05.25.2004
24-year old Maya, a chimp at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo gave birth to twins two days ago. The zookeepers were shocked as the only adult males in the zoo have been sterilized. The culprit? Seven-year old Nicky, aka Chimp Ashton, who unlike most human males, has hit puberty a bit early. Poor Maya shouldn't count on too much help from dad, though, because it appears that eight other female chimps at the zoo are awaiting their own bundles of joy.
So Nicky is a bit of a runaround, maybe more Marc Anthony than Ashton, but those chimp babies sure are cute.
Read more here.
Posted by Mia
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05.24.2004
Boing Boing just reported that Doug Rushkoff's new graphic novel, Club Zero-G is now available at Amazon.
The story follows Zeke, a gangly, unpopular, 19-year-old college student - a townie who also happens to attend the elite college in his community - who has discovered a terrific new club where he is accepted and popular. There's only one catch: everyone at the club is dreaming. It only exists in the shared dream consciousness of its participants. If at all.
Doug's a genius. And a great guy who talks faster than maybe anyone I've ever met. He was one of my favorite teachers at ITP. I highly recommend watching his Frontline documentary on marketing pop culture to kids, The Merchants of Cool.
Posted by Mia
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05.24.2004
Recycling for Charity has just made it even easier to donate your old cell phones, PDAs, digital cameras, and pagers so you can help ease the stress on the environment. RFC is now providing pre-paid shipping labels online so it costs you nothing to donate your old gadgets to be refurbished and then redistributed.
RFC says that by 2006, 85,000 tons of cell phones will be trashed. That's about 180 million cell phones, all full of potentially toxic metals. Don't add yours to the landfill pile. To print your own shipping labels, donate to the cause, or just find out more about RFC, please visit Recyling for Charity.
Posted by Mia
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eco
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05.24.2004
The Ambient Orb now has a cousin, the Ambient Beacon Weather Forecasting Station. The original orb changes colors to reflect changes in any information available on the wireless Ambient Network. Presently you can track stock prices, pollen counts, news "probability", or someone's presence on Instant Messenger. The Ambient Beacon is a dedicated weather crystal ball, connected to the National Weather Service. The information is updated to the Beacon every fifteen minutes and in case of weather emergencies such as snow, the device will flash.
Okay...this thing looks kind of cool, but I'm trying to figure out how it's really useful. Not only are weather reports blaring from the radio and tv and Internet, but from most of my wireless apps like Vindigo too. I am inundated with "accuweather" reports all day long. You almost can't go 15 minutes without hearing a weather update. Uh oh, 13 minutes until the next update, surely I can't open the door and step outside.
The Ambient Network is expanding, and may eventually turn the Orb into more than a mod lava lamp.
Posted by Mia
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home
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05.23.2004
Alright, it's definitely a trend, this idea of incorporating real exercise into gaming. Now you can get fit while you play even if you can't afford the $1200 Power Grid joystick. If you've been in an arcade in the last two years or seen Lost In Translation, you've seen those dancing fools going crazy trying to keep the beat with on screen dance-off opponents. Maybe it looks silly if you're as arrhythmic as I am, but it turns out, people who are addicted to Dance Dance Revolution are getting a serious workout. It makes sense, since the game gets faster and more intricate as you get better.
Check out some of the personal stories of people who've slimmed down on GETUPMOVE. Matt Keene says he's lost 150 lbs. playing DDR.
DDR is available for XBOX and PS2 for about $40 and the dance pads (also about $40) and other accessories are available at DDRFreak. The newest version of the game, DanceDanceRevolution Ultra Mix2, will be available later this year from Konami Arts.
Read more here .
Posted by Mia
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toys
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05.23.2004
In the world of tech, I have reluctantly accepted my role as the person who comes into the conversation long after it's begun (though not after it's completely over and the others have already moved on to another topic), just as I've accepted my role as the mother who sits in the balcony at the 9:30 Club rather than down below with the cool, young people. Of course, it's a matter of perspective. In the context of my very traditional profession (law), where people are a little slow to embrace new technology (I still know lawyers who use dictaphones and expect their secretaries to take dictation), I can pose as someone who's right there on the blinding edge of innovation.
For instance, I can still impress many of my colleagues with my Treo 600, my usb jump drive the size of a lipstick, and my lime green iPod mini, all of which I'll write about here as if they weren't yesterday's news.
If we're going to talk about tech to non-geeks, there's a benefit to having someone on board who can test gadgets in a real-life setting, and report on whether they're truly idiot-proof. When a techie shows me a cool gadget and dismisses my concerns about how to use it with a casual, "It's easy," I take that with a huge grain of salt. While I may not be the Amelia Bedelia of consumer technology (there's someone else we have in mind for that role), I'm probably fairly typical among female, non-tech professionals. We're eager and ready to learn about fun technology, and have the money to buy it (in fact, we do buy it in greater numbers than men do), but manufacturers and retailers aren't knocking on our doors looking for our business.
Posted by Hoyun
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05.22.2004
I don't particularly remember the days when you got the gang together and sat around a table or on the floor with six hundred maps and papers and dice all over the place. In fact, I can't remember what came first in my RPG (role playing game)life: Baldur's Gate or old fashioned gatherings. The point is, role playing is now easier and in my opinion more fun on a computer with great effects and multi-player and no dice rolling, although sometimes you still have to go old school just for the hell of it.
My favorite computer game RPG so far is most definitely Neverwinter Nights. With two expansion packs out, you can be a player or a dungeon master, or create your own worlds with creatures and stories. Each expansion pack adds a little bit more onto the original story and then adds it's own epic adventure, as well as more creatures and settings. I am just absolutely in love with this game, and you don't need to be an RPG pro to play it. You can join groups online at the website to form a new kind of guild to play with other people. With versions for both PC and Mac, Neverwinter Nights is becoming quite popular and unites both the old time players and the new ones.
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05.22.2004
I've been reading reviews of the new books, Be More Chill and Adventures of the Artificial Woman and based on the buzz, both are going to take off, way beyond the sci-fi crowd.
Ned Vezzini, the 23-year old writer of "Be More Chill" is getting some good reviews but I don't know how much I can like a guy whose first book was an autobiography, published at the ripe old age of 17. Come on. Anyway, "Chill" is about a dorky high school guy who becomes cool by swallowing a "squip", a pill-sized "super-computer". The computer tells him how to dress, what to say, you know, how to be more chill. Yeah, I'm a little dubious but Amazon says it's "searingly witty" and "suprisingly poignant". All of Vezzini's Squip Central cluster of websites are obvious PR fabrication (yeah I know, I thought the butt skirts were real...) but I think the news byte about the Weitz Brothers (American Pie, About a Boy) signing on to make the film version is true. Looks like there are already some Vezzini haters and I guess I should actually read the book before I join in.
Thomas Berger's "Adventures of the Artificial Woman" looks much more promising. It's a Pygmalion tale of an animatronics technician who decides to build his dream wife. He's so successful in making her the ultimate woman that she leaves him to become a movie star, then seeks the Presidency. Sounds as dark and surreal as Berger's "The Houseguest", which I mostly enjoyed. I see this becoming a movie starring Apple Martin's mummy.
Posted by Mia
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05.21.2004
Japan gets the coolest gadgets first, and now this. Look closely, though, it's not what you think. That woman is not pulling the backside version of an Alexandra Kerry peek-a-boo; her skirt is just painted to look like she is. It's so unglamorously realistic, complete with wedgie and grandma cotton.
My friend MB has put together more pictures, complete with see-thru panty rantings.
Up
DATE: Jacki has let me know that this is apparently a hoax, already debunked by Snopes. The alignment of the underwear is far too perfect for it to be real unless each of these shots was meticulously planned and posed.
Posted by Mia
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