Scoreless Victory for Serendipity

The Future of Photography: 4D

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:53:13 -0800

The Future of Photography: 4D

Photo

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 10:32:34 -0700

Photo

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 10:27:44 -0700

A little experimentation with some sweet sound clips I extracted...

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:20:54 -0700

A little experimentation with some sweet sound clips I extracted emerged into this. Just another day of funemployment.

thepeoplesrecord: How Texas-made textbooks influence American...

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:10:38 -0700

thepeoplesrecord:

How Texas-made textbooks influence American education (photo)
July 7, 2012

One of the tasks of the Texas State Board of Education is to update curriculum standards and textbooks for Texas schoolchildren. The Texas school system is so large — 4.8 million textbook-reading school children as of 2011 — that revisions made by the board are often included in school books across the country, though digital technology has lessened this effect in recent years.

In 2010, the board got a lot of attention when it approved over 100 amendments — many of which had a very clear conservative political agenda — to the social studies and economics curriculum standards. Here are some of the more pointed proposals.

Thomas Who?
Thomas Jefferson, the Founding Father considered by many to be the author of the Declaration of Independence, is also credited with coining the phrase “separation of church and state.” According to The New York Times, that coinage didn’t make him very popular with the conservative members of the board. They removed Jefferson from a list of great Enlightenment philosophers — including John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu and Jean Jacques Rousseau — who inspired political revolutions from the 1700s to today. They also removed the word “Enlightenment” and added Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin. After much criticism, they added Jefferson back, but left out “Enlightenment” resulting in a standard very different from the original.

Downplaying Religious Freedom
A proposed amendment from one of the Democratic board members would have required students to “examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others.” One Republican member argued that the “founders didn’t intend for separation of church and state in America” and called the statement “not historically accurate” and the conservative members voted down the standard. The board then added a new one that suggests the “separation of church and state” is not a key principle of the First Amendment.

Censoring Capitalism
Citing negative connotations, conservative board members decreed that all instances of the word “capitalism” should be replaced with “free-enterprise system.” They also objected to “democratic,” so “democratic societies” and “representative democracy” were replaced by “republic.” Any reference to American “imperialism” was also stricken and replaced with “expansionism.” In the textbooks, imperialism could only be associated with European and Russian colonialism.

“Super” Heroes?
In perhaps the most blatant political move, the board passed an amendment requiring U.S. history students to learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s,” but not about liberal or minority groups. Conservative heroes including Phyllis Schlafly, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association were added, and more frequent mentions of President Ronald Reagan were encouraged. As Chairman Don McLeroyexplained to the Washington Monthly: “He needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes.”

Bling’s the Thing
Earlier this week, the Texas GOP released their 2012 platform which includes, among othercontroversial policy positions, a desire to return to the gold standard. The United States left the gold standard for good in 1971 and most economists agree that move was a good thing. The school board held a debate — unattended by any economists — and arbitrarily passed a revised standard that requires students to “analyze the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.”

The Great Society (Maybe Not So Great?)
The board approved a standard requiring students to learn about “any unintended consequences” of the Great Society, affirmative action and Title IX. Other attempts to change the way the civil rights movement was taught, including a provision that would require students learn that it created “unreasonable expectations for equal outcomes,” failed to pass.

Socialists Get the Boot
Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers of America, was dropped from a third grade list of “historical and contemporary figures who have exemplified good citizenship.” Conservative board members said Huerta is not a good role model for third-graders because she’s a socialist. Helen Keller, a staunch socialist, was left on the books.

Exhuming McCarthy
Far right members of the board — hoping to lessen criticism of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s 1950s hearings — passed a standard that would make students learn “how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government.”

Googling Boondoggle
South Texas artist Santa Barraza was recommended for inclusion in a 7th grade standard by a Latina board member. Another member googled the artist and was offended by one of her paintings that included minor female nudity. She showed it to her colleagues and they refused to add her to the standard. The Texas Freedom Network notes that several of Barraza’s paintings were hanging in the Texas governor’s mansion while George W. Bush was in residence in the 1990s. The conservative bloc also removed hip hop from a list of culturally significant musical genres.

Source

Occupy All Streets: Beekeeper Researches Monsanto’s Effects on Bees; State Destroys Research

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:05:00 -0700

Occupy All Streets: Beekeeper Researches Monsanto’s Effects on Bees; State Destroys Research:

occupyallstreets:

anticapitalist:

(This is a really long post, so I’m editing it to make it shorter)

Beekeeper Researches Monsanto’s Effects on Bees; State Destroys Research

“The State Department of Agriculture came in and inspected our hives 4 times, 3 times when we were not home, and…

Found a new little hobby of mine to keep me busy on slow...

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 23:15:36 -0700

Found a new little hobby of mine to keep me busy on slow nights.

Here goes my first re-mix on a virtual Dj application I downloaded. Too much fun and as a result, quite time consuming, but so worth listening to tracks over and over again. and over. and over.

Azealia Banks anyone?

P.S. DJ PapaSquat will be my little alias. Copyrighted.

Low Cost of Living in the Berkeley Co-Ops

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:42:04 -0700

Here’s a little blog piece I wrote for an Environmental Economics course in 2009:

Why are living costs of the Berkeley Student Cooperative houses about half that of UC Berkeley residence halls even if the BSC provides 24/7 open-kitchen food service within the cost?

With student budgets tightening over the year due to the economic recession, living expenses have become a major concern for students who are looking for a place to live in or around the UC Berkeley campus. Units 1, 2, and 3 provide the majority of available living spaces in the UC residence hall system. For the 2009 Fall Semester, a single costs $7,857, a double costs $6,950, and a triple, the cheapest of all UC residence hall options, costs $5,800. Each of these prices includes the standard meal plan of 1250 points per semester.

The 17 room-and-board houses of the Berkeley Student Cooperative offer rates that are half that of the Units. A full semester of room-and-board at any given co-op house is a set price of $3,270, regardless of whether the room one is a single, double, triple, or quad. Included in the cost is a comprehensive food service that allows house members to cook their own meals at anytime in the house kitchen. Each house has a kitchen/food manager that orders food for the entire house through the Central Kitchen office, which buys food in bulk from Costco, local farmers and producers, among others. In addition to the food service, each house must provide adequate furniture, network service, social events, utilities, and other amenities, whether they are hot tubs, pool tables, exercise equipment, or laundry machines that cost 25 cents per load. Since the co-op houses provide the same services the residence halls provide and more, why do they cost half the price of the dorms?

The first thing to consider is the meaning of a co-operative house. Co-operative houses are non-profit organizations that are managed and owned solely by the members themselves. By pooling money and resources and straying away from profiteering, members can save money due to the reduced costs in this economic model. This, however, doesn’t entirely explain why the co-ops are cheaper than dorms since the residence halls are not used as land meant for profit maximization; they are meant to provide students with housing and charge rates that simply cover the costs of running the service. Thus, we need to look past ideologies and look at the actual costs that incur from operating either a co-op or residence hall.

Meal plans are important to consider when looking at the difference in rates of co-ops and residence halls. To start, the per diem rate per member for food is currently $5.10, which covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, or whatever one wishes to eat for that day. This sums up to a total of $606.90 a semester. In stark contrast, a meal plan through the UC costs $1250, which is only enough to buy 10-14 meals a week or 1-2 meals a day. The opportunity cost of spending such money is large since one can use that money to buy other meals or snacks, textbooks, or other student necessities.

To look at where the rest of one’s rent money is going towards, we must look at the underlying fixed costs of labor that each “business” must cover. Labor is key in determining why the co-ops are so much cheaper than the dorms. In the co-ops, each member is responsible for working for 5 hours per week in addition to the rent they pay. These workshifts range from cooking dinner, house maintenance, dishwashing, gardening, etc. Since the members are responsible for the labor within the house, there is little need for outside contractors, which in turn drives down the monetary costs of labor. Since the dorms do not have a workshift system, the members must cover the costs of labor that include maintenance, gardeners, maids once people move out, and many others. This is the underlying reason why there is such a cost gap between the co-operatives and the residence halls.

Bottom Line: The co-operative student-housing model is a great living alternative for students with tight budgets especially considering the marginal benefits one gains over the minimal marginal costs one pays.

Can't Buy Me Love

Sun, 27 May 2012 09:05:39 -0700

Disclaimer: Here’s a little something I wrote on Valentine’s Day, but it certainly pertains to every day of our lives. It’s still a work in progress, as almost anything in life is, whether it be poetry, music, or our own selves. We can always rework ourselves for the better in order to rework the foundation of our thought processes. Only then will we truly make great changes to this materialistic world.

Can’t Buy Me Love

It seems to me more and more Americans are dreading the ever-looming next holiday as if it may be their last. Whether it be the “next Christmas” or the “next Halloween” or the “next Valentine’s Day.”

No, it’s not the smell of excitement or the sounds of sweet yule tide carol that we anticipate anymore. It’s the smells and sounds of the local Best Buy or Wal-Mart or Kay Jewelers that looms and dissipates our nostalgia for what holidays were meant to be.

There’s nothing like the sweet smell of freshly-mopped linoleum flooring the day after stuffing our faces with turkey and cranberries and the works, with the ones we care about most.

There’s nothing like having a little shove match over an 80 giga-byte-mini-bite-sized-one-size-fit-all-half-off-on-sale-money-back-guaranteed-satisfaction-pleasing-to-the-touch-complementary-free-batteries-not-included-BUT-battery-operated-custom-designed-form-fitting-slimming-celebrity-endorsed whatever it may be.

It’s worth it, right? To bring back that sought after item that took so long to get? So long, because it can only mean winning over one’s heart in the end?

Hold up.

Stop a second.

Rewind.

Let’s pause for a commercial break.

Scratch that…a reality check.

Is this our greatest way to achieve one of our greatest desires which is to attain pure human connection? There must be an easier way out! But, why do we cage ourselves in this perception that items bought and paid for can somehow link the heart and mind of another individual; Another individual who might not have previously accepted such a bridging of souls.

Can we blame the market-driven-economy that has so seemingly clamped down on every aspect or our lives? Or is it deeper than that?

Is it a way to further rationalize and control intangible and erratic concepts such as love? To stabilize it? To put it into a form in which we can see, hear, feel consume?

Let’s step back and ask, How DID we get to this point? How did we turn our souls into metal-stainless-steel-polyester-100% cotton-petroleum-based-rubber-glass-worked-copper-wired-lead-coated-made-in-Taiwan-concrete-titanium-alloy-formaldehyde-synthesized-Red 40-but natural flavors-polycarbonate-plastic? Don’t worry. It’s BPA free.

How will this further affect our human race? Will we become so overly attached to such tangible, exogenous items that we, ourselves, will become one with them? Like the water molecule that decides to pull apart from another in an act of adhesion, dumping its cohesive bonds?

It seems we are reaching this epoch at an ever-increasing rate; Moore’s Law in real-time HD action. Our connection with high speed-nano technology such as the iPhone connects us to a device - a tool - more so than the carpenter and his hammer or the caveman and his bone.

We become more and more dependent on our technology in the context of telescoping time.

And sure this makes us a more efficient being. But what is this effect on our value system?

We are pulling further and further from our deep values, our deep emotions, ourselves.

We need to bring ourselves back.

Become more than just a material possession.

Become grounded.

Become cohesive.

I made this video in tribute to an amazing final semester at...

Sun, 27 May 2012 08:37:08 -0700

I made this video in tribute to an amazing final semester at Cal. I’m so grateful to have such smart, sporty, artsy, outdoorsy, loving friends.

One chapter closes in my life, but I’m ready to take on the next one with the same energy I employed these last few years in college.

GMO Foods NEED to be Labeled

Fri, 25 May 2012 10:33:49 -0700

GMO Foods NEED to be Labeled:

Corporations are fighting a losing battle here. By labeling a product simply to notify what its contents are is not to demonize it. Companies label a multitude of other ingredients that may have negative effects on the human body. Transparency is a means for people to make informed judgement calls that are aligned with their values and health needs. It also holds companies at a higher accountability level should the health effects of GMOs be costly more so than beneficial for humans. To say that consumers are “demonizing” companies simply for asking for transparency is just another rhetorical tactic used by these big companies in order to put down populist movements. However, 90% of Americans, according to a Reuters poll, support GMO labeling. If that isn’t a simple majority, I don’t know what is. And yet, the big ag companies are pushing back harder than ever to cramp down on this populist campaign.

So, why are GMOs so hotly contested? Well, the greatest reason I can think of is the GMO industry is a multi-billion dollar industry concurrent with heavy government subsidization. There is a lot to lose for these big agribusiness companies if they start seeing their sales drop by even a few percentage points. The power of the consumer is real and it IS a big threat for these companies. We already have seen examples of consumer victories in Europe regarding GMOs. Enough popular dissent emerged that was enough to force profit margins for these GMO agribusinesses to drop by a few percentages, and as a result, enough to cause many of them to switch to non-GM ingredients or not sell their products at all. But, the U.S. is a haven for GM foods because of loose regulations and well, the American diet is fueled by processed foods that rely heavily on GM products (because they’re grotesquely cheap to use). And lest we not forget, the big agribusiness companies have a stronghold on the FDA through heavy lobbying and placing former top execs in some of the most powerful FDA positions through a “revolving-door” policy. The big ag companies have the resources to uphold their ability to cramp down on transparency for GMOs, but in the end, the consumers truly hold the power in this struggle. Let’s keep up the good fight.

I’ve posted up new footage from Occupy the Farm on...

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:57:27 -0700

I’ve posted up new footage from Occupy the Farm on Youtube.

This is a pretty cool speech I filmed by the Vice President of United Native Americans, Quanah Parker Brightman during a post-raid convergence on May 9th, 2012. About 100 or so protestors marched from the North Berkeley BART station to the Gill Tract in response to the UC sending police officers shut down some of the gates on the Tract.

Enjoy!

OCCUPY THE FARM Movement CONTINUES - Let everyone know this is...

Mon, 14 May 2012 01:43:00 -0700

OCCUPY THE FARM Movement CONTINUES - Let everyone know this is the new face of the Occupy movement - A more powerful, proactive, organized stage in the movement.

Whether you’ve heard of it or not, the Gill Tract occupation is alive
and well on the border of Albany and Berkeley, after one full week. The farm occupation is a response to UC Berkeley’s plan to sell part of the research land for a development project that would potentially include a Whole Foods (yes, another one in Berkeley). It is also a larger call for action directed at food justice issues in the Bay Area. I helped start the farm on Earth Day and have gained a lot of excitement about the community that has been created around it. It is an excellent example of how urban agriculture can be integrated into the surrounding landscape; it will be interesting to see how the UC will eventually respond to this action (aside from shutting off the main water line).

In the meantime. Spread the word about it! And visit the farm, if you can!

One way you can spread the word is by watching this video I created
today and posted on YouTube. I put together a collection of footage
I’ve taken from prior Occupy protests and this current occupation to
shed some light on the situation. I would be eternally grateful if you
would let others know about the video and about the occupation, in
general.

Here is the link:

http://youtu.be/krwEYQ4yizE

And to find out more about the occupation, check out:
www.takebackthetract.com

We live in exciting times and it’s always best to stay positive no
matter what the outlook!

UC Berkeley Continues "Silent" Yet "Hostile" Tactics to Suppress Protest Movement

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:18:03 -0700

UCPD seals off Gill Tract

Thursday, May 10th

Effie Rawlings 415-215-5464
Marika Iyer 510-575-9979

Albany, CA. Today, May 10, 2012 at approximately Noon, the UCPD
closed off the last remaining pedestrian access to the Gill Tract by
chaining and locking the gate at San Pablo and Marin Avenues. For the
past 24 hours, that gate had remained open, and despite a heavy police
presence people had been able to enter and exit freely through it.

This represents the latest in a series of measures taken by the UC
Administration to force the Farmers off of this piece of public
farmland. To date, the UCPD has cut off all water to the Gill Tract,
incapacitated the fire hydrant on the land, placed concrete barriers
around the land preventing vehicular access, and locked all entrances
shut. Farmers note that these actions threaten more than just their
plants: that in this dry, windy weather, which poses a high fire-risk,
there are no working fire hydrants on the land, and significantly
restricted access points for firefighters and exits for people on the
land.

Farmers are upset that the UC Administration is preventing scientists
from carrying out their research on the Gill Tract. For the second
day, UC Berkeley Professor Miguel Altieri has come to the Gill Tract
to attempt to plant his crops. Whereas the Gill Tract Farmers
Collective has directly assisted Altieri with his planting effort, the
UCPD has physically prevented him from planting his dry-farmed tomato
crop, saying he has no “authorization” to do his research. Professor
Altieri says that he is “disappointed that the University has missed
this opportunity to acknowledge that a coexistence of researchers and
occupiers is possible, and that they have blocked access to my
experimental plot.”

A support rally has been called for 5pm at the San Pablo and Marin
Avenue gate to resupply the farmers inside the GIll Tract with water
for the crops, as well as food and drink. Supporters are encouraged
to bring food, drinking water, large water containers such as gallon
jugs, duct tape, and farming supplies to pass to people inside the
fence. Supporters are also being encouraged to bring camping
supplies, to stay overnight, and help maintain a permanent presence
outside the fence to defend and supply the farmers inside.

@OccupyFarm
#OccupyTheFarm
www.OccupyTheFarm.org
Facebook: Occupy the Farm
Sign the petition
If you’re local, text “gilltractfarm” to 41411 to receive emergency text updates.

My take: The University has truly lost touch of what it supposedly stands for. Equal access to research is no longer the case here. If the research doesn’t rake in profits, well, say goodbye to your opportunity to perform non-biased, community-backed, non-GMO research.

Press-Release from Day 18 of Occupy the Farm - Gill Tract

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:08:00 -0700

UCPD Locks Gate on Professor’s Research, Farmers Move to Remediate Neglected Portions of Gill Tract

Contact:

Anya Kamenskaya 415-812-4793
Effie Rawlings 415-215-5464
Marika Iyer 510-575-9979

Wednesday, May 9th: Albany, CA - Professor Miguel Altieri, researcher at the Gill Tract for 31 years, planned to begin planting his research plot with his students this morning. An hour before he was scheduled to begin, the UC administration barricaded the Gill Tract with concrete, metal barriers, and dozens of police who threatened farmers with “chemical agents and impact force.” In a blatant affront to academic freedom, Dr. Altieri was told he lacked the “authorization” to conduct his research. A bulldozer loomed on the edge of the farm for the majority of the morning.

Despite the blockade, Professor Altieri, with the help of the farmers, managed to plant a token portion of his research area with organic, drought resistant crops that have benefited East Bay soup kitchens for years. The majority of his planned workday, however, has been disrupted by the UC Administration’s intervention.

The Gill Tract Farmers Collective continues to believe that urban farming and academic research can coexist and benefit one another on public farmland. Yesterday evening, in order to free up as much space as possible for researchers, the farmers began relocating the temporary camp to a more southern portion of the Gill Tract which has long been vacant, not used for agricultural research. The move was completed this morning, after the scheduled planting with Professor Altieri, and offers a win-win scenario, where the farmers can maintain access to the crops and the researchers can begin their research unimpeded.

On the south side of the Gill Tract, the farmers are beginning a community research project to find solutions that can heal damaged urban land. Whereas the land already under cultivation by the farmers is Class 1 soil, the soil they are beginning to remediate has been impacted by concrete and contaminated by heavy metals and chemicals due to years of UC negligence. Corey Scher, an Albany native, is joining the farmers for the remediation process. “Look around here. There’s trash everywhere, big pieces of rusty metal, abandoned structures, open plastic barrels of liquid chemicals. The University has not taken care of this place, so it’s up to us to clean up their mess.” The farmers intend to set an example of how to remediate damaged land to make it safe for growing food, and have scheduled a community visioning meeting for 5pm on Saturday, May 12th, to flesh out long-term plans for the farm.

The police presence has unnerved parents at Ocean View elementary school across the street from the Gill Tract. Kristin Vorhies expressed concerns about sending her asthmatic daughter to school this morning due to the UCPD’s reputation for deploying chemical agents on peaceful protesters. She, “loves the idea of having a farm across the street from an elementary school.” Vorhies “called the superintendent and requested that [the superintendent] work with the UC and the City of Albany to make sure that the situation is resolved peacefully, and without chemical agents or the threat of chemical agents. I hate to imagine the potentiality,” Vorhies concluded.

Community outrage has bolstered the farmers with a steady stream of new visitors and community support. They believe this response has dissuaded the UCPD from forced evictions or arrests, and have called for a show of additional community support this evening. Asked how they plan to respond to this new development, the farmers reiterate that their plans remain unchanged. “Basically, it’s just another day,” said Ashoka Finley, an urban agriculture teacher at Richmond High School, “we’re still planting, still seeding, still watering, still weeding.”
The farmers said their encampment remains temporary, existing to maintain space for farming, education, and collaboration with the East Bay community, and to ensure open access and input into the future of these public lands. The farmer’s vision for this land, however, is anything but temporary: Farmland is for farming.

Whether you’ve heard of it or not, the Gill Tract...

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:24:05 -0700

Occupy the Farm - Berkeley - 4/22/2012 (Earth Day) Here’s...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:07:00 -0700

Occupy the Farm - Berkeley - 4/22/2012 (Earth Day)

Here’s a little taste of what 300 community members can accomplish within a couple of hours.

“Today we are reclaiming this land to grow healthy food to sustain our East Bay communities. We envision a future of food sovereignty, in which farming is accessible and familiar part of urban life, in which available land is used for sustainable agriculture to meet local needs. We’re starting with the Gill Tract because:
* These are the last five acres of Class 1 soil in the East Bay. 90% of the original land has been paved over and developed, contaminating the land for generations to come. * Students, professors, and community have been fighting for decades to save this amazing land from development, and use it for sustainable urban agriculture.
* UCB Capital Projects currently holds this land and has slated it for rezoning and development in 2012 [aka Whole Foods will destroy it]
* Meanwhile, the university is using the undeveloped land for genetic research which could be conducted in numerous other university-owned locations.
* The Gill Tract is a unique, last-of-its-kind resource for sustainable urban agriculture food production, research, and education.”

I’m working on a video compilation of the day of action. Stay tuned…

Promo video for Bonewall. I’m working towards my career...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:06:33 -0700

Promo video for Bonewall.

I’m working towards my career as an undercover documentarian, if you haven’t noticed.

Next step towards sure-fire cinematic fame: Japanese dolphin hunters.

"This country, as Lincoln said, belongs to the people. So do the natural resources which make it..."

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:00:16 -0700

““This country, as Lincoln said, belongs to the people. So do the natural resources which make it rich. They supply the basis of our prosperity now and hereafter. In preserving them, which is a national duty, we must not forget that monopoly is based on the control of natural resources and natural advantages, and that it will help the people little to conserve our natural wealth unless the benefits which it can yield are secured to the people.”
-Teddy Roosevelt”

We are indebted to a feudalistic banking system that is leading...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:42:27 -0800

We are indebted to a feudalistic banking system that is leading to another financial collapse. Our student loans are a product of corrupt banking schemes that benefit those in power such as the UC Regents who act upon their own interests (i.e. pet construction projects).

This is why I am marching on March 1st at Cal and March 5th in Sacramento.