Listen, this will...

....Blow your mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-CgXEdhOT4&feature=PlayList&p=070CDD07F1BFF47B&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=26

....

your welcome

New Social Media

This will just be a brief post for today. Simple Geo is a new internet start-up company that focuses on developing location-based software. The following link demonstrates in my opinion a foreshadowing of what is to come in the future with regards to social-network updates. Although the following is a recording of location-based updates in the past, and I post this in particular because it chronicles updates from Twitter, Flickr, Bump, Foursquare, etc in Austin during SXSW 2010, I'd imagine that devices such as the iPhone would carry apps that list live-stream location updates in the future. The Twitteriffic app that I have on my iPhone has the capacity to show twitter posts nearby and I've used this to gain valuable information about local events and schedule changes, but I think with an actual geographic display of where and what is going on in any place may completely change how I see the world around me. This is JUST Incredible...there are no other words.

Neat! (source: SimpleGeo)

The friction-free market

Life is incredible. It allows the human spirit to florish, to learn from its failures, to conquer immense feats and even to defeat the demons within the individual. According to the United States Census Bureau (which I might be working for sometime mid-month), the global population is around 6.8 billion individual human beings. Each human life on this planet ranges from the newborn dawn all the way to octogenarian sunset. And its not necessarily human life that emerges, grows, and declines, it is also the same with terrafauna, flora, fungi, protista, bacteria, archaea (and viruses?)...though the decline is rare in the animal kingdom due to patterns in mother nature.

*Some individual members of a species do not necessarily die. For instance a species of jellyfish called the Turritopsis nutricula is known to revert back to the polyp, or sexually immature, stage of life from an adult stage. It can theoreticaly do this repeatedly. The species has spread from the Carribean and now is located across the globe, in some part due to this ability...although there may be some other factors involved.

With that aside, the prime reason I'm talking about the wide scope of life on Earth (elsewhere?) right now is because I see a growing trend of interconnectivity, whether its in terms of communication (as with the internet), or more intriguingly with regards to trade. Traditionally we think of trade occurring in three main forms:

1. Free Market Trade: Adam Smith, the unseen hand working for the greater good, products and services being exchanged competitively, retaining the innate spirit of "harder, better, faster, stronger" yet in terms of product and service choice. Contemporary Origin: The United States
2. The Command Central Economy: Karl Marx, Frederich Engels, socialism, wealth and power distributed according to the amount of work expended in production of a good or service, Post-WWI Soviet Union (not to be confused with Pre-WWI Soviet Union, which was more of a Nationalist State that didn't enter the necessary capitalist stage first before forming a socialist economy...there was no two-class economy in USSR before WWI, remember the Czars?). Contemporary Origin: The Soviet Union
3. Fair Trade: higher market price for goods and services in order to benefit producers in developing countries (3rd world), benefit smaller businesses rather than predominant existing ones, external growth as opposed to national growth, emphasis on microeconomics. Contemporary Origin: United Kingdom with Oxfam in 1965, Wales became the world's first "fair-trade nation" in 2008

For each of these forms, we can generate several legitimate counterarguments. Now I won't go into detail about these, but I'll briefly give you one for each type of existing system: 1. In the real world, requires frequent government intervention, thus negating the idea of a market regulating itself, in addition to an unresolved "free rider" problem in the international political economy 2. Lack of a rational price mechanism and a natural inclination for producers and consumers to not make rational economic decisions, because they favor the state. 3. A mimimum price floor leads to an excess in supply, thus wasting resources (Milton Friedman Hot, Flat, and Crowded).

Since we can see that each of these systems is flawed, as most systems are, then wouldn't it be rational to develop one that seeks to eradicate flaws, eventually having none? (if that is possible) Is there a perfect economic system? Is there an economic system that benefits producers, consumers, thinkers, movers and shakers alike?

Solution: The Friction-free Market

*Definition: An extremely efficient market in which buyers and sellers can find each other easily, can interact directly, and can perform transactions with only minimal overhead costs.

I've been hinted at this idea for some time now, through my studies in Government and Philosophy at the University of Texas and at Texas A and M - Corpus Christi, but it wasn't until events that took course yesterday that I felt inspired to write upon this subject. Yesterday I went in for a job interview for a temporary paralegal position with Hire Counsel. The interview went its normal course, introductions, overview of the position, review of my credentials, why I qualify, etc...but before I was about to leave, my interviewer (whom will go unnamed) had an interesting last question for me. He asked, "What particular philosophy did you study and why were you interested in it?" I thought this was unusually strange, because employers usually blank out the word Philosophy when I interview or think of it to mean irrationally mean "mission statement" or "way of life".

I suppose that it was with great fortune that I entered a discussion with an enlightened professional, whom happened to be from the UK, that involved a comparison of Machiavelli to Immanuel Kant, Sartre to Rousseau on civilization versus barbarism, and Atlas Shrugged. These things can sometimes normally be overheard in coffee shops or in public places, but what struck a particular cord was when we were discussing the concept of a Technocratic Society.

Lets imagine that you want to purchase a good or service and that you also want that good or service transferred to you in the most efficient manner possible. How would you propose that such be done?

The basics of a trade:

1. First, you contact the party/producer/seller for the good(s) or service(s) that you want.
2. Then you provide payment for said good(s) or service(s), as goes tradition, for a symbolic trust that you will get what you requested.
3. Good/service is transferred to you, either by transport (if physical) or direct exchange
4. Good received

Request X -----> Payment for X---->Transport/Transfer of X----->Receive X

In plain English, I think this is the simplest way that an ordinary transaction can be broken down. If you want to get picky and complicate things, of course you can add things like receipts, invoices, credit, and account transfer notices. But this is a demonstration to simplify the scope of what can be managed through any financial program like Quickbooks.

As earlier stated, problems with the three predominant economic systems arise with regards to Payment and Transport of any good/service X. The prime solution that arises with a friction-free economy is that it aims to reduce or eliminate transportation/transfer costs in any transaction. With the advent of the internet and an increasing ability for human beings to communicate with one another over long distances, with a diminishing need for intermediaries, consumers are more able than ever to directly contact producers. This enables them to skip "The Middle Man".

For example, (and I'm taking this from a 1996 article written in the Los Angeles Times) lets say that you wan't to buy a new refridgerator. You search a query through the 'net, find the cheapest one (including S & H), contact the seller and 'voila the refrigerator arrives at your doorstep in the time you requested. You may have purchased such fridge directly from a small producer in Northwest China, instead of at your local Sears & Roebuck. (Perhaps Sears also buys from that Chinese manufacturer but would rather you not know that, because they desire to make a profit)

This approach is a far more constructive pattern to creating a global individualist free-market economy than the traditional free-market paradigm, because the traditional variant (like it or not) requires some sort of government intervention, whether it be controlling of inflation, international economic sanctions (as with the case of Iran, to deter nuclear material production), subsidies, or more controversial: military action. A friction-free (international/national) economy decreases the need for these interventionalist measures, thus increasing the ability for individuals to do trade with one another.

Although the music would be ace, we don't want civilization to continually fall and rise, do we?

(Los Campensinos - You! Me! Dancing!)

This is just an introduction to the idea of a Friction-free market, but I encourage you to search and read more. T.G. Lewis is attributed to the development of this idea, and it is advocated by many other leaders in the Information Technology field, most notably Bill Gates. Check out his book: The Friction-Free Economy

Apologies again for the long post, but I had alot to cover.

Back Up and Running!!!

Man O' man, its been a long time since this Scottish lad has written anything here and boy do I have gashes and ganges of stories for ya'll. I'm pretty sure all 2 of you are interested in what I've been up to, the gadgets I've found, & the weird art thats lurking around the basement of my capricious mental locale.

BAM!

Complete memory shutdown, total system collapse, sensory instability and I'm not talking about my second laptop that I've melted this year. Its finally over, done with studies at Uni...all the mind warp techniques taught by the Philosophical profs have been grained deep into the confines of my biological CPU...and there is no more confusion. In plain english (well not really, but its an easy metaphor for PC geeknoids)...I shifted the OS in my brain from Mac to Windows...and ended up building from the core with option C: Linux. Best OS of both worlds, the technical side with the creative capabilities of the other side, I can think, create and argue anything and make it appear true. I've not only bitten, but eaten, digested, chewed out and crapped the huge bullet of reality and have decided to make an attempt at being a kick-ass attorney.

Not 'Shopped: Appearance and ancient tech adoration are unaltered

With that bollocks out of the way (*note to self: make another blog), lets crack on to some panda-burning, dust-eliminating, scooter-bashing blog bits:

So, the Gorillaz have been keeping out of the view for some time now (...when was their last album?) and they're producing a new record called Plastic Beach. The music video for the track "Stylo" is due sometime to-day/night...but in the mean time (at least til I find it) heres the orchestral demo for the record, kinda reminds me of thunderbird island from back in the day...I was expecting puppets:

Dr. Evil's Island 2.0 ala Cartoon-o-vision

Your attention stellas and 'gents! 'Ere's the Audioslave-esque, scratch that...Vanishing Point 2.0-influenced title and vid from the Gorillaz. Theres a nice surprise cameo in there, Yippy Kay-yay...Enough jamble..."Stylo":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9vAOzYz-Qs

Also I've got another great video for your procrasti-tainment. Ever wonder what happens to the bad vegetables in your fridge? No?...ever wonder what happens to the good vegetables when the bad ones get worse? Maybe? Well, animators Hennrick Sonniksen & Benjamin Nielson had just the idea and decided to create this wonderfully dark and drunk spin upon what goes on inside that cold chamber:

Vegeterrible from Henrik Sønniksen on Vimeo.

(Sorry folks, Sony disabled the embedding for this vid)

Project Time, Peter Lurch, and new track from Moby

So I've come up with a few guerilla art projects...

• First, an urban version of the retro-arcade game Snake. This involves a couple people walking around with backpacks full of "packets of information" that are periodically left behind every 15-20 feet. Additionally the agents will use the city grid as if it were the limited gaming grid. The packets would be left behind randomly on the gaming grid, and be composed of biodegradable material. Perhaps joke messages on organic banana peels or something like that explaining what is going on. Further passers by or other agents can join one of the snakes once it has reached a traffic intersection for maximal publicity. The area around and across the bridges downtown would be ideal.

• Free alcohol signs placed all over Sixth Street, definitely eyebrow raising. The team would need to place them up quickly advertising a particular bar that is having a "promotion to drive up sales". The catch is the bar's name and logo appears similar to one that already exists on the street. Drunkards with low intelligence will be drawn to the one that sounds like the one on the poster. The staff of that bar will be at confusion as to how to stop people asking about the free beer and will have no choice but to answer the same annoying and repetitive questions. Most likely it will be the bartenders that figure out the group think that is going on and they will challenge their beliefs upon how a consumer's decision-making skills are influenced.

• My last idea has been in the works for a while. We all know that for-profit media is sucking the soul out of our humanity by denying an accurate (and checkable) representation of the truth, and setting off a high-altitude EMP over certain regions of the planet is not a feasible option to get drone-thinkers to "wake up" from their "sleep" (I.E. killing televisions, radio broadcasts). A mouthfull, I know. Localized action is necessary, and can be done in a creative and non-destructive format. Ever notice how more and more social gathering places, especially bars, have more and larger flat-screen televisions around? What if we could turn all those off when a bar is really crowded? Ex: That poor bloke that was pulled to a bar to hang-out with his girlfriend's friends would no longer have the sports network to distract him during moments of boring gossip. He'll thus be thinking more and more about why he's there and if the dull suffering is "worth it". Let's have several agents with universal remote controls, simultaneously turn off all the televisions at the same time at one of these bars. Simple idea, a video of all the reactions (or more surprising, the non-reactions) given by the confused 'sumer-heads can get the message across. Possibly a lead-agent reveals themself from the crowd displaying a an anti-television t-shirt, some shirt that has a working television screen on it showing something interesting like a lion attacking a water buffalo, or an collapsable stereo playing Radiohead's "All I Need".

Yea, the last one's a bit wacko, but it takes a step further than most Improv-Everywhere stunts done so far. Universal remotes are big and clunky but you can check out a smaller device ala TV B GONE. Great fun for artists/pranksters/anarchists alike! The distance on 'em is about 25-30 feet when I tried it out and the ability to control your reality is priceless.

Before I get tired, here's some fantastic work by Danish photographer Peter Funch. It really challenges the notion of the constructs of space and time. All images were photoshopped together but were taken in the same location at different times for the right actors to appear.

I also included the track "Shot in the Back of the Head" by Moby. The new album drops June 30, I'm hoping it's going to snake around stronger than his last one. We're definitely seeing a turn towards the Play record, but we'll have to wait til the art is out there.

Polygon Playground and art by eBoy

Long break there, well had to get my priorities in line and figure out a long term life plan.
LS short that's all done and done, now I have to focus on finishing two degrees instead of the
one if the future looks anything like the way the now is.

Here's a new vid on polygonal visual interactive shadow surfaces. Brought to you ala Beautiful Decay:


Also, some new work from the threeepixel artists that go by the name eBoy. They describe art as a mission "create re-usable pixel objects and take them to build complex and extensible artwork." They also like to make toys. I fancy their work as a take on the madness that is post-modernism:

New York City

Baltimore

Whats the next step after post-modernism? Absolution/completion/omniscience

The Future is here...finally!

Simply and subtly a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

Interactive Mirror from Alpay Kasal on Vimeo.

The idea was crafted by Lit Studios, an art and technology project developed by one guy in the North East. One bloomin' guy! No price tag yet... which may be a good thing, because that which is greatest in value lacks expense. You can imagine how amazingly efficient society would be with such a device.

[[I'll edit this post later - its a friday night so I should go out and be a bit social]]