January 2010 Archives

Source: Cool Hunting

Obama is just so smart! Even numerous conservatives admit he didn't just take the Republicans to task, he decimated them!

How many times have I cursed the Caps Lock key. I've wished I could pluck if from my keyboard more than once.

Well... turns out, you can with a simple keyboard preference change!

Go to System Preferences and select Keyboard. In this window, click on Modifier Keys...

Now click next to "Caps Lock" and select "No Action". Easy!

Did the mountains in China's Zhangjiajie National Forest park inspired the floating Hallelujah Mountain Range in the movie Avatar? Our world has some of the most strangely gorgeous places.

Zelda Rubinstein, the diminutive character actress with the childlike voice who was best known as the psychic called in to rid a suburban home of demonic forces in the 1982 horror movie "Poltergeist," died Wednesday. She was 76.

I usually hate chain emails that are supposed to be funny but aren't. But every once in a while one comes along that is hysterical. Here is one:

You know the economy is bad when:

• I ordered a burger at McDonald's and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"
• If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.
• Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.
• Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.
• A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.
• Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.
• The Mafia is laying off judges. Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
• I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Lifeline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

Something else just dawned on me about today's announced iPad: all that went unannounced. In fact, I'm concerned.

Where is iLife '10? One of the presenters mentioned that iLife had been rewritten from the ground up. OMG!

The last time Apple's software team re-wrote something from the ground up, they gutted it: iMovie!

What features will we lose? Will desktop machines even get an iLife '10?

Any plans for a new model iPhone this summer as seems customary?

I'm hopeful more news will trickle out from the mothership soon.

And I'm sorry, the word "magical" just doesn't work for me.

I follow @PhilipBloom on Twitter. He does such amazing work. He has been in Dubai for the past several days shooting this video, Sky. This short timelapse beautifully captures the radiance of the city. And the music, Xibalba by Clint Mansell, is perfect for it.

I appreciate Philip's willingness to share how he does this with HD-DSLRs. It's so helpful to those of us who love to dabble. You can read about the process at his blog, here.

Be sure to watch this in full screen mode. It's beautiful.

He also has a uStream account and broadcast live from his iPhone today. I haven't tried that yet, but it's on my list!

Image via CrunchBase

Here's a great shortcut for downloading YouTube videos when using the Safari browser.

1. Go to the YouTube page with the video on it.  
2. [Command] + [Option] + [A] to bring up the Activity window in Safari.  
3. Under the Address Column find the YouTube page.  
4. Under that column, look for the largest file size, which will be the video file itself.  
5. Double click it to download it.  Done.

Image via Wikipedia

Allow me to introduce Senator Jones (R) from AIG and Senator Smith (D) from United Healthcare and Representative Tung from China... This is so bad. So very, very bad.

The Campaign to Legalize Democracy is circulating a petition in response to yesterday's ruling that legalized unlimited political bribery by corporations in the USA. Signatories include Bill Moyer, Howard Zinn, Jim Hightower, Bill McKibben, and Tom Hayden.

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:

* Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

* Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our votes and participation count.

* Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments."

[Source: Constitutional amendment petition: run government for people, not monied interests.]

... as Republican Justice John Paul Stevens put it:  

"Under today's decision, multinational corporations controlled by foreign governments" would have the same rights as Americans to spend money to tilt U.S. elections ..."

[Source: Our Charming Corporatist State.]

Government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations. Today the Supreme Court (5-4) just handed the Republicans (and a lot of Democrats too) a huge bonus: unfettered access to corporate funding, effectively making a broken political system completely unaccountable the to will of the people.

The legacy of George W. Bush lives on to feast on the soul of democracy for profit.

At least Larry Lessig has a more reasoned view. Me, I'm just disgusted.

I love stumbling upon a cool technology trick.

Working out compression settings for video distribution is part art, part science, and a whole lot of witchcraft. Compression is just often difficult and can be very frustrating.

Well, tonight I learned that if you take a movie file that has already been compressed (select one, of course, that looks really good because it was well compressed) and drop it into the "Custom" folder under the "Settings" tab in Compressor 3.5 (part of Final Cut Pro Studio), Compressor will think about that file for a second (depending on the speed of your machine) and then create a custom preset of the compression settings used to create that finished project! And the description tag becomes the name of the movie project you dropped into Compressor.

Sweet!

Compressor reads the metadata from the file and figures out how the file was compressed and then returns those settings as a preset you can use for your own project compression. Now, even with good compression settings, if you have poor quality source video, you will get poor results. But the problem is often the opposite way around: you have a great project and can't get the compression output to serve a good finished product.

And here's another little tidbit: if you take a Compressor Droplet (a little preset "stand alone application"), right click on it, select "show package contents," open the "Settings" folder and drop the .setting file onto the "Custom" folder under the "Settings" tab in Compressor 3.5, Compressor will again create a custom preset of the compression settings used in the droplet.

Why would you ever want to do the later? You can't get to the setting details of a droplet any other way. So if you want to tweak them but don't have the original settings saved as a preset in Compressor, this lets you get to those settings as well as save the settings as a preset in Compressor if you choose. It's just one of those things you will never need until you do--and then you will be pulling your hair out trying to figure out how to do this. :o)

Thanks to Brian Gary and the helpful folks at rippletraining, just a few miles from my home, for these two helpful tips.

First it was Ireland: record rainfall and driving through unbelievable flooding. Then it was Arkansas: record rainfall and driving through unbelievable flooding. For the past three days, with more in the forecast, it's now here in southern California!

Stop the madness!

(Actually, I've rather enjoyed the rainfall. And yesterday I heard one of the most virulent thunder rumbles of all time! It was wonderful!)

Below is a 12 second video (without audio: do not adjust your TV set!) of flooding in Arkansas. This was by no means the worst flooding of the trip! Just out of the frame to the left is a heavily flooded cemetery. The flood water was thick with the scent of decomposition.

I'm showing this video as a proof of concept:

• It was shot on an iPhone.
• It was shot and is shown in portrait view. (Odd, I know.)
• It is compressed at 720p as an mp4 using H.264 at only 1500kbps and still looks fairly good.
• At the above compression, the file is 2.2 megabytes.
• Increasing the data rate increases video quality minimally but substantially increases file size.

Over the years I've blogged many times about The Silver Grill, a midtown Atlanta institution that started in 1946 and remained in the Walton family until it closed 60 years later in 2006. [I started eating at the grill in the early 90's and immediately became addicted to the fried chicken. I probably ate there at least twice a month. The "meat and three" was that good--and a terrific bargain.] The grill reopened, under new ownership, in 2007, with several of the old timers returning to continue working there, including Peggy Hubbard.

I've blogged about Peggy before. She was very well know in the midtown community as she worked at The Silver Grill since she was a teenager. "Hun, it's all I've ever known." I just loved her. She spoke her mind. She didn't put up with any foolishness. She was incredibly kind hearted, hard working, full of down home wisdom, and seemed to know absolutely everyone in all of midtown. In fact, if you were a regular at the grill, as most customers were, you were like one of her grandchildren.

After my father passed away, my mother came up to visit for the holidays. We went to The Silver Grill for dinner one evening. And while it was a busy shift, Peggy took the time to sit down at the table for a moment and say to my mother, "I just love your son. And he looks just like you."

She loved and helped out everyone: homeless people, gay people, professional types, the Atlanta police officers, young people starting a family, good old boys--made no difference to her. To be such a small establishment, the grill attracted a large and remarkably diverse and colorful crowd, and she was simply good to everyone.

Well, sadly, I'm told The Silver Grill (part II) closed its doors again a couple of months ago: this time, probably for good. But, even sadder still, about a month after it closed, on January 3, 2010, Peggy, at age 76, passed away as a result of lung cancer.

Peggy was famous for her eyebrows, her blunt language and her big heart. As I wrote before, she assumed the role of surrogate mother for many young gay men. When AIDS hit the city, infecting and eventually killing many of her customers, Peggy delivered food to them, visited them in the hospital and attended their funerals."

[Source: Peggy, the Silver Grill Lady, Dies | Creative Loafing.]

I didn't know that about Peggy but am not at all surprised. I will always remember her fondly and am certain her funeral was attended by many, many people from all walks of life. You can sign her guestbook at this legacy.com link. She, like the institution at which she worked for so many years, was part of the very fabric of Atlanta.

She did a lot of good in this world.

May she rest in peace.

I use John Einselen's MediaboxAdvanced, from iaian7, on my site for the media shadowboxes. I love it!

I've had two issues that needed attention. This is a "note to self" on how I fixed them in case I do site upgrades that might break the fixes, and I can't quickly find the resources to these solutions.

Problem 1: Volume Inadequate on NonverBlaster Player (Solution Works)

I was having the same problem today and I tried making some changes in mediaboxAdv-1.1.7.js and it worked for me. I hope this works for you as well.

In the JS file, you can find the settings for NonverBlaster as below (seach for "FLV, MP4")

------------------------------
// FLV, MP4
                        } else if (URL.match(/\.flv|\.mp4/i) || mediaType == 'video') {
                                mediaType = 'obj';
                                mediaWidth = mediaWidth || options.defaultWidth;
                                mediaHeight = mediaHeight || options.defaultHeight;
                                if (options.useNB) {
                                preload = new Swiff(''+options.NBpath+'?mediaURL='+URL
+'&allowSmoothing=true&autoPlay='+options.autoplay
+'&buffer=6&showTimecode='+options.showTimecode+'&loop='+options.NBloop
+'&controlColor='+options.controlColor
+'&controlBackColor='+options.controlBackColor
+'&scaleIfFullScreen=true&showScalingButton=true&crop=false', {
                                        id: 'MediaboxSWF',     ...
------------------------------

You can set the default volume by adding [&defaultVolume=100] right
after [crop=false].
like this.

------------------------------
...   &showScalingButton=true&crop=false&defaultVolume=100', {
                                        id: 'MediaboxSWF',   ...
------------------------------

[Source: NonverBlaster default volume too low - mediaboxAdvanced | Google Groups.]

What doesn't solve the problem: uncommenting the global media options volume parameter in line 93 or adding a defaultVolume parameter to the NonverBlaster section of code at line 110.

Problem 2: MP4s and FLVs Not Playing

From your server, open up the mediaboxAdvanced javascript file in a text or code editor, and update the options to reflect your desired settings. Make sure you update the file path to the JW media player with the correct path to your server."

[Source: iaian7 » code » webcode » mediaboxadvanced.]

What he inadvertently left out: also be certain to update the file path to the NonverBlaster.swf file too!

we eat genetically modified food?

Three types of Monsanto genetically modified corn are under scrutiny in the wake of a new study published by the International Journal Of Biological Sciences which found that rats ingesting the corn were subject to statistically significant amounts of organ toxicity.

...

The finding that corn produced by one of the world's agricultural giants could cause organ failure has been met with obvious concern by food activists and consumers alike.

"Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. "

[Source: Monsanto's genetically-modified corn causes organ failure in rats // Current.]

This is dubbed as the team's first step in its mobile platform development.

On Tuesday, the President's technology team released its first iPhone application, appropriately dubbed The White House. The app features blogs, video, photos, newsroom briefs, and the ability to watch live broadcasts over 3G or Wi-Fi."

[Source: The White House releases news, streaming app | Software | iPhone Central | Macworld.]

You know what I love the most about the AT&T application that allows you to report a problem with the AT&T network? When there's an actual problem: a dropped call, a call that will not go through, no signal at all, etc., you can't get the network to work properly to use the application to report it. So you wait until you get to a location where you get functional service again. Therefore, when the GPS data is transmitted with your trouble report, it's not the location where the problem actually happens. So, I guess all of the areas around network problem spots get really good service! The problem spots don't improve at all.

At least $5 billion, and perhaps as much as $7 billion. That's what it would cost AT&T to match Verizon's current level of investment in network infrastructure and, presumably, match its performance.

According to TownHall Investment Research, AT&T (T) spent about $21.6 billion on its wireless network from 2006 through September 2009. Meanwhile, Verizon (VZ) spent $25.4 billion. That disparity in investment, says TownHall Investment Research analyst Gerard Hallaren, has caused AT&T's network to perform poorly compared with Verizon's, particularly as it struggles to meet the data demands of devices like Apple's (AAPL) iPhone.

Making matters worse, AT&T invests more in its wired infrastructure than in its wireless network. Though 57 percent of the company's operating income comes from wireless and only 35 percent from wired services, wireless gets only 34 percent of the capital expenditures, while wired receives 65 percent."

[Source: AT&T's Mottoes: "Profit Over Performance" and "We've Got You by the Calls".]

I've actually been thinking more and more about leaving the US. I mean: for good. I find myself so disillusioned with what is happening in my native land.

My country forces education reform that is destroying creativity, problem solving, deep thinking, and analysis of knowledge to inform carefully considered long term solution-making for the immediacy of factionalized curriculum memorization. My country will not move beyond prejudice and discrimination. My country is squandering our national (as well as international) resources. My country is flinging privacy and personal freedom as fast as it escalates fear. My country cares more about greed, money, and possessing things than it does about people and their basic wellbeing. My country is removing the separation of church and state and forcing people to live by tenets of religion in which they may not personally believe. My country allows business, built on greed and outsourcing, to become so large they can not fail and must receive tax payer's money to keep the executes rolling in fat bonuses with shameless abandon. My nation's government is bought and sold by transglobal corporations and makes divisiveness its core ethic.

I can do little of nothing to stop or change any of this.

I wonder if this is a natural part of getting older--seeing the world through more jaded eyes. But I see other nations, not without their faults to be sure, at least maintaining some more moderate and productive sense of balance. I just think the US government is fundamentally broken and inept.

I shared last night at dinner that I actually don't think the US will be able to move to a better place within my lifetime. This saddens me greatly.

I've supported Lawrence Lessig's work for some time. I've had his "Change Congress" link on my site for some time. In this video he sums up things, and, unlike my dismal state of disillusion, offers a ray of hope. He doesn't frame the problem as conservative versus liberal or Republican versus Democrat. He is insightful and brilliant.

I've been trying to do a better job managing my weight. The clothes are starting to get uncomfortably tight, and I'm too cheap to buy any more--especially at a larger size.

I started shortly after the new year. My goal: lose two pounds a week until I reach my target. I input everything I eat and when I exercise into Lose It!, a free app, for the iPhone, I'm using to manage my goal. I'm now in week three, and for the past two weeks I've been on target. Now that gets me excited to stick with it!

Questions have their own punctuation mark. Exclamations have their own punctuation mark. And now, for only $1.99, every sarcastic statement you type can have its own punctuation mark as well. Never again leave your sarcasm unpunctuated! Introducing the Sarcmark!

Building projection can be fun and entertaining, but the people at NuFormer Digital Media, a Netherlands company, are taking this to a whole new level with amazing 3D building projections. Check it out.

The walls (facade or sides) of any building can be used. The projection is a digital re-creation of the architecture of a building. Architectural features of buildings are often used to fantastic effect. Due to the impressive size of the projection a spectacular visual experience is guaranteed. There are no size limits whatsoever."

[Source: Projections on Buildings - Impressive.]

Yesterday afternoon I abandoned routine and went to see Avatar. This was the first time I have ever seen a 3D IMAX movie.

I had heard good things about Avatar in 3D IMAX but really really wasn't expecting much. After all, I've seen a 3D movie before, years ago. I just wasn't all that impressed with it. In fact, it was so lackluster, I don't even recall what the movie was. I'd also been to (seen?) Terminator, a 3D experience at Disney's EPCOT, which, while great fun, was obviously less than a deep 3D immersive experience.

Avatar is in a whole new class of immersive 3D experiences. I had adjusted to the 3D glasses within 15 - 20 seconds of watching the first 3D preview and quickly got past the fact that I was wearing them.

Within a few minutes, I was "into" the movie. I mean, I literally lost the fact I was watching this movie on a 2D flat screen. The sense of real physical depth is convincing.

I actually caught myself, at one point fairly early in the movie, physically moving my body/head to see around an object in the movie so I could better see what was behind it! Such a thing is, of course, impossible. I was still watching a 3D image projected on a flat 2D screen. But my mind, my sense of perception, was so realistically convinced by the 3D technology that I perceived an actual 3D space. Intuitively I "knew" that I should be able to see behind an object if I just moved.

Amazing!

I fear that I am now "of an age" that doesn't thrill so easily from a movie-going experience. This was different. The artistic direction, the imaginative, creative visual design, the seamless and invisible integration of CGI were all compellingly presented in a truly artistic and visually stunning encounter.

Seeing Avatar in 3D IMAX is a must. This movie, in 3D IMAX, has forever changed what the movies are destined to become as an art form.

Another 3D movie was advertised in the previews that I will have to go see: NASA's 3D IMAX about repairing the Hubble Telescope. The trailer said NASA filmed the actual repair with a 3D IMAX camera. The clarity, detail, and 3D reality of the trailer placed me right there loosely tethered in outer space. I really felt as though I could reach out in front of me and touch the image. It seemed that real.

What will be next? When will our capacity to capture and display massive amounts of visual information become so great that we will be able to literally walk around in a movie projection, seeing it from all sides? (I would hate to be the camera director for that kind of project!) While interacting physically with the image, like on the Holodeck in StarTrek, currently seems impossible, or maybe not, perhaps a more complete sense of 3D projection is not.

Ah, The Heritage Foundation... They share their wise and timely advice on what President Obama should do in response to the suffering in Haiti: call on a senior Republican to lead the Haitian response efforts. And what senior Republican official do they suggest? Yes, the only one with a proven track record in such matters: George W. Bush!

I'm serious. That's who they suggested.

No, really...

That frames the quality of thinking from the Heritage Foundation rather adequately now, doesn't it! Did they forget already, or are they just stupid?!

The Haitian Ambassador, obviously deeply offended by the incredulous, outrageous, and unspeakably insensitive remarks of Pat Robertson, feels immediately compelled to respond to Robertson's offensive comments.

At the end of the ambassador's remarks, Rachel Maddow states that if she could apologize for the "odious" remarks made by Pat Robertson, she would. She expresses that Robertson's despicable remarks do not represent the broad wishes of the American people.

Pat Robertson should hang his head in shame, but his press release did nothing of the kind.

Two hysterical important press releases from the Borowitz Report:

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) - One day after announcing that she would be a commentator on the Fox News Channel, the network revealed that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's appearances would be simulcast in English.

"We are delighted that Gov. Palin will, for the first time, be understandable to the English-speaking audience," said Fox News chief Roger Ailes. "This should create a whole new fan base for her."

Gov. Palin praised the decision, adding, "I know many Americans will be interested in understanding what I have to say and I will also too."

In a related story, Fox said it had "no interest" in hiring funnyman Conan O'Brien, explaining, "Sarah Palin takes care of our comedy needs.""

And also:

THE BOROWITZ REPORT - Just hours after saying that God was punishing Haiti for making a "pact with the Devil," televangelist Pat Robertson retracted the statement, telling TV viewers, "Haiti? I thought they said 'Hades.'"

Rev. Robertson said that he had heard the report of the earthquake on the radio and had misinterpreted its location: "For the life of me, I thought God was punishing Hades, which does in fact have a pact with the Devil."

Apologizing for his "goof," the televangelist told his TV audience, "Golly - people must've thought I was being an insensitive asshole.""

[Source: Fox: Palin's Appearances to be Simulcast in English - Borowitz Report.]

I wasn't pleased with the video play button I created and used as an overlay on videos that would open in the shadowbox. My mother asked me why I had a weird finger on some of my pictures. I had no idea what she was talking about. Then, it dawned on me... So, I made a new one.

The new one takes inspiration from the (universal?) YouTube play button, is more "sculpted," has "instructions" on it, and hopefully draws a bit more attention to itself and its function without being too "in your face."

I like new one so much better and hope you do too!

BTW: clicking on the above images does nothing. :o)

This man isn't just superstitious, I find Pat Robertson to be hateful and evil! He also sounds like he can't breath. This extremist right-wing religious viper is a discredit to the God he claims to serve. My guess: he's about to seize an opportunity to "minister" to these people and make a fortune in the process.

He states that Haiti made a "pact with the devil" and has been cursed by God ever since. Astoundingly, he's actually serious! These are lunatic babblings and moral platitudes of a black-hearted mad man!

The people of Haiti don't need the filth of his religion. They need the kindness and compassion of people of God and the real help of real people motivated by real goodness.

And you know, Christy, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it, they were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the Prince, true story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' And they kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free, and ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. . . the Island of Hispaniola is one island cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is, is, prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty, same Islands, uh, they need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come, but right now we're helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.

We all know Sarah is now an employee of Rupert Murdoch. What we didn't know, until the book and the recent 60 Minutes episode, was the astounding level of her lack of qualification for being being a heartbeat away from the presidency. But that didn't matter to her at all, because "It was God's will" for her to be the Vice President, she said.

This interview is as enlightening as it is frightening. It's worth the attention of the nation.

Well, hopefully she will continue to show how lackluster she is as she stars on FOX not-News. Maybe she will go rogue. But probably, she will just quit--you know, like she did as governor of Alaska.

I wonder why I so like CGI and composited video? Maybe because it asks one of those fundamental questions, "Is it real?"

This is a cool example of compositing using green screen.

Welcome to the new world of digital filmmaking. Give this one a minute to get going.

Thanks Nats and Gary for sending this one along. Have a great link to share with us? (I know you do!) Write us at mail at openculture dot com."

[Source: Is Anything Real? | Open Culture.]

This causes me grave concerns! Once again I ask, "How much of our privacy and freedom are we willing to surrender?!"

I've kept asking where the ridiculous amount of money I pay in taxes is going. And then we can't balance local, state, and federal budgets?! Is it because those agencies are spending vast sums of money on tools such as these that are never approved by the voters. In fact, it is obvious from this newscast that the police department never wanted voters to know anything about this!

How can this be happening? Government is increasingly becoming less accountable to the people it is to serve.

This morning I sat down to read the news headlines while eating breakfast and learned that Delta has increased the fees they charge for checking bags. My first thought was, "So, what's next? Is Walmart going to start charging for shopping cart use?"

Well, good grief! Almost.

A few articles down I see a video link to Walmart now charging for shopping bags in selected stores.

Frankly, I think the idea of the reusable shopping bag is a good idea. I think anything that reduces the vast amount of plastic waste we generate in our world is a good thing. It cuts oil consumption. (Plastic manufacture uses petroleum products.) And, it reduces landfill waste and off shore dumping.

The grocery stores in Manhattan Beach have offered reusable bags for months now. (Click the image to view the larger picture.)

The title, from the question at the end of the quoted material below, is a sickening wake up call we need to all feel in our national collective stomach. We are flushing our civil liberties down the toilet for an invisible threat that some are speculating was killed several years ago.

You know those airport scanners that can see through your clothes, offering an intimate look at your junk and your love handles and every other part of you that you keep between you, your spouse, your doctor and the bathroom mirror? You know how the TSA swore up and down that these machines didn't store and couldn't transmit the compromising photos of your buck-naked self?

They lied.

The documents, which include technical specifications and vendor contracts, indicate that the TSA requires vendors to provide equipment that can store and send images of screened passengers when in testing mode, according to CNN.

The TSA has stated publicly on its website, in videos and in statements to the press that images cannot be stored on the machines and that images are deleted from the scanners once an airport operator has examined them. The administration has also insisted that the machines are incapable of sending images. Source: Airport Scanners Can Store, Transmit Images via: Digg

Just more US government employees doing Al Qaeda's business: undermining the quality of life in the "free" world. Osama's still free, how about you?"

[Source: TSA lied: naked-scanners can store and transmit images.]

So the iPhone controlled AR.Drone I blogged about earlier (last week) is real. They were showing it off at the CES last week. Here is a video with Robert Scoble talking about it. He say's he will buy one if it comes in under $500. (Jeeze, I guess I would too.)

Translated from their French Fubiz site...

One bedroom original egg-shaped, designed by the Belgian company DMVA. Elle inclue une salle de bains, un lit et plusieurs espaces de stockage. It includes a bathroom, a bed and more storage space. Une façade s'ouvre automatiquement pour servir de porte. A facade opens automatically to a door. L'ensemble est mobile et peut servir de bureau ou de chambre d'ami. The unit is mobile and can be used as office or guest room."

[Source: Google Translate.]

Clicking on the image below will open a shadowbox with several views of the interior of their one bedroom design. The inside is amazingly spacious, interesting and sleek.

You know we live in a different era when people don't know the names of their neighbors but get interesting messages from them through the names of their WiFi networks.

Several of these I hadn't heard of before reading this post: shovel-ready? bromance? chillaxin? (I watch too little TV to be literate I guess.) But I must confess, I too frequently grow weary of buzz. Who, after all, are the buzz makers?

At first, the word or phrase is an interesting twist of language that expresses a sentiment meaningful in the moment. But, like most pop songs, it's only interesting the first 50,000 times you hear it and quickly descends into a noisy backdrop you simply try to ignore.

With the mass consumption of mass culture through mass communication, the life cycle of chichi, buzz, au courant, trendy, and chic is as short as that of a mosquito and equally as annoying while flitting about hunting for a victim. The article includes a few quotations for each word from people who nominated the word for inclusion on the list. Some are witty.

• Shovel-Ready
• Transparent/Transparency
• Czar
• Tweet
• App
• Sexting
• Friend As A Verb
• Teachable Moment
• In These Economic Times….
• Stimulus
• Toxic Assets
• Too Big To Fail
• Bromance
• Chillaxin'
• Obama-prefix or roots?

[List source: Lake Superior State University :: Banished Words List :: Banished Words List.]

The new iType, which will be out mid year, is a full size keyboard and charging station for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Cool. I like.

The company will also offer a 2 octave full size piano keyboard for the devices as well.

For me, this case has always been about civil rights. It harkens back to the civil rights era and to women's suffrage. No majority vote should ever be allowed to remove civil rights for non-criminal conduct. Whatever the outcome, this case could be of a similar magnitude to Brown vs. Board of Education and will probably be appealed by either party all the way to the US Supreme Court.

Sponsors of California's gay marriage ban want a delay in the trial over its constitutionality so they can appeal a judge's decision to allow videotaped testimony on YouTube.

The trial is scheduled to start Monday.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker decided to allow daily video recordings of the trial on YouTube, a first for a federal courtroom in the West."

[Source: Gay marriage foes want delay in Calif. trial to appeal allowing video testimony on YouTube - latimes.com.]

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, a Republican named to the bench in 1989 by the first President Bush. Walker, who has a reputation as an independent thinker, was randomly assigned the lawsuit will preside over the case. He has gone on record for admonishing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for remaining neutral "on an issue of this magnitude and importance."

Over vigorous objections by supporters of Prop 8, the judge is allowing the case to be placed on YouTube, another thing I find interesting. I have always thought democracy functions well only when it is public.

Shouldn't this guy, of all guys, be aware that his statement is beyond simply untrue; it is absurd to the extreme!

I was ambivalent about the former mayor. Now I think Rudy Giuliani is crazy. Or, maybe he's very, very smart: the Republicans are trying to rewrite the history of their unspeakable failures. If you say it enough times, people will believe you!

Click the image to see him say it firsthand and to hear the words come out of his mouth. It's incredulous!

The answer is: not really. Amazing!

I especially like how he shows us how much compositing goes into each CGI. And the natural movement of the leaves, the water, the clouds... Beautifully done. The photographer even looks real.

On what planet am I living?!

A year-long trial of "full body scanner" machines at a UK airport (the kind that display clear images the human body, including genitals and breast implants), was only permitted to go into effect after children under 18 years of age were exempted from the scans. Privacy advocates say the "naked images" would violate Britain's child porn laws (Guardian UK)."

[Source: Creepy "naked scanners" violate child porn laws in UK Boing Boing.]

And then these Facebook screen grabs from war-blogger Michael Yon via Boing Boing...

[Source: War-blogger Michael Yon says he was harassed, cuffed, detained in Seattle; via: Boing Boing.]

The terrorists are winning. Because of our reaction to extremists, we are not the nation I grew up in as a child. I don't like what we are becoming.

I guess I'm still a kid at heart! I'm not sure the Parrot AR.Drone is for real if for no other reason: the WiFi signal strength is a huge limitation. The signal just doesn't go as far as this video gives the impression it goes. And WiFi signals are not that portable. You can't just create a network in an open, empty field. And forget ever using AT&T's "fastest" and smallest 3G network! Even if AT&T opened access for this type of data transfer, their network would choke before this thing ever got off the ground.

But the idea is way cool.

This tutorial needs a slightly faster pace, but Helen does a great job answering some questions I've grappled with in frustration concerning changing the crop orientation while using a fixed aspect ratio in Lightroom. I could never figure it out. It's so easy when you know the magic trick!

What sheer decadence! Sort of reminds me of the Tower of Babel. I wonder how many years will pass before the building is fully occupied! Never?

The world's tallest building, rising up to 828 meters to touch the clouds, Burj Dubai, is now open for business!

Burj Dubai was opened today in a ceremony, celebrating the fourth anniversary of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum becoming Ruler of Dubai.

As Dubai struggles with the economic crisis, the 160-floor-skyscraper is seen as a window of opportunity to pick up things and attract more business.

Construction on Burj Dubai began back in 2004. It was developed by Emaar and constructed by Samsung Engineering & Construction.

The building will house 900 residences on floors 19 through 108. The observation deck is on Floor 124. Sky lobbies on Floors 43, 76 and 123 will have fitness facilities, swimming pools and Jacuzzis. It has a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani."

[Source: Burj Dubai, World's Tallest Building, Now Open.]

With Paraglider over Campo croce near Bassano del Grappa soaring the thermals on the southern slopes of Mte Grappa Canon 50D with Sigma 4,5 mm Fisheye, free-hand, PTGUI, Photoshop CS3, Pano2VR"

[Source: 'Flugpano Papierfassung' on 360cities.net.]

I just have one question: How on earth did Martin shoot this!?

Totally cool: not just the simple mechanics of the Catena* Wall Clock, but the color of the housing, wall, and numbers. Desgined by Andreas Dober for Anthologie Quartett of Germany, I'd love one of these, but it apparently costs $2,338.00 from unica home. Other unique clocks can be found at this link.

[Source: unica home.]

*catena is apparently the Latin word for "chain," and the clock is made from copper numbers placed on a bicycle chain.

I've got to get to this place while I live out here! While many people are going in and out of the park, this video really puts things in perspective: people look like insects (especially the rock climbers near 2:45) scurrying about in the grand scheme of this untamable place. And I love the music Steven Bumgardner chose: Peter Gabriel's "The Feeling Begins" on Passion. Click below to watch.

Yosemite is bigger than Rhode Island at almost 800,000 acres, but it receives about 3.5 million visitors each year, and most of them spend time in Yosemite Valley. This project was shot back in 2005 after purchasing a Sony Z1U. This was my first HD project (ok, fine, HDV) and I spent about a week in Yosemite during the busy month of July. The footage was all shot in real time, and then sped up in post.

I chose busy places during busy days to show the effects of this mass of humanity. I could have just as easily pointed my camera in another direction and shown nothing but plants, animals and wilderness. Yosemite is popular, but it's also still a relatively wild place.

I’ve lived and worked in National Parks for almost 20 years, and as much as I love landscape photography, I also like looking at the human footprint and the human experience in our national parks. Some of this footage helped me get my current job in 2006, as a videoographer for the National Park Service and the photographer/editor/producer of the web video series "Yosemite Nature Notes" nps.gov/yose/naturenotes"

[Source: People in Yosemite: A TimeLapse Study on Vimeo.]

I posted last week about the sea lion exodus from Pier 39 in San Francisco. I hope this is the answer and not some imminent ominous portend.

The mystery of the missing sea lions at San Francisco’s Pier 39 may have been solved. ...

Marine experts now believe that the Pier 39 sea lions have gone to Oregon. A couple thousand California sea lions showed up off the coast of Oregon with their typical bark ...

Dan Harkins is the Sea Lion Caves general manager. He says: "We're seeing the sea lions coming up this way from California because of the feeding. If the cold water fish move north to find colder waters, the sea lions have to eat and they follow the fish wherever they go.”

Which begs the question: will they return in the spring?"

[Source: San Francisco Pier 39 sea lions found in Oregon?.]

I've decided to finally break my silence on one of the burning issues of our day: Tiger Woods! (so NOT!!)

Seems AT&T dropped Tiger.

Big deal.

AT&T drops my calls all the time!

I think I've mentioned before on my blog that I've fallen in love with Arizona. The desert is such a mysteriously beautiful place. As I recently tweeted, I visited Page, Arizona, for my New Year's celebration. Regrettably, my numerous tweets on this trip did not go out as, unlike Verizon, AT&T had no 3G coverage at all in Page, and their Edge network rarely worked for me anywhere.

I went to see and photograph Antelope Canyon.

The small Page airport was wonderful--like stepping back in time. They have one car rental company: Avis, which was closed on January 1st; so, a car couldn't be rented. But when we landed (all 6 of the people on the Great Lakes Airlines plane from Phoenix) a man was at the Avis counter. He said that, even though it was his day off, he came in to do some paperwork, and decided to come in when the flight arrived in case anyone needed to rent a car.

Wow! Now that's customer service.

The Page city council should do something nice for this guy. As a result of his extra effort, Page took in more revenue. Instead of being stranded at the hotel until the tour guide arrived the next day, having a rental car, I was able to get out, see the sights, and spend some money. This guy is Page's unofficial ambassador. He also recommended some great places to see!

Be sure to view the larger versions of the photos below. Simply click a photo to see the larger picture which has better color depth. From any large version, you can view all of the photos in this post by simply pressing the "n" key for "Next."

I shot several pictures at Horseshoe Bend (above and first two below). This place was magnificent! The air was completely still, so I timidly, slowly, haultingly inched up to the edge of the 1,500 foot precipice for several shots. (I also kept the tripod in front of me as if it would somehow magically keep me from plummeting to my death.) There's nothing to stop you, nothing to prevent you from falling over, nothing to catch you if you did. You would drop 1,500 feet straight down to the Colorado river bed below.

The view near the edge is astounding and terrifying at the same time--breath-taking in more ways than one. Just thinking about it makes my knees weak and my skin crawl again. Frankly, it was scary as hell! I'm including a shot or two of some young guys who just walked right up to the very edge as if falling to your death were an impossibility. They were crazy insane!

Carol Bigthumb's son and a friend of his were our tour guides through the Lower and the Upper Antelope Canyon as well as Owl and Rattlesnake Canyons. Carol was delightful, and I recommend her tour guides.

I just thought we would walk straight into this large canyon (sort of like Petra, Jordan), and, at the upper canyon, you do. But the lower canyon begins as a small crack in the ground. Her son hopped into the crack, barely wide enough for your feet. I didn't realize that he expected me to follow until it suddenly started going deeper into the ground.

There were a few places near the entrance where I had to squeeze through with my camera backpack on my back. One of the guides, a thin college student who runs 4.30 miles, then wore the backpack for me for the remainder of the day. They were incredibly helpful.

All of the canyons were different and astounding. The lower canyon had numerous steps and ended with a large number of stairs going back up out of the canyon. At that point you realize how deep into the ground you are. I'm not overly bothered by heights, but I couldn't look down. I just grabbed the rails and went: up, up, up... Dear god, would we ever get to the top?! My leg muscles are still killing me from the stairs, hiking up and down, and the constant squatting down to peer through the camera viewfinder!

Eleven young people (twenty-somethings), were killed in the canyon a few years back. They were told to leave the canyon as flash floods were on the way. Seeing no clouds in the sky, they went back in. (Only one body was ever recovered.) Astoundingly, the violent rushing water completely fills these deep canyons all the way up to the top. The flash floods are what carve the smooth, gorgeous walls of the canyon from the rock.

The photos are exceedingly long exposures (many well over 60 seconds) because of the interesting and ever changing lighting conditions in the canyon. I shot for HDR (3 to 5 exposures per shot), so you can expect to see an incredible HDR gallery as soon as I have the time. For now, enjoy just these few single exposure shots.

Our Navaho guides spoke of the canyons as sacred. I can understand why. These were etherial, mystical, enchanting places that were cathedrals to nature, energy, harmony, and the quiet balanced spirit.

I will be back.