For an extra challenge we launched our weather balloon wifi rig at one of the most canine-dense areas of Central Park.

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Here’s the amazing follow-up to yesterday’s Shell party malfunction now confirmed to be the work of The Yes Men.

The terms ‘hoax’ and ‘fake’ don’t seem quite right to me. This is theater, plain and simple. The audience—both online and in person (?)—isn’t in on the joke for the first act, but this is all part of the larger theater experience. This video is act 2, and the resulting conversation and press coverage is act 3.

There’s a lot of symbolism packed into these short YouTube videos, but age is one of the more potent ones to me. The central character this video opens with is a stand-in for the many generations who’ve squandered the natural world at the expense of our inheritors. We don’t feel so bad laughing at her in the first act because of what she represents. That she’s already a well-known figure within the Occupy narrative makes the big reveal all the sweeter. Bravo, Yes Men!

Update: I may have spoken too soon about act 3. Check out Arctic Ready website and the accompanying Twitter account.

Update 2: There’s another written recap of the event on Salon.

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A 25 minute video on Ray Bradbury from The Atlantic.

I love that he lived in Los Angeles but didn’t drive a car. There’s also this moment at 4:25 where you see a sign above his desk “DON’T THINK.” Seems like sound advice for how to conduct yourself behind a keyboard, so I’ve added a similar one to my own desk.

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From Occupy Seattle:

Last night Logan Price, a Seattle Occupier who’s now living in New York, managed to infiltrate a private party thrown by Shell Oil at the Space Needle to celebrate the launch of its Arctic drilling program. He caught this amazing video.

From TreeHugger:

Everything about this is, quite frankly, hilarious. Beyond any satisfaction gleaned from seeing such a preposterous party come to a disastrous end, metaphors abound, and they’re about as subtle as a sledgehammer: if Shell can’t even handle a three-foot replica of a rig that pumps booze, how is the company going to fare in the Arctic deep?

I’m going to hold out hope that this was a legitimate malfunction on the part of Shell, not the work of an activist.

Update: Gawker is reporting that it’s a hoax.

Update 2: In case there was any doubt left, this the work of the Yes Men.

Link via Eric Brelsford

This video by David Fenster was created two years ago, but it’s new to me (as are the other Machine Project videos).

Machine Project and Mark Allen are among my favorite things in Los Angeles. Mark gave a good interview on Bad At Sports about his year-long residency at the Hammer Museum (my favorite LA museum!).

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Jason Wilson on presenting his project OuterBody while using it:

I’d always suspected that an on-stage experience would be interesting, if not transformative, so I took the opportunity to give my talk while wearing the OuterBody goggles that only allow me to see myself from a third person perspective. I’d imagined that seeing yourself on stage from the perspective of an audience member might reduce some stage fright if the sense of self could successfully move from your body on stage into the camera in the aisle. Let the attention fall on that disembodied you that you’re also staring at.

Link via Andre

All this talk about “Amercia” is a distraction:

Gaffes stick when they reinforce an existing criticism of a candidate. Is anyone really worried that Mitt Romney, whose personal crest may as well be a spreadsheet, is insufficiently obsessed with details?

Here is Jay Smooth explaining why the Romney “meh” response is dangerous:

Also, my site was down for a while earlier today. It’s all fixed now.

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From Common Dreams:

Bill 78 not only “enraged civil libertarians and legal experts but also seems to have galvanized ordinary Quebecers.” Since the law passed Friday, people in Montreal neighborhoods have appeared on their balconies and in front of their houses to defiantly bang pots and pans in a clanging protest every night at 8 p.m.

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Nostalgia vs. New Aesthetic.

via Kenyatta, who says “exactly what a webseries should look like in 2012.”

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“A science fiction story about what you see when you die. Or: the Singularity, ruined by lawyers.”

Link via OTM