Save The Internet
Mar 10th
Phone and cable lobbyists have flooded the FCC with fiction about Net Neutrality. They continue to recycle old rhetoric that Free Press and others have repeatedly debunked.
What is Net Neutrality? Net Neutrality is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.
Net Neutrality means that Internet service providers may not discriminate between different kinds of content and applications online. (Ever had Comcast block your P2P ports because they don’t like what you’re sharing?) It guarantees a level playing field for all Web sites and Internet technologies.
Net Neutrality is the reason the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation and free speech online. It protects the consumer’s right to use any equipment, content, application or service without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network’s only job is to move data — not to choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.
Net Neutrality has been part of the Internet since its inception. Pioneers like Vint Cerf and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, always intended the Internet to be a neutral network. And non-discrimination provisions like Net Neutrality have governed the nation’s communications networks since the 1920s.
But as a consequence of a 2005 decision by the Federal Communications Commission, Net Neutrality — the foundation of the free and open Internet — was put in jeopardy. Now, cable and phone company lobbyists are pushing to block legislation that would reinstate Net Neutrality.
Writing Net Neutrality into law would preserve the freedoms we currently enjoy on the Internet. For all their talk about “deregulation,” the cable and phone giants don’t want real competition. They want special rules written in their favor.
Before the FCC decided to pursue Net Neutrality protections, Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck warned his audience that the government was “trying to take over the media.” Beck later said that Net Neutrality would “wildly affect your life and free speech” by forcing a “Marxist utopia” on the Internet.
Show the FCC that you don’t buy these bogus claims — and why they shouldn’t either. Act now.
I <3 Mendocino
Feb 28th
I <3 Mendocino
I am not sure how this happened, but I never processed any of the images from last summer’s trip to Mendocino (my wife’s home county in California.) Looking through them, I can’t remember making well over half of these images, but several are worth working on. I need to clean my hard drive more often, I guess.
This image was made near MacKerricher State Park a bit after sunset and the rest of the family had gone back to camp. I don’t know who drew the heart in the sand, but I remember being terribly uninspired at that moment, and the design was the most interesting thing around. I just wanted to stand there and soak it in rather than bother with being creative.
The light dropped off really quickly this particular night and my D200 was useless less than 30 minutes after the sun had dipped behind the horizon. That’s one thing about film I still miss: bulb exposures without worrying about sensor noise. Not to mention, on most emulsions, reciprocity failure could create some pretty cool things.
Yeah, I miss Velvia.
Wake up … and read this while you eat brunch
Feb 28th
If this stuff doesn’t make you think, I’d rather you didn’t.
- Tea Party opening speaker suggests law that kept blacks from voting be reinstated
- Holy shit, our culture affects our cognition?! (Also known as “The New Snot-nosed Kid on the Block Syndrome”)
- Reporting Unlawful Sales of Medical Products on the Internet (WTF?)
- It’s capitalism or a habitable planet – you can’t have both (This brand of fatalism may not be helping the cause …)
A few stats to go with your coffee:
- 51% of people identifying themselves as Republicans in a poll currently don’t think Obama was born in the US or think it’s a matter open to debate.
- 53% of those same “Republicans” currently believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama.
- 42% of them currently think their state should secede from the United States of America, or think it is a matter open to debate.
- Six in seven white collar criminals are never charged with the crimes they commit. (Not related to previous three stats … at least I don’t think so …)
Now, either the poll above was taken in Cambridge, MA where every citizen premeditatedly colluded to pollute it, or these people really do think these things.
New (Old) Photo Content
Feb 27th
So, I think I have settled on a way to post the photographs from the old site, using a few blog plugins and hosting the images at Picasa. Not exactly “portfolio” quality, but it gets the job done. Checkout the “Extras” menu to the right, where you’ll find two links: “Photo Galleries“, which is comprised of more formal images, and “Snapshots“, which would be voyeuristic to look at if you don’t know me.
The Eye Has It
Feb 20th
Selena dining on the patio near Mendocino, CA
This one seems to be popular when checking the Google Analytics reports from my former gallery web site. It was made a few years ago near Mendocino, CA while we dined at my sister-in-law’s house up on the hill. The green eye, shallow depth of field, and the offsetting deep coral color of her sweater make this one of my favorite images.
Someday soon, I’ll figure out a way to post some photographs in a sensible format again.