According to the BBC, “Pirates have anchored a hijacked Saudi oil tanker off the Somali coast, as the spate of hijackings gathered pace with two more ships seized on Tuesday… The vessel is carrying a cargo of 2m barrels – a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output – worth more than $100m. A cargo ship and a fishing vessel were the latest to join more than 90 vessels attacked by the pirates this year.”

The only thing I can think of is avoiding them with locally manufactured, 3-D printed stuff, and using alternative energy sources (which seem to be getting closer every day) so we don’t need oil tankers. Until that’s possible, it’s all about fighting them.

I love this illustration my pal Ji Lee did for Portfolio magazine. The article by Michael Lewis that comes with it isn’t bad either.

Stay in line. Don’t wear a shirt with your candidates name on it, they won’t let you in. If you see anything shady going on at your polling station, call 1866-OUR-VOTE (1866-687-8683) or go here. Get your voting rights here. Si se puede!

This is my new puppy Lily. Big Maino fan.

Sentosa Island picture by madaboutasia

This week I’m headed to Sentosa, an island off the coast of Singapore for HAO, a very cool event where I’ll be working with emerging artists, curators and art managers from all over Asia.

HAO is run by The Substation, Singapore’s most renowned independent contemporary arts center. The event is designed to inspire and affect change through contemporary arts practice and engagements. I’ll be talking about the sustainable development of culture and creativity, something I talk about in pirates and something I’m thinking about for Book 2.

I’m speaking and running a workshop at HAO on Wednesday 10th September, but I’ll be in town all week for some press and TV and so on, as the book just came there. Holler if you’re in the area!

From The Streets new album. Great instrumental, on-point lyrics, killer hook. I think this is the best thing Skinner has done since Pirate Material.

Baltimore’s DJ Karizma is playing at Cielo on Friday night, if you live anywhere near New York City and are the least bit interested in electronic music, you should go see him. Karizma has long been one of my favourite producers and DJs, the soulful house and garage he has put out over the years with DJ Spen under their Basement Boys alias is some of the finest music to emerge from the genre. But in more recent times, Karizma’s harder-edged solo productions have been making waves across the pond, shaping and informing the new strain of funky house music that’s been quietly evolving on the London pirate stations, and has now all but replaced the grime scene as the music du jour in the capital.

Karizma’s music is rugged and stripped down, yet hauntingly soulful (the influence of J Dilla’s work is clear and present). This year and last, tracks like ‘33rd Street Anthem‘ and ‘Twyst This’ (the track in the video above) have been hitting hard on the pirates, while leading lights in the London scene such as Rinse FM‘s DJ Perempay cite Karizma as a huge influence on their work. Tickets for Playtime with Karizma are $10 beforehand or $20 on the door. Check him out if you’re nearby, he’s an incredible DJ.

Blogging has suffered these last few weeks, between a family vacation in Cape Cod and having to put some serious time into several top secret projects, one of which I’m hoping to unveil at this year’s Pop!Tech. Pop!Tech is one of the coolest and most highly regarded innovation summits in the world, this year’s line up is looking great, with guest speakers including Malcolm Gladwell (his new book looks awesome) and Clay Shirky (his recent book is awesome). This year Pop!Tech is centered around the idea of scarcity and abundance, so it’s perfect for pirates, but I’ve also been working on a new book idea with a friend of mine which fits this theme, that I’m going to be talking about publicly for the first time. Deets from the PR blurb below…

Taking place October 22 – 25 in the seaside village of Camden, Maine, this year’s event will chart the core scarcities humans and organizations will encounter this century – and how a wealth of new innovations, bottom-up approaches to collaboration and insights into collective wisdom might hold the keys to addressing the challenges that lie ahead. Now in its 12th year, the Pop!Tech conference is a remarkable gathering of more than 600 thought leaders, influencers and social change agents – from the worlds of science, technology, business, social innovation, the arts, philanthropy and more – which each fall explores the new ideas, technologies and forces of change shaping our future.

Pop!Tech ’08 will focus on the rapidly-changing 21st century dynamics of systems based on scarcity and abundance. Many different domains will be explored, from the social web to population growth and energy consumption, from truly sustainable business models to politics and peacemaking. Every topic will be examined through an array of lenses – including the new ethics, economic realities, risks and possibilities in a world defined by dramatic scarcities and abundances.

For those who can’t make it to Camden to experience Pop!Tech in person, Yahoo! will once again live stream the event in its entirety, free of charge, from October 23 – 25. At home viewers will also have the opportunity to submit questions to presenters and participants in real-time via questions@poptech.org.

Official “Pop!Tech 2008: Scarcity and Abundance” sponsors include Yahoo!, Lexus, American Express, the National Geographic Society, Steelcase, Nokia Siemens Networks, Canaan Partners and frog design. Additional Pop!Tech ‘08 speakers, performers, sponsors and program details will be unveiled in the weeks ahead. Registration details are available here: https://www.poptech.org/registration/

Cory Doctorow’s latest book Little Brother has just hit The New York Times best seller list, no small feat for a book that is available online for free. I got the chance to meet Cory a few weeks back in London, sounds like he has a lot of great projects in the works which I’m already looking forward to. In the meantime, check out this reading from his latest – you know you’re doing well when your publishers are putting you up in hotels with bottled oxygen in the minibar. Congrats Cory!

There are way too many dumb dances in hip hop right now, but this is not one of those. Great track and one of the coolest vids I’ve seen in a while.