Except the release of Brian Eno & David Byrne’s album of the same name, which will happen on August 4th, 2008. The music will be available exclusively at everythingthathappens.com with free previews and a free song, and it actually goes on sale two weeks later. Can’t wait for some new Byrne & Eno? Then make your own by remixing studio quality tracks from the 1981 release Bush of Ghosts. They’ve generously provided all the necessary tools and files at the Bush of Ghosts remix site .

Well, you may have missed Global Orgasm Day 2007, but you’re not too late for National Orgasm Day 2008. Yes, British scientists have taken the global orgasm, er, national. While Global Orgasm Day was dedicated to peace, National Orgasm Day is dedicated to science. According to the press material, this survey conducted by Pelvic Toner (”the world’s best vaginal exerciser”) and Scarlet magazine is the world’s largest survey of the female orgasm. Learn more here, read the press release here, or take the actual survey here. Attention men: There’s a good chance you are not qualified to complete this survey.

Maybe, um, stop waging a war on it? Put this in the “things - everybody - except - the - Bush - administration - seems - to - know” box. The Rand Corporation has just put on line a brief called How Terrorist Groups End - Implications for Countering al Qa’ida. They suggest that the only successful ways to counter terror groups pretty much involve anything BUT a military solution: “…most groups ended because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they negotiated a settlement with their governments. Military force was rarely the primary reason a terrorist group ended, and few groups within this time frame achieved victory…” . They have a lot of interesting information in the report, which was culled from data collected on 648 groups that were active between 1968 and 2006.

I was surprised recently to find out how few of the young hipsters in my social circle seem to know about Mashups. For the uninitiated, read the overblown, self-important Wikipedia definition here. The concept is simple. Take two or more familiar pop media elements (from virtually any media), and mash them together to pleasing or amusing effect (I’ve never adequately defined for myself how they differ from “remixes”; they just do). The YouTube clip at left is a great example: George Bush covers U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday, from RX’s “Party Party” mashup. Since mashups involve using large recognizable pieces of intellectual property, they’re often subject to takedown notices by the RIAA or MPAA as soon as they become popular. For that reason it’s often easiest to BitTorrent them. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but some faves of mine include Party Ben and Team9’s Dean Gray -American Edit (Green Day - American Idiot); Danger Mouse’s Grey Album (Jay-Z’s “The Black Album” mashed with The Beatles’ “White Album”) The Ciccones - The Immaculate Concoction (Madonna mixed with just about (more…)

As a person who REALLY loathes carrying a laptop about, I’m occasionally accused of being a luddite, or at least receive some amusing glances when I pull out my index cards or notepad at meetings. That’s why I love ideas like High Tech Napkins. This ingenious concept utilizes e-ink and RF technology to create the electronic equivalent of jotting ideas on cocktail napkins. This is where some of both my best (late-night-problem solving or business ideas) and worst (martini-goggle romances) ideas have come about. I wish someone would at least develop a tablet PC that has a detachable touchscreen that connects to the laptop wirelessly. [Note to self: call patent office.] An additional benefit of this design concept: It’s very green; no paper waste, no battery to deal with, and eventually recycling the display requires only separating the plastic sheeting from the inner component.