By DAVID BARBOZA
SHANGHAI — China made public on Tuesday regulations aimed at cracking down on the use of virtual currencies amid worries that a huge underground economy was developing out of the country’s online gaming community.
The rules, issued jointly by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Culture in Beijing, could deal a blow to the country’s fast-growing online gaming industry.
Beijing said the regulations would curtail trading in virtual currencies, prevent online gambling and restrict virtual currency from being exchanged for cash or used to buy real goods.
Among other things, Chinese officials have worried that online currencies could ultimately serve as an alternative to China’s official currency, the renminbi, and have an impact on the country’s financial system.
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Peculiar image of the week by Jacek Yerka.
Designer Carlijn Compen upgraded her watertap with some LED’s that shift color along with the heat of the water. A simple yet effective example of information decoration that will seamlessly fit in the ambient bathroom. I don’t know whether the electricity for the LED’s is generated by water power.
Related: Ambient bathtub, Wallpaper blooms when the heat is on, Energy consumption shown on power plant, Datafountain, Power aware cord, Excitement clothing, Information decoration for dummies.
I tend to think of the Philips Wake Up Light as a product of missed opportunity: Good concept, implementation too cheap and illustrative. Especially the crappy bird-sounds are even more annoying than those of any classical alarm clock and certainly do not provide for a more ‘natural’ wake-up experience.
Perhaps I am just not in the target group of the product – I hate plastic flowers you know. Still, I was curious to see how roosters respond to the Wake Up Light.
Related: This way for survival, Steam Horse, Who wants to drive a fish?, Romantic sunsets. Thanks Sylvain.
Our beloved King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who died tragically at the age of fifty after suffering cardiac arrest, was one of the most widely beloved entertainers and influential artists of all-time. And he wasn’t only a pioneering in music.
Throughout his career, he underwent countless groundbreaking cosmetic operations to recreate his own face according to an ideal he had in mind. Sadly, after each surgery, that ideal seemed to shift, necessitating new adjustments.
Using childhood photo’s of Michael and knowledge on basic aging trends, forensic artists constructed a portrait of how Michael would have looked at age 50, had he never undergone plastic surgery. The difference between the portraits is striking. But which is the real Michael? The man of flesh and blood, sculpted by plastic surgeons or the highly speculative forensic image? Both Michaels are virtual in their own right.
If heaven exists, I am sure Michael Jackson is chilling there now with James Brown. Yet, I have no idea how Michael will appear in the hereafter.
Related: Fake for Real Memory Game, The photoshop beauties: before and after, A Society of Simulations.
Going to the zoo is a favorite summer past-time. Visitors to the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna will see lots of animals in recreated ‘natural’ habitats. Except this summer, along with the animals, there’s an odd addition. Junk.
The zoo is hosting the work of two German artists who are questioning whether the environments created at zoos are actually natural representations of the real world. In this case, one untouched by man. Artists Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf created a new ‘natural’ context in which to view the animals in an exhibition called Trouble in Paradise.
In one enclosure, the German duo have half-submerged a car in a watering hole used by the resident rhinos. In another enclosure, penguins frolic in the shadow of an oil pump, and in yet another, alligators must share their modest bayou with a bathtub and a monster truck tire.
The artists hope the exhibition forces the viewer to reconsider their idyllic vision of what a natural animal habitat looks like and realize the impact man has had on the environment.
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Miniaturization of mobile phones visualized in the style of a Russian Matroesjka doll. If this continues your phone will soon be small enough to fit into your tooth? Created by art director/animator Kyle Bean.
Via Dutch Cowgirls. Related: My latest cellphone, Evolution in the bathroom, Excuse me, is your tooth ringing?, Phone of the future.
Recently, I had a nice day in the Dutch dunes with the people of Blocter.com, who show the people behind blogs.
We closely investigated the Scottish highland cattle that acts as a replacement for the long extinct wild aurochs in the regenerated Dutch landscape, which also includes cellphone antenna masts dressed up to look like trees – a regular mast would, of course, spoil the landscape.
Meanwhile we discuss how much of what we think of as nature is in fact a simulation – an image created according to what people want nature to be –, while at the same time technological developments fundamentally influence and alter our relation with nature.
Related: Nextnature interview, Real nature is not green, Nextnature visual essay.
The recent discussion on boomeranged metaphors reminded me of this 20 pound mouse hand created a some years ago for a Paradise by the laptop light event on Next Nature. The pionter counts 158 LEDs that are programmable per pixel line and was made by: David Menting, Jasper Dekker, Guus Baggermans and Brian Garret.
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