About

I’m a web designer, photographer and social media geek. You can find me on Facebook,  Twitter,  Flickr,  Instagram,  Deviant Art,  YouTube,  Pinterest and probably on a few other sites I’ve lost track of…

I’m fascinated with technology and where it’s taking us. From telescopes in space to bio-embedded big data, new developments break down old boundaries, let us see what previously couldn’t be seen.

I love flying, scuba diving, traveling to places I’ve never been, writing and reading speculative fiction, visiting places that don’t exist yet.

Religion and Politics

I started blogging after 9/11, mostly because it was more effective than writing letters to the editor. I tried to learn more about the infrastructure that supported groups like al Qaeda. The internet and the emerging blogosphere gave me access to previously hard-to-find sources like Saudi Arabia’s Arab News, Pakistan’s Dawn, Singapore’s New Straits Times and Britain’s Guardian.

I also followed foreign bloggers, like Where is Raed? While traditional American media sources seemed to be directly (and uncritically) quoting our politicians and foreign policy experts, bloggers who were there, experiencing these upheavals brought the horrific results of decisions made in Washington, Moscow, Tehran and Riyadh home.

In 2006, during the time of Hezbollah’s putsch, I was offered a chance to travel to Beirut. After years of writing about terrorism here was a chance to meet it and photograph it. The Middle East and Beirut were nothing like what I expected. More about that here.

After that visit, I gave this speech at the Media as theater of War Conference in Herzliya.

Conservatives think I’m liberal and liberals think I’m conservative. Political tests say I’m anti-authoritarian. Religious tests tell me I’m a techno-pagan.