Canada Day in the U.S.A!

No real story here. We went to Portland, we had good times.

These pictures are from a fantastic little diner in Olympia. Milkshake for the road? Yes!

Greatest Sport Ever...

Why oh why are the Japanese so good at television?

While we here in the West are giggling our remotes off over such mundane game show fodder as Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, they are re-inventing this whole business, making humans into Tetris pieces, and generally making me question why one would watch anything but Japanese television, ever.

An Apple Ate My Brain!

Okay now seriously.

How am I not supposed to feel like a techno-prescient oracle, considering the following:

1. I have long said that I would only get a cell-phone when a device was developed that met all of my portable digital needs:

- Phone
- Music
- PDA
- Web Browser/Email
- Nintendo Hand-held Gaming System

2. NINTENDO IS DEVELOPING GAMES FOR THE IPHONE!!.

Okay, so the evidence is paltry. But seriously... how amazing if it were true?

And why not really - I've also long said that Macintosh and Nintendo are very similar in their business approach and company personality. To whit:

- long-lasting in highly-competitive tech industries, without majority market share

- highly entrepreneurial/innovative development model - track record of inventing revolutionary products (iPod, Wii, Macintosh 128K, GameBoy etc.)

- some high profile failures (GameCube, Macintosh TV)

- clean, minimalist design aesthetic, with tendencies toward 'cute' imagery

- etc. etc.

In other cool links, check out the Evolution of Apple Products:



And while you're at it - PC World's initial response to the iPhone points to 10 things they did well, and 10 things that need improvement for the next generation. Which is when I'd better have one of these in my hot little hands...

Cupcake Porn!

Okay, so maybe that's a tad sensational. But what else can you call these photos of amazing, droolworthy, over-the-top creations, which could keep a girl up aaaall night?



And, check out these cupcakes, done by a girl from Seattle. Pretty much the best ever.



See more of her amazing stuff on her flickr site - including a Nintendo DS cake! She's everything I would like to be.

See more at:

Cupcakes Takes the Cake :: fantastic cupcake blog

Realising Nuala :: cupcake/bakery blog from Singapore

Cupcake Momma :: a flickr set of amazing cupcakes

Kylie Lambert :: another flickr set of - you guessed it - amazing cupcakes

You're welcome!

The most dangerous animal...

You can tell by his soundtrack.

MixPlay Mixmaster!

Why can't all advertising be this clean, engaging, compelling, fun and stylish?

This is Uniqlo's campaign for it's new series of coloured parkas. My sense is that they are a Japanese company, pretty similar to the Gap here in N.A., but daaaaaamn this is a nice series.



The accompanying interactive website is intuitive and a complete blast to play with.



They also did a series of in-store demos, like the one below.



Simple, eye-catching, cool, in-brand... awesome.

UNICORN VIDEO POWER DECK!!!

No no. Don't speak. Just sit down, shut up and enjoy the sweet sweet candy!!!


You've probably already met Charlie the Unicorn, as it went viral like crazy, but if not...


I dare you: 1. Not to get this theme song stuck in your head; 2. Not to agree that Feathers, Cadillac and Tom Cruise are the three greatest unicorn names you've ever heard.


Methinks cartoonist James Thurber had a couple of relationship issues.

Philip K. Droid

Now this project is dead and gone, but I keep meaning to blog about it anyways.

Philip K. Dick (1928 -1982), as many of you know, wrote dark, paranoid science fiction that's been the source for many of your favourite sci-fi movies [Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly], and possibly some of your favourite sci-fi literature as well [The Three Stigmata of Palmer Elddrich, Ubik, The Man in the High Castle, Flow my Tears the Policeman Said, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?].

One thing I love about his work is its handling of robots and computers. Deeply concerned with the nature of consciousness, PKD's world is one where manipulation of memories, moods and personalities, and androids exhibiting emotion, inspiration and free will, blur the lines between man and machine.

So what better tribute to Philip K. than an android in his likeness?


Aw, don't you just want to go cuddle up and discuss the nature of reality?


Android head with stoned-looking kid.

From the FedEx Institute of Technology, Hanson Robotics, and the Automation and Robotics Research Institute, the project seems to have been pretty active back in 2005, but now has died out. No news as to why.

Here is the PKD android interacting with someone at 2005 NextFest in Chicago:



And here are some more links if you want to learn more about Philip K. Dick. Hey! Check out my major blogger journalistic diligence!

The Relationship Between Humans and Machines: Through the Eyes of Philip K. Dick - An analysis by Eli Eisenberger.

Official Site - if for no other reason alone, visit to see the cover art gallery, including the Japanese 'Do Androids Dream...' cover on the right.

The Most Brilliant Sci-Fi Mind on Any Planet - a Rolling Stone article from 1975, this was the first major article about the author.

Running the Numbers...

Chris Jordan is a Seattle-based lawyer-cum-photographer whose latest series is definitely worth checking out.

Translating real data about consumption of objects and resources into oversized, beautiful photographs really conveys the massive quantity of waste we produce, without feeling pushy or pedantic. The messaging is simple, but the impact is strong.

Check em!


Toothpicks :: Depicts 8 million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees harvested in the US every month to make the paper for mail order catalogs.


Cell Phones :: Depicts 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day.


Prison Uniforms. :: Depicts 2.3 million folded prison uniforms, equal to the number of Americans incarcerated in 2005.

All in all a great exhibit. Check the touring schedule on his site.

Double Up Hits Stores!

Don't front. R. Kelly is the man.

Check out the song to the right, and enjoy the delicious goodness.

"Don't trip - I got a giant rocket
Gliding through just hitting your pocket"

If that's not enough, he drops a Uranus reference. AND it means just what you're afraid it does.

Amazing.

I wanna meet that dad!

I know, the Beckstar's been a bit remiss in the posting as of late.

What can I say? Springtime, sunshine, romance and... Trauma Center for the wii have kept me off the old computational device.

But...



How can you be mad at me when I bring incredible gems like that into your life?

Avian Bird Bots!

So you're a town in England. You've got a problem with massive, freakish, bloated pigeons ranking up your streets with shit, and generally making a hideous nuisance of themselves.

You have a choice.

You can either:

a) Do nothing, and let your city degenerate into a vile, festering pigeon paradise (Venice anyone?)

b) Contnue spending $320,000 a year on employing 8 full-time workers solely dedicated to washing pigeon shit off your streets

or...

c) INSTALL TEN ROBOTIC PEREGRINE FALCONS TO SCARE THOSE PARASITES THE FUCK AWAY (into the neighbouring towns presumably, but let's keep that to ourselves).


Fear the falcon's robot gaze! FEAR IT!!!

Yes, Liverpool is doing exactly that, and it couldn't happen soon enough, considering their status next year as European Capital of Culture.

These little birdbots, titled strangely as Robops by the company that invented them, sit in static locations (which will change to ensure that the birds don't get used to their presence) and engage in a series of behaviours that imitate Peregrine Falcons - one of the species that preys on pigeons.


The range of motion/behaviour of the Robop.

The website for the Robops is as inexplicable as their names, and is a labrynthian garbage pile twelve-thousand bytes deep, but let's ignore that and give mad props to a great idea.

Y'all know the Beckstar loves to see robots helping their organic earthmates. Just another harbinger of an awesome, awesome future, where robots help man, man builds more robots, and we realize that the Raelians were right all along. I for one am looking forward to it.

Alice Wang's techno-socio experiments.

Alice Wang is from Taipei, Taiwan. She recently graduated with a First Class degree from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design BA (hons) Product Design and is now studying MA Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art.

She often uses products to illustrate various human behaviours, social taboos and social trends. Her products question why people do what they do and how it will evolve over time leading onto other possible behaviours.

- alice-wang.com

Alice Wang's commercial product prototypes seem found from the future, and are very clever technological thought exercises. They all demonstrate a great deal of insight into technology's relationship with human society. And while some of her projects are very much art experiments, others are prescient and very possible.

How about the audio sticks project, where she "aims to discuss how digital music will change our values towards music and explore possible future music scenarios"?


Tracey Morgan: I'm gonna make you a mixtape. Do you like Phil Collins?
Alec Baldwin: I have two ears and a heart, don't I?
[from the excellent show 30 Rock

Another thought-provoking, and very funny, project is her Pet Plus+ project, which is all about how people use pets as social surrogates (for boyfriends, girlfriends, children, etc.).


It's sad that I can really see this in use.


How brilliant is that leash?

She also has several other project on the go, including her latest, Nanoweapons, a scary and thought-provoking look at weaponized nanotechnology that is much too disturbing visually to post here. Or Peer Pressure, below, which is all about technology catered to social insecurities.


These headphones are multidirectional. Your music plays to your ears, and popular top 40 music plays to the outside world. Other proejcts include a phone that text-messages itself, and a printer that outputs fabricated complimentary emails about oneself for co-workers to 'accidentally' see.

The spirit of hip hop just keeled over and died

This is wrong on so many levels it may as well come over in a gimp suit and make out with your mom.

MC KARL ROVE?!?!? Have mercy. This is from the recent Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner.

The fact that Karl Rove, evil old white dude and living embodiment of "the man", thought that it was acceptable to clutch himself awkwardly and gyrate with a cellphone while a cheap mc drops embarassingly bad corporate rhymes about him, like

He can't be beat because he's so white from his head to his feet but he will rap it when you give him a chance.

Look at him move, doing the rapping dance. That's true, he's a dancing resident. He is a sidekick to the president.

is unequivocal proof that hip hop has become completely divorced from the political context it was born from.

I mean... DOING THE RAPPING DANCE?!? What on earth is the rapping dance???


I had to watch this twice in order to blog it effectively. I am going to cry in the shower now