The Drain


John Pugh’s mural, the Drain has attracted quite a bit of attention. Painted on the side of a title company in Bishop, CA [satellite view], the Drain portrays

an agricultural Shangri La appears as a mural within a mural. This vision of the valley’s past derives from old paintings and photos, book descriptions, interviews, and visits to the less effected areas of Owens Valley. Breathing sweet orchard blossoms while gazing at the lush glory of this place 100 years ago, this depiction is not meant to portray a specific vantage point yet rather allow the viewer an ambient experience of the ecology.
If your eyes are diverted to the drainpipe, this is by design. Like a black hole that allows no light to escape, the protruding drainpipe absorbs all color in its proximity. The odd shape surrounding the pipe is actually a preserved section of the under painting, but conceptually it serves as an after image, or ‘ghost blotch’. It is a stain that is created by the absence of color information – or metaphorically, of life. Written words like ‘water’ and ‘tree’ or even ‘green’ are some of the sketch notes, but historically these are the line items that have virtually disappeared into the drain.

Everyone should take a drive up or down the Eastern Sierra. It’s a region of stark beauty, glorious mountains and desolate lakebeds, whose water has long since been shipped 200 miles southwest to the LA Basin via the LA Water and Power District.

More On Sony: Hacking Your Customers

Chris Gulker, The Coverup is the Crime:

Unlike Cyveillance, Sony only uses this reprehensible technique on paying customers: so let’s shoot the guys who are buying our stuff? Am I alone in thinking these guys are not serving shareholder interests well? Hack the paying customers and make it hard for them to hear the CD they purchased? Yikes. It’s easier, and much smarter, to steal the music, than buy it, if your purchased CD makes your CD player, and possibly your whole computer, unusable.

Baldwin Votes Against Internet Free Speech

Tammy Baldwin voted against internet free speech yesterday [The House voted 225 to 182 on the Online Freedom of Speech Act (H.R. 1606) — a majority but less than the two-thirds required for a “suspension” bill to clear the House. via instapundit]. An explanation would be useful. Jim Abrams has more. There’s certainly growing activism online. Adding complexity via more and more laws will be a loss for everyone (which is, perhaps one perspective of Baldwin and others who voted against H.R. 1606). Google News has more. As is typical, the small players get screwed in these deals, while the special interests on both sides spend money to get around the legal spaghetti, as we saw in the last national elections.

Ed Cone says “Email your congressman and tell him you want to blog without Federal regulation.”

Wisconsin’s House delegation voted as follows: Mark Green (R) voted Yes along with Ron Kind (D), Jim Sensenbrenner (R) – (I agree on something with Sensenbrenner???) and Mark Ryan (R).

Voting No with Baldwin (D) were Petri (R), Obey (D) and Moore (D).

Send Tammy Baldwin a note with your views on this important, local issue.

California Democrat Zoe Lofgren’s supportive comments on this bill. Slashdot and Declan have more.

Many Internet Startups Are Flying Without Venture Capital

Rebecca Buckman:

Many Internet companies attending a Web-business conference here earlier this month described venture money as “almost superfluous,” says Jason Pressman, a principal at Shasta Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif. Venture capitalists generally say their money and expertise are still needed to build large-scale businesses, and they don’t mind investing a little bit less in companies that have built businesses on the cheap but still want some venture money.
But some entrepreneurs believe the balance of power in Silicon Valley is shifting for at least a subset of Internet-focused start-ups. “There is magic in independence,” says Chris MacAskill, co-founder of online-photo site Smugmug Inc., which has no venture funding — and, according to Mr. MacAskill, doesn’t want any.

Honda Accord Hybrid Review

Autoweek:


In most respects then, the car is simply a better Accord.
Except for cost. At $3,290 more than a gasoline-only V6 Accord, it will take a very long time to recoup the hybrid’s price premium at the pump—and that’s not factoring in the cost of battery replacement—but owners insist it’s not always about the Benjamins.
“Yes, I paid a premium over a similar six-cylinder sedan,” one owner said. “But to my set of priorities, it is worth it to help promote something that simply makes sense.”

Gingrich on WWII vs the Four Years since 9/11

Newt Gingrich raises some useful points in comparing WWII’s four years vs. the four since 9/11 [pdf]:

I appreciate the opportunity to testify today about the nation’s intelligence system and the absolute imperative for effective ongoing reform.

It is now four years and one month since the 9/11 attack on America.

The comparable date for World War II would have been January 19, 1946. By that point the United States was largely demobilizing its forces after a victorious global war.
During the comparable length of time that we have been responding to the 9/11 attacks on America, the World War II generation of Americans had rebounded from the attack on Pearl Harbor and defeated Germany, Japan and Italy, built a worldwide military and intelligence capability, built the atomic bomb, massed and organized industrial power, and laid the foundation for the worldwide network of alliances that has stabilized the world for the last sixty years.

This difference in energy, intensity, and resolve should worry all of us.

This is a fascinating topic. One thing that strikes me is how different our national awareness of the globe must have been in 1946, given millions of Americans stationed overseas. This is much different, today, I think.