Boyana and I will be in Egypt for two weeks starting this Sunday for an adventurous reunion with old friend and traveler extraordinaire, Jordan. Expectations include Pyramid gawking, Camel racing, and the avoidance of scorpions, Red Sea Pirates, and dehydration.
Pictures will follow our return to Sofia, but for exciting play-by-play action, follow me on twitter or check updates in the sidebar.
morestones, originally uploaded by garth walker.
Just a few photos from a trip last weekend to Koprivshtitsa, ground zero for the uprising against the Turkish.
From the article published by Ars Technica, the U.S. has created “a nationwide network of ‘fusion centers’—low-profile, highly secure sites where federal and state officials with top secret clearance meet in order to collect, analyze, and redistribute information on ‘all hazards, all threats.’ ” following 9/11 Commission Report recommendations on increasing cooperation between various agencies….
But now moving through the Virginia state legislature is considering passing a bill that opponents suspect the federal government is pushing the state to adopt “which will render all of the Virginia Fusion Center’s databases and records exempt from FOIA requests. The bill also proposes to make Fusion Center employees exempt from subpoena in civil actions related to ‘criminal intelligence information,’ and it would grant to call-in tipsters immunity to defamation and invasion of privacy claims. “
The really terrible thing about this is the potential for colonial era style “witch hunts” this system encourages by giving cover and immunity to disgruntled or revenge seeking members of the community.
One question I have about the Fusion Center system as it is in place now, is will this or has it already had an impact on California’s (or other state’s) Medical Marijuana Programs? It would be almost irresistible for the FEDs to use local police in disingenuous investigations aimed at sacking patients and providers… ESPECIALLY if they were free from scrutiny under the FOIA.
Last night I went to see a special screening which featured segments of Michael Palin’s (of Monty Python fame) new documentary series on Eastern Europe. After the screening was a Q&Q segment with Jon-Paul Davidson, the film’s director.
The screening, which took place at the Lumiere Theater at NDK, got a lot of laughs from the audience (me included) which featured scenes of Palin drinking home-distilled Rakiya, dancing with pistol wielding gypsies in Plovdiv and hiking to the Seven Rila Lakes at Summer Solstice to see the “White Brotherhood” spiritual gathering. (Note: Not related to White Power or the Aryan Brotherhood). I had a lot of fun watching it despite numerous “technical difficulties” the theater staff encountered. The Q&A was a desperately disappointing affair, and I felt sorry for J.P. Davidson as the audience showed the depths of their own insecurities and self consciousness about their country and history. “Why did you show Bulgarian’s drinking Rakiya? The world will think we are all alcoholics!” “Why did you include such a long segment about gypsies? The world will think we’re a backwards country full of gypsies!” “Why didn’t you go to (insert someplace here) instead, so everyone could see how great that is?” and stirring the most controversy… “Why did your film give Macedonia credit in the development of the cyrillic alphabet? That was BULGARIA!!!! ARGHH!!” Davidson politely listened to question after question like these and answered all in roughly the same way, highly paraphrased: “Every country we went to had complaints about the way we portrayed them, but we were not out to create a fully representational or balanced documentary… we wanted to choose a few things that we as outsiders found interesting and focus on those with the limited time we had. I think you will in fact find that this film inspires more tourists to travel to Bulgaria and discover it for themselves which can’t be a bad thing.” It may be because I grew up in Southern California in a culture that thrives and churns on constant exaltation and self-devouring criticism, building up and tearing down its own image on a regular basis, but I had hoped for an audience with a greater sense of humor and cultural pride, and not one that came across as ashamed an fearful at what had been swept out from under the rug. 
Advert Screen shot, originally uploaded by garth walker.
Sometimes I’m amazed by how good targeted advertising can be whether its in search, on a blog, or some related site of interest.
Lately though, it seems every time I log into Facebook this advertisment appears at the footer or in the sidebar, which makes sense to the extent that my IP address is located in Bulgaria, but not on Facebook. They have access to more of my personal data than any other website and my U.S. citizenship is acknowledged on the very page this ad is delivered to (Hometown: Burbank, Ca.)
For a company that is apparently struggling to develop a revenue stream and coming on the heels of the Beacon PR disaster it just seems sloppy, and proves that Facebook could be doing a better job with even their very basic advertising.
