Blogs

Coming soon, a follow up on my statement at Ars Electronica 05.

That China will be the saviour of the West; some observations here in America underline my thesis. Sadly I have to admit that maybe consume delirium and the senseless addiction to consumerism will save us from the disastrous situation China is riding into, like to become the no 1 fuel consumer and in context to the pollution mess these millions of Audis will generate, when Chinese workforces arrive on that point to feel for a ride in an BMW instead of a home grown copy cat. More later, but you can already post comments here. Ah democracy says everyone can ride a 4x4 SUV tank. In Los Angeles they joke around saying: that mothers, need to ride these SUV’s because it gets bumpy when male homeless lying on the streets.

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

Will Durant (1885 - 1981)

How quickly a whole zeitgeist, idea of lifestyle and trend can change becomes obvious, if you look at the following clip taken in October 2001.

Steve Jobs of Apple Corporation reveals the iPod. At that time, the iPod was not more than a fantastic vision. Today, it's ubiquitous reality.

Iced venti soy chai latte (numbers from US)

Community Outreach: "Starbucks makes my community a better place."

10,500+ retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.
40 million+ customers per week worldwide.

For the fiscal year that ended (Oct. 2) Starbucks reported:
20% gain in sales, to $6.4 billion,
27% rise in earnings, which hit $494 million.

Bravo! An interesting article today in the Education Guardian, poses the question of whether UK universities are too reliant on overseas students.

This is something which I have been thinking ever since I started the MA course at Ravensbourne (when I realised there were only 4 British students (out of 18) on the course). So I think it’s about time this issue got some coverage.

The basic premise of the article International Rescue is that the UK universities have changed in dramatic and complex ways since the governments 1999 initiative to increase the intake of international students, which has generated billions of pounds in fees. In 2004, this revenue brought in £4bn in fees (and possibly this amount again in spending on living costs in the UK). Some universities gain a third of their total income from overseas fees, highlighting the importance of this financial input.

frenchMaidTv

The announcement by house/band hybrid Planet Funk that they will be distributing their latest single (out next month) via mobile phone is another landmark in new media history.

After Gnarles Barclay's already annoying track reached "number 1" a couple of weeks ago through downloads alone, we are continuing to see new practises in terms of media distribution.

This is remnants of last night's snow. I haven't got a picture which truly justifies the extent to which it snowed but I can say it it was a bit of a shock when I opened the curtains this morning. Everything was covered in a blacket of snow.

Never in my life can I remember snow in April. It's a cliche to say it, but surely this is a sign of global warming.