Flickr has just added a new fullscreen photo sideshow feature that can be embedded on websites and blogs. The slideshows also have the ablity to include videos.

“Citizen’s Cry” is a PSA produced for Palm’s Mobilize the Vote 2008 campagin to help inspire the youth of America to vote. The video was directed by Corey Rosen, with executive producers Hooman Khalili and Adam Ottley.

This video is a call to the American millennial generation, and the rest of the country, to speak now with our vote, so that our silence will not echo for generations to come. The “Citizen’s Cry” makers are targeting the millennial generation specifically because less than 50% of them have ever voted in a presidential election.

So not everyone is exited about the FaceYourManga avatar craze that has been sweeping the tubes recently, especially on Twitter. A group of anti-FaceYourManga vigilantes have formed StopTheManga to reverse the “Mangagtar” trend and help convince people to use real photos as their avatars.

See Previously: FaceYourManga, Create Your Own Custom Avatar

Thanks to Ron Richards for the tip!

image via StopTheManga

The new Samsung Omnia (i900) Windows Mobile PocketPC comes with a very unique unboxing experience.

Several American activists have been arrested and detained in China for promoting pro-Tibet messages in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games. The protests were organized by Students for a Free Tibet and among those being held are Graffitti Research Lab founder James Powderly and Alive in Baghdad videoblogger Brian Conley.

More Coverage:

- Boing Boing
- New York Times
- Associated Press
- Free Tibet 2008

Engrish Funny, the latest website from the guys behind I Can Has Cheezburger?, features photos of humorous English translations from around the world.

Michael Arrington recently did a TechCrunch interview with I Can Has Cheezburger? CEO Ben Huh about his LOL empire.

See Previously: Totally Looks Like, Famous People & Their Look-Alikes

“Everything That Happens Will Happen Today” is the new album by David Byrne and Brian Eno. The album is available to purchase as a download or or can be pre-ordered on CD. David Byrne will be touring the US starting in September.

Brian Eno and I recently finished our first collaboration in about 30 years. The name of the new record is Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. For the most part, Brian did the music and I wrote some tunes, words and sang. It’s familiar but completely new as well. We’re pretty excited.

The album is available exclusively from this Web site. You can stream all of the songs for free and purchase it in a variety of digital and physical formats, including a limited edition Deluxe Package designed by Sagmeister Inc. All formats can be downloaded immediately and physical CDs will be shipped in the Fall. [David Byrne]

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Hillman Curtis made a short film about the album, here’s the teaser video.

Penny Arcade Expo 2008 (PAX), the annual gaming festival organized by the online comic Penny Arcade, takes place August 29th-31st in Seattle. This year’s keynote speaker is game designer Ken Levine and both MC Frontalot and Jonathan Coulton are returning again this year as part of PAX’s music line-up.

Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is a three-day celebration of games and gamer culture. The festival includes an exhibition floor filled with playable builds of upcoming tabletop, console, and computer games; a conference program of game industry speakers; music concerts; freeplay areas; industry parties; an independent games showcase; game tournaments and more. Since its inception in 2004 the show has doubled in size year-over-year, growing from 4,500 attendees to 37,000 in 2007, making it the largest gaming festival in North America.

John Curley has been posting a bunch of great write-ups and beautiful photos to The Burning Blog documenting the birth of Black Rock City as it is being built by BRC-DPW for Burning Man 2008. John’s recent posts include Saturday’s Little Man Burn and the evolution of center camp.

photos by John Curley

John Battelle and Federated Media Publishing recently launched the website CrowdFire, a platform for uploading, sharing, remixing and archiving photos, video and blog posts from live music events. CrowdFire will be making its big debut this weekend at San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, a three day event taking place in Golden Gate Park on August 22, 23 and 24.

Full Body Project, a provocative black and white photography series by Leonard Nimoy featuring full-bodied women, was recently published as a book by Five Ties.

In his provocative new book, photographer and actor Leonard Nimoy (best known to the public from his role as Spock on Star Trek) captures images of full-bodied women, some of whom are involved in what is known as the “fat acceptance” movement. “The average American woman,” Nimoy writes, “weighs 25 percent more than the models selling the clothes. There is a huge industry built up around selling women ways to get their bodies closer to the fantasy ideal. Pills, diets, surgery, workout programs… The message is, ‘You don’t look right. If you buy our product, you can get there.’” In The Full Body Project, Nimoy challenges dominant notions of the ideal feminine figure as represented in the media and fine arts.

Last Gasp, in conjunction with the ArtNowSF and Juxtapoz Magazine monthly party Suite Jesus, is having a special book release event for “Full Body Project” featuring models from the book this Friday, August 22nd at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco.

photo by Leonard Nimoy

With Yearbook Yourself you can upload a photo of yourself and then see what you would look like in yearbook photos from the 1950’s through 1990’s.

See Previously:

- John Martz’s Cartoon Drawings of His Mom’s 1968 Yearbook

image via Mike Monteiro

The University of Nottingham has created The Periodic Table of Videos featuring wonderful videos that explain each element in the Periodic Table of Elements.

The series starts with the video for Hydrogen (H), atomic number #1.

via Neatorama

guest post by John Law

My friend Julia & I just bought a vacation home in Detroit. It’s a small but comfortable three-bedroom house in good condition that sits on a shorefront plot of land along the banks of an actual river. The location is serene, and the price was right — the whole thing cost less than a new Cadillac Escalade. A lot less, actually. But that was only part of the appeal. Just as important to us was the idea that Detroit is poised to become a laboratory for the latest social trend: The Greening of America.

Sure, Detroit may be the scariest place you can think of to live or even visit. Or is it? With the decline of the American auto industry, over seventy percent of the city’s populace fled to the burbs between 1966 and 1990. For those who remained, heroin and crack cocaine savaged the city’s neighborhoods. Yet when everyone else moved away, most of the thugs did too, leaving huge swaths of once-dense urban blocks very nearly depopulated — and quite a bit greener.

The nightmarish view of downtown Detroit and its suburbs is ancient history. The city is currently home to a strong (though small by coast-city standards) art scene. Wayne State University is becoming known for it’s cutting-edge gallery shows, while older artists have contributed much to Detroit’s exceptional public art installations. Detroit is also the epicenter of the Urban Adventure movement, with intrepid explorers coming from as far away as Europe and Australia to clandestinely explore the city’s beautifully decaying factories, mansions, hotels, mental hospitals, and skyscrapers.

Most of all, though, Detroit is already one of the greenest cities in America. I mean green as in green grass! Visit any typical residential block in the heart of Detroit, and what do you see? A handful of occupied houses and a few piles of rubble that once were homes, while the rest of the block has completely reverted back to nature. Rabbits, possum, raccoons, and the occasional deer ramble through this urban landscape as though they own it. We’ve gone canoeing along Detroit’s storied River Rouge canal, and we’ve climbed the abandoned, 37-story {REDACTED}* Building to get an up-close view of a peregrine falcon nest. Detroit’s public transportation system is no worse than that of most other American cities, and it’ll only improve as the renaissance continues. Also – oddly enough, the city has one of the newest and best freeway networks in the country – great biking and roller-skating lanes for when we run out of oil. Homeowners can plant gardens on their spacious lots or those next door as they like.

The price of owning anything in San Francisco, Brooklyn, L.A. or any other “prime” location became prohibitive, even surreal long ago. Even with the recent downturn in the housing market, it is still impossible for most artists, writers or craftsmen to buy in these places. Meanwhile, the industrial engine of the “Rust Belt” continues to freeze up, providing green spaces in cities like Detroit. At the same time, more people are able to work from literally anywhere in various Internet and computer related jobs. Being able to break away from the overcrowding and frenetic pace of life on the coast(s) for long periods and kick back in a relaxed tree shaded waterfront home that we actually own outright is a luxury that, I for one, after thirty years in Frisco never thought I would know. Detroit has plenty of water, green trees, wide-open land and no crucial military targets. Everyone world round thinks it’s a dump. There’s no place to go but up for this town. The icing on the cake is the simple fact that no one will ever waste a Nuke on Detroit.

Ghetto Ice Cream Truck driving through a Detroit neighborhood. [via Urlesque]

A similar article was published in Everywhere Magazine Issue 04.

photos by Julia Solis

Speaking of great Star Wars videos, Michael Horn made this absolutely amazing video on Current featuring the Death Star and various Star Wars spacecraft flying around San Francisco during Imperial Fleet Week. Bonnie Burton interviewed Michael about his video over on The Official Star Wars Blog.

See Previously: Dad Makes Star Wars VII Sequel Starring His Kids

Maggie Mason wrote a great article on Twitter Etiquette for The Morning News.

With the usual exceptions, people on Twitter tend to fall into two main camps. There are responders, who use Twitter as a channel to interact heavily with other users, and broadcasters, who use it primarily as a micro-blogging platform.

These groups don’t necessarily get along. Responders will tell you that broadcasters are condescending talking heads who think they’re too good for the community. Broadcasters wish responders would take their nonsensical patter to a chat room, where they could natter on in privacy. Everyone agrees that members of the other group are total jackasses who don’t know how to use Twitter.

“Writing My Twitter Etiquette Article: 14 Ways to Use Twitter Politely”

via SFist

photo by mallix

Brittny Badger has a gallery of photos on Flickr featuring Disassembled Household Appliances which were part of her senior thesis project at the Hartford Art School.

I took apart used cooking/cleaning appliances, and arranged their interior parts very systematically on a white sheet of bristol board. My intention was to explore the hidden “brains” of these appliances; allowing us to view these everyday objects from a new perspective.

via Make

photos by Brittny Badger

Tom Lucier turned us on to this awesome Star Wars VII sequel that his brother Mark Lucier made starring his kids Alex and Noah. It features some really great special effects, including an iPhone hologram device and lightsaber duel.

My Yard Our Message features non-partisan political yard signs that you can purchase or print out for free under Creative Commons and place in your own front yard or window. The project is part of The UnConvention, which is providing a forum for promoting the democratic and free exchange of ideas during with the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

via Chris Glass

yard sign design by Dave Brynestad

Revision3 has teamed up with Viddler for the launch of Revision3 Beta, where they will be searching for the next Internet Superstars. Do you have an online video show that you produce or host? Submit a promo (under 5 minutes long) to Revision3 and who knows, they might even decide to pickup your show and develop it as a series. Here’s more on Revision3 Beta from internet’s Martin Sargent and Sarah Lane.

Revision3 is on the prowl for the next generation of Internet television! As the landscape of new media becomes more and more crowded, it is becoming increasingly difficult for talented content producers and hosts to find audiences for their shows. Revision3 is striving to locate these content producers and expose these shows to its existing, vast fan base. We want to help exciting new shows succeed.