"Shiftspace": a Meta-Web Of, By, and For Users

One of the coolest things I've seen on the 'net, esp. when you consider the potential.

"ShiftSpace is an open source layer above any website. . . . ShiftSpace provides tools for artists, designers, architects, activists, developers, students, researchers, and hobbyists to create online contexts built in and on top of websites.

"While the Internet’s design is widely understood to be open and distributed, control over how users interact online has given us largely centralized and closed systems. . . . ShiftSpace attempts to subvert this trend by providing a new public space on the web.

"By pressing the [shift] + [space] keys, a ShiftSpace user can invoke a new meta layer above any web page to browse and create additional interpretations, contextualizations and interventions – which we call Shifts. Users can choose between several authoring tools we’re working to develop – which we call Spaces. . . . .

"Notes is a Space that allows a ShiftSpace user to leave post-it annotations on websites. Highlights is one we’re still developing, which would allow a user to highlight text on the page. Some Spaces lead more naturally to an interventionist usage. Two such Spaces that we have implemented are ImageSwap, which allows a user to grab any image on the web and swap it in place of other image, and SourceShift, which allows users to freely edit a page’s HTML code.

"When a user visits a modified (’Shifted’) webpage, the small ShiftSpace icon (§) pops up in the bottom left side of the screen. Pressing the [shift] + [space] keys reveals the ShiftSpace console. From the console, the user can browse through existing Shifts, choosing to enable those that might be of interest. Holding down the [shift] key shows a small contextual menu, allowing the user to create Shifts of her own. The user can then choose whether to share her Shifts or to keep them private."

Initiated by Dan Phiffer and Mushon Zer-Aviv and under continuing further development by an open source community comprising Avital Oliver, David 'dudu' Buchbut, David Nolen, "and more."

You have to use Firefox as your browser and download a bit of code, but ShiftSpace is easy to install and use.

UPDATE: The creators have upgraded to another version, which allows you to use Safari, among other benefits.

"Accidental Blue Screen" by John Michael Boling

Roll over the blue areas in the pics here.

"cover this YouTube in blood" by Guthrie Lonergan

Go here and follow the instructions. (Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work on YouTube video embedded elsewhere.)

Lots of other fun stuff on his site; e.g., how to hack your own myspace profile.

Art to End Tree Nudity

Per denverpost.com, Carol Hummer's Tree Cozy (2005) "took her 500 hours and the use of a hydraulic lift to dress the upper branches.

"The cozy has survived several winters and even a swarm of cicadas, which left their molted skins clinging to the material.

"'There are a lot of copycats now,' Hummel said. . . . That's cool.'" More on Hummer's site.

Cf. Peter Coffin's Untitled (Tree Pants, Winter) (2007). More here and here.










UPDATE: Corkey Sinks just pointed me to some tree sweaters installed by Elaine Bradford in 2002 (last photo, with the white, gray, and red sweater on the tree in the foreground). More here.

US Lawmakers Have $196M Invested in Defense Corps.

It doesn't have to be this way. More here.

"George W. Bush Sewage Plant" Proposed in San Fran

(Thanks, HuffPo!)

Patches = Clues to What We're Buying with Bush's $32 Billion Black Ops Budget

Skulls, snakes, wizards, a dragon clutching the Earth in its claws, occult symbols . . . . "No, this is not the fantasy world of a 12-year-old boy. It is, according to a new book, part of the hidden reality behind the Pentagon’s classified . . . budget that delivers billions of dollars to stealthy armies of high-tech warriors.

"The book offers a glimpse of this dark world through a revealing lens — patches — the kind worn on military uniforms. . . . One patch shows a space alien with huge eyes holding a stealth bomber near its mouth. 'To Serve Man' reads the text above, a reference to a classic 'Twilight Zone' episode in which man is the entree, not the customer. 'Gustatus Similis Pullus' reads the caption below, dog Latin for 'Tastes Like Chicken.'

"Trevor Paglen, an artist and photographer . . . has managed to document some of this hidden world. . . . “Oderint Dum Metuant,” reads a patch for an Air Force program . . . according to Mr. Paglen, who identifies the saying as from Caligula, the first-century Roman emperor famed for his depravity. It translates 'Let them hate so long as they fear.'"

The book's entitled, I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me, translated from one of the patches. More here.

Morale-boosters for those carrying on black ops; and, among those they encounter, U.S. brands. And we wonder why the world hates us?

Proposed Market Regulatory Reform Irrelevant & Dangerous

If you're wondering how Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson came out so quickly with detailed proposals for a complete consolidation and overhaul of the five gummint agencies now responsible for oversight of various sectors of our financial system, you haven't done the homework I assigned -- watching the Naomi Klein interview embedded in my earlier posts and (here and here).

Senator Chris Dodd (D) might be wondering, too -- he's Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and no one consulted him about the proposals.

Reuters reports, Dodd "said he welcomed the plan offered by . . . Paulson, but questioned its relevance in addressing falling home prices, rising foreclosures and the imminent threat of recession. . . . [Overhauling the regulatory system] 'doesn't relate to the issues we're grappling with,' Dodd said on a conference call. 'The failure of the administration to utilize the tools they've been given over the years . . . . That's the problem, not reorganization.'

" . . . Paulson on Monday issued a sweeping plan that calls for giving the Federal Reserve more authority over Wall Street . . . . Although the plan has been under development for many months, Dodd said he had not been asked for input on it. Noting that some of the ideas in the Paulson plan have been under discussion for years, Dodd said reorganizing the government was not the problem." More here.

I.e., in my view, the problem is not that the Federal Reserve needs more power, but that we've eviscerated the protections put in place after the market crash of 1929: the enforcement capabilities of bank regulators and the SEC, S&L regulation, and the Glass-Steagall Act.

The Wall Street Journal reports, "'It reads like amateur hour and it's because none of those guys ever worked in a regulated, chartered bank,' said Camden Fine, president and chief executive of the Independent Community Bankers of America . . . . 'A bunch of guys from Wall Street decided this was going to be their proposal.' . . . Large financial-services companies have had a seat at the table as Treasury crafted its plan . . . . " More here.

Others reviewing the details of the plan are even more concerned. Mike Whitney writes that, though the proposals are being billed "as a 'massive shakeup of US financial market regulation,' . . . [we should not] be deceived. [They] are neither 'timely' nor 'thoughtful' . . . . In fact, it's all just more of the same free market 'we can police ourselves' mumbo-jumbo that got us into this mess in the first place. The real objective of Paulson's so-called reforms is to decapitate the SEC and increase the powers of the Federal Reserve. . . . "

"If Paulson's plan is approved in its present form, Congress will have even less control over the financial system than it does now, and the same group of self-serving banking mandarins who created the biggest equity bubble in history will be able to administer the markets however they choose without the annoyance of government supervision. That's exactly what Treasury Secretary and his pals at the Fed want; unlimited power with no accountability." More here; see also The New York Times.