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Technorati Profile

Walton Ford paints breathtaking depictions of animals reminicent of Audubon or turn of the century field notes. Closer inspection however reveals the contemporary issue of man versus nature, as well as using wildlife to symbolize man and his relationship with himself...backgrounds are aflame, animals both mate and try to destroy each other, birds offer luscious treats to smaller birds in the hopes of getting them close enough to their waiting mouths...(He also has a new art book available that is fantastic.)

He writes for Counterpunch.

He is a powerful, prolific and passionate blogger.

We are extremely proud to welcome him to our domain.

Please give it up, folks, for Kurt Nimmo!

New York Times, May 1 --   The Bush administration and leading Senate Republicans sought today to give the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon far-reaching new powers to demand personal and financial records on people in the United States as part of foreign intelligence and terrorism operations.

The proposal would have given the C.I.A. and the military the authority to issue administrative subpoenas — known as "national security letters" — requiring Internet providers, credit card companies, libraries and a range of other organizations to produce materials like phone records, bank transactions and e-mail logs. That authority now rests largely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the subpoenas do not require court approval.

The surprise proposal was tucked into a broader intelligence authorization bill now pending before Congress. It set off fierce debate today in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, officials said. Democrats on the panel said they were stunned by the proposal because it appeared to expand significantly the role of the C.I.A. and the Pentagon in conducting domestic operations, despite a long history of tight restrictions.

Advances in nanotechnology mean that the lost or stolen mobile phone could become a thing of the past, according to technology research hothouse BTexact.

The concept of 'active skin' - whereby incredibly small electronic circuits are inkjet printed onto the surface of the skin - could become a reality by 2010.

Circuits could be factory assembled in thin polymer membranes that adhere to the skin like temporary tattoos and large-scale circuitry could be embedded in stick-on patches similar to plasters. The combination of layers allows entire gadgets to be built, and permits links between the body and electronic domains such as the internet.

Semiconductor circuits can already be printed using inkjet printers, so it could also be feasible in the future to have circuits painlessly printed onto hands or arms. A full keyboard could be embedded in a forearm but remain almost invisible until touched and then it would light up.

Two weeks ago I experienced a very small taste of what hundreds of South Asian immigrants and U.S. citizens of South Asian descent have gone through since 9/11, and what thousands of others have come to fear. I was held, against my will and without warrant or cause, under the USA PATRIOT Act. While I understand the need for some measure of security and precaution in times such as these, the manner in which this detention and interrogation took place raises serious questions about police tactics and the safeguarding of civil liberties in times of war.

Er..."Patriotic" posters...tres amusant!


And when your done with that little chortlefest you can dig these crazy Psychedelic Republican trading cards...made from " High quality simulated Felix the Cat blotter paper".

Computer scientists take first step towards karaoke crown
A caterwaul can now become a croon, thanks to US computer scientists. Their new software makes weak voices sound professional. It could help recording engineers to make singers sound better or synthesized voices more human.

Studios already tweak vocal recordings. But current techniques are relatively crude, says the software's designer, Matthew Lee of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta - they can change pitch, or boost bass or treble, for example, but not remodel the voice. "We have much finer control," says Lee.

The programs break the voice down into several component frequencies, before manipulating and reconstructing them. Lee and his colleague Mark Smith, of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, taught their software what constitutes a good voice by using recordings of opera singers.

The package can change each of the half-dozen strong frequencies in singing voices. The balance between these frequencies makes the difference between, say, Jessye Norman and Britney Spears. Good singers tend to be strong across the range.

Better late then never huh? Just to show you that we here at Ten Thousand Monkeys are willing to go that extra mile for your continued reading satisfaction, here is photographic evidence that we have an embedded reporter too (take THAT CNN)! Nyah Nyah Nyah Nyah! Our very own M#5 (Quintus) fired these shots to us yesterday from his cell phone cam.

And, just as soon as he's done 'embedding himself', hoooo doggy, will we have some stories for you. Boy Howdy! Yessiree bob! Stories I tell ya! STOO RIES. Harrowing tales from the front lines! Combat, hard drinking, tanks, weapons, hard drinking, sand storms, hard drinking, statue destroying, and (you guessed it) HARD DRINKING!

In the mean time, just to keep us honest, please check out what did make it in under the deadline. (All Walt managed to send us was a grainy fax of either his last bar tab, or the latest collateral damages figures.)

Former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf is attempting to surrender to US forces, according to a London-based Arabic newspaper.

The Americans have refused to arrest Mr Sahhaf because he does not appear in the DOD "most wanted" deck of playing cards.

Also see:
    --  Arab TV news channel offers job to al-Sahhaf

If the Tidy-Bowl man or Ronald McDonald is haunting your dreams or meditations, you're not alone.

Jaye C. Beldo is forming a support group for sufferers of a media-oriented malady he calls Advertising Affective Disorder.

That's where media icons like Tony the Tiger appear whether you want them to or not. For instance, Beldo was once in a museum and saw a vision of Mr. Clean splashing floor cleaner on a Picasso.

Also, he knows a woman who was once demonically possessed by former Charmin toilet paper spokesman Mr. Whipple. | Via NWD

Anyone who thinks they can control the Internet received an object lesson during the past week.

It all started when Madonna literally lent her voice to a popular antipiracy technique. Warner Music Group had audio files purporting to be her new songs uploaded onto peer-to-peer file-sharing services. Anyone who downloaded the decoys, however, heard nothing but the pop star swearing at them. But since then, the pithy profanity has taken on a life of its own.

Some observers thought Madonna was smart to fight piracy with its own tools. Others perceived a thrown gauntlet -- hackers soon defaced Madonna's Web site with an equally profane retort along with several downloadable files of the then-unreleased songs. The defacement also carried a marriage proposal to Morgan Webb, an associate producer and on-air presenter at TechTV who had nothing to do with the prank.

the madonna remix project

in a vain attempt to stop P2P users swapping songs from Madonna's 'American Life' album, the lady herself released a series of 'dummy' files onto KaZaA. these are full length files but only the first few seconds contain sound, a recording of Madonna saying 'What the fuck do you think you're doing?'. presumably this was supposed to inspire guilt and repentant hearts in the sinful 'thieves'... but instead it seems to have been counterproductive... such a perfect sample is just crying out to be remixed!

I HAVE A THEORY that many (all?) cultures invent a food that is weird or disgusting to non-initiates as a sort of a "marker." The kids start out hating it, but at some point they cross over and perpetuate it (perpetrate it) on the next generation. Then they nudge each other when foreigners gasp.

A place — in cyberspace — where Dull Men can share thoughts and experiences,
free from pressures to be "in and trendy" to enjoy instead the simple, ordinary things of everyday life

John Sundman has posted the full-texts of his gonzo hacker novel "Acts of the Apostles" and equally gonzo story-collection "Cheap Complex Devices" online as free downloads, under a Creative Commons license. John has self-published very slick paper editions of both titles that he sells for reasonable sums, and he's hoping that CC licensing will be complimentary with sales of the meatspace editions. | Via BB
Also: If you haven't got it yet, get your free Ebook copy of Ong's Hat.

Where has the Hollywood anti-war lobby gone?

In the weeks leading up to war in Iraq actors Martin Sheen, Mike Farrell, Sean Penn and Janeane Garofalo joined a cast of thousands in a fierce Hollywood resistance played out in protest marches and from the sofas of television talk shows.

But with the war in its waning hours, all is quiet on the western coast -- leading conservatives to suggest that Garofalo and her fellow travelers are in full retreat from a public backlash and feeling chastened by a swift American victory.

Liberals fear Hollywood's left-wing stars are being muzzled and their careers placed in jeopardy from what actor Tim Robbins, called in a recent speech a "climate of fear."

But Mike Farrell, star of television's "MASH" and organizer of "Artists United to Win Without War," told Reuters that those who joined the loyal opposition in Hollywood had not been silenced and certainly were not backing down.

Instead, he said, the "huge coalition" of those opposed to the war were gathering strength and preparing to fight another day -- over post-war Iraq, domestic issues and future "preemptive strikes" by the Bush administration.

"What's the point of me saying anything right now, while they're in the end zone doing the dance and spiking the football?" Farrell said. "They are going to do the thing they are going to do, but we'll be heard from when it's appropriate and in the manner that is appropriate." MORE ->

Writer William Gibson will wind up his hugely popular weblog within a few weeks, out of fears that it might stifle his creative thinking about his next novel.

"I think it's in its last couple of weeks," he said. "I do know from doing it that it's not something I can do when I'm actually working. Somehow the ecology of writing novels wouldn't be able to exist if I'm in daily contact. The watched pot never boils," he added with a laugh.

Gibson began his weblog this year in early January. He has posted entries on an almost daily basis, barring sporadic periods when he has been on a reading tour for his latest novel, Pattern Recognition.

The images are all exactly to scale, each pixel equals one square meter. Internet Explorer users may Click and Drag the starships to compare them as you like. There are some contemporary vehicles and buildings for reference, scroll right and down for starships. Have fun!

Jeff Bezos get in on the space program. Very interesting article.
via Boing Boing

Amazing painter Alex Gross depicts an enigmatic world in a 50's japanese sci-fi pop meets Victorian England kinda way. Half Floating World, half Saturday morning cartoon with a dollop of Steampunk sensibilities...his work is dreamy and incandescent.