You must watch this video now:

It's a video of some scientists playing with cornstarch and water -- sounds boring, but the two form a non-newtonian fluid that is so fun to play with. You can replicate some of what they pull off here by filling a ziploc baggie partway full of water and cornstarch (mix it so it's about like pancake batter). Move the baggie quickly between your hands and it's like a rock.

Or you can mix some cornstarch and water in a cup -- put your finger in slowly and it's like mud. But if you poke it quickly you'll find it's super solid. Yip fer science!

Finger-like Protrusians rule my freaking world.

Dramatic street corner.

I was helping my neighbor put together some business cards, and one of the local Buffalo print shops was advertising XKardz. What are XKardz? Well, check out the image below.





Oh, yeah, that's some crazy shit. The site provides a handy comparison between "Business cards" and "XKardz":

Business Cards are:

1. Your company
   
2. Same old, same old
   
3. Sadly, Monday morning
   
4. Give 'em the company line
   
5. Sport coats, ties and executive pant suits
   
6. The extension of your professional personality

While XKardz are:

1.     You!
   
2.     "Off the hook" with original graphix & typestyles
   
3.     Finally, Friday night!!
   
4.     Say it in your own way
   
5.     Liquid denim flares, stamper locs, baggy jeans, crop tops and shades
   
6.     Plain and simple, your hook-up

Clearly, XKardz are "the hook-up." Is this for people who can't turn off the business persona? Or is it the "individual branding" we see online so often moving into the real world in a more concrete manner? Or are people just hooking up so much they have to start carrying calling cards? And why aren't we doing this with our cell phones? or whoever is doing it... it's not me... I hate having business cards anyway...

Paul reading from the site based poetry.

Preparing for the reading

The two men sat staring at the whiteboard. A line down the middle of the board separated two lists, one labeled "Life," the other "Death." Under "Life" were a few bullet points, written in all-caps. Under "Death" was only one phrase: "EVERYTHING else."

Quoted from: PiTP || A Participatory Digital Fiction by Shawn Rider

Forgot the link:

I thiought I'd post a link to my latest story for everyone. it's brand new, still wet behind the ears, so let me know if there's anything I need to be aware of. Read and enjoy...

Sarah in front of her winning photos.

Main street railroad bridge after voting

A Plot or Storyline Patent application seeks to patent the underlying novel and nonobvious storyline of a fictional story. Such protection is to be contrasted from the copyright protection of one of millions of possible expressions of an underlying storyline. The field of possible applications is broad, and may tentatively be split into an entertainment-advertisement dichotomy. The epitome of an entertainment application is an original, thought-provoking, often shockingly unique movie plot. Several potentially patentable features may have been found in the plots of, Memento, The Thirteenth Floor, Being John Malkovich, Butterfly Effect, The Game, Fight Club, The Matrix, Total Recall, The Truman Show, Minority Report, The Village, Groundhog Day, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to name a few. The epitome of an advertisement application is one of the many thoughtfully hilarious "Super Bowl commercials."

Quoted from: Knight and Associates - Applications

My friend Aaron dropped a link to this article about these guys, Knight & Associates, who are applying for plot patents on novel parts of plots and stories. This is insane. I mean, how can the Matrix even be argued -- when it is itself an amalgam of a dozen existing plots and the only novel thing it brought was a pause and spin camera aspect. It's nuts. Just nuts. And wrong.

I/O Brush is a new drawing tool to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by "picking up" and drawing with them. I/O Brush looks like a regular physical paintbrush but has a small video camera with lights and touch sensors embedded inside. Outside of the drawing canvas, the brush can pick up color, texture, and movement of a brushed surface. On the canvas, artists can draw with the special "ink" they just picked up from their immediate environment.

Quoted from: I/O Brush: The World as the Palette

After seeing Paul's photos I thought immediately of this. Now this is painting with light. Wow. You sample from the real world with the video cam built into the brush, then paint with it, like described above. But also, you can sample animated elements. You have to watch the video (linked at the bottom of that page) to really understand how amazingly fun this thing looks. You should be able to make little ones to work with tablet PCs or whatever. Wow.