Archive for June, 2006

Date: June 30th, 2006
Cate: Future, Internet/Technology/Gadgets, Social News, Weblogs
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Army Recruiting — on MySpace?

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The Iraq war still has low approval ratings. Enlisted soldiers can only work so long before they are honarably discharged (or killed). So here we are in the middle of a war and the army can’t seem to recruit new members. I’ve heard time and time again how the army hasn’t been meeting its enlistment quotas.

In the past the army relied on recruiters to flock around high school or college campuses, malls, anywhere that kids hang out. For a long time this was a sore spot for adults and liberal teenagers who thought the army was praying on innocent young kids.

But now kids don’t hang out at the mall, they meet up online. So to show you how you can "be all that you can be," the army is going online too.

All that I’ve confirmed right now is a chat room. But it would be great if I found a presence on MySpace. In a quick search all I could find were unconfirmed but suspicious rumors.

Still, the chat room is a nice jump for the army, which is probably feeling the hurt from a lack of recruits. But they need to do more than that, there is a big online contingency that is organized as a counter-recruitment site.

Date: June 29th, 2006
Cate: Art and Design, Environment/Geography, Future, Internet/Technology/Gadgets, Links and People, My Work, Travel
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LED Architecture

Light emitting diodes or LEDs are a growing fascination of mine. They were the centerpiece in myAgbartower_1 story

on the Graffiti Research Lab and today I have a photo blog up on Wired about how LEDs are changing the face of architecture.

The LED photo gallery took a long time to assemble. Mostly because I had to coordinate between several different sources to get high-res jpegs.

But I’m pretty happy with the final product. From the comments it looks like other people are enjoying it too, which makes me very happy.

I will address one topic that was raised on the comments in the Digg post and on the photo gallery itself. Various people complained that building X wasn’t on the building and ‘oh the travesty that there was a photo blog that left it out.’

I say ‘cry about it.’ I couldn’t get everything in so I had to make big-boy decisions that cut other buildings out. I made decisions based on the quality of pictures I was able to get and for the sake of variety. I didn’t want any casinos (which one comment suggested) because it seemed too cliche. We all know casinos have lights.

I was mostly working with different LED centered companies. The first was ColorKinetics and they were instrumental in getting this gallery started. My only regret is that the link to their site got lost somewhere in the shuffle.

To be honest, I want to revisit this topic but in a written piece. I don’t think it lends itself too well to a news site, but perhaps a magazine. I think there is something cool about environmentally friendly developments — like LEDs — that are also sheik.

As for now, back to the daily grind of work. I’m currently having trouble putting a cap on a Seed story. Anybody here know a lot about Nootropic drugs?

Date: June 26th, 2006
Cate: Art and Design, Music, My Work, Science, Straight Geek

Scientists Learn to Rock x Three

A few weeks ago I came across a crazy science news story on a new breed of instrument called aTritare
Tritare.

I was in love. I play music on the side. A little drums, a little guitar, but never a Tritare — which produces sounds like a guitar infused with a gong.

I decided to investigate further. The instrument was invented by two mathematicians. I smelled a Seed story.

Two weeks later, the story came out. It’s a piece that investigates the history between math and music. I figured this was a good angle since there has to be a science/geek theme to a piece if it’s going to run in Seed.

I found out some interesting facts I didn’t know. The link between math and music go back pretty far, to the time of Pythagoras to be specific. Somtimes Motzart would use dice to compose music. One way of looking at music is as the physical embodiement of math and emotion.

The two mathematicians who invented the Tritare were very interesting. One was French Canadian and the other was a regular Canadian who also played guitar. According to them, they hope to release the Tritare for commercial use soon. Keep your eyes open this Christmas/Hanuka. The Tritare will be my number one gift request.

Date: June 26th, 2006
Cate: Art and Design, Internet/Technology/Gadgets, Journalism Practice, My Work, Science
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Old Stories New Authors

The New York Times finally caught on to the Graffiti Research Lab with a story in the Arts section. I went out with the Graffiti Research Lab a month or two ago and posted about it here. I also included a few photographs that were not published in the Wired News story that I did about it.

I was actually hoping to pitch the GRL as a magazine piece soon. I actually visited the GRL a week or two ago to see how they were progressing. But first I need to find the time.

The NYT piece is pretty good. It takes more of an Arts angle than a tech one, which is of course a result of who I was writing for, so it’s a good solid piece.

Wired News also had a story out today on Cats and Avian Flu. It reminded me a lot of a story I did for Seed a month or two ago on how pets can be an early warning system against an outbreak. So it’s the same story, different angle. The difference was that I found a chain of veterinarian hospitals that are trying to create a database of sick animals in real time to predict of there is an outbreak happening.

Lots of web surfing to do. Working on a story on Nootropics, the new hip drug for students, and getting ready to send some pitches out.

Date: June 22nd, 2006
Cate: Internet/Technology/Gadgets, Journalism Theory/Analysis, Links and People, New York/San Francisco, Weblogs
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Slate Turns 10 – Online Journalists Still Can’t Drink

060616_10_powelltnToday I went to a Panel focusing on Online Journalism because Slate Magazine, the first all-web magazine,
turned ten years old. The panel was about Online Media and the Future of Journalism. A very ominous sounding subject indeed.

Slate pulled all the stops. The panel, which included Malcolm Gladwell and Arianna Huffington, was held in the New York Public Library’s basement, where for some strange reason flies were buzzing around the whole time (I kid you not, I was swatting at flies the whole freak’n talk).

more))

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