The absurdity of the War on Terror continues apace. The recently passed Senate bill 1867 would be, if signed into law, the latest expansion of executive power would give the president the authorization to send the military anywhere in the world, including inside the United States, to imprison civilians without charge or trial. In essence, the Senate voted 93-7 to shred the the last of Sixth Amendment.

The White House has indicated that they’ll veto the bill if it arrives with the current provisions, but even if it is cast aside, it’s terrifying that 93 senators from both sides of the aisle thought that it was a good idea to vote for this atrocity of a bill.

As disgusted as I am, I should also say that I am thankful to see that both Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley from Oregon voted nay on this bill.

More about this on the ACLU Blog of Rights, Wired, and Forbes.

At best, HP’s decision to open source webOS looks to me to be a hail mary. The only way it’ll work is if several things come together just right. Most notably—like any open source effort—a community of developers who are not only interested in playing with the software, but that can make webOS into something viable will need to come together. Unlike other open source efforts, however, easily available and useful hardware to run the system on will need to emerge so that there’s something useful to do with it. That’s a tough combination.

The reason Linux and BSD became viable operating system platforms was that people wanted to do things with their PC commodity hardware that couldn’t be done with any other available operating system at a reasonable cost. The reason the Apache web server succeeded was that the people contributing to it were building websites on top of it. WebKit is awesome because several companies base products on top of it. Everyone working on Rails uses it to build pretty sophisticated services with it. Motivated self-interest, in other words. Easy to see. Powerful. Good for everyone involved.

Maybe I’m missing it—and I’ll be happy to be wrong on this as webOS is pretty nifty—but I don’t see how the pieces currently line up for an ecosystem of motivated self-interest to operate. Without that, I can’t see the end result being anything other than a code dump and a slow death of webOS. On the other hand, maybe there’s an x-factor that’s not yet clear and it’ll be a brilliant move when viewed in retrospect. It’ll have to be a pretty good x-factor, however.

Greg and I have been working extra super hard since the beginning of November to get the next product from Luma Labs out the door. It’s almost ready to go and we’ll be posting a lot more information about it over the coming days. For now, I can tell you that it’s called Cinch. Here’s a teaser video of the hardware which makes it sing being made on a CNC mill in Portland, Oregon.

Need a few more hints? While I won’t spill all the beans yet, I’ll tell you this much: We figured out how to make a camera strap that has more stability than any single-point sling on the market, yet is more comfortable than anything we’ve made before. That’s a bold statement, I know, but it’s true. I can’t wait to show it to you and will do so as soon as possible.

After working our tails off for the last however many weeks and months, Greg and I wrapped up development last week of Cinch, the latest camera strap from Luma Labs. It’s a pretty awesome product and I’m really happy with how it came out. The first batch is currently winding its way through the manufacturing process and we’ve started a soft launch by opening up for orders to people who signed up for the Luma Labs mailing list before yesterday. We’ll fully open up the launch for everyone in January.

One of the highlights of the entire process was spending a bit of time with Bryan W. Jones and Trent Nelson who let me watch how they used the Cinch as well as let me photograph and video them. That’s Trent above looking mighty epic in the mountains outside of Salt Lake City.

As I write this on Christmas Day 2011, I’m on my second flight of four to southeast Asia. Traveling alone on Christmas Day wasn’t part of the original plan, but that’s OK. A definite upside is that the airports are calmer, the airplanes have extra room in them because they aren’t crammed to the gills, and everyone is just a bit nicer. In fact, it’s a bit of unexpected luxury to have an empty seat next to me as I fly from Seattle to Tokyo. There are even Christmas lights hanging in the galley.

Looking back at 2011, it’s been a busy year with international trips to Panama, Cuba, India, and the UK along with lots of domestic travel. I’ve scaled back my conference photography quite a bit, but I still shot TED, TEDGlobal, and several smaller events. There was discovery, lovely walks on beaches, beautiful vistas, and mundane things all mixed together. I’ll never forget walking around New York on 9/11 making my Tribute in Light timelapse. And I wont forget sitting down at Luma with my business partner and deciding to fold in the face of a patent fight in favor of pursuing a path of reinvention.

Looking forward, it’s hard to say what 2012 has in store. I’ve got several projects in the works that I want to surface in the new year. For example, more prints. Once things settle down with Luma again, I’ll be turning my attention to getting those done. At least I know how 2012 will start. I’ll be on the far side of the planet in a valley of temples with a camera in hand looking for a photograph.

I wish you and yours the best during the holidays. Be happy. Live well.

An hour flight to Seattle, then an hour layover. An eleven hour flight to Tokyo and another hour layover. An seven hour flight to Singapore and then six hours of layover. Two and a half more hours and I was at the airport in Yangon standing in line at immigration waiting my turn to have my photo taken and wondering momentarily if the lady in the military uniform in front of me would let me into the country. It’s a touch of useless anxiety that sometimes strikes the first time I enter a country I’ve never been to before, especially one like this. Totally silly.

Everything was in order. Welcome to Myanmar. Or, as the United States prefers to call it, Burma.

I collected my bags and moved onto the next step in the process: Getting local currency. Modern ATM and credit card networks have made this part of international travel easy in most of the world. Not here. You need to bring all the money you’ll need in cash. Even then, it’s not just a matter of slapping some dollars on the counter and getting kyats back. First, your bill have to pass the most intense of inspections, not just a the normal counterfit check you might expect. No, the bill has to be in perfect pristine shape. Creases or marks of any kind simply are not tolerated.

I’d been warned about this brought the crispest bills my local bank had on hand. Even so, the first few I put down weren’t good enough for the money changer at the airport. See that little line on the left side of Benjamin’s face below? Totally unacceptable.

Everyone’s dollars received high-intensity scrutiny. The Japanese group in front of me. The gaggle of Germans behind me. Every bill was examined as if it were a collectable about to go on auction. Protests, both muted and strong, about the ones rejected were met with a shrug. If you simply show up with cash out of your local ATM, you’re screwed.

The bills that do get accepted get counted, counted again, then handed over to someone else for machine counting. Twice. Check and double check. Your passport details are recorded by a third person. A fourth person counts out a pile of 5000 kyat notes—the largest denomination of local currency, each worth about $6. Then a fifth counts everything out again and has you sign a receipt. Twice. It’s the sort of process you’d expect in a Vegas backroom.

Of course, that fat stack of kyat you get? Not nearly in the same kind of pristine condintion demanded of foriegn currency. I had to bite my tounge not to be snarky.

A half hour later, I’m in a room at the Fame Hotel. It’s well known enough that the young woman that sat next to me on the flight from Singapore had heard of it. 20,000 kyat for the night. A perfect place to clean up and then pass out from jet lag. An early morning taxi back to the airport awaits.

57 hours after leaving home in Portland found me disembarking from an Air Mandalay ATR-170 on the ramp at Nyaung U Airport (NYU) on an overcast, damp morning. This part of Myanmar is usually dry and the weather is a bit unusual.

After moving so fast, I was thankful to be in one place for the next three nights: Mya Yee Nanda, also known as the Pagoda City Hotel. It’s our base for exploring the remains of the ancient city of Bagan and its thousands of temples, stupas, and pagodas, the majority of which were built eight to ten centuries ago.

Once I checked in, I headed out and wandered about some of the smaller temples by myself. It was wet and muddy and everything was overgrown, but exploring for a bit on my own was a great way to start my time here.

Sunrise over Bagan and Myauk Guni Temple in Myanmar

Sunday morning found us scrambling up the side of a pagoda before sunrise. When we woke up, the skies didn’t look promising at all, but as the sun rose, the high clouds opened up enough to let a bit of sun in and illuminate the mist covered landscape in a painterly fashion.

Seeing the tops of stupas and temples poking out of the mist all the way across the valley was amazing. One of the most amazing things I’ve had the privilege to see with my own eyes.

Bagan reveals itself in layers. Wandering around the temples at ground level is pretty awesome. Going inside—many of them are active Buddhist sites—is inspiring. Getting on top of one, however, and seeing temples and stupas stretch out to the horizon is just jaw-dropping. There’s no good word it. It simply leaves you speechless.

Right after I took this photograph, I looked over at my friend and just said, “Wow!” He replied, “I know!” That was about all the conversation we could muster for a bit.