February 29, 2004
New Speed Cameras Will be Watching Drivers for 35 km
Australia--The first camera will digitally record the number plate of a vehicle as it passes. The second camera will take another, time-recorded, snapshot when the vehicle passes it.
"The cameras know how long it takes to legally cover the distance between the two points," (News South Wales, Road Minister) Mr. (Carl) Scully said. "If the vehicle has reached the second camera too soon, it must have travelled above the speed limit for some of the way.
Story
Skeleton Key to the Whitehouse
Skull & Bones Lodge, Yale University
"The Hangman equals death, The Devil equals death, Death equals death!"
It's weird to think that the two men who are now contesting the most powerful job in world politics, both apparently went through an occult ritual that involved dressing-up and chanting the words above, prostrate in front of a fellow student wielding a butchers' knife and dressed in animal skin. Story
---Much more on the S&B in The Order of the Skull & Bones by Kris Millegan
February 28, 2004
U.S. Reverses Land Mine Pledge
The United States on Friday abandoned a sweeping land mine prohibition envisioned by the Clinton administration in a move that angered humanitarian groups. Story
Lg
---If one American (or purchaser of American landmines) is protected by landmines, it's of no consequence whatsoever how many non-Americans are maimed or killed. Freedom isn't free.
Cops Warned of Columbine Kids For Years
Authorities...released a 90-minute compilation of videos made by Harris and Klebold.
Wearing trenchcoats and sunglasses, the two are seen stalking through the hallways of Columbine just five months before the attack, portraying hitmen offering their services to students victimized by bullies. At one point, the two roar obscenities into the lens and promise a brutal death for their targets.
The collection of evidence unveiled Thursday (2/26/04) included 10,418 separate items -- from the murder weapons and the black trenchcoats worn by the killers to bullet fragments and the chairs and tables where people died. A message board put up in a school window the day of the attack still says, in blue Magic Marker: "1 bleeding to death." There were 13 body bags.
Authorities released two videos, one of the anxious scene in a park near the school the day of the shooting, the other the Harris and Klebold video.
"I don't care what you say; if you ever touch him again, I will fricking kill you," a wild-eyed Harris screams on the tape.
Some relatives say such videos were seen by school officials and that nothing was done.
Movie Locations of the '90's, '80's, '70's
This is a list of the real-life counterparts to places used in movies. I'm not looking for the shooting location of something, so much as I'm looking for things that really exist and are shown in a movie that you can go visit.
February 27, 2004
Comics On-line
---Jason's in the process of posting various comics he's done over the years to the main atom grid site (think of it as a catalog). You need to be BitPass-enabled to READ the comics online, though each one has a sample image in the event you'd just like to browse.
http://www.atomgrid,com
Mourning Sickness
...Patrick West said: "We sport countless empathy ribbons, send flowers to recently deceased celebrities, weep in public over the deaths of murdered children, wear red noses for the starving in Africa, go on demonstrations to proclaim Drop the Debt or Not in My Name ... [but] they do not help the poor, diseased, dispossessed or bereaved. Our culture of ostentatious caring concerns, rather, projecting one's ego, and informing others what a deeply caring individual you are."
The study, Conspicuous Compassion, says this "recreational grief" has replaced institutions like the family, church and neighbourhood.
Mr West says: "We live in a post-emotional age, one characterised by crocodile tears and manufactured emotion ... Mourning sickness is a religion for the lonely crowd that no longer subscribes to orthodox churches. Its flowers and teddies are its rites, its collective minutes' silence its liturgy and mass. But these bonds are phoney, ephemeral and cynical."
The traditional two minutes' silence grew to three minutes for the victims of 9/11, five minutes for [murdered teenager] Milly Dowler, five minutes for the Ladbroke Grove crash victims and 10 minutes for an Asian beaten up by white men".
---I sincerely grieve for cynics like Mr. West who probably never bought flowers for any dead celebrities. My heart bleeds 4 U, Mr. West.
Flowers in front of Kensington Palace
in memory of Princess Diana
Virtual Pain Relief
Giving amputees a 'virtual limb' could provide relief from phantom limb pain.
Patients who have lost a limb often feel the continuing presence of the limb as a 'phantom'. Phantom sensations can be of touch and movement, but around 65 per cent of patients develop chronic pain, with sensations of stabbing, burning or cutting which are often severe. The cause of this 'phantom limb' pain remains unclear...
One theory...is that a loss of sensory input to the brain causes pain to be elaborated within the brain itself in some way, although it is experienced in the phantom limb...
Anecdotal evidence suggests that pain can be reduced by activity in the brain involved in imagined movement of the phantom limb...
"NASA had this wonderful robot with arms which move like people's arms. They give you a virtual reality headset, and fit your arms and hands into gloves with infrared sensors. Looking down, instead of your own arms, you see the robot's arms via cameras mounted in the robot's head. When you move your arms, the robot arms move in exactly the same way, only more slowly. Within a minute you feel completely embodied in the robot: what we see and move we become."
... Dr Cole (a clinical neurophysiologist at Poole Hospital and Senior Lecturer at the University of Southampton) is seeking to recreate this 'robotic' experience to produce pain relief for amputees. The project will use computer animation software...and exploit the advanced motion detection equipment and sophisticated fully immersive VR environment at the University of Oxford...
Article w/links
February 26, 2004
The Passion of the Christ
mrqe link to reviews
---A local tv movie critic said that "The Passion of the Christ" has a 45 minute long 'torture' scene with blood, whippings and beatings. It was very graphic. At the advance screening he saw that some parents brought their children. He wondered if this film will have Christians 'turning on a dime' to their longstanding opposition to movie violence. He doesn't recommend this movie for children.
On a personal note, I'm reminded that until I was a teenager my only understanding of the meaning of 'passion' was through (albeit more stylized) images like the above. I can never be passionate about anything. ['Obsessive' on the other hand..]
Read also: Betty Bower's review: The Bloodiest Story Ever Sold. "One might wonder why a director would choose to make a film about Someone whose life has provided inspiration to millions in a manner that borrows less from Jesus' words than it does from a bootleg copy of an Argentinean snuff film...."; Gibson Defends Movie on 'Tonight Show' "Gibson acknowledged the movie is violent and said it was R-rated for a reason. “The Bible is R-rated. I mean, look at that book. ... That’s a hot book,” he joked."
---I thought 'hot' meant sexually exciting not violently exciting. It must mean something different in Australia. Passion Watcher Dies ...during crucifixtion scene. 666 Appears on Some 'Passon' Tickets Rome, GA.
February 25, 2004
Electronic Crime Scene Investigations: A Guide for 1st Responders
o Examination of digital evidence.
o Investigative uses of technology.
o Investigating electronic technology crimes.
o Creating a digital evidence forensic unit.
o Courtroom presentation of digital evidence.
Due to the rapidly changing nature of electronic and computer technologies and of electronic crime, efforts will be periodically undertaken to update the information contained within each of the guides. The guides, and any subsequent updates that are made to them, will be made available on the National Institute of Justice's World Wide Web site (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij).
via: politech
Protest Pictures
[McMurdo] / +
Over 200 Pictures
from
133 Protests around the World
on February 15/16, 2003
U.S. Military Building a Virtual Earth
The software Earth is being created for the US Army by gaming company There, which is currently working on a virtual world for gamers.
The ambitious project aims to help the US Army plan future conflicts which are unlikely to involve set-piece battles and instead be smaller in scale.
Details of the project were revealed by Robert Gehorsam, a senior vice president at There, during a lengthy interview posted on the HomelanFed gaming website.
Mr Gehorsam said the world being created will not be a game but instead will be a "massively multi-user persistent environment"
Press release
See also:
The End Game via: slashdot
February 24, 2004
Internet Art Contest
Deep/Young Anodyne Laboratories is pleased to announce its first semi-biennial dys.koncept.ual_kontest.
CALL FOR ENTRIES:
We seek internet artwork specifically NOT dealing with the following topics:
globalisation
marketing
gaming
interaction
immersion
virtuality
non-linearity
code poetry
ascii imagery
database visualisation
8-bit architecture
surveilance
intellectual property
copyright law
the network
mobile computing
any kind of computing
contextual awareness
art history
art galleries
spam
google
ebay
identity
anonymity
telepresence
auto-generation
immateriality
the future
politics
genetics
9/11
new york city
eastern europe
the topic that your artwork does not deal with the above topics
Also, it should be pretty.
Deadline for entries: 12AM EST, March 25, 2004
via: stunned
Phone Fibbing
People lie, research has shown, in one-fourth of their daily, social interactions. But according to Cornell University communications researchers, people are most likely to lie on the telephone.
In fact, the researchers say, phone fibbing is even more likely than when people use e-mail, instant messaging or even speak face-to-face.
"Some psychologists did not expect this. Lies makes us feel uncomfortable, and you would think we should be using media to reduce that discomfort, but that's not the case," says Jeff Hancock, Cornell assistant professor of communication. In a study of 30 students, his research group found that, "People lied most on the telephone and least in e-mail, and that lying rates in face-to-face and instant message interactions were about equal," he says. It is the communication technology, he suggests, that affects lying.
---I lie most often via karaoke.
NY Driver Nabbed While Watching Porn
...detectives pulled Gainey over when they saw the movie playing on screens embedded in the car's headrests. When they confronted him, they saw another screen in the passenger-side visor was facing Gainey, allowing him to watch the movie while driving.
The case is thought to be the first of its kind in New York...
Gainey was charged with a public display of offensive material, driving with a suspended license and driving while watching a television...Story
---The 1st driver in NY arrested for watching television? Or the 1st driver arrested for watching porn? Is 'a public display of offensive material' a more serious offense than 'driving while watching television'? Maybe if convicted this guy will be put on the list of sex offenders? That should improve his driving.
February 23, 2004
Mini-SAR
Within a year the National Nuclear Security Administration's Sandia National Laboratories will be flying the smallest synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ever to be used for reconnaissance on near-model-airplane-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and eventually on precision-guided weapons and space applications.
...it will be able to take high-resolution (four-inch) images through weather, at night, and in dust storms. The only difference will be range. The larger SAR can produce an image in the 35 kilometer range due to its larger antenna and higher transmitter power, compared to the miniSAR, which is expected to get a range of about 15 kilometers - more than adequate for small UAV applications. SARs are commonly used for military reconnaissance purposes. press release
---Soon adding to the sounds of traffic and birds will be the incessant whine of police-controlled UAV's with their mini-SARS helping in the never-ending battle against certain kinds of crime & behavior.
Doing Photography and Social Research...
in the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1948-1951 - A Personal and Professional Memoir by John W. Bennett (picked up from coale).
The Cartoon Guide To Genetics
San Francisco artist Larry Gonick and UC Davis microbiologist Mark Wheelis use their artistic abilitiy and scientific knowledge to present a humorous look at genetics for a lay audience. Gonick has generously loaned The Bancroft Library the original art work for The Cartoon Guide to Genetics (1991).
Presented here are sections entitled "The Spiral Staircase" and "Genetic Engineering," specifically referencing the work of Watson and Crick on the DNA double helix, and Cohen and Boyer on recombinant DNA.
60 scanned pages
Feds Hike Fines on Weapons in Luggage
Tom Blank, assistant administrator for transportation security policy, testified before Congress last week that the Transportation Security Administration has intercepted more than 1,650 firearms, more than 3 million knives and more than 57,000 incendiary devices since shortly after the terrorist hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001.
---3 million knives? 57,000 incendiary devices?! By 'knives' they also mean 'toe-nail clippers'? And by 'incendiary devices' they also mean cigarette lighters?
You've Got... A Sexually Transmitted Disease
In a pilot program in Los Angeles County, health officials use e-mail and the Internet to notify the sex partners of people who had been diagnosed with STDS...Story
---Maybe Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan can be persuaded to do a socially relevant (outside of school, did people use that term?) remake of their 'You've Got Mail'. Tom & Meg meet for one crazy weekend during a marine biologists' convention in Salt Lake City. They return to their respective spouses on opposite coasts; he to Pacific Marineland, she to Wood's Hole. The movie revolves around the infection/virus one has unwittingly passed to the other, their spouses and the e-mails that force them together to re-evaluate their lives their loves and to finally seek more than medical treatment. [Sounds a little more like 'STD's in Seattle' with a touch of 'D.O.A.'?]
Ghost Beating: Beijing
caption
+ / &
---So what stops us from doing likewise to Mickey, Donald, the Road Runner, the Peanuts characters, etc.,etc.? It couldn't hurt ...once a year?
Parent-Teacher Conferences Get Moved to Shopping Mall
AKRON, Ohio -- Disappointed with turnout for parent-teacher conferences...Akron (North High School) principal has moved the meetings to an unusual location...
Chelsea Cunningham said the conferences are a way to persuade her mother to let her go shopping -- and perhaps reward her for good grades. Item
Fist Picture Pages
---Here's a variety of "last-known-photo" quality headshots of hardcore Morse code fanatics:
They are pages containing small pictures of our members. Each page has 36 pictures. The members are listed by callsign for each page. If you are a member and your picture is not here, get a picture of yourself and mail it to... Site
Thanks Jason/atomgrid
---Why would a group that consists of people sitting in darkened rooms wearing headphones tapping out code to each other want headshots? They don't use their eyes at all.
Their photographs convey a willingness to share more of themselves with the group, more than their call letters?
I guess one doesn't give a photograph of herself to just anyone, unless he's an actor, without certain protocol.
Your photo is not your signature but it's more(?) than your name.
Now I can't think of groups in which headshots would be inappropriate.
[In the clubs in which I'm a member we don't bother to use our real names, let alone pass around photos of each other.]
February 22, 2004
Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Porn
In the 1980s, publishing was 80 percent of my business. Now it's about 20 percent, and the rest is Internet or video...
Wireless is extremely intriguing because it has no bounds and provides constant, easy access. What's very popular in Europe right now, which we're a part of -- people can download a video or still photos onto their cell phones. That hasn't become a fad in America yet...
But we're also tampering with something I don't think we really want -- the end of privacy as we know it. The paparazzi were nothing compared to this.
When I went into this business in the 1970s it was a $600 million a year business. Today it's an $11 billion a year business...
The one good thing about the Patriot Act is that it includes a sunset clause -- it's supposed to go away at the end of 2004. I don't think they'll find the support to renew it now.
...what upset me so much about the Patriot Act. We got right down in the mud with the terrorists. What we were doing was reducing ourselves to their level. We are the beacon of freedom in the world. For us to give up all of these freedoms to wage war with lunatics just isn't necessary...
Film Firms Fight to Stay Afloat
...in 2003, digital cameras outsold traditional cameras for the first time. Story
Toy Makers Bet Big on Microchips
From 101st Annual American International Toy Fair
VEIL -- Video Encoded Invisible Light -- which soon will be incorporated into a line of Batman toys...will interact with Warner Bros. Animation's The Batman cartoon series, set to premiere this fall.
A data stream embedded into the cartoon will be transmitted from the TV screen right to the toy's LCD screen module. When the show is on, the toys will make appropriate noises and movements in synch with the cartoon. After the show is over, the toys will have been "upgraded" with a few new features that correspond to the recently viewed cartoon's story line...
Barbie...will be singing along to The Princess and the Pauper DVD. Two new Barbie dolls, dressed up to look like a princess and a pauper, of course, will even warble along in two-part harmony.
...Hasbro's new Wheel of Fortune game will pick up broadcast signals from the show, allowing the folks at home to play right along. It's one of a slew of new games that can be connected to the TV.
Article w/ examples of more 'onject' toys
Onject
Onject: People or things with "accessible digital stories to tell".
via: no sense of place
---I'm guessing in the world of the near future all sorts of objects will be bursting with digital information, waiting for the touch of a human hand or code from other devices to be accessed.
You usually have to spring for a meal or a few drinks to get me to tell my stories.
The Mouse Problem
"Did the Monty Python troupe predict the rise of the 'furries'?"
via: the null device
February 21, 2004
Square of Life Online Classroom Project
In this project students will plot square meters in their school yards and record the living and non-living things that are found therein. They will submit this information to the project database for all to view. Students will then compare and contrast their information with that submitted by other classes and prepare a brief report or presentation that will be posted to the project web site. Throughout the run of the project, classes will be encouraged to communicate with other schools via the Discussion Area.
Submit Square Data beginning March 19, 2004. All data must be submitted by April 26, 2004.
News Maker
caption
[---This photo reminded me to feed the fish.]
The more campaign news I see the more confused I get. How much money has Edwards' spent to get to this point? Whatever it was, and it's millions of dollars, that's a very expensive moment documented above.
Who decided before the primaries that Kerry, Dean & Edwards might be worth any campaign contributions at all? Is it like dentists & doctors with money to spare forming an investment club and purchasing a strip mall? Naming one of their group as 'president'? Or has someone hired a company that specializes in creating a campaign around a Dean, a Kerry, an Edwards, a fill-in-the-blank? Did any of these men have to mortgage their homes to raise funds? Who wrote the first big checks?
Today, 2/20/04 Yahoo News-Photo search w/ edwards returns 735 results
I can almost feel the excitement.
Gamera Phone
In Japan, a Wireless Vision for Future of U.S. (Register/sign-in: useless/useless)
"I have a fondness for Japanese gadget-culture stories. But any claims that what they do now is what Americans will do in the future is usually more than slightly offbase due to: 1) pricing, and B) downtime.
When it comes to pricing, in Japan there's high value (rich creamy data access) for low price (constant trickle of yen/pennies). In America it's low value (text messages) at high price (10-cents a pop) [see the DoCoMo content-pricing/payment model mentioned in the story]. Poor data plans turn your phone into a portable vampire bat.
Concerning downtime, most Americans don't have it. Sure, they get to sit down all the time, but most are actively engaged when doing so: driving, flying their desk, eating. Japanese-style mass transit downtime, perfect for manipulating a piece of electronics, doesn't exist for the vast majority of Americans. Plus, we do "wrong" things. For example, I use my phone as a pocketwatch.
If you want to increase the number of people using wireless devices (beyond yammering into them) build trains and buslines."
---Jason/ Atomgrid: http://atomgrid.com/
February 20, 2004
Courts Doubt Employees Liked Racial Slurs
The Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...contends the company's claim that employees liked the slurs and laughed at cartoons about lynchings "strained credibility."
Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley denies there was any racial discrimination at the company's plants. Story
---Was that the judicial equivalent of a 'hail mary pass'? Or because the suit is being heard in Indianapolis Navistar's lawyers are 'messaging' potential jurors?
No Climax T-Shirts in Climax-Shelly Schools
(Minnesota) About a dozen students wore centennial ["Climax-More Than Just a Feeling"] T-shirts to school this week in protest, and one girl was sent home Wednesday for refusing to turn her shirt inside out. Story
Idea for Hemorroid Ad Pains Cash's Family
Ring of fire. story / also here
---For context read Bill Hicks' monologue on advertising (Funny huh?)
Dont Knock the Schlock
---I thought I'ld share this graphic from NBC4 Columbus. Big gavel or a small head? Does she looked tired, remoresful, or guilty as sin? Sometimes the schlocky stuff shows you as much as any 1000 word analysis.
By the way, Newsday has over a dozen photos of Martha Stewart arriving at court though here.
February 19, 2004
Boy Spots His Kidnap Photo on the Web
A Californian teenager discovered that he was apparently abducted as a toddler after he spotted a picture of himself on a missing children's website.
The 17-year-old, who has not been named, was surfing the web when he stumbled across a picture of himself as a three-year-old...
...he then told a teacher at his school in the San Fernando Valley, which sparked a federal investigation leading to the arrest of his mother last week Giselle-Marie Goudreault, 45, was being held without bail until Canadian authorities could extradite her on child abduction charges, while the boy was put into foster care. He was said to be extremely distraught by his mother's arrest and tried to comfort her while she was being led away....Story
Camera Phones A National Security Threat?
---From this news item I understand that not only are some of my toys/hand-held appliances security risks, I could be a security risk too. It's the first time I realized what wandering around with a digital camera at the ready might mean to someone who's livelihood depends on the vigilance of homeland/corporate security. It's not a helpful realization. People with cameras, like me, are gonna be harassed & arrested for nothing more than gawking & loitering with intent to 'image'. Not only by paid professionals but also by civilian law and order hobbyists empowered by the addition of 'terrorist' onto their 'stranger=criminal' view of the world. "He has a camera" is a post 9/11 acceptable reason to bother the police.
I wonder when "he had a camera" will be used by a cop or security guard to justify a shooting?
The Last Known Person in the World to Have Smallpox
The last known person in the world to have smallpox of any kind. Variola minor in 23-year-old Ali Maow Maalin, Merka, Somalia
via: CDC's PHIL: Public Health Image Library. Where many high quality copywrite-free(?) public health related images can be found.
No photographs of the FIRST persons effected by Agent Orange, Swine flu, full-blown AIDS, Lyme disease, BSE, Ground Zero 'viruses', SARS or the Ist North American with West Nile Virus.
More photos of microscopic slides of disease than people with disease; a government agency's scrapbook.
Putting faces to natural and man-made afflictions should not feel as unseemly as it does. We've all heard of smallpox, I've never known or seen a picture of someone who contracted it. I've seen a group photo of people with smallpox, no names. The photo above showed me the disease in a way statistics never have. Yet if this person was American or European would this photo be displayed? Where's the picture of the last American/European to contract polio? People need to see themselves as individuals as more than the diseases that infect them while having the ability to place the others of the world into informative categories, making the horror easier to comprehend? Is there a line on a map denoting where 'we' leave off and 'they' begin?
Will anyone be photographing the last asbestos worker? The last Nagasaki/Hiroshima radiation victim? The last known person to have AIDS?
The Lance Project
"...images of young men who resemble in some small way my friend Lance. The images constitute a composite portrait of him. Though I knew Lance for eight years, he died without my ever having his photograph."
Link.
Gallery of Netoworked Images
What follows is "High School Dating" and "Sexual Contacts" respectively -
February 18, 2004
Suicide, Monument, Jane Cooper, 1842
"It is with feelings of horror we have to give publicity to another dreadful affair, which occurred this morning. At about half-past ten o'clock the neighbourhood of Fish Street Hill, Eastcheap, and their Vicinities, were thrown into a state of the greatest alarm and agitation, in consequence of a report having been circulated that a young woman had committed suicide by throwing herself off the Monument. On arriving at the Monument we ascertained that a young woman had this morning ascended the Monument and in about ten minutes after she had ascended she was observed getting over the rails, and before any person ascended, she had thrown herself off the rails, and in her descent struck the coping stone with her head, and fell into the street, a little beyond the curb. She was immediately picked up, and appears a very fine young woman, about the age of 22, and very neatly dressed.
Her name and place of abode is at present unknown. "
--Link among many other fascinatingly odd miscellaneous documents found on the equally incredible London Ancestor geneology site with which I will be wasting a lot more of my Internet cafe money in the next few months.
Tijuana Bibles
Tijuana Bibles were pornographic tracts popular in America before the advent of mass-market full-color glossy wank-fodder such as Playboy. A typical bible consisted of eight stapled comic-strip frames portraying characters and celebrities (eg. John Dillinger, Popeye, Disney characters) in wildly sodomistic situations. Many could be considered grossly racist, sexist, and otherwise wholly "politically incorrect." Browser discretion is advised.
German Airport Tracking Passengers with Eye Scan
BERLIN -- Travelers at Frankfurt airport, continental Europe's busiest, can enter Germany with a three-second scan of their eyes, providing they sign up for a test project for iris recognition technology.
''Iris recognition is at this time the most secure biometric,'' Interior Minister Otto Schily, Germany's top security official, said in launching the test last week. ''That's why we chose it for the Frankfurt airport pilot project.''
Byometric Systems of Mitterfelden, Germany, and Tokyo-based Oki Electric Industry are providing the service through contractor Bosch Security Systems. They hope to have full-scale service in place after a six-month test...
---After reading this all I can think about is 'pink eye'. Planeloads of travelers from Germany with one reddened, inflamed eye dragging luggage through airports all over the world. (I know your eyes don't come in contact with anything when scanned; it still creeps me out.).