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Royal engineers continue to show their technological prowess: the latest result of their pondering is a new type of engine which they call "motorjet". Eager to use it, they designed a new capable aeroplane — Slaktfisk.
With a slender fuselage and a powerful new engine, this machine already proved itself against imperial fighters. Initially Slaktfisk was meant for the heavy fighter role and was armed with a machine gun and 18mm self-loading cannon. But its' characteristics were so superior, that now these planes have bomber and reconnaissance variants.
But it has its' issues: new powerplant is hard to produce and expensive to maintain, and for the pilots this unusual type of propulsion is hard to handle. Although the technology is kept in secret, the Empire probably can't copy it anyway, since they can't produce enough powerful piston engines as it is.
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This time my build is actually loosely based on a real thing — experimental airplane Coandă-1910 .
I really like the concept of a jet propulsion in WW1 era, and it looks goofy enough to include in my colonialpunk setting. My design looks quite a bit more advanced though.
Zakaz was once a thriving hub of technological research and development, but a horrible accident caused a massive explosion which wiped out nearly the entire Skakdi race. With so many individuals dying at once, one of Karzahni's devices was overloaded, and the memory wiping process was faulty, giving all the Skakdi affected what is now know as the Mind Virus.
With this disorder, a Skakdi experiences frequent visions of their past lives, causing them to have great difficulty distinguishing them from reality. While Karzahni was able to fix the machine, the Mind Virus persists, the condition worsening with each re-incarnation.
Since Karzahni likes to "Improve" the body with each incarnation, this has led to Zakaz becoming a horrifying war-zone, where delusional Skakdi, with no way to distinguish friend and foe, endlessly kill each other, becoming more powerful and violent with each death.
Irnakk is possibly the most feared of all the afflicted Skakdi. This hulking brute is a bit more sane than most Skakdi owing to his latent element of Psionics. He uses this modicum of rational thought to be an ever more efficient killing machine. His gaze instills raw fear in all who look upon him, and he uses a simple blaster to channel his power of paralysis, after which he tears the helpless victim apart with his bare claws.
.....the quickening pace of technological change, two types of phones.
#43 Technological, 52 in 2022 challenge
Press "L".
Pentax 67ii, SMC 45mm F4, Fujifilm Acros 100 developed in Kodak T-Max 1+4 5,5 min, wet-mounted drumscan.
white snowball-sized barite crystals on black manganite crystals
AE Seaman Mineral Museum, Michigan Technological University, Houghton Michigan
John Biczok's set of Seaman Museum minerals
Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.
- Aldous Huxley
The increase of population spurs technological progress and creates that anxiety which sets us against our environment as an enemy; while technology both facilitates increase of population and reinforces our arrogance, or "hubris," vis-à-vis the natural environment.
The attached diagram illustrates the interconnections. It will be noted that in this diagram each corner is clockwise, denoting that each is by itself a self-promoting (or, as the scientists say,"auto catalytic") phenomenon: the bigger the population, the faster it grows; the more technology we have, the faster the rate of new invention; and the more we believe in our "power" over an enemy environment, the more "power" we seem to have and the more spiteful the environment seems to be.
(for the diagram see: www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/ecology/sick.htm )
... The ideas which dominate our civilization at the present time date in their most virulent form from the
Industrial Revolution. They may be summarized as:
(a) It's us against the environment.
(b) It's us against other men.
(c) It's the 'individual (or the individual company, or the individual nation) that matters.
(d) We can have unilateral control over the environment and must strive for that control.
(e) We live within an infinitely expanding "frontier."
(f) Economic determinism is common sense.
(g) Technology will do it for us.
We submit that these ideas are simply proved false by the great but ultimately destructive achievements of our technology in the last 150 years. Likewise they appear to be false under modern ecological theory. The creature that wins against its environment destroys itself.
Gregory Bateson, "The Roots of Ecological Crisis" (1972)..YES 1972 !!!!!
Visvesvaraya Industrial & technological Museum, Kasturba Road, Bengaluru.
The Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, Bangalore, India, a constituent unit of the National Council of Science Museums, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, was established in memory of Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visvesvaraya. Wikipedia
Keeping up with technological changes is exhausting for an elder woman like me. I still write things down but forget where I put the piece of paper. I've tried carrying small notebooks, but I can't begin to count how many I've filled and never looked at again! And although my computer offers more opportunity for organizing, I forget the names of the files too often than I care to admit. So my phone has become a tool beyond talking. It's a life in hand. And even with its compactness and multitasking abilities, along with music and camera, I still find myself reaching for pen and paper. I guess I'm just set in old habits. I accept that. In fact, I embrace it.
Certainly hope this is a jump off for discussion, flickr friends.
Thanks Explore! for picking this up
Technological systems, similar to biological ones, change and improve over time through processes like selection, adaptation, and combination.
The plant was built for more than 100 years ago, but the fishes were forgotten
Olympus XA, Zuiko 35mm, f2,8, Kodak T-max 100, (50) Spur Acurol N, 20 Celsius degrees, 10 min, 30 sec.
Pavo real en el jardín botánico de Auburn(Sydney)
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Photos from the artist diary residency , project millenary antipodes .
Una etapa del desarrollo de un proyecto colaborativo de los artistas Anton Olea Y Federico F. Mendoza .
Comprendera un Diario Digital de los artistas sobre la experiencia en la residencia , comenzada en la Galeria del Jardín Botánico de Auburn ,documentacion del entorno, interacion con vistantes y trabajadores del jardin y por supuesto las diferentes facetas y desarrollo del programa publico.
Residency,Exhibition ,Public program
Millenary Antipodas /Antipodas Milenarias
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MILLENARY ANTIPODES PUBLIC PROGRAM
Exhibition Period: Saturday 1 May – Sunday 23 May 2010
Opening Hours: Wed – Sun, 12pm-4pm
EXHIBTING ARTISTS
Anton Olea
Federico F. Mendoza
Peacock Sculpture Workshops
The Peacock Gallery is home to 17 peacocks who roam freely around the gallery during the day and who sleep at the gallery doorstep by night. Visitors are constantly captivated by their beauty and dominance over the site. Join exhibiting artists to create a giant paper-mache peacock sculpture onsite. Workshops are free and all materials are provided.
Saturday 1 May 2010, 2pm-4pm
Friday 7 May 2010, 9.30am-11am
Sunday 9 May 2010, 10.30am-12.30am
Bookings essential: 9735 1316 or 9735 1380
Workshop - Ephemeral Ecological Arts
Exhibiting artists will lead an intervention into the natural surrounds of the Peacock Gallery. Participants will create personal or collaborative artworks that explore alternative sources of energy and materials found in the natural environment. Workshops are free and all materials are provided.
Saturday 8 May, 2pm-4pm
Bookings essential: 9735 1316 or 9735 1380
Action Painting
Exhibiting artists invite members of the community to learn about their creative design and technical processes as they lead a workshop in Action Painting. Recreate your imagination on canvas, recycle items of disposable machinery and reconstruct them as a visual representation of the natural versus the technological.
Saturday 15 May, 2pm-4pm
Bookings essential: 9735 1316 or 9735 1380
Zalzala - Inner Quakes and After Shocks
Auburn Poets and Writers Group together with Auburn Community Development Network and Auburn City Council present Zalzala - Inner Quakes and After Shocks as part of the 2010 Sydney Writers Festival. The Earth Quakes. Listen as APWG goes under the skin of culture shock. Intersexions of body, dislocations of inner languages, a collidescope of climate changes.
Tuesday 18 May 2010, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
To RSVP phone: 9649 5559
Artist Talk
A public presentation by exhibiting artists, Mendoza and Olea, which explores artist perspectives surrounding the theme Millenary Antipodes. Listen to or participate in a discussion about ancestral memory, the passage of time, new technologies and their potential use in empowering community groups. The afternoon will be interlaced with live classical and South American Folklore music from Victor Monasterio and Latin American cultural performances.
Saturday 22 May, 1pm-4pm
To RSVP phone: 9735 1316
Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories (S.T.A.R. Labs) is a fictional scientific research facility and organization.
S.T.A.R. was founded by scientist Garrison Slate, who wanted a nationwide chain of research laboratories unconnected to the government or any business interests.
He succeeded not only on a national scale, but an international one as well: S.T.A.R. Labs currently maintains facilities in Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan as well as in the United States, with the total number of facilities numbering between twenty and thirty at last recorded count.
S.T.A.R. Labs is one of the companies providing sponsorship to the superhero team The Conglomerate, a firm of superheroes set up by Claire Montgomery, Maxwell Lord's ex as a rival to Justice League International.
Other sponsors include, among others, American Steel, Dante Foods, Dupree Chemical, Ferris Aircraft, LexCorp, Ovel Oil, Pax Entertainment, and Stagg Enterprises.
S.T.A.R.'s Detroit location assisted in evacuation efforts of the world's coasts during an alien invasion. The same location is the workplace of Silas Stone, the father of Justice League's Cyborg.
The organization set up shop in Oregon to assist with the rookie superhero Naomi.
Star Labs has currently lost some credibility with the Justice League.
History
Discovery of the Mother Box
Scientists at S.T.A.R. Labs uncovered a Mother Box that was hidden after the invasion of Steppenwolf and his forces millennia ago. It would remain inactive for decades.
Infecting Abner Krill
At some point when Abner Krill was a child, his mother was obsessed with the notion of turning her children into superheroes. One of these children was Krill, upon whom she experimented on. Krill was infected with an inter-dimensional virus, causing glowing polka dots and lumps to form on and under his skin. Krill was the only one who survived these experiments and later went on to kill his mother.
Black Zero Event
During their final battle, Superman and General Dru-Zod flew past the S.T.A.R. Labs building. S.T.A.R. Labs was later put in charge of the scout ship, Scout Ship 0344 to analyze and research its alien properties.
Ko'erst Invasion
Some time later, a group of students visited S.T.A.R. Labs on a field trip. The Ko'erst made a sudden appearance through a wormhole, attempting to invade the planet, but they were stopped by Superman.
Victor's cybernetics
Silas Stone, the head of S.T.A.R. Labs, attempted to repair his son Victor Stone's body after an accident using a mysterious Mother Box S.T.A.R. Labs uncovered in 1982. Although initially doing nothing, the box eventually began pulsing and proceeded to repair Victor's body with cybernetics out of nothing. The footage of this was later stolen by Lex Luthor for his research on metahumans.
Discovering another universe
At some point S.T.A.R. Labs announced that they may have discovered an alternate universe. Eventually, this would cause S.T.A.R. Labs from an alternate land are able to create a portal of realities, causing the retrobots to be able to invade and attack Earth-1 during a Serena Williams tennis match.
During the attack, a heroine from said universe called Wonderous Serena would arrive on Earth-1 in an attempt to defend the population being helped by Wonder Woman. The heroines decided to infiltrate S.T.A.R. Labs in search of some similar portal technology that would allow them to travel to Wonderous Serena's universe in an attempt to detain the retrobots advance, with made them temporarily travel to an alternate version of S.T.A.R. Labs where they would manage to stop the invasion.
A partial list of some known locations of S.T.A.R. Labs facilities and their research focuses, where either is known, includes:
Central City, Missouri, home of the Flash
Chicago, Illinois, home of the second Blue Beetle
Fawcett City: specializing in extraterrestrial research
Gotham City: specializing in weaponry
Keystone City, Kansas
Metropolis (Queensland Park Borough, near Metropolis Harbor): specializing in marine biology
Metropolis (central branch, New Troy Island): catch-all facility
Star City branch specialized in dimensional travel
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
_____________________________
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: N/A
Publisher: DC Comics
First appearance: Superman #246 (December 1971)
Created by Len Wein (writer)
Curt Swan (artist)
The Nuva archer is a skilled warrior and technological wonder. The concept was brought about by General Taka's imagination and executed by the hands of the most skilled matoran. This archer differs from traditional archer units in that he does not need to carry his ammunition on his body during battle. His "arrows" or bolts are stored, generated, and replinished within his technologically advanced left arm which coordinates with the "crossbow" or bolt thrower that he wields. The bolt thrower is one of a kind and is viewed as a breakthrough in modern weaponry. Though quite bulky, the bolt thrower allows the archer to fire single highly charged energy bolts, which have the power to penetrate light/medium armor, at a rate of 1.5 seconds. After firing 10 bolts the archer's arm requires a cool down period which lasts approximately 8 to 10 seconds. Once completed, the archer may continue raining destruction down upon the enemy. The archer's built-in optical system allows the archer to target enemy's from a greater distance than the typical archer. The Nuva archer's advanced weaponry and overal engineering give the Nuva army a great advantage on the battlefied when facing overwhelming numbers.
I hope you guys enjoy this one! Building him really inspired me to go back and revamp General Taka and the Nuva Infantry, so stay tuned for those guys in the future! Thanks for all of your support this past year! Looking forward to the next year!
1. FIAT 500ABARTH On display inside the Italian Orchard Restaurant Broughton Nr Preston
2 .The acronym F.I.A.T. stands for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, but the name FIAT means so much more. Founded in 1899, over the years the Turin-based company has become a symbol of Italy's technological and creative enterprise, which have changed the country and the history of global mobility forever.
3. Red brake calipers bolster the 500 Abarth's sportier appearance. Not only does the dual-outlet exhaust look powerful, but it also helps maximize the turbocharged engine's output. While the standard 500 will appeal to most people, the Abarth version is for the drivers who crave sportier styling and performance.
FrOm the Caves Of EllOra...
Ellora Caves - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
These 34 monasteries and temples, extending over more than 2 km, were dug side by side in the wall of a high basalt cliff, not far from Aurangabad, in Maharashtra. Ellora, with its uninterrupted sequence of monuments dating from A.D. 600 to 1000, brings the civilization of ancient India to life. Not only is the Ellora complex a unique artistic creation and a technological exploit but, with its sanctuaries devoted to Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, it illustrates the spirit of tolerance that was characteristic of ancient India.
Citroën 2 CV ~ Two steam horses ~ Rue du Louvre ~ Paris ~ MjYj
The Citroën 2CV (French: deux chevaux vapeur, literally "two steam horses", from the tax horsepower rating) was an economy car produced by the French automaker Citroën from 1949 to 1990.
It was technologically advanced and innovative, but with extremely utilitarian and deceptively simple Bauhaus inspired bodywork, that belied the sheer quality of its underlying engineering.
My Blue Nights are more Beautiful than your Days ~ Paris ~ MjYj
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Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other
media without my explicit permission.
MjYj© All rights reserved
The F4, Nikon's fourth generation and first autofocus pro-level camera system, was produced from 1988 through 1997.
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The Nikon F4, technologically speaking, is a major upgrade from the F3HP. The F4 has autofocus, motorized film advance, program and shutter priority exposure modes (in addition to aperture priority and manual), multi-segment (Matrix) exposure metering, and advanced fill-flash capabilities. Although the camera is fully electronic, it maintains the façade of mechanical camera controls. In fact, there are no external digital readouts or multi-function dials on this camera. All controls are presented as traditional knobs or switches, although they control sophisticated electronic functions, internally. Significantly, for those with a pre-existing collection of manual focus Nikon lenses, the F4 provides matrix metering, but not Program or Tv modes, with Ai manual focus lenses. It also has a built-in diopter control in the viewfinder. Finally, the F4 system has an amazingly broad system of accessories of all types.
The F4 system includes the F4s, which is the basic F4 body plus the enhanced MB-21 battery grip instead of the basic MB-20 grip. The MB-21 grip uses 6 x AA alkaline batteries compared with 4 batteries in the MB-20 and provides slightly faster motor drive. Unfortunately, the Nikon F4 was not designed to work with light-weight lithium AA batteries, which are not recommended by Nikon. When I bought my F4, it was only available in a package with the larger MB-21, which I immediately replaced with the MB-20 to cut down on weight.
The major disadvantages of the F4 compared with its predecessor F3HP are almost 50% greater weight, and increased size and decreased battery life, primarily due to the motor drive. As indicated above, the F4's program and Tv modes cannot be used with manual focus Nikkor Ai lenses (you need a Nikon FA for that). The F4 does not yet support AF-D technology. AF-D technology, which only appears on future generations of Nikon SLRs, transmits distance information from AF-D lenses and permits better flash and fill-flash performance. Still, when combined with the concurrent SB-24 or newer dedicated flash units, the Nikon F4, even without D technology, has great flash performance in its own right. Unlike the later F90x/SB-26 combination, the F4/SB-24 is smart enough to automatically switch from balanced fill flash to full TTL flash when ambient light is insufficient.
I think that I purchased one of the last F4s to come off of the production line. I was perfectly happy using my F3HP, and continued to use it as my primary camera throughout the production life of the F4, which started in 1988. Finally, the F5 came out in 1996 and I saw that it had reduced functionality with manual focus Nikkor Ai lenses compared the F4. Worse, from my point of view, the F5 is also much larger and even heavier than the F4, with its permanently attached larger grip and battery pack.
Although I still tended to pick up the F3HP instead of the F4 for travel kits to cut down on weight, I really liked using the F4 when weight was not an issue. The F4 fits great into your hands, with its built-in hand grip and non-slip rubberized finish. The camera has the four PSAM modes, single and continuous autofocus, as well as multi-segment (matrix), center-weighted (60/40), and spot exposure metering systems. Although the camera has many electronic functions, there are no hard-to-read external digital menus. All functions are controlled with the traditional knobs and switches, which makes it really easy to adjust all features by feel or by watching the comprehensive digital display in the viewfinder. The viewfinder display is illuminated by ambient light, or by switching on the viewfinder illuminator light with a switch at the base of the shutter speed dial.
If you do need to use a manual focus lens, you can still take advantage of the focus indicator when focusing manually. In fact, you really need to use the electronic rangefinder, because the standard focusing screen has no split image or microprism aid besides a matte field. Just place the central focusing brackets on your subject and focus manually until the red in-focus circle is display in the viewfinder. The F4's early generation autofocusing system is slow compared with subsequent technology, but more than sufficient for stationary or slow moving subjects.
As an advance over the F3, the F4 recognizes DX-coded film canisters. When rewinding film, you can either use power rewind to save time, or manual rewind to save battery power and minimize noise.
The F4's first generation five segment matrix metering system was a major technological advance over traditional center-weighted metering. This is basically the same early generation multi-segment metering that is used in the Nikon FA. While not as sophisticated as later generations of Nikon's matrix metering systems, the F4's five segment pattern and software works fine for typical scenarios. For extreme lighting situations, it is still recommended to switch to center-weighted or spot and set exposure compensation, as necessary.
The F4's shutter is much more advanced than the shutter in the F3. The F4 shutter speed can be manually set as fast as 1/8000 sec. or as slow as 4 seconds. Maximum flash synch speed of 1/250 sec. is much faster than 1/80 sec. on the F3. In P and A modes, the shutter operates steplessly from 30 sec. to 1/8000 sec.
I use all of the F4's modes and light-metering systems, depending on the situation. But for flash photography, it is often easiest to just turn on Program mode and matrix metering to take advantage of completely automatic matrix balanced fill-flash or standard TTL flash. For special flash situations, the F4 also allows complete manual adjustment of all parameters.
The F4 marks marks the beginning and end to Nikon's pro-level body support for both auto focus and manual focus lenses, while also providing a mechanical style control interface. The F5 scales back support for manual focus lenses, and converts to a control dial driven interface. The F6 (like modern higher-end Nikon digital SLRs) finally adds back the F4's manual focus lens support, but of course has a modern display menu interface. The traditional mechanical interfaces are great, but the F6 is a much superior film camera because its features are state of the art across the board, including, for example, Nikon's most advanced matrix metering in a film camera. As other alternatives to the F4, one could look at the F90X, the F100 or the older FA. The F90X moves to an early-generation control dial driven interface, but offers D technology support for flash, more sophisticated matrix metering, and faster autofocusing. The F100 is an upgrade of the F90X and has technology similar to the F5 in a smaller package. The amazing FA is like the traditional-style FE-2, but with the addition of complete and unique support for manual focus Ai lenses with matrix metering (similar to F4 generation) as well as all four PSAM modes!
Finally, there is now a more or less similar interface alternative in the Nikon digital SLR world. The Nikon Df finally provides modern functions, some of which are descendents of the advanced features of the F4, while also resurrecting the convenient mechanical/analog interface of its famous predecessor.
Copyright (c) 2013 Timothy A. Rogers. All rights reserved.
(DSC_5919fin1)
Madonna University vs Lawrence Technological University
Livonia MI
This week's FlickrFriday theme is: #TimeMachine
Technologically advanced street vendor . The sugarcane press is electric and not hand cranked and she has a machine to seal the plastic cups.
Firearm was a notorious, technologically-advanced bounty hunter who continuously threatened the Hero Factory. Firearm is a mercenary more than capable of carrying out assignments but lacking in the ambition to mastermind his own agenda.
Shortly before the betrayal of Von Ness, Firearm came to operate exclusively out of the Delta Quadrant, gaining experience as a mercenary and branching out his services. For some time, Firearm established his headquarters along the edge of the Necron Expanse, a vast region of frontier space with no stars systems for 200 lightyears. Following the success of Hero Factory in the galactic neighborhood, Firearm was able to inflate his service charges exponentially, with bounty hunters coming in short supply.
Over the course of his career, Firearm has utilized a number of weapons and gadgets to carry out his assignments, initially starting with standard issue Meteor Blasters and later diversifying to carry heavily customized gear for each mission. Most prominently, he has been known to carry a modified Combat Rifle looted from a Makuhero Industries factory.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Firearm has been known to keep several extensive weapons and ammunition caches on planets around the Delta Quadrant, often containing launchers looted from Heroes or other criminals.
Behold, the Aetherium Arcana, a technological marvel of perpetual motion that roams the skies high above the floating isles of the Old World. This grand vessel serves as a sanctuary of knowledge and lore, protecting the wisdom of ancient and modern times. Its proprietor, the enigmatic Professor Alistair Wrenwood, is a scholar of the techno-arcane arts, gathering rare manuscripts, mechanical blueprints, and alchemical tomes from lands both charted and uncharted. Professor Wrenwood, with his spectacled gaze and patchwork leather waistcoat, is a lifelong seeker of mysteries—an eccentric soul who created his airship as a gift to the world.
The Aetherium Arcana is no ordinary airship; it is powered by a rare crystal known as “aetherium,” which emits an iridescent glow and allows the ship to hover gracefully without the usual clanking gears and churning pistons. This crystal is housed within a chamber beneath the main library, guarded by a clockwork guardian, Sir Copperwell, a loyal automaton built by Wrenwood himself. The ship’s interior is lined with dark walnut shelves, adorned with gilded brass accents, and illuminated by warm lanterns that swing gently with the vessel’s movements.
Besides Professor Wrenwood, the ship is home to his eclectic crew: Marigold the Botanist, who cultivates rare floating plants in a tiny greenhouse on the top floor of the ship; Errol the Engineer, who tends to the intricate mechanics of the vessel and keeps the Aetherium chamber in pristine condition; and young Elara, a bright-eyed apprentice with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Together, they sail the skies, visiting distant lands to share knowledge, trade stories, and uncover lost artifacts.
The Aetherium Arcana is revered by those lucky enough to glimpse it among the clouds. It is said that if you spot its shadow on a foggy night, a tome bearing a tale you most need to hear may find its way into your hands the next morning.
This was built for the Wandering Skies contest 2024.
Evening view of The Hive featuring purpose built student lounges and collaborative classrooms at Nanyang Technological University.
This drawing was originally inspired by a discussion between Lawrence Weschler, Errol Morris, Dr. Kanan Makiya, and W.J.T. Mitchell as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. The subject was the iconography of war and how people live with and process the myriad tragic and frightening images that have become a part of our everyday experience. It occurred to me that these iconic images fail us, or more that we fail them, in that we continually allow new atrocities to bloom, that we author many or most of these great calamities ourselves, and that we allow history to repeat itself over and over, only with more technological savvy as each new conflict arises so that we are further removed from the killing than we were the last time. When i see photos of depravity, of war, of suffering, of humiliation and dehumanization, such as the photos from Abu Ghraib that so many of us have seen, i want to believe that the images are powerful and profound enough to shock us into action, into some kind of patient and benevolent revolution to actually make the world better, to accept and respect all the differences in cultures and histories and ideologies and live amicably if not peacefully. Clearly i’m either too optimistic or too naive, because we fight, maim, lie and kill in the name of empire, religion, oil, just as we always have and likely always will. And many of us believe what we are told about the righteousness of our crimes and the trueness of our aim with little or no question because it is simply what we are told by those we expect to be in the know.
So the drawing at its inception was a collage of iconic images of war and struggle, a superimposed collection of calamity. It was my hope that the volume of sadness and destruction in this drawing would serve as a reminder for myself, an alarm to help me wake from my own apathy and disillusionment in the face of the grinding and monstrous engine of modern government and the political machine that can apparently function on nothing but the blackest crude, a reminder that i need to let history inform every decision and choice that i make so i’m not simply stumbling and blind as i move through the world, that if i am going to be a part of any change, it should be positive change.
The drawing has changed, however, and is no longer based solely in the literal, in the photo realism of our recent past, but for me it has also begun to acquire a symbolism and metaphorical nature that feels relative to our future. This piece has taken on its own life, separate from me, and i don’t feel like i control it anymore, neither the direction of the imagery used nor the execution of each individual piece of imagery, but rather that i’m slowly opening and receiving what comes in. It feels akin to the process of pollination. Foreign bodies have entered and have had a profound effect, life-changing even, and in realizing that effect, those foreign bodies become familiar and essential.
i’ve rewritten these lines a dozen times and i’m never satisfied with what appears on the page. It could be that for me there is no satisfaction in talking about my own failures as a person living today, or maybe i don’t want to sermonize what i see as the collective failures of everyone. It’s also possible that instead of all this writing and talking, all i can really do is draw a picture and let you do with it what you will.
It was not my goal to make a drawing of ruin, but when i consider where we seem to be going and how desperately we seem to want to get there, i don’t know that i could avoid it. At least, not this time.
3-24-08
Since the 19th of March, when Chicago held its 5 year anniversary rally/march/protest for the invasion of Iraq, a great deal of information has come my way that is causing me a great deal of concern. And fear. And anger. And i don't know if anyone else out there who might intentionally or accidentally stumble upon these paragraphs knows more or less than i do, but my knowledge is only starting to expand regarding where we are as a country and as a society, and even in my peripheral knowledge of the kind of insidious and deep running corruption we're living with and in, i find myself in a state of shock because so few people are responding to this information...which is available, it's definitely out there...and i know so few people who have any sense of outrage at all, who feel that their rights are being taken from them and are not anything more than sarcastic about it. As if they simply expected it and are willing to accept it because, well, what can one person do?
Habeas Corpus is gone. None of the current politicians are talking about that. This scares me. This essential right, now taken away, is one of the major dividing lines between a free society and a police state. And there's so much to say that i can't do it here. There is so so much to talk about. Habeas Corpus is just the literal tip of a vast and murky iceberg that i fear is about to sink our titanic self-image and our possibly vague and misguided ideas about what America is. And i don't want to sink.
8-5-08
Since i last made an entry here, not much has changed. The telecoms have been granted retroactive immunity, which in short means that our channels of communication can be monitored, and done so with no repercussions to those doing the monitoring. Which means we should probably fear that anything critical we have to say about the society we live in could be used against us, but not in a court of law. A closed society, a police state, requires no court of law. Barack Obama supported this retroactive immunity, which elicited a long thin sigh of disappointment from myself and many others. The young people canvassing the streets to raise money for his campaign didn’t have much to say about that, at least not here in Chicago. Some of them didn’t seem to know what i was talking about, to be honest. He may have had his reasons. There may have been other items tacked on to this particular legislation that he wanted to see get “through the system.” But could those reasons really outweigh our civil liberties, our small comfort in thinking we can speak freely? i still think Obama is the only candidate running for president. But i also think he has only used his offices to get to bigger and better offices. He hasn’t done much for Illinois since he’s been Senator because he immediately started running for president. i hope that once he wins that office he’ll be able to get something done, anything, as long as it’s in the opposite direction our current administration has been taking us. Clearly it is the most unsuccessful administration in the history of our young country. The most insensitive, the most rash and unthinking, the most ignorant and arrogant. i’m happy i was around to see it. Witnessing this kind of colossal failure offers an infinitely important challenge to mankind: The chance to fix things. Our fuck-ups have been on a global scale, and we need to make global amends. Coming out of this fog of war and corruption, we have an opportunity. It isn’t the first time we’ve had this opportunity, and if it’s the last then we won’t be here to consider it.
Also:
How about we stop being so silly? The New Yorker cover? It’s satire. We of all people should know what satire is. And it’s ironic that so many of us, including the Obama’s, were so offended by this illustration. We call ourselves the land of the free, yet our country was founded on genocide. Is that not irony? Are we not a satire of what we claim to be? Liberators? Come on. i know it's hard to have a sense of humor in these dark ages, but if we fail to see the absurdity in such situations and responses to those situations it will only add to the already frightening pile of things we've failed at.
More very soon, if you care...
9-22-08
And now, a word from my paramour, Cassandra:
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This is a bit long, but the financial cluster-f#@$ we're in is complicated and it seems the Bush administration would just like Congress to sign off on the bailout, no questions asked, no strings attached. So, if you can't slog through this whole text, could you, would you, please, skip to the end, call your elected officials and tell them you're not okay with signing off on a trillion dollar bailout without knowing the details or that only assists the companies that got us into this mess? And then, feel free to whittle it down, but could you pass it on? In email and/or phone calls to the folks you know that haven't yet crossed the digital divide? Yes, you know them; some of your parents, neighbors, etc. They don't really care for the world wide web, but they still believe in democracy and hopefully, the telephone. It's an awful lot of money that we're being asked to pony up. Wait! We're not being asked! That's why you have to call your Senator!
We've been told that in order to avert a major financial catastrophe, the bailout is necessary and needs to happen immediately. And that may be true, but it seems like we're not being told enough. Will the executives that run these companies that are crashing and burning, still receive their multi-million dollar pay and bonus packages while employees lose jobs, health benefits and retirement funds? Will there be any relief (of course we won't bail out your average working stiff, I'm not THAT naive) for the person who's losing their house, their business, their pension? Where is the money coming from? Where exactly are we borrowing $700 billion to a trillion from? What is the plan after? What will prevent this from happening again in a couple of months? We're going to be on the hook for this money (on top of the crushing debt we're already under) for a long, long, long, long time. Or is this another preemptive strike with no exit strategy? This feels a bit familiar, no? A dangerous set of circumstances that requires swift and bold (shock and awe) tactics to keep us all safe? Calling for nearly unfettered powers, (this time to the Treasury secretary)? "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Intense pressure on Congress to pass a rescue measure quickly?
online.wsj.com/article/SB122200573768460503.html
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/20/...
krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/no-deal/
Even this guy doesn't like the idea:
www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/trillion_dollar_bailou...
Does anyone remember the S&L crisis? Which cost American tax payers, some estimate, $1.4 trillion dollars? Sound familiar? Some highlights: During the senior George Bush administration, Jeb Bush defaulted on a $4.56 million dollar real estate loan, paid $500,000 back, the $4million balance was paid of by... um... you, the taxpayer. Neil Bush became director of Silverado Savings and Loan in 1985. Three years later the institution was belly up at a cost of $1.6 billion to... you again! The taxpayer bailed them out!
A more thorough account here:
www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/4386...
A 1989 Time Magazine article here:
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,957083,00.html
(Note that Bush Sr. asked Congress to act within 45 days to prevent financial meltdown. Bush Jr. wants this passed tomorrow, Monday Sept 22, 2008. So, please don't wait to phone your elected officials.)
Accountability? Not much. We paid their bad debt and they went on their merry way. No indictments, no jail time, not even garnishments or freezing of assets to re-coup the embezzled money. Jeb even got to keep the building he took out the loan to buy! Bush Sr. wasn't re-elected, but Jeb was later elected Governor of Florida! (Schwing Vote!) An office he held during the Florida Supreme Court ruling that stopped the recount of the 2000 election his brother, W, "won". (Holy Serendipity!) Hey! Here's another interesting side note: did you know that this time last year August 30, 2007 Lehman Bros hired Jeb as an advisor?! Me neither! It's funny how these things go mostly unreported. Wonder why Lehman didn't get in on the bailout deal? Sibling rivalry? If you think your head won't explode, you should go here for Jeb's breathtaking resume:
www.atlargely.com/2008/09/what-is-jeb-bus.html
So, this is just one (eerily familiar) example of how the Bush family and their friends have been fleecing us for generations and we, the voters, the taxpayers, the people that our government is supposed to be "of, by, and for" are letting them have their very greedy way with us. Over and over and over again. They do it, frankly, because they can. We keep letting them fleece us (or another word that begins with "F") and we shrug, or rant, sometimes we take to the streets, but not often. But we don't act. We feel overwhelmed and totally hopeless, so we turn on the television or fire up the internets or find some other, any other diversion not to think about how overwhelming and hopeless it feels. But I am imploring you to call your elected officials, the ones who you took the time to vote into office, the ones you elected to represent you, call them and ask that they do what you elected them to do: Represent you. It's redundant, I know, but I think we forget that they work for US. (Even the ones you didn't vote for, still work for you.) Make them work. Tell them what you think. It'll take minutes. Minutes out of your day to use your voice to not allow our government to spend our money without accountability. Again. And if nothing happens, if we don't manage to start a movement today, that's okay. Because we did move. We stood. We didn't just sit idly by while we got filched. Or another word that starts with "F"...
Find your State Representative: forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
Find your Senator: www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.c...
Patriotically yours,
Cassandra
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9-28-08
A New Delhi-based journalist who has worked with The Guardian and BBC invited me to contribute this image to a brief story about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on a news-gathering website called NowPublic. Their motto is "Crowd Powered Media," which could be good or bad, depending on the crowd. To be honest, i think the crowd is ok, so i was happy to be invited. Here it is: www.nowpublic.com/world/un-investigate-bhutto-killing
It's small, but it's something. If one person wants to see it, i want them to see it. So thank you, Mr. Jha.
10-28-08
People! If you're still reading this far, please look at this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdNgMKPV9xQ&eurl=http://gobnf...
We can't ignore it. We can't sit back and watch. We need to be active. Informed. Right now. We need to use our power and we need to remake our government, our country, our world.
11-04-08
Let us hope that this is the beginning of a new American era.
Marker on watercolor paper.
Late 2007 – Early 2008
30 x 22
Advanced Technological Designs Incorporated is proud to present, hot off our assembly lines, the all new AWT (Assisted Walking Transport)!
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There's no more need for your old canes. Throw those old things out, because you won't need them anymore. Not if you have the AWT! Completely self propelled, the AWT multiplies the energy you have stored in those run-down legs of yours and allows the owner to move at a much faster pace.
The AWT's padded design allows for strolls of comfort, making sure your skin never rubs against the joints of the suit. Are you ready to get back out on the streets? Call now and get your very own Assisted Walking Transport! Our operators will be standing by.
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Hope you like my second ever Steampunk build! Built for a Steampunk challenge in my local LEGO group. See the AWT in action here.
Enjoy!
My favourite fishy friend Ziekling Bunnyhug has a YouTube channel that you can subscribe to here and has just launched a documentary series detailing her start in the SL modelling world*, and mentions she got her confidence "just making silly dance videos." I used to do this myself mostly without telling anyone - if you're old enough to remember my 2009-2014 blog, you'll see a couple of them on there. There's also the one on strawberrysingh.com where I danced as Redfoo to troll Berry, but let's not bring that up as it was pre-mesh and oi the body distortion.
THEN today I bought something really, really cool. So great that no static pic could capture it. We aren't allowed to post commercial links but if you look at Dastan Rage's marketplace you'll see a few bodies with cell shaders. There was a Belleza Jake one on there earlier but I posted a glowing review on it and for some reason it instantly disappeared. I'm hoping this is just a temporary thing omg and I haven't broken this poor guy's store. EDIT: ITS BACK UP! There are so many different colours and types of animations and I loved it, I'm sure you would too.
Please be kind if this video sucks, this is new for me!
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Hoping this doesn't get taken down for the 30 seconds worth of Technologic by Daft Punk; yes the hiss is meant to be there. I'm using the Planet Trig 3 backdrop by Paparazzi, dance is Fuckability II 07 by Sync'd at TMD, pants are street shorts by REKT, and shoes are by Fli. I used Screencast-O-Matic to shoot.
*Yes that's me popping up around the 1:40 mark in the most recent one!
The new Learning Hub Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.
The new Learning Hub which also known as "dim sum basket building" stems from a simple idea that people learn best from one another. Each of the new 56 new-generation, "smart" classrooms will be equipped with flexible clustered seating, electronic white boards, multiple LCD screens and wireless communication tools, bringing students together in a university environment, they can collaborate to develop their thoughts further and faster than would be possible alone.