World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo. thanks shawn!

Here’s the link. And here’s a snippet: Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers,and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But forthe first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never [...]

5D Conference : AREA/CODE – Kevin Slavin.

thanks keith!

Q: What is information? A: Choose the orange mug, dude.

I was just on Kevein Kelly’s Cool Tools blog, and he asked for suggestions on who to follow. I typed up a list in the comments of his post, and figured I’d share it here too. These are the most consistently interesting tweeters i’ve found: @pickover @bldgblog @pruned @johnfschneider @textism @johnmaeda @joguldi @timoreilly @jess7bennett @davewiner [...]

Take a moment to consider the purpose of jewelry from the perspective of cultural evolution. Jewelry enables people to demonstrate status, and so it appeals to human competitive self-interest. It’s a technology that serves culture by provoking ambition. Progress emerges when a population is ambitious. Obviously, this is hyper simplified, and human competition has some [...]

It’s a simple 4-step process: Before you start, make sure your profile is not set to private. You want people to feel like you are open to conversation and connection. Step 1: Define the conversation you want to have What kind of like-minded conversation do you want? What purpose do you want the conversation to [...]

Twitter. It’s something I’ve been avoiding for the past months. I’ve even had moments of wanting it to fail a little because the idea just kinda bugged. Who the fuck cares about status updates? But recently, I realized it’s not about status updates. It’s not, as the Facebook prompt suggests, about what I’m “doing right [...]

Memetics expert Susan Blackmore introduces the idea of “third replicators.”

I’m serious. Santa’s been forwarding the letters she sent him. She promised to be extra nice, and even suggested she’d be willing to get naughty with him if he came through. Before you get offended, let me be clear: I’m not tryna besmirch your aunt’s reputation. It’s just that she’s got a burning desire, and [...]

Apparently, the LA Times editor Russ Stanton has said that the newspaper’s online revenue now exceeds its editorial payroll costs. In other words, it’s in a position to free itself from printing presses and delivery trucks. This is an industry first, and a big fucking deal. I feel like we just broke the sound barrier. [...]

I just got a print of 60 noses made by Shawn Feeney, and it’s dope! Shawn worked as a police sketch artist for two years, and these noses are based on actual arrest pictures. From upper left to bottom right, they go female/male/female/male, and they go from young to old. I recommend hanging it in [...]

Bruce Sterling has been voicing some seriously provocative ideas about how our culture might shift its relationship to objects to better navigate through space and time. For an appetizer, check out his paean to the Leatherman in The Atlantic this month. For a bigger, deeper discussion, check out The Last Viridian Note, which is so [...]

We’ve been pushing ideas like this forever, so we’re psyched to see one of the big agencies pushing it too. Link

We’re the first to admit that our company Language in Common is unusual. Strange even. Sometimes we wonder if we’re crazy. And it’s super hard to tell people what we do because we don’t quite fit into existing categories. And that’s ok with us. We’re into doing something new–merging lotsa creative practices into one studio. [...]