'You are lucky. Your world is very big. You can travel where you want and do what you want and you are free. You have friends in many places. Maybe I am just a friend you will forget. My world is small. I am not free. I will not forget this talk or this night. Maybe you will return. But maybe you will never come here again.'Source: Heading East: Aba-Amchok
30.9.05
Photography: Heading East
Extract of a moving post from flickrite The Mexican:
29.9.05
Poetry: "the bitter unwanted passion of sure defeat"
Self-PortraitSource: Fire in the Earth
by David Whyte
It doesn't interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know
if you belong or feel abandoned.
If you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world with its harsh need to change you.
If you can look back with firm eyes saying this is where I stand.
I want to know
if you know how to melt into that fierce heat of living falling toward the center of your longing.
I want to know
if you are willing to live, day by day, with the consequence of love and the bitter unwanted passion of sure defeat.
I have been told, in that fierce embrace, even the gods speak of God.
See Also: David Whyte's website
Politics, Books: Coffee: A Dark History
In this polemical, grandiose, yet thoroughly entertaining book, Antony Wild looks at the historical influence of coffee, for better and for worse. Perhaps it’s no surprise that Wild, a veteran coffee trader, credits the drink with opening the eyes of the world, literally. Once coffee usurped ale as Europe’s morning beverage of choice, the Enlightenment followed. The coffee shop is, he writes, “the place where all the best revolutions began.”Source: Coffee: A Dark History:
Ever since the Boston Tea Party, Americans have seen coffee as a symbol of their independence, and Wild insists that without the stuff, we would not be the hyperactively ambitious nation we are today. Instant blends helped GIs slog through World War II, while back home, caffeine fueled entrepreneurial baby boomers’ all-nighters. In this story, destiny always takes a second cup.
The flip side of such boosterism is the devastating effect the coffee trade has had on the developing world. But Wild is hopeful that some benefits are starting to trickle down to Third World farmers. By paying extra for a cup of “fair trade,” latte lovers might make coffee finally live up to its revolutionary potential."
28.9.05
Environment, Photography, politics: Smog Over China
"A huge, thick cloud of haze hung over eastern China in early September 2005. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard the Terra satellite captured this image on September 10, 2005. In this image, haze covers China from the Bo Hai Bay coastline in the east to the mountains in the west."Source: EO Newsroom: New Images - Smog over China
Another post about a similar image/topic, this time specific to Beijing is here.
Foreign Policy: A Trail of Diamonds
Striking photo essay: "It takes only weeks for a diamond, once uncovered in an African mine, to travel to India to be cut and polished and land in the showrooms of Paris or New York. The journey reveals some of globalization’s greatest fault lines—inequality, child labor, and outsourcing—and the people who too often fall through the cracks."
Source: Foreign Policy: A Trail of Diamonds
26.9.05
Photography: What is Hyperfocal Distance and Why Should I Care?
Whenever you focus your lens there will be an area that is in focus and areas that are out of focus. The in focus area is referred to as the "focal plane". The important thing is that 1/3rd of the focal plane is ahead of the thing you're focused on and 2/3rds of the focal plane falls behind what you're focused on.Source: Vivid Light
23.9.05
Photography: Dwanda Tyler in the French Quarter
Good NPR interview with Washington Post photographer ('we need a front page shot in 2 hours') Ricky Carioti via the Post's Photo Editor.
Also, Keith Jenkin's on alternate front pages.
Also, Keith Jenkin's on alternate front pages.
Technology, Writing: I think, therefore I consider blogging
Not really blogging as much as putting stray tidbits on line and toying with blogging - you can see it goes back several years, although intermittently. Keeping this blog below the radar though. The effort to transform proto-neurons into something comprehensible to others - and to what end? - seems too much. But fun, when inspired!
Also, struck by how time either culls the trend or it becomes easier to partake. Blogger is much more stable/easier than the software was at first, although it does seem to have been left deprived of features other blogging software has, like tags.
Also, struck by how time either culls the trend or it becomes easier to partake. Blogger is much more stable/easier than the software was at first, although it does seem to have been left deprived of features other blogging software has, like tags.
Paper PDA
"The PocketMod is a new way to keep yourself organized. Lets face it, PDAs are too expensive and cumbersome, and organizers are bulky and hard to carry around. Nothing beats a folded up piece of paper. That is until now. With the PocketMod, you can carry around the days notes, keep them organized in any way you wish, then easily transfer the notes to your PDA, spreadsheet, or planner."
PocketMod
PocketMod
22.9.05
Photography: Every cup of coffee drank ...
"Lloyd was a boring rural health policy wonk who went through an early mid-life crisis. He already had the cool convertible, so the crisis manifested itself with him taking pictures of each cup of coffee he consumed and posting it on his website. He soon found that life, when unfiltered and fully caffeinated, can be quite compelling. Something interesting is about to happen."Source: http://thecoolkids.us/coffee/
Books, Ideas: Ultimate Reality
The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning Of Life, and How To Be Happy
We're presently in the midst of a third intellectual revolution. The first came with Newton: the planets obey physical laws. The second came with Darwin: biology obeys genetic laws. In today’s third revolution, were coming to realize that even minds and societies emerge from interacting laws that can be regarded as computations. Everything is a computation.Source: http://www.rudyrucker.com/lifebox/index.html
Does this, then, mean that the world is dull? Far from it. The naturally occurring computations that surround us are richly complex. A tree's growth, the changes in the weather, the flow of daily news, a person's ever-changing moods --- all of these computations share the crucial property of being gnarly. Although lawlike and deterministic, gnarly computations are --- and this is a key point --- inherently unpredictable. The world's mystery is preserved.
Mixing together anecdotes, graphics, and fables, Rucker teases out the implications of his new worldview, which he calls "universal automatism." His analysis reveals startling aspects of the everyday world, touching upon such topics as chaos, the internet, fame, free will, and the pursuit of happiness. More than a popular science book, The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul is a philosophical entertainment that teaches us how to enjoy our daily lives to the fullest possible extent."
Rudy Rucker's useful Writer's Toolkit is available for free download.
My father had an interest in the idea of ultimate reality.
Books: Alan Alda
"That long career -- and the variegated life he's led -- prompted Alda to write up some of the things he's learned along the way in his new memoir, Never Have Your Dog Stuffed -- and Other Things I've Learned."
Source: Alan Alda interview on NPR about his memoir.
I remember Alan Alda doing a brilliant performance of Our Town at a theatre in London in the early 90's. I very much enjoyed this book although toward the end when he goes on zoloft I got the feeling things dulled up a bit. His final bit of advice seems to be to enjoy whatever you are doing. I got the feeling pre-zoloft things were a bit more up and down and anguished and creative and less neat. A remarkable man.
Source: Alan Alda interview on NPR about his memoir.
I remember Alan Alda doing a brilliant performance of Our Town at a theatre in London in the early 90's. I very much enjoyed this book although toward the end when he goes on zoloft I got the feeling things dulled up a bit. His final bit of advice seems to be to enjoy whatever you are doing. I got the feeling pre-zoloft things were a bit more up and down and anguished and creative and less neat. A remarkable man.
Photography: Liquid Sculptures
Do you have to have a really fast shutter to stop the motion?
No, the shutter is open for 1/60th of a second (a drop could fall three inches in this amount of time.) The key is the flash unit: it needs to generate a very bright burst of light for a very short amount of time (about 1/10,000 of a second). This is central to high-speed photography.
Source: The Liquid Sculpture FAQ
Photography: Diffuse photo techniques ...
David Nightengale on Chromasia posts a useful tip:
In Scott Kelby’s The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers for adding a slightly diffuse effect to an image (used to smooth the skin and hair in this shot).
1) Make two duplicate layers of the main image.
2) Set the blend mode of the first to Darken and Gaussian blur it by 40px.
3) Set the blend mode of the second to Lighten and Gaussian blur it by 60px.
4) Create a blank layer above these two layers, make sure all other layers other than this layer and the two layers you just created are hidden, then merge these three layers (Merge Visible).
5) Set the opacity of this layer to around 30% and unhide your other layers.
6) With a soft brush erase any of the areas of the images you want to be sharp, or use a Layer Mask (with a portrait this would be the eyes, teeth, and so on).
I’ve found this really useful for softening the skin tones in portraits without affecting either the contrast or the colour balance.
Prospect Magazine: Public sector IT failures
"Complex IT projects have a poor record everywhere in the world, in both the public and private sectors. An annual survey by Standish, a US consultancy, estimates that 70 per cent fail to meet their timetable or budget, or to come up to specification. Britain is thus not alone in finding computerising government difficult. The US has experienced a spate of problems at both state and federal level. In March, the FBI abandoned, after five years of work, a $170m attempt to create a "virtual case file" for tracking suspected terrorists. But the record cost-overrun in a civil IT project was probably the US internal revenue service's $30bn tax modernisation in the mid-1990s."
From: Prospect magazine a "monthly package of essays, reviews, reportage, columns, portraits and fiction".
From: Prospect magazine a "monthly package of essays, reviews, reportage, columns, portraits and fiction".
NPR on non-lethal acoustic devices - used in New Orleans
"An LRAD 500 device atop a Humvee, on patrol outside the hurricane-damaged Superdome in New Orleans."
Just classic - no sense just handing out food and water.
2006 World Development Report
"Reducing inequality is central to tackling poverty and bringing about sustainable economic growth, the World Bank has said in a key report."
~From: BBC
Its a shame these truths aren't self-evident.
~From: BBC
Its a shame these truths aren't self-evident.
Vincent laForet: Photojournalist
“COCKPIT VIEW”
Lt Cmdr. Sean Williams of the VFA-113 Strike Fighter Squadron flies on an air defense mission over Iraq in an FA-18C Hornet. This photograph was made with a remote camera, triggered by Williams, in the one seat aircraft. 3/24/03 – Somewhere over Iraq.
"Aviation is a rogue sector and its environmental impact is out of control."
UK homes, firms and motorists will have to cut carbon dioxide emissions to zero due to air travel growth, a study says.
Flickrite Peter Bowers paddling at dawn
Potentially my most visited picture - ironically, taken of fellow flickite pbowers.
21.9.05
. Guernica interview of Kristoff
"G: How many emails do you get per day?
Kristof: Well, the bulk of the emails tend to come after a column. I can get about 2,000 after a column.
G: Now I know some of your colleagues claim that they read all the emails they get. Do you?
Kristof: I try to be careful about the wording on that… Usually my assistant, Winter, reads them. It varies. If I’m writing about religion, for instance, the number might go way up. Recently I came back from a trip to 20,000.
I try to respond to typical ones. One of the things I’ve tried to combat in my blog, kristofresponds.com, is the notion that we [journalists] are arrogant and unconcerned with the readership—so I hope that answering some of the questions I get can help combat that notion.
G: I imagine the most welcome ones are the ones where you get a story lead?
Kristof: Yes, when I was covering intelligence failures, for instance, I actually got a lot of helpful emails from members of the intelligence community. Or if I’m writing about
something I don’t know much about but am very interested in, I can get some very informative letters.
G: I gather that people sometimes send you money…
Kristof: Yes, that’s actually a big problem because sometimes they send cash and I always feel like I have to give them a receipt and then pass along the money. It’s quite a task.
G: What was the largest amount you ever got?
Kristof: Someone wrote in to say he wanted to give a million dollars. He had earned quite a bit from Microsoft dividends and wanted to know of a good charity that would help in Darfur. So I suggested donating it to Doctors Without Borders; they do good work. He ended up only giving $500,000, but…
G: And didn’t Bill Gates credit your articles for much of the philanthropy he does? He had had a plan to wire the third world, but after a series you did on poverty there, he said he decided to get more engaged?
Kristof: Right.
G: It seems like you created a monster.
Kristof: (laughs) Yes, he’s done some fantastic work. But I think one of my articles simply pointed him toward the issue and he did a lot of reading and research on his own. I don’t deserve much credit."
"G: I noticed in your columns lately, you seem to be focusing on less pessimistic aspects of the crisis in Sudan. Is this because you’ve found that Americans disengage from the gloom and doom?
Kristof: I think they do. There seems to be this sense among even well-meaning Americans that Africa is this black hole of murder and mutilation that can never be fixed no matter what we do, no matter what aid is brought in. And so I’m finding lately that a little bit of attention can go a long way."
From: . Guernica
Kristof: Well, the bulk of the emails tend to come after a column. I can get about 2,000 after a column.
G: Now I know some of your colleagues claim that they read all the emails they get. Do you?
Kristof: I try to be careful about the wording on that… Usually my assistant, Winter, reads them. It varies. If I’m writing about religion, for instance, the number might go way up. Recently I came back from a trip to 20,000.
I try to respond to typical ones. One of the things I’ve tried to combat in my blog, kristofresponds.com, is the notion that we [journalists] are arrogant and unconcerned with the readership—so I hope that answering some of the questions I get can help combat that notion.
G: I imagine the most welcome ones are the ones where you get a story lead?
Kristof: Yes, when I was covering intelligence failures, for instance, I actually got a lot of helpful emails from members of the intelligence community. Or if I’m writing about
something I don’t know much about but am very interested in, I can get some very informative letters.
G: I gather that people sometimes send you money…
Kristof: Yes, that’s actually a big problem because sometimes they send cash and I always feel like I have to give them a receipt and then pass along the money. It’s quite a task.
G: What was the largest amount you ever got?
Kristof: Someone wrote in to say he wanted to give a million dollars. He had earned quite a bit from Microsoft dividends and wanted to know of a good charity that would help in Darfur. So I suggested donating it to Doctors Without Borders; they do good work. He ended up only giving $500,000, but…
G: And didn’t Bill Gates credit your articles for much of the philanthropy he does? He had had a plan to wire the third world, but after a series you did on poverty there, he said he decided to get more engaged?
Kristof: Right.
G: It seems like you created a monster.
Kristof: (laughs) Yes, he’s done some fantastic work. But I think one of my articles simply pointed him toward the issue and he did a lot of reading and research on his own. I don’t deserve much credit."
"G: I noticed in your columns lately, you seem to be focusing on less pessimistic aspects of the crisis in Sudan. Is this because you’ve found that Americans disengage from the gloom and doom?
Kristof: I think they do. There seems to be this sense among even well-meaning Americans that Africa is this black hole of murder and mutilation that can never be fixed no matter what we do, no matter what aid is brought in. And so I’m finding lately that a little bit of attention can go a long way."
From: . Guernica
19.9.05
GMail Drive
GMail Drive: is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google Gmail account, allowing you to use Gmail as a storage medium.
15.9.05
14.9.05
Hemispheres | Three Perfect Days
Great, brief upscale profiles of cities around the world from United's Three Perfect Days.
Islamic influence on China
I am puzzling over the Islamic influence on Central Asia, prompted by a trip to Kashgar where there are a number of obvious influences, particularly mosques. A useful (and authoritative?, given the author's pedigree) travel log explains the origins: "In the year of 622 of the Common Era (C.E.), Muhammad made his famous Hejira (emigration) to Medina from his birthplace Mecca, where he had achieved only very moderate success in winning converts to the new faith as revealed to him by Allah (God). When he died 10 years later, the strictly monotheistic religion he had founded had not only been accepted by most tribes in the Arabian Peninsula, but had also forged a new Arab state with Medina as the source of its spiritual and political power. Motivated by the new faith and strengthened by the new state organization, the Arab people set out on a path of conquest and established, within 100 years of MuhammadÂ?s death, a vast empire spreading out from Spain in the west to the borders of China in the east. "
Image America
Rediscovered BlogThis! and now we're in trouble! Robert Clark, a professional photographer, using a mobile phone on an American Roadtrip.
Active FTP, Blogger and Technical Details
I finally figured that my domain host doesn't support passive FTP anymore and that blogger doesn't support active FTP. Drag, but minor mystery solved. Time to change domain hosts and perhaps blogging tools ....
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