ItoBlog

 

Tréteaux nomades

Jusqu'au 11 septembre 2005, la Compagnie du Mystère Bouffe investit 7 lieux historiques de Paris en invitant d'autres compagnies à présenter des spectacles populaires adaptés à un public international. La commedia dell'arte, le burlesque et les parades baroques sont à l'honneur pour animer les différents quartiers qui participent à l'opération. Initié en 1999, préparé cette année depuis mars, le Mystère Bouffe a rencontré les habitants et les enfants des 3ème, 5ème, 12ème, 13ème, 18ème, 19ème et 20ème arrondissements pour préparer ces moments de proximité et de convivialité, désormais devenus incontournables dans le paysage culturel de l'été parisien.

Pour plus d'infos, cliquez ici.

Social drawing

I'm definitely in my web-gadget phase. Here's another cool one. It's a social drawing tool that lets you draw and scribble things with other people in real time.

12 Vues

My friend Pippo is working on a really interesting photography project called 12 Vues and I'm trying to recrute as many people as possible to join in and be part of it. The idea is pretty straightforward and consists in asking people from all over the world to take 12 snapshots of their day on the same day, Saturday, October 29, 2005 and then upload them on the project website.

There are 3 key rules to follow:

• take 4 pictures that say something about yourself and your environment (eg. self-portrait, your immediate surroundings, your office etc...)
• take 4 pictures of what, on the given day, you find beautiful
• take 4 pictures of what, on the given day, you find ugly

Essentially, the project is massive artistic and cultural exchange, where hundreds of people from all walks of life and from every part of the planet all take pictures on the same day, post them on a common site, share them and engage in a visual dialogue.

To find out more, visit the project website and sign up!

Globalisation 3.0

I read Tom Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem" back in my McGill days and have been reading his foreign affairs column in the New York Times ever since. He's often portrayed by the left as the Bush liberal suck-up who in the run-up to the war in Iraq, was gloating at the prospect of war with Saddam (although I think he presented one of the most compelling cases for the invasion while carefully stressing the risks, the uncertainties and sounding all the right cautions (ie. democratizing Iraq would be extremely difficult; the war needed international legitimacy etc...) . I also remember the daily bashings of his book "The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalisation" back in university. But, love him or hate him, his writings and talks are always thought-provoking. His latest book, "The World Is Flat", deals again with globalisaiton, but with what he coins Globalisation 3.0, a new era we've entered where technological and political forces have converged and that have not only shrunk the world even more but also  flattened the global economic playing field . He presented his book during a fascinating talk he gave at MIT not too long ago. Quite interesting to watch him speak. 

Happiness is...

Last night, I listened to a really interesting podcast of Leonard Lopate interviewing LSE economist-turned-"expert on happiness" Richard Layard who's recently published a book on the matter (Happiness: A New Science). Layard looks at the origins of happiness and how society would need to be adjusted to increase happiness. Among many interesing points raised:
- contrary to common perception, societies with increased income don't experience increased happiness
- unemployment is by far the most important source of unhappiness
- more than anything, the more one feels "needed", the stronger the propensity to be happy

Quite a fascinating conversation. Click and listen:

Listen up

I added a new music feature to this blog. It's a little gadget called a "dewplayer", apparently created by this french wiz kid a couple of weeks ago. Just plug in your headphones/speakers, adjust the volume, click on the little "play" button and voila! You'll find this feature in the right sidebar where I upload tracks i've been listening to recently.

Try it with Burning Spear's SOUL::

Debate not to miss if you're in NY

Wednesday, September 14, 7:00 PM

A debate between George Galloway  and Christopher Hitchens on Iraq and U.S. and British foreign policy.

 

Moderated by Amy Goodman

Mason Hall at the Baruch College Performing Arts Center
17 Lexington Ave., enter on 23rd St. New York, NY
more info here

Track your location

I discovered this really neat (and free!) german webtool that automatically locates your geographical location by using the "fingerprint" of the network you are logged onto. What's amazing is that it works with Google's satellite map function so you and your friends can actually visualise your location on a satellite image in real time (click on the picture to see where i am as i write this). Another wicked function is its travel-tracer that draws an accurate summary of all your movements on earth over a selected period of time. Great little gadget  for the frequent traveler.