is the Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. He has spent a lot of time doing research on morality and emotion. He has also asked himself the question "What makes people vote republican?".
Ad he also managed to come up with an answer. It's not a short one, but it is one that needs to be read by a few people in the states, and might be worthwhile reading for any Europeans who have ever asked themselves the same question.
In my experience, that would be most everyone I know.
Of course, the clever kiddies at CERN probably weren't hell-bent on world destruction. I can only assume that those types who might be, don't have access to the kind of resources that would be required to send us down the galactic drain.
I'm pretty sure there are at least a handful of people out there who have considered their options though.
Some of these options are listed on a webpage with the oh so appropriate title "How to Destroy the Earth". It's a rather entertaining list of ways to help the entire planet shuffle off this mortal coil. Each method is broken down into a description, a feasibility rating, and a source of inspiration.
It's a pretty entertaining read for anyone who has ever played with the idea of pursuing a career as an evil mad scientist or destroyer of planets.
Although some of you are probably still recovering from the ARS Electronica, the next big date on the digital arts and culture calendar is already upon us.
The Paraflows opening party will be taking place tonight in Vienna at the MAK-Gegenwartskunstdepot in the Gefechtsturm in Arenbergpark. This will be kicking off over a months worth of cultural fun and games including exhibitions and a symposium set for the 12th and 13th of September.
For those of you not yet in the know about this particular event, I suggest you check out some of Burstups writings on the subject: Paraflows 08: Utopia
Or just go to the homepage, which should have everything you could possibly need.
www.paraflows.at
See you there?
This morning
I was woken up by a song. That's probably a pretty normal thing for most of you. Clock radios have been around for ages right?
Except that I don't have one. I don't even have a stereo in my room, and the computer was packed up and put to sleep.
An ohrwurm woke me up. A song in my head going off like a clockradio set to 11. It's still in there actually.
So I took that as a sign. A sign to share the song. A song by the most recent artist to give me the Sunday shivers.
Miss Platnum was the most recent in a long line of performers to take me by surprise on the last day of a festival. One of the bands in the earlier slots that leave me standing in front of the stage staring blindly as waves of musically induced shivers ran up and down my spine. It happens every year. But this is the first times one of those bands has shaken me out of my sleep 3 days later.
So here's Miss Platnums video of the song that woke me up.
And for the truly brave ad/or MySapce types out there, here is her page there. Don't blame me if it kills your comp.
Datamining
is something we usually have done to us. It's how a good portion of those great free things out there are making money, by interpreting your data trails and putting them into some kind of context commercial entities (and the odd government or two) might find potentially useful.
Sounds like fun doesn't it?
That's good, because now you can do it to! Mycrocosm is a way for you to wrap up all of those loose bits and pieces and put them together again in a way that might just make some sense. And if it doesn't make any sense, well, at least it makes some pretty graphs and charts.
I did something that changed my life. I got a cell phone. At the time I was doing freelance graphics and playing in bands. I was also between apartments. That cell phone was literally my lifeline.
It was also something that annoyed a lot of people.
The times have changed, and I no longer have to justify my constant companion to anyone. Well almost anyone. I have one friend who has developed into a bit of a techno luddite, but we just don't talk about these things anymore.
Now my phone has developed into a complete mobile communications device, mobile library, entertainment center and primary place of work. THe biggest change though has been in the way I actually relate to my friends. With email, facebook, twitter and a messenger in my pocket. I'm constantly fed little bits of information about my buddies, and could keep up a constant stream of useless bits of information if I wanted to. Now I frequently find myself explaining this to other people in conversations that frequently remind me of my mid nineties tirades on the utility of cell phones.
The other day I realized that I had been writing fewer and fewer emails to friends, but actually felt more connected to most of them than any time since giving up a full time scene life for things like work and family. Today I found out there is a name for this.
Ambient awareness.
It was a term I found in an article in the New York Times. It's a fabulous summary of many of the things that had been passing through my head, but already researched and formulated in a way I would probably never get around to.
Wien | 13.9.2008 | 15:51 
