SensoryMetrics

Designed by UK architects Serie, this Indian club is a gem. It doubles as a live music club / lounge and recording studio. The walls have acoustic dimples. The stylish lilly pads are contoured with glowing lights of many colours…

I feel so out of place throwing my empty peanut shells on the ground, and ordering another pitcher of Bud! What’s wrong with this place?? Do you guys have wings???

[tags]Mumbai, Serie, Architecture[/tags]

Popularity: 17%

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Innovation, User Experience Architecture, Mumbai, Serie

Apparently, Google was inspired by David Horwitz’s plan to buy homeless people in NY some KFC… Their plan is to give every homeless person in San Francisco a local 415 phone number and free voice mail account. This is being done through Google’s acquisition last year of Grand Central. This proves Alec Saunders’ (and others) theory that VoIP is all about the race to zero. (cost that is) I think the Google plan is pure genius – the cost is minimal, and the technology gives shelters, friends, and family a way to stay in touch with a population that is difficult to reach.

via San Francisco Chronicle
[tags]Google, VoIP, Race-to-Zero, society[/tags]

Popularity: 27%

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Innovation, Mobility, Web 3.0 Google, Race-to-Zero, society, voip

Joe White is the founder of NewImagePlants.com . He sells a variety of marijuana plants from his factory in Florida. The kicker? The plants are silk, yet very realistic looking (we’re told.) Lately, he’s also been supplying plants for the TV show “Weeds”. As a novelty item, I gather it’s finding a market, although decorating your cube with a few buds would be a career-limiting move.

White highlights one big challenge to marketing his product: Google has banned his ads. That seems odd. They’re pretty innocent fake plants. There’s a lot more “evilish” ads out there on the Google-scape… Recently Google also banned ads from companies offering essay-writing services.

[tags]New-Image-Plants, Google-bans, marketing[/tags]

Popularity: 20%

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Business, Long Tail, Pirates, Web 3.0 Google-bans, marketing, New-Image-Plants

We’ve been getting pummeled by spam comments for the past day… if you don’t see your comment, please resend it! So where does all this crap come from? Here’s an interesting interactive World Threat Atlas from ThreatExpert. It identifies the source countries for malware. China (27.7%), Russia (26.95%) and the US (10.02%) combine to be the source of nearly 65% of the world’s malware! Here in Canada, we’re responsible for another 1.04%.

If you’re on a PC, and a touch paranoid – you can limit your surfing to the world’s safest country – Chile – which has zero reported incidents of distributing malware. Although that may cut down the quality of your porn, you can get great deals at VivaStreet.cl!

via InventorSpot

[tags]malware, spam, ThreatExpert, Chile[/tags]

Popularity: 29%

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Pirates, User Experience, Web 3.0 Chile, malware, Spam, ThreatExpert

Every now and then I get stuck on one song. This week – it’s an old 2005 Audioslave song. I’ve always liked the song – but until last week – hadn’t seen the video. I hadn’t realized that it’s a moving tribute to soldiers who have died… regardless of your opinion on this war.

YouTube won’t let us embed the video here… but here’s the link.

[tags]Audioslave, doesnt-remind-me-of-anything, war[/tags]

Popularity: 16%

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Events, Media Audioslave, doesnt-remind-me-of-anything, war

New York Polaroid artist David Horvitz has a simple but endearing site. Here’s a picture of him in front of the NY Stock Exchange with a “bored” sign”. He’s assembled a bunch of things that he’ll do for money, and he’ll mail you the evidence. (relax, nothing crass!) For example, if you Paypal him $30, he’ll walk out of his apartment and offer to buy a street bum lunch. They can choose whatever they want as long as it’s under $30. Horvitz then mails you the receipt! So far two people have bought KFC and groceries for a couple of New York’s finest homeless.

Some other favourites:
For $75, he’ll visit a psychic and send you the tape. For $9,999. he’ll ask her where in the world he SHOULDN’T go – then he’ll go.
For a mere buck, he’ll think of you for one minute.
For $10, he’ll write an apology letter to someone he knows. He’ll mail you one copy. (8 people have purchased apology letters)
For a bargain $917 he’ll go to Newfoundland because someone told him that’s the furthest east on he continent he can go.

Great concept. So…
For a mere $7,500. I’ll attend the New Zealand BarCamp on June 21st in Christchurch. I’ll mail you some wool! For $15,000, I’ll try to convince David to come along and take some pictures. We’ll mail you the pictures, and some wool!

[tags]david-horvitz, barcamp-newzealand, thingsforsalethatIwillmailYou[/tags]

Popularity: 24%

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Business, Long Tail barcamp-newzealand, david-horvitz, thingsforsalethatIwillmailYou

Have you heard about the revolutionary Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI) system for extracting oil from sand? Now you can get the oil out of your sand the easy environmentally friendly way. Read all about it on Engineer Live!

Also be sure to check out PETROBANK’s site for more details.

[tags]oil,sand,extraction[/tags]

Popularity: 18%

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Environment, Innovation extraction, oil, sand

Being humans, it’s sometimes possible for us to forget how much we depend on a number of other species. We often think in terms of resources, water, air, food. In reality, food is other species. Species which we must protect.

via Wikipedia:

The term symbiosis commonly describes close and often long-term interactions between different biological species. The term was first used in 1879 by the German mycologist, Heinrich Anton de Bary, who defined it as: “the living together of unlike organisms

So, which species do you think are critical to our very survival as a species? My first guess would have been something like the Chicken. It’s hard to imagine life without chicken. I suppose, a species like rice or corn are even more important to us. What species do you feel are necessary for our survival?

Popularity: 14%

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Environment

Rarely do super-heroes and villains relate to everyday life. How can you really cheer for your guy when you don’t understand Krypton-speak? New, from Accoutrement are the ultimate warriors: Bacon versus Tofu. Fight until death. Or coranary.

Next, I want to see Code Warriors 2.0: Ruby versus PHP. Format wars: HD-DVD versus Bluray (oh sorry, that’s over…) OS wars: 0SX vs Vista (I think only FakeAlec likes Vista…).

Personally, Homer and I are rooting for Bacon!

[tags]Warriors, Bacon, Tofu[/tags]

Popularity: 22%

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Bones, Pirates, Web 3.0 bacon, Tofu, Warriors

If you’re running a technology company in Canada, you’ve probably run into IRAP – the National Research Council” Industrial Research Assistance Program. If you’re doing research and creating new technology, you’re able to apply for significant government contributions. The only catch is that “development” doesn’t count. You have to be creating new knowledge. I’ve been through the application process a couple times – and it’s tricky. Some advance information will really help you to prepare.

If you happen to be in Ottawa on February 28, RingMaster Ian Graham will be hosting an IRAP session for startups along with the local IRAP advisors. If you’re doing something brand new, this event will be worth attending! Best of all, it’s free if you pre-register. Simply send Ian an email at ian.graham3@gmail.com.

The event: Feb. 28, Location BitHeads, 6-9pm

[tags]IRAP, Research-grants[/tags]

Popularity: 17%

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Business, Events, Innovation IRAP, Research-grants