Here are a few photos I shot at yesterday’s Start Conference which took place at Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater in San Francisco. Congratulations to Jeff Veen, Bryan Mason and their crew for organizing a really great conference. Looking forward to next year.

Photo Gallery: Start Conference

photos by Scott Beale

The SXSW Interactive 2009 Panel Picker is now live. You have until August 29th to vote for the panels that you want to see at the conference which takes place March 13-17 in Austin. 30% of the panels are decided using the panel picker.

One of the most amazing aspects of the Panel Picker is that it provides an intriguing snapshot of the current state of the new media industry. Recession, what recession? For 2009, we received 176 submissions in the “Business / Entrepreneurial” category. In fact, the only category which received more submissions was “Advertising / Marketing” at 185. These numbers reaffirm how important a role emerging technology now plays in the commerce of our day-to-day lives.

Registration for SXSW 2009 opened last week.

On stage at yesterday’s Start Conference in San Francisco Matt Haughey announced the new web service Fuelly. With Fuelly you can track your gas mileage for multiple vehicles and then share and compare that information with your friends. It’s like a social network for your car that helps you save money on gas.

Fuelly was built by Matt and Paul Bausch using code from MetaFilter, the popular link sharing community weblog that Matt started back in 1999.

UPDATE: Check out Fuelly’s awesome Twitter inspired 404 page.

illustration by John Martz

Here’s a really cool slow motion video of lightning.

via Fark

guest post by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

Remember the SFMOMA’s Frida Kahlo Look-a-like Model Search that I mentioned last week? The audition took place last Saturday at Galeria De La Raza in the Mission, and photographer Stephan Zielinski dropped by to take pictures of the applicants. These photos are just a small cross-section of the people who responded to the call for Frida Kahlo clones, but Stephan has lots more pictures on his on his blog. Fascinating.

Stephan Zielinski’s Photos from the Frida Kahlo Look-alike Model Open Audition

photos by Stephan Zielinski

guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Over at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, writer Sarah Schmelling proves that brevity is indeed the soul of wit, presenting Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” as it might appear in Facebook’s News Feed. Can “War and Peace” (as told on Twitter) be all that far behind?

via The Social Path

Here are some photos I shot while exploring the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus back in April when I was in Cambridge for ROFLCon.

photo gallery: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

See Also: Ray and Maria Stata Center at MIT by Frank Gehry

photos by Scott Beale

This just in: Local Idiot To Post Comment On Internet

In a statement made to reporters earlier this afternoon, local idiot Brandon Mylenek, 26, announced that at approximately 2:30 a.m. tonight, he plans to post an idiotic comment beneath a video on an Internet website.

photo of local idiot via The Onion

Last week Martin Sargent had me as his guest on Internet Superstar which is part of the Revision3 network. I talk about Twitter (of course), the FAILparty, The Fail Whale Fan Club, the Olympic Torch protest, Hahlo, photography and I even sneak in a reference to secret art of Bilocation. The show was a lot of fun and the time flew by.

I shot a few photos of the Revision3 studio while I was there for the taping.

photo by Scott Beale

guest post by mikl-em

A recent John McCain ad featuring Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton has caused some controversy about its calling that pair and Barack Obama the nation’s top celebrities–not least of which from Paris’ Mom who along with her husband had already maxed out their donation to McCain’s campaign.

But revenge can be sweet and gotten whilst also acquiring a tan, as Miss Hilton proves in this Funny or Die video.

guest post by mikl-em

This Saturday, August 9th, the 2008 Film Night in the Park series will be showing the classic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in downtown San Francisco’s Union Square Park.

From May to October this fantastic series shows films in 3 parks all around San Francisco (and in several other cities around the Bay Area). After Saturday’s show, there are three SF showings in 2008: Il Postino, O Brother Where Art Thou and Vertigo in Washington Square, Dolores and Union Square parks respectively.

There’s something extra special about seeing a great movie in a location that is featured in classic films, and Union Square appears not only in Vertigo but also features prominently in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation. The series is produced by a great organization called The San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, who also support the city’s historic theaters, with support from Macy’s and other sponsors.

And this series is only one of many this summer that offer San Franciscans an alternative to the run-of-the-mill Hollywood blockbusters. Scott posted about last month’s Brainwash Festival and there are several other independent-minded film fests that offer options on SF’s chilly summer nights, so here’s a quick round up, starting with a couple other outdoor options.

Dolores Park Movie Night is an unrelated, grassroots movie night in the park. They do a movie a month and this time it’s Jaws 3 in 3D on August 14, at 8:30 P.M in, naturally, Dolores Park.

The Zeitgeist bar’s beer garden is home to “ZIFF” The Zeigeist International Film Festival now in its 10th year. The final showing of this festival of short films is on the night of Monday, August 11th. It features 15 films from all over the US and places as far-flung as Finland and Australia. Running times range from 2-12 minutes. 25 beers are on tap. You do the math.

On to the indoor festivals. The 28th Annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival has a little less than a week to go–but that still encompasses 80+ showings in 6 venues across 4 cities (SF, Berkeley, Palo Alto and San Rafael) plus the closing night party at the Castro Theater.

Treading similar ground to the Zeitgeist, SF Shorts runs this week only August 6th to 9th at two historic SF movie theaters: The Victoria Theatre and The Red Vic and kicks off with an opening night party. Films featured are all under 30 minutes long.

Finally, a Fest of a different feather is the Lebowski Fest which features only one movie–the Coen Brothers classic film about bowling and white russians The Big Lebowski. This celebration has occured at various times in various cities since 2002, but early September will mark the first time it happens in San Francisco. And LFSF looks to be a blast! It features Extra Action Marching Band, The Dead Hensons & Meshugga Beach Party. Followed by, of course, a screening of the The Big Lebowski itself.

See Previously: The 14th Annual Brainwash Drive-In/Bike-In/Walk-In Movie Festival

Union Square photo from Wikipedia
Dolores Park image from Dolores Park Movie Night
ZIFF image from Overcookedcinema.com
SF Jewish Film Festival poster design by Eric Heiman & Adam Brodsley/Volume Inc
Lebowski Fest poster by Bill Green

BK G. has created a fantastic Internet Memes Timeline hosted on Dipity.

via Chris Glass

Ferris Plock has a solo show of new works “Slay the Giant” coming up at Lower Haters in San Francisco. The opening reception is this Friday, August 8th from 7-11pm and the show runs through August 8th.

The work centers around the story of an average citizen taking it upon his self to help take down a giant robot that is threatening to destroy the world that he lives in.

See Previously: Laughing Squid Illustration by Ferris Plock

Back in April while attending ROFLCon, which was held at MIT in Cambridge, I spent some time wondering around the MIT campus shooting some photos.

One of the places I made a point of checking out was the very unique building that is home to the Ray and Maria Stata Center which was built by the legendary offbeat architect Frank Gehry. The Stata Center is home to MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), created in 2003 by the merger of the Artificial Intelligence Lab and the Laboratory for Computer Science.

Unfortunately a bit of controversy surrounds the building. Last year MIT sued Frank Gehry and the construction company over design and construction failures.

photo gallery: Stata Center by Frank Gehry

photos by Scott Beale

guest post by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

What was that big thing? Yesterday? Up in the sky? If you happened to look up sometime around 3 pm, you might have seen it: A twin-deck Airbus A380 superjumbo airliner looping around downtown San Francisco.

The A380 was here as part of a promotional tour by Emirates airlines, and I managed to weasel my way aboard for a celebratory 90-minute flight to nowhere. As we cruised in the skies over Northern California, I snacked on frou-frou canapes and explored the brand-new aircraft.

The first class suites are amazing:

The first-class shower is even more amazing:

Even the economy class seats were relatively roomy, and the onboard entertainment system offered an awful lot of ways to distract yourself. News feeds. On-demand video. The words.

My favorite was the Tailcam, realtime video piped to each passengers’ seat showing the view from the top of the A380’s vertical stabilizer. It’s basically the same view you get in many popular flight sim packages, but it’s more fun when it’s real. Here’s our landing at SFO:

There’s more nerdy technical detail abut the flight in my post over at Telstar Logistics, and the link to more pictures is below:

Telstar Logistics photoset “Emirates A380 at SFO”

photos & images by Telstar Logistics, except for the view from below, which is used courtesy of Brian Kusler

guest post by mikl-em

Just when you thought that weird Anti-Drug PSAs were a thing of the 70’s…

Tonight I encountered the above banner ad (I split the animation into 2 images). And yes, although the guy above looks like he’s out of the 1970’s this is a current ad.

But wait “Teen Brain Guide”? That seemed kinda odd. So I clicked through. And it only got weirder.

The site is by Partnership for a Drug-Free America which I had at least heard of before. So I hoped it would start to make more sense. No such luck.

It’s really an odd site, confusing as to even what the point is. It talks about some odd ways your kid may be behaving but then seem to say these may NOT indicate your child is on drugs.

The site claims to have “the science in a nutshell” that explains all of this wacky mysterious behavior. Awesome!! Cuz it was getting confusing.

But if you want said nut-encased info, the link they offer you leads to a registration form:

Hey now! That’s a tactic that porn sites (so I hear) or other folks trying to sell something or get my personal information use. It’s weird to bump into on a site that’s supposed to be providing a vital public health service. Why won’t they just tell me? Isn’t it in everybody’s interest for parents to better understand their kids? What gives?

And there’s the video, shown on the right above, of a doctor talking to parents and children about drugs. This also hints at science without ever actually offering up any. And when the medical professional appears in front of an issue of Teen Brain Times… it kinda undercuts the credibility. I half expect the credit to read Dr. Troy McClure, University of Springfield.

Oh, and I forgot to note that the form is accompanied by an option to receive the latest information and new parenting tools from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Which is checked by default, so you’d be opted-in to the PDFA tool-of-the-month club.

Weird? Is it just me?

They use a relatively interesting art style (kinda like old Mad Magazine meets Maurice Sendak with a little Rug Rats thrown in), so that at least comes off well.

But wasn’t there supposed to be some brain science here somewhere? I guess if I registered they’d fulfill the promise to help me: Gain insights into teen brain development and apply your new knowledge of normal teenage behavior to real life. Sweet. What’s “real life”?

And what does this have to do with Mr Tinted-shades in the banner ad and how a job in computing makes you a grownup??!! I mean I know that one’s not true.

If you are brave enough to actually click through (I’m not… paranoid??) and get details of the post-registration experience, feel free to let us all know in the comments.

I just think it’s creepy. And there’s more, I found another PDFA site that’s even hipper than this one, check out the with-it lingo, you squares:

Got 5 minutes? It really could rock your world! Okay, that’s likely over the top, but it certainly can answer your questions and benefit every aspect of your relationship with your teen — and their health!

You’ll find that “straight” talk at Decoder: Breaking down teen culture, substance abuse, and parenting. Breaking it down!! In the good way, I suppose.

Turns out that the Partnership for a Drug-Free America are the fine folks responsible for the This is Your Brain on Drugs ad from the 80’s. It was 21 years ago, and thereby hangs a series of flashbacks, starting with the original commercial…

Then in 1998 Rachael Leigh Cook updated the egg-fryingpan relationship:

Today the PDFA, understanding the importance of their place in pop culture, have a page dedicated to the history of their egg-as-brain metaphor, it includes this priceless tidbit about how sound design leads to appreciation:

When the original idea for the “Fried Egg” spot was presented to the Partnership’s Creative Review Committee, it received mix reviews. It wasn’t until the voiceover and “sizzle” sound effects were added that it came to life and was truly appreciated!

Truly. And the Fried Egg spot was just one ally amongst the coalition of media mobilized to fight “The War on Drugs“. It was and is a war that lends itself nicely to a highlight reel, so below are key clips from the battlefield.

Nancy Reagan famously chaired the Just Say No campaign. On the Reagan Foundation page they refer to it as “Mrs. Reagan’s Crusade“. Here’s the iconic ad from that campaign:

Then of course there was RAD (Rock Against Drugs–get it?). This campaign dates back to that bizarre and troubling time in our nation’s history when MTV showed music videos. Thank goodness that’s over, huh?

The RAD stable of spokes-rockers leaned rather heavily on the Metal stars, so here are two prime examples.

Gene Simmons “You believe that crap?” is, in my opinion, the best anti-drug message ever. Because it’s cool. Which may be the wrong reason. But I have to say that, looking back now, it has remained damn cool which is more than we can say for Gene himself these days:

Vince Neil “I’m on top of everything I do…”, I bet you are Vince:

As a bonus, for anyone who is absolutely hooked on drug PSAs at this point, here’s a pretty funny round up of the Top 11 funniest nostalgic drug PSAs. Somehow he doesn’t include the Gene Simmons one, but there are a lot of other great ones.

See Previously:

- 1970 Anti-Drug PSA by Hanna-Barbera
- Spiders on Drugs

Twitter recently made a video where they asked people “How Do You Use Twitter?”

Last Wednesday Martin Sargent invited me to be a guest on his show “Internet Superstar” which is produced by the online video network Revision3 (the episode will be online Wednesday).

While I was there Rev3 co-founder and Vice President of Special Projects David Prager (photo) gave me a tour around their offices and wonderful new high definition studio, which by the way is available to rent out.

During my tour I also ran into Rev3 CEO Jim Louderback (photo) and AJ Vaynerchuk (photo) who is part of Rev3’s awesome Intern Row.

Revision3 was recently featured in LA Times’ Web Scout:
“Revision3’s web TV runs on star power”

photo gallery: Revision3

Here’s the classic segment “Zinc Oxide And You” from The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) directed by John Landis and written by Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker.

via AdFreak