View allAll Photos Tagged Confronting
In this collaborative work, the artists deftly meld the playful and the uncanny to create a figure as familiar as it is otherworldly. Boyle’s porcelain rendering of a tentative yet grounded body in a whimsical garment, together with the ambivalent and confronting faces of Aupilardjuk’s smoke-fired heads, weave together the personal experiences and cultural sensibilities of each artist.
When I confronted the dog about this, he just looked at his paws and said the duck was constipated and had explosive gas.
View while ... STOP SAYING HE TAKES AFTER HIS DADDY!
for
Our Daily Challenge | Explosive Gas ... I mean Out Of Order ( I checked, it's at the bottom of the pool now. Definitely Out of Order)
Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi...
_____________
The Rise of Skywalker is absolute chaos, and the story is just so bad by the end. Amazing performances from Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, etc. Greatest visuals ILM has ever contributed to Disney-era Star Wars as well, but the film is so rushed and broken. It did need to be longer 😞
It’s honestly heartbreaking because I loved the cast. They found the perfect actors to steer Star Wars into the future with this trilogy, but now there will always be so much wasted potential. So much wasted time.
This exciting mess may be the conclusion to the sequel trilogy, but to me it will never be the conclusion to the main saga. All of this since 2015 has felt like an extension - not a continuation.
Anyway, mini showcase featuring my final(?) custom LEGO Rey & updated Kylo Ren will be coming to the channel soon! Just a little more work to do.
The lion (Panthera leo) is a species in the family Felidae; it is a muscular, deep-chested cat with a short, rounded head, a reduced neck and round ears, and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult male lions have a prominent mane, which is the most recognisable feature of the species. With a typical head-to-body length of 184–208 cm they are larger than females at 160–184 cm. It is a social species, forming groups called prides. A lion pride consists of a few adult males, related females and cubs. Groups of female lions usually hunt together, preying mostly on large ungulates. The lion is an apex and keystone predator, although some lions scavenge when opportunities occur, and have been known to hunt humans, although the species typically does not. Typically, the lion inhabits grasslands and savannas, but is absent in dense forests. It is usually more diurnal than other big cats, but when persecuted it adapts to being active at night and at twilight. African lions live in scattered populations across Sub-Saharan Africa. The lion prefers grassy plains and savannahs, scrub bordering rivers and open woodlands with bushes. It is absent from rainforest and rarely enters closed forest. 26804
More Photos on MOCpages: www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/444871
As many of you know I love Castle building, it's so easy to pack in detail with that theme, which is why it's one of my favourite things to do when building. So Castle and Marvel in the one vig? Why not! I've had the Doom figure lying around since I bought the set it came in, so what's that... 2013? Man 5 years now. Anyway yes super glad I finally got to use this figure in a MOC. For me collecting figs is fun, it's nice to have them sure, but it's only worth it when I can put them in a MOC. So I used this MOC as a way to display some other figs that I have yet to come up with concepts for MOC's to put them in. The Sentry figure is from bigkidbrix, if you are wondering ;)
But yeah, love building throne rooms like this, makes me want to do more, it was great fun to combine two of my favourite themes in the one vig like this. Would love to do it again!
----------------------------------
Couple final things:
I have a Flickr, take a look if you wish:
www.flickr.com/photos/bencossy/
Also check out my Youtube for weekly videos:
www.youtube.com/user/GreebleGod
And I post pretty much daily on Instagram, so check that out:
Please don´t hesitate with any comments, questions or criticisms...
Till Next Time
See Ya~
A boy with a stone (in his left hand) confronts the heavily armed Egyptian military police at a barbed wire barricade in central Cairo just south of Tahrir Square. The road is littered with stones thrown by both homeless youths and SCF soldiers, who would also resort to tear gas and (on many other days) bullets.
[For a gallery of hundreds of photographs of Egyptian protests, strikes, wall art and revolt by other photographers please use the following link -
www.flickr.com/photos/alisdare/galleries/72157721838055600/]
While most protesters in Tahrir Square were committed to peaceful demonstration at any price, and while the government and media denounced stone throwing "hooligans", sentencing those arrested to years in prison (often regardless of whether they had been throwing stones or not), many of the boys and young men (and occasionally young women) involved in such incidents didn't appear to be aiming to injure but rather putting on a symbolic act of defiance against a regime and its security forces which had deprived them and those close to them of any hope or fair chance in life. Many children however lost their lives and many others were abused and tortured once in police custody.
Update April 2020 -. If anyone is interested in the forgotten history of British imperialism and how it impacted the lives of millions of people around the world including Egypt from the 1700s until today - I've posted over 600 short articles on the following website. roguenation.org/ including the following page where you can select from over 600 pages according to country - roguenation.org/choose-by-country
-------------------------------
"Well, I’m livin’ in a foreign country but I’m bound to cross the line
Beauty walks a razor’s edge, someday I’ll make it mine" (Bob Dylan - Shelter from the Storm).
I say always the same things, but is that my fault if they are true ? The night between 12th and 13th of February was the coldest of winter. In a lot of place, here in Switzerland, temperature reaches some records of cold. There was no clouds and no wind. So do I have to say that every serious photographer were outside, confronting a -18° C in order to get some crazy pictures ? I was among them. I choose to go around Tête-de-Ran in the Jura Mountains, especially because trees were still charged with snow. I was there at 3.am and I took some nightscapes. But I wanted to show you first this one : it is maybe the craziest sunset I ever seen. And with this one, the Bob Dylan moto " Beauty walks a razor’s edge" is confirmed once again !
All night there was no fog and no clouds. I was at la Vue-des-Alpes when the moon rose over the Alps, and I managed to take nice pictures. However, in less than 2 minutes, a fog came and covered everything. I had taken nice picture during the night, but I was hoping to get a nice sunrise as well. What should I do ? Going down under the fog, or going up upper it ? I choose the second option, which supposed to Climb Tête-de-Ran mountain. It's not that high, but it's quite tricky when its snow covered.
When I arrived at the summit, two other photographers were there : @adrian_wirz_fotografie and @andreas_gerth_photography who I met while shooting Neuchatel's Castle in December. We were all quite disappointed : everything was grey, and we had no hope to get anything satisfactory ... This was before the sun actually started to rise ! Everything turned pink-orange, the fog in the trees downhill looked like fire, it was absolutely fantastic !
I made really few constrast/curves popping in processing, the colors were really like thatl !
I am more and more convinced that the best picture are taken in conditions such as with just a little bit more or a little bit of something (fog, clouds, rain, and so on), they could have been ruined ...
Pumice Point, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Camera: Pentax 645z (Medium format digital)
Lens: HD Pentax-DA 645 28-45mm F4.5ED AW SR
..and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your
willingness to wrestle your demons will cause your angels to sing.
Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength."
-August Wilson
July 8th, 2008. (Yes, that is me)
3/365
On August 29th 1797 The Massacre of Tranent took place, when workers from the East Lothain town confronted the Cinque Port Light Dragoons to protest the conscription of men into the British Militia.
In 1793 Great Britain had entered the War of the First Coalition against France. Britain feared a French invasion, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, the latter having only been a part of the Union since 1707 and the Jacobite Risings still within living memory. The fear was not without justification, for the French had managed to land a small expeditionary force in Wales in February 1797, though it had quickly been dealt with by the local yeomanry.
In 1797 therefore the Militia Act was passed in Scotland, which empowered the Lord Lieutenants of Scotland to raise and command militia regiments in each of the "Counties, Stewartries, Cities, and Places" under their jurisdiction. The aim was to raise around 6,000 to 8,000 militiamen throughout Scotland who could be used to defend the country but could also be deployed elsewhere if needed. Furthermore, the militiamen represented a fertile pool for recruitment into the regular army, for while militia regiments were constitutionally separate from the army, from the 1790s militiamen were encouraged to volunteer, and did so in large numbers.
The act was initially deeply unpopular as it was believed the militia ballot would be used to enable the Crown to remove men from Scotland.
On August 28th a proclamation was drawn up by local people of Tranent to object to the conscription of Scots into the British Militia, to be used either for controlling their own people or for deployment elsewhere. The proclamation comprised four clauses:
We declare that we unanimously disapprove of the late Act of Parliament for raising 6000 militiamen in Scotland.
We declare that we will assist each other in endeavouring to repeal the said Act.
We declare that we are peaceably disposed; and should you, in endeavouring to execute the said Act, urge us to adopt coercive measures, we must look upon you to be the aggressors, and as responsible to the nation for all the consequences that may follow.
Although we may be overpowered in effecting the said resolution, and dragged from our parents, friends, and employment, to be made soldiers of, you can infer from this what trust can be reposed in us if ever we are called upon to disperse our fellow-countrymen, or to oppose a foreign foe.
The following day, the proclamation was handed to Major Wight, the commanding officer of the recruitment squad; it was initially ignored. Later, when a contingent from the local colliery communities, led by 'Jackie' (Joan) Crookston confronted the troops, their response was swift and bloody. Several of the protesters, including Crookston, were shot dead out of hand.
The protesters fled from the centre of the small town into the countryside, pursued by the Cinque Port Light Dragoons, who are reported to have cut down people indiscriminately, caring little whether they were involved in the protest or not. Casualty estimates range from around a dozen to twenty or more men, women and children dead, with more injured. After the slaughter the troopers are alleged to have carried out rapes and pillage in the small town.
The Light Dragoons' overall commanding officer was then Colonel Viscount Hawkesbury, (later 2nd Earl of Liverpool, and future British Prime Minister) who was not present. It was reported that "His lordship was blamed for remaining at Haddington, as his presence might have prevented the outrages of the soldiery."
Il. Title- ( - sang sur mains - ) Mike Mullen having a nice steak dinner with a 'clear conscience' ... ( On top of dead Afghani civilians & dead soldiers.. Egomaniac.. ) Yes Wikileaks shared this piece inspired by them & their work: twitter.com/wikileaks/status/21824111844 it & the entire Wikileaks series is not- for sale.
At some point there may be an exhibition with funds going towards WL & Bradley Manning.
But for now none of the pieces in the series are commercially available or for sale to private individuals.
They do have free use by Wikileaks however.
More work to be posted soon.
Dimensions: 18" x 24.5" acid free paper, acrylics, gouache & ebony pencil
"Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family," Mullen said."
www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/29/pentagon-wikileaks-bl...
MMm no- Mullen..How can we end these wars ASAP- & STOP you from getting any MORE blood on YOUR hands..
( News from Wikileaks Twitter feed, 8 - 19 - 2012: "In fact, being from another planet, he might even have picked up on something that most Americans would be unlikely to notice -- that, with only slight alterations, Mullen’s blistering comment about Assange could be applied remarkably well to Mullen himself. “Chairman Mullen,” that Martian might have responded, “can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he is doing, but the truth is he already has on his hands the blood of some young soldiers and that of many Afghan families.” "
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/06/opinion/main6748239.shtml )
War Diary - wardiary.wikileaks.org/ Timeline: wartimeline.haineault.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mullen#2007_Senate_testimon...
& from the Pentagon- "“We want whatever they have returned to us and we want whatever copies they have expunged… We demand that they do the right thing. If doing the right thing is not good enough for them, then we will figure out what alternatives we have to compel them to do the right thing." mashable.com/2010/08/05/pentagon-wikileaks-demand/
The NERVE.. -
Wikileaks - "What we didn't hear from the Pentagon last week: "killing all those innocent people is bad. Sorry. We will stop that" Thursday, August 05, 2010
YES.
-
"Thousands of children and adults had been killed and the US could have announced a broad inquiry into these killings, "but he decided to treat these issues with contempt''.
He said: "This behaviour is unacceptable. We will continue to expose abuses by this administration and others."" - www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/30/us-military-wikileak...
-
( From Wikileaks twitter- Aug 19 2010 _ ) -
Wikileaks vs the Pentagon: Phony Fingerpointing
Tom Engelhardt:: Who Really Has Blood On Their Hands?
"Consider the following statement offered by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference last week. He was discussing Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks as well as the person who has taken responsibility for the vast, still ongoing Afghan War document dump at that site. "Mr. Assange,” Mullen commented, “can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.”
Now, if you were the proverbial fair-minded visitor from Mars (who in school civics texts of my childhood always seemed to land on Main Street, U.S.A., to survey the wonders of our American system), you might be a bit taken aback by Mullen’s statement. After all, one of the revelations in the trove of leaked documents Assange put online had to do with how much blood from innocent Afghan civilians was already on American hands.
The British Guardian was one of three publications given early access to the leaked archive, and it began its main article this way: “A huge cache of secret U.S. military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents. They range from the shootings of individual innocents to the often massive loss of life from air strikes...” Or as the paper added in a piece headlined “Secret CIA paramilitaries’ role in civilian deaths”: “Behind the military jargon, the war logs are littered with accounts of civilian tragedies.
The 144 entries in the logs recording some of these so-called ‘blue on white’ events, cover a wide spectrum of day-by-day assaults on Afghans, with hundreds of casualties.” Or as it also reported, when exploring documents related to Task Force 373, an “undisclosed ‘black’ unit” of U.S. special operations forces focused on assassinating Taliban and al-Qaeda “senior officials”: “The logs reveal that TF 373 has also killed civilian men, women, and children and even Afghan police officers who have strayed into its path.”
Admittedly, the events recorded in the Wikileaks archive took place between 2004 and the end of 2009, and so don’t cover the last six months of the Obama administration’s across-the-board surge in Afghanistan. Then again, Admiral Mullen became chairman of the Joint Chiefs in October 2007, and so has been at the helm of the American war machine for more than two of the years in question.
He was, for example, chairman in July 2008, when an American plane or planes took out an Afghan bridal party -- 70 to 90 strong and made up mostly of women -- on a road near the Pakistani border. They were "escorting the bride to meet her groom as local tradition dictates." The bride, whose name we don’t know, died, as did at least 27 other members of the party, including children. Mullen was similarly chairman in August 2008 when a memorial service for a tribal leader in the village of Azizabad in Afghanistan’s Herat Province was hit by repeated U.S. air strikes that killed at least 90 civilians, including perhaps 15 women and up to 60 children. Among the dead were 76 members of one extended family, headed by Reza Khan, a "wealthy businessman with construction and security contracts with the nearby American base at Shindand airport."
Mullen was still chairman in April 2009 when members of the family of Awal Khan, an Afghan army artillery commander on duty elsewhere, were killed in a U.S.-led raid in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. Among them were his "schoolteacher wife, a 17-year-old daughter named Nadia, a 15-year-old son, Aimal, and his brother, employed by a government department.” Another daughter was wounded and the pregnant wife of Khan's cousin was shot five times in the abdomen.
Mullen remained chairman when, in November 2009, two relatives of Majidullah Qarar, the spokesman for the Minister of Agriculture, were shot down in cold blood in Ghazni City in a Special Operations night raid; as he was -- and here we move beyond the Wikileaks time frame -- when, in February 2010, U.S. Special Forces troops in helicopters struck a convoy of mini-buses, killing up to 27 civilians, including women and children; as he also was when, in that same month, in a special operations night raid, two pregnant women and a teenage girl, as well as a police officer and his brother, were shot to death in their home in a village near Gardez, the capital of Paktia province. After which, the soldiers reportedly dug the bullets out of the bodies, washed the wounds with alcohol, and tried to cover the incident up. He was no less chairman late last month when residents of a small town in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan claimed that a NATO missile attack had killed 52 civilians, an incident that, like just about every other one mentioned above and so many more, was initially denied by U.S. and NATO spokespeople and is now being “investigated.” "
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/06/opinion/main6748239.shtml
-
"What is interesting is who is responsible for the killings.
Of the 1,325 civilian deaths recorded by the Afghan human rights group, 23 per cent were attributed to Nato or Afghan government forces. The Taliban and their allies were responsible for 68 per cent of the deaths.
The UN study claimed the civilian death toll was slightly lower at 1,271 with anti-government forces blamed for 76 per cent of the casualties.
Chronicling precise figures is extremely difficult because most parts of the country are inaccessible.
Crucially, both studies suggested that the proportion of deaths attributed to Nato and Afghan government forces were down compared to last year because of fewer air strikes.
This is important because clumsy air strikes on innocent villages and unfair raids on their houses has been driving a lot of Afghans to pick up arms on behalf of insurgents."
by, Hamida Ghafour
More: www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100811/OP...
& -
"My countrymen called me a prostitute
(Filed: 26/10/2004)
Fourteen months ago, Hamida Ghafour went to Afghanistan to cover her native countrys postwar reconstruction for this newspaper. But, as a westernised Afghan, her homecoming wasnt as welcoming as she had hoped"
www.afghanistan.org/news_detail.asp?17220
I am skeptical about agendas.. It can be confusing, this is why for better or worse one must have THE FACTS - it would have been better if we had them from the START.
Without facts no one cares what we do- or who we kill, because we simply don't have ANY concept of how a decade long war is going..
“The government is engaging in selective prosecution to ensure that employees keep their mouths shut,” says Stephen Khon, a lawyer specializing in whistleblowing cases. “All of a sudden the whistleblower becomes public enemy number one. There is no proportionality.” www.alternet.org/world/147778/how_the_military_destroys_t...
This- - you MUST watch-- It's of Afghani's asking for peace & for us to leave- "Wikileaks Assange, stand freely for love & we in Afg will stand with you.." From: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9E_nXiPj9g
US war crimes: soldiers speak out. - www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj6s1V0Dpuw
From Wikileaks Twitter- "UNAMA Human Rights Unit issued recommendations in the report including:
• The Taliban should withdraw all orders and statements calling for the killing of civilians; and, the Taliban and other AGEs should end the use of IEDs and suicide attacks, comply with international humanitarian law, cease acts of intimidation and killing including assassination, execution and abduction, fully respect citizens’ freedom of movement and stop using civilians as human shields.
• International military forces should make more transparent their investigation and reporting on civilian casualties including on accountability; maintain and strengthen directives restricting aerial attacks and the use of night raids; coordinate investigation and reporting of civilian casualties with the Afghan Government to improve protection and accountability; improve compensation processes; and, improve transparency around any harm to civilians caused by Special Forces operations.
• The Afghan Government should create a public body to lead its response to major civilian casualty incidents and its interaction with international military forces and other key actors, ensure investigations include forensic components, ensure transparent and timely compensation to victims; and, improve accountability including discipline or prosecution for any Afghan National Security Forces personnel who unlawfully cause death or injury to civilians or otherwise violate the rights of Afghan citizens."
unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1741&ctl=Deta...
From Wikileaks Twitter- CBC
"A bomb is found tucked into a school typewriter. Insurgents dressed in military uniforms attack an education chief. School guards are tied up while the building is bombed to smithereens. Teachers and students at an all-girls high school are poisoned through the drinking water."
"School attacks
Year Number of attacks against schools
2005 98
2006 220
2007 236
2008 348
2009 610
Source: UNICEF. Data for 2008 and 2009 are from the UN Country Task Force on Children, and previous years are from the Ministry of Education."
"Education for children up in Afghanistan since 2002- .
"Nine years ago, about 100,000 students were enrolled in schools. The figure now stands at more than seven million students, one-third of whom are girls, according to the Afghanistan Ministry of Education.
"It's one of those sectors where we've seen radical and dramatic progress since 2002," notes Rowell.
"No one knows where the country is going … but education is a beacon of success."
Read more: www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/06/f-afghanistan-education...
& www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/database-afghan-war-logs/
""
"New Petition Gains Prominent Signatures: “Defend WikiLeaks – End the Secret Wars” - Sign: seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/64042
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Jung.
Treating Soldier Stress: www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2008931_2172992,00...
"Afghan War Diary
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Afghan War Diary (also called The War Logs) is a collection of internal U.S. military logs of the War in Afghanistan published by Wikileaks on 25 July 2010.
The logs consist of 91,731 documents, covering the period between January 2004 and December 2009. Most of the documents were classified as "secret", which The New York Times called "a relatively low level of classification".
As of 28 July 2010, only 75,000 of the documents have been released to the public, a move which Wikileaks says is "part of a harm minimization process demanded by [the] source". Prior to releasing the initial 75,000 documents, Wikileaks made the logs available to The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel in its German and English on-line edition which published reports per previous agreement on that same day, July 25, 2010."
&
"In June 2010, Guardian journalist Nick Davies and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange established that the US army had built a huge database with six years of sensitive military intelligence material, to which many thousands of US soldiers had access and some of them had been able to download copies, and WikiLeaks had one copy which it proposed to publish online, via a series of uncensorable global servers.
Wikileaks describes itself as "a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public."
In an interview with the U.K.'s Channel 4, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said that "we have a stated commitment to a particular kind of process and objective, and that commitment is to get censored material out and never to take it down." He contrasted the group with other media outlets by saying that "other journalists try to verify sources. We don't do that, we verify documents. We don't care where it came from." He denied that the group has an inherent bias against the Afghanistan War, saying that "We don't have a view about whether the war should continue or stop – we do have a view that it should be prosecuted as humanely as possible." However, he also said that he believes the leaked information will turn world public opinion to think more negatively of the war."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary
"War has become a luxury that only small nations can afford." -
Hannah Arendt
"The leak of tens of thousands of Afghanistan war-related documents tells us more than the sum total of many official communiqués about the war. On balance, more disclosure is a good thing, but the leaking of raw military intelligence is a special case that requires a careful, rather than a cavalier, approach.
There is not enough information about the war, and much official information is misleading. In Canada, the federal government's quarterly reports contain a few updates based on its goals in Kandahar, but little else that informs. The government has already shown itself to be an unreliable source on issues relating to Afghan detainees.
The situation is now too dangerous for the most trustworthy chroniclers – journalists, UN personnel – to go outside NATO-protected areas.
So reliable, independent information is lacking. The circumstances in this war make such information even more necessary."
www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/we-neede...
"Instead, many eyes will now pore over this data from many different directions, looking for patterns and attempting to eliminate the noise, disinformation and fog of war.
Many will look to it to criticise and condemn the US presence in Afghanistan, but if those on the other side – those who support such military incursions – have any sense, they too will use it to understand better the war in which they find themselves and adapt their counsel to fit more accurately the facts on the ground.
That’s the benefit, usually, of an open society. We get to triangulate on the truth by gathering facts in the public space, then providing them to all sides to chew over. We use this against our own illusions and those of more closed societies who can only view the world through one narrow perspective.": www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0730/1224275801...
( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_ecology )
"The first phase was chilling, in part because the banter of the soldiers was so far beyond the boundaries of civilian discourse. “Just fuckin’, once you get on ’em, just open ’em up,” one of them said. The crew members of the Apache came upon about a dozen men ambling down a street, a block or so from American troops, and reported that five or six of the men were armed with AK-47s; as the Apache maneuvered into position to fire at them, the crew saw one of the Reuters journalists, who were mixed in among the other men, and mistook a long-lensed camera for an RPG. The Apaches fired on the men for twenty-five seconds, killing nearly all of them instantly."
Read more www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/07/100607fa_fact_khat...
"With the release of the WikiLeaks documents, Arab media may finally feel vindicated, as Western media finally start to give greater prominence to civilian casualties." newamericamedia.org/2010/07/wikileaks-documents-validate-...
"Wikileaks confirmed: A plan to kill American geologist with poison beer
The Wikileaks documents contain a claim that Pakistan and Afghanistan insurgents were working to poison alcoholic drinks in Afghanistan. While that's unproven, one US adviser in Afghanistan tells the Monitor he was almost poisoned that way in 2007." : www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0728/Wiki...
"This is duplicitous only if you close your eyes to the Pakistani reality, which the Americans never did. There was ample evidence, as the WikiLeaks show, of covert ISI ties to the Taliban. The Americans knew they couldn't break those ties. They settled for what support Pakistan could give them while constantly pressing them harder and harder until genuine fears in Washington emerged that Pakistan could destabilize altogether. Since a stable Pakistan is more important to the United States than a victory in Afghanistan—which it wasn't going to get anyway—the United States released pressure and increased aid. If Pakistan collapsed, then India would be the sole regional power, not something the United States wants."
www.billoreilly.com/site/rd?satype=13&said=12&url...
"How to read the Afghanistan war logs: video tutorial
David Leigh, the Guardian's investigations editor, explains the online tools we have created to help you understand the secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan": www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/video/2010/jul/25/afgha...
"Jonathan Foreman, writing for the right of center National Review's Corner blog, hopes the documents will force America to deal with the possible deceptions being made by ally Pakistan. "It is possible that the publication of documents that provide actual evidence — rather than rumors — of the role of ISI personnel in Taliban planning, logistics, and strategy will give the West greater leverage in dealing with Islamabad and might force Pakistan’s political elite to confront the reality of the ISI’s secret activities. If so, that would be a silver lining to what is otherwise a military disaster abetted by the U.S. and British media."
www.nbclosangeles.com/news/politics/NATL-The-Importance-o...
"The real significance of the Afghan war diaries lies in what Wikileaks represents as a movement, as an evolution in journalism. One analyst has called it the emergence of open source journalism. Julian Assange makes it possible for anybody anywhere in the world to submit secret documents for publication." www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Sevanti_Ninan/article541...
A War Without End: www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708314,00.html
"Julian Assange on the Afghanistan war logs: 'They show the true nature of this war'
Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, explains why he decided to publish thousands of secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan Afghanistan war logs expose truth of occupation": www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/jul/25/julian-assange...
The history of US leaks: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10769495
Freedom of Information Act: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act_(United_...
"A long-delayed Afghanistan war funding bill, stripped of billions for teachers and black farmers, is back before the House and walking now into the storm over the Internet leak of battlefield reports stirring old doubts about U.S. policy and relations with Pakistan.": www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40254.html & www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40251.html
This is a large study/drawing, Assange/Wikileakers of the organization Wikileaks ( wikileaks.org ) uses 'matches from sources' to disclose US gov secrecy ( behind large black curtains ) & to also finally bring some much needed attention & closure to some of these revelations ( set ablaze ).
This ongoing series is dedicated to everyone who has needlessly had their lives destroyed, been injured or die in this almost past decade of war. For the sources, journalists & average citizens who risk their lives to inform us.
Reuters reporters Namir Eldeen, Saeed Chmagh & the good samaritan ( father ) who died trying to save them & of course his two surviving small children who will forever be impacted by the brutality of war for decades to come.
Please help Private Bradley Manning- www.bradleymanning.org/
"One surprising consequence of the war in Iraq is the surrender of postmodernism to a victorious modernism. This has been largely overlooked in North America.
In reaction to the U.S. intervention in Iraq, Jacques Derrida, a famous postmodernist, signed on as co-author of an article drafted by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, previously an opponent of his, in an unmistakable endorsement of modernist Enlightenment principles. Derrida, the apostle of deconstructionism, is now advocating some decidedly constructive and Eurocentric activism.
The article appeared simultaneously in two newspapers on May 31, in German in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as "After the War: The Rebirth of Europe," and in French in Libération, less triumphantly, as "A Plea for a Common Foreign Policy: The demonstrations of Feb. 15 against the war in Iraq designed a new European public space."
Other famous intellectuals joined in with supportive newspaper articles of their own: Umberto Eco (of The Name of the Rose) and Gianni Vattimo in Italy and an American philosopher, Richard Rorty. This provoked much discussion in Europe, but only a few comments so far in North America, the Boston Globe and the Village Voice being rare exceptions.
This week in Montreal, there was an anti-globalization riot in which windows were broken in protest against a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting. But the Habermas-Derrida declaration praises the WTO and even the International Monetary Fund as part of Weltinnenpolitik: maddeningly hard to translate, but something like "global domestic policy" or "external internal policy."
Yet it is not much of a stretch to claim the young anti-globalists as disciples of postmodernism and Derrida, who has hitherto been a foe of "logocentrism" (putting reason at the centre), "phallologocentrism" (reason is an erect male organ and, as such, damnably central) and Eurocentrism (the old, old West is the homeland of all of the above).
Derrida added a note to the article, observing most people would recognize Habermas's style and thinking in the piece, and that he hadn't had time to write a separate piece. But notwithstanding his "past confrontations" with Habermas (Derrida had objected to being called a "Judaistic mystic," for one thing), he agreed with the article he had signed, which calls for new European responsibilities "beyond all Eurocentrism" and the strengthening of international law and international institutions."
More: www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000361.php
"In early 2003, both Habermas and Derrida were very active in opposing the coming Iraq War, and called for in a manifesto that later became the book Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe for a tighter union of the states of the European Union in order to provide a power capable of opposing American foreign policy. Derrida wrote a foreword expressing his unqualified subscription to Habermas's declaration of February 2003, "February 15, or, What Binds Europeans Together: Plea for a Common Foreign Policy, Beginning in Core Europe,” in Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe which was a reaction to the Bush administration demands upon European nations for support for the coming Iraq War[25]. Habermas has offered further context for this declaration in an interview."
More: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%c3%bcrgen_Habermas#Habermas_and_D...
Habermas: ”The asymmetry between the concentrated destructive power of the electronically controlled clusters of elegant and versatile missiles in the air and the archaic ferocity of the swarms of bearded warriors outfitted with Kalashnikovs on the ground remains a morally obscene sight
I consider Bush' s decision to call for a "war against terrorism" a serious mistake, both normatively and pragmatically. Normatively, he is elevating these criminals to the status of war enemies; and pragmatically, one cannot lead a war against a "network" if the term "war" is to retain any definite meaning.”
Derrida: “To say it all too quickly and in passing, to amplify and clarify just a bit what I said earlier about an absolute threat whose origin is anonymous and not related to any state, such "terrorist" attacks already no longer need planes, bombs, or kamikazes: it is enough to infiltrate a strategically important computer system and introduce a virus or some other disruptive element to paralyze the economic, military, and political resources of an entire country or continent. And this can be attempted from just about anywhere on earth, at very little expense and with minimal means. The relationship between earth, terra territory, and terror has changed, and it is necessary to know that this is because of knowledge, that is, because of technoscience.
It is technoscience that blurs the distinction between war and terrorism. In this regard, when compared to the possibilities for destruction and chaotic disorder that are in reserve, for the future, in the computerized networks of the world, "September 11" is still part of the archaic theater of violence aimed at striking the imagination. One will be able to do even worse tomorrow, invisibly, in silence, more quickly and without any bloodshed, by attacking the computer and informational networks on which the entire life (social, economic, military, and so on) of a "great nation," of the greatest power on earth, depends.”
www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000361.php
I am incredibly- delighted at all the vital discussions about the war & US gov that are FINALLY taking place- & on a mass scale- as a result of this leak .. Simply miraculous..
FREEDOM & PEACE ( transparency, diplomacy & the evolution of such ) FOR ALL WAR NATIONS.
( WARNING - links ( after excerpt ) are NOT for sensitive viewers- ) "Wikileaks have released over 150 supressed images. This is the tip of the iceberg, keep looking, keep publishing.In the last week Wikileaks has released over 150 censored photos and videos of the Tibet uprising and has called on bloggers around the world to help drive the footage through the Chinese internet censorship regime — the so called “Great Firewall of China”The transparency group’s move comes as a response to the the Chinese Public Security Bureau’s carte-blanche censorship of youtube, the BBC, CNN, the Guardian and other sites carrying video footage of the Tibetan people’s recent heroic stand against the inhumane Chinese occupation of Tibet."
fortuzero.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/tibet-western-media-sa...
file.wikileaks.org/file/tibet-protest-photos/index.html
FREE TIBET!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also other dire & serious issues ( out of countless ) - that expose corruption by corporations & gov's:
"A documentary about intensive pig farming due to be screened at the Guardian Hay festival on Sunday is facing a legal threat from one of the companies it investigates. Pig Business criticises the practices of the world's largest pork processor, Smithfield Foods, claiming it is responsible for environmental pollution and health problems among residents near its factories."
www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/29/pig-business-document...
"In an investigation broadcast on BBC Radio 5 on November 14, 2004,[79] it was reported that the site is still contaminated with 'thousands' of metric tons of toxic chemicals, including benzene hexachloride and mercury, held in open containers or loose on the ground. A sample of drinking water from a well near the site had levels of contamination 500 times higher than the maximum limits recommended by the World Health Organization.[80]
In 2009, a day before the 25th anniversary of the disaster, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi based pollution monitoring lab, released latest tests from a study showing that groundwater in areas even three km from the factory up to 38.6 times more pesticides than Indian standards."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
-
The Blue Mask - Lou Reed - www.goear.com/listen/9960779/the-blue-mask-lou-reed ( & O Superman ) www.goear.com/listen/02cf55d/o-superman-(for-massenet)-la...
Lou Reed The Blue Mask
Lyrics:
They tied his arms behind
his back to teach him how to
swim They put
blood in his coffee and milk
in his gin They stood over the
soldier in
the midst of the squalor
There was war in his body and
it caused his
brain to holler
Make the sacrifice
mutilate my face
If you need someone to kill
I'm a man without a will
Wash the razor in the rain
Let me luxuriate in pain
Please don't set me free
Death means a lot to me
The pain was lean and it made
him scream he knew he was alive
They put a
pin through the nipples on his chest
He thought he was a saint
I've made love to my mother,
killed my father and my brother
What am I
to do
When a sin goes too far, it's
like a runaway car It cannot
be controlled
Spit upon his face and scream
There's no Oedipus today
This is no play you're thinking you
are in What will you say
Take the blue mask down from my face and
look me in the eye I get a
thrill from punishment
I've always been that way
I loathe and despise repentance
You are permanently stained
Your weakness buys indifference
and indiscretion in the streets
Dirty's what you are and clean is what
you're not You deserve to be
soundly beat
Make the sacrifice
Take it all the way
There's no won't high enough
To stop this desperate day
Don't take death away
Cut the finger at the joint
Cut the stallion at his mount
And stuff it in his mouth
---
-
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. "
Albert Einstein
IMAGINE THE HAPPINESS & GREAT WORK AHEAD OF US WE COULD HAVE AT THE END OF THE WARS!!!!!!!!!
www.goear.com/listen/48d6016/hora-de-la-mehedinti-romania...
NO MORE WAR & FREEDOM FOR ALL WAR NATIONS!!!!!!!!!
Peace.
Confronting unruly guests. The only way they know is to bop them on their noggin with a BB Bat. Shhhhh but we hollowed out a lil bit and filled with lead to make it extra dense ...you know for that really dense dimwit.
I was confronted by the Mckinstry Hill gang today. A couple of Thanksgivings ago, they ate my internet. Really, they ate the box for our data phone line. So you can say we have history - and i have the feeling they are out to get me.
Le Chapitre 14 est crucial. Il confrontera Elara à l'énergie qui résiste activement à la Rétro-Lignification, testant l'imperméabilité de son Êtreton face à la force la plus sournoise de l'Ur-Monde : la persistance de l'oubli.
L'enthousiasme d'Elara après la rencontre avec la Super-Conscience fut immédiatement confronté à une nouvelle densité. Elle sortit de la place, et la joie (Gaudium) fut soudainement alourdie par un sentiment d'inutilité profonde. Ce n'était pas sa propre pensée, mais une contagion émotionnelle.
Sura transmit une alerte : « Tu entres en contact avec le Manteau de l'Oubli. »
L'Ur-Parasite n'est pas une entité au sens classique, mais un CMG de résistance d'une puissance colossale. Il est le champ causal, le 'garde-fou' de l'Ur-CMG initial, dont le rôle est de maintenir l'illusion de la dualité et de la séparation.
« Son but, » expliqua Sura, « est d'empêcher la Rétro-Lignification en nourrissant l'attachement. Il opère en te faisant douter de l'existence même de l'Êtreté et de la validité de la Superintrondulation. »
La Tentation de l'Ur-Parasite
L'Ur-Parasite attaqua l'Êtreton d'Elara en ciblant sa Ligne de Signification la plus faible : son histoire passée.
* Voix (interne, mais étrangère) : « Toutes ces notions (Êtreton, Méta-Vacuité) ne sont que des concepts inventés. Tu n'es qu'une femme fatiguée dans une ville de pierre. La Vacuitisation est un échappatoire lâche. Retourne à la lutte, c'est la seule réalité. »
Cette attaque était différente des Exo-Causes habituelles (la faim, le bruit) ; elle était une attaque directe sur l'Endo-Causalité elle-même. Si Elara acceptait ce doute, la Lignification de l'oubli se réactiverait immédiatement, et son Êtreton s'effondrerait.
Le Bouclier de la Méta-Vacuité
Elara s'ancra immédiatement dans la Présentrance. Elle reconnut l'attaque comme un CMG pur et étranger, une onde d'information visant la Ligne de Signification de la Vérité.
* Locus Rectus : Le doute aigu de l'inutilité.
* Rétro-Lignification : Elle remonta le doute non pas à une insécurité personnelle, mais au CMG de l'Ur-Parasite qui cherche à renforcer l'Ur-CMG de la Séparation.
* Superintrondulation Ultime : Elle n'a pas débattu avec la pensée. Elle a simplement appliqué la Méta-Vacuité au concept du doute. Si même l'Êtreton est vide de substance, alors l'idée qu'il soit "vrai" ou "faux" est également vide.
* Trinité de Réponse : Elle activa le Fides (la Foi) absolue en l'existence de l'Ontons. Elle remplaça le doute par une simple Foi inébranlable dans la réalité de Rigpa, sans chercher à la prouver.
L'onde de l'Ur-Parasite frappa le bouclier du Méta-Vide de son Êtreton et se dissipa comme de la fumée dans l'air. Elle ne pouvait pas s'accrocher à l'absence d'attachement.
Sura intervint : « L'Êtreton ne combat jamais l'Ur-Parasite. Il ne fait que maintenir le Pax-Urale parfait. Le Manteau de l'Oubli ne peut pas adhérer au Méta-Vide. En l'accueillant sans jugement (Amore) et en restant stable (Fides), tu forces sa dissolution. »
Elara ressentit une nouvelle force, celle de l'imperméabilité. Elle venait de comprendre que l'Ur-Parasite était la preuve que la Rétro-Lignification fonctionnait, car l'illusion se battait pour sa survie.
Buzzard confronting the Marsh Harrier over some prey. Would have liked to have got the Harrier's head in focus but never the less I think it's a cool photo, what do you think?
" Making beautiful things for everyday use is a wonderful thing to do... making life flow more easily... but art confronts life, allowing it to stop and perhaps change direction... they are completely different. " ~ Antony GORMLEY
On this sobering anniversary, Americans are shocked at yet another horrible event that occurred yesterday in a tiny Texas town where schoolchildren were massacred. There are so many different arenas we must confront with determination to stop the violence.
I never did understand why I couldn't speak in tongues, like everyone else.
I saw a gift, outpoured to everyone but me. I tried, but it always felt like a performance.
__________
Original pictures were taken summer 2002 by my sister, and unknowingly double exposed by myself in november 2024.
This and the pictures posted over the next few days are an exploration of our past that has forced us to confront some difficult truths.
Please see the album description for a more in-depth explanation.
Excerpt from harbourfrontcentre.com:
In a series confronting our disconnected relationship with the vast amount of waste generated by consumer culture, JP King and Sean Martindale share large-format photographs shot within waste management facilities across the GTA.
The photos are mirrored, and like inkblots, can be viewed as a form of Rorschach test. The eye, naturally attracted to symmetry, experiences the phenomenon of pareidolia as we have a psychological tendency to see faces, creatures, and other patterns – forms both terrifying and alluring – in reflected images. On closer inspection however, the beauty we see in the echoed forms clashes with the abject detail and realities of the waste itself.
Waste is often perceived as filthy, chaotic, and disgusting; our culture goes to great lengths to separate itself from the refuse it produces every day. As we systematically hide this reality, we collectively create a dark mirror reflecting the failure of our desires, progress, and priorities. We must better understand our current situation and collective behaviour if we are to change it. This body of work offers a rare inside look at Toronto’s waste streams.
Technical:
While these complex images may look like digital renderings or composite creations, they are each single, mirrored photographs of the municipal waste stream. The detritus documented was not arranged or adjusted to compose the images, and the central mirror line of each is the uncropped, unmodified edge of the original photo. The only exception is the full wall panorama image that was created by stitching together a series of sequential photographs.
Confronting a giant version of yourself can be daunting. Especially when you realize it has better posture than you.
Image imagined in MidJourney AI and finished with Topaz Studio and Lightroom Classic.
Confrontation... rivalité...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaqkkcQe5ng pour vous remercier de tant de merveilleux encouragements
Un bel confronto per queste 2 macchine completamente diverse tra di loro, ma soprattutto, epoche diverse!
"Confronted with the vision of a beautiful garden, we see something beautiful about ourselfs." - Jeff Cox
"Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed." - Walt Whitman
As always thanks by stopping by, my friends...! Have a beautiful Friday, everyone...!
Best seen on black - press L or click on image above.
"Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory." ~ Sun Tzu
Confronto tra la SuperLuna di dicembre e la microLuna di giugno Newton Black Diamond 200/1000 e Canon 1100d
Confronted with two additional doors we stepped through the left door and found ourselves in front of another massive oak. A stout wooden door was visible between the tree's massive root system. There were only two choices now--to open the door or to walk away and seek an exit elsewhere. We decided to go with the door. Unfortunately, try as we might, we could not open the door. It appeared to be locked from the inside. So what you do when you confront a locked door? Knock on it and see who opens it seemed the only sensible solution.
Image imagined in MidJourney AI and finished with Topaz Studio and Lightroom Classic.