ROAM-NET, a group of programmers and artists that I started, is bringing the above art car, and a public terminal kiosk for this year's Burning Man festival in the Nevada Black Rock Desert. This is the reason I've been pretty quiet the last few days, but while I'm at Burning Man, I will be uploading photos to igargoyle of interesting technology from this remote festival, and will be blogging the event on the ROAM-NET newsfeed.
The goal of this year's project is to establish a roaming platform for signalling to, and interacting with event participants, be it through event publishing, blogging, photo sharing, or signalling to your friends where you are.
It is about communication, cartography, and tech art in the most remote of places in North America, and one of our long term goals is to build programs and projects to teach children about emerging technology and cartography.
To send in a donation to the project, click here, and become a ROAM-NET angel.
Don't mess with Cyborgs.
[Link via boingboing]
The Iraqi interim government has shut down the Baghdad bureau of Al-Jazeera, claiming that they are inciting violence. The ban is for 30 days, but is renewable according to the independent.
Reporters Without Borders has gone on the record as saying "We are extremely concerned about persistent episodes of censorship in Iraq", and brings up the fact that "the government has obstructed Al-Jazeera's work before" [Reporters Without Borders]. Prime Minister Iyad Allawi claims the move is "to protect the people of Iraq". Al-Naqib said the closure was intended to give the station "a chance to readjust their policy against Iraq". Al-Jazeera officials are calling this "An ominous violation of freedom" [Guardian].
Sulli says "Meet the new boss...".
It appears that almost no American news sources are carrying the story. The only exceptions are a four paragraph blurb about the situation in the Winston-Salem Journal and a satirical site named "The Daily Farce". As the Daily Farce says:
Updated @ 11:11 for clarity and to remove editorials
[Link via near near future]
Just found a new blog called Cyborg Democracy.
Okay wow. WTF? Now I need to read deeper.
[Link]
Looks like some relic from the 80's. Maybe they don't get mugged enough in NY anymore.
[via engadget]
Anesthesiologists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are doing something that many people in important jobs are likely to start doing over the next three years, just as mechanics in auto shops are - using mediated reality. Vanderbilt's Anesthesiologists are using head mounted displays to be in many places at once, by use of cameras. Future security guards will likely follow suit, wearing HMDs that allow them to see many places and pull up individual cameras to view away from their control room.
'You may actually be monitoring anywhere from 4-to-15 patients at one time,' says Dr. Michael Higgins. 'In any one of those situations something can happen to a patient.'" [far far future]
[Link via near near future]