It really hurts being in a place that is spectacular to engage in photography but being unable to do so because it’s so cold that even weather sealed lenses and camera bodies would break down. Though the challenges of this trip have got me thinking of ways to spend my vacation days over the coming year to take short duration dedicated photo trips, when I know that the weather will be hospitable to my gear.
First time I’ve been in an AirBNB and the toilet stopped working (frozen pipes that the landlord wouldn’t look at) and then all water in the building stopped running (frozen pipes burst and so fire department shut off the water valve). At least the heat is working at the moment?
By booking my vacation over a month ago, I’ve accidentally transported myself to a place that is colder than Siberia. And yet I’m still (accidentally) walking almost 20km a day. Fitness win?
Honoured to be recognized by Access Now as a local champion for my work in safeguarding, protecting, and advancing digital civil liberties in Canada!
I saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi this afternoon and I’m still digesting what I think of it. On the whole I enjoyed it; Carrie Fisher really stole the show whereas I found Mark Hamill’s performance was sorta ‘meh’. It was also a strangely *small* movie, in terms of approximately how little time passes over the course of events. It definitely feels like an episode of something as opposed to a self-contained and ‘complete’ film in its own right.
There’s something…special…about being ‘covered’ by an organization that is the actual definition of fake news/Russian propaganda.
From the Associated Press:
Southern Xinjiang, where Korla is located, is one of the most heavily policed places on earth.
In Hotan, police depots with flashing lights and foot patrols are set up every 500 meters. Motorcades of more than 40 armored vehicles rumble down city boulevards. Police checkpoints on every other block stop cars to check identification and smartphones for religious content.
Xinjiang’s published budget data shows public security spending this year is on track to increase 50 percent from 2016 to roughly 45 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) after rising 40 percent a year ago. It’s quadrupled since 2009, when a Uighur riot broke out in Urumqi, killing nearly 200 people.
But much of the policing goes unseen.
Shoppers entering the Hotan bazaar must pass through metal detectors and place their national identification cards on a reader while having their faces scanned. AP reporters were stopped outside a hotel by a police officer who said the public security bureau had been remotely tracking the reporters’ movements by watching surveillance camera footage.
The government’s tracking efforts have extended to vehicles, genes and even voices. A biometric data collection program appears to have been formalized last year under “Document No. 44,” a regional public security directive to “comprehensively collect three-dimensional portraits, voiceprints, DNA and fingerprints.” The document’s full text remains secret, but the AP found at least three contracts referring to the 2016 directive in recent purchase orders for equipment such as microphones and voice analyzers.
The extent of the of technical and human surveillance, and punishments that are meted out for failing to adequately monitor family members and friends, is horrifying.1 And while the surveillance undertaken in this area of China is particularly severe, the kinds of monitoring that occur in China is more extensive and ever-present throughout the country than many people who haven’t travelled into China can appreciate. The Chinese surveillance infrastructure is the kind of apparatus that exists to sustain itself, first and foremost, by ensuring that contrary ideologies and philosophies are threatened and — where possible — rendered impotent by way of threats and fear.
Received news that a friend has been diagnosed with (very treatable!) cancer. It’s brought back a wave of pretty negative emotions as I recall the diagnoses that were given to my step-sister and step-mother alike, both of whom passed away due to their illnesses.
It’s pretty amazing to see what Star Wars might have looked like if George Lucas’ initial script and the original designs had been adopted (and made with contemporary computer generated images!). Imagine how much more interesting it would have been had a young woman, instead of a male, protagonist been responsible for saving everything!
Watching someone switch from Android and to iOS for the first time is a really interesting experience. The ease of wirelessly transferring data between operating systems (and devices!) and automatic installation/configuration of apps like they’re set up on their iPad is pretty magical. The near-automatic warning that they’re out of iCloud space and thus need to pony up a monthly payment to Apple is the only jarring part of the experience so far; Apple really needs to increase the default amount of storage provided to at least 10GB or so.
Excited Pixels