Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
Wikileaks – Insurance.aes256
While it is far from clear what information is contained within the Wikileaks insurance.aes256 file, I feel it’s potential warrants continued mass dissemination.
Wash. Rinse. Print. Repeat.
Print media still very much alive. However, I’m definitely printing more of my own media.
Web based articles and essays printed for personal consumption.
Amount paid directly to content producers and media sources? $0.00. Who receives my payments? The printer manufacturer, paper company, and my Internet Service Provider. Somewhere down the line advertising likely supported the distribution, but by utilizing an Adblock plugin or a tweaked HOST file I can keep online marketing to a minimum.
Golden Images. Yes. Maybe. Sometimes. Definitely.
I first began to make pictures seriously in 1960. At that time, photography appeared to me as a new art. Prior to around the middle of the 19th century, photography did not exist. In 1960, in historical terms, the 19th century seemed just around the corner. My own grandfather, who I lived with, had been born in 1871. I knew enough about Art to know that great, perhaps unsurpassed achievements in sculpture went back to the Ancient Greeks. Great paintings has been made since the Renaissance. (In fact the Romans and Greeks also left great works in painting, though I think I was ignorant of it at the time.) But photography? Photography was new. (via The End of the Age of Photography by Danny Lyon)
Ah, the golden age. More than ever, people are experimenting with photography. A camera can be found in just about every contemporary mobile communication device. We’re printing fewer photos, but continually sharing billions of digital images online.
In the Late 1980′s, William Eggelston used the term ‘democratic forest’ to describe his photographs of commonplace or ordinary objects and scenes. With the proliferation of capture capable devices, it’s become increasingly difficult to not employ the photographic medium to chronicle our daily routine, supplement our memory, and provide an expressive outlet.
But if it’s everywhere and all the time, and so easy to make, then what’s of value? which pictures matter? Is it the hard won photograph, knowing, controlled, previsualised? Yes. Or are those contrived, dry and belabored? Sometimes. Is it the offhand snapshot made on a whim. For sure. Or is that just a lucky observation, some random moment caught by chance? Maybe. Is it an intuitive expression of liquid intelligence? Exactly. Or the distillation of years of looking seeing thinking photography. Definitely. (via Photography is Easy, Photography is Difficult by Paul Graham)
Let’s Trade: Prints for Magnets
You need some damn fine 4×6 prints. My refrigerator needs some of your cool local magnets. Let’s make a trade.
Contact me to work out the details.
Relaxation Performance
The World’s Greatest Head Massage is a video that I’ve come back to a number of times over the past few months. It depicts a traveler in Pushkar, India receiving a head massage from a barber/masseuse named Baba. Apart from Baba’s comment to “Go Back, Go Back, Go Back, Relax”, the video is devoid of any dialogue. The music and ambient street sounds flow together with the application of cosmic energyto greatly enhance the performance.
Mirror Neurons: A neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron “mirrors” the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. (via Wikipedia:Mirror_Neuron)
If you dig around in the comments, you’ll find viewers claiming a general state of relaxation and occasional attempts to tie in the theory of mirror neurons. It’s worth noting that a high number of commenters claim to be are repeat viewers.
Other things that I find relaxing or mesmerizing include…
- people water gardens
- street sweepers (white noise)
- leaf blowers (white noise)
We took my grandfather back to Poland.
In June, I joined members of my family on two week visit to Poland. We toured the parts of Warsaw, Lubin, Krakow, Zakopane, and my grandfather’s hometown of Borzechow. Eating and basking in the glory of your return to the “old country” can be quite tiring. My grandfather is a master of the nap.
Protect your pipes (and your neck)
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a proposed International agreement that could radically shift the policing of Internet based data communication. It would establish a new governing body that would forces ISPs to monitor and report on the activity of any user.
Why You Should Care About It
ACTA has several features that raise significant potential concerns for consumers’ privacy and civil liberties, for innovation and the free flow of information on the Internet, legitimate commerce, and for developing countries’ ability to choose policy options that best suit their domestic priorities and level of economic development.
ACTA is being negotiated by a select group of industrialized countries, outside of existing international multilateral venues for creating new IP norms such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and (since TRIPs) the World Trade Organization. Both civil society and developing countries are intentionally being excluded from these negotiations. While the existing international fora provide (at least to some extent) room for a range of views to be heard and addressed, no such checks and balances will influence the outcome of the ACTA negotiations. (via EFF)
Thus far, negations have been held behind closed doors, but details of the plan have been leaked and some countries have already vowed to sabotage or derail a unilateral agreement.
I suggest you visit the sites listed below for more details.
Currently intrigued by
I am currently intrigued by resource distribution/optimization, barter economies, gross national happiness, transparency, and meta data.
