Friday, September 30, 2011

What's Tweeting You?



After two years of tracking over 500 million messages written by 2.4 million people in 84 countries, researchers at Cornell University have discovered that the cliché Tomorrow is a New Day starts shortly after a breakfast of Cheerios.

Evidently, a majority of people wake up happy, but as the day progresses, dealing with the reality of daily life takes its emotional toll. Then, right before folks prepare for bed, individual moods generally shift back into a positive gear.


On the surface, the research study itself appears rather benign. How people feel and when they feel it adds yet another mundane piece to that complex puzzle called the human condition. However, with the dramatic rise of social networking sites like Facebook, important privacy questions need to be raised regarding how personal digital information is being collected and analyzed. Read More...

For 99.99% of human history, private correspondence between individuals took the form of an old-fashion, handwritten letter. At some point, the same level of privacy protection governing the international movement of snail mail needs to be extended to the internet. Where is the line between collecting marketing data vs. reading private e-mails Read More...


"I really believe that we don't have to make a trade-off between security and privacy. I think technology gives us the ability to have both." ~ John Poindexter
Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security (Hardcover)

Thursday, September 29, 2011

...wisdom...


"For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it."
~ Ivan Panin
Uyghur Woman, Beijing (June 2008).

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The rumors that Former Congressman Weiner is undergoing SEXUAL addiction therapy at Charlie Sheen's house are untrue?

Sometime during the late summer of 1981, I was driving my wooden bumper 1962 VW Bug from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. Walking alone alongside the highway was this young, bearded man dressed like Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments.



He was wearing a simple white linen robe, non-leather sandals and carrying a long polished wooden staff. After picking him up, he stated that President Ronald (6) Wilson (6) Reagan (6) was the Anti-Christ & the world was going to end on Christmas Eve. He said he left home when Reagan was elected President and traveled the country with ZERO money in his pocket. He trusted in God to guide his destiny. While I could have laughed, in many ways, I admired his courage of faith.


Anti-Christ Update: 
Evidently, a small segment of America's Evangelical community has passed the end-of-the-world baton to President Obama. First, the Tea Party accused this President of being a Muslim (which he's not). Then, Donald Trump stirred up the whole birth certificate controversy to score cheap political points. It backfired. Yes, President Obama was born in Hawaii and Senator John McCain was born in Panama. Yesterday, at a fundraising event in Los Angeles, a heckler accused the President of being the "Anti-Christ":



Monty Python's Life of Brian

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Panorama of Sacramento Mountains, Highway 54, New Mexico (December 2009).

Monday, September 26, 2011

Help Wanted:

GOP Candidate for 2012 Election?

Requirements:
Must be able to stay awake during a grinding debate schedule, speak without a Texas accent, raise lots of corporate campaign cash, enjoy long bus rides, drink tea and somehow connect with mainstream, independent voters without sounding crazy or stupid.

Application Deadline:
October 1st, 2011 (or as soon as possible)

GOP Flavor of the Month Update: 
"Now is not my time." ~ Governor Chris Christie (October 4, 2011)
And Sarah Palin? NOT. (October 5, 2011)

The New Big Book of U.S. Presidents: Fascinating Facts about Each and Every President,
Including an American History Timeline (Hardcover)

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Πολιτικά?


"It's so easy for propaganda to work and dissent to be mocked."
~ Harold Pinter







Photo of a DPRK Painting, 798 Art District, Beijing, PRC (May 2008)
Photo of peaceful government protest in Seoul, R.O.K. (July 2009).

Saturday, September 24, 2011

$1,000,000 Peccadilloes Bounty?

In case you missed it, Larry Flynt (a.k.a. Mr. Hustler Magazine) has offered a seven figure payday for anyone with sexually unsavory information involving the current GOP front runner for El Presidente. The following is a digital copy of a full-page paid advertisement which appeared in the Austin Chronicle (August 19th, 2011):
If the Koch Brothers can quietly spend over $100,000,000 marketing a repackaged brand of Libertarian soap, this blogger has no problem with Mr. Flynt offering $1,000,000 of his own money to uncover hidden dirt on the Texas Governor.

Why?

Honestly, I'm less concern with Perry's private life and more alarmed by the cozy business connections he's fostered as Governor of Texas. For this blogger, while most journalists focused on Perry's poor performance during the recent debates, considering Gary Johnson was allowed to join the GOP's Florida Beach Party, I questioned why Buddy Roemer was once again kept off the debate schedule:

Until the voters in this country demand real campaign finance reform, laws which actually limit the power of corporate money and influence, the politically-motivated pornographic paralysis being played out in Washington D.C. will continue.


After cutting taxes in 2001 and then spending $1.3 trillion for two ongoing wars, the GOP threatened to shut down the government over $3.65 billion designated for disaster relief? Playing politics with people struggling to rebuild their lives is just plain WRONG!


Observation: It appears that Karl Rove's GOP campaign strategy for the 2012 Election is to STOP the government from functioning while slowly driving the economy off yet ANOTHER financial cliff.
Read More...

Friday, September 23, 2011

"Politics is the art of postponing decisions until they are no longer relevant." ~ Henri Queuille

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The slow death of the U.S. Postal Service?

When was the last time you wrote a handwritten letter?
Remember when kids collected postage stamps instead of Facebook friends and families mailed off vacation postcards instead of updating Twitter?

Related Update:(9/26/11) Mark Zuckerberg and Lady Gaga on a postage stamp? It could happen. In a bid to promote stamp collecting (and increase revenue), the U.S. Postal Service will now allow living Americans to be featured on its stamps. To submit a proposal for your favorite musician, actor, sports star, writer, artist or Snooki, send your recommendation via snail mail to:


Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee
c/o Stamp Development, Room 3300
475 L'Enfant Plaza SW
Washington DC 20260-3501


The Saga of the Pony Express (Paperback)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

"The finest clothing made is a person's skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this." ~ Mark Twain

The beauty of simplicity?

Working Title: Two and a Half Brains?



Chuck Lorre & CBS in negotiations with Bachmann, Huntsman & Roemer for a new political sitcom? Rick Santorum slated to play the stalking neighbor and Herman Cain as the pizza delivery guy?





First Episode [Rough Draft]: Roemer helps Bachmann study for a test on the Founding Fathers. While delivering a pizza, Cain catches Santorum spying in Huntsman's bathroom window.
Winners Never Cheat: Even in Difficult Times, New and Expanded Edition [Hardcover]

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Possible Definitions of Globalization?

A Collage of Posters for Sale on a Fence
July 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia



Street Music
July 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia

Photo & Video by Peter Rimar
A History of Modern Indonesia (Paperback)
20th Century World History Books)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Campaign Psycho Talk Update: Bush 3.0

Governor Rick Perry now says his understanding of Galileo comes entirely from the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen?


"If there were only one truth, you couldn't paint a hundred canvases on the same theme." 
~ Pablo Picasso




Artists of the 20th Century: Pablo Picasso (DVD)

Friday, September 16, 2011

Twitter + Facebook = Twitbook?

I'm still a recovering Facebook addict. I've never used Twitter. So, when these two social networking giants announced their latest cyber-marriage, it had little direct impact on my virtual life.
Read More...

Or did it?

With Google+ still struggling to gain a widespread audience, it's only a matter of time before the company takes a hard financial look at Blogger. Indeed, are there enough active Bloggers to keep this site alive?

IF Google wants to compete against Facebook, it needs to consider integrating it's + platform with Blogger. In the same way Facebook users can now Tweet status updates, Google+ users should be able to directly post comments, links, videos and images on Blogger. The ability to cross-platform updates may breath new life into the art of Blogging.

In the unlikely event someone at Google actually reads this post, I have one more suggestion. The company needs to change the name Google+ to Google Me. Before the NBA player (formally known as Ron Artest) changed his name to Metta World Peace, the musician Prince had changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol (1993-2000).
While some ideas sound great in a office cubicle, when it comes to product marketing and branding, using a + symbol to sell a new brand of SOAP makes absolutely ZERO dollars & AdSense.

Photo of terracotta opera sculpture, 798 Art District / 798艺术区, Beijing, PRC (June 2008).
In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our LivesCompany Profiles Biography & History Books)
"There is such a thing as a national conscience and it can be touched."
~ Charles Kuralt


Prairie Landscape on Hwy 81 in South Dakota (May 2010).

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Running for President causes Mental Retardation?



The Driving Mrs. Daisy Psycho Talk Express takes another WRONG TURN in Florida?



Vince McMahon is in backroom negotiations with Merck and Koch Industries for a WWE Raw Battle Royal featuring Crony Capitalism vs. Unscientific Rhetoric?

Herman Cain offered Iowans a Free Pizza with every Prostate Exam?

Ron Paul thinks Nuclear Proliferation is just like playing Call of Duty? It's just a video game?

After the recent Florida debate, Rick Santorum asked Jon Huntsman, "Who cut your hair?"

Newt Gringrich sold three more books on e-Bay to the John Birch Society?

Sarah Palin plans to introduce a Mama Grizzly fashion line at Target?

Thaddeus McCotter told Buddy Roemer a knock-knock joke about his dark horse campaign for the White House but forgot the punch line?

When Gary Johnson was queried by reporters about being locked out of the recent TeaPot Debate, the candidate replied "I have the munchies"?


...Americana...
Harley Dog ~ Edmond, Oklahoma (June 2010)

The Merck Manual of Patient Symptoms: 
A Concise, Practical Guide to Etiology, Evaluation, and Treatment

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Dear Congressman Ron Paul (aka Dr. No)

While some of your Libertarian ideas sound great on paper, in practice, it's scares the hell out of this blogger. Every time you talk about your vision of the world, it describes a place I've actually visited. A once peaceful, clean & beautiful city (with modern infrastructure) completely destroyed by a limited government, free market economy.

Image a world with...

No public libraries or city parks, road repairs,
Interstate Highway System, State or National Parks, Federal Income TaxHealth Care for Veterans, functioning police force (except for private citizens with AK-47s), lawyers or judges (replaced with religious street justice), flush toilets or sewage plants, Social Security or Medicare, Fish & Wildlife Service, farm support or subsidies, government mandated auto insurance for drivers, building codes or zoning ordinances, government regulations, factories, collective bargaining, workplace safety, environmental standards, minimum wage, electricity (except for gas power generators), Hoover Dam or NASA, indoor running water (only shared community water pumps), home telephones or broadband internet, universities to train doctors or nurses, Pell Grants or Student Loans, a CDC or medical research facilities, Wal-Marts or K-Marts, food inspectors or FDAMcDonald's or Burger Kings, city streetlights or traffic signals, national bank or currency (Euros, dollars, gold, silver & goats).

A city with limited government in country where the free-market & money is KING. And the best part of this whole Libertarian brew, charity organizations provide the health care. 

The place? Well, it's in the news again.
Mogadishu, Somalia.


The sad truth is a lot of folks actually believe your dog-ma-nomics crap. Is there Fraud, Waste & Abuse in every agency of the Federal Government? Yes. Can the Federal Bureaucracy be streamlined and made more efficient? Yes. Does this country need to wrap up its military operations in Afghanistan & Iraq? Yes. With that said, this whole ideological brew which suggests that limited government is the only solution for every social and economic problem borders on the political absurd. Hell, let's just go ahead and repeal the whole 20th Century.

America is NOT bankrupt. You really could learn something from Medal of Honor Recipient Dakota Meyer (who risked his life to do the right thing for the rights reason). IMHO, you've spent too many years walking around the Washington Beltway and selling SOAP on the Presidential Campaign Trail. You've completely forgotten the things that made this country great.

Update: After spending more than an hour writing this POST, Bill Clinton comes along and capsulizes this blogger's original message in a single sentence:

"There's not a single example on our planet, not one, where an anti-government strategy has produced a vibrant economy with strong and broad-based growth and prosperity."
~ Bill Clinton 

Read More...



Photo taken at the Port of Mogadishu, Somalia by Peter Rimar (January 1994).
Pirate State: Inside Somalia's Terrorism at Sea

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Wiki-Publishing

Last year (2010), this blogger Googled my name to see where my photographs were being used on the internet. I discovered that the following image ended up on a book cover:

This photograph was taken at the Misawa, Japan train station in October 2004. I waited almost thirty minutes before asking this gentleman to snap his picture.

If you look closely at the photograph's overall composition, you'll notice all the primary vanishing-point lines converge at the end of the platform (i.e. located directly behind the man's eyes). I was able to give the left side of his face some key lighting by positioning him to the right of the small gap between the train cars. It was late in the afternoon, so the sun was low on the horizon. 
Anyhow, the main reason I allow the FREE USE of my images is because I enjoy sharing my art. I've never considered myself a professional photographer. My visual approach to capturing a single moment in time is as a doc·u·men·tar·i·an.

After contacting Mr. Welch on Facebook, the author was kind enough to send me a free, autographed copy of the book.

MISAWA: A Song of the Machi (Paperback)

Monday, September 12, 2011

When did the GOP become the Party of NO?

Looking for Ronald Reagan
— and Not Finding Him
By Patti Davis
Time Magazine (Sept. 08, 2011)

"The moment that would have broken my father's heart was the moment when applause broke out at the mention of more than 200 executions ordered by Rick Perry in Texas. It was stunning and brought tears to my eyes. This is what we've come to? That we applaud at executions?"
Read More...


The Long Goodbye (Paperback)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

10th Anniversary of 9/11 ~ I Am An American

e pluribus unum ~ "Out of many, one."


American Passage: The History of Ellis Island (Paperback)

...view from inside a HMMV...
Photo taken by Peter Rimar on the highway to Baghdad, Iraq (March 2005).
Click on image to open in a new window.