Legal

FTC Disclosures, Personal Biases and a Statement on Comments

FTC Disclosures

As of December 1st of 2009, the Federal Trade Commission requires bloggers to provide disclosures whenever there could be hidden interests or unspoken biases related to recommendations. I'm here to tell you that all content on this blog is biased. I am also required to disclose information about myself in reference to these biases.

My legal name is Kan Lamat. I produce music under the DJ name San Jaya Prime. My pen name is Kantiki Jayamana Whateva. I go by all three, and in person, at least once a day and on almost every day of the week.

I have worked, consulted or contracted (with or for) both Apple and Microsoft, as well as many computer gaming companies, and for almost every major gas station that can be found on the shores of America. For a full curriculum vitae, please reference my LinkedIn Profile.

I have ties with thousands of musical artists and audio bloggers from around the world, and I am immediately affiliated with both Trochlear Recordings Limited and DharmaMix Productions. As I have a release thru Peppermill Records, it can be said that I am affiliated with that label as well. Every musical suggestion on this site is not only biased, but it is likely that I communicate with these musicians in my personal life as well.

I am politically biased as a hard-line libertarian, and I am actively engaged in causes that support individual rights and freedom of expression, such as (but not limited to): whistleblowers, smokers' rights, pro-choice activism, gay rights, gun rights and more. I am the founder of Burn as One dot Org, as well as the sister-group #The-Art-of-Smoking on deviantART. I have been affiliated with the P5Y organization (Peace in 5 Years) and maintain a semblance of affiliation to this very day.

I have ties with thousands of visual artists from around the world, the majority of these are thru The-Art-of-Smoking.deviantART.com, BurnAsOne.Org and burnasone.tumblr.com. However, I have ties with illustrators in the music industry and I am, myself, a graphic designer. And, yes, I really am a hitchhiker... and I prefer to spend more time homeless than stuck somewhere under a roof.

Per the FTC rules, if I interview someone and they grab the bill for lunch, I would need to specify this. Ditto if I use an Amazon link that gets me 8 cents instead of an Amazon link that gets me 0 cents. If someone gives me a comfy t-shirt with a logo and I wear it in a photo, same deal. Disclaimers all over the place. This would be tedious for me and a continual eye sore for readers. But rules is rules.

To cover my ass and preserve your reading experience, please assume that--for every recommendation, link, and product I use--the following all hold true:

 
 
 
 

(Illustrations courtesy of Louis Gray and Jeannine Schafer)

This blog has financial motivations, as it will eventually be promoting books on travel that I've written. Also, I will be adding a link for donations. I am not beyond panhandling online. This blog's also to promote things, people and places that I love. This may include rides and others who I meet along the road, all of whom the FTC would require me to disclose. In short, when someone says the phrase "capitalist bastard", I want it to be my hairy white a$$ that flashes thru your imagination.

Some of the writings in this disclosure come in thanks to Tim Ferris. Sending tons of gratitude to him (and to those credited above) for having simplified and humorized an otherwise dreary process. Rules is rules.

A Statement on Comments

I reserve the right to delete any comment, and with or without explanation. I will not, however, edit any comment or otherwise use any form of censorship outside of deletion. I am often pressed for time and limited by access, which means any comment that looks even slightly like spam or like a troll is going to get deleted.