] We present a novel photographic technique called dual
] photography, which exploits Helmholtz reciprocity to
] interchange the lights and cameras in a scene. With a
] video projector providing structured illumination,
] reciprocity permits us to generate pictures from the
] viewpoint of the projector, even though no camera was
] present at that location. The technique is completely
] image-based, requiring no knowledge of scene geometry or
] surface properties, and by its nature automatically
] includes all transport paths, including shadows,
] interreflections and caustics.

!!!

The photo stuff from BladeRunner is real...

OK, I usually don't succumb to memeing those silly internet videos that people send around, but this is absolutely hillarious. Self defense courses for women in Tokyo must be hard core.

daynews.ru - Tokyo purse snatcher gets nailed

] Yet long before the sentence was handed down many
] concerned Australians had elevated Corby to martyr
] status. But a martyr to what cause? There are 155
] Australians in foreign jails on drugs charges, two facing
] the death penalty.

This take on the Corby verdict is pretty harsh, but is some truth to it.

The drug laws in South East Asia are fucked up. The reason is that militaries in places like Myanmar fund themselves through drug trade in the region, as well as knowledge of the political history of the opium trade. However, those reasons are not reasonable justifications for the laws as they stand. Death sentances for pot are not just.

Austrailia has very liberal attitudes about pot. Its illegal there like is illegal in Holland. You can smell it wafting through the streets in the cities at night. Austrailians like to travel all over South East Asia for business or pleasure. They like to bring their pot with them. This is a bad combination. People end up getting executed.

However, it is absolutely clear that pot smugglers from Austrailia are not funding military juntas in Myanmar, and it is stupid for these countries to hold them to the same legal standard. This individual is a media darling because she is a pretty girl, but the outrage surrounding her is probably outrage that would have been justified for the hundreds of not so pretty Austrailians who've been the victims of this problem.

The Government of Austrailia is likely to negotiate treaties that allow its citizens to be extradicted back home to be tried for crimes committed in other countries. I think this is a good idea and I'd like to see more countries follow suit with this kind of contract.

Corby verdict the inevitable - Editorial - Opinion - smh.com.au

ibenez wrote:
] This is impossible. The Democrats firmly told me Bush was
] destroying the economy. How could this be? Others on this
] website (Memestreams) blame Bush for everything that goes
] wrong - if they were fair minded people I would expect to see
] a post praising Bush for our growing economy..... I mean, if
] you blame his Administration for everything that goes bad
] (Gitmo, Abu Gharib,etc) then you obviously need to give credit
] for everything that goes well right?

I'll bite. The administration is, in fact, responsible for the operation of Gitmo and Abu Gharib. The connect between events at Abu Gharib and Administration policy is weak at best. However, as they run the military they are the most obvious place to complain if there is a problem with how the military is running. They are responsible. Thats their job.

The primary concern about Gitmo is that it is not a pow camp, but existed, until a recent Supreme Court case (which imho Bush largely won, with some limit), in an unprecedented legal black hole in which there literally were no rules or checks and balances. This was intentionally done to avoid geneva convention rules on torture. The administration made the legal policy here. They are responsible for it. Several arguments have been advanced to defend this move, in the Gonzales Memo and the Administration's court filings, and they are all questionable.

1. The administration will eventually release or try these people: In the United States we have checks and balances. We don't blindly trust any division of government to simply do the right thing. We create a process that forces them to. Thats one key difference between a democracy and autocracy.

2. The geneva convention is "quaint:" I agree, but the right way to handle that is to update the standard rather then simply tossing it aside.

3. Terrorists don't follow the geneva convention: Should we be no better then them? The whole point of having things like the Geneva convention is to set an international standard for how soldiers ought to be treated when captured on a battle field. It is wise to uphold good standards even in the face of people who won't. Otherwise, the message you are sending is "do what thou wilt."

4. Other countries will treat our military with respect because of the reality of our actions with respect to treatment of POWs rather then the documented standards that we uphold. While there is some truth to this, other countries don't know how we treat our POW's unless there is a lot of light thrown on the matter. The controversy over Abu Gharib is exactly the reason that this is a bad idea. If you had an established policy for how you treat POWs and people, in general, understand what it is and trust you to uphold it, they are a hell of a lot less likely to be concerned that abuse stories might genuinly reflect how you are operating the prisons rather then just examples of bad ap... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

RE: March GDP revised upward from 3.1% to strong 3.5% / Officials attribute the upgrade mainly to slightly lower imports

noteworthy wrote:
] "We'll need to develop considerably more sophisticated ways
] of using these new means of communication that are now
] available to reach the many and diverse audiences."
]
] General Memetics, anyone?

The political parties are absolutely connected with the A-list bloggers that they want pushing out their perspective. Furthermore, the a-list publishes blogrolls. If you want to figure out where to inject a meme is all here... but I'd hardly call the audience there "diverse."

Who is speaking to the islamic world? Certainly not us. The language barriers are definately a problem. There is little real cross cultural dialog. But if you want something to hold a riot about in Afghanistan, its easy to find...

The use of the press as a microphone is a bit out-dated. Your message always gets distorted when it goes through that filter. You should communicate directly. Why isn't Rumsfeld blogging? Why isn't his blog translated into various languages? Why am I reading an article about Rumsfeld's statement instead of simply reading his statement? Why does he speak before the "World Affairs Council" when he could simply be speaking to the world? This isn't 1842 and you don't have to get all the fuddy duddies together in a room to have a conversation.

The pentagon has obviously been investigating the newsweek story. If there was a place where we heard directly from them how they were handling controversial issues it would be a powerful tool to cool fires. Want to understand what went down at Abu Gharib? Here is the Pentagon's website where they explain the situation and what they are doing about it. How can you be angry at an organization that takes responsibility for problems and addresses them in a visible way?

The way to combat bad information is with good information. Today there is no single clearing house that you can point to that explains what the hell we're doing in Iraq. The vacuum is filled with punditry, sensationalism, speculation, and foggy recollections.

I used to worry about government publications being propagandist, but frankly if everyone is free to criticise and the material is intelligent its not the same thing. The only dangerous environment is one in which you can't ask questions, or you don't bother to.

RE: Rumsfeld Laments Global Reach of War News

] In November 2003, the Voyager team announced it was
] seeing events unlike any in the mission's then 26-year
] history. The team believed the unusual events indicated
] Voyager 1 was approaching a strange region of space,
] likely the beginning of this new frontier called the
] termination shock region.

Voyager 1 Heads Into the Zone

] The measure approved Thursday would require store owners
] to determine which games are too violent or sexually
] explicit for anyone under 18. Anyone selling them to a
] minor could be fined.

Brilliant!

This is just golden:

] The sponsor, Sen. Deanna Demuzio, denied the measure
] would interfere with free speech rights.
]
] "Video games are not art or media," she said. "They are
] simulations, not all that different from the simulations
] used by the U.S. military in preparation for war."

But the saddest thing in this entire article is:

] "I'm going to vote for this bill, but I'm voting for it
] for one reason: because this is a political bill,"
] said Sen. Mike Jacobs. "If I vote against it, it will
] show up in a campaign mail piece

Senate OKs Video Game Restrictions

] The FBI ran a sting where they posed as a electronic
] recycling company eager to get state law changed to
] funnel business their way.

Awesome!

Tennessee Senators arrested by the FBI!

] Perhaps something intense triggers it, like when there's a
] death in the family, or when you just found out your
] lover is going to break up with you. You're standing in
] the back yard and you're looking at a leaf and you see
] every vein on it. You see every detail, hear every noise,
] time just slows down and every second drips like
] molasses. Things becomes slow motion and every sense in
] your body is absorbing the moment, you're not on
] autopilot anymore.

Interview with the Flaming Carrot guy. I haven't read a lot of Flaming Carrot, but I enjoyed the stuff I saw. This interview is good...

The Comics Journal: Interviews

Already, four shopping malls in China are larger than the Mall of America. Two, including the South China Mall, are bigger than the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, which just surrendered its status as the world's largest to an enormous retail center in Beijing. And by 2010, China is expected to be home to at least 7 of the world's 10 largest malls.

Make sure you watch the multi-media presentation...

China, New Land of Shoppers, Builds Malls on Gigantic Scale