From Wikipedia: Neil Postman (March 8, 1931 – October 5, 2003) was an American author, media theorist and cultural critic, who is best known by the general public for his 1985 book about television, Amusing Ourselves to Death. For more than forty years, he was associated with New York University. Postman was a humanist, who…
Category: anthropology
Marshmallow test: pass or fail?
I’ve never been into marshmallows but still think I woulda failed on principle: Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.
Humans Swimming
Are you a human? Do you like to swim? How about free-diving? How about static free diving?
Alex Glawion : Evolution Solution Animation
Evolution from Alex Glawion on Vimeo. hats off to @brainpicker for the nod
walking on the moon
was turned onto this today via @edtechleader:
one example of a music video
surely most of you have seen this before but i still watch it from time-to-time:
MIT Media Lab: Personas
Personas is a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, currently on display at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab. It uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of one’s aggregated online identity. In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you. Here’s…
Everyone Forever Now
Everyone Forever Now – “Stoop Sitting” from Daniel Mercadante on Vimeo. Watch more = c
Cranies (sic)
I received one of the most beautiful SMS’s ever today. Is that how we say SMS in the plural? Doesn’t really matter. Case in point: “I received one of the most beautiful SMS’s ever today.” It was from my father, who’s never cared much about his spelling, only about the message: Cheers, Pop. Happy Birthday,…
Metaplace: Embed Virtual Worlds
From Wikipedia: Metaplace provides user-generated virtual worlds. As Metaplace is browser based, worlds made with Metaplace can connect to each other through hyperlinks. Every object in Metaplace has a unique URL. This character of Metaplace allows advanced users to use these URLs in setting up and reading RSS feeds, set up ad services within worlds,…
Ordinary Affects
Ordinary Affects is an exercise, not a fact. I like this very much. Ordinary Affects is a singular argument for attention to the affective dimensions of everyday life and the potential that animates the ordinary. Known for her focus on the poetics and politics of language and landscape, the anthropologist Kathleen Stewart ponders how ordinary…
Walks the walk: Jim Rossignol
Jim Rossignol is an interesting fellow, particularly in the context that he writes in a unique way about gaming and its influence on culture. Not to mention, the trajectory and contrast of his own story against what he writes makes him an authentic source IMO. I am anticipating the arrival of his book, This Gaming…
Time-lapse
Seems I spend a lot of time shooting, watching and seeking out good examples of time-lapse photography. It moves me. It puts me in a mindset somewhat more aware of the passing of time. I like the way it makes me feel small. That perspective is something I crave. Naturally, I like learning more about…
Tag to play on PBS
I make films under the moniker of thinfilms. My films are mostly fiction, but recently I completed a documentary about the game of tag, titled appropriately “Tag”. It was a long process as I did most of the work myself and kept the budget under $5000. From thinfilms.net: For three years I collected candid interviews…
Danny Wilcox Frazier
I give thanks to the gods for Danny Wilcox Frazier. Responsible for chronicling the Midwestern way of life in multiple mediums, he is true to the cause of his homeland and to the powers that live here, unknown to those on the coasts who dare not venture out of their safely *cool* havens for parts…
Overlooked : Slackers in Nature
Earlier this morning, Tim O’Reilly tweeted about this research published in the NYT and I am so completely fascinated and thus fixated on it today: Dr. Dornhaus is breaking new ground in her studies of whether the efficiency of ant society, based on a division of labor among ant specialists, is important to their success….
Raise your hand if…
…you need to want more. One thing a recession is good for is reminding us how much we need. Raise your hand if you’ve been doing a lot of talking about the economy and the lack of growth and the rise of unemployment and the worry and the poor attitudes and the general malaise about…
Diversity
One of the greatest things about living in a city like Barcelona is the great diversity present in the streets. Not only do we hear Catalán, Spanish and their relatives, but also French, Italian, Turkish, German and occasionally English. So goes the joke: What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual What do…
Catalan
From Wikipedia: The Catalans are the people from Catalonia, an Autonomous Community of Spain, including people originating in that region but living elsewhere. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France – known in Catalonia proper as Catalunya Nord (Northern Catalonia), and in France as the Pays Catalan – are often included in this…
Món Sant Benet
I was fortunate to be invited to participate in [and document] a field trip to one of the more reverent locales around Barcelona, Món Sant Benet. Here’s the site’s official story: = c
Littering PSA
Above is another PSA we made together around the issue of littering, which is a rather huge issue here as the city of Barcelona employs vast armies of cleaning crews who constantly follow behind the hordes of people here who throw their trash on the streets and park almost constantly. Thus, it is a challenge…