Z+Blog!Pointers and commentary on the future of design, branding, innovation, new media, sustainability and other emerging issues.Psychedelic Pong Played in Plasma- May 28, 2006 Here's a fabulously trippy and free update to the classic 1970's Ur-game Pong created by George Mason University's Steve Taylor. PlasmaPong introduces several new concepts into the game, including the ability inject plasma into the field of play (and dramatically change the course of the ball or puck), the ability to create a vacuum from your paddle (and thus suck your ball towards it), and the ability to send a blast of shockwaves onto the field. Sounds all very academic (and it is,...http://www.zpluspartners.com/zblog/archive/2006_05_28_zblogarchive.html#114879550336437913 I (heart) my CO2!- May 23, 2006 Want to hear the latest in Orwellian newspeak At first hearing, these delightfully craven, "pro-CO2" advertisements, put out by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, seem to be the kind of laughable parodies you'd expect to see on Saturday Night Live or The Colbert Report.(Here's a little background on the CEI; as neutrally as possible: they are a pro-business non-profit public policy organization which has aggressively challenged the science behind global warming, and which has received...http://www.zpluspartners.com/zblog/archive/2006_05_22_zblogarchive.html#114834756096737171 Anti-Japanese Print Advertisements in China- May 19, 2006 The amazing blog EastSouthWestNorth has been featuring examples of growing Anti-Japanese sentiments appearing in Chinese ads. I spoke with Jonathan Spence, one of the foremost scholars of Chinese civilization from the 16th century to the present and Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, about the historical context behind these most recent eruptions of anti-Japanese fervor:I think Japan is a genuine wound. I see it in terms of humiliation just as much as the amount of deaths and...http://www.zpluspartners.com/zblog/archive/2006_05_19_zblogarchive.html#114807434680773848 Cabaret Scientifique- May 12, 2006 There's nothing like a little booze and bright lights for creating fruitful cross-pollination. That's the theory behind the fantastic Cabaret Scientifique, an evening of songs, dance and comedy acts commissioned by Ensemble Studio Theatre and their scientific partners in crime, the Sloan Foundation. The two organizations are celebrating the culmination of their FirstLight Festival with an evening of quirky, hilarious and endearing tributes to the merging of art and science.Commissioned...http://www.zpluspartners.com/zblog/archive/2006_05_12_zblogarchive.html#114746292539960431 |