How photos support your own “reality” – Machinist – Salon.com:

In the decades since Kennedy’s death, we’ve achieved photographic ubiquity. Today, billions of tiny cameras record everything, and broadcast it all immediately online. The world, now, is constantly watched, each of us Zapruder himself.

Strangely, though, all these images have not pushed us toward greater collective agreement about what has happened, or what is happening, in the major controversies of the day. Sept. 11 is a primary exhibit, but in other issues, too, photos seem to prompt more disagreement than agreement: Images did not settle, for instance, what really happened between American and Iranian boats on the Strait of Hormuz in January. Indeed, the brilliant pictures that now come at us daily often only blur the truth, casting reality itself wide open for debate.

One cause of this is a phenomenon psychologists call “selective perception”…

An interesting article on how we interpret images. It brings to mind one of the kookiest presentations I ever saw, a talk by William Cooper (author of Behold a Pale While Horse) who explained how JFK’s driver shot the prez. He looped the video over and over again to the point that if he said jackie O did it, I would have believed him. Anyhow, 9-11 has spurned a cottage industry of photographic “evidence,” but the problem is that in the age of digital photography, it simply does not exist. This being a visual culture, it’s surprising that a belief in god is still so strong given the lack of visual proof. Nevertheless, images still are the most potent propaganda weapons, but depend greatly on context, which means either captioning, framing or presenting them in such a way that any sense of objectivity is impossible due to the mere act of suggestion.

Ever wanted to know what it’s like to drive in the Information Highway’s slow lane? The International Centre for Physics has created one so you can see how it feels to be in the losing spectrum of the digital media revolution. Click on the link below to try it out.

ICTP Digital Divide Simulator:

We have elaborated an on-line simulator with which you can experience browsing the web with low bandwidth and compare it with the bandwidth you are used to. To make use of it select the website you want to test, then select the bandwidth you want to simulate, and click “simulate”. You will be presented with two pages: one at full speed and one at the limited speed. You can then compare the two.”

Technorati Tags: digital divide

Electronic motes anyone? Designed like something straight out of Neuromancer, US Globalnanospace (you’ve gotta love the name) is engaged in the wacky world of border security, bio decontamination foam and cigarette filters. Sometimes I wonder if I’m in the wrong business; writing, meditating and teaching doesn’t seems nearly as fun as what these guys do. Thinking this stuff up is probably as psychedelic as an editorial meeting for the Weekly World News.

In particular, Globalnanospace’s Autonomous Security Apparatus (MAPSANDS™) has garnered some press of late (most definitely check out this news report). Its electronic wall dispenses sounds, pellets and non-lethal force if necessary, relegating security to data pattern recognition. Ah, if only computers could rule the world, everything would be so peachy!

This fantasy of an electronic border guard once again denies the greater sociopolitical reality: why is the US-Mexico frontier so permeable? I hate to fall back on old cliches, but recall the Chicano slogan, “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” To paraphrase Mike Davis, the border region (or Aztlan) is a transient construct.

I’m not against trade but when designating money with more border-crossing rights than humans, something is gonna give. Sci-fi walls of sanitary sound barriers in the middle of the desert is yet one more ridiculous application of xenophobia in a world characterized by immigration, urban slums and climate change. Paranoia seems to need its own border check.

Oh yeah, one last thought. What about the animals we humans share space with? How are they to be regarded as they are bombarded with nauseating sound frequencies as they traverse the border?

USGN :

MAPSANDS™ is an autonomous, intelligent, fully integrated wide area perimeter security and access denial system.

MAPSANDS™ was specifically developed for large wide area perimeter applications such as international and sovereign borders, oil & gas infrastructure and other high value critical asset installations.

MAPSANDS™, unlike traditional perimeter security solutions, is a fully programmable, integrated autonomous system that can monitor, detect, track, target, warn, establish intent, deter, and if necessary deliver a non-lethal response to the would be aggressors, subject to compliance with applicable laws, regulations and treaties.