Farmer noted a society’s influence could be gauged by what was thrown away. The more affluent a society, the more valuable its junk. He was an advocate of repurposing equipment and technologies, sending “old” materials to developing countries to help them speed development. This has in fact been occurring for some time to one extent or another. Americans old enough to remember soda pop in returnable bottles might be surprised to find them still in use when visiting third world countries. When a factory in the West modernizes, its obsolete equipment often goes overseas.

Back in the 1970s, when Farmer wrote his book, he suggested a good way to repurpose old vehicles would be to unload them on beaches off India. He speculated the cars would soon be repaired and placed back in good service. Now, it’s hardly fair to call India a third world country anymore. But there are some older technologies still in service there, and this includes gaming consoles once dominant in our marketplace 20 or 30 years ago.

Eric Lai over at PCWorld reports on Derek Lomas, a grad student who stumbled across the old style consoles while on an internship in Bangalore. The system Lomas discovered in the marketplace there is a knock-off of the old Nintendo NES system, an 8 bit console. The system takes NES cartridges and hooks up to television sets. Lomas had the brainy idea of adapting the unit for an über-cheap computer.

This idea makes a lot of sense for developing markets. Most households in developing countries, regardless of socioeconomic status, already have television sets. The monitor in any portable computer system can be the single most expensive component. Therefore, providing just the guts of a computer and using a television as the monitor is simply brilliant, especially for homes with very low incomes.

Lomas documents the discovery in his blog here. Jerry Kronenberg at the Boston Herald reports Lomas participated in the International Design Summit at MIT this month, birthplace of the One Laptop Per Child idea, otherwise known as the “$100 laptop.” Lomas’ team hopes to add memory to the device, a keyboard, and cell phone access for Internet browsing.

Nicholas Negroponte, who spearheaded OLPC at MIT, is another professor who has put big ideas for developing countries into action, like Richard Farmer back in the day. If Lomas is successful, he’ll be following in good footsteps.

References:
Kronenberg, J. (2008, August 4). Designers on quest to build $12 computer. [Online]. Retrieved August 9, 2008 from http://news.bostonherald.com/business/technology/general/
view/2008_08_04_Designers_on_quest_to_build__12_computer/

Las palabras, dos minutos, dos meses, las puntas de mis dedos se estan entumeciendo. Puede ser este momento cuando los "finalmente" se convierten "pudiera haberlo hecho"?.
Desesperacion y memorias ahora se ven solamente en los malos sueños. Nunca empiezo. Solo te veo en los malos sueños.

Dejame explicarte: Demasiado cerca para sentir tus palabras. Demasiado lejos para leer tu piel.

Cuando me veo en tus ojos solo quiero volverme ciega.
Cuando construyo mundos de ataudes con palabras solo quiero un lugar para esconderme.
Cuando viejos fantasmas conocen a nuevos arrepentimientos mi luz de dia se vuelve gris.
Cuando nuestros dias traen culpa y verguenza
Mi corazón se vuelve negro esta es mi tumba pintada negra y azul.
Esta es mi tumba pintada solo para ti.
Buenas noches, buenas noches querido
adios
rosa negra se mi luz en la oscuridad de la noche de mi corazón.

gracias a bhbrigade por la letra.

Did I know what I was saying when I said it? I don't think so...cuz I really didn't understand the magnitude of what I was saying then. But I do now.

And this got me to thinking back on the concept that who we really are always finds a way to poke its head out from underneath all of the layers of identifiers that we think we are. Our true self is always waiting for us to stumble upon it enough times to finally look it in the eye, smile, and embrace it fully. So maybe, just maybe, I am truly making some progress towards who I really am. YES! :-d

And I thank my friend for holding onto that statement -- I needed to remember that it came out of me....from somewhere deep inside of me, but from inside nonetheless.

Maybe there is hope for me finding a way out of this tunnel of discovery after all. Maybe.

One significant item I came across, which I can't find anyplace else is this account of Terry Moran's interview with Barack Obama, part of which was played on Nightline yesterday. AFP reports the following, which apparently didn't make Nightline:

Obama told Terry Moran on ABC's "Nightline" that after being fiercely criticized for proposing a 16-month timeline for US troop withdrawal from Iraq, both Baghdad and the White House have now "suggested that we needed some kind of time horizon.

"You know there was a whole verbiage around it, but there is a sense that we need to start to point to an end game here."

In much the same way, the Illinois senator said, his suggestion months ago that two additional brigades were needed in Afghanistan was opposed by McCain, "and now there is convergence around the notion that we need at least two and maybe three brigades."

Finally, Obama said he was "thrilled" after his much maligned proposal that the United States should talk with foes including Iran "to see a terrific diplomat, (Undersecretary of State) Bill Burns, now involved in conversation," with Iran.

"They are not setting the world on fire yet, nevertheless, you are starting to see some movements," Obama said regarding Washington's overtures toward Tehran.

"So there is a convergence around a set of principles in terms of pursuing our foreign policy, that corresponds to a lot of the things I have been suggesting," the 46-year-old senator told his ABC interviewer in Baghdad, where he arrived Monday for a two-day visit.

---

"And if you clear the underbrush of ideology and people having different positions, and arguing from different perspectives, at some point, you have to land on reality in order to make sure that the American people are safe."

If this is accurate, it's a sudden reversal in rhetorical strategy. He'd been playing the same strategey as his political opponents, Senators Clinton and McCain and President Bush, in stressing the differences in their Middle East policies and claiming his own as the best route to take.

Suddenly changing gears to a positive focus will leave McCain looking more and more obstructionist the longer he sticks with his continued strategy of attacking timetables and withdrawls, particularly as the White House does in fact begin to show some movement toward some things which very much resemble but certainly are not called a timetable or a withdrawl.

I'm also very disappointed in ABC for apparently failing to find this exchange newsworthy. At the time of tihs posting, the only mention I can find of this exchange is with the AFP. It'll be interesting to see if Obama continues this tack.

Puedes ayudarme?, Toma una foto antes que la dibuje. Ella es hermosa, ella lo era todo. La extraño. Anoche soñe con el trazo que dejo ella en mis cicatrices. Ella me dijo que nunca se iria y que siempre estaria aqui. Aquella noche me llamo y me quede pegado al telefono por horas, la sentia tan cerca a pesar de tenerme kilometros de distancia. Me dijo que me amaba y yo te dije lo mismo. Nos besamos en las puertas del bus, ahi crei en ti por ultima vez. Crei en ti por ultima vez y esa vez estuve completo. Por favor diganme que tengo que decir adios.
Adios.

Petitioning Forever is a remaster/repress of two awesome Converge records combined into one amazing release. Petitioning The Empty Sky was released in 1997 by Equal Vision and When Forever Comes Crashing was released in 1998 also by Equal Vision. In 2005 both of these albums were remastered and re-released with bonus tracks on CD. Petitioning Forever is the vinyl version of the re-release. This copy of the record was pressed on red/orange and blue/white vinyl. I bought it last year from Toilet Water in Ocean City, NJ.

Track List:

Petitioning The Empty Sky:

Side A:
01. The Saddest Day
02. Forsaken
03. Albatross
04. Dead
05. Shingles

Etching: CATFISH ON THE BASS

Side B:
01. Buried But Breathing
02. Farewell Note To This City
03. Color Me Blood Red
04. Love As Arson (Alternate Version)

Etching: COLL BREEZE ON THE SKINS

When Forever Comes Crashing:

Side C:
01. My Unsaid Everything
02. The High Cost Of Playing God
03. In Harms Way
04. Conduit
05. The Lowest Common Denominator

Etching: BIG TIME ON THE GIT

Side D:
01. Towering Jehovah
02. When Forever Comes Crashing
03. Ten Cents
04. Year Of The Swine
05. Letterbomb
06. Love As Arson
07. Bitter And Then Some (Unreleased Demo Version)

Etching:MONKEYSNAKE ON THE WOX

Contrary to popular opinion, historical research has failed to prove that Betsy Ross made the first American flag.  In fact, the story that Betsy Ross made the first flag did not appear until 1870!  Betsy's grandson, William Canby, began the story by telling it to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.  He claimed to have heard the story from an aunt. 

In addition, no records of a Continental Congress committee to contract a new flag exist.  As a final blow to this story, the are no written records of payment. 

If there is so much evidence against this story, how did it circulate in the first place?  Well, someone spread the story and it was published in the 1876 centennial celebration.  It became so popular that now most people except it as fact.

Mobile post sent by MpcPeriscope using Utterz. Replies. mp3

The 10th of july Converge, Integrity, Coliseum and Amenra will play in 013. That's some hardcore. We can give away 2x2 tickets. What you must do for it? Just send a friendly message to Tineke AT zxzw dot nl. The friendliest, really friendliest person wins. And Tineke decides.

Work on Issue #1 is going smooth, lots of good things are going to be featured! Everyone interested in having records reviewed, ads published, naked pictures on cover or whatever else, just get in touch!

If Darwinism isn't your cup of tea, the happy news is that here's where science and the bible converges.

• God, with his/her infinite wisdom and intelligence, has no beginning or end.  That means it lives forever.  My point exactly.
• Our original forefathers, direct descendants from God, and created in its image and in unadulterated form, lived for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.  Another explanation for this capacity to grow very very old is that they ate from the tree of knowledge, thereby proving another causal link to longevity.
• Along the way, repeated poor genetic selection resulted in poorer and poorer stock of human beings, thereby limiting our intelligence and our ability to live longer life-spans.  Consider the current rapid depletion of our natural resources and destruction of our environment, and you'll realise why we're more like parasites living off this planet. Parasites have limited intelligence and should not be allowed to continue perpetuating. Fortunately, or unfortunately for us, poor intelligence genetically hastens our destruction, thereby protecting the earth.
• Intelligent human beings know that symbiosis is the key to their survival.  It is no coincidence that our forefathers, direct descendants from God, were farmers, and they gave back what they took.  Today, we only take, and then take some more.

So, how bout I start with something philosophical:

fear of dying is fear of living

And on that note, I just want to say that Norma Jean uses the word 'die' a lot in their lyrics.

Here's what urban dictionary had to say about Norma Jean:

Norma Jean

(1)Norma Jean - The place to go for sex
(2)Norma Jean - Marylin Monroe's real name
(3)Norma Jean - Josh Scogin/Cory Brandon's Band that will make you want to masterbate.

(1)Lets go to Norma Jean's for 'fun'.
(2)Norma Jean is hotter then you, hunny.
(3)I heard Norma Jean and I decided all other bands suck compared to them.

Here's what youtube had to say about Norma Jean in 2003:

And I really need you to buy me these shoes, also:

I know y'all niggas are like, "Oh, these shoes look like some Christmas shit with a star on the corner," and I don't give a fuck! So...someone buy them for me. It's only something like 900 beans.

You know what else is stupid, yet funny?
Racism. Probably the dumbest thing ever. It's also probably the funniest thing in the world.
I want you to remember that things that are funny are also true as fuck.
I thought about youtubing a video, but why?
I'm pretty down for hating people. And I'm pretty down for hating people on the basis of race. I'm also down for being as offensive as possible. But...I'm not racist. I love real racists, though. The ones who are throwing out the 'n word' with the hard 'er. But I do love to call white people racist when they are like, "Dave, do you want some kool-aid?," or like, "Sorry I stepped on your shoes". They get so nervous. I think that white people feel like if they say this phrase, they are never racist:
"I have lots of black friends." Then they proceed to name all four black people they know. I've seen white people name Kanye West as a friend because they actually didn't know that many black people. Shit is ridiculous.

I haven't ranted about hustle yet. Robo Reptar is the easiest topic to use when ranting about hustling.
Alright...let's begin:
I wanna just post this video. This is a band from TX called "Sky Eats Airplane":

They just got signed to Equal Vision Records. Equal Vision is home to some bands like: Circa Survive; Chiodos; Coheed and Cambria; Modern Life Is War; Alexisonfire; The Fall of Troy; Fear Before The March of Flames and many others.
Moving on to the next band. I Set My Friends On Fire. They became popular through their screaming version of "Crank Dat Soulja Boy" called "Crank Dat Cavalry Boy". Niggas were racking like 50,000 plays a day, just on that song. Anyway, let's get to their first show. It was at the Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey. Here's what youtube told me about ISMFOF:

If you can't watch the video. They just got signed to Epitaph records. I'm pretty sure Story of the Year, Motion City Soundtrack, Bad Religion, Vanna, Escape the Fate, Converge, etc etc.
Now let's talk about how bad they are live:

Let's talk about how Robo Reptar is at least as good as them. But we don't have no videos. Haha. Long story short, it's about time we hustle. Let's hustle.

Sorry about being so rock oriented today, I got something that'll totally set off all the heavy shit I put down today:
Cat Power - Cross Bones Style

This is some significant competition for SpotRunner, whose sole purpose is to provide easy-to-use, small scale online TV buying in local markets.

I played with both and noticed one big difference: SpotRunner requires a $1,000 minimum buy, whereas AdWords appears to let you get by at just $150/day. You can get your feet wet with Google's TV ad buying very, very cheaply. Of course, with both services you'll still need to create an ad, but these days many savvy small business owners can just whip up something in iMovie.

Meanwhile, in the world of online buying of online video ads, the IAB finally released some up-to-date online video ad guidelines (pdf).

They're boring to read and surely even more boring to implement, but this is important since finally we'll have some sort of standardization for fledgling online ad formats like video overlays. I'm a big fan of video overlay ads -- a 5-10 second animation on the lower fifth of an online video playback. Overlays combined with a 300x250 companion ad may prove to be a great online video monetization strategy. It punches through the 'clutter' of ads -- the end-user notices the ad -- but it doesn't get in the way of viewing the desired content. A win, win?

The meta story here is that buying video ads is becoming standardized for online AND offline video content. We can talk all day about the convergence already taking place by end-users watching Lost and the Office on their computers. Now the über-important revenue stream -- easy ad buying by the masses -- is catching up to the convergence party.

On another Deathwish Inc. note, go and check out every single thing this label is doing at the moment as they're the hardest working label around these days, now also featuring Malfunction and Perfect Victim's artists. One really cool thing they're doing right now is the "DW Live Series", which is a series of live recordings made available to download from their website for FREE.

Check them out:

• Bitter End / DW Live Series 04: Sound And Fury 2K7
• Pulling Teeth / DW Live Series 03: Sound And Fury 2K7
• Converge / DW Live Series 02: Minneapolis, MN 09.21.05
  
• Blacklisted / DW Live Series 01: Live On WERS 2006

Now playing:

• The Get Up Kids - On A Wire (www.myspace.com/thegetupkids)
• Strength Approach - All The Plans We Made Are Going To Fail (www.myspace.com/strengthapproach)

Last night Kyle and I went and saw Converge!

Jake Bannon puts on an amazing show. Every time. This guy is brutal.

Kyle and I took some pictures on the way down, on the lightrail.

Earlier today Kyle and I went on a bike ride. It was fun! Even though my legs were on fire and I totally didn't think I would make it home. Anyways. Here is a picture from across the street at a little lake we sat at.