anyone could do that!" But then if it's so easy, why aren't you doing it?
Like I said, it's new, and since it's popping up locally in various cities in the US (for the most part at least) it's getting at least some local attention.
In the case of Master Legend, it's international even, with an article in Rolling Stone magazine.
And even if it's not the glamorous playboy lifestyle of Bruce Wayne, it seems like he's doing some good at least.
Master Legend appears to be more of a "traditional superhero" you might say. Fighting bad guys, working with the police, things like that.
Then there's others who do more of a community service, neighborhood watch sorta deal. They put on a costume and go around helping people basically.
Like The Black Monday Society:
This sorta thing is what inspires me. Fighting crime is all very well, but in my mind crime is a symptom, not the disease. People turn to crime mainly because of social factors. They can't get a job because of a lack of education, because they end up with people who only want get rich as quick as possible, gangs, drugs, and so on. Making sure the streets are safe, helping the homeless, and just being a nice person might not seem like fighting crime, but the purpose isn't to stop crime. It's to prevent it.
This is done by becoming a symbol of what is good. You do good, because it might inspire someone else to be a little nicer to others. If you're lucky they might even help someone who really needs it at the right time. By proxy you might be changing lives.
It affects both the people you're helping, and the people who see you helping. They might dismiss you with "Anyone could do that!" But then if it's so easy, why aren't you doing it?
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