Pink On Brown

Definition of the Heart

2008-10-06T08:12:15Z

Is it not the fact that there is in the body a clot of blood which, if it
is in good condition, the whole body is, too; and if it is in rotten
condition, so too is the whole body? Is not this the heart?
-Sutra of Hui Neng

Let’s Play “Wallstreet Bailout”

2008-09-26T01:53:31Z

This is the best solution to the entire Wallstreet Bailout that I’ve heard so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S27yitK32ds

Thank you Rep. Marcy Kaptur.

Don’t Talk To the Police

2008-09-04T09:05:38Z

With the recent outbreak of police violence towards protesters at the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention, I’ve had a hard time deciding what I wanted to say about the whole series of events. I mean - people knew that this was coming. The conventions are not a place for the public to voice their opinions. It is a place for the policy-makers to tell us what our opinions really are.

With the horrendous treatment of Amy Goodman and her crew of Democracy Now, the police are only shooting themselves in the collective boot. With preemptive raid and detaining of political groups before and during the RNC was astounding. The police led sieges and raids on the houses and meeting places of political groups and bloggers in the area, arresting people on charges of “conspiracy to riot”. Yes - people were arrested on the charge of “planning to be in a place during a protest that may or may not turn into a riot”. Justice, indeed.

What is important to note is that many news sources are claiming that this violence has only been directed towards a group of anarchists referred to as a Black Bloc collective. While the videos taped by numerous sources at the conventions tell a completely different story.

Professor James Duane of Regent Law School produced a lecture entitled “Don’t Talk to the Police” which I found insightful and helpful. Perhaps would-be-protesters and political activists should pay attention to what James Duane has to say:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4097602514885833865

While during the time span of the protests in the US, a Spanish doctor in Madrid has discovered that young men are dying for unknown reasons while in police custody. The doctors are claiming that this is a new symptom “similar to one that kills some wild animals when they are captured”. Apparently, the extreme levels of stress experienced by people undergoing police treatment during detention are enough to trigger the body to shut down.

I’m sure it has nothing to do with the way that the police force in this country are starting to view its citizens - as cattle; meant to be herded around and owned. Just take for instance “The Peacemaker” (shown below), purchased by Richland County, South Carolina sheriff Leon Lott.

The armored personel carrier pictured was purchased for use by their local police force. He “insists that using a caliber of ammunition that even the U.S. military is reluctant to use against human targets (it’s generally reserved for use against armored vehicles) will ’save lives.’”

My favorite comment on that article is this:

Oh, and aiming it? You generally can’t sight down the weapon from a turret, so the SOP in country is to estimate, then walk it in. I’m thrilled to see American law enforcement presumably expect to rely on the same methods. And the bullets go through cars, by the way.

One of the units in my battalion thought they were getting suicide bombed by a bus. A gunner opened fire with a .50 cal, firing three rounds. Two people on the bus died, and six were wounded.

So, perfectly reasonable for a law enforcement weapon. Perfectly reasonable.

Good lord.

So, here are a few videos displaying the awesome job the police are doing to protect the cities of the protests from…uh…its own citizens?
Here are the police treating press members with respect and grace:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jreRSEQ_yg

And here are the police informing a group of peaceful protesters what their right to peaceful protest is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po3MQmOVrZc

And here is an overview of the solidarity the police and protesters showed to each other while trying to keep things peaceful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb84xVMbfqA

We can only be so proud.

Diebold Machines Have Been Dropping Votes for 10 Years - Whoops!

2008-09-01T09:32:03Z

According to Chris Riggall, a spokesman for Premier Election Solutions (formerly known as Diebold). the company’s voting machines which are used in over 34 states have not been counting votes for…
…wait for it…

10 years.

Riggall said he was “confident” that elections officials through the years would have realized votes had been dropped when they crosschecked their tallies to certify final elections results and would have reloaded cards so as not to lose votes. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has said no Ohio votes were lost because the nine Ohio counties that found the problem caught it before primary results were finalized.
…
“We are indeed distressed that our previous analysis of this issue was in error,” Premier President Dave Byrd wrote Tuesday in a letter that was hand-delivered to Brunner. Premier and Brunner are in an ongoing court battle over the voting machines and whether Premier violated its contract with the state and warranties.

Well - I’m glad that they’re at least “distressed” that they did not disclosure this known technical error when they discovered it. Of course, it doesn’t really matter now that the primaries have come and gone. This is almost as good as when the Chicago elections officials tricked voters into thinking they were voting with “invisible ink”.

This, of course, on the tail of a string of Premier Election Solutions/Diebold catastrophes; including the unveiling of the ease of vote flipping on national news, the company using already-hacked keys on current machines, Diebold officials caught trafficking in narcotics, or officals revealing that they regularly swapped out fake memory cards on the machines while the elections were still ongoing.

Hopefully people will realize the disgusting flaws in the current election system and question whether or not their vote really counts.

Obama Bin Biden - FOX…You’ve got to be kidding

2008-08-26T21:54:19Z

As if the FOX news network couldn’t reach even lower, we have this amazing screen capture:

Thanks FOX

via mfisn

Headlines that don’t make sense until you have your first coffee #1

2008-08-27T22:46:26Z

Headlines that don’t make sense until you have your first coffee #1

Paedophile Glitter arrives in UK

I swear I was thinking “what, glitter for paedophiles? Glitter that attracts paedophiles? Is this a new episode of Brass Eye? WHAT THE HELL IS THE BBC TALKING ABOUT?”

Which just goes to show how necessary coffee is in my life.

Verwirrung » Blog Archive » Headlines that don’t make sense until you have your first coffee #1.

DNC Detention Camps Spark Outcry

2008-08-22T09:21:27Z

With the 2008 Democratic Nation Convention convening on the 25th, there have already been a few voices raised about security and the right to protest. Protesting that the National Conventions seems to be a historical outlet for the nation’s grievances. But it seems that the city of Denver, which is hosting the event, had already decided how and where to deal with all the protesters.

In large fenced area in a warehouse that once housed voting machines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQEc3ejHIaM

The police and the city were very hush-hush about the entire issue, and were not forthcoming when the even broke into the public eye. The fact that they have built the detainment centers before the event begins means that they anticipate confrontations with the protesters. Perhaps, rather than preparing for violence that hasn’t happened yet, tax dollars would be better spent on listening to the issues of the tax-payers voicing their problems.

The single best quote I’ve heard about this issue so far is was by Glenn Spagnuolo at a press conference about the detention camps:

This facility has a long history,” he told a small gathering of reporters. “The city pulled its voting machines from here because the building gets too hot. Yet now, they’ll put people in there who use those machines to vote.

“There are no toilets there. There’s no water, no fire suppression. The city should be ashamed. It needs to stop criminalizing protests.” [emphasis added]

Hopefully one day both sides will decide to meet together and discuss this rather than viewing protests of this nature as warzones to compete in. The escalation of violence in situations like this do not bode well for the future of our supposed democracy.

Full Story: City defends “secret jail” built for DNC

Day of Discord 2008 - Portland Edition

2008-08-20T10:02:20Z

This coming Saturday (the 23rd of August) is the International Day of Discord for Discordians, Subgenii, tricksters, losers, and all of their ilk. Lucky Portlanders have the chance of meeting up with some other whack-jobs for good times and BBQ!

It’s going to be a potluck BBQ in the park. Bring some tasty snacks, fun accessories, youself, and some hot people. The festivities are being hosted by Johnny Brainwashan and Telarus, KSC. It’s going to be at Laurelhurst park in SE Portland, OR at 1 pm PST. You can find a map here.

Full/more information can be found at the Official (Really) Site.

via 23 Apples of Eris

Proof of Concept to Enhance Video Using Static Images

2008-08-19T21:36:04Z

Video as a medium has been evolving quickly in the high-speed internet era. Handheld cameras are becoming more affordable as technology becomes cheaper and more widespread. However, limitations still exist which make capturing the perfect video difficult. Bad lighting, stabilization issues, unexpected objects in the video, and other video troubles can ruin an amazing shot - unless you have the expensive editing equipment to fix it.

It seems that an inexpensive and simple way to fix common issues with video shots has been developed. A demo was given Eurographics Symposium on Rendering in 2007. By developing a rendering system that is able to scan the depth of video and images - the team was able to use still images to enhance different aspects of a video; such as increasing the high dynamic range, exposure, and removing entire objects from the video.

http://www.vimeo.com/1513129

These capabilities are enabled by two technical contributions presented in this paper. First, we make several improvements to a state-of-the-art multiview stereo algorithm in order to compute view-dependent depths using video, photographs, and structure-from-motion data. Second, we present a novel image-based rendering algorithm that can re-render the input video using the appearance of the photographs while preserving certain temporal dynamics such as specularities and dynamic scene lighting.

They even offer the source-code on their website for tweaking yourself. Hopefully some programs come out soon for users to utilize this technology for their video. This could be a huge boost in video quality for amateur directors or film students.

Link: Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene

Muxtape Temporarily Shut Down by RIAA

2008-08-19T05:04:26Z

It seems that Muxtape, the free online “mixtape”-creation service has temporarily shut their website down - thanks to pressure from the Recording Industry of America (RIAA). There was much speculation about this possibility after Muxtape’s launch, and now it seems that they’ve been caught up with.

Currently (as of 9:48pm PST) the website displays the following message under the logo:

Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA.

However, the official Muxtape blog has a better (seeming) news.

No artists or labels have complained. The site is not closed indefinitely. Stay tuned.
Beta users of Muxtape For Bands: you are unaffected by this outage.

So - probably not down for good. And while the RIAA has a penchant for frivolous lawsuits, it seems that lately they have been losing. More users are standing up against their ridiculous claims and the EFF and bloggers everywhere are doing the best they can to fight the stupidity. Hopefully we’ll have our wondrous Muxtape back soon.

Story via c|net News

Related PoB content:
Eris Siva’s Muxtape
boogiepop’s Muxtape