We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.‘

– J. Robert Oppenheimer, on first using Chatroulette*

Oh, Chatroulette. Never have so many people stared so awkwardly.

But there’s this!

I just wish I could meet/intern for Shirtless Bird-face Donkey Man, but sadly he’s just the subject of a perfectly observed sketch:

And bands are secretly releasing albums on it!

It’s been covered to death my the media in the last month or so, including the Daily Show with Jon Stewart:

And by the New York Times:

The growth could signal a nascent desire for anonymity online. Our lives used to be private by default, yet with the advent of each new social network, privacy has become increasingly difficult to preserve. Every status update or photo we share online becomes an indelible tattoo of where we’ve been and who we’ve been with.

And the awfully cute Molly from Rocketboom:

Look how surprised her chat partners look to see an actual GIRL online!

So what have we learned?

Well, it’s this:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a large number of lonely people masturbating in public **

* not really
** with apologies to Arthur C. Clarke

That is all.

His humour is hit and miss, sometimes bizarre.

Good luck to him, though. Any more info would be appreciated.

Preview of Ana Hušman's 'Lunch'

I wanted to shout out a fabulous piece of art that I saw last week at a Creative Commons event here in Zürich. I was manning a stall all night so didn’t have the chance to fully enjoy it at the time, but having seen it again thanks to Ramon Cahenzli, I’m very glad that I went to the event.

The director’s name is Ana Hušman, and the piece is a short video called ‘Lunch’. It’s half stop-motion, half full-motion, and all genius (fractions were never my strong point, but in this case I’m right).

It takes the form of a guide to dinner party etiquette, but it’s set in a quasi-1970s world of sideboards, sideburns and sideways glances. It really reminded me – and do bear in mind my Neanderthal-level knowledge of high culture – of the vibe of Wes Anderson movies like The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, and other studies of social dysfunction. The dialogue sounds like it’s straight out of a stiff-upper-lip British public information film.

Besides the cool aesthetic, the work that must have gone into it is incredible. Be sure to watch until the end for some amazing stop-motion sequences involving crocheting-by-numbers and stripping back the furniture that was used during the dinner party.

The artist is Croatian, and I can’t find too much more information about her. There’s an interview in Croatian here, and another piece of work by her entitled The Market, which gives some impression of her style. But I’d really recommend that you download the torrent of Lunch. It’s licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Croatia, so it’s K for P to download and share.

Another preview:

Preview of Ana Hušman's 'Lunch'

They were called Celtic Frost, and as you can see, their lunging, leather-wearing and posing skills were exemplary. And they were from where ?

Switzerland.

Yeah, I know.

Why? BECAUSE HE CAN.

Oh, and with a neural interface too…

Be sure to visit the videos’ homepages on YouTube to get the details on what he’s doing.

Keeping your refrigerator stocked with an assortment of drinks will get you many women:

How to deal with parking tickets (“check the similie!”):

Pest control:

How to raise the spirits of sex workers in your area during the festive period:

Bonus: Interview with MrChiCity3!

Although the churches in your native Switzerland may not approve of your lyrics, or your female companion:

…I like the cut of your jib, and realise that you also heard His calling:

Munn: How did the Rev. Beatman start?

RB: I was touring alot with my Wrestling Rock’n'roll act Lightning beat-man and 1999 i had a larger accedent in the shows the result was that i broke something in my back and i lost my voice because of too much screaming in the mikro and yelling at people.. the doctor sed you better end with that nightclup wrestling or sooner or later you gonna die.. i did stop and one night i had a hallucination where Robert Johnson and Ccreamin Jay Hawkins told me that i have to pereach… now i’m preaching

more

I must confess that in my weaker moments, when my faith is tested, I also Do the Jesus Christ Twist:

Yours sincerely,

Reverend I M Jolly

Amen.

A YouTube commenter summed it up hilariously:

“stemcellfilms (9 seconds ago) 

and yeah, beyond the awfulness, something that hasnt been addressed is the indoctrination of children into making songs with seemingly benign but sinister disneyesque musical theory, that just rings babylon throughout every note the poor child sings. This is the next advancement of guitar hero mindcontrol, first they destroy music then they rebuild it in their image: the state represents our love for the music; music represents our love for the state.”

If the video didn’t leave you with post-traumatic stress disorder (or even if it did), you can find out more about the product at… Microsoft.com.

But then I found “Fuck You, Penguin“. It’s basically the logical opposite of a lolcat site.

I like the cut of its jib.

Highlights:

• This bear is essentially raping my soul
• Red “Panda” trying to steal panda thunder
• and, last but not least, Do you believe this preemptive little fucker?

A wonderful British Pathe short film:

I just love the interplay between these guys. Eric Robinson’s feigned ignorance. And David’s flourish at the end in time to the music is sublime.

As for Jeff Unwin… well, Jeff, no-one likes a smart-arse.

Mellotron: recommended for Viennese Waltzes and music to accompany scenes from Thunderbirds.

I could watch this video all day.

Via BoingBoing

This news just in:

MR. BOOM HAS A WEB SITE.

Mr. Boom went over the moon, over the moon, and landed in Biggar.

also,

HE IS STILL PLAYING GIGS.

To the uninitiated: Mr. Boom wasis a shiny-faced Scottish one-man-band children’s entertainer who liveds on a moon base, from which he sang, fairly tunelessly, songs about the activities of young children he could observe on Earth through his surprisingly high resolution telescope. Ahem.

Oh and he hads a lampshade on his head with a cymbal on it.

VISIT

that is all.

So you will understand my delight in finding this video of her in the recording studio, laying down beats in her, *ahem*, trademark style – with her true form revealed:

Yes, that’s right. Amy McDonald is an android.

Dr. Leo Spaceman

Dr. Leo Spaceman quotes, e.g.:

Tracy Jordan: Dr. Spacemen, when they check my DNA, will it tell me what diseases I might get, or help me to remember my ATM PIN code?
Dr. Leo Spaceman: Absolutely. Science is whatever we want it to be.

 If Dieter were still around, he would play this game. While listening to Kraftwerk and declaring the future obsolete.

THIS IS THE PART OF THE SHOW WHERE WE DANCE.

What a lovely euphemism.

See how you’d stack up as a 1930s husband or wife.

62 As a 1930s husband, I am Superior Take the test!

Golly gosh!

I’ve been there since yesterday – for reasons which I won’t mention in case I jinx something – and the whole place has seemingly been transformed. The Limmatquai, the main street which runs along the river, has been turned into a fan mile, with a carnival atmosphere and all sorts of scrumptious food. There’s a lot of live music going on and a huge Fan Zone has been set up at the botttom of the street. A lot of the local shops have special Euro 2008 lines and window displays, and the Euro seems to be accepted as an ersatz currency (though I think that’s the case for most touristy areas here anyway). And fans are being given free public transport throughout Switzerland and Austria on match days as part of their match tickets.

There were reports that Scotland was on hand to take over should Switzerland fail to prepare sufficiently. Unless Zürich is an anomalous example then I can’t take these reports as anything more than UEFA grandstanding (ho ho ho).

On a separate note, my passport was checked while entering Ireland from the UK on the way here. What gives, Common Travel Area?

“Overthrowing Government on a Budget”

“Rembrandt, Pr0n and Robot Monkeys: Lessons From the Present About Flesh and Technology”

“Tracking Arms Dealers with Python and Bits of String”

From the Open Tech 2008 line-up.