“9/17/2006, 8:45 am – 9:45am, N 78°13.370’ E 015°40.024’”

from the series “1h Northern Hemisphere (2005-2008)” by Hans-Christian Schink.

Upon first sighting, I thought Schink’s images were of floating artifacts created through actual damage to the film. I think that drew me to the pictures much more than if someone said “Hey, look what he made by overexposing the sun.” I figured it out pretty quick the first time I saw one (and remembered other famous black sun photo), but I still can’t get over how close the artifacts look.

Regardless, beautiful images.

Ever since Nixon abandoned the Bretton-Woods agreement to back the United States dollar with gold and instead decided to "float" the dollar, the dollar's value has been merely the shared delusion of everyone that uses it. Initially we did this because the French and German governments mounted an attack upon the dollar, exchanging as much of it for gold as possible knowing full well that we had deflated the price of gold and could not keep up with producing gold at $35/oz. We abandoned a gold-backed currency because the United States was unwilling to accept foreign constraints upon its economic policy.

However, once again with a floated currency we have hit the same barrier. Today foreign investors hold far more in US government bonds and liquid currency than the worth of our nation's gross national product. Foreign banks now get to decide the price of the dollar more than the US economy, Federal Reserve, and the legislative branch of government combined. There is a solution that's in the best interest of all Americans: the adoption of RAPE DOLLARS as the official US currency.

National Institute of Justice estimates placed the annual social cost of rape and other sexual assaults of adults at 127 billion dollars, or about $508 per U.S. resident. That's even with rape being at a record low as of 2003! If we increase our national rape production we could easily put that value at upwards of several trillion dollars! Rape is an endlessly renewable resource. If we back our currency with it we can print as much money as we want without it being inflationary! RAPE DOLLARS are instant riches.

The best we can do now is educate people on the advantages of RAPE DOLLARS. In the future we can envision a world with a universal rape-backed currency, and a paradise of incredible proportions. RAPE DOLLARS will be the first step towards achieving that world.

Perfume commercial from Agent Bonjorno on Vimeo.

Chicken Curry

• 1 Tbsp corn, grapeseed, or olive oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1/3 cup golden raisins (optional)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow curry powder, or to taste
• 4 skinless, boneless, chicken breast halves (1 to 1 1/2 pounds)*
• 1 cup sour cream
• Minced fresh cilantro or parsley for garnish

1. Put the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. When hot, add the onions (and optional raisins), sprinkle with some salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium, sprinkle with half of the curry powder, and continue to cook a minute or two.
Meanwhile, season the chicken with salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle it with the remaining curry powder. Move the onion to one side of the skillet and add the chicken in one layer. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate.</li>
2. Add the sour cream and stir constantly over medium-low heat until the mixture is nice and thick. Return the chicken to the skillet and cook for a couple more minutes, or until cooked through, turning once.

20091216_tinyletter.jpg, originally uploaded by rubicat.

The smallest Christmas card I've ever received. I know postal regulations, but seriously... how does this make it through the mail? It's so teeny!

A Post on Mrs. Deane:

© beierle + keijser

While fiddling around with these wilting flowers a little mindlessly after a long day, it occurred to me that I hadn’t ever come across photo-based art — excuse my language — that uses masked areas (in this case a black alert) as an integral part of the image. Partial overprints have been done before, but not based on computer-generated messages about color information or whatever it is you are masking. One could even imagine that something dreadful glittery is glued or sprayed on the spots now marked a bleak yellow. Of course this particular image is really not an elegant example of what you could achieve with such a technique, but there must exist compositions to which this effect can be added in a meaningful way. If anyone has seen this effect successfully applied elsewhere, do let me know! — And now I know what I can make: an I heart Photograph Xmas-card, yeah…

I love this kind of shit. I was working with one of my students the other day and she had somehow gotten the black value warning stuck on without knowing what it was. She was going through her images and letting out disappointing sighs as she noted they were all bad – they all had this horrible grainyness for some reason. I couldn’t figure out what she was talking about until I turned off the shadow value warning toggle and she got super excited, asking how I fixed her images. Blew both her minds – I totally didn’t understand how she was seeing, that she could think it was a natural part of her image, somehow she’d gotten that in camera, etc.