When I was about twelve I convinced my Mother to get the first Atari 400. My Father thought it was a fad. Perhaps he was right after thirty years, as technology has finally become a fashion accessory.

My friends all got them too and before long we were obsessed with gaming and programming. We would spend hours, even days locked away in suburban basements and rec-rooms staring at screens. We would trade the latest software. Some kids became experts at piracy in their curtain closed bedrooms. All piracy was offline. This was at the advent of 300 baud modems with acoustic couplers that you attached to your phone. This got you to an online bulletin board that was only text. The computers had no drives built into them. There were clunky tape drives or disc drives for storage.

I look back at this time and think about how seduced we all were. I also realize how patient we were. I’ve gone back to these computers and games and discovered how incredibly tedious they were; so brutally un-adaptive compared to now.

I wonder if there is now a certain saturation point or a distinctive timeframe where you eventually become exhausted of a screen. Is this point part of your advancing age or is it finite. Perhaps after 10,0000 hours of staring at a screen in your life, it becomes confining. If you conservatively looked a screen for an average of 4 hours a day over thirty years, it would be something approaching 5 years of your life.

When you are twelve you do not think about the future. You do not think about results and implications. You don’t think about reality all that much. Recently I cannot get my head around the idea of how commonplace digital technology has become over security. How kids have no sense of their own privacy and enjoy putting their lives online for the sake of marketers and corporations. They don’t see the corporations because they are so influenced by their peers. Their comfort zone is the screen.

The dark side of pervasive computing is that you don’t see where your data is going. You don’t think about it like when you were twelve. It’s perfect collectivism. Facebook is an awesome conformist tool. Any Fascist regime or Dictatorship from history would have loved Facebook as long as they had the keys to the backdoor.

Cracks in the walls of cyber-security mostly stem from social engineering or humans who give out information recklessly. If you are twenty-five and working for a major corporation or a bank is your default to share everything or do you have to be reminded to not give out secret knowledge? A curious problem is coming to a head. We have lost all respect for information. It’s our downfall. We are all eternally twelve.

- X.F. Pine

This is from the BBC show Animal Camera. Beautiful Golden Eagle:

The Peregrine Falcon & Gos Hawk flies through the Woods:

What a Lion sees at Night:

History of the Crittercam. Great underwater compilation of Seals. Sharks and Whales. Underwater there is no way to transmit a signal, so they have to record it and eject it to the surface for recovery:

A tree Kangaroo from New Guinea with cool claws:

Finally, a great found photo story with a sea turtle. A camera washed up on a beach in Key West, Florida after being lost six months before in Aruba. This was on it.

When I pulled the corrupt document down on a mac to examine it, (Never try and do this on a PC running Windows) changed the extension to a .doc, and opened in MS Word as a unformatted text file I got the following messages within hundreds of pages of noise.

There is absolutely no pattern as these messages were sent without the owner’s knowledge and were organized and distributed by a unthinking virus. I started enjoying the complete randomness of the messages after a while. I have excerpted them, and do not know any of the owners.

1. This fragment appeared to be some kind of document about dentistry in Spanish. It was translated (loosely) by babelfish from Spanish.

ERUPTION. – It is the movement from the weaves that surround it until the buccal cavity, is vertical, begins within the bone to maxilar. It initiates – when already the crown of the tooth has formed, when it has matured the enamel and when formaciÛn of raÌz begins. It is classified: – preclÌnica ErupciÛn: it is the heave of the tooth within the bone to maxilar. – clÌnica ErupciÛn: it is the heave of the tooth in the buccal cavity. The speed of the heave depends on the resistance of the weaves that surround to the tooth, when clÌnica phase arrives at wing, no longer is it and its movement is but r·pido and returns to be slow when there is contact with the antagonist. Active ErupciÛn: heave in the clÌnica phase and does not finish when it finds the antagonist. Within the preclÌnica phase there is a heave within the bone to maxilar towards the buccal cavity, this movement finds resistance in the weaves that surround the tooth. In the clÌnica phase there is another heave that receives the name of erupciÛn activates Èste movement initiates since part of the tooth in the buccal cavity is seen until it finds his antagonistic

2. Cannot figure out what language this is. Turkish perhaps. It appears to be about photography.

B a g i a n F o t o – F o t o i l u s t r a s i y a n g t u r u n k e B a g . D e s a i n d i h a r a p k a n f o t o f i n a l y a n g s u d a h d i s e p a k a t i d e n g a n R e d p e l s e t i a p r u b r i k . S e h i n g g a t i d a k a d a p e r u b a h a n – p e r u b a h a n d i t e n g a h j a l a n . – F o t o s u a s a n a u n t u k i s i r u b r i k h e n d a k n y a b e r i m a g e s i z e m i n i m a l b e r u k u r a n 1 4 X 1 0 c m d e n g a n r e s o l u s i m i n i m a l 1 5 0 . U n t u k f o t o l e a d F O R U T , W a w a n c a r a , F O K U S , P r o f i l , h e n d a k n y a l e b i h b e s a r d a r i u k u r a n t e r s e b u t ( k i r a – k i r a m i n i m a l s e l e b a r 2 2 c m d e n g a n r e s o l u s i 2 0 0 ) . U n t u k k o l o m a t a u l o g o d a p a t m e n y e s u a i k a n ( b i s a b e r d i s k u s i t e r l e b i h d a h u l u a t a u k i r a – k i r a m i n i m a l l e b a r 5 c m d e n g a n r e s o l u s i m i n i m a l 1 5 0 ) . – F o t o u n t u k C o v e r b e r i m a g e s i z e m i n i m a l l e b a r 2 2 c m d e n g a n r e s o l u s i s e k i t a r 3 0 0 .

3. Construction Materials airlifted via helicopter?

FROM: Bruce E. Harley Director of Operations DATE: March 5, 1999 SUBJECT: Building Access March 14, 1999 Winthrop Mangement has granted permission for the construction of a mechanical room enclosure on the roof at 1999 Broadway. Construction materials are scheduled to be air lifted to the roof via helicopter on Sunday, March 14, 1999 between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. The airlift process will involve shutting down Broadway Street from California Street to Welton Street. This is for the safety of the public. During this time frame, Sunday, March 14th from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., access to and from 1999 Broadway Building will be restricted. The parking garage below the building will not be accessible for traffic, in or out, and pedestrian foot traffic will only have access to the building from the south pedestrian entrance along Welton Street under the supervision of the police department. The north pedestrian entrance to the building lobby will be secured and no traffic in or out will be permitted during the airlift.

4. One of the biggest steps of your young life.

VARSITY ALUMNI CLUB Dear Parents & Students: In a couple of months, your son or daughter will be taking one of the biggest steps in their young life, graduating from Torrington High School. On behalf of the Varsity Alumni Club, I want to extend my sincere congratulations to all of you for a job well done. The purpose of my letter is to also inform you of the scholarships offered by the Varsity Alumni Club on an annual basis. Each year, for the past several years, we have awarded six (6) one thousand (($1,000) dollar scholarships to six deserving seniors at Torrington High School.

5. Another strange spanish dental message. (Shovel Form?)

TEMPORARY TEETH: General differences: difference in tamaÒo, greater constricciÛn in the neck, pigmentaciÛn, oclusal ·rea, raÌces.Las crowns of the temporary incisors are wide and low. The relatively great superior power station and in shovel form, lateral the inferior lateral and central power station and the superior one are relatively but pequeÒos and have form of chisel, canine superior and the inferior one

6. O.K. Stranger and stranger. This appears to be the beginning of a journal written by a hitman. The message was 200+ pages. I think it is fake. I hope it is fake.

I watched him long enough to know he was a goner. Then I climbed through a window and disappeared. It all happened fast. Must not have been more than a minute from trigger to closing the car door. I get my money tomorrow, I hope. Twenty four thousand dollars. I hope it keeps snowing. I feel safer when itís snowing like this, like they canít see me. How does it feel to kill someone? I guess it feels different for everyone, or most everyone. To me it feels, kind of scary, and kind of satisfied. Scary because the unknown frightens me. Satisfied because I didit just like I planned. It was perfect. I did a damn fine job, and the guy I killed was just some low life criminal nigger. I mean, the guys I did this for are low life white scum, so Iím sure they mostly deal with their low life black counterparts. Maybe killing someone of a different race feels different, I donít know. I wont know till I get to kill a guy with blue eyes. I wonder if he had kids. I canít do this anymore. I wish I could take something to sleep, but I cant. I need to be careful, have to be prepared. I donít want others doing unto me as I have done unto them, ha, ha. Doubt I will sleep for quite some time. I threw that .22 away after I wire brushed the hell out of the barrel. Threw it in a dumpster behind a seven-eleven. I have my good old 1911 model .45 out now. I swear I have checked the safety about twenty times. I have my escape plans, I have my suicide plans, I will live or die, but I wonít be arrested. I can live, or die, with the consequences. Man, all of a sudden I am tired. I have to sleep. Iíll write more tomorrow.

7. Pissed off tenants letter. A rebate by the hour to keep everything simple. A good idea- hope they got their money.

Dear Mr. Radke, As tenants of your apartment building at 1949 Comox, we recently endured (patiently) almost five days without hot water. We understand that the accident in the boiler room rendered the hot water tank inoperable. However, in light of the fact that our rent includes basic services such as the provision of hot water, and since it is not the first time adequate hot water service has been an issue in the two years we have resided here, we believe we are entitled to a rent rebate for the month of June 2001. To keep everything simple we are requesting a rebate of $16.00/day for the four and a half days we were without hot water ( June 17th ñ mid afternoon of June 21st) for a total deduction of $80 for this month only. We have checked with the Residential Tenancy Office and discussed the matter with the Tenants Rights Action Coalition.

8. I believe this is some kind of lesson or book report. The “community” sounds slightly disturbing. Why should Jonas know what he wants to be when he is twelve?

Chapter 1 Jonas is the main character of this book, he is eleven and turning twelve in December. The community that Jonas lives in is perfect and is controlled by the community leaders. If kids or anyone violates a rule they will be punished, if it is very serious and he or she caused a lot of damage he or she would be released. When kids become twelves they are assigned an in the community and will work there for the rest of their lives. Jonas is getting mixed feelings about what he wants to be when he turns twelve. At dinners every family talks about their day and how they felt about what happened during their day. Jonas shares on how he feels and before Jonas, was his little sister Lily. Vocabulary Contributing Anxiously Over whelming Explanation Inconveniencing Apprehensive Ritual Beckoning Occasionally

Chapter 2 Jonasí father is a nurturer, nurtures take care of new born children.

9. All colleges are a rip off. Hope this person got their money back.

Then I went to the first class and I was disappointed when I was told that most of the class was unsupervised by an instructor and it was going to be up to study groups to learn most of the material. I did know about the study groups but I did not realize that they would be so much of the class and that you were graded on how the group did. I did not hear any thing from the GSL people so I decided to quit going after one class. I am now being charged for a whole semester and a computer that I have never seen. I called William Penn many times to try to get this worked out. I do not mind paying for the one class that I attended even though I was there only one day. I told the office person that Dee had told me to start the program before I had financial aid and she said Dee should not have done that.

10. What the hell is this person talking about??? It’s like a proposal proposing another proposal.

DETAILED PROPOSAL INFORMATION FOR MARIE CURIE DEVELOPMENT HOST FELLOWSHIPS DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH COMPETENCE SOUGHT A. Description of the research competence sought including current state of the art, innovative aspects and scientific significance The explanation of environmental policy is prevalent in the public debate on the environment; it dominates the scientific debate, and forms the basis of international and global environmental policy. The orientation of a legislative culture concerning the environmental policy determines the success of any setting of environmental standards. It is also clear that different structure and development partners of the modern environmental policy cannot be justified in this way. The special quality of the environmental problem calls for new forms of thinking and behaving and new social and political innovations if the problem is to be overcome. This purely scientific programme aims at developing principles within an integrated system of European environmental law. The European Court of justice is developing principles of common European environmental law through a systematic comparative analysis of national legal orders and particularly of ìgeneral principles common to all legal orders of Member Statesî. This is also the work performed by the European Public Law Center since its foundation. It is considered necessary to work towards a more functional and foreseeable exercise of public powers through a fixed set of common set of common general principles B. Reasons for choice of new competence and its relevance to research group/institution At a national level the environmental policy is a relatively a new policy area in Greece. However, there is an increasing interest relating to energy, environment and sustainable development, because this country is to a grate extend vulnerable due to its geographical structure and the technology evolution which has not unfortunately been accompanied by a rational use of natural ecosystems and a long-planning strategy concerning the impact of the production and the use of the energy which is essential to her economy. In this field, the European Public Law Center has already participate in several programmes as project coordinator concerning the environmental policy in Greece and the full implementation of European legislation in Greece. In this context, the interaction among researchers is one of the major pursuits and assets of the project. The comparative legal research and the analysis on the legal parameters for a number of pressing environmental and energy concerns could be proved particularly helpful since it can give the long-term perspective, which is missing from the environmental policies in Europe. A group of young promising researchers working together as much as possible, but at the same time enjoying an overview of the existing environmental situation and the legal alternatives could undoubtedly produce fruitful results in this field. Furthermore, one of the most important elements in the europeanisation of environmental law will necessarily be the scientific work and research in those fields, in order to produce a cohesive and coherent system of European environmental law. In fact this is, the work carried out by the European Public law Center and important contributions in this field have been produced in the last years.

X. F. Pine