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Mr. Love was in Iran in 1953 when the C.I.A. plotted against the government, and he also reported on the Suez Canal crisis of 1956.

If researchers prove the Assad regime is closely tied to the Syrian Electronic Army, foreign governments may choose to respond, because the attacks have real-world consequences.

The company named Samuel J. Palmisano, former I.B.M. chief, to review its practices after complaints that Bloomberg reporters were snooping in data terminals.

The New York Times Company was a victim of online attacks earlier this week that slowed down The New York Times Web site and limited access to content.

The world once dreamt American dreams.

From Adbusters #107: The Epic Story of Humanity: Part 1, Spring

CHRIS HOLLO/GETTY IMAGES

It used to be common for even the most bitter and vehement ideological foes of America to nonetheless admit that America’s consumer culture was compelling, entrancing, often interesting, but above all else, cool.

We were critics of the American way of life — over consumption, spectacle, hierarchy — but we were also in love with the movies, the books, the fashion, the Halloween parties, the Super Bowl rituals, the Oscars, the bombshell blondes and the smells of Los Angeles, Manhattan, the windy city and a host of other places that epitomized the highest that capitalist civilization had to offer.

The best food. The best talk. The best sex. The best drugs. The best of everything we could ever want, said the multibillion-dollar-a-year culture industry — and it wasn’t all a lie. America had verve; America was the leader of cool.

But how many of us can really say that about America anymore? Television is beyond bad, it’s boring. The best English language shows are British now, such as the genuinely thought-provoking Black Mirror. American movies are worse and the most exciting books are translations from abroad. Supermodels don’t arouse. The Super Bowl didn’t really matter much this year and the Academy Awards felt like a momentary distraction. CNN and The New York Times pump out increasingly banal, vague and deceptive articles while more and more Americans are turning to The Guardian and Al Jazeera for hard-hitting, fact-driven news.

There is still Silicon Valley but that too is starting to be so bedazzled by the logic of advertising and monetization that it can’t produce more than iterations of virtual gambling, social anxiety and meme inanity. Even the American consumer’s purchasing power isn’t as important as it once was… pretty soon it’ll be the Chinese middle class that will define what ketchup tastes like globally. That leaves the U.S. military, an institution that has become disgraced by unrepentant acts of torture and assassination while perpetrating unpopular civil wars.

What the hell is going on? Why are the rituals of American life losing their veneer? And most importantly, what will the decline of American culture do to the rest of the world?

The world once dreamt American dreams. We became dependent on America’s cool-makers for a vision of how to live and what to strive toward. It may have been a wrong-headed vision but it was still a vision most of the globe chased. Few are going that way now.

Who or what will rise up to fill the imagination void?

– Micah White

Membros da banda OK Go viajaram para o Círculo Polar Ártico com um grupo de outros artistas para captarem o som da Aurora Boreal, fenômeno óptico que mostra um brilho no céu das regiões polares durante à noite, devido ao impacto do vento solar e da poeira espacial encontrados na via láctea com a alta atmosfera da Terra.

“Tentamos criar algo que evocasse a nostalgia, o pensamento e a reflexão das pessoas quando estão em silêncio.” – Damian Kulash, OK Go

Junto ao estrategista digital Mike Rosenthal e o fotógrafo Martien Mulder, a banda viajou para a vila de Jukkasjärvi, no norte da Suécia, como parceiros da Sony, com o objetivo de criar uma representação audiovisual da Aurora Boreal, a ser usada em uma campanha da marca.

A equipe, armada de smartphones e tablets Sony Xperia Z, além de instrumentos musicais como bateria, sintetizadores e arpa sueca, buscou ir além do típico som e vídeo, variando os aparelhos em diferentes combinações e espaços.

“Estava -25C. O frio era perverso, o maior desafio de todos. As baterias acabavam duas vezes mais rápido.” Damian Kulash, OK Go

Um dos principais instrumentos usado foi um receptor de rádio frequência bem baixa, que capta os sons que ocorrem naturalmente entre espectros 200Hz e 10.000 Hz, criados pela magnetosfera da Terra. O aparelho, então, converte essas ondas de rádio em frequências de sons que humanos podem ouvir. Com isso, foi possível literalmente gravar os sons da
Aurora Boreal.

Ao mesmo tempo, Mulder tirou fotos e as colocou em um vídeo como uma colagem em stop motion. Seu trabalho retrata obsessivamente a luz, conseguindo mostrar a imensidão e a quietude do lugar.

Você pode ouvir os sons gravados aqui.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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