Sunday, March 29, 2009

I plead with Nintendo to take this concept seriously...

WiiSpray graffiti controller from http://www.graffnews.com

According to graff news...this university design project, the WiiSpray concept lets you insert a Wii Remote into a spray can-shaped shell. You will then be able to use it as if it were a real spray can on a digital display. To make it even more realistic, colors are changed by physically swapping out different caps so you actually get a feel of the “color” of the object you are holding.

The picture seen here is the latest mockup, a vision of what the final product might look like. It’s not all talk as a prototype has already been made, though this final rendering is closer to what the creators have envisioned it to be.

Though it seems like a very serious project, don’t get your hopes up on seeing it on your Nintendo Wii. It’s not really a commercial effort to get a WiiSpray game published, but rather just making use of the Wii sensor technology together with its own server to promote graffiti art and collaboration. But if it ever does make it as a game, this would be a good one for future graffiti artists to practice their trade. So even if you view it as a public menace, the upside is that kids will have some experience under their belt, and the drawings that are viewed as vandalism will at least be pretty.

Via:asia.cnet.com

I'm calling out Judges Mark Clavarella and Michael Conahan...

Making profits off the backs of children...Shame on you!

Good job so far Obama...

This is a message to President Obama. Way to shake things up...I am waiting to see what happens with the UN's proposal, but in the meantime it's exciting to see a President who is finally on top of things. I approved of the way you handled Gitmo, and now this plan for Afghanistan is a good one. I like that you talked to the heads of the largest banks in the country and that you're on top of the flooding in Fargo. Forgive me for having doubts in you...but I really do think you can make positive changes to our horrible image internationally. Good luck at the g20 summit. And my thoughts on North Korea: there's tons of innocent starving brainwashed people in that closed off part of the world. The crazy despot in charge is to blame, not the people that live in his country. My thoughts on the auto industry...it needs to change and become more progressive. We should'nt be so dependent on imported fuels, though I know that would devastate the oil companies, but maybe that's not such a bad thing. Electric fuel cells do not emit gasses. The town hall meeting was a good idea. Bringing politics that used to seem so removed from the people now brings it back to the grassroots.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

If you're looking for something free to do in the city next week...

I found out about this as it was assigned as an extra credit assignment in my Endangered Languages, Cultures and Heritages class...

Sitting down is not a workout until now...HI-larity...Courtesy of Nic...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

the sense to invest 35 cents...


Rare Superman comic sells for $317,200

From Yahoo.com By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer David B. Caruso, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 14, 9:34 pm ET

NEW YORK – A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner had bought it for less than a buck.

It's one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, a likely testament to the volume's rarity and its excellent condition, said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the auction site ComicConnect.com and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles.

The winning bid for the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, which features Superman lifting a car on its cover, was submitted Friday evening by John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a Down, according to managers at ComicConnect.com.

Dolmayan, who is also a dealer of rare comic books, said he acquired the Superman comic on behalf of a client he declined to identify.

"This is one of the premier books you could collect," he said in a telephone interview. "It's considered the Holy Grail of comic books. I talked to my client, and we made the move."

Dolmayan said the client has "a small collection, but everything he has is incredible."

Only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are known to exist and they seldom come up for sale.

"Maybe in a booming economy, it would have done a hundred grand more, but in this economy, I think the price is great," Fishler said.

The man who had previously owned the book purchased it in a secondhand store in the early 1950s when he was nine years old.

He paid 35 cents.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

A Wrist-less Hobbit or Not Controversy...I just found this out about the controversy that began with the discovery of the "hobbits" bones in 2004...


The Hobbit: Not Human?

Stick a brick in it...bloodsucker!


"Vampire" unearthed in Venice plague grave

From Yahoo.com By Daniel Flynn ROME (Reuters) Thu Mar 12, 1:19 pm ET

Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, said the discovery on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues like the Black Death.

"This is the first time that archaeology has succeeded in reconstructing the ritual of exorcism of a vampire," Borrini told Reuters by telephone. "This helps ... authenticate how the myth of vampires was born."

The skeleton was unearthed in a mass grave from the Venetian plague of 1576 -- in which the artist Titian died -- on Lazzaretto Nuovo, which lies around three km (2 miles) northeast of Venice and was used as a sanitorium for plague sufferers.

The succession of plagues which ravaged Europe between 1300 and 1700 fostered the belief in vampires, mainly because the decomposition of corpses was not well understood, Borrini said.

Gravediggers reopening mass graves would sometimes come across bodies bloated by gas, with hair still growing, and blood seeping from their mouths and believe them to be still alive.

The shrouds used to cover the faces of the dead were often decayed by bacteria in the mouth, revealing the corpse's teeth, and vampires became known as "shroud-eaters."

According to medieval medical and religious texts, the "undead" were believed to spread pestilence in order to suck the remaining life from corpses until they acquired the strength to return to the streets again.

"To kill the vampire you had to remove the shroud from its mouth, which was its food like the milk of a child, and put something uneatable in there," said Borrini. "It's possible that other corpses have been found with bricks in their mouths, but this is the first time the ritual has been recognized."

While legends about blood-drinking ghouls date back thousands of years, the modern figure of the vampire was encapsulated in the Irish author Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula," based on 18th century eastern European folktales.



The Mistakes of Presidents Past...

This PBS Documentary, Race: The Power of An Illusion (Part 3: The House We Live In) is excellent for grasping an understanding of modern day problems stemming from the FHA, GI Bill and Urban Renewal...I have learned that many of today's cities makeup are sociopolitical constructs reinforced that way by "redlining" practices and discrimination...Now the space that is associated with a color of skin is also charged monetarily and psychologically. It is also a good explanation of the modern real estate market...Right after WWII, lawmakers and real estate developers had the chance to build a truly equal society, but instead chose to flub it...Thanks for all the problems you have created that are exponentially difficult to manage at this juncture...Help Obama!





Friday, March 06, 2009

Black Book Party on the 15th...



Update: The party was a hit and my crew took away top honors. Burner Ones gets honorable mention and of course, Stem killed the blackbook competition and took the title...Much respect to everyone who turned out, and one thing I'd like to say about the movie Code Blue and Choke No Joke...It's not that I'm trying to hate, but I honestly think $150,000 budget for the movie was absurd and it was painful trying to sit through it...I couldn't even watch it because it epitomized what destroyed hiphop in the first place...The movie had absolutely no rhyme or reason to it, it was like a bad porno flick with all the bad acting and bad lighting, and no porn, and I don't appreciate the grasping at straws by screening at a writer's event to legitimize its place in hiphop...Thanks to the Shaolin peeps (sorry Gano, just trying to tell the truth) for putting it on (Fuego gets credit for the flyer) and the nice ladies serving food and drinks...They deserve some accolades too...