Spotted by Marcela Benassi Fernandes, ESAMC Coolhunt ‘10, Brazil.
Although it shares its name with another interesting project surrounding decision making and computer Deep Green is a robotics project by the Robotics and Computer Vision lab in Queen University Canada. The project seems like something that would be found in a modern day John Tradescant the elder’s cabinet of rarities. Or it could be the first step towards the robotic version of a Vincent Lauria. This project is part of the Robotic Pool research field and has as its aim of producing a robot that can compete with and beat the best pool players in the world. Its name is derived from Deep Blue, the computer program that beat chess grand master Gary Kasparov in the late 1990s. The research field is focused on pool because as they say it’s a game of strategy, accuracy, the playing field is static and must come to rest before you can engage with it again and it’s a popular game. By visualizing how the computer lines up its shots its now taking the notion of Augmented Reality beyond just giving information on people and places and things. This is enabling decision making and action not unlike another project with the same name.

Spotted by Lucas Rossi, ESAMC Coolhunt ‘10, Brazil.
No this is not about the the heart of Leicestershire, but it’s a massaging wrap. The B(l)aby is one of those rare concepts that crosses the threshold and becomes an actual product.
Geof Ramsay’s product is a product that takes the Mozart effect and caters to mothers’ wishes to communicate with their fetuses. It’s a wrap that mothers place around their tummies that plays music or lullabies or just the mothers voice talking. After the child is born the wrap can be used as music device that can be hung above the crib. 

The traditional music charts are dead. Welcome to www.wearehunted.com. This website brings you a top 99 of songs based on how often the specific songs are talked about on sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and various message boards and p2p forums. So it’s not about sales or downloads, it’s about the music people talk about with their friends.

The http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ blog has transformed the obscure side of human beings into a business, creating an opportunity for exposing what cannot be confessed. The posts are submitted by readers using post cards for making an anonymous intimate confession. There are secrets that are plain, poetic, sad, sexy, as well as some spicy ones. The blog has paved the way for several books, lectures and events. It makes sense: what we are really interested in are other human beings. Even more so if they expose themselves…

From all over the world – though mainly Europe until now - people flock to http://www.fmylife.com in order to share the ‘suckage’ of their lives. Other people reflect on these stories by telling them that they are right to pity themselves. Or that they simply deserve their unhappy fates. Is this a mindboggling innovative site? No, it is just good, clean fun. But it does stand for an idea that just a few years ago was mindboggling: the Rise of the Social Web and how it will accelerate and intensify in 2010 and 2011 in numerous and as yet unfathomable ways. (Click on Read Why It’s Cool for more)

The rock star is controversial and inspires us with dreams of rebellion and authenticity. Rock, that violently and often self destructively uncompromising attitude has become scarce in youth culture with media displaying mainly the talents of those who aspire planned and marketed careers via avenues like Idols and Next Top Model. Mainstream music industry made the religion of rock into an parody of itself, while producing entertainment for the masses. Each era has a new type of rock star. These days it is: back to DIY, but then 2.0 style. In fashion this trend translates into designers like Rick Owens (the dark side) and Jeremy Scott (the bright side). True rock is neither blasé nor cynical. It’s about abandon. It’s about taking risks. The look, be it dark or bright, reflects this. 

Bloggers have definitely turned the fashion world upside down. Their influence has grown to such an extent that they are hired by large media companies and fashion brands to shoot campaigns, produce editorials, design products or just give input. For instance Sea of Shoes designed shoes for Urban Outfitters and Garance Dore designed shirts for the GAP. Age or experience is not the crucial matter. Sea of Shoes is written by 17-year-old Jane Aldridge. Another kid making it big in fashion is Tavi . This 13-year old self-proclaimed geek has been sitting front row everywhere during the latest New York Fashion week.
Tavi and Jane Aldrigde are as young as they are passionate. With them a new professionalism shows: stick stubbornly and passionate, but also flexible and free-floating to what you like and to what you are really good at. To extend this trend a bit more: An advertising agency can launch a successful self-designed jeans collection, publish an underground magazine and organize great events in the same time. Which is all done by the Swedish company Acne. Graphic designers can start their own fashion store, a full blown fashion label and a club in Sao Paolo, which is done by Paris/New York based brand Surface 2 Air.

In a recent, popular series of blog posts, Italian journalist Dario Olivero articulates his impressions of a travel across Japan. During these travels he is seeking the places, the flavors and the emotions of Haruki Murakami‘s literature. Nobody evokes Tokyo as a metropolis of mystery in the way Murakami does, and most of his readers “feel” they know the city well through his books. Murakami’s novels are often a suspension of disbelief between magic and dream, where mysteries unwind in parallel narrative lines. Set in a Japan that comprises the animistic tradition of ghosts and yesterday’s pachinko game halls, Murakami’s stories are indefinable and undefined. They however are built on the tension of storytelling from the first to the last line, and it is through the power of words, only words, that such miracle of aesthetic - and sometimes ecstatic - sensation is achieved by the Japanese master. Basic implication: Storytelling is the fine art that holds the key to tomorrow’s media content.

In Cold War Kids’ music video the user can control all the band members. He can control what kind of guitar the guitar-player uses, and the way the singer is singing. Etcetera. The four band members have recorded four versions of the song, so it’s possible for you to construct sixteen versions of the single. http://www.mtvmusic.com/artist/coldwarkids.jhtml
Further: in Children Collide - Chosen Armies’ video clip the user can control the camera and zoom in on the different band members. Even more special, you can spin the camera around 360 degrees. http://www.childrencollide.com/
Lastu but not least: Julian Perretta - ride my star. For this video you need a computer with a webcam and a blank sheet of paper. Hold the piece of paper up in front of the lens and click PLAY on Julian Perreta’s website. The videoclip will start playing on the sheet of paper the user is holding - even if you are walking around the room.
http://www.julianperretta.com/ride_my_star/

Mr. Koji Suzuki is a well-known cult horror Japanese author. Worldwide he is known for the Hollywood film “The Ring”. His new novel titled “Drop” was released this Summer in Japan, in a “toilet roll” format, priced at JPN 210.
It is marketed as Koji Suzuki’s bathroom-reading horror novel, and has also a strap line of “the most scary toilet paper”. Koji Suzuki’s latest novel apparently features happenings in public toilets. The novel itself consists of 10 paragraphs per chapter, 9 chapters in total so I guess that it can be read fairly quickly while in toilet.