European Union IT research is failing:
Viviane Reding, European Commission information society and media commissioner, said, “Fast-changing IST research is, and must remain, a key driver for the rapid economy-wide technological innovation on which Europe’s skilled jobs ultimately depend.”

She said, “I intend to respond very quickly to the panel’s concerns about red tape, which is a general problem of EU research programmes, but felt most directly in IST research where we operate in a particularly dynamic and fast evolving environment.”

——–

this will be good, but there still needs to be some solid oversight.

Fridgy:
Fridgy is a prototype piece from Israeli design Yonatan Sadowsky which aims to “break the ‘refrigeratorness’ of the common refrigerator,” most obviously by making use of a polyester fabric for its shell. Fridgy, which uses a Peltier-like cooling mechanism, is covered in a non-absorbent fabric, and can even be folded up when not in use. It’s like having a sleep over for your soda, except at the end everyone dies.
kitchen is the heart of the home [DesignBoom via NearNearFuture]

classic.

AoIR 2005:
Call for papers: AoIR 2005 (Chicago): “Internet Generations”

yep…. it is that time.

Recapturing Kansas — In These Times:
What I mean by that term is populist conservatism. It’s this angry right-wing sensibility that speaks in—or pretends to speak in—the voice of the working class. It got its start, more or less, in 1968, with the candidacy of George Wallace. The issues that the Backlash has embraced have changed a lot over the years. In the early days it was pretty much racist. Today, you have the same angry, hard-done-by sensibility, but it’s attached to different issues – the most famous being abortion, and, in this latest election, gay marriage.

——-

a nice description and interview by thomas frank.