In the video at left from NVIDIA’s NVISION 2008 (a geekfest promoting video card maker NVIDIA) Jamie & Adam of MythBusters demonstrate how to paint a Mona Lisa in 80 milliseconds. If you plan to try this at home, keep in mind you’ll need an 1100 barrel paintball gun. On a more serious note: in this clip from the convention, Adam Savage explains how the lawyers of American Express and the other major credit cards effectively censored Discovery Channel to prevent them from EVER talking about credit card RFID. This, in spite of the fact that it’s a fairly well known fact that not only are credit cards intrinsically less-than-secure, they’re even less secure when you’re able to hack the new RFID feature. But who cares what these MythBuster guys say anyway. Aren’t these the guys who claim the moon landings actually happened? As an afterthought, I have to wonder (given that these guys live in the Bay Area) just how “green” that Mona Lisa stunt was. Of more interest to others though - also because they live in the Bay Area - appears to be the question Are the MythBusters Gay?

Bush & Rove Laughing Hysterically At Gullibility of American Public

Back in 2001, right after the attacks on the World Trade Center (someone’s going to kill me for that link), a friend of mine and I joked about how Bush would somehow try to link the attacks to Saddam Hussein so he could invade Iraq. At the time, the idea sounded preposterous, and we had a big laugh. That’s why, after joking last year with a friend that “the only way a Republican will be in office in 2009 is if we go to war with Iran”, I’ll go out on a limb and predict an invasion by October. Some headlines this weekend: US prepares military blitz against Iran’s N-sites, Dutch pull spies on Iran attack fears, Israel ready to attack if Iran goes nuclear, US and UK begin war games in Persian Gulf , and the only one in the U.S. media: Iran warns any attack would start ‘world war’. Gentleman, rattle your sabres…

Cicciolina, One Of The Few To Succeed As Both

Oh, make up your own punchline. Do we really care what a bunch of narcissistic Democrats have to say to each other when they get together every four years? If so, here’s a good source. Personally, I’m more interested in things like ABC News making a big fuss about the sex trade spiking in towns when political conventions arrive. They’ve obviously never heard the one about the Senator telling the intern to leave him alone, “…because he had a hundred pages to get through before lunch…”. In any case, although advocacy groups (no, they’re not for it, they’re against it) agree with ABC’s assessment, cops in both cities say not likely. And they should know, because they’re the ones hanging out in parks where all the real tricks are getting turned. Like the former co-chair of John McCain’s presidential campaign in Florida, Bob Allen, who like the cops, is often busy denying things. No, the real fun for politicians at convention time is in skirting ethics laws that might prevent them from having awesome parties, or in whoring THEMSELVES out to special interest lobbies like the RIAA or ATT.

Back in 2003, I became convinced (probably because of my own goldfish-like attention span) that the real future of film and video entertainment would be in any content that lasts less than twenty minutes. Around that time, Fox Searchlabs was launched, offering amazingly well-conceived and produced shorts created by up-and-comers at Fox Searchlight, usually shorts less than 10-15 minutes long. Even that recently, streaming video was a bit of a joke, but especially with the advent of streaming HD, this is becoming a really viable media (especially with services like Joost). Some favorites of mine from that pre-YouTube era include Hang Time, the video at left; Farm Sluts, about a guy who loses his job because of a porn-infected e-mail he receives at work; and The Birthday Suit, about a 50-year-old mom and businesswoman who has a little misunderstanding about her birthday gift. Fox Searchlab is still on line, but for newer high-quality shorts you can check out sites like NiceShorts.com or TheSmalls.com

Yesterday I found myself wondering whether people would be saying so much about Barack Obama’s elitist attitudes if he were white. For the answer to that question, all you have do is look around the world a bit. The racist commercial at left (from FunnyOrDie.com; is it funny, or dye?) is not unique in southeast Asia. It wasn’t very long ago that they changed Darkie brand toothpaste to Darlie, and (as pointed out in this article by Tamara J. Walker), one of the most popular snack brands in Mexico is Bimbo Negrito, traditionally promoted with a blackfaced native girl holding a spear (they’ve since updated to a hip-hop kid with a ‘fro). So, since it seems to be here to stay, here are some charts to help you draw the lines of color in your life. First, the UN Environment Program has conveniently provided a geographical skin tone map, so you can move to an area that best suits your level of prejudice. Once you’re there, fine-tune your skin color preferences with von Luschan’s skin color chart. Don’t worry, wherever you move, they’ll probably still sell your precious Uncle Ben’s and other racist products. Happy coloring!

Recently a photographer/artist friend of mine (Robin Vincent, check out some cool photography here) gave me a cool mix on CD and accidently sent me on one of those maddeningly gratifying searches for music that involves spending a hundred bucks when you really had only set out to find one CD. If you’re into exploring the fringe of low-tech, ambient/atmospheric music (things like Tim Hecker spring to mind) you have to check out Hala Strana , which - although other artists collaborate on the project - is essentially a solo project by Steven R. Smith. In the Hala Strana recordings, Smith utilizes the intrumentation, arrangements, and sometimes samples of music from Eastern Europe to create some magical atmospheres that often sound like a lost soundtrack from a Krzysztof Kieslowski film. If you like the general feel of Hala Strana, you might want to peruse the other artists on the labels Soft Abuse, Emperor Jones, or Jewelled Antler. Personally I’m still on a bit of a quest here; the song that got me all started on this was the haunting and mysteriously (un)named track 04. That’s a link to a lo-fi mp3, if anybody can tell me which CD this is actually on and what it’s called, I’ll give you a dollar. So much music, so little time.

It’s always cool when a barrista takes the extra effort to at least make a classic apple or rosetta in your crema. Inventor Oleksiy Pikalo is taking it all to a new level, with his DIY Latte Art Printing Machine. I was a little surprised that someone with such an enterprising mind would already be trying to sell out to Starbucks through their My Starbucks Idea site, a sort of on line suggestion box… Imagine if after the Starbucks staffer finishes correcting you on how you refer to their sizes, you have to make a decision on whether you want a regular crema or an art crema: “I’d like a lowfat grande Miley Cyrus almond latte with an extra shot, hold the whip”. Even more surprising to me is the fact that Starbucks has a suggestion box in the first place. Not surprising is the fact that the number one suggestion is lower your prices! For more images of crema art created by his machine, see this collection from SIGGRAPH 2008. NOTE: On behalf of purist crema artists out there, it’s only fair to point out that this machine actually uses caramel-colored liquid to achieve the images, not deft manipulation of a dynamic media like tiny bursting bubbles of hot milk.

Life feeling a little two dimensional? Try hopping over to the fourth. This series of videos, although presenting explanations of the fourth dimension that will make your optical nerves snap, is also somehow calming. Produced by resarchers at The ENS Lyon, they’re presented in an almost pastoral style in terms of pace and narrative. Put aside a good 15 minutes to take them in if you decide to check them out. For some equally compelling but less smoothly produced retinal torture, check out this clip demonstrating some perception-bending, M.C. Escherian six-point perspective. And for a quick eye-twister, try to convince yourself that there’s only a single grid spinning in this image (full size version of image at left). Most people see anywhere from five to eight. That last one is legit, in spite of being brought to you by the guy that recently pulled of the iPhone hologram hoax.

I’ve joked for some time that the recent generation which has grown up with padded playgrounds would be the dumbest generation since the dark ages. It’s just common sense that natural selection killed off all the dumb kids of my generation by letting them play on our lethal playgrounds. Seems like this sentiment is gaining some popularity. Good Magazine has an article in the current issue that addresses the topic a little more seriously. Referring to an experimental “Adventure Playground” in Berkeley, CA: “…There are no hidden risks here…by forcing kids to assess the possibility of risk, they play more safely while also learning how to take care of themselves…” and “…You kill their creativity by hovering too close…”. Makes sense to me, but as a kid I did experiments like jumping off the roof to see if an umbrella would work as a parachute. Cost: sprained ankle, wind knocked out. Benefit: Immense fun, and proof that rough play doesn’t ALWAYS kill the stupid kid. In a similar vein, this LA Times piece reminisces about simply going out to play, apparently a lost art. Hell, in my day (I love saying that), when adults weren’t busy throwing us off the dock as a swim lesson, they were fond of telling us to “go play freeze tag on the freeway”. Most of us survived.