Some photos from Cuban Art Space...

Cuban Art Space is having a blow out sale on photos, posters, paintings, LPs, books...

GIS...More to maps than just directions...

From Fast Company...Forget point A to point B: Internet-powered maps are moving from simple driving directions to richly layered landscapes of living, breathing information. More than 1,000 new map-based Web sites have launched in the past year, with 3 to 4 more debuting every 24 hours. VCs are throwing money at any of them that promise to transform industries such as real estate and local shopping. And people are map hungry. In a Pew Institute survey last April, cell-phone users named maps as their most desired feature. (Instant messaging was second.) We're not just talking about better maps: Digital maps are the Internet equivalent of a Dairy Queen Blizzard. They let users blend vast amounts of previously disparate data and display them however they please, and even add their own images, videos, comments, or other content. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all see this as huge; they're spending millions to add both high-res satellite photography and street-level images to maps. But all the frantic activity leaves one nagging question: Can these developers and corporations chart a path to profit? If you want to understand what an Internet-map-powered world might be like, look to Europe, where there's a higher adoption rate of mapping technology. In the United States, for example, commuters get traffic updates from frenzied helicopter pilots shouting over muddled AM radio; it's literally a top-down model. Many Europeandrivers enjoy a more elegant solution. TomTom, Europe's leading in-car navigation company, dynamically updates traffic conditions on the maps in users' GPS devices, including which roads are congested because of an accident or roadwork and even the location of speed traps, all with the help of its subscribers. In effect, travelers are forming instant communities to cooperatively learn about their environment.

In the United States, people are just beginning to catch on to the power of these communities. Traditionally, in real estate, you'd have to go to the county records office or the police station, and pore through dusty file cabinets, to get the information that a Web site such as Redfin.com can display in a couple of clicks. "We want to organize information geospatially," says Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman, "so people seeking a home can capture the gestalt of the neighborhood." For example, the home seeker can ask why a house is more expensive than others in the rest of the neighborhood, and the seller can respond by adding information to the map about recent renovations, even posting before-and-after pictures. Such features keep the average user on Redfin for an impressive 72 minutes a week. "The map is basically a centerfold--it's pornographic," Kelman says.

People who hang out for long periods of time, contributing their knowledge to a local community, also have developers and advertisers excited about new opportunities in online search. "Maps enable immersive search," says Stephen Lawler, general manager of Microsoft's MapPoint division. "You can actually see the real world as you understand it." Microsoft recently debuted map technology called Virtual Earth, featuring bird's-eye, 3-D photography. Groups of like-minded users can add ratings and reviews, sharing customized maps with others. In addition, it's testing an even more ambitious application, built from thousands of street-level photographs, which lets visitors maneuver through downtown Seattle and San Francisco. Both map-based search tools will offer businesses an unprecedented type of targeted advertising. Imagine, a retailer will be wooing any customers panning over its location.

Booty...

My new online obsession...Treasure Hunters, not really into the tv show, but the online game is fun...

I'm not affiliated with this, but it's pretty cool...

SnailsAnimation.com

In the news today....

What a way for Zidane to go out...
Dell's got problems if their products are going to burst into flames and they also want to cut costs especially since Apple is now a universal platform...

We like similar subject matter...

factory 1
Originally uploaded by mercurialn.

from mercurlain's photostream on Flickr...

Teach a Man to fish...

Teach a Man to fish...
Originally uploaded by snailsone.

Lester Allen Worsham b 2 Feb 1887 & died 11 Nov 1972.

He received this Fishing Rod Patent in 1966.

Jane Sterrett, Dave Plunkert, Am I their long lost love child?...

I realize I am a cross between Jane Sterrett and Dave Plunkert...I like some of Peter Maltz's illustration stuff too...the real mathmatical stuff...

When I was a kid going to elementary school, all the other kids would ask if I was a Red or from the South...

North Korea: Bush Frustrated with Diplomacy

by mcjoan Fri Jul 07, 2006 at 03:38:51 PM PDT

That's a headline no one wants to see.

CHICAGO - President Bush expressed frustration Friday with the slow pace of diplomacy in dealing with North Korea and Iran and prodded world leaders to send an unmistakable message condemning Pyongyang's long-range missile test.

Need I point out the irony of this president's sudden desire for international solutions, for international cooperation? I didn't think so. Here's a reflection of his understanding of how diplomacy works.

"And it's, kind of -- you know, it's kind of painful in a way for some to watch, because it takes a while to get people on the same page," Bush said. "Not everybody thinks the exact same way we think. Different words mean different things to different people. And the diplomatic processes can be slow and cumbersome."

"Different words mean different things to different people?" I guess that's one way of looking at the world, but one would hope for a slightly more sophisticated vision of how actual diplomacy might work from the leader of the free world. But coming from the man who has been thumbing his nose at the world community for the past four years, we shouldn't expect more.

While Bush has been huffing and puffing about slow diplomacy, North Korea is issuing new threats.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea threatened on Friday to take "stronger physical actions" after Japan imposed sanctions in response to its missile tests this week, while the United States and Japan struggled to set out a unified diplomatic response to the launches.

Bush said Kim Jong Il, in ordering the missile tests, had defied China, Japan,

South Korea, Russia and the United States — the five countries that have been negotiating unsuccessfully with North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

"All of us said, `Don't fire that rocket.' He not only fired one, he fired seven. Now that he made that defiance, it's best for all of us to go to the

U.N. Security Council and say, loud and clear, 'Here's some red lines.' And that's what we're in the process of doing," Bush said.

He ruled out direct talks between just the U.S. and North Korea and said he hoped the six-party talks would resume.

"My judgment is you can't be successful if the United States is sitting at the table alone with North Korea. You run out of options very quickly if that's the case," he said. "In order to be successful diplomatically it's best to have other partners at the table"

At least the rest of the world is actively involved in this one. And it's a good thing. It's patently obvious that this administration, and particularly this president, is not up to a task of this magnitude.

>>It's one thing to hold hands with the King of Saudi Arabia in a garden, go to Graceland with the Japanese...It's quite another to talk someone down from detonating stuff...Is he equipped for that? Of course it's frustrating, but diplomacy only works when different words become similar terms...and he can't say stuff like, "Not everybody thinks like we do..." That we irritates me...Well, thankfully, he won't go one-on-one with Kim Jong Il...

Ben Harper releasing a new double album...Les Paul...

Ben Harper's album is called, "Both Sides of the Gun"...In August, my buddy Jeremy is coming to New York with his Mom and we're going to see Les Paul...He's like 90 or something...I didn't think he was still performing...

A little anime, a little saturday morning....

Yesterday, after the fireworks, we had a draw-off, a kind of a see who can draw popular cartoon characters best, me and Greg and Nick...So I didn't do as well as I would have liked to have done, I drew a terrible Leonardo (Ninja Turtle), a decent Hong Kong Phooey and a rob
otic Homer Simpson...I got beat out by Garfield, though I got bonus points for Hong Kong Phooey for his old-schoolness...

Heh....Today, I started exploring some old cartoons and such, and remembered great artists such as Chuck Jones (The artist Collection within Chuck Jones' site is a great resource for illustration's greatest heavy hitters) and HR Giger...











I found a breakdown of my favorite Anime series ever, Sanctuary...Except Giger's not exactly Saturday morning cartoon stuff...Well, and actually Sanctuary is pretty adult too...By the way, the animated movie version sucks...

view from the roof

view from the roof
Originally uploaded by snailsone.

just some shots before the show...

My favorite Holiday...

My favorite Holiday...
Originally uploaded by snailsone.

I love pyrotechnics...From Never's rooftop in Greenpoint...

What! I'm Listening to: (part 3)

Stanley Jordan plays the guitar like a piano...DJ Format is good DJ music along with Abdominal and King Tee, Fatski..Absolute Beginner and Afrob are good German hiphop...Delinquent Habits is good Mexican hiphop...I only think a couple songs noteworthy of Chamillionaire, "Bad Guy" and "In the Trunk", and a song by Molotov is noteworthy, "A Tribute to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody"...Listening to a healthy dose of Jack Johnson...Going back to an oldie, but goodie, Talvin Singh for that ambient travelling music...Also found Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins...Another old fave is St. Germain's acid jazz...