The Thing About Match.com

For those single people out there we have heard it all before one of your friends has this story, “Oh, you should try match.com, I have a friend who did it and that’s how they found their wife/husband.” Maybe you heard this one, “I tried match.com and went out on a lot of dates. Watch out for those married people and one night stands, haha.” It has occurred to me that Internet dating is now considered just a normal way of meeting people. We have been groomed by technology to rely on it as a resource, not only for information but to find our soul mate as well. Since I am a part of the digital age I have braved my insecurities, took some pictures and opened a Match.com account.

You get to have your own page which is very similar to Myspace.com but specifically for dating. If you decide to set up an account, give yourself 30 minutes or more and get a credit card handy. There are several categories to fill out, such as basics, lifestyles, interests and values just to name a few. However, it is the Intro that is the foundation of you and what you are attracted to. The more clever the writing the more hits you get. Beware, all of the men I have viewed say the same thing. “I’m just a laid back guy, looking for a nice girl to be my best friend.” And “Honesty is key I don’t want to play any games or be lied to.” Here I thought lying and cheating on a significant other was a good way to go about things.

Match.com has teamed up with Dr. Phil so you have a choice in packages. You can either sign up for a month or bulk up on months for a cheaper rate. I signed up for 3 months for $50.00, but you have to cancel or they will continue to charge you. If you decide to go with the Dr. Phil package, or the Premium package as I like to call it, you pay extra but have access to dating tips and video modules Dr. Phil style. Probably not necessary, but if you have never dated before or do not know how to talk to people in a social setting then you might want to pay the extra $20.00 or so bucks.

Here are some tips. Be brave and honest about who and what you want. Some people will lie to you and pursue you with bad intentions. If you do not want a one night stand then say, “No!”. You do not owe these strangers anything. I will let you know this is very similar to going out and meeting people. Some are very attractive and some are very, uh, unattractive. I highly recommend you post a picture and be honest about your body weight. There are jerks out there who will judge and those that will fall instantly in love with you. Keep yourself grounded and pay attention to how people speak to you in e-mails. Also, if you have shared several e-mails, bump it up to a phone call so you know how they really talk.

If you are single with a bit of cash and time then this is something to consider. Do not expect instant success! Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither should a long lasting loving relationship. I could insert more clichés but what’s the point? Really,try talking on the phone before you set up a meeting date. I could have saved myself the grief and stress of looking for last minute escape routes had I just talked to the guy on the phone first! Arm yourself with a good sense of humor, patience and the ability to say “no thank you.” Other than that open your heart and say ahhhh.

Disclaimer: Before reading further please understand I respect these men tremendously for putting themselves out there. There is no obvious physical feature used to identify them, names, location of work or anything else…

The first date I will call King V, match.com clued me in and said we are 70% compatible. Out of the 25 categories we filled out 17 of them matched. The date was planned for a Starbuck’s in Ann Arbor and after walking three city blocks in heels because I had to park so far away, I was looking forward to sitting down in air conditioning and sipping on a soy latte. As I approached the building my heart skipped a nervous beat as it dawned on me, “I could be meeting my potential husband or my next boyfriend… Eek!”
King V and I spotted each other instantly but didn’t make a move until it was obvious I was looking for someone. Then he approached, handsome with a nice smile and something else… a lisp! In the words of David Cross, “Not every gay man has a lisp but only gay men have a lisp.” It wasn’t just a lisp but other behaviors as well that made me question his interest in women. So much that I found myself analyzing him when he spoke about the pressures of being a man in his family and how things will change when he has kids.
As I was ready to sit down King V suggested we tour the U of M campus. We walked and talked for about a mile and a half. Timid King V opened up to me and shared his last relationship trauma and how he still misses his ex-girlfriend. Bad move number one, especially if the length of the relationship (10 months) doesn’t match the length of time apart (3 years). Not to mention, he asked for my advice about another girl he was speaking to on match.com. Bad move number two! After two hours together I called it a night we gave each other a light hug and went our separate ways. We have since followed up with e-mails, but after meeting me once he wanted to smack my ass and make out with me. Hard to be flattered by those comments when I felt there was nothing between us in the first place. Match.com Rating - 70%, My Rating - 30%.

The second date, Mr. Saturday Blues, almost did not happen as I noticed our compatibility rate was only 60% and all his dislikes were my likes. I e-mailed him and suggested we not meet. He doesn’t like tattoos, I have one. He is very religious where I am not so much. He e-mailed me back saying those things don’t matter to him and that we should meet anyway. So, I found myself sitting before a socially awkward guy 10:30 on a Saturday morning with about four hours of sleep under my belt. Even sleep deprived I am able to assess a situation fairly and from the moment I met him the date needed to end quickly. I asked him questions and found myself working in conversation about myself and what I like or do.
Mr. Saturday Blues asked me, “What are your favorite movies? This will let me know if you have good taste...” My thought, “Is this for true?!” Then our conversation revolved, I reiterate, revolved around his favorite Stanley Kubrick films. Whether on a Saturday morning first date or not, discourse about the meaning of Stanley Kubrick films is so much not fun. Not only that but had he bothered to ask, he would have learned that I wrote a term paper on a Clockwork Orange and the purity of a rebellious society. Needless to say he gave me an out and I took it selfishly, the only selfish moment I had. Match.com Rating - 60%, My Rating - 0%.

The third date, Mr.Fogetabouddit a “Goodfellow” who was more pussycat then New York gangster turned Michigander. The wine and romance of our date went to my head and I found myself drunk more on possibility then on true compatibility. Match.com’s rating for us was 82%. The conversation was engaging as we shared stories, food and cigarettes. Here is where it gets goofy, I felt he should have offered to pay for me but I asked him out to dinner and in the end we split the bill. If I was to nit pick, which is what the nice folks at Memepunks pay me to do, I would say if a man orders for his date then he should at least offer to pay. Ladies/ gentlemen, use your best judgment, if you had a good time and really like the person offer to pay the bill, it shows character. After our date he walked me to my car, opened the door and pursued pushing his tongue down my throat. When I explained I had to leave for a morning meeting, he told me how he was planning on having me over that night for a movie. In his words, “You're a classy lady and I wasn't gonna sleep wich you or nothin' just have you ova to get to know ya better.” First date sleep overs = bad idea. As individuals should we not give each other more space and time? This is something I have stated on my match.com page, I want a long term relationship but time is of the essence. So, I took his last gesture of having me over as a bad match but the human spirit kicked in and he apologized for the idea of going back to his place after our first date. Mr. Fogetabouddit explained to me that his life is good, he loves his house, loves his job and would like to share it with someone. An attitude like that speaks volumes about his character. Match.com Rating - 82%, My Rating - still checking it out %.

John Lennon once said of Yoko Ono and their first meeting, if her art work did not impress him he would have walked out in the first five minutes. However, he gave it chance and one of her art pieces was a word written on a white ceiling. She wrote one little three letter word on the ceiling, “Yes.” This won him over and they went on to become one of the world's most famous ground breaking couples. So give yourself all the date possibilities necessary to make the best decision. Your time and energy is valuable, use it wisely. In the words of Johnny Drama, “Try my eggs Florentine and take a deep breath.” When searching remember to take a deep breath, be understanding of what you want and say, “Yes” when the time, art work and person is right.


"We are strong, no one can tell us we're wrong
Searchin our hearts for so long, both of us knowing.
Love is a battlefield." - Pat Benatar

It's Pronounced MEEM-PUNKS

This marks the official 100th post here at Memepunks! A few months ago this site was little more than one person's hesitant attempt to give blogging another try. And now the Memepunks adhocracy is charging headlong into the future. We've exceeded our expectations by leaps and bounds. That can happen when you set up shop on a little place called The Internet.

Our post on the space elevator grabbed the attention of the amazing folks at Liftport. We started people talking all over the Internet with our coverage of America's war on science. And our post on the possibility of a Google AI spread like wildfire, making the top spot on Reddit. It was linked to by author, and Boing Boing band manager Jon Battelle's Search Blog. Former Harvard Business Review executive editor and Rough Type creator Nicholas Carr even jumped into the fray. Tens of thousands of you stopped by to see what all the fuss was about. Many of you have stayed around for the duration. "Memepunks", a non existent word 4 months ago, now gets 30,500 hits on Google.

To our fans, commenters, and anyone that has taken the time to read one of our posts. Thank you, thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts. Memepunks isn't just us, it's you too. We would also like to thank all of those who contributed above and beyond the call of duty. Most especially B, who has warmed into being a full time contributor, editor, webmaster and member of the ad-hoc. Couldn't have done it without you bro... not by half. We would also like to thank (in no particular order) MJL, Don, Gynkoba, Micker, Minister, Cory, TheMadElf, Shadowhawck, Marty and the BBC, Scathatch and the crew at AVcorp, Smokey and the CSS master, KC and Natalie, Jonathan, Rook and family, Brent, Stella, Vince, and all the rest of our friends and families. If we forgot anyone, rather than apologize to you, just gmail us or comment. We'll try our hand at revisionist history and add you to the list.

Now, what's in store for the future? The proposed redesign of the site is still going strong and is only about a month behind schedule. We have a couple of extraordinary media events coming up, which we will announce soon. We are welcoming a guest blogger, who will bring an eye for trends, an ear for music, and matching X chromosomes to the mix. Look for MJL's inaugural post shortly. Memepunks will be attending the annual meetings of the Cryonics Institute and the Immortalist Society next month. And We'll be establishing a presence in Second Life, so we can start reporting on all the great things that go on there. Memepunks will also be revisiting some previous posts to see how some of these big future filled projects are progressing.

Look for more reviews of books, movies and music on the horizon. And of course we'll be putting up a torrent of posts on biotech, robots, web 2.0, space travel, nanotech, computers, AI, the IP wars, the Google revolution, cutting edge science, paradigm shifts and Internet weirdness. All in all, not a bad first 100 for a couple of computer techs from the suburbs of Detroit. Thank you again for making the first 100 possible. And here is to 1000 more! Onward and Upward.


“All this will not be finished in the first hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

You start by downloading songs......

Another music artist has entered the battle between the music industry and their fans but this volley might not be what people would expect. Master of Parody and Hero of the singing comedy genre Weird Al Yankovic has released the newest single from his upcoming CD, "Straight out of Lynwood ". The song, titled "Don't Download this song ", is a parody of epic proportions. While the song is written as a warning, the lyrics scream of the idiotic business model of suing your customers in mass numbers and trying to strangle technology with an iron fist. Its an original recording, but has a very "We are the World" feel to it. Al is by no means the first artist to fight back against the RIAA, but unlike recent soldiers in the war, Al makes his shots with wit and style.

I have been a "Weird Al" fan for the better part of my life. I embrace the lyrical aspect of music and enjoy listening to the ways artists write and execute their passion for the sung word. I also embrace cover artists who take a song and add their own personalities and nuances to it. (One notable exception to this is the recent Gnarles Barkley cover of the Violent Femmes "Gone Daddy Gone", but that is a discussion for another post). Weird Al puts an amazing comedic aspect to not only the music he covers, but in his original works. Comedy that is both juvenile and yet surprisingly adult and deep.

Some people dismiss his music as sophomoric and uncreative, but I will violently defend his humor! You can't produce lyrics such as:


I'm the pioust guy the little Amletts want to be like
on my knees day and night scoring points for the afterlife.


to the tune of Coolio's "Gangster Paradise" and not be considered a well rounded musical talent.


Al has also released a music video over at yahoo music for "Don't Download this Song" and has gotten George Plimpton to do the animation for it. While the Nazi RIAA tank chases and prison scenes are all classic Plimpton and fit well with the song, I would have liked to see Al go a different way with it. As I mentioned earlier, the song sounds very much like the great 80's cause-de-jour marketing tool, "We are the World" and it would have been great for Al to get a large group of "one hit wonders" and faded musical artists together and shoot it in a "we have a cause and you should listen to us" style that made the video for We Are The World so popular. In fact, you could probably get 90% of the original "We are the World" artists to do this project for a hundred bucks each.


I recommend you all NOT download this song and check it out.

Al is also playing that song along with several other hits on his myspace page, but for ethical reasons, I will not be linking to THAT.

EDITORIAL NOTE: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS POST ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF MEMEPUNKS.COM AND ITS AFFLIATED ENTITIES. THEY ARE THE OPINIONS OF THE POSTING AUTHOR ALONE.

Movie Review Snakes on a Plane

As if you didn't know, the most highly anticipated movie of the summer made its debut last weekend. Of course I'm talking about Hollywood blockbuster Snakes on a Plane! You wont find any shakespearean soliloquies or Oscar worthy material on board this 747. What you will find is a legion of deadly poisonous snakes. Originaly, Snakes on a Plane was off to a rocky start. With a so/so script, and a wishy washy studio going back and forth on changing the title to something "less campy" and more respectable, Snakes had the makings of a cinematic tour de turds. But it turns out this mid-budget fright fest had two power houses in it's corner. Samuel L. Jackson and the Internet.

When the studio big-wigs renamed the film Pacific Air Flight 121, Samuel L Jackson had some things to say about that. Namely... "Nobody wants to see Pacific Flight 121. That's like saying 'Boat To Heaven.' Bullshit! C'mon! People know what they want to see. People either want to see this movie, or they don't. So let 'em know, if you're coming to see this movie, you're going to see a plane full of deadly-ass snakes. That's what it should be called: Deadly Ass Snakes on a Plane" On March second, the studio caved, and thankfully returned the film title to it's former glory. Sam also wanted them to film the movie with an R rating in mind, rather than the watered down PG-13.

But the real driving force behind Snakes on a Plane arriving in it's final form at the box office was the mighty world wide web. Second only to Sam Jackson in it's ability to kick ass and take names, the Internet adopted Snakes on a Plane as its own long before it was a finished film. It started innocently enough a year ago with a single post by indy blogger Josh Friedman on his blog "I find your lack of faith disturbing". News of Snakes on a Plane quickly saturated the web. There were fake movie posters, Music Videos, movie contests, T-shirts, poster parodies, clips and comedy routines. And of course, millions upon millions of iterations of a made up line of dialog from the movie where Sam Jackson's character angrily refers to "motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!" There were even rocky horror style movie participation groups passing a script around the web months before the movie was scheduled to open.

The Internet buzz eventually went mainstream, with appearances on the Daily Show and the Colbert Report among other places. Better late than never, the studio caught on. They went back and re shot five days worth of footage, cranking up the movie to an R rating to appeal to the growing online fan base. They also made sure to include Samuel L Jackson's "motherfucking snakes" line. They jumped onto the viral marketing bandwagon as well, organizing online fan contests, and adding a way to get personalized calls from SLJ himself to your friends via the web. So what did all of this do for the movie itself? What did we end up with when the house lights went down and the projector started rolling? We ended up with Snakes on a Plane.

Jackson is as bad a motherfucker as ever. Sam delivers his lines as only he can, and almost makes wading into a horde of poisonous snakes with only a tazer and an attitude believable. He stars as FBI agent Neville Flynn. He and his partner Agent sanders, played by Hong Kong veteran Mark Houghton, find them selves escorting a young extreme sportsman turned murder witness from Hawai'i to Los Angles to testify against a ruthless Asian mobster. The RedBull drinking, Kawasaki riding, surfer witness is portrayed aptly enough by Wolf Creek Alumni Nathan Phillips. Terry Chen swings for the fences as the villainous Chen Leong without chewing the scenery. ER's Julliana Margulies plays lead flight attendant and heroine Clair Miller.

The premise of the film is simple. To kill the witness on his way to testify, mob boss Chen arranges to have 400 deadly snakes unleashed on the plane. This is were the movie happily goes right over the top. Take a host of stereotypical passengers; a richdebutante with a dog in her purse, a stuck up brit CEO, an effeminate male flight attendant, an Asian kickboxer, a dirty minded co-pilot, a rap star complete with entourage, a pair of young children traveling alone for the first time, a mother with her new baby, a young couple in love. Then instantly add hundreds of slithering, biting, "deadly ass",poisonous snakes. That's when the fun begins. The violence comes at you fast and furious and much of it catches you by surprise. And it's not just snakes that kill people, the general chaos that ensues also results in a slew of fatalities.

Some shots of the snakes are arguably real animals. But most of the violent snake attacks come from computer generated reptiles. It doesn't quite mesh with the real backdrop and human actors, but it's close. More along the lines of Alone in the Dark than Jurrasic Park's raptors or WETA's Balrog. There are scenes shot from the snakes POV, in green hazy Snake-O-Vision. Which brings back fond memories of Predator and Wolfen. The survivors fight a losing battle against the rampaging snakes that puts the passengers of Tail Sting to shame. They use broken bottle spears, home made flame throwers, tazers, and everything else on the plane to repel the ophidian invaders. The movie just keeps building, at one point even introducing a 30 foot long man eating anaconda!

As the movie goes on, you do start to feel for some of the characters, even in this completely unbelievable situation. And Snakes goes out of its way to break the molds of the various stereo types it establishes at thebeginning. Away from the plane, we have a stalwart FBI administrator and a snake expert coordinating things on the ground. I wont give away scenes or reveal too much of how the movie closes. But suffice it to say, I got my popcorn chewing moneys worth. And to quote Josh, "What else do you need to know? How the snakes get on the plane, what the snakes do once they're on the plane, who puts the snakes on the plane, who is trying to get the snakes off the plane...This is not for you to ponder. There are snakes on the plane. End of fucking story."

Was Snakes on a Plane a success? With a budget of only 36 million, Snakes made almost half of that in it's opening weekend. Beating out Talladega nights as the top movie of the weekend. And although the studio calls the numbersdisappointing, wait until the DVD comes out.
Wired already appointed SoaP the Best Worst Movie of the Year. And Sam Jackson has gone on record, perhaps sarcastically, stating that Snakes will win MTV's Best Movie award.

But Snakes on a Plane isn't just a movie anymore, it's also a meme. And I give them both Four Motherfucking Memestars.

Robot Update 014

The pinnacle of many a technology is to be seamlessly integrated into our lives. Cellphones, ATM cards, automobiles, remote controls, etc... We don't really marvel at them any more, it's just the way things are. In order for new technologies to pervade our way of life, they either need a new infrastructure built to support them, or they must be able to thrive wholly within the existing one. This is why many roboticists and engineers have been chasing the grail of the humanoid robot. In theory, a robot with two arms and two legs can go anywhere we can; our offices, our homes, our schools, and our market places. A robot that shares our dimensions can use our doors, travel along our sidewalks, and share our public spaces.

But thus far, humanoid robots have been underachievers. Although they are near miracles of coordination and technology, they are inevitably slow, awkward and expensive. Even the most out of shape human can literally run circles around our most agile high tech humanoid robot. There is another approach now being studied that may allow for societally integrated robots, while the humanoids are still finding their stride. It's called Ballbot, and it is today's robot.

Ballbot is the fruit of the labors of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute. Lead by Professor Ralph Hollis, the engineering team developed a robot that stands and travels by balancing itself on a single steel sphere. The robot was built to human dimensions, tall and thin by robot standards. It's 1.5 meters tall (four foot nine), is 400mm in diameter (16 inches), and ways 45 Kilograms (just under 100 pounds). Ballbot works on a principle similar to the old track balls and ball computer mice, but in reverse. Rollers powered by a drive motor spin against the single steel drive ball, and act to keep Ballbot upright and propel it in any direction, without the need to turn or corner.

The robot is basically a cylinder that consists of three aluminum channels that hold up a series of circular shelves, like a book shelf or layer cake. Each shelf contains a different component. One houses Ballbot's 200MHz Pentium brain and 802.11b Wifi link. Another holds the 48V lead acid battery that gives Ballbot a few hours of operating time. About halfway up the robot sits the IMU, an Inertial Measuring Unit that emulates a vertical gyroscope and provides Ballbot with his remarkable sense of balance and high center of gravity. Three "leg" pylons deploy when Ballbot is without power, preventing it from falling over in the event of a malfunction.

Due to Ballbots layered and modular construction, it can be reconfigured and modified without requiring a redesign. This also makes Ballbot inexpensive to build and maintain, another trick the humanoid robots have yet to master. The next incarnation of Ballbot will see the addition of a head with a variety of sensors, and a pair of articulated arms to the chassis. This will increase Ballbots ability to stay balanced, and also ad a whole new level of functionality to the Ballbot framework. In a combination of simplicity and genius, Professor Hollis and his team have created a machine that can travel effortlessly in spaces made specifically for humans, and do so without unnecessary complication or expense.

Professor Hollis has been building and designing robots since before robotics was even a recognized field of study. Have a look at the Microdynamics Physics Laboratory project page for the Ballbot to find additional information that the team has provided. This includes addition hi-rez pictures, white papers, and a couple of neat videos of Ballbot in action. Still there are miles to go before Professor Hollis and his team can sleep. "We want to make Ballbot much faster, more dynamic and graceful," he said. "But there are many hurdles to overcome, like responding to unplanned contact with its surroundings, planning motion in cluttered spaces and safety issues."

So before we finish, lets get the Dalek jokes out of the way. Certainly even the best designed robot which balances on a single sphere will be incapable of navigating stairs. This is something that true integration into our living and working spaces will require. But with the minor addition of more ramps and elevators in everyday locations, the world could easily accept a host of rolling Ballbots. It will have the added bonus of making the world a nicer place for Murderballers and the occasional legendary physicist too. [via Slashdot]


"Better learn balance. Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home. Understand?" - Miyagi Sensei

Woot Off? Woot On baby!!!!

A while back we introduced our friend, Woot. Well the magical day is upon us and there is currently a Woot Off going on RIGHT NOW!!! This is where they post a new item after the previous item sells out, which means a ton of good deals and witty write ups!

Head on over to Woot and check it out.


(the little bar at the bottom moves from right to left and idicates the number of items left till the next item is posted)

Memepunks Goes Bookcrossing!

This past weekend, your faithful editors of Memepunks took some time off from our hectic posting schedules to finally get out and feel what its like to bookcross. We here at Meme Station Zero are avid readers and stumbled across bookcrossing a few months back. The idea is simple. If you have a book you like, or don't like for that matter, register it at the bookcrossing site, label it appropriately, and then release it into the wild for other interested parties to pick up, read and then hopefully return the book to the free world for more sharing. Think Napster for books without the pesky XXAA lawsuits.

We thought long and hard about where to set free our first round of books. We eventually decided on scenic downtown Ann Arbor, Mi. There are a few reasons for this. The first is Ann Arbor has a fairly hip and intellectual demographic. We felt a strong chance that our books would land in the hands of an appreciative audience that would not only enjoy them, but would perhaps join the bookcrossing revolution. Second, there are many "3rd places" where people gather and interact that would make excellent seeding grounds. And finally, the city of Ann Arbor, and more directly the University of Michigan is playing host to one of the most ambitious and altruistic projects ever conceived in the digital era. Google print has set up shop at the University of Michigan (and other great libraries around the world) with one goal. The preservation by means of digitization all written texts. That's right, Google wants to scan, catalog, and integrate into their search engine every book ever published. How freakin cool is that?


First, we stopped in at the Ann Arbor Bus Depot (map). This close to the supposed "MotorCity" the Bus depot was a classically depressing experience. From the faded and shabby exterior, to the hollow and sparse interior, the place sorta creeped me out. But we felt it would be a great place to leave a good story for a weary traveler. We decided on Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (more details). We casually placed the book on a chair, snapped a comemorative digital shot, and made for the exit. Our first release! It felt adventurous with an odd hint of danger for no good reason and we were hooked!

Second up was the Espresso Royale Caffe (map). A small out of the way independent coffee house right on Main street. The lounge was quiet for a Saturday morning, but there were several students and suited businessmen sipping and chatting. Here we left Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep (more details). We didn't linger long here either, as we were still adjusting to this life of underworld book seeding. I think that slowly this was replaced with a child-like sense of immediacy that we HAD TO DO MORE!



We ventured further south on Main street and wandered into one of the dozen or so Starbucks (map) coffee houses littered throughout Ann Arbor. Here we sat and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and discussed the rest of our adventure as we thought it should go. Perhaps it was the piercing blue eyes of our indie hot barrista, but we were inspired to leave a copy of Dune by Frank Herbert(more details). This time however, we embraced our actions. We stood triumphantly by our newest release, watching it like a parent does a child as they take those first tentative pedals away on their Christmas bicycle.

Next up was the amazing Vault of Midnight(map). This awesome pop culture marketplace takes us back to our childhoods every time we step across the threshold. Billed as a comic shop, this place offers so much more. From strange foreign imports to classic action figures and everything in between, this place is a "must see" for any geek, movie fan, or self proclaimed nerd. Looking for that latest issue of Spiderman? These guys have it. How about a complete set of Pulp Fiction playschoolesqe figures? What about a hard cover edition of Maus? Look no further. Here we left Neuromancer by William Gibson (more details) and spent way too much time getting lost in all the whuffie this place exudes.

Our next stop was set to be another Starbucks down the street, but we were waylaid by a free concert in Liberty Park. The fellas (and lady) from The Six Foot Poles were doing a benefit concert and had amassed quite a gathering. We stopped to enjoy the performance and realized this would be a perfect spot to set free another book from our dwindling collection. It was a wonderful sunny day and the park was shaded with a slight breeze blowing through. Had we not been so excited to finish our bookcrossing, this would have been an ideal spot to kick back, relax, read an excellent book and listen to some good music. We set free upon this small slice of heaven a copy of Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology by Bruce Sterling (more details). Hell, our afternoon could have ended right here if given the right circumstances. A nap in the park felt like the only right answer to the "what's next" question. We still had two books to go though, and we weren't about to give up now!

The next release is a bit harder to explain. We were confident in our adventure so far and we stopped along Liberty street and sat at a small table against a mural of some fine authors and visionaries. There is a Potbelly Sandwich shop at the corner and I believe they maintain these tables, but they were far from the entrance and open to anyone. We decided under the giant head of Harry Houdini to release Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury(more details). Hopefully our book will escape its chains of bondage and find a new fan of this classic story.

Finally, we ended up back in a Starbucks (map). This one at the corner of State and Liberty. This is a monster store. Seating for dozens of coffee mavens and hard studying students. They have a great open sided fireplace as a center piece and even basement seating. Here we released our final book, Skeleton Crew by Stephen King(more details). A fine collection of his early short stories, Skeleton Crew was a fitting end to our adventures. Check out Survivor Type if you ever get to read it. It was the first story to ever give me full on nightmares and cold sweats.

So our first bookcrossing adventure came to a close, but it will not be forgotten. In a great city with a great personality we did our part to share some good reading with the world. From a surprise concert in the park and an indie film shoot (If anyone has any info on a small indie film named "Take 2" being filmed in and around Ann Arbor, PLEASE email us), to a long lost friend of Memepunks appearing out of the blue, it was a good day. Please check out bookcrossing and Ann Arbor if your ever in the area. Memepunks will be happy to show you around and let you buy us a beer or two!


"Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Those Who Ride the Lightning

Back in April I posted an earth day follow up and touched on how better hybrid car technology was on the horizon. Well as usual, the future has arrived ahead of schedule. We might be leapfrogging hybrids all together in favor of cars that are 100% electric. Historicaly, the problem with electric cars has been the technology. Due to battery constraints, inefficient motors and lack of research funding, the electric car has been relegated to novelty status. Most of them look like little more than glorified golf carts; short range, slow, and tiny. Concessions made to the technology took too much from both the form and the function of electrics, keeping them well outside the mainstream for most drivers.

There were exceptions of course, but never in enough numbers to impact the trillion dollar auto industry. At last, the technology is catching up with the visionaries. Electric cars are now being built that not only match their internal combustion counterparts for speed and power, but leave them in the dust. The most visible poster car for electric performance is the bright yellow Zooop. The Zooop tops out at 112 mph, with a range of 280 miles, all without needing a single drop of exorbitantly priced gas. It is the product of a Parisian fashion house of all things, Maison de Courrèges. The one unfortunate aspect of the Zooop (apart form it's name) is the cars appearance. It looks like the car Electra Woman and Dyna Girl would drive if they were still fighting crime. But the Zooop isn't built to be a production car, it's as much a work of art as it is a zero emissions sports car.

The real future of the automobile is being built at America's newest car company. On the opposite side of the country from the "Big 3" and the "Motor City", this automotive start up is based out of silicon valley. Tesla Motors recently revealed their spectacular new street machine, the Tesla Roadster. Named for the father of AC current, the roadster was unveiled on the 150th anniversary of Tesla's birth, July 10th 2006, the year of Tesla. Unlike the Cartoonish Zooop, the Tesla roadster is a full blooded sports car.

The unlikely mind behind the Tesla Roadster is Martin Eberhard, inventor of the Rocket E-book reader. An expert in portable electronics, Eberhard was the farthest thing from an automotive engineer. But after some big money investments from the founders of Paypal, Google, and Ebay, Martin has made his dream of a non oil dependent sports car a reality. Tesla Motors has partnered with Lotus for the final design and assembly of the Tesla Roadster.

The technical specifications of the Tesla are amazing. The car is capable of instant acceleration, 0-60 in less than four seconds. The top speed of the roadster is right around 130 mph, its range is 250 miles, generating 248 horsepower. The 2 speed 185Kw electric motor redlines at over 13,000 RPMs, has only one moving part, and is the size of a shoebox. That's another draw to this electric marvel. No oil changes, no belts or filters or spark plugs, no waiting for the engine to "warm up" the heater, none of the baggage that comes along with internal combustion. In fact, the only maintenance that Tesla Motors recommends in 100,000 miles is break and tire service.

The styling of the car oozes speed and performance, but that's no surprise coming from Lotus. There are things that may cause some gear heads to take a step back from the Tesla Roadster. For starters, the car is silent. No throaty Corvette roar, no Ferrari whine that suggests speed lives under the hood. And of course the Tesla must be plugged in periodically to charge the batteries, which is something sports car owners might take exception to. But at one penny per mile, and having the freedom to drive passed any and all gas stations at 130 mph, defying convention isn't an obstacle, it's a perk.

The Tesla Roadster may not be for all of us, with production models costing as much as $80,000. But Tesla Motors is also working on a sedan for everyday driving. And other conventional car companies like Mitsubishi are now announcing fully electric production vehicles that will hit the market in the next 1-5 years. With the stir that the Car 2.0 start up is creating, it's no surprise that many competitors are now working to steal Tesla's thunder. It remains to be seen if Tesla will become another Tucker or DeLorean. But just looking at the rolling wonder that is the Tesla Roadster, I am of the opinion that Martin Eberhard has caught lightning in a bottle. [inspired by Wired]


“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.” - Nikola Tesla

Movie Review: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Actor Will Ferrell is back in theaters this past weekend with the new movie, Talladega Nights. Teamed once again with writer/ director Adam McKay, Ferrell has finally dug himself out of the BeWitched and Kicking And Screaming funk he put himself into. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is the story of the #1 NASCAR driver in America and his interactions with the world around him. He lives his life by the motto, "If you're not first, you're last" and it shows. From his trophy wife to his lavish home, Ricky Bobby will do anything to be #1 (including winning a NASCAR race in reverse). When a snooty Frenchman comes from the ranks of the European formula circuit to usurp Ricky, suddenly staying #1 isn't as easy as he thought.

The Good.
The Adam McKay /Will Ferrell combo is a marvelous thing to behold. Teaming these two up is cinematic gold. According to IMDB.COM, Talladega Nights was #1 at the box office this past weekend, grossing $47 million. The dynamic duo are not new to Hollywood, as they gave us Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy back in 2004. Lets hope we see more of them. The writing was decent, with the story moving along at a steady pace. What is the real genius behind this movie is McKay's instinct in what ad-lib, impromptu, Will Farrell rants to keep and which ones to cut. Farrell is the type of comedy presence that can be uproariously funny and then drag out into uncomfortable tyrades. McKay is able to pick and choose these moments to keep the movie from becoming a BeWitched stinker. Also good were the supporting cast of characters, with comedian Sacha Baron Cohen (Mr. Throw the Jew Down the well himself) playing the very french and very gay Jean Girard and John C. Reilly as Ricky's best friend and the other member of the "Shake and Bake" team, Cal Naughton, Jr.

The Bad.
Sacha Baron Cohen was a bit too over the top as the Frenchman. Every character in this movie was a satire in and of themselves, but Jean Girard stood out as being almost too ludicrous. Perhaps it was the very heavy and sloppy french accent or the way Cohen carried the character, but it just didn't mesh well with the feel of the film. In almost every scene with him, it was everyone else and then GIRARD! I found this most noticeable when Ricky Bobby visits Girard at his home to discuss his return to NASCAR and Ferrell falls flat against the over the top acting of Cohen. That scene, above all else, felt very forced and surprisingly uncomfortable for a comedy. That's not to say it wasn't funny. Any movie about NASCAR that can work in a Highlander reference gets a thumbs up from me, but the scene shifted the mood of the film slightly.


The Ugly.
If Farrell and McKay aren't careful they are going to suffer the same fate as most film franchises coming out of Hollywood. These two films, Anchorman and Talladega Nights, are almost identical in plot. A socially inept and ego filled hero reaches the top of his game, only to be undone by his own pride. The hero then finds the strength to overcome their adversity and regain their throne. While the devices (a pregnate panda bear or a cougar) and the characters change, the ideas stay the same. These movies are funny and well written, but if they keep doing them in the same formula assembly line, the jokes are going to wear thin quickly. I want more of this team, but I would like some variety too.

Talladega Nights is a great film. Full of good laughs and fun times. Not as good as Anchorman, but still a worthwhile summer release.

3.5 memestars

Robot Update 013

A while back, I talked about the mars rovers, and more recently SPHERE, NASA's floating helper bots. This weeks robot is a sort of hybrid of those two ideas, with some distributed computing, ad hoc networking, and colony intelligence thrown into the mix. They are called Microbots, and they may soon be bounding across the surface of an extraterrestrial planet near you.

Stephen Dubowsky, an engineer for MIT's field and space robotics laboratory is leading the project that will bring the microbots to life. The concept behind the little spherical exploration machines is a time honored one. Many hands make for light work. Each microbot will weigh less than 100 grams, or right around 3.5 ounces. They'll be baseball sized, constructed of light weight but very strong composite materials. Pound for pound, for the cost and effort of delivering one spirit or opportunity style rover to mars, you could instead send more than 1000 microbots. In it's life time, a single colony of 1000 of the little guys could explore more than 50 square kilometers of martian surface. That's an order of magnitude more area than any current ground based rover could cover.

Although the microbots design is simple, there is some pretty sophisticated technology at work under their tiny transparent hoods. microbots will get their power from miniature fuel cell technology. Conventinaly, something like this would run off the same sort of Lithium Ion battery that powers my laptop. But because of the microbots unique use of energy for motion, a fuel cell is ideal. Speaking of motion, that's one of the microbots coolest qualities. They will use artificial muscles called dielectric elastomer actuators. These alloys contract or expand in the presence of electricity. Meaning that a microbot will generate force in the same way we do, by flexing its muscles. The actuators will work to both change the orientation of the small robotic sphere as well as powering a mechanical "foot" concealed within it. Microbots will move by rolling, bouncing and hoping from place to place. MIT engineers estimate that any given microbot will be capable of making meter high jumps on a planet with mars like gravity.

Suites of spectrometers, cameras, and other measuring devices will be nested in the heart of a microbot explorer. And although each robot on it's own wont have much by way of memory, communications range, or processing power, together they will accomplish feats no rover can. For instance, to explore areas where long range communication back to the mother ship is impossible, a colony of microbots could link up like a string of pearls or trail of bread crumbs. Each one acting like a WiFi signal repeater, one robot could be talking to NASA from the open air of mars, while one member of the colony is deep under the surface recording and exploring. Also it would now be conceivable to sacrifice a microbot, or ten, or a hundred to explore interesting features that would be inescapable. Such as martian lava tubes or deep craters, where water might be abundant. After a handful of microbots took a one way trip down a lava tube and sent back their finding, the rest of the collective could go on exploring, losing very little of their effectiveness.

There are plenty of terrestrial uses for microbots as well. They could be deployed in disaster areas to search for survivors, sweep hot zones for IEDs, even be sent out to discover portions of our own planet we have yet to fully explore. The MIT team will be testing the first colony of microbots this fall. There is quite a future for hordes of well designed collectively intelligent highly mobile robot colonies. Perhaps they will be the harbingers of human landers and astronaut boots as we make our way across the solar system. Eventually, to explore new worlds, we'll just have to follow the bouncing ball. [Via Robots.net]