More commonly referred to as the “Deep Web“, it’s defined as “World Wide Web content [that is] not part of the surface Web indexed by search engines”. I prefer deepnet myself because a) I can use it for the word of the day, and b) it sounds cooler.

I found a reference to it while searching for DARPA on Google, and was interested to discover that they had funded (along with a host of other US groups like the NSA and the US Air Force) an AI-based deep web search engine that is now being run under a commercial company called Fetch. According to another news article on Computer World, the search is “used by government agencies seeking to rapidly import and integrate data from multiple Web sites and databases for emergency response, location intelligence and antiterrorism efforts”.

Yet another great example of how the military-industrial complex continues to drive technology.

I really love film, and for the last few years I’ve been getting more and more interested in watching documentaries. While I still think you can’t beat passing a few hours with some great storytelling, these documentaries have really inspired me to think more deeply about the world we live in. So, in no particular order:

1. The Corporation

Directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, and written by Joel Bakan, this film won an astonishing 24 international awards and 10 Audience Awards (including one at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival). The premise was rather unique: since the corporation is deemed in the eyes of the law to have the rights of a person (and sometimes more), what sort of a person would the corporation be? This was a highly enjoyable film exploring the history of the modern corporation and asked some incredibly pertinent questions about its impact in our age of globalization.

Amazon - Internet Movie Database - Official Website - The Book

2. Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

An earlier film also directed by Mark Achbar (along with Peter Wintonick), it explores the life of Noam Chomsky, specifically focusing on his ideas about the mass media in democratic societies as put forward in the book “Manufacturing Consent”, co-authored with Edward S. Herman. This is an incredibly provocative film, and will make you question basic truths about Western society.

Amazon - Internet Movie Database - Wikipedia - Companion Book to the Film

3. The Fog of War

Winner at the Oscars in 2003 for Best Documentary Feature, the Fog of War was filmed by legendary director Errol Morris, often credited as the founder of the modern documentary. The film is loosely based around eleven lessons learnt by former US Secretary of Defense Robert S McNamara during his often controversial life. Covering both his personal life, the Vietnam war and the Cuban Missile Crisis, amongst other key events in US history, it’s often an extremely candid and insightful film in politics, war and international relations.

Amazon - Internet Movie Database - Official Website - Wikipedia

4. Capturing the Friedmans

Still one of the most amazing documentaries I’ve ever watched, Capturing the Friedmans was directed by Andrew Jarecki and won at least ten international awards for its harrowing tale. Originally intending to shoot a film about children entertainers in New York, Jarecki learns that the father and youngest brother of one of the entertainers, David Friedman, was arrested in a paedophile scandal. Astonishingly, the Friedman family documented the entire period through with a home video recorder, providing an incredible insight into the effect the episode had on their family. The more Jarecki digs, the clearer it becomes that the paedophile scandal was not all that it appears to be. Essential viewing.

Amazon - Internet Movie Database - Official Website - Wikipedia

5. Grizzly Man

Directed by the legendary Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man is about the life and death Timothy Treadwell, an environmentalist and bear lover who, over thirteen years of visiting and living in bear territory in Alaska, believed that he had been accepted by the bears he loved and protected. Ultimately, he was to be proven tragically wrong when he and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by a bear. The film is essentially an exploration of man’s place in nature, and the boundaries that exist between being human, and being a wild animal; a brilliant film.

Amazon - Internet Movie Database - Wikipedia

6. Bus 174

Winner of at least 23 international prizes and awards, including an Emmy, Bus 174 is a Brazillian film directed by Jose Padilha. It essentially tells two stories: the first is a bus hijacking, caught live on camera, where Sandro do Nascimento, a typical, young Rio de Janeiro street kid, held hostages on Bus 174 for over four hours while the police attempted (and failed) to control the situation. The second part, interwoven into the first, is what drove Sandro to this point, and reveals how society had constantly failed to try provide him and others like him any type of meaningful existence. Social commentary doesn’t get much better than this.

Amazon - Internet Movie Database - Official Website - Wikipedia

7. I Know I’m Not Alone

A film that I’ve reviewed before on here, the film follows musician and political activist Michael Franti as he goes on a journey to Iraq, Israel and Palestine to meet the people affected by war and occupation. This was a truly outstanding piece of political and social commentary that tried to help build bridges between real people.

Amazon - Internet Movie Database - Official Website

8. Koyaanisqatsi/Powaqqatsi

These two films, as well as the third film in the trilogy called Naqoyqatsi, remain as beautiful, inspiring, and thought-provoking now as when the first film, Koyaanisqatsi, was released in 1982. Directed by Godfrey Reggio, the films have no real dialogue, and consist of just simple and moving imagery of our world overlayed with the wonderful music composed by Philip Glass (the third film, however, focuses more on image manipulation rather than simply film). These timeless films explore the relationship between mankind and nature, urban life and technology versus nature, and between the so-called first and third worlds.

Amazon - Internet Movie Database - Wikipedia - Official Website

9. The Devil And Daniel Johnston

A film about genius and insanity, director Jeff Feuerzeig documents the life of singer and songwriter Daniel Johnston through Daniel’s own film and tape footage, as well as interviews with friends, family and supporters. Hailed as a musical genius and inspiration to some of the most influential bands over the last twenty years (such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Sonic Youth), he also suffered from deep mental problems that lay unrecognised for many years (he was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder). A deeply moving documentary.

Amazon - Internet Movie Database - Wikipedia - Official Website

10. Planet Earth

Probably the most stunning nature documentary ever made, the critically-acclaimed BBC series is a landmark in nature film-making, providing some of the most unique cinematography ever put on film. Enough said, really.

Amazon - Internet Movie Database - Wikipedia - Official Website

Honorable Mentions:
Supersize Me
Winged Migration
Microcosmos
Baraka
The Yes Men
American Blackout
The Power of Nightmares (Available online)
The Century of Self (Available online)
The Thin Blue Line
Beyond the Gates of Splendour

“It’s like watching you get beaten to death with croutons.”

– Bruce Sterling on the “passing” fad of blogs and Twitter, courtesy of El Reg. You can also read a bit more about his speech at the Technology Review.

According to Wikipedia:

“Crowdsourcing” is a neologism for a business model that depends on work being done outside the traditional company walls: while outsourcing is typically performed by lower paid professionals, crowdsourcing relies on a combination of volunteers and low-paid amateurs who use their spare time to create content, solve problems, or even do corporate R&D.

A related term is Louis von Ahn’s concept of “human computation“, which is basically about getting people to perform tasks that computers cannot do yet, such as labelling images accurately (see also this Google Labs video where he discusses these concepts).

For a great, current example of “crowdsourcing” check out the new Wired collaboration with NewAssignment.Net, and whoever wishes to participate in what they’ve called Assignment Zero. If that sounds confusing, read this. Sounds fascinating! Definitely one to watch.

See also: Commons-based peer production, “a term coined by Yale’s Law professor Yochai Benkler to describe a new model of economic production in which the creative energy of large numbers of people is coordinated (usually with the aid of the internet) into large, meaningful projects, mostly without traditional hierarchical organization or financial compensation.”

See also: Crowd Clout, defined by Trend Watching as �??Online grouping of citizens/consumers for a specific cause, be it political, civic or commercial, aimed at everything from bringing down politicians to forcing suppliers to fork over discounts.�?�

Ever wanted to fact check some obscure reference in a history book, or tried to research exactly what US government officials thought about, say, US attitudes towards oil in the Middle East, the Monroe Doctrine, or some other item of US foreign policy? Well, if, like me, you enjoy digging around for little nuggets of history and confirming what you read, you’ll enjoy the University of Wisconsin’s Digital Archives of the Foreign Relations of the United States.

For example, search for the Monroe Doctrine, and you can come across Robert Lansing (who became US President Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State) describing his interpretation of it:

 �??In its advocacy of the Monroe Doctrine the United States considers its own interests. The integrity of other American nations is an incident, not an end. While this may seem based on selfishness alone, the author of the Doctrine had no higher or more generous motive in its declaration. To assert for it a nobler purpose is to proclaim a new doctrine.�?�

Regarding oil, you’ll find an often used quote by critics of US energy policy, which states, in 1945, that Saudi Arabia’s �??oil resources constitute a stupendous source of strategic power and one of the greatest material prizes in world history�?� (one of the principle reasons, in fact, that the United States wished to destroy colonial Britain’s dominance in the region). You can also have a look at the proposed Petroleum Policy of the United States (1944) and how they intended to keep any competition (namely the British) out.

This tool is a must for anyone who enjoys history.

One of my favourite books from last year was the superb “Spychips” by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre (they have a blog), examing the RFID industry and its threat to privacy. What I found to be of particular interest was the strategy developed by the Auto-ID Centre - the primary research group behind the Internet of Things concept, backed by some major corporations like Procter & Gamble and Gillette, and also the Department of Defense - to overcome the privacy concerns of consumers.

The Auto-ID Centre hired the pricey public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard and set out to “develop best messages to pacify” consumers. Yes, pacify. They came up with a plan to “identify potential consumer road blocks/fears, construct a proactive message framework to minimize negatives arising [and] assess consumer reaction if [the] press develop scare stories.”

[…]

The Auto-ID Centre’s advisers knew it would be tough [but] they hoped consumers would feel hopeless and too “apathetic” to react (their exact quote was “on balance they are negative by apathetic”). […] “The best communication strategy appears to be positioning the technology simply as an improved barcode,” the advised, noting that, ” … discussing any benefits or using rational argument is largely ineffective and is perceived as ’spin’. Once consumers are concerned, they remain concerned, no matter what we tell them.” (Spychips, pg 156-7)

So, next time you hear it’s an improved barcode, or someone refers to a “radio barcode” (Tesco), “intelligent label” (Marks & Spencer), an “electronic product code” (Wal-Mart), or “green tag” (Auto-ID Centre), remember that someone is trying to “pacify” you.

I wonder how long before we’ll be told that arphids enable and enhance who you really are?

I’ve long been a great lover of science fiction (and fantasy), and I was pleased to see MIT’s Technology Review including a really interesting looking short story called “Osama Phone Home” that asks the question, “What happens when an ideological, technologically adept, highly determined group of conspirators are American?” I’ve read the first few pages, and it looks great!

Since Adam Smith is set to be immortalized on Britain’s £20 bill, it’s worth turning to him for a quote of the day. Most people know of his praise for the division of labour, but he had some rather scathing criticisms, too:

“The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are, perhaps, always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such exertion, and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for human creature to become.”

And just for free, I’ll throw in my other favourite second quote: “All for ourselves and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” Adam Smith would probably be a bit perplexed to see that things haven’t changed much today.

I’m a huge fan of minimalism, specifically photographic minimalism and abstraction through the use of urban shapes. I’ve never formally studied photography (or any form of art for that matter) but there is something in the simplicity of shapes and forms that is really appealing to me, probably because of the challenge of turning our technological environment into something beautiful.

If I were to try and explain what minimalism is, I’d have to say it’s summed up by the phrase “less is more“. If you want a more formal definition, minimalism is “an art movement in sculpture and painting that began in the 1950s and emphasized extreme simplification of form and colour”, but that sounds rather dull and boring. To try and pinpoint someone from this period that best illustrates minimalism, the artist Mark Rothko is probably the best example I can give.

At any rate, I spend a lot of time recently trying to take abstract or minimalist-style photos; I’m no real expert, but here are a few tips I’ve picked up from viewing a few Flickr forums, and my own ideas in trying to find that elusive ultra-minimal and ultra-cool shot.

1. Less really is more: I’ve said it once already, but it doesn’t hurt to say again. They don’t call it minimalism for nothing. The uncluttered beauty of the shot is what makes it so appealing.

2. The image is the subject: often I find that I’m not focusing on a particular object or subject in minimalism; instead, I’m concentrating on combining individual elements into a “whole”.

3. Use shadows: shadows can make the mundane seem a lot more interesting, and will often break monotony in what would otherwise be a boring image.

4. The three C’s: I find composition, colour and contours have far more significance in minimalist and abstract photos than they would otherwise have. Since there’s not always a “subject” to draw the viewer’s attention, the end product is what has to be appealing. Uniformity, patterns, shape and texture are also extremely important, but calling it “STUCCCUP” sounded daft at worst, and a business acronym at best.

5. Contrast: Okay, I could’ve called it the four C’s, but this deserved its own special mention. While texture can play a good role in creating great minimalist shots, it sometimes pays to really manipulate the contrast in order to smooth and flatten the image. This works extremely well with urban minimalism in particular.

6. Black & White: What’s more simple than black and white with shades of grey? This is a great way to get rid of colours you don’t like in an otherwise cool shot.

So, there are six ideas for people to borrow or throw away. I made most of them up as I went, so if you’ve got some suggestions, feel free to add your own, or tell me why these ideas suck.

The Institute for Ethics and Emerging technologies linked through to an interesting bit of research that looked at “Preferences for Psychological Enhancements”, and reluctance by test subjects to allow enhancements. Specifically, they point out that “Ad taglines that framed enhancements as enabling … the fundamental self increased people’s interest in a fundamental enhancement, and eliminated the preference for non-fundamental over fundamental enhancements.”

With that in mind, I came across an article in Wired discussing Darpa’s latest forays into human enhancement, and I couldn’t but help notice the wording of Tony Tether, head of Darpa, the US’s Advanced Research Projects Agency: “[The Defense Sciences Office] isn�??t trying to create posthuman troops, Tether says. �??You know the old Army saying, �??Be all that you can be�??? Well, that�??s really what we�??re doing.�?� In training, soldiers �??become extraordinary in strength and endurance. But it�??s not any better than their body can be. And what we try to do is come up with techniques that allow them to maintain that level.�?�

The Wired article also showed that, in order to avoid scrutiny and accusations “of funding a Frankenstein army”, the names of various programs “were changed to dull their mad-scientist edge”. For example, “Metabolic Dominance became Peak Soldier Performance”.

So there really is a lot in a name. Hey, it’s all in the branding.