re:TODAY

McLuhan says, "once we have surrendered our senses and nervous systems to the private manipulation of those who would try to benefit from taking a lease on our eyes and ears and nerves, we really don't have any rights left. Leasing our eyes and ears and nerves to commercial interestes is like handing over the common speech to a private corporation, or like giving the earth's atmosphere to a company as a monopoly..." pg 68, 'understanding media: the extensions of man'

look around.

TOP TEN INVENTORS OF ALL TIME

photograph by Dan Winters. article at conde nast portfolio.com

FORCE FEEDBACK GAMING VEST

via scifi tech blog and tngames

"PRIOR GOVERNMENT PERMISSION" MY ASS...

i don't normally blog about things like this, i dunno, it's just not in my nature, but this is ridiculous. the DHS is quietly moving closer to a proposal that requires prior government approval for all fliers, domestic and international. so what that means is, i haven't to petition the government for their "ok" to fly. i have to ask. the government. to fly. to travel, to move about. what the fuck kind of country do we live in? well, i guess i don't live there right now, which actually scares me even more. this policy is due to go into effect in february of 2008 and could, on a personal level, keep me from coming back into the states that summer. additionally, it allows the airlines and DHS to keep a record on all travelers, their itineraries, accommodations, the books they had with them, etc. this is my personal information, my privacy, that is no longer mine. the days when we could reasonably expect to remain private, anonymous individuals has definitely passed. land of the free. ha.

links to resources:

about the "western hemisphere travel initiative"

a blog about a public charity working to protect our rights to private identities.

a blog of an activist, working to shine the light on these 'quiet' initiatives.

NEW WORK: MERGERS

some new work created through compromise and negotiation with photoshop cs's 'photomerge' tool. essentially 'photomerge' is used to automatically make panoramic photos. a friend here at fmi is doing that exact thing. after seeing his work, i became intrigued by these auto-compositions and wondered what photoshop would do with images that weren't meant to be panoramic. the results are these, 'mergers', compromises between me and the program about me. click on the images to see the [in progress] set. comments are, of course, always welcome.

SO:CAL FIRES: MY GOD...

NASA images of the insane fires in socal. i have family in san diego. i hope they're okay.
here's a link to a bunch of charities if you can help.

HAPPY 40TH, BIGFOOT

40 years ago, tomorrow, the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot footage, was taken at Bluff Creek, California. here's to keeping mysteries alive. via boing boing & cryptomundo