The Universe of Search

Think Google knows how to organize the Internet? Someone, someday, is going to come up with a more compelling visual version of search, and computer scientist Jonathan Harris might just be that man. In this astounding TED talk just posted online, Harris not only groups the entire Web world by its emotions, but for an encore launches Universe, an astonishingly visual online app where search terms float around you like clouds of constellations. In an instant, everything recorded about a given search term -- say, your company name -- unfurls like energy from a supernova. Check it out:

Burning Backlash 2.0: A Younger Person Responds

Dear Larry and Marian,

Thanks for your letter of July 3, and thanks again for the thought-provoking interviews you gave me back in May. I thoroughly enjoyed our discussions, which is why I quoted you both as extensively in this story as just about anyone in my ten years of feature writing. I was sorry to read that you felt my story could have done with more "addition and subtraction", but to be honest, I doubt many subjects in the history of journalism ever felt differently. This is the nature of the beast. People get interviewed for stories, then the interviews are clipped and condensed into quotes and paraphrases. Even a full transcript of an interview rarely does much justice to the complex human beings under examination. We are vast, we contain multitudes.

That said, you raise some important points, and I welcome the opportunity to respond to each one.

1) The story attempts to be about both change and conflict at the same time, and yet there is no conflict. I had to smile when I read this in your letter, coming as it did a week or so into the still-burning firestorms of outrage on the e-Playa and Tribe message boards, not to mention the regional email lists. Yes, I quoted one anonymous source to prove this conflict, but s/he was very representative of other Burners I spoke to who were already aware of the Green Pavilion plan. S/he put it most succinctly, and given that s/he is part of the crew building the Man that will stand right next to that Pavilion, it should hardly be surprising that s/he requested anonymity.

The Burning Backlash

That Burning Man feature I wrote is still sparking lots of healthy debate on Burner sites like the e-Playa, Laughing Squid and Tribe. I've never seen Burners get so fired up about a single story; apparently word of it even reached the DPW crew out in the desert currently building the Man itself, though they have no Internet access. It also brought the following letter from the two members of the Borg that I quoted extensively, Larry and Marian. I'll post it here unexpurgated, then blog my response tomorrow.

Sent on behalf of Marian Goodell and Larry Harvey

To the Editor:

Eric Sevareid once observed that there are two kinds of news stories: stories about change and stories about conflict.  Chris Taylor, author of 'Burning Man grows up' (July 1, 2007), apparently tried for a 'twofer'.  Not content to write a story about Burning Man's efforts to address global warming and our invitation to businesses, inventors and entrepreneurs to display their products in a non-commercial context, he attempts to summon up a tale of conflict where none has existed.  Citing the fears of 'some' unspecified attendees, and quoting a single anonymous source, he suggests that 'if the corporate experiment triggers a drop in attendance, Burning Man could find itself in debt for a fourth, and perhaps final time.' This is spurious. Our art theme in 2007, The Green Man, has generated phenomenal enthusiasm, and we expect record attendance. Furthermore, a caption in Mr. Taylor's article states, 'Harvey and Goodell believe the suits and burners can peacefully coexist.'  No such conflict has ever existed.  Business people have always been a part of our community.  It's just not likely that they'll wear their business suits while they participate in Burning Man.

In the Future, All Buildings Will Rotate

Sick of working in a boring old office block that just sits there and doesn't go anywhere? Tired of that same old view? So am I, and so is Dynamic Architecture, an Italian company that has designed an awe-inspiring new kind of tower. Each floor slowly rotates 360 degrees on its own axis, powered by -- wait for it -- wind turbines between the floors. Yes, you read that right: it's cool and green. (And for those commiting suicide, it finally answers the age-old question of whether you die before you hit the ground: those turbines will slice you in two before you get to the next floor).

Dynamic Architecture's first project, an apartment building in the oil-rich, novelty-happy country of Dubai, will produce an energy surplus to the tune of $7 million, according to the company. Just four of its 44 vast inter-floor turbines will be needed to power the 200 apartments in the building, meaning the company can sell the rest back to the state. With the resulting profits, perhaps the company should buy vertigo medication for its tenants.

Biosphere 2.0

Step right up, folks, because now you can rent your very own biosphere. Biosphere 2, that is, the Arizona-based facility that mimics every biome on the planet -- jungle, grassland, ocean and so on -- within a hermetically-sealed 300,000-square-ft space. The University of Arizona saved Biosphere 2 from the hands of real estate developers this month, and is now offering to lease it to anyone who wants to study the effects of climate change. This is a pretty cool idea, and it's surprising that we got this far into the global warming crisis without coming up with it. Think you've got an excellent plan for carbon sequestration? Try it out in a miniature version of Earth before applying it to the real thing.

The $200 million Biosphere 2 has had a strange history since its construction in 1989. Originally designed as an experiment in space colonization: imagine this facility was plopped down on Mars, and had to be entirely self-sustaining, crops and humans and all, for two years. But it lost a lot of credibility when extra oxygen had to be pumped in to save the seven human inhabitants. Why? Because carbon dioxide in the Biosphere 2 atmosphere was reaching dangerously high levels. Lemons for space colonization; lemonade for our current climate crisis.

I took a tour of Biosphere 2 a couple of years back, when it was being administered by Columbia University. It was a delightful experience, like going around the world (minus the cities) in two hours. If I had the biotech know-how, I'd be locking myself in there with a team of climate scientists right now, perhaps experimenting with this interesting new idea that organically-farmed soil might be good for global warming. And the ever-present threat of rising CO2 levels? That'd be a hell of a good incentive to sort the problem out ASAP.

Chicken Run: From B2 to City Hall in One Easy Step

Just days after showing up in the pages of Business 2.0, Burning Man artist Chicken John announces he's running for Mayor of San Francisco. I would not be the one to draw a connection between the two -- that, dear reader, is all in your mind. Chicken created the Cafe Racer, as seen in this splendid photo, which is a 1975 GMC pick-up truck that runs entirely on coffee grounds. (It's basically old-school gasification, that carbon-free, trash-destroying technology  we wrote about in January, and that another Burning Man artist, Jim Mason, is using as the basis of his "Mecabolic" art car). The platform of the truck, Chicken explains in the long, rambling email that launches his long-shot attempt to replace incumbent Gavin Newsom, is also the platform of his candidacy. "Party affiliation? I like to party," he writes. "What about the issues? We'll get to that later." Indeed. What better for San Francisco than to have a whole fleet of flatbed trucks running around, dispensing coffee and powering themselves on the proceeds? Talk about the world's best commute. I for one am all for it. Sorry, Gavin.

The Burning Issue

My story on the $10 million business known as Burning Man, from the July issue of Business 2.0, is up online as of today at CNN Money. But it's been causing a ruckus for a few days already, since cunning Burners (who are, as the story points out, among the most tech-savvy people in the world) figured out they could read it on the Olive software magazine-reading service. And what did they make of it? For a good cross-section of Burner reactions, read this thread on the Burning Man tribe at Tribe.net, the counterculture's social network of choice. As expected, a few did Chicken Little impersonations at the idea that Burning Man is inviting companies to the event -- but I'm heartened by the fact that many changed their minds once they read the article twice.

Full disclosure here: I'm a Burner myself, I've been going every year bar one since 1999, and I love the event. (That picture of me in silver cowboy hat? Now you know where it came from.) But I also know there are a lot of issues with the Borg, as the private Burning Man company is known; for better or worse, it is a for-profit business with not a lot of external oversight. If my article let a little light into the Borg, and sparked a debate over the direction it's going, so much the better. I'll stand behind every word in it.

America: Leftward Ho!

The youth of America is leaning left, a new poll finds. Specifically, the up-and-coming generation is 27 percent liberal, 26 percent conservative. The current population: 20 percent liberal, 32 percent conservative. Does this mean Fox News is on the wrong side of history? It would seem so, unless Fox redoubles its conversation-shifting (some may say "brainwashing") efforts. Does it also mean no more Bush-style administrations? Don't count on it: the young are also more likely than their parents to support what a President does under the catch-all banner of "wartime" -- and 77 percent of them believe America's involvement in Iraq will end happily. Naivete -- something that will always be with us in the future.

Everything You Need to Know About the iPhone in 10 seconds

David Pogue's got the first, and pretty much the only iPhone review you need peruse, plus an amusing video review to boot. (Because really, how many more stories can you stand to read about it? That many, huh?) He lays it down with a complete absence of hype and a suitably bemused tone (dare I say it, he's not as ponderous as Mossberg is likely to be tomorrow). And if you're too pressed for time to read the whole review, here it is in a nutshell: yes, it's got all these features cellphone manufacturers should have been thinking about for years; yes, it's got Wifi; yes, the keyboard is a bit weird, yes, AT&T service (especially its EDGE network) truly sucks every bit as much as you thought it might. And there are some silly glitches and omissions that will be updated slowly but surely enough, in time-honored Apple fashion.

In short -- my words, now -- wait patiently for version 2.0 with other network service, unless you're really into $600 status symbols. The iPhone will be revolutionary, and we'll all be using some knock-off version or descendent of it in the future, just not yet. Can we please all talk about something else now?

Who Killed the Radio?

Wondering why nearly all the major radio stations on the Internet have gone silent today (except for those of us paying for Rhapsody subscriptions)? Then you didn't read my latest Future Boy column. Check it out, after the jump.