Seraph, the company’s piece for two dancers and robotic hovercraft, is more than just a high-tech lark. “Dodging the dancer, for example, is providing insights into how the quadrotors might best fly through forests when they are doing their day jobs. And the lights sported by the robots … are being adapted to give clues to human road users about a robot driver’s intentions in a project that might put a fleet of robot taxis on the streets of Singapore.”
Tag: 09.20.11
Gabriel García Márquez Book A Surprise Hit Among Iran’s Opposition
“Copies of [his] 1996 work News of a Kidnapping have sold out from bookshops in Tehran this week after detained opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said the book’s description of Colombian kidnappings offers an accurate reflection of his life under house arrest.”
Attention Must Be Paid (For)
Esther Dyson: “Many companies [in the Internet age] are looking for ways to automate the act of ‘paying attention’ to individual customers on a grand scale, even as many of them also confuse attention with intention (to buy). … But attention is neither a currency nor a commodity. It can, to some extent, be bought and sold. But it cannot be traded to third parties, and it is not entirely fungible.”
They Look Good On Paper: Designing Temporary Buildings From Cardboard
Architect Shigeru Ban’s plan for a temporary cathedral for earthquake-ravaged Christchurch, NZ is but one prominent example of quick, relatively inexpensive structures made from sturdy treated cardboard.
The Problem With Preserving Dead Artists’ Papers, Houses And Effects
“You don’t have room for most of your parents’ stuff, and nobody has room for most artists’ stuff. … Even when there’s an interest in preserving things, there’s not enough money and not enough space to save a steadily accumulating mountain of artists’ stuff.”
British Film Censors Under Fire For Not Stubbing Out Onscreen Smoking
“Tobacco researchers have attacked ‘incompetent’ film regulators and ‘insouciant’ politicians for failing to act upon evidence suggesting that teenagers are being lured into smoking by seeing it in movies.”
Here Be Dragons: A Brief History Of Monsters On Maps
Ken Jennings: “In the early days of mapmaking, the seas were full of monsters. Close to port or in well-explored shipping lanes, stout frigates and galleons were depicted in full sail, but farther out, a remarkable diversity of sea serpents and other bizarre creatures ploughed the waves.”
Kansas City Births A Spectacular New Performing Arts Center
“Moshe Safdie’s promiscuous form-making has a generosity of spirit, but don’t look for finesse. This building dances as fast as it can. Of course, that is an apt metaphor for the arts in American culture today.”
Reconsidering The History Of History
As computer engineers rush to innovate, compete, and to scan “all the books in the world,” they have taken scant notice of the scholarly interest and involvement in the history of information management from ancient to modern times.
Why Dyslexia Is A Good Thing
Wired: Would you want to be dyslexic if you could choose to be?
Brock Elde: Absolutely! It’s a phenomenal kind of wiring.