Cruise Control

43 contestants are battling for a spot in a government-sponsored desert race to speed development of unmanned military combat vehicles. The Grand Challenge is sponsored by the research arm of the Pentagon known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which is spending $9 million on this year's event. Nice to know the pentagon again looks to creative minids outside the government. This year's may have the best results yet -- and the winner could collect $2 million. The robotic vehicles began Wednesday in qualifying rounds at the California Speedway. Half will advance to the October 8th Grand Challenge. The grueling, weeklong semifinals are designed to test the vehicles' ability to cover a roughly 2-mile stretch of the track without a human driver or remote control. Participants ranging from souped-up SUVs to military behemoths will be graded on how well they can self-drive on rough road, make sharp turns and avoid obstacles -- hay bales, trash cans, wrecked cars -- while relying on GPS navigation and sensors, radar, lasers and cameras that feed information to computers. Last year none of the competitors finished the race. This year 7 finished the semi-final course on the first try. My money is on the computer science nerd.
mr. roboto drives

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The living Hal: your very own network organism

The city of Trondheim (Norway) is building a school to house more than a thousand laptop wielding students. Lars Paalgard and Even E. Westvang from the Bengler Collective have produced an art piece for their network. Nomen Nominandum, an organism that can live and grow for several years, floats around on the school network. If you call for it by voice or mouse movement it may come to your machine. If you play with it in the right way it will stay until it gets bored. At night, it sleeps curled up on its secluded plasma screen. It has real-time moods, sleeps in on Mondays and may decide to go away for a month in January. Its growth is very slow and as with living things you may never see it grow, but rather remember that it looked completely different some years ago. Freakin INSANE is right. AI is so here. Stuff like this blows me away. Just sit and ask yourself this.....Is it real?
Its alive
quicktime
school posting

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Bad Flipper! Bad!

Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico. Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in 1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and small electrodes planted under their skin, were taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbour and stationary warships at sea.

This is awesome and yet another example of our perpetually tragic dysfunctional government. Oh yeah that hurricane we thought those guys were gonna take care of the people. Nice job yet again. Can't wait till someone drops in on a wave only to be taken out by flipper.
armed and dangerous

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brrrrr

Today it did not get hot. You know when you realize wow it was chilly the whole day. Thats when you know it is coming. Fall and eventually winter. So remember where those coats are kids. Put up that surfboard. Its all downhill from here.

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blur

Well im alive. Back from vegas and it was a blurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. This photo is the perfect recap of how things went down. Overall it was enchanting but there were some nervous moments, and man i was always drunk. 4 days is too long in Vegas. If trane says its too long, you gotta trust him on that one. It seems i always had a drink in my hand and the wallet was fairly empty. Its quite a shock and no work is getting done. Consider today a wash but man oh man. What happens in Vegas stays in vegas, as john schreiber said its the ultimate tag.

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bottoms up

The beer convention provided an excellent opportunity to get a guage on our category. All the usual suspects are here, along with a couple surprises. So many beer seem to hang there hat on a country of origin. Its incredible to watch so many brands muddled by a sea of insconsistency. A few things did catch my eye. Fantastic labels and a couple unique cups have fancied the crowd. Its such a sterotypical tradeshow with sales people running around in khakis and collared shirts. I am so glad i ditched the marketing. Coltrane is out of control running around like a freakin celeb. Hilarious as the man with no pass, floats from exhibit to exhibit and people woo him. He would rightly argue he is the "tastemaker" but his spectacle makes the event much more enjoyable. Ben on the other hand, got thrown out for no pass.

Coltrane finally finds a solution to making another trip to the bar.


Here are some cool neons. Would love one in the agency or my crib for that matter.


This was one cool piece of technology. The guys at the booth couldnt decide on a price as they thought we really wanted to buy it. The tap actually has ice on the outside. The salesperson completely undercut his sale as he said they rebuilt horrible italian versions only to have the italians buy them back. hmm go figure.


Here is my haul. Not too bad but not nearly on scale with Trane. His bag busted open.

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Let me tell you something

You havent seen a vegas till you go there. It definitely runs on its own rules. The extravagence down to every drop. A center so concentrated only to create sprawl in every direction. Fueled by one thing. Money and an extreme focus on it at that. While sadly some folks nearby throw their house, their car, everything down the drain. Just to let it ride. A crazy place that imitates intself. In the middle of a nowhere desert. Just make sure you have a drink in your hand because you might get a crazy look if you dont. Its easy to forget with all that oxygen they pump in. Oh and yeah their arent any trees, so you might say Las Vegas is stealing oxygen from all of us. Maybe thats what makes you forget when you leave.
or the fake volacano in the lake in front of the hotel.

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Viva Las Vegas

If you actually read this blog, you might have noticed a lack of posts lately. Sorry about that but work has been crazy. I cant talk about it, but i promise big things are coming down the pipe. More details later. I am about to be off on another big adventure. This time its good ol' Sin City. Yes Las Vegas here i come. I will be attending the beer convention of America and giving a speech to the Sapporo Sales Team. Wish me luck (for blackjack i got the speech covered). Not much of a gambler and strip clubs, well lets leave that alone. Im sure some interesting stories are ahead.

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location location location

HILARIOUS...or just down right sad however you look at it.

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Wifi in the Park

New York City Parks will become hot-spotted by mid-October—now that summer is over. The heat of the laptop battery will just have to keep me alive while updating Gizmodo from the Central Park zoo, the Delacorte Theater and the Boathouse Cafe in the dead of winter. The free online access, supplied by WiFi Salon, was originally supposed to be in place by this July. All i can say is finally! No more camping out in front of CBS studios and having to inhale all that smoke.

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Electric Day Dream

We don't remember doing anything like that in highschool... Oh well, some people have all the fun. The West Philadelphia High School Electric Vehicle Team built this biodiesel car that gets 50 mpg (4.7l/100 km), has over 300 hp and does 0 to 60 in under 4 seconds, all that with a budget of $15,000! They used the Attack kit from K-1 and a 1.9 liters turbo-diesel VolksWagen engine. The rear wheels are powered by the diesel while the front wheels are powered by a 200 hp electric motor. Since it's a "performance" hybrid, the electric motor is used mostly for acceleration: "To keep the weight low, the electric motor will be powered by a 450 volt ultra-capacitor pack (weighing only 200lbs). [...] Under normal driving conditions, the vehicle will solely be powered by the diesel engine. Therefore, the ultra-capacitor pack stores only enough energy for a few minutes of blazing acceleration." Amazing innercity kids can pull off what the auto companies "cant". Change is a comin' people. Just you wait....
Illedelphia hybrid

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my new home

Stefan Eberstadt's Rucksack Haus (backpack house) is a sculpture but could also be a fully functional dwelling; the 2.50 m x 2.50 m x 3.60 m box, perforated with wraparound windows, skylights, and "floor-windows" can be suspended by cables from the façade of a residential building and taken along when the owners decide to move to a new home. Ummm ok. This is like living in a tent. Knowing the buildings in new york, i feel like it would bring the house down.
the ultimate lean to

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NEVER FORGET

I remember

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Crafty Quaker Oaters

The image above shows a 'suspended-load backpack' which was recently developed by Lawrence Rome, a biologist at the University of Pennsylvania. The luggage compartment travels up and down on the frame as the user walks, turning a gear which drives a small generator. The amount of power generated depends on how much weight is in the pack and how fast the user walks. Researchers measured a maximum output of 7.4 watts. Seven watts is sufficient to power a handful of electronic gadgets at the same time, including a cell phone, an MP3 player, a handheld computer, night-vision goggles, and a water purifier. Wow, shout out to all you UPENNer's. We need more ideas like this so we don't use up all the fossil fuels and completely melt the earth. Just think i could walk around the city all day, and power all my tech toys. Sweeeeeet. Where can i get one?
Start Me Up

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Mash-up

The remix. Mia Galang-Galang. Space Ghost coast to coast. Run DMC. Red vs blue. negativland's U2. The art of the mash-up or combination of two mediums, cultural force, or objects in the name of creativity/spontaneity has been around for a hot minute. Well on my recent trip down to NC i visited one of my best friends Drew. Being out in the creek, where he is currently attending law school, i didn't expect to find a new form of the remix at work. Somehow Drew combined the latest Dane Cook stand up act with the Beavis & Butthead movie. What a combo. At times he swore the words synched up. Possibly that was something else speaking, but it was quite an experience indeed. Could this be the future? Well the Brits are already embracing the mash-up and have contests around creating your own. The BBC are inviting mash-up fans to its Superstar VJs site which offers a whole host of clips available for free download and a music video competition in which to enter your creations. Almost 100 clips, from shows such as Walking With Beasts and Tomorrow's World, are for the UK public to use for free in their own creative works.clever clever.
FREETHEBBCINURTV

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When Bad Marketing Gets Uglier

I was lucky enough that my friend Alex had an extra ticket to the US OPEN. Being my first OPEN, i was happy to tag along and see Sharapova play. For ovbious reasons....Upon entering the station near the stadium, i was enundated with various ad's for Andy Roddick's Mojo. Once inside every single space had a logo slapped on it. Ralph Loren's polo logo seemed to get larger on every wall and piece of clothing i saw. The ball boys had logo's so large i could see them from the upper deck. The flower wall seemed to be sponsored by Heineken. Each row had about 20 logos and ads ran during breaks between games. The one piece of good work i saw was American Express, which by showing a corporate a card, loaned you a radio to hear the live broadcast during the event. Very Cool. Logos slapped everywhere. Horrible. When will American businesses realize that slapping your logo on a wall at an event isn't enough? The fact Heineken is on a wall does not make me buy it, even if its one of 3 beers they sell there. It might as wel be invisible. Another note: The French, Austrailian, nor Wimbledon has so many gratuitous logos allowed on court. Look at the Chase sign on the net...."sell out with me" by Reel Big Fish comes to mind
ps
Sharapova looked angelic.

Me and Maria sitting in a tree

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labor day weekend

Well my labor day weekend was not spent painting as planned. Instead i was crashing with my friend alex and "visiting" my once habitated island of manhattan. It did give me the chance to take a slightly different perspective on things, feel a tourist of sorts. Here are some photos from my weekend.

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Old Skoool

This site has old school hip hop fliers from new york city in the early 1980s. While i was busy learning to walk, the whole hip hop scene was jumping off. Check em out. Some are hilarious some are down right wicked.
The Source

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PSPaper

Norwegian Kotaku reader Snorre Bryne sends word that the newspaper he works for offers their entire online newspaper edition formatted specifically for the Playstation Portable. The PSP version of the paper just launched a few weeks ago, he says. The graphic and photo friendly paper, rescaled all of their images for the PSP’s screen. The paper’s webpage is the second largest news site in Norway. Goes to show people will read what they want, in the format they want. As well as males embracing technology.....
dagbladet.no

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Worthless

Hmmm worthless. Lets ponder. Like GW across the board. Like an Indian nickle. Like me on a saturday now that im waiting for an apartment. Like my apparent blogging techniques to up the membership. Im currently ranked 771,417 in blogs on Technorati. As in i have no links from other sites yet. Top 1 million isn't too bad really. Im not really going to become a global power magnate liket this. though. What do i have to do? Free t-shirts? maybe free vitamin water or Sapporo? email me your hints or suggestions.
technorati

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thinking (of getting) outside the box

6 strangers in seven cities across Canada are challenged to stay for 5 days in glassed-in boxes outfitted with the latest in technology without being able to leave and one of them will go home winning all the toys. The Canadian electronics store Future Shop is holding a “dorm room challenge” in which six strangers spend five days surrounded by gadgets. Before you say, ‘where do I sign up,’ note that the small box is made of glass and sits on the sidewalk in seven different cities. The winner takes everything in the box—flat panal TV, laptop, Xbox, & a friggin iPod. Hmm this human display seems to be the rage lately. The CK models, the london zoo, now this. Hmm looks to be the size of what i could be livin in....awesome. Enjoy the weekend.
Damn college is so rough

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