Here’s my collaboration with The Bottom Union. Nelson calls his “The Queendom“.
We started with some general ideas, gathered materials (sticks, stones, kindling), and crammed it all together with horse glue and love. Then we sent each other our few minutes of compiled footage and each mixed them together as we saw fit. I ended up adding some more material after I watched his, and he did the same.
Recently, a number — one billion — in the New York Times stopped me in my tracks. According to a report commissioned by the foundation charged with building Reflecting Absence, the memorial to the dead in the attack on the World Trade Center, its projected cost is now estimated at about a billion dollars and still rising. According to Oliver Burkeman of the British Guardian, “Taking inflation into account, $1bn would be more than a quarter of the original cost of the twin towers that were destroyed in 2001.”
Sometime in the coming week or two, the number of American soldiers killed in the Iraq and Afghan Wars will exceed the 2,752 people who died in or around the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 (including those on the two hijacked jets that rammed into the towers). With a combined death toll of 2,739, the war dead have already crept within 13 of that day’s casualties in New York. Here’s a question then: Who thinks that the United States will ever spend $500 million, no less $1 billion, on a memorial to the ever-growing numbers of war dead from those two wars?
A list of phones that are probably fucking up your head:
The following list was compiled by calculating the SAR, or Specific Absorption Rate, of the phones. The SAR measures the quantity of radiofrequency energy that is absorbed by the body. The higher the SAR, which is measured in Watts/Kilogram, the higher the ability of the phone to cause cell damage. The one thing that jumps out when you look at the list is the dominance of Motorola. The company likely isn’t thrilled that they have secured the top 9 spots on the list of eleven phones. But it could account for why they have the best reception.
Those of you in NYC, come down to Slainte tomorrow night for a meetup. We’re going to be talking about the tech scene in NY and how we are shaping it. Plus, I’m bringing my iPod full of PAN episodes to show on the big screens around the bar. Then later there’s some olde-time bluegrassy music.
Tuesday night, nextNY will be gathering after work at Slainte at 304 Bowery between Houston and Bleeker.
You should come… In fact, if you come to any of our events, I’ll put it out there that this is the single most important event to be at in the short history of this burgeoning group.
Why?
Because, now, we’re over the hump of trying to come into existance. We exist. We’re 140 on our listserv. We have a real website. Now its not about, “Will this work?” as it is about “Now that this works, what do you want to do with it?”
So some of us will be meeting at 6PM on the dot to go over some ideas we have for public discussions, like a Startup 101 with some of the most successful area entrepreneurs. But really, everybody there should be talking about “what next” because the larger this group gets, the less its about nextNY and the more its about the up and coming members of the NYC digitial community. What do we want to be as a whole? What’s the message we want to broadcast?
One selfish reason I want this group to succeed: If New York is seen as a power in the digital tech and new media arena, those of us that are based here get extra streed cred!
I’m excited about the possibilities that this nextNY group brings. I have a feeling that no matter what we’re looking for while building The PAN, we’ll be able to find someone in the group to help us with it. Tons of talent.
Was just browsing the archive and decided to repost a few older videos…
Click for video
This video takes place on the day after the singularity. The information required to make this video came from immediately remembering J.D. Lasica’s review of Ray Kurzweil’s book on the subject. I link it here for those of you who aren’t hardwired yet. Those of you who are already know where to find this information, and have already made a similar aggregational video, if not the exact same one. You know who you are. Or do you?
This is the last Chuck for a while. He’s taking the summer off to relax with his family in a luxurious rented apartment in the back of a deli in the South Bronx. In the meantime, I’m hearing good things about Suppendapo. Those boys Dwight & Jo know their shit.
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