Rudy Rucker

Rudy Rucker is a writer, a mathematician and a computer scientist. Born in Kentucky in 1946, Rucker moved to Silicon Valley when he turned 40. Rucker has published twenty-five books, primarily science-fiction and popular science. He was an early cyberpunk and an editor at Mondo 2000. He often writes SF in a style is characterized as transreal. His most recent novels were Frek and the Elixir, a far-future epic about a boy's galactic quest to restore Earth's ecology and As Above So Below, a historical novel based on the life of the sixteenth century painter Peter Bruegel.  Rucker is a professor emeritus of computer science at San Jose State University, where he created a number of freeware programs relating to chaos, artificial life, cellular automata, higher dimensions, and computer games. He is presently working on The Lifebox, the Seashell and the Soul, a nonfiction book about computers and the nature of reality. Rucker's website can be found at www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/rucker or at www.rudyrucker.com.

Japandering

Japander.com offers an hilarious assortment of archived Japanese television commercials in which American celebrities are shown making complete asses of themselves "by advertising products in Japan that they would probably never use" for (presumably) large sums of money.

Above, a clip in which Nicolas Cage chokes out a fabulously off-key ditty on the many virtues of pachinko, a pinball/slot machine game popular in Japan.

And here, Winona Ryder rolls over and giggles in bed after apparently having had sex with a really, really good can of coffee. More clips from Bruce Willis, Peter Falk, Geena Davis, Madonna, and others here. Thanks, Frank

And if you're into this sort of stuff, gaijinagogo.com has more. Gaijin is Japanese for "gringo." Now you know.

UPDATE: www.klein-dytham.com has more cool japandering clips--click here, and select "sold out" link. Thanks, Numair.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 9:02:12 AM | permalink

Hacking Britney: Found Anti-Art in NYC Subways

Here is a site with snapshots of defaced subway ads for the Britney Spears Live from Las Vegas concert. But are they defaced, or just deconstructed? Some of the tweaked images resemble Magritte heads, others conjure visions of blood-spattered Bosch S&M tableaus. Each one of them is visually more interesting than the original, virgin ad. The britneyunderground.com crew writes:

"[The ads] assaulted the Big Apple for weeks, amidst the post 9.11 trauma and heartbreak. To mimic the question penned on one ad poster, can we afford this anymore? The message this scantily clad teen offers in a time of war is uncertain, but several NYC subway riders didn’t hesitate to express their thoughts."

Thanks, Frank

posted by Xeni Jardin at 8:53:09 AM | permalink

Image: courtesy of Dockers, via USA Today. Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 1:13:15 PM | permalink

Aliens to Earthlings: We Want the Funk. Give Up The Funk.

Space.com story on a series of collaborative meetings between musicians and scientists about music as a tool for interstellar communication. Too bad all the artist participants seem to have been classical musicians and new age composers. Where's George Clinton when you need him? Beeep-beeeep! Paging Dr. Funkenstein!

"While we cannot be sure that extraterrestrial beings will necessarily have a sense of hearing, any of the civilizations we contact in the course of a SETI detection will be savvy about some of the building blocks of music nevertheless. Concepts of frequency, amplitude, and duration are as basic to the construction of radio telescopes as they are to the composition of a symphony. Even if ET is deaf, the language of music might provide a means of access to terrestrial aesthetic sensibilities, through the intermediary of shared science." Link

Image: Spectral analysis of a musical selection by 10th-century composer Hildegaard von Bingen (credit: Andrew Kaiser). By contrast, spectral analysis of a funk-osition by George von Clinton looks like this.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 8:24:43 AM | permalink

Harvard engineers grow penis in lab

Get ready for a whole lotta all-new spam subject lines, I guess:

"In a remarkable feat of tissue engineering, major parts of the penises of several rabbits have been replaced with segments grown in a lab from their own cells. The animals were able to use the reconstructed organs to mate. The next step is to try to recreate the entire organ from scratch." (...)

It could also provide an alternative to the crude methods currently used to enlarge the organ, such as injecting fat cells or cutting the penis's suspensory ligament and "pulling out" more of the internal part. Instead, a patient would have penile cells removed by a doctor and, a few weeks later, the organ or parts of it grown using the cells could be surgically implanted."

Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 7:55:57 AM | permalink

NYT's Neil Strauss: where are the war songs now?
In today's NYT (registration required), an item by Neil Strauss on the general lack of response from popular musicians to the seemingly imminent war against Iraq, "despite a tradition of political commentary and protest."

[NYT excerpt]
[Some] have not lost their taste for the ironic. "I have no views," Mickey Melchiondo, known as Dean Ween, said in a philosophical moment. "I am way too stupid. I have no strong feelings about anything. I'm really into television and the computer. I believe everything I see on TV and read on the Internet."
[/NYT excerpt]
Thanks, Numair.
Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:53:25 PM | permalink

Hi-tech cigarette vending machines sell smokes with slang, smiles
In an apparent effort to revitalize anemic sales, tobacco giant Brown & Williamson recently launched new, interactive tobacco vending machines. Funky, folksy avatars will now sell you smokes, double-check ID, and cheerfully gather personal data to custom-market cigarettes to you. CNN coverage here.

According to the company's press release, nightclubs and "adult-oriented venues" in Cleveland and L.A. are first up to test-market the new machines that feature "five different computer-generated talking sales people who engage consumers in edgy dialogue."

In the corporate demo video you can watch online here (Real Player) on the B&W web site, a young African-American woman approaches the machine; a hip, casually dressed, virtual guy greets her and asks her to swipe first her credit card, then her driver's license.

"NARRATOR: 'Let's say her credit card is invalid.' AVATAR: 'Yo! I can't read your card. Can you try again and use another one?' " If the magnetic strip on her ID is unreadable, the smokes-hawker coos apologetically: "Hey, I'm sorry--I know you hate being carded but I couldn't read your driver's license."

[press release excerpt:]
"Cigarette vending machines on the market today are virtual dinosaurs, relics of the 1960s and early 1970s," said Steve Rogers, Brown & Williamson's manager of distribution and vending...the high-tech machines remember the customer and can offer discounts based on the adult smoker's purchase history. "For example, the virtual sales clerk might also offer a discounted price or even a free pack to a repeat customer if they buy one pack. The machine may also encourage an adult smoker of a competitive brand to try a Brown & Williamson product," Rogers said.
[/excerpt]

Footnote: Last week, B&W was named in reparations lawsuits filed in NY and CA by descendants of black slaves, who demanded that 12 tobacco corporations "pay back profits reaped from the work of their enslaved ancestors."

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:46:26 AM | permalink

Lo-Fi Swap-Meet Junkies: Screw eBay, I'll Take Tradio Instead.

Interesting story in today's WSJ (subscription required) about "tradio" (TRA-dee-o), or trade radio: a low-tech alternative to auction websites like eBay. In other words, an AM-radio swap meet. The phenomenon is decades old, but is evidently now thriving in a number of small-town communities around the country. Try doing a Google search for "tradio", and you'll stumble accross lots of radio stations that offer on-air P2P junk distribution.

The handsome fellow whose head is featured above is none other than Captain Tradio, from Independence, Missouri. And this AM station in Iowa posts a list of etiquette rules that includes "No alcoholic beverages... No firearms...NO CEMETERY PLOTS!"

[WSJ excerpt] Here's how it works: Callers announce they're selling something -- a gas heater that "would be good in your garage, your huntin' shack or whatever," a "very large collection of Fiestaware dishes in all the new colors" or some "very friendly young goats" -- and leave their phone number. Anyone interested calls the seller, and the transaction is negotiated face-to-face...

While it may sound archaic in the age of eBay, the tradio format seems to be benefiting from the buzz generated by the popular Web auction site. Some tradio shows are using the Internet to their advantage -- allowing listeners to submit items for sale via e-mail and posting items called into the show on their Web sites.

"Our volume is even larger because of the invention of the Internet," says Hal Widstem, general manager of KWED in Seguin, Texas, population 22,011. "People e-mail us pictures of what they're trying to sell, which is kind of a waste of time," he says, since the listeners can't see them. [/WSJ excerpt]

Link (subscription required)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 9:32:59 PM | permalink

Photo:hereisnewyork.org

I went to the opening reception in San Diego tonight for a traveling photography show called Here is New York that gathered images of 9/11 taken by both amateurs and professionals. The design company I co-founded supplied the gallery space with some cool benches from Torolab in Tijuana. As you enter the exhibit, you're walking into a stark space covered with unframed glossies of Manhattan before, during, and after. The effect is overwhelming -- but in this room plastered with images, one photo (above) just blew me away. I couldn't stop looking at it. All I could think when I saw it, all I could hear in my head, was this song by PJ Harvey (listen: Real Audio | Windows Media )

----------
Big Exit
Look out ahead
I see danger come
I wanna' pistol
I wanna' gun
I'm scared baby
I wanna' run
This world's crazy
Give me the gun

Baby, baby
Ain't it true
I'm immortal
When I'm with you
But I wanna' pistol
In my hand
I wanna' go to
A different land

I met a man
He told me straight
'You gotta' leave
It's getting late'
Too many cops
Too many guns
All trying to do something
No-one else has done

I walk on concrete
I walk on sand
But I can't find
A safe place to stand
I'm scared baby
I wanna' run
This world's crazy
Gimme' the gun

----------
Art and rock'n'roll become transcendental when they're unadorned, unembellished, and unselfconscious.

You can purchase this image online: it's #7394 in the catalog, printed on 11x17 inch paper for $25. A complete, 864-page show book (692 color images, 176 duotones) costs $49.95.

= = = = = = = = = =

Photo: Xeni

posted by Xeni Jardin at 9:08:41 PM | permalink

This is Not American Idol.

Spotted on a New York streetcorner last week: five musicians launching an independent wireless distribution program and automated payment platform. Actually, it's also a recyclable payment platform. I hear this business model is really big on subways, too. Judging from what filled the cardboard box, they just might be on to something.

photos: Xeni

posted by Xeni Jardin at 3:17:07 PM | permalink

Mini-Memory from Molecules

"Some thousands of these memory units could fit on the end of a single strand of hair... 'This is the first demonstration that molecular logic and memory can work together on the same nanoscale circuits,' said [R. Stanley Williams, H-P Fellow and director of Quantum Science Research at H-P Labs] in an announcement." Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 6:29:11 AM | permalink

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