Tom the Dancing Bug

Awesome.

Tom the Dancing Bug's site.

Kindle Shopping.

Afternoon all,

I bought a book twice off of Amazon today.
The first time was a paperback copy of "The Nightless City" for my sweetie.
It cost $13.00 and plus S&H came to $18 something.
It will be here in a few days.

Then, out of curiousity, I checked to see if they had it for the Kindle.
They did, indeed!



It cost 80 cents and I had it in four seconds.

I cannot recommend this device highly enough.

Have a great weekend.

-Jackson

Murrow on Freedom of Speech

David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck.

Hugely inspiring words. As true today as they were yesterday, and will be tomorrow.

"We are not descended from fearful men..."

Marvy.

Brando's Bongos

Just wandered across a great old newscast!

Edward R. Murrow is interviewing Marlon Brando when, midway through the interview, Brando gets up, walks downstairs and really tears into a set of bongos with another hip cat, the legendary Jack Costanzo.

You've gotta see this:



Brando... Tres cool, no?

"How's every little thing?"
Love it.

Special thanks to Google Video for hosting the clip, and to whomever was kind enough to digitize and upload it.

Brazil's Undiscovered Tribe

These photographs are the first record of a previously undiscovered tribe of people living deep in Brazil's rain forest.

Up until now, there is no record of these people ever having made contact with the outside world, or vice versa.

The men in the photo have painted their bodies with a red-orange paint, and the women have painted themselves black. Is this in response to the plane, which was making its second pass over the area? We can only provide conjecture.

It is amazing to think of all that is yet to be discovered. Just when we think we've got our planet tidilly figured out, something like this comes along. Like the coelacanth, or the rediscovery of the colossal squid, or this tribe furiously defending itself by launching arrows and spears at the plane flying overhead.

This Earth of ours is still full of magic and promise.

Here's the article from the BBC: Isolated Tribe Spotted in Brazil

David Byrne Plays a Building

Morning All!

Just saw this fascinating piece in the NYtimes.

Musician and former Talking Heads front man David Byrne has wired up a building in Battery Park, turning it into a gigantic musical instrument.

Check out this viddy.



As you can see, the wires spread throughout the building, each connected to varied noise-provoking devices, and all feed into the retrofitted organ. Press a key and the pillars rumble, move up an octave and the roof beams moan. A 99 year old building is given a voice and encouraged to use it to sing. Sounds lovely.

Has this been done before?
Can you imagine attending a church service (of any denomination) in a building that responded to whatever was being said? A political rally? It could be thrilling.

We can't wait to find out what Mr. Byrne plans to do with his new toy.

Here's the NYtimes article: David Byrne's New Band

It's fun to explore, y'see!

G.ho.st

Afternoon All,

The NYtimes has a very interesting article up about a web start-up called G.ho.st.

G.ho.st is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, they are working on a site that you can sign in to and access not only your desktop, but any programs and software you've got, and use it from any PC.

Secondly, half of the team working on G.ho.st is Israeli, and the other half is Palestinian.

“We are doing something across cultures and across two sides of a tough conflict,” Dr. Schreiber said. “I was prepared for the possibility that it might be difficult, but it hasn’t been.”

Communication as a method for growth and understanding.
A thought that's both revolutionary and as old as sand.

Here's the article: NYtimes - Israelis and Palestinians Launch Web Start-Up

An interesting thought just popped into the ol' head:

Few celebrate the building of a wall.
Everybody celebrates when one is torn down.

Thoughts?

Sustainable is the New Black

Hey Y'all!

SuperForester Graham was wearing this flash t-shirt the other day and he was kind enough to let us snap a picky.

Sweet, no?

Want your own "Sustainable is the New Black" T-shirt - from Tsar Nicoulai Caviar?
Only 20 smackers! Comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes!

Ride a Bike to City Bakery!

Hey Everyone!

I was strolling by City Bakery the other morning when I saw this sign:

How rad!
Then, I went home and checked out the websites listed--Check out www.buildagreenbakery.com. It is a bakery on Charles and Seventh Ave. South in the West Village called Birdbath that is totally revolutionary. The walls are made of wheat, the counter tops are recycled paper, the cups are corn, the floors are reclaimed wood, they are wind-powered, they use local honey and milk....the list goes on and on. They even bake the goods in the east village and have rickshaws bike them over to the west side.
I can't believe I haven't heard about them before today.....

Looks like me and my Strida bike have a date over at the bakery later this evening.

Get riding (and satisfy your sweet tooth at the same time!)
Niki

Tom the Dancing Bug - Ruben Bolling

Funny! We love comics with M***ey M**se in them!
Tom the Dancing Bug's website

SuperForest Comics

Happy Wednesday.

Love,

Team SuperForest

Amazon Kindle Price Drop!

The Kindle is now going for $359.00, a $40 knock-off. This device is wonderful, and now they've dropped the price 10%. Get one, they're so sweet.

Looky here:

(via alleyinsider)

Does anyone reading this have a Kindle? Do you love it? Tell us everything!
Comment below.

Howard Hughes Still Rocking

According to a recent news item, Howard Hughes Medical Institute has picked 56 of the nations top biomedical research scientists, 42 men, and 14 women, and told them to tackle their most daunting, daring challenges.

HHMI has pledged to support these pioneers, to the tune of 600 million dollars.

This is a high-risk/high-reward scenario, to be sure, but the potential it represents for bold advances in medicine cannot be understated.

"This crop of HHMI investigators is at the forefront of a wide range of scientific fields — ranging from microbiology, genetics, and immunology to fields of inquiry that are newer to HHMI, such as bioengineering, synthetic biology, and the ecology of infectious disease. Some of the scientific questions driving the new investigators' research include: How does aging contribute to neurodegeneration? Which genetic changes alter behavior throughout evolution? What can bacteria teach chemists about designing better antibiotics? And does climate change affect the spread of infectious diseases?"

Encouraging news.
Special thanks to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for the generous and forward-thinking act.

Here's the original press release to parse at your leisure: HHMI News

Howard Hughes was a fascinating cat. If you don't know much about him, we recommend "Citizen Hughes" by Michael Drosnin as a primer. Also, "Howard Hughes: the Untold Story" by Peter Harry Brown was pretty good too! (Cripes, I've read a lot of Howard Hughes biographies.)

Here's the Howard Hughes wiki.

Crabfu's Robots!

This viddy was featured on youtube and it lead us to Crabfu's many other amazing creations.

Creations like Swashbots 2 & 3!



R2S2, a steam-powered RC R2D2-bot!



For real!

Check out the whole arsenal:



This Crabfu is a genius.
His real name is I-Wei Huang, and he lives in SF working as a game animator.

Here is his website: Crabfu Steamworks

And here's a cool 2 page article that wired did on him.



(all viddys via youtube.)

VW. 2-Seater. 235 mpg. 2010.

This is the L1, a 235mpg concept vehicle VW is hoping to have on the road by 2010.




The gas tank only holds 1.7 gallons of fuel! 400 miles per fill!

Thanks to inhabitat for the intel

Solar Powered MacBook!

Apple has just filed a patent for a solar powered PC, to look much like the concept above, one imagines.

MacBook plus Solar Power = Delicious.

Honestly, what more can be said?

The end of cords cannot come soon enough.

Thanks to inhabitat for the intel.

James Taylor on Sesame Street

Sesame Street has some quality archives!
Thanks to SuperForester Jillian for sending this in.

Doesn't James Taylor look like a "Fawlty Towers-era" John Cleese?



Creamy.

Phoenix Mars Lander: (photo by the Mars Orbiter)

Just saw this on boingboing.

See that blurry white smudge against the blackness?

This is a picture shot by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of the Phoenix Lander parachuting down to a safe landing on the surface of the planet Mars.

One probe films another on the surface of an alien planet...

That is simply too cool for words, but let's try anyway.

In the words of Cory Doctorow:

"How badass awesome is it to be a human? Super badass awesome."

Darn right.

Our probes are so cool, they need myspace pages.

Oooooh, watch this:

Madeline Kahn & Grover Sing!

Thanks to SuperForester Jon for sending is this delightful piece.

Madeline Kahn on wikipedia

Stevie Sings Superstition on Sesame Street

Awesome.
The Street was never the same before or since.

Substitute Substitute

At first I thought, why doesn't he move the mike down to the guitar?
Then I thought, whoah!
This cat shreds.

Happy Memorial Day!

Team Superforest

Plasco Energy and the End of Trash!

Morning All!

I read Niki's post about NYC's recycling plan with interest, because trash and our methods of dealing with it have been in the forefront of my mind ever since I saw an amazing piece on Korean television about a Canadian company called Plasco Energy.

Plasco just may have got this whole "trash" thing figured out.

Using a technique called Plasma Gasification, they've devised a way to reduce landfill content by 99.9 percent. You heard that right: Ninety-nine point nine percent.

Here's how their system works:

Municipal solid waste arrives at the Plasco facility where it is shredded.
Recyclables are sifted and sorted out.

What's left is run through past electric plasma torches in high heat, but almost zero oxygen. This results in decomposition, not combustion. So no smoke is produced, just usable gases. These gases are refined into fuel gas and used to power Plasco's operation. Meaning, once the system is started, it is self-sustaining, needing only more trash to keep running.

Furthermore, the gases produced are also used to run a series of generators which create electric power. This power is then sold to the grid.

All material left over is then run past the plasma torches a second time, turning decomposed ash into a crystalline, glass-like material which is non-toxic, non-leaching, and can be used as roadbed aggregate, in construction materials, even polished and set to create jewelry. It looks a bit like obsidian, and personally, I think it would make some very cool black brick.

Any water that comes out of the process is perfectly clean and can be used for irrigation purposes.

So, just to recap:

Trash in.
Recyclables, power, fuel, salt, sulfur, clean water, and black glass-like material out.

What's left? .1 percent heavy metals from improperly disposed trash; things like batteries and paints.

And it gets better. Plasco's operation, besides being self-sustaining and extremely productive, is very quiet, modular so it can be scaled to whatever size you need, and doesn't stink up the neighborhood.

New York currently has to pay $90 per ton of trash in hauling and disposal fees.
With a Plasco system in place, NY could be making $15 a ton.

Think what this technology means to the future of NYC.
Instead of looking at trash as a problem, we realize that it is a huge asset.

Fresh Kills Landfill becomes Fresh Kills Mine. Plasma gasification quietly and efficiently turns countless tons of our trash into wonderful usable products like gas and electricity while making our city money!

How nice is that? A landfill is just a mine in reverse!

And you don't even have to sort your trash anymore.

(Personally, I've never understood why the onus of dealing with municipal waste fell on the private citizen. Isn't the whole point of a state and federal government to deal with that issue, among others? Isn't the point of those institutions existing to let us live our lives happily, cleanly, and productively? Shouldn't we be free of the worry that our trash is going to harm our environment?)

Really, what are you and I supposed to do with an aluminum can? A dirty diaper? Our take-out containers?

Plasma gasification, that's what.



Waste = Food!
Waste = Energy!
Waste = $$$!

What do you think? Should we start a "polite declaration of intention" and ask Mayor Bloomberg to invite Plasco to set up shop in NYC?

It would eliminate 99.9 percent of my concerns about the future of NYC's trash.

Love to all,

-Jackson

Here's Plasco's website: Plasco Energy
And here's Plasco's wiki

NYC Subway trash-Recycled?

Hello All!

I was on the subway today when I saw these lovely trash cans.

I've heard rumors about all our trash being sorted and recycled, but is it true? Why not have separate bins? I did some digging and I thought I'd share what I found out. Apparently, all the trash goes to a place in NJ called All American Recycling in Jersey City. It gets sorted on conveyer belts and 25 people pick out the trash that can get recycled. 40% of the trash can actually be taken out and recycled! Which is about 7100 tons! That's lots!

Click here to see an interview with a lady who followed the trash to the recycling center and explaining why separate bins wouldn't help the situation (which is debatable).

So, it's true! Pretty impressive.

That's all!

Niki

Kindle's Extraordinary Abilities

Hello All!

Yesterday, I sent an email to my brother and father. I also checked my inbox on Gmail.
Big deal, right?

I did it through my Kindle.

What? I thought it was an eBook? I thought it was just for reading.

I was so wrong. It's a PC in the guise of an eBook. And Amazon hasn't really pushed this fact at all. Amazing.

This widget is seriously blowing my mind.

So, not only can you send and receive emails, you can go on GoogleMaps, use Google411, check facts on wikipedia, surf the web, wirelessly for free.

Yes, for free.

You heard me right. The Kindle's internet capability is totally free.

It's a wireless laptop, a beautiful eBook, a stunning use of ePaper. So many things in one!

Also, you can go on Project Gutenberg, download any of the classic books they've got online, and drop them onto your Kindle for 10 cents a book.

10 cents a book!

Moby Dick = ten cents.
Huckleberry Finn = ten cents.
The Epic of Gilgamesh = ten cents.

This thing is above and beyond. Get one, it's fabulous.

Love,

Jackson

Muto by blublu

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

This is jaw-droppingly amazing.
No, check that, it's double-jaw-droppingly amazing. You'll see it once and then have to have your jaw surgically reattached before you see it again and repeat the process.

Grasshopper-bot!

"Instead of muscles, the microbot uses a 0.6 gram motor that charges two torsion springs. With its current battery pack, it can make about 300 jumps before it needs a recharge, but the researchers envision tiny solar cells eventually helping increase its uptime. Like even tinier flea-sized microbots developed at Berkeley, insect-like bots could be used in swarms to act as exploring or sensing agents in areas where humans would rather not tread."

That robot is incroyable!

Amazing work by Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne!!!

(amazingness via wired.com)

Hello Kitty Darth Vader Tattoo

If you're like me, I'll bet you never expected to see those five words used together to describe something.

But, there you have it: the Hello Kitty Darth Vader Tattoo.

(via kittyhell)

silly string!

Elegant String Theory Videos~~~~~~~

NOVA’s “The Elegant Universe” written and narrated by Brian Greene gives some very fun and entertaining explorations into string theory. Watch Manhattan fold in on itself to speed up your commute!

Love and strings,

TV

Kindle Redux

Hello All,

A thought just occured to me...

I think a major facet of why I love my Kindle so much is the idea that:

If I could be satisfied with reading only the books I downloaded from Amazon (or another eBook retailer,) theoretically, I would never again be responsible for the death of a tree.

That is a very powerful meme.

Of course, materials were used in the creation and distribution of my Kindle, but that is over and done with. My Kindle can and will be recycled when it reaches the end of its useful life.

In the meantime, those majestic and incredibly useful creatures called trees will no longer have to be toppled over, pulped, bleached, pressed flat, dried and then have ink sprayed on them in order to convey intel from my visual cortex to my cerebrum.

I absolutely LOVE that.

I no longer want to own books willy nilly. Sure, a first edition of Catcher in the Rye, or Ender's Game is something I would cherish, but the run of the mill Hudson News airport purchase? Paper no longer!
And once my precious little device can render images in color, well, that ends my addiction to Wired; in print form anyway.

I'm already reading the Times on my Kindle, which translates the grainy, black and white nature of a newspaper perfectly.

The Kindle is in its Game Boy stage right now, but soon it will be an XBox. Fast, furious, and gorgeously rendered.

And in the meantime, the sound of a tree falling in the woods has nothing to do with my reading habits and everything to do with my eBook version of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.

This goes for everything in my life. I no longer wish to own things. Just gimme the data.
I don't want dvd's, I want the codecs contained on them. I don't want books, just the info they contain. No more cds, just the mp3s please.
It's the ideas things represent that I desire, not the things themselves.

Little by little, the world of things falls away and the truth is revealed in its shining glory. This is the SuperForest way.

I feel so free!

Buy a Kindle, save a hundred thousand trees.

Love to All,

-Jackson

Brazil: Sugar Heaven!

Good Morning!
I was watching a great series last night on CNN: "We Were Warned: Out of Gas". It was fascinating-looking into the future when we may just run out of gas. We are all talking about it, but they really looked into the scary reality of the situation. What would we do? How would we get our food? How would we travel? How would we function as a society? What are some realistic alternatives?
One place that wont really be effected is Brazil. They have created a real solution. It is working now. It isn't an abstract idea or something that MAY work in future. It is working. They grow million of acres sugarcane and half of it gets made into sugar and the other half into ethanol. 40% of transportation fuel in Brazil is Ethanol. Within the next year, Brazil will not need to import any oil. That's it. That is truly amazing.
Check out this video.

And your car will smell like Molasses! Yum!
Why isn't the U.S. catching on, yet??
We will.
Soon.
Hopefully, soon enough.
Drive Sweet!
Niki

Oh My Kindle!

Hello All,

Before I left the States, my father gave me a Kindle, which is Amazon's extraodinary take on the eBook.

I am hooked, hooked, hooked!

I'm usually wary of eBooks because:
1: They get hot and uncomfortable to hold.
2: They are heavy.
3: The screens are hard to read and cause eyestrain.
4: Not many titles to download.

Amazon has solved ALL of these problems.

The Kindle is revolutionary because it uses ePaper, which is like bi-colored beads sandwiched between two pieces of plastic. Run a charge through the plastic and the beads align themselve either face up or face down. One side is black, the other neutral. The result: it's just like reading a piece of paper. You can tilt it in any direction and still be able to read the screen.

And, like paper, you can read it outside in full sunlight, with no problem.

It doesn't get hot either. I don't know why, it just don't. Read it for hours and it will still feel the same.

It weighs 10 ounces. Not as much as a box of Kleenex.

As far as available titles go, well, you pretty much have all of Amazon to download, and they are putting new titles up with the quickness. Plus you can get the Times, Wired, boingboing, any newspaper, magazine, or blog you wish.

The battery lasts forever. I've had it for the better part of a week and am just charging it now. It wasn't even dead, I just couldn't stand the thought of not reading Snow Crash on the plane ride back to Seoul.

Now, it has it's problems, but for a V.1 product, it is a dream of convenience, elegance, and fun.

I want this device to take pictures, open my front door, call my friends, load Google maps, and be my laptop. It doesn't yet, but by V.10, be assured that it will.

In short, the Kindle is the must have device for Internet 2.0.
The best and most essential new widget to date.

Buy yourself a Kindle, throw it into your D.I.Y. messenger bag, hop on your Strida and pedal yourself to Central Park. I'll see you there and we can kibbitz.

Bezos, you're a genius.

Love to all,

Jackson

Hello From Korea!

Hello All,

Jackson here.

I am writing this from the internet cafe on an island off of the Korean peninsula.
All of the wonderful things I've seen and learned this trip!
It will take some time to grok them fully, but when waiting has been accomplished, I will post a full update.

Korea is an amazing place, so sensible and so wild! A wonderful and stimulating disparity.

At any rate, I'm so excited to return to New York and get back to posting full-time.

For now, I've got to go and set my tattooed self in the sauna and sweat out last nights' debauchery.

Love to all!

-Jackson

Solar Beach Tote!

Hey!

Just saw this over at 3R Living (the local brooklyn "future friendly" shop!).



Charge your phone, camera or Ipod while basking in the sun! It's pretty pricey, but having unlimited music time at the beach: priceless!
Enjoy the sun!
Niki

Charity:Water!

Good Afternoon!

Scott Harrison, started an amazing charity called Charity: Water. The mission is simple: Buy a $20 bottle of their water and 100% of the proceeds go towards drilling wells for clean drinking water in impoverished communities.

There is so much to say about this awesome organization and how much they have accomplished in just 16 months, but for today, just check out this video and get inspired (and actually, check out the photographs while you are there!)

Have a good day!

Niki

1 Pack=1 Vaccine

Pampers and UNICEF joined forces and started an international initiative to prevent women and babies from preventable diseases.

"For every specially-marked pack of Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive, Swaddlers, Cruisers, and Easy Ups diapers and Pampers Sensitive, Swipers, and Clean ‘n Go wipes purchased in the U.S. and Canada from April 7 through August 31, 2008, the Pampers brand will donate 5¢ to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF to provide one tetanus vaccine to a woman in the developing world.* The goal for the U.S. campaign is 45 million vaccines, which would bring the total global donations to more than 70 million vaccines."

Personally, I am a supporter of Seventh Generation diapers, but maybe this is a reason to switch until August to Pampers? If only they would make them chlorine free, fragrance free and latex free, then they would have cornered the market. So, it's a little of a debate for me because I want to do what I can to eliminate toxic chemicals in production that harm our environment, but I also want to help save our environment (meaning PEOPLE, who are our environment, as well).

Either way, Pampers is doing a great thing. We should support their efforts. If you are a Pampers lover, stock up now!

Happy Tuesday,
Niki