Moritz Simon Geist recreated the iconic 808 drum-machine using analog parts and robotic controllers, experimenting with many instruments in order to recreate the 808's repertoire. However, Geist is interested in "error" in music, saying, ". A drum beaten by a mechanic robot arm can never be as predictable as a computer generated sound. Consequently, the mechanic character of the installation MR-808 introduces fallibility into the performance."

For the installation MR-808 eleven sound of the 808 were replaced by mechanical actuators and physical tone-makers. I designed all instruments in reference to the famous sounds of the TR-808. A huge number of experiments were carried out since 2011 and a varity of instruments have been built. The instruments include: Snare, Bass drum, Hi-Hat, Carabassa, Clave, Ride, Clap, Tom (3x) and Cowbell.

Motors and solenoids were used as actuators, which are triggered by a power electronic device and an Arduino Microcontroller. The musical control is realized with MIDI, the latency and the lighting control system are implemented in MAX / MSP. You can read more about the details of the techniques here.

Let’s get mechanical: MR-808 is the first drum robot that reproduces the drum sounds of the 80s – in the real world (via JWZ)

Over at our sponsor Intel's My Life Scoop site, I wrote a short piece about my favorite men's style sites:

Since I was 14, I’ve dressed like, well, I’m 14. My daily attire has always been t-shirt, hoodie, jeans, and sneakers or boots. That said, I feel good when I dress up. My wife is a fashion designer and stylist. She helps, when I let her. And in recent years, that’s been more often. I’m not interested in trying to track the latest trends. I prefer classic, timeless, and well-made apparel. I like looking sharp, but I’d never want to peacock. If I wasn’t so lazy about my looks, and actually made the scene more often, I’d be tempted to buy more suits. William S. Burroughs wore a traditional suit almost every day. It enabled him to blend in, fade into invisibility to observe without suspicion. Of course, I’m no Burroughs. For lots of reasons. But I still wouldn’t mind the gentleman junkie’s three-piece gray flannel suit.

Michael Geist sez,

This morning, the majority of Bill C-11, the Canadian copyright reform bill, took effect, marking the most significant changes to Canadian copyright law in decades. While there are still some further changes to come (the Internet provider notice-and-notice rules await a consultation and their own regulations, various provisions related to the WIPO Internet treaties await formal ratification of those treaties) and digital lock protections are part of the package, all the consumer oriented provisions are now active. These include:

- The addition of education, parody, and satire as fair dealing purposes.
- The creation of a non-commercial user generated content provision that creates a legal safe harbour for creators of non-commercial USG (provided they meet four conditions in the law) and for sites that host such content.
- The adoption of several new consumer exceptions including time shifting (recording of television shows), format shifting, and the making of backup copies.

Grime Writer is a detergent-filled graffiti marker that cleans away street-filth to leave your message behind. There's a good chance that the graffiti you create with these is no more legal than any other kind -- there've been successful prosecutions against companies in the UK that paid "street teams" to "reverse-graffiti" their messages by using detergent and stencils to selectively clean away grime from public walls, leaving behind commercial messages.

Grime Writer is a special chunky marker pen that can be filled with cleaning solution, and used to create art on a canvas of filth. Use it to tag your dirty vehicles & windows, or to transform dirt into artistic expression.

Much more socially acceptable than real graffiti and (more importantly) a lot less illegal - Grime Writer helps you leave your mark wherever you find muck. Use responsibly to help promote the phenomenon of negative graffiti, and brilliantly combine the crime of defacing a bridge with the community service time cleaning it up again afterwards, into one harmless, helpful, creative act.

Grime Writer : Cleans away grime to leave your message (via Super Punch)

This one sort of combines wind and voting. Readers in WA or CO may want to toke up before clicking.

(HT: Lena Groeger)

What all of this means in practice will be interesting to watch. If the federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries in California are any indication, it's not as simple as "state's rights." Marijuana is still a schedule 1 narcotic, the most restrictive class of illegal drug, with no recognized medical use by federal guidelines. Things may get ugly.

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Last night, Minnesota became the first state to vote against a constitutional amendment banning gays and lesbians from marrying. We still don't have marriage equality in this state. But two other states — Maine and Maryland — voted in favor of legalizing gay marriage and a third, Washington, looks like it might do the same. Meanwhile, Iowans voted to retain a judge who played a role in making same sex marriage legal in that state.

To celebrate — especially on the Minnesota front, where we also rejected a voter ID amendment — I present this video of the Swedish Chef making meatballs.

Election night's over, and in the Vintage Ads group, spuzzlightyear's closed it off with ten magnificent political ads from times gone by. Here are a couple of my favourites.

various political ads....

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