Violent Nature

One of my professors, Chris Csikszentmihalyi, has an art piece showing in L.A. during December. It really inspires me. If you're in the area check it out. Here's more info:
Violent Nature on the Fringe

Novartis Protest Press

The Novartis story has been getting a lot of press lately. For example Dan Rather Reports recently included this video to consider for their report, as well as WLNY-TV55 for their segment called "Changing the World". If you are a member of the press and are looking to remix this video


Then here is the original at high quality with no subtitles:
novartis-protest-video.wmv

Here is a press image pack:
novartis-images.zip

And here is the original video with subtitles (at higher quality than the youtube video):
novartis_subtitles.wmv

Please distribute. I am the original author: No copyright, no DRM, yes freedom.

Do-Good-ism, rebranding capitalism

I have been reminiscing about the word capitalism lately.

Let me break down the word capitalism to the best of my understanding. Not the concept but the word itself. Doesn't -ism mean "we believe in this above all else" or "the root word preceding myself is my doctrine or ideology"? So then capital is the doctrine, ideology, or that which is most important? But capital to my understanding means goods, or to use a less loaded word (perhaps bads?) let's call them things or stuff or items. So then things are my doctrine, or I believe in things above all else? Hmmmmmfffff! *My* world certainly isn't a capitalist one.

Well I have heard our "economy" is turning into a "service economy" (is that true?), so we are transitioning out of an industrial mode of producing goods into a mode of service. Service above all else then? Servicism... like goods but in action. Like doing good. I propose to rebrand capitalism. Isn't that a capitalist style idea?

Let it be heard across the hilltops: servicism and do-good-ism is the new ideology and the new economic mode of functioning.

After all, it's a do-good world
:oP

Drawdio - a video

And soon to come:
Drawdio.com

I've been taking video of people using drawdio for the last few weeks. Here's the compilation. I still don't have video of someone playing a song really well on it, though I've seen it happen. All in good time though.

A song my brother wrote about me

Check out This song that my brother wrote for me:

Variation on a Theme: Progression of a Life

Each part of it is supposed to represent a part of my life. I LOVE IT!!! Enjoy

Life Long Kindergarten...

This year's group looks like this (see photos)


LLK Homepage

"Ain't Got Time for Problems"

T.F.Willie wrote a new song, so I got together with him to do a music video. We generally operate on one principal -- try to do your videos in one take and on the first try. This way they feel more raw "as if" they're unpolished and real like a live performance. We can't always do it on the first try but this time we did.

Jodi's kindergarten party (for graduation)

(pic taken just after setting up the 4 "stations")

More Pix: Snack Station - Math Station - Reading Station

Jodi just graduated, and as much as she'd love to have an "Engineering PhD" themed party I talked her into a "Kindergarten" party. We will bring sipups and juice boxes. And there were plenty of fun activities.

THE SETUP

Everyone brought
- Their favorite kindergarten snack
- Their favorite book (other toys are allowed too)
- (at the most) ONE stuffy (stuffed animal)

The location was secret, and could only be uncovered by following Jodi in this interactive adventure
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/jay/8453

THE HAPPS

Seth Frey brought a stuffy that was two stuffies in one, so he kind of cheated but Jodi said it was allowed. Romie didn't get invited (on accident) but he still came (kind of rude no?). Lieb was talking about some philisophical stuff that got Frey to read the Dr. Seuss book to everyone "Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?" Then Frey climbed some trees, shot almonds at people with his sling shot and hid in the bushes. We tried to lure kids over to paint pictures with us. They lingered by the sidewalk chalk and then Mikey said "I don't know what to draw next on my horsee, will you help me? And then they came over only to be called away to a Barmitzfah minutes later. Romie brought the best snack ever - the handisnack pretzel with cheese dip. There were also yogurts, cupcakes, honey cashews, and more sipups than you could ever drink. Romie made an iguana from some new-age extra light clay stuff, and Magic Seth and Cullen came early and read and played "set" at the math station with Pablo. Everyone passed, even the people I didn't mention by name. Check out the snack station picture linked above to see Mikey's over-the-top peanutbutter apple extravaganza

I have a new sister

My brother got married on Sunday. The ceremony was a few minutes long. The whole party/ceremony was awesome right in my dad's back yard.

Yogaville

I went to Yogaville a couple of years ago, and I just read my journal again today. After reading and reflecting on how my life has changed since then, I can see how big of an impact it had on me.

Read Yogaville Journal

I also went to Yogaville a second time for a farm internship, so I hope to write about that sometime soon too.

Logan's Birthday

Today is Logan's Birthday, and I'm missing him a lot. Try to help him get his birthday cake and dodge the tacos in

the Logan Birthday Game:




The new guestbook on Logan's website is now up and running too.

1 Million Feet Under

Here is a perspective on the casualties in the Iraq war. It's in the form of a virtual fishtank.
It is my latest Scratch project.

Click on fish to find out what they represent.

INSPIRATION
This project was inspired by a few things. First, I was reading online about how many casualties there were in the war between USA and Iraq and I was really shocked at how many people had died. Then, a fellow student of mine, Alyssa, made a project called Cherry Blossoms about civilian casualties in Iraq. Also, it's almost tax day in the USA.

EXPLANATION
Each black, white and red fish represents about 30,000 Iraqi casualties. Each red, white, and blue fish represents about 3,000 USA casualties. The numbers are counting from March 2003 to March 2007. The numbers aren't exact, but it gives you the idea.

Scratch is available for you to try

MO-blog MO-daily thoughts

I started off this blog with tons of pictures uploaded from my cellphone. This gave me a chance to organize my daily thoughts, or at least a part of them. But slowly I changed the way I felt about making random comments to myself and my friends. When I posted an important article or update, it didn't seem right to drown it out with a picture of a building. So now there will be two seperate tracks.

MO-blog MO-daily thoughts (jaysmoblog.blogspot.com) will have its own place, and will consist mostly of me uploading photos and videos from my mobile phone.



While this blog will remain the same for more important updates.

7 people, 1 car, 10^23 ice particles

We used the local wild life as indicators for where the good sledding hills were -- we followed some naive looking kids with their sleds. We tested to see if the "snowball effect" really works, and we had a round of sled jousting between me and Romie.

See all the sledding pictures



Participants: Jay, Jodi, Seth, Romie (aka Ryan), Maya, Nadav, Hui

Novartis, Stop It

Today, valentine's day, we presented the CEO of Novartis with the Broken Heart Award for greed in response to Novartis' legal move to stop Indians from getting AIDS medicine. The legal issue involves a patent, but practically speaking it's an issue of life versus corporate profit. Check out the video.



Flickr photos are posted here

After we got home from the demonstration, I immediately edited the video and posted it on You Tube. An organizer from Philadelphia called me and helped me revise the video. Same day I posted a second version, and this version, along with the still photos, went out to press right away. So far I only know of one site that has reposted the video, fightglobalaids.org. Some people were pretty surprised to learn that I filmed it on a Canon digital still camera and edited it in Movie Maker. I don't like to use fancy tools if they slow me down. Gotta get the video up and running.

Workshops in Guadalajara

I've been facilitating some workshops using digital building blocks as well as a new programming language that lets you create interactive art, stories, and games by snapping together lego-like bricks on screen. I just finished documenting the workshops in Guadalajara in video format. In just a few hours the participants created some pretty awesome projects.

Here's the Videos I made

Pico Crickets day 2:
Download High Quality




Scratch day 2:
Download High Quality



Pico Crickets day 1:
Download High Quality

A Dystopic Technology for TISC

TISC is a class I'm taking and stands for Technology Information and Social Control. I was assigned to create a dystopic technology. This was really challenging for me. I started to think about it and it felt like even the brainstorming process was manifesting negativity concretely. I didn't want to be a part of the assignment. In the end I compromised the reality of the assignment by making a bit of a gag game. I learned a lot about the relationships between dystopia and the world I live in.

How I Feel When I Drive

How do you feel when you drive?

Moon-Lapse

I am taking this class where we are assigned to observe the moon. Very intersting class that I call "The Having of Wonderful Ideas." It's the first class I ever took at Harvard, and it's by Eleanor Duckworth who is roughly of the Piaget lineage. I decided to turn the lens on the moon since I can't draw so well.

See Moon-Lapse Sequences Here

The world is a triangle

The world may be flatter than it used to be in terms of business or travel, but I still see it as round. Whenever I talk to tech support on the phone I always wonder where they are from and what their lives are like (and I ask them) since most companies outsource to countries far away. I was getting help from an AOL tech online for my dad's computer, and the guy was using a curious form of English so I asked where he was from and the answer was terrifying:
-----------
9:14:40 AM Tofueater - may i inquire as to where you are from?

9:15:13 AM AOLTechMPS - When you initiate a Live Help session with the Technical Department, you are connected to a consultant working in one of several locations. This process allows us to minimize delays in responding to your needs and allows us to work around the clock.

9:15:23 AM AOLTechMPS For security reasons, AOL has a policy of not disclosing our member support locations. Thank you for your understanding that I cannot release that information.

9:15:30 AM AOLTechMPS - Is there anything else I can assist you with at this time?

9:15:41 AM Tofueater - you mean you can't even tell me what half of the globe you are on?

9:16:40 AM AOLTechMPS - For security reasons, I am unable to disclose the information. I hope you understand :)
------------------------
Not only is she dehumanized in name, but it would seem that she is unable to discuss anything remotely personal at all. Perhaps I should have asked what types of books she liked or whether she supported the war on terror.

Bexley Dodgeball: 2 da Finals

Bexley dodgeball is a passtime that includes such traditions as tight spandex, pushups with feet on the wall, wheelchairs, 2 foot wide bling, dancing, babies, and a whole lot of shenanigans. Today we won the game that puts us in the finals. Here are lots of pictures: Bexley Dodgeball Pictures Here are a few pictures:

Le Nature's Workers, Speak Up!

Workers, comment about your experiences with Le Nature's now.

Note: If you'd like some background and history on how this whole thing got started, see here -- Le Nature's stands AGAINST FREE SPEECH



My condolences to the people who's sweat and labor held up this company while it crumbled from the top down. Some of your fellow coworkers have already spoken up about their experiences. Whether you worked for Le Nature's or with Le Nature's, I invite you, as a worker, to express yourself here. You can do so anonymously. Whether you have good or bad things to say, you can speak up here without fearing.

Some workers have already said:

"if you only knew what went on there - they have just scratched the surface"

"What Podlucky did with fraud was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to his employees. Constant email threats and abusing his authority to make it clear his political choice was your choice. Even as far as having his secretary call homes of his employees anonymously to see who they were voting for. I do feel bad for the workers under the upper management who slaved under him to make a living, but this is a long deserving end to him. I hope he sees time."

"your an asshole..you know this leaves 200 families with out an income..all your doing is getting your rocks off about podlucky"

"these are mean spirited people who took pleasure in making the people in their employ by constantly threatining to fire them and going out of their way to be mean"

"It was a very bizarre work environment"

"I worked in their IT Dept (i.e Computer Fag Dept)"

"From day one, we knew something was strange about the way they conducted themselves."

Note: emphasis added by author

Please add your own comments, and invite your coworkers to do the same. If you're not a worker but still want to make a comment please go here.

Crossdressing Party

Every year at my dorm they have a crossdressing party. Last year one student dressed up as a pregnant, somewhat homely, woman. It's pretty festive.

le nature's to go bankrupt soon

Le Nature's filed for Chapter 7 Protection today (this indicates bankruptcy is near).
Barry G. writes: Le Nautre's is going to "file for Bankruptcy and that it appears the Co was after all fraudulent enterprise according to court documents. Their audited statements show about $275mm in revenues but the court appointed custodian says they can only show sales of about $32 million. Bonds went from 100 yesterday to 5 today."

More articles on Le Nature's downfall are at:
pittsburghlive
wsj

I have known that this company had some corrupt people in it for a while now, since people from the company and their lawyers have been harassing me for more than a year. See the review I wrote more than a year ago at


http://www.mit.edu/~sil/lenatures/jaysilver/lenatures.htm



It’s too bad that it took this for people to see the naked emporor through the “tunnel pasteurization” and “pure mountain stream” water.

halloween: you, ewe, 'u', and a gypsy

I really wanted to be something meta for Halloween. I wanted my costume to change for each person. I decided to be "you". So I put a mirror on my face as a mask. But just in case that wasn't rediculous enough I dressed up my body as a "ewe" (female sheep). To clue people in I wrote 'U' on my forehead. So I was you from top to bottom. Jodi was a really mean looking gypsy.

Jodi's Tassle Turning

We moved to Boston just over two years ago. Jodi hadn't decided to come with me until just a couple months before the move. She didn't know what school she would go to, and we didn't know how we would afford living or her tuition. Everything came through and I can't believe I just saw her pregraduation ceremony a couple days ago. What a girl!



See More Pictures

Remember: Spam Kills

So tonight was the biggest spam war of the semester at MIT thus far. It all started with a boy who lost his frat sweatshirt or something. Anyway, in the name of mocumentary silliness and instantaneous video production, I filmed some Bexley kids dramatizing the spam war. The script was written for us in the emails, and the rest is just ridiculousness. We slapped it up on the spam war 30 minutes later.

Remember: Spam Kills (The Movie) Filmed and Produced at MIT in 20 minutes

Quacktastic Homebrewed Music Vid

I made a music video tonight with Will at Bexley. It's a Squirrel Nut Zippers song originally. Check it out:

Music Video (wmv ~11MB)

New Scratch character

So I've been doing these photo shoots to get new characters for Scratch, a programming language my group is working on. Scratch is a programming language that is easy to start off in right away and in which you can do a number of different kinds of things relatively easily. You program by snapping together lego-like building blocks.

See the new photos

File Sharing by Hand

Today I walked around uploading songs to people by handing them pieces of paper. The sheets of paper had encoded songs printed on them. Esentially we were file sharing face to face, breaking copyright law. Read my whole article here:

File Sharing by Hand