Pocket Knives
My recent bout of KAD (Knife Acquisition Disorder) is somewhat under control now. I have accumulated an acceptable collection of knives, and I'm not really itching to make another purchase just yet. Of course, I'd love me one of those Chris Reeve Sebenza knives, but the price tag keeps my fiscally responsible side well-grounded in reality. I don't think that last sentence makes sense, so let me rephrase it: I can't afford it.When I was a wee lad I carried a pocket knife to be cool, carve my initials into wooden objects, and play mumblety-peg with the neighborhood degenerates. I recall having a cheap single blade folder and a medium sized Swiss Army Knife way back when. However, I stopped carrying pocket knives after getting out of high school (yeah, back then pocket knives were allowed in school), and never really missed them or gave them much thought until a few years ago.
So what happened a few years ago? I was on a weekend hike with another family, and my friend broke out an absolutely enormous Swiss Army Knife that I immediately ridiculed and scoffed at. No, it wasn't THIS monstrous, but still. After getting my friend on the defensive, he explained all about the practical utility of having an EDC pocket knife: sawing logs for a lean-to; spontaneous tooth picking; and blah blah emergencies blah blah. He was very convincing. So, I dug my old Swiss Army Classic out of my drawer and started to carry it on the regular. I soon decided to get something different, and that led to the acquisition of a Buck Scholar knife.
KAD took over in 2012, and I really went haywire that year. My knife purchases went like this: Spyderco Dragonfly2 in May; Spyderco Manix2 Blue Lightweight in June; Benchmade Mini-Griptilian in July; Coldsteel Tuff Lite in August; Gerber Dime in November (returned to Amazon in November); Leatherman Juice S2 in early December; and Spyderco Native5 ordered on December 31, 2012. Wow, that's a little overboard, but the lineup looks great:
The knives are shown in chronological order according to when I got them: top row left to right, then bottom row left to right. So my oldest knife is the SAK Classic, and my newest is the Native5. I don't really carry the Classic or the Scholar these days, simply because I prefer the other knives as EDC items. I rarely carry the Manix2 because I don't want to scare or intimidate any sheeple in the neighborhood. Seriously, the Manix2 is only a "pocket" knife in theory or if you're rockin' giant baggy MC Hammer pants.
I guess that I can do some retroactive posts related to the Dragonfly2, Manix2, and Mini-Griptilian knives. So be on the lookout for those posts. Unless, of course, KAD kicks in again and/or a Sebenza magically appears in my mailbox. If that happens, I'll write about it immediately.
Ai Weiwei | Dumbass
Time
Ai Weiweit has released his first heavy-metal single “Dumbass,” a song that is based on his 81-day secret detention in 2011.
He said in a statement that the accompanying music video is a detailed reconstruction of his prison condition, which he committed to memory because he “had nothing else to do.” (Prison guards would secretly ask him to sing for them as a way to kill time. He belted out decades-old Communist revolutionary tunes, and they were stunned that he knew them, he said.) In the video, Ai tries to show the contrast between the realities of prison and the fantasies of his guards, while reflecting on the struggle to establish basic human rights in China.
“Dumbass,” already blocked in the Chinese mainland, is the top song of his six-track debut album Divina Commedia, which is set to be released next month.
“I stand up as a dumbass, the whole country acts like a prostitute,” he belts out the lyrics (a very muted translation of the actual Chinese expletive), “Dumbasses are everywhere, forget about forgiveness and tolerance.”
Mr. Ai wrote the lyrics and asked a friend, the rocker and contemporary artist Zuoxiao Zuzhou, to handle the music.
“I want to show young people here we all can sing,” he said. “It’s our voice.”
Ai Weiweit has released his first heavy-metal single “Dumbass,” a song that is based on his 81-day secret detention in 2011.
He said in a statement that the accompanying music video is a detailed reconstruction of his prison condition, which he committed to memory because he “had nothing else to do.” (Prison guards would secretly ask him to sing for them as a way to kill time. He belted out decades-old Communist revolutionary tunes, and they were stunned that he knew them, he said.) In the video, Ai tries to show the contrast between the realities of prison and the fantasies of his guards, while reflecting on the struggle to establish basic human rights in China.
“Dumbass,” already blocked in the Chinese mainland, is the top song of his six-track debut album Divina Commedia, which is set to be released next month.
“I stand up as a dumbass, the whole country acts like a prostitute,” he belts out the lyrics (a very muted translation of the actual Chinese expletive), “Dumbasses are everywhere, forget about forgiveness and tolerance.”
Mr. Ai wrote the lyrics and asked a friend, the rocker and contemporary artist Zuoxiao Zuzhou, to handle the music.
“I want to show young people here we all can sing,” he said. “It’s our voice.”
When you're ready to strike, he mumbles about non-violence.
When you pinch his ear, he says it's no cure for diarrhea.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.
Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.
Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass! Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!
Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass! Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!
Lalalalala, lalalalala Lalalalala, lalalalala
Lalalalala, lalalalala Lalalalala, lalalalala
Stand on the frontline like a dumbass, in a country that puts out like a hooker.
The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.
The field is full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.
Petcube | Play With Your Pet From Anywhere
Maybe you have one of those jobs where you are not allowed to bring your pet to work. Or maybe you are just out and about but your pet is at home. You can still interact with your friend using Petcube.
Intelligence
CBS
Intelligence is centered at US Cyber Command, and focuses on a unit that has been created around a former Delta Force turned über-agent in a crime thriller that explores the unlimited possibilities of technology. With a special microchip implanted in his brain, he has become the first super computer with a beating heart.
Intelligence is centered at US Cyber Command, and focuses on a unit that has been created around a former Delta Force turned über-agent in a crime thriller that explores the unlimited possibilities of technology. With a special microchip implanted in his brain, he has become the first super computer with a beating heart.
Dan Brown’s Consortium | Creating Illusion
 |
| From The Independent |
Dan Brown’s Inferno introduces The Consortium, a secret organization pulling strings behind the scenes. Brown says the company is based on real groups.
“There are a number of organizations like the Consortium. They essentially create alibis for people, or fictional realities. They make it easy to tell a very convincing lie.
Whether it’s the Vatican, the White House or Microsoft—they all need to manage public perception and sometimes that involves creating illusion or shaping the truth.” Dan Brown, Bloomberg, 13 May 2013
Below from Inferno.
Below: Need an Alibi? One Company's Got You Covered, NPR
Speaking of managing public perception, how about this latest Anthony Weiner For Mayor of New York City ad. And at his website, you can read his 64 Ideas to Keep New York the Capital of the Middle Class.
“There are a number of organizations like the Consortium. They essentially create alibis for people, or fictional realities. They make it easy to tell a very convincing lie.
Whether it’s the Vatican, the White House or Microsoft—they all need to manage public perception and sometimes that involves creating illusion or shaping the truth.” Dan Brown, Bloomberg, 13 May 2013
Below from Inferno.
Available online, businesses with names like the Alibi Company and Alibi Network made fortunes all over the world by providing unfaithful spouses with a way to cheat and not get caught. Promising to briefly “stop time” so their clients could slip away from husband, wife, or kids, these organizations were masters at creating illusions—fake business conventions, fake doctor’s appointments even fake weddings—all of which included phony invitations, brochures, plane tickets, hotel confirmation forms, and even special contact numbers that rang at Alibi Company switchboards, where trained professionals pretended to be whatever receptionist or contact the illusion required.
The provost, however, had never wasted his time with such petty artifice. He dealt solely with large-scale deception, plying his trade for those who could afford to pay millions of dollars in order to receive the best service.
Governments.
Major Corporations.
The occasional ultrawealthy VIP.
To achieve their goals, these clients would have at their disposal all of the Consortium’s assets, personnel, experience, and creativity. Above all, though, they were given deniability—the assurance that whatever illusions was fabricated in support of their deception could never be traced to them.
Whether trying to prop up a stock market, justify a war, win an election, or lure a terrorist out of hiding, the world’s power brokers relied on massive disinformation schemes to help shape public perception.
It had always been this way.
In the sixties, the Russians built an entire fake spy network that dead-dropped bad intel that the British intercepted for years. And more recently, the world had been led to believe that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq.
Below: Need an Alibi? One Company's Got You Covered, NPR
Speaking of managing public perception, how about this latest Anthony Weiner For Mayor of New York City ad. And at his website, you can read his 64 Ideas to Keep New York the Capital of the Middle Class.
NASA | World’s Largest Panoramic Photo
NASA
Maybe you’ve used a photostitching program to make a panorama from several of your photographs. Usually this might be a 180 degree to 360 degree view of what you saw at the time. NASA has captured the world’s largest panoramic photo showing a portion of the Earth 6000 miles long by 120 miles wide.
Maybe you’ve used a photostitching program to make a panorama from several of your photographs. Usually this might be a 180 degree to 360 degree view of what you saw at the time. NASA has captured the world’s largest panoramic photo showing a portion of the Earth 6000 miles long by 120 miles wide.
iON | Every Conversation Is Two Conversations
Bob Dobbs’ private session 208, 23 November 2009. Dr Carolyn Dean asks iON about every conversation being two conversations.
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