ETC

“The experiment foundered, and Beer’s allie in the Chilean...

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:35:42 -0400

“The experiment foundered, and Beer’s allie in the Chilean government was toppled by a coup. Today, similar models of dynamic algorithmic resource management provide companies with an edge over others. Bloomberg Business provided insight into the Black Book process that is responsible for Coca Cola’s ‘Simply Orange’. Revenue Analytics have provided Coca Cola with an algorithm “designed to accept any contingency that might affect manufacturing, from weather patterns to shifts in the global economy, and make adjustments to the manufacturing process accordingly.” The numinous U-machine parceled up as an algorithmic consultancy product. Also worth noting is Max Levchin’s presentation to the Digital-Life-Design 13 conference. He positions the success stories of the collaborative consumption as indebted to one powerful trend: “the digitalization of analog data, and its management in a centralized queue (can be used) to create amazing new efficiencies”. Extending that trend to its vanishing point Levchin muses on the transformation of risk that could result and even indulges some dystopian future speculation by positing “dynamic pricing for brain cycles”. The driving logics of collaborative consumption, managed by dynamically adjusting algorithms, have their conceptual predessor in Cybernsyn.”

(via meet your new wetware manager | THE STATE)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Murmuration—a festival of drone...

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:30:40 -0400

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Murmuration—a festival of drone culture

“What is a drone? Is it a drudge? An idler? A monotonous hum? A meditative chant? Is it a killer robot? A toy? The automated arm of US imperialism? A technology perhaps capable of developing agency of its own? A flying camera? A police spy? An agent of apocalypse? A promise of the future?

…

Now we invite all of you to join this conversation as well. We are opening submissions today, May 1, and we encourage all of you to think about your understanding of the drone, and then to create. We can offer $50 for every piece we accept. Below is a copy of Murmuration’s “Mission Parameters” so that you can get a fuller sense of the thinking behind the festival.”

via SUBMIT TO THE DRONES | THE STATE

latest anarchist dating advice—fucking the borders“is...

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:14:29 -0400

latest anarchist dating advice—fucking the borders

“is role-playing problematic from a revolutionary perspective? should we feel guilty for cop fetishes?”

(via anarchist dating advice #3: fucking the borders | THE STATE)

“The great schism in Central Asian history isn’t pre- and...

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:13:09 -0400

“The great schism in Central Asian history isn’t pre- and post-Islam, or pre- and post-Russia. It is pre- and post-canals.”

(via a pleasant apocalypse | THE STATE)

White men wearing Google Glass

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:09:54 -0400

White men wearing Google Glass

“plagues do not disclose their real symptoms, they are...

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:01:42 -0400

“plagues do not disclose their real symptoms, they are ‘communicable yet invisible’ and technology runs on software that is hidden yet revealed in times of crisis. Again, queue the story of the despair of the computer not turning on, but this time link it (as my brain seemed to do) to the wax tablets of Frau Troffea’s time.”

(via dancing, technology, and the plague: death | THE STATE)

“In that post, Tim articulates all the difficulty of...

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:58:02 -0400

“In that post, Tim articulates all the difficulty of dealing with structures when they are in the long, middle period. But regardless of when or how they officially enter the state of “ruin,” there is a point at which a structure could be considered to unequivocally be a ruin. The Coliseum is most definitely a ruin. It may be other things, but it is certainly a ruin.”

via the accumulation of ruin-space | THE STATE

hacking Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet—”It’s...

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:52:17 -0400

hacking

Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet—”It’s stunning what can be found with a simple search on Shodan. Countless traffic lights, security cameras, home automation devices and heating systems are connected to the Internet and easy to spot. Shodan searchers have found control systems for a water park, a gas station, a hotel wine cooler and a crematorium. Cybersecurity researchers have even located command and control systems for nuclear power plants and a particle-accelerating cyclotron by using Shodan.”

Red Hack—documentary on Turkey’s communist hacker collective

Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams—”The Remote Administration Tool is the revolver of the Internet’s Wild West”

DDoS Attack Looks Like an Intense Game of Pong—”We’ve all heard of DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks bringing down web servers, but we bet most people can’t really imagine what a DDoS attack looks like…”

How the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the AP—and who are these guys, anyway?

The Syrian Electronic Army are at Cyber War with Anonymous—”The SEA was actually founded by Assad back when he was thought to have next to no chance of inheriting his fathers position as dictator because he was just such a geeky nerd. So they’ve been around a while, and we were aware from day one that they could become involved in the cyber conflict. As for our dealings with them, that’s pretty straightforward. They are, by their own choice of allegiance to the dictator, the enemies of Anonymous. And they introduced themselves into the conflict fairly early on with a rather spectacular hack of a fairly well known Anonymous web site. We, in turn, responded by attacking their web assets and that conflict continues to this day.”

via elsewhere on the internet 27/04/2013 | THE STATE

Some experts say the GCC suffers from a lack of local halal certification bodies, as buyers opt for...

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:49:38 -0400

Some experts say the GCC suffers from a lack of local halal certification bodies, as buyers opt for European rivals.

via Does the GCC ignore Halal cosmetics | Arabian Business

“Compared with officially minted banknotes, the imagery...

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:43:06 -0400

“Compared with officially minted banknotes, the imagery printed on local currency notes shows vibrant coloring, unconventional crests, woodcut engravings inspired by Cordel literature and other cool features. But the highlights are the skills developed by a group of designers from CUFA, a favela collective founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1999; their “lasca” banknotes designed for Aroeira Bank will go down in history with its simplicity and grace.” (via favela chic redux | THE STATE)

Coinciding with Traffic’s closing, THE STATE hosted a UAE...

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:40:58 -0400

Coinciding with Traffic’s closing, THE STATE hosted a UAE immigration pop quiz. The event was hosted by political commentator, Muath Al-Wari. General knowledge and trivial questions about the politics, demographics, wildlife, media, and culture of the UAE will form the question sets. Each team was assigned an Emirate. The winning team was the Ajmani fiefdom. We will soon be posting the exam on our website.

via THE STATE

“This concert of violence was in fact so intensely hostile...

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:39:12 -0400

“This concert of violence was in fact so intensely hostile to human life that the streets and alleyways that composed the division between East and West quickly began to erode and fall into disrepair. Different forms of life soon began to proliferate within and throughout the urban geography. For these reasons, the border has historically come to be referred to as the ‘Green Line’, as the dense ecology of plants, seed-carrying birds, and pollinating insects that settled in the fissure between the East and West literally made the division ‘green.’” (via a line is a territory | THE STATE)

4D-printing: from self-assembling chairs to cancer-fighting robots The future is here. Project...

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:37:41 -0400

4D-printing: from self-assembling chairs to cancer-fighting robots

The future is here. Project Cyborg will revolutionise the way designers think by training materials to build themselves – and adapt to their surroundings

(via 4D printing | The Guardian)

“As the very social of the social, the very glue keeping...

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:36:01 -0400

“As the very social of the social, the very glue keeping all these free-floating bits together, taking friendship seriously—as a focus of attention, a matter of concern, or a para-academic interest, even—just makes sense. To study is to care.

Now for the ‘critical’ part. One may ask: but is that how friends should behave? Why bring ‘criticality’ into a space of intimacy and trust, bro?” (via critical friendship studies | THE STATE)

“But “Whiteness” has always only ever been exactly what...

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:33:44 -0400

“But “Whiteness” has always only ever been exactly what “White people” want it to be. What part of the world a person is from has little to no affect on whether anyone thinks s/he is actually “White”, because “White” is a social class, not a place.” (via the changing face of the Caucasian | THE STATE)

Such can also be said of our present familiarity with the...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:37:27 -0400

Such can also be said of our present familiarity with the aesthetic culture of the contemporary eight-bit period: those who collect and archive games are open about the extent to which even classic titles steal from their predecessors. In the period itself, hacking of hardware and software was rife; popular titles and even entire consoles were copied and altered by smaller fly-by-night operations, while fans themselves developed technical proficiency as a means of cheating or gaining access to rare imports. Today, this legacy manifests itself in the musical aesthetic made possible by the recovery and alteration of that period’s hardware—the so-called ‘chiptune’ community. (via pieces of eight: towards a critical theory of chiptune by alex casper cline | THE STATE)

Eight Bits: this is what links two completely different periods....

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:36:51 -0400

Eight Bits: this is what links two completely different periods. The near present: the post-historical epoch immediately following the fall of the Berlin Wall. And the beginnings of the world economy: the age of colonialism, mercantilist empires, and industrial development. In the latter period, eight bits constituted the first global currency, the Spanish real de a ocho or eight-real coin. First produced in 1497—a mere four years after the return of Columbus’ first voyage from the so-called ‘New World’—the eight-real coin soon came to represent the wealth of the Spanish empire’s plunder. A majority of the coins produced came from the Bolivian mines of Potosi, where the forced labor of millions of indigenous and African slaves produced enough silver for over a million coins. (via pieces of eight: towards a critical theory of chiptune by alex casper cline | THE STATE)

"The survival of an endangered language may depend on two people — and all they want to do is ignore..."

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:36:18 -0400

“The survival of an endangered language may depend on two people — and all they want to do is ignore each other. Manuel Segovia and Isidro Velazquez, the last speakers of a language called Ayapaneco, live less than half a mile away from each other in Ayapa, Mexico. But no matter how precious the cultural implications of keeping their language alive are, they are not going to speak to each other.”

- Last Two Speakers of Dying Language Refuse to Talk to Each Other | TIME.com

Men are stripping to the waist, scribbling slogans on their...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:35:49 -0400

Men are stripping to the waist, scribbling slogans on their body, holding hands and demonstrating across France against gay marriage. Sometimes masked, sometimes gagged but almost always half-naked, they are Les Hommen – an action group against marriage equality. (via France: Is this the most homoerotic anti-gay protest ever? | Gay Star News)

body image WTF: Model Scouts Look for New Talent at Eating...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:34:42 -0400

body image

WTF: Model Scouts Look for New Talent at Eating Disorders Clinic—”Sweden’s largest eating disorders treatment clinic, the 1,700-bed Stockholm Center for Eating Disorders, says it has an unusual problem: scouts for Sweden’s biggest modeling agencies who congregate outside its doors, persistently trying to recruit patients.”

Stop posting that Dove ad: “Real beauty” campaign is not feminist—”The only interesting thing Dove has done since it began this campaign to sell soap in 2004 is overtly shift the emphasis from sexual attraction to peer approval. The real take-away is still that women should care whether a stranger thinks she is beautiful. That’s not radical — it’s the thesis of every beauty product ad campaign ever.”

Why Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” Video Makes Me Uncomfortable… and Kind of Makes Me Angry—”When it comes to the diversity of the main participants: all four are Caucasian, three are blonde with blue eyes, all are thin, and all are young (the oldest appears to be 40). The majority of the non-featured participants are thin, young white women as well. Hmm… probably a little limiting, wouldn’t you say? We see in the video that at least three black women were in fact drawn for the project. Two are briefly shown describing themselves in a negative light (one says she has a fat, round face, and one says she’s getting freckles as she ages). Both women are lighter skinned. A black man is shown as one of the people describing someone else, and he comments that she has “pretty blue eyes”. One Asian woman is briefly shown looking at the completed drawings of herself and you see the back of a black woman’s head; neither are shown speaking. Out of 6:36 minutes of footage, people of color are onscreen for less than 10 seconds.”

One Narrative Fits All

Model behaviour: why British vogue is an example to the fashion industry
(via elsewhere on the internet 20/04/2013 | THE STATE)