mbf tod@y

"Ageing Is No Longer an Unsolved Biological Problem" (Leonard Hayflick)

"TR: So it doesn't imply that there is a solution to aging?

LH: Why would you want to do that?

TR: Some people would like to slow or halt the aging process.

LH: They haven't thought about the consequences. We relate to each other by perceptions of differences in age, which would be destroyed if some chose to increase their longevity and some did not. The social, political, and economic discontinuities that would occur would be enormous. People who say they want extended longevity say they want it to be so when life satisfaction is greatest. Yet they won't know [when that is] until late in life. If you're in your eighties and you decide you want life extended when you were happier, at fifty, it's no longer possible." (Emily Singer, Technology Review)

Where TR = Technology Review and LH = Leonard Hayflick, a professor of anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco.

Another tidbit: "Essentially, less than 3 percent of the budget of the National Institute on Aging, the key source of major funding in this country for research on aging, is spent on studying the fundamental biology of aging--and that's a liberal estimate." = oh boy. 

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cassius - toop toop

...only a genius like Paolo Sorrentino could use this song as a soundtrack to the most outrageous political murders in the land of Berlusconi aka Italy (see Il Divo). The history of this country is written in blood, corruption, and more blood. Toop toop. 

"After all the words we sing
I got my eyes on my machine
You could just put online
So I got some piece of mine
I could keep up during night
I’m gonna search people fight
Hanging out on every
All I got is a machine" (Cassius)

ze frank on black and white

best covers ever (like, right now)

in random order

william shatner, "common people"

shiny happy toys "major tom"

a.c. newman, "take on me" 

nouvelle vague "in a manner of speaking"

calexico "alone or again"

pet shop boys "where the streets have no name" 

the white stripes "I just don't know what to do with myself"

flunk "blue monday"

cake "I will survive"

yeal naim "toxic"

robbie williams "my way"

The New "Bold" Nike+: The Visual Tour

Here are some of the new features of Nike+ 2.0:

"NEW SHOE FINDER
Tell us a little about your running style, and we’ll recommend the shoe that’s best for you. Then just click to buy and make it yours.

NIKE+ IS GETTING PERSONAL
A new customized homepage for members gives you at-a-glance views of your training, progress in goals and challenges, and your Nike+ Mini. Personalize your run results with tags for weather, terrain, and more. Nike+ Levels will color your profile based on your total lifetime distance logged with Nike+. Get help with the site or your devices faster than ever with a completely revised Support Section.

FRIENDS & FOES
With enhanced social features you can search for other runners like you, create and accept new friend requests, and invite them to a challenge. Track your friends’ progress with notifications, and share your own success with automatic updates to Facebook, Twitter, and more.

MORE FROM CHALLENGES
Join runners with similar profiles to yours. Nike+ will now recommend challenges from the gallery to help you find challenges with other runners like you.

IMPROVED GOALS AND COACHING
Choose a pre-set coaching program, or personalize your own routine and goals and have more flexibility in meeting your goals." (Nike)

My questions:

When is this going to be integrated into Xbox Live?

Even better, why can't we use our Xbox Live Avatars instead of the Nike Mini Me?

When are Nike and Microsoft going to make a running game based on Nike+ (Never: Apple is involved...) Never mind...

Nick Kelman's girls: A Paean

Nick Kelman, "girls: A Paean", Back Bay Books, 2004

"And yet tonight when you go to bed, when you lie there awake all night long, your heart pounding like it's going to leap out of your chest as you work and rework your strategy, when you lie there once more trying to figure out how to come out furthest ahead, when you lie there like that, by yourself, she will be sound asleep. And the kids will be sound asleep if they still live at home. And you are happy to give that to them. You really are.

But at some point, perhaps around three of four A.M. after you've gotten up to make yourself a sandwich but have been unable to because you don't know where anything is in your own kitchen, as you return to bed, as you get back in bed and pull the covers up over yourself, you will look down at her and you will wonder what she didn't tell you. You will wonder what other problems you will have to deal with sometime soon, which parts of the things that were supposed to make you happy, which parts of the things that were supposed to fulfill you have gone wrong now. You will wonder what else you will have to deal with on top of the problem that hasn't let you sleep.

And it will occur to you, as you look down at your wonderful, caring, understanding wife, that if she is ever going to really talk at all, if at any point she is going to tell you about her life as she once did so long ago (but how long really - ten, fifteen years?), if she's ever going to talk to you as she once talked to you about her classes or her love of sailing or her desire to join the Peace Corps, if she is ever going to talk to you like that again, she will have to talk to you about those responsibilities that she didn't want to talk to you about when you came home tonight. Because they have become her life. Her whole life now is the responsibilities you have made for yourself outside your job. Her whole life is now the world that used to be your dream, the world you have been doing the work to create, the world that has become a burden, the world that you can't bear to face.

And so perhaps looking down at her, something that not so long ago used to fill your face with amazement, sheer disbelief that you were lying naked next to a woman like this, perhaps looking down at her you will suddenly feel sick. Perhaps looking down at her you will suddenly understand why sometimes when you come home and she opens the door with a smile on her face you can't stand the sight of her, why sometimes when that door opens it feels like you've stepped off an unpleasant ride at an amusement park and right onto another one. And perhaps, just perhaps, just for split second, you will think about how easy it would be to strangle her in her sleep. And then you will wonder where that thought came from" (pp. 61-62)

Coming Soon: Horror Video Games (Foreword by Clive Barker!)

"Horror Video Games

Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play
Edited by Bernard Perron 
Foreword by Clive Barker

Description
In this in-depth critical and theoretical analysis of the horror genre in video games, 14 essays explore the cultural underpinnings of horror’s allure for gamers and the evolution of “survival” themes. The techniques and story effects of specific games such as Resident Evil, Call of Cthulhu, and Silent Hill are examined individually.

About the Author
Bernard Perron is an associate professor of cinema at the University of Montreal. He has co-edited two video game theory books, as well as articles and papers on various aspects of horror video games and interactive cinema."

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Pre-order a copy (September 20 2009)

La Roux Performs "In for A Kill" (NME)

"All of which adds up to a nigh-on flawless album. Just as fluffed ballads and songwriting by committees of television producers have recently ruined pop, even the great ’80s duos perfected singles but never cracked the long-player. Remarkably, with this astounding debut, an unassuming 21-year-old from SW2 has revitalised a forgotten form to make one of the finest forward-thinking British pop albums of recent memory. Sweet dreams are made of this, indeed." (NME) 

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La Roux @ July 22 at Cafe du Nord, San Francisco

Videogames are Back at the Museum of the Moving Image!

"Fourteen classic video games in their original arcade versions, are now on display and playable in Behind the Screen, in the section "Interacting with the Screen." Four game tokens are available for a dollar. Also, there are daily talks by educators about early video game technology (see schedule below). 



The games will rotate on a regular basis. The following games are currently available for play: Asteroids (1979), Battlezone (1980), Berzerk (1980), Defender (1980), Donkey Kong (1981), Frogger (1981), Galaxian (1979), Gauntlet (1984), Missile Command (1980), Ms. Pac-Man (1982), Qix (1981), Space Invaders (1978), Super Breakout (1978), and Tron (1982)."

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Frédéric Beigbeder's 'Love Lasts Three Years' (3 of 3)

File under: Books I should have read a long time ago

Parties
"At parties, the art of seduction is simply a process of closing the gap. Inch by inch, careful not too be too obvious, you move closer. If you spot a girl you fancy, walk over to her (about 6 feet away). If she still looks attractive at this distance, start a conversation (3 feet). If she laughs at you feeble jokes, ask her to dance, or offer her a drink (18 inches). Sit next to her (12 inches). As soon as you see a gleam in her eyes, gently push that stray lock of hair behind her ear (6 inches). If she does not protest, talk to her a little more (3 inches). If her breathing becomes heavy, press your lips to hears (0 inches). The ultimate objective is to narrow the distance between you to a negative value equal to penetration (the national average is 6.6 inches)" (p. 254)

Pampered childhood
"Our mistake is in wanting life to stand still. We want time to stand still, love to last forever, nothing to die so that we can bask forever in some pampered childhood. We put us walls to protect ourselves, and one day those walls become our prison." (p. 295)