• From the game Roma Victor:

    Brighton, UK. Britain will witness its first crucifixion for almost two millennia later this week, when Cynewulf is nailed to a cross as punishment for ganking other players as they first appear. Cynewulf, (in real life a 27 year-old electrical engineer from Flint, Michigan, USA) has no need to worry about suffering any permanent pain to his hands or feet, however, as this barbaric sentence is due to be carried out in cyberspace; in the virtual world of Roma Victor®.

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  • From Magnum Photos, part one of photographer Larry Towell’s Living With AIDS photo essay, this one in Peru. As always, Towell’s eye is sharp.
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  • From PDN, Q&A with Toby Morris of ZUMA Press:

    When it first happened, I was really embarrassed to be the photographer who got shot. Because you know that your peers might say, “That guy Toby, he’s a hot dog.” But I’m not Robert Capa, man, I wasn’t standing on top of the trench. I was there more to take portraits than to get news photos anyway.

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  • Deep-Sea Comics, publishers of Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman, and other comic books by David Boswell.

    Reid Fleming, the crazy milkman, is known for the phrases, “I thought I told you to shut up!” and “I am not bald, I get my hair CUT this way!”

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  • From PDN:

    With the benefit of more time, two recent photo books have tried to show the war from new angles. They take fundamentally different approaches: one from the viewpoint of the American solider, the other from the viewpoint of the Iraqi citizens.

    Here.

    The books:


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  • From Wired:

    Like the toys of our youth, modern videogames rely on the player’s active involvement. We’re invited to create and interact with elaborately simulated worlds, characters, and story lines. Games aren’t just fantasy worlds to explore; they actually amplify our powers of imagination.

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  • From the New York Times:

    “I don’t wear jewels anymore,” she announced. “They stole all my jewels. These are recycled garbage that I make into jewels.”

    “It’s beautiful,” she said. “Here, I have a plastic ring. I did it. I designed it. I have hundreds and hundreds. I have a room full of jewels made of plastic.”

    “I’m more bejeweled than before,” she said. “Bejeweled with garbage.”
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  • From the New York Times:

    “There is so much nonstandard conduct, both before and after Pat was killed, that you have to start to wonder,” Mr. Tillman said. “How much effort would you put into hiding an accident? Why do you need to hide an accident?”

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  • There’s finally a Rabid Lassie page on MySpace. Four songs are there.

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  • From Extensis:

    Photographer Digital Workflow.

    This demo will outline how to use Portfolio as a complete workflow tool. From downloading and back-up to editing, sharing and archiving all inside of Portfolio. Learn how to simplify your workflow and have complete control over all of it’s steps.

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  • From the Washington Post:

    “They didn’t show any cards or anything,” Akins said. “They just came up and said they were with the media, and then they said they were with Fox. They just talked to us and asked us about rebuilding our house. Then, after everything was over with, they approached us and they were laughing, and they said: ‘You know, we really weren’t with Fox. We’re government, Secret Service men.’ ”

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  • Duplex Planet, where David Greenberger has been asking questions to the elderly for over 25 years. A sample:

    WHY IS MUSIC IMPORTANT?

    FRANK KANSLASKY: (Laughs) Not to me it ain’t!

    LEO GERMINO: Because it’s very, very outstanding. It’s important to make
    people feel better, too.

    FRANCIS MCELROY: Because it’s the run of the country, and it’s very
    popular among all people.

    BILL NIEMI: Well, it sort of relaxes a person’s mind.

    CHARLES SHEA: Without it there’d be no happiness.

    ABE SURGECOFF: It brings melody to the people.

    HERMAN SEFTEL: It tunes up the system.

    DORA GURKEWITZ: We’re lonely people and we live alone, so we like to have
    music.

    HENRY TURNER: It soothes the nerves. And it keeps you from getting bored
    too. Of course my radio was stolen from me.

    HOWARD SHERWOOD: Well, I think it’s a great day starter, starter of the
    day. Most people put their radio on and it brightens up the day. If we had
    a lot more music and less arguments things would be a lot better – all over
    the world. In a lot of these countries you aren’t allowed to put music on.

    (from Duplex Planet issue # 97)

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  • From the New York Times:

    When Erno Nussenzweig, an Orthodox Jew and retired diamond merchant from Union City, N.J., saw his picture last year in the exhibition catalog, he called his lawyer. And then he sued Mr. diCorcia and Pace for exhibiting and publishing the portrait without permission and profiting from it financially. The suit sought an injunction to halt sales and publication of the photograph, as well as $500,000 in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages.

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  • From the New York Times:

    In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball.

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  • From the New York Times:

    In sum, he has shown himself incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq. Mr. Rumsfeld must step down.

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  • From Juxtapoz:

    A preview of the work from Shepard Fairey’s upcoming show at White Walls in San Francisco.

    We got these examples of the work that will be on display next month. The show opens April 1st, 2006 at White Walls in SF. He’ll have a total of 50 pieces in the show plus a huge wall mural installation. See you there?
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  • From we make money not art:

    Ge Jin, a PhD student from UCSD, is working on a video documentary about the gold farming phenomenon. His observations from his meetings with Chinese workers in various gold farming workshops:

    When I entered a gold farm for the first time (tietou’s gaming workshop in the preview), I was shocked by the positive spirit there, the farmers are passionate about what they do, and there is indeed a comraderie between them … I do see suffering and exploitation too, but in that place suffering is mixed with play and exploitation is embodied in a gang-like brotherhood and hierarchy. When I talked with the farmers, they rarely complained about their working condition, they only complained about their life in the game world.

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  • From PDN:

    The New York Civil Liberties Union says transit police have been trying to stop photographers from legally taking pictures of the Long Island Railroad.

    In response, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the railroad, says it will remind its officers that there is no photography ban on the LIRR.

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  • Documentary by Jeremy Mack on one man’s attempt to break the high score on the classic arcade game Missile Command:

    One quarter. Two Days. No Pause Button.

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  • From Punknews.org:

    As far as a new record, the band had this to say: “the new record is coming along great! All we need to finish it is …songs. As soon as we write some, we are SO going to record that bad boy!”

    The band is also working on a new project called Yo Gabba Gabba which is aimed at pre-schoolers. They will be writing music, acting and directing the show.
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