Float Dissolve

(Infected by Fu Man Chu)

Just in case you haven’t heard, Americans (in our stereotypical scheme to own EVERYTHING) are trying to own the internet. Yes. The internet. That’s crazy you say? Who would try and do something so stupid? Look no further than America.

Home of the free, as long as we own it and can charge you for it.

The inventor of the internet says that’s a bad idea. I think he might be on to something.

If you’re cool you knew about this site years ago, if not, now you can pretend to be cool like the rest of us.

(Primary infection by Roberto C. secondary infection by Jamsterson)

When you pay attention to something (and when you ignore something), data is created. This “attention data” is a valuable resource that reflects your interests, your activities and your values, and it serves as a proxy for your attention.

AttentionTrust and our members believe that you have the following rights:

1. Property

You own your attention and can store it wherever you wish. You have CONTROL.

2. Mobility

You can securely move your attention wherever you want whenever you want to. You have the ability to TRANSFER your attention.

3. Economy

You can pay attention to whomever you wish and receive value in return. Your attention has WORTH.

4. Transparency

You can see exactly how your attention is being used. You can DECIDE who you trust.

When you give your attention to any entity that’s an AttentionTrust member, these rights are guaranteed.

I posted a question on Grupthink and was pointed to this as one of the answers. I started using their Attention Recorder plugin for Firefox and am collecting the data with a Root.net account.

Let me know if you do too so we can Exchange.

(Infected by Jody)

Here’s the original post I started to comment on a Tagworld post and ran out of room so I put it here:

I’m quite late on commenting, but very nice. I do think it’s a natural part of the process though. If you look at the internet as a collective whole, it’s going through an adolescence of sorts. Not to excuse them, but I can see how they’d be caught in the illusion of it all. Look at all of the magazine covers, television, movies etc. that we grow up with and it’s apparent the value that is being communicated. As the tv/industrial complex continues to lose steam and the more substantial value of inner beauty is rewarded through the internet we can hope that all of this will change. All the signs are there that it will, the problem right now is that the huge corporations pumping out these images have so much clout because of money. With new forms of currency popping up (such as reputation) it’s becoming much more valuable to be ethical and more tasteful. I’m admittedly an optimist but the outcome is in all of our hands. We aren’t just passive observers. We’re all interacting and contributing to these systems. Just look at how many hits the pages girls that post pictures like that get. Based on the attention they receive, why wouldn’t they think it’s a good thing?

While pointing out the problem is a very good start, we all need to figure out what we can do to help change it and most importantly, do it. Calling them names and simply criticizing them is counterproductive.

And for the other commentators, it’s hypocritical to sit back and say, “Right on, you tell those stupid girls” and then continue to support the pornography industry or even buying FHM or Maxim or the like. If you really believe what she’s saying is true you have to realize that you are encouraging this behavior by giving money to these companies. You have to stop supporting the industries that this type of behavior is a result of. With the action of giving them money you are saying, I support the commoditization of the female form. This then trickles down into young girls growing up watching this and believing that taking their clothes off is what people value.

If we all truly want this to change, we have to take action. We have to stop giving our money and attention to these companies that have established themselves on these false values.

We can’t just sit in our chairs and criticize other people’s behavior because it doesn’t change anything. We have to act. We have to identify how our own actions contribute to the situation and change them if necessary.

We are all a part of the system.

This is the subject of an e-mail I received from ‘Odis Mullen’ today:

angelina ashtray milkweed
terminate involute repent
bookend haberman leprosy
segregate camellia animate
armour embroider timid
claudia mallet aldrin
chromosphere differentiable immutable
easygoing klein chloroplast
aforethought jansenist rhoda
corrigible edward carroll
asteroidal dempsey

Asteroidal Dempsey is now my hip-hop name.

In the speech he gave when he broke ground he said, “Forest Grove will be a place where you can sit by your crystal blue pool and wash away the recollection of the outside world. A place where kids can grow up knowing that their home is the safest place on earth, like a warm bed at night, tucked tightly, safe and secure. A place where there is no pain and no fear.”

(Infected by Networked Publics)

I pretty much stopped looking for new music for a couple years. Not sure why, I think I was just a bit bored. But never fear. I am pretty excited about these two bands at the moment:

Animal Collective
(Infected by _hairplay)

and

volcano!
(Infected by Bleep)

avoid. create. sunlight reflects off leaves
i am green i am light
fenced in, defend property line
no action
sit
bleed
horizontal residual pinwheel
break valuables > laugh
fluffy pink pillows stained
bird hit car, alarm

the same thing
parking brake flashing squares
answering service crying heat
tin buckets pour sawdust
scarred skin happy gums
blue pen

beige stone

I don’t think David needs any introduction.

He’s been underwater for the past week and tonight he will be bound in chains and put back into the tank on live television (8pm/ET on ABC) to break the world record of breath holding (8:58) and break out of the chains.

(photo by Michael Lavine)