Eric H. Doss's Posterous Site

Islamofascism vs. Boobs & Penises

via Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall on 12/30/09

It's pretty hard to find any part of the terrorism story that isn't suffused and tainted by partisan politics. But one example that keeps coming back to me is this example of the "backscatter" body scanners which would dramatically increase security but also, allegedly, create unacceptable intrusions into personal privacy.

Now, I'm not sure, either on the privacy side or on the effectiveness side, whether we should be using these scanners on all flights or perhaps all flights coming into the USA.

But what is pretty clear to me is the disconnect on the question that I see in the public debate.

We're willing to ethnically profile, do all sorts extra-judicial surveillance, maintain massive databases of hundreds of thousands of people who have some vague relationship to extremism, torture captives, condemn people to hours unable to go the bathroom on planes, even launch various foreign military adventures, but when it comes to submitting to a quick scan that might show a vague outline of boobs or penises (almost certainly no more than is exposed in most bathing suits), that's a bridge too far.

Something about that doesn't compute to me. And what I like about this is that there's no clear partisan division on this one. Everyone seems to agree. It just tells me that at some level we're not really serious about this.

Bruce Schneier on Aviation Security

via Daring Fireball by John Gruber on 12/30/09

Bruce Schneier:

Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country’s way of life; it’s only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage. The more we undermine our own laws, the more we convert our buildings into fortresses, the more we reduce the freedoms and liberties at the foundation of our societies, the more we’re doing the terrorists’ job for them.

My thoughts exactly.

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Chart Of The Day

via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan by Andrew Sullivan on 12/22/09

From Wonkroom:

How Fanboys See Operating Systems

via The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century by Joey deVilla on 12/16/09

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

Report: Facebook Game Addicts "Paid" to Oppose Health Care Reform

via ReadWriteWeb by Marshall Kirkpatrick on 12/9/09

The Apocalypse must be fast approaching, that's the only explanation that can help me wrap my mind around this. A health insurance lobbying group is reportedly paying Facebook users in virtual, "in-game" currency to send a letter opposing health-care reform legislation to their Congressional representative.

This according to the blog Business Insider today, in a report that's frustratingly short on details but remains plausible.

Sponsor

From BusinessInsider

The Context

TechCrunch did an in-depth investigative series on the sleaziness of the in-game advertising industry this Fall. Market leader Zynga, maker of the home-wrecking game that turns Facebook users into zombified farmers of imaginary crops (Farmville), was the primary target of that report. Advertisers pay users in virtual goods, like fertilizer for their imaginary crops, for signing up for offers to purchase real goods for real cash (with a credit card). Other offers include market research surveys and apparently political action. The games are psychologically addictive, there's an art to making an effective one, and so payment with in-game currency is very compelling.

Zynga claimed that it was cleaning up its advertising market and that such virtual-goods-for-action offers never made up a substantial portion of its revenue, anyway. None the less, it's not hard to imagine this same industry being used for nefarious political purposes. Not hard at all.

The Accusation

Business Insider cites the CEO of casual gaming startup OMGPOP, who didn't name the game the health-care offers appeared in but blamed ad serving startup Gambit. Gambit says there's no evidence they served up the offer and says they prohibit advertising on "hot political topics." The report is an unusual bit of original investigation by Business Insider, which is a blog that does best at finding and excerpting at length from other peoples' reporting around the web.

Got that? An aggregation-heavy blog quotes a Flash game CEO blaming a casual game ad network (who denies it) for serving up in-game currency offers from a health-insurance front lobbying group to millions of people who spend their time doing things like watering crops that don't really exist on Facebook to instead send letters to politicians opposing government reform of the health care system. That long sentence went from vacuous to real serious, there at the very end.

We're talking to people in the casual gaming advertising field and they say that something like this is very possible, though no one else has seen these ads. This may be nothing but rumor and speculation right now, or it may really be happening, but it's not an implausible scenario at all. Update: We just heard from another casual gaming ad network that says it was approached with this ad and another calling people to oppose immigration reform late this Summer but declined to run the ads.

The Consequences

There's something very sci-fi about this though, isn't there? Apparently some people look at Facebook's 350 million users and see an army of minions that can be paid in other-worldly, ephemeral "cash" to do a benefactor's bidding.

Combine this with Facebook's radical redrawing of its social contract with users today, changing the default setting on status messages from being private to being exposed to everyone online, and Facebook looks a little more dangerous than it did before.

Facebook hasn't yet responded to our request for comment on this story.

Gentlemen of Bacongo

via Cool Hunting by Maggie York-Worth on 12/3/09

Photographer Daniele Tamagni's new book Gentlemen of Bacongo captures the fascinating subculture of the Congo in which men (and a few women) dress in designer and handmade suits and other luxury items. The movement, called Le Sape, combines French styles from their colonial roots and the individual's (often flamboyant) style. Le Sapeurs, as they're called, wear pink suits and D&G belts while living in the slums of this coastal African region.

In interviews with some notable sapeurs, Tamagni unearths the complex and varied rules and standards of Le Sape, short for Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes, or the Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People. Sapeur Michel comments on the strange combination of poverty and fashion, "A Congolese sapeur is a happy man even if he does not eat, because wearing proper clothes feeds the soul and gives pleasure to the body."

The sapeurs engage the extremes between classes while injecting their individual perspectives into the conversation, establishing an identity within the larger social narrative they've helped construct.

This anthropological wonder combines interviews with Sapeurs along with a preface by menswear designer Paul Smith and Tamagni's anecdotes throughout. Focused on Sapeurs from Brazzaville and Kinshasa in Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tamagni's title comes from the Bakongo, an African tribe of people along the eastern shore of the continent. At just about seven-inches tall, the book's compact in size but the colors are bright, matching the outrê style of Le Sape. Tamagni outlines rules as they relate to color, as well as the proper styles of tie, the strong religious convictions and non-violent culture of Le Sape and myriad other facets of this phenomenon.

Tamagni's photographs capture the style, the “contradictions and paradoxes" and tight-knit social networks of the Sapeurs. He highlights the proper use of cigars—"even if you don't smoke you need to light it"—the strict use of color (only three colors may be combined in an outfit), and the deep spiritual and moral roots of Le Sape. "When the sapeur expresses himself through the harmony of his clothes, he is returning his admiration to God."

Of course, the poverty and political instability of the Congo makes the profound admiration and respect for Parisian fashion all the more distinct.

Gentlemen of Bacongo also examines the strange merging of colonial and Congolese culture. Tamagni notes Sapeur Salvador Hassan “thinks that a real sapeur needs to be cultivated and speak fluently, but also have a solid moral ethic: that means beyond the appearance and vanity of smart, expensive clothing there is the moral nobility of the individual." Says Hassan, "The label is not important, what is important is to be able to dress depending on the taste of the individual."

Purchase Gentlemen of Bacongo from Amazon or Powell's.

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