Phillip Jeffrey

The Dark Side of 'Webtribution'

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:40:32 -0800

For much of human history, exacting retribution on your enemies—as opposed to fantasizing about it—was too much of a hassle for most people to bother with. It involved duels, poison or, at the very least, clever rumors that took ingenuity to create and patience to spread. By the time you had devised a revenge plot, you typically had cooled off and come to your senses.

That’s not the case anymore. Thanks to the Internet, vengeance—let’s call it “Webtribution”—is easier, and nastier, than ever. And it’s also a whole lot more prevalent. The Internet permits us to be impulsive and anonymous. It requires a minimum amount of work: You can ruin someone’s life while sitting on the couch watching TV. And it provides a maximum amount of pain.

via wall street journal

The Thanksgiving Song by Adam Sandler

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:21:29 -0800

The Thanksgiving Song by Adam Sandler

Pre-production Canon 1DMKIV at a wedding

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:44:00 -0800

Pre-production Canon 1DMKIV at a wedding:

Very helpful review of Jeff Ascough’s use of the Canon 1DMKIV in low light for wedding pictures.

As far as I am aware these are the first wedding images shot and published with the new camera anywhere in Europe, and possibly the world. Canon only allow a very select group of photographers to use their pre-production cameras, and I belong to that group - which I find very humbling.

To give you all a little insight into my experience with Canon cameras; I have been a 1 series user for pretty much the past fifteen years. I started with a 1N, then a 1V then onto 1DMKII, 1DMKIIN, 1DSMKII, 1DsMKIII, 5DMKII, and now 1DMKIV. I am totally familiar with the 1 series, and how it operates.

(via Canon Rumors)

ehkasi: “What’s taking you so long?” (I’m still...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:56:24 -0800

ehkasi:

“What’s taking you so long?”

~~(I’m still waiting.)~~

.

(click image for original pic)

Retweeting on twitter

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:59:09 -0800

Retweeting on twitter

Photo by Frank Ockenfels/FOX. I am floored. I feel like I was...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:19:00 -0800

Photo by Frank Ockenfels/FOX.

I am floored. I feel like I was just punched in the stomach. I wondered why Dollhouse was trending on twitter on a Wednesday. When I did a Google seach, I found out the truth. Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse has been cancelled, due to low ratings.

I have been a loyal fan since the premier season last year. I really felt it was coming into its own in Season 2 and I was excited that Summer Glau was going to be joining the show.

Please Fox, bring back Dollhouse!

BBC News: German goalkeeper dies in 'suicide'

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:37:52 -0800

BBC News: German goalkeeper dies in 'suicide' :

BBC Video

The manager of Germany’s national football team, Olivier Bierhoff, has said he is “shocked and speechless” after his goalkeeper, Robert Enke, apparently committed suicide.

Enke was the leading candidate to be the country’s first choice keeper at the World Cup finals in South Africa next year.

The 32-year-old died after being hit by a train at a level crossing near Hannover.

Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist, dies at 100

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:53:34 -0800

Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist, dies at 100:

Claude Lévi-Strauss, 100, one of the preeminent social anthropologists of the 20th century, whose erudite, often mind-bendingly labored studies of indigenous Brazilian tribes led to influential theories examining human behavior and culture, died over the weekend in Paris.

Rest in peace Claude Lévi-Strauss. I remember the 1st time I heard about you in Intro Anthropology and enjoyed learning about your theory of “structuralism”.

Today is World Pneumonia Day! 2 million children under five...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0800

Today is World Pneumonia Day!

2 million children under five years of age die from pneumonia each year—more than from HIV/AIDS, measles, and malaria combined.

In order to bring attention to this issue of pneumonia, New Media Strategies and JESS3 have collectively built Mission: Pneumonia as a client project for Save the Children. I’ve been playing the game today; it’s fun and educational.

So how can you help?

Play Mission: Pneumonia (it’s addictive - you’ve been warned)
Join the Facebook event and post a blue jeans Facebook profile picture for 24 hours
Follow World Pneumonia Day on twitter
Wear blue jeans today
Spread the word among your friends and co-workers

Let’s make a difference!

Toronto singer killed by coyotes in Nova Scotia

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:53:01 -0700

Toronto singer killed by coyotes in Nova Scotia :

Taylor Mitchell, a singer-songwriter from Toronto, was hiking alone in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia on Tuesday when she was attacked by 2 coyotes. This morning she succumbed to her injuries in hospital. May she rest in peace.

Globe and Mail source

"We know from this that there are influences on people’s behaviour from unconscious cues in the..."

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:02:43 -0700

“We know from this that there are influences on people’s behaviour from unconscious cues in the environment. We have a society that has the tools to control people’s thoughts or behaviour. We need to have a discussion about the ethics of this.”

- University of Toronto Professor Chen-Bo Zhong quote in the Toronto Star about his experimental research (The Smell of Virture), which found that a whiff of citrus-scented Windex motivated people to be generous, altruistic and apt to volunteer.

Halloween postcard arrived from @dearbarbz

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:50:07 -0700

Toronto Maple Leafs win!!!

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:02:00 -0700

TVO's The Agenda: Wired 24/7

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:31:00 -0700

TVO's The Agenda: Wired 24/7:

From The Agenda website:

Would you be able to survive one day without your television? Computer? your Blackberry? Our grandparents didn’t need them. Some of our parents lived without them. And yet these technologies are now an integral part of our lives, for better or for worse. Where will the wired world lead us next? And will we be happy with what we find at that destination?

Tonight at 8pm EST/ 5pm PST as part of the Q2C Festival TVO’s The Agenda will be live streaming a discussion featuring:

You can watch the live stream on the Q2C Festival website.

"I think it’s safe to say that every single filmmaker and photographer has always dreamed of cameras..."

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:52:00 -0700

“

I think it’s safe to say that every single filmmaker and photographer has always dreamed of cameras that can see what our naked eyes can see. This time these cameras can actually see more. Sure - they may not have the dynamic ranges of our eyes just yet - but they see more than my naked eyes can see in low light.

Period.

”

- Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Vincent Laforet describing his first experiences with a Canon 1D Mark IV prototype.

The short film “Nocturne” he created at ISO 6400 only using natural lighting is stunning.

Canon 1D MkIV arrives in Dec for $4999US, in time for the Winter Olympics.

Companies seek cyber social butterflies

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:58:51 -0700

Companies seek cyber social butterflies:

“What younger people bring to the table is that they understand social media culture, because it’s actually the culture they live in,” said Alexandra Samuel, who teaches a continuing education course on social media at the University of British Columbia.

Samuel, 38, and her husband Rob Cottingham, 46, are Vancouver-based social media gurus who founded one of the world’s earliest social media companies, Social Signal, in 2005. On Thursday they publicly unveiled the company’s strategies for running a social media company, including techniques for training social media professionals.

Toronto Star/Canadian Press article

Sunny Fong, winner of Project Runway Canada Season 2 is...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:31:00 -0700

Sunny Fong, winner of Project Runway Canada Season 2 is streaming his show live today 1pm PST/4pm EST at vawkcollection.ca from the spring 2010 edition of LG Fashion Week in Toronto.

See Toronto Star article

Last night I attended the opening of the exhibition More Than...

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Last night I attended the opening of the exhibition More Than Just Games: Canada & the 1936 Olympics at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.

The event began with Harold Troper (University of Toronto prof) and Richard Menkin (University of British Columbia prof) discussing the process of organising research material for the exhibition and how they went finding information and interviewing people.

Then, David Halton, a former CBC senior foreign correspondent shared writing by his father - Matthew Halton, a London correspondent for the Toronto Star. Matthew spent time in Germany in 1933 writing articles detailing Hitler’s quest for power and the Nazi’s treatment of the Jews.

This photo from the exhibition is of Phil Edwards. He won 5 bronze medals for Canada over 3 Olympics including a bronze in the 800 meter race at the Berlin Games.

It was a beneficial experience learning about Canada’s role at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany (both summer and winter games) and I plan to re-visit again when friends come for the 2010 Olympics.

The exhibition continues until June 18, 2010.

My flickr photo set is here.

Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong, the designers of...

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:50:06 -0700

Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong, the designers of Canada’s fashion label Greta Constantine, want nothing to do with Toronto Fashion Week, the twice-a-year presentation of Canada’s top design talent that starts Monday.

But the duo felt their creativity was being hobbled by instructions that they must show in certain venues, must use predetermined makeup companies and artists, and a select group of models. According to Pickersgill, the Fashion Design Council of Canada, organizer of the city’s fashion week, was not prepared to accommodate the fledgling designers’ need to direct their own vision.

“If we spend six months designing a collection, we should show it where we want to. We want to choose our own hair and makeup people,” says Pickersgill. “You lose a lot when you lose that kind of control.”

Focus on creating their own show each year rather than participating in Toronto Fashion Week.

Toronto Star article

Irwin Oostindie (@dutchphoto), Executive Director of W2...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:19:29 -0700

Irwin Oostindie (@dutchphoto), Executive Director of W2 Community Media Arts Society spoke at UBC today about the Fearless City initiatives in the Downtown Eastside (DTES).

The focus of this project is to provide access for DTES residents to tell stories about the community through video and photography that are uploaded to social media sites using mobile technologies.

During the Olympics they will be using the True North Media Centre as a hub for sharing their neighbourhood experiences while offering a social space for bloggers to network and conduct research.