I'm back to blogging at Fast Company, and my latest piece is now up: Innovation as Resource and China's New Magnetism.

The U.K.'s Independent reports that China has been gradually cutting the amount of rare-earth elements it exports, now down 40% from seven years ago. China now exports only 25% of the rare-earth elements it mines. [...]

So what are our options? We (as in, the non-China parts of the industrialized world) could try to pressure China to sell more, but that's unlikely to work--and China tends not to respond well to even mild criticism. We could try to rapidly reopen the now-closed rare-earth element mines, but mining is, frankly, an environmental nightmare and incredibly dangerous--hardly a sustainable practice.

Our best option is to innovate our way out of the problem.

China, and to a lesser (but increasing) extent India, can be seen as "leapfrog superpowers" -- undergoing a rapid shift in global status, a shift which remains incomplete. China has more influence and importance on the global stage than it is willing to admit (preferring to call itself a developing nation), but not nearly the power that some fear.

The question is, does the immense potential power of China (and India) make a leapfrog transition easier or harder?

Saved for a rainy day or, in this case, one in a long line of bitterly cold days, I present for your inspection, these animated promos for two Parliament-Funkadelic albums, the surprisingly literal The Motor Booty Affair and Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome. P-Funk always had a great sense of mythology in their music, meaning that both Dr. Funkenstein and his arch-nemesis Sir Nose D?Voidoffunk are in attendance here; more like the chapters of a sci-fi serial than albums. They appear almost alien in contrast to the slick, overproduced (and quite limited) promos that are shown on, say, MTV between episodes of People Acting Awful Towards One Another.

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Post tags: Animation, Crackpot Visionary, Drugs, Future, Madness, Sci-fi

I agree with Katie.

therealkatiewest:

eversonpoe:

meowism:

put your computer on mute and watch this video. jay-z is killing it visually. listening wise?not so much for me.

you?re right. visually, this is incredible. but this song is really, really terrible.

I like Jay-Z,and I like this song. The video was directed by artist Sam Brown, according to Rolling Stone, but I can?t seem to find anything about him.

But it is a music video, and I like that the visuals challenge the lyrics, echo and question their true meaning. The video challenges hip hop culture in general; it adopts the same attitude I?ve always admired about Jay-Z, the fuck-you-I?ll-do-what-I-want-to-do attitude. I don?t know how many rap fans will take the time to look at all the images in this video and figure out how they reflect the words, or if they?ll recognize it as an important step forward in pushing mainstream hip hop towards a better future - because if we can?t go back lyrically to Wu-Tang days, I at least want more intelligent music videos - but hopefully they like it and it inspires them. Sometimes that?s all it takes to make the shift from boring, booty-shakin?, bling-swingin? videos to more culturally aware works of art. With swagger.

This video was released at midnight on December 31st, effectively making it the first music video of this new decade; I think it?s set a good standard.

I've spent a good part of the last year building a software system (it's for sale to anyone interested in buying it) that anticipates, benchmarks, and provides avenues for controlling viral information and content.  What do I mean by viral?  

Here's an example, let's say an event occurs in the early morning hours of Tuesday: 

• as of the Tuesday morning commute a couple dozen people know about it, 
• by noon Tuesday a couple of thousand people know about it, 
• by Tuesday evening hundreds of thousands know about it,
• by Wednesday morning millions know about it, 
• by Thursday its splashed across all of the major news organizations,
• by Friday, e-mail campaigns - critics - journalists are bombarding the government,
• by Friday evening, the White House and Congress launch a major investigation and an organizational purge.

Granted, this description is a bit of an exaggeration and the steps might vary somewhat, but the process is basically the same for every event.  An event occurs and our global communications system amplifies it into a cacophony.  Let's take two recent examples:

• An attempted airplane bomber (Newark).
• The assassination of a couple of CIA operatives in Afghanistan.

In both cases, relatively small events (in that neither threatened us, nor the organizations in question in any existential way) were amplified (in hours) to a level where the entire US government was put into a tailspin.  Organizational purges and strategy rethinks were launched.  Systemic failures were hinted at.  Etc.   

In short, the entire US government became a hostage to the global information network twice in the same week.

What can be done?  The first thing that should be done when something like this occurs is to take a deep breath.  Put the incident in perspective and communicate the same.  It's not a real crisis.  De-escalation should be the first response in anything but an acute existential emergency. 

The second step?  I'll leave that up to you guys.  That's one of the reasons I built the software I mentioned.  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPEAKING TO LAS VEGAS IN THE LANGUAGE OF LAS VEGAS
AT THE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT EXPO

A PERFORMANCE ON THE LAS VEGAS STRIP (in front of The Venetian)
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010, 3pm-7pm

Las Vegas artist Laurenn McCubbin explores the connections between the economy of Las Vegas and the legal and illegal sex industry with a performance on the Las Vegas Strip that mimics everyday economic exchanges.

Editor’s Note: Interviews and hi-res images available upon request.

Las Vegas, NV ? Artist Laurenn McCubbin aims to uncover some of the roots of the hidden economic exchange between sex work and the Las Vegas economy, and what better time to highlight it than during one of the largest conventions in Las Vegas ? the Adult Entertainment Expo? Taking place from January 7-10, this convention brings in upwards of 30,000 convention goers and will bring in untold money to Las Vegas? struggling economy. But how much more money will be paid into Las Vegas? ?underground economy?, and to the sex workers who keep the ?sin? in Sin City?

McCubbin has created her own array of illustrated ?hooker cards? featuring actual Las Vegas sex workers, that mimic the advertisements passed out on the Strip by escort agencies. Accompanied by the same workers that the agencies hire, she will be passing these cards out in front of the Venetian Hotel & Casino, right around the corner from the Sands Convention Center, which is hosting the Adult Entertainment Expo. As well as the hooker cards, McCubbin has created her own rolling billboard (sponsored by Vegas Mobile Media - http://www.vegasmobilemedia.com) that will be trolling the Strip during this performance. By recreating what is admittedly a common occurrence on the Strip, the artist hopes to draw attention to the contradiction of Las Vegas ? a city built on sin and sexual excess that keeps prostitution illegal, while maintaining a financial relationship that continues to make sex work a viable and profitable economy.

The secondary part of this project will take place off the Strip, via the phone number and website that McCubbin is promoting on the mock hooker cards ? (877) LADY-BIZ and www.vegaslady biz.com. These multimedia presentations go live on Saturday, January 9th, and include audio and video interviews with the sex workers depicted in her work.

On February 5th, at the Grant Hall gallery at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, McCubbin will be presenting photo and video documentation of this performance in a gallery setting, as well as pieces involving giant sized hooker cards, a memorial wall of custom made hooker shoes, and a burlesque performance.

Here's another take (important caveat:  it's not my approach, although there's likely something here that's valuable) on how to build virtual organizations that compensate for the collapse of nation-state governance and 'softens' the rise of a global corporate economy.  It starts with a collection of work by Umair Haque, who writes for the Harvard Business Review.  It's a soft launch because it works within the system to "save capitalism from itself."

NOTE:   If you have a problem with terminology soup, this isn't likely for you.  Umair comes up with lots of new terms.  You have been warned.

The Builder Manifesto 

Dear World Leaders,
This relationship isn't working out. Its time for us to explore other government opportunities. We've tried to make it work. But it's not us ? it's you (really). I've been thinking a lot about leadership lately. Specifically: why, today, when a wave of crises is sweeping the globe, does leadership seem to be almost totally absent? The answer I've come to is, ironically enough, leadership itself. I'd like to advance a hypothesis: 20th century leadership is what's stopping 21st century prosperity...
Umair Haque (Harvard Business Review)  "The Builder's Manifesto" Dec 18, 2009

Umair approaches the current crisis of global capitalism is a lack of the "right" kind of leadership (more type and approach than personality).  A classic Harvard Business School approach to any problem.  He defines the leadership needed as "builders."  Here's some more detail:

• The boss drives group members; the leader coaches them. The Builder learns from them.
• The boss depends upon authority; the leader on good will. The Builder depends on good.
• The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The Builder is inspired ? by changing the world.
• The boss says "I"; the leader says "we". The Builder says "all" ? people, communities, and society.
• The boss assigns the task, the leader sets the pace. The Builder sees the outcome.
• The boss says, "Get there on time;" the leader gets there ahead of time. The Builder makes sure "getting there" matters.
• The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The Builder prevents the breakdown.
• The boss knows how; the leader shows how. The Builder shows why.
• The boss makes work a drudgery; the leader makes work a game. The Builder organizes love, not work.
• The boss says, "Go;" the leader says, "Let's go." The Builder says: "come."
• They're not the only principles, and perhaps not even the best ones. But they begin to help us think constructively about how to build a better tomorrow. And that is, ultimately, what it's all about.  

He's even gone so far as to outline a type of "constructive" capitalism that accounts for the societal costs of innovation.  An approach that he believes can fix things. 

Builder Support Networks

To speed up the development of "builder" (aka maker) efforts, the non-profit venture fund OpenWorld has set up two sites.  The first is "Builder Challenges" which is essentially a financial support network using crowd sourcing to fund and support grassroots development efforts.  The second is the Buildership Lab (a platform for start-ups in the space akin to what we saw in the venture capital space a decade ago). 

Some random items of interest:

• More later.
• Parot drone.  iPhone + wifi + UAV. Nice.
• The war correspondent Michael Yon gets handcuffed by customs agents (not TSA) at the US border:   When they handcuffed me, I said that no country has ever treated me so badly. Not China. Not Vietnam. Not Afghanistan. Definitely not Singapore or India or Nepal or Germany, not Brunei, not Indonesia, or Malaysia, or Kuwait or Qatar or United Arab Emirates. No county has treated me with the disrespect can that can be expected from our border bullies.  More.
• Guardian. Goldman Sachs' employees are so special that they ought to be viewed in the same category as professional athletes and movie stars, according to a board member of the Wall Street behemoth.  Special?  Think about this in another way. Global financial elites have set up themselves up as a virtual global tribe through story telling, rites of passage, obligations, largely leaderless, segmented function, etc.  The allure is definitely there (a similar process led the elites of the USSR to jump ship, which precipitated the collapsed of that superpower).  Another way to look at it:  except for the method, there's very little difference between this tribe and al Qaeda.  Both do us damage.
• Bots.  Come to think of it, I also ran the company and did a lot of the viral marketing that made RSS (really simple syndication) a global standard and shipped the first RSS aggregator back in 2002/3 or so.  RSS/aggregators are one of the first globally popular (open/decentralized) bot systems.  LOL.

Kicking off the New Year not only with a new episode of Radio OK Fred, there’s PauseTalk as well, with Vol. 37 happening this coming Monday (January 11) at Cafe Pause, with the usual start time of 20:00. Please note that the cafe is reserved from 19:30, so feel free to come a bit earlier to hang out. There’s also a Facebook event page set up — it’s always nice to see the RSVPs, to get an idea of who plans on coming.

Max Hodges will again be adding to the “PauseTalk Portraits” series, and we’ll soon be releasing PDF photo books of some of the shots.

Time to ring in the New Year with a new episode of Radio OK Fred (17), the “New” show. Well, it’s our take on new, and you’ll just have to listen to the show to find out how we justify some of our selections. Before you comment, yes, there’s a bit of technical issue at the start of the “1999″ track (sound is too low), but hey, it was done live, and so that’s that. Hope you enjoy!

Also, please not that I made a mistake with the numbering recently. The “Christmas” episode was in fact #16, as I forgot to count the special episode Audrey recorded in Gothenburg this past summer. We already have the next episode in the can, and it’s another special one, this time recorded in Paris and featuring Audrey and Marie of Colette, with a terrific selection of tracks. It will be up next week. Below, a link to download #17 and the track listing — and you can subscribe to the feed as well.

Radio OK Fred 17 (44MB)

1. Radiohead – “The National Anthem”
2. Depeche Mode – “New Life”
3. New Order – “Blue Monday”
4. American Quartet with Billy Murray – “Casey Jones”
5. Sentridoh – “That Kind of Year”
6. Prince – “1999″
7. Happy End – “Haru yo Koi”
8. Dirty Projectors – “New New Attitude”
9. Fishmans – “Atarashii Hito”
10. Lhasa de Sala – “Rising”

Akira the Don has done a video. Yays!

Oh - and go see Solipistic Pop review over at Forbidden Planet.