I jsut stumbled upon an online medical museum (BCMA Medical Museum).
Above is a surgery set. It pretty much illustrates why I don’t like hospitals. Other fine collections are ‘Dentistry’, which basically translates into how can we break your tooth department and for the very daring there is also the ‘protocology’ collection.
Just saw this lovely machine on TV. It is a Wireless enabled rabbit with rather good speech.
You can send messages to the rabbit or ask it questions. It will connect to different services. It also has the ability to interact through a couple of lamps and by moving its ears.
A broad movement of campaigners and organizations is calling on everybody to join action against excessive surveillance by governments and businesses. On 11 October 2008, concerned people in many countries will take to the streets, the motto being “Freedom not fear 2008″. Peaceful and creative action, from protest marches to parties, will take place in many capital cities.
Surveillance mania is spreading. Governments and businesses register, monitor and control our behaviour ever more thoroughly. No matter what we do, who we phone and talk to, where we go, whom we are friends with, what our interests are, which groups we participate in - “big brother” government and “little brothers” in business know it more and more thoroughly. The resulting lack of privacy and confidentiality is putting at risk the freedom of confession, the freedom of speech as well as the work of doctors, helplines, lawyers and journalists.
The manifold agenda of security sector reform encompasses the convergence of police, intelligence agencies and the military, threatening to melt down the division and balance of powers. Using methods of mass surveillance, the borderless cooperation of the military, intelligence services and police authorities is leading towards the construction of “Fortresses” in Europe and on other continents, directed against refugees and different-looking people but also affecting, for example, political activists, the poor and under-priviledged, and sports fans.
People who constantly feel watched and under surveillance cannot freely and courageously stand up for their rights and for a just society. Mass surveillance is thereby threatening the fabric of a democratic and open society. Mass surveillance is also endangering the work and commitment of civil society organizations.
Done some music serving on youtube today. I think I got inspired by the Byrnes and Eno post of yesterday. Anyway, through some unexpected moments of inspiration I searched for one of my favorite German bands Gammalapagos and there are actually a couple of videos around of them playing live. Here is one of the tracks of their first album.
Brian Eno and I recently finished our first collaboration in about 30 years. The name of the new record is Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. For the most part, Brian did the music and I wrote some tunes, words and sang. It’s familiar but completely new as well. We’re pretty excited.
Cool thing is they only released it on the internet for now and the album is released in high quality DRM free MP3 and Flac. That almost is enough reason to buy it.
Yesterday the S.S. Rotterdam arrived in Rotterdam. The ship used to be the flagship of the ‘Holland America Line’ but will now be used as a hotel / restaurant. Since it passed my window I used the moment to take some pictures and stitch them up with hugin.
Software engineer Neil Fraser made a video that uses domino falls to simulate logic gates, the basic building blocks of digital circuits. Domino Domino Logic.