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My son's night light died a few days ago, so we went to Ikea and bought him a new one.
There were strings of LEDs on sale, and we bought him some blue ones.
Now his bed looks like a tricked-out Honda Civic, ready for street racing. I hope the blue is soothing or something. It seemed more calming than white.
[To the tune of Peter Frampton, "Greens," from the album "Now".]
Someone tagged my "paradigm shift" key picture as a favorite in flickr.
[To the tune of Elton John, "Funeral for A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding," from the album "Here and There".]
I'm in the office today, though no one else is. I think I missed a memo. Still, I got a lot done....
Actually, it is a cool picture.
[To the tune of Elton John, "Funeral for A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding," from the album "Here and There".]
Delta Scan made it into Wonkette!
Human Rights Legislation for Rat-Brained Robot Soldiers, NOW!
While god-crazy American politicians are taking two weeks off to get drunk and IM young boys, our atheistic friends in Britain are looking towards the Future — a future of rat-brained self-aware robotic service workers and soldiers who will likely organize and demand “human” rights by 2056.
Undoubtedly the best media mention involving the Institute's work since Future Now showed up in that YouTube video earlier this year.
Technorati Tags: IFTF, future, Delta Scan, robotics, humor
The Delta Scan is open!
[To the tune of U2, "Until The End Of The World," from the album "Achtung Baby".]
Technorati Tags: future, IFTF, science, technology, UK
I spent a good bit of last year working on a project for the British government on the future of science and technology. It was an immense amount of work, but the kind of rare project that seems to make use of everything you already know, and forces you to learn a lot of new stuff. It's also what allowed me to go to England four times last year (okay, the fourth project-related trip was January).
In about an hour, I get to throw the switch on the database that we developed as part of the project, and release it to the general public. This wasn't part of the original plan; but the government ultimately decided that this was worth making more widely available. Good for them. (I don't get to turn it on because of my privileged position on the project; I just happen to be the one with the right administrative access.)
I have the odd feeling that this project is going to have consequences for me far beyond boosting my frequent flyer account and getting me to learn about MySQL; but I don't know what they'll be.
[To the tune of Prince, "Purple Rain," from the album "Ultimate".]
Technorati Tags: future, science, technology, UK, work
Someone at work customized my keyboard.
I don't know who did it, but I have my suspicions....
Technorati Tags: history of science, IFTF, STS, work
I spent the evening working on revisions to an article on the uses of STS in futures and scenario planning, but have kept hearing sirens, the occasional screeching tire, and now what sound like police choppers. I wonder what's going. The Mercury News Web site doesn't say (though they do report that some friends are moving to Seattle).
The helicopters have been pretty constant, for the last couple hours. Police scanners should be streamed over the Web. (Actually, it turns out, a bunch of city police departments do have streaming scanners.) I hope there's something in tomorrow's paper about it.
[To the tune of Marvin Gaye, "I Want You (Single Version)," from the album "I Want You (Deluxe Edition)".]
Technorati Tags: menlo park
For some reason, this weekend my daughter tried reading to the cats.
Even though she chose an excellent book, it didn't go that well.
via flickr
Once they realized they were neither going to be chased nor given food, they completely lost interest in the whole thing.
via flickr
[To the tune of Gladys Knight & The Pips, "Midnight Train to Georgia," from the album "'70s AM Radio Classics".]
Just asking.
Sabine Ehrenfeld, the Overstock.com spokesmodel
Sarah Palin, Alaska's new governor
Thanks to Jason for pointing out the similarity.
Maybe I can get back to work now.
[To the tune of Natalie Merchant, "Wonder," from the album "Tigerlily".]
It's the USB Humping Dog. Plug it in... and you know what? I don't have to finish that sentence. You can do it yourself.
Oh heavens, there's video. Of course. There's video.
[Thanks, Jason! I think....]
[To the tune of Deep Forest, "Sweet Lullaby," from the album "Pure Moods".]
Technorati Tags: humor
From The Onion:
Rebels Immediately Regret Seizing Power In Zambia
Only hours after assuming control of the deeply troubled country in a bloody coup, members of the United Deliverance Front admitted Monday that they might have made a "huge mistake" by seizing power in Zambia.
"After months of combat, the United Deliverance Front has this morning taken command of one of Africa's most beleaguered nations, installing itself as the supreme ruler over 11 million desperate, ailing, and angry citizens," UDF leader and new head of state Uwimana Kowrt said. "Dear Jesus, what the hell were we thinking?"
Technorati Tags: humor
Maybe it's more an illustration of the deeper truth of what it's like, rather than a literal picture.
[Thanks Ethan!]
[To the tune of 2Pac, Dr. Dre & Roger Troutman, "California Love (Remix)," from the album "All Eyez on Me".]
...Mike Ellis, head of the Asia division of the Motion Picture Association, said that it was more profitable to sell pirated DVDs than to push heroin on the streets of London.
[To the tune of Steven Tyler, "I Love Trash," from the album "Songs from the Street: 35 Years of Music".]
When I was there in the summer of 2005, I left two days before the suicide bombings. Now it turns out I was across the street from the bar where police now believe Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned. It faces Grosvenor Square, where I spent part of a Sunday afternoon a couple weeks ago.
Millennium Hotel, Grosvenor Square [by Steve J, via flickr]
Fortunately, this was a couple weeks after the poisoning.
The thing that really amazes me is that the hotel is about 100 yards away from the American Embassy-- so if Litvinenko was poisoned there, not only did it happen on British soil, if you were a Russian spy who wanted to accidentally give American diplomats radiation poisoning, you couldn't pick a better place.
9-11 memorial, Grosvenor Square [via flickr]
As one British intelligence official said in response to a Russian dismissal of the idea that the Kremlin could have been involved, it's bloody cheeky.
I still want to go back, though I might carry that copy of "Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain" along.
[To the tune of Johann Sebastian Bach, "BWV 0227 - 02. Es ist nun nichts," from the album "Motteten".]
Technorati Tags: England, Grosvenor Square, London
My daughter was putting on a play a couple nights ago, and her younger brother was cast as a grownup. (Actually, he was Elvis.) Of course he needed a prop showing he was an adult, and not a kid. So she drew a little New Yorker for him to read.
This is priceless for two reasons. First, the idea that The New Yorker can serve as a signifier of adulthood; second, that Elvis would have read it.
Of course, it shouldn't come as any surprise after last month's explanation of radio.
[To the tune of Gary Numan, "Are Friends Electric?," from the album "Scarred".]
I'm busy finishing up various end-of-the-year projects. In the meantime, a cat picture.
[To the tune of Giorgio Moroder & David Bowie, "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)," from the album "Cat People".]
Technorati Tags: cat
I spent a good part of this evening working on restoring my iPod, which mysteriously freaked out earlier today. After about twenty restarts, three attempts at restoring the software on it, and three different attempts to reload my music on it, it finally is back to the state it was supposed to be in at 3:30 this afternoon, when I started all this mess.
Presumably there was some random disk partition problem, or something got corrupted. I just hope it's not a hardware problem. Much as I love the idea of the new iPods, I'm more in love with the idea of not being $400 poorer.
[To the tune of Elton John, "Bennie and the Jets," from the album "Greatest Hits".]
Technorati Tags: ipod
I'm going to Finland in early June, to speak at the conference on culture as innovation in Turku. This should be very interesting, as it brings together a few things I've studied in the past (like the STS view of science as culture and practice) and am working on today (like the future of science cities).
Of course, since it's halfway around the world, I'm spending a couple extra days there. What should I do with my free time?
My preference is to give talks and see interesting technical stuff, rather than just hang out in old castles and drink (that's an evening thing). And while I hear that Finland will have thawed by June, as Woody Allen put it, I am at Two with Nature, so I'd rather hike around city streets than national parks.
[To the tune of Norah Jones & The Peter Malick Group, "Strange Transmissions (Bastone & Burnz Remix)," from the album "Strange Transmissions (Bastone & Burnz Remix) - iTunes Pre-Sale Exclusive EP".]
Technorati Tags: Finland
I've been wearing this wrist brace for almost two weeks, and while it's helped my hand some, I suspect I'll be wearing it for a while to come. Which makes me wonder: when can I start using it to store my electronics?
I mean, a wrist brace could be the perfect place to store a digital camera and cell phone. Mine has lots of Velcro on it, and I'm now keeping an eye out for cases with Velcro backing; but after a couple hours experimenting with attaching a camera case to t, I suspect this won't really work well unless the storage is built into the brace, to lower the profile of the brace (I look a bit like a poorly-designed Borg right now), to more firmly secure your expensive electronics, and to get the balance right.
I'd pay real money for something that let me quickly pull my camera or phone out of my sleeve, like a card shark with an extra ace, or an early modern assassin with a stiletto. And given that something like 3% of American adults have carpal tunnel, there's probably a market here.
Technorati Tags: wearables
FedEx delivered my camera this morning (right as I was checking delivery status, ironically).
I'm never taking another picture without it being strapped onto my wrist.
Waiting for his order
via Flickr
My son at Cafe Barrone, looking for the milk.
Perhaps its weird, but I'm in the habit of occasionally taking the kids out to the cafe with me in the evening. Not that they won't develop the habit on their own; but when I was young and lived in Rio with my dad, we spent many evenings walking around the city, visiting bookstalls in open-air markets, or taking in the air along Avenida Atlantica.
Barrone isn't quite as exotic, but I suspect it's good for kids to have a little exposure to adult life. A universe consisting entirely of The Wiggles and Lego Star Wars is not going to be stimulating enough.
I'm a research director at the Institute for the Future, a think tank in Silicon Valley. I'm also an Associate Fellow at Oxford University's Saïd Business School, and a Senior Research Scholar in the Science Technology and Society program at Stanford University.
At the Institute, I work on the future of science and technology. In my free time I'm working on a book on the end of cyberspace. More details are available in my c.v. (PDF). My first book, Empire and the Sun: Victorian Solar Eclipse Expeditions, was published by Stanford University Press in 2002.
I also keep up-to-date profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook.
The banner is from a picture taken by Anthony Townsend, while we were walking along Raday Utca in Budapest, Hungary, October 2007.
Click to leave me a voice message using Grand Central.
Contact me via Skype.
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