Remakes of classic films have a tendency to be poor imitations that are created only to make money. The recent remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" is one example, but here is an adaptation that is actually closer to the original story than the first film. If the recent remake followed the original story then perhaps it could be vindicated, but the major studios will only produce bland films with no artistic potential.

 
In the aftermath of Christmas, here is an interesting interpretation of where Santa Claus comes from. It can become in its own way a Christmas classic for those who are interested in the unusual.

 
It can appear that the world may be coming to an end, but the big question is what type of apocalypse will it be. This focuses not only on the inherent fear or suspicion about the end but also a fascination of what it would look like, all done in a whimsical way.

 
Here is one of the most unusual and interesting uses of the comic form in order to convey a deeper psychological structure. It begins normally but folds back upon itself as the story progresses.

 
The Christmas season can also be a time of giving to charities. Here are an assortment of causes that are not only interesting but worthy of support.

 
Nikola Tesla was a prodigious genius who invented many revolutionary things that seemed to defy the laws of science at the time. Some of his unexecuted patents, like a metal panel that absorbs radiant energy similar to a solar panel, was devised many years before solar power was conceived.

 
There were various animated films and shorts that were made in the 1970's and early 1980's that were inspired by the 1960's. They not only incorporated psychedelic elements, but included themes from the New Wave of science fiction that arose in the 1960's.

 
Innovations in renewable energy technology have gradually made these alternatives more efficient and less expensive. Here is an example of a small wind turbine that can be used for supplying power to a home, or used in a group in dense urban settings.

 
In order to develop sustainable solutions to cities and communities, one would need to look at both local and distributed energy production as well as product service systems. When homes and public buildings have renewable energy sources while connected to the energy grid, and having public means of short-range transportation that is charged by the energy grid, then the combination of the two allows for new methods to improve the quality of life within the community.

 
Robert Dahl has articulated the need for economic democracy in order to preserve political democracy. Economic democracy, through such things as cooperatives, protects economic liberty alongside economic equality. Economic equality will then protect political equality that in turn insures political liberty as expressed in political democracy.

 
Ernesto Laclau has done extensive work on populism as a phenomenon. He has described it as the formation of a people, a group based on common opposition, that then addresses the state. The equivalences made between individuals in order to form the people goes beyond the class struggle described by Marx. Those that enter the identity of the people retain their unique and diverse qualities and oppose a state form that develops inequality and hierarchy, including class divisions.

 
There was mention of what could be considered the "real America" in this past pesidential election. But the characterization of America by conservatives failed to include its radical roots. There is a strong history of anarchism in America that has actually strengthened this country as a community instead of an abstract national identity. This counter-narrative is needed now more than ever in order to enact real change.

 
Here is a very interesting visualization of the phenomenon of E-mail threads. Each message in the conversation is arranged in a row of dots, and arching lines are made from one dot to another in order to show how the latter dot is a response to the former. The various ways to picture the flow and organization of information can allow people to understand how communication technology affects the human condition.

 

 
The necessity of structures, especially for meaning, occurs after the initial separation of individuals from the unity of reality. Lacan used the dynamics of the family to describe this separation, with the developing child growing apart from the total nurturing of the mother and having to resort to the structure imposed by the father in order to relate to the mother. Heidegger described the structure of existence as a process of elements of reality hidden or revealed for individuals. The attempt to reunite with reality requires structures that order this reality through inclusion and exclusion in a way that is very different from the initial non-conscious unity with reality.

 
As the presidential campaign is coming to a close, it might be important to shed some humor into the situation. This also illustrates that Ralph Nader has a wonderful self-effacing sensibility.

 
Wes Anderson is a contemporary director who has developed a very distinctive style where he is involved in every aspect of the film production. He has been influenced by a panoply of important films and in turn has influenced some recent films to create a unique sensibility in movies.

 
Interior design can have the same purpose as the design of software in order to help people navigate and make use of what is before them. At a certain point an overall design can have a certain logic but be too distanced from human action in the world to be functional.

 
In the opposition toward the state and its power there is the conundrum of what should be done away with, especially in the area of social services. Supporting the cutting of public services mistakes the parts for the influence of the whole. If the overall system is one of exploitation, then these parts are meant to preserve the system from internal collapse. However, when pushing back power, the main target should be the overall system rather than social services that may only increase exploitation if they were repealed.

 
The world is made up of parts that form wholes, and in turn those parts are made up of other parts. Any sense of causality is due to the separate objects being part of a larger overall whole that allows interaction. For humans, there is an overall structure of interaction between the objective self and the subjective perceptions of other objects. Objects in themselves will always retain aspects that are outside of the various structures of causality and interaction.

 
The creation and continuation of discourses as explored by Foucault is both an external exclusion of falseness from truth and an internal organization of that truth in order to reproduce itself. This reproduction occurs through the limits of commentary and practices of knowledge that can add to the discourse but not change its overall structure. The discourse is the system of meaning that influences human interaction with reality by determining truth.

 
Considering the concern over the Large Hadron Collider causing a black hole, and the rise of vacated houses due to the mortgage crisis, this can be a very symbolic work of art.

 
Badiou examined the infinite nature of reality and the finite structures that attempt to explain and control reality. When the event disrupts the determination of structures, there is a need to make decisions on the reality that was external to structures. This results in new structures that can be used differently to escape the absolute determination of previous structures. The creation of new ideas in this process can illustrate the infinite nature of thought itself.

 
The 40th anniversary of the tumultuous year of 1968 can be epitomized by the month of May in Paris. It was a time where art and revolutionary politics intersected and nourished each other to such a degree that there was a space of opportunity that could have changed the world.

 
Here is an example of the various websites that sell t-shirts online. The t-shirt can be considered to be the most functional of clothing, but has the chance to have multiple personalized designs.

 
In the work of various philosophers from Europe, under the umbrella term of Continental Philosophy, there has been an emphasis on immanence. This involves taking apart a history of metaphysics in order to show that transcendence does not adequately deal with reality, being, or knowledge. Immanence can even be the best description of a progressive political practice that has always opposed structures of power.

 
Here is possibly one of the best deals for a Star Trek or science fiction fan. It is the complete collection of every Star Trek comic book since 1967. It is all in CD-ROM format and costs less than $50.

 
In October, Google will host a presidential debate that may have the potential to include all the candidates beside Obama and McCain. There is an online petition to request that Google also include candidates such as Libertarian Bob Barr, Green Cynthia McKinney, and Independent Ralph Nader. This debate may have great historical significance if all voices are heard.

 
Here is a great example of the online video form circumventing the Hollywood system in regards to television and movies. This is a mini-series about what would happen if another terrorist attack occurred in America and the repercussions of such an event. It is very bold and experimental, using limited resources in an imaginative way to its full effect.

 
Here is an interesting chart that arranges the various types of a geek personality in a hierarchy. The hierarchy is based on the various hobbies that a possible geek would engage in, and how they are measured in comparison to each other.

 
The types of landscapes depicted by J.G. Ballard's fiction can be seen as a culmination of modernism. In others words, the planned and minimalist landscape will eventually become the site for desolation and will become so alien to human use as to resemble something from a more traditional science fiction.

 
The use of wind as an alternative to oil for energy can at times look like the only method is very large wind turbines. But here is a possibility for using very small devices to line the surface of preexisting tall buildings in order to generate the same power as the larger wind projects. It demonstrates that the giant top-down method is not the only way.

 
Various states have been trying to follow California's lead and make marijuana for medical purposes legal. Marijuana can relieve pain, decrease nausea, and help sleep in ways that do not cause any addiction or negative side effects. Recent findings have also shown that marijuana can have the potential to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The only drawback is that the illegal status of marijuana makes it difficult to fund the research, and instead it is unfairly grouped with dangerous drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine even though they share no common characteristics.

 
With the perils of global capitalism, there is an increased need for a decentralized community economics. Here is an example of how cooperation can be a more sustainable model of economic activity than the demand to compete and subsume everything under the profit motive.

 
Burning Man is a yearly event that began in the early 1990's but has roots in the classical age. As expansive empires brought many diverse people and cultures together, there were great gaps in social equality. Mystery cults formed that converted various preexisting tribal fertility festivals into ceremonies that were more like celebrations of death and rebirth. This united people together as equals in a way that is being reproduced every year on the playa.

 
The Matrix trilogy attempted to explain the various possibilities of a simulated reality used to control humans. Here is an interesting interpretation of exactly what was required for a successful simulation. Where the first type of simulation failed because it was too perfect, the second failed because it tried to follow actual history completely and was too deterministic. The divergence between human will and the action that would follow caused a breaking up of causality, and the simulation would fail. In order to deal with those who would resist the determinism, the simulation would actually allow individuals to be freed from the machines. In other words, the rebellion portrayed in the films was actually a method of containment by the machines to prevent a major disruption of the overall simulation.

 
Germany has just recently begun producing zeppelins again. Here is a new design for a dirigible that can be a great advancement in its form from the very late 1800's, and hopefully can bring this type of transportation into the 21st century.

 
Singularity programming is a theoretical approach to computer programming that incorporates the idea of the phase space manifold found in complexity theory. In this case one attractor in the space can be the computer when it is off, and another attractor can be when the computer is on but at rest. Usually, errors or strange behavior is considered an anamoly that must be fixed in a computer. But singularity programming would look at this behavior as the formation of a new attractor that would change the equilibrium of the computer.

 
The maintaining and distribution of cultural creations on the Internet as digital files is constantly opposed by various techniques that would enforce copyright and restrict the flow of information. A pattern emerges where the distribution of information becomes more decentralized in order to move around restrictions. However, those restrictions also become decentralized in order to adapt to the decentralization of information. Both movements toward decentralization act in a interdependent relationship with each other.

 
Deleuze And Guattari formulated their philosophy as the creation and action of machines, which would be various immanent and transcendent structures shaping reality. Desire is the foundation of the creation of machines that encompass both humans and objects within the social field, and which result in more technical machines. When these machines become independent from human creation there is the reorganizing of desire in the social field to such an extent that it is possible for humans to desire their own repression.

 
The Burning Man festival is a yearly event where free expression and community is enacted. It is a type of temporary autonomous zone that breaks free from any tendency to create hierarchy and restrictions on human desire. The alternative that is presented there is that humans can create cooperative systems and still express desire in a productive way, outside of the nation-state and other oppressive structures such as religion or capitalism.

 
Here is an interesting use of technology where a ring of wave generators surrounding a tank can cause letters to be formed in the water. Technically this method could be used for any material in which energy can be conducted through and cause movement.

 
Here is a wonderful website that sells a selection of shirts with a retrofuturistic design. It comes from the same person who set up this website that features Celtic designs for shirts. The combination of the two is a wonderful juxtaposition.

 
The ability to control that is exercised by the state is directly connected to the sense of a control group in an experiment. In that context the control group is considered a normal standard while the experimental group must be measured against it. Any act of discipline or regulation is made possible by the completion of normality in a society. These standards are enforced by the various techniques of social and political control in more minute and particular ways.

 
Here is an example of a type of art that is a mixing of media. It is a combination of photography and acrobatics that results in pictures that seem to portray the impossible. In fact it is very hard to ascertain how these pictures were created since the laws of physics seem to be broken.

 
The formation of groups can be a way to represent or present reality. Groups as representation is when individuals are united and create a uniform identity that is more than the sum of its parts. The lack that individuals feel is satisfied by this group identity. On the other hand, groups as presentation allows the multiple identities of the individuals to be expressed, and they are united by a common purpose or opposition that does not require a conformity to a group identity. Since reality is a multiplicity, the groups that present rather than represent offer a more accurate description of reality.

 
Here is a reinterpretation of the characters from Star Wars, envisioned in a steampunk world. The original epic narrative still survives and is just as strong even though the details are slightly rearranged.

 
Reality can be structured in multiple ways, either as the framework of sets or as the network of relationships. The gap between the two structures of the same reality gives the appearance of a change in reality, but it actually demonstrates that there is a surplus to reality that always escapes any attempt at a structure.

 
Alain Badiou has based his philosophy on the event that disrupts preexisting structures and allows a new space for truth. Here is a very concise overview of his main line of thought, especially in regards to a new outlook on revolution beyond the modern conception of it.

 
Here is a great example of the shorter type of science fiction that is available online. As a form of literature it is an effective way to convey ideas about society, being, and politics that is removed slightly from immediate experience in order to present a deeper meaning.

 
The limits of multiculturalism is not based on its respect for diversity, but rather that it defines other cultures as useful in the larger global capitalism. Rather than a radical difference that escapes strict terms, the other is allowed and tolerated as long as it exists as a commodity that is inherently harmless to the dominant culture.

 
Alain Badiou has used the mathematical concept of set theory in order to understand being. Reality begins as a multiplicity that is grouped as a unity, but this unity has subsets that are various permutations of this grouping. The event that disrupts structures, where there is a unity, allows smaller structures to discover truth such as the various permutations of subsets.

 
Here is the first issue of a limited comic book series that takes an interesting look at religion. It deals with an attempt at time travel to insure that Christinaity is the only religion in the world, making use of inventive illustration and tackling a controversial narrative.

 
Here is an interesting depiction of what the Star Wars opening credits would look like if it was designed by a title credits designer from the 1950's. Saul Bass developed a certain style when he desinged opening credits for movies like "Anatomy Of A Murder" and "The Man With The Golden Arm".

 
The film "I'm Not There" was the first movie to win the Robert Altman Best Ensemble award at the Independent Spirit Awards and it appears that the narrative structure of the film shows it deserves the honor. The film is an attempt to be a biography of a famous person who is known for being a cipher and difficult to define. This resistance to a fixed identity is reflected in the artistic style of the movie, which despite itself or because of it is still enjoyable to watch.

 
Human relations in many cultures are based on a complex mixture of self interest and altruism, but when something like the market forms that emphasizes self interest then a separate movement emphasizes altruism such as through religion. The conservative movement uses this divide between self interest and altruism as a way to regulate voters in such a way as for them to strive for the one monetary value at the expense of diverse values. This makes it impossible to imagine a scenario where self interest and altruism can be applied together.

 
Nikola Tesla was an inventor that is overlooked today, even though many of his creations are a ubiquitous part of everyday life. In 1899, through the use of a Tesla Coil he was able to generate a manmade lightning bolt that was over 100 feet long which is still the record.

 
The transition from Spinoza to Lacan illustrates an immanent view of the world. It is a world where things exist in contingency, but humans create structures that order the world and give it purpose. Then the world appears to be a necessity. What Spinoza and Lacan share in common is this emphasis on structures in an immanent world, whether through ethics or desire. The structural basis of human ethics and desire suggest a common beginning in human nature that deals with the world and tries to make sense of it.

 
The ability to use machines at home to construct things based on open source designs is called fabbing. This can bring about a new type of peer production that moves away from the old industrial factory system. With the modification of designs and the sharing of these modifications through the Internet, one will see a more decentralized economy that can move around the power of corporations.

 
The following are my final predictions on who will win the Oscars this year. Unlike previous years where I supported a wide array of films in different categories, I think this year the two main winners will be "No Country For Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood". I do hope that the ceremony can go ahead as scheduled and that some agreement can be made with the striking Writers Guild.

BEST PICTURE: No Country For Old Men

BEST ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis - "There Will Be Blood"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Javier Bardem - "No Country For Old Men"

BEST ACTRESS: Ellen Page - "Juno"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett - "I'm Not There"

BEST ANIMATED FILM: Ratatouille

BEST ART DIRECTION: Sweeney Todd

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Assasination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

BEST COSTUME: Sweeney Todd

BEST DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson - "There Will Be Blood"

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Sicko

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: Sari's Mother

BEST EDITING: No Country For Old Men

BEST FOREIGN FILM: The Counterfeiters

BEST MAKEUP: Pirates Of The Caribbean

BEST SCORE: The Kite Runner

BEST SONG: Falling Slowly - "Once"

BEST ANIMATED SHORT: I Met The Walrus

BEST SHORT: The Mozart Of Pickpockets

BEST SOUND EDITING: There Will Be Blood

BEST SOUND MIXING: Transformers

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS: Transformers

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: No Country For Old Men

BEST SCREENPLAY: Juno

 
The possibility of Barack Obama winning in South Carolina can demonstrate the ability of his campaign to present hope in a time dominated by fear, regardless of his actual policy positions. Hope is the ability to desire joy which allows groups to be affected by emotion and able to act on that emotion. In a time where the representation of a people towards itself can shape the success of policy, this change from fear can be vital in setting up new political practices and the possibility of real progressive and independent candidates in the future.

 
Both the supposed death of God and the death of global communism results in a separation between truth and meaning. The facts of reality no longer become part of an absolute transcendent order that gives all of reality meaning. It is still possible to discover truth, but that truth no longer is used to explain the overall structure of the world. Truth serves a new purpose for indiviudal humans to understand reality that they are engaged in. In a way this breaking down of ideology, whether religion or communism, leaves a reality that is presented to humans as incomplete. The individual discovery of truth works through this incomplete reality.

 
The world described by the Matrix trilogy can open up new stories and possibilities. Here is an online story that deals with the Matrix universe and is inspired by it but can be independent from the trilogy. It can be a canvas upon which various writers and artists can project their ideas and techniques.