By now most of us are aware of this story : Mary Bale, a woman living in UK was caught on a CCTV camera dumping a cat in a trash bin. The video was uploaded on Youtube, went viral and made the news worldwide. The response was quick and intense : sheer outrage. Mashable has a good summary of the ways this anger was expressed all over the Internet. Quite a normal reaction, one may think. Yet, something doesn’t add up. How come suddenly nobody seems to be too concerned about the use of CCTV cameras to spy on citizens?

Those are serious topics in our times : the respect of private life, the surveillance of citizens by the Government, the rising specter of Big Brother. It’s one of the recurrent topic on Boing Boing : the rising number of CCTV cameras in big cities, specifically in the UK (try this customized search).

Looks like Big Brother isn’t the problem in this particular scenario : the problem is that we don’t want others to spy on us. But if we happen to find ourselves in a position where we can spy on our neighbors, and maybe catch them doing something we think is wrong, then CCTV cameras are ok, surveillance is good, the system is working just fine.

Studio series focusing on disused electronics, as well as flora and fauna.

About Benn Innes:

Born in Knoxville, TN, Ben Innes now works, eats and sleeps in Minneapolis, MN. He gained his BFA in photography from the Minneapolis College Of Art and Design in the spring of 2009. (About)

First spotted via Coudal Partners.

Maybe. But the logic used in this argument is weak in at least two ways.

1) DSLR cameras, Point&Shoot cameras and Cameraphone are all compared here as devices capable of taking pictures and videos. How are desktop computers, laptops and iPads compared? As devices to surf the web? To do video editing? Graphic design? Reading eBooks? Writing a thesis?

2) Consider the latter : can an iPad replace the laptop for users who write a lot, and not just at home? I’d like to have more feedback about the iPad’s keyboard from someone who’s using it extensively (not just to write emails). I can’t help but think that somehow Gupta is suggesting that if you write a lot, you should stay home.

“David Zaitz is an advertising, corporate and travel photographer known for his quirky style of people/location imagery. An eternal wise-cracker with a buttoned-down approach, Zaitz enjoys the diverse range of clientele he has built. He’s based in Los Angeles, but travels extensively on assignment which makes driving the 405 freeway much more bearable. Zaitz’s clients include Doubletree Hotels, Esquire magazine, POM Wonderful, Wells Fargo Bank, Pedigree, Bank of America, Bridgestone Tires, Coca-Cola and Toyota.” (Altpick.com).

“Magazine 36 was used during translunar coast and in lunar orbit.”

“”What you’re seeing here is an extra TV monitor attached to the cam with the ever-present gray tape. Early crews had no such monitor or other means of image control and complained about their inability to easily/properly point the camera inside the cramped quarters of their spacecraft, so this was what they were granted. The camera is the Westinghouse color model, essentially the same model that suffered the burnout on A12, only that this one is IVA-black while the A12 camera was EVA-white. Also note that the camera is actually held upside-down (that is, we’re seeing its top side), to capture the CM interior in proper alignment for the TV audience.”