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These folks don't seem to understand what's gone wrong in America. They just know something has gone really wrong. They are trying to make sense of it. I suspect that we all are.

I guess Glenn Beck offers some bizarre and simplistic way for them to vent that frustration and to have hope that things will get better if they believe in empty slogans that they repeat through out the interviews: "restore honor," "take back America," "work for freedom," "bring this country back together."

For Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and FOX to create such a divisive, ill-informed nation is just shameful and unpatriotic. All self-proclaimed news organizations have a duty to journalistic integrity that informs citizenry. FOX perpetuates an unfair and unbalanced, propagandized, limited world view that promotes ignorance, fear, angst, powerlessness, and a class-based society that preys on the less fortunate.  It's just wrong!

Related articles:

• 'America Is Better Than Glenn Beck' (newser.com)
• Judge H. Lee Sarokin: Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin Are Restoring Dishonor to America (huffingtonpost.com)

The most unexpected thing: you immediately forget your look at a child, because what you are hearing is the rapturous soprano voice of an adult. Then, at then end, when the host announces her prize, and the tears flow, you realize that she is indeed a 10 year old child.  Jackie Evancho's voice is astounding.

Related articles:

• Meet Jackie Evancho, Your Next Susan Boyle, Sort of (observer.com)
• 10 Year Old Jackie Evancho Possessed By Adult Singing Voice (bestweekever.tv)
• Jackie Evancho Brings Down The House On America's Got Talent [Video] (realestateradiousa.com)
• Jackie Evancho: America's Got Talent Superstar Is Just 10 Years Old (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)

Yesterday I purchased a pair of Vibram FiveFingers, which are all the rage here in Los Angeles. As you can see, they fit like a glove, with each toe in a separate enclosure to enhance dexterity, stability, and balance.  They are made from kangaroo leather, which I didn't even know existed.  To check out these shoes, simply click on the image to the right.

Conrad the Kat was very jealous and then insisted on starring in an epic feature film in which he modeled his own stylish and fashionable footwear.  To watch Conrad the Kat's latest world debut, simply click on the image below.

Related articles:

• Vibram Fivefingers Review (socyberty.com)
• High Five to FiveFingers (ries.typepad.com)
• Barefoot Walking (fitfiend.com)

The fact that this can be done, in total, from storyboard (if they had chosen to) all the way to upload to YouTube, on a $299 device, the iPhone 4, that also happens to make phone calls, is astounding. When Apple makes this all possible on an iPhone Touch and the iPad, they will rock the education market! Be sure to watch it in full screen.

I have made no secret of my support of Larry Lessig's Change Congress effort. In his TED presentation, he clearly articulates the need for it, stating that government of, for, and by the people has certainly withered in our lifetimes. He presents a reasoned case for why changing the way we fund campaigns is essential to the survival of the US democracy!

I love video. I love timelapse. I love tilt-shift. What could be better than putting them all together? Well, watching it in full screen. Check it out.

Related articles

• Hands-On With the Lensbaby Fisheye and Soft-Focus Optics (wired.com)

Very clever time-lapse shot in Tokyo. To see the video in full HD, check out this link. Or you can click below to watch a smaller version from YouTube. To learn more about how the video was shot, go to the Laughing Squid.

I just stumbled onto this new program, TuneUp, from TuneUpMedia.com. It's an iTunes plugin that has a number of really cool features:

• The program will analyze your iTunes library and report back all of the tracks that have incomplete information and create a "dirty" playlist.  Incomplete information might mean the track is missing any of the data listed in the graphic to the right.


• Drag any of the "dirty" tracks into TuneUp.  TuneUp then analyzes the sound footprint of the track to determine what the track actually is and offers to retrieve all of the missing meta data for the track.  In other words, you could have a track in your iTunes library called "Track 09."  TuneUp would figure out what the track name, artist, album, genre, year, cover art, and actual track number on the album are and populate all of that data, replacing the "Track 09" with the real info!  That's rather remarkable!  But there's more...


• TuneUp will follow what you're listening to, offer videos of the track in a sidebar (just click to play the videos right there in the sidebar), a bio of the artists, tell you about the upcoming concerts for that artist in your area, even let you purchase the tickets, share related items about the artist from ebay, let you tweet what you're listening to.


• Other features too...

Related articles

• A First Look at Apple's Massive Data Center (readwriteweb.com)

Image via CrunchBase

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The trial is scheduled to start Monday.

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

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

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

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

Wouldn't he have walked into a tree when he was sending it to and from Twitter? But for just a buck, why did half the people who rated it go off the deep end?! Jeeze, people. Calm down already!

We are entering a new age of cool! Apple's iPhone is a game changer!

The bike wheel contains all you need so that no sensors or additional electronics need to be added to the frame and an existing bike can be retrofitted with the blink of an eye. ...

By using a series of sensors and a Bluetooth connection to the user's iPhone, which can be mounted on the handlebars, the wheel can monitor the bicycle's speed, direction and distance traveled, as well as collect data on air pollution and even the proximity of the rider's friends. ...

The Copenhagen Wheel is part of a more general trend: that of inserting intelligence in our everyday objects and of creating a smart support infrastructure around ourselves for everyday life... The Wheel has a smart lock: if somebody tries to steal it, it goes into a mode where the brake regenerates the maximum amount of power, and sends you a text message. So in the worst case scenario the thief will have charged your batteries before you get back your bike."

(Via MIT’s big wheel in Copenhagen.)

Yesterday I listened to a presenter at Emory who reminded me of something I read years ago when he said it, "The opposite of love isn't hate. It's fear."

We live in such fearful times. And I don't think all fear is unhealthy at all. But this free hugs movement, started by Juan Mann a few years back, points us in a positive direction marked by kindness and acceptance. Check out pictures of huggers from around the world.

He started a movement that has spread around the world. I'm including this clip from Scotland, though there are many videos on YouTube about Free Hugs.

When it gives people the opportunity to create and share (over 1.5 million views of this video) beyond the grip of corporate ownership.

These photographs of albatross chicks were made in September 2009 on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

~Chris Jordan, October 2009

Chris' creative work on trash and the 21st century has been eye opening. I've followed it now for a couple of years. He has enlightened my perspective on the impact the consumptive culture in which we live is having on our world and its animals.

I didn't realize that our plastic is in fact an oil-based product.  In fact, last summer I read a post in which the writer concluded that a single bottled water should be seen as two-thirds water and one-third oil, because that's how much oil is required to manufacture the plastic and transport it to market.

The, I came across this TED presentation.

The storm has passed, meaning we had a slow steady rain here all day. It was wonderful. I so miss the long, dark rainy days of the southeast!

At sunset I went to the Pacific and shot these two little videos with my iPhone. You can't tell how dark and thick the clouds were, or how interesting the fog was. But it was still great fun! Very few surfers as the waves were extreme for these parts! The currents around the pier had also washed away the beach in a most unusual way.

The music is a bit much, but... This is better than America's Funniest Videos.

I turned red just listening to it! I think I'll start eating kittens for breakfast.

The dude rocks!

I had the opportunity to watch the American Idol Live concert tonight at the Staples Center in LA and shot this video of Adam's first performance. You can't really see how completely awesome the visual effects were. You can see everyone had their cell phones and cameras out recording it.

Uploading the video immediately after he performed it took 10 minutes. So I wasn't able to shoot any others. But the visuals for this one were the most impressive. The audio, for much of the concert, was just too loud for me--too much distortion. (Research actually shows that most Americans equate louder with higher quality.)

Hate that I didn't get to shoot Mad World!

Everyone knows Lambert really won American Idol. The crowds were insane over him--but not the "winner."

Also of interest is the number of comments, views and ratings that happened before I even got home from the concert. I had no idea he was such a hot search on YouTube!

This evening we had a nice stroll in the ocean.

I shot, edited, and uploaded this little 12 second video using only my iPhone 3Gs today and published it here in less than 1 minute! Very cool!

Certainly you have heard her sing by now. But, just in case you haven't, you need to watch her clip on YouTube.

In 5 days an ordinary lady with an extraordinary gift has brought elation to our entire world, offering hope, joy, and dreams in a time of global depression. From cynicism to celebration and worldwide support in 2 seconds flat!

Here's an interview she did with American Idol.