June 2006 Archives

Let me see...

The minimum wage guarantees Americans an annual income that is about 35% below the poverty level. The elimination of the estate tax returns about $760 billion to our very wealthiest citizens. The nation will have to borrow $600 billion to pay our bills (about $170 billion in interest payments).

Oh, and Congress voted itself a raise. Why can't I do that? I want to. I really do. I want a raise. But I would settle for just 1% of the estate tax that will be returned...

I remain concerned over this administration.

"America's global image has again slipped and support for the war on terrorism has declined even among close U.S. allies like Japan. The war in Iraq is a continuing drag on opinions of the United States, not only in predominantly Muslim countries but in Europe and Asia as well. And despite growing concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions, the U.S. presence in Iraq is cited at least as often as Iran - and in many countries much more often - as a danger to world peace. ..."

Source: Pew Global Attitudes Project: Summary of Findings
Click the graph for details by nation

it would still worry me a lot...

We've written quite a bit about the concept of ecological footprints, but this graph, from the Footprint Network, pretty handily sums up the whole situation.

As they say:
"The Earth's biologically productive area is approximately 11.2 billion hectares, or 1.8 global hectares per person in 2002 (assuming that no capacity is set aside for wild species). Global hectares are hectares of biologically productive area with world-average productivity. This standardised measurement unit, or 'ecological currency,' makes comparisons of demand and supply possible across the world.

In 2002, humanity's demand on the biosphere, its global Ecological Footprint, was 13.7 billion global hectares, or 2.2 global hectares per person. Thus in 2002, humanity's Ecological Footprint exceeded global biocapacity by 0.4 global hectares per person, or 23 percent. This finding indicates that the human economy is in ecological overshoot: the planet's ecological stocks are being depleted faster than nature can regenerate them. This means that we are eroding the future supply of ecological resources and operating at the risk of environmental collapse."

It's not happy news, but tools like ecological footprinting are giving us understanding of the basic funamentals of our planetary situation, and insight into the big picture is, itself, a tool.

Source: WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Biocapacity and ecological footprints: graph, thousand words

Having studied a bit of microanalysis at the University of Illinois, I find paying attention to cognitive patterns fascinating. Aaron writes below about some of George Lakoff's work. Based on what he's saying, I think I would enjoy reading his ideas. Only for more time!

George Lakoff is a prominent cognitive scientist whose central insight (which is not to say that the idea originates with him) is that we can learn about the structure of our thoughts by looking carefully at the words we use to express them. For example, we think of time as a line, as you can see through phrases like "time line", "looking forward", "further in the past", etc. Similarly, we thinking is thought of as a kind of seeing: "do you see what I mean?", "pulled the wool over your eyes", "as you can see from the book", "his talk was unclear", "that sentence is opaque", etc.

Lakoff used these techniques to write a series of books describing the structures of various ideas (Metaphors We Live By, Philosophy in the Flesh, Where Mathematics Comes From, etc.) but after the Republican Revolution of 1994, he turned the technique on politics, resulting in his 1996 classic Moral Politics, which tries to explicate the cognitive models of Democrats and Republicans.

After the election of Bush2, Lakoff began talking about how Republicans were better at "framing", or using language to get people to agree with them, than Democrats. Lakoff that the process goes both ways: language causes your mind to think of certain concepts which create certain pathways in your brain. Thus Republicans, he said, through massive repetition of certain phrases, were literally changing the brains of the electorate to be more favorable to them. ("If this sounds a bit scary," he writes, "it should. This is a scary time.")

Around the 2004 election, Lakoff skyrocketed to fame among Democrats, who were convinced by his argument that fighting Republicans required not just giving into Republican frames, but reframing the debate themselves. He rushed out the slender book Don't Think of an Elephant, a cobbled-together guide on his basic ideas and how progressives could use them. The book stayed on the New York Times' bestseller list for weeks.

Now Lakoff is back with a more studied work, Whose Freedom?, which tries to focus in more detail on the differing views of one particular concept: freedom. Lakoff starts the book by noting that in his 2004 speech at the Republican convention, Bush used "freedom", "free", or "liberty" once every forty-three words. Most progressives think of this simply as a stunt -- using feel-good symbols like flag and words like freedom to distract from the real issues. But Lakoff argues something much deeper is going on: Bush is trying to change the meaning of freedom itself. ...

Source: What's Freedom? (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog)

Am I the only one that gets sick to death of advertising? Is nothing sacred any more? Must absolutely everything become a feeding frenzy for marketing strategy?

I am not a gamer, but today I heard on NPR that a whole new field of advertising is about to explode: video games. Imagine playing Grand Theft Auto (that in itself alarms me!) and as you, the gamer, play, you "drive by" a billboard. This isn't just any billboard on the virtual road alluding law enforcement. This is a smart billboard. Information you input into your gaming profile is transmitted over the internet to a huge database. Based on that personal information, the ad on the billboard is tailored to you! You never know this. But it's even more evil than that! I've grown pretty adept at selective ignoring, not paying attention to pop ups and ads where ever they appear, but to continue playing the game, you actually have to click on the billboard.

What's next? Advertisements printed on the toilet paper in public restrooms?

This is my 3rd and most successful attempt at creating a panorama (though lots of issues still exist). I shot 12 horizontal pictures in 3 vertical rows (-40º, 90º [which is actually 0º on the tripod head I used], and +30º) using a 10 - 22mm Canon lens (HFOV 70.9283, FL 10.529mm landscape, 12.313 portrait 2:3; FLM 1.6 x EXIF: FL 10.0, HFOV 73.73980). This arrangement gave me a large percentage of FOV overlap so that a large numbers of overlapping control points are generated to vaguely compensate for the fact that the head I used does not allow the lens to be truly at the center point of each shot in the panorama. I suspect that this is why I still get alignment issues!

The camera lens was set at 10mm, no flash, with infinity as the focus. (I think at this point, aside from using the wrong pano head, the camera settings are the weakest point in the process.) JPG images at full size were used instead of raw. The final pano image was 6000w x 3000h with Enblend PSD and set to blend around the -180/+180 boundary. Feather width was 20 pixels, Gamma: 1, and the interpolator was set to Poly3. The resulting image was a horrific 1.1 gig with no file extension, but it opened in Photoshop as a psd file, layers in tact. It was much too large to work in CubicConverter, so I had to save it as a 6000w x 3000h jpg (only 11.1 meg). I painted in the zenith and nadir shots, which in this case turned out to be very small holes in those panels of the pano cube. The image lacked clarity (sharpness), which I think is a function of not paying attention to the F-stop on the camera which was parked in the shade.

I am listing all of this information, not to in any way appear impressive (this actually shows my tremendous ignorance), but to help me replicate and improve on this process. I will never remember all of this when I go to make the next one! And for people that truly know how to create panos, this quickly demonstrates that I do not know what I am doing! I'm learning by trial and mostly error.

Click on the picture above to open the full screen pano.

Growing up as I did on the Florida coast, frequently camping in the woods and on the beach, I developed a deep abiding appreciation for the vastness of space that is nature–-an enormous array of plants and critters of all sorts, the large assortment of smells and visual texture, the unending juxtaposition of line and shape. Now, living in the metro area of Atlanta, along with over 4.8 million other people, in an increasingly crowded and cramped space, more dominated by cars and exhaust than plants and clean air, I haven't even realized how tainted my local space has become.

This weekend, up in the fresh mountain air of North Carolina, I was once again reminded of how vast and delightful the scents of nature are. In Atlanta, when I make the time to walk in the Emory Forest, I find the occasional smell of pine, magnolia, honeysuckle, mimosa, and a banana-smelling flower all bound by the constraints of season. That's it. That's all of the pleasant smells I ever encounter. Here in the North Carolina mountains, however, I walk just a few feet to discover yet another delightful scent I don't ever recall smelling before. Nature is rich and flourishing here.

Another Atlanta anomaly, rain, abounds in the mountains as evidenced by the lush green plant life and the all-night, steady, gentle rain last night. Contrast that to the complete watering ban, dying grass and plants, and the rare but violent storms in the metro area that take down trees and damage property. If living in the metro area isn't abjectly unhealthy on a number of levels, it certainly is less spiritual.

Here are a few pictures to welcome you into a beautiful space that is a sensory paradise: the North Carolina Mountain Cabin Garden. Click on the picture below and enjoy 57 pictures of the handiwork of God. It still exists!

Business Week Online posted this article, The Info Tech 100. Interesting

Apple has been so successful in recent years that it's almost boring, until you look at the numbers. As iPods become standard equipment for an increasing portion of the citizenry, the company's sales grew 56%, to $17.3 billion. No doubt there are threats on the horizon, such as European legislators' push to force Apple to make songs purchased on iTunes work with non-iPod players. But with no credible rival on the scene to steal its music thunder and with interest in the Mac rising fast, 2007 is shaping up just fine for CEO Steve Jobs.

Company Info
2005 Rank at Business Week: 6
Sales ($ Millions): 17,306.0
Sales Growth (over prev. year): 56 %
Profits*($ Millions): 1,725.0
Return on Equity: 19.9 %
Total Return on Sales (12-mo.): 50.3
Share PriceAs of 5/31/06: 59.77
CURRENTMARKET INFO: NasdaqNM: AAPL
No. of Employees: 14,800
Industry: Computers & Peripherals

Source: Business Week: The InfoTech 100 Companies: Apple Computer Profile

Years ago, pre OS X, I had a little program that I loved, Eyeballs. A pair of eyeballs appeared in my menu bar and looked around, following my cursor where ever it went.

They're back!

The little program is offered by StickSoftware ("Anti-productivity tools for the discerning user.") for only $10. As silly as it seems, I just love them. This version can also just float around the desktop looking at your cursor, blinking every now and then, and closing to go "to sleep" when you haven't moved the cursor in a while. When you move it again, they pop open and start watching your cursor again.

You can customize the eyes, their size, color, and a variety of features. At the moment, my eyeballs are rather large. Below is a picture of them looking at my cursor.

Good heavens! I am sitting here catching up on my online reading. A sudden, unexpected gust of wind hit the house with tremendous force. I felt like the house was going to be blown off of its foundation! The table on which I am working vibrated for several seconds along with the whole house in the wind. I grew up on the coast in Florida and am accustomed to bad weather, but this is extreme.

Now giant drops of rain are beginning to fall and the violent wind has stopped. The sirens of emergency vehicles are heard. Obviously a powerful, fast-moving front is coming through.

Good, maybe it will blow the smog out of the city!

While in Memphis, both John and Julene recommended we eat at Paulette's, a restaurant with a well established clientele and reputation. The food was fantastic. The meal began with popovers with whipped strawberry butter. I had never had a popover before and was stunned at how light (weight and texture) the bread was. The butter had strawberries whipped into it. The bread and butter was so wonderful, I actually got the recipe! Even though I don't cook, I'll find someone who does!

For the entree, I had the crab meat and spinach crepes (each separate). These were both delicious. I highly recommend Paulette's. In fact, if you ever visit Memphis and don't eat here, you have done yourself a great disservice.

As it turned out, almost 30 years ago I visited Memphis, Tennessee, on the very day Elvis Presley died in this, his home town. I have just returned to the city this week, after these many years. The city wears its southern culture well: friendly and gracious people with a sense of place and gentle charm.

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with principals and educational leaders at Memphis City Schools. Like most large school districts, they face enormous challenges. I was so impressed with these men and women's commitment and dedication to making the world of learning the best it can be for their students. They are doing amazing things. These are good people doing great work!

I also have to rave about the restaurants I've enjoyed for the past two days: Lulu's Grill last night, and The Grove Grill tonight. I highly recommend both!

Yesterday I went to Centennial Park to make a pano but forgot the part that attaches the camera to the tripod. Today, tripod part in hand, I decided to head over to Lenox Park to try a pano of that beautiful spot. In this pano, I played with the tilt settings since I still am finding little success with the top and bottom shots of the pano. Some stitching issues also exist. Practice, practice. Hopefully I'll know what I'm doing by the time I head off to Norway this summer.

Ten years ago I went to Centennial Park for the first and only time, the 1996 Olympics! Fortunately, I went pre-bombing! I really didn't like the experience: too many people, too hot, no trees. Today I went back to the park to take a 360º pano. The park is so different today than it was a decade ago. (It's hard to believe that was 10 years ago!)

Regrettably, I forgot the pin that attaches the camera to the tripod. So, I just shot pictures in the park. Click on the picture below to go to 24-picture photo album.

This from Will Richardson:

The dirty little secret is that we as a society are all up in arms about MySpace not because it’s not safe but because it’s making visible the extent to which we are failing our kids.

Source: Weblogg-ed » Adults and MySpace

I know some really odd and unusual people. I like that fact actually as they make life a bit more interesting.

For example: one friend has his first born, a baby boy. He's been in this world now for about 2 months. My friend has only told one person at work demanding he keep this a secret, which he has. This is just so oddly amusing. When he finally got married to his girl friend of many years, he did the same type of thing.

Life is good...

I dialed a number and got the following recording: "I am not available right now, but thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the beep. "If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes."

I read earlier in the week that MySpace gets over 17,000 hits per second! And Dave is right! They are not really particularly good citizens.

MySpace now has 72 million users(1). That is larger than the populations of 213 countries(2). Perhaps we could deal with the social online networks thing if we thought of it for what it is–MyNation. This is their digital nation. They are citizens, and they've never been taught digital civics.

(1) Bulik, Beth S. "How MySpace is Like World-of-Mouth Marketing on Steroids." AdvertisingAge. 5 Jun 2006. Crain Communications. 15 Jun 2006 <http://www.adage.com/digital/article?article_id=109614>.
(2)"List of Countries by Population." Wikipedia. 15 Jun 2006. Wikimedia Project. 15 Jun 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population>.

Source: MySpace • MyNation

But this is funny...

With the FCC now empowered to fine broadcasters ten times more than before for even a slip of a nipple or a swear word, we’re doing a little sin trading today. The government has determined that the damage to society of a swear broadcast on TV is up to $325,000. So what else does the law think is also worth charging that kind of coin for? Did you know that it’s cheaper to kill someone? Tempted? The gory details, after the still-free jump...
BY STEVE SAFRAN
MANAGING EDITOR
LOST REMOTE

We try, here at Lost Remote, to bring something back to the news we’re criticized for lacking these days: context. Today in Context, we look at the new power granted to the FCC to fine broadcasters $325,000 per curse word or obscene event. Of course, it’s up to the FCC to determine what’s obscene, and it’s up to a few nuts with email copy and paste power to complain to the FCC about an alleged obscenity they’ve never seen for a fine to occur. But never mind that.

Instead, let’s take a tip from the pollution credits laws and invent a “sin credits” law. You can trade your $325,000 fine for saying “fuck” on television for:

1. Killing someone by accident. It’s true. Go ahead. Of course, you’ll have to do this accidentally, otherwise it’s not a misdemeanor accident. Still - a death that results from you being stupid? A $250,000 federal fine. So kill someone, and you still net out $75,000. And we can afford a lot more, provided we're willing to do a little jail time, so we...

2. Commit Second Degree Murder in Florida. OK, not a nice thought, but we are trying to put that $325,000 into context and it turns out you can commit 32 1/2 acts of second degree murder in Florida for the same penalty as broadcasting Janet’s boobs. The felony carries a $10,000 fine. (Don’t do this, even if you can afford it: it also brings up to 30 years in jail. Think of all the sex you’ll miss on TV.) $30,000 and counting. Let’s continue the crime spree and knock it up to....

3. Kidnap a child in California: A $10,000 fine. Still, it’s not as bad as the FCC catching us saying “shit” on COPS as we get pulled over. (Interestingly, you can only get four years in jail for this, too. Take my kid and it’s only four years in prison? Another article should come out of that.) Sin bank’s down to $20,000, and we need to...

4. Do drugs in Iowa. We’re going to spend $10,000 of our sin credit to party in Des Moines. That’s the fine for posession under Iowa Code section 204.401(1) and I’m going to avoid any comment on places in Iowa you’d need to be on drugs to enjoy. Finally, we’re so stoned, we decide to blow the rest of our sin money and...

5. Violate someone’s civil rights: $10,000 and we may not even serve jail time on this one. We can go right ahead and obstruct a woman trying to get help at a reproductive health clinic. It says so in the Civil Rights Statutes.

So, in summary: For $325,000 we can swear once on television. Or, we can
1. Accidentally kill a guy anywhere in the country and
2. Kill another guy, sort of on purpose, in Florida and
3. Kidnap someone’s baby in California and
4. Get stoned in Iowa City and
5. Keep a 16-year-old girl from getting The Pill at a clinic.

Now, I know you’re probably thinking: “That sounds like a lot of fun, Steve, but what about the whole 'prison terms' thing?” Well, you’re on your own there. But if you find 10 broadcaster friends who haven’t said “shit” during prime-time, that’s $3.25 million you can use for a really good legal team to help cut down on the time behind bars.

Citations, but don'’t hold me to this stuff, since this is largely satirical and real research isn't my thing :

1. Federal Fines and Sentencing Laws, Title 18 - Crimes and Criminal Procedure, Part II Criminal Procedure, Chapter 227 Sentences, Subchapter C Fines, 3571 (b) fines for individuals.
2. Florida Statutes, Title XLVI Crimes, Chapters 782.04 Murder and 775.083 Fines
3. California Penal Code Section 278
4. Iowa Code section 204.401(1)
5. Title 18, U.S.C., Section 248, Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act

Source: Context: What other crimes you can commit for a $325,000 fine

In the following 30 countries, the cell phone market has exceeded 100 percent! This means that their are more cell phone subscriptions than there are people in the country! That's according to end-of-Q1-2006 data just released by London-based researcher Informa Telecom&Media. Here is the list:

Turks & Caicos Islands: 161.8%
Aruba: 150.8
Luxembourg: 140.7
Lithuania: 139.9
Cayman Islands: 136.4
Netherlands Antilles: 134.0
Grenada: 133.3
Israel: 125.9
Italy: 122.4
Cyprus: 121.5
Macau: 121.3
Bahrain: 117.8
Greece: 114.7
Czech Republic: 114.0
UAE: 113.9
Jersey: 113.6
Sweden: 112.5
Hong Kong: 110.8
UK: 110.1
Estonia: 108.6
Spain: 108.0
Austria: 107.3
Ireland: 107.0
Norway: 106.1
Antigua & Barbuda: 104.6
Iceland: 103.3
Finland: 103.1
Portugal: 101.3
Kuwait: 101.1
Singapore: 101.0

Informa's analysts project that another 10 countries may join this list by the end of the year, including Russia, which added 50 million subscribers last year. Market penetration in the US is currently at 72 %.

Why do people have multiple subscriptions? To separate work from private life, of course, but also to separate two parallel private lives.

PS: according to an ad published in the FT by the GSM Association, on June 12 there were 1'991'519'564 GSM and 3G subscribers [that's the kind of cell phone technology your service provider uses] in the world, accounting for 82% of the global cell phone market - hence, the overall number of mobile phone subscribers, independently of the technology they use, must be very precisely of 2'428'682'395 (no, the ad did not specify whether these are AM or PM numbers...). There is actually a ticker on their website, and - this is the significant figure - they expect that by the weekend the milestone of 2 billion GSM subscribers will be reached ("new users are signing up at the rate of 1000 per minute"). It took 12 years for GSM to reach the first billion connections, and only 30 months for the second billion, "boosted by the phenomenal take up of mobile in emerging markets such as China, India, Africa and Latin America", which accounted for 82% of that second billion. More numbers: the first mobile service based on GSM technology was launched in Finland in 1991; today, 690 mobile networks provide GSM services across 213 countries; China is the largest market, with more than 370 million users.

Source: More cell phones than people

But I think this is so important!

You may have read about 'net neutrality' in the papers recently, or maybe seen it on TV. At first glance it seems like a simple business issue: telecommunications providers, who own the cables and data links that form the Internet backbone, want to be able to prioritise data transmissions in exchange for money. For example, if CNN.com wants to be a priority website, they might lay down a fee and suddenly find their transfer times faster than (say) BBCnews.com. Of course, BBCnews.com might then also pay for priority access, as might their competitors, until every commercial news website has a paid-for faster link.

Except, of course, the independent news websites: Indymedia and Alternet on the left, WorldNetDaily and so on on the right. They'd be stuck with a slower connection; perhaps even an artificially slower connection. The upshot would be that to get their news, the Internet-reading public would likely go to the same providers who write their newspapers and give them the news they see on the TV. The media neutrality the Internet affords - beyond, of course, the existing brand loyalty users have to these providers thanks to their exposure in the outside world - would be obliterated, and the network would become just another way for the same companies to push the same content.

This doesn't just extend to the Web: take Skype, for example. The phone companies are deeply worried about the implications of free, peer to peer voice over IP. It terrifies them. So what if they could create their own, paid VoIP service, and make sure these calls have priority over other VoIP networks? Their network would sound better, whereas the fidelity and reliability of Skype calls could decrease.

However, it doesn't end here. Let's look beyond simple commerce for a moment.

Allowing the carriers to both allow for tiered Internet access and control what has priority and what doesn't has some profound implications for free speech. Protecting profits is one thing, but what if a particular school of political thought or trend in ideas is deemed bad for business? Can the carriers then decide to deprioritise access to views they disagree with? In some ways this is an extension of the independent media issue, but it extends all the way to democracy itself.

It's wrong to consider the web as being a great democratiser - 40% of the people in the world don't have sanitation facilities, let alone broadband Internet - but it has the potential to be. With a tiered Internet, that potential goes out the window: a medium that has the power to serve multiple viewpoints as equals and allow the user to make up his or her own mind suddenly becomes a medium that serves some ideas better than others. George W Bush famously said "there ought to be limits to freedom" in response to a satirical website erected during his run for president; satire is protected under US law, but imagine if he'd had the power to constrict the information pipe? Or the pipe to Sonoma State University's Project Censored? This isn't just a threat to political democracy, but also academic debate and the wider democracy of ideas.

The Internet is going to become even more important as time goes on, and it's perhaps because this is such a far-reaching issue that Congress is now dealing with several bills affecting net neutrality. Predictably, one argues for true neutrality - all information is treated equally - while one does not. Which idea will win out? Call me cynical, but I don't hold out much confidence that democracy will rule the day.

You can help, particularly if you're an American citizen: write to your representatives and congresspeople, and let them know exactly how important an issue this is. If you're European, write to your local and European representatives and let them know how you feel about this. The Internet is global, and the way one network behaves can affect the whole system.


Further reading

Network Neutrality - Wikipedia
Save the Internet.com
Why The Democratic Ethic Of The World Wide Web May Be About To End - New York Times, May 28 2006
Net Neutrality Gains Ground - Red Herring, May 26 2006
BitTorrent: Shedding No Tears - BBC Newsnight, May 26 2006
At SBC, It's All About "Scale and Scope" - BusinessWeek, November 7 2005
“Net Neutrality” - Digital Discrimination or Regulatory Gamesmanship in Cyberspace? (PDF) - CATO Institute Policy Analysis, January 12 2004

Source: Net neutrality is a free speech issue

WASHINGTON, June 13 — The prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case on Monday advised Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, that he would not be charged with any wrongdoing, effectively ending the nearly three-year criminal investigation that had at times focused intensely on Mr. Rove.

Source and Entire Article: Leak Counsel Won't Charge Rove, Lawyer Announces - New York Times

Volumes of free photo content!

Last month we noted that Flickr added the same CC search options to its advanced search that Yahoo! web search offers (Google's advanced search has differently phrased but equivalent functionality).

Now we've added Flickr search to our find page, from which you can now search for CC-licensed content indexed by Google and Yahoo! as well as the 14.2 million CC-licensed images hosted by Flickr (1.5 million added in less than a month).

Source: Flickr find | Creative Commons

Google Earth rocks. They now have a new beta version available for the Mac! New improvements include greater resolution and clarity of image. And, it's free for an individual user!

This important news just in:

For many Americans, the question is no longer, "What are we eating tonight?" but "Where are we eating tonight?" According to the Institute of Food Technologists in Chicago, the number of meals prepared at home in the U.S. is in steady decline, falling from 64 percent in 2003 to 58 percent in 2005, and with only about 32 percent of those meals made from scratch.

Source: Wired News: The Coolest Kitchen Accessories

Well, I have been dabbling with 360º panoramas now for several days. While my first one has several "issues," (not the least of which is that it is of a totally boring location!) I have had some success!! This process is amazingly complicated! This particular panorama is made of 38 pictures and was shot with my Canon 30D and an EFS 17-85mm lens mounted on a Manfrotto head that is not intended for this purpose.

To view the pano, click on the picture below. In the new window that opens, you may click and drag to spin the panorama. Use Shift/CTRL to zoom in/out.

I like how this guy thinks! This little excerpt from a recent post...

Finally, if you set aside any idealistic considerations and think about how the Iraqi insurgency has complicated the US invasion of Iraq, you begin to recognize how the power of dispersed networks can undermine a traditionally organized power structure. Perhaps this is what is going to happen with schools as a result of an Internet of Classrooms.

Source: Borderland

This comic from Slowpoke Comics:

I've only recently discovered this blog. The guy's writing fascinates me. This story is not the most important part of his post, but I liked it!

A martial arts student went to his teacher and said earnestly, "I am devoted to studying your martial system. How long will it take me to master it." The teacher's reply was casual, "Ten years." Impatiently, the student answered, "But I want to master it faster than that. I will work very hard. I will practice everyday, ten or more hours a day if I have to. How long will it take then?" The teacher thought for a moment, "20 years."

Source: Christopher D. Sessums :: Weblog :: Working Very Hard, Very Hard Work

The author of this article questions the direction our nation is going. And, you know, I have been concerned about corporate interest in controlling the internet and thereby our access to dissenting opinion. I've even posted a few times about it: here and here. I've also wondered when the state of war the POTUS declared on terror would ever end--as it has given the executive branch a disproportionate amount of power. The other things on the list are also interesting. Check out the full text here.

1. The Internet Clampdown
One saving grace of alternative media in this age of unfettered corporate conglomeration has been the internet. While the masses are spoon-fed predigested news on TV and in mainstream print publications, the truth-seeking individual still has access to a broad array of investigative reporting and political opinion via the world-wide web. Of course, it was only a matter of time before the government moved to patch up this crack in the sky.

Attempts to regulate and filter internet content are intensifying lately, coming both from telecommunications corporations (who are gearing up to pass legislation transferring ownership and regulation of the internet to themselves), and the Pentagon (which issued an "Information Operations Roadmap" in 2003, signed by Donald Rumsfeld, which outlines tactics such as network attacks and acknowledges, without suggesting a remedy, that US propaganda planted in other countries has easily found its way to Americans via the internet). One obvious tactic clearing the way for stifling regulation of internet content is the growing media frenzy over child pornography and "internet predators," which will surely lead to legislation that by far exceeds in its purview what is needed to fight such threats.

2. "The Long War"
This little piece of clumsy marketing died off quickly, but it gave away what many already suspected: the War on Terror will never end, nor is it meant to end. It is designed to be perpetual. As with the War on Drugs, it outlines a goal that can never be fully attained -- as long as there are pissed off people and explosives. The Long War will eternally justify what are ostensibly temporary measures: suspension of civil liberties, military expansion, domestic spying, massive deficit spending and the like. This short-lived moniker told us all, "get used to it. Things aren't going to change any time soon."

3. The USA PATRIOT Act
4. Prison Camps
5. Touchscreen Voting Machines
6. Signing Statements

Bush has famously never vetoed a bill. This is because he prefers to simply nullify laws he doesn't like with "signing statements." Bush has issued over 700 such statements, twice as many as all previous presidents combined. A few examples of recently passed laws and their corresponding dismissals, courtesy of the Boston Globe:

--Dec. 30, 2005: US interrogators cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
Bush's signing statement: The president, as commander in chief, can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will assist in preventing terrorist attacks.
--Dec. 30, 2005: When requested, scientific information ''prepared by government researchers and scientists shall be transmitted [to Congress] uncensored and without delay."
Bush's signing statement: The president can tell researchers to withhold any information from Congress if he decides its disclosure could impair foreign relations, national security, or the workings of the executive branch.
--Dec. 23, 2004: Forbids US troops in Colombia from participating in any combat against rebels, except in cases of self-defense. Caps the number of US troops allowed in Colombia at 800.
Bush's signing statement: Only the president, as commander in chief, can place restrictions on the use of US armed forces, so the executive branch will construe the law ''as advisory in nature."
Essentially, this administration is bypassing the judiciary and deciding for itself whether laws are constitutional or not. Somehow, I don't see the new Supreme Court lineup having much of a problem with that, though. So no matter what laws congress passes, Bush will simply choose to ignore the ones he doesn't care for. It's much quieter than a veto, and can't be overridden by a two-thirds majority. It's also totally absurd.

7. Warrantless Wiretapping
8. Free Speech Zones
9. High-ranking Whistleblowers
10. The CIA Shakeup

George Bush goes to a primary school to talk to the kids to get a little PR. After his talk he offers question time. One little boy puts up his hand and George asks him his name.

"Stanley," responds the little boy.

"And what is your question, Stanley?"

"I have 3 questions. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? And third, whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden?"

Just then, the bell rings for recess. George Bush informs the kiddies that they will continue after recess.

When they resume George says, "OK, where were we? Oh, that's right question time. Who has a question?" Another little boy puts up his hand. George points him out and asks him his name.

"Steve!" he responds.

"And what is your question, Steve?"

"Actually , I have 5 questions. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? Third, whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden? Fourth, why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early? And fifth, what the hell happened to Stanley?"

Source: Joke of the Day - George Bush goes to a Primary School

I have grown increasingly dissatisfied with our media outlets. I can't stand to watch local news. And national news outlets tell the same stupid yuck-yuck story over and over again in such broad terms as to be all but meaningless. I laughed last week when I heard a person refer to USAToday as McJournalism. But the fact of the matter is, this isn't funny! I feel that Americans have completely outsourced our thinking to journalists who do a really poor job.

Journalism is all but dead in this country. We fear thinkers. We value opinion shaping and attitude aggregation. The whole country has become middle school adolescence, emphasizing group acceptance of the banal over being true to individual thought and values of true meaningful substance. Against this backdrop, I once again express my appreciation for NPR and the BBC! (Though I must say, what are the web designers at the BBC thinking?!)

When I walk by the TV in the locker room at the gym, I grow nauseous seeing all of these men sitting and standing around receiving their Fox opinion-shaping download. <gag!> What to do?!

People may be lazy, but I don't think they're stupid. Something will change for the better in time. Here's an interesting bit about one of the reasons we got where we are:

Since the goal of these think tanks clearly isn't to advance knowledge, what are they for? To understand their real goals, we have to look at why they were created. After the tumultuous 1960s led a generation of students to start questioning authority, business decided something had to be done. "The American economic system," explained Lewis Powell in a 1971 memo for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "is under broad attack" from "perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians."

And business has no one to blame but itself for not getting these things under control: the colleges are funded by "contributions from capital funds controlled or generated by American business. The boards of trustees ... overwhelmingly are composed of men and women who are leaders in the system." And the media "are owned and theoretically controlled by corporations which depend upon profits, and the enterprise system to survive." So business must "conduct guerilla warfare" by "establishing a staff of highly qualified scholars" who can be paid to publish a "steady flow of scholarly articles" in magazines and journals as well as books and pamphlets to be published "at airports, drugstores, and elsewhere."

William Simon, president of the rightwing Olin Foundation (the same one that later funded Brock) was more blunt: "The only thing that can save the Republican Party ... is a counterintelligentsia. ... [Conservative scholars] must be given grants, grants, and more grants in exchange for books, books, and more books.

The Powell memo was incredibly influential. Soon after it was written, business began following its advice, building up its network of think tanks, news outlets, and media pressure groups. These organizations begun to dot the landscape, hiding behind respectable names like the Manhattan Institute or the Heartland Foundation. While these institutions were all funded by partisan conservatives, news accounts rarely noted this fact. (Another FAIR study finds The HeritageFoundation's political orientation -- let alone its funding -- was only identified in 24% of news citations.)

As the conservative message machine grew stronger, political debate and electoral results begun to shift further and further to the right, eventually allowing extreme conservatives to be elected, first with Ronald Reagan and now with George W. Bush. More recently, conservatives have managed to finally win not only the White House but both houses of Congress. While their policy proposals, when understood, are just as unpopular as ever, conservatives are able to use their media power to twist the debate.

Source: Saving Business: The Origins of Right-Wing Think Tanks (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog)

you enjoy playing with your aggregator!

Yes, I'm on a roll. I let my reading and my blogging get behind over the last several months because I have been swamped with work. Now, I'm digging out. I have been paying personal attention to how I use my blog and the whole blogging and RSS feed tool: not just for idea aggregation and processing, reflection and thinking, expressions and dissemination, but also as a tool to collect for later reference and share for discussion with friends real and virtual.

I've been doing a lot of quoting from other blog sources lately as my blog reading has been catching up. I've noticed a large number of fresh sources, and I'm gobbling up a lot of thinking. I'm also trying new ways of tweaking my aggregator for refined searching. So, either enjoy or bear with me as I explore.

Up until the last (and really only) Bush election, I was subconsciously becoming alarmed at how we are spoon fed "news" from such a limited number of sources owned (controlled?) by so few people. During and after the election process, I was consciously aware of this concern. The whole blogging concept has interested me in part because it provides so many varied opinions about any given experience or happening--citizen media and reporting, the democratization of perspective and truly shared experience.

If you have ever experienced an event and later read about it or saw a television report on it, you have probably wondered: "Were they at the same thing I was at? Did they see the same thing I saw?" I suppose we need some form of broadcast in a culture, but I certainly have grown to distrust it. Knowing who is controlling the broadcast is so difficult any more. I suspect that we need more shared experience than broadcast experience.

The other day at a conference in California Ethan Zuckerman was asked whether editors (as in newspaper and television editors) were still relevant in these days of participative journalism. He offered the best answer I've heard so far on that question: "Don''t speak. Point!" By which he meant: the days of journalists and editors "speaking on behalf of people" or "speaking to people" are over. "Point to people and get out of the way", he said.

Lucy Hooberman from MentoringWorldwide, who took notes on the panel, translated that into: the future is about journalists and editors as facilitators, as the guy at the center of the crossing directing traffic (I'm quite sure that her point of view is informed by her work in media innovation at the BBC).

I couldn't agree more with both Lucy and Ethan. That's something I've been arguing for almost ten years now, starting with an essay I wrote in November 1997 in the peer-reviewed online journal FirstMonday:

"Facts and information can circulate without interference and without the journalist acting as a filter. He will have to give up part of the power he used to have - based on his competence as well as on his position. The role of the journalist is changing into a more central figure, a mediator. He directs traffic, explores, becomes a facilitator of discussions. His new power will depend on his ability to animate a group of people, to develop methods and means to enliven the community, to organize information-gathering and -use with the participation of the members of the community."

Source: Lunch over IP: Don’t speak. Point!

This is a funny little application that displays a progress bar that is doing absolutely nothing but making you look like your busy at your computer. Pretty funny and fully customizable! Check out Look Busy; it's free.

I put this under my work-related category...

This is clever and will probably be a big hit with the kids. You can go to the virtual movies--everyone gets online at home or in the office and watches a movie file complete with audience interaction. But since you can't download a trial version, makes me wonder about "issues."

Choose to host from a local file all of your viewers have, like say, the latest viral video saved from an email attachment. Does everyone one want to watch the newest DVD release they've just picked up? Host from a DVD.

Got your latest masterpiece on your .Mac iDisk? Not a problem: Peanut Gallery's integrated iDisk support lets you host from a file in your iDisk's Public Folder... without having to mount it in the Finder. Even better, when your guests join your theater, Peanut Gallery automatically sends your video to your guests. You can even add a password to keep the uninvited from accessing your files... without leaving your theater.

Peanut Galley also allows you to host a video from a website. If your guests don't have it on their Mac, Peanut Gallery will fetch it for them when they join your theater, automatically.

Peanut Gallery lets users talk to each other via built-in text chat and iChat integration. With Text Chat active, simply start typing. Peanut Gallery's chat input line appears when you start to type. Press Enter/Return and your clever quips are sent to everyone in the theater.

Wanna make it really lively? Via Peanut Gallery's built-in iChat integration, you can start a multiparty audio chat with every capable visitor in your theater, automatically. Nothing to type in, no picking from a list...it just works!

But what if all of your friends and family don't have a copy of Peanut Gallery yet? We understand that its no fun to play by yourself, so Peanut Gallery comes with Peanut Gallery Matinée, a lightweight* “client-only” version you can give to your friends!

Peanut Gallery allows you to play, pause and skip around your video via the convenient Movie Controller window. Optionally, the host can let the viewers control the show as well.

Watching a DVD? Not a problem, Peanut Gallery has controls for that too. DVD Navigation and playback control is handled by Peanut Gallery's powerful GMXP Protocol; you navigate, the viewers follow your moves.

Peanut Gallery theaters work like documents; when you close them, you're offered a chance to save your entire experience as a “bootleg” document*.

Source: Peanut Gallery - The Online Interactive Multi User Movie Theater Simulation

I had the opportunity to speak to students at Emory University today. The students, doctoral and masters candidates, all have a degree in another field and interest in pursuing careers in education. I love sharing ideas with bright people. They had some excellent questions. The doctoral students seemed very interested in policy-related matters. Good heavens, we need bright leadership shaping policy in education!

The students are taking a course focused on using digital tools to engage learners. The computer lab facility in which we met was very impressive.

I have a growing interest in web design from the standpoint of maximizing the palatability of ideas, concepts, learning. How quickly can a person be brought into thinking deeply about the content, and how does this relate to web design? I'm sure people who actually work in this field give this a great deal of thought. I, on the other hand, as a dabbler, find it of curious interest.

At any rate, this article discusses what's hot right now in web design.

The First Amendment of the Internet – the governing principle of net neutrality, which prevents telecommunications corporations from rigging the web so it is easier to visit sites that pay for preferential treatment – took a blow from the House of Representatives Thursday.

Bowing to an intense lobbying campaign that spent tens of millions of dollars – and held out the promise of hefty campaign contributions for those members who did the bidding of interested firms – the House voted 321 to 101 for the disingenuously-named Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (COPE). That bill, which does not include meaningful network-neutrality protections creates an opening that powerful telephone and cable companies hope to exploit by expanding their reach while doing away with requirements that they maintain a level playing field for access to Internet sites.

"Special interest advocates from telephone and cable companies have flooded the Congress with misinformation delivered by an army of lobbyists to undermine decades-long federal practice of prohibiting network owners from discriminating against competitors to shut out competition. Unless the Senate steps in, (Thursday's) vote marks the beginning of the end of the Internet as an engine of new competition, entrepreneurship and innovation." says Jeannine Kenney, a senior policy analyst for Consumers Union. ...

Source: House Rejects Net Neutrality

I promised my mother I would touch up the picture I took of her when I was visiting her in Pensacola during the Memorial Day weekend. Done! I'm getting pretty good at this. I would put up a before and after picture, but I suspect she would then bring my life to an untimely end. You know, that whole, "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it, too!" idea.

So here is the new picture. Clicking on it will enlarge it.

Some readers are not aware of the "PICK A THEME" section in the sidebar. You, as the reader, have some control over how my blog appears. You may pick a theme. Your choices are modeled from the seasons: Summer (the white daisies near a railroad track), Fall (the red blot), Winter (the snow on a car top in Paris), and Spring (the shiny bug on a leaf near the house). Simply click on the tiny theme icon (picture) in the sidebar, and viola!

Well, I just updated the appearance of the Summer theme a little. Only the reader with the discerning eye would notice it. The "Just Be Nice!" banner has had an updo--you know, prom season and all that. And I replaced the grass pictures in the background, having recently discovered and shot the greenest, most luscious grass in the USA, which is located in Lenox Park. (I must confess that the grass in the UK is still greener!)

You have to "Just Be Nice!" when viewing the Summer Theme, as that little banner only appears in that theme. So, go ahead, raise hell when viewing the other themes! :o)

If you would make 3x times your present income, would you move to a country to work at a Duncan Donuts with people whose language you do not speak?

It seems that many teachers from Brazil are doing so.

About a month ago I heard a report on NPR about putting Mentos mints into a 2 liter Diet Coke. The result: an immediate 20 foot exploding fountain of Diet Coke from the 2 liter container. It sounded curious to me, and I was hoping no students at my school were listening to NPR!

I just found a rather entertaining movie: "a hysterical and spectacular mint-powered version of the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, brought to you by the mad scientists at EepyBird.com." I had never heard of these guys before, but the movie clearly demonstrates that the world is full of very funny people. I mean, it's one thing to think this stuff up, but it's a whole new world to actually make a 3 minute movie of it.

Clicking on the picture below (from their movie) will take you to EepyBird.com where you can watch their movie!

Politics, he said, has become a game of meaningless, mindless battles, conducted by unscrupulous methods and people, designed to transform even the most serious policy debates into sport.

Source: Back in the Limelight, Gore Insists He's Over Politics - New York Times

Say hello to the first high-fidelity iPod recorder with a removable microphone. The new MicroMemo™ High-Fidelity Digital Audio Recorder for iPod with video sounds like it will be an awesome accessory for m y video iPod! I have used a mic attachment for my older iPod, and the fidelity was terrible. The older iPods would only record at a very low sample rate. But this product will harness the new CD recording quality of the video iPods!

MicroMemo plugs right into your iPod's Dock connector to capture memos, meetings, lectures, or any audio content directly into your iPod. A flexible, detachable mic captures audio, or you can use any other input device with a 3.5mm-plug. Playback is instant through the built-in speaker.

MicroMemo has one-touch recording using iPod's high-fidelity audio capability and works without batteries or cables. Just drop it in a pocket and go.

• One-touch recording
• Full iPod integration with on-screen display
• Built-in speaker for instant playback
• Records 16-bit audio at 22kHz and 44kHz
• Accepts input from other devices
• No batteries needed—iPod-powered
• Works only with iPod® with video.

Source: XtremeMac iPod Audio Accessories: MicroMemo for iPod with video

I simply can not let it pass that today is June 6, 2006: or, 6/6/6!

The Reboot8 Conference in Copenhagen sounds pretty interesting to me--lots of bright people talking about geeky things, my kind of conference. I came upon some of the session summaries here at Lunch over IP. As most people reading my blog, sorry mom, will find this excruciatingly boring, I am putting this post in the extended tag. I just want to be able to come back to this later--you know, blog as a repository of information.

I am a person of deep faith. But even so, I find this frightening. In a nation as diverse as ours, in a world as big as ours, we must have respect for everyone. Our founding fathers knew this over 200 years ago. Wisdom abounds in a nation that rigorously practices separation of church and state. Tyranny and bitter divisiveness flourish in a land in which a religious group takes control of the reigns of political power. Where this is going in our country can not be good.

GOP Buttons on Their Shirts and Faith on Their Sleeves

SAN ANTONIO – Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell offered a greeting to delegates to the Republican convention. "It's great to be back in the holy land," the Fort Worth native said to the cheers of the party faithful.For the 4,500 delegates at last week's biennial gathering, it was both an expression of conservative philosophy and religious faith, a melding of church and state.

At Saturday morning's prayer meeting, party leader Tina Benkiser assured them that God was watching over the two-day confab.

"He is the chairman of this party," she said against a backdrop of flags and a GOP seal with its red, white and blue logo.

The party platform, adopted Saturday, declares "America is a Christian nation" and affirms that "God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom."

"We pledge to exert our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and dispel the myth of the separation of church and state," it says.

Source: Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Religion

Wow! This is one of the reasons I just don't trust our government.

One last thing about warrantless wiretapping and data-mining that was referenced in the Salon War Room Blog that I linked to at the very top of my last post. It is nicely illustrated by this week's Tom The Dancing Bug (subscription, or watching a brief ad, required). This strip, by the by, is seriously the best weekly comic in the history of the world.

The following thing needs to be said. If you believe that the government is illegally spying only on The Terrorists, you believe something that is simply irrational. If you do not believe that the government is using warrantless wiretapping and data-mining programs to monitor its political enemies, you are holding to a precept that is not rational to hold. Sadly, if you do not think that every email you send is being data-mined for keywords by net-monitoring computers at the NSA, you are not thinking rationally.

At every revelation of the illegal monitoring program, the government has stated outright untruths about its scope. First they claimed they always got warrants. When it turned out they weren't getting warrants, they claimed it was only international calls. When it turned out it wasn't only international calls, they claimed it was only calls where at least one party was international. When it turned out it wasn't only calls where at least one party was international, they refused to acknowledge the program existed. If you don't think they're telling the truth right now, you are not paranoid. It is simply not rational to think otherwise.

Source: The Odds Are One: Poli-palooza

I came across this and found it really interesting as an educator.

A blog is more than a communication tool

After spending some time reflecting on my last post, several concepts floated to the top that I wanted to share.

I am trying to learn from my own blogging.

Barbara Ganley has helped me to see that as a teaching and learning medium, blogging has the potential to foster what Seely-Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989) term “cognitive apprenticeship.” Blogging can serve the learning process in the following ways (as offered by van Weigel (2002)):

1. Modeling: the teacher “puts his/her mind on display”
2. Coaching: teachers observe students performance of a task, offering feedback
3. Scaffolding: helping a student complete a task slightly more difficult than the student is capable of completing on his/her own.
4. Articulating: drawing students out dialogically, helping to convert tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge
5. Reflecting: debriefing, replaying and discussion after an activity
6. Exploring: students tackle new areas on their own

For me, the comments that came after the post provided me, as a learner, a taste of each of these six elements. The contributors all blog; they offered meaningful feedback from a variety of perspectives; they are helping me wrap around larger, more complex issues that I am working on; the comments are assisting me to convert my inferred knowledge into more precise knowledge; this process gives me items to reflect on which in turn prompt my further exploration of my initial ideas. Like Barbara I am trying to learn from my blogging.

Other items that caught my attention from the comments include:

• Blogging as a document center or respository.
• Blogging as identity-exploration.
• Blogging as a means for sharing information.
• Blogging as means of connection and engaement (to both people and ideas).
• Blogging as a means of extending the conversation.

People blog for a variety of reasons. Yet ultimately it seems to come back to a sense of participating in a larger community. Wenger (1998) talks about learning as a process of social participation. Blogging allows us "congregate in virtual spaces and develop shared ways of pursuing common interests" (p. 7). Thus, blogging serves as a means of making sense of the world.

Source: Christopher D. Sessums :: Weblog :: A blog is more than a communication tool

I made a very quick trip down to Pensacola over Memorial Day weekend to see mom. I actually drove down Saturday and back home on Monday! It just seemed like I hadn't been home in so long.

I am still amazed at how young the neighborhood looks again. All of the large old trees were destroyed by Hurricane Ivan. Now just the small trees remain, which is how the neighborhood looked when I was a child growing up there.

At any rate, I had a great visit. On Sunday we piddled around town and the beach taking some pictures, including one of mom. I haven't linked these to the USA photo album yet, so the photo in this post is a direct link to 31 pictures I took during the trip.

Lovin' the new camera! Enjoy...

I thought these were interesting...

6. Firestone 500 tires, 1970s
These steel-belted radials allowed water to seep under the tread, which caused the belting to rust and the tread to separate, typically at high speeds. Dozens of deaths later, Firestone blamed consumers, then recalled 10 million tires.

7. Purity Distilling Company tank, 1919
You gotta keep your molasses somewhere – how about a rickety tank 50 feet tall and 90 feet in diameter in the middle of Boston? The structure was painted brown to hide the leaks. Eventually it burst (possibly exploding from fermentation), sending waves of molasses up to 15 feet high into the city and killing 21.

Source: Wired 14.06: START