Remember flashmobs? This is sort of in the same vein. Bruce Sterling’s blog on Wired tells of a group of agitators calling themselves the “Passenger Liberation front” (snerk). The PLF spice up San Francisco’s BART train system by running random bits of performance art — in this case a mock wedding. This sounds eminently wacky and lots of fun.

The idea is a good one. “BART is a public space, but people don’t really interact with each other,” says one participant, and this is probably true of any subway system, anywhere. You sit, you scrutinize the dull advertisements, you stare at the subway map and count the stops until you get off even though the entire thing is burned into your memory already. If you’re really lucky you have a walkman or a book. I used to nap when I took the subway. So the PLF decides to shake things up and make people laugh, make them smile. And if this article is any indication, it’s working.

But of course, predictably, the cops get involved. They haven’t busted up the wedding party yet, but a BART party on St Paddy’s ended in arrests and unpleasantness. Bah.

Scary Go Round

Originally uploaded by LAI.

If you don’t read Scary Go Round, by John Allison, you ought. Its delightfully quirky, and charmingly drawn.

Researchers in Laval and Florida have been developing thin lenses made of polymers and glass that react to electric currents and change their focal length. The range is currently 60cm-infinity — not quite good enough for human optics (I like being able to see stuff within 60cm, personally) but certainly useful for cameras and other optical applications, and certainly a step in the right direction. When we are able to focus accurately using a single fixed lens and no moving parts that’s one fewer mechanical failure to worry about.

You can read articles about the Laval group and the Florida group.

I’ve got the frickin’ Tetris song stuck in my head.

free coke

Originally uploaded by LAI.

At work they’ve made the coke machine dispense drinks for free, figuring that as long as the coffee is free the soft drinks might as well be also. Oh happy day! That’s two or three dollars a day less for me to pay! Not that I’m going to abuse the privilege of course (see inset).

Right on the *tail* of my post applauding Brazil’s gumption *sticking it* to the US bullies, their Instituto de Estudos Orientais in Brazil seems to demonstrate exactly what they think of Murka trying to *butt* into their sex lives. Here’s their web page logo (no, seriously):

via Boing Boing

AFRICA signs the contract, agreeing to spend US funds only on abstinence-until-marriage programs. MURKA cackles and rubs its hands together.

MURKA, fuming, exits still clutching its bag of money. BRAZIL basks in the appplause of millions.