My Day Does Not Start at Midnight
Hello developers, interface designers and human computer interaction specialists of the blogosphere, I have a complaint to make. My computer's "calendar":http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ical/ and the calendar on "my phone":http://www.sonyericsson.com/t616/ seem to think that my day starts at midnight. If I look at my events for today and have have an event that ended at 2am last night, it still shows up. I realize for a computer, the day starts anew every 24 hours at midnight, but the computer doesn't get out that often. My day is a little different, my day starts when I get up in the morning.
So, those of you you design the interfaces for "Apple's iCal calendar application":http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ical/ and the "Sony Ericsson T616":http://www.sonyericsson.com/ please take note. In the future, is it possible to make the computer/phone more interested in my day than it's day? If it can't be intelligent enough to figure out when my day starts on its own, then an option like "My day starts at: 9am" would be nice. Some of us don't stick so strictly to that whole am/pm thing.
The French Democracy
The French Democracy is a short film on the recent riots in France. It was made by Alex Chan, Parisan-born but of Chinese parents, to "to correct what was being said in the media, especially in the United States" about the riots. He used a techinique called machinima--using a video game engine to make his movie.
It's a really interesting way to tell a story and useful way to enlighten the discussion. Worth a watch.
Neuropolitics Survey
Here's what the Neuropolitics.org Survey says about me:
bq. You are focused on social inequity in your daily life. You have a higher tolerance for ambiguous reality models. You are more likely to weight alpha behaviors in your social ranking analysis. Your moral system is based on both personal and utilitarian principles. You have a higher than average self-image and an above average need for social interaction. You have a left hemispheric orientation in how your regulate your behavior in society. You have elevated spatial analysis skills. You exhibit an elevation in awareness of social ranking. Your communication preferences strongly favor your auditory cortex over your visual cortex.
I think that's about the most scientific way most of those things have been said. I particularly like "high tolerance for ambiguous reality models." Most people just say I have a loose grip on reality.
What does it say about you?
PT-141, Sex in a Bottle, Coming Soon
Move over Ecstasy. In final testing and about 3 years away, PT-141 is a revolutionary new drug that makes you horny, makes you wanna take of your clothes and have sex. It's is a nasal spray that increases libido by acting directly on the brain in the regions that are activated when you're horny, not on the bloodstream like Viagra. It actually effects desire, makes you want it. It works for both men and women. It's non-addictive and has no serious side effects. As Mark Morford puts it:
"[It's] the cheap, easy-to-use, hassle-free sex drug everyone's been waiting for. It is nirvana, the magic bullet, the simplest route to quickie sex you've ever known. It could be the greatest thing to happen to sex in 50 years. And also, of course, the worst.
Makes you want to try it, no?"
It's the first derivative of the drug Melanotan, dubbed the "Barbie drug," a drug discovered by researchers looking for a drug that would tan your skin using it's own natural pigment, melanin, protecting you from ultraviolet rays. During testing they noticed that as well as making you tan, it had the unintended side effects of curbing your appetite, softening your skin, making your hair shiny, and making you incredibly horny. Isn't nature ironic? So the relation between those things it wasn't all media influence. Turns out that was just too much packed into one drug for it to be marketable, so PT-141 tones it down and bit and just makes you incredibly horny.
So, things are looking up. I like the idea of spraying it into the air at dance clubs (as long as it's consensual, of course). I could definitely see it decreasing the divorce rate and, well, having positive effects on quite a lot of things. Like, what would the world be like if this guy actually got laid. Might not have so many hateful people in the world, right? I mean, the sexual revolution of the 60's, I wasn't around but as I'm told it had at least something to do with a new drug, LSD. Well, maybe this will be our version. A sexual-medicine advisor on the trials says:
"It's not merely allowing a sexual response to take place more easily; it may be having an effect, literally, on how we think and feel."
Better living through chemistry, I'm all for it. If they come out with an HIV vaccine at the same time, things could get quite interesting. Anyone got any ideas for a brand name? I vote for "Lust Dust."
The Grateful Dead Give It All Back
bq. A week after some of the surviving members of the Grateful Dead ordered a nonprofit site to remove free downloads of the seminal jam band's concerts--sparking massive online backlash and a Deadhead petition calling for a boycott of all band-related merchandise--the band has reversed its position. 'The Grateful Dead remains as it always has--in favor of tape trading,' spokesman Dennis McNally tells the Associated Press.