Blinking Ad Rant

My apologies for the blinking ad on my site this morning. I hate blinking ads and don’t ever intend to have one on my site. I like making money as much as the next guy but I can’t stand trying to concentrate on something I’m reading while some annoying movement in my peripheral vision is distracting me.

I read a long discussion about the mental responses to movement within our vision back in the days when I was a serious photographer. The late (and great) Galen Rowell -- my favorite outdoor photographer -- had a several-page rant about it in one of his books; I believe it was in Mountain Light. (Note: It’s a “serious” book. It is not for the casual photographer.) The response to movement is hard-wired into our brains (which is the reason advertisers prey on it) and it’s there to keep you alive. Noticing that flicker in the corner of your vision is what alerts you to the presence of a saber-toothed tiger or the Mac truck as you’re trying to cross the street. It’s the reason the Conflict Alert function on a radar scope makes the data blocks blink. It’s to alert you to danger. Becoming immune to it -- suppressing your response to it -- is dangerous to your health. Once you realize that, you can go from being merely annoyed to being angry too.

I can’t promise it won’t happen again because I don’t know what causes it. But I intend to find out. In the meantime, I’ll fix it whenever I see it. Again, my apologies.

Don Brown
July 2, 2008