Photographer is Modern-day Hopper

It's not that Hopper painted poverty and desolate Americana. We all know (and some of us love) his play with light, his choice of subject, his point of view. Personally I also like Sheeler, exponent of what they call the Precisionist Movement: cities, machines.

But look at these incredible pictures, on exhibition (alas) @ the MOMA. In A New American Picture, photographer Doug Rickard takes viewers on a tour of the run-down, the derelict, and the economically depressed using ... Google. Rickard scouted out specific locations on Google Maps that show crippling economic devastation—boarded-up buildings in Camden, N.J., overgrown sidewalks in Detroit, and neglected lots in New Orleans. He snapped digital photographs of the scene playing out on his computer monitor. The effect is impressive and not just for the use of light and colour. The anonymity of the people in these pictures is a harsh metaphor for the anonymity of poverty.

With thanks to www.thedailybeast.com.

#BGGD49 was a long time coming

It's been a while so we welcome back with open arms the next #BGGD49 on Children's Internet Safety, with main speaker Simone van Zuylen (@Norton_be). There's room for a 100 interested parties and when I last checked, the list wasn't full yet. So join the BGG's next week on February 8th in Mechelen. Should be an interesting topic. I for one do not believe in technical solutions for things like safe chat or controled environments; I can only talk for my teenage son who, as a rule, only uses his laptop in the living room and is fairly smart in the way he uses the web. Should be an interesting discussion, next week.

Naive? Zuckerberg's Registration Statement to the SEC

"We don't build services to make money, we make money to build better services." You'd wipe away a tear reading that if it weren't Zuckerberg explaining his personal philosophy in the official Registration Statement to the SEC on the eve of the Facebook IPO. His future shareholders are going to looooove that. Going public not to make money but to make the world a better place, help people create relationships, connect to each other and fulfilling a social mission. But I'm probably too cynical: if you want to change the world, you'd best do it from within the establishment. What better place to undermine boundless capitalism than from inside the NYSE? What better place to launch social entrepreneurism? Go, Mark, Go. And if you do end up earning money, do a Bill Gates.

The web finally waking up against SOPA

It has taken (too much) time already but the anti-SOPA movement is finally coming up to speed. We all know that there is absolutely nothing wrong with honoring coppyright and protecting the works of authors but this SOPA initiative clearly is a bridge too far. It kills the mosquito by using a cannon. Yesterday ZDNet's Zack Whittaker announced 'Geeks 1- Congress 0', indicating the SOPA proposal, although not dead yet, was badly wounded. Congress decided to shelve it, in order to reassess and take into consideration voiced concerns over the proposal. Zack closes his blogpost by claiming, and I quote: "Geeks, it should be known, spread far and wide, almost single-handedly helped save the web as we know it." Does it mean SOPA won't be coming back quietly or under a different name? Off course it doesn't. Let's keep our eyes and ears open. Meanwhile, Wikipedia makes a point today, to underline the importance of the SOPA case:

Use 2012 to prepare great 2013

One major Good Resolution for the much awaited year of 2012, which starts in about 8,5 hours, is to be more active on this blog again. But why not throw in a few other good resolutions? To be less cynical. To be more optimistic. To spend more time with the kids. To love the loved-ones even more. To listen. To see. To think before speaking. To speak out. To be a better person. To take care of my back. To cook great dinners. To read more books. To be more open. To be there for others. To make it a year to remember.

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