master feed

Twitter: Finally solved the wireless network problem!!! Btw, if you're considering a roku box - I definitely reccomend it. (11-28-2009)

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:21:33 -0800

flowersjustin: Finally solved the wireless network problem!!! Btw, if you're considering a roku box - I definitely reccomend it.

Twitter: Check out this week's TWITA: Charles Santos and Mark Brian Sonna: http://bit.ly/5pgUC1 (11-26-2009)

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:34:22 -0800

flowersjustin: Check out this week's TWITA: Charles Santos and Mark Brian Sonna: http://bit.ly/5pgUC1

Charles Santos: Executive Director of TITAS (11-26-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:31:54 -0800

Charles Santos: Executive Director of TITAS

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Charles Santos, the executive director of TITAS about the organization and it’s future. Also, Alexandra Bonifield interviews Mark-Brian Sonna of MBS Productions.

There's a new episode of TWITA up! Interviews with Charles Santos and Mark Brian Sonna.

www.youtube.com (11-24-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:33:51 -0800

www.youtube.com

Source: www.youtube.com

I married an Artist (11-21-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:22:07 -0800

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Posted via email from Justin's posterous

Twitter: Haha - the comments on this "Steering Wheel Desk" are gold: http://bit.ly/xVJL2 (11-19-2009)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:11:07 -0800

flowersjustin: Haha - the comments on this "Steering Wheel Desk" are gold: http://bit.ly/xVJL2

Twitter: @klovering LOL - no, just putting on a crown. (11-19-2009)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:29:05 -0800

flowersjustin: @klovering LOL - no, just putting on a crown.

Twitter: Best dentist visit ever. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes - no novacaine, and no pain. :) (11-19-2009)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:25:22 -0800

flowersjustin: Best dentist visit ever. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes - no novacaine, and no pain. :)

Twitter: There is a new TWITA up: http://bit.ly/OPWg5 - Shivaun O'Casey, Jeff Kinman, Adam C. Wright, and a review of Slasher. Check it out. (11-19-2009)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:17:09 -0800

flowersjustin: There is a new TWITA up: http://bit.ly/OPWg5 - Shivaun O'Casey, Jeff Kinman, Adam C. Wright, and a review of Slasher. Check it out.

Inside you (11-19-2009)

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:39:22 -0800

Creepy for some reason

Posted via email from Justin’s posterous

Domino's Tracker (11-19-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:36:06 -0800

Domino's Tracker

Source: tracker.dominos.com

hehe - Public Pizza.

Shivaun O’Casey: Daughter of Playwright, Sean O’Casey (11-19-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:22:48 -0800

Shivaun O’Casey: Daughter of Playwright, Sean O’Casey

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Shivaun O’Casey, the daughter of Sean O’Casey, about Sean’s life and his play, Cock-a-Doodle Dandy, set to open at Pantagleize Theatre on November 19th. Also, ...

There's a new episode of TWITA up!

Venn Diagram - Jesus (11-17-2009)

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:13:52 -0800

via iThirst

Posted via email from Justin’s posterous | Comment »

Venn Diagram – Jesus (11-17-2009)

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:13:46 -0800

via iThirst

Posted via email from Justin’s posterous

via gadl (11-16-2009)

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:15:00 -0800

via gadl

Hugh Kretschmer (11-13-2009)

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:52:13 -0800

Hugh Kretschmer

Posted via email from Justin’s posterous | Comment »

Jeff Ramirez: Vice President of Radio at KERA (11-12-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:50:42 -0800

Jeff Ramirez: Vice President of Radio at KERA

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Jeff Ramirez, the Vice President of radio at KERA, about KERA’s newest project KXT – an all music station at 91.7 FM. Shane Strawbridge interviews Lydia Mackay and Jeffrey ...

There's a new episode of TWITA up! This week we interviewed Jeff Ramirez, The VP of radio at KERA. Shane interviews Lydia Mackay and Jeffrey Schmidt, and Alexandra Bonifield speaks with Upstart's Elias Taylorson about Talk Radio.

Twitter: There's a new episode of TWITA up, Jeff Ramirez, VP KERA: http://tinyurl.com/ycoz2sv (11-12-2009)

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:53:06 -0800

flowersjustin: There's a new episode of TWITA up, Jeff Ramirez, VP KERA: http://tinyurl.com/ycoz2sv

Awesome :) (11-12-2009)

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:44:42 -0800

Posted via email from Justin’s posterous

Poe & Jules (11-11-2009)

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:47:23 -0800

via This Isn't Happiness

Posted via email from Justin’s posterous

Twitter: And now, braum's ice cream for dessert. :) (11-11-2009)

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:10:57 -0800

flowersjustin: And now, braum's ice cream for dessert. :)

Twitter: @ShaneStraw My thoughts exactly. (11-10-2009)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:29:53 -0800

flowersjustin: @ShaneStraw My thoughts exactly.

Twitter: @ShaneStraw Weird!! I don't know why it's doing it but it cuts off in exactly the same place - I'll figure something out. (11-10-2009)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:27:41 -0800

flowersjustin: @ShaneStraw Weird!! I don't know why it's doing it but it cuts off in exactly the same place - I'll figure something out.

Twitter: @ShaneStraw yeah, sure - if you don't mind. Odd that it got cut off. (11-10-2009)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:13:59 -0800

flowersjustin: @ShaneStraw yeah, sure - if you don't mind. Odd that it got cut off.

Twitter: @ShaneStraw @danagirl - yeah, I'll work it out - maybe something a little more fun than brute cutting. ;) (11-10-2009)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:58:43 -0800

flowersjustin: @ShaneStraw @danagirl - yeah, I'll work it out - maybe something a little more fun than brute cutting. ;)

Twitter: @ShaneStraw Great interview but your closing got cut off! (11-10-2009)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:56:49 -0800

flowersjustin: @ShaneStraw Great interview but your closing got cut off!

Bunnies (11-10-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:20:12 -0800

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Twitter: @shanestraw try hanging upside down. (11-9-2009)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:25:28 -0800

flowersjustin: @shanestraw try hanging upside down.

Twitter: @DanaGirl @shanestraw ah! That's it: the shining. Thanks, I really couldn't place it for some reason. :0 (11-9-2009)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:04:14 -0800

flowersjustin: @DanaGirl @shanestraw ah! That's it: the shining. Thanks, I really couldn't place it for some reason. :0

Twitter: What is it about a young child racing toward me on a tryke in the dark with no parent in sight that terrifies me so much? (11-9-2009)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:58:36 -0800

flowersjustin: What is it about a young child racing toward me on a tryke in the dark with no parent in sight that terrifies me so much?

KXT 91.7 Public Music Radio for Dallas Fort Worth Denton (11-6-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:10:37 -0800

KXT 91.7 Public Music Radio for Dallas Fort Worth Denton

Source: kxt.org

A new radio station at 91.7 FM in North Texas and at kxt.org worldwide. It's an incredible selection of acoustic, alt-country, indie rock, alternative and world music, hand-picked just for you - the real music fan.

Looking forward to interviewing Jeff Ramirez, Vice President for radio, with KERA about their new music station, KXT 97.1 (launching Monday), at lunch today!

Twitter: @klovering golf or gun? (11-5-2009)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:43:47 -0800

flowersjustin: @klovering golf or gun?

Twitter: New episode of TWITA up. This week's show is w/ Carrie Hein & Doug Miller of the Five Friends Foundation & Mark Lowry reviews Midsummer (11-5-2009)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:12:55 -0800

flowersjustin: New episode of TWITA up. This week's show is w/ Carrie Hein & Doug Miller of the Five Friends Foundation & Mark Lowry reviews Midsummer

This Week in the Arts — The Arts Netcast for Dallas and Fort Worth (11-5-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:08:45 -0800

This Week in the Arts — The Arts Netcast for Dallas and Fort Worth

Source: thisweekinthearts.com

This week we spoke with Carrie Hein and Doug Miller of the Five Friends Foundation about their holiday CD “Holidazzle.” Also, Mark Lowry reviews Dallas Theater Center’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

[Original] Extreme Fitness BMW parking failure. [As seen on the CP24/CTV] Worst parking job ever! (11-4-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:06:40 -0800

[Original] Extreme Fitness BMW parking failure. [As seen on the CP24/CTV] Worst parking job ever!

Source: www.youtube.com

This is the original video footage from the DVR's - I edited this video the day of the Incident. Thursday Oct. 22, 2009 - Extreme Fitness Thornhill, Ontario, Canada Parking lot. The female driver of the X5 was charged today and is due in court Dec. ...

Twitter: RT @StageWest: This Fri= Actor Appreciation Day @StageWest. Former SW actors get 2 comps! Anyone else gets Buy 1/get 1 Free! 817-STG-WEST (11-3-2009)

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:15:14 -0800

flowersjustin: RT @StageWest: This Fri= Actor Appreciation Day @StageWest. Former SW actors get 2 comps! Anyone else gets Buy 1/get 1 Free! 817-STG-WEST

Twitter: @dennisactor LOL - I should go download it - then we can stage a gun fight in the hallway. (11-2-2009)

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:54:24 -0800

flowersjustin: @dennisactor LOL - I should go download it - then we can stage a gun fight in the hallway.

Girls Only - Justin's posterous (10-28-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:43:48 -0700

Girls Only - Justin's posterous

Source: flowersjustin.poster...

WOW!

Girls Only (10-28-2009)

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:55:06 -0700

Posted via email from Justin’s posterous | Comment »

The Gitex Robot (10-23-2009)

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:17:34 -0700

I think it’s supposed to be cute but I only have one thing to say about Gitex, the robot: EEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!!! [runs away]

Posted via email from Justin’s posterous | Comment »

Untitled (10-23-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:57:52 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Posted via email from Justin's posterous

Joel Ferrell: Associate Artist at Dallas Theater Center (10-22-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:55:31 -0700

Joel Ferrell: Associate Artist at Dallas Theater Center

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This Week we spoke with Joel Ferrell, Associate Artist at Dallas Theater Center, about his start in performing arts and his position at Dallas Theater Center. Mark Lowry of Theatre Jones reviews Rabbit ...

If you haven't listened yet, be sure to drop by ThisWeekInTheArts to hear the latest show - Includes interviews with Joel Ferrell and Andy Baldwin and a review of Rabbit Hole.

David Coffee: Stage Actor (10-20-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:22:10 -0700

David Coffee: Stage Actor

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with actor David Coffee about being a full time performer and his current role at Circle Theatre, Alexandra Bonifield reviews The Road to Qatar at Lyric Stage and Shane Strawbridge interviews Second Thought Theatre’s Stew Awalt and Tasia Munoz.

If you haven't heard the David Coffee episode, go listen to it now! - the interview with Joel Farrell is going up tomorrow.

High Heels - 1932 - Justin's posterous (10-19-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:52:35 -0700

High Heels - 1932 - Justin's posterous

Source: flowersjustin.poster...

High Heels (1932)

High Heels (10-19-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:50:18 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Posted via email from Justin's posterous

Spiderboy (10-18-2009)

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:37:03 -0700

Posted via email from Justin’s posterous | Comment »

Characters for an Epic Tale (10-16-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:39:14 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Posted via email from Justin's posterous

Calculating Incomes - Justin's posterous (10-15-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:12:49 -0700

Calculating Incomes - Justin's posterous

Source: flowersjustin.poster...

I've discovered how the Tooth Fairy calculates her prices! So, a child whose family income is $50,000 per year, when all is said and done, should walk away with about $55 for a mouth full of teeth... Not bad.

The Tooth Fairy formula, per tooth - I deserve the Nobel Prize for this one:

Calculating Incomes - The Tooth Fairy's Price Per Tooth (10-15-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:07:12 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Posted via email from Justin's posterous

Matilda on board of the Death Star (10-15-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:55:03 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Posted via email from Justin's posterous

Fingerprint may lead to new da Vinci discovery - USATODAY.com (10-15-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:43:00 -0700

Fingerprint may lead to new da Vinci discovery - USATODAY.com

Source: www.usatoday.com

Art experts believe they have identified a new Leonardo da Vinci in part by examining a fingerprint on the canvas.

Mat in her car seat (10-14-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:30:02 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Single Ladies - Beyonce (10-14-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:20:53 -0700

Single Ladies - Beyonce

Source: www.youtube.com

we love this song. the chord progression in the chorus is genius. hooray for beyonce and her songwriters. more videos at: http://www.youtube.com/PomplamooseMusic free mp3 at: http://www.myspace.com/pomplamoosemusic ALSO!! Nov. ...

Kinda love this version:

Brent McCorkle: Film Maker (10-5-2009)

Justin Flowers — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:00:52 -0700

Brent McCorkle: Film Maker

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This Week we spoke with Brent McCorkle, award winning film maker, who recently won third place in The Doorpost Film Project.

Wants to remind everyone to listen to the current episode of TWITA - it's a great show with an intelligent and insightful filmmaker, Brent McCorkle. And, you would make my day by being the first person to rate us on iTunes!

Gyrowheel by Gyrobike interbike 2009 (10-4-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:39:05 -0700

Gyrowheel by Gyrobike interbike 2009

Source: www.youtube.com

gyro wheel for kids bicycles

crazy.

Smoke Camels and See (10-4-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:07:39 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Posted via email from Justin's posterous

WARNING: New Facebook Malware Attack Is Spreading (10-2-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:30:06 -0700

WARNING: New Facebook Malware Attack Is Spreading

Source: mashable.com

When Facebook attacks, it's not pretty. We were just remarking on how new ways of spreading malware were plaguing social media, and now the second

Roger Ebert's Journal: Political Archives (10-2-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:34:33 -0700

Roger Ebert's Journal: Political Archives

Source: blogs.suntimes.com

I've had these thoughts for some time, but have been reluctant to express them. Now so many others have voiced them that it's pointless to remain silent. I am frightened by the climate of insane anti-Obama hatred in this country. ...

Behind the Curtain of a Customizable Theater (10-1-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:52:43 -0700

Behind the Curtain of a Customizable Theater

Source: www.wired.com

Get in-depth tech news coverage from Wired and read about how it is shaping culture, education, entertainment, communications and technology.

Katherine Wagner: CEO of North Texas Business for Culture and Arts (9-24-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:24:15 -0700

Katherine Wagner: CEO of North Texas Business for Culture and Arts

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we have a review of Sundown Collaborative’s “Rabbit” and an interview with NTBCA’s CEO, Katherine Wagner. If you work with an arts organization in north Texas you should listen to this podcast.

There's a new episode of This Week in the Arts up! Katherine Wagner with the NTBCA. Also, Mark Lowry's review of Sundown Collaborative's "Rabbit"

BBC NEWS | Health | 'Gene cure' for colour blindness (9-17-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:21:37 -0700

BBC NEWS | Health | 'Gene cure' for colour blindness

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Watch the squirrel monkey 'cured' of colour blindness. When untreated, he could only guess where to touch. (Footage courtesy of Neitz Laboratory.)

Smile on a walk (9-17-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:10:43 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Sleeping Tilly (9-17-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:09:58 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Over the shoulder (9-17-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:08:00 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Book in the car (9-17-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:07:03 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Dr. Rick Stewart: Senior Curator of Western Paintings and Sculpture (9-17-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:12:21 -0700

Dr. Rick Stewart: Senior Curator of Western Paintings and Sculpture

Source: thisweekinthearts.flowercast.net

This week we spoke with Dr. Rick Stewart, the senior curator of western art at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, about his history in art and art history as well as about his time at the Amon Carter and their upcoming exhibit.

There's a new episode of TWITA up: Rick Stewart - Check out the new segment from Alexandra Bonifield tonight! And let us know what you think of the show!

There's a better way (9-16-2009)

nobody@flickr.com (flowers.justin) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:57:08 -0700

flowers.justin posted a photo:

Posted via email from Justin's posterous

Lake Simons and John Dyer: White Elephant (9-10-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:57:53 -0700

Lake Simons and John Dyer: White Elephant

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Lake Simons and John Dyer about their collaborative project at Hip Pocket Theatre, White Elephant.

There's a new episode of This Week in the Arts up:

Click here to tell your members of Congress to support President Obama's plan for health reform (9-10-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:46:24 -0700

Click here to tell your members of Congress to support President Obama's plan for health reform

Source: my.barackobama.com

Tonight, President Obama laid out his plan for health insurance reform for a special joint session of Congress. Click here to tell your members of Congress that you stand with the President and his plan.

"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we..." (9-8-2009)

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:41:27 -0700

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

- T.S. Elliot

Geoff Mulgan: Post-crash, investing in a better world | Video on TED.com (9-5-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:41:22 -0700

Geoff Mulgan: Post-crash, investing in a better world | Video on TED.com

Source: www.ted.com

TED Talks As we reboot the world's economy, Geoff Mulgan poses a question: Instead of sending bailout money to doomed old industries, why not use stimulus funds to bootstrap some new, socially responsible companies -- and make the world a little bit better?

Once again, another great Ted talk:

Mark Evan Walker: Artist, Scenic Designer, Author (9-3-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:01:14 -0700

Mark Evan Walker: Artist, Scenic Designer, Author

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Mark Evan Walker, scenic designer for Stage West’s production of Skin of our Teeth, about his history as an artist and his long time involvement in Dallas and Fort Worth.

There's a new episode of This Week in the Arts up!

Ze Frank Tries to Understand Health Care Reform - Video - TIME.com (9-2-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:33:19 -0700

Ze Frank Tries to Understand Health Care Reform - Video - TIME.com

Source: www.time.com

In this TIME video essay, Ze Frank tries to understand and explain the health care debate. Turns out it's complicated

Flickr Photo Download: yea! (9-1-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:52:13 -0700

Flickr Photo Download: yea!

Source: www.flickr.com

Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world, securely and privately show content to your friends and family, or blog the photos and videos you take with a cameraphone.

Best Picture ever

People of Walmart: a collection of all the creatures that grace us with their presence at Walmart, A (8-31-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:07:32 -0700

People of Walmart: a collection of all the creatures that grace us with their presence at Walmart, A

Source: beta.peopleofwalmart...

Hehe

Katherine Owens: Artistic Director of The Undermain Theatre (8-27-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:43:42 -0700

Katherine Owens: Artistic Director of The Undermain Theatre

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Katherine Owens, artistic director of the Undermain Theatre in Dallas Texas, about their upcoming season, their next show “The Black Monk,” the theatre’s history ...

Check out Katherine Owens on This Week in the arts:

By T.R. Reid -- Five Myths About Health Care in the Rest of the World - washingtonpost.com (8-26-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:56:31 -0700

By T.R. Reid -- Five Myths About Health Care in the Rest of the World - washingtonpost.com

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

As Americans search for the cure to what ails our health-care system, we've overlooked an invaluable source of ideas and solutions: the rest of the world. All the other industrialized democracies have faced problems like ours, yet they've found ways to cover everybody -- and still spend far less ...

8-bit trip (8-24-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:15:09 -0700

8-bit trip

Source: www.youtube.com

1500 hours of moving legobricks and take photos of them.

Art&Seek Q&A: Podcaster Justin Flowers – Art & Seek – A service from KERA for North Texas (8-21-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:08:57 -0700

Art&Seek Q&A: Podcaster Justin Flowers – Art & Seek – A service from KERA for North Texas

Source: www.kera.org

This week, Art&Seek tips the Q&A hat to fellow arts reporter and new media renaissance man Justin Flowers. You might have seen Justin acting on stage (recently in Circle Theatre's Incorruptible) or encountered him in his day job with the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County. ...

Hey, I was interviewed on Art and Seek - Check it out when you get a chance :D

How Tim O'Reilly Aims to Change Government (8-20-2009)

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:44:01 -0700

It's time to set the record straight (8-20-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:37:57 -0700

It's time to set the record straight

Source: my.barackobama.com

The special interests who profit from the status quo are getting nervous. They can't win an honest debate, so they're spreading lies to incite fear and anger. Help set the record straight - watch the video and share the truth with your friends.

I don't often publicly take sides in political debates, but this is too important to ignore - I don't expect to sway the people who have made up their minds, but if you're on the fence at least take a look.

Carl Dreher: North Texas Traditional Dance Society (8-20-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:13:21 -0700

Carl Dreher: North Texas Traditional Dance Society

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Carl Dreher, founder of the North Texas Traditional Dance Society, about the organization, their styles of dance, and its history.

There's a new episode of TWITA up:

Man Jailed Three Months for Breath Mint Possession (8-19-2009)

rbalko@reason.com (Radley Balko) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:56:00 -0700

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Hampshire | Bald penguin gets sunburn wetsuit (8-15-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:08:21 -0700

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Hampshire | Bald penguin gets sunburn wetsuit

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Ralph, a nine-year-old Humboldt penguin, lost all of his feathers in one day while moulting, instead of the usual four to six weeks.

Hehe - a penguin in a wetsuit

Lorca Simons: Actress (8-13-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:13:55 -0700

Lorca Simons: Actress

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

There's a new episode of This Week in the Arts up:

DJ Steve Porter featuring Vince Offer - "Slap Chop Rap" (8-12-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:52:04 -0700

DJ Steve Porter featuring Vince Offer - "Slap Chop Rap"

Source: www.youtube.com

DJ MAG VOTE HERE - http://www.top100djs.net/ Slap Chop Rap MP3 at my website http://www.djsteveporter.com

For you late night folks - I'm not sure why this is so funny to me.

Evolution GIF (8-10-2009)

(author unknown) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:58:30 -0700

Shared by Raj
cool!!!

The most awesome animated gif I think I have ever found.

And I found it here.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale (8-7-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:49:10 -0700

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale

Source: vimeo.com

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus", from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009. ...

WOW!

Joe Rogers: Musician and Playwright (8-7-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:21:40 -0700

Joe Rogers: Musician and Playwright

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

Joe Rogers from Jubilee Theatre is on This Week in the Arts this week:

Teh hussel . .. (8-7-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:12:42 -0700

Teh hussel . ..

Source: icanhascheezburger.com

lolcats, cats and funny pictures - Teh hussel . . . . . . I duz it!

Kentridge’s Five Themes (8-5-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:21:32 -0700

Dana, Matilda and I finally made it over to The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worthto see their newest exhibit: William Kentridge: Five Themes.

We'd been hoping to see it since it opened on July 12th.

Annie, a long time friend, and her two kids, Ian and Dylan came along.

The exhibit is a great mixture of media – Kentridge uses mostly charcoal on paper in conjunction with multimedia video and projections to communicate with his audiences. The films are short pieces on repeat and animations created by drawing and erasing over the same page over and over between frames.

But, by far, his greatest piece stands all by itself and is something of a marvel. It's a round top table with a canvas on top and seamless cylindrical mirror at its center. A projector, above the table, projects animations onto the canvas and the reflection is seen in the mirror.

You should definitely check this exhibit out if you can. It's showing through September 27th – Also, check out the podcast I recorded with the chief curator about Kentridge:

To play mp3s in your browser, you will need to have Javascript turned on and have Flash Player 9 or better installed.

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test post for deletion (8-5-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:26:44 -0700

To play mp3s in your browser, you will need to have Javascript turned on and have Flash Player 9 or better installed.

Posted via email from Justin’s posterous

This was originally posted at The Flowercast. You can subscribe to The Flowercast with the RSS Feed.

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (8-5-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:07:04 -0700

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Source: bit.ly

William Kentridge: Five Themes features the most comprehensive survey to date of the films, drawings, books, prints, sculptures, and stage designs by this influential contemporary South African artist. ...

We finally made it to the Modern to see the William Kentridge exhibit: http://bit.ly/PJeen - It's great! You can still find the TWITA episode online here: http://bit.ly/DIYbj

Friend is looking for Liquor Tasters - Pays (8-5-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:18:26 -0700

"The marketing research company I work for is looking for liquor drinkers between the ages of 21 and 54 to participate in a taste test. The taste tests will be held during the weeks of August 10 and August 17 at Decision Analyst in Arlington, TX (near the intersection of I-30 and Hwy. 360-across from Six Flags). If you qualify and participate in the test, you will receive $40. Please take the following short survey to determine whether or not you qualify to participate. If you do qualify, you will be contacted later by Anne Parks of American Consumer Opinion® (a division of Decision Analyst) to confirm the date and time for the test. http://www.daisurvey.com/jsh/090376f/index.asp?s=90 Thanks for your help! Karen"

Aaaaaand sheeeeee’s out! (8-2-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:21:58 -0700

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Matilda in her car seat (7-30-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:02:23 -0700

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Review: Butchers, Dragons, Gods & Skeletons at the Kimbell – Art & Seek – A service from KERA for No (7-27-2009)

Justin Flowers — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:17:18 -0700

Review: Butchers, Dragons, Gods & Skeletons at the Kimbell – Art & Seek – A service from KERA for No

Source: www.kera.org

In Butchers, Dragons, Gods & Skeletons, the current exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum, director Philip Haas immerses viewers in miniature worlds — ancient Greece, a Chinese Buddhist temple, the splendor of a Baroque hall, a dark stroll through James Ensor's brain. ...

The Plot to Kill Google (7-23-2009)

(author unknown) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:06:08 -0700

The Plot to Kill Google

By Nicholas Thompson and Fred Vogelstein 01.19.09

Google may not be evil, but it sure does have enemies.
Illustration: Tom Rowe

When Google's lawyers entered the smooth marble hallways of the Department of Justice on the morning of October 17, they had reason to feel confident. Sure, they were about to face the antitrust division—an experience most companies dread—to defend a proposed deal with Yahoo. But they had to like their chances. In the previous seven years, only one of the mergers that had been brought here had been opposed. And Google wasn't even requesting a full merger. It just wanted the go-ahead to pursue a small deal that it was convinced would benefit consumers, the two companies, and the search-advertising market as a whole. Settling around a large oval table in the conference room, the attorneys from Google and Yahoo prepared to make their arguments. Google wanted to serve its ads for certain search terms on Yahoo's pages in exchange for a share of the revenue those ads generated. It already had similar arrangements with AOL, Ask.com, and countless other Web sites. And the deal wasn't exclusive or permanent.

Tom Barnett, assistant attorney general for antitrust, took his seat at the table and called the meeting to order. The Yahoo lawyers kicked things off by describing their negotiations with DOJ staff; they had already suggested limiting the length of the deal and capping the amount of money in play. Barnett seemed unimpressed. "Staff," he proclaimed, "is irrelevant." He made the decisions around there.

As five lawyers involved with the case recount it, the rest of the meeting did not go much better. For hours, Barnett picked apart the deal. Google, he argued, was not preserving competition by keeping Yahoo solvent; it was trying to increase control over its old rival, with a goal of dominating the online search-advertising market. If the proposal was so harmless, he went on, why had he been deluged with letters and phone calls from advertisers opposing it? Then, late in the day, Barnett brought up the two words Google lawyers least wanted to hear: Section Two—as in, Section Two of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which criminalizes monopolies. The Justice Department invoked Section Two to splinter Standard Oil in 1911, break up AT&T in 1982, and prosecute Microsoft in 1998. Now Barnett was signaling not just that the Google-Yahoo deal was dead but that the government saw Google as a potential monopolist. In fact, Barnett insisted, if the deal wasn't substantially changed or scuttled, he would sue within five days. It was a stunning blow. Google had expected a speedy approval. Now the company, whose brand is defined by its "Don't be evil" slogan, faced the prospect of being hauled into court on an antitrust charge. Google and Yahoo tried to salvage the negotiations, but on the morning of November 5, three hours before the DOJ was going to file its antitrust case, they abandoned the deal.

Google's capitulation marked a rare defeat for the search giant, which has been almost as successful among the regulators of Washington as among the coders of Silicon Valley. And it was cause for celebration in Redmond, where Microsoft spent six months on a massive effort, costing millions of dollars, to block the Yahoo deal. Microsoft played a role in persuading members of Congress to hold hearings. It initiated a campaign that filled DOJ mailboxes with letters from politicians and nonprofit groups objecting to the deal. It convinced the country's largest advertisers to join together to oppose the company in public. It's impossible to know exactly what impact all this had on the DOJ decision. But many observers believe that Barnett, who declined to be interviewed for this article, was influenced in part by Microsoft's arguments.

The bid to stop the Yahoo deal was just one front in an emerging multipronged war against Google. The company's growth, ambitions, and politics have made it a target of some of the country's most powerful businesses and interest groups. When Google pressed the Federal Communications Commission to reallocate "white space"—unused chunks of radio spectrum—for wireless broadband and other uses, it ran into a counter-lobbying effort that included everyone from the National Association of Broadcasters to Dolly Parton. Google's push for net neutrality, which would forbid ISPs from giving preferential treatment to certain data providers, has been met by fierce resistance from telecom and cable companies, whose allies describe it as "special-interest legislation dressed up to sound less self-serving." It purchased YouTube, whose users' laissez-faire approach to copyright infuriates Viacom and other content providers. Google wants to digitize entire libraries, a prospect that frightens publishers. It has terrified a legion of small businesses that feel at the mercy of its opaque but all-powerful search algorithm. It has annoyed Republicans by associating itself largely with Democrats.

The thwarting of the Yahoo deal was the most successful attack so far by the many forces aligned against Google—but it won't be the last. "There were a lot of sharks circling Google during the DOJ review," says Christopher Murray, senior counsel for Consumers Union. "Now there's a whiff of blood in the water. I expect a feeding frenzy in 2009."

The Enemies List

Google is under fire on 4 fronts.

What's at stake:
How much do you trust Google? The search giant says there's no reason to fear its purchase of DoubleClick or its proposed revenue-sharing deal with Yahoo. But competitors and major advertisers think it's plotting world domination.

Who's upset:
Association of National Advertisers, Microsoft, WPP Group

What's at stake:
Every time a new chunk of radio spectrum becomes available, Google argues it should be opened to the public. Sounds great—except to telcos that have wanted it for themselves and broadcasters that worry new devices will mess with their transmissions.

Who's upset:
AT&T, National Association of Broadcasters, Verizon

What's at stake:
Google thinks all information is created equal and favors laws forbidding Internet service providers from determining how fast content from different providers will download. ISPs, not surprisingly, beg to differ.

Who's upset:
AT&T, Comcast, Verizon

What's at stake:
Google's insatiable hunger for data scares even some of its allies. Now its business rivals have launched a privacy crusade to drum up fears that Big Brother lives in Mountain View.

Who's upset:
AT&T, Center for Digital Democracy, Microsoft

High-profile legal battles aren't fought only in the courtroom. Public perceptions matter. Momentum matters. Relationships matter. For John Kelly, Microsoft's head of strategic relations, this lesson didn't come easy. In the 1990s, the lawyer and former lobbyist watched as Microsoft defended itself against charges that its practice of bundling its software onto computers constituted anticompetitive behavior. The company settled the case in 2001. But by then it had already won a reputation as an unrepentant and thuggish monopolist, thanks in part to shrewd lobbying by competitors like Sun Microsystems and Netscape, uninspiring testimony by Bill Gates, and masterful media relations by David Boies, the government lawyer on the case.

"Ten years ago we said, 'This is all going to depend on being right in court,'" Kelly says. "'Don't worry about all the noise, rhetoric, and lobbying by our competitors.' While the facts and the law are still what matters in the end, the important lesson we took way from that experience was that you could not let your competitors define you in the court of public opinion."

A decade later, Microsoft's reputation was still getting in its way. In January 2008, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to purchase Yahoo. The takeover would help Microsoft bulk up its search advertising business, an area where Google held a huge advantage. But Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who viewed Microsoft as an uncompromising leviathan, was determined to block the deal. In early May, Microsoft dropped its bid—a tough defeat made even more frustrating when Google CEO Eric Schmidt celebrated the failure in comments to the media. "We're obviously happy it's not going to happen," Schmidt said at a press conference. "Had the merger gone through, we would have had to have a meeting around it. We would have had to have a campaign against it."

It was a stark reversal for Schmidt, who had made few public statements against Microsoft since joining Google in 2001. Kelly took the saber-rattling as a warning that Google was preparing to join the fray, perhaps by proposing its own deal to keep Yahoo out of Microsoft's hands. (Sure enough, Google did just that on June 12.) For years, Microsoft had quietly seethed as Google waltzed into a position of immense power while charming regulators and politicians with an aura of gee-whiz innocence. Even when Google hired a small team of lobbyists and took the occasional swing at Redmond, the company's feel-good reputation remained intact. The idea that Google would end up inking a deal with Yahoo, increasing its domination of search advertising while successfully casting Microsoft—again!—as a power-mad Darth Vader, was more than Kelly could stand. "Frankly, we saw history repeating itself," he says. "We realized that we were going to have to speak up."

Kelly sprang into action, activating his company's vast Washington infrastructure.Microsoft's protracted antitrust battles had left it with an army of lawyers and lobbyists and deep institutional knowledge of which politicians to approach and how best to sway them. Soon, Microsoft's lobbyists were meeting with Herbert Kohl, chair of the Senate's Antitrust Subcommittee. By early July the subcommittee was holding hearings. In October, Kohl wrote to Barnett warning that "important competition issues are raised by this transaction."

But that was all familiar, the kind of campaign Microsoft had routinely run. Kelly wanted to take a different approach this time—not just opposing the deal but persuading other interested parties to speak out as well. The arguments of a known competitor may not sway the Justice Department, but customers' opinions hold special influence. If advertisers—Google's customers—voluntarily declared their opposition, the DOJ would listen closely.

Kelly turned to Michael Kassan, an advertising consultant who had been advising Microsoft off and on since 2002. Kassan—whose clients have included AT&T, Disney, and Viacom—recently had been named by Advertising Age as possessing the third-most-impressive Rolodex in the industry. Kelly asked Kassan to start talking to his contacts and drum up opposition to Google. Kassan assured him he knew just how to do it; there was plenty of fear and mistrust of Google among advertisers. "Google has badly misjudged how it is perceived," he reassured Kelly. "We have a clear and easy story to tell."

It went like this: Google had 70 percent of the search advertising business, and Yahoo had 20 percent. Now those two companies were proposing a business deal. That would give advertisers less leverage to negotiate ad rates, and they would end up paying more.

Kassan was eager to make his case. He flew to Cannes, France, where he pitched the board of the International Association of Advertisers. He traveled to conferences in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and Florida. He talked to many of the 32 chief marketing officers on the board of the Association of National Advertisers, the trade group that represents the top 375 advertisers in the country. By late August, Kelly and Kassan were conducting as many as three conference calls a day with major national advertisers. Google, meanwhile, hadn't started any serious outreach effort to defend the deal to the advertising community.

The hardest part of the campaign wasn't convincing ANA's board members that the Google-Yahoo proposal was bad for them. The trick, Kassan says, was getting them to say so. Indeed, Kassan was rebuffed in June, when he first asked the head of the ANA to take a public stand. "They wanted me to do something right away," ANA president Bob Liodice says. "I told them I'd look at it. But at the time I had no ability to say whether the deal was bad or good, and the last thing I wanted to do was have the organization looking like a shill for Microsoft."

Kassan and Kelly kept at Liodice, seeding his inbox with position papers, briefing documents, and news stories. Their goal was straightforward: Convince him that the ANA's position on the deal not only mattered but was crucial to stopping it. Liodice went on a fact-finding mission, inviting Google and Yahoo to answer questions and then sending written queries to executives at all three companies. Ultimately, he concluded that Google would drive Yahoo out of business and gain a stranglehold on online advertising. "The more we dug in, the more we realized that we had to say something," Liodice says. "The tipping point for me was that I had all these advertisers on my board opposing the deal. Meanwhile, Google and Yahoo couldn't produce any significant advertisers who were supporting it." In September, the ANA formally voiced its opposition. It wasn't alone; individual advertisers piled on with additional letters to the Justice Department expressing their own disapproval. DOJ staffers were talking about the "telephone book of complaints" they had received.

Microsoft's arguments weren't just winning over advertisers. Back in July, the company penned one of a series of confidential memos titled "Google + Yahoo ≠ Competition" and sent it to its allies and the Justice Department. The memo claimed that the Google-Yahoo deal was illegal on its face, mentioning as precedent the 68-year-old case United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. Inc., which Microsoft also cited in congressional testimony that same month. When Yahoo lawyer Dan Wall heard the argument, he didn't see how a 1940s case against conspiring oil companies bore much relevance to a deal in which prices are set by electronic auctions. But then a Justice official brought up Socony during one of their regular phone calls. "I thought, 'Good grief, they're buying the Microsoft BS,'" Wall says. "I don't have any doubt that Microsoft put that in DOJ's mind."

Meanwhile, the fight against Google quickly spread beyond Redmond, as other companies and trade groups began to lend support. Some had no obvious interest in the deal; Microsoft hired lobbyists who knew how to drum up support among rural and Latino groups, and before long organizations as far-reaching as the American Corn Growers Association and the Dominican American Business Network had voiced their opposition.

Other companies joined in, including AT&T. Many observers believe that the telecom company hopes to compete directly with Google someday by going into the business of serving online ads to its users, and it was happy for the opportunity to beat up on its future rival. On September 24, 10 members of Congress sent a letter to the DOJ opposing the deal. All of them have received donations from AT&T over their careers (average total contribution since 1996: $29,000), and most counted the telecom giant as one of their largest contributors.

These campaigns converged at the October 17 Justice Department hearing, in which Barnett threatened to bring an antitrust case against Google. Publicly, Google remained upbeat after the arrangement fell apart. Lobbyists for the company maintained that even in failure they had kept Yahoo out of the hands of Microsoft for at least six months, perhaps permanently. And if Microsoft eventually tries to snap up Yahoo, Google can respond with the same kind of antitrust arguments that were deployed against it.

Kassan doesn't share Google's optimistic interpretation. "They have permanently invited the scrutiny of the Justice Department into every future deal they do," he says. "Nine months ago everyone aspired to be Google. Now they have monopolist written all over them."

Google barely had time to recover from the failed Yahoo deal before its staff learned of a 94-page document titled "Google Data Collection and Retention," that had been circulating around Washington. The treatise listed all the ways that Google hoards user information. Google Checkout remembers credit card numbers. Gmail reads private email. Blogger saves draft posts. As one annotation on the document helpfully notes, Google's privacy policy "gives Google the right to retain personal information over the wishes of a user." Overall, Google is painted as a Big Brother with an insatiable desire for private data.

The document, written by a consulting firm, was commissioned by AT&T, which says it was intended only for internal use. Protection from snooping, says AT&T public policy chief James Cicconi, is one of his firm's top priorities. "We sell our customers access to the Internet," he says, "and we want them to have a good experience." Privacy is a newfound concern for the company, which in 2005 was one of the telecoms that allowed the National Security Agency to listen in on millions of phone calls. AT&T was accused of "warrantless wiretapping" before successfully lobbying Congress to grant it immunity against suits by its customers. But now AT&T is trumpeting the cause of consumer privacy, unveiling an elaborate policy stating that it will not sell its customers' browsing histories to advertisers without explicit permission.

But AT&T's nascent crusade may also be in the service of a less noble agenda: keeping up its attack on Google. Over the past couple of months, several AT&T allies have spoken out against what they describe as Google's disdain for privacy. Scott Cleland, who serves as CEO of a telecom-funded consultancy, has turned his widely read blog into a Google attack machine, with posts titled "Why Google Is the Biggest Threat to Americans' Privacy" and "Google Protecting Its Privacy to Invade Your Privacy." In late November, a cochair of an advocacy group called the Future of Privacy Forum published an op-ed in the Bangkok Post titled "Google Is Watching You." The writer was a former lawyer for AT&T, which is the group's sole funder. AT&T is also launching volleys under its own name: When its senior vice president of public policy introduced the company's new set of policies in front of the Senate, she repeatedly named Google as a privacy threat—and mentioned no other company in the entire testimony.

Once again, AT&T has found an ally in Microsoft. LMG, a public-relations firm that Microsoft hired to help defeat the Yahoo deal, has emailed public-interest advocates accusing Google of privacy violations. Last spring, Microsoft supported bills in the New York and Connecticut legislatures to impose strict regulations on businesses that gather personal information online for marketing purposes. The bills would hurt Microsoft, too, given that it also wants to sell advertisements based on customer behavior. But the self-inflicted wound may be worth it for the damage it causes Google.

True to form, Google remains cheery and confident. The company's reputation still beats the stodgy, unfriendly images of Microsoft and AT&T. Google executives also know they may be able to win some supporters on this issue; advertisers, the same group whose complaints torpedoed the Yahoo deal, aren't put off by Google's attempts to collect user data—it only helps them create more targeted ads.

And for all its woes in Washington, Google is finally learning how to operate there. It has hired more lobbyists, and its policy experts are starting to attend the cocktail parties they have long ignored. Schmidt serves as chair of the New America Foundation (a think tank at which one of the authors of this article is a fellow). And Google can now boast a uniquely powerful ally: Barack Obama, who benefited from Google employees' extensive campaign contributions and from Schmidt's well-timed endorsement.

AT&T maintains that even Google's Democratic pals might turn against the company over privacy. "Civil libertarians have fought hard over decades to establish a right to privacy as fundamental to preserving all other liberties enshrined in our Constitution," Cicconi says. "It would be shameful if liberals now toss that achievement over the side because a liberal, pro-Obama, hip-cool-trendy company comes along that wants to run roughshod over those rights." Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that has long fought Google on privacy grounds, says she considers AT&T's recent interest in her cause "a perfect storm in our favor." And Google isn't out of the antitrust woods yet, either. Sanford Litvack—a government lawyer who would have run the DOJ's suit against Google had it not withdrawn the Yahoo proposal—says that, in his opinion, Google's current position may already constitute a monopoly, even without Yahoo.

Traditionally, Google has fought off powerful rivals with masterful code. It took on the established search behemoths by creating more effective software. It bested Microsoft's and Yahoo's advertising efforts by inventing an entirely new ad platform. But the war today is being fought in Washington, in the press, and perhaps even in the Justice Department again. And these aren't battles you can win with engineers and algorithms.

Looking at FriendFeed’s today, envisioning a better future (7-23-2009)

Onur Kabadayi — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:36:29 -0700

The debate on the success and future of FriendFeed has recently heated up on the tech blogger community. The debate concentrates on 3 main questions: “What are the problems of FriendFeed?”, “Can FriendFeed hit the mainstream like Facebook or twitter?”, and “Does FriendFeed have superior features to other social media platforms?”. Before addressing these, I first want to focus on a more basic question:

What is FriendFeed?

I totally agree on this view that, in its core, “FriendFeed is a social bulletin board service… At the most basic level, FriendFeed is a forum”… However, FriendFeed’s strength lies at facilitating REAL TIME conversation around content. It’s a great tool to “listen” what’s happening around the world of social media. FriendFeed’s design enables content to go highly viral in no time.

Actually, feature-wise, FriendFeed is a lot like an “evolved” version of 4chan, which is a highly popular bulletin board used by the geeky internet subcultures. Just like FriendFeed, 4chan is mostly composed of picture memes & topic bumps (posts popping to the top of the page as people comment). Also like FriendFeed, 4chan is a highly viral environment: its community was responsible of many successful real-time coordinated attacks against other websites. Now, coming to other 3 questions…

What are the problems of FriendFeed?

Robert Scoble has a quite length post about this question, I mostly agree on his points, but I will discuss ones that matter most for me:

• Noise & quality: Comments that don’t add value sometimes dominate FriendFeed, and result in noise. Noise easily gets amplified, and gets out of control. User feeds and conversations may be dominated by few people.
• Usability & control: The GUI is cluttered, and full of usability problems. Few features exist to control the user experience, and they require a lot of effort . You can’t display the front page with comments hidden, for instance.

Actually, FriendFeed has another major problem, which is much, much more essential than these two, but I want discuss this in the context of next question:

Can FriendFeed hit the mainstream like twitter?

My short answer is that, in its current form and direction, no. It will surely get more popular, but unless management realizes a new strategy, it will never get to the extent of Facebook or Twitter. Why?

Friendfeed can’t hit the mainstream because, it simply lacks a “twist” – a powerful brand essence; and the current User Experience hinders its social value for masses. Let me clarify, by taking a look at the popularization of 3 major social media platforms of the day:

• Initially, MySpace successfully captivated alternative music bands as a place “to create identity and have a place to point fans to“. Young fans followed, marked MySpace as “cool“, and created their own online identities.
• Facebook, successfully captivated the college students as a place to create identity, and gossip on each other asynchronously. The social value offered was relevant for everyone, and the student-only membership rule made it “charming“. So when they opened up the platform, it spread like a virus.
• Twitter, successfully captivated mega-celebrities where they’ve seen it as a place to have a relationship and dialogue with their fans. Asthon Kucher and Oprah made twitter “trendy“, so masses followed, and since the barrier to participate was little (140-characters) they realized that it’s a good tool to casually chat with acquaintances, and to meet new people.

On the other hand, which evengalist community FriendFeed captured? Tech early-adopters, bloggers, and geeks. It’s good to have these people on board, however, the problem is that the social value they get from FriendFeed isn’t replicating to masses.

Noise & usability problems identified earlier perhaps don’t bother tech early-adopters, but it does most others. Furthermore, people usually perceive FriendFeed as an aggregator that is mostly useful for heavy social media users, so its potential user base becomes more narrow than most channels feeding into it.

And finally, FriendFeed lacks a “twist” in its brand ID – what made MySpace “cool” to the young, Facebook “charming” to the masses. FriendFeed is not attractive to celebs either, since they can’t yet brand & customize their pages. So is FriendFeed crap? The answer lies at the following question:

Does FriendFeed have superior features to other social media platforms?

There are many things that FriendFeed does very well. It invented an absolutely magnificent way for listening to all the Internet’s social content in real-time. However, the problems I highlighted hinders FriendFeed’s growth, and giants like Facebook and Google easily mimick its functionality.

So where to go from here? FriendFeed needs a two-folds strategy in order to have a better future.

1. FriendFeed needs a serious User Experience re-design: Time to get professional UX Consulting, and create a much simpler and smarter GUI. While keeping the virality of the platform, the UX re-design must create mechanisms to effortlessly keep the monitered conversations in control. So I’m talking about the noise and spam, which will become more serious issues everyday. Also, serious brainstorming must be made with regards to how to add the desperately needed “twist” into the FriendFeed’s brand.

2. FriendFeed needs to also focus on the Business user by launching parallel services: In addition to tech early-adopters, I find that marketers increasingly use FriendFeed to keep the pulse of consumers and gather trends in real time. Furthermore, as the “Social CRM” concept gets more popular, businesses are increasingly willing to keep tabs on multiple social media channels.

There’s a great opportunity for FriendFeed to be an invaluable tool for marketers and corporate social media staff to monitor (and publish to) various social media channels. I’m directly quoting this “Also, as companies develop more metrics to measure social media success, FriendFeed could offer premium services with comprehensive analytics and reporting”.

Final Words…

Today FriendFeed is a “niche” product, and with the current strategy, it’s destined to stay that way. It could be OK to be niche, however I’m not sure if FriendFeed could generate adaquate revenues that way. I’ve outlined my and others thoughts with regards to how it may have a better future.

Am I optimistic that the change is coming? Not quite, since one of the founders recently claimed that “There is no doubt Friendfeed is the most advanced app on the Internet right now“. FriendFeed could be a quite advanced application for today. However, to make the transition from good to great one needs to be very open-minded and sceptic, rather than arrogant…

Furthermore, FriendFeed lacks a “twist” in its brand ID –what made MySpace “cool” to the young, Facebook “charming” to the masses. It’s not attractive to celebs either, since they can’t yet brand & customize their pages.

Michael Hollinger: Playwright (7-23-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:40:32 -0700

Michael Hollinger: Playwright

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Playwright, Michael Hollinger, about his play: Incorruptible, his writing process, and how he became a writer.

There's a new This Week in the Arts up: Michael Hollinger - Playwright for Incorruptible.

KERA Art&Seek Blog » WFAA to Cover Local Performing Arts (7-22-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:35:47 -0700

KERA Art&Seek Blog » WFAA to Cover Local Performing Arts

Source: www.kera.org

With the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts set to open in three months, WFAA-TV has decided to assign arts coverage as a permanent beat to its longtime movie reviewer and Good Morning Texas regular, ...

Awesome!

The Manhattan Airport Foundation (7-22-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:33:23 -0700

The Manhattan Airport Foundation

Source: manhattanairport.org

The Manhattan Airport Foundation is a land-use constituency committed to the immediate development of a viable and centrally-located international air transportation hub in New York City for the benefit of all New Yorkers.

Just what Central Park needs: An Airport. :)

KERA Art&Seek Blog » We Interrupt this Arts Blog….For Monkeys! (7-21-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:27:15 -0700

KERA Art&Seek Blog » We Interrupt this Arts Blog….For Monkeys!

Source: www.kera.org

The owner isn’t pressing charges, because she thinks it’s funny. So do I. But the monkey was seen handing the items over a fence — to a human (who, yes, may well fence the stolen items). ...

hehe

www.modernblog.org (7-20-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:50:54 -0700

www.modernblog.org

Source: www.modernblog.org

If you’ve ever wondered what it is that curators do, and curious about our new exhibition William Kentridge: Five Themes, This Week in the Arts most recent podcast covers both and is well worth the listen. ...

This Week in the Arts on The Modern Blog

Domino's Pizza Tracker (7-20-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:43:37 -0700

Domino's Pizza Tracker

Source: tracker.dominos.com

In case you were wondering what's for supper. :)

Theater review: Farce doesn't get any better than 'Incorruptible' | Dallas-Fort Worth Entertainment (7-19-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:46:14 -0700

Theater review: Farce doesn't get any better than 'Incorruptible' | Dallas-Fort Worth Entertainment

Source: www.dallasnews.com

Lawson Taitte columns and reviwes -- Dallas Morning News Theater Critic Lawson Taitte covers performing arts with reviews, columns and commentarty on the Dallas, Fort Worth theater community.

IE6 Must Die for the Web to Move On (7-16-2009)

Ben Parr — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:53:11 -0700

Just six years ago, the web was dominated by one browser: Internet Explorer, specifically Internet Explorer 6. Without Netscape to compete against it and the ability to bundle its browser with Windows XP, Microsoft experienced superior market share – up to 95% at the peak. Today though, we have far superior browsers like Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome, as well as Internet Explorer 8.

So why is 15 to 25 percent of the world’s browsing still done in a browser created in the digital Stone Age (aka 2001)? As a coder, designer, and UI guy, it’s difficult to put into words how many extra man hours I and others have dedicated to make websites compatible with the outdated browser.

Despite the difficulty presented by IE6 though, the web’s done alright. But with the coming release of HTML 5, we’re about to hit a breaking point where innovation will be stifled if websites must continue to cater to this browser. Here’s what’s happening in the next few months and, more importantly, why we must force ourselves off IE6 if the web is to grow.

The Issue with Internet Explorer 6

Yeah…Facebook doesn’t like IE6…

You might be asking yourself two questions right about now: What’s so bad about IE6? And why do so many people still use it? The answer to the first question is relatively simple: Internet Explorer 6 is outdated technology in a rapidly-changing Internet landscape. Imagine trying to use the social web, Microsoft Office, iTunes, IM, your video games, and all of your desktop apps…with a computer from 2001 (20 GB of space, 256 MB of RAM, anyone?). It’s the same thing: a great deal of new web technology is simply incompatible with IE6. A short list of things IE6 does not support, of which coders probably know them all:

- CSS v2 (Cascading Style Sheets): This is the code that enables almost all design on the web. In other words, designers have to hack up websites just to make them load in IE6.

- PNG Transparency: A great deal of .png images don’t display correctly in IE6. It basically kills using them in design work.

- General Security: Just like not updating your virus software can get you riddled with spyware, not updating your browser can be a gateway to attacks. There are even code snippets that will shut down IE6. I won’t tell you what they are, but you can find them on Wikipedia. It’s unstable.

- Digg, Facebook, and YouTube (soon): Both Digg and YouTube have announced that they’re cutting back on IE6 support. Facebook already gives you suggestions for better browsers if you try to log in with IE6. You won’t be able to Digg articles or browse YouTube via IE6 in the near future.

Other companies have cited IE6 as holding them back as well. 37Signals, the maker of some of the most popular web-based business apps around (i.e. Basecamp) very publicly cut support for IE6 because according to them, “continued support of IE 6 means that we can’t optimize our interfaces or provide an enhanced customer experience in our apps.”

Now, if you’re wondering why people still use the outdated IE6 browser, there are two primary reasons most people point to: the fact that it is the standard browser of Windows XP (which is still the most used operating system around), and the fact that many corporate IT departments don’t see the need to upgrade – and find upgrading to be too much of a hassle. Without a significant event like Google not loading in IE6, people have stayed content with their current browser.

Still, the web has somehow gotten by with these IE6-imposed limitations. However, there’s a new technology that will take over the web. It’s also one that IE6 will not be able to handle at all: HTML 5.

The Next Step: HTML 5

HTML (hypertext markup language) is the code that helps shape the world wide web – you’ve all probably used an HTML tag (especially if you blog) or played with HTML at some point. HTML 5 is the next revision of the HTML language, and the features that are coming with it are a doozy, especially since its core spec editors (Ian Hickson and Dave Hyatt) are from Google and Apple respectively.

Google in particular is pushing it because it can really enhance the usability and possibilities of web development. At this year’s Google I/O conference, they presented some of the things it will be able to do. Some of the coolest:

- Video Tag: By tagging a video with < video >, you can embed a video straight through HTML. Because of this, you can really control the look and feel of the video.

- Audio Tag: The same thing as video, audio embedding becomes a lot easier.

- Time: The tag will help browsers recognize time in HTML pages. There’s also < meter > for numeric values.

- Drag and Drop: While there’s still wrangling on this point, with HTML 5 you will eventually be able to drag and drop files right on the browser. This is most notable for Google’s upcoming communication product, Google Wave, a big reason why Google’s pushing hard for this.

- Local Storage: Web apps work just like desktop apps nowadays, except they can’t easily save work right to your computer. HTML 5 fixes that problem.

- Geolocation: With HTML 5, you should be able to make web apps that can determine your location and provide you more relevant information. With the rise of location-based mobile services, this is important.

- Canvas: The canvas HTML element allows for scriptable bitmaps. What that means is that you can create beautiful graphics or imagery on the fly within HTML, meaning the interface of many web apps can become a lot more dynamic and richer. Mozilla Bespin is a big project for code editing using HTML 5, one that – you guessed it – won’t work in IE6.

Like any good language, more functionality will be added to HTML 5 as time goes on. If you want to have a more complete overview of HTML 5, I suggest reading the IBM Technical Library, but the point is this: while old browsers will still work with websites in HTML 5, they will simply not get anywhere near the same functionality. And with more and more companies dropping support for IE6, its users are going to be left out.

IE6 Has Stifled Innovation Long Enough

We’ve sputtered on with the dead weight of IE6 since 2001, but we’re just now reaching a breaking point, and companies are starting to feel it. YouTube and Digg clearly believe that it’s not in their best interests to continue supporting the outdated browser and thus have put the word out about their plans to phase out support. More and more companies will take their lead as it becomes harder and harder to justify the cost of keeping a site running correctly in Microsoft’s old browser.

But looking forward, HTML 5 standards will enable the building of richer web applications. More and more of our lives are on the web, and our use of web apps like Facebook has skyrocketed. Google’s even announced Google Chrome OS, an operating system that will run web apps instantaneously because it is built on the browser. But projects as rich as Google Wave will not realize their full potential (or run at all) if they must cater to a browser that runs on outdated standards.

IE6 was fine enough for use in 2001, but for web apps to evolve and grow into tools that run just as seamlessly as desktop apps, the browser that requires the most hacks, time, and energy to make things work must be set aside. The only way at this point that people will upgrade is if their favorite web tools don’t work in IE6 and for new technologies to look forward to HTML 5, and not backwards to outdated technologies.

In short, we’re at a crossroads, and for us to get past them, IE6 must go away as a browser and as a concern for developers and users everywhere.

Reviews: Basecamp, Chrome, Digg, Facebook, Firefox, Google, Google Wave, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, YouTube

Tags: browser, HTML5, IE6, internet explorer, microsoft

News: 40 Years (7-16-2009)

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:48:55 -0700

India issuing biometric IDs to all 1.2 billion citizens (7-16-2009)

Joseph L. Flatley — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:23:00 -0700

Michael Auping: Chief Curator at the Modern (7-16-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:38:48 -0700

Michael Auping: Chief Curator at the Modern

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Michael Auping, chief curator at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, about his job and the Modern’s current exhibit: William Kentridge: Five Themes.

There's a new episode of This Week in the Arts up!

The Shape of Things (7-15-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:30:37 -0700

The Shape of Things

Source: fwweekly.com

Fort Worth Weekly is your source of information for news, music, movies, restaurants, reviews, and events in Fort Worth, Texas.

It makes me sound like a lunatic at one point - but, all in all, it's a fun little story about me and Dana. :D

Create Your Own Sun Jar: Lifehacker Edition [Beat The Heat] (7-15-2009)

Jason Fitzpatrick — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:00:00 -0700

Drupal Mavens Unveil Open Atrium: An Intranet in a Box (7-15-2009)

Steven Walling — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:30:00 -0700

Goose gets a bionic leg in worldfirst operation (7-12-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:45:44 -0700

Goose gets a bionic leg in worldfirst operation

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Here is the world's first bionic Goose. The two-week old gosling was found with a broken leg, but vets did not have the heart to put it down.

Bionic Goose!! - Yaaaaay.

Researchers: Social Security Numbers Can Be Guessed - washingtonpost.com (7-8-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:21:50 -0700

Researchers: Social Security Numbers Can Be Guessed - washingtonpost.com

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Researchers have found that it is possible to guess many -- if not all -- of the nine digits in an individual's Social Security number using publicly available information, a finding they say compromises the security of one of the most widely used consumer identifiers in the United States.

Awesome.

Scientists Use The AIDS Virus To Cure Cancer [Future Cures] (7-6-2009)

Megan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:17:00 -0700

Bruce Esterline: Vice President for Grants for the Meadows Foundation (7-2-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:10:04 -0700

Bruce Esterline: Vice President for Grants for the Meadows Foundation

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

Bruce Esterline: Vice President for Grants for the Meadows Foundation [16:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

There's a new This Week in the Arts up!

Esther Selgrath: Actress with Artisan Center Theater (6-25-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:53:27 -0700

Esther Selgrath: Actress with Artisan Center Theater

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Esther Selgrath, actress with Artisan Center Theater. She’s playing Florence Raines in Artisan’s production of “The Man with the Pointed Toes.”

There's a new This Week in the Arts up!!

Steven Jones: Founding Producer of Lyric Stage (6-19-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:39:07 -0700

Steven Jones: Founding Producer of Lyric Stage

Source: thisweekinthearts.flowercast.net

This week we spoke with Steven Jones, the founding producer of Lyric Stage in Irving, about their ground-breaking production of The King and I.

Just finished two great interviews, One with Esther Selgrath from Artisan Center Theatre, and the other with Bruce Esterline from the meadows foundation. And go check out today's special show with Steven Jones from Lyric Stage! (Corrected the image - Thanks David)

10-foot alligator turns up on Fort Worth street | Top Stories | Star-Telegram.com (6-18-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:54:44 -0700

10-foot alligator turns up on Fort Worth street | Top Stories | Star-Telegram.com

Source: www.star-telegram.com

Finding alligators in the area during the rainy season isnt unusual, says Capt. Neal Bieler of the state Parks and Wildlife Department. "But its rare to find one 10 feet in length.

We have alligators in Fort Worth? I had no idea...

Jane Offenbach: Director of External Affairs, Nasher Sculpture Center (6-18-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:49:02 -0700

Jane Offenbach: Director of External Affairs, Nasher Sculpture Center

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Jane Offenbach, Director of External Affairs at the Nasher Sculpture Center about their Summer at the Nasher Series.

A new This Week in the arts is up!

Polish woman wakes up in morgue (6-15-2009)

Justin Flowers — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:49:41 -0700

Polish woman wakes up in morgue

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

An 84-year-old Polish woman woke up in a morgue after being declared dead by her doctor.

Yeah, this is why I don't work in a Funeral Company. Upon seeing the body bag moving I would have promptly screamed like a little girl and run to the nearest mall for looting.

Robert Reich's Blog: The Healthcare War is Now Official (6-13-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:08:32 -0700

Robert Reich's Blog: The Healthcare War is Now Official

Source: robertreich.blogspot...

Robert Reich was the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor and is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. His latest book is "Supercapitalism." This is his personal journal.

Tina Parker: Co-Artistic and Administrative Director of Kitchen Dog Theatre (6-11-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:56:59 -0700

Tina Parker: Co-Artistic and Administrative Director of Kitchen Dog Theatre

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Tina Parker, Co-Artistic and Administrative Director of Kitchen Dog Theatre, about their New Works Festival and their upcoming season.

There's a new episode of This Week in the Arts up!

The Global Language Monitor (6-10-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:02:43 -0700

The Global Language Monitor

Source: www.languagemonitor.com

As expected, with a new word created about every 98 minutes (14.7 per day) the English-language crossed the Million Word Mark on June 10th, 2009 at 10:22 am (Stratford-on Avon Time)

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version (6-5-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:11:11 -0700

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version

Source: www.youtube.com

T-SHIRTS NOW AVAILABLE! Ever wish songs just sang what was happening in the music video? Well now they do, in my sixth take on Dusto McNeato's "literal video" concept! Lyrics: DASjr / Singing: PersephoneMaewyn & DASjr 5/25/09 BUY MERCHANDISE! ...

haha - can't stop laughing at this.

Harriet Kelley: Art Collector (6-4-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:34:03 -0700

Harriet Kelley: Art Collector

Source: thisweekinthearts.fl...

This week we spoke with Harriet Kelley. She and her husband’s extensive collection of works on paper, titled “The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African-American Art: Works on paper” is opening at the Amon Carter Museum on June 3rd. ...

Oops - I posted the Tina Parker show a week early - the show that's actually up is my interview with Harriet Kelley - and it's a great one, I'll hope you'll get the chance to check it out.

What Makes Us Happy? - The Atlantic (June 2009) (5-31-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:24:12 -0700

What Makes Us Happy? - The Atlantic (June 2009)

Source: www.theatlantic.com

Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered ...

It's a bit on the long side, but this is a great article.

Hi (5-22-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:16:22 -0700

Source: vimeo.com

Hi, a real human interface. -- Music: wake up, wake up by www.lullatone.com Filmed at www.hangar.org

Wow - this is pretty great.

Some DFW cities step on gas to beat red-light camera ban | Top Stories | Star-Telegram.com (5-21-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 21 May 2009 09:22:15 -0700

Some DFW cities step on gas to beat red-light camera ban | Top Stories | Star-Telegram.com

Source: www.star-telegram.com

The change would let cities keep their cameras until their contracts expire, prompting some to extend their deals.

A sure way to get a bureaucracy to rush into a hasty long-term agreement: Threaten to take away a stream of revenue.

Oregon's Exploding Whale - 2002 KATU (abridged update) (5-9-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:24:13 -0700

Oregon's Exploding Whale - 2002 KATU (abridged update)

Source: www.youtube.com

[TheExplodingWhale.com] KATU aired this higher-quality, abridged report on the Exploding Whale in 2002. The original news report first appeared on KATU Channel 2 in Portland, OR, in November 1970.

Hey, it was the seventies - of course their first reaction to a dead beached whale was to pack it with a half ton of dynamite... "Everyone on the scene was covered with small particles of dead whale."

AIG starts makeover, changes sign at NY office | U.S. | Reuters (5-8-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 08 May 2009 08:43:46 -0700

AIG starts makeover, changes sign at NY office | U.S. | Reuters

Source: www.reuters.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Workmen rolled up their sleeves at American International Group Inc this weekend to take down the most prominent sign at the downtown Manhattan offices of the embattled insurer that

And, with the the swipe of a pen and the change of one letter AIG wipes away its negative public image and becomes AIU... If only I could erase embarrassing aspects of my past by changing my name to Juftin...

Mae Jemison on teaching arts and sciences together | Video on TED.com (5-6-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:53:54 -0700

Mae Jemison on teaching arts and sciences together | Video on TED.com

Source: is.gd

TED Talks Mae Jemison is an astronaut, a doctor, an art collector, a dancer ... Telling stories from her own education and from her time in space, she calls on educators to teach both the arts and sciences, both intuition and logic, as one -- to create bold thinkers.

Love this:

"Science is an individual understanding of a universal experience

Art is a universal understanding of an individual experience."

http://is.gd/wXKX

Swine Flu Hemagglutinin (5-1-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:13:01 -0700

Swine Flu Hemagglutinin

Source: stephan-zielinski.com

Somebody took the sequenced genome of Swine Flu and converted one of its genes into music. I don't know why you should care, but there it is. :D

www.facebook.com (4-30-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:46:27 -0700

www.facebook.com

Source: www.facebook.com

Just a warning to everyone that there seems to be a facebook phishing scheme going on. You can prevent it by always looking closely at the URL in the address bar - if it starts with anything other than http://www.facebook.com/ - it's probably an attempt to steal your password.

Theater Jones - Feed Your Need (4-22-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:21:18 -0700

Theater Jones - Feed Your Need

Source: www.theaterjones.com

♦Reviews♦Stage Whispers♦Features♦On the Boards♦Auditions♦Coy Stories♦Mark's ...

Great article on stage actor pay:

KERA Art&Seek Blog » Alan and Norman, New York and Fort Worth (4-22-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:57:18 -0700

KERA Art&Seek Blog » Alan and Norman, New York and Fort Worth

Source: www.kera.org

It’s the last week for The Norman Conquests, the trilogy of comedies by Alan Ayckbourn at Stage West, and so The New York Times thoughtfully provides an update on the playwright, who at 70 has recovered from a stroke a few years ago. ...

Hehe - Art&Seek's Texas-centric view of the NYTimes' article.

Alan Ayckbourn on His ‘Norman Conquests,’ Bound for Broadway - NYTimes.com (4-22-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:50:29 -0700

Alan Ayckbourn on His ‘Norman Conquests,’ Bound for Broadway - NYTimes.com

Source: www.nytimes.com

Alan Ayckbourn, who has written more than 70 plays, is back on Broadway with his “Norman Conquests” trilogy.

Idiot Box Artwork (4-18-2009)

Justin Flowers — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:22:24 -0700

Idiot Box Artwork

Source: idiotbox88.blogspot.com

If you are interested in purchasing a piece from this site, please call the gallery at (323) 937-7088.All original pieces are one-of-a-kind.Charlie Immer"Rainbow Drops"oil on panel12 x 12 inches$1,660.00 ...

BotJunkie » WTF Thursday: God-Jesus Robot (4-9-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:56:08 -0700

BotJunkie » WTF Thursday: God-Jesus Robot

Source: www.botjunkie.com

Um, yeah. Bear with me here… The way the God-Jesus Robot apparently works is that you pray to it for romantic advice, and then it either nods or shakes its head to tell you what to do. If anyone ...

Kutiman-Thru-you - 01 - Mother of All Funk Chords (4-7-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:05:26 -0700

Kutiman-Thru-you - 01 - Mother of All Funk Chords

Source: www.youtube.com

Thank you all so much for your amazing responses to Thru-You , this is truly overwhelming. http://thru-you.com you can also check out the original links here. contact us on thruyou2@gmail.com www.myspace.com/kutiman ...

Stage West opens third of its 'Norman Conquest’ trilogy (4-6-2009)

Justin Flowers — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:39:29 -0700

Stage West opens third of its 'Norman Conquest’ trilogy

Source: www.dfw.com

FORT WORTH — Game, set and match.Stage West opened Round and Round the Garden last weekend, the final play in the Norman Conquests triptych ...

Fort Worth’s Stage West presents second in 'Norman Conquests’ trilogy (3-31-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:21:35 -0700

Fort Worth’s Stage West presents second in 'Norman Conquests’ trilogy

Source: www.dfw.com

FORT WORTH — So that’s where they went.Stage West presented Living Together, the second of the three comedies in Alan Ayckbourn’s Norman ...

Fort Worth's Stage West opens 'Norman Conquests' trilogy (3-23-2009)

Justin Flowers — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:44:45 -0700

Fort Worth's Stage West opens 'Norman Conquests' trilogy

Source: www.dfw.com

FORT WORTH — One down, two to go. Stage West opened Table Manners, the first of the three plays that make up Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman ...

And, here's the other one. :)

Theater Review: Cast needs to settle into characters in Stage West comedy 'Table Manners' | GuideLiv (3-23-2009)

Justin Flowers — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:43:31 -0700

Theater Review: Cast needs to settle into characters in Stage West comedy 'Table Manners' | GuideLiv

Source: www.guidelive.com

Stage West has tackled Alan Ayckbourn’s trilogy The Norman Conquests three times now, in productions about 15 years apart. It opened the first installment of the latest go at the comedies, Table Manners , on Saturday. The show proved leaden rather than effervescent.

Here's the link, and 4 out of 5 boors agree: Flowers is too charming and magnetic to impersonate them. :D - Sorry, I had to post the link.

Photo (3-18-2009)

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:22:14 -0700

nevver: WTWTA (3-18-2009)

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:21:34 -0700

nevver:

WTWTA

The panhandler's secret (2-27-2009)

Seth Godin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:26:00 -0800

When there were old-school parking meters in New York, quarters were precious.

One day, I'm walking down the street and a guy comes up to me and says, "Do you have a dollar for four quarters?" He held out his hand with four quarters in it.

Curious, I engaged with him. I took out a dollar bill and took the four quarters.

Then he turned to me and said, "can you spare a quarter?"

What a fascinating interaction.

First, he engaged me. A fair trade, one that perhaps even benefited me, not him.

Now, we have a relationship. Now, he knows I have a quarter (in my hand, even). So his next request is much more difficult to turn down. If he had just walked up to me and said, "can you spare a quarter," he would have been invisible.

Too often, we close the sale before we even open it.

Interact first, sell second.

Cover-Up (2-11-2009)

(author unknown) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:00:00 -0800

iPhone Recorder App (2-10-2009)

Justin Flowers — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:00:23 -0800

I’m doing a quick review because this application is just awesome enough to make me think other people would really like it.

I do a lot of audio work - A couple of podcasts, some random sound design, and a favor every once in a while for a friend. I really like doing sound work, and I really appreciate something that makes it a lot easier.

A couple of weeks ago I purchased ($0.99) the recorder [itunes link] application for the iPhone. I bought it based on its own promises and soon realized that they were completely true. The application is a fantastic, high-quality sound recorder and is extremely easy to use.

I work at Stage West on the weekends, and on opening weekend of the current show a reporter, Jerome Weeks, who does radio work for KERA was at the theatre trying to record some audio. Unfortunately his digital recorder wasn’t working and I had to loan him my iPhone with the recorder application.

After he recorded it, I pulled the audio off my phone (using the application’s wifi downloader) and emailed it to him.

You can hear the final product on KERA’s ArtandSeek blog. The part that was recorded on the phone is the voice of Jerry Russell.

Jane Austen’s Zombie Slayers (2-9-2009)

Justin Flowers — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:00:45 -0800

“It quickly became obvious that Jane [Austen] had laid down the blueprint for a zombie novel [with Pride and Prejudice],” said Grahame-Smith “Why else in the original should a regiment arrive on Lizzie Bennet’s doorstep when they should have been off fighting Napoleon? It was to protect the family from an invasion of brain-eaters, obviously.”

This is sheer brilliance. Grahame-Smith took a well-known novel about the romantic antics of several young ladies, the Bennet sisters, and tweaked it into a zombie story.

Grahame-Smith says that 85% of the story is Jane Austen - he just changed enough to make it a zombie story.

He was able to do it because Pride and Prejudice has entered public domain.

This thing has garnered national interest, and as I write - several movie studios are in a bidding war for the movie rights.

Leaving zombies aside for a moment (gasp!), I think this is something that we can expect to see a lot more of - reworkings of existing scripts and stories. And, if it means more people are reading, I welcome it with open arms.

Now, what public domain story can I rewrite…

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Times Online

For-Profit, Non-Profit, and Scary Humor (2-7-2009)

Michael Jon Jensen — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:50:00 -0800

Guest blogger Michael Jon Jensen, Director of Strategic Web Communications for the Office of Communications of the National Academies and National Academies Press, has been at the interface between digital technologies and scholarly/academic publishing since the late 1980s.

Tim was kind enough to suggest that I expand on a longish comment I made on his recent post Stuff That Matters: Non-profit to For-profit.

Two threads wove my argument: first, I pushed back at his conventional framing of the non-profit vs. for-profit sectors. But what I think caught his attention most was my description of a project that's trying to "find the funny" in the grinding, slo-motion collapse of our natural world.

An easy knee-slapper, eh?

I'll get back to that second theme after some musings on non-profit vs. for-profit:

Tim: The heart of my message is that work on stuff that matters is a great hedge in down times: even if there isn't a huge monetary payoff, you've done something that needs doing. And it's certainly true that non-profit enterprises are often a good way to tackle hard problems that the marketplace doesn't seem to be addressing.
But I want to make clear that I'm not just talking about charity work. I'm talking about the creation of real economic value. There are huge opportunities for entrepreneurs in solving hard problems, and in so doing creating new markets that can be exploited not just by themselves but by those that follow in their footsteps.

I certainly can't disagree with most of that statement -- but we need to do better at clarifying the roles and mission-driven goals underlying the nonprofit and the for-profit worlds, especially on "stuff that matters."

Non-profits vs. For-profits

Tim comes to his benign perspective on the for-profit sector honestly: O'Reilly has historically been a responsible for-profit, building immense social value at the same time that it profits from its actions. But O'Reilly Media is a somewhat exceptional company.

On the main, the for-profit world has a different "maturation goal" than the non-profit world has, and it affects nearly every decision made in either kind of enterprise.

I heard my favorite summation of the distinction from Peter Likens at an Online Computer Library Center conference years ago. He was then President of the University of Arizona; I first used this quote more than a decade ago, in a presentation I gave entitled "Entrepreneurs of Social Value":

"A for-profit's mission is to create as much value for its stockholders as possible, within the constraints of society. The non-profit's mission is to create as much value for society as possible, within the constraints of its money."

Of course there are, as Tim mentions, great overlaps betwixt the two, and the more that the for-profit world addresses the "stuff that matters," the better. But quite frequently -- at least in publishing, and online, and in the "public good" sector -- when a for-profit takes advantage of that overlap, the pattern has been to decrease the public good.

Take a look at, for example, scientific publishing: in the post-WWII economy, most non-profit scientific journals were bought up by a handful of smart for-profit publishers who, over the following decades, began to ratchet up the prices far beyond what university libraries could afford, producing a dramatic shift in library resource use: an increasing share of nonprofit money went to for-profit scholarly publishing. One could argue that $50,000 a year is a fair price for a really important specialty journal, but it's not an argument that fits into the "stuff that matters" or "social value" meme.

In that instance, smart, rapacious for-profit cherry-picking decreased the means that nonprofit publishers had to fund their other, less profitable work in the humanities, the social sciences, or even the sciences themselves.

A for-profit takeover of formerly nonprofit work could also describe what has happened with Blackwater, and the privatization of the military in general -- higher costs, less accountability, and unintended consequences.

I've worked in nonprofit publishing for more than 20 years, and while I recognize the need for a risk-reward economy, some care needs to be taken to acknowledge that the "public good" rarely is profit-making. It can be sustainable, but is rarely super-profitable.

That said, over those 20+ years, I've always had side projects of some kind -- "stuff that matters" projects that I hoped would end up being profitable, or potentially commercial ones that might be fabulously so.

My hoped-for goals for those projects have changed over time, and recently shifted drastically. For the last 18 months my side project has been with my oldest, bestest friend -- a project which has changed my entire thinking on "what *really* matters," and what "breakthroughs" we need in the next decade -- from the Web 2.0 community, from myself, and from the world at large.

Yeah, it's time for phase II of this guest blog: about trying to turn the onrushing apocalypses into laughter -- or at least a knowing grin.

For more than a year, my friend Jim and I have been documenting and recording stories on the great unravelling of our livable world, and trying to build entertainment into it.

Climate chaos is a thread, just as is ocean acidification, and overfishing, and amphibian die-off, and pharma-laced water supplies, and giant dead zones, and the toxic plastic gumbo twice the size of Texas gyring in the Pacific. It's the heavy metals we've been spewing willy-nilly out of coal plants, the persistent toxic runoff from our cities and farms, and the debt of poison we're bequeathing to our children.

*These* are the problems that truly must be addressed. *These* are the problems that are "stuff that Really Matters." Our little project is a stab at trying to nudge some momentum of awareness of these really serious issues.

We've been trying to work out ways of making the news entertaining, even funny; we've added a weekly Pre-Apocalypse News and Info Quiz, a collection of paper-free crossword puzzles, and we try to find a punchline to each story we record.

We do this because without entertainment, nobody wants to know about the jellyfish swarms, the orcas and other mammals sickening from eating salmon poisoned with PCBs and flame retardant, the collapse of little brown bats in the Northeast, and the precipitous loss of biomass from the oceans.

Tim lists a number of Things That Matter. Healthcare? Well, it's important, just like Education. Reform of risk/reward regulation? Also important.

But they are problems centered in the world-as-it-seems-to-be, not the world-as-we're-truly-abusing-it. They are among the problems to which I'd love to see non-profit *and* for-profit solutions. But they're not the things that now seem, to Jim and me, "stuff that Really Matters."

We've been doing the ApocaDocs project as part of our burden of responsibility, I suppose. And we, of course, hope to find some ways down the road to "profit" from it, in the sense of making it sustainable, rather than a continuing out-of-pocket donation to the greater good.

But it's not because of a sense of "charity" that we're doing it, nor do we have any hope of becoming, in Vonnegut's great phrase, "fabulously well-to-do." We're doing it because it's the stuff that truly matters, in the short term *and* the long.

I've been a rational guy all my life. These days, because I'm paying attention, my ambient state often approaches rational panic. The world's tipping points are being reached, in ecosystem after ecosystem; most indicators of heat, or weather extremes, or persistent toxin buildup, or acidification are busting the charts of "faster than expected." Our Wile E. Coyote legs are spinning really fast.

What do these two themes -- non- and for-profit, and the collapse of the natural world -- have in common?

I dearly hope that we see, in the next few years, a robustly expanded nonprofit sector addressing these problems, and a vaster volunteerism sector. Because the for-profit sector has few truly long-term interests, on the timescale of the unfolding disaster. ("Human survival is a bonus, but that's twenty years out. What about next quarter's report?")

Further, the scale and scope of the impending collapse will require a special spirit of voluntarism and shared labor and sacrifice, something that's painfully hard to monetize. There are strong currents within the open-source world and the participatory-Web world, that could make a river of "stuff that matters" that might (to stretch the metaphor) turn the tide.

If the geeks, and the passionate, and the smart, and the ones who are paying attention, could collectively work on (yeah, here it is:) recovering our world, then we might have a chance at a pleasant future world, rather than one of grinding desperation.

The lion's share of that work will not be about profit, or even business. It will be about people's participation in what really matters, because they get satisfaction from being part of the solution.

My friend and I made a decision, almost two years ago, to use most of our extra evenings to work on the many incarnations of the project, instead of watching reruns of The Daily Show or Lost. The project, especially as it evolved, was much more satisfying than being hypnotized.

Over time, our little project became, to our surprise, a deeply navigable bibliography of the slo-mo apocalypse. With punchlines, and with games. It evolved into something that is much more than its two authors -- and fully justifies all those missed reruns of Lost.

I've very much admired Tim for ringing out the meme of "working on stuff that matters." But I want to see the targets for "stuff that matters" be broadened, or perhaps, be made more fundamental: to include a recognition that there are Really Big Juicy Gnarly problems that Really Matter, that should drive a million important projects that don't have a profit motive behind them -- just the motive of long-term survival.

Theater Economics: Why Are There So Few Sequels? - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com (2-4-2009)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:46:01 -0800

Theater Economics: Why Are There So Few Sequels? - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com

Source: economix.blogs.nytim...

A few weeks ago Dave Itzkoff reported that Andrew Lloyd Webber was creating a sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera,” entitled “Phantom: Love Never Dies.” While this is not the first theatrical sequel ever penned, it is relatively rare.

The The (2-4-2009)

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:46:24 -0800

The The

Flamingo Court Perf Rpt 08-08-08 (2-4-2009)

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:49:42 -0800

FYI - The incident report our House Management Filed on Friday night.

Incident Report

Date: August 8, 2008

Time: 8:00pm

Place: Stage 2

Description:

At 8pm, while Dane was giving the go-time to Eileen, he was informed by head usher John Rice that a patron had a guinea pig resting on her bosom and was disturbing other patrons—another patron complained to John that the woman behind her had a hamster and she was allergic to hamsters. Finding this very bizarre, Dane walked down to the patron, who was sitting in row K, seat 1, and found that the woman did have a guinea pig resting on her bosom. Apparently, she sneaked it in in a bag. Dane asked her to put it away, at which point she responded that it had blue eyes and was her only friend in the world. Upon hearing this, Dane realized that the woman was unstable and that she would need to be removed from the theater. Eileen was notified to hold the show, and Erin came into the theater to assist. Ushers Charles Thorpe and John Rice and Stage Door Tim Wilson also came in to help. When we tried to gently coerce the patron to step outside so that the performance could begin, she grew irate and spewed forth lots of hateful speech (e.g.-Dane is a black **** whose daddy is a pimp, and Dane should go up to the Dominican Day Parade on Sunday so that they can beat him up. Erin needs to lose 40lbs., get a breast reduction, and a new haircut, because she is a blue-eyed Christian WASP **** that needs to go to church. She also wondered where Charles’ braids were, since he was black. She also threatened to kill Jackie Mason, because he betrayed by closing the show early, and also threatened to bite off Erin’s nose with her dentures off and burn the building down. These are only a few examples). The police were called.

Both the producers and stage management were very understanding and helpful. Erin asked Eileen if she wanted to start the show and then interrupt it when the police came to drag her out or if she would rather hold. She decided to hold the curtain until the police came. All of the patrons that were sitting near this woman were moved to the other side of the theatre. She continued to yell obscenities and began to wave her cane around. She made several violent threats to the theatre and our staff.

At 8:20 PM the police finally showed up, cuffed her and escorted her out of the theatre while the audience watched and cheered. Most of the audience members were very patient and understanding with the exception of one man who threatened to sue us because we were starting the show late. He said that he would call American Express and have them cancel all the charges for tonight’s performance if we did not start the show. Carolyn asked Erin if they could offer a free intermission drink to their patrons, which she okayed—luckily it was a small house. They announced this which brought a huge round of applause.

The show went up at 8:27 PM.

Signed,

Dane Joseph

Erin Fehr

**UPDATE: On Saturday, August 9th the patron’s husband came to the theater to inquire after the guinea pig and to ask for a refund. Dane told him the pet was taken by the police and he was not granted a refund.

Hypoallergenic Kitties (1-31-2009)

Justin Flowers — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:30:42 -0800

Like cats?

No? Neither do I. Not really. I mean I have 4 of them, but they’re so much like throw rugs that I just tolerate them. And, I tolerate them because I don’t have the luxury of saying that I’m allergic.

Well, now neither do you.

As long as you have six thousand dollars to blow, you too can no longer have the luxury of saying you’re allergic, and avoiding the whole “pet” thing altogether.

A company called Allerca produces cats that are “hypoallergenic” if you can believe it.

Now, before you say, “Ha! I still don’t have to get a cat because I don’t believe in genetic manipulation.” you can rest assured that these hypoallergenic kitties are bred to be hypoallergenic - and their genetic code remains untouched.

Allerca has essentially bred Fel d 1, the protein that causes cat allergies, out of these fine felines through simple, old-fashioned selective breeding.

Now keep in mind that “hypoallergenic” isn’t something that has to be proved. The FDA has no requirements on the use of the word.

And, if you’re feeling especially extravagant feel free to splurge on an Ashera™(yes, that’s a trademark symbol), a leopard spotted house cat - the hypoallergenic version retails for $37,000 (USD)

This Week in the Arts — A podcast designed to bring you information about the arts (1-29-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:18:55 -0800

This Week in the Arts — A podcast designed to bring you information about the arts

Source: thisweekinthearts.com

This week we talk to Anne Bothwell, the director of KERA’s Art and Seek Initiative about the project and its website: ArtandSeek.org.

Post Office Could Cut One Day of Delivery—Tuesday [Mail] (1-29-2009)

Kevin Purdy — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:30:00 -0800

Who Knew? - CPDRC (1-28-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:30:12 -0800

The CPDRC is the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, which is located in the Cebu Province in the Philippines.

So, why would I write a post about a prison in the Philippines?

Because they have the ass-kickenest choreographer of any prison, that’s why!

Take a look at their rendition of Michael Jackson’s famed “Thriller,” and tell me that you don’t want to get caught transporting heroin in the Philippines.

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Here’s a longer list of some of their routines: CPDRC Dance Videos.

These guys are known as much for their dancing as for their criminal background.

It all started with the head of the prison, Byron Garcia, looking for an accessible exercise program for the inmates in the yard.

He was initially inspired by “The Shawshank Redemption.” He mentioned the scene where Mozart’s Figaro is piped into the prison yard.

I don’t know how he got from there to marching to a drumbeat in unison, but luckily he soon moved from drumbeats and marching to pop music and dancing.

The prisoners have gotten so good that the prison has hired choreographers to put together routines.

Secondarily, I learned about these guys while reading about Thriller the musical, which is being created as we speak - Brilliant!!

Thriller the Musical

John Updike: Writer dead from lung cancer at 76 -- baltimoresun.com (1-27-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:10:18 -0800

John Updike: Writer dead from lung cancer at 76 -- baltimoresun.com

Source: www.baltimoresun.com

NEW YORK - John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire, died Tuesday ...

John Updike Has Died (1-27-2009)

Jerome Weeks — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:49:33 -0800

According to the Associated Press, the noted American novelist-critic-short-storywriter John Updike has died of lung cancer. He was 76.

UPDATE: Much more thorough story from the NYT.

Bye Bye Bush (1-27-2009)

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:05:06 -0800

Bye Bye Bush

T-Shirt Hell Says Go to Hell, We’re Shutting Down (1-26-2009)

JR Raphael — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:22:37 -0800

T-Shirt Hell, the online retailer famous for funny and highly controversial shirt designs, is shutting its doors — but not because of the usual reasons.

The site’s owner says he’s simply sick of dealing with the “misguided morons” who take offense to his brand of humor. Rather than sell the site and turn one last profit, he’s decided to just pull the plug, saying others wouldn’t “do the company justice and [he] won’t take that chance.”

T-Shirt Hell will sell its final item on February 10, 2009. It’s running 10 percent off sales between now and then.

Here’s the colorful goodbye note in its entirety.

A message from the creator of T-Shirt Hell, Sunshine Megatron:

I’m done. I’m finished. I can’t take the stupidity anymore, so I’m leaving and I’m taking my website with me. As of Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009, T-Shirt Hell will be no more.

No, I’m not selling out to some douchebag corporate entity. No, we’re not being sued by any of the over 40 companies that have sent us cease and desists over the years. No, I’m not going to jail (yet) and no, it’s not because of the economy. Although, the recent dip in sales certainly does make the idea easier to accept, even though we still sell over 3000 shirts a week.

I started this company in June of 2001, nearly 8 years ago, with the intention of producing the best satirical, the most controversial, the funniest t-shirts on the internet. Generally speaking, I feel I’ve accomplished that and am satisfied with what we’ve put out. I made a shitload of dough along the way. I’ve done cocaine off the better body parts of supermodels. I’ve even raped and killed a mountain panda in the hills of Shaanxi. But these perks are besides the point.

I just don’t feel like dealing with idiots anymore. I’ll give you an example of the kind of misguided morons we deal with on a regular basis at T-Shirt Hell. We released a new shirt a couple weeks ago that says “It’s not gay if you beat them up afterwards”. I will not explain the irony or the social commentary of the slogan because anyone with half a brain should be able to handle that on their own. Problem is, we’ve been besieged with emails from angry people complaining about the “fact” that the shirt is hate speech or that we’re promoting gay bashing and should take it down immediately.

Comments like:

“I can’t even believe people buy this shit. Do you realize your supporting a hate crime? That makes you feel better about yourself? Wow you need a life. We’re all human beings and you can’t except it.”

“It’s Not Gay:If You Beat Them Up After”?? That is highly inappropriate and very very morally wrong. I will be advising everyone I know to avoid buying anything from your site until shirts like this are removed. In this world people are fighting for equality and a chance to be themselves without fear of being beat up because of who they are, yet here is an established website promoting hate and violence. You all should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Now, I can’t say I’m surprised we’re getting hate mail from people who have nothing better to do than to start half-assed campaigns because of their lazy, just enough passion for an email, ideals towards a misguided cause. It happened when we did our first really controversial shirt, “The School Shootings Tour”, it happened when we did our “What About All The Good Things Hitler Did” shirt, it happened when we did our “Arrest Black Babies Before They Become Criminals” shirt (boy did it happen then). It used to happen all the time when we did more social commentary and didn’t give a fuck about what anyone thought and did shirts that did not leave anyone out. Unfortunately, as a concern for the safety of my employees, we don’t push the envelope as much anymore…and I can’t say I feel good about having caved in.

Anyway, rather than cater to the masses, I’m just going to stop making shirts. It’s not enjoyable anymore and I have enough money to move on to something more rewarding. Maybe I’ll start my own hooker farm or maybe I’ll practice sleeping. Whatever I decide to do, it will be better than this.

Attention any venture capitalists or independent investors/business assholes who are about to inquire about purchasing T-Shirt Hell. Don’t. You won’t do the company justice and I won’t take that chance. I’m putting it to sleep. It’s over.

That’s right, I’m crazy. I’m pulling the plug on a company I could have sold for millions. Why in the fucking world would I do something so stupid? Because I can. I don’t care about money. This is the way I’ve always done things…my way.

So, to all the kickass motherfuckers who supported us and REALLY got what we were trying to do, thank you (no, not you, you racist idiots who thought we actually had racist intentions and no, not you, you dumb as a stump fucks who just think any shirt with the word “fuck” on it is as right as rain). Thanks to all the people who contributed to my vice fund and at the same time helped make a funny statement about the world today.
As a final farewell, I’m going to bring back some of the top selling Worse Than Hell shirts as a fuck you to those who forced me to remove them. To those who are offended by them and to those who think I’m racist, promoting rape, a nazi, homophobic or just the world’s biggest asshole…well, at least you think I’m something, which means I’ve achieved what I wanted.

Thanks to Gary, Mika, Jacob, Greg, Bob, the black lady who writes our newsletter, and to everyone else who was part of T-Shirt Hell. Time to move on to even greater things. I’ll miss you (by miss, I mean, it’s going to suck not being able to give you my excellent reach arounds when you least expect them).

Fuck you,

-Sunshine Megatron

No Related Post

10 ways to DECREASE your twitter followers (1-26-2009)

(author unknown) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:14:48 -0800

Read Later API (1-26-2009)

(author unknown) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:27:10 -0800

Shared by Steve Rubel
Instapaper now has an API...

As promised, here’s the documentation for the Instapaper API. This allows third-party applications to add URLs to Instapaper.

Basics

All API methods are accessible via very simple HTTP calls. This is optimized for ease of implementation, so you won’t see any XMLRPC, SOAP, or anything containing the word “enterprise”.

Simply hit the provided URLs with their respective parameters, and a simple text response is sent. The HTTP status code reflects any information that you need to know.

For convenience and easy client processing, the resulting response body always contains just the numeric HTTP status code. If you can read the status code from the header, there’s no reason to process the response body.

All parameters may be passed via POST or the query string (GET) or any mixed combination.

The API is available via HTTP or HTTPS. Please use HTTPS if possible.

Authentication

This method validates an Instapaper username and password. Calling this before adding pages is not necessary. Use this if you want to only check credentials without adding a URL to Instapaper, such as when you first prompt the user for Instapaper credentials in a settings screen or on the first Instapaper request.

URL: https://www.instapaper.com/api/authenticate

Parameters:

username
password

Resulting status codes:

200: OK
403: Invalid username or password.
500: The service encountered an error. Please try again later.

Adding URLs to an Instapaper account

URL: https://www.instapaper.com/api/add

Parameters:

username
password
url
title — optional, plain text, no HTML, UTF-8
selection — optional, plain text, no HTML, UTF-8
auto-title=1 — optional, replaces title. Instapaper will crawl the URL to detect a title. Use this if you do not know a title for the URL, such as when it’s an inline link somewhere that hasn’t been opened.

Resulting status codes:

201: This URL has been successfully added to this Instapaper account.
400: Bad request. Probably missing a required parameter, such as url.
403: Invalid username or password.
500: The service encountered an error. Please try again later.

If a URL is added that already exists, it will be marked unread and sent to the top of the list. A duplicate will not be created. For convenience, the 201 status will still be returned, even though a new record technically wasn’t created.

About Instapaper credentials

Every user has a unique username (doesn’t have to be an email address, but often is). Passwords are not required, and most users do not have a password. Any interface prompting the user for credentials must accommodate this — for example, you cannot assume that an empty password is a user error.

Authentication behavior:

If an account has a password and an incorrect one is supplied, authentication fails.
If an account does not have a password, any value works.

Preferred language

Wherever possible, please conform to the interface standards of your environment.

When prompting for the username, please label the field “Username”, “Email or username”, or “Email address or username”. (Do not call it only “Email”, since many usernames are not email addresses.)

If possible, when prompting for an Instapaper password, clarify that it is only required if they actually have a password. For example, on the website’s login form, the box is labeled “Password, if you have one.”

Suggested button or menu titles for the save-URL action: “Read Later”, “Read Later with Instapaper”, “Send to Instapaper”, “Save with Instapaper”, “Instapaper: Read Later”. When writing your own, please avoid adding “you” or “me”, e.g. “your Instapaper account”, “my Instapaper”, etc. in this context. (But that’s fine when prompting for credentials.)

Support

Sorry, but I am unable to answer basic HTTP programming questions with the Instapaper API.

Please make sure you are properly encoding the parameters. If you are having issues with credentials failing that you know are valid, this is very likely to be the issue. If you are crafting your GET query-string or POST request-body manually, you need to URL-encode the values.

Feedback

If you believe you have found a bug, or you’d like to request additional functionality (no guarantees), or you release something using this API, I’d love to hear from you: instapaper@marco.org.

Easiest cheap way to dramatically increase sales (1-23-2009)

Seth Godin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:10:00 -0800

Call your customers. Or write to them.

"I know that times might be tough for you. Is there anything I can do to pitch in and help?"

You'll end up doing a lot for your customers. Which is a wonderful privilege. Even for those that don't reciprocate.

Degloving is a Medical Term (1-23-2009)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:00:26 -0800

This is an amazing prosthetic created by i-limb. It looks real and evidently gives its user an extremely versatile arm that’s really easy to learn.

But, once he said it, the only think I can think about when I watch this video is the term he used to describe what happened to his original, non-star-wars arm - which was caught between a car door and a wooden post. It’s called degloving and it makes me want to scream.

Brilliant water-based eyeglasses for the masses: No optician required - Core77 (1-6-2009)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:01:25 -0800

Brilliant water-based eyeglasses for the masses: No optician required - Core77

Source: www.core77.com

British inventor Josh Silver, a former professor of physics at Oxford University, has come up with a game-changer of a product design with his water-lensed glasses.

A Doctor, a Mutation and a Potential Cure for AIDS - WSJ.com (11-9-2008)

Justin Flowers — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:45:02 -0800

A Doctor, a Mutation and a Potential Cure for AIDS - WSJ.com

Source: online.wsj.com

The case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies might someday cure the disease.

Paul Finkelman: "The Vice Presidency Is Not Worth a Pail of Warm Spit" or a Short History of "His Ac (10-21-2008)

Justin Flowers — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:43:38 -0700

Paul Finkelman: "The Vice Presidency Is Not Worth a Pail of Warm Spit" or a Short History of "His Ac

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Alan Arthur, Calvin Coolidge, Gerald Ford. Most Americans could not tell you much about these former U.S. presidents. Some are even joke names. Mad Magazine used to throw out Millard Fillmore's name in order to make people laugh.

PalinAsPresident.com (10-15-2008)

Justin Flowers — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:52:17 -0700

PalinAsPresident.com

Source: www.palinaspresident.com

Can you imagine? We can.

With bailout, socialists say Bush is now `a fellow traveler' | MiamiHerald.com (10-15-2008)

Justin Flowers — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:57:03 -0700

With bailout, socialists say Bush is now `a fellow traveler' | MiamiHerald.com

Source: www.miamiherald.com

With the Bush administration's Treasury Department resorting to government bailout after government bailout to keep the U.S. economy afloat, leftist governments and their political allies in Latin America ...

Chicken Cordon Bleu and a Dedication. (5-2-2008)

Fri, 02 May 2008 05:20:13 -0700

Chicken Cordon Bleu and a Dedication.

Enchiladas, Again. (4-28-2008)

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:43:06 -0700

Enchiladas, Again.

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus - Here Comes Everybody (4-27-2008)

Justin Flowers — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:07:59 -0700

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus - Here Comes Everybody

Source: www.herecomeseverybody.org

I was recently reminded of some reading I did in college, way back in the last century, by a British historian arguing that the critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution, was ...

Kehinde Wiley Studios (4-27-2008)

Justin Flowers — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 21:06:56 -0700

Kehinde Wiley Studios

Source: www.kehindewiley.com

Magic Eye Vacuum Tube (4-18-2008)

Justin Flowers — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:59:55 -0700

Magic Eye Vacuum Tube

Source: pittsburgh.craigslis...

Beware any deal involving Western Union, Moneygram, wire transfer, cashier check, money order, shipping, escrow, or any promise of transaction protection/certification/guarantee. More info

I Love Craig's List!

Video (3-31-2008)

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:39:39 -0700

The Dinner Hour - Episode 4 (2-12-2008)

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:19:07 -0800

The Dinner Hour - Episode 4

Episode 3: The Breakfast Hour (2-10-2008)

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 09:01:30 -0800

Episode 3: The Breakfast Hour

Episode 1 (2-6-2008)

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:12:02 -0800

Episode 1

The item has been deleted (--)