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Special report from FACT ZONE!

p.s. just so we’re clear, if you don’t understand satire, please leave an outraged comment.

Deus Ex Machina Open on Venice Blvd in Los Angeles

Can’t wait for this store to open. Custom motorcycles with surfboard racks, custom retro surfboards and single speed bikes. These guys just make and sell things they want in their own shed.

Their nearest competition will be Surfing Cowboys, about 1 mile away on Abbot Kinney Blvd but they don’t sell bikes. You’ll have to go to Bartel’s Harley Davidson further up Lincoln for one of those. Nearest single speed store would be LA Brakeless on Venice. The Deus site says the Venice location (AKA The House of Thump) will have a workshop and Stumptown coffee. Nice maneuver, Venice is screaming out for another good cafe.

Future Deus Ex Machina Custom Motorcycle Cafe Location

I’ve snooped around the outside but you can’t see inside, looks like some construction but no indication on when it will open. The site, 1001 Venice Blvd on the corner of Venice and Lincoln, in Venice, used to be a Florist and has had that ‘Deus Postmodern Activities’ sign up for at least a year now… It’s about a 15 minute walk from the beach. At their Sydney store they run some surfboard swap meets in the vacant lot opposite. They also have another store in Bali with a cafe, custom Indonesian bikes and a cool blog.

Lemony Snicket Supports Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street Poster

Lemony Snicket, author of the fantastic books, A Series of Unfortunate Events, (now a Major Motion Picture™), a.k.a Daniel Handler had this to say, among other things, about the Occupy Wall Street demonstration that is happening in response to the global financial crisis:

Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.

Yeah! I guess he’s talking about the people laughing and drinking champagne from the balcony high above wall street protests.

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Steve Jobs

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. 1955 – 2011

A sad day for technology and innovation, the Edison of our times moves on. A few people have put me on to this speech he made. Advice a lot of us know we should take but not everyone has the courage to make it happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6qgbj88_QY

Games are good for kids – Excursion to Valve

Evergreen highschool in the US sent their kids on a field trip to Valve, kids made their own levels, understood the value of working in teams and made some really cool stuff using physics, creative thinking and the latest technology… Better than the zoo?

C/O Valve and video games in eduction here

Face Substitution

Meme time. Kyle McDonald working with Face Tracking – very Aphex Twin.

Credits from Kyle’s vid to his work with Arturo Castro

FaceTracker library from Jason Saragih web.mac.com/​jsaragih/​FaceTracker/​FaceTracker.html
ofxFaceTracker addon github.com/​kylemcdonald/​ofxFaceTracker
openFrameworks openframeworks.cc/​

Kiva Microfinance Visualisation

Kiva is a microfinance platform. What’s that?

It’s a way to lend small amounts of money to people in poor countries who are trying to earn a crust. Small time entrepreneurs, you know, fishmongers and the like.

This video shows the flow of money loans across the globe over the past five years. It’s interesting to see how Kiva has grown in popularity and reach.

Intercontinental Ballistic Microfinance from Kiva on Vimeo.

Kilian Martin – Freestyle Skateboarder

The board is an extension of himself.

Kilian Martin is a professional freestyle skateboarder from Spain with his own signature style. He spins like a dervish, he changes boards mid-trick and he does things on one foot and two wheels that some freestyle riders struggle to do at all.