Hustler of Culture

Hollywood Hill Holiday Party 2008

December 6, 2008 - 6:29 p.m. - Venice, CA

The Hollywood Hill hosted its annual holiday party at Dennis and Victoria Hopper's home for the second year in a row. This year's speakers included space entrepreneur Elon Musk and Mars explorer Steve Squyres. I highly recommend becoming a member of The Hollywood Hill if you're looking for an active social change organization. Then you can hang out with internet troublemakers, Ori, Xeni, and Sean (seen above).

LA - "The Intergalactic Discourse" (10.04.08)

Car Wash Rainbow

September 20, 2008 - 4:37 p.m. - Santa Monica, CA

Not Too Con-CERN'ed

Earlier today, scientists at the world's leading laboratory for particle physics, the European Organization for Nuclear Research aka CERN turned on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for the first time. The LHC fired a beam of protons inside a 17-mile long tunnel underneath Europe beginning the search to unlock the secrets of the universe.

Today's accomplishment couldn't have been less sexy. Don't get me wrong, it's all very exciting. But it didn't seem to reach the fervor of say, Michael Phelps' mission to break world records and make Olympic history. And nothing to me seems more Olympic than what happened earlier today. Nah, mean?!

How our science-backed Curious George potential for ending the world (the LHC can potentially create tiny black holes that could suck in the planet) passed without so much fanfare is a little surprising to me. Sure a bunch of my pals twittered about it. A few doomsday statements were made. Funny ha-ha LHC joke sites were passed around. But for the most part, I don't think too many people seemed to care that much about whether or not we were going to wake up today. I mean, we were only turning on the biggest machine in the world today. Are we that jaded? Is it because we can still remember the Y2K event horizon that never happened? Or do we just not really care? Not too many people in the world seemed too interested. I mean they were kind of interested, but just not as interested as in at least another dozen topics.

I think we should give the world's largest atom smasher some high fives for kicking off without killing us off. I know I'm looking forward to learning more about how the universe started. That way, when the shit hits the fan and everything turns all Terminator/Total Recall on us, I can forever celebrate the brilliant minds and the science behind today and be like, "Yo, I was there at the beginning of _______!" Get up and clap your hands people, today was momentous.

RELATED: CERN Revisited

Burbank in September

September 3, 2008 - 5:31 p.m. - Burbank, CA

Little Thinkers/Tinkerers

Me jumping on the far left with my siblings and classmates at a Science Fair.

I recently got into an argument with a friend-of-a-friend a couple of weeks ago because she announced to our barbecue group that she was going to leash her child when her infant daughter was old enough to walk. The mom had received a baby backpack as a gift from very adoring and paranoid family. You know, the backpack leash? Yeah... that. Anyway, this new mother was adamant that it was a good idea, especially in "today's world". After a civil but heated short discussion, I felt without having my own child to use as an example, there was no use arguing with a woman who lives with that kind of fear. I was angry inside. But I let it go. Or at least I tried. But then I realized, I couldn't. I'm all about kids running around, experimenting, and getting hurt and learning from it. Maybe, a reality check or a small dose of survival of the fittest? Enough coddling. Enough of this arrested development, already. We all need a little trauma to help us grow as people! Since my debate with the leash-advocate, I've asked nearly all my friends with spawn if they let their kids play outside, alone or with friends in a yard or on the streets. All of my peers said, yes. Which admittedly, made me feel better. I grew up in Arlington, Virginia with a forest as my back yard. I spent a lot of time with my neighbors and siblings running through the woods and digging waterfalls on the hills. We endlessly explored the creek that ran behind our yard and rode our bikes around town like the posse in E.T. We learned to play outdoors and got into some good clean fun/trouble. Along with the one hour of Physical Education and one hour of recess I received at school, my parents expected us kids to go outside and play from the minute we arrived home, up until dinner time. That's about six hours of physical exercise daily before we sat down to eat (you can now stop wondering why kids today are overweight/obese). And we did all this exploring and dreaming before we even started our homework.

LA Lightning Storm

video meditations volume two from single ape on Vimeo

Slabco Steve shot some pretty awesome video of the lightning and thunder storm we had last night. I couldn't see any of it from our home, so it's nice to get this Eastside view. Thunder and lightning doesn't happen here often, so it's kind of a special weather occasion!

Nodeblinky!

My office needs some more decoration! The Nodeblinky by Image Mode (cousin of GRL) is like, epileptic flare! I want!

The Nodeblinky has 28 LEDs and electronics to control them all. It can play over 2500 unique combinations of patterns designed by the Image Node crew. It has 4 modes and 4 levels of brightness. On the lowest levels of brightness, it will run for 5-7 hours on a rechargable 9V. (It will run for 20-25 hours on a disposable 9V as well)

The Nodeblinky is sold as a kit that you can assemble. All you need is a soldering iron, some solder, and a nippy cutter. If you are in NYC, we will be throwing Blinky Tupperware Parties at the FATlab in East Williamsburg in July and August. Clear, detailed instructions for assembling the blinky are available here.

A Nodeblinky Kit costs $40
An assembled Nodeblinky costs $80

If you want to show off your real mad soldering skills, pick up a few kits. Buy yours here and help some Burners move their stuff west. Every order helps. So please order plenty!

LA - A Lecture on the Mating Habits of Sea Slugs + Fol Chen (05.30.08)

A Lecture on the Mating Habits of Sea Slugs, + Fol Chen

Friday May 30th, 8pm

“A slug’s life: sex, color, and new species in the sea” by Patrick Krug and a concert by Fol Chen

Far from your garden-variety, sea slugs are vividly colorful animals that display stunning adaptations to life in the ocean. While snails cower inside cumbersome shells, evolution has freed the slugs to cruise the sea in safety, sporting spectacular warning colors to signal they are not to be trifled with.

Lift 08: Final Thoughts

I loved Lift! If you had to choose one tech conference to attend in Europe next year, choose this one if you're looking for a unique and personal experience. Capping out at about 700 attendees, I engaged in plenty of inspirational conversations about technology today and tomorrow with my new found friends and industry peers. Yes, I had to act cool around a lot of impressive people but it wasn't hard to do. Everyone made the conference feel cozy. Simply said, all is welcomed at Lift whether you're a technologist, venture capitalist, tinkerer, designer, or student. And if you come with a good attitude and an open mind, you'll get back three fold. Don't believe me? Check out my slideshow and see for yourself how great a conference can be!

CERN Revisited

February 9, 2008 - 10:24 a.m. PST - Geneva, Switzerland

One of the highlights of attending Lift 08 was the invitation to visit CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory. With a dozen tech colleagues I was offered a tour of the LHC, the world’s largest particle collider. I know, lots of Guinness Book of Records sounding descriptors right? Well... it's kind of hard to explain what it's like to visit a place like this. The kid inside says, "Oh man, it was soooo cool!" while imagining some Michael Bay-inspired explosions. And there are plenty of big adjectives to describe this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but it's best described casually as hmm, physics camp for adults?! I mean there was so much to absorb, learn, hear, see, and even touch. Reflective of the kind of questions an AP physics student might ask, my crew just fired away. Our very patient guide, Dr. Bilge Demirköz answered each question as best as she could in layman's terms. In truth it was all quite complicated and difficult to follow however it was extremely engaging. Believe me, she gave us an amazing, enthusiastic, and memorable tour! FYI, my camera died the day before our visit, so I was left documenting this experience with my BlackBerry Pearl. Surprisingly, the photos turned out pretty okay. If you ever find yourself in Geneva, you should try to visit this facility. I'm told that it won't be open to the public for much longer as they start new experiments but it's definitely worth a try. Enjoy my CERN album:

NYC - Planners Book Club: "Building the Green Economy" (01.27.08)

Planners Book Club: "Building the Green Economy"

Sunday, January 27th @ 2:30PM - Free

The Planners Book Club discusses built environments, urban history and planning. Its members deliberate New York City's political, economic and physical infrastructures and include planners, geographers and activists. All
interested persons are welcome. The club meets every 4th Sunday of the month. Chosen by consensus, this month's book is "Building the Green Economy" edited by Kevin Danaher. Contact plannersbookclub@bluestockings.com for more information.

BLUESTOCKINGS
172 Allen Street @ Stanton (1 block south of Houston) phone: 212-777-6028

LA - "quasar" (01.25.08 - 03.09.08)

SCI-Arc Gallery Exhibition

Jean Michel Crettaz
quasar

January 25 through March 9, 2008

Opening reception: Friday, January 25 from 7 to 9pm
Discussion with Eric Owen Moss & Jean Michel Crettaz: Friday, February 15 at 7pm

The SCI-Arc Gallery is pleased to present, quasar, a new site-specific installation by the LA/NY-based design/media firm slap!, founded by architect Jean-Michel Crettaz, and produced in collaboration with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and Stanford’s Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.

LA - Denise King Lecture (01.10.08)

Denise King - Aesthetics of Bacteria
Thursday Jan 10th, 8pm

Denise King visits us from San Francisco’s Exploratorium to discuss the aesthetic cultivation of bacteria. She will be presenting an introduction to identifying bacteria in the field, focusing on environments that are accessible from the Los Angeles area. Along the way she will discuss Winogradsky columns - simple containers that are filled with mud, pond water and plant material that allow the culturing of microbial communities in the laboratory, or in your own living room.

Sample columns filled with lovely multihued stuff with be available for show and tell purposes, and willing participants will be able to make their own bacterial terrarium on site (supplies limited). We suggest wearing casual clothes or a disposable hazmat suit if you plan on participating, as it may get slightly messy. For those who plan on just observing, standard formal wear should be fine.

more information on Denise King and some nice pictures of bacteria available here:
http://machineproject.com/2007/12/21/denise-king-artists-lecture/

Eye Spy 2007

A year in pictures! Almost a photo a day by Hustler of Culture and Silvio.

RELATED: Eye Spy 2006 here.

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays Using the Wii Remote

Hello Nintendo HR? Yes, I'd like to introduce you to Johnny Chung Lee, a Ph.D. Graduate Student at Carnegie Mellon University. Hire this guy, stat! He'll make something good, even better. According to Johnny, "using the infrared camera in the Wii remote and a head mounted sensor bar (two IR LEDs), you can accurately track the location of your head and render view dependent images on the screen. This effectively transforms your display into a portal to a virtual environment. The display properly reacts to head and body movement as if it were a real window creating a realistic illusion of depth and space." And if that doesn't impress you, check out Johnny's other cool endeavors, this guy really knows how to think out of the box!

i-Sobot

November 30, 2007 - 2:31 p.m. PST - Venice, CA

After spending a minute or two researching robots for kids, I was directed to the i-Sobot (and the Pleo). Tod told me he had one so I made him bring it to lunch. This awesome humanoid robot is super cool. It can bust a move, do push ups, and hit all sorts of other poses. It'll even perform a song and dance. After more intense poking, I'll admit, the i-Sobot's not really meant for little kids... more like big kids with lots of disposable income. Biddy, biddy, biddy... I want one!

LA - Renato Dulbecco Event (11/29/07)

Renato Dulbecco Nobel Prize Winning Virologist Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from the Italian Cultural Institute

The Italian Cultural Institute bestows a Lifetime Achievement Award on Renato Dulbecco for his paramount commitment to medical research on tumor viruses and cellular genetic material. After receiving the award, Dulbecco will speak about his career as a scientist and winning the Nobel Prize.

Renato Dulbecco was born in Catanzaro in 1914. At the age of only sixteen, he enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Turin. After the war he began his work in oncological research, and moved first to Indiana and then to California, to Caltech, where he became Professor. His most important discovery was the demonstration that the DNA of the virus is incorporated in the genetic material of the cell, causing a permanent alteration. In 1975 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine (together with David Baltimore and Howard Temin) for research on the interaction of tumor viruses and cellular genetic material. In 1986 he launched the idea of studying all human genes, starting the worldwide Human Genome Project. Since the 1970s, Renato Dulbecco has been living between Italy and La Jolla, California, where he is President Emeritus at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented by the Italian Cultural Institute to recognize Italian excellence in every field. Other award winners include composer Ennio Morricone and art collector Giuliano Gori

You LEED Me No Choice.

Dear champions of green architecture,

I have a degree in environmental science and am therefor very interested in learning more about environmental architecture and design. With all the blogging and talking about green building, a new pet peeve of mine has been born.

FYI people, Leeds is a city in England. LEED is the acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. If you are going to discuss national green standards for building sustainable architecture, please choose wisely. Or I will have to crush you.

Thank you, Kaws Vader

NYC - "Electric Lab" (09/20/07 - 10/17/07)