I'm loathe the side against robots, given their proven professional wrestling superiority. But this cat... this cat's got strategy. Step one: ignore. Step two: avoid. Step three:
THWAP. Hellloooooo, kitty. [DVice via BotJunkie]
Last Wednesday I married the love of my life. This is the short story of some of the things I did before I met her, a guide on flirting using Twitter, Facebook, texting, and sexting face-to-face, in the real world.
Since I came to New York, my romantic life has been a rollercoaster. A very fast one, with 9G turns. If there is a city in the world to flirt and date anywhere and anytime, it's NYC. You don't need the web to meet people. Every cafe, every bar, every party seems like a huge playground for singles to engage in conversations and start love affairs. However, the web can help while you are meeting people and after, all in real time, and face to face.
If you have enough confidence and you are fearless—remember: you have nothing to lose, since you will always have the "no"—any city in the world should be open for the same games. Here are some tips to use technology while meeting people in the real world.
Technology hasn't changed real world flirting. Much. At the end of the day, it all depends on you, how charming you can be, and how much the other person likes you (tip: not everyone has to like you). However, web-based social services like Facebook and Twitter open a door that didn't exist before. They are an opportunity to take the flirting to a new level when you first meet someone in the flesh, all without getting too personal. For some reason, exchanging Twitter or Facebook usernames doesn't seem to be perceived as threatening or serious as exchanging phone numbers or email addresses. After all, Twitter is open and Facebook's friend requests can be denied—or accepted and then canceled.
The web-based flirting can happen right at the moment you meet the other person or later. I remember my first party in the city, hosted by Gawker.tv's Richard Blakeley, a couple of weeks after my arrival. A girl with the most hypnotic cleavage I've ever seen approached me and started to talk. Within a few minutes things started to get fun. A few minutes later, we moved into more suggestive terrain. While this was happening, I saw her Blackberry in her hand. She had her Facebook page open. Without her noticing, I looked her name up in my iPhone's Facebook app as we were talking, and sent her a friend request on the spot. We kept talking and minutes later, when she checked her Facebook again, she found the request, smiled maliciously, and clicked yes saying "I guess we are now friends."
That night was fun.
But it's not always that easy. The key in that example is that it happened naturally, and the move matched the rhythm of the conversation. Taking the step to add someone to Facebook in real time is a risky one, so you have to measure yourself and be ready to gamble. That is the basic rule: Never force things, and learn to read the signs that the other person is giving you. If the conversation is playful, wait until you think is appropriate to incorporate something like Facebook into it.
Asking for a Twitter name during the conversation is a lot easier than making that Facebook move. After all, Twitter is open to everyone, and direct messaging is a perfect way to flirt—at least for me: I find its 140-character limitation challenging and exciting, and I love when people can be concise and clever in just one single phrase.
Once again, the medium is not important except as a way to reach your counterpart, allowing you to snip casually, responding to the other person's comments. Doing it publicly is a very fine art, which can easily end in disaster, especially if the other person already has a lover. If you have enough wit and you are sensitive to the other person's needs and circumstances, chances are that he or she will be interested in you, and something may happen down the line, as the play factor increases in your exchanges. Sometimes, this game also happens in real time.
One night I met a very pretty—and delightfully nerdy—girl at Delmano, one of my favorite bars here in Williamsburg. She knew Gizmodo and recognized me, so the conversation quickly got into technology. She confessed that she followed me on Twitter, so I asked what her nickname was to add her later. Minutes later, in fact: When she excused herself to the bathroom I sent her the first direct message. After that, we spent the whole night having two conversations, one actually speaking out loud, and the other taunting each with secret tweets. That night was fun too.
For sure, that's also an exception, but it's an example on how Twitter can be a nice way to flirt in real time, as long as you keep it natural and in context, just like you would in a real world conversation.
Once you have established a Twitter or Facebook beachhead it's time to move it to the next level. You may decide to keep it in the online world, flirting until you feel comfortable to ask for a date. The alternative is to be a little bit more daring, and use Twitter or Facebook to interact with someone you met before, like you may be doing now using text messages. The difference is that Twitter and Facebook are a lot more useful than text messages, because they give you context. For example, you can learn what the other person is doing without asking for it or without the other person explicitly telling you about it.
I used to do that when I was going through my worse digital exhibitionist phase. A couple of times I tweeted or changed my Facebook status saying where I was, and the girl I was flirting with—the nerdy pretty one—sent me messages saying that she was around, wondering if we could hook up for a drink in the most casual way. Likewise, I did the same thing with other people. Of course, this doesn't always work. You or the other person may have other plans in mind. Again, the key here is not to force things, and be as playful and natural as you can.
If you pass the initial filters, and your flirting turns into something a bit more serious, you may get an instant messaging nickname or a telephone number. Instant messaging is not very useful for real time flirting situations. Unlike Twitter or texting which allow you to be cute and playful in a parallel line to the actual conversation, instant messaging runs at a faster pace and requires more attention.
It's only good in two situations. One may be when you are instant messaging with someone else (cue in lots of trips to the bathroom, stress, and a lot of guilt). Two—which is the only one I've practiced—having a sexual conversations in public, in a crowded place in which you can talk into the ear of your lover. This may also happen with Twitter or text messages, but instant messaging—using your favorite program for your smartphone—is my favorite way to do it. But then again, I am really fast typist.
The time it happened it was by chance. She and I started to talk dirty, casually while having dinner in a crowded restaurant, the typical romantic place illuminated only by candlelight and which shall remain nameless because I want to go there again. As our conversation started to get naughtier, we noticed that some people were listening to us, but instead of shutting up, I took out my iPhone and sent her an even racier message using BeejiveIM. Her iPhone vibrated thanks to Beejive's push, she took it out, smiled, and replied back. We kept on talking about other things, with increasing difficulty as the IM conversation got completely explicit and we had a harder time concentrating on actually making sense in our audible conversation. At one point I asked her for something which made her open her eyes wide, giving me that "are you out of your fucking mind?" look of pure disbelief. I grinned and sent her another message. Surprised, she stood up, turned around, and left.
The next time my iPhone buzzed—about a minute later—it didn't have any text. I clicked on the incoming file and a photo of her bare breasts appeared. A few seconds later, another one of her black lace knickers downloaded completely, as she was returning to the table from the bathroom. It ended being another fun night.
That, sexting, could be considered the top level of all these games, but it's not usual to find someone who may want to do it outside a relationship, much less in a real time, face-to-face situations. When it happens, like it did as part of a larger context and conversation, it can be really fun,
Of course, things don't always happen in this way. The above is not the norm, but it's not the exception. The fact is that, if the opportunity arises, Twitter, Facebook, IM, or texting could be used as part of the flirting and sexual game not only in the privacy of your home, looking at your computer screen, but anywhere in the "real" world. And I have to say that it's a lot more fun that way.
The irony of all this is that, even while I met my amazing wife through the internet, we never used Facebook or Twitter to flirt. We exchanged a couple of emails, she invited me out for coffee, and the most technology-related thing I did after that was to send her a text message, written as I was running to take the subway:
"It was lovely to meet you. I'm sorry I had to run out so earlier, but I really enjoyed talking to you. Would you like to have a proper date next week?"
She asked me to marry her two months later. And we will live happily ever after.
Apologies to all the other brilliant Valentine's e-greetings at someecards, but this is the only one you should need to truly prove your love. [someecards]
We knew it would come and we've seen demos, but at this year's TED conference Wired Magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson confirmed that the publication would hit the iPad this summer. Unfortunately there aren't details regarding digital subscription costs yet.[Wired]
Obama's Move To End Constellation Prompts Industrial Base Questions, Space News
"This is not money-saving. This is having some kind of half-baked scheme that we can commercialize this," said Bishop, whose district is home to ATK Space Systems, the Magna, Utah-based solid-rocket motor manufacturer that is building the first stage of Constellation's Ares 1 rocket and major subsystems for its launch abort system. ATK executives told investors Feb. 4 that canceling Ares 1 would cost the company $650 million in contract backlog."
I'm more excited about Final Fantasy 1 + 2 coming to the iPhone than just about any upcoming iPhone game. It's Final Fantasy! For iPhone!
This is what it looks like in motion. You still have to use the traditional iPhone control scheme of putting your left thumb over 1/6 of the screen, and your right thumb over another 1/6. But still, it's not like this is an action game where you need to see everything on the screen at once. And that's why it'll theoretically transition well to the iPhone, letting you pick up the action whenever you've got a free second, but being able to save/pause when it's your turn at the post office. [Crunchgear]
Mapping Futurism
February 15-16, 2010
Florence, Italy
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
PRESS RELEASE
Mapping Futurism
15-16 February 2010, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
At the end of the centenary celebrations marking the publication of the first Futurist Manifesto in 1909, the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz is holding an interdisciplinary Study Day with the aim of examining the role of Italian Futurism within the international avant-garde movements.
The Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut is furnished with an extensive art-historical library which includes among its holdings on modern and contemporary art in Italy an outstanding special collection of some 500 original publications from the period of Futurism. At the same time the Institute is situated in a historically important centre of Futurism, given that Florentine Futurism firmly opposed the political line represented by the founding father of Futurism, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, in Milan. So Florence is an ideal place in which to examine the question how far the Futurists really could claim to be precursors of the international avant-gardes, as “primitives of a wholly renewed sensibility”, as they called themselves.
Artistic movements such as Futurism, Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism radically opposed the traditional concept of art at the start of the twentieth century. Common to them all was the cultural context of a period of revolution and of groundbreaking discoveries in science, technology, psychology and medicine. They were also united by the ambition to create a new kind of art that would correspond to an image of the modern world. Yet at the same time these movements were national developments, each with its own intellectual background. They sprang from the different political situations in the individual countries.
The aim of the Study Day is critically to examine, from an international perspective, the claim of Futurism to have played a leading role in these movements. That claim was proudly enunciated by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1932, when he said that “the artistic revolution begun by the Futurist movement [.] has created or influenced numerous avant-gardes”. The main focal point is the effect Futurist positions – their reception and influence – had on other art forms. The attempts of Futurism to distance itself from other avant-garde movements will also be analysed.
The evening lecture by Linda Dalrymple Henderson on “Boccioni, Futurism and the Energies of Modernism” will conclude the Study Day with a look at common fields of interest of the artistic avant-gardes at the start of the twentieth century. Apart from new scientific discoveries, her lecture will focus, among other things, on late Victorian ether theory and occult phenomena as sources of energy and inspiration for Futurist artists.
The proceedings of the Study Day will be published in the Florentine journal Semicerchio. Rivista di poesia comaprata in its next issue, which will be dedicated to the impact of the Italian avant-garde in Holland, Poland, France and the USA.
Pro Firenze Futurista – Digital Archive on Futurism in Florence
The Study Day will open with a presentation of the website Pro Firenze Futurista, a project of the Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz in cooperation with the Biblioteca Marucelliana. The foundation of a Digital Archive on Futurism in Florence will thus be laid and the public provided for the first time with free online access to research materials hitherto difficult to access.
The core of the database will consist of a digitalized text of the complete run of the Florentine journal L’Italia Futurista, which was published in 51 issues between 1916 and 1918 as organ of the so-called ‘Second Florentine Futurism’. This will be supplemented with further documents, such as letters, books, photographs, films and audio-visual materials on individual artists, poets and intellectuals who contributed to the journal and helped to generate the avant-garde development in Florence.
In addition, the website will offer thematic portals in which documents on selected themes will be ready-assembled and made available in bundled form, as for instance on the English poet and artist Mina Loy, who frequented the group of young Florentine Futurists round the journal Lacerba (1913-1915). After her stay in Florence she was acclaimed as an ambassadress of Futurism in the USA, but remains largely unknown in Italy.
With its joint project Pro Firenze Futurista, the Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut is reinforcing cooperation between Florentine research institutions – the Biblioteca Marucelliana, the Fondazione Primo Conti and the Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario G.P. Vieussieux are already partners. In addition the Fondazione Longhi and the pianist and composer Daniele Lombardi have promised their support. Further partners, who would like to contribute to the building up of the Digital Archive, are welcome.
In today's Remainders: the unfun. Wait! Don't go. The items themselves are fun! They just involve unfun. We have a no fun WiFi school bus; a no fun eBook from the White House, an unspectacular Samsung smartphone reveal, and more.
Boring Bus
I recently took my first trip on a WiFi-enabled airplane. At first I thought, "How cool! I'll never be bored on a flight again!" But I quickly realized that in-flight WiFi, in some perverse way, made me MORE bored. That special in-the-air-with-nothing-to-do time had been invaded by the regular old routine of checking e-mail and reading through my RSS feeds. So it is with a heavy heart that I read this story about a school district in Arizona that plopped a mobile WiFi router on top of a school bus, effectively turning it into a mobile study hall. And the worst part is the kids are just going along with it. Apparently all of the regular back of the bus mischief has subsided and now the kids just sit and do homework. That's no fun! I remember one time when I was on a school bus a weird kid put SIX FRUIT ROLL UPS in his mouth at one time and nearly suffocated himself in the process. If we're entering an age in which WiFi is the replacement for adolescent fruit roll up shenanigans, count me out. [CrunchGear]
Boring eBook
For the first time, this year's Economic Report of the President will be made available as a free eBook. They have versions prepared for Nooks and Kindles and will offer an ePub version for the Sony Reader and other devices that get down with ePub. I applaud the effort, but I imagine that I'd have such a hard time concentrating on this to begin with that it would take approximately one E-Ink page refresh for me to give up completely. [Engadget]
Boring Reveal
Oh Samsung. You tried to keep your new Bada smartphone under wraps until MWC. You were so close. But then you went ahead and put up this gigantic billboard mere days before the event. Sure, the ad doesn't reveal much about the Wave's specs—just that it has a camera and a full touchscreen—but talk about fudging your big unveiling. [Unwired View]
Boring Sergey
TED curator Chris Anderson brought Google's Sergey Brin on stage for an unplanned Q&A about his company's recent cyber-beef with China. Wired made note of Brin's statement that he was remained "optimistic" that Google and China could work something out, and quoted him as saying he thought Google could "really work within the Chinese system." On the whole, it seemed like Sergey might've been backing down from the no-censorship ultimatum his company announced earlier this year. But a quick read through a transcript of the question and answer session reveals that he addressed the ultimatum explicitly—it's still there, just sugarcoated a little bit:
Yes, we've made a statement of intent. That we intend to stop censoring, and you know, if we can do that, within the confines of Chinese policy, we'd love to continue Google.cn and our operations there. And if we cannot, then we'll do as much as we can but we don't want to run a service that's politically censored. I'm not talking about things like porn and gambling and things like that. Political censorship.
So, no, Google's not backing down. Just being diplomatic. [Wired]
LR WEEKEND MOVIE REVIEW
From Paris With Love
by Dan Sheill
John Travolta as a brash, foul-mouthed, terrorist-fighting machine equals Eric Dondero’s wet dream. That pretty much sums up From Paris With Love, a fantastic, and fairly original action flick starring John Travolta as the maverick CIA agent Charlie Wax, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers who plays James Reece, a young up and coming assistant at the US Embassy in Paris who gets more than he bargains for in an unexpected promotion from his boss, Ambassador Bennington (played by Richard Durden). On the same night that Reece’s girlfriend proposes to him, Bennington calls up the young officer for a special assignment which involves getting Wax past customs at the airport.
Wax is introduced to the audience as a mile a minute, almost sociopath type personality, determined to get his prized energy drinks past customs by openly insulting the French security there for hating America, and having to have had their asses bailed out of two world wars. Turns out the energy drinks are actually Wax’s favorite guns which propel him into ass kicking action which turns city of Paris upside down. By expropriating a vase full of cocaine from a Chinese restaurant, Wax begins lead Reece on a wild goose chase, which starts as an effort to catch a high profile drug dealer, but ends with the drug revenue leading directly back to Pakistani terror cell.
The movie has several priceless scenes, including one where Reece’s fiance` catches him and Wax together with a prostitute in an elevator. Throughout the movie, Reece cannot fathom that his special lady would ever cross him. But as it turns out, she in fact is working with the Pakistani’s and has manipulated young Reece into a love affair which she uses to gain access to an African Aids Summit where the US Secretary of State was going to visit. The movie comes down to a final scene where the girlfriend reveals herself to be a suicide bomber, and Reece is forced to shoot the woman he loves in the head in order to save the lives of innocent civilians.
I definitely recommend this movie.
Editor's Note - Attorney Dan Sheill is a transplanted Michigander who now lives in Texas. He serves on the Republican Liberty Caucus National Committee, and still runs the Michigan RLC.
It's not hard to find a neoprene laptop sleeve, but few are made from the discarded remnants of an actual wetsuit factory like LooptWorks' cases (starting at $30). Authentic shark bites and pee stains not included. [LooptWorks via Treehugger]
Someone in our virtual bullpen said: "It's a cockpit erection." The truth is harder than that.
The roof of one of the small jets hangars at Dulles International Airport collapsed, pushing the tails of the airplanes down and the cockpits up. Apparently because the structure wasn't able to hold under the massive pressure of the snow accumulated during the storm that took over Washington a few days ago. [Flyer Forums]
Bed and Breakfast Unterkunft Bran Bran Bran Unterkunft. Unterkunft Mieten sind die hchsten BergRetreats Carpatien und rustikalen Stil Bed BreakfastRestaurant Bran Pensiunea Katharina. Resort Dorf im Sommer und Winter Saison sind auch verfgbar Besuch Schloss Bran Dracula Transylvanien. Pensiunea Katharina Bran Klassifizierung 4 Margarete ca.800 m befindet sich an der FrontBRAN Dracula Sc
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Keith's note: In this image: The Candarm2, provided by Canada, moves the Node "Tranquility" built by Europe out of the cargo bay of an American space shuttle past Japan's JEM module while a Russian Soyuz is docked to the ISS. 
