Aram Bartholl, as part of an art project, has embedded multiple USB drives in walls and curbs throughout New York. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not going to plug my computer into some random public USB.
The idea is to create an anonymous, offline file-sharing network in public space. The drives are completely public and anyone can plug in to drop and download files.
There are 18,000 parking lot attendants in the U.S. with college degrees. There are 5,000 janitors in the U.S. with PhDs. In all, some 17 million college-educated Americans have jobs that don’t require their level of education. Why?
The data comes from a the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and can be seen here in handy, depressing chart form:
At the Chronicle, where the below chart was posted, Richard Vedder argues that maybe we place too much importance on higher education, citing a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research:
If Steve Jobs doesn’t own one of these, he should. I’ll bet Bill Gates has a Microsoft Surface table in his office somewhere.
I present this year’s Ultimate Halloween Playlist, fortified with all new Satanism for 2010. Now go fire up the iTunes, all you lil’ hellions. And have a Happy Halloween!
40. Blood on the Dance Floor, Michael Jackson
39. Weird Science, Oingo Boingo
38. Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield
37. Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes, Los Lobos
36. Dude (Looks Like a Lady), Aerosmith
35. House of Fun, Madness
34. Somebody’s Watching Me, Rockwell
33. Zombie Graveyard Party, Be Your Own Pet
32. Hard Candy, Counting Crows
31. Disturbia, Rihanna
30. Enter Sandman, Metallica
29. Highway to Hell, AC/DC
28. Devil Inside, INXS
27. Runnin’ With the Devil, Van Halen
26. Candyman, Christina Aguilera
25. The Headless Horseman, Bing Crosby
24. The Addams Family, Vic Mizzy
23. Zombie Zoo, Tom Petty
22. Trick or Treat, Otis Redding
21. Don’t Fear the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult
20. Toccata and Fugue in D minor, J.S. Bach
19. Pet Sematary, the Ramones
18. Mr. Sandman, the Chordettes
17. (You’re the) Devil in Disguise, Elvis Presley
16. Witchcraft, Frank Sinatra
15. Grim Grinning Ghosts, from Disney’s Haunted Mansion
14. The Munsters Theme, Jack Marshall
13. Land of 1000 Dances, Wilson Pickett
12. Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper
11. I Want Candy, Bow Wow Wow
10. Time Warp, the cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
9. Dead Man’s Party, Oingo Boingo
8. This Is Halloween, Danny Elfman
7. The Twilight Zone Theme, Marius Constant
6. Werewolves of London, Warren Zevon
5. Bela Lugosi’s Dead, Bauhaus
4. I Put a Spell on You, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins3. Halloween Theme: Main Title, John Carpenter
3. Halloween Theme: Main Title, John Carpenter
2. Monster Mash, Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt Kickers
1. Thriller, Michael Jackson
THAT crisp apple colour and that crisp apple smell could one day come out of the same ink-jet printer, if an idea hatched in a Japanese lab takes off. Using technology from existing ink-jet printers, the idea is to generate evocative aromas to complement images on your computer or TV, from the scent of a mown lawn in a family photo to truffles in a cookery show.
Scent-assisted movies were tried out in the mid-20th century. AromaRama pumped scent into cinema air conditioning, while the rival Smell-O-Vision had its own dedicated system of pipes. Both were abject failures, with noisy machinery or patchy odours. Worst of all, each aroma lingered too long and mixed with the next, blending into a noxious stench by the closing credits. More recent attempts to make whiffy peripherals, such as the iSmell USB device from Digiscents in 2000, fell at the same hurdle.
