Corridor of Madness

Look, frankly, screw 2005. I'm going back to 1996:

'So you think you are a geek, eh? The first step is to admit to yourself your geekiness. No matter what anyone says, geeks are people too; geeks have rights. So take a deep breath and announce to the world that you are a geek. Your courage will give you strength that will last you forever.

How to tell the world you are a geek, you ask? Use the universal Geek code! Using this special code will allow you to let other un-closeted geeks know who you are in a simple, codified statement.

The single best way to announce your geekhood is to add your geek code to your signature file or plan and announce it far and wide. But be careful, you may give other geeks the courage to come out of the closet. You might want to hang on to your copy of the code in order to help them along.' (Link)

Posted by mindwarp at 09:11 PM | Permalink

'PML is a set of keywords lifted from various sources that can be used to capture meaningful psychogeographical [meta]data about urban space. PML is a unified system of psychogeonamic classification that lurks behind the psychogeogram: the diagrammatic representation of psychogeographically experienced space.

PML is the base layer for a psychogeographical content management system that can:

1) be used to transform a mass of subjective data into an objective representation
2) be used as an engine that, after being fed certain parameters, generates new psychogeographical drifts
3) be used to develop further a cartography that negates the territory
4) be datamined to show never before suspected patterns in the urban fabric
5) be fired up into a new mythology for urban space
6) be used to take the fingerprint of a city

PML incorporates work done in fields like annotated space, geo-tagging, mental mapping, GIS & collaborative mapping but is different in that it aims at the invisible & the absurd.' (Generative Psychogeography Project page via Die Puny Humans)

Posted by mindwarp at 06:09 PM | Permalink

'A brain-mapping study provides new support for the theory that attention is the glue that cements visual information together as people scan complex scenes. The research was conducted by Vanderbilt psychologist René Marois and his colleagues and published in the Aug. 6 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.' (Exploration feature via Heckler & Coch)

Posted by mindwarp at 03:29 AM | Permalink

'MELVERN, Kan. -- Witnesses say a Kansas woman charged with killing an expectant mother and cutting out the woman's fetus was seen showing off a tiny baby girl as her own.

A few hours later, police arrested Lisa Montgomery for the crime. Authorities said she soon confessed to strangling Bobbie Jo Stinnett (pictured, left), 23, a Missouri woman she'd met on the Internet, cutting open her womb and stealing her fetus. Stinnett had been 8-months pregnant.' (KFOXTV.com article)

Posted by mindwarp at 06:09 PM | Permalink

Thanks, San Francisco. I look forward to crossing the Norton Bridge very soon:

'More than a century after a quirky San Francisco character who called himself Emperor Norton I ordered a bridge be built spanning the bay, a move is under way to name the later-day Bay Bridge in his honor.

The drive was publicized by Chronicle cartoonist Phil Frank in his strip "Farley" -- perhaps a fitting forum for a man who walked the streets of San Francisco in the late 1800s with a plume in his hat and a sword in his hand, issued his own currency and declared that calling the city "Frisco" was a High Misdemeanor.' (SF Chronicle article)

Posted by mindwarp at 11:31 AM | Permalink

'Festive cheer and goodwill was in short supply in Newtown when people dressed as Santa were involved in a mass street brawl, say police.

Officers used CS spray and batons to break up trouble amongst up to 30 people, following Newtown's annual charity Santa run.

There were five arrests hours after around 4,000 Santas finished racing.' (BBC News article)

Posted by mindwarp at 12:40 PM | Permalink

This just in from the enigmatic Miquael Gaio, a self-described "archetypal engineer" with whom I've attended Erik Davis' "Altered State", a class on California spirituality:

Human beings are currently causing the greatest mass extinction of species since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. If present trends continue one half of all species of life on earth will be extinct in 100 years.

6X is a community action group formed for the purpose of increasing public awareness of the current global mass extinction of species. 6X was founded by faculty and students at the California Institute of Integral Studies (http://www.ciis.edu), operates under the auspices of the institute, and is open to all concerned public citizens. The formation of 6X was catalyzed by the work of CIIS faculty member David Ulansey, PhD., and his website, http://www.massextinction.net.

We are currently looking for eco-conscious designers and developers to
participate in producing web-based aspects of a multi-tiered media
project to disseminate information of the mass extinction of species to
the general public. We are seeking web-savvy people who are willing to
either volunteer resources, or work at in-kind or moderate rates, with
specialty skills in the following areas:

- Graphic Design (Print and/or Web)
- Flash Design / ActionScript Programming
- Content Writing / Editing
- Data Base Development / Management (MySQL)
- PHP programming
- Content Management Systems
- Community Forums / Mailing Lists
- Streaming Media

If you are interested in being involved, and would like to know more, email (m AT transcendigital DOT org) a description of your skills, your standard rate, and a moderated rate that you could contribute toward the project.

Please forward this email to any one who may be interested.

thank you,

Miquael Gaio
6X Council Member
Web Committee

Posted by mindwarp at 04:58 PM | Permalink