KingWho

• the Triggertrap: universal and opensource remote camera trigger
• The Transparent State Enemy: Western Surveillance Technology in the Hands of Despots
• george clooney becomes a spy on the side of good: this is not a film it is real life.
• ten things everyone should know about time: a nice refresher of late night stoner talk on physics
• New Christmas Catalog Price List - Anders Brekhus Nilsen
• My Occupy LA Arrest, by Patrick Meighan: how long will we condone the violence perpetrated by police.
• The Problem of Paint: Walker Art Center article about the restoration of art featuring my friend and neighbor Joe King.
• Longform's best of 2011: Who says journalism is dead?
• Retooling Libraries: Make magazine calls out to rethink libraries.
• NY Times Best Books of 2011
• LA Times domestic surveillance: Police use Predator Drone to aid in domestic arrest.
• Naomi Kline on Capitalism and Climate. Also, question and answers with her in the NY Times

This week I found out about this event in LA called the Extreme Futurist Festival. This seems to take transhumanism so far beyond life extension, singularity and science. It brings a futuristic culture into the fold and combines hacking, performance and definitely some edge. I would love to see a more cultural take on bio-hacking. The Quantified Self and Humanity + crowd is pretty dry and this is a topic that need to be shaken up some to really get the discussions started.

Extreme Futurist Festival in LA
web: http://extremefuturistfest.info/
blog: http://extremefuturistfest.info/blog/

They have talked a bit about livestreaming the festival. I hope they do!

Also: I usually try to check out the sponsers of events such as this and the two listed on the festival home page do not disappoint.

Sniffcode.com is a site dedicated to the research done for the fiction book Clone. I haven't read this book but I will now. The site works great because you actually have to figure out how to navigate it. There is nothing obvious. At first I just saw the odd art and photography. On second look I found content and then more and more content. Great site.

Mythos Media is a site linked to the idea that myths are not dead stories that explain our history. They are alive and interacting with us at all times. There are stories, essays, music, books and events. Tons of things to occupy your off hours. Like Sniffcode and the festival they have a real futuristic edge.

Hopefully as I dig through these sites and communities I find the one thing that makes sub-cultures work, a sense of humor. There is nothing worse than taking it all to serious. Have fun and do cool things.

We can all agree that Christmas is the most Dickensian of the holidays. And by that I mean "it is the best of times, it is the worst of times".

Now to get you in the festive mood we point you to fine folks at HOMETAPES. They have provided us with a new album of the season's finest hymns available for whatever price you wish to donate.

Here is a sample:

Rare EP released in 2002. Available now as a free download!

mountain singers | across the level gorge by mountain singers

Today's Google Voice-mail transcription:

Hey Billy. Don and I are on our way to with the Bulldogs just wondered if you're around. Or in the area,stop on the We're going to the ball, Doc. I don't know what time though. Porter thought. ThomasSpurgeon, it's kind of 2 so we'll be there by 2 and have a dot. For through They will see you bye bye.

from the home office of Occupy Wall Street

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit. They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas. They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

It is funny how a company’s name is either so vague that you wouldn’t know what they do or so revealing that it can tell you every thing you wanted to know about their objectives. So what does it tell you when a company that provides surveillance blimps for the US Government has changed their name to World Surveillance Group Inc (WSGI). This is the most telling corporate name since John Poindexter’s “Total Information Awareness”.

This isn’t the first time WSGI has changed their name. In 1979 they started out as Terra West Homes of Nevada. In 1995 the probably grew board with this name and switched to the fabulously descriptive “American Diversified Group”. With the new century they decided on a new name in GlobeTel Communications. That didn’t quite stick and the name was then changed to Sanswire Corp. Finally in 2011 they needed a new name that told the world exactly what was in store and became World Surveillance Group, Inc. What a long strange trip it has been.

The folks at WSGI want to put their blimps into the air and watch over you. I feel safer already!