To truly appreciate the opportunities open to marketers with today’s latest technology, it’s worth taking a moment to marvel at the remarkable evolution of search over the past 20 years. Way back when the PC existed mostly to maintain and organize our own closed worlds of information, search was a handy feature that helped us [...]

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Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iDevice Apps

New iPhone, iPod touch and iPad product announcements for May 5, 2011:

New iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps

• JamKit is a community-driven drumming game and rhythm training tool. Players refine their drumming skills by playing “challenges” made by users across the world as they rank up, unlock VIP features, and compete to be in the JamKit hall of fame. Exposure to the unique drumming techniques of others provides inspiration for users to develop their own distinctive style that they can show off by creating original challenges of their own and contributing to the ever evolving world challenge library that provides fresh, unique content for users everywhere to experience every day.
• In Spelunk, ancient Element Village has five Books of Elements, which record the secrets of integration of things. One day, the Monster Gate in underground city struck village and robbed the Book of Elements to integrate powerful troops to conquer the world. While our brave collin will enter the underground cavern alone and recapture the Book of Elements to save the world.
• PAN Vision and Fabrication Games have announced the launch of Piclings, a new platform game for iOS devices that turns photos into playable worlds. Snap pics of fancy buildings, beautiful natural landscapes or even your weird uncle’s mangy dog, and the game engine takes care of the rest, converting them into levels populated with enemy Huffies and Puffies standing in the way of collectible treasures. Bring your very own Picling named Picazzo to life through photos limited only by your imagination. Piclings is now available for download from the App Store for $0.99.
• Playlithium is pleased to announce that Super Ball Escape HD is available now for free on the App Store. The happy owners of iPad and iPad 2 can now discover, in a version especially dedicated to them, this unique action game playable with the tilt control. Super Ball Escape HD will challenge your skills. Take control of a robot ball and try getting free through numerous mazes. Action, stealth and balance will be part of the game.
• Mooee has updated GolfSites to version 2.0, one of the most advanced Golf GPS App for the iPhone. Designed by golfers for golfers, GolfSites has all the bells and whistles of similar Golf GPS Apps plus it has something others don’t: Ball Path Tracking. By pressing your stroke button every time you hit a ball, GolfSites will remember where you’ve hit, and will show you your ball paths at the end of the game. All your scores will be recorded, statistics and location captured.
• Finncodex has released Neon Geoms 1.1 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. Neon Geoms is a unique new physics game that requires a mixture of logic, skill and co-ordination to win. Players move a neon ball through various levels, collecting stars for points as they go. Something that sets Neon Geom apart from the rest is its level editor, which allows players to custom create, edit and share their very own levels. Users are also able to play custom levels created by others.
• Thinking Drone, LLC has announced the release of Dash of Color Free for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users. This free photography app lets users apply selective coloring to black and white images, or transform color images to black and white. Dash Of Color Free offers users many of the same tools and effects used by professionals, so they can get dramatic results with a few taps of the screen.
• Urban Anomaly today released Seattle HitList, a tool that identifies the best free sites and informal landmarks within the geographical boundaries of Seattle, Washington. The guide features over 80 MB of high resolution photos, narrative, and geo-mapping of dozens of locations that meet the HitList criteria: suitably hip, local or artistic, free or mostly free, and photogenic. The app is built around an intuitive interface that provides three different types of media browsing.
• Astro Ape Studios has awakened its latest creation, Monsterz’ Revenge, an eerie new social game for iOS that pits a cast of ghouls against evil fast-food restaurants. The graveyard is overrun by fast-food joints crashing the Monsterz’ cookout, and they’re striking back with a spooky skirmish. Players will challenge the junk-food giants by hitting the drive-thru in their customizable battle car, leaving each joint in crumbles.
• Bare Reef has launched its rebranded line of stock market portfolio tracking apps for the iPad, iPhone and Mac. Portfolio Mobile offers the most comprehensive set of features found in any iPad, iPhone or Mac stock portfolio monitoring app. The launch also includes a new web portal that simplifies the process of entering and editing trade history. The new Mac version is available as a 30 day demo exclusively at Portfolio Mobile.
• CGMatic Co., Ltd has announced they are reducing the price of Grove Keeper and Grove Keeper HD for a limited time to celebrate the release of the new versions. Grove Keeper is a casual physics based action puzzle set in a beautiful fantasy world. Taking control of the Grove Keeper, the master of magic, accompanied by likable friends during his journey. Simple and easy to play, outlast the enemies using skillful control and witful strategy.
• That Can Be My Next Tweet generates your future tweets based on the DNA of your existing messages. NEW: combine your future tweets together with someone else to create bizarre mix-ups and profoundly strange combinations!
• Jack woke up with one thing on his mind: food! In Spider Jack, help Jack swing through 75 stages of peril-filled puzzles to reach his dinner. Tap “hook points” to cast Jack’s web through obstacle courses and nimbly avoid dangers. To keep the itsy-bitsy spider climbing, cut previous webs so Jack can cast new lines in his pursuit of delicious bugs.
• TouchGEN has announced their new iPad magazine, devoted to gaming on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices. This pilot edition features 15 reviews from 2008-2010 that earned our editor’s choice seal of approval. A full, first issue of the magazine is in the pipeline for release soon. Issue 1 will feature all the things you’d expect from a news-stand gaming magazine, such as news, reviews, features, commentaries and the like, but in an interactive format.
• Rapid Turtle Games has announced that Charlie In Trouble - Returning Home, the final chapter in the Charlie In Trouble series is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store! The game features 8 huge levels divided into 21 stages, with many new puzzles and arcade platform jumping. Help Charlie once more to find his way back to home in the final chapter of this adventure game. He has defied the King’s orders, and traveled through a magical portal only to become trapped on the other side. In order to return home, Charlie must make it through 8 levels in this strange new realm filled with puzzles and enemies.
• INTERSOG Mobile has introduced Cam Capture 1.0, their new imaging utility for iPhone 4. Cam Capture allows users to make quick snapshots for important documents straight from their mobile devices, and additionally can organize and save them. Geared to be both practical and flexible enough to cater to even the most industrious users, Cam Capture simplifies the task of getting personal official photos of oneself made down to an easy seconds-long process.
• Nemo Games has introduced Enduro 1.0, their new driving game for iPhone and iPad. This fantastic game has been faithfully recreated for all retro lovers out there. Enduro consists of maneuvering a race car in the National Enduro, a long-distance endurance race. The object of the race is to pass a certain amount of cars each day. The driver must avoid other racers and pass 180 cars on the first day, and 280 cars with each following day.
• Synqua Games Ltd. has announced the successful release of Chillingham Manor for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This devilishly entertaining matching puzzle game treats players to a delightfully macabre atmosphere and dynamic competitive gameplay against a vibrant variety of diverse villains. The game is complete with a lengthy, endlessly re-playable campaign that throws gamers into the shoes of a rookie cartoon exorcist through Chillingham Manor.
• RB Apps, LLC has announced the global availability of the Doggy Diva app for the iPhone and iPod touch. It is an entertaining game designed especially for little fashionistas as well as for dog owners who adore playing and dressing up their doggies. Doggy Diva offers all the quality from the finely-detailed characters and accessories till the smooth and clean interface that is easy enough to use even for the little users.
• Neon Play has released Pro Football Touchdown 1.0 for iOS. The game has three different game modes, each requiring the player to catch footballs to score touchdowns. The game features live global leaderboards and scores can also be posted to Twitter and Facebook to obtain bragging rights amongst friends. There are also over 20 achievements to complete using Game Center.
• 8coupons has announced its iPhone application is available for free download today at the Apple App Store.  Relative to other deal aggregation apps, 8coupons is the most comprehensive, equipped with over 500K live deals within every zip code in the U.S.
• Appsules LLC has introduced Elapsed 1.0, their first product for iPhone and iPod touch. Elapsed is a free timer application that allows tracking of multiple timers simultaneously. Frequently used timers can be saved for easy reuse. Elapsed uniquely allows modification of running timers, thereby making it ideal for dealing with unexpected changes. Possible uses include metered parking, baking, grilling, doing laundry, exercising and any other tasks busy people need to monitor.
• RedLynx and Chillingo, leading independent games publisher and division of Electronic Arts, are teaming up to redefine touch-based racing on iOS devices with the announcement of DrawRace 2: Racing Evolved for the iPhone and iPad.
• ab2labs has announced that the update of their photography app, Effects 3.0, is now available exclusively for iPhone and iPod touch. Effects is a stylish and creative way to create unique photos. In Effects, the user can manipulate pictures in multiple ways thanks to many innovative features. The features include filters, layers, live preview, sharing with social media and email, upgradeable export resolution and custom frames.
• Readdle has released Printer Pro 1.5, a new version of popular application for printing email attachments, annotated documents, web pages, photos and other types of content from iOS devices. The new version of Printer Pro enhances printing experience for iPhone and iPad owners by delivering an excellent performance and advanced feature set. Also, Printer Pro 1.5 lets iOS owners to print PDF documents with mark-ups, hand drawn notes, signatures and even embedded forms right from Mail or PDF.
• Out of the Park Developments has announced the release of iOOTP Baseball 2011, an exciting new iOS game for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad that puts players in control of a major league baseball team. It’s driven by OOTP’s Out of the Park Baseball engine, which has provided stunningly realistic baseball simulations on PC, Mac, and Linux for over a decade. In addition, it’s the only game of its kind currently available at the App Store.
• Thanks to iPromDress 3.0, well-dressed girls will be heading to the prom in a perfect dress. Designed for easy, intuitive use, with iPromDress you can find the closest prom dress shop, store pictures of your dresses to compare them, and share your dress details and photos through email or Facebook. Your favorites are stored in an easy-to-navigate list, from which you can view the details, pictures, and even get directions back to the boutique. Shop, compare and share with iPromDress for iPhone.
• WhiskIT has announced the release of Spingredients 1.01 for iOS. Challenge yourself to cook whatever it suggests, or use it for inspiration when creating new dishes or menus. The app suggests which ingredients best complement not only your chosen ingredient, but also each other. This gives experienced cooks four key ingredients with which to create that perfect dish. For those in need of a little more inspiration, a built-in Google search helps you to find recipes.
• Thinknao software has announced its latest iOS game, Quoth 1.0 for iOS. Quoth is an exciting new twist to the word puzzles you’ve seen before. Use your knowledge and skills to fill in missing letters of famous quotes, sayings and anecdotes. Earn awards along the way and pass on your favorite sayings to friends and family. Quoth challenges you to fill-in missing letters of famous quotes, sayings and anecdotes within a set time limit. It’s so simple that anyone can play.
• Elite Gudz has announced a major expansion of its Retro-Pop Techno Kitten Adventure game. Previously exclusive to the Xbox Indies marketplace, a platform showcasing games developed by independent boutique studios. Techno Kitten Adventure is a single-button game in which players pilot a jetpack-powered kitten through an obstacle-laden world of rainbows, stars and other sparkly distractions, all set to upbeat techno music.
• It’s late at night. You can’t get hold of your husband. Or maybe your kid hasn’t come home yet. You try and call, but there’s no answer. You start to worry. You could start driving around to places you think they might be. Or, you could use the newly launched application for iPhone and iPad: Footprints. Footprints is a location-sharing app which displays the current whereabouts of your family and friends on a map. Utilizing its optimized Location Tracker, Footprints tracks and shares locations in the background, in real-time, all the time, without draining the battery like some other GPS trackers do.
• Thanks to Openfeint, My Brute is going free for a day. My Brute is a crazy, off-the-wall game of combat that gives you the chance to challenge fighters from all over the world. You simply take on a series of challenges, gain experience, unlock new skills and crush your enemies with ever-greater speed.
• Super Boise Studios is proud to announce the release of Political Fury: Primary 2012 Edition for the iPhone and iPad. Political Fury is about bringing people of various political beliefs together and letting them show off what they know about politics and current events. With this major update they can now share their knowledge in amazing new ways. The developers have added a custom-built forum, an in-game social network, a Primary 2012 Center, a newsfeed that’s updated daily, more community polls, and hundreds of new trivia questions. They’ve also expanded The Knowledge Battle to include the 2012 Presidential candidates so now players can help establish both their party and their candidate as the smartest in the land.
• Villain announced today the release Archetype Cadet and Archetype Cadet HD, free new versions of Archetype, its top-selling and critically acclaimed online first-person shooter game for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Archetype Cadet gives players a free training ground to experience the best, most intense online FPS action from the world of Archetype. Both versions of Archetype Cadet are now available as a free download in the iTunes App Store, and a free new 1.5.1 update of the core Archetype game with memory optimization updates is also available from iTunes.
• iMotion HD is an intuitive and powerful time-lapse and stop-motion app for iOS. Take pictures, edit your movie and export HD 720p videos to your device or directly to Youtube. Time-lapse is a cinematography technique which accelerates movement. It can be used to photograph cloudscapes and celestial motion, plants growing and flowers blooming, evolution of a building project, crowds… Stop motion is an animation technique which make a physically manipulated object look like it’s moving on its own.

New apps for iPad only

• Golden Hammer Software has introduced Scribble Worm 1.0, a revolutionary new puzzle game for the iPad. Use your finger to draw patterns on notebook paper. These patterns come to life as cutesy worms scribbled in crayon, wriggling their way across the paper. The goal is to reach an apple elsewhere on the page by drawing a pattern and anticipating the path of the resulting worm. With a unique game mechanic, Scribble Worm offers lots of challenging puzzles and Game Center support.
• 955 Dreams Inc. has introduced On the Way to Woodstock 1.0.6 for Apple’s iPad. This immersive, interactive timeline explores the phenomenon of how a generation evolved from sock hops to Woodstock. Enjoy over 100 hours of narrative, photography, videos and music from the 1950s, the 1960s and each of the artists that performed at the 1969 Woodstock Art & Music Fair. Over 100 rare color photos of Woodstock from award-winning photographer, Barry Levine.
• iNetwallpaper Limited has announced 3D Wallpaper Pro 1.0, their flagship iPad Wallpaper App. With sleek and stylish design, 3D Wallpaper Pro delivers unique and exclusive iPad Wallpaper, raising the bar in iPad and iPad 2 wallpaper apps. 3D Wallpaper Pro redefines what people should expect from iPad wallpaper apps; this new iPad-only app gives users unique and exclusive HD images with stunning levels of detail and depth.
• ComboApp today announces the recent release of the Pocket MBA Full Course: Part 4 app bundle for the iPad. Created specifically for mobile learning on Apple’s powerful tablet platforms and structured to be a fully self sufficient mobile learning experience, Part 4 of the Pocket MBA Full Course app bundle series represents the latest expansion of the publisher’s well rounded “Full Course” mobile business education solutions franchise.
• APPinspect has announced Hazard Manager 3.1, the map-based workplace inspection app. Upload jpeg floorplans via iTunes for many buildings, using scanned sketches or graphic files. Navigate from Group to Inspection Floorplan Folder to carry out a new Inspection. Choose Inspection Layer to add HazardPoints to map. Edit, push and shove HazardPoints. View all Layers. Flip through all inspections in a folder. Email inspection in .hzp format so another HazMan user can share the inspection.

New accessories

• Urbanears has announced the release of Plattan Plus—a version of the Plattan headphone featuring an Apple certified microphone and remote, with the additional functionality of volume control. The Plattan Plus comes in Dark Grey, Purple, Pool and Cerise and is available for purchase now. The Plattan is designed to be the perfect classic headphone with all the additional features that make it above and beyond what a static headphone would offer. Because you can fold it down to the size of your fist, the Plattan is extremely mobile, allowing for better protection when not in use.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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Film:

It takes a big man to wield the hammer of Thor, God of Thunder. And going on looks alone, Chris Hemsworth is just the man to do it. Thankfully he brings more than just good looks and big muscles to the part.

Thor (Photo by Zade Rosenthal)

Representing the first of the big, summer blockbuster films, Thor explodes on the screen and contains everything a film of its genre promises – super-heroic exploits, big explosions, a cheesy love story, and a plot just substantial enough to hold it all together.

Based on the Marvel comic book, Thor (Hemsworth) is the petulant child of King Odin (Anthony Hopkins), destined to take the throne, even though his immaturity and desire to fight reigns supreme. When he disobeys his father, he reignites a feud with the Frost Giants and starts a war that could destroy his realm, Asgard.

As punishment, Odin banishes Thor to Earth and prevents him from reaching his trusty hammer, the source of his power. Immediately upon Thor's unceremonious landing, he encounters a group of scientists, including the lovely Jane (Natalie Portman) and the fatherly Erik (Stellan Skarsgård), who are conducting some groundbreaking yet suitably vague research on atmospheric anomalies. When Earth is threatened by intergalactic mayhem, it's up to Thor to save the day – and the solar system.

Yet behind this superficial plot, the real story lies in the evolution of a god who finds his humanity when all else has been lost. It's a tale of hubris and ego, not unlike one of Shakespeare's tales. There's also royal family drama, complete with daddy issues and sibling rivalry. Think King Lear, Henry IV and Hamlet, all rolled into one.

Which is why it's not so surprising that classically trained Kenneth Branagh is in the director's chair. Co-writers Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz and Don Payne also manage to craft a script that, while far from erudite, is not dumbed down either.

There are two key factors to the successful bridging of these worlds – Hemsworth and Branagh. Hemsworth stumbles a little in transitioning from his home world to the more mundane setting of Earth, but his transformation from pompous child to hero is much smoother. Saddled with the inevitably corny lines that all comic book heroes must utter to their love interests, there's enough twinkle in his eye to make sure it's not too serious.

Similarly, Branagh makes sure the entire film is lighthearted. Rather than being too earnest (as with Spider-Man 3), Branagh embraces the clichés and uses them to his advantage. When a quartet of Thor's friends walks down a typical Main Street USA, the locals stare in disbelief and make snide remarks. Just the type of welcome you'd expect from Middle America.

The characters surrounding Thor are, at times, equally compelling, most notably Odin, played with a commanding presence by Hopkins. He's a force greater than the impressive Thor, and still able to shame his son. On the other side of the spectrum is Portman as Thor's love interest. Supposedly a brilliant mind conducting cutting-edge research, Portman plays Jane as easily distracted and lacking real depth. It's not so bad you want to take away her Oscar, but it's about as far removed from Black Swan as you can get. (Actually, that would probably be No Strings Attached.)

By now a familiar face from other Marvel adaptations, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) shows up and helps move the plot forward. And, of course, legendary Marvel writer and creator Stan Lee has his five-second cameo.

While the plot has holes bigger than the wormhole that transports Thor from Asgard to Earth, it's nothing that overly distracts from the enjoyment. And, comic book films are supposed to be pretty; fittingly, the special effects are well handled, and the fight scenes paint vivid pictures of the other worlds.

THOR Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman Rated PG-13 114 Minutes Opens May 6 Area Theaters

The primary complaint about the visuals is the needless conversion of the film to 3D. The effect is minimal – more often than not, it's a box of cereal popping out at the audience as a product placement rather than something that enhances the experience. Speaking of product placements, Branagh could have been a little subtler – it's all too obvious that Kashi cereal, Southwest Airlines, Acura, Bank of America, and 7-Eleven must be bankrolling this film.

Ultimately one can't ignore the fact that Thor is one more step toward the eagerly awaited Marvel superhero-packed epic, The Avengers, due out next year. Helmed by Buffy and Firefly creator Joss Whedon, Thor will be joined by Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and the newest addition, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).

Which is why, at times, Thor feels like an extended trailer and advertisement for another movie. But to only view Thor as necessary chapter-building toward something bigger would overlook a film that stands solidly on its own two feet.

...more

by: Jeremy Duff
NEWS - XL Games has released the first trailer for their upcoming MMO ArcheAge. The game, which uses Crytek’s CryENGINE 2 and 3 engines, looks to mix up the standard MMO-formula a little bit.

In ArcheAge, players will have a major impact on the environment around them; the idea is to add a variety of sandbox elements into the standard MMO formula. Players will impact both the evolution and design of their individual worlds according to the developer(s), which will eventually result in drastically different servers over the game’s lifespan. This could be something that really helps to further the MMO genre as it is becoming a bit formulaic in recent years; someone has to come along and mix things up a bit in order to advance the genre all together...

Source: PikiGeek

Our weekly event planner gives you the heads-up on what’s coming around the corner. If we’ve missed something, don’t hesitate to add your event to the calendar. (You can see all events here.)

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This editorial was contributed by WordPress theme developer Mike McAlister, whose themes are available on ThemeForest. You can read more about him in his author profile below the editorial.

Your site has those fancy drop-down menus you always see around the web. Not just the one that drops down, but the one that drops down and then out, and down and out with the really slick fading transitions. It took you zero hours to code.

Your homepage features a really unique display of your portfolio items, sliding and zooming them in and out with a custom effect (designated in a custom theme options panel, of course). Adding your portfolio items was as easy as sending an email.

Your site also has 20+ custom page templates, 50+ layout and styling shortcodes, color options, video support, custom twitter widgets and working contact forms. Not to mention it is professionally designed, coded, validated and supported by some of the best talent on the web.

Your site is absolutely amazing and it cost you a total of $35. Less than an oil change, especially if you have a coupon.

What are you paying for?

Themes definitely aren’t what they used to be. You used to get a zip file with a few PHP files and a brief help file telling you how to modify code (by hand, mind you). These days, even the less advanced commercial WordPress themes come equipped with custom options frameworks, template builders, advanced Javascript usage and extensive theme documentation with installation videos. Oftentimes, buyers don’t even have to touch the theme’s source files. Modification and customization can be done right within the WordPress admin panel. How convenient.

The problem is, price adjustments have not changed proactively to reflect the evolution of these newer, Skynet-like super themes.

And then there’s theme support. Support isn’t required on some marketplaces, ThemeForest included, but it’s the best way to stand behind your product. Many authors, including yours truly, even go as far as setting up their own support forums. Some even outsource theme support out of their own pocket. Remember, not a requirement. So aside from spending 10+ hours designing a theme and 40+ hours coding, we spend countless hours providing support for every sale we make. This “extra” effort simply cannot be reflected in a $35 download.

ThemeForest, the theme marketplace where I sell exclusively, currently sells WordPress themes at the $35-$37 price range. These days, most other theme shops are selling for an average of $65-$100. Some shops provide the PSD, some provide support, some provide neither and still charge upwards $75. On ThemeForest, most authors provide all of the above (and more) at the $35 price range. Now, a lot can be said about why independent theme shops like Press75 and WooThemes can survive at $75 per themes, but today we’re just looking at the value of themes, not their business model. That’s a conversation for another day.

It’s also important to remember that just because this discussion is revolving around ThemeForest, that doesn’t mean this is some kind of witch hunt. ThemeForest is where I sell themes and where I share experiences with other theme authors and buyers. They are definitely not the only marketplace selling at $35.

The price of doing business

The problem is, price adjustments have not changed proactively to reflect the evolution of these newer, Skynet-like super themes. Since my first sale on ThemeForest (in early 2009), WordPress themes have only seen one, seemingly random, price jump from $30-$32 to $35-$37.

Personally, I think high-end commercial WordPress themes should run about $125.

Jonathan Atkinson, a long-time top author at ThemeForest, would like to see theme prices raised by $10, which would place them at $45-$47. This seems like a pretty solid price increase, right? Buyers wouldn’t be too devastated and there would surely be a huge increase in sales for a lot of theme authors. But even with a $10 increase, you’re still only looking at a $45 theme, which high-selling authors will only see 70% of.

Personally, I think high-end commercial WordPress themes should run about $125. Compare that price tag to $125 in any other industry and see how far it gets you. Forget the cost of the actual theme files, the support alone for a year is more than $125. Will we see a base price of $125 for WordPress themes? Very doubtful. Definitely not on ThemeForest, but very likely not anywhere else for years to come.

What everyone else is saying

WordPress industry folks like Jason Schuller and Brian Gardner, top theme authors like Orman Clark, and theme buyers have all spoken up recently about the $35 price point for commercial themes. Everyone is in agreement that it’s simply not enough and that $35 themes could be devaluing the commercial theme market.

Obviously, one of the main issues with raising prices is how buyers will be affected. After all, they dictate the success of theme marketplaces and ultimately decide what kind of themes are going to sell. But have you actually talked with a theme buyer lately? The twist: they want to pay more for these themes. Yes, you heard right, theme buyers actually want to pay MORE for our themes.

Christopher Averill, a theme buying stud on ThemeForest, is one of the many buyers who recently spoke up about theme prices: “I couldn’t agree more. I don’t develop WP Themes but I consume them like mad. Authors need more for their work!” So if theme authors and buyers are on the same page, what exactly are we waiting for?

The simple fix

There isn’t a simple fix, friend. At this point, there’s no easy way to raise prices to reflect what themes are worth without causing some serious friction. Prices have been stuck at $35 for so long, that’s just what buyers have come to expect. You can’t just raise prices from $35 to $75 overnight without crippling the marketplace. Unless a more creative solution is put into place, we’re most likely looking at a slow price increase over the next couple of years. Let’s just hope those price increases reflect how themes will continually evolve so we’re not in the same situation in two years, selling themes at 2011 prices in 2013.

Even if that’s the case, raising theme prices at ThemeForest would only be a slow and temporary fix for a much bigger issue. The value of commercial themes as a whole seems to be in a perpetual state of confusion. Selling themes for $35 that are worlds better than most $75 themes makes no goddamn sense. Not for authors, not for buyers, not for marketplaces, not for our industry. Let’s try and set a standard of what commercial themes should be worth. It’s also up to the respective marketplaces to make more aggressive price increases to keep up with industry prices and standards.

It’s not just up to the powers that be. We are all responsible for educating buyers about what they’re getting. Not just from our themes, but from the WordPress solution as a whole. You aren’t just getting a template anymore. You’re getting a stunning, infinitely scalable website solution for pennies on the dollar. You’re are getting a website for $35-$75 that would cost $2000+ to have custom made. Probably even double that just a few years ago.

The good news

Within hours of this initial Twitter conversation, Collis, Overlord of Envato, spoke up tweeting “I must admit the amount of effort going in has changed since the early days of TF. I’ll put it to the SM team to review.”  It’s a good sign when you can tweet the CEO and get a constructive response almost immediately. And I expected nothing less from Collis.

Envato has always been active in the WordPress community: early adopters of the GPL, sponsoring various WordPress events, providing endless tutorials on Nettuts. If you’re reading this, I can almost guarantee that you’ve benefitted from the Envato network on numerous occasions. And it probably cost you nothing.

Envato pays my bills, and I pay theirs. And because we share this partnership, I feel like it’s important that we visit the various concerns that are going around the community that maybe they aren’t fully aware of. I really hope a public discussion like this can generate some fresh and creative ideas that the entire industry can benefit from.

We work in the greatest niche industry on the web. I wake up every day, design and code whatever I want, converse, conspire, and share ideas with some of the greatest minds in the WordPress community, and I’m able to make a living doing it. I am still truly grateful and lucky to have stumbled onto WordPress. You know, even if I’m stuck selling themes for $35.

The amphibious face looked out from dark water; its impervious gaze scanned minute horizons between the worlds of water and air. I couldn't tell what it saw or thought, but felt its expressionless expression spanned aeons through which the evolution of seeing and thinking had changed much between the newt and me.

A palmate newt scrambled out of a bucket. It had been accidentally raked up in algae from a pond and wriggled free. The algae looked like flowing green hair in water but was drying into a lump of nylon stuffing in the bucket. The almost instant change of substance and form when aquatic things are dragged from the water is always a disappointment; they lose a kind of magic in our savage air. Like waking from a dream, they have to make sense in our terrestrial reality. Similarly, things of dry land which end up underwater seem to gain a strange sense of otherness. Amphibians move in both directions and bring their ancient strangeness with them.

First I only noticed movement, a kind of awkward bending like those squidgy plastic toys which stick to glass. With the consistency of jellied tongue, the newt appeared to be made of stuff from mucky ponds. I put it on a marsh marigold leaf. There was a tiny dragon, 6cm long with a low dorsal ridge down its back, a wide spotted tail and darkly webbed back feet. This was its breeding time, only possible in its original state, and returning it to its pond felt like an acknowledgment of a debt owed to water life. The newt stared from its between world. Around it, orange-tip butterflies sought cuckoo flowers and willow warblers sang in hedges. The newt slid under the meniscus of the pond, without changing, still staring, even down in the watery dark, watching.

I wonder how Dick Durbin and Saxby Chambliss plan on convincing the House of Representatives to vote for tax increases as part of their deficit reduction plan. I mean, it's nice that Chamblss (and apparently Tom Coburn and Mike Crapo, too) realizes that that they have to give on taxes in return for compromises on entitlements, but, unless I'm wrong, nearly every Republican in Congress has signed a pledge at some point not to raise taxes. For those Republicans for whom this isn't an article of faith, there is still the matter of keeping their word.

The Gang of Six has been meeting at Sen. Mark Warner's Northern Virginia home (which I envision as quite luxurious) for months now. The group, which also includes retiring Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota, has been trying to hammer out an agreement that can actually pass through Congress. Evidently, the three Republicans long ago conceded that any deal must include cuts in defense spending and higher taxes or it would have no chance of winning Democratic votes.

On the Democratic side, they conceded that cuts in the growth of Medicare and Medicaid will be necessary. But they've conceded, as well, that Social Security must get some kind of haircut or the deal won't attract any Republicans. This is, of course, kind of obvious to any casual observer. But what's not clear is that the Republicans would vote for higher taxes even in return for the elimination of Social Security and Medicare. They are so in the grip of their ideology that I don't know how they can be enticed to break out. As for the Democrats, they will not touch Social Security unless there is a hell of deal dangling on the line. I don't see the Republicans baiting their hook with "a hell of a deal."

In theory, the three conservative Republican members of the Gang of Six could lend some political cover and even some credibility to any grand deal. I guess Dick Durbin is supposed to provide the same service on the other side of the aisle.

But I don't see it happening.

An administration official recalled that in early 2010, when Mr. Durbin was named to Mr. Obama’s fiscal commission, another White House official told its co-chairmen, “You’ll never get Durbin’s vote.”

Nine months later, Mr. Durbin announced his support in The Chicago Tribune for the recommendations the chairmen had negotiated with members. “The question my closest political friends are asking is this: Why is a progressive like Dick Durbin voting for this deficit commission report?” he wrote. The answer: “Borrowing 40 cents out of every dollar we spend for missiles or food stamps is unsustainable.”

So, Mr. Durbin added, “when we engage in the critical decisions about our nation’s future budgets, I want progressive voices at the table to argue that we must protect the most vulnerable in our society and demand fairness in budget cuts.”

That has been his mantra with disappointed allies in labor, women’s groups and the Senate. Mr. Durbin, in the interview, cited a private meeting requested by Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, a socialist and “a good friend.” Their exchange, Mr. Durbin said, captured the increasing difficulty in being a good progressive “at a time of limited resources.”

Mr. Sanders said he respected Mr. Durbin for his good intentions. “But I think the direction in which he is going in working with some of the most very conservative members of the Senate is not correct,” Mr. Sanders said.

Increasingly, it doesn't appear that the two parties are operating in worlds that share the same physical properties. If we can't agree that carbon in the atmosphere causes dangerous climate change, or that the study of biology is predicated on evolution, or that the study of geology is predicated on plate tectonics, then how can we agree that the Sun sets in the West, let alone on something as massive as a bill that cuts entitlements and raises taxes?

I think that is Bernie Sanders's point. And, even though the New York Times twice reminds us that Bernie is a Socialist, he's really just a progressive, like many other Democrats, especially in the House. I know I'd be willing to listen to a proposal. I just can't imagine a proposal that would be acceptable to Tom Coburn being acceptable to me. That kind of compromise probably doesn't exist.

Discuss

Will Wright is perhaps the most successful video game designer in history, creating games from SimCity to Spore. His games have sold tens of millions of units and they have opened up new genres such as life simulations and “god” games. So there’s nobody better to talk about the future of video games. At a recent talk, Wright predicted games will become ubiquitous, more diverse, and meaningful works of art.

The growth of games into new genres and new platforms is leading to what Wright calls the Gambrian Explosion, which is like the Cambrian Explosion 530 million years ago that gave birth to so many new species on earth. Games are flowering into new platforms and categories such as social networks, mobile phones, tablets, and augmented reality. That leads to large audiences and more diverse demographics, as everyone is playing now, from toddlers playing with iPads to older adults playing Wii Sports.

Wright’s most interesting insight during the speech was to recognize that games are following in the footsteps of other entertainment, and other media, and other tools that have come before them. As media expert Marshall McLuhan observed in the 1960s, all media is an extension of ourselves, a tool to extend a piece of ourselves to accomplish a certain goal. Hammers are extensions of our arms.  Phones are amplifications of our mouths. Computers are an extension of our minds.

“Almost every new technology is an amplification of our body,” Wright said, “Computers, the internet, social networks expand everything. The most important thing they expand is our imaginations and our brains. I think of games as imagination amplifiers. We can construct these elaborate worlds, play with them, share them back and forth, and this is one of the culturally most impactful things that our medium can offer. ”

Wright spoke (at his usual exceedingly fast clip, as you can see in the first video excerpt below) on the topic of gaming’s future to a bunch of game developers and students on Friday at the Inventing the Future of Games conference in Milpitas, Calif. The event was staged by the University of California Santa Cruz Center for Games and Playable Media.

A lot of Wright’s talk, which included a kind of intermission, or digression, which he called the Russian Space Minute (see the second video below), wandered around in interesting ways.

Wright sees the growth of games as a natural thing. He did a little experiment with the audience, asking how many people recognized Admiral Ackbar (pictured right) from Star Wars, in the fictional world, versus how many recognized Admiral Chester Nimitz from real world history. He noted that most people recognized Ackbar, the frog-like character. The point is that we accumulate “artificial experiences,” like seeing movies or reading fiction, a lot faster than we accumulate real experiences, such as fighting in a war.

“We see a groundswell of change here as we cross from one generation to the next,” he said, where our accumulated artificial experiences are surpassing our real experiences and our digital online lives are becoming much more expansive compared to our real lives.

One of the benefits of such virtual experiences, which include playing games, is that you gain new perspectives. Wright said he was fascinated how digital photography is like “training wheels for my eyes.” If you start snapping pictures with a digital camera, he said, you will start looking for interesting camera angles in real life. You will look at things from different angles just so that you can have a chance to see what the digital picture might look like. You learn to see the world from different views.

That’s what gamers are able to do from trying out so many different games with different perspectives. Related to that, one of the cool things about games is their growing diversity. When a kid is playing a game like Grand Theft Auto, the experience is tactile and immersive. Other games let you see the view of the world on a planetary scale.

Now it’s not so crazy to be able to imagine a superstore full of games, much like you have bookstores full of thousands of different kinds of books or magazine racks full of specialty magazines. In fact, that’s pretty much true in mobile app stores now. The same goes for social networks, which are so numerous on the internet now that they’re all competing for your attention as if they were fraternities seeking new pledges during college “rush” week, Wright said.

Wright says that games are also just at the beginning of their evolution. Most people who invent a new medium often fail to realize how significant it will be and where it will go. Comic books were invented as religious propaganda. And Alexander Graham Bell once predicted that it would be possible to have a telephone in every town in America. Wright believes that, like other entertainment media, games will become more pervasive and then become more of an art form.

“Almost any type of media has gone through this evolution where they are now nothing like what people thought they would be,” Wright said.

Games have proven to be addictive and that has become a kind of hurdle as parents worry that their kid will put 500 hours into a game. Wright said that he plays a Nintendo DS game because “it spins up my brain better than coffee.” But games have a capacity to teach at the same time and so they aren’t entirely a menace to society, from Wright’s point of view.

Wright said that educators focus on teaching different disciplines. But he likes to focus on the intersections between different disciplines, like the connection between physical science and biology. Entertainment is starting to benefit from the same kind of blending of disciplines, like films, music, and writing. Games are interesting because they incorporate elements of all of those different artistic media. Some of the most interesting kinds of games combine different established genres.

When you get the magic just right, you can achieve a universal success, reaching people far and wide as the movie Avatar did. Ironically, Wright said, everyone from native Americans to Vietnam veterans thought Avatar was about them. That’s a measure of how universal that movie was.

Games are getting close to matching or surpassing the entertainment value of movies. Wright believes one of the ultimate game experiences resembles the Holodeck from Star Trek, the simulation machine that was so real you could walk inside it and be transported to another world where you can’t tell what’s real or not. You could imagine that you’re in a 1920s speak easy — and all the time you’re inside a room in a starship.

Now the combination of games and augmented reality could lead what Wright calls “situational awareness.” That’s a military term for being aware of your surroundings and your threats. In defensive driving classes, they teach you to have situational awareness so that you know if another car is a threat to you or not, by looking ahead and looking in your rear-view mirrors. With games on mobile devices, game designers could create situational awareness that is highly engaging and relevant to someone.

Making a game out of real life, by blending a virtual world and the real world, is already happening, Wright said. In televised football games, you can see a yellow line on the screen that represents the first-down line that the offensive team has to cross in order to get the first down. That line doesn’t exist on the field, but the TV viewers can see it.

With a smartphone, you can now learn what is near you in your immediate proximity. You can see if your friends are nearby or if there are restaurants you want to visit or a car show that you might be interested in. If you are wandering in a strange city and your phone can tell you this, and if you can make a more entertaining game out of that experience, you would be much happier, Wright said.

That is one way that games could “engage us in the world rather than distract us from the world,” Wright said.

Tags: video games

Companies: Electronic Arts, Maxis, STupid Fun Club

People: Will Wright

A coupe weeks ago, Teh Discovery Institute held some kind of revival 'conference' at a local Evangelical church. The Usual Suspects were there-- Caseytits, West, some other guy, but also my HIV Evolution BFF Michael Behe. I ended up not being able to go due to a scheduling conflict. I was at a conference on HIV Evolution, which as we all know, according to the worlds most preeminent HIV researcher Michael Behe, doesnt exist.

So Ive been Googling around trying to get a recap of what went down.

Apparently, nothing.

As the kids say, "not a single fuck was given that day".

Not one blog post or news article or message board comment by any Evangelical, who went to the event and was moved to post a word. There is only this second-hand recap from our awesome Americans United local prez, Mike Fuller.

*sarcasm* DARN YOU CHARISMATIC CREATIONISTS!! They must have put everyone in a trance of some kind! Some people call it 'sleep', but I know better! Im on to them!

Hey!

Funny coincidence!

Know who spoke at my Uni yesterday? Edward Stephens! Hes talked about "The Role of Vpu in HIV-1 Pathogenesis" (hes got about 20 papers on Vpu up on PubMed (alone, not including all his other HIV-1 work)). Really neat talk about how Vpu has evolved differentially in all the subtypes from the SIV_CPZ Vpu ancestor. LOL, turns out the HIV-1 versions dont look or behave like SIV_CPZ Vpu. HIV-1 Group M stumbled upon several amino acid changes (different ways in different subtypes, while some subtypes havent, like Subtype F) that increased viral release in infected human cells. Almost like Vpu is a 'new gene' working in a 'new way', making 'new protein-protein interactions' in response to 'new selective pressures', aka new functions/phenotypes from random mutation and natural selection. Also, tetherin might not be the only 'new' protein its interacting with now.

BUT THAT CANT BE RIGHT, AMIRITE??

LOL! Dr. Stephens, what a rube! Wasting his life on Evilution, speaking to fellow scientists, discovering new things and helping us understand the world around us, helping us relieve the strain of a deadly epidemic on humanity-- when he could be leading sermons for 150-200 dozing patrons in church basements like the great Michael Behe, degrading, distorting, and ignoring the hard work of others, while contributing nothing of value to humanity himself (while still collecting a paycheck).

Ruuuuuube!

Read the comments on this post...

Animation would not be what it is today without Ralph Bakshi. His debut Fritz the Cat, irreverently adapted from R. Crumb’s underground comic strip of the same name, has the distinction of being the world’s first X-rated animated movie. The cartoon taboos broken in Fritz and Bakshi’s subsequent films – most of which are chock-a-block with sex, blood, nudity, profanity, racial and ethnic strife, bodily functions, and other undisneylike goings-on – prepared the ground for such celebrated fare as The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy (whose creator John Kricfalusi started as a Bakshi protégé), and the entire Adult Swim lineup. The very idea of cartoons for adults, a concept our culture has been comfortable with for going on three decades now, owes its development if not its origination to Bakshi and his efforts.

But by the same token, animation today would not be as it is if Bakshi had had more influence on its evolution. His filmography represents a road – or, better yet, a back alley – not taken for animated features. Though Bakshi’s crudity arguably made the world safe for the likes of South Park and Crank Yankers or the fart jokes that grace the Shrek franchise, his films are much darker, weirder, and more personal than these latter-day “cartoons for adults.” Unlike most animators who trade in sick humor, Bakshi’s never been a satirist, nor is he an absurdist or surrealist: he’s a realist, or, if you like, an expressionist, trying to get across the joyful ugliness of human (and animal, and hobbit) existence by whatever means necessary. The recent film closest to his spirit is probably Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Persepolis, which blends autobiography, stylization and ribald humor in a manner similar to Bakshi classics like Heavy Traffic and American Pop.

In form as well as content, Bakshi’s movies are unfamiliar: stylistically ambitious, but in a way very different from the ultra-slick CGI modeling popularized in the 1990s by Pixar. The messier techniques favored and, in some cases, pioneered by Bakshi – like rotoscoping, or the use of improvised or naturalistic dialogue, or the incorporation of live action footage and film stills – remain at the fringes of animation, occasionally cropping up in films like Richard Linklater’s Waking Life or Henry Selick’s Monkeybone but still far from the cartoon mainstream. And then there’s the fact that Bakshi himself has not made a movie since 1992’s Cool World (though he’s worked in TV, and is active and prolific as a teacher and painter). I e-mailed Bakshi to find out what he’d been up to lately and received the following unpunctuated note in return:

Evan let me tell you how much I enjoy what you’re doing years ago when I was a cartoonist making films I got and grabbed the opportunity to make what ever I wanted because Hollywood had no idea that animation could say the things I said they stared in disbelief then came after me with all they had films cut up not released etc what remains I’m proud of unfortunately Hollywood animators are doing shrek three toy story two three whatever thanks for playing my movies I recently handed a script in on last days of Coney island an r rated cop thriller set in 1949 Brooklyn here I go again the kids reading it at studios don’t believe I could write such stuff without any apologies apologies to whom I wonder thanks again ralph

For the next two weeks, we will weigh in on all nine of Bakshi’s features, as well as his short-lived foray into Saturday morning TV, The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse. Decidedly not for everyone – those who like their cartoons chaste and child-friendly on the one hand or austere and abstract on the other need read no further – Bakshi’s work is a unique, provocative, and underappreciated oeuvre in the annals of film animation.

Introduction by Evan Kindley

This Fringe article is by guest contributor "Count Screwloose":


If You Think This Universe Is Bad, You Should See Some Of The Others

There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer

"Must a name mean something?" Alice asked doubtfully.
- Through The Looking Glass

Patterns of light and dark. A reconciliation of opposites. A full circle.

As we enter the home stretch of FRINGE’s extraordinary third season, it seems like a good time to assess what went on, why, and where we could possibly be going. And it’s not that I’m interested so much in providing specific answers as I am in trying to swim around in what was kicked up, thrown out, and otherwise spread out on the table this time around. FRINGE has a tendency to “hat tip” or sometimes weave in familiar sci-fi voices and tropes and identifying them can be simply a fun sort of parlor game, but I think it can also be a way of foreshadowing events to come or even a method of offering different ways of reading the show if viewers are inclined to do so.


So let’s have a look at a few of the things that may or may not have any relevance as we slide into home plate. Consider them ports of call or points for discussion.

For me, thinking about Season Three began with this dialogue at the end of Season Two:

Walter, you asked me why I took out part of your brain. I did it because you asked me to. Because of what you were becoming.

What in the world did William Bell mean? And what could poor, dotty Walter Bishop be capable of becoming? Why would anyone be concerned? Clearly, though, Walter Bishop himself was concerned and the obvious answer was that he felt himself losing his moral compass and feared becoming something he might not be able to stop. In short, something like Walternate. From here, of course, it’s a short step to wondering what the two Walters might have in common and, more importantly, why.

And if Walter was capable of becoming something that scared even himself, what was preventing Walternate, seemingly a much more amoral individual, from already beating him to it?

Logic dictated, then, that if the two Walters ever managed to pool their collective power and intellect, they might become something the world had good need to fear.

And from there:

Had they ever been…one Walter?



The War Of The Worlds

Nature doesn't recognize good and evil, Philip. Nature only recognizes balance and imbalance.
- Walter Bishop, Secretary of Defense

Nature abhors a vacuum.
- Spinoza

By the time Season Three began, word had got out that we’d be traveling back and forth between the universes and there was much talk from the producers and the actors that they’d slowly be demonstrating that the characters we knew and their doppelgangers from Over There had far more in common than we might have suspected. It seemed clear that each week would bring a slow reconciliation of what we’d originally thought were opposites. When you considered that this was happening on a television show, where white hats and black hats are standard issue, not to mention a show that had a tenuous grip on being renewed (to say the least), it seemed a particularly brave move to make.

The audience was going to be asked to deal with a certain amount of moral ambiguity, something that really hadn’t been popular since the post-Watergate era (if then!). They’d have to consider that the “Other Side” (consider the deeper meanings of that phrase, too, in the sense of dehumanizing a group in order to see them as an enemy) contained people who might feel the same way we do. FRINGE can be read as a parable about war, if you like, about two sides and what either has to lose or gain. The shadow of war, particularly World War Two, and what people are capable of doing in the name of it is never far from the show (“Because of what you were becoming”).

At any rate, by the second or third episode I had my Unified Fringe Theory all sewn up. Well, not all sewn up but roughly sketched and it went something like this:

At some point in time, Over Here and Over There comprised a single universe. Its original timeline spun out to a point that was so horrendous, so inhumane and unbearable, that it was determined by The Observers that it must be changed and never allowed to come to pass. To this end, the universe was split in two at the earliest possible moment of its existence, in this case during that period of time when the First People were running the show.

(I can hear you snickering, by the way. But this was a first pass and, besides, you’ve got your own theories, too!)

I’m a little uncertain of the genesis (I’m choosing my words here carefully!) of The Vacuum that accomplished this, but let’s say it was technology that belonged to The Observers or First People or even, somehow, William Bell. What is important is that the force of tearing the universe in two destroyed the First People (save for…well, we’ll see). The purpose of The Vacuum is to keep the two sides forever apart and as a precaution, the pieces of it were scattered as far from each other as possible, in hopes of preventing anyone from ever activating it again. If they were to do so, both sides would once again become one and mankind would suffer an unthinkable fate.

Another precaution: the same DNA used to operate it the first time would be required to run it again.

But here’s where it gets interesting: I don’t think Walter Bishop’s visit to the Other Side is responsible for the degradation between the sides or, rather, that if he is, it’s only as a tool of what we’ll call (for lack of a better term) Nature. The entire point of the third season has been to present a dramatic version of the old Nature Vs. Nurture argument: how much of these people’s personalities are innate and how much has been brought about by their environment? Well, what if the sundering of a universe in two is the ultimate crime against Nature? What if even The Vacuum can only do so much in the face of so much natural force and two sides torn apart are going to have to join back together again eventually?

It could be, then, that regardless of how much free will someone thinks they have, someone or something could be pulling the strings. Let’s say Nature refuses to stop until it has set things back to their natural state, as awful as that may be. Then a Walter Bishop, an Olivia Dunham, maybe even an Observer, could all be unwitting marionettes in the service of something greater than they know. Nature, as Walternate correctly point out, is dispassionate. It may benefit mankind to split it in two, as it did the atom, but who knows what terrible power that may unleash?

If we follow this possibility, other questions worth asking might be whether or not all of the Observers, up to this point seen as the major puppeteers on the show, are working towards the same ends. If there are so-called “rogue Observers,” could some be dedicated to reversing what The Vacuum accomplished? What if preventing Walternate from finding a cure for Peter was completely intentional? Who are the puppets and who are the puppeteers?

Well, that was the theory. Sort of. I’m not so sure about it now.


Through The Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- Arthur C. Clarke

So many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.
- Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland

What was clear was that many of the answers were probably tied up with the show’s most mysterious character, Sam Weiss. We knew very little about him other than the fact that he liked to speak in zen parables and coded messages.

Let’s talk a little bit about 6B.

Yeah, you remember it, the one with the ghosts and the soul magnets.

The thing that struck me about it the most, aside from the sly Ghostbusters jokes it managed to slip in, was the pains it seemed to take to bring up the ghost of someone in particular:

Harry Houdini.

Now why in the world would a show so concerned with science and multiverses go out of its way to point viewers in the direction of the 20th century’s most celebrated magician?

I think the reason lies precisely in the Arthur C. Clarke quote sitting just above. If you’re going to discuss science then you had better get around to discussing magic. Magic can be Science’s doppelganger, if you like. Anything that resembles a miracle only remains so until it is explained.

As soon as Walter and Peter had this exchange:

Walter: Belly and I used to argue about this constantly - what happens to the body's energy after death. William theorized we should be able to capture that energy using what he called “soul magnets.”
Peter: It's a catchy name.
Walter: He said if he were right, he would contact me from The Great Beyond. I haven't gotten the call yet.

I immediately thought of Houdini, who famously promised his wife that if there were any way at all for him to contact her after his death, he would do so. Of course, the plot of 6B takes this famous story and demonstrates what might have happened if he’d succeeded. It’s no coincidence that the episode presents us with a husband contacting his wife from what appears to be “The Great Beyond.” Bess Houdini held a séance every Halloween for ten years after her husband’s death in hopes that he would find a way to speak the secret message they’d agreed upon, a coded message that spelled out simply:

BELIEVE.

Cut to my perusing a book on the great escape artist a couple of months ago and discovering that Houdini, whose real name was Erik Weisz (he would change the spelling to Ehrich Weiss – the Houdini he would borrow from the great French magician Robert-Houdin) had a father who was a rabbi. A rabbi named Mayer Samuel Weiss.

Sam Weiss.

Things were getting curiouser and curiouser.

Why name Sam Weiss after Houdini’s father? Yes, it establishes the fathers-and-sons motif, not to mention the interesting tableau of a religious man whose son goes on to perform feats that appear to be miracles. But could it mean anything beyond a hat tip? Was there a hidden Houdini amongst our cast of characters and, if so, were he and Weiss related in any significant way?

It’s hard not to consider the possibility that Peter Bishop is meant as a gloss on Harry Houdini. From the coinplay that one identifies with close-up sleight-of-hand magic, to his enthusiasm for airplanes and, finally, his upcoming date with what appears to be an unbreakable and unbeatable trap that offers no possibility of escape. Are we meant to draw a parallel between The Vacuum and the many “death-traps” that made the magician famous? Like Houdini, Peter is always pulling a secret key out of somewhere that allows Fringe Division to break through some barrier in their case.

He, in some ways, is nearly as mysterious as Weiss.

Cab driver Henry Higgins similarly knows “a lot of shortcuts.” If he’s meant as a hat tip to Shaw’s Pygmalion because he ends up dealing with two different but identical women, it’s an awkward one: our Henry isn’t responsible for anyone’s transformation. What if his initials are meant to make us consider the possibility that he is our Houdini and that he knows much more than he is letting on?

What any of this may mean I’ll leave to you. But it certainly has some interesting implications.

Although Houdini initially became famous for illusions, he became nearly as famous for debunking psychics and phony spiritualists. He offered cash to any medium (“psychics” who claimed they could contact the dead and allow them to speak through them – Bellivia, anyone?) who could prove themselves authentic and never had to pay out a single cent. One fan of his, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, better known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was a great believer in spiritualism and Houdini’s insistence on exposing those individuals who professed to have psychic powers caused an irrevocable break between the two. Doyle was so torn, in fact, between his faith in Houdini and his faith in spiritualism that he claimed that Houdini’s psychic powers were so great that they allowed him to block the powers of lesser mediums, making them only appear to be fake!

Now that is belief.

And although he wasn’t the only inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes, I think it’s generally agreed that the main inspiration can be said to be a gentlemen whose powers of observation greatly impressed the young writer-to-be.

A Dr. Bell.

(Robert-Houdin) walked into the audience and touched items that the audience held up and his blindfolded assistant, played by his son, described each one in detail…Eventually (he) changed the method so instead of asking his son what was in his hands, he simply rang a bell. This stunned those that suspected a spoken code. He would even set the bell off to the side and remain silent and his son still described every object handed to his father.
- Wikipedia


A Game Of You or: The Simulacra

The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer


God does not play dice.
- Albert Einstein

If I’ve tried to make any point up to now, it’s basically that FRINGE enjoys setting opposites against each other (and sometimes inside each other!) to demonstrate the nature of paradox and to show that sometimes one extreme is closer to the other extreme than it is to the middle, in the way that a circle is.

A full circle.

The subjects of faith and reason and belief and science and magic and miracles and good and evil come up again and again, making different patterns each time. It’s why I have to smile every time I see someone complain in print that the show has completely dropped talking about “The Pattern.” “Where’s The Pattern?” they cry, “What happened to that?”

The show is now about nothing but patterns: the patterns that result every time a decision is made; the complications that ensue when a good person tries to seek redemption; the tragedies that happen merely because someone went left instead of right or up instead of down.

Two identical sides lined up one against the other?

It’s such an obvious parallel that I’m surprised I haven’t seen it discussed more: Season Three has been a chess game. Not only that, but a very specific chess game. You’re probably already familiar with it:

Computer: New entry. A Mr. J. F. Sebastian. 1-6-4-1-7.
Tyrell: At this hour? What can I do for you, Sebastian?
Sebastian: Queen to Bishop 6. Check.
Tyrell: Nonsense. Just a moment. Mmm. Queen to Bishop 6. Ridiculous. Queen to Bishop 6. Hmm... Knight takes Queen. -- What's on your mind, Sebastian? What are you thinking about?
Roy: (whispered) Bishop to King 7. Checkmate.
Sebastian: Bishop to King 7. Checkmate, I think.
Tyrell: Got a brainstorm, huh, Sebastian? Milk and cookies kept you awake, huh? Lets discuss this. You better come up, Sebastian.
Sebastian: Mr. Tyrell, I - I brought a friend.
Tyrell: I'm surprised you didn't come here sooner.
Roy: It's not an easy thing to meet your maker.

It won’t surprise anyone that this exchange is from Blade Runner, a film which has informed a great deal of what’s gone on this season, not the least of which has been the question that so much of Philip K. Dick’s fiction posed: What Is Human? It takes place just before the replicant Roy Batty murders his “father,” so to speak, after demanding that he somehow increase his lifespan. The chess game itself is quite real and quite legendary. Known popularly as “The Immortal Game,” the following description (from the Histories Of Things To Come blog, which also provided the BR transcript) could be instructive to anyone looking to puzzle out where this season is heading:

The chess game in Blade Runner is taken from a famous real chess game played by chess masters Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky in London at Simpson's on the Strand in 1851. It was dubbed the 'Immortal Game' in 1855 by Austrian chess master Ernst Falkbeer. Considered one of the greatest chess games in history, it is noted because the winner, Anderssen, boldly moved across the board, sacrificing his major pieces, apparently barrelling toward defeat. He gave up both rooks, a bishop and his queen in order to surprise his opponent at the last second, cornering and defeating him with three minor pieces. The Immortal Game, in other words, is synonymous with an all-or-nothing credo. It represents a willingness to sacrifice almost everything in exchange for attaining one big goal, even if that means you're left with almost nothing at the end.

Bishop 6…Queen to Bishop 6. 6B? And if one were to transpose the B with its numeric equivalent: 6:02. Checkmate?

Two things are especially noteworthy here, I think: one is that the game calls for the sacrifice of a Bishop. Another is that the game consisted of 22 exchanges of play (each player taking a turn) with the winner making a 23rd move.

In other words, the precise number of episodes in a season.

Anyone interested in seeing how closely each episode hews to the moves in The Immortal Game are welcome to do so, although I imagine the parallels are probably looser than the already arbitrary ones we know from Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass, a book which has already provided FRINGE with a good deal of inspiration (I imagine it’s how the Other Side received a Red Queen!). It’d certainly be interesting to see somebody make a case for it, though.

It may also explain the deluge of Twin Peaks references that have consistently been popping up on the show since The Firefly. The last half of that show’s second and final season took the form of a bizarre chess game between Special Agent Dale Cooper and the mad Windom Earle.

With two characters named Bishop, of course, it’s tempting to read any description of a chess move and consider how it applies to the show. Just a random Google search:

The bishop can play a supporting role for a queen similar to that of the knight in the previous example. While the queen delivers the checkmate, the bishop can support the queen from afar.
- Ten Basic Checkmates To Know

or:

The easiest checkmate to get with a King and two minor pieces versus a lone King is the one in which your two minor pieces are both bishops.
- The Two Bishops

So it’s easy to overread. But a no-holds-barred match that also appears in  Blade Runner and which is known as The Immortal Game?

Pass the Occam’s Razor, please. We are moving towards Checkmate.

Don’t you usually identify Pawns by their little round bald heads?

Tyrell: The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long. And you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Look at you. You're the prodigal son. You're quite a prize!
Roy: I've done questionable things.


The Shape Of Things To Come or: Now Wait For Last Year

Broyles: Doctor Bishop, do you have any idea why this machine would or could be configured for Peter, why it would respond to him?
Walter: I know that this machine is dangerous.
Broyles: Which is why we need to understand it. If it is indeed a threat -
Walter: - then to ignore it would be irresponsible. I've heard that argument before. That's what you people told Oppenheimer when you discovered that the Nazis were working on a bomb. And how do you think he slept after his little invention had killed hundreds of thousands in a fraction of a second?
- “The Box”

Scully: I'm sure all the necessary precautions will be taken.
Mulder: And I'm sure that Robert Oppenheimer got similar reassurances from his government.
- “Soft Light”

Chess, of course, is really a stylized way of playing War, which brings us back to where we began, I think. As the show makes its final moves for the season, the mood feels (quite appropriately for this show) simultaneously darker and lighter, for as everyone’s fate appears to become grimmer, there is a growing sense that miracles, however strange, have begun to manifest themselves for better or worse. The horror appears to be counterbalanced by magic the further we go down the road. Good things come from bad intentions and, as we know, good intentions, well…

They don’t always result in good things.

If we take The Immortal Game as a template (you have to love that name in this context!), many pieces will have to be sacrificed in order to win the game. How many and whom remains to be seen.

So whither Season Four, then? How realistic an expectation is it that the season would actually conclude in a reconciliation of two worlds?

From almost every possible standpoint, this would be an even braver move to make than any of those made in Season Three. You’d be presenting a show that takes place somewhere we’ve never been and peopled with characters we’ve never really met (although arguably, if the characters we know are merely halves of the individuals they were intended to be, we haven’t really met anyone yet). And this would be on a show that only just managed to slip its head out of the ratings noose.

So I think there’s room for doubt. And yet, what other possible answer can there be?

There are some clues. The producers have said that the season will come “full circle.” It’s a very interesting choice of phrase. It has an obvious meaning, some sort of satisfying way of having the plot cash a check written by the first episodes of the season, but what else? Doesn’t it also imply something linear being turned into a loop, possibly even repeating itself? Does it mean that Time, a linear concept, might be as important to this upcoming season as Space was to this one, not to mention as malleable? Is that why the months in the First People’s book consist of so many different lengths? What would it mean if different realities ran at different rates of speed? And take another look at that official network publicity shot for Season Three.

It’s Walter, Peter, and Olivia placed against the backdrop of…a full circle. A full circle that reveals the Other Side from inside the soft spot that allowed them to cross over.

What does it mean? I haven’t the faintest. But they’re not in front of a circle for no reason.

Another clue: the episode devoted to the birth of Peter and Olivia’s baby was entitled “Bloodline.”

In all of history, only a few bloodlines have been found to be ready for the work of our body. Only very few of those of the right lines are capable of dealing with the responsibility…

Welcome back to the ZFT Manuscript. Just when you thought it was safe…

Go back and read the excerpts we’ve seen of the manuscript. It’s all right, we’ll wait.

I’d forgotten what an uncomfortable read it is. The insistence on the survival of the fittest and the process of natural selection, bloodlines and eugenics, and the worthlessness of the social contract and morality itself.

When I had initially considered what this (possibly) divided reality might have (possibly) originally consisted of, I felt that it was the thing that Walter Bishop was becoming that was the key to it. Separately, one would safely concentrate on science while the other would look after affairs of state. The more their Walter began to behave like a scientist and the more our Walter became something like a Secretary of Defense, however, the more likely and frightening the possibility of their merging seemed to become. Put them together and what have you got? A living embodiment of the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about. A genius with complete social control. An all-powerful dictator who might put one in mind of the spectre of Nazi Germany and that’s a spectre that FRINGE has had in the background for quite some time. The ZFT manuscript certainly flirts with the idea of a master race and who should or shouldn’t be allowed to live.

Or, perhaps, evolve. Becoming is another word for evolving. Think of Walter evolving backwards thanks to the Chimp DNA he used in an attempt to become smarter. Think of the DNA all over the picture of The Vacuum.

So, going in, this is where I’m at: the Fourth Season is the Season of Time and an Evolutionary War. Think of the plot of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (Wells, by the way, believed in theories of eugenics): I don’t think our upcoming war is between our worlds but, rather, between beings who are more evolved and those who are less evolved. Is Ella’s name a signpost meant to point us towards “Eloi”? Does Peter and Olivia’s child represent a new evolutionary step? Is the important question not Where are we? but When are we? Anyone who holds the keys to Time holds the keys to Evolution.

Why do we have a character, Lincoln Lee, whose name seems to suggest a reconciliation between the two sides that fought the Civil War? Who was his father, the late jurist? Why does he recognize Nick Lane? Why does he seem to fit so neatly into the space that might have been Peter’s on the Other Side?

Something else: I don’t think the William Bell purporting to be operating Olivia Dunham right now is who he says he is. I think you would usually have better luck finding this mysterious puppeteer in the vicinity of a bowling alley. I bet he can manage this trick on both sides as well.

One can, of course, play these games forever. Is Peter meant as a Christ figure? The cruciform of The Vacuum that awaits him certainly leaves that interpretation open. Curious how the comic book covers that Walternate had framed for him all seem to deal with beginnings and endings (or, rather, death and resurrection). If a man decides to play God, is his son fated to play the Son of God?

In the end, it probably isn’t too wise to identify any of these characters with specific people, living, dead, or fictional. For instance, to consider Walter Bishop to be purely an analogue for Robert Oppenheimer would be to reduce the meaning of the character and the story.

Although Oppenheimer did have a son named Peter.

The White Queen lives backwards in time, due to the fact that she lives through the looking glass.
- Wikipedia


If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of the nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima. The people of this world must unite or they will perish.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer


You see, family is very important to me. There's nothing I wouldn't do.
- Walter Bishop

Today at the TRANSMEDIA, HOLLYWOOD 2: Visual Culture and Design industry symposium, co-hosted by UCLA and USC, Craig Hanna, chief creative officer, Thinkwell Group, forecasted significant growth in virtual and location-based themed experiences for leading consumer brands. The event, attended by leading media creators, designers and industry executives, focused on the re-imagination of the entertainment business. Hanna predicts that the convergence of on- and offline virtual worlds will grow outside of Hollywood.

read more

More information on NASA's planet-hunting efforts is online at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

Today is January 28, and Lenina has a smashing headache; she is a Streptococcus pneumoniae researcher. Not that this was the main reason for the headache, but an important meeting was being held today to launch the Pneumococcal Molecular Epidemiology Network’s [PMEN] new paper in Science . Oddly enough, her role at the meeting is to summarize the history of Streptococcus pneumoniae prior to her group’s latest bit of information. The meeting would cover the history and evolution of Streptococcus pneumoniae , in general, and the 40 year history of the PMEN-1 clone, specifically. History. The summary was sitting on her desk at work, in the laboratory.

When Lenina was first forced to rethink vaccination in her newer world she had to get over the fact that infants [not embryos] and the elderly [old people?] were targeted. However, "Sterilization is civilization" remained her mantra throughout both worlds. All infectious diseases should just go away; certainly there was a way to either annihilate or prevent them. Sometimes she would be so distraught at work that she would repeat unintelligible nursery rhymes. Her co-workers find her smart, but a little strange most of the time.

[More]

A new article by Michael Green discusses how “the Semantic Web, Mobile Web, and the immersive Internet [are] changing the way we learn and deliver learning.” Green states, “The growing and central role of technology in organizational learning can be characterized as both a boon and a burden. While the benefits of emerging technologies are broad and unprecedented, it is nearly impossible to keep pace with the rapid evolution of these tools. Even as today’s technology experts discuss artificial intelligence, immersive virtual worlds, and the future of mobile devices, many organizations are still wrestling with how to best leverage online learning.” continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

By Andrew Butter

Along with the emergence of the much heralded “Green Shoots” that must by now be turning into roses (?), has come the sinking realization that (a) just piling debt on debt is not a long-term solution to anything, and that (b) perhaps there might have been more “wrong” under the blanket of mark to market (when markets were in a bubble), and mark to fantasy when they crashed, than can be swept under the carpet forever; like perhaps something structural?

Q4-2008 was the first time in the history of America that over 40% of “recorded” imports of “goods” (“recorded” as in excluding recreational drugs), came from just (a) imports of “Petroleum and related products” (oil), plus (b) imports from China.

The wiggly black line at the bottom of that chart is the combination of Section M412 “Home entertainment equipment” (mainly televisions), plus section M400 “Apparel, footwear & (soft) household goods” (mainly clothes), plus section M411 “Recreational equipment & materials” which includes as a sub-section M4112 “Toys, shooting & sporting goods, and bicycles”.

Added together those illustrate the main driver of the seasonality of US imports from China, as in “Christmas”.

Sub-section M4112 is interesting. Evidently in USA “shooting goods” (guns) are considered to be a “recreational” product like toys; naturally no mention is made of “recreational drugs” which could easily be $35 billion a quarter, although no one knows because either (a) that’s a matter of National Security or (b) no one wants to know.

If you think all of that sounds mildly insane, wait until I tell you how America finances its addiction to (a) Oil, (b) Chinese Christmas Presents, (c) “Recreational” Guns, and (d) Imported Recreational Drugs.

The blue line on that chart is Line 55 from the BEA publication “U.S. International Transactions Accounts Data”; “technically” that’s called “Foreign-owned assets in the United States, excluding financial derivatives (increase/financial inflow ()”. In Plain-English that’s how much further America got into debt to foreigners, every quarter.

The Big Picture is (a) that all of the foreign debt America piled on since 2000 and before, was to pay for its trade deficit (well everyone knows that but no one wants to talk about that either), and (b) a large part of that came from sales of “Toxic Assets” (the green line).

Q2-2007 was a record quarter; back then America managed to persuade foreigners to hand over $700 billion to help finance their “China Syndrome”, which makes TARP look like chicken-feed (remember that was in one quarter). They did of course promise to pay the money back, (with interest); or more to the point, they promised that their grandchildren would pay it back, which is the sort of promise that crack-heads make all the time.

That was also the peak in sales of “U.S. securities other than U.S. Treasury securities”, you can find those on Line 66 which covers what some people call “Troubled Assets”; as in “Toxic”.

Note: Any connection with “Route 66” which is where Bob Dylan once said, “You can get your kicks”, is completely co-incidental. There again, selling some “Toxic” is a good way to finance the process of “getting your kicks”.

Notice how the red squiggly line (the trade deficit) is pretty much mirrored by the blue squiggly line (how much new debt gets piled on).

In technical terms, over that period 87% of the changes in “piling on the debt” can be explained by changes in the trade deficit in that quarter (i.e. plot one against another and you get an 87% R-Squared).

The difference (i.e. the 13% residual) is explained by (a) investments by Americans outside USA (for example in Special Economic Zones in China) and (b) imports of recreational drugs, which as explained above, are not recorded (obviously).

The problem of course with regression analysis is that it does not prove cause. No one knows whether the process is that (a) Americans borrow money from foreigners so they can blow it on wasting imported energy and buying guns for recreation, or (b) they blow the money first and then borrow later.

It is also possible that the two processes are completely independent, although with an 87% R-squared, that sound quite unlikely.

Cause and Effect

This chart is a little complicated to figure out, the lines are (a) the imports of oil (in dollars) compared with (b) Line 55 (basically new foreign debt), expressed as a percentage of the average from Q-1 2000 up to Q4 2003.

The idea is that perhaps that represented a “normal”; then there was something “abnormal” which happened starting in 2004; so the chart is a way of looking at that:


Two things jump out of that chart, the first is that perhaps the spike in oil prices was somehow “caused” by the preceding spike in USA borrowing from foreigners?

That makes sense intuitively, although of course that’s not proof. But if that’s what happened it would be a nice example of how bubbles are sort of “infectious”.

How about this for a story-line:

1. The housing bubble encouraged people to use their homes as an ATM.
2. Then they felt “rich”, so they went out and bought a lot of toys; and guns, and SUV’s to burn up imported oil (with gun-racks); and perhaps even recreational drugs, it was “party-time” after all. 
3. So imports went up. 
4. But money “needed” to be borrowed to buy the foreign exchange and to keep the “mighty dollar”, well…mighty.
5. So Goldman Sachs and the other “God’s Workers” packaged up all the loans that American home-owners had taken out using their houses as collateral and sold the loans to Norwegian pension funds, RBS, and other not-very-smart foreigners.
6. Then the housing bubble collapsed, and so it got harder and harder to find any not-very-smart foreigners who were inclined to lend any more money.
7. So anyway, the “God’s Workers” were hanging around wondering what to do for an encore, and there was still plenty of money sloshing around looking for a home, so they got in the act and placed big bets on oil prices going up, so oil prices went up.
8. Then because no one could persuade the not-very-smart foreigners to buy any more “Toxic”, imports went right down because there was no money to pay for them. 
9. Then luckily the Fed intervened, and everything is just wonderful again! The best of all beautiful worlds, America can still borrow money from foreigners to pay for its trade deficit.

I can’t prove that’s what happened, but it’s a nice story; but perhaps I missed something, like perhaps there is a cunning PLAN?

Bubbleomics

What’s interesting now; is what’s going to happen next?

Notice the symmetry of the blue line around the average from 2000 to 2003 (i.e. 100% by definition on the chart). That’s typical “bubbleomics”, like every action, has a reaction.

Think of a market like a flat pond, then someone throws a stone in, or there is a wind; then there are waves.

The amplitude of the crest of the waves compared to the “natural” level of the pond is exactly equal to the amplitude of the trough that follows the crest, and the distance in time or in space between one trough and the next, is exactly equal to the distance between one crest and the next.

Bubbles are typically caused by market distortions, typically thanks to manipulation of the market by one group of people for their own personal gain, typically the manipulators are either the government, or the banks; and the reason for that is because to play that “Great Game” and win you have to have access to cheap money.

If that “debt splurge” was a bubble it lasted from Q2-2004 and crossed the “fundamental” on the way down in Q2-2008 (four years), so things ought to get back to normal on that front in Q2-2012, but it’s got there one year too early.

Debt, like drugs, is all about the dosage:

I had a friend when I was growing up called David; I ended up as a boring-old-fart, that’s what my daughter says anyway. He grew up to be a part-time saturation diver and a part-time heroin addict; both of which activities, are much more exciting than anything I ever did. The money he made living for months at a time in a steel tube sitting on the deck of an offshore oil rig, paid for the heroin and for his Ferrari.

I never noticed that he suffered any particular harm from the heroin. He was super-fit; you need to be fit to be a diver and he could run for hours, and he was a really nice guy, whether he was stoned or straight.

One day he explained to me that the most important thing about being a heroin addict is to get the dose right; that’s if that’s what you want to do with your life. Too little and well it’s a bit of a waste, too much and well you are dead; and in fact that’s sadly what happened to him.

The point of that story is that although debt is useful, particularly if you used it wisely like to do a money-making project now that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to, too much can make you do stupid things. Just like heroin is useful, it’s still by far the cleanest painkiller with the least side-effects ever found. But all drugs can be dangerous, particularly when you start using them for recreation.

This analysis suggests that America can safely borrow (net) about $200 billion a quarter from foreigners to finance (mainly) it’s trade deficit (that’s a trillion a year), and not suffer any big consequences; and that number will go up in line with nominal GDP. That’s the maximum “safe” dose.

2008/09 was a scare and the addict had to be revived by artificial resuscitation. But now it looks like the addict is heading back to its old ways, look at the first chart; imports from China in Q3 2010 were more than ever before in the history of America.

Tell-tale signs of suicide attempts

This article is not about “What’s Good for America”, it’s about how to make not to end up in the same neighbourhood the next time America has a suicide attempt.

In that regard it’s worth watching “Line 55”, and the trade deficit.

The two “headline” pieces of data are Chinese imports and oil prices; unless America starts to get serious about making an environment that is as friendly to enterprise as Special economic Zones in China, and about its dependency on oil, at least until it can figure out a way to pay for oil and toys without borrowing money from foreigners to pay for it, that is always a danger. And price of oil isn’t going down.

About The Author - Andrew Butter is Managing Partner of ABMC, an investment advisory firm based in Dubai that he founded in 1999.  Andrew has 20 years of industry experience, and has been involved advising large scale real estate investments, mainly in Dubai.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of EconMatters.

EconMatters, April 6, 2011 | Facebook Page | Post Alert | Kindle

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See Also:

• Where Oil Might Drive The U.S. Military To Intervene Next
• Revolution Or Evolution In The World Oil Market?
• U.S. Consumers Have Big Banks To Blame For High Gasoline Prices

The Apple Investor is a daily report from SAI. Sign up here to receive it by email.

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AAPL Up With Market 
Stocks opened higher this morning on positive earnings. The S&P 500 is climbing led by gains in tech. Shares of Apple are trading up over 0.70%. Upcoming catalysts for the stock include results of its second fiscal quarter on Wednesday, April 20 at 5:00 p.m ET; any update regarding Steve Jobs' healthy return; the WWDC starting June 6; monthly NPD data to gauge Mac / iPod businesses; iPad 2 sales updates;  iPhone sales updates, the push in China, as well as the launch of the iPhone 5 (whenever that may be); new revenue streams such as video, books / publishing and social (Ping); moving iTunes into the cloud; and the continued evolution and adoption of Apple TV. Shares of Apple trade at 13x Enterprise Value / Trailing Twelve Months Free Cash Flow (incl. long-term marketable securities).

Apple Is Going To Continue To Dominate In The Tablet Market (AppleInsider)
PC sales are growing, but at a slower pace than expected, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore. He cut his PC unit growth (excluding tablets), for 2011 to 4% from 9% year-over-year. That said, he boosted his 2011 tablet sales forecast to 45 million, up from 40 million. Whitmore sees the lion's share of those tablets (35 million) being sold by Apple. He also increased his price target on the shares to $450 and reiterated his Buy rating.

Don't Forget The MacBook Air, It Could Make Apple Over $2 Billion In Annual Revenue
(Financial Post)
With all the chatter over the iPad 2, the iPhone 4 and its successor, it's easy to forget that Apple has another ultra-portable device that's doing quite well: the MacBook Air. And the second-generation is proving to be a strong seller; one that could bring the company $2.2 billion in annual revenue if the current pace keeps up, according J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz. The Air is also becoming a bigger player in the Mac lineup, representing more than 10% of Mac units in the fourth quarter, and 15% of total notebook unit sales versus the 5% from the year before.

Apple Wins The Teen Audience (Apple Insider)
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster surveyed 4,500 high school teens found that Apple continues to dominate the teen market and has driven surprisingly quick adoption of tablets by teens. Apple has achieved a record 17% iPhone market share among teens with an additional 37% of respondents indicating interest in buying an iPhone in the next 6 months and 20% are planning to buy a tablet; which probably means the iPad. Read more at Business Insider.

Consumer Reports Says iPad Will Continue To Lead On Quality And Price (Boy Genius Report)
"So far, Apple is leading the tablet market in both quality and price, which is unusual for a company whose products are usually premium priced," said Paul Reynolds, Electronics Editor at Consumer Reports. That said, there will undoubtedly be see more competitive pricing as tablets continue to hit the market. Consumer Reports has taken an odd stance on Apple’s mobile products in recent history, particularly where the iPhone is concerned, so this is a positive turn.

Apple's Developer Experience Is Easy Compared To Android's Fragmentation (Fortune)
According to a new survey, the overwhelming majority of developers for Google's Android see fragmentation as a problem for the platform. Many prefer to see a more unified, single store experience like Apple's App Store. Only 14% of the 250 developers surveyed didn't see fragmentation as an issue, while 57% either saw it as a "meaningful" or a "huge" problem. Many also found iOS easier to code for than Android, and thought it was considerably easier to get app exposure and proper pay on iOS than on Android.

Apple Weight Gets Cut In NASDAQ Rebalance (The Wall Street Journal)
NASDAQ announced that it will adjust the weighing of several companies in the NASDAQ-100 index to better reflect market capitalization. Given the fact that shares of Apple have quadrupled in value over the past two years, Apple's share of the index will go from 20% to 12%. Re-balancing is relatively rare, but not unheard of. Apple shares could get whacked though as many hedge funds follow to the index. Read more at Business Insider.

Apple Off the Hook For $625 Million In Patent Infringement Case (Bloomberg)
Apple won't have to shell out $625.5 million to a company called Mirror Worlds after all a new ruling in a patent dispute case. The trial focused on the Spotlight, Time Machine and Cover Flow features in Apple’s Mac operating systems. A jury last October found Apple was infringing three patents, but U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis reversed ruling and stated that Apple didn't infringe on patents owned by Mirror Worlds and closed the case in Apple's favor. That's a good chunk of change saved. Read more at Business Insider.

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See Also:

• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Can Larry Page Navigate The Company Through A Possible Antitrust Probe?
• Apple Zealots Still Going Insane At News That Android--ANDROID!--Has Blown Past iPhone In Market Share
• It Finally Takes Less Than A Month To Get The iPad You Ordered

Hedi Slimane is a name that has excelled no matter what medium of work he has embraced and interpreted. The influential individual has caught up with and discussed how he revolutionized fashion during spells at YSL and Dior Homme before moving in a new direction. Here are some key questions from the interview, while you can read the entire article here.

What are your lasting memories of your YSL days?
It was the age of innocence. So much was impossible in menswear at the time, at a Paris couture house in particular. It was therefore totally exciting to be clueless about it, and push the boundaries without looking back a second. I was totally free, although technically the first collections for Rive Gauche were more like a studio thing. The taste was Yves and Pierre’s. I started to really pursue my own design the last two seasons. I developed an obsession about male debutants and defining a balance of a couture tradition transposed within the sartorial tradition, but within a hedonistic youth context. It was impossible at the time for someone young and lean to find a jacket that would fit, and that would not be too much of an uber-design or conceptual statement. The ’90s were still into this obsolete ’80s idea of les createurs, as opposed to les couturiers. The only options were either sportswear or designer clothes à la Japonaise. I was trying this idea of colliding two worlds, like society-couture-glamour-luxury making out with youth culture. Those two worlds had obviously nothing in common, to say the least, and that was the whole point. I wanted to escape any sort of caricature or cliche, like the silver spoon or rebellious youth. I thought the truth, the relevance, the modernity—a suspicious concept—was somewhere in between. Of course this idea—to sum up, my daily tux jacket with a pair of skinny jeans, among many of my style ideas—was later heavily appropriated by the industry. But in the late 90s it was totally a new thing, since no men’s fashion was coming out of couture, which was still stuck in duty free and licensing. And the design coming out of the shows at the time were a bit light in craftsmanship, a little cheaply made. I guess this was my definition of what men’s fashion could be in a couture house. I was and have always been a couturier, not a designer. I was into the long tradition and fashion heritage that I turned inside out and gave to a younger audience as an hedonistic playground, dressing indie kids like young princes.

You moved to Dior Homme after leaving YSL. Did you feel particularly close to Christian Dior’s aesthetic?
Not at all. I was not at all into the Dior aesthetic, which felt a little bourgeois and conventional for my taste, to say the least. I went to Dior for a reason, which might seem irrational. Christian Dior was the closest thing to Yves Saint Laurent. It was the house where he started, together with some of his closest studio team, in particular the honorable Anne Marie Munoz, who used to talk to me about the Yves look for hours, for example the Yves shoulder, whispering in the studio with Yves next door. And it was just a walk down the street from Avenue Marceau to Avenue Montaigne, from one couture house to another. To many, it seemed like the most random choice. It did not make sense at all for any of my friends, who were horrified, but I intimately felt this was the right thing to do, the most natural thing to do. So, there I was at Dior. No one there had any idea of what menswear could be. I started right way to tell them that Christian Dior Monsieur, the name of the brand in 2000, had to go. I proposed a new idea, a new masculine idea, which I called Dior Homme. I started to design the couture salons of Dior Homme, since clearly I was pushing this idea of couture for men, as opposed to made-to-measure tailoring, that I had invented at YSL. I designed silk black robes and decided on my house models. They were those lean figures, despite harsh criticism and sarcasm, that would become a standard in the industry. I always thought it was like a crusade to do menswear when nobody cared about it at the time. It was irrelevant as fashion, and my whole point was to change this perception and push it as much as I could, no matter the consequences for me. So the birth of Dior Homme was a nightmare, because of the pressure. I felt reassured when Pierre Bergé told me Yves wanted to come to support me for my first show. It was symbolic, the first and last time he reappeared at Dior.

At what point did you realize you’d started a menswear revolution at Dior Homme?
It was always a struggle when I was there. The press was often oblique or controversial, and I always felt quite remote in some way. I actually could not have cared less, but I had to protect my team from all this. I always assumed we were not seeing the same thing, most of the traditional press and I, that we were living in different worlds. It was a total pain for me. I also remember the summer ’04 collection, with its nonchalant skinny jeans with suspended jackets. Beck had done the music for the show, and the boys were not even groomed. Most of the critics were about how it would be impossible for anyone to wear those jeans. But that show ended up changing the way guys dressed for the next ten years, and influenced the entire fast-fashion business. I mean, everything during the Dior years was like this—too skinny, too ambiguous, too hedonistic, too feminine. It was like a generation gap. This was certainly true musically, a strong focus for me, which is always a mirror of the time, where youth is concerned, and the evolution of its wardrobe. This translates into fashion for a decade. Therefore, it was only when I left Dior that I could forget about the noise and see my principles, or style, translated to the street. The Internet of course had given it a global scope. Funnily enough, the industry, acting as if I would never return to design, took over my principles, from Burberry’s promotion of Brit bands to Topman and Oxford Street, and even Balmain discovering stage-wear, glam-rock jackets or tux jackets worn with skinny jeans. It was of course a good outcome. I did not really have to design for a few years, since my design was still around, and still the subject of interpretation and appropriation.

How do you go about scouting for models, or as you call it, boy safaris? Did they take you seriously at first? Do you still go on boy safaris?
The boy safari thing was an expression my team used at the time of Dior Homme. We might have used it twice, maximum. God knows how it ended up randomly in the New Yorker, and lately in the Guardian. One of those things, I guess. There was also a rumor about baby food. Regardless, I really started street-casting seriously when I was about 18. But even before then I remember sitting down in the subway in Paris, going to high school as a teenager, and always finding the perfect subject right in front of me, or next to me. I always had an idea of what they were about, how they would be on camera, or what they should really look like if I could photograph or dress them. I guess I was seeing a sort of grace or beauty they were not aware of. This weird behavior was always there in me. Also, at the time of YSL, and particularly Dior, I could organically find one of my future models in a crowd. I still cast constantly for photographs, boys and girls. This is always more interesting to me, as I find it totally preserved. For instance, I’m just finishing a special L.A. issue of Man About Town, and most of the characters were street-cast. I’m really attached to all the characters I found over decades. I designed entirely for them, with them in mind. There would be no photographs or fashion without them. They are the only thing that matters. The rest, I guess, is irrelevant.

Looking back, which collections did you like the most? And the least?
I am not fond of my first collection at Dior. The premier d’atelier was a nightmare and did not get it right. I changed the second season, but it really started to feel right technically, in the proportions, in the fourth season. YSL was even more difficult. The first seasons did not have much to do with me, but were a slow progression to avoid any unnecessary discussion within the house. I only started to really design the last year—maybe three seasons, but not more. The last YSL collection was obviously the most significant season since I knew I was leaving. It became something like a lexicon. The principles of the skinny jeans actually started in ’99, in the Black Tie YSL collection. On the other hand, at Dior I was mostly attached to the London years, and the glam-rock collection of January ’04. An entire generation of musicians was in the show, either playing, or on the runway. They were still totally unknown, but they were about to take over. It would become the London scene, which I defined in a special issue of the newspaper Liberation in May ’04. That show was therefore a moment in time, in music and fashion, not only men’s fashion as this collection was one of the most influential Dior Homme collections in womenswear as well. There was something like freedom in it, an ease. I don’t think I could ever do a show like that now, unless a movement in music shows up this decade.

How did people react when you left Dior Homme to pursue a career in the arts? Did you receive desperate fan letters?
I never left to pursue a career in the arts, or any other career in fact, which did not have any appeal for me at all, but to stay free and passionate about what I was doing. I left to focus on my own work, and to go back to photography for a few years. The reaction was of course terrible. No one could understand why I would leave Dior at that moment and let anyone else use my style like a free commodity. But this was the right thing to do for me, the most healthy thing to do. I felt so relieved and happy about it, and it just shows how detached I was during these years. I started to go very often to the U.S., and California in particular. I always felt something about America and decided in 2010 to settle in Los Angeles.

You told me many years ago that you didn’t really archive clothes. Do you still own many Dior items? How do you dress today?
No, I don’t. It is quite sad in a way, but I guess I did that on purpose, not to get attached. I had just a few clothes, but a lot have disappeared over the years, lost or stolen. I still own some suits, and I keep wearing them. They actually look better now. I always like when clothes age. I also wear vintage clothes, which I sometimes have to correct. L.A. is pretty good for vintage.

Most of the models you photographed during that decade were skinny and streetwise. Are you now interested in different types of models?
I’m interested in anyone, really. Even if I’m consistent with a certain physique, I do sometimes, above all in U.S., photograph girls or guys a little more physical, or classic in proportions. This is never about beauty per se, or some sort of aesthetic, but about a character that moves me and that silently belongs to the same world. I photograph a lot of older men as well, mostly creative minds, artists or writers, and it is precisely the same thing for me. This diary format gives the idea of a ritual, a repetitive process where one subject follows another subject, and where they all belong equally.

“Hedi Slimane Looks Back at His Menswear Revolution” is a post from: SLAMXHYPE

Rita J. King and I were on Internet Evolution Radio today hosted by Michael Maguire giving the audience a sneak peak of our newest project, "IMAGINATION: Creating the Future of Education & Work." IMAGINATION was the result of an 18-month-long research project exploring the intersection and impact of technology on education, work and 21st Century workforce preparedness. The report officially launches next Friday, but we're giving our readers and Twitter followers a sneak preview.

It was a rousing chat and audio stream conversation in which we covered everything from virtual worlds to games to the importance of teachers.

[Internet Evolution: Rita J. King and Joshua Fouts on IMAGINATION: Creating the Future of Education and Work]

Gallery after the jump! Audi of America today announced that it has teamed up exclusively with Renovo Hardwood Bicycles, the only all-hardwood bike manufacturer in the world, to create the duo – an Audi-inspired bicycle collection that embodies the best of both worlds: luxury and performance. An evolution of the ongoing Audi commitment to progressive [...]

Audi of America today announced that it has teamed up exclusively with Renovo Hardwood Bicycles, the only all-hardwood bike manufacturer in the world, to create the duo â an Audi-inspired bicycle collection that embodies the best of both worlds: luxury and performance. Â An evolution of the ongoing Audi commitment to progressive ideas, the duo serves as both a work of art and a mode of ...

desigNYC seeks an Executive Director to lead our small, mission-driven organization into its next phase of growth. desigNYC is currently transforming from a 100% volunteer-led collective into a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit with staff and an active board. We have recently been granted incorporation in the State of New York, our 501(c)(3) paperwork has been submitted to the IRS, and we have received a significant two-year foundation grant that will fund capacity building, including the Executive Director position.

The Executive Director’s primary mandate will be to oversee the sustainable growth of our organization by enhancing our service/program offering, formalizing our organizational structure, producing and implementing a diversified funding strategy and increasing our community of supporters through a robust communications strategy.

About desigNYC
desigNYC’s mission is to improve the lives of New Yorkers by connecting nonprofits and civic groups serving the public good with passionate, professional pro bono designers. Our focus is local (NYC’s five boroughs); we engage all design disciplines (architectural, landscape, interior, lighting, communication design); our approach is participatory (we recommend designing with the community being served); and we work at all different kinds of scales (from print brochures to big pubic spaces). Our projects improve the lives of New Yorkers around the themes of Well-Being and Sustainable Communities — creating solutions affecting a range of social and environmental issues impacting the city, including affordable housing, sustainable development, social justice, human health, green space, urban farming, local food systems, youth leadership, and more. desigNYC was founded in 2009 by a group of influential designers and design advocates. For more information, visit www.desigNYC.org

Responsibilities
• Strategy: Collaborate with the Board of Directors, advisory committees and external facilitators to create the organization’s strategic vision and action plans
• Operations: Oversee organizational development and coordinated action amongst numerous volunteer resources.
• Programs: Oversee evolution of offering and program delivery.
• Fundraising: Research, identify and implement a diversified fundraising strategy including foundation and government grants, corporate sponsorships, individual giving and online network platforms.
• Communications: Collaborate with advisory committees to expand and grow community of supporters through PR, marketing, events and online/social media strategies. Act as a public face for the organization in the media, at public events, speaking engagements, etc.
• Financial management: Plan, manage and monitor organizational and project budgets.

Qualifications
• Optimistic change maker with five years of professional experience, ideally combining programmatic, marketing and fundraising experience
• Passion for the mission and vision of desigNYC, with experience in and/or knowledge of NYC nonprofit and design worlds.
• Demonstrated ability to lead an organization, program or initiative
• Proven success building and cultivating strong partnerships/relationships with a variety of stakeholders and organizations, including funders, partners, corporations, nonprofit organizations, schools, and potential board members.
• Strong leadership and project management skills – ability to war many hats.
• Outstanding written, verbal and intrapersonal communication skills.
• Self-starter with ability to thrive in a small, start-up entrepreneurial environment.
• Bachelor’s degree and equivalent experience required; advanced degree preferred

Salary: salary commensurate with experience; Location: New York City;

To Apply: Please send a cover letter and resume, outlining how your skills and experience position you for success in this role and stating how you heard about this position.

• Location: New York
• Compensation: DOE
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

[The ninth in a series of posts on the evolution of TransForth]

The dictionary we have at the moment is split across two worlds. The definitions are in Forth-world; packed into plain memory. But we still have the F#-world mapping of WordRecords to those memory locations.

let mutable dict = []

type WordRecord = { Name : string; Def : int; Immediate : bool ref }

let immediate () = dict.Head.Immediate := true

let header name = dict <- { Name = name; Def = mem.[h]; Immediate = ref false } :: dict

 

Header Format

 

Instead of this, we now want to move to plain memory along with everything else. The traditional Forth dictionary header is four bytes. We can certainly pack the name and the Immediate flag into a single Int32. However, for now we’ll postpone implementing the traditional Forth way of representing names of words (as a four-byte sequence giving the length and the first three ASCII characters). Instead we’ll take a little temporary shortcut and just go with the simplest thing that could possibly work; a hash of the name with the high bit reserved as a flag indicating whether it’s immediate (there’s obvious shortcomings to this but we change it once again when it’s re-implimented in Forth itself):

 

let encode (n : string) = n.GetHashCode() &&& 0x7FFFFFFF

let immediate () = mem.[latest] <- mem.[latest] ||| 0x80000000

 

We’ll be getting rid of the dict and will pack these headers into memory alongside their definitions. Each header will give the name/immediate encoding in one memory cell, followed in the next cell by the address of the previous word; thus making a linked list. The latest pointer will always point to the header of the most recently added word.

 

Following each header will be the packed definition compiled in as we implemented in the last post.

 

let mutable latest = mem.[h]

let header name =

    let link = latest

    latest <- mem.[h]

    encode name |> append

    append link

Finding and Forgetting

 

Instead of finding and forgetting words using the niceties of F#...

let find name = List.tryFind (fun w -> w.Name = name) dict

let forget name =

    let found = dict |> Seq.skipWhile (fun w -> w.Name <> name) |> List.ofSeq

    dict <- found.Tail

    mem.[h] <- found.Head.Def

 

… we’ll have to resort to low level memory walking and adjusting of the latest pointer.

let find name =

    let enc = encode name

    let rec find' addr =

        if addr = 0x0400 // first cell is DOSEMI

        then -1 else

            if mem.[addr] &&& 0x7FFFFFFF = enc

            then addr else find' mem.[addr + 1]

    find' latest

let forget name = mem.[h] <- find name; latest <- mem.[mem.[h] + 1]

 

The find function now returns the address of a word’s header (or -1 if not found). The forget function just adjusts the latest pointer; leaving forgotten definitions in memory to be subsequently overwritten.

 

A couple of helpers will be useful for checking whether a word isimmediate, and for converting a word address to the address of the definition – the so called “code field address” (cfa) which always can be found two cells from the header.

 

let isimmediate addr = mem.[addr] &&& 0x80000000 = 0x80000000

let cfa addr = addr + 2 // used in several places

 

Outer Interpreter Tweaks

 

Finally, our outer interpreter needs to change slightly to expect addresses rather than WordRecord options from find and to use the new dictionary format.

 

let rep input =

    out.Clear() |> ignore

    source <- input

    while not (Seq.isEmpty source) do

        let word = token ()

        if word.Length > 0 then

            match find word with

            | -1 -> // literal?

                let number, value = Int32.TryParse word

                if number then

                    if interactive then push value else append LIT_ADDR; append value

                else word + "?" |> failwith

            | d ->

                let c = cfa d

                if interactive || isimmediate d

                then p <- c; w <- c; i <- HALT_ADDR; execute ()

                else append c

 

That’s the last of the data structures remaining to be moved to plain memory. The last major moving part to be transitioned will be the outer interpreter. TransForth is coming along!

"One of the players was taking air-force pilot drugs."

Rift has put Trion Worlds on the map. Words such as "feature-complete" and "polished" were bandied round when the game launched in early March, with Eurogamer awarding the game 8/10. Better still, Rift sets a tantalising precedent for the two other MMOs Trion Worlds has in development (with all three, plus the studio's tech department, sharing an investment pot of $100 million). But it hasn't all been plain sailing. Malicious bots scour Rift daily for loop-holes, and recently a hacker had to alert Trion Worlds to a security breach. Gold farmers have invaded Rift, too. What's more, work on Rift has only just begun - as with any other MMO, the launch is just the start. Can Trion direct Rift's evolution with enough finesse? Eurogamer cornered executive producer Scott Hartsman to find out.

Read more...

SEPTEMBER 16, 1991 SANANDA Greetings, Precious Druthea. I AM Sananda. I come in the service of our Holy Divine Father God of Light, and to you my brethren. COMING TO TERMS WITH IMPENDING EARTH UPHEAVAL This day is a most uncomfortable day for my scribe and for many of you who feel a tremendous tide of uncertainty about your tomorrows. We sit on the eve of a projected day (by evil) of a possible major earthquake along the San Andreas faultline in California. And even if the quakes are not triggered tomorrow, it is long past due to occur. ANYWAY, if not tomorrow then sometime in your future. Your agitation is real, chelas, for you concern for many things other than the possible loss of your own life. Many of you have friends and relatives in these areas of impending danger. Many of you simply concern over the tremendous suffering and horror that this sort of physical catastrophe inevitably brings to many millions of people. Druthea ponders how she will respond in the worst of circumstances which she can imagine...and yet the uncertainty remains. She feels quite helpless in respect to the humans she loves in these locations since she KNOWS that they will and have chosen their own path and their reasons remain between them and God. WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT? What can you DO? You can ask for protection in their behalf. You can speak to them personally and ask that they make some extra preparations or even leave the area. Then you MUST let it go! You cannot hang your emotions upon their decisions, for if you do, YOU will not be able to function in your service. These sorts of circumstances are the ones where emotional detachment becomes so important to attain. Yes, Druthea, it is a sort of grieving process you are going through...a letting go. It is best that you do this now since you have a little bit of time to feel saddened and helpless. Tomorrow you may not have the time, nor inclination for spending time evaluating your personal emotional responses. YOU will just DO what you must and you WILL cope much better than you think! I speak to all of you who read this document. I simply share Druthea's feeling as example which MANY of you can identify with. You ALL have been well-prepared on higher levels for this service and that includes disaster preparation. And certainly, by now, most of you will be prepared for physical survival as well. Trust and LISTEN to your own inner guidance for you will be given instructions. KNOWING TRUTH CAN SET YOU FREE? You may be asking yourselves how KNOWING this Truth can set you free. Remember this, The Truth may not always be pleasant to KNOW, most especially in THESE TIMES you are participating in. Once you KNOW you can prepare yourselves and REMEMBER how to allow God's co-creative MIND to assist you in making strategic plans of action for returning balance to ALL unbalanced circumstances. On the other hand, when you exist in ignorance of Truth, such as is the state of affairs for MOST upon you planet, then you will not have benefit of preparation to make the necessary balanced changes. You will simply suffer the consequences action which is a result of your ignorance especially when in your ignorance you defy the natural laws of God and Creation. WHO WINS? It is really not a question of whether or not God wins in the end of this cycle. He already has. The question remains will YOU be on the winning side of God or not? Can you deny The Truth? Most certainly you can and many, many ones will chose to deny rather than stand in responsible co-creation with God. But alas, chelas, YOU cannot force nor change the choice of another, for they alone will choose and reap the consequences or rewards of their choices and limitations. This is the process of soul growth evolution for all human fragments of God. "All will return to God eventually, only yours is the agony of waiting." INTRODUCTION: WHO WE ARE AND WHY WE COME Since we write for the first issue of the Newspaper format, I will discuss a bit about WHO I AM and give a bit of introduction. I AM called Esu, Jesus, Christ, Immanuel, Emmanuel, The Pale Prophet, etc. I AM now called SANANDA, which means "One with God". This is my inherited name given of Our Father God/Aton. Druthea means Teacher, One who brings Strength and Gift of God. She is one of my beloved scribes to bring you THE WORD. I and my brother, Lord Michael, are the Spiritual Guardians of this planet as well as many other planets in this galaxy. I come with God's Hosts to bring His children of Light home to higher realms of awareness beyond Earth 3rd dimensional physical. It is graduation time--opportunity when you ones will have either learned your lessons for abiding within balance of the Cosmic Laws of Creation, or not. We bring The Word as was promised by Our Creator in the ending/beginning cycle time of which you are now in the midst. We force none. We offer our Hand of Truth, Knowledge and Love. You may choose to turn away and God will allow YOU each the choice for He gifted you ones with Free-will to choose on your own. THE ADVERSARY God's adversary, whom you may call Satan or Lucifer, has worked most cleverly and diligently to KEEP you in ignorance of Truth. Within the THOUSANDS of pages of THE PHOENIX JOURNALS (40 volumes), [now 241] we of God's Hosts have unfolded to mankind on Earth the Who, What, When, Where and HOW of the deceptions perpetrated upon you by your adversary. Encompassing religious, historical, political, socioeconomic, technical and geophysical areas...no stone has been left unturned in this massive deception by the Dark Ones. CHRIST TEACHINGS VERSUS THE ADVERSARIES' LIE The greatest tool of the adversary has been the religious/spiritual deceptive teachings. For by tampering with God's Truth within your so-called Holy books, the adversary has caused mankind to develop a personal God in man's imperfect Human Image, which has stripped many millions of their personal power by not KNOWING communion with GOD who dwells within. And yet what truth remains in your Bible is totally misinterpreted by mankind. For example, when I speak of THE ONE as follows: John 14:6-21: "...Father who dwells with me and I in the Father." "The words I speak to you I speak not of myself but the Father that dwells in me. He doeth the works", and "These things I do YOU will do greater." I spoke of THE ONE and the Father who dwells within me, NOT only about ME. THE FATHER DWELLS WITHIN ALL...ALL..ALL. For we each exist by His Grace, His Mind, His Thought! When you each recognize and commune with Our Father who dwells within you, His Wisdom and Knowledge and Power are manifested through you, when your intent is to serve His Will only. And through the Christ WAY of KNOWLEDGE OF GOD WORKING WITHIN will you do the miracles I've done and greater. Can you begin to see how my words have been twisted and corrupted? So the adversary developed many of you into God-Fearing people with God out there somewhere ready to punish you for all your sins. And then the adversary really pulled a clever trick, he claimed through the gospel of Paul (Saul of Tarsus) that Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed his blood for YOUR sins (errors). All that is necessary is you BELIEVE Christ is your savior and here are all the other little rules for entry into "Heaven". Nowhere does it say KNOW God or the Christ WAY, simply believe what we write as truth because this so-called apostle or that king decided it was so. One other misconception I would like to rectify regarding the adversary. The adversary is now the ruler of the physical world, because he's been allowed, by man, to rule man through fear, physical desire and dependency. The adversary DOES NOT have MORE power than GOD, HIS CREATOR. Only hu-man gives the adversary control by remaining ignorant of his own God-power and knowledge. The adversary WILL ALWAYS WITHER in the face of YOUR GOD-LIGHT for he fears THE LIGHT and is a coward. A reminder to all to KEEP YOUR GOD-LIGHT SHIELDS INTACT AND LISTEN TO YOUR INSTRUCTIONS! My words have been butchered, deleted and tampered with throughout all the various versions of YOUR so-called Holy Bible which is the ONE document which exists that has so completely buffaloed MILLIONS of people and kept them in spiritual poverty and ignorance. There is so much superstition and dogma rewritten in those pages, it is mind-boggling that so many still buy the lie as truth! WHO PUNISHES OUR SINS? So WHO punishes you and why all this evil and corruption? YOU punish yourselves through ignorance of truth about the ways of God and Creation, and the Laws governing all. You have developed the evil and allowed the corruption also because of ignorance. Don't you see, GOD never limits you your opportunities to gain KNOWLEDGE. YOU limit yourselves through the embracing of fear, greed, hatred, guilt, envy, intolerance, arrogance and a host of other spiritually limiting human emotions. God has not left His children without the knowledge of HOW to turn around and reclaim balance within His Laws. With the knowledge of why and how mankind has erred in his ignorance YOU can assist the reclaiming of Earth by Our Father. If you choose NOT to serve Our Father and instead directly or indirectly serve the adversary, this kingdom called earth Shan will NOT be reclaimed, only the individual fragments of God who serve His Will faithfully will be allowed to exit while evil devours itself and all in its path. WHAT ABOUT IMMORTALITY AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN? What happened to immortality? Birth and rebirth? All in Creation experience expansion and compression. Life and Death, and Rebirth. Even man in his ignorance of truth continues life SOMEWHERE when he departs this planet in "death" transition. My teachings about immortality were mostly deleted by the adversary. In this way could he (the adversary) bind man in fear of death and therefore control his LIFE on earth. I urge each one of you who read this document to read ALL of THE PLEIADES CONNECTION series, eight volumes now, which beautifully and explicitly reveal and explain the mysteries of the nature and workings of God and Creation as transmitted by my beloved brother Germain. I also urge you to read of THE LAWS and DEADLY SINS as transmitted by myself, Lord Michael and Germain in THE PHOENIX OPERATOR-OWNER MANUAL. These above mentioned books exist now as THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS FOR MANKIND on the planet! WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? The Kingdom of Heaven exists within God-KNOWING man. What is "heaven"? Your dictionary describes it as firmament, the regions around or above the earth; sky, any condition of great happiness and of course, the abode of God and His angels where virtuous souls are received. I again say to you that "The Kingdom of Heaven" exists within God-KNOWING man. It is a "place" which exists with-in the ALL-Knowing Omnipotent Mind of God and where ones go by seeking communion with and KNOWING GOD-Awareness WITHIN, instead of physical sensing awareness without which recognizes ONLY physical ego consciousness. When I say within I mean beyond your ego consciousness and subconsciousness. The subconscious itself only functions as it is programmed to function. What you must do is tap into your Super-consciousness or also called God-consciousness. Therein will you find ALL knowledge revealed to you by Our Creator according to your ability to accept, comprehend and take active responsibility for it. Heaven is a place within GOD's Knowing mind, where CAUSE of all Creation is born. And physical manifested worlds and beings come from ALL knowing God's divided thinking of equal sexed pairs (male-female) in motion. This represents EFFECT. God's thinking in MOTION. YOU ARE A THOUGHT OF GOD? So what is human in relationship to GOD? As with all creatures, each individual is a thought-fragment of THE ONE Creator. Does God destroy His Creations? NEVER! He can UNTHINK you though! God only GIVES AND REGIVES LOVE; Love which is the seed of ALL Creation. Nature Gives and re-gives. It is only man (who has free-will choice) who TAKES, which brings the unbalance upon the planet which you can not longer ignore. You are all now witnessing the consequences of spiritual ignorance which have resulted in the unbalanced (ignorant, hateful, greedy) thinking, sensing behavior by the masses of mankind on earth. The question is, will enough of you recognize your errors and turn the tide of physical destruction of your species? The play is not over yet and we are proceeding along as if YOU WILL CHANGE IT! WHAT IS THE ROLE OF HU-MAN? As Hu-man, our souls exist in the image of perfection of our Creator with unlimited co-creation potential. Your physical bodies and physical earth plane exist, of course, in the degree of imperfection in direct relation to the spiritual imperfection or ignorance upon which mankind conducts his thinking and action behavior. The seed potential of our ALL-Knowing, Omnipotent and Omnipresent ONE exists within each soul fragment called hu-man. Essentially what that means is that YOU each will become the hands and feet of our Creator, gradually remembering and thus co-creating, in balance, His Creation. Currently many ones of you use God's hands and feet to serve evil, unbalanced thinking and behavior. Most know it not, but will still reap what they sow in their ignorance. It is Cosmic Law. Cause and Effect. As you sow, so shall you reap. I must tell you chelas that you cannot change the laws one iota and the consequences of defying them abound upon your plane. Even your so-called Christian Bible has 10 basic rules to live by, most of which are pretty accurate; although you will receive the true untampered meanings in the Journal entitled THE PHOENIX OPERATOR-OWNER MANUAL. WHERE IS HELL? I must say that Hell exists right upon your planet. It exists as a by-product of greedy attachment to the material world which has resulted in loss of moral character through spiritual misdirection and ignorance. Mankind who continue to exist with awareness of only his five physical SENSES will thus deny his co-creative spark of God which dwells within his Higher consciousness and remain bound to the limits of human physical dimensions. Remember there are MANY MANSIONS IN GOD'S KINGDOM. Physical 3rd dimension is only one dimension of experience and exists for the spiritual growth of spiritually PRIMITIVE hu-man (higher universal man) species, such as yours. You, my precious brethren, may argue with, deny and resent the truthbringers, the messengers of God, but that will not change THE TRUTH to fit your opinions. If you find yourself threatened and angered by these words or any words in this Newspaper, I say GOOD! Welcome the challenge to your "belief structures" because the challenge, if accepted in humility and in God's Light, will allow you the opportunity TO KNOW the Truth instead of believing a lie which does not serve you of GOD. Always, chelas (students of life), the choice is YOURS. I will end this document with a quote of the Highest Law of Creation as written in THE PHOENIX OPERATOR-OWNER MANUAL. "Achieve the wisdom of knowledge inasmuch as this will enable you to wisely follow the Laws of Creation." So be it. I AM Sananda, One With God, within Creation. I come to bring you home. Will you take mine hand of Love and Truth? Or will you deny Me and God? I humbly await YOUR decision. May the blessings of Our Father's Light rain gently upon you that KNOWING AND SERVING GOD WITHIN you become your only desire. I honor you, precious Druthea, and all of God's Hosts incarnate upon Earth and in "Heaven" (The Cosmos). Our service in this time of Kali (chaos) is not easy, but the spiritual rewards are tremendous. Salu...Salu...Salu. Resource: THE PHOENIX EXPRESS , October 1991, Volume 16, Number 11. http://www.phoenixarchives.com/liber...1091/16-11.pdf

The video features third incarnation AUJIK artifacts at an excursion at the Ishiyama dera in Japan. The artifacts are superfluous products generated in the crossbreed of human and technical evolution. They are in a state between resignation and euphoria,incapable of expressing themselves. The Ishiyama dera is a sacred Buddhist area and is most famous because of the novelist Murasaki Shikibu who wrote "The Tale of Genji"(the worlds first novel) there. Also Ukiyo-E artist Ando Hiroshige portrayed Ishiyama dera in his "The Famous Views of 60-Odd Provinces". It is also an offical music video for Irish artist Chequerboard. The tune is called "Prince August" from the Album "Penny Black" for more of Chequerboard see: http://www.chequerboard.net/

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other is the new book from Sherry Turkle, an MIT professor whose writing on Internet culture and virtual worlds have been enormously influential on their development and evolution....

The walls between the worlds are thinned;
The Gods’ might is at its peak,
The wights and the dead walk freely among the living.
Let us remember them on this Mother Night.
– from  a Heathen rite posted on the Internet some years ago, original source unknown.

This is the Eve of the Winter Solstice. It is the great celebration of Mother Night.

Mother Night is a Germanic/Scandinavian Midwinter festival that begins the 12-day Yuletide season. It is customary on this night to pray for auspicious dreams, which are said to foretell the year to come. As the longest and darkest night of the year, this is considered the womb of the New Year.

Wait!  Is tonight the longest night?  Or tomorrow?

This time is called “Solstice,” because it comes from the Latin “solstitium,” from sol, which means “sun” and -stitium, “a stoppage.” For several days, in fact, it appears that the sun’s arc from sunrise to sunset is unchanged, and the daylight hours are unchanged.  However, the precise moment of Solstice occurs when the Sun enters the sign of Capricorn, which will be at 6:38pm Eastern time tomorrow (Tuesday the 21st). So, in fact, several nights during this time period are of equal length.

Mother Night is observed in honor of the Dark Goddess, who holds us at our beginnings and our endings.   In particular, Freya, the Goddess of Love, female fertility and creativity is now honored with evergreens and fires, feasting and singing at the start of Her festival, which later became the 12 days of Christmas. The word Yule comes from geola, the “yoke” that joins the old and new years.

Whether you know Her as Frigga, or Freya, the Crone, or nameless, this is Her doorway, after which the days of Yule begin.

This pause between the deepest Dark and the return of the Light is an ephemeral moment, overflowing with magic. Tonight, especially, it comes with the power of a Full Lunar eclipse, in the last possible degrees of Sagittarius (where the Sun is) and Gemini (where the Moon is).  This Solstice Eclipse also occurs within three degrees of the Galactic Core, so it is a fantastically rare, perfect alignment of the Moon, Earth, Solstice Sun and Galactic Center.

Robert Wilkinson writes, “This Lunar Eclipse is a prelude to the very powerful Partial Solar Eclipse on January 4 at 14 Capricorn which will primarily affect Europe, North Africa, and Central Asia. Both eclipses are shutting some old ways of life down forever (as all eclipses do), leaving us space to embrace new mutations that are coming on strong.”

Astrologer Lynn Hayes makes it crystal clear.  She explains, “We are being primed for a period of cellular evolution, whether or not we are consciously aware of the change that is occurring. The climactic opening occurs from the inside out and it’s quite likely that there will be no evidence of this transformation in our outer world. It may require a quiet listening from within to experience the dramatic unfolding in its full force.”

The precise thing that we should do on Mother Night.

May She bless you well.

Share the Magic:

In the previous post I briefly mentioned the Kinect as possibly being a part of the further evolution of virtual worlds. I was very interested finding a presentation by former Linden Lab employee Kyle Machulis about the OpenKinect community. Which is kind of neat, because that community demonstrates that one can do some very futuristic

More information is available at www.alsubaiproject.org.

For a complete list of the Qatar Foundation's initiatives and projects, visit http://www.qf.org.qa.


For more information, contact:

David A. Aguilar
Director of Public Affairs
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
617-495-7462
daguilar@cfa.harvard.edu

Christine Pulliam
Public Affairs Specialist
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
617-495-7463
cpulliam@cfa.harvard.edu

Riham El-Houshi
Qatar Foundation
974-3318-0096
relhoushi@qf.org.qa

The still untitled 3D TV network, joint venture of Sony Corp., Discovery Communications and IMAX Corp., has added six new titles, original series and acquisitions, to its programming slate. The network, billed as the first 24/7, fully programmed 3D TV network in the U.S., is slated to launch early next year.

Original Series Bullproof (working title): Cowboys live their lives 8 seconds at a time, but the men sent in to save them from harm face up to 90 2,000-pound angry bulls a night. This series brings to life the most extreme and dangerous man-versus-beast competition in existence – the daredevil world of professional bull riding – focusing on the true heroes of the sport.  Produced by Wild Eyes Prods. and Digital Revolution Studios. High Octane (working title): Utilizing the latest evolution in 3D camera equipment and cutting-edge production techniques, this series brings viewers along for the ride in the high-octane worlds of motocross, jet skiing, rock-climbing, bungee jumping and other extreme action sports in a way only native 3D can.  Produced by Electric Sky Prods. Making the Brand (working title): From sophisticated machinery designed to produce goods with mind-numbing efficiency and speed, to the artistry and craftsmanship of human creativity, the diverse and fascinating world of how products are produced on a mass scale is brought to life in this hour-long, native 3D series.  Produced by Electric Sky Prods. Exclusive U.S. Premieres Ghost Lab ... Read More »

Summary: Position paper discussing the reasons why genetically modified foods should be labeled.

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He has made videos for everyone from Pulp to Fatboy Slim. But Garth Jennings has sketchbooks stuffed with ideas that never got made. Like this gem for Kanye West . . .

Have you ever wondered what happens to stage invaders at gigs? First of all, they are checked by the security men to make sure they are fit and healthy, then they are cleaned thoroughly, dropped down a chute, sent through a meat-mincer and turned into the hotdogs sold in the foyer of the concert venue.

This was my pitch to U2 for a video to accompany their single Elevation. The band were incredibly friendly and laughed at my pitch, but it was the wrong kind of laugh. It was the "ho ho ho – no way, José" kind of laugh, which is understandable, but a shame. I really thought this idea was a winner. You've got shots of the band performing, crowds going wild, and an action-packed Sweeney Todd-style subplot to keep viewers glued from start to finish. Oh well, at least I got to meet Bono!

I love music and I love film-making, so being a music video director is the best of both worlds. The process of making a video is quite simple: the record company send you, and several other directors, a track. They often give you a brief that will nearly always include the phrases: "the band must look cool . . . we want something edgy . . . stylish . . . and if possible have a never-seen-before trick". Blah blah blah. Best to ignore the brief. Just listen to the music and try to come up with an idea that captures why you love that song.

Although I really enjoy the process of coming up with ideas, getting the right one is often like pulling teeth. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, it arrives like a special delivery and I'm done in a flash. This happened with the video for Fatboy Slim's Right Here, Right Now. The history of evolution from big jellyfish-like bag to big fat guy. Bingo! And Badly Drawn Boy's Spitting in the Wind: Joan Collins sings the song in a bathtub, then Damon Gough appears and has to cheer her up. "Put the kettle on – I've cracked it!" And Help the Aged by Pulp was also a simple concept: Jarvis rides a stairlift to heaven. He really liked the idea and it came together well.

However, after Help the Aged, Pulp released a track called This Is Hardcore. I thought it was mind-blowingly good. I had to make the video. The piano plays. We open in a seedy alleyway on a stormy night. A male sex doll lies deflated in the gutter. The music builds as the howling wind inflates the doll. The doll rises to its feet and puts on a jacket, trousers and glasses it finds in a bin. And, as the vocal starts, the doll turns into a rain-soaked Jarvis Cocker. While Jarvis sings, the alleyway opens up into a Busby Berkeley-style dance routine with inflatable female dolls . . .

Unfortunately, I spent so long bashing my head against things to come up with this idea, they were already working with another director by the time I submitted it.

When I came to make my first feature film, 2005's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it was a chance to run riot visually. But some of my favourite ideas never made it into the final film. There was a character who was going to act like an alien lollipop lady on a busy but smoky planet (his eyes would have been added in post-production), and a banana-shaped creature riding on the back of a mouse horse. I even shot an entire chase sequence where you only saw the legs of different aliens, as Arthur Dent (the film's pyjama-wearing hero) ran around in his slippers; it was a cheap, funny way to have a lot of aliens in a scene.

My big mistake was creating extra scenes for these ideas rather than weaving them into the action. That is why they were cut from the final film. I honestly feel as if I let those ideas down. They coulda been contenders but I ruined it for them by being, well, a bit rubbish.

Hammer & Tongs, the production company I set up with Dominic Leung and Nick Goldsmith the week after we left art school in 1993, has now made more than 70 music videos, a lot of commercials and two feature films, the other being 2007's Son of Rambow, about two boys who make a homemade Rambo movie. While putting together a compilation of our best videos, short films and home movies, I came across sketchbooks containing my forgotten ideas. For every video we completed, at least five didn't make it – and I can't help thinking some of our best work is still sitting in sketchbooks.

Although I'm very proud of the ideas we brought to life, I'm just as proud of the ones that got away. I once had the pleasure of pitching an idea to Kanye West by phone. He was at an airport and I really enjoyed our call, as it was continually interrupted by people passing him by and telling him how much they loved him. Somehow, he was able to thank them and still remain completely focused on my pitch, for his song Flashing Lights.

"It's not so much a story as lots of vignettes that go with the music," I said. "First, you are being given a piggy back by a bear, then there is some walking luggage, which is x-rayed to reveal a skeleton. Then we go underwater and find tiny organisms glowing and flashing in time with the music, and then your head is being carried by a plane and there's this woman with really bending legs and . . . " At this point, I heard one of the cabin crew say: "Mr West, this plane is about to take off." Up into the air went Kanye West. And that was the last I heard from him.

Elf relief for the White Stripes

I made a sketch of the World Trade Centre for the 1998 Radiohead song No Surprises. The idea was to have someone at every one of its windows and choreograph them all to turn the lights on, to create patterns in time with the music. It would be like the twin towers talking to each other at night, twinkling in time along with the melody. It could have been done digitally, but I was sure it would be better to do it for real. What an idiot.

Sometimes I see the video that I lost out to and experience some guilty schadenfreude in it being worse than my idea, but in this case the director, Grant Gee, made a video for Radiohead that will go down as an all-time classic, with Thom Yorke singing as water rises around his face. Damn.

The White Stripes, meanwhile, are a director's dream: amazing music and a killer band always up for something different. When I heard their song Blue Orchid, I thought the idea was obvious: "One of Santa's little helpers gets so stressed out with his colossal workload he has to spend time in the elf relief room. This is a padded room where an elf can lose his mind to the White Stripes performing their song." OK, the idea does seem stupid now, but at the time I was convinced it was video gold.

And Jamiroquai! Surely the little fellow will love this idea, involving lots of sliding around: "JK is on a skateboard in the middle of Manhattan and his centre of gravity is dictated by the angle of the camera and . . ." Nope.

Well, what about Coldplay then? I could change the characters, relocate it to the desert, and pitch it for their song The Scientist. No way, José.

• The Hammer & Tongs Collection is available now on DVD.

Is it possible that Cloud will join the list of disruptive technologies, alongside the automobile and the Web? Well, if we could anticipate disruptive technologies I guess they wouldn’t be so disruptive!Disruption was one of the thoughts raised by Roger Barga at the “Grid is Dead” panel at e-Science 2010 in Brisbane this week, while David Abramson was frustrated that here we go again with the next thing and why don’t we ever finish anything? And Daniel Katz observed the need for abstractions so that we can rise above the different models of distributed computing and hence ultimately make it more usable. I must say I have sympathy with all these views! The refreshing thing about the panel was that it didn’t get bogged down in tech and in definitions – it was clear from the outset that what we really have here is a different economics. That’s the real breakthrough – the tech is “just” the evolution along the curves of hardware (like datacentres of containers) and software (like virtualisation and a new machinery of map-reduce), and the adoption issues relate to trust and privacy not bits and cycles. Having said that, maybe some of the cloud machinery will mesh nicely with some research problems – or conversely, as a member of the audience pointed out, problems that don’t align may be disadvantaged if we plunge wholesale into a new fashion.The conference was great, with an outstanding (even definitive) set of keynotes. Thom Dunning from NCSA presented Blue Waters, ‘the extraordinary computer’ at the National Petascale Computing Facility. Guy Steele (who I last saw 22 years ago in my Lisp days) talked about four kind of programming language and why languages supporting scientific programming should get simpler not more complicated. John Mattick‘s insightful talk about the information challenges in biology left everyone talking about non-protein-coding DNA for the rest of the day! Jürgen Schulze conveyed the excitement of advanced Virtual Reality Calit2, and reminded us that next generation scientists are growing up to interact in 3D worlds. Ian Foster, who gave a service oriented science keynote at the first conference in the series (Melbourne, 2005), talked about open source modelling and put the reproducibility argument on the table (handy as I presented about this later!) Finally, George Djorgovski presented Science in Cyberspace – I’ve seen one or two “fourth paradigm” talks but none so beautifully presented and articulated as this one.So, applause to the conference chairs (Paul Roe, Jim Hogan, David Abramson and colleagues) for an outstanding conference. Applause too for the best paper award winner, Mark Hedges from Kings College London, for his paper on Humanities e-Science where he explained scholarly primitives (think “fundamentals”, rather than ancient civilisations reading Nature on stone tablets…!) Very timely that a Digital Humanities paper comes out on top given my recent post :-)The conference banquet was also particularly memorable, not just because I was hugged by a Koala but for the fabulously surreal scene of a bunch of e-scientists with kangaroo food being let into a field of kangaroos in moonlight – I couldn’t help thinking of feeding software to users! Indeed, the moonlight may have led to accidental feeding of tree stumps, an emu, and possibly each other…

Hi,

As you read in some of my previous posts, I spent 7 months contributing to SharePoint Online Standard 2010 infrastructure. This infrastructure will provide SharePoint 2010 based services to 10s of millions of people worldwide.

In fact, it makes SharePoint fly in the Cloud, using Microsoft "boxed"/available products.

 

There are few keys to have in mind when thinking about this:

• SharePoint Online IS the SharePoint cloud (service)
• The underlying infrastructure of SharePoint Online needs to enable all the cloud computing attributes (more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing#Key_features)
• The only way to implement these key features is to HEAVILY automate SharePoint and its underlying technologies (Windows Server, AD DS, Hyper-V, SQL Server for the obvious ones). The key enabler of all this is definitely Windows PowerShell v2 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee829690.aspx, but that's just a tool.

If you read my blog frequently, you know this last topic of SharePoint Automation is a whole topic in itself, and that I am pretty passionate about it.

SharePoint & Cloud computing

As I had to dig deeply in these concepts and their real implementation for SharePoint Online, I came with various aspects related to automation and optimization:

• To automate, a model is needed (where would you get the arguments for your tasks from?)
• This model is the result of concepts, implemented into processes.
• In a Cloud(y) environment, failure to get requested operations implemented is the rule => Expect failure, and plan on this base.
• There are a lot of other concepts, features and characteristics that could be discussed regarding a large automated SharePoint system. Here are the main one I noticed:
  • Reliability (the service is reliable, whatever happens below it)
  • Resiliency (what if fails)
  • Idempotency (characteristics of operational tasks that can be replayed very often, without creating discrepancy between the desired and actual states of the system)
  • Scale units (plan resources with coherent set of resources, called scale units)
  • Virtualization (from Hyper-V to "hypervisor on chip" - but that also could work with VMWare, Xen or VirtualBox, if the necessary tasks to perform are possible through exposed APIs/scripts)
  • Utility computing (use when needed, compute, then drop it or re-affect it)
  • Autonomic systems (systems that manages themselves to serve their purpose)
  • Always optimize the resources
  • Elasticity (ability to absorb demand fluctuations)
  • Agility (rapid provisioning of additional resources or services)
  • System metering (Monitoring and Telemetry) is very important: know what happens
  • Trusts (to share data and security context in distributed systems) is necessary in between components
  • Continuous deployment (cut every service in small parts linked by interfaces contracts. Then the parts can be continuously improved individually)

+ all the others I missed or don't know

I spent a lot of time studying these concepts with 2 aspects in mind:

• Theoretically : Thanks to various internal works and lectures, partners and competitors White Papers, books & keynotes
• Practically : Learning how MSFT use them in its Datacenters for its Cloud services (ranging from Live Messenger/Hotmail, Bing, Office365 and Azure platform).

It led me realizing that: Cloud computing is the "Industrial age" of Datacenters!

Industrial Engineering in Cloud computing

My training background is Industrial Engineering. I own an "equivalent to a Master of Science" in Industrial Engineering (closer to Ph.D level on some topics I specialized in).

In fact, Cloud computing wording is very close to the Industrial Engineering one (sometimes closer to mechanical and physics than computer). Look by yourself at the words you'll find in the various references and books about Cloud computing:

• Resource management
• Resiliency
• Elasticity
• Common environmental requirements
• Power
• Efficiency
• Productivity
• Cost optimization
• Lifecycles
• Workloads
• Etc.

ALL these words originated from mechanics, physics or industrial engineering - studied for more than a century... when plants were invented to rationalize production.

When you see a "modern - Internet scale" Datacenter ... what do you see?

You see a huge building, looking like a car supplier plant more than a "data processing" facility, don't you?

So I started to analyze in depth the core similarity and differences between the "plants" I used to design and work with while in automotive industry, and the Cloud computing concepts.

That's how I came to the "Digital Plants" concept.

From Datacenters to Digital Plants ...

While I studied which Industrial approaches and tools could be transferred to design Digital Plants, I found interesting points between Computer and Industrial science:

• Lifetimes and workloads management are the same issues and drivers
• Discrete manufacturing (like cars) can bring a lot on the planning and resources/assets optimization
• Process manufacturing (like glass or chemistry) can bring a lot on the "recipes" optimization to deliver a product (a service in the case of the Digital plant)
• Utilities industries - of course - (like electricity or water) can bring a lot on the way they plan and optimize their resources generation, distribution and final consumption, as almost no stock is possible. And you cannot "store" either an online service.

Based on these roots, I searched for technics and mathematical tooling used in Industry that could be applied to Cloud computing. I found some of them very useful and interesting when transferred into a Digital plant. Some of them are:

• Multiple Products (and Services) Lifecycle Management in parallel:
  • Digital plant building and foundation has a "long" lifetime (around 10 years)
  • Digital plant productive components (such as servers, network hardware, etc.) has a "middle" lifetime (around 3 years)
  • Digital plant sold service (the Online service which is sold) has a "short" lifetime, as its software based, and evolving in a very competitive environment (can be few weeks)
  • More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_lifecycle_management
• The Pareto distribution applies:
  • This rule commonly named 80-20% is key for planning and optimization
  • More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_distribution
• Resources optimization:
  • Workload demand fluctuates constantly
  • So the resources are always a little bit either too much or not enough available
  • It leads to take an analytical approach, in fact, a holistic approach for planning and optimization: it's impossible to calculate according all the inputs to obtain the expected outputs with the assets used.
  • It means constant tradeoff in design and operations of the resources, and

=> Resource optimization is the essence of Industrial Engineering.

• Statistical patterns & probabilistic approach
  • The only way to get some manageable system is to switch to statistical and probabilistic approaches, driven by mathematical models
  • It means Digital plants mix and optimize a lot of different distributions, like:
    • The normal (Gaussian) one
    • Log / exponential ones
    • Poisson rule and its derivated
    • Plus there associated transfer functions to extract from data/measures the trends to prepare decisions
    • More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_(mathematics)

 

• Here are few examples of what should be considered relevant models:
  • Look at the CPU usage for a given period of time of a virtual machine:

 If you transform this measure into time spent in "ranges" (like 0 to 10%, 10 to 19%, etc.), you'll obtain a CPU resource distribution close to this model

• Another pattern you may often find is the "parts distribution" like these 2 ones, which are extracted from storage data analysis on a disk (or LUN): it represents the total size stored on this LUN per file extension:

 

Now let's zoom on the first 10%, and the trend is clearer: This is an exponential distribution 

And the funny part. This same LUN, now seen through the items counts per file extension: same pattern!

 

 

• For the demand fluctuations constant changes, the stock analysis models may be very useful. One to consider would be the Elliott wave: 

• These models are the key for the resource optimizer to implement and continuously tune in a Digital plant. It adds the idea that the past helps to prepare the future.
• An important key is to find the correlations between the relevant inputs and the efficient result/product/service to provide. Here again, Industrial engineering methodology, especially the Taguchi related ones should be of great help.
• My last point here would be about the sampling rates. All this is based on large data collection. But this data collection, should not impact the service. It has to be tuned to get accurate correlations but without adding disturbance to the system itself. Another tradeoff endless scenario experienced in Industrial Engineering.

As I moved on to sort out all these ideas, I realized various things:

1. There's not that much research in this area - current approach are still analytical and driven to get the exact situation (which don't really matter)
2. Many ideas are emerging from this. There's probably space to study, and write a book on them
3. All this is possible thanks to the network bandwidth and availability huge improvements among years. When you think back to BNC Ethernet networks, 20 years ago, they were so much slower than my current ADSL connection to the Internet ....

To end this call for a story to write, I'd like to emphasis 2 things:

• Have a look at what an Industrial Plant is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_plant ) then watch and browse the references below on current Datacenters. You'll be hit by the similarities.
• I wish I'll contribute to this cross discipline effort, where the best of 2 worlds (Computer & Industrial sciences) come together to create a new environment for innovation. Contact me if you're interested too  :-)

 

Thanks reading this long post, which is broader than just SharePoint automation.

< Emmanuel />

References:

The evolution of Cloud Computing and the changing anatomy of a Microsoft data center: http://sharepointineducation.com/the-evolution-of-cloud-computing-and-the-changing-anatomy-of-a-microsoft-data-centre

Data Center knowledge: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/

Microsoft Datacenters Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/msdatacenters/

Automation definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation

Automation Outline: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_automation

Principles & Theory of Automation: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/44912/automation/24841/Principles-and-theory-of-automation

Books:

The Datacenter as a Computer, Luiz Barroso, Urs Hölzle (Google Inc.), Morgan & Claypool, http://www.morganclaypool.com/doi/pdf/10.2200/S00193ED1V01Y200905CAC006

Monitoring the Data Center, Virtual Environments, and the Cloud, Don Jones, http://nexus.realtimepublishers.com/dgmdv.php

The slide is about metaphors and hyperlinks and evolution of the web and 3D worlds and stuff. Have to study it more...listening to end of LeWeb with other ear. hahahha

Part 2 of 5, as you might recall from last week I’ve been asked to put together a “Man’s Dream Pad”, a home for the modern urban man. To my help I got a penthouse flat in London’s newest and most iconic building, Central St Giles, by internationally renowned architect Renzo Piano and free hands to pick and choose among the world’s best furniture and technology manufacturers and suppliers to bring the vision to life.

Remember you can follow the day-by-day evolution here http://www.mansdreampad.com.

Fridge from GE

This week we are taking a closer look at the kitchen, and the natural choice to embody the contemporary urban lifestyle is a bold luxury American style fridge freezer from GE. I picked the one with the not-so-easy-to-remember-product name “GE Profile PJU25YGXFSS Y-series SxS” as it has a digital colour display, dispenses filtered water (I haven’t drunk unfiltered London tap water since I came here 6 years ago) as well as providing an unlimited supply of ice on demand - crushed or cubed of course, perfect when entertaining. For more information, please visit http://www.geappliancesonline.co.uk




Small appliances from Cusiniart

The old saying ‘the way to man’s heart goes via his stomach’ assumes a rather old fashioned view of the world where the women does all the cooking. Admittedly it will take time to get the average British man cooking frequently but I’ll tell you what will speed things up, investing in some cool kitchen technology.

I remember the first three kitchen appliances I bought, I was in my early teens and during a few years I got a popcorn maker, a hot dog maker and an ice cream maker. So I’ve always had an affinity to these little gadgets. For this flat I needed a supplier with a complete range of small appliances as well as pots and pans, I chose a collection of items from Cusiniart.

For over 30 years, Cuisinart’s aim has been to produce the very finest kitchen equipment. Cuisinart products are engineered for exceptionally long life and are designed to be easy to use, as well as to give excellent performance day after day. Cuisinart, technology with taste. Check out http://www.cuisinart.co.uk/



Dining table and chairs from Fritz Hansen

When you decorate a moden build it’s important that you incorporate some classics design, to make it more timless, Fritz-Hansen is a great place to start.

I’ve chosen some icon chairs (‘Ant’) and the super-elliptical table from the 50’s and 60’s. This particular version of the table is extendable, so perfect for 4 for small dinners but flexible enough to cope with 6-8 when hosting larger parties.

Fritz Hansen was founded in 1872, when Fritz Hansen, a Danish carpenter, founded his own furniture company and in 1915 introduced his first chair in steam bent wood. In 1934, Fritz Hansen began his collaboration with Arne Jacobsen resulting in some of the famous, classic icons of Danish Design including the ‘Ant’ (1952), the ‘Series 7’ (1955), the ‘Grand Prix’ (1957) the ‘Swan’ (1958), and the ‘Egg’ (1958). Other famous collaborations have resulted in Piet Hein’s super-elliptical table from 1968 and in 1982 Fritz Hansen acquired the rights to a major part of Poul Kjærholm’s furniture collection. For more information, have a look at http://www.fritzhansen.com/




Oven, Hob and Hood from Indesit + Wine Celler from Hotpoint

Indesit & Hotpoint is the leading manufacturers and distributors of the key domestic appliances (washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, fridges, freezers, cookers, hoods, ovens and hobs). Indesit has as its’ goal to make your life easier! They work, so we can play with simple, fun and functional products designed to create more time for life so you can enjoy the things you really love. If you search Indesit We Work You Play on Facebook you can find out loads more about what they are up to. For this flat I picked an Induction Hob, their a stylish Hood and top end range of ovens. You spend so much time cooking that you want to work with good tools. When dinner is ready and guest arrives, pull out a perfectly chilled bottle from the Hotpoint under counter wine celler. For more information, visit http://www.indesit.co.uk/ 




Iconic Furniture from Vitra

For over fifty years, Vitra has produced furniture for the office, for the home and for public spaces. Rather than restricting the functional intention of a product to one of these three specific areas, Vitra’s approach is based on the concept of transversality. Their aim is to provide versatile products that are intelligently designed, aesthetically pleasing, functionally reliable and durable.

To achieve this, Vitra has always worked with some of the world’s best designers, whose products reflect their personal experience and world view: Charles & Ray Eames, George Nelson, Verner Panton, Mario Bellini, Antonio Citterio, Alberto Meda, Maarten Van Severen, Jasper Morrison, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Hella Jongerius and others. I picked one of the worlds most classic office chairs, the EA 108 and the Noguchi coffee table that the designer himself describe as the best work he has done in his entire career. Visit their site http://www.vitra.com/ for more information.

That marks the end of week two. Next week I will be focusing the essential home appliances outside the kitchen before moving on to all the gadgets!

Last night was Lovecraftian: unspeakable, abyssal, and possibly squamous. Maybe batrachian. Not so much with the eldritch, though.

The RLS teamed up with my insomnia, so I was uselessly awake until four. I hate the fact that all the drugs and supplements and everything else have really been able to do is make the RLS unpredictable. So I don't have it every night--which is great, don't get me wrong. That part I have no quarrel with. But when I do get it, I have no idea why. Why last night? Why not Saturday night? Or last Thursday night?

*ahem* Obviously, I'm just a tad bit cranky today. Move along, nothing to see here. We are a hedge.

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And, in fact, I have something shiny and distracting to offer:

Mad Norwegian Press has announced the full list of contributors and the table of contents for Whedonistas, which is slated for publication March 15, 2011. My essay, "The Kindness of Monsters," is about the struggle of monsters in Whedon's various worlds to learn to be human, and why the finale of Angel made me cry.

(If you'd rather not deal with a .pdf, the table of contents is here below the cut:


Introduction – Lynne M. Thomas and Deborah Stanish

The Girls Next Door: Learning to Live with the Living Dead and Never Even Break a Nail – Seanan McGuire

Ramping Up for a Decade with Joss Whedon – Nancy Holder

Outlaws & Desperadoes – Sharon Shinn

An Interview with Jane Espenson

My (Fantasy) Encounter with Joss Whedon (And What I’ve Learned from the Master) – Jeanne C. Stein.

The Ages of Dollhouse: Autobiography through Whedon – Sigrid Ellis

A Couch Potato's Guide to Demon Slaying: Turning Strangers into Family, Buffy-Style – Heather Shaw

Smart Is Sexy: An Appreciation of Firefly’s Kaylee – Laurel Brown

Teething Troubles and Growing Up – Caroline Symcox

Transgressing with Spike and Buffy – NancyKay Shapiro

Brand New Day: The Evolution of the Doctor Horrible Fandom – Priscilla Spenser

“We’re Here to Save You” – Elizabeth Bear

Imperfectly Perfect: Why I Really Love Buffy For Being a Pill Sometimes – Mariah Huehner

My European Vacation – Kelly Hale

Romancing the Vampire and Other Shiny Bits – Lyda Morehouse/Tate Hallaway

An Interview with Juliet Landau

I Am Joss Whedon’s Bitch – Maria Lima

Going Dark – Jackie Kessler

Joss Giveth – Jaala Robinson

The Kindness of Monsters – Sarah Monette

Shelve Under Television, Young Adult – Jody Wurl

The Browncoat Connection – Dae Low

Late to the Party: What Buffy Never Taught Me about Being a Girl – Racheline Maltese

How an Atheist and His Demons Created a Shepherd – Meredith McGrath

Older and Far Away – Jamie Craig

Why Joss Is More Important Than His ‘Verse – Teresa Jusino

Let’s Go to Work – Catherynne M. Valente

Something to Sing About – Jenn Reese

Malcolm Reynolds, the Myth of the West, and Me – Emma Bull


Lots of cool women, including coffeeem, matociquala, yuki_onna, rm, and many others whose LJ handles I do not know.* And, ne plus ultra, rarelylynne.)

I, personally, am geeked beyond words about the Juliet Landau interview.


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*If you are one of them, or you know their handles, comment on this post, and I'll add them in.

Over the years I’ve written about the maturation of social media within business and how we were, and still very much are, starting to realize its potential and its impact. And the truth is, we’re just getting started. What’s upon us now is nothing short of the beginning of the end of business as usual.Where we are today and where we’ll stand a year from now and the year thereafter are worlds apart. The socialization of business requires new doorways between the walls that divide us.

From the onset of social media, many were skeptical, others were baffled or indifferent, and the passionate few were inspired. To have the opportunity to help businesses embrace powerful engagement and community services such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs was a windfall. But as many of us learned, the blessing would soon evolve into an encumbrance. Introducing profiles on popular social networks, listening and responding to conversations, syndicating content from one network to another was at first blush, easy and fun.

But then…

We faced tough questions where answers fell outside of our realm of responsibility.

We witnessed anger and negative sentiment.

We were sucked into political conversations within the organization where management questioned our authority and intentions.

Questions from all over the organization inundated us because we had the knowledge they needed to jump into the world of social.

We wrestled with other divisions to win the right to “own” social media within the organization.

We were asked to measure the effects of something we weren’t quite sure we even had tangible answers to why we were there in the first place.

We were tasked with monitoring conversations without having the ability to steer experiences and perception.

We hit a ceiling where our efforts didn’t matter to decision makers in the bigger picture, but we still held on to its importance.

And, this is where the story really begins. The evolution of social media in business and our role in how it unfolds and where it’s headed is unwritten.

Read the Signs, Is This a Dead End?

Years ago, while on stage in New York, I was asked a question that still echoes in my mind today, “What do I do when my management won’t see the value in any of this and is standing in my way of progress?”

My answer was short and perhaps a bit shocking at the time, “Perhaps,” I said, “It’s time to leave and join a company that so desperately needs your vision and tenacity.”

I wasn’t kidding.

Recently my colleague, peer, and good friend Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Group published a notable report that documents the true state of social media roles and the paths one must take to excel. In his report,”Career Path of the Corporate Social Media Strategist,” Jeremiah surfaces the bitter truth that we, the social champions, have two roles to serve within business today, leader or helper. As Owyang explains, the emerging role of the corporate social media strategist must either get ahead of business demands or be relegated to what he calls a “social media help desk.” And, he’s not talking about customer service either. This help desk that he refers to is very real and not at all glamorous. It’s where champions are demoted to administrative levels that simply help co-workers socialize their programs, with all of the vision and glory delegated to everyone but you.

In actuality, businesses need open leaders and social strategists. Altimeter’s research validates this notion. While today, according to Altimeter’s research, 41% of social strategists reside in marketing, the promise of social media requires a neutral, centralized hub to socialize the entire business. And as many have explored, the possibility of either a Chief Social Officer or a Social Media task force or internal advisory board.

Here’s your opportunity. Altimeter’s research found, “…most Social Strategists and their programs lack maturity. Only 23% of Social Strategists had a formalized program with long-term direction. This market, and role is nascent.”

And as the report captures, despite the enthusiasm propelling this new role, the social strategist is faced with six challenges per Altimeter:

1) Resistance from internal culture

2) Measuring ROI

3) Lack of resources

4) An ever-changing technology space

5) Resentment and envy of the role

6) A looming increase in business demands.

Altimeter conducted 50 interviews with Corporate Social Strategists and those who work with them. In doing so, a trend surfaced in the collective responses, “Many who ascend to the role see an opportunity, take risks and forge a new program.”

Altimeter breaks this out into a role that blossoms into a pivotal inflection point…

The Awakening. As customers rapidly adopt these tools, this internal champion rises to answer the call of duty, and adopts these tools on behalf of the corporation – while meeting tremendous internal resistance.

Ascension of the Corporate Social Strategist. After mustering the courage to challenge the status quo, the evangelist launches pilot programs to connect with customers using social tools. The Social Strategist is successful in gathering initial resources and corralling some internal stakeholders. A program manager is anointed.

Storm of Cultural Conflict. Having successful piloted programs, the Social Strategist seeks to expand the program, yet loses altitude from internal resistance to corporate transparency, turf battles, legal and security issues, and challenges on calculating return on investment.

Career Decision Point. Gaining speed, the Social Strategist overcomes most major cultural challenges and expands the program. Shifting from evangelism to program management, they find the excess of customer voices unmanageable, as well as the increase in program requests from internal stakeholders.

As a result, Altimeter cites two possible career paths, one that fuses marketing, internal and external service, and potentially that of activist for the inclined, 1) Becoming reactive through the inundation of requests from vocal customers and internal business units, or 2) Developing a strategic program and necessary securing buy-in that circumvents business and market demands.

Introducing the Social Media Champion

We are not alone. Whether we are the social champion today or the leader of the business looking to socialize our organization, it helps to get a better understanding of this unique and important workforce.

Altimeter examined 50 job descriptions (JDs) as well as 50 LinkedIn profiles of current Social Strategists. Experience per posted job descriptions show 3-6 years ranging from social media to digital marketing.

Of the 50 LinkedIn profiles the group examined, almost 40% already reside in the management layer of the organization. Combining Director and Manager titles, almost 70% are social champions, ready to help lead the organization into the future of a more meaningful era of collaborative business. Part of the problem as I see it, is that many individuals understand the potential of social, but lack the ability to lobby its importance combined with the 5W’s of Social Media (who, what, when, where, why + how + to what extent) across the organization and also the map of how to get from here to there.

Social Media Strategists and Champions are an educated class with many possessing Bachelor’s degrees (over 60%) and 20% earning their Master’s degree.

Altimeter also looked at the gender and overall Twitter presence of the social media champion/strategist. While women dominate the social Web, men appear to account for a greater percentage of corporate social media strategists (at least in the 140 companies Altimeter researched.)

Social Strategists are multi-dimensional and risk takers…they have to be. None of this is templated, no matter how many case studies you read. But the future of all of this lies in the ability to rally stakeholders and lead efforts across departments.

As Altimeter rightfully predicts, the role of the Social Strategist as we know it today will become obsolete. Those who aspire to transcend business units and socialize the business, department by department will persevere. The more astute will assist in the shift from an outside-in, bottom-up groundswell to a top-down, inside-out pivot. As such, they will find themselves nestled in an important role that outlasts the social phenomenon.

We are the Champions, We are the Leaders

The truth is that I still hear the question of what to do when leaders don’t recognized the opportunity or personal value. Truth is, that I still don’t have a different answer. However, I have spent the subsequent years working against management infrastructure, processes, systems, and culture to introduce empathy and adaptation into the operation…to do nothing less than add a human touch.

This just takes time…

The prospect of social media lies not in the settlements of today, but in the uncharted territory we have yet to discover. Every new expedition needs a pioneer and that trailblazer is you. There’s tremendous value in recognizing meaningful odysseys and charting expeditions to a rewarding journey’s end. As we’re learning in the evolution of any new media, it’s less about the destination and more about the important stops we make along the way. The conveyance and the passengers will change along the way, and the importance of this essay, is to help you see that you will and must change as well.

Champions are just champions without the ability to champion leadership. Leaders are only leaders as long as they continue to lead. As such, whomever leads today may not possess the wherewithal to lead tomorrow. It’s not an ominous prediction, it’s simply the materialization of an opportunity. We are at a monumental inflection point in business and you must decide the path for your passion, vision, and the greater role for the brand “you.”

Only you can effectively lobby the importance of your vision to those who can help permeate and change the course of the prevailing business culture and behavior of today.  Champions who can package the value of change into tangible action items as well as unite management around a common vision will join the ranks of leadership.

This is your time to make a difference.

Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Facebook

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Unnatural selection.

What do the programs on your computer get up to in their idle moments? Parkour, apparently, at least according to this prequel to the sequel to the 1982 movie about what happens when Jeff Bridges has a fight with Atari.

While the image of Microsoft Word scurrying about atop digital skyscrapers is rather ludicrous, it's part and parcel of a slightly muddled reimagining of the stark pixel realm from the original movie; where once there were minimalistic worlds drawn only from glowing neon lines, there's now a sprawling city riddled with curious anomalies.

Programs mill about aimlessly in its streets, illuminated by street lamps (computer programs have poor night vision, it seems). There's a computer nightclub, with a bartender serving digital booze, which at least explains why Firefox keeps crashing. There are even vents in the pavement, spewing steam. Steam? In a computer? But, hey, it's difficult to take the physics too seriously when there's a rainstorm later on. By the end of the game I was left feeling a lot like Futurama's bewildered Hermes, faced with Bender's undersea cigar. "This just raises further questions!"

Read more...

Mobile Business Briefing

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It's Thanksgiving time and we're all busy with Holiday Gift Guides, Videogame Deathmatches and copious amount of dead turkeys. But let's not forget what we're all really thankful for, trailers. Video game trailers are released each and every day. They give us insight into games and DLC we've yet to play. Thank you trailers, thank you.

Today we have trailers for:

• Shift Extended Teaser Trailer
• nail'd Adrenaline Rush Trailer
• Michael Jackson The Experience Launch Trailer
• Raving Rabbids: Travel In Time "8bit" Trailer
• Naughty Bear "Chapter 10 DLC" Trailer
• Raving Rabbids: Travel In Time Launch Trailer
• Golden Sun: Dark Dawn "Djinni" Trailer
• DC Universe Online "Gotham Fly Through" Trailer
• Tron: Evolution "Game Experience" Video
• Two Worlds II Story Trailer
• Genesis A.D. "Silo Map" Trailer
• LittleBigPlanet 2 "Controlinator" Trailer

 

Marriage in America is in trouble. Recent surveys have shown that the number of Americans who describe their marriage as "very happy" dropped by almost 10 percent over the past 33 years. At the same time, the number of therapists in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy exploded from 237 in 1960 to 24,000 in 2007. To add a few more sobering statistics: In 2003, the Ashley Madison Agency, a website for married people looking to have an affair, had 50,000 members; in 2007, it had more than 1.2 million. Finally, the New York Times recently reported that we're a nation of singles-51 percent of American women now live without a spouse! Sadly, pretty much the only statistic that America leads the world in, nowadays, is the divorce rate.

So how do we fix this problem - the apparent failure of traditional marriage - at a societal level? Well, it might be possible to fix marriage the same way we fix industry: by increasing innovation and openness. Why can't we take the processes that companies use to invent hit products, and apply them to something like marriage? How many people today are as crazy about their marriages... as they are about their iPhones?

One of the techniques that companies like Apple use to identify and develop hit products is called design ethnography. It's a powerful tool for building hit products. Design ethnography takes the position than human behavior and the ways in which people construct and make meaning of their worlds and their lives can be observed in such a way that unarticulated and tacit needs and desires can be uncovered.

For example, a watch designer understands that the human need for status is just as vital as the need to tell time. In a traditional product survey, the questions are all about function. But in an ethnographic expedition, the designer observes the wearer of the watch in the field; he gathers firsthand data about the subtle clues and emotions that the subject might reveal. Hence, design ethnographers can unlock powerful market opportunities by seeing beyond than what people say... to see how they feel but cannot express.

If we turn our attention to the institution of marriage, one common disagreement with older couples is the common argument over how much sex is enough. For the partner with lagging sexual drive, it's often a complex issue, replete with regrets about aging and self-esteem, a tendency toward depression, a loss of trust, and an internal decision to no longer be sexual. For the partner yearning for sex, it's about making the decision to either accept de-sexualization (bury their sex drive), or to seek divorce, or to find some other way to meet their sexual needs surreptitiously. (See Satoshi Kanazawa's blog post: Men do everything they do in order to get laid.)

However, when you think like a design ethnographer, your job is to delve down below the superficial issues, where something profound can usually be unraveled. This leads to the core issue that marriages must face: learning how to perceive or elicit your partner's unarticulated needs. However, to innovate in either the boardroom or the bedroom it means that you have to engage in an underlying process of transformation and to drive yourself to see into the reality of things and yourselves. Usually, this requires the willingness to kill a few sacred cows. Killing sacred cows, like cannibalizing your primary revenue stream, is a pretty scary prospect to undertake; in business, every imaginable corporate anti-body will be awakened. In marriage, expect tears and recriminations.

The first sacred cow: A high divorce rate is a bad thing. Innovative thinking usually tries to turn things upside down, so maybe it could be that a high divorce rate is actually a good thing... not for kids, but for society overall. Here's why: The history of humankind documents a slow process of power transfer away from institutions that favor societal needs and toward systems that favor personal fulfillment. If you look at the period following the Council of Trent, the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church, marriage rights have been slowly and painstakingly won back from the institutions that seek to control sexuality. First, through the Reformation, the people - via their King - won back the right to divorce from the Catholic Church. Then, following the Industrial Revolution, people of mixed races were forced to live together in growing metropolitan areas and began to marry, which led to the civil rights movement and the repeal of miscegenation laws, some of which lasted on the books until 1965. And today, gay and lesbian freedom fighters seek the right to marry, continuing the battle for personal sexual freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Therefore, having a high divorce rate is actually a sign of societal evolution; it means that a particular society is moving toward the future. In the best possible outcome, if people are allowed to innovate around what marriage means, the divorce rate will eventually fall, after the invention of a better format for long-term relationships that can survive into the 21st century.

The second sacred cow: Monogamy is natural. If you are to adopt a model of sexual innovativeness and openness, you have to eventually open the can of worms known as "open relationships." In his book, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality, Christopher Ryan (another PT blogger) argues that monogamy and the nuclear family are far less natural than we've been taught to believe. The premise of the book is that human beings are an exceedingly sexual species--based on evidence gathered from human physiology, archaeology, primate biology, and anthropological studies of pre-agricultural tribes. The conclusion of the book argues that repressing our sexuality is in essence equivalent to denying one of the most unique aspects of what it means to be human. Thus, as we evolve as a species, we should be evolving toward sexual and relationship processes that bring us closer to our natural and organic state of being--as the most sexual species on the planet.

The third sacred cow: You can't have it both ways, so you must settle. The adage is that men want to sleep with slutty bad girls, but prefer to marry the good girl to bear his children. This conundrum leads to the idea that you can't really get what you want out of marriage.

Hey, now there's a question for you: why are bad girls so attractive to men? Well, first, bad girls have a profound capacity for fun - so much so, that good boys who fall in love with them usually end up standing out their bedroom windows, in the rain, singing Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes at the top of their lungs, because dammit she's the best thing that ever happened to them. Another reason for the attractiveness of the bad girl is her ability to keep the adrenaline flowing - like Melanie Griffith's character in Something Wild, when she forces Jeff Daniels to dine and dash. A bad girl has the ability to turn a normal life into a white knuckle roller coaster ride. Bonus effect: bad girls never have time for depression - because they're having too much fun scaring the living shit out of their boyfriends. One more reason for the attractiveness of the bad girl: she's a genuine nymphomaniac. The bad girl loves everything about sex. The bad girl can come up with new and patentable sex positions with you. All of which, of course, makes her guy feel like the king of the world.

Unfortunately, the bad girl also lacks the qualities that a good girl uses to marry a man. Good girls are faithful and true, and are a better bet, according to evolutionary psychology, of bearing your children instead of passing off someone else's as your own. However, all of this makes her the more boring choice. And because you can't have it both ways, you must settle.

The way to kill this particular sacred cow is to adopt "quantum thinking". Clearly, the qualities of badness are the diametric opposite of goodness, but in reality they are like quantum states - non-dual in nature, both particle and wave. Thus, the ideal woman is actually a non-dual composite of the bad and good. And if that's confusing, it's a good thing, because the "Heisenberg uncertainty principle of love" tells us that if you're knowable you're no longer moving, alive, unattainable, dynamic, and thrilling.

Christopher Ryan shared with me a telling joke about swingers: "The husband usually has to drag his wife to a swingers' party, but after she gets busy, usually has to drag her back home." The reality is that women are and have always been a non-dual combination of bad girl and good girl, no matter who she presents herself to be.

The same is true for men. You can't be a moodle (ie: "man poodle") and at the same time, command the respect of your woman. You need to combine the diametrically opposite characteristics of "best friend" and "bad for me." (Extra points if you ride a really cool motorcycle.) The perfect non-dual quantum man embodies the best of both archetypes; combining the niceness and loyalty of the good boy, and sexual prowess of a complete rake and raconteur. It's not an easy thing to do. The unification of badness and goodness is related to Jung's integration of higher self and shadow, of id and superego. It takes a lot of inner work to be really good and really bad at the same time, because our .

And so, it's within this evolutionary dance of transformative integration that a truly successful 21-century relationship is possible, one that avoids the almost inevitable endpoint of "marriage as a living death." It is this new kind of relationship that benefits from true openness, the sharing of goals from both the shadow and higher self, that is truly alive and dynamic and unafraid to explore the undiscovered territories of the human heart. This is the kind of marriage that can survive because it adapts; this brings its partners to a higher level of radical honesty about what works and what doesn't. This is the creation of a new kind of romantic partnership and relationship structure where the goal is personal fulfillment and transformation, rather than the need for society to make you conform like a well-behaved little cog in the machine.

In fact, the evolutionary status of a society can actually measured by its perspectives on marriage and sexual freedom. It's clear that our society is in the midst of a massive bifurcation of American culture where you've got liberalization on one side with states passing gay marriage, and then you have a large and unmoving mass of people firmly stuck in the mores and beliefs of the 19th century, complete with teabag parties and resistance to scientific facts like evolution and global warming. Like time travelers, the Red States are trying to travel backward in time, and the Blue States are rushing at light speed toward the 21st. It's like the science fiction writer William Gibson said, "The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed."

And at the bleeding edge of this time machine, there are certain experimental lifestyle communities, which form something like a Manhattan project for sexuality and relationships. These fun-loving yet oddly serious bunch of people - swingers, polyamorists, BDSM lifestylers, what have you - are living somewhere around 2200 AD, in terms of experimenting with new relationship models and sexual activities. These groups should actually be celebrated, not vilified; they are the Henry Miller's, the Anaïs Nin's, the Paul Gauguin's of our times--and most likely to invent sustainable models for marriage in the future. These are the people who are doing the basic research, like multi-touch interfaces that enabled the iPhone, that will someday lead to the iMarriage of the 21st century.

In writing about the life and impact of Chalmers Johnson Sunday, Steve Clemons focused considerable attention on the work Johnson did before the Blowback trilogy, work that essentially prepared him for the final stage of his evolution as a thinker, without necessarily being apparent at the time.  That work had at least two fundamental aspects to it: first a break with the static view of the US as the all-knowing elder in relationship with Japan--and by extension all the East Asian nations, and second, strong opposition to the incursion of rational choice theory into the study of East Asia, and area studies in general.  Both these facets were a reflection of Johnson's empirically-based conception of the "developmental state", about which Wikipedia says:

Developmental state, or hard state, is a term used by international political economy scholars to refer to the phenomenon of state-led macroeconomic planning in East Asia in the late twentieth century. In this model of capitalism (sometimes referred to as state development capitalism), the state has more independent, or autonomous, political power, as well as more control over the economy. A developmental state is characterized by having strong state intervention, as well as extensive regulation and planning. The term has subsequently been used to describe countries outside East Asia which satisfy the criteria of a developmental state. Botswana, for example, has warranted the label since the early 1970s.[1] The developmental state is sometimes contrasted with a predatory state or weak state.[2]

The first person to seriously conceptualize the developmental state was Chalmers Johnson.[3] He wrote in his book "MITI and the Japanese Miracle":

In states that were late to industrialize, the state itself led the industrialization drive, that is, it took on developmental functions. These two differing orientations toward private economic activities, the regulatory orientation and the developmental orientation, produced two different kinds of business-government relationships. The United States is a good example of a state in which the regulatory orientation predominates, whereas Japan is a good example of a state in which the developmental orientation predominates.

A regulatory state governs the economy mainly through regulatory agencies that are empowered to enforce a variety of standards of behavior to protect the public against market failures of various sorts, including monopolistic pricing, predation, and other abuses of market power, and by providing collective goods (such as national defense or public education) that otherwise would be undersupplied by the market. In contrast, a developmental state intervenes more directly in the economy through a variety of means to promote the growth of new industries and to reduce the dislocations caused by shifts in investment and profits from old to new industries. In other words, developmental states can pursue industrial policies, while regulatory states generally can not.

In fact, the activist role the East Asian state plays in developing and guiding its economy is also reflected in the distinctive form of welfare state development as well, a point I made brief reference to in my 2009 diary, "Three (Two? Four? Five?) Worlds Of Welfare Capitalism (US Public Spending In Context-Interlude)"  

Returning to Clemons, he wrote:

Johnson, who passed away Saturday afternoon at 79 years, invented and was the acknowledged godfather of the conceptualization of the "developmental state". For the uninitiated, this means that Chalmers Johnson led the way in understanding the dynamics of how states manipulated their policy conditions and environments to speed up economic growth. In the neoliberal hive at the University of Chicago, Chalmers Johnson was an apostate and heretic in the field of political economy. Johnson challenged conventional wisdom with he and his many star students -- including E.B. Keehn, David Arase, Marie Anchordoguy, Mark Tilton and others -- writing the significant treatises documenting the growing prevalence of state-led industrial and trade and finance policy abroad, particularly in Asia.

Today, the notion of "State Capitalism" has become practically commonplace in discussing the newest and most significant features of the global economy. Chalmers Johnson invented this field and planted the intellectual roots of understanding that other nation states were not trying to converge with and follow the so-called American model.

This seems so obvious now, hardly something one would need a leading scholar to point out and even argue for. But for many "experts" in the foreign-policy field, the lesson has yet to sink in.  Outmoded, simplistic Cold War-era ideas continue to dominate, as they did when Johnson first advanced his views comprehensively:

In the 1980s when Johnson was arguing that Japan's state directed capitalism was succeeding at not only propelling Japan's wealth upwards but was creating "power" for Japan in the eyes of the rest of the world, Kissinger and the geostrategic crowd could not see beyond the global currency and power realities of nuclear warheads and throw-weight. The revisionists were responsible for injecting the economic dynamics of power and national interest in the equation of a nation's global status....

This is one front on which Johnson represented a pragmatic realist approach in conflict with conservative ideologues.   This same pragmatic realism would eventually lead him to his criticism-of-empire stage--and this empirically-driven trajectory of his thought is emblematic of the way in which it is simply, empirically false that right and left are mirror images of one another.  But there was another front on which Johnson clashed with conservative ideologues, and that was over the influence of rational choice theory--the "free market" micro-economic one-size-fits-all approach to all of human behavior.  Clemons recalls:

Johnson who then headed UC Berkeley's important China Studies program abandoned the university and became the star intellectual of UC San Diego's School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. There is no doubt that Johnson but UCSD's IRPS on the map and gave it an instant, global boost.

But as usual, Johnson -- incorruptible and passionate about policy, theory, and their practice -- eventually went to war with the bureaucrats running that institution. Those who had come in to head it were devotees of "rational choice theory" -- which was spreading through the fields of political science and other social sciences as the so-called softer sciences were trying to absorb and apply the harder-edged econometrics-driven models of behavior that the neoliberal trends in economics were using.

Johnson and one of his proteges, E.B. "Barry" Keehn, wrote a powerful indictment of rational choice theory that helped trigger a long-running and still important intellectual divide that showed that rational choice theory was one of the great ideological delusions of the era. I too joined this battle and wrote extensively about the limits of rational choice theory which I myself saw dislodging university language programs, cultural studies, and more importantly -- the institutional/structural approaches to understanding other political systems.

Johnson once told me when I was visiting him and his long-term, constant intellectual partner and wife, Sheila Johnson, that the UCSD School of International Relations and Pacific Studies no longer either really taught international relations or pacific studies -- and that a student's entire first year was focused on acultural skill set development in economics and statistics. To Johnson, this tendency to elevate econometric formulas over the actual study of a nation's language, history, culture and political system was part of America's growing cultural imperialism. Studying "them" is really about "us" -- as "they" will converge to be like "us" or will fall to the way side and be insignificant.

The irony here is that "rational choice theory" claims to be a universalist theory, but it's actually a culturally determined one. If you want to understand it properly, you need to take the sort of approach that Johnson himself advocated, and study the culture and institutions that give rise to it and support its growth.  Indeed, "free market" ideology as a whole is highly concentrated in English-speaking countries, those whose welfare state models fall into the category of "liberal" welfare states in  Gosta Esping-Andersen's The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism--states whose welfare mechanisms are guided by a desire to minimize the impact on markets, cleaning up their messes where necessary, but otherwise leaving things alone as much as possible.  It's worth noting here that the "conservative" welfare state model in  Esping-Andersen's "three worlds" model was itself an early example of Johnson's "developmental state."  The first such example was Bismark's Germany, and its explicit purpose--aside from stealing the socialists most popular issue--universal health care--away from them--was to use state power to build state power in the development of a modern industrial nation.

Another perspective on the free-market dynamic in cultural context comes from Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.  Both Britain and the US benefited from not being continental powers, but instead being off-shore (geopolitically speaking, the US was like Britain, only much moreso), and thus oriented toward world trade with minimal encumbrances.  In this context, the "free market" ideology neatly fit their primary mode of wealth-building via imperialist market exploitation.   Of course there are many things this ideology could not make sense of--not least the railroads whose development played such a crucial role in the 19th Century industrial revolution, as Michael Perelman brilliantly explains in Railroading Economics: The Creation of the Free Market Mythology.  And that profound, long-standing reality-denial lies at the very heart of our current economic and political crisis.

In short, reflecting on Chalmers Johnson's life work, and the trajectory of intellectual conflicts that eventually lead him to his late-life anti-imperialist critique, is one of the most clarifying ways of understanding the asymmetry of empiricism vs. baseless ideology between left and right, as well as understanding the basic nature of what the progressive/conservative culture war is all about.