Good Riddance

The United States has withdrawn nuclear weapons from the RAF Lakenheath air base 70 miles northeast of London, marking the end to more than 50 years of U.S. nuclear weapons deployment to the United Kingdom…Why NATO and the United States have decided to keep these major withdrawals secret is a big puzzle. The explanation might simply be that “nuclear” always means secret, that it was done to prevent a public debate about the future of the rest of the weapons, or that the Bush administration just doesn’t like arms control. Whatever the reason, it is troubling because the reductions have occurred around the same time that Russian officials repeatedly have pointed to the U.S. weapons in Europe as a justification to reject limitations on Russia’s own tactical nuclear weapons.

Mosaic-tastic

It’s not often you go out and actively inflict a meme upon yourself but I found this so enjoyable, well I did it twice! Ok so here’s the lowdown from GLH Playground–

1. type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. copy and paste each of the url’s for the images into big huge lab’s mosaic maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The questions:
1. what is your first name?
2. what is your favorite food? right now?
3. what high school did you go to?
4. what is your favorite color?
5. who is your celebrity crush?
6. what is your favorite drink?
7. what is your dream vacation?
8. what is your favorite dessert?
9. what do you want to be when you grow up?
10. what do you love most in life?
11. what is one word that describes you?
12. what is your flickr name?

some blogs are posting their answers to each other questions – i’d rather remain an enigma. i think the mosaic stands on it’s own.

And I agree, I also think with different questions it could become even more intriguing and the resultant mosaic is worthy of some pondering beyond simply the answers and the pics, the free creativity of all the flickr users, how people tag their images, how you choose, why you choose. The result does construct meaning emanating from many decisions and some shared perceptions mediated through the technology. A hi-tech ink blot, some collective unconscious, a colourful gestalt.

Also maybe a weekly one made of 9 search terms (for a 3×3 grid) from the weeks stuff and slightly changed rules could be good, hmmm. Anyway I enjoyed doing it (it is great, you see lots of piccies and the mosaic maker is really easy and effective), feel free to give a whirl and here are my two mosaics-