Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet enables intimacy

 

Technology anthropologist Stefana Broadbent analyzes how we text, IM and talk. Today, she says these new methods of communication are helping us break out of old institutions and bringing us closer together than ever before. She’s speaking with a backdrop of constantly refreshing, beautiful black and white portraits, always of two people seated together. She explains that in each picture is someone she interviewed and the person the communicate with most in the world, whether it be their significant other, parent, grandparent or sibling, along with the communication tools they use — by and large, these are cell phones.

She says that although we may have many people on our Facebook friend lists (120 on average) and in our cell phone directories, we typically use these technologies to interact with a small core group of people. The typical cell phone user makes 80 percent of their calls to just four people, and the average Facebook user exchanges most of their messages with only five or six friends. So these technologies are not networking us with more people, but reinforcing our communication with our inner circle.

Even more interesting, she says that we are now seeing the democratization of intimacy. As more communication technologies are written, and can therefore fly under the radar more easily in a workplace, the boss is not the only one that can keep in touch with their family and friends during working hours. She finds companies’ restrictions on Facebook and schools’ restrictions on texting appalling. We always lived with work and family together, she explains, this compartmentalization of our lives only began 150 or so years ago with the Industrial Revolution. Broadbent is glad to see that cleavage ending.

fedor’s favorite sweater

This just in: Fedor’s sweater defeats wolf shirt via sleevebar.

http://mma.fanhouse.com

Soundboard II

sleeps numb – lost seagull mixjam

i’ve been gettin back into dr sample & SP culture/work a teeny bit as of late

really diggin on this lo-fi meditative metal jam
one take live on a SP-404
it has a muddled…
maybe muddy
diffused sort of vibe
not ephemeral
or ethereal

it’s earthy
i’m reminded of light through waves
and the sea foam mud of said waves break
but in slow-mo
the name of the piece is lost seagull
and i thought this pic work well for me imaginin it playin out in slo-mo
it needs a sunset in the background though
so beachy proper
not just in that post person pitch pop sound thats been so prevalent this past year

werdz

(not official album art)

sleeps numb – lost seagull mixjam

14 minute live set one take enjoy…

http://www.myspace.com/sleepsnumb

Silver Futures – From the Swamp Rot Rises My Babies Dreams

 

Silver Futures – From the Swamp Rot Rises My Babies Dreams

Collaboration between Mark McGuire of Emeralds and Etienne Duguay of Predator Vision. Bonding on their love of Popol Vuh two friends record some jams. Guitar, Synth, Drums, etc. recorded live in nyc.

http://www.myspace.com/etiennepierreduguay

http://www.last.fm/music/Mark+McGuire

 

Showtime – Fight Camp 360 -Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers

The No. 1 ranked heavyweight fighter Fedor Emelianenko of Russia and undefeated American Brett Rogers of Minnesota will square off in the main event of one of the most important events in the history of MMA. The event, airing live on CBS, marks the return of MMA to broadcast television with a stacked fight card featuring world-class matchups from leading MMA promoter STRIKEFORCE. Read More

Simply referred to as “Fedor” by fans around the world, the 6-foot, 235-pound Russian is one of the most dominant fighters in the sport. He is a master of the Russian military combat system Sambo and boasts a record of 30 wins, one loss, no draws with 16 wins by submission, seven knockouts and seven decisions. The 28-year-old Rogers (10-0) is a massive physical specimen standing 6-feet, 5-inches tall and weighing 265 pounds. He possesses two of the heaviest hands in the sport of MMA, an attribute that has helped him knock out all 10 of his professional foes.

Also fighting on the card and one of four primetime matchups is Jake Shields (23-4-1) vs. Jason “Mayhem” Miller (22-6) for the STRIKEFORCE Middleweight title. Shields is widely considered one of the best fighters in the world. His opponent is a fellow submission expert and one of MMA’s most entertaining fighters. Miller, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai specialist, is the host of MTV’s hit show Bully Beatdown and trains with two of the sport’s most recognizable fighters, Randy “The Natural” Couture and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

Other fights scheduled for the CBS broadcast include Gegard “The Dreamcatcher” Mousasi vs. Rameau Thierry “The African Assassin” Sokoudjo and Fabricio “Vai Cavalo” Werdum vs. Antonio “Big Foot” Silva.

west african ritual costumes

http://artsytime.com/west-africa-costumes

Inseparable from ceremony, ritual, rhythm, and music, traditional African dance styles are as much a cornerstone of Sub-Saharan and West African cultures as they are a powerful and unique facet of the dance world. Not only is African dance a powerful experience for the spectator, but it is also a symbol of solidarity and an important means of communication for the performers and their community. While its influence in the West can be seen mostly through contemporary and hip-hop dance forms, it is fortunate for researchers and dancers alike that African dance still exists internationally in its purest forms.

brenmar remixes

somebody get me a dance floor!
the old homie has some nice remixes up on his space

http://www.myspace.com/brenmarsomeday

 

 

“the nation of gods and earths” talk radio podcasts

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search/the-nation-of-gods-and-earths

a monkey a goat and a rope

 

 

Moth Man

my son wanted to be a super hero this year for halloween
but wanted to make up his own “guy”
he decided he would be “moth man”
moths being “drawn to light” and all
he has a thing for puns
he selected the death’s head hawk moth to be modeled after
his super power was a “cosmic photon laser” that would shoot form his eyes at super villains and “bad guys in general”
this laser would blind them in a darkness to everything but the truth
placing them in a state of reckoning and understanding
he would have no need to fight them
and no need to “call the cops” since the villains would “right themselves”

moth man is also a freestyle rapper…
which you would really just have to hear

quotes above are his words
all his ideas
i just did the work to manifest as best i could

this is a 10 min music mix he and worked on together that basically serve as theme song and fight scene score
he picked out the songs and i mixed them http://www.mediafire.com/?yjmyd2gjn3z

hey prso folk

i see the traffic comin thru
hope all is well

sd&tat
-j

 

mstambourine.org mixtapes by season spring 09

these are not my mixes
i wanted to share them proper here
and i want all praise due to Lilian De Munno of mstambourine.org

do check all the great  musical content on her site out
a worthwhile bookmark!

• folk you!
• implosões do folk
• indiepopcast
• microfonia
• mixtapes by seasons

SPRING/2009

#1
springly mixed (mix de primavera #1)

download

Tracklist:

01. Washed Out – Belong
02. Coconot – Te Tenía en Cinta
03. Emilio José – Antigua
04. Thomas Mapfumo & Acid Band – Hokoyo
05. Fluffy Lumbers – Cruisers
06. Nurses – Technicolor
07. The Babies – Meet Me in The City
08. Diamond Rings – All Yr Songs
09. Henry Pedro – Midnight Sun
10. Glass Ghost - The Same
11. Pillow Talk – What Does It Take?
12. Staff Benda Bilili – Sala Keba

#2
Flowered Tones (Mix de Primavera #2)

download

Tracklist:

01. Sunnybrook – Waving Hands (Water Me Glow EP, 2009)
02. Bibio – Lovers’ Carvings (Ambivalence Avenue album, 2009)
03. Norse Horse – Needle Beach (Secret Geographies album, 2009)
04. {{{Sunset}}} – 24 Karat Soul (The Glowing City album, 2008)
05. Divisible – Everybody (Less Than Lion album, 2009)
06. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Can’t Hear My Eyes (Can’t Hear My Eyes 7″ single, 2009)
07. Terry Callier – You Goin’ To Miss Your Candyman (What Color Is Love, 1973)
08. Toro y Moi – Talamak (Unreleased)
09. Kurt Vile – Overnite Religion (Constant Hitmaker album, 2008)
10. The Parasails – Skylife 9 (Skylife album, 2009)
11. Matt Fishbeck – You Made My Dreams Come True (VA – The Human Ear, Volume 1 compilation, 2007)
12. Pearl Harbour – Lost @ Sea (Calistonia Dream CD-R, 2009)
13. Julian Lynch – Nen Vole (VA – Wild Animal Kingdom Vol. 2 cassete, 2009)

#3
Delight Meadows (Mix de Primavera #3)

download

01. Rainbow Arabia – Holiday in Congo (Kabukimono mini-album, 2009)
02. Weed Diamond – Walk Away (Mastered Demo, 2009)
03. Cat Killer – Tree Limbs Together (Words to Remember ep, 2009)
04. A Classic Education – We Can Always Run to Hawaii (unrealeased)
05. Yarn Owl – Yarn Blues (Tiny Dots cassete, 2009)
06. Lentil Famine – Liberation of the Naked Heart (La Casa de Nuestra Edad cdr, 2009)
07. The Drums – Best Friends (Summertime EP, 2009)
08. The Love Language – Sparxxx (The Love Language album, 2009)
09. Wild Nothing – Summer Holiday (Unreleased)
10. Pastels & Tenniscoats – About You (Two Sunsets album, 2009)
11. Desolation Wilderness – Slow Fade (New Universe album, 2009)
12. Buffy Sainte-Marie – Adam (Richie Havens cover) (Illuminations album, 1969)

#4
I’m in Love With the Sun (Mix de Primavera #4)

download

Tracklist:

01. The Very Most – You’re in Love With the Sun (Summer EP, 2009)
02. Arms – Kids Aflame (Kids Aflame album, 2007)
03. Julian Lynch – Human Nature (MJ cover) (Chum Onah – BxF celebrates de music of M. Jackson online comp, 2009)
04. Caballo Trípode – Sweet Oh Mine (Horror Vacui album, 2009)
05. Woods – The Hold (Songs of Shame album, 2009)
06. Here We Go Magic – Fangela (Here We Go Magic album, 2009)
07. Navajo Bixby – Moonlighting (Demo, 2009)
08. Paulette Williams – My Island (Trojan Reggae Sisters box set, 2003)
09. Drum’n’Zez – Dunav (Dunava Ukus album, 2008)
10. The Ornament Birds – Paper Clams (Demo, 2009)
11. Sin Fang Bous – Sunken Ship (Clangour album, 2008/2009)
12. Young Buffalo – Catapilah (Demo, 2009)
13. The Fair Ohs – Summer Lake (upcoming 7″ on Sex is Digusting)

#5
Sweet October (Mix de Primavera #5)

download

Tracklist:

01. Julian Lynch – Ears (unreleased, 2009)
02. Church – Happiness (Gold EP, 2008)
03. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Every Night I Die at Miyagis (House Arrest album, 2006)
04. Princeton – Down Where The Valleys Are Low (Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill, 2009)
05. Pearl Harbor – Luv Goon (Something About the Chaparrals EP, 2009)
06. Espers – Caroline (III album, 2009)
07. Bark Cat Bark – Ézerville (Mathilde album, 2009)
08. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Buriedfed (self-titled album, 2008)
09. Anthony da Costa – Back of My Mind (Typical American Tragedy album, 2008)
10. Andy Shauf – Your Heart (Darker Days album, 2009)
11. Nicky Bomba – Rocksteady Woman (Planet Juice album, 2009)
12. Dead Man’s Bones – In The Room Where You Sleep (self-titled album, 2009)

#6
Sunny Dreams – Mix de Primavera #6

download

Tracklist:

01. No.9 – Flower Shop (9-9-9-9-9.com album, 2009)
02. Fantastic Something – If She Doesn’t Smile (Sunshine Pop 99 compilation, 1999)
03. Greg Fine – Come Back Again (Always Time album, 2009)
04. The Silent Years – Forest Fine (Let Go album, 2009)
05. Ducktails – Wishes (Landscapes album, 2009)
06. Best Coast – Something in The Way (unreleased, 2009)
07. Real Estate – Old Folks (7″, 2008)
08. Lake – Madagascar (Let’s Build A Roof album, 2009)
09. Tony, Caro & John – Eclipse of the Moon (All on the First Day album, 1972)
10. Woods – Death Rattles (Daytrotter Session, 2009)
11. Cass McCombs – Dream Come True Girl (Catacombs album, 2009)
12. BLK JKS – Lakeside (After Robots album, 2009)

#7
Dance Wid’ Me – Mix de Primavera #7

download

Tracklist:

01. Pascal Comelade – Two Maniaco Depressive Beatnicks Squabbling Over A Jane Russell Mozarella’s Stereokini
02. Quantic & His Combo Bárbaro – Un Canto a Mi Terra
03. Rita Indiana y Los Misterios – La Hora de Volver
04. CSC Funk Band – Bad Banana Bread
05. Big Boi – Shine Blockas (ft. Gucci Mane)
06. Stevie Wonder – Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing
07. Gold Teeth – Everybody
08. El Guincho – Kalise (Tanlines remix)
09. Divisible – Everybody
10. Luciano – Los Niños de Fuera
11. Palov and Mishkin – Et de Clarinete
12. Konono No. 1 – Paradiso

#8
Allowed to Chill Out – Mix de Primavera #8

download

Tracklist:

01. Ducktails – Spring
02. Misophone – Run Run Run
03. Local Natives – Airplanes
04. Devendra Barhart – Forget About Him (Kath Boom cover)
05. Gross Ghost – Lurker
06. Crayon Fields – All The Pleasures of The World
07. MV & EE with The Bummer Road – East Mountain Joint
08. Toro Y Moi – 109
09. Hollows – Johnny Appleseed
10. Migala – El Caballo Del Malo
11. Les Anarchistes – Tammuriata Delle Mondine
12. Lucky Dragons – wooden Cave Loop

The Phrontistery

http://phrontistery.info

an amazing site you will find the International House of Logorrhea (an online dictionary of obscure and rare words)
the Compendium of Lost Words (a compilation of ultra-rare forgotten words)
and many other glossaries, word lists, essays, and other language and etymology resources.

Language Resources

Home
International House of Logorrhea
Compendium of Lost Words
2 and 3-Letter Scrabble Words
Lipograms
FAQ
Pronunciation Polls
Word Finding Tips
Linguistic Disquisitions
Favourite Words
Language Links

 

Numerals

Glossographia
Numerical Prefixes
Numerical Notation Bibliography
Paleolithic Notation Bibliography
Numeration Links
Numeration Books

 

Glossaries

Adjectives of Relation
Bearing and Carrying
Carriages and Chariots
Causation and Formation
Colour Terms
Contour Lines
Dance Styles
Divination and Fortune-Telling
Ecclesiastical Terms
Fabric and Cloth
Feeding and Eating
Fighting and Combat
Forms and Shapes
Forms of Government
Forms of Worship
Forthright’s Forsoothery
Grammatical Cases
Isms
Killers and Killing
Latin Adverbs and Prepositions
Love and Attraction
Manias and Obsessions
Names for Names
Nautical Terms
Phobias
Pretenders and Dabblers
Sciences and Studies
Scientific Instruments
Stones and Rocks
Styles of Speech
Three-Letter Rare Words
Units of Measurement
Unusual Animals
Words of Wisdom
New List Ideas

Laplace’s demon

lifted from the wiki

In the history of science, Laplace’s demon is a thought experiment described by Pierre-Simon Laplace in a paper published in 1814 involving a hypothetical entity envisioned such that if it knew the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe then it could use deterministic principles to reveal the entire course of cosmic events, past and future.^[1]

Laplace strongly believed in causal determinism, which is expressed in the following quotation from the introduction to the Essai:

“

We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.

”

This intellect is often referred to as Laplace’s demon. Note, however, that the description of the hypothetical intellect described above by Laplace as a demon does not come from Laplace, but from later biographers: Laplace saw himself as a scientist; and while hoping that humanity would progress to a better scientific understanding of the world, he recognized that such a complete level of understanding would always be beyond the grasp of human knowledge, as a tremendous calculating power would be needed to take into account every precondition in a given instant. While Laplace considered this to be a mere practical problem, later interpretations of quantum mechanics, which were adopted by philosophers defending the existence of free will, also leave the theoretical possibility of such an “intellect” contested.

n a quantum mechanical world, Laplace’s demon becomes a clear impossibility. Chance is an essential part of the world’s unfolding, and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle forbids exact measurements of positions and velocities simultaneously. But even within a hypothetical classical universe, there are reasons to doubt that Laplace’s Demon is a meaningful concept.

John Polkinghorne argues that nature is cloud-like rather than clock-like and points out that, apart from any other problems, uncertainty about the exact position of an electron on the other side of the universe would be sufficient to invalidate a calculation about the position of an O₂ molecule in air after 50 collisions with its neighbours (i.e. in about 0.1 ns), even if they were solely influenced by Newton’s laws.^[2]

According to chemical engineer Robert Ulanowicz, in his 1986 book Growth and Development, Laplace’s demon met its end with early 19th century developments of the concepts of irreversibility, entropy, and the second law of thermodynamics. In other words, Laplace’s demon was based on the premise of reversibility and classical mechanics; thermodynamics, i.e. real processes, however, are, under current theory, thought to be irreversible.

Additionally, the existence of Laplace’s demon is impossible because such an algorithm could predict the future state of a billiard-ball computer and effectively solve the halting problem.

In 2008, David Wolpert used Cantor diagonalization to disprove Laplace’s demon. He did this by assuming that the demon is a computational device and showing that no two such devices can completely predict each other.^[3]

There has recently been proposed a limit on the computational power of the universe, i.e. the ability of Laplace’s Demon to process an infinite amount of information. The limit is based on the maximum entropy of the universe, the speed of light, and the minimum amount of time taken to move information across the Planck length, and the figure was shown to be about 10¹²⁰ bits^[4]. Accordingly, anything that requires more than this amount of data cannot be computed in the amount of time that has elapsed so far in the universe.

Another theory suggests that if Laplace’s demon were to occupy a parallel universe or alternate dimension from which it could determine the implied data and do the necessary calculations on an alternate and greater time line the aforementioned time limitation would not apply. This is, in fact, mandatory since if a Laplace’s demon was in the reality that we occupy it would have to account for itself in addition to every other aspect of matter and energy, and the grand total cannot exceed the smaller portion.

1. ^ Pierre-Simon Laplace, “A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities”, Full Text [1].
2. ^ see, e.g., John Polkinghorne Quarks, Chaos and Christianity pp. 65–66
3. ^ P.-M. Binder, “Theories of almost everything”, Nature, 455 (2008), 884-885. [2].
4. ^ [3] Article published by APS

Okkulte Stimmen – Mediale Musik: Recordings of Unseen Intelligences

Disc 1 – Trance Speech and Direct Voice, Precognition

Disc 2 – Xenoglossy, Glossolalia

Disc 3 – Paranormal Music, Raps and Haunting Phenomena, Electric Voice Phenomena

3 disc box set of paranormal phenomena including “trance speech, direct voices, clairvoyance, xenoglossy, glossolalia including ethnological material, paranormal music, ‘rappings’ and other poltergeist manifestations as well as so-called ‘Electronic voice phenomena’” dating from 1905-2007

 

Gelitin – Klunk Garden

gelitin

Klunk Garden

Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2009

soloshow

photos: Kei Okano

http://www.gelitin.net/mambo/index.php

ZachG – Whatever Works

ZachG – Whatever Works

So, here’s an EP. One beat by my good friends Furious Stylz, three jacked beats,Rubox Cube on the beatbox, and two of my beats. All the raps are mine, all the freestyles are real freestyles. No fakin up in here (lyrics, in the zip.): -ZachG http://realzachg.wordpress.com

BET Hip Hop Awards 2009 Cypher

 

Songs in the Key of Z – The Curious Universe of Outsider Music

Interview with Irwin Chusid author of Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music.
From Richard Metzger’s Disinformation.

Spiderman – Revolt In The Fifth Dimension

The Magic Sun (Sun Ra filmed by Phil Niblock)

CIA Invests in Software Firm Monitoring Blogs, Twitter

can’t gt the vid to embed
check the link

http://staging.democracynow.org/2009/10/22/cia_invests_in_software_firm_monitoring

LISTEN
WATCH

Real Video Stream

Real Audio Stream

MP3 Download

JUAN GONZALEZ: “America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates—even check out your book reviews on Amazon.” That’s the lead sentence to a new article on the website of Wired magazine titled “US Spies Buy Stake in Firm that Monitors Blogs, Tweets.”

The article reveals how the investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency has invested in a software firm called Visible Technologies that specializes in monitoring social media sites, including blogs, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon.

AMY GOODMAN: Noah Shachtman joins us here in our firehouse studio. He broke the story. He’s a contributing editor at Wired and editor of “Danger Room,” the magazine’s national security blog.

OK, lay it out for us, Noah. What did you find?

NOAH SHACHTMAN: So, the CIA, in 1999, set up an investment arm called In-Q-Tel that sort of makes investments in technologies that the spy agencies would like to see grow. And their latest investment is in this company called Visible, which basically takes blog posts and takes Twitter updates and takes comments on YouTube videos and sort of sorts them out and decides which people have the most weight in the blogosphere, which people are the most influential, and also filters out, you know, certain key words, decides whether certain posts are hostile or positive. And it’s basically a way for them to sort of keep track on what’s going on in Twitter, on the blogs, etc., etc.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And who does this firm normally supply this information to?

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Usually to companies like Microsoft. Right now they’re tracking the buzz on their Windows 7 release. They also do the work for Hormel, the processed meat company. When PETA was going after Hormel for some of their business practices, they kept track on the sort of anti-processed food activists. So it’s usually corporate clients, although there’s sort of a political spin to some of the work they do, as well.

JUAN GONZALEZ: So, in essence, they’re sort of like an intelligence operation for the corporate world on a normal—

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Yeah. They would say they try to spot trends and keep tabs on things, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: But In-Q-Tel, you say, is the investment arm of the CIA. I think a lot of people would just be surprised by the CIA having an investment arm.

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Yeah, that’s right. In 1999, the CIA set up this sort of separate agency that would make investments on behalf of the intelligence agencies. It was a way to sort of develop certain technologies without going through the formal contracting process. Remember, back in 1999, that was like sort of the height of the dotcom boom. And there were a lot of these business incubators that were growing small businesses into something bigger. And In-Q-Tel was the CIA’s attempt to do the same thing.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Is it reporting it’s making money for the government?

NOAH SHACHTMAN: I don’t—it’s a not-for-profit—

JUAN GONZALEZ: Oh, not-for-profit, I see.

NOAH SHACHTMAN: —company, but I do believe that it has—many of its investments have panned out.

AMY GOODMAN: So, explain how Visible works. You talk about how it crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day.

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain exactly. And then, how do people protect their privacy?

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Well, first they protect their privacy by not tweeting or not blogging. I mean, that’s the way they would have to protect their privacy, or to do it within a closed password-protected system. If you leave it out there, not only is the government going to read it, but Microsoft and Google just signed deals with Twitter and Facebook yesterday, where all the—all your tweets and all your blog updates will be very easily searchable by either Microsoft’s Bing search engine or by Google.

AMY GOODMAN: What’s the deal?

NOAH SHACHTMAN: The deal is basically that all your Facebook updates will be sort of fed into Microsoft’s new search engine, and people will be able to see what you post on Facebook or Twitter, or what have you.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And, of course, for the CIA, given the fact—the recent reports of how tweets and other social networking are used around the world sometimes to give advance notice on popular insurrections or—

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Mm-hmm.

JUAN GONZALEZ: For the CIA, this would be a sort of a normal direction for them to take, if they want to collect more intelligence.

NOAH SHACHTMAN: It would be. They’re probably already doing so, but just in a less elegant way. So this is probably—for them, they view it as a smarter way to get information they’re already interested in. The question is whether it’s aimed out at international audiences or whether it’s aimed in at domestic ones.

AMY GOODMAN: Noah Shachtman, you’ve also written about the US military using a fleet of unmanned spy blimps to keep tabs on would-be enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq.

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain.

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Well, you know, the US military in Afghanistan—I just got back from there in September—is very interested in what’s called ISR—Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. The idea is to see as much of what’s going on in Afghanistan as possible and to hear as much of what’s going on in cell phone conversations, or what have you. And so, these blimps are another tool to do it. There’d be cameras and listening equipment installed in these blimps in Afghanistan. It’s another way to kind of keep tabs on what’s going on.

AMY GOODMAN: And tell us what’s going on in New Jersey. In New Jersey, you have written about the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst.

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Oh, oh, yeah, right, right, right. So, in New Jersey, there is a—the Navy’s got a sort of R&D arm, and they’re looking to upgrade what’s in those spy blimps and really kind of update the surveillance equipment, make it much more powerful.

JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to get back for a second to this—you just happened to mention that remark that depending on whether this is being done, the social networking intelligence is being mined, internationally or domestically. Can the CIA conduct surveillance of Americans at home here, in terms of their communications?

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Well, they’re not supposed to. But, I mean, given the recent history of the US intelligence agencies looking inward as well as outward, it’s tough to imagine they wouldn’t. Also, remember, on the internet, it’s very tough to discern whether it’s a purely international conversation or whether a purely domestic conversation.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, you say, “In-Q-Tel says it wants Visible to keep track of foreign social media, and give spooks ‘early-warning detection on how issues are playing internationally,’” but that tool can just be used inward?

NOAH SHACHTMAN: I mean, obviously, right? It’s the internet. There’s no—there’s no hard national borders, and all this stuff is already out in the public. So it’s a little hard to fathom that there wouldn’t at least be the temptation to use it domestically.

AMY GOODMAN: What’s the military’s policy on soldiers using Twitter?

NOAH SHACHTMAN: The policy right now is up for grabs, but there should be a declared policy in the next, I would say, two to three weeks. And surprisingly, the Pentagon looks to be having a fairly liberal policy when it comes to Twitter and Facebook and other social networks. There was a lot of confusion over the years about whether soldiers could use it or not. Some commands banned it, others allowed it to happen. But it looks like the Pentagon is actually going to come out with something that says, “Hey, look, use YouTube and use Twitter, but just do it smart.”

JUAN GONZALEZ: But that has, certainly during the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war now, opened up a whole new level of communication that didn’t exist before, of ordinary soldiers being able to get information out to their family or to people here in the United States that normally would not happened in previous wars.

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Yeah, that’s absolutely true. And in this period of confusion where it wasn’t clear what the regulations were, a lot of times insecure commanders would sort of slap down their soldiers if they printed something that maybe was a little bit subversive or, you know, didn’t quite hew to the party line. But hopefully these new regulations are going to sort that out, and you really should be able to have those soldiers take to YouTube, take to Twitter, you know, with a great deal of freedom.

AMY GOODMAN: Back to what you said at the beginning, saying the uses for Visible before, Visible tracking animal rights activists’ online campaigns against the company that was Hormel?

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: When it was working for Hormel. So, I see here you’ve got trillions of dollars being spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, actually trillions. And it seems like it’s very ripe and open money that can’t be tracked. It can also develop the spy technology under the guise of just war.

NOAH SHACHTMAN: That’s true, although the Pentagon also has plenty of money to—independent of the war costs, to develop spy technology. And the intelligence agencies, remember, their budgets are largely a black box. We don’t know how much they spend. And so, you know, there’s plenty of places where money for spy technology can be funded out of.

AMY GOODMAN: And this issue of how Hormel used Visible, now In-Q-Tel buying into it?

NOAH SHACHTMAN: Mm-hmm. Well, I mean, I don’t know too much more than the fact that they used it. I don’t have a lot of details. But, you know, the way Visible works is it kind of grabs all the blogs and all the tweets out there, then it sorts for certain key words, it sorts for a sentiment about whether things are positive or negative, and then it also sorts based on which bloggers and which tweeters are really important or not. And you can sort of see over time how a conversation develops. Technology then allows companies or the government to respond directly within a blog or within a Facebook page to those people. So, who knows? The commenter—the next commenter on your blog might be the CIA.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we will leave it there. Noah Shachtman, I want to thank you for being with us. Noah Shachtman is a contributing editor at Wired magazine, and he’s editor of “Danger Room,” the magazine’s national security blog.

Michael’s Thrilling Jacket & Hat

they are soooo serious bout this

http://www.michaels.com/art/online/projectsheet?pid=25753

Thrilling Jacket & Hat

This cutting edge jacket is patterned after that infamous jacket worn in one of the most popular music videos ever made. It’s sure to be a favorite when dressing up for Halloween, or when just putting on your dancin’ shoes!

Designed by Michaels® Design Team

	For Jacket Black Short Sleeve T-shirts (2, in size appropriate for person wearing jacket) Duck Tape®: Red (5 rolls), Black (1 roll) Scissors Ruler Pencil For Hat Duck Tape®: White (1 roll) Creatology™ Foam Hat Stapler & Staples Cost of each project will vary depending on materials used. Due to the seasonal nature of some merchandise, actual availability of some products pictured may vary.

Jacket

	Lay one t-shirt flat on work surface, smooth out any wrinkles.
	Using ruler and pencil, mark from top of t-shirt at each shoulder to the center bottom of the t-shirt, creating a V”.
	Cut on marked lines through both sides of shirt, creating a “V” shaped piece. Do not remove the collar.
	Cover the outside of the “V” shape with pieces of red Duck Tape front and back. Set aside.
	Completely cover the remaining t-shirt with red Duck Tape. Be sure to use short lengths of tape for easier maneuvering. To create long sleeves, add double side strips of red tape that overlap each other to create rings. Use pieces of tape to connect the rings together until you reach your desired length.
	Cut up the front center of the shirt and “V” piece.
	Lay the open “V” piece over the shirt, matching up the sides to create a lapel.
	Use pieces of red Duck Tape to connect the “V” to the collar and the front of the jacket.
	Trim the front edge and “V” portion of the jacket with black Duck Tape.
	Add black tape down the sleeve. Add more black tape around the bottom of the jacket making sure to tape down the back “V” piece as you go.

For Hat

	For Hat Pinch front of hat from the inside and staple in place as shown.
	Place a strip of white Duck Tape around the brim of the hat.

-

Tip:Use photo as a guide and follow manufacturer’s instructions for all products used. Overlapping the tape will give added strength to your piece. You can change directions as desired. Just use pieces of tape to finish out seams and under the arms.

The information on this instruction sheet is presented in good faith, but no warranty is given, nor results guaranteed. Quantities and selections may vary at each store. Michaels® Stores, Inc. disclaims all liability from any injury to anyone undertaking the construction of this project as a result of improper safety precautions. Since we have no control over physical conditions surrounding the application of information herein contained, MSI disclaims any liability for untoward results. © 2009 MSI.

Hotbox at Ace Hotel: Best Coast

www.thetripwire.com

Grayson v. Broun on the Constitution

This is Rep. Alan Grayson and Rep. Paul Broun discussing a bill to deny funds to one specific named organization in a Science and Technology markup. Such a bill is known as ‘a bill of attainder’.

infamy

http://www.infamythemovie.com

INFAMY is an intense journey into the dangerous lives and obsessed minds of six of America’s most prolific graffiti artists. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Doug Pray (“Hype!” and “Scratch”) who teamed up with writer, publisher, and graffiti guru Roger Gastman, the movie takes you deep into the world of street legends SABER, TOOMER, JASE, CLAW, EARSNOT, and ENEM.

With brutal honesty, humor and charisma, these artists reveal why they are so willing to risk everything to spray paint their cities with “tags,” “throwups,” and full-color murals. You’ll also meet Joe “THE GRAFFITI GUERRILLA” Connolly, a notorious “buffer” who paints out graffiti on his neighborhood’s walls with a vengeance matched only by those who vandalized them. From the streets of the South Bronx to the solitude of a San Francisco tunnel, from high atop a Hollywood billboard to North Philadelphia for a lesson in “Philly-style tags,” from the Mexican border to a Cleveland train yard, INFAMY doesn’t analyze or glorify graffiti… it takes you there and brings it to life.

Symphony of Science – We Are All Connected(featuring Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye)

“We Are All Connected” was made from sampling The History Channel’s Universe series, Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, Richard Feynman’s 1983 interviews, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s cosmic sermon, and Bill Nye’s Eyes of Nye Series, plus added visuals from The Elegant Universe (NOVA), Stephen Hawking’s Universe, Cosmos and more.

[deGrasse Tyson]
We are all connected;
To each other, biologically
To the earth, chemically
To the rest of the universe atomically

[Feynman]
I think nature’s imagination
Is so much greater than man’s
She’s never going to let us relax

[Sagan]
We live in an in-between universe
Where things change all right
But according to patterns, rules,
Or as we call them, laws of nature

[Nye]
I’m this guy standing on a planet
Really I’m just a speck
Compared with a star, the planet is just another speck
To think about all of this
To think about the vast emptiness of space
There’s billions and billions of stars
Billions and billions of specks

[Sagan]
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it
But the way those atoms are put together
The cosmos is also within us
We’re made of star stuff
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself

Across the sea of space
The stars are other suns
We have traveled this way before
And there is much to be learned

I find it elevating and exhilarating
To discover that we live in a universe
Which permits the evolution of molecular machines
As intricate and subtle as we

[deGrasse Tyson]
I know that the molecules in my body are traceable
To phenomena in the cosmos
That makes me want to grab people in the street
And say, have you heard this??

(Richard Feynman on hand drums and chanting)

[Feynman]
There’s this tremendous mess
Of waves all over in space
Which is the light bouncing around the room
And going from one thing to the other

And it’s all really there
But you gotta stop and think about it
About the complexity to really get the pleasure
And it’s all really there
The inconceivable nature of nature

-

and of course
another excuse to post this

“A Glorious Dawn” is crafted from sampling Carl Sagan’s 1980 PBS Documentary Cosmos and Stephen Hawking’s 1997 PBS cosmology documentary series Stephen Hawking’s Universe. Cosmos is available to watch for free on Hulu, and many parts of Stephen Hawking’s Universe can be found on Youtube and various other video sites online.

[Sagan]
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch
You must first invent the universe

Space is filled with a network of wormholes
You might emerge somewhere else in space
Some when-else in time

The sky calls to us
If we do not destroy ourselves
We will one day venture to the stars

A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the milky way

The Cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths
Of exquisite interrelationships
Of the awesome machinery of nature

I believe our future depends powerfully
On how well we understand this cosmos
In which we float like a mote of dust
In the morning sky

But the brain does much more than just recollect
It inter-compares, it synthesizes, it analyzes
it generates abstractions

The simplest thought like the concept of the number one
Has an elaborate logical underpinning
The brain has it’s own language
For testing the structure and consistency of the world

[Hawking]
For thousands of years
People have wondered about the universe
Did it stretch out forever
Or was there a limit

From the big bang to black holes
From dark matter to a possible big crunch
Our image of the universe today
Is full of strange sounding ideas

[Sagan]
How lucky we are to live in this time
The first moment in human history
When we are in fact visiting other worlds

The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean
Recently we’ve waded a little way out
And the water seems inviting

Rob Voerman

http://www.robvoerman.nl

check out his sculptures here

On the work of Rob Voerman

Some years ago, I started a body of work in which I try to create the architecture of fictive communities living in remote areas or occupying existing city-landscapes. The communities will consist of a mixture of utopia, destruction and beauty, a symbiosis of hippie-communities from the seventies, with their often highly decorated self-build structures, the cabin of the Uni-bomber hidden in the Montana forests, art-deco and other influences. Romanticism combined with the grim qualities of terror. It is often a direct translation of destruction in a purely aesthetic form.
Materialized explosions are being transformed to wonderful domes, made of cathedral-glass and wood. By their rich decoration, they often make people think of religious associations. Other buildings seem totally inward looking, staring back with dark windows. The desire to change reality is materialized in architecture in which man try to flee society and start a utopian and completely autonomous world. On the other hand the work represents a mentality in which it tries to seek the conflict with this society. For example in the work “Moonshine”, in which an existing building is being annexed in a violent manner by a completely opposite architecture.
The work is an attempt to react on the rapidly changing society, an attempt to flee from it and an attempt to reflect on it without any moral judgment. Social changes with themes like terror, protectionism, fear for the unknown and the crash between religions, will definitely have had there impact on my work. I have seen my own country for example been changed from a tolerant country into a country which is fairly for the outside world, by which it became more and more intolerant and more inward-focused. But exactly pinpointing these influences and how my work can be analyzed, is impossible, as I work very much with intuition and the process is often partially unconscious. And I think that’s alright, as it gives people the possibility to look at my work in various layers and angles. The ambition to change, deny or manipulate reality is so strong, that I feel the need to actually make spaces that people can use or where people can enter. Functions that on the surface seem to be conflicting where brought together in a specially developed space/installation.
The undermining and manipulation of existing structures in my work, is an element I see as a supplement of the already existing content of my work. Apart from making new sculptures and prints, I do would like to develop these installations and ideas more and more too. I can even imagine that in the future I would make some permanent architectural features as well, beside my autonomous gallery- and museum-work -Rob Voerman, 2009

A Clockwork Orange Score & Soundtrack

Wendy Carlos – A Clockwork Orange – Complete Score

A Clockwork Orange Soundtrack

Kevin Appel

http://www.kevinappelstudio.com

2009 construction series

Kanye West – We Were Once A Fairy Tale (Directed By Spike Jonze)

Larry Gus – Stitches

Larry Gus – Stitches

a D.I.Y. masterpiece was made in his bedroom using a portable turntable and a Roland sampler. Larry Gus manages to record everything, cut and stitch his material in real time, without computers or software involved. He uses samples of records, music toys, rhythm boxes, Vhs tapes, Computer games, guitars, vocals and Library lps in an endlessly creative way bringing out a distinctive sound in anything that his music expresses.

http://www.cast-a-blast.com

http://www.myspace.com/larrygus

Frontline – The Warning

watch the full episode here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view

Michael Paukner

ahhhhhhh-mazin work here by michael paukner

http://www.flickr.com/people/michaelpaukner

I found a template for this work in an interesting passage researching the Mathematical connections between Hesiod’s “Theogony” and the I-Ching.

This is really heavy stuff and i don’t know too much about it, but it looks quite cool and has some great cosmic mystery in it. As far as I found out, it’s a spherical structure constructed from the 64 hexagrams of the ancient I Ching, and as such, it represents the Chinese cosmology in the mythical past. The spherical arrangement clearly represents the unity and the completeness of the world. It’s all about Yin and Yang.

I also found some interesting links:
adamapollo.info/sacred_knowledge/i-ching/
www.i-ching.hu/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching

2012-freaks will also watch this:
The I-Ching and Time Wave Zero (History Channel)

-

This is a visualization of the lunar calendar for 2010.
columns = months, rows = days.

-

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us ‘Universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest. – A kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
(A. Einstein)

this work is inspired by Peter Russell’s “The Global Brain” from 1982.

I highly recommend you to read the book here or watch the movie here in german or english!

-

a reconstruction of the ancient map of the Antarctic. The light blue continent is a satelitte picture of the Antarctic and shows the 2,000 meter thick ice-cap right at the south pole of the earth.

A relatively recent theory holds that Antarctica is Atlantis. Those who subscribe to this theory say that Antarctica wasn’t always the ice-covered land at the bottom of the world, as it is today. (search for the Piri Reis Map in Google!) The continent was once a tropical land situated on the Earth’s equator, but was shifted to the South Pole due to a slippage of the planet’s crust. One of their main pieces of evidence is an alleged ancient Egyptian map of Atlantis, said to be published in a book by a German Jesuit priest in 1665. The map depicts “Atlantis” between the Americas and Africa (look at a globe from the bottom and Antarctica is indeed situated between South America and Africa). More intriguing, however, is the shape of Atlantis in this supposedly ancient map: it corresponds almost exactly to the shape of the land beneath all the ice of Antarctica – a shape that wasn’t known until 20th century satellite imaging!

Read more: www.world-mysteries.com/sar_1.htm

-

the Orion Correlation Theory is a hypothesis in pseudoscientific pyramidology. Its central claim is that there is a correlation between the location of the 3 largest pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex and the 3 middle stars of the constellation Orion, and that this correlation was intended as such by the builders of the pyramids.

read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Correlation_Theory

-

ever thought of grey goo eating the environment? ;)

Grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves—a scenario known as ecophagy (“eating the environment”). read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

-

Galactic Alignment 2012, Pole Shift, Mayan Calendar, Dark Rift are the most discussed topics nowadays.The Galactic Alignment is the alignment of the December solstice sun with the Galactic equator. This galactic alignment occurs as a result of the precession of the equinoxes. It occurs only once every 26,000 years, and was what the ancient Maya were pointing to with the Galactic Alignment 2012 end-date of their Long Count calendar.These are the astronomical facts of the matter.This much is agreed upon.

What is not agreed upon is what will happen when we reach the center. We do know that planets, stars and other heavenly bodies will align with the center of the galaxy and the super-massive black hole that resides there. Some scientists theorize that the Earth could experience one or more pole shifts from perturbations due to increased gravitational fields exerted on the earth from the alignment of galactic bodies. Many esoteric sources interpret the completion of the twelfth B’ak’tun cycle in the Long Count of the Maya calendar (which occurs on December 21 by the most widely held correlation) to mean there will be a major change in world order or something like a rebirth of consciousness.

I will not give you selected links to this topic, as there are thousands of sites and movies on the web that you can search for yourself. I’ve watched a lot of them and I can recommend this one: www.2012dvd.com