RKNet Blog... Thing

A friend just called my co-worker and said that there’s a bomb threat in a campaign office for Hillary Clinton located in Rochester.

Clinton is scheduled to visit the state soon, however she is not present now.

As with any bomb scare, I’m sure this is being taken very seriously. I wish the officers and citizens the best of luck.

Hillary’s official campaign office for the state is located at 34 Fir Street, Manchester, according to the official NH site for her campaign.

Local news station WMUR has an up-to-date report.

An man reported to have a bomb duct taped to his chest has taken two hostages inside the Rochester campaign office. Police are surrounding the office. No other progress has been reported as of yet.

Update: According to WMUR, the hostages were released at around 3pm. They now have video, as well as several witness accounts and area activity reports.

So here’s someone melting chocolate bunnies instead.

P.S. The minimalist, haunting tune is really what makes this worthwhile, if you ask me.

Tay Zonday’s managed to snag an endorsement deal. I’m sure you’ve all heard about it already. From the heartlands of Ectomo to Wired’s hipster hovel blog The Underwire and beyond, it’s being talked about non-stop.

Chocolate Rain, that agitatingly infectious little ditty from a little while back, caught the attention of the Dr. Pepper marketing staff and they decided the way to go would be a remix. The 25-going-on-14 Adam Nyerere Bahner, aka Tay Zonday, managed to snag himself a tidy marketing deal with the song that had everyone mezmerised for a good few weeks several months back. I think it’s foolish for a major brand to jump on the Chocolate Rain meme now. It’s well past its prime at this point, surely. Based on my own observations, it would seem that wide-spread things like this have a tendency to start small, flare up within a community, die out a little, spread to a series of other communities, and then burst into the general public for a brief flare of upwards of a month, then slowly die out. Think of it like the female sexual cycle. There are often spikes of intense “oh god oh god” followed by almost a total reset bordering on disinterest. Eventually there’s the actual orgasm itself, a plateau of enjoyment, after which it cools down to nothing again in relatively short order. Yes, further peaks can be coaxed out after the initial plateau, but it’s not easy and not every meme is capable of such repeated overtures.

At any rate, while I’m not much of a fan of the thinly veiled viral marketing of a carbonated beverage that is Cherry Chocolate Rain, I did get the opportunity to catch another tune by Tay Zonday that I actually enjoyed. See below and weigh in your thoughts on memes, marketing, and how goofy this kid is.

Anyone who’s read Neuromancer will recall the use of dermal patches for the administering of drugs. At the time it seemed like a far-flung vision of a technologically advanced future. No pills, no needles, just slap it on and go about your business.

HP and a company named Crospon are developing that very thing. A device that looks a bit like a CPU is covered in “microneedles” which are only .5mm long. The article has photos of the device as well as diagrams displaying how it is intended to work.

Current patches, such as the nicotine patch, rely on the fact that nicotine may be absorbed through the skin. Being able to get past the epidermal barrier for chemicals which aren’t readily absorbed could mean wonders for people whose medication regimen requires regular injections, or in some cases could prevent the need for pills. The developers intend to control dosage via microchip, which can protect patients from overdose and expands possibilities of time-release drugs as well.

While this can certainly revolutionize medicine, it also has the potential to revolutionize reacreational and dependency-based drug use also. Look ma, no track marks! This concern is years in the making, as scientists are still working to determine the safety and affordability of such a delivery method.

And now on a related note, for your listening pleasure:

I never thought I would be able to turn to a webcomic to astutely sum up the values of restraint and respecting others perspectives (regardless of what you may think of them.

I just discovered WE THE ROBOTS, a thrice-weekly strip in ye old internet, a little earlier.
While skimming through the backlog from the current strip, I spotted a few that made me chuckle and whatnot, then I spotted this one.

In six panels, it not only adequately sums up my extreme distaste for professional sports, but also beautifully embodies why it is not necessarily a good idea to tell people exactly what you think. Give it a peek and discuss.

Is it better to say what you think, regardless of tact, or keep quiet if you think you might insult someone?

Woke up freaking late.
Stupid alarm clock!
I should get a new one.
Felt all stuffy and wheezy again this AM.
Not good.
Today isn’t half over yet. I feel so dreadfully unaccomplished.
Still there’s always a chance for things to improve.
Perhaps it’s dim-witted optimism, but so be it.

Okay so technically it’s Tuesday morning at this point. What are you going to do about it though? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

We’ll just jump right into it with this for preamble: Inappropriately hilarious video.

I came across an article in The Register a little while ago about one mom’s fight to keep a 29 second video clip of her son dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” up on YouTube.

In summary: The PA resident, Stephanie Lenz, had placed a 29 second clip of her dancing baby boy up on YouTube in order to share with family and friends. Universal (Prince’s label) contacted YouTube purportedly at the artist’s behest, citing the DMCA

Momma contacted the EFF and also filed a suit against the record label, Universal Music Group, to get the clip put back up as well as damages.

Current the clip is back up on YouTube, but as of the Register’s October 30th article, the lawsuit is still underway.

Without further ado, the “objectionable” clip.

I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on this. I personally feel like the artist and recording company have lost face with this action, and that the more public this becomes, the worse it will look for the two of them. The mother has nothing to lose but time, and possibly some serious lawyer’s fees. In my mind this is not a landmark case in terms of establishing laws, but in enforcing them. And of course the neverending “Corporate vs. Consumer” idea that pervades the culture these days.

One of my favorite design blogs, I <3 Typography, linked to another really neat design blog today. More specifically, to The Book Design Review’s article on the author’s favorite book covers of 2007.

There are some really terrific ones in this post. Ones I found especially interesting:
Like You’d Understand, Anyway - Look For: The Escher-esque intertwined wrestlers.
One Red Paperclip - Look For: The simplistic obviousness of the non-verbal way the title is represented.
Fireproof - Look For: The seeming non-relation of cover to title, and the oddly chilling impression it leaves.
Darkness at Noon & The Yiddish Policeman’s Union - Look For: Obvious shoutouts to Soviet poster design.

Check them all out and if you’re actually able to narrow down a favorite, fill out the poll that author Joseph Sullivan has set up at the bottom of the post.

For those in the USA who take this national holiday as a chance to celebrate thankfulness with friends and family, I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. For those who just take this as a day off, I wish you a happy day off. For those who can’t get the day off, I hope your day goes by quickly and smoothly. For those about to rock, we salute you. For those who just enjoy the excuse for a big turkey dinner, happy turkey day. For those who remember the past you have my condolences for the lies, misdeeds, and hurts.