From Granta Magazine’s What we think of America issue some thoughtful pieces on a topic that has certainly been on my mind of late

Interesting one from Are Friends Electric an artistic intervention in Nerve.com’s personal ads gets co-opted, check out the messageboard for the debate.
You have to try a lot harder these days to stick it to the man especially when the man doesn’t think he’s the man, rest assured though it’s still possible..

Star Wars Episode II: R2-D2 Interactive Droid the important feature I think is that it has an extendible arm that can carry a 12-ounce can. A robot to bring you beer, hmmm beer.

I just found this from Metamute magazine The Metamap (it’s a PDF so best advice is to right click and save target as about 700k)- a fuller projection Surveillance and Privacy world map.
Look very carefully and you’ll see that I’m on the map which was a bit of a surprise.

Trekkies in full costume being married by an Elvis impersonator in Vegas. personally I question the authenticity of this event I mean how many times has Elvis appeared in Star Trek?
US Army colouring book – colour-in tanks n stuff
Celine Dion fans dream of Celine - scary
The only known photograph of Emily Dickenson from metascene archives
Blind items associate the celeb with the scandal

Landmarks in Recent Irish History
The first in what hopefully will be an ongoing series.
1.Ben Dunne’s Drug Hell
While talking about Ansbacher accounts let’s not forget that they’d still be secret where it not for the drug crazed antics of one very rich man in Orlanda back in 1992.

The report of the high court inspectors into the Ansbacher Accounts is now online coutesy of Indymedia.ie

From Northant News the mystery of the masked vigilante cleaner deepens.

MAME Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator is an emulator which will play original arcade games on your computer and bring you back to a simpler time when games were about blasting stuff.

I wasn’t going to comment on this but I will anyway: Arthouse mutimedia centre for the arts has closed without any warning .
Arthouse’s mission was
to further the use of digital technologies in Irish artistic practice. With this in mind, Arthouse partners with both Irish and international artists in situations that support experimentation, flexibility, and diverse practices. It is our belief that by promoting artistic uses of digital technology we are helping ensure that the messages and moments arising out of new media are not dominated by industry alone. For this reason, Arthouse creates opportunities for artists, individuals and other nonprofit or charitable organisations that support each stage of production, from learning how to use a digital camera, or how to create a website, to accessing information, or experiencing a new artwork.
I was artist in residence in arthouse last year for six months What I found was a lively place with a throughput of Irish and International artists both on residencies and just passing through to use the facilities, a great staff who battled against non existant budgets and a board who seemed to have no understanding or appreciation of the quality of the work being done.
There were many problems including tiny budgets and a building that was inappropriate for it’s function (it’d be a killer mobile phone salesroom though, watch this space) and way beyond their means but chief among the self inflicted problems was either an inability or an unwillingness to communicate what was actually being done every day at Arthouse. This reticence came from the highest level and in the end when the final rescue appeals went out they fell on deaf ears because if nobody knows what it is you do why should they care?
In the end it’s the staff who pay the price while board members* will jump to their next board appointment and continue to screw things up.
As for digital art funding in Ireland now that Arthouse is gone the powers that be in the Department and the Arts Council are going to say well we tried that new media stuff, didn’t work – went the same way as the dot com boom I don’t think we’re going to see any replacement soon.
*I exclude the artistic director from this