The Social Net... work.

Watched this tonight for the second time after an odd dream about driving around the Valley with Zuck... and cleaning up the debris from a hurricane.

Thoughts:

[IN THE MOVIE] Zuck repeatedly says: "we don't know what this is yet... we've got to feed it and fuel it and build it to find out..." That, indeed, is the essence of a start-up. The longer you can fuel it with pure passion, the longer you can do it with all nighters and near-deaths and reckless abandon, the better vision you will have. Yes, commercial realities set in. Founders have to pay their rent. And then they have a choice. Sell, hire a sales team, or close some investment rounds.

I do enjoy the paralegal's advice to Zuck on doing a settlement with Severin: "In the scheme of things, this is nothing but a speeding ticket."

Because, really... who is winning now?

[GOOD QUESTION :]

and now for something completely...

Skyrails visualization engine

professional.

As the twists and turns of life would have it, my current free agent work centers around the area of corporate espionage... using completely public data in novel and surprising ways.

Basically, I'm focusing on running deep semantic and social graph analysis on key decision makers and their influencers for multi-billion dollar contracts. I achieved a relative degree of fame in the mid 90s when I declared on my blog that 'privacy is dead'. Truly, I never quite foresaw the social media revolution.

The best current embodiment of my work is Klout, which I encourage you to peruse. Using a members twitter handle as a key, it enables users to connect *all* their social profiles, and then derive conclusions from how many connections they have, and with whom, and how frequently those connections connect, across all the various sites, from LinkedIn to FaceBook to Flickr to FourSquare.

It then boils all that data into a single number, a person's social Klout score.

Clever.

PS - the fun part of what I'm doing is the data visualization of the social graph. LinkedIn has made a decent first attempt, check it out:

Chapter 51: Men in Black...

...Rock City.

Not many things turn my head in Black Rock City these days. After 12 years of experiencing and participating in the annual techno-rave-art festival-in-the-desert that is Burning Man, I've seen quite a few tricks and tropes. Nonetheless, on this day, I did a double take, then triple take, as I spied six individuals in dark black suits, with shiny shoes, in technically perfect formation just outside the social mecca known as Center Camp.

Special Agents in formation @Center Camp, Thurs 13:42 PST GMT-8

I inspected them more closely. Each had the tell-tale white coil hanging from their ear, and each had the classic "totally detached and completely aware" look on their face. As I appreciated their theatre, my mind began to race. Inspired, I walked right up to one of them, a woman, and just as with the Buckingham Palace guards, true to form, she didn't even flinch as I deliberately crossed the boundary of comfortable personal space.

And once that feat was completed, I rapidly leapt to the, as it turns out, near fatal assumption that these were merely a bunch of mischievous burners, putting on some decently planned impromptu theatre. Just then, the center of all their attention was revealed to me: the payload. While six agents stood in perfect geometric formation, a seventh walked purposefully and rapidly precisely along the tight security lane they were creating. And, most importantly... that seventh agent was carrying... a briefcase.

Oh, the cleverness of these Burners! Their theatre was perfect! Respect welled in my heart. And I thought, what higher honor could I give them then to add some spice to their performance?... in the natural form of spontaneous interactivity? The fact that they were real secret agents, actually transporting a highly secret and valuable payload across town in broad daylight, didn't even enter into my realm of possibility.

So, as per my impulsive nature of the Now, without further thought, I accelerated into a full-on sprint, and leapt into the fray. Luck was actually on my side; simultaneously, a wild hippie had thoughts along the same lines as mine, and made contact a full second ahead of me. I watched in shock as he was slammed into the ground with violent force and military precision. I had seen this behavior before only once in my life: as a reporter documenting policemen beating peaceful protestors in the streets of Greenwich Village some ten years ago.

But the incident only served to encourage me, as I performed some real-time calculations mid-sprint, and figured that the hippie's failure might gain me a valuable window of distraction. The tall agent with the briefcase stood off to the side, while three agents held the hippie firmly spread eagle on the ground. I leapt in fast, grabbing at the briefcase handle. The resistance was shocking — the briefcase was near immobile; the agent had a grip of steel, his body rock solid like a good acro base. What happened next took me completely off guard.

The agent whipped his head around to face me as he pulled hard on the briefcase, and asked with a mean sneer: "You wanna get BEAT?!?" My jaw dropped at the implied malice of the question, as I continued to tug playfully on the briefcase. And as I stood semi-stunned processing his query, he reared back without hesitation and planted a full-on Chuck Norris kick into my upper ribcage, sending my body completely airborne... with both a stab of searing pain to my ribcage and a massive surge of adrenalin to my brain and heart.

A brief staredown followed, where I foolishly considered either going for the briefcase again or counter-attacking, simultaneously sizing him up: at around 6'4", 220, I quickly came to reality about the rib-cracking force of the kick and the agent's clear resolution, theatrical or not, to protect his payload at all costs.

Special Playa Agents leap into action. Payload: secure

I decided that laughter was the best route, and chuckled, haughtily thanking the agents for their uncompromising participation, then slowly limped back to my girlfriend, who had been diligently photographing the whole shenanigan.

I was in complete shock. It may have been theatre, but my god... it was dead serious theatre. Krista commented with clarity: "Wow, this really is a place where adults can live out any fantasy they want. And that makes this city... a Very. Dangerous. Place."

I continued to roll around in my head the possibility that they were actors, the possibilty that they were actual secret agents, and the particulars of what had just occured, all while moving slowly and carefully as needles of pain and reality shot through my freshly damaged ribcage.

EPILOGUE

Fast forward 96 hours. We're in the car, waiting in the interminable line for Exodus with Melissa and Richard. Melissa begins to tell a very surprising story. In her own words:

"...so during one of my adventures, I walk up to this middle-aged man wearing a suit, sitting in Center Camp with a black briefcase on his lap. Curious, I enter into a conversation with him. As we chat, he mentions that he is the "Banker of Black Rock City." When I ask him what that means, he simply gestures for me to reach into the briefcase, and instructs me to pull out whatever I find. So I reach in, and feel a tight stack of paper... I then proceed to peel one off the top. When I bring my hand out, I look, and to all appearances it looks to be a fresh, crispy $100 bill, with the iconic Burning Man icon stamped upon it. At first I think its a prank, but then I sense that it has that telltale crispy currency texture and weight, and it looks really real... I look around, and everywhere around me there are people, each holding various amounts of cash... and smiling"

Back in the car, hearing this, I call her bluff, and ask to see the bill. She digs in her pack for a moment, and sure enough, hands me a bona-fide USA Ben Franklin $100 bill.

POSTSCRIPT

On the airplane home, I am casually reading the Events Guide. I stumble upon this passage: "At an as yet undisclosed location, we will present a black briefcase containing $39,000 in cold hard U$ cash, distributed amongst 250 sealed envelopes each containing a random amount. The envelopes will be gifted on a first-come-first-serve basis to all participants, with the intention of battling the Myth of Capitalism." At first I think, oh, that's a good playa prank. Hahahaha. Let the suckers come. And then I remember the agents... and then I remember the bill...

And suddenly, all the threads converge,
and I will state for the record:

Where ever you are in the world — at a theatre, or in New York City, or at Black Rock City — if you see highly trained Secret Agents moving in tight formation and protecting a payload, think twice before attempting to attack them.

And for those of you who would never think of attempting such acts in the first place:

Enjoy the Show.

That is all.

dream car

AcroYoga 2011

Those wild kids in New York... :)

Back to Basics

whilst traveling along the great Amazon...

We depart from the tiny village and sail a bit further up river. In the afternoon, we come across a boy in a tiny canoe, casting his net. As we pass close by, he greets us so I give Braulio a sign to cut the engine.

The youth comes up to us in his canoe and offers us his fish; which we accept gratefully. Braulio makes a remark in the native Quechuan tongue about our desire to find lodging. The youth nods, without caring how many we are.

In his house, there are an older sister, and two younger brothers. His parents are traveling 'down river,' as the adolescent explains. The house, built completely out of natural materials found in the region and elevated on pilings to protect it from flooding, is very close to the river. It only consists of one big room and a kitchen; there are no bedrooms or living room, much less a dining room. Some of the walls are only waist-high. To sleep, they hang their hammocks, which are then taken down in the morning. There are no decorations; they only possess the bare essentials.

On the floor of the kitchen, there is a box filled with soil, in which they build a fire and hanging over it from the ceiling there is meat and fish being smoked. My wife brings in rice to share, which we eat along with the fish. Dinner is delicious, served on squash skins. We eat sitting on our haunches. The locals use only their hands. If they had silverware, they'd need a plate; if they had plates, they'd need a table; if they had a table, they'd need chairs; if they had all of this, they'd need a dining room, but just as we are, in the tiny kitchen, we feel very well and very close.

Braulio tells us there is no problem with staying to sleep, everyone does it because everyone has to travel and rest in the homes they find along the way. So we ask him, having come from families of farmers ourselves, if they are the owners of the land. He tells us: "The people construct their houses wherever they like and when they want. When the land doesn't produce anymore, they search for another place."

"And what happens with the abandoned house?"

"It quickly decays and becomes part of the soil, and in a few years, is completely consumed by the jungle again."

"But whose land is it where you build?"

"The land doesn't belong to you, you belong to it. From it you came and to it you will go. Everything that you see in your body is a loan from the land and one day you'll return it back to it. The land existed long before you were born, and long after you are gone, it will continue to exist. God gives you the Beauty of the land and the miracle of life to enjoy, not for you to take possession of it, nor to have a paper that says you own it," he pauses with a little smile on his face, "the land laughs at this paper."
 

Excerpt from Spark your Dream
by Candelaria & Herman Zapp, 2007
argentinaalaska.com

Personal Inventory

I will be fully nomadic in 24 hours
I will have all my worldly possessions in my truck.
I have reduced; transformed as much as possible from physical to digital.

Here's what remains:

TOYS:
- one set UV dayglo practice poi (feed the artists)
- one set monkeyball fire poi (trick concepts)
- one LED ultrapoi (flowtoys)
- 2 custom made hula hoops
- hand made long bow
- 5 custom made arrows
- forged atlantean broadsword
- hand carved walking staff
- balance stick
- home-made paralettes (how-to)
- basketball
- soccer ball
- baseball & mitts
- 6 lb medicine ball

MUSIC:
- african djembe
- Martin Backpacker acoustic guitar
- M-Audio Axiom Pro 25 MIDI controller
- Vestax iSpin MIDI turntables
- M-Audio Studiophile AV40 powered speaker system
- speaker stands
- ION iPA3 40 watt portable BlockRocker
- Sony MDR-V700 DJ Headphones

POCKETS:
- iPhone 3GS
- car key
- Georgia State ID
- ATM card
- large roll of $100 bills
- US Passport with 10 year  Indian VISA
- HASP secure dongle
- 8GB USB key with critical data

TECHNOLOGY:
- MacBook Pro 15" laptop
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 digicam
- power supply
- iPod nano - green 8GB
- Apple wireless keyboard
- Apple Magic Mouse
- Rain Design laptop stand
- Hanns-G HSG2041 21" LED flatscreen, power cable, DVI cable
- one live backup HD - 500GB
- two mirrored archive HDs - 1TB each

TRANSPORT:
- 2001 Chevy Suburban 4WD - LTE
- Trek 1000 race bike
- Gary Fischer Tassajara Mountain bike - blue
- tire gauge
- micro bike pump
- spare bike tube

CAMPING:
- REI Hobitat Tent
- custom RayWay tarp
- Gregory Z55 backpack
- Osprey Raptor 10 daypack
- MSR PocketRocket Stove
- 2 fuel canisters
- MSR pot, pan, lid
- bic lighter
- LED flashlight
- headlamp
 
TOILETRIES:
- toothbrush & toothpaste
- razor & shaving cream
- Q-tips
- nail clippers
- tortoise shell comb

BOOKS, CDs, DVDs
- mostly converted to iPad, iBooks, iTunes :)

DIARIES

CLOTHES
- Armani jacket
- Lululemon pants

SHOES
- crocs slippers
- Onutsuka Tiger - Tai Chi shoes
- Puma Dallas - blue & gold sneaks
- Nike LunarFly - running shoes

TOOLS
- Ryobi power drill / driver
- SkilSaw
- jigsaw
- two tool bags with manual tools

FILES
- calendar
- paper
- active projects
- open bills
- black rocket labs
- panyoga
- taxes
- legal

KITCHEN
- toaster
- butcher block cutting board
- supersharp 12" serrated knife
- spatula
- 13" nonstick pan
- Conitgo AutoSeal coffee mug
- Dansk Nordic flatware
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- teapot
- french press coffee maker

MAPS:
- lighted globe - 13" Columbus - National Geographic
- Scholastic globe - 16" Executive - Weber Costello
- Peterson projection world map poster
- Michelin maps - India, Africa
- USGS quads - Arches, Canyonlands, Smokey Mountains, Gerlach
- Appalachian Trail map, marked

ART:
- Bardo Being - Alex Grey, 2001 - 36" signed & framed print
- Forest - Th Dahl, 1939, original oil painting
- Lydia nude - G Roberts, 1986, original pencil drwaing
- Shiva/ Shakti - India - 16" solid bronze statue
- Happy Buddha - Dubai - 5" cold cast statue
- divine feminine - Fraebel, 2005 - hand-blown art glass
- Iron Man #1
- Captain America #100