TIFI

Posted to Economist.com News Analysis.

An art dealer sells his most beloved Cezanne

Posted to Salon.com.

One of the better introductions to “Zoo” that I have read, though the interview is pretty lame (not the writers fault, heh)

I can understand anybody’s reluctance to engage with the issues raised in “Zoo,” a lovely, subdued film, washed in midnight blue, that flirts with the outer edges of documentary reconstruction and poetic license — and is certain to make you uncomfortable. But much of the outraged response to “Zoo,” almost all of it from people who haven’t seen the film (I heard a lot of this myself, after covering it at Sundance), is based on willful ignorance and incomprehension.

Posted to MAKE: Blog.

Jay writes -

Wendy Tremayne, best known for founding Swap-O-Rama-Rama, and Mikey Sklar, who is geek famous for self implanting an RFID chip into his hand, are also green pioneers. Leaving New York City to settle in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, these two decided to invest their retirement funds into creating Green Acre. Their goals for Green Acre span from being a green lodging spot for geeks to becoming a community center and arts venue for the increasing number of T-or-C locals.

Posted by Warren Ellis to Warrenellis.com.

Denver – News – 72-Hour Party People

“I consider this shit an excellent use of my tax dollars,” Nick says, rattling a bottle of ProVigil. “It helps keep people from going werewolf around hour 50.”

Posted by MANOHLA DARGIS to NYT > Movie Reviews.

“Zoo” is, to a large extent, about the rhetorical uses of beauty. It is, rather more coyly, also about a man who died after having sex with a stallion.

Opening in NYC this week, also a review in the The Village Voice

I hear a rumor that it has been accepted into Cannes, not sure if that means in competition, or what, but pretty crazy anyway.

Posted by ROBIN POGREBIN to NYT > Arts.

Husband-and-wife collaborations are part of a broad trend that is changing the traditional definition of architecture partnerships.

Read more at NYT > Arts.

The body of the tower was made by a new technique called “ferrofluid sculpture” that enables artists to create dynamic sculptures with fluid materials. This technique uses one electromagnet, and its iron core is extended and sculpted. The ferrofluid covers the sculpted surface of a three-dimensional iron shape that was made on an electronic NC lathe. The movement of the spikes in the fluid is controlled dynamically on the surface by adjusting the power of the electromagnet. The shape of the iron body is designed as helical so that the fluid can move to the top of the helical tower when the magnetic field is strong enough.

Visit the page for the movie.

Via MAKE: Blog.

Posted by schneier to Schneier on Security.

In 1970, American economist George Akerlof wrote a paper called “The Market for ‘Lemons‘”, which established asymmetrical information theory. He eventually won a Nobel Prize for his work, which looks at markets where the seller knows a lot more about the product than the buyer.

Akerlof illustrated his ideas with a used car market. A used car market includes both good cars and lousy ones (lemons). The seller knows which is which, but the buyer can’t tell the difference — at least until he’s made his purchase. I’ll spare you the math, but what ends up happening is that the buyer bases his purchase price on the value of a used car of average quality.

This means that the best cars don’t get sold; their prices are too high. Which means that the owners of these best cars don’t put their cars on the market. And then this starts spiraling. The removal of the good cars from the market reduces the average price buyers are willing to pay, and then the very good cars no longer sell, and disappear from the market. And then the good cars, and so on until only the lemons are left.

In a market where the seller has more information about the product than the buyer, bad products can drive the good ones out of the market.

Read more at Schneier on Security.

Via cityofsound.

Wreck-diving London [BLDGBLOG]

"London will become a city of canals – before it is lost to the sea entirely. It is a new Atlantis, sinking deeper each day into the oceanic embrace of hydrology."

Posted by pk to Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed.

Lovely Gene Weingarten piece in the weekend WashPost on whether one of the nation’s great musicians — violinist Joshua Bell — can make any money busking incognito in a Washington subway at rush hour.

Too bad the article is so long, just skim it.