Low Frequency Signal
August 22nd, 2009 | people I know, photography, researchmaterial
End-of-week stuff that needs collecting up.
Pachube. I haven’t paid attention to this, yet, but I need to get around to it, because, as Adam Greenfield says, it’s
pointing at something very interesting and valuable
Related: Tom of BERG on "Preparing Us For Augmented Reality."
Geoff Manaugh on The Bioluminescent Metropolis, or:
….you’re watching a film one night down at the cinema when you realize that there is no light coming through from the projector room behind you – because you are actually looking at bacteria, changing their colors, like living pixels, as they display the film for all to see.
Or: that’s not an iPod screen you’re watching, it’s a petri dish hooked up to YouTube.
The installation at Laurenn McCubbin’s forthcoming exhibition in Vegas:
Something I need to finish reading, as it seems related to the linkposts about Buddhism in Sri Lanka: Robert Kaplan on "Buddha’s Savage Peace":
President Rajapaksa came to Kandy a few days later, on May 23, to receive the blessings of the chief Buddhist monks at the Temple of the Tooth for winning the war. He expressed no apologies or remorse for the victims of the war, and he promised the monks, “Our motherland will never be divided [again].” He told them that there were only two types of Sri Lankans, those who love the motherland and those who don’t. Because he conceives of the motherland as primarily Buddhist, his words carried too little magnanimity.
I recently stood in front of a bunch of architecture types and described mega-engineering and megastructures as essentially a medieval pursuit. English Russia has some fascinating photographs of that Russian hydroelectric plant that suffered an explosion the other day. And this one just struck me as the summation of that thought. Tiny tiny people wandering around what looks like the collapse of the biggest tent in the world.
Apparently Russian authorities were warned in 1998 that the place was falling apart. It’s going to take two to four years to effect repairs, presuming the money can be found. Terrible quote:
Regional emergency official Dmitry Kudryavtsev told The Associated Press that nine workers remained missing after the latest bodies were found Saturday. "I am almost sure that the remaining missing will be found," he said
Also from English Russia: The Testing Base Of The Emergency Control Ministry Of Belarus. How can you not love The Emergency Control Ministry?
Jamais Cascio on three new futures for economics. I like "Griefer Economics."
Ugandan police are investigating a religious cult of predominantly wealthy people linked to human sacrifice in the country. Your actual blood cult.
Authorities in West Africa have in the recent past fought running battles with cult members. On August 6, cult members shot and killed a policeman in Nigeria who was considered a threat to the cult’s activities in Adigbe area.
In the same country, 13 students were killed in clashes between cults calling themselves the Black Axe and the Black Eye, all said to be practising black magic. Some of their activities include killing, rape, extortion and theft.
Nigeria Police also clashed with the Boko Haram cult, killing 700 people and arresting hundreds of members of the group.
“We are investigating a cult which makes them [followers] take human blood periodically. It is a devil cult,” Binoga says of the Kampala cult.
“It is an open secret everyone is talking about it, they say if you don’t take blood, the wealth will go,” Binoga says.
And:
According to James Ongom, an investigating officer, 40 children have lost their lives to ritual killings this year alone. Out of these cases, 15 have so far been investigated, but no one has been convicted.
And, tying bottom to top, Bruce Sterling’s fairly giddy and joyful talk to Layar about augmented reality and basically how not to get fucked up by what is coming next:
Video: Bruce Sterling’s Keynote – At the Dawn of the Augmented Reality Industry from Maarten Lens-FitzGerald on Vimeo.
is the award-winning creator of graphic novels such as 
RE Pachube: There were mumbled and vague suggestions on the Viridian Design list about a networked sensor web, to track pollution concentrations in a city. It’s typically unexpected that Web 2.0 would make it real.
Outside of Asia, the perception of Buddhism does not often include the ethnic, cultural and historical aspects. And then there’s the common foibles of humanity: greed, lust, corruption, etc.
[...] Original article found via Warren Ellis. [...]
Wow! Laurenn’s exhibition is looking pretty cool!