Experiments In Photography (Name Me)

I thought since it's Friday I would end the week with an image from the ongoing experiments in Photography series. With this photography I liked the play of light and texture, to me it has a mixture of the everyday with a surreal quality. This presents a problems though, I don't know what to name it. Maybe you can help me, if you like submit names for it in the comments section.

There are some other photos as well that are nameless please feel free to look around, and suggest some names. Have a great weekend everyone.

Google and Privacy

Google has announced that it will be changing it's policy of data storage about you and your searches. It's a move in the right direction, though much more could be done.

"Under the new policy announced on Wednesday, which Google expects to have fully implemented by the end of the year, the company will anonymize the final eight bits of the IP address and the cookie data after somewhere between 18 months and 24 months, unless legally required to retain the data for longer."

The entire article can be found here http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6167333.html?tag=nl.e539

Now if you are a person that likes having privacy, this could be disturbing and a lot of privacy advocates feel the same way. I'm wary of this, as information is power and could be misused, though perhaps I'm just old fashioned.

I like to think of privacy on the Internet like this, it's just like a telephone conversation, but you are using a computer, the only time your privacy should be invaded, is when you give permission for it, and there should be full disclosure in a transparent manner of what information is being stored and gathered about you. I would also like to stress it should not be in tiny Print ,but stated in a clear manner.

I would like to know your feeling's about privacy, how much should people have? Who should control that information? Who has ownership over it? Who can access it?

My opinion is that the individual should have the final say on their information and privacy. The only time that should be invaded is either when a person commits a crime or they give permission.

Do You Know Where Your Bananas Come From ?

Do You Know Where Your Bananas Come From ? Well if the allegation's are true, they may have come from groups that the Untied States have on their terrorism list. I guess we will just have to wait for the trial, if there is one, to get all the facts. In The meantime what are your thoughts? My opinion is if the allegation's are true, this could be very damaging to the company, after all do you want to buy bananas from a company that deals with terrorists? I know I don't.

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Banana company Chiquita Brands International was charged Wednesday with doing business with a terrorist organization.

Federal prosecutors said the company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers did business with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia. The group is described in court documents as a violent right-wing organization that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.

The company also did business with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, according to prosecutors.
The payments were approved by senior executives at the Cincinnati-based company, prosecutors wrote in court documents. Corporate books were kept to conceal the deals, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Chiquita began paying the right-wing AUC after a meeting in 1997.
"No later than in or about September 2000, defendant Chiquita's senior executives knew that the corporation was paying AUC and that the AUC was a violent paramilitary organization," prosecutors wrote in Wednesday's court filing.
The document filed by federal prosecutors is known as an information. Unlike an indictment, it is normally worked out through discussions with prosecutors and is followed by a guilty plea. A plea hearing is scheduled for Monday.
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On the Net:
Chiquita: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/storytext/terrorism_bananas/22266840/SIG=10q1588e6/*http://www.chiquita.com/

You-Tube And Copyright

I don't know maybe I'm just dense, though I see this as causing a bit of a commotion given all the talk about it, I'm left with the thought, why not use a copyright that is domain specific? It seems to me, we are seeing basically turf wars over who has what rights to media, it's kind of funny and sad in a way, as the company's talk about their losses, but where does the artist come into play? At the same time the Internet and the media,mediums used, do not have to be seen as enemies of these company's, they can be a artist's or company's friends, just ask any artist who has embraced the Internet.

Digital culturus interruptus: Right here, right now, the almighty copyright finally comes home to roost by ZDNet's David Berlind -- Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. Like teenagers biologically programmed to step across every boundary put in place by their parents, the digerati, equipped with the constantly evolving tools of their trade (everything from YouTube-like video sharing sites to widely available hacks of anti-piracy systems), have been been running a full-court press, brazenly [...]

Elizabeth I (17 Nov 1558 - 24 March 1603) Coinage and History

This is another part in the coinage and history series, I fear I have been somewhat slow with the release of posts with this, though a lot is dependent, on when I purchase new coins. I have also been experimenting with Photographing the coins as opposed to scanning them to get the best image.

The picture above is of a Shilling from Elizabeth I it is from the year 1560-1561 Mintmark-Cross-Spink-2555-A. The Obverse portrait side may look the worse for wear, but it was very common with the larger coins for them to be weakly struck. So this is still a very nice example given that it has not been clipped, another practice that was very common. The practice of clipping is very much what it sounds like, people would clip small potions of the sliver off of the coin, pretty much whatever they felt they could get away with.

This coin is also interesting as it was minted at the start of Elizabeth I great recoinage of the realm, as the coinage under her Brother Edward VI, and Her Father Henry VIII had been debased mostly under Henry VIII, in order for him to finance his wars and household, This is where Henry The VIII received the nickname old Coppernose from, as the silver would wear away on the high points of the coin and reveal the base metal, most offten than not on the nose first.

At this time when Elizabeth, was still very early into her queenship, The Tudor house was not in great financial shape as the spending under her father and mismanagement had sorely pressed the royal coffers. Elizabeth I though had been very good at managing her estates, so she used the funds from them to finance the recoinage, just one other little thing of interest Elizabeth I also used some of the royal households silver service to be melted down and used in the recoinage as well. You will find below some more information on The House Of Tudor. I hope you have enjoyed this and please feel free to leave any comments or feedback you may have.

HOUSE OF TUDOR

Elizabeth I (17 Nov 1558 - 24 March 1603) - born 7th September 1533The Virgin Queen Elizabeth or ‘Gloriana’ un-did Catholic Mary’s work as England reverted to Protestantism and pacified the religious divide. Skilled at politics, she was lucky to be surrounded by talented advisors, but angered them by avoiding the issue of marriage and of course never had children. She assisted Dutch Protestants, and is most famous for defeating her unpopular brother in law, Philip II during the Spanish Armada war of 1588. Her reign is also known for the introduction of the potato and tobacco from the “New World” by Sir Francis Drake.

A long and prosperous reign ended in 1603 when Elizabeth died of old age at 75.A significant reign for coinage as the first machine made pieces were struck from the presses of the Frenchman Eloye Mestrelle in 1561. However they were not popular as production was slow with the horse drawn mill press, though the quality was very good. Mestrelle was dismissed in 1572 and later executed for his collusion with forgers in 1578 some historians believe this may have been engineered by rivals. Elizabeth enjoyed a long reign and this covered many different denominations being issued at various times.

The gold crowns were again issued and it was not till 1600 that the large silver crown was again minted. In 1559 the old debased coins of Edward VI were called in for counter marking at a lower face value and the silver fineness was restored to 0.925 by 1582. A new denomination the three-farthings was introduced to help with small change transactions. The first attempt at international trade coins occurred in 1600-01 with the Portcullis Money for use in the East Indies with weights equivalent to the already popular Spanish trade Reales.