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Liz Danzico:

Woody Allen recently:

What people who don’t write don’t understand is that they think you make up the line consciously — but you don’t. It proceeds from your unconscious. So it’s the same surprise to you when it emerges as it is to the audience when the comic says it. I don’t think of the joke and then say it. I say it and then realize what I’ve said. And I laugh at it, because I’m hearing it for the first time myself.

Whenever I find myself in a bout of nonwriting (not writer’s block per se, but an extended period of nonwritingness), I know it’s this. Not a lack of ideas, not a lack of the right space to write, the right drink, the right order, the right methods, the proper instrument, not a deficit of time. It’s simply my conscious getting in the way. I would be better off saying things more wildly, then looking at what I’d said. Do first, think later; many things can benefit from this method — falling in love, taking your first job, speaking up for what you believe in. Write first, think later. Repeat.

This thought was first published by The Pastry Box Project

Write first, think later?

My theory is this: an unconscious approach to writing is one tool, but not the only one. I start my writing a lot of the time by lying on my couch with my eyes closed, thinking about some idea or event, and then I develop an angle, a take on it. Then I sit at my desk and write down what I have been thinking. 

A lot of my writing is based on reading something someone has written, and I get stuck on a paragraph: it grabs me, or I totally disagree, or it sparks a new connection to something else. And then I write that down next to the paragraph.

But some of the time I am surprised by what I write, never knowing what was happening until I read it, like someone close and smarter sent it to me. Or maybe from a future me, a me that had assimilated the thought and captured it for me.

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1000 DINGE BRAUCHEN LIEBE - 1000 THINGS NEED LOVE

Wien, Österreich

Foto: Phreak 2.0

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Android lock screen ads earn cash for consumers

Advertising space on smartphones has now become prime real estate, and a new startup called Locket is enabling consumers to sell their lock screens in order to earn some extra cash.

Full Story: SpringWise

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In 2010, researchers with Truthy, the Indiana University research group, discovered a number of Twitter accounts sending out duplicate messages and re-tweeting messages from the same few accounts in a closely connected network. Two accounts, for example, sent out 20,000 similar tweets, most of them linking to, or promoting, the Web site of John A. Boehner, then the House minority leader, before the last midterm elections. Much of the social media remains unregulated by campaign finance and transparency laws. So far, the Federal Election Commission has been reluctant to venture into this realm. But the bots are likely to venture into ours, said Tim Hwang, chief scientist at the Pacific Social Architecting Corporation, which creates bots and technologies that can shape social behavior. “Our vision is that in the near future automatons will eventually be able to rally crowds, open up bank accounts, write letters,” he said, “all through human surrogates.”

I Flirt and Tweet. Follow Me at #Socialbot. - NYTimes.com (via new-aesthetic)

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Irgendwie ist das mit einem wow-Effekt verbunden: Beton, der sich biologisch abbauen lässt - mithilfe von Pflanzen. Doch eigentlich wird Beton doch so verwendet, dass ein Bauwerk erhalten bleibt. Temporäre Bauten also!

wtl21 submitted:

Seeded concrete - William lee

In collaboration with a materials scientist and Shire Green Roof Substrates Ltd, I have developed a biodegradable ‘seeded’ concrete, which further combines architectural design with nature. Creating specially developed concrete material, with seeds embedded within it, provides a unique opportunity to welcome nature within architectural design. As well as provide a solution to lost habitats of native wildlife and flower species, together with getting people to reconnect with nature in an otherwise ‘baron’ landscape for plants. With a similar consistency of ‘regular’ concrete, seeds start to germinate once water is added to the material. Plant growth through the substance slowly breaking down the material, which decomposes into soil. Becoming completely biodegradable.

for more information and further work, please visit http://www.williamleesurfacedesign.co.uk/

wow

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Schön!

We spoke to Sydney fashion designer Gary Bigeni about his collaboration with abstractionist Matthew Johnson on his latest collection, Alignment.

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#urbanism

Over 50% of the world’s population lives in cities. By 2050, this is widely expected to reach 70%. Cities are undergoing unprecedented change and urbanism is one of the most crucial issues of our time. 

Here at This Big City we think the important and exciting issue of urbanism should be brought to the attention of Tumblr users by promoting the urbanism tag to featured status.

Featured tags are selected based on volume of content and engagement with content, which is why we need Tumblr’s fantastic urbanism community to support this campaign. Please reblog this post and add the urbanism tag whenever you share content related to the topic!

This is no short-term goal. It will take a consistent increase in the level of content for Tumblr to promote the urbanism tag.

Together we can build an engaging catalogue of content on the crucial issue of urbanism, hopefully resulting in the promotion of the urbanism tag to featured status. If we achieve this, the crucial issue of urbanism will land in the dashboard of millions of Tumblr users across the globe. 

If you want to back our Urbanism Campaign and be added to the list below, reblog this post then drop us a message including your email address. We’ll be in touch! Most importantly, add the urbanism tag to all relevant content you share. 

Supporters of This Big City’s Urbanism Campaign:

GOOD | The Atlantic Cities | This City Life | Sound Bite City | City Breaths | Failed Architecture | 3Space | Secret Republic | Fuck Yeah Brutalism | In Public Space We Trust | Studio630 | Aeon Magazine | Future Cape Town | The New Urbanist | Urban Funscape | Human Scale Cities | Urban Bricolage | Small Spaces | Urban Launchpad | Reinforced Natures | Urbn Futr | Cairobserver | Fuck Yeah Urban Design | ATL Urbanist | Urbnist | Megalopolis | Urbalize | Citymaus | Office for Urban Scenarios | Yurbanism | Transatlantic Urbanism | Berlin Farm Lab | Urban Excursion CPH | Urban Resolve | Transicoesurbanas | The Urban Blueprint

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Hilla Stute, Fensterbilder (OH-Folienstift, Masking Tape) window pictures (mixed media)

Perspektive ereignet sich immer als Wechselspiel von Blickwinkel des Betrachtenden und dessen, was es zu betrachten gilt. Erst dieses Wechselspiel generiert ein Bild. Bilder ohne Betrachtendem gibt es im Grunde überhaupt nicht. Faszinierend lässt sich gerade an der Fensterscheibe mithilfe von Konturlinien und Farbflächen dieser Zusammenhang zwischen beiden beobachten.

***

Perspective always happens by the interplay of the view point of the viewer and the object of the gaze. Only with this interplay an image is created. Images without viewers do really not exist. On the window pane through contour lines and colour areas this connection is clearly demonstrated in a fascinating manner.

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Hübsch. Im Topf sind sie in vielen Wohnungen zu finden. Und so sieht der Elefantenfuss an einem optimaleren Standort aus.

The Pony Tail Palm (Beaucarnea recurvata)

… aka “Elephant’s Foot", is a species of plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz and San Luis Potosí in eastern Mexico. Despite its common name, it is not closely related to the true palms (family Arecaceae). It is an evergreen perennial growing to 15 ft 6 in (4.72 m) with a noticeable expanded caudex, for the purpose of storing water…

(read more: Wikipedia)

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http://images.library.amnh.org/photos/index.html

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Warum eigentlich kooperieren die Zwischenbuchhändler nicht auf zeitgemäßem technischen Niveau, um die lokale Distribution für Leser/Endkunden und Buchhändler/Händler zu verbessern? - um vielleicht auch auf diesem Weg, den Einzelhandel lokal attraktiv zu halten und überlebensfähig zu machen? Physische Produkte werden nicht aussterben, Bücher sind nur eine Möglichkeit.

reuters

Major U.S. retailers are experimenting with new e-commerce strategies that could dent demand for package delivery services, particularly demand for shipments over long distances, according to analysts and industry executives.

Amazon.com Incis building its distribution warehouses closer to customers to save millions of dollars in shipping costs. The world’s largest online retailer is also increasingly using its own delivery trucks, cutting UPS andFedExout of some parts of its fulfillment network.

Meanwhile, major brick-and-mortar retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Best Buy Co Inc and Gap Inc are shipping more online orders from stores close to shoppers, rather than from warehouses hundreds of miles away.

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Der Datenstrom aus dem Hirn fließt bald ....

"Neural Dust": A New Approach to Brain Machine Interfaces

University of California Berkeley scientists have proposed a system that allows for thousands of ultra-tiny “neural dust” chips to be inserted into the brain to monitor neural signals at high resolution and communicate data highly efficiently via ultrasound.

…The neural dust system has three basic elements:

Thousands of low-power CMOS chips… embedded into the cortex between neurons [that] detect extracellular electrophysiological signals via an electrode and convert the signals into ultrasonic signals using a piezoelectric sensor 

A subdural (the dura surrounds the brain and keeps in the cerebrospinal fluid) ultrasonic transceiver (transmitter receiver) receives ultrasonic signals from the neural dust [and] powers the neural dust with ultrasonic energy.

A battery-powered external transceiver communicates via ultrasound with the subdural transceiver and transmits the data to an external computer.

Embedded ~2 mm. in the brain, the powered neural dust chips can be as small as tens of microns (millionths of a meter). Ultrasound is attractive for in-tissue communication given its short wavelength and low attenuation.

The design also uses more efficient “backscatting”: instead of transmitting energy, the chips passively modulate ultrasonic energy from the sub-dural transceiver and reflect it back.

The researchers calculate that the neural dust chips can be as much as 10 million times more efficient that chips using electromagnetics (magnetic or electric signals), which have high attenuation in brain tissue. They would be encapsulated in an inert polymer or insulator film.

(via ‘Neural dust’ brain implants could revolutionize brain-machine interfaces and allow large-scale data recording | KurzweilAI)

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!!!!!

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Nein, ein alter Hut. Brillenkreisel heißen die Dinger.

A revolutionary new traffic system without traffic lights

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Man mag den Vergleich als ein Beitrag zur Visualisierung der klimatischen Verhältnisse verstehen. Doch könnte man diese Bilder auch unter einem anderen gedanklichen Fokus betrachten? Der Betrachter bestimmt den Wert dessen, was er sieht. Und man versteht erst, wenn man weiß, was man sieht. Also, was seht ihr? Ferien- und Urlaubsthemen? Könntet ihr auch etwas erkennen, das nichts mit euch zu tun hat? Haben die Berge einen Wert, der ganz ohne eure Vorstellungen und Lebensgewohnheiten besteht?

The Blomstrandbreen glacier, located in the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, has retreated nearly two kilometers since 1928, the year the black and white photos were taken.

The rate of glacial retreat has accelerated to 35 metres (114 feet) per year since 1960, and even faster in the last decade.

Black and white photos courtesy the Norwegian Polar Institute, color photos Christian Aslund for Greenpeace.

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Mindestens zwei Blicke wert.

It was inevitable.

Edward Snowden street art is now a thing and our own John Metcalfe is on it.

Read: Edward Snowden, Pop Art Icon

[Images: BAMN / Flickr, Thierry Ehrmann / Flickr, Thierry Ehrmann / Flickr]

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Edward Snowden is in a safe place

50°46’ 25" N 1°17’ 59" W, Southampton, East Cowes, England, UK

Foto: avantgardener4