It’s moments like these where the best photographs are born. Not just in the snow, forest or mighty deserts, but in anything unexpected. I think it changes who we are. It slaps us in-the face with a new perspective, a new mountain to climb atop, and it forces us to see a familiar world in a new, or nonexistent, light. I remember being unable to smell the chill, and a still almost uncomfortable quiet.

Stivan, a small settlement on Adriatic Sea island Cres in Kvarner bay, is an almost abandoned place. Incredibly stony ground, almost nonexistent arable soil, not close enough to the sea shore to be of interest for tourists, offers little to survive. Some old fig trees and olive trees and sheep, this is all one can rely on. But it is situated in a great landscape, in an open, rather flat (as the whole south part of the island) Mediterranean landscape, harsh, wind-swept and sunny, with mild spring and autumn climate and hot summers. Yet, 200 years ago men was capable not only to survive here but also to live full lives and to build large stony farmhouses like this one on my pictures. Now it is a ruin worth nothing, defeated by time and overtaken by Wulfen's Spurge (Euphorbia wulfeni).

I am just.... completely run down. Even after having a long weekend! Between this room mate drama, being sick, and a few other pieces of shit, I have been run down. Yet, I've still managed to attend classes... No more gym this week because I nearly threw my back out and have to wear one of those embarrassing back braces until I can function without it. My appetite is nearly nonexistent. My confidence and emotions are shaken beyond recognition. I was doing so well, and feeling so great! It's amazing what people can do to make you feel worthless and like you're this horrid person. Rock bottom ain't a pretty place.

 

On another note, I got a fridge so I can actually have COLD Brita water, as well as some orange juice in the morning that isn't watered down from the cafeteria tap. Also, TWO firedrills in a ROW at 4:30 and 5:45 didn't help me feel the greatest, either. As for now, I'm battling more sniffles and sneezles and some pretty horrid chills.

Credit: Paul Morse / Clinton Global Initiative

 

A Better Future for Girls and Women: Empowering the Next Generation - CGI U 2013

 

From women’s suffrage movements in the early 20th century to the Arab Spring, countless exceptional women have redefined their role in the world on their own terms. Yet the reality for many girls and women is still stark: over 60 million girls still do not have access to primary education, approximately 10 million women die each year due to nonexistent or low-quality healthcare, and three out of every four war fatalities are women or children. The education and empowerment of girls and women is not only a moral issue—it is also a critical economic issue. Ensuring access to education, financial capital, and political participation for women is among the most impactful strategies for advancing long-term sustainable development. From the creation of all-girls schools to women-run microcredit cooperatives, how can students and universities support the projects that are working to empower girls and women? This panel will bring together practitioners and pioneers who will explore the tangible ways in which young people can continue to build a better future for girls and women around the world.

He lends a nonexistent hand...

Chart showing the elevation changes for benchmark CO-C-32. Subsidence from 1982-1986 was very minor or nonexistent. During this time period only one very small geothermal plant was operating. In 1986 the Vulcan plant came on line more than tripling the production of fluid and increasing the subsidence rate at this benchmark. The production of fluid continued to increase with a series of new power plants coming on line: Elmore, SS-3, Del Ranch 1989, Leathers, SS-2 1990, SS-4 1996, and SS-5 CE Turbo in 2000, and so has the rate of subsidence.

Miss my head, miss my heart, miss my lungs

Be what you want to be

Watch what you want to see

Killed for fun

Down a hole, up a rope

Down some pills, up some hope

This karma machine only takes quarters

New age soldier, new age soldier

 

Everybody's all right

Everything is automatic

Everybody's all right

Everything is skin deep (*)

  

Ho-ho-ho hippy is back on flickr!

It's been a rainy Christmas and there won't be any masterpiece in these days, just a few cliché shots like this one :D

 

Ok, there has never been a masterpiece on my flickr stream, but that's a technical detail nobody should care about ^____^

 

PS: no post processing, as usual. The background has been cut out by a midget living in my zoom lens :D

PSSSS: I was waiting for the next rain cloud and started playing with a nonexistent depth of field and more than 200mm handheld, just to make things easier *___*

 

(*) "Everything is automatic" by Matthew Good

They Live, We Sleep

Artist Statement

 

“We are living in an artificially induced state of consciousness that resembles sleep. The poor and the underclass are growing. Racial justice and human rights are nonexistent.

They influence our decisions without us knowing it. They numb our senses without us feeling it. They control our lives without us realizing it.

They have created a repressive society and we are their unwitting accomplices ...their intention to rule rests with the annihilation of consciousness.

We have been lulled into a trance.

They have made us indifferent, to ourselves, to others; we are focused only on our own gain. They are safe as long as they are not discovered ...that is their primary method of survival.

Keep us asleep, keep us selfish, keep us sedated...they are dismantling the sleeping middle class.

More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery.”

– They Live

 

This photographic body of work is inspired by John Carpenter’s 1988 film, “They Live.” The movie was also credited by Shepard Fairey “as a major source of inspiration for his own subversive brand of street art.” They Live was the basis for his use of the word ‘OBEY’ that became his main campaign and a popular clothing brand consequently.

The protagonist of the movie, an unemployed drifter named "Nada," accidentally comes across a box of sunglasses. After putting a pair on, he realizes that they are quite special. He sees the world in black and white and discovers that it's not what it seems. The series of images I have created are like those unique sunglasses that Nada stumbled upon, aim to show the world to the viewer for what it truly is. I hope they will help people to take into consideration what they sacrifice by blindly following self-serving governments and corporations’ agendas.

Through this photographic project my intent is to encourage people to be more aware of the habitual ways of living that we have been thoughtlessly following for most of human history. It seems as though the human race would have learned by now to not put their trust in the hands of the misguiding ruling class. Unfortunately most of the humanity is still in the state of mindless consumerism and simply does not realize that their decisions, their entire lives are being manipulated.

  

New to Alameda so had to give them a try. Not the best burger one can get in town, although not awful, either. But the patty was way too dry for me and the BBQ sauce was all but nonexistent. The batter on the onion strings and the fried pickles is the same and it was quite salty. I like salty so the onion strings were fine for me but would be too much for many people. The salty pickles plus salty batter was over the top even for this salt-lover. I thought the Smashfries (with olive oil, rosemary and garlic) were REALLY good. I would go back for them.

The cotton pygmy goose or cotton teal (Nettapus coromandelianus) is a small perching duck which breeds in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, southeast Asia and south to Queensland.

 

Small individuals of this species are the smallest waterfowl on earth, at as little as 160 g (5.6 oz) and 26 cm (10 in). White predominates in this bird's plumage. Bill short, deep at base, and goose-like.

 

Male in breeding plumage is glossy blackish green crown, with white head, neck, and underparts; a prominent black collar and white wing-bar. Rounded head and short legs. In flight, the wings are green with a white band, making the male conspicuous even amongst the huge flying flocks of the lesser whistling duck, which share the habitat. Female paler, without either black collar and only a narrow or nonexistent strip of white wing-bar. In non-breeding plumage (eclipse) male resembles female except for his white wing-bar. Flocks on water bodies (jheels), etc.

 

The call is a peculiar clucking, uttered in flight

These are my personal notes taken during a geology presentation. I give them here because they may be of some interest. Do not expect the notes to always be in complete sentences, etc.

-----------------------------------

Recognizing Eolian (i.e., Wind Blown) Deposits on San Salvador Island & Beyond

 

Presented by: Mario Caputo (retired from: Earth Sciences and Astronomy Department, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, California, USA)

 

23 June 2010

----------

How does wind interact with sediments? Sediments can be moved by wind, water, and glaciers. Wind is a turbulent transport agent.

What makes eolian deposits? Wind moves bedforms (dunes). Dunes make eolian deposits.

 

Example: erg (sand sea), Namib Desert, southwestern Africa.

(blogs.britannica.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/namib3sma...)

 

Example: Kelso Dunes, eastern Mojave Desert, California - has linear dunes (aka seif dunes; aka longitudinal dunes) - the wind runs parallel to crest of dunes.

(www.nps.gov/moja/planyourvisit/images/walking-kelso-dunes...)

 

Eolianite - rock formed by wind-transported sand of carbonate grains, not quartz & feldspar sand grains. [Eolianites are varieties of limestone.]

 

Given a steady supply of sand and a good, persistent wind, dunes will form.

Example: Michigan - reworked glacial sediments.

 

Example: Great Sand Dunes, Colorado - reworked Medano River sediments, derived from the Sangre de Cristo Range.

(www.nature.nps.gov/geology/geologic_wonders/images/star_d...)

 

Example: Barchan dunes of Utah - sediments are reworked from wind-blown sands of the Entrada Sandstone.

 

Sand can withstand several cycles of formation, deposition, lithification, and erosion. A famous exception is at White Sands, New Mexico, which has gypsum sand - it is quite soft (H=2) - it doesn’t survive like quartz, so it doesn’t travel far.

(feel-planet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/white-sands-na...)

 

Basic eolian processes & resulting strata:

Wind ripple strata - “topset” strata and “foreset” strata or cross-bedding (sloping/slanting units).

Wind ripples, grainflow (sandflow), and grainfall make cross-bedding.

 

Bahamian limestones consist of aragonite (CaCO3) sand grains.

Utah sandstones have quartz (SiO2) sand grains. The Navajo Sandsone, Page Sandstone, and Entrada Sandstone are all siliciclastic eolian units there.

 

How sand is transported:

Wind creates a shearing effect above a sand grain. Get lift (Bernoulli Effect), like an airplane. Wind-blown (lifted or pushed along) sediment populations consist of fine sand - 1/16 mm to 1/2 mm.

Sand moves by: 1) sand slides; 2) rolling; 3) saltation (bouncing), triggered by the impact/strike of another grain. Saltation trajectories can be high. Example: sand stinging your legs during windy times.

Wind “impact” ripples: ripple length (spacing) = saltation length (trajectory controlled by wind speed & bounce height).

 

Forming wind ripple strata:

Ralph Hunter, now a retired USGS geologist, liked to dig out beautiful trenches & smooth the walls to see wind-blown sand deposits. (Need moist sand to trench & carve with a machete.) Such trenches show that wind ripples move up as they move laterally - climbing ripples (myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/talbot/cdgeol/Sediment/StratSed/75...). This is the result of horizontal & vertical vectors. These control the angle of climb. Ripples climb. Sediment deposits look horizontal, but they do have angular discordance. There wouldn’t be a deposit if the ripples didn’t climb.

In the Page Sandstone (~140 million years old, Paria Wilderness, southwestern Utah), you can see the angle of climb.

 

At the front of each ripple is a zone of erosion. If bedforms are moving horizontally, previous ripples get chewed up - don’t get a deposit. If ripples climb, you get a deposit.

On San Salvador Island in the Bahamas, wind ripple marks are rare, but they occur at French Bay in the Grotto Beach Formation. Wind ripple marks are well exposed in the Jurassic Page Sandstone of southwestern Utah’s Paria Wilderness. In both units, the ripple marks match up.

 

There is an index of width-to-height that only wind ripples have.

 

Pinstripe bedding - white stripes are microledges - seen in the the Rice Bay Formation at North Point on San Salvador. Darker bands/gray bands are recesses. So, see alternating light-dark ledges-recesses.

(www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/16223972926)

Can see the same thing in the Moab Sandstone Member of the Entrada Sandstone of Utah.

In thin section, can see that some layers are cemented and other layers are not cemented. This is the result of differential packing. The more closely packed layers end up being better cemented. The closely packed, better cemented portions are in the basal part - they form white stripes - little ledges.

The upper portions are coarser-grained, not as well packed, are darker, end up being not as well cemented, and form recesses.

The overall result is small-scale reverse grading. This happens even though wind-blown sand is well-sorted. Wind is the most efficient sorter of sediments.

 

Grainflow Processes:

Ex: Silver Lake State Park, western coast of Michigan.

(www.flickr.com/photos/richardthompson/3496551579)

Grains at the summit of ripples fall down at the brink point - get avalanching down the lee side.

Grainflows in the eolianite limestones at North Point Peninsula on San Salvador Island are thin to nonexistent. So, the original North Point dunes were small.

Sandflows in cross-bedding form recesses in San Salvador’s Rice Bay Formation and in the Jurassic Page Sandstone at Lake Powell (Monkey Wrench Gang country).

(www.flickr.com/photos/sara10041966/4076923585)

(upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/58/EdwardAbbey_TheMon...)

_________________________________

 

Recess (Sandflow)

(not well cemented)

_________________________________

Ledge (Grainfall) (well cemented)

_________________________________

 

Grainfall Process:

Sand is conveyed up the windward side of a dune. The finer sand grains of wind ripples get swept beyond the brink point and form grainfall deposits - smooth, unrippled surfaces without evidence of flowage.

Grainfalls are difficult to identify in the rock record. They are relatively easy to see in modern settings.

Can identify grainfalls encasing sandflow lenses in the Jurassic Page Sandstone & in the Grotto Beach Formation of San Salvador.

Grainfall deposits in the rock record are recognized by looking for sandflow lenses encased in thin ledges (= finer-grained than sandflow lens).

San Salvador eolianites - grains are marine in origin - marine framework grains - ooids, bioclastic grains, algal fragments - they get washed up on beaches by waves and tidal currents. Then winds blow the sediments into dunes. Sediments get reworked by wind & vegetation - vegedunes.

 

Whole dune-form preservation occurs by plant stabilization and early cementation. You don’t see that in quartz-rich dunes.

Topset strata, brinkset strata, foreset strata are also seen on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas.

 

Reactivation surfaces represent pauses in dune movement and sand movement.

Can see updip pinchout in carbonate eolianites in the Bahamas - you never see that in quartz dunes preserved in the rock record.

 

San Salvador's North Point Peninsula outcrops have sandflow lenses (recesses) in grainfall deposits (ledges).

 

Quartz can be frosted in any environment. Frosted grains are no longer a reliable indicator of wind-blown origin.

 

Water ripples have higher amplitudes than wind-blown ripples.

 

Symmetrical ripples - can watch them form in the shallow waters around San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. Sediments get swept back-n-forth in ripple troughs, resulting in the buildup of sediments at the edges of troughs - the result is symmetrical ripples.

(www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/15046816692)

 

Rolling & sliding mechanism of grain movement - creep.

 

Black basalt sand dunes occur in Hawaii. Basalt sand dunes also occur on Mars.

 

Bedding is only visible is there’s slight differences in grain sizes and/or grain mineralogies.

 

Swash laminations form in high flow regime conditions. A sheet of sand gets deposited. Swash has a higher velocity than backwash - get a two-fold lamination (swash-backwash).

Won’t see ripple forms in swash deposits. Will see parting lineations.

 

Can also get ripples migrating up the lee side (downwind) of dunes due to the presence of an air eddy in the trough between dunes.

----------------

 

Shambaugh explains the relationship between productivity and wage growth.

 

Since the 1970s, the typical U.S. worker has experienced either a minimal or nonexistent increase in wages. What can and should be done to promote the economic growth that will lead to higher earnings for more American workers? How do we ensure that these gains are broadly shared, resulting in robust wage growth for as many workers as possible?

 

On September 26, The Hamilton Project at Brookings hosted a forum on wage growth in The United States. The forum began with introductory remarks by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, and a fireside chat with Jason Furman, professor of practice, Harvard Kennedy School, and Lawrence Mishel, president, Economic Policy Institute. The fireside chat was moderated by Catherine Rampell, opinion writer, The Washington Post. A panel discussion will follow the fireside chat, featuring panelists including: Jared Bernstein, senior fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Robert Greenstein, founder and president, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; and Heidi Shierholz; senior economist and director of policy, Economic Policy Institute; the panel was moderated by Jay Shambaugh, director, The Hamilton Project.

 

In conjunction with this event, The Hamilton Project released a new framing paper exploring wage trends and the economic forces that underlie them.

 

Photo credit: Ralph Alswang

The atheists blame God and religion for all of humankind's problems. Such proves the shallowness of atheism's manner of thinking. A nonexistent being cannot take blame for anything which happens to occur in the Universe. "Religion" is merely a word which is used to classify a set of human opinions and therefore cannot take either credit or blame for any of humankind's behavior.

 

God's nonexistence exonerates God from all blame for humankind's failure. Since humankind lacks free will it is quite impossible to blame humans for the failure of humankind. Humankind's failure then represents nothing more than a failure of evolution, an evolutionary dead end and proof that a primate can behave with the same sort of amorality exhibited by diseases and viruses and cancer and natural disasters.

 

Although humankind isn't innocent humankind is helpless and beyond the reach of any cure for the affliction and curse known as "human nature". Humankind has known about the existence of this problem for thousands of years: It is the reason why religion was invented and why humans have wasted thousands of years praying to imaginary gods for help and rescue and salvation and peace.

 

In the scientific era, humankind's cry out to God has been replaced by humankind crying out to space in search of a wise and intelligent and benevolent alien intelligence to provide the cure which God failed to provide. Such a wish is as much nonsense as religion and represents not science fiction type thinking but fantasy thinking.

 

Humankind is alone in the Universe. There's nobody out there listening for some signal of intelligent life from the Earth. The Universe beyond the Earth is absolutely sterile. Humankind is absolutely and eternally alone.

 

Once humankind finishes driving itself extinct the Universe will have precisely zero human-like intelligent life forms. This is true even if the Universe is infinite in size.

leica iiic

film

 

colinhuggins.bandcamp.com/track/philip-glass-opening-from...

 

NY Times, Dec. 4 2011

Colin Huggins was there with his baby grand, the one he wheels into Washington Square Park for his al fresco concerts. So were Tic and Tac, a street-performing duo, who held court in the fountain — dry for the winter. And Joe Mangrum was pouring his elaborate sand paintings on the ground near the Washington Arch.

 

Follow @NYTMetro

Connect with @NYTMetro on Twitter for New York breaking news and headlines.

Enlarge This Image

 

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Kareem Barnes of Tic and Tac collected donations on Sunday.

Enlarge This Image

 

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Joe Mangrum showed his sand paintings on Sunday.

In other words, it was a typical Sunday afternoon in the Greenwich Village park, where generations of visitors have mingled with musicians, artists, activists, poets and buskers.

 

Yet this fall, that urban harmony has grown dissonant as the city’s parks department has slapped summonses on the four men and other performers who put out hats or buckets, for vending in an unauthorized location — specifically, within 50 feet of a monument.

 

The department’s rule, one of many put in place a year ago, was intended to control commerce in the busiest parks. Under the city’s definition, vending covers not only those peddling photographs and ankle bracelets, but also performers who solicit donations.

 

The rule attracted little notice at first. But the enforcement in Washington Square Park in the past two months has generated summonses ranging from $250 to $1,000. And it has started a debate about the rights of parkgoers seeking refuge from the bustle of the streets versus those looking for entertainment.

 

At a news conference in the park on Sunday organized by NYC Park Advocates, the artists waved fistfuls of pink summonses while their advocates, including civil rights lawyers, called on the city to stop what they called harassment of the performers.

 

“This is a heavy-handed solution to a nonexistent problem,” said Ronald L. Kuby, one of the lawyers.

 

The rule is especially problematic in Washington Square Park, performers say, because there are few locations across its 10 acres that are beyond 50 feet from a memorial or fountain — whether the bust of Alexander Lyman Holley, who introduced the Bessemer steel process to this country, or the statue of the Italian liberator Giuseppe Garibaldi.

 

Then there is the park’s international reputation as a gathering place for folk music pioneers and the Beats.

 

“Washington Square is the live-music park of New York City, and it would be close to impossible for any one of us to follow these regulations,” said Mr. Huggins, who has received nine summonses with fines totaling $2,250.

 

But Adrian Benepe, the parks commissioner, argues that there is ample room for performers away from the monuments. And, he added, a musician who is not putting out a tin cup is welcome to sit on the edge of the fountain or under a monument.

 

“It’s the whole issue of the ‘tragedy of the commons,’ ” he said. “If you allow all the performers and all the vendors to do whatever they want to do, pretty soon there’s no park left for people who want to use them for quiet enjoyment. This is a way of having some control and not 18 hours of carnival-like atmosphere.”

 

Gary Behrens, an amateur photographer visiting from New Jersey, applauded the city’s efforts to rein in the performers. “I’m O.K. with the guitar, but the loud instruments have taken over the park,” he said.

 

The lawyers and advocates, however, challenged the idea that street performers were selling a product as a vendor does. And threatening a lawsuit, they faulted the city for creating what they called “First Amendment zones” through the rules.

 

“Is this place zany?” asked Norman Siegel, the former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “You bet. Public parks are quintessential public forums. Zaniness is something we should cherish and protect.”

 

Park visitation has soared along with the rise of tourism in the last 15 years, and with it vendors and artists interested in a lucrative market.

 

Mr. Benepe insisted that the rules would not scare off future music legends.

 

“If Bob Dylan wanted to come play there tomorrow, he could,” he said, “although he might have to move away from the fountain.”

 

Oddly, the dispute coincided with the 50th anniversary of the so-called Folk Riot in Washington Square Park, when the parks commissioner tried to squelch Sunday folk performances. Hundreds of musicians gathered in protest, the police were called in and a melee ensued.

 

In April, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wrote a letter commemorating the Folk Riot, saying he applauded “the folk performers who changed music, our city and our world beginning half a century ago.”

See the notes for identifications. When I checked the names against IPNI, I found several epithets that do not exist. If anyone can identify the misnamed plants, please comment.

 

The Dorstenia "lancifolia" is now identified as Dorstenia foetida.

  

Biology Greenhouse, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA.

This house has everything wrong; ugly colors, a ridiculous arcade, a lack of windows, a poor choice of materials, ugly roof pitches, a poor sense of scale, an unappealing portico, an ugly garage conversion, an ugly, cheapie door. nonexistent landscaping, lack of contrasting color, no ornamentation, soggy t111 siding, ugly fieldstone, an unpruned trees pouring termites on to the roof, this house has it all.

They Live, We Sleep

Artist Statement

 

“We are living in an artificially induced state of consciousness that resembles sleep. The poor and the underclass are growing. Racial justice and human rights are nonexistent.

They influence our decisions without us knowing it. They numb our senses without us feeling it. They control our lives without us realizing it.

They have created a repressive society and we are their unwitting accomplices ...their intention to rule rests with the annihilation of consciousness.

We have been lulled into a trance.

They have made us indifferent, to ourselves, to others; we are focused only on our own gain. They are safe as long as they are not discovered ...that is their primary method of survival.

Keep us asleep, keep us selfish, keep us sedated...they are dismantling the sleeping middle class.

More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery.”

– They Live

 

This photographic body of work is inspired by John Carpenter’s 1988 film, “They Live.” The movie was also credited by Shepard Fairey “as a major source of inspiration for his own subversive brand of street art.” They Live was the basis for his use of the word ‘OBEY’ that became his main campaign and a popular clothing brand consequently.

The protagonist of the movie, an unemployed drifter named "Nada," accidentally comes across a box of sunglasses. After putting a pair on, he realizes that they are quite special. He sees the world in black and white and discovers that it's not what it seems. The series of images I have created are like those unique sunglasses that Nada stumbled upon, aim to show the world to the viewer for what it truly is. I hope they will help people to take into consideration what they sacrifice by blindly following self-serving governments and corporations’ agendas.

Through this photographic project my intent is to encourage people to be more aware of the habitual ways of living that we have been thoughtlessly following for most of human history. It seems as though the human race would have learned by now to not put their trust in the hands of the misguiding ruling class. Unfortunately most of the humanity is still in the state of mindless consumerism and simply does not realize that their decisions, their entire lives are being manipulated.

  

JUT Art Museum

【A Nonexistent Place】Artist Talk：

The Wonderland of Rachel Maclean and Shaun Gladwell

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 54. Photo: Mills.

 

Scottish actor John Stuart (1898-1979) was a very popular leading man in British silent films in the 1920s. He appeared in two films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

 

John Stuart was born John Alfred Louden Croall in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1898. He began his stage and screen career directly after World War I service in The Black Watch. He made his film debut in the drama The Lights of Home (Fred Paul, 1920). Other silent films were the drama If Four Walls Told (Fred Paul, 1922) starring Lillian Hall-Davis, the comedy The School for Scandal (Bertram Phillips, 1923) with Queenie Thomas, and the comedy We Women (W.P. Kellino, 1925). Stuart was a very popular leading man in British silent films, though it's hard to gauge that popularity since many of his best films of the 1920s, such as A Sporting Double (1923), Constant Hot Water (1924) and Tower of London (1926), are either inaccessible or nonexistent. He appeared in a silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The Pleasure Garden (1925) was Hitchcock’s directorial debut. Based on a novel by Oliver Sandys, the film is about two chorus girls at the Pleasure Garden Theatre in London and their troubled relationships. Glamorous American star Virginia Valli played the lead. The film was shot in Italy and Germany in 1925 and shown to the British press in March 1926. But it was not officially released in the UK until 1927, after Hitchcock's film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog became a massive hit in February 1927. Stuart worked several times with director Maurice Elvey. Very popular was their World War I drama Mademoiselle from Armentieres (Maurice Elvey, 1926), featuring Estelle Brody. The film opened in London in September 1926 and was still playing in cinemas around the country until well into 1927. It was reportedly the most profitable British film of 1926 and made an instant star of Brody. The two stars were reunited in the drama Hindle Wakes (Maurice Elvey, 1927), whose skilful use of location is considered to give the film a documentary realism feel very unusual in British films of the period. Brody and Stuart co-starred again in Mademoiselle Parley Voo (Maurice Elvey, 1928), a sequel to their earlier hit Mademoiselle from Armentieres (1926), and equally successful. Both films refer to the popular First World War song Mademoiselle from Armentières.

 

John Stuart’s first sound film, Kitty (Victor Saville 1929) was another successful production. Kitty was initially planned and filmed as a silent, but on its original completion Saville decided to reshoot the latter part with sound. As no suitable facilities were yet available in Britain, Saville, Estelle Brody and Stuart travelled to New York to shoot the new sequences at RKO Studios. The film was released in the form of a silent which switched to sound after the halfway point. Stuart’s next film, Atlantic (1929) was one of the first British films made with the soundtrack optically recorded on the film (sound-on-film). Atlantic was directed and produced by Ewald André Dupont. Three versions were made, an English and a German language version, Atlantik, which were shot simultaneously, and later a French version was made. In England, Atlantic was released in both sound and silent prints. The film was originally made as Titanic but after lawsuits, it was renamed Atlantic. The White Star Line, which owned the RMS Titanic, was still in operation at the time. The final scene of the film was filmed as a shot of the liner sinking but it was cut at the last minute as it was feared it would upset Titanic survivors. Then Stuart worked for a second time with Alfred Hitchcock, although indirectly. Elstree Calling (1930) is a lavish musical film revue directed by Andre Charlot, Jack Hulbert, Paul Murray, and Hitchcock at Elstree Studios. It was Britain's answer to the Hollywood revues, such as Paramount on Parade (1930) and Hollywood Review of 1929. Stuart was not appearing in the segments directed by Hitchcock. They worked together again on Number Seventeen (Alfred Hitchcock, 1932), in which Stuart played the lead. The film is about a group of criminals who committed a jewel robbery and put their money in an old house over a railway leading to the English Channel, the film's title being derived from the house's street number. An outsider stumbles onto this plot and intervenes with the help of a neighbour, a police officer's daughter. On its initial release, audiences reacted to Number Seventeen with confusion and disappointment. Stuart then played Sir Henry Baskerville in the mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles (Gareth Gundrey, 1932), based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle and scripted by Edgar Wallace. He was the co-star of Brigitte Helm in The Mistress of Atlantis (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1932), the English language version of the German-French adventure and fantasy film L'Atlantide/Die Herrin von Atlantis (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1932) based on the novel L'Atlantide by Pierre Benoît.

 

John Stuart starred with Benita Hume in the drama Men of Steel (George King, 1932). It was made at Nettlefold Studios under the so-called quota quickie system for distribution by United Artists. In 1927, The Cinematograph Films Act was designed to stimulate the declining British film industry. It introduced a requirement for British cinemas to show a quota of British films, for 10 years. The result of the act was the 'quota quickie', a low-cost, poor-quality film commissioned by American distributors operating in the UK purely to satisfy the quota requirements. During the 1930s Stuart appeared in a lot of these films. memorable are the drama The Lost Chord (Maurice Elvey, 1933) with Elizabeth Allan and Jack Hawkins, the comedy This Week of Grace Chord (Maurice Elvey, 1933) starring Gracie Fields and Henry Kendall, and the Anglo-Italian aviation drama The Blue Squadron (George King, 1934) with Esmond Knight. Stuart co-starred with Fritz Kortner and Nils Asther in Abdul the Damned (Karl Grune, 1935), set in the Ottoman Empire in the years before the First World War where the Sultan and the Young Turks battle for power. He also worked often with director George Pearson, like in the thriller The Secret Voice (1936), and appeared in several parts of the long-running Old Mother Riley series. During the war years, Stuart’s parts became smaller or better said, he matured into character parts. He played a supporting part in the thriller Headline (John Harlow, 1944) with David Farrar as a crime reporter who searches for a mystery woman (Anne Crawford) who has witnessed a murder. Another example is the Gainsborough melodrama Madonna of the Seven Moons (Arthur Crabtree, 1945) starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. In 1946 readers of the Daily Mail voted the film their third most popular British movie from 1939 to 1945. During the following decades he played government officials and police inspectors in B-films like the mystery The Ringer (Guy Hamilton, 1952) starring Herbert Lom, and the Science-fiction film Four Sided Triangle (Terence Fisher, 1953). Memorable are the war film Sink the Bismarck! (Lewis Gilbert, 1960) with Kenneth More, the Science-fiction film Village of the Damned (Wolf Rilla, 1960), and the suspense film Paranoiac (Freddie Francis, 1963) from Hammer Films starring Janette Scott and Oliver Reed. Stuart now only played bit roles. His last part was a cameo in Superman (Richard Donner, 1978). In 1979, John Stuart died in London at the age of 81. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. An accomplished writer, John Stuart penned his autobiography, Caught in the Act, in 1971. His son Jonathan Croall is writing a book about the screen idols of the 1920s, including John Stuart.

 

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

The Postcard

 

A postcard that was published by Delittle, Fenwick & Co. of York. The card was printed in England.

 

It was posted in Hastings using a ½d. stamp on Tuesday the 21st. March 1905. It was sent to:

 

Miss Brent,

103, Malpas Road,

Brockley,

London SE.

 

The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:

 

"Sun Inn,

Tackleway,

Hastings.

Dear Cis,

Having a rest at the

place where you got

sunburnt.

Very nice weather at

present.

Yours truly,

Harry."

 

The Sun Inn

 

Alas, the Sun Inn is no more.

 

The Sun Inn was formerly a beer house called the Cutter Foam, first licensed in the 1860's.

 

It burnt down in the early hours of the 26th June 1873, the fire being discovered by a fisherman named Swaine who happened to be passing.

 

Fortunately, the occupants were rescued without injury. The two adjoining buildings which were at one point considered to be at risk were saved.

 

The pub was rebuilt and re-opened as the Sun Inn in 1876.

 

In 1878 Breeds Brewery, to whom the pub was tied, would not transfer the licence to a landlord who had been in situ for 12 months, because they believed that he had not conducted business in a proper manner. The landlord in his defence said:

 

“The house was a brothel

before I took over.”

 

Stephen Blundell became the landlord in 1880.

 

In 1939 licensee J. M. Walker acted as unpaid Air Raid Warden for the area, but he had gone by 1944 when a London bus driver applied for the licence.

 

He left his job without permission, and in court said that after his wife died, running a household was too much to cope with.

 

He moved to Hastings, and finding the Sun Inn needed a landlord, he applied. His story was reported as:

 

‘Busman Gets a Place in the Sun’.

 

The license changed hands again in 1945, when Stephen Charles Sherwood took over from Percy Charles Standing.

 

Tackleway is a narrow street and delivery lorries found access difficult. Also it was proposed to redevelop the area under the Holford Plan. For these two reasons the Sun Inn closed in 1970. John Cornelius was the licensee at the time of the pub's closure.

 

The Grover Shoe Factory Disaster

 

So what else happened on the day that Harry posted the card?

 

Not a lot, but the day before, Monday the 20th. March 1905, was the day of the Grover Shoe Factory Disaster in Brockton, Massachusetts

 

The Grover Shoe Factory disaster was an industrial explosion, building collapse and fire that killed 58 people and injured 150 when it leveled the R. B. Grover shoe factory

 

Following a boiler explosion, the four-story wooden building collapsed and the ruins burst into flames, incinerating workers trapped in the wreckage.

 

The Grover disaster brought new attention to industrial safety and led to stringent safety laws and a national code governing the safe operation of steam boilers.

 

-- The R. B. Grover Shoe Factory

 

The R. B. Grover shoe factory was one of a number of shoe factories in Brockton, a town that employed 35,000 shoe workers.

 

The wooden building, shaped like a letter E, occupied half a city block at the corner of Main and Calmar Streets. Grover made the popular Emerson brand shoe, and business had been good enough to add a fourth floor.

 

The factory was heated using steam radiators, with the steam being produced by coal-fired steel boilers installed in a brick boiler house attached to the wooden factory as the crossbar of the E.

 

When the fourth floor was added, the original boiler was replaced by a larger one, and the old boiler, 17 feet (5.2 m) long and six feet (1.8 m) in diameter, was left in place as a backup.

 

Since the new boiler could meet the factory's demands on its own, the old one was seldom used; and when used, was used reluctantly.

 

Grover's chief engineer David Rockwell, who had a first-class engineer's license and twelve years experience, did not trust it.

 

-- The Explosion

 

The new boiler had to be flushed out as part of its regular maintenance, so Rockwell temporarily put the old boiler back into service.

 

Early that cold damp Monday, he fed its coal fire and put the boiler to work heating the building for the arriving day-shift workers.

 

At 7:45 a.m. the plant manager telephoned Rockwell in order to ask about some strange noises coming from the radiators along one wall. Rockwell had just stepped out of the building, but his assistant assured the manager that everything was in order.

 

A few minutes later, the old boiler exploded, rocketing up through three floors and the roof.

 

-- Collapse and Fire

 

The flying boiler knocked over an elevated water tower at one end of the building, and its full tank smashed through the roof, causing that end of the building to immediately collapse, with the floors pancaking and the walls falling in on top of them.

 

Many workers who survived the initial explosion and collapse were trapped by broken beams and heavy machinery. Burning coals thrown from the boiler's fire pit landed throughout the debris, starting fires that were fed by broken gas lines.

 

The factory's more than 300 windows, now blown out, created a chimney effect in the parts of the factory still standing, resulting in a fire hot enough to melt iron pipes and radiators.

 

The wooden floors, treated nightly with linseed oil in order to keep the dust down, burned quickly. High winds helped spread the fire to nearby storage sheds and neighboring buildings, including a hardware store and a rooming house.

 

The Campello neighborhood's district firehouse shared a city block with the factory, and its firefighters arrived quickly, as did many local citizens.

 

Using long timbers as levers, they were able to lift some of the wreckage and rescue some workers before the flames reached them. Local newspapers recount many acts of heroism in the rescues made that day.

 

Barrels of naphtha, a volatile industrial solvent related to gasoline, were stored in a wooden shed directly behind the boiler house. The shed was set afire by the burning coals and the naphtha exploded, throwing sheets of flame onto the wreckage and driving rescuers away.

 

-- Escape

 

Between 300 and 400 workers were in the factory at the time of the explosion. Workers in the sections that were still standing escaped down stairways or climbed to the roof; others had to jump from windows because the explosion had knocked some fire escapes off the building.

 

About 100 workers escaped unharmed and 150 were injured. A number who were only slightly injured went home without reporting their injuries.

 

Police later related the story of a worker so dazed that he left the scene, applied for a job at another shoe factory, worked all day, then went home to find his family mourning him.

 

-- Death

 

An immediate search was made for the chief engineer. Rockwell was at first reported as among the injured, then could not be found, then at one point was reported as having left town.

 

From her kitchen window, Mrs. Rockwell had seen him sitting in a chair near the boiler house window five minutes before the explosion.

 

A search of the boiler house the next day turned up a charred body, a bent watch, two rubber heels and a torn piece of clothing identified by Mrs. Rockwell as belonging to her husband.

 

Survivors were asked to register their names with the police. Body collection began that afternoon, with only bone fragments to be found toward the rear of the factory where the fire was worst.

 

As families arrived looking for missing workers, grief-stricken relatives ran back and forth between reading the latest survivor lists and watching the recovery of bodies.

 

Due to the extreme heat of the fire, only a few bodies could be positively identified. Thirty-nine unidentified victims were buried in a ceremony at Brockton's Melrose Cemetery three days later. The disaster's 58th. victim, Hiram Pierce, died on the 15th. April 15.

 

-- Financial Assistance

 

On the day of the fire, the leatherworkers union announced that the injured would be paid $5 weekly (equivalent to $170 in 2023) until they recovered, and that the families of the dead would receive $100 (equivalent to $3,391 in 2023) for each family member killed.

 

Civic leaders created the Brockton Relief Fund, which collected and distributed nearly $105,000 in cash assistance to the families (equivalent to $3,560,667 in 2023).

 

Factory owner Robbins Grover worked for the rest of his life in order to secure financial aid for the families of those who died.

 

-- Causes of the Explosion

 

An assistant engineer who had been with Rockwell five minutes before the explosion stated that when he left, the boiler gauges showed steam pressure to be in the safe range, and the boiler to have plenty of water.

 

The state Inspector of Boilers checked the boiler's fusible plug and determined that the explosion was not caused by a lack of water.

 

Rockwell's wife stated that for the previous few days her husband had been irritable because he had to operate the boiler at "a pressure it was unequal to".

 

A factory official stated that he was at a loss to account for the explosion, and when told of Mrs. Rockwell's remarks, said that the amount of pressure on the boiler was not a matter in which factory officials interfered.

 

He added that:

 

"The engineer took his orders in this matter

from the Hartford Boiler Insurance Company,

and if he overworked that boiler, he did it

without our knowledge.

We do not even know why he used the old

boiler this week instead of the newer one".

 

(The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company provided regular inspection and testing to customers of its insurance program, as well as on-site engineering services, resulting in something of a shared responsibility with boiler owners for safe operation.)

 

One Grover executive speculated that the explosion might have been caused by a recently installed safety device. C. E. Roberts, a manager of Hartford Steam Boiler, stated:

 

"So far as I have been able to learn, there

appears to have been no carelessness in

the handling of the boiler, and the explosion,

in my opinion, was caused by a defect that

was impossible to discover."

 

-- The Inquest

 

A coroner's inquest was convened. A Grover representative testified that the boiler was inspected in December and found to be in apparent good condition.

 

Several employees testified that David Rockwell seemed capable of attending to his duties that morning.

 

Boiler inspectors who examined the ripped-open boiler reported finding a crack in one of its riveted, lap jointed seams.

 

Experts characterized the boiler, built in 1890, as old technology likely to have a short service life under high pressure. Thousands of similar boilers were then in use in the United States.

 

On the 29th. March 1905 the district attorney stated that the accident was due to a hidden defect in the boiler, and that no criminal charges would be filed.

 

As to civil liability, two weeks later a judge ruled that the explosion was caused by a defect that could not have been discovered, and held the company blameless.

 

He also found that the various insinuations made against chief engineer Rockwell were untrue.

 

-- The Engineering Study

 

An engineering study begun as part of the inquest brought new facts to light. At least two barrels of naphtha were stored in a wooden shed directly behind the boiler house.

 

The study said that without the naphtha explosions, the number of deaths would have been only about one-quarter of the actual.

 

When the naphtha exploded, it crushed one side of the factory building, pinning more workers under beams and machinery. A second outbuilding containing naphtha caught fire after about fifteen minutes and there was a second naphtha explosion, showering hundreds of gallons of the flaming liquid on the burning wreckage.

 

Engineers estimated the force of the boiler explosion as equal to 660 pounds (300 kg) of dynamite.

 

-- Bankruptcy

 

Although his factory was insured, Captain Grover was financially ruined. The R. B. Grover Company declared bankruptcy and assigned its remaining assets, more than 30 Emerson shoe stores scattered around the country, to its creditors.

 

-- Legacy of the Disaster

 

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) had been founded in 1880 in response to the boiler explosions that had become common as the use of steam power expanded during the Industrial Revolution.

 

Between 1880 and 1890 there were over 2,000 boiler explosions in the United States. By 1890, some 100,000 boilers were in service, many of them unsafe.

 

Inspections were rare, and operating guidelines almost nonexistent. Steam pressures were regularly cranked up to produce additional work.

 

The Grover disaster, coupled with another fatal Massachusetts shoe factory boiler explosion the following year in Lynn, brought new cries for improved industrial safety.

 

A new governor demanded prompt action, and a Board of Boiler Rules was formed, drafting a simple three-page set of rules. After the ASME helped overcome manufacturer objections to "needless government interference", Massachusetts passed an Act Relating to the Operation and Inspection of Steam Boilers in 1907.

 

The Massachusetts laws eventually led to passage of a national boiler safety code.

 

-- A Subsequent Explosion

 

Safety improved, but the Massachusetts fatalities would not be the last. Twenty-three people were killed and 94 injured in 1962 when a boiler exploded and ripped through a New York Telephone Company cafeteria at lunchtime.

 

A city agency later determined that the boiler had been improperly maintained and operated.

Taken with a Samsung Maxima Zoom 105XL point & shoot in the summer of 2007. I was finishing off the roll of Fuji Superia that had been sitting in it for over five years. Most of the scans from this roll were awful. This shot was okay, but the colors were nonexistent. I cleaned it up in Topaz DeNoise AI, then worked the image over in Photoshop.

 

July 27 2007, 4:22PM.

024

Fortune Global Forum 2018

October 16th, 2018

Toronto, Canada

 

3:30 PM

THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY

The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.

Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim

Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay

Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase

Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune

 

Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune

The Postcard

 

A postally unused carte postale published by Lévy et Neurdein Réunis of 44, Rue Letellier, Paris. The card, which was distributed by des Magasins Modernes, has a divided back.

 

Le Château de Chastellux

 

The Château de Chastellux is a French château with elements from the eleventh, thirteenth, fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is located in Chastellux-sur-Cure in the Yonne, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

 

The château is still inhabited by the family who built it, a rarity in France. The oldest existing part of the building, the Saint-Jean tower, was built c. 1080 AD.

 

The main building was the first part of the château to be registered as a Monument Historique in 1925. The Saint-Jean tower and the surrounding buildings were later classified in 1976 and 1989 respectively.

 

Early History of the Château

 

Chastellux takes its name from a place called Castrum Lucii located on the banks of the Cure, 15 km from Avallon. Initially, the building was a Roman fort made of wood and stone. There remain many traces of Roman influence in the region, including the Mosaic of Chagnats which was found in a local field and is currently on display at the museum of Avallonnais, in Avallon.

 

The oldest evidence of presence of the lords of Chastellux on the current site of the château is an account of a hearing at 'The ancient Saint-Jean tower in 1116'. The hearing was about a property dispute between local barons and clergy of the Abbey of Molesme.

 

For ten centuries, the château of Chastellux did not stop being enlarged, embellished and restored by successive generations of the family.

 

Planted on a rocky peak surmounting the Cure, its strategic location helped to protect the castle from attack.

 

In the twelfth century, the château became a fortress, comprising tall towers linked by a thick battlement and guarded by a walkway. Wooden buildings, which were backed along the walls, were used for livestock and the storage of animal feed.

 

Comfort in the early days was nonexistent, and quality of the accommodation played a very minor role compared to the defensive role of the fortress.

 

The tower of Saint-Jean is the last remnant of this fortress. The tower, one of the oldest in Europe, consists of five levels. The staircase leading to the floors was cut into the thickness of the wall (a thickness of 3.5 meters at ground level). On the second floor is a dungeon accessed through an opening in the floor. The roof is topped with a lantern containing the warning bell, to alert the château inhabitants to impending danger.

 

In the 13th. century a larger building was built. The year 1240 was inscribed on a stone wall, providing a date of construction of the guard room, which is the second oldest structure after the tower of Saint-Jean.

 

Recent History of the Château

 

The château suffered considerable damage during the French Revolution. All the old medieval weapons were stolen in 1792, and the winery was looted and its contents auctioned.

 

On the 5th. August 1793, the furniture and archives of the

château were seized, and priceless paintings were burnt at Place Saint-Julien Avallon, currently the site of City Hall. All traces of the family blazon, found on woodwork, painting or a decorative element were destroyed.

 

Under the Restoration, César Laurent Chastellux renovated the château and its grounds. He removed the decorative additions of the eighteenth century, and fully restored its medieval decor.

 

In 1975 a chimney fire set fire to the roof and attic of the château. The tower of Amboise still bears the traces of this fire.

 

Several films have been shot at the Château de Chastellux during the 20th. century. These include 'Mon Oncle Benjamin' (1969), 'L'Épingle Noire' (1982), 'Le Fantôme du Lac' (2004).

 

Visiting the Château

 

The castle is privately owned, but has been open to visitors since 2008.

Unlike most of Trippy's meretricious* tales, for which evidence is at best tenuous and more often nonexistent, rare production stills recently discovered in the archives of late fantasy film historian Forrest J. (Forry) Ackerman appear to substantiate Trippy's claim to have worked with director Fritz Lang on Lang's epic silent era production of Die Nibelungen.

 

*meretricious: plausible, but false

Barn is located in Mendon Ponds Park, at the intersection of Clover St and Pond Rd, Mendon, NY... next to the Nature Center. Monroe County Sheriff Mounted Division was started in 1938.

 

Mendon Ponds Park is owned and very poorly maintained by the County of Monroe, NY.

 

Unfortunately, this extraordinary property is rapidly deteriorating due to an egregious lack of care. Trails are not cleared of debris... signs are useless. Park maintenance is essentially nonexistent. They do have a marketing department. Seriously, the taxpayers are paying the salaries of a county parks marketing department.

 

Email Mendon Ponds Park complaints to: countyexecutive@monroecounty.gov

el cubista wall es mi casa del color

 

While rustling these shapes into the frame, someone in a passing car yelled out, "There's nothing to see."

 

"I see colorful, nonexistent rectangles."

They Live, We Sleep

Artist Statement

 

“We are living in an artificially induced state of consciousness that resembles sleep. The poor and the underclass are growing. Racial justice and human rights are nonexistent.

They influence our decisions without us knowing it. They numb our senses without us feeling it. They control our lives without us realizing it.

They have created a repressive society and we are their unwitting accomplices ...their intention to rule rests with the annihilation of consciousness.

We have been lulled into a trance.

They have made us indifferent, to ourselves, to others; we are focused only on our own gain. They are safe as long as they are not discovered ...that is their primary method of survival.

Keep us asleep, keep us selfish, keep us sedated...they are dismantling the sleeping middle class.

More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery.”

– They Live

 

This photographic body of work is inspired by John Carpenter’s 1988 film, “They Live.” The movie was also credited by Shepard Fairey “as a major source of inspiration for his own subversive brand of street art.” They Live was the basis for his use of the word ‘OBEY’ that became his main campaign and a popular clothing brand consequently.

The protagonist of the movie, an unemployed drifter named "Nada," accidentally comes across a box of sunglasses. After putting a pair on, he realizes that they are quite special. He sees the world in black and white and discovers that it's not what it seems. The series of images I have created are like those unique sunglasses that Nada stumbled upon, aim to show the world to the viewer for what it truly is. I hope they will help people to take into consideration what they sacrifice by blindly following self-serving governments and corporations’ agendas.

Through this photographic project my intent is to encourage people to be more aware of the habitual ways of living that we have been thoughtlessly following for most of human history. It seems as though the human race would have learned by now to not put their trust in the hands of the misguiding ruling class. Unfortunately most of the humanity is still in the state of mindless consumerism and simply does not realize that their decisions, their entire lives are being manipulated.

  

Credit: Paul Morse / Clinton Global Initiative

 

A Better Future for Girls and Women: Empowering the Next Generation - CGI U 2013

 

From women’s suffrage movements in the early 20th century to the Arab Spring, countless exceptional women have redefined their role in the world on their own terms. Yet the reality for many girls and women is still stark: over 60 million girls still do not have access to primary education, approximately 10 million women die each year due to nonexistent or low-quality healthcare, and three out of every four war fatalities are women or children. The education and empowerment of girls and women is not only a moral issue—it is also a critical economic issue. Ensuring access to education, financial capital, and political participation for women is among the most impactful strategies for advancing long-term sustainable development. From the creation of all-girls schools to women-run microcredit cooperatives, how can students and universities support the projects that are working to empower girls and women? This panel will bring together practitioners and pioneers who will explore the tangible ways in which young people can continue to build a better future for girls and women around the world.

I'm gobsmacked by several things here. First, the light was nonexistent. Yet the Sony A7RII performed extremely well at incredibly high ISO. Second, using knowledge developed around a digital Zone System, I knew precisely where I wanted the tonal values and was able to place them accordingly. Third, I am happy to confirm the dynamic range of the sensor extends usefully to below Zone 0 (Zone -2!), even at such high ISO settings. Fourth, 1950s German optics can do the trick. These images were made using a triplet wide angle. Who would design such a thing and make it work? Micro-contrast is something to be seen, otherwise you wouldn't believe it.

JUT Art Museum

【A Nonexistent Place】Artist Talk：

The Wonderland of Rachel Maclean and Shaun Gladwell

OAS. Organization of American States. 35th Assembly 2005, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida USA.

i was inspecting services in Florida,

including commercial and civil services.

letter to the OAS:

 

to OAS mar 09 2011

james mcashan. security consultant.

candidate for the Congress

of the United States of America.

 

i have plans for development of the Americas

as a powerful integrated unit.

combined we could soon have

an equivalent government resource

of one trillion dollars per day.

i have spoken to thousands of people

in the USA, Mexico, and the world about this:

thousands have been positive for my election or appointment

(some US Congress members and others in primary government

were hired not elected.

all are hired, payed, or preselected before they are elected.)

i provided

volunteer security inspection

at the 35th session

of the OAS general assembly.

i patrolled the back

of the convention center

and asked a female SWAT agent

in full armour

if she was going skydiving.

i checked the back and left.

a motorcycle patrol and 2 local police squad units

stopped me in mid-street

with weapons aimed at me.

response was rapid, but wrong.

i am working

on that world military problem.

i also went to Ciudad Mexico en solo

to inspect that dangerous place

in detaill.

i have inspected thousands of structures and services

as a volunteer not compromised or corrupted by employment.

i am now poor. i have not been paid.

i have had much abuse.

i am very ill. a stroke.

please support me

and in my appointment

as an independent candidate

for the US Congress.

- james dennis mcashan

jamesmcashan.web.officelive

james_mcashan on plixi (photos)

jamesmcashan on flicker (photos)

 

JUT Art Museum

【A Nonexistent Place】Artist Talk：

The Wonderland of Rachel Maclean and Shaun Gladwell

Haiti and the Louisiana Purchase

The Haitian Revolution, one of the most remarkable events in human history, destroyed French Emperor Napoleon I's dreams of creating a new French Empire in North America and opened the door to the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States. The Purchase, combined with the Lewis & Clark expedition that traversed it, was a great triumph of Thomas Jefferson's presidency, but at the same time the Purchase opened up vexing political and constitutional questions that may, in the end, have undermined Jefferson's vision of an expansive yeoman's republic, extended the system of slavery, and pushed the country onto the road toward Civil War.

 

The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic. Although hundreds of rebellions occurred in the New World during the centuries of slavery, only two, the American revolution that began in 1776 and the Haitian revolution that began in 1791, were successful in achieving permanent independence. The Haitian Revolution is regarded as a defining moment in the history of Africans in the New World.

 

Although an independent government was created in Haiti, its society continued to be deeply affected by the patterns established under French colonial rule. The French established a system of minority rule over the illiterate poor by using violence and threats. Because many planters had provided for their mixed-race children by African women by giving them education and (for men) training and entrée into the French military, the mulatto descendants became the elite in Haiti after the revolution. By the time of war, many had used their social capital to acquire wealth, and some already owned land. Some had identified more with the French colonists than the slaves, and associated within their own circles.

 

Their domination of politics and economics after the revolution created another two-caste society, as most Haitians were rural subsistence farmers. In addition, the nascent state's future was practically "mortgaged" to French banks in the 1820s, as it was forced to make massive reparations to French slaveholders in order to receive French recognition and end the nation's political and economic isolation. These payments may have permanently affected Haiti's economy and wealth.

 

In 1789 Saint-Domingue, producer of 60 percent of the world's coffee and 40 percent of the world's sugar imported by France and Britain, was the most profitable colony the French owned. It was the wealthiest and most flourishing of the slave colonies in the Caribbean. The lowest class of society was enslaved blacks, who outnumbered whites and free people of color by ten to one. The slave population on the island totaled almost half of the one million slaves in the Caribbean by 1789. They were mostly African-born. The death rate in the Caribbean exceeded the birth rate, so imports of enslaved Africans continued. The slave population declined at an annual rate of two to five percent, due to overwork; inadequate food, shelter, clothing and medical care; and an imbalance between the sexes, with more men than women. Some slaves were of a creole elite class of urban slaves and domestics, who worked as cooks, personal servants and artisans around the plantation house. This relatively privileged class was chiefly born in the Americas, while the under-class born in Africa labored hard under abusive conditions.

 

In France, the majority of the Estates General, an advisory body to the King, constituted itself as the National Assembly, made radical changes in French laws, and on 26 August 1789, published the Declaration of the Rights of Man, declaring all men free and equal. The French Revolution shaped the course of the conflict in Saint-Domingue and was at first widely welcomed in the island. At first, wealthy whites saw it as an opportunity to gain independence from France, which would allow elite plantation-owners to take control of the island and create trade regulations that would further their own wealth and power. So many were the twists and turns in the leadership in France, and so complex were events in Saint-Domingue, that various classes and parties changed their alignments many times. However, the Haitian Revolution quickly became a test of the ideology of the French Revolution, as it radicalized the slavery question and forced French leaders to recognize the full meaning of their revolution.

 

On the night of 21 August 1791, the slaves of Saint Domingue rose in revolt and plunged the colony into civil war. The signal to begin the revolt was given by Dutty Boukman, a high priest of vodou and leader of the Maroon slaves, during a religious ceremony at Bois Caïman on the night of 14 August. Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire Northern Province in an unprecedented slave revolt. Whites kept control of only a few isolated, fortified camps. The slaves sought revenge on their masters through “pillage, rape, torture, mutilation, and death”. Because the plantation owners long feared a revolt like this, they were well armed and prepared to defend themselves. Nonetheless, within weeks, the number of slaves who joined the revolt reached approximately 100,000. Within the next two months, as the violence escalated, the slaves killed 4,000 whites and burned or destroyed 180 sugar plantations and hundreds of coffee and indigo plantations.

 

One of the most successful black commanders was Toussaint L'Ouverture, a self-educated former domestic slave. Like Jean François and Biassou, he initially fought for the Spanish Crown in this period. After the British had invaded Saint-Domingue, L'Ouverture decided to fight for the French if they would agree to free all the slaves. Sonthonax had proclaimed an end to slavery on 29 August 1793. L'Ouverture worked with a French general, Étienne Laveaux, to ensure all slaves would be freed. He brought his forces over to the French side in May 1794 and began to fight for the French Republic. Many enslaved Africans were attracted to Toussaint's forces. He insisted on discipline and restricted wholesale slaughter.

 

The last battle of the Haitian Revolution, the Battle of Vertières, occurred on 18 November 1803, near Cap-Haitien. It was fought between Haitian rebels led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the French colonial army under the Viscount of Rochambeau. On 1 January 1804, from the city of Gonaïves, Dessalines officially declared the former colony's independence, renaming it "Haiti" after the indigenous Arawak name. Although he lasted from 1804–1806 several changes began taking place in Haiti. Transnationals became the backbone of Haitian identity as the territory's social structure changed becoming once again an agricultural society in a state of semi-serfdom. A tiny minority of state officials and civil servants were employed, who were exempt from manual labor, included many freed colored Haitians. This major loss was a decisive blow to France and its colonial empire.

 

On 1 January 1804, Dessalines, the new leader under the dictatorial 1801 constitution, declared Haiti a free republic. Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion. The country was crippled by years of war, its agriculture devastated, its formal commerce nonexistent.

 

The Haitian Revolution was influential in slave rebellions in the United States and British colonies. According to Haitian writer Michael J. Dash, the U.S. government feared that a successful slave revolt in Haiti would inspire a similar revolt in the United States. The revolution likely inspired a temporary increase in slave rebellions in the US, and this scared Southern plantation owners concerned about their own slaves rebelling. This fear resulted in a growing conservatism in US political culture, and leaders began to turn against the ideology of the French Revolution when they saw its influence in the Caribbean.

 

In 1807, Britain became the first major power to permanently abolish the slave trade. However, slavery was not fully abolished in the British West Indies until 1833. It continued in the French colonies until 1848. The Haitian Revolution stood as a model for achieving emancipation for slaves in the United States who mimicked Toussaint L'Ouverture's actions. L'Ouverture remains a popular figure to this day.

       

I'm gobsmacked by several things here. First, the light was nonexistent. Yet the Sony A7RII performed extremely well at incredibly high ISO. Second, using knowledge developed around a digital Zone System, I knew precisely where I wanted the tonal values and was able to place them accordingly. Third, I am happy to confirm the dynamic range of the sensor extends usefully to below Zone 0 (Zone -2!), even at such high ISO settings. Fourth, 1950s German optics can do the trick. These images were made using a triplet wide angle. Who would design such a thing and make it work? Micro-contrast is something to be seen, otherwise you wouldn't believe it.

I'm gobsmacked by several things here. First, the light was nonexistent. Yet the Sony A7RII performed extremely well at incredibly high ISO. Second, using knowledge developed around a digital Zone System, I knew precisely where I wanted the tonal values and was able to place them accordingly. Third, I am happy to confirm the dynamic range of the sensor extends usefully to below Zone 0 (Zone -2!), even at such high ISO settings. Fourth, 1950s German optics can do the trick. These images were made using a triplet wide angle. Who would design such a thing and make it work? Micro-contrast is something to be seen, otherwise you wouldn't believe it.

You probably can't really tell from looking at this, but the Gemini symbol is atop a 8 or 9 foot stone thing with organizations and names inscribed in it. They are, to the best of my knowledge, the contributors to the Gemini space program. Right after I got to the park, a group of 4 or 5 teenagers showed up, and the guy pictured above figured he'd just climb on up there. Shortly after, the girl climbed up there, too.

 

Funny side note... I know I'm getting old, because when I walked by, the guy was talking about getting all the way on the top, and I just could not stop myself from saying "I think I'd be more careful up there than climbing to the top." Or something lamer like that. Even more amusing is the boy and the girl both looked at me and said in unison, "oh, we're being careful." First of all, like I really gave a crap one way or the other. Secondly, like they had to answer to me in any way... what the heck?

 

So, I'm walking by, and the kids are asking their friends to take a picture. I stood there and watched, with thousands of dollars of photography gear strapped to my person, and they looked at me and asked if I wanted to take a picture. Then, the boy on the monument pointed at me, and said "hey, is that your dad?" Thanks, dude - I ain't that old... And again, lamer response "No, I'm just some random dude." Gimme a break, I was tired.

 

So, obviously, I took their picture, and went about my business (which was to retrieve the tripod I left leaning against the rear wheel of my car - kind of need that - I was waaay tired - I even had to go back for the other tripod I put on the ground while I was taking this picture before I could go back to the car to get the other tripod).

 

On the way back into the park, the kids are off the monument, so I set up the tripod to take some pictures of it (the lighting sucks - too bright in some areas, nonexistent in others, won't be seeing those). As I'm fiddling with the camera, one of the kids, barely within earshot says something, and the part I hear is "No, just some random asshole." Heheheheh. For some reason, I think that's funny.

 

So, I posted this photo of those zany kids on the Gemini monument, just so I could tell you the story.

 

My video of this launch is here.

They Live, We Sleep

Artist Statement

 

“We are living in an artificially induced state of consciousness that resembles sleep. The poor and the underclass are growing. Racial justice and human rights are nonexistent.

They influence our decisions without us knowing it. They numb our senses without us feeling it. They control our lives without us realizing it.

They have created a repressive society and we are their unwitting accomplices ...their intention to rule rests with the annihilation of consciousness.

We have been lulled into a trance.

They have made us indifferent, to ourselves, to others; we are focused only on our own gain. They are safe as long as they are not discovered ...that is their primary method of survival.

Keep us asleep, keep us selfish, keep us sedated...they are dismantling the sleeping middle class.

More and more people are becoming poor. We are their cattle. We are being bred for slavery.”

– They Live

 

This photographic body of work is inspired by John Carpenter’s 1988 film, “They Live.” The movie was also credited by Shepard Fairey “as a major source of inspiration for his own subversive brand of street art.” They Live was the basis for his use of the word ‘OBEY’ that became his main campaign and a popular clothing brand consequently.

The protagonist of the movie, an unemployed drifter named "Nada," accidentally comes across a box of sunglasses. After putting a pair on, he realizes that they are quite special. He sees the world in black and white and discovers that it's not what it seems. The series of images I have created are like those unique sunglasses that Nada stumbled upon, aim to show the world to the viewer for what it truly is. I hope they will help people to take into consideration what they sacrifice by blindly following self-serving governments and corporations’ agendas.

Through this photographic project my intent is to encourage people to be more aware of the habitual ways of living that we have been thoughtlessly following for most of human history. It seems as though the human race would have learned by now to not put their trust in the hands of the misguiding ruling class. Unfortunately most of the humanity is still in the state of mindless consumerism and simply does not realize that their decisions, their entire lives are being manipulated.

  

"But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic – their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground..."

 

(notice the "green light" by by the clasp!)

A herd of four African elephants at the Cleveland Zoo, one of the Cleveland Metroparks in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.

 

It's not easy telling the four girls apart, but here goes:

 

Kallie was born in 1982 in Zimbabwe. She has long even tusks, a long straight tail, and keeps her head low.

 

Martika was born in 1985 in Zimbabwe. She has an almost nonexistent right tusk and a short left tusk, a smooth forehead, and a kink in the end of her tail.

 

Shenga was born in 1982 in Zimbabwe. She has two short tusks, a wrinkly forehead, and a tail like a question-mark.

 

Moshi is the matriarch. She was born in 1976 in South Africa. She has two long tusks (the end of one is filed down), a fat tummy, a smooth forehead, and a cropped tail (she had an accident).

 

I've been working on this off and on for the last couple years and decided it was about time I finish it. What really drove me to finish it was that G-System Qubeley I did while back.

 

It came with a LED to light up the (nonexistent on the kit) eyes and I decided that it didn't look right and the LED didn't really fit in the Qubeley's head. But a quick test fit and some surgery inside the Gogg's head and tah-dah! Perfect! So I started finishing this build that had been an off and on thing (I was showing the Gogg's hands to a friend at my 36th birthday party- I'm 38 as I'm writing this. lol).

 

Paint is a bunch of custom-mixed Gunze stuff (I think they released a dedicated Gogg set, but I missed it). Weathering is oils and powders. And decals are by the always wonderful Samuel. Base groundwork is made with Sculptamold. The Gogg is HEAVY so I wanted to show the wet ground bulging around it as it sinks down after coming ashore (it's an amphibious MS).

 

While the other shots are better lit, they don't represent how the Gogg's mono eye looks under normal lighting. As a result, the mono eye doesn't appear as large and fuzzy as it does in the anime and games. So here are shots that show the Gogg in normal lighting with the mono eye looking big and menacing-- as it should be.

The Cotton Pygmy Goose or the Cotton Teal, Nettapus coromandelianus is a small perching duck which breeds in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, southeast Asia and south to northern Australia.

Small examples are the smallest waterfowl on earth, at as little as 160 g (5.5 oz) and 26 cm (10.5 in). White predominates in this bird's plumage. Bill short, deep at base, and goose-like.

Male in breeding plumage is glossy blackish green crown, with white head, neck, and underparts; a prominent black collar and white wing-bar. Rounded head and short legs. In flight, the wings are green with a white band, making the male conspicuous even amongst the huge flying flocks of the Lesser Whistling Duck, which share the habitat. Female paler, without either black collar and only a narrow or nonexistent strip of white wing-bar. In non-breeding plumage (eclipse) male resembles female except for his white wing-bar. Flocks on water bodies (jheels), etc.

Call: A peculiar clucking, uttered in flight

It is largely resident, apart from dispersion in the wet season, but Chinese birds winter further south. It nests in tree holes, laying 8-15 eggs.

This is an abundant species in Asia, although the slightly larger Australian race appears to be declining in numbers.

Found on all still freshwater lakes (jheels), rain-filled ditches, inundated paddy fields, irrigation tanks, etc. Becomes very tame on village tanks wherever it is unmolested and has become inured to human proximity. Swift on the wing, and can dive creditably on occasion.

 

Cotton Teal is the smallest duck you can find in China. According to the bird expert, this female one is the first Cotton Teal record in Shanghai after 1955 and the first photo record in Shanghai. I am a lucky man.