May 2010 Archives

Seems that lately I've been grousing around about everything. I tend to be a fairly happy-go-lucky sort of guy, but when things annoy me, especially when my shoulder hurts, I vent about them. I don't hold them in.

So, when something good happens, I try to be equally as quick to share the love. Well, tonight, I want to share the love. I'm in the Mile High City and had to rent a car.

Car rental is car rental to me, usually just dealing with people who are indifferently just doing their job, sometimes feeling ripped off by absurd prices. But this afternoon's experience was unexpected and unprecedented!

The shuttle driver who picked up the 3 of us waiting on Island 4 to be taken to the car rental office was probably a good bit older than I, yet he insisted on taking my suitcase and placing it in the bin. Little did he know how much I appreciated that as my arthritic shoulder had been killing me all day.

He was a pleasant and outgoing fellow who told us he was glad to answer any questions we might have in the 5 - 6 minutes it would take us to get to the rental agency. He explained how to get to the major interstates when leaving the car rental place.

When we walked in to the rental office I was in shock. They were very busy but three agents welcomed each one of us to his counter area with a warm smile and, "Let me help you right here." None of us waited even a second.

My agent, I think his name was Kyle, totally blew me away -- and that's really hard to do. Not only was he pleasantly conversational during our entire transaction, he was fast, thorough, and efficient. He suggested that the less expensive option for where I was going was not to prepay for the gas but to top it off when I returned it. (What?! Saving ME money???) He double checked the GPS to make sure it worked and was connected to the satellites before we ever went out to the lot. (In the past, I've had so many that didn't work. Thank god for my iPhone!)

He walked around with me in the lot showing me the cars from which I got to pick. Once I selected the Toyota Camery, he showed me where the gas tank was, opened the trunk and put my luggage in, and (since he had already asked me at the counter in general conversation where I was going) asked me if I was in a hurry.

I told him I really wasn't. He then suggested I might want to avoid the private toll road because they didn't take cash and required a later online registration and complex payment process. He said it was the fastest route and that the GPS would probably take me that way. If I wasn't in a hurry, he would be glad to program the GPS to avoid that route.

What?! Jeeze! Am I dreaming?!

He then programmed my destination address with the toll road avoided. This guy could not have been any nicer or any more helpful. The only other thing he could have done would have been to drive me to my destination. I was completely impressed. He told me that the return address for the car was already accurately programmed into the GPS. (That's rare!)

With the GPS ready to guide me, the car cranked, and the AC on, he wished me well as he shook my hand.

I told him that Enterprise was really working it and that I was totally impressed. He smiled as we waved goodbye with a great big smile.

Now that's totally awesome customer service! I highly recommend the Enterprise Car Rental at the Denver International Airport. They treat their customers the best I've ever seen, and those that know me know that I travel all the time and am slow to make recommendations! By the way, their rates were great too!

On one of my flights today I noticed a heavyset man in the row in front of me reading some religious magazine.  I caught the title of one of the articles and almost threw up.  I forget exactly how it was worded, but it basically was about how much more religious persecution could the church take in these last days.

My god!  The very people who persecute other people whining about their little fantasy persecution complex.  I was disgusted.  I remember this same language when I was being brought up in the extremist religious right:  how God was blessing us every time we were persecuted for our faith.

The problem was, only the most mentally unstable among us would believe that religious people in Pensacola, one of the most religious and extremely conservative cities in the nation, were being persecuted!  By who?  By what?!  But oh, the yoke of persecution was just so hard to bear.

Nutcases!

Then, to explicitly bring my point into the sharpest possible focus, the title of the next article was:  Same Sex:  Different Marriage!  I've blogged before about this perverse mingling of church and state with religion owning a civil right over which government should be a guardian and protector.  If religion wants to have it's own holy sacrament above and beyond the civil right to all of the benefits and accommodations of legal marriage, fine.  Knock yourself out.  Call it something else.  Make it your own.  You can even deny people your holy sacrament if they aren't willing members of your little religious club.  You've got that right!  But don't deny people civil rights!  That's evil.

I wanted so badly to say to this man:  Over Weight:  Different Marriage.  (Both he and his wife were exceedingly so.)  You see, even if these extremists were correct, and I personally don't believe they are, and being gay were a choice, certainly they must admit that being overweight is a choice.  And, in the church in which I was raised, it was called a "sin!"  You were defiling the temple of god — your body, because of your own selfish, hedonistic, gluttonous ways.

So, why shouldn't we vote on fat people's right to marry?  Why shouldn't fat people be denied the right to marry?  The research indicates they have children who also grow up to be fat.  See, they are recruiting, just like the wacky religious extremists insist the gays are.

Isn't it all just ridiculous and absurd?!!!!!! There is just no difference!  I don't know:  Maybe some gay people choose to be gay.  Maybe some fat people choose to be fat.  Maybe some gay people are born to be gay.  Maybe some fat people are born to be fat.  The point is people should have the legal right to marry the person they love when the other person is of age and consents because they love them back.

You probably find my calling this man and his wife "fat" offensive and disrespectful.  Good!  You should.  Just as you should find calling a person a fag just as offensive and disrespectful.  But one is condoned in this culture and the other not.  Oh, the difference a single letter makes!

My god, sometimes I think we live in the weirdest world filled with people trying with incredible meanness to impose their will on others!  Enough already!

I had no idea that the grandson of the renowned late Jacque Cousteau lives just a few miles up the road in Santa Monica, California. As a child I loved watching his grandfather's expeditions. This interview is so depressing.

I could cut my leg off, I could cut my arm off, I could gouge my eye out, I'd still probably survive, but not very well," Cousteau said. "And that's what we're doing to our oceans.

Pointing to massive annual dead zones off the U.S. coast, Cousteau explained that our oceans are past their tipping point:

The Florida Keys, third longest barrier reef in the world, is a dead zone. Ninety percent of the big fish, the tuna, the sharks, and other things, are already gone in the oceans. There's a dead zone in the Gulf Of Mexico every summer the size of New Jersey, where there's not enough oxygen for things to live. So it's not a question of 'Can the oceans take any more?' The oceans can't take any more. They couldn't take any more fifty years ago. The question is, when are we going to stop?

Source: Phillippe Cousteau To Bill Maher: Even Before Oil Spill, The Oceans Couldn't Take Any More (VIDEO)

He also speaks of the enormous mass of non- biodegradable plastics in the middle of the Pacific ocean larger than the size of the state of Texas! Ironic, isn't it.

Related articles:

• Phillippe Cousteau, Jr. To Bill Maher: Even Before Oil Spill, The Oceans Couldn't Take Any More (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Phillippe Cousteau Joins Bill Maher to Talk Deepwater Disaster (VIDEO) (treehugger.com)
• Philippe Cousteau dives into the Gulf oil spill (theworld.org)
• Behind the Scenes With First Divers To Descend Beneath the Surface of Gulf Oil Spill (Exclusive) (treehugger.com)
• Underwater nightmare: 'What BP does not want you to see.' (thinkprogress.org)
• Cousteau's grandson: "This is a nightmare." (crooksandliars.com)

 

And I mean out of the city. Tom Lowe shares some astounding time lapse work from out in the desert. He also has a couple of breath-taking HD versions available for download at his site, Timescapes. Just awesome! You have to watch these full screen!

Predicting where to setup to catching the galaxy stars as they come by, the sunrise and set, the moon's motion and how it will change the lighting of the scene...  He's quite the artist!

Related articles:

• I Love Ross' Creativity Here (timtyson.us)

Everyone knows of my growing interest in time lapse.  Here's a new twist from Ross Ching:  shoot time lapses of LA's highways and take out all of the cars!  The amount of time Ross had to spend in post masking out the cars using Photoshop and FCP is probably less than I imagine but at the same time more than I can imagine!  He talks about it at his blog, here.

It looks like he also did some lovely work with color grading, and I suspect, but don't know for a fact, that the panning through some of the sequences was done in post and not with a slider or dolly at the shoot.  A a couple of weeks ago a photographer friend of  mine asked me if that would be possible.  From a practicality standpoint, I wasn't so sure just because of the amount of time involved with computer crunching.

Very, very creative work that ads a whole new dimension to the LA reality that is never without a hideous amount of traffic. Good music.  Clever and creative.  Tim likes!

Well, despite the fact that I've had a horrible sinus infection/laryngitis this week, I have been wearing my Fitbit ever since I first got it. The results, even with being sick, are interesting.  I've noticed how unbelievably my stats dive when I spend a day working at the computer.  This must change!  And being sick has an interesting impact on stats too:  not exactly what I would have expected.

My best stats have been:

• 11,671 steps on May 18th (before I got sick)
• 2,693 calories burned on May 22 (when I didn't sleep at all that night because I was sick and couldn't breath)
• 5.58 miles walked on May 18 (again, before I got sick)
• 11 minutes of strong activity on May 17th (on the elliptical--but for 45 minutes!!! hello?!)

Because of getting sick, my 7 day averages compared to everyone using a Fitbit aren't that good yet.

• I average in the 30 percentile for steps per week yet...
• at the 61 percentile for activity.
• Distance and very active minutes are still crazy low.

My sleep patterns, as I already knew, are weird:

• I woke up an average of 8 times per night before I got sick.
• My three worst nights, when I couldn't stop coughing and couldn't breath: I woke up 31, 67, and 39 times! (Between that and the pain in my arthritic shoulder, I'm just amazed I didn't die.)

So, to check out my official fitbit page, visit Tim's Fitbit! And, for those who follow me on Twitter, I will start tweeting my stats as of today.

Related articles:

• Liking My New Fitbit (timtyson.us)
• The Fitbit Portends a Scary New World [Shut Up Fitbit] (gawker.com)
• My Sleep Graph (russellbeattie.com)
• Philips Changes Policy on Fitness Monitor (pogue.blogs.nytimes.com)

I received several email responses to my blog post about The Infernal, Never-ending Beep! Most everyone suggested it was the smoke detector battery. I have had to replace several smoke detector batteries in the house, all upstairs, even though they are also wired into the house electrical system. But I actually hadn't even thought of this as being a possible cause of the beep!

I went into the kitchen and searched for the smoke detector. The house has them everywhere except in the kitchen/den area. Great! Where is the most likely place to start a fire? Maybe the gas stove which actually creates fire??

Then this sickening thought occurred to me: What if the smoke detector is up there (on the 11 foot ceiling) but was covered up by the builder when they put up the fake beams. Much to my distress, this scenario made sense because the beep sound is muted! (See picture of the ceiling.  Click to enlarge.)

In a state of horror, I stood on top of a chair near the ceiling, with the top cabinets open (in case the smoke detector was enclosed above them). It took 12 minutes for the next beep.

No. The beeping sound, where ever it was, was definitely below me —over by the iMac on the desk in the corner of the kitchen. Why does it always sound like its over by the iMac??!!

Steve suggested that the sound might be coming from the electrical panel on the back of the house, which, interestingly, is on the outside wall behind the iMac. But electrical panels don't beep.

This morning, my mother sent an email with the subject: "beeping." She says: "try smoke alarm battery or alarm system". But how could it be the alarm system, which has never been activated? None-the-less, after breakfast, I decided to explore Steve's and mom's ideas. I went to the electrical box on the back of the house.

Interesting...

Next to the electric meter is a rather large box built into the wall itself. It was labeled, "Communications." Maybe it was the phone/cable system?

Electric screwdriver in hand, I unscrewed the case. Inside the box are two large plastic systems all sealed closed with numerous flickering lights monitoring the status for the house's fiber optic cable/internet/phone systems and the alarm system. All of the lights were flickering green except for one: the light next to "Replace Battery" on the alarm system!

My über geek mother was right!

I was afraid to try to force the plastic system cover open as it appears rather committed to remaining closed. I was afraid to press any of the buttons for fear the whole of the Manhattan Beach SWAT team might descend on the house if I set off the alarm system and woke the whole neighborhood, not knowing how to turn it off.

So, for a short time anyway, the beep persists. However, once the alarm company comes out to replace the battery, I will no longer suffer the beeping of his hideous heart.

Related articles:

• The Infernal, Never-ending Beep! (timtyson.us)
• The Mystery Beep (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Smoke Alarm Maintenance How To's (eon.businesswire.com)

I am living in Edgar Allen Poe's, Tell Tale Heart. And it's driving me similarly mad.  The only difference:  it isn't the beating of his hideous heart incessantly ringing in my ears.  There is a distinct yet soft "beep" in the kitchen.

The beep sounds intermittently but about every 20 minutes or so.  It has been beeping for months now.

I can't find it!

I don't know what it is!

It's driving me mad!

At first I thought it was the UPS for the iMac at the desk.  I replaced it and was shocked to hear the beep a while later.  No!

I've unplugged everything in the kitchen that requires electricity and that can be unplugged.  The beep continues to mock me.

If the refrigerator requires a change of a filter, I can find no documentation of it.  And I still hear the beep when I turn the refrigerator's sound feature off.

What makes the beep maddening is the imperceptibility of its location.  No matter where one stands when hearing it, it always sounds like its over there—even when you're standing "over there."

It is the beeping of his hideous heart!!

I have become increasingly concerned over the past 10 years over what I have perceived to be an increasing polarization of Americans — an increasing radicalization, a swell of extremism of polar opposites, an unwillingness to listen, an indefatigable commitment to never change, a rise in anger and frustration over feeling powerless to live with and around what one perceives as "right."

The media seems to accentuate binary choices of either / or: right or left, conservative or liberal, win or lose, etc. In a Machiavellian strategy to win a culture war, words and people are redefined to achieve goals rather than unfurl meaning. I've concluded that technology, the great unequalizer, has just made all of this worse: so much distraction and so many deaf ears.

Enter an unlikely character who I think is bright, clever, and onto something significant: Kevin Roose. Kevin took his year abroad study opportunity at Brown University to attend a semester at the late Jerry Falwell*'s Liberty University, which now, to my shock, has over 60,000 students!

Kevin then wrote a book about this experience, The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University.

If his book is anything like the video clip below, it is thoughtful and reflective, gently and respectfully probing ways to get people to start listening and finding common ground again. The video is well worth the 20 minutes.

I hope his efforts with the Jonah Project are successful.

Kevin Roose at Gel 2010 (author, The Unlikely Disciple) from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

*I've made no secret on this blog of my loathing of this man.

But he, BP senior VP Kent Wells, really is anything but Mr. Clean.

The carefully placed shine on the top of his head is brilliant marketing!  Godlike.  Saintly.  Trust me.  I am your savior.

The LCD TV screen instead of a poster spends your BP dollar well while making the white on the graph look as white as possible — much brighter than a poster board would appear!

A wrinkle-free grey shirt. The perpendicular lines on the beige wall behind them to make the graph appear as tall and as white as possible.

Tech update...  Oh really?  Interesting that BP would title the picture for everyone.  I think of it more as an ongoing environmental Chernobyl update!

Wow! This spin machine is in high gear!! They left nothing to chance!

But think of his work more like Mr. Filth. 

He is deceiving the world with his trickery: graphs. Oh, the lies data can tell. Looks likes things are getting a lot better. The green bars are going up high! Lots of white space. Even some blue. How environmentally pure.

Pooh authentica!!

Sure, the syphon is collecting more and more oil. The bar should be going up. But why does he not include a black, oily, slimy colored bar for the millions of gallons of crude oil that are NOT being syphoned off?

Let me tell you: perhaps the ceiling in the room is not tall enough for that graph!!!!! The little green line would be shockingly  dwarfed by the enormous, hideous bar representing the volume of oil already and continuing to be dumped into the Gulf!

Cut to the chase, liars: first you told us the well was only leaking at most 5,000 barrels (or gallons, I forget) of oil a day. But then, oops, we find out that the syphon is sucking up 2,000 - 3,000 and not even making a visible dent in the huge volume of oil we see leaking out. Then experts confess the well could be leaking as many as 100,000 per day!

Don't forget boys and girls, am I the only one that remembers they said the oil was leaking in three places???? Yet we only ever see one of them???? And why is that??????

And the Republicans want to turn the tide with their spin machine: Obama's fault now.

Yeah, right!

Drill baby, drill!

Lie baby, lie!

Screw people.  Screw the earth.  Screw wildlife.  After all, it's all about profit!

Related articles:

• BP tries to mislead you with graphs (flowingdata.com)
• BP Oil Collection - Is the Effort Really Improving? (perceptualedge.com)
• BP Spins The Oil Spill (huffingtonpost.com)

This just hot off the press.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Microsoft's dominance as the tech industry's most valuable player has ended.

 

On Wednesday, Apple's market capitalization edged past its longtime rival's as investors made official what consumers have long suggested: Microsoft is no longer the industry's alpha dog.

Just last month, Microsoft's market cap exceeded Apple's by about $25 billion, but now Apple is in the lead by nearly $3 billion.

FacebookDiggTwitterBuzz Up!EmailPrintComment on this story

Microsoft's consumer products business is struggling to compete as Apple's hot new items like iPad and iPhone capture the attention of customers.

Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) fell 4% to close at $25.01 on Wednesday, while Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) lost 0.45%, closing at $244.11.

[Source: Apple exceeds Microsoft in market capitalization - May. 26, 2010.]

When the Exxon Valdez spewed 10.8 million gallons of crude oil in Alaska in 1989, I was horrified. I was so angered by not only that companies irresponsible destruction of habitat and commerce, but their callus and irresponsible lack of sufficient and meaningful effort to redress the horrible wrong they had perpetrated on our planet, people, and wildlife.

I don't know that I've ever made this public, but from that day forward, I've never purchased gasoline from any Exxon, Esso, Enco, Mobil, and Humble stations—all owned by Exxon. I never will purchase gas from Exxon as long as I live. This was significant to me because Exxon had always been my preferred brand of gasoline all of my life. No more.

Now, BP has committed an even greater atrocity against the earth. No one can have watched the CBS 60 Minutes exposé on the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon without being overcome with the level of irresponsibility of British Petroleum. And to see their arrogance surrounding this matter ... I just have no words. These companies are making record profits and just are raping the earth. The have secured legislation limiting their liability in any disastrous event to only $75 million dollars. Obvious, with Dick Cheney and George W. Bush as glowing examples, they own our government.

The oil these companies take from the earth what belongs to the people of the United States. Why do these companies pay nothing for its taking? Why is this industry not regulated like the water, gas, and electric industry as a common utility for the public good?!

Since our government has once again failed us, I call on all Americans to boycott the irresponsible corporate greed of Exxon and BP by no longer purchasing their gasoline. Put them out of business. Chevron. How long until you desecrate my trust?

Related articles:

• The Gross Negligence of BP -- Oil Giant's Trying to Slick Its Way Out of Controversy (alternet.org)
• BP Oil Spill Reaches Louisiana Shores (milkandcookies.com)
• Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (slideshare.net)

When the Exxon Valdez spewed 10.8 million gallons of crude oil in Alaska in 1989, I was horrified. I was so angered by not only that companies irresponsible destruction of habitat and commerce, but their callus and irresponsible lack of sufficient and meaningful effort to redress the horrible wrong they had perpetrated on our planet, people, and wildlife.

I don't know that I've ever made this public, but from that day forward, I've never purchased gasoline from any Exxon, Esso, Enco, Mobil, and Humble stations—all owned by Exxon. I never will purchase gas from Exxon as long as I live. This was significant to me because Exxon had always been my preferred brand of gasoline all of my life. No more.

Now, BP has committed an even greater atrocity against the earth. (BP includes ARCO.) No one can have watched the CBS 60 Minutes exposé on the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon without being overcome with the level of irresponsibility of British Petroleum. And to see their arrogance surrounding this matter ... I just have no words. These companies are making record profits and just are raping the earth. The have secured legislation limiting their liability in any disastrous event to only $75 million dollars. Obvious, with Dick Cheney and George W. Bush as glowing examples, they own our government.

The oil these companies take from the earth what belongs to the people of the United States. Why do these companies pay nothing for its taking? Why is this industry not regulated like the water, gas, and electric industry as a common utility for the public good?!

Since our government has once again failed us, I call on all Americans to boycott the irresponsible corporate greed of Exxon and BP by no longer purchasing their gasoline. Put them out of business. Chevron. How long until you desecrate my trust?

Related articles:

• The Gross Negligence of BP -- Oil Giant's Trying to Slick Its Way Out of Controversy (alternet.org)
• BP Oil Spill Reaches Louisiana Shores (milkandcookies.com)
• Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (slideshare.net)

The most brilliant storytelling ever on television. Ever!

Epic. Heart wrenching. Complex. Ever evolving. Captivating. Brilliantly crafted. Flash backs. Flash Forwards. Flash sideways. Convergence.

Ironically, I didn't watched it on TV until the final episode. Even then, I didn't see it live. I saw it on my iPod and my iPad as an iTunes purchase. Another first. Every episode.

I will miss the characters.

Brilliant!

Related articles:

• 'Lost' Finale Explained: Answering the Unanswered Questions (screenrant.com)
• Ending a Series Is Hard to Do (patspapers.com)

Craig Venter's announcement begins rather matter-of-factly:

We're here today to announce the first synthetic cell—a cell made by starting with the digital code in the computer, building the chromosome from four bottles of chemicals, assembling that chromosome in yeast, transplanting it into a recipient bacterial cell, and transforming that cell into a new bacterial species. This is the first self-replicating species that we've had on the planet whose parent is a computer. It's also the first species to have its own web site encoded in its genetic code. ...

Holy cow! What did he just say? And who is this guy?!  This is cited from the TED web site:

In 2001, Craig Venter made headlines for sequencing the human genome. In 2003, he started mapping the ocean's biodiversity. And now, in 2010, he's created the first synthetic lifeforms --… Full bio and more links

Yesterday, in the grocery store, I saw some magazine cover lamenting that no new cures are being developed by scientist for diseases.  This morning I listen to this.  I'll be frank with you, I'm not so sure this is a good thing.  Venter talks about how this discovery may open the door to creating effective vaccines, especially for viruses that mutate so quickly like the common cold and HIV.

I would like to hear a discussion about what all could go horribly wrong.  We don't even know how to dig oil out of the ground in the Gulf of Mexico and now we're going to rush ahead creating new, rapidly reproducing life forms that have never existed before?!  How long will it take for the nefarious among us to make a computer virus that becomes a new and horrifically deadly human virus?!

Have mercy!  We tinker boldly with that which we do not understand.  One bright and creative young man who saw this, and whose tweet actually steered me to this TED talk, said, "This is the future of software." I would like to add to that:  "This is the future of software, computer viruses, spam, the human virus???"

At the least, this is the stuff for some great science fiction!

Craig sort of does look like God, doesn't he. I mean, his beard could be longer and totally white. Put a white robe on him. And there you have it. It's all settled.

Related articles:

• CRAIG VENTER creates a cell with synthetic DNA. Venter is an interesting character. I invited him ... (pajamasmedia.com)
• Mad Scientist Creates Living Cell, Potentially Dooming Us All [Science] (kotaku.com)
• Scientist creates first living synthetic cells (nationalpost.com)
• Craig Venter's synthetic life breakthrough raises scientific hopes (guardian.co.uk)
• It's alive! Artificial DNA controls life (msnbc.msn.com)

You know, I think democracy is just much too expensive: all of those expensive campaigns and elections, the cost of congress, the presidency, the supreme court. And then running all of those state governments. It's simply not cost effective.

I suggest we combine state and nation government into one and just have all the CEO's of the very largest transglobal corporations, regardless of their country of origin, run government. To keep military spending high, they can have a huge military to enforce their regulations on the poor, stupid masses.

We can abolish all rights of individuals—again, they are not cost effective. The only rights will be reserved for corporations to make profit.

Then we can convert all of the earth's natural resources into profit! We can privatize public schools to make even more money. And we save a fortune not having regulations and regulators!!

I think this is a great idea! Freedom, democracy, and the environment are much too over rated! Yes! Yes!! Yes!!! Drill, baby, drill!!

It looks very scary. It's not good. I really feel... not good about that." That's what the International Space Station Commander, cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, says about the Gulf's oil disaster. This is the last satellite image.

 

Captured by NASA's Aqua satellite, the image shows only part of the oil surface, with the Sun shining over. I've exaggerated the image contrast so you can clearly see the extend of the damage."

I'm enraged that CBS is being blocked by the US Coast Guard from reporting on how bad this catastrophe really is.  But you never know!  Those liberal commy reporters are probably terrorists seeking to set the entire Gulf of Mexico on fire by tossing a match into the water!  Can't trust them!  No, no, no!!

Related articles:

• Astronaut: Gulf Oil Disaster "Looks Very Scary" [Oil Disaster] (gizmodo.com)
• Gulf Oil Slick Looks 'Very Scary' From Space, Cosmonaut Says (space.com)
• Astronauts open space station's newest room (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Well, after reports several weeks back that Apple had laid off a significant number of people from the Final Cut Pro team, I have been worries that Apple will either sell or even possibly eliminate Final Cut Pro. Now rumors are flying.

The first rumor indicates Apple will redesign FCP with an emphasis on making it more prosumer friendly and perhaps far less dedicated to professional video work. The FCP has been placed under the lead developer, Randy Ubillos, the man who, in my humble opinion, destroyed iMovie with his iMovie '08 release's new user interface and a sudden lack of features found in the earlier versions. Apple has now advertised for a senior visual interface designer for pro apps. Obviously something is afoot.

Amidst all the flurry of worry, Apple released a non-statement:

Final Cut Pro is the first choice for professional video editors, and we've never been more excited about its future," Apple spokesman Bill Evans told CNET. "The next version of Final Cut is going to be awesome, and our pro customers are going to love it."

I was peeved about Apple's last FCP release. So few substantive features were added. Now we live with the threat of a whole new interface design, and, if iMovie is any advanced warning, a loss of important features. Jeeze!

Related articles:

• Apple refutes claim that FCP will lose its "Pro" focus (edibleapple.com)
• Final Cut Studio won't be dumbed down (tuaw.com)
• Apple to keep the 'pro' in Final Cut Pro (thaibrother.com)
• Steve Jobs responds to customer's email about Final Cut Pro (tuaw.com)

I really like my Canon 5DmkII DLSR.  I've grown a lot more comfortable with it and am continuously amazed at what it produces.  Nothing astounds me more than the HD video it shoots.

I'm not a person who watches TV.  I've never watched the TV series House.  But this year's season finale of House is notable because it is the first TV episode to be shot entirely using the Canon 5DmkII.  Take a peek at the teaser.  The image quality is stunning.

Related articles:

• House Season Finale Shot Entirely on a Canon 5D Mark II [Photography] (gizmodo.com)
• Watch House? Like gadgets? Tonight's episode was the one shot on a 5D mk II (crunchgear.com)
• Season finale of 'House' filmed with Canon DSLR (macworld.com)
• Canon 5D Mark II used to shoot entire House season finale, director says it's 'the future' (engadget.com)

The Fitbit accurately tracks your calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled and sleep quality. The Fitbit contains a 3D motion sensor like the one found in the Nintendo Wii. The Fitbit tracks your motion in three dimensions and converts this into useful information about your daily activities.

You can wear the Fitbit on your waist, in your pocket or on undergarments. At night, you can wear the Fitbit clipped to the included wristband in order to track your sleep. Anytime you walk by the included wireless base station, data from your Fitbit is silently uploaded in the background to Fitbit.com

I ordered mine a long time back, several months, and it just arrived. I think it was on backorder when I ordered it. While that was annoying, it was certainly worth the wait. Today I worked at the computer a lot but still managed to:

• walk 9,292 steps
• travel 4.45 miles by foot
• burn 2,278 calories
• sleep 94% of the night (a miracle for me!)

One of the things I really like about the fitbit is that when I used my Octane elliptical today, it accurately tracked that data! (The Nike Plus doesn't.) When I walk near the charging station connected to my computer's USB port, the data automatically syncs to the web site. The site has lots of clean, easy to read and understand data charts. The fitbit even knows when I wake up at night and tracks the quality of my sleep. So cool! It will even automatically send updates using your Twitter account. [I haven't gone there, yet...]

Related articles:

• The Fitbit Portends a Scary New World [Shut Up Fitbit] (gawker.com)
• Consumers Like Medical Toys Too (medgadget.com)

I hadn't come across Sean Stiegemeier's work until I saw this astounding time lapse of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupting. Not only do you see stunning imagery from nature, but his use of the motorized dolly really brings this to life. And the still life of the old bullet riddled plane... Way awesome. Amazing work! No doubt this guy will have work start pouring in.

I hope he had one whale of a zoom! (He used a wide angle though. Brave man!)

For the best viewing experience, watch this with HD on!

Related articles:

• Time-Lapse Video of The Eyjafjallajökull Volcano (laughingsquid.com)
• A Haunting Time-Lapse Video of Eyjafjallajökull [Iceland] (gizmodo.com)
• The Incredible Eyjafjallajökull (joshspear.com)
• Stunning stop-motion video of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, in action (boingboing.net)
• The volcano.The video. (vostok.es)

I have been asked numerous times why I do not have a Facebook page.  Originally, I had three main reasons:

1. I thought Facebook would be another digital fad like AOL, MySpace, etc.  It would go away—and indeed probably will in time .  Something else would replace it.  Would I then have to jump on that social tool-du-jour?
2. I have two blogs that I enjoy using to share my professional and my personal "online me."  I don't need another online presence.
3. I became concerned that Facebook was an enormously successful marketing tool that, like almost any other American business, would, in the blink of an eye, sell its soul and all of the marketing data it accrued for profit and then to the devil called greed.

Then along came the huge issue of privacy concerns that is now plaguing Facebook.  The foolhardiness of this quotation, from Facebook's founder dropped my jaw!

You have one identity… The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly… Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity” – Mark Zuckerberg, 2009

Source:  Why Mark Zuckerberg Needs to Come Clean about His Views on Privacy by:  Kim-Mai Cutler

Is he serious?!  There is one me—the me, me. And I have numerous "identities," as does every other human being on this planet. Identity is the product of relationship or association. People have a work or professional identity, their identity as a spouse, their identity as a parent, their identity as a friend, their identity as a neighbor, their identity as a member of community, etc. To insinuate, let alone state, that all of these identities living in each of us somehow lacks integrity is to demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding about humanity and the definition of integrity.  But there are additional layers of complexity here.

The notion of “radical transparency,” a term being brandished about lately, is, I think, based in a naïve and simplistic world view.  I recall as a young school administrator listening to adults confide to me the complexities of their life situations.  At the time I was too young to actually even believe them as they recounted the circumstances of their lives.  I couldn't imagine that so many people lived in such incredulous circumstances.  At the time, I didn't have enough life experience to understand how fragile the easy life of even simple privilege I had always been lucky enough to enjoy was.  I had little, if any, experience with the complexity of a broader scope of life.

A significant percentage of people would not live life better if they lived in complete, radical transparency.  And a significant percentage of twenty-somethings, like Zuckerberg, might think they can now but later find that life brings things into their lives they may wish to leave forgotten, not plastered all over the Internet.

And what of context?  Without context to clarify meaning, to provide an illuminating perspective, many things could be so misunderstood as to be immensely damaging both today and at some unexpected time in an unforeseeable future, especially when people only know the "virtual you" before getting to know the actual you living within the context of your life.  Moments in time that are the tiniest reflections of the whole of a person can supplant the essence, the potential, the intent and focus of a future life better lived.  If being an administrator taught me anything, it was that people need a dignified option to find a better way forward that provides them with the hope of a good future.

At the very least, Zuckerberg is brilliant (attending Exeter and Harvard) and exceedingly wealthy (Forbes estimates his 2010 net worth at $4 billion.)  He is a young man of wealth and privilege.  What he lacks is a sensible world view for the masses of people who lack the resources to ever control their own destiny.  He's foolhardy enough to think he can manage that for the 400,000,000+ Facebook users.

As things are now, Zuckerberg stands to profit most when you naïvely live his vision of radical transparency, of one identity—your Facebook identity.  He can then continue to mine and aggregate every bit of information about you shared on his platform.  You will be powerless to do much about it.  He can monetize and redistribute that information in ways oblivious to you, and oblivious he wants you to remain.

May 31st is set to be "Quit Facebook Day."  I think it's time for millions of people to send Mr. Zuckerberg a "It's time to get real!" wake up call.  Or, you can continue to let him control the future of your privacy.  It's your choice—for now!

Graphic Above Source: MoveOn.org

Related articles:

• Facebook CEO Allegedly Mocked Users For Sharing Personal Data With Him At Harvard (huffingtonpost.com)
• Change Facebook or Change Ourselves? (jilliancyork.com)
• On Facebook's Selective Transparency (allfacebook.com)

A better picture...

Don't mention to Beast that he needs to lose weight.  It upsets him at dinner time.

Beast and Monkey are best buds. I grabbed my iPhone for a quick picture and Beast moved in the low light causing a bit of a blur.

Back in 2005 I posted about my desire to be able to design and create my own custom clothes over the Internet just as we can other products. And then I posted about a service that let you customize your own Keds. M&Ms can even be customized. But I want to customize my clothes rather than being restricted by the brand labels and insane "fashion designers."  I want the Tim Fashion.

The day has finally arrived. Check out Blank Label! Awesome. I'm going to have to order something just because I can!! (After I lose some more weight!)

So here's a mind-blowing question for everyone. Can you even entertain it? Can you play, "What if..."? Are you capable of this? I'm going to guess that you are not – especially if you are an extremely religious person, but we'll see.

Now remember, this is just a "What if..." mental exercise.

OK: The Setup
Most of the people I grew up with believe that the Bible, especially the New Testament, is the literal word of God and that it is a code by which we should all live our lives if we desire to be followers of Christ.

Question One:
So, what if... What if the translators of the original Greek texts got the translation wrong, significantly wrong.

What if a vast repository of literally tons of manuscripts written in the actual language of the original biblical Greek texts were found that clearly proved that numerous important words in the Bible were incorrectly translated throughout the entire Bible in ways that substantially altered the original meaning of the teachings of the New Testament.

Question Two:
What if there was irrefutable evidence that the church, for the past 2,000 years, has been misinformed and is not doing exactly what the Christ of the New Testament actually wanted his followers to do?

Question Three:
IF this were true, how would the people of the Christian church today respond?

Background:
For centuries the Christian church has acknowledged that no documents in the day-to-day Greek language of the time of Christ have survived to the modern era. This, of course, is the language in which the Bible is written — Koine Greek. Therefore, for centuries, scholars have painstakingly and methodically worked to piece together the very best translations they could using very meticulous methodology to derive the best understanding of the illusive ancient texts.

According to Michael Wood, literally tons of ancient manuscripts have been unearthed in the Egyptian desert over the past 120 years, manuscripts that are written in Koine Greek — the language of the Bible which was in fact the common language in which wills, deeds, and private letters of the day were written. These manuscripts reveal the exact meaning of the language the biblical manuscripts were written in. So, no more need for trying to ascertain the meaning of the words. This enormous collection of manuscripts clearly reveals the meaning of the words.

Mystery solved!

Hold your horses! Not so fast. According to Michael Wood, the Christian church has some rethinking to do.

Hundreds of passages have been translated incorrectly — so incorrectly that the meaning is significantly altered. Michael goes on to say that while numerous Biblical scholars applaud the fact that we now, for the first time, can accurately understand the actual language in which the Bible was written, the church downplays this and continues to produce the same old Bibles it has always printed — utterly bereft of the benefit of the accurate translations.

He presents a few of these mis-translated and thereby misunderstood Biblical teachings in his short book, The Jesus Secret.

Some Distance:
Now, I'm the first to admit that I have little knowledge and zero expertise in this area. I don't know if what he has written is factual or not. But he makes some compelling revelations that, for me anyway, have the ring of truth and really add a sensible level of historical and ideological perspective that perfectly resonates with the context of Jesus as I understand it.

What I do know is that the Christian church has a compelling reason not to change the 2,000 year old status quo; so, I wouldn't trust much of what their scholarship would have to say on this matter. They have too large of a vested interest in a specific outcome. Some unintentionally, others very deliberately, would be inaccurately swayed in their thinking by the weight of this 2,000 year old veil of thinking.

Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future scholars with no dog in this fight will weigh in on what the facts are in this very interesting and very important debate. In the meantime, I recommend you read Michael's book. It's certainly thought provoking. (This all has the makings of another great Dan Brown-style book and movie!)

[In my humble opinion, the title is a bit misleading. There are no secrets about Jesus, only new insights into the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament.]

An Interesting semi-related article:

• Mike Lux: How Do Christians Become Conservative? (huffingtonpost.com)

I saw these glasses for sale online a few weeks back and couldn't resist them.  This morning, when the sunlight struck my glass of glowing Diet Orange Crush, the breakfast of champions, I grabbed my iPhone and shot this picture just before the sunlight went to visit someplace else.

Picture from the online store:

Source:  ffffound who got it from dvdp

Source: ukaaa

Click for a larger picture.

Warning:  if you are one of my really ultra-conservative friends, you might want to skip this post.

First, I want to make it perfectly clear that I could care less if Dr. George Rekers is gay, straight, or anything in between.  It makes no difference to me.  That's his personal business.  Hiring a male prostitute from RentBoy.com to "lift his luggage," as he claimed, is his own thing — whatever.  It will not be the first nor the last time any man in this country has paid for or lied about sex.

What I find loathsome and detestable is his lying, his hypocrisy, his co-founding the Family Research Council and work with Focus on the Family with his good buddy James Dobson to profit from condemning and persecuting his very own lifestyle while he has the hubris to post this to his Facebook page, "Like Jesus Christ, I deliberately spend time with sinners with the loving goal to try to help them."  Yes, Jesus did hang with the prostitutes.  But, I'm not so sure he did that to have sex with them.

Excuse me George.  You are nothing, nothing like Jesus Christ.  Your perverse and self-destructive lifestyle has only hurt people—many, many good and well intentioned people.  In my mind, you are evil.  You are not evil because you're gay.  You're evil because your religious work (profiting from targeting restricting rights of gay people and your organization's odd notions of conversion therapy, etc.) hurts gay people—people like yourself.  How destructive is that?—totally self destructive!  Sadly, you must be a real nut job.

In my world view, you can live your life any way you wish until you start hurting people.  When you are hurting others, you must be stopped.  At least you have now clearly shown everyone how perverse your heart really is.  Exposing your evil heart is a great step to stopping your hurting others.

Some good, however, has come from George Rekers' spectacle—humor.  The US now has a new euphemism for sexual activity:

• South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford gave us: "hiking the Appalachian Trail"
• Senator Larry Craig gave us:  "wide stance," and now
• Religious nut job George Rekers gives us: "lift my luggage"

I especially liked this Alpha Dog of the Week video segment from the Colbert Report.  (Further warning:  this is filled with sexual innuendo and double entendre.  Don't watch it if you are easily offended.)

Rachel Maddow has a few insightful comments, and, as she so often does, lays it on the line.

Related articles:

• Christian Leader Denies Gay Prostitution Claim (cbsnews.com)
• George Alan Rekers goes on a trip (washingtonmonthly.com)
• Shades of Larry Craig (talkingpointsmemo.com)

Even I have been growing increasingly wary of Apple becoming another loathsome, all-about-money, screw-the-customer corporation as it has experienced explosive growth and success in the past 10 years.  I've posted about some of these concerns before.  People seem to be increasingly sharing that concern.

It's appropriate that the Apple logo on the iPad is black. The Cupertino, California, company's image is taking on some awfully sinister tones lately.

 

For a company that made its name fighting for the little guy, it's a surprising reversal. In the past, Apple touted itself as the computer company for nonconformists who "Think Different." Now the company is making moves that make it look like the Big Brother it once mocked.

First Apple tightened its iron grip on the already-stringent iPhone developer policy, requiring apps to be made with Apple-approved languages, which disturbed some coders and even children.

A short while later, Apple rejected some high-profile apps based on their editorial content, raising journalists' questions about press freedoms in the App Store.

Then, police kicked down a Gizmodo editor's door to investigate a lost iPhone prototype that Apple had reported as stolen. Even Ellen DeGeneres and Jon Stewart have mocked Apple's heavy-handed moves.

Plenty of us love our shiny iPads, iPods, iPhones and MacBooks — state-of-the-art gadgets with undeniable allure. But it's tough to imagine customers will stay loyal to a company whose image and actions are increasingly nefarious. We want to like the corporation we give money to, don't we?

Here are five things Apple should do to redeem its fast-fading public image."

[Source: 5 Things Apple Must Do to Look Less Evil - ABC News.]

Here's the video of Ellen DeGeneres after getting a call from Apple.

Related articles

• Apple demands public apology for iPhone parody (go.theregister.com)
• Ellen DeGeneres gets a call from Apple (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
• Ellen DeGeneres apologizes to Apple for iPhone spoof (edibleapple.com)
• Apple Isn't Laughing at Ellen's iPhone Commercial Parody [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• Ellen DeGeneres Says "Sorry" To Apple (geardiary.com)

Americans need to stand up and say, "Hell No!  We will not live out SciFi!"

Hollywood claims that, in the future, they will allow you to see movies that are currently in the theater at home on your TV set while the movie is in the theater.

Horse Manure!  Here's what Tim predicts: DVD's as we know them today will go away.  The price of movies will go up.

To see any movie, you will be forced to stream it over the Internet to your TV.  To keep you from ripping a copy of the movie by sending the audio and video feed out of your TV and into a DVR or other recording device, Hollywood will reach into your home, into your TV set, and shut off these outputs.

[Apple has already quietly pulled off shutting off your external computer monitor jack when playing HD content.  Did you know this Apple users???  Go ahead and try it on one of the newer Mac laptops.  Try plugging in a projector to your laptop (with the new MiniDisplay port) and playing an HD movie you purchased from the iTunes Store.  It doesn't work now, does it.  It will only play through the AppleTV or on a specific Apple monitor.  Isn't this just the most clever thing.  Guess what Apple is up to!]

What else will they want to do in 10 years?

Hollywood will soon have the power to remotely disable the analog outputs on your set-top box, under a decision by federal regulators on Friday intended to prevent home recording of new movie releases.

The move by the Federal Communications Commission grants cable and satellite providers the power to block consumers from viewing just-released movies in an analog format through a process known as Selectable Output Control. Hollywood requested SOC powers as a condition of allowing providers for the first time to release movies to their in-home customers while the film is in theaters.

The Motion Picture Association of America said its member studios would not authorize the early movie releases unless it won the ability to deploy Selectable Output Control. The reason: Analog video signals can easily be recorded, while dig"

[Source: FCC Lets Hollywood Turn Off Your Output Jacks | Threat Level | Wired.com.]

Boys and girls:  This is not a good thing.

Related articles

• Here Is How The FCC Gave The Keys To The Kingdom To Hollywood (lockergnome.com)
• FCC Lets Hollywood Turn Off Your Output Jacks (wired.com)
• FCC gives Hollywood control over your home theater (arstechnica.com)
• Silicon Alley Insider: OUTRAGE OF THE DAY: FCC Says Hollywood Can Turn Off Parts Of Your Home Theater While You're Watching Movies (businessinsider.com)
• FCC Gives Hollywood The Right To Break Your TV/DVR... Just 'Cause (techdirt.com)

Tonight I ate at one of the regular restaurants in my rotation. It was chilly (and extremely windy) eating out on the patio, but nonetheless, many of the tables were taken. Being Mother's Day, they were unusually busy.

After having ordered, across the restaurant I heard a patron complaining rather loudly and angrily that he and his party had been waiting to order for over 20 minutes. Well, I knew the 20 minutes claim was a bit of an exaggeration as I had seen them come in and be seated—maybe 10 minutes. But certainly, to be fair to the man, they should have had their order taken by this now.

The table cleaner to whom they complained had a waiter come and immediately taker their order. But here's what was so ridiculous: the grumpy old man who had raised such hell about not having his order taken for so long still had no idea yet what he was ordering. He took forever to look over the menu and decide.

So what was he really complaining about? What expectation did he have that was not being met by the restaurant staff?

Rather makes me think of the idiots that drive so recklessly dodging in and out of congested traffic during rush hour in very congested areas. They never get anywhere any faster than anyone else. They just place themselves and others at risk of accidents. But why?

Pity that our society promotes this type of ridiculous behavior by rewarding the Alpha Male Type in so many ways.

Well, it's about time something like this appeared.  I, ever the cynic, wonder who owns this company.

It’s easier on the web to use reviews to choose the best noise-canceling headphones or a good Indian restaurant than it is to find even the most basic information on which doctor you should go to.

But a new service called Doctor Finder created by Insider Pages hopes to change that by fielding comprehensive online reviews of doctors.

The site covers nearly a million doctors in the United States, combining patient reviews with board certification and official malpractice and sanction records to help patients find a new doctor. Users can sort potential doctors by specialty, insurance carrier, gender, locality, ratings and years of experience.

That’s a big upgrade from how most people choose a doctor now, according to Insider Pages general manager Eric Peacock. Most people simply go to their insurance provider’s website to see a list of doctors nearby, and then decide on one blindly."

[Source: New Service Lets You Check Out Your Doctor Online, Before You Get Checkup | Epicenter | Wired.com.]

Just spreading the AT&T love...

AT&T promised to spend $2 billion upgrading its wireless network this year. Whatever it has spent on the upgrades so far isn't helping.

 

A new report from ChangeWave Research (via Philip Elmer DeWitt) shows consumer dissatisfaction growing with AT&T, while it's decreasing with Verizon. ChangeWave surveyed 4,040 smartphone owners about dropped calls over the last three months.

In the chart below, you can see dropped calls for AT&T customers growing, despite the investment to improve its wireless network.

Source:  Business Insider:  CHART OF THE DAY: AT&T's Network Blows

Do the math:  That's three times more dropped calls!!  (But AT&T's advertisements tell me they have me covered.  Riiiiiight!)

Related articles:

• AT&T dropping more calls than ever (Philip Elmer-DeWitt/Fortune) (techmeme.com)
• CHART OF THE DAY: AT&T's Network Blows (T, VZ, AAPL) (businessinsider.com)
• New survey shows AT&T customers still get the short end of the stick (edibleapple.com)
• Verizon iPhone Could Attract More Than Half of Carrier's Customers [REPORT] (mashable.com)
• Survey: Despite network spending, AT&T dropping more calls (blogs.chron.com)

The entire article is worth reading.  The viciousness of corporate America at work...

Our future well being depends more on people like Steve Jobs who invent real products that can improve our lives, than it does on people like Jamie Dimon who invent financial products that do little other than threaten our economy."

[Source: Robert Reich (Apple Isn't the Problem. Wall Street's Big Banks are the Problem.).]

"I don't think I'm overstating the case by saying this is America's Chernobyl." —Louie Miller, Mississippi state director, Sierra Club, at a news conference on May 1, 2010, in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Not overstating it?  Indeed!

But, unless you live on the Gulf Coast, as does my extended family, unless you know people who will lose everything because their livelihood. in fact, the economy of the whole regions already deeply depressed by the aftermath of Katrina, is completely dependent on the health of the Gulf of Mexico, this is just a minor little setback in the United State's intoxicated love affair with oil consumption and war above all else.

God forbid we should have policy that takes care of people and the environment in which we live!  That ain't Amurrrrican!  That ain't for the real Amurrrrica.

1. The extremist right wing nut jobs are blaming this on Obama?!  (Now who was it that said, "Drill baby, drill!"????)
2. BP assured everyone this would never happen, but if it did, they had plans to immediately correct it.  Now they admit to being clueless about what to do as this well pumps tons of oil into the Gulf every day!
3. If this disaster doesn't rewrite America's policy on off shore drilling, we are a hopeless and disgusting lot.
4. Record oil profits.  Record oil profits.  Record oil profits.  What do we do now?
5. This is yet another catastrophic result of a nation's government owned by corporate greed.

I mourn the death of the pristine beauty of the Gulf Coast on which I grew up:  the sugar white sands, the beaches littered with sea shells and crabs, the clearest water in the world in which you could watch little seahorses and starfish swim, dolphins play, and routinely see huge sea turtles and giant manta rays swimming in the wild.

Gone, now.  Probably forever so bubbah can drive his Hummer and Ms. Thing can sip her bottled water shipped all the way from Fiji.  Am I angry?  You're damned right I am!  Where's the righteous indignation over taking care of people and the beauty of God's creation?!  Instead, we just want to kick some terrorist butt so we can guzzle some more oil.

And where is Dick Cheney today?  Talking to King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia?  Trying to line his purse with more oil money no doubt?  Now isn't he just the clever one.  Dick never misses an opportunity!

Our reckless, live-for-the-moment, greedy, consumptive lifestyle in this nation will inevitably kill us all.  But what matters most is that some people will get very wealthy in the process.

Related articles:

• Sierra Club Director Calls Oil Spill America's Chernobyl (shoppingblog.com)
• BP Rests Oil Clean-Up Hopes On New System (news.sky.com)
• Watch-and-wait game continues for Gulf Coast residents (cnn.com)
• Some Still Call for Drilling as Oil Approaches Gulf Coast (redstateprogressive.com)
• Bob Ostertag: The New York Times, Astroturf, and the Gulf of Mexico (huffingtonpost.com)
• "BP Says It Will Pay Oil Spill Cleanup Costs" and related posts (newsone.com)
• Images: Massive oil spill imperils Gulf Coast (news.cnet.com)
• GULF COAST OIL SPILL: Wildlife, fishing could be destroyed (economy4abc.blogspot.com)
• 10 Things You Can Do to Help the Gulf Coast Clean the Oil Spill (usnews.com)
• Senator: 'BP says it'll pay for this mess. Baloney.' (cnn.com)
• Another Week at Least of Unabated Gulf Oil Geyser (abcnews.go.com)

Comprised of over 6,000 still images, each shot every 20 seconds from the hotel room window overlooking the river below, this time lapse represents almost 2 days of the heat and hazy humidity of Bangkok.  I used my old Canon 30D.  The original project is 1080HD and is filled with interesting detail; but, to be useful for web deployment, this much smaller version is shared.

I have rattled the notion of privacy, primarily the loss of privacy in 21st Century America, around in the back of my mind for some time since the advent of the Internet, the horror of 9/11, and the explosive growth of the pervasive surveillance technology that has silently and often invisibly crept into our lives.

I have grown increasingly concerned that we as individual citizens have perhaps already lost our privacy without even being aware of it. I suspect that many of our youth are growing up with a default "nothing about me is really private" attitude. I'm even aware of one young man who has chosen to have all of the financial transactions he makes on a particular credit card public on his blog the moment he swipes his credit card: what he purchased, where, and for how much—a lifestream of all of his purchases.

New advertising technology watches the casual passerby to see what parts of advertisements catch attention and what do not. Marketing researchers use total store surveillance to study what customers look at, touch, where they go in the store, and correlate that to what they buy. Facial recognition technology is already astoundingly powerful. The typical American living in a major city is photographed over 300 times every day. Google tracks Internet searches. Our cell phone carrier tracks our call patterns.

Where does this information go? Many are shocked to learn that some network security providers for our public schools, these are the people that are supposed to keep our children safe from inappropriate content, actually track every IM, every email, every Internet search, every keystroke, and then sell that information about what students are doing online in school. Apple stated that the Google Voice Over IP app it rejected for the iPhone would upload the iPhone's entire address book to the Google servers without the user ever even knowing it happened. What else is going on with our data about which we have no idea at all?

I won't even talk about the cleverly-marketed-by-its-very-name "Patriot Act" and the unprecedented level of access to information it affords the government to any and everything about you and me. I'm not trying to be the pervader of fear. These, and many other, thoughts and questions lead me to think about:

1. What information about me is none of your damned business?
2. What information about me is none of the government's business?
3. What should I be able to expect to be private in the 21st century in the United States?  (Anything at all?)
4. Who should be able to decide what information about me is private and what can be shared and with whom and why?
5. Who should receive money for information about me and how is that appropriate?  If information is power, what are they really buying?

I give some careful thought about what I share and what I choose not to share on this blog.  But do I currently share too much?  My mother would probably say so.  What other information about me is aggregated without my knowledge or consent?  How many times have I been forced to click "I Agree" to terms of service I neither read nor would have understood if I had.  How cheaply am I giving away my privacy?  What will be the long term ramifications of these seemingly meaningless clicks?

I suspect we will wake up one day in a tyrannical state and wonder how the hell we ever get there.

I highly recommend your taking the time to watch this thought-provoking video, Choose Privacy, made by the American Library Association.  They raise some critical questions that need to be part of a national conversation about privacy.

Are we mindlessly creating a future in which we may well not wish to live?!

Related articles:

• Smart retail strategy or invasion of privacy?; Privacy advocates are troubled by research conducted via video camera (bendbulletin.com)
• What it means to 'Not believe in privacy' (trueslant.com)
• Habits and Identities Revealed via Coupons - Facebook Fan Pages Can Make User ID Visible - Shopping Algorithms Reduce Privacy And Increase Visibility (ducknetweb.blogspot.com)

I'm confident that no one could have imagined an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  I mean, we've never had such a thing before.  The existence of entire ecosystems have never been threatened before.  People's livelihoods have never before been decimated by an oil spill, say:  in Alaska.  How could anyone have anticipated such a thing?

Besides, we have a Chevron oil refinery right here directly on the Pacific Ocean with giant oil tankers anchored out in the bay all the time.  And just look how pristine our bay area is!  Why, I only had to spend 3 hours this morning getting some oily tar mass off of the shoes I wore last week as I walked along the surf crashing along the shell-free beaches.

As Sarah Palin so eloquently put it in just good ole, real Amurrrican English that everyone can understand:  "Drill baby, drill!"

The photo above was taken after spending about an hour scraping the oily tar gunk off using a knife.  Then I went to Home Depot and purchased some toxic chemicals designed to vaporize all living things.  After another couple of hours scrubbing the shoes, 5 plastic gloves, 2 sponges, and countless paper towels, the shoes are mostly clean.  (The rubber soles will probably be eaten off during the night by the residual chemicals.)  Pictured below is the sink after the cleaning was completed.

Yes indeed, "Drill baby, drill!"  Sarah is just so smart.  And unfettered capitalism is just so good.  I'm just feeling so patriotic today.  Praise the lord!

Related articles:

Alila Villas Uluwatu, in Bali, is  sustainable resort on Bali's southern coast.  The pictures depict a gorgeous resort selling for $800 a night and touting luxury combined with ecology.  (I'm not too sure such a thing can exist.)  But the place is gorgeous.  [Source:  CoolHunting—sited below the pictures]

I love the infinity pool pictured above.

Related articles:

• Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali (coolhunting.com)
• Best of the year 2009 : Resort Hotel Design - Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali (chictip.com)