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Archives
iraq
Chalabi for the Nobel Peace Prize...
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We woke up this morning to a huge explosion. I was actually awake and just lying there, staring at the ceiling, trying to decide if today would be a good day to go shopping for some things we need in the house. Suddenly, there was a loud blast and the house shuddered momentarily. In a second I was standing in front of the window in my room, hands pressed to the cool glass. I couldn’t really see anything, but the sky seemed overcast.
I rushed downstairs to find E. and my mother standing in the kitchen doorway, trying to see beyond the houses immediately in front of our own. “Where did it happen?” I asked E. He shrugged his shoulders indicating he couldn’t tell either. We later learned it was a large garbage truck of explosives in front of Sadeer Hotel, a hotel famous for hosting foreign contractors- some of a dubious/mysterious reputation. It’s said that the foreign security contractors stay at the hotel, like former South African mercenaries, etc. Since the hotel is quite far from our home, we assume it was a very large explosion. Immediately afterwards, black plumes of smoke began to drift into the sky.
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"Foreign Forces Must Leave Iraq as Soon as Possible," Declares the Head of the Shiite Alliance
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Permanent American bases in Iraq? The question seems so incongruous to His Most Austere "Eminence Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim," (as the leader of the Shiite party which won the January 30 elections identifies himself on his visiting card) that he almost bursts out laughing. "Ha! Ha! No. No one in Iraq desires the establishment of permanent foreign bases on our land. The United Nations Security Council resolutions are clear: it will be up to the elected Iraqi government, when the time comes, to give those forces a specific departure date. As soon as possible."
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thanks to Antiwar.com
They're back from Iraq, but are they OK?
Ephrata guard unit loses no lives, but life is different
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A guardsman walks into a local Wal-Mart, freaks, does a 180, and walks back out again. Even after seven months, he can't stand the crowds. Another jerks awake in the middle of the night, holding an imagined gun at his wife's temple.
"Uh ... honey?" she asks.
The soldiers tear down highways, swerve to avoid trash in the road. The bag that held a Big Mac could now hide a bomb. One still jumps if you touch his neck. Others refuse to sleep in beds. Those who do may awake in a sweat.
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Military Update: Black Army recruits down 41 percent since 2000
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The Army's wartime recruiting challenge is aggravated by a sharp drop in enlistments by black people during the past four years. Internal Army and Defense Department polls trace that to an unpopular war in Iraq and concerns among black citizens with Bush administration policies.
The Army strains to meet recruiting goals in part because black volunteers have fallen 41 percent. They've gone from 23.5 percent of recruits in fiscal 2000 down to 13.9 percent in the first four months of fiscal 2005.
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Army report: U.S. lost control in Iraq three months after invasion
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The U.S. military lost its dominance in Iraq shortly after its invasion in 2003, a study concluded.
A report by the U.S. Army official historian said the military was hampered by the failure to occupy and stabilize Iraq in 2003. As a result, the military lost its dominance by July 2003 and has yet to regain that position.
"In the two to three months of ambiguous transition, U.S. forces slowly lost the momentum and the initiative gained over an off-balanced enemy," the report said. "The United States, its Army and its coalition of the willing have been playing catch-up ever since."
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thanks to Drudge Report
Twisting the Minds of the American People
More War Crimes
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Let me paint a word picture. An unarmed, wounded American soldier is lying helpless, bleeding and barely conscious on the floor of a church in a country with which the US is at war. An armed soldier of that country walks up to the wounded American. It so happens that a TV cameraman is present. He films the foreign soldier shouting, "He's fucking faking he's dead!" One of his comrades says "And he's breathing". The first soldier again yells "He's faking he's fucking dead!" He then kills the helpless, wounded man with a burst of fire that blows his head off and spatters the room with blood and tiny bits of flesh and bone. One of the foreign soldiers says "He's dead, now."
Question One: What do you think the reaction of most of the American people would be to the murder of a wounded, unarmed US soldier lying helpless and barely conscious on the floor of a church in a foreign land?
Question Two: What was the reaction of most of the American people to the murder of a wounded, unarmed Iraqi lying helpless and barely conscious on the floor of a mosque in his own country?
First Answer: Shrieking outrage and demands for the foreigner to be tried and executed, whichever came first.
Second Answer: Unconcern.
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photography
David Plowden
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thanks to RangeFinderForum.com
Defusing Israel's "demographic bomb"
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Israel has long lived in fear of the so-called "demographic bomb" -- the fact that the Palestinian population in Israel and the occupied territories is increasing much faster than the Israeli Jewish population. While Israeli Jews thought the day they would become a minority was perhaps still twenty years away, the evidence is increasing that the bomb has already exploded and Palestinians are already a majority in historic Palestine, as they were until Israel was created.
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Writing is on the wall for Sharon, settlers warn
Extremist Jewish groups vow to stop withdrawal from Gaza by any means
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"Sharon, Lily is waiting for you." The message being spray-painted around Israel contains menace: Lily, Ariel Sharon's wife, died of lung cancer in 2000; now hardline Jewish opponents of the prime minister are willing him to join her.
The alternative version of the graffito - "Sharon, Rabin is waiting for you" - is a more direct threat. It refers to Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister who was assassinated in 1995 in protest at his moves towards making peace with the Palestinians.
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Israel accused of assisting illegal outposts
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The Israeli government is guilty of systematic fraud, "institutional lawbreaking" and the theft of private Palestinian land to covertly establish illegal Jewish outposts in the West Bank, according an official report released yesterday.
The report reveals a widespread conspiracy involving government ministries, local authorities and the military to assist Jewish settlers to build the outposts in violation of Israeli law and the government's publicly stated policy.
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photography
I've linked to Alec Soth's great Sleeping by the Mississippi before. Check out his portraits.
ALEC SOTH : PORTRAITS
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thanks to orbit1.com
lebanon
Is Lebanon walking into another nightmare?
by Robert Fisk
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LEBANON CONFRONTS a nightmare today. As the Syrian army begins its withdrawal from the country this morning, after mounting pressure from President George Bush - whose anger at the Syrians has been provoked by the insurgency against American troops in Iraq - there are growing signs that the Syrian retreat is reopening the sectarian divisions of the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war.
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Half a million gather for pro-Syrian rally to defy vision of US
by Robert Fisk
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It was a warning. They came in their tens of thousands, Lebanese Shia Muslim families with babies in arms and children in front, walking past my Beirut home. They reminded me of the tens of thousands of Iraqi Shia Muslims who walked with their families to the polls in Iraq, despite the gunfire and the suicide bombers.
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thanks to Antiwar.com
photography
Chantal Michel
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thanks to Coudal Partners
freedom and the middle east
The Next Crusades
Lebanon and the Avaricious Superpower
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Many years ago, I read a book called "The Quiet American" by Graham Greene. Its central character is a high-minded, naive young American operative in Vietnam. He has no idea about the complexities of that country but is determined to right its wrongs and create order. The results are disastrous.
I have the feeling that this is happening now in Lebanon. The Americans are not so high-minded and no so naive. Far from it. But they are quite prepared to go into a foreign country, disregard its complexities, and use force to impose on it order, democracy and freedom.
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photography
Patrizia Di Fiore
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thanks to Conscientious
and they wonder why they hate us
Bush Picks Critic of U.N. to Serve as Ambassador to It
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President Bush is nominating Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, a blunt-spoken hawk with a history of skepticism toward the United Nations, to be the United States ambassador to the organization, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced today.
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Bush Gives the UN the Finger
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If you were sitting in the Oval Office and George W. Bush asked, "Hey, tell me, who could we appoint to the UN ambassador job that would most piss off the UN and the rest of the world," your job would be quite easy. You would simply say, "That's a no-brainer, Mr. President, John Bolton." And on Monday Bush took this no-brain advice and nominated Bolton to the post, which requires Senate confirmation.
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The World According to Bolton
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On Monday, President Bush nominated John Bolton, an outspoken critic of multinational institutions and a former Jesse Helms protégé, to be the representative to the United Nations. We won't make the case that this is a terrible choice at a critical time. We can let Mr. Bolton do it for us by examining how things might look if he had his way:
The United States could resolve international disputes after vigorous debate with ... itself. In an interview in 2000 on National Public Radio, Mr. Bolton told Juan Williams, "If I were redoing the Security Council today, I'd have one permanent member because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world."
"And that one member would be, John Bolton?" Mr. Williams queried.
"The United States," Mr. Bolton replied.
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thanks to DANGEROUSMETA!
anatomy
Visionary Anatomies
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Visionary Anatomies features the work of contemporary artists who use anatomical imagery and concepts to express aesthetic, social, and cultural ideas.
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Frederick Sommer
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thanks to Conscientious
economy
Off Track
America's economy is losing its competitive edge and Washington hasn't noticed.
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During the last six months, we have begun, quietly, to enter a newly tense moment, with university presidents, business leaders, and columnists delivering ominous-sounding reports and editorials about the threat to American innovation posed by a freshly competitive world—the renewed vitality of western Europe, Japan and Korea, and the ravenous growth of China and India. “We no longer have a lock on technology,” David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate and the current president of the California Institute of Technology, wrote recently in the Los Angeles Times. “Europe is increasingly competitive, and Asia has the potential to blow us out of the water.”
What worriers like Baltimore are beginning to grasp is that these changes are emerging just as the American economy is being made more vulnerable by the movement of manufacturing and service jobs overseas. As a result, we've become increasingly dependent on maintaining our edge in discovering the new technologies and applications that create whole new industries—just as other countries are closing that gap.
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thanks to The Agonist
Buffett attacks American spending junkies
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Warren Buffett, one of the world's most successful investors, has launched his most withering attack to date on the US trade deficit, describing Americans as "rich spending junkies" who could turn into a nation of "sharecroppers".
In his annual letter to investors in Berkshire Hathaway, the fund he has run for more than 30 years, Mr Buffett painted a bleak picture of a future US in which ownership and wealth had continued to move overseas, leaving the economy in thrallto foreign interests and faced with financial turmoil and political unrest.
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blast from the past
The Internet is an amazing place. It is truly an incredible resource filled with little websites that people have filled with their passions. I've learned so much more than what I was able to pick up from a few books and some like-minded friends back in the 1970s when I first got into photography seriously. Not only informational websites but also forums of the like-minded and the miracle of eBay have informed me and allowed me to purchase good stuff cheap.
In my photographic Internet travels I came across a couple of cameras that I used back in the 1970s.
Koni-Omegaflex M
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It was 1973 and I was looking for a good camera. I went into a local camera store and saw one of these. I had never heard of them before but I fell in love with it. I took a lot of good pictures with my Koni. Big and heavy! I also used a Calumet 4x5 for awhile but ended up with one of these jewels.
A Nagaoka 4x5. It weighed under 3 pounds. My Burke and James Is huge compared to this and weighs in at 7 to 8 pounds but the B&J has so much more capability. I bought those cameras when I thought you had to buy a new camera. Now, with the information and access provided by the Internet, I have a much more varied photography kit at a fraction of the cost. I miss the Koni and Nagaoka but what I have now is much better.
religion and politics
Tomgram: William Dowell on George Bush's Wahabbis
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For anyone who actually reads the Bible, there is a certain irony in the current debate over installing the Ten Commandments in public buildings. As everyone knows, the second commandment in the King James edition of the Bible states quite clearly: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth." It is doubtful that the prohibition on "graven images" was really concerned with images like the engraving of George Washington on the dollar bill. Rather it cautions against endowing a physical object, be it a "golden calf" or a two-ton slab of granite, with spiritual power.
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another tlr
It's really more of a box camera then a twin lens reflex but it is used like a TLR. A classic bakelite art deco Kodak from the 1950s. I paid a premium for it — $13. I could have bought one at Senior Thrift in Freeland for $10 and saved shipping but this one is mint and comes with the box and 5 flash bulbs. Flash bulbs go for $1 apiece at J and C Photo. It uses 620 film, also available at J and C Photo but some of the Hawkeyes will accept 120 using the 620 take-up spool. I'll find out when it gets here. Fun!
The Brownie Hawkeye Experience
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The first picture was taken with the original flash attachment and it's old "25B" flashbulb (Sylvania Blue Dots for Sure Shots). My wife snapped the shutter; and then, after the astounding conflagration, exclaimed "It's smoking.".To which I replied: "Yes. Isn't it wonderfull?".
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The Brownie Camera Page
Kodak Brownie Hawkeye (flash model)
The Gallery of the Brownie Shooters
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How Can I Use My 620 Camera?
economy
This is a must read.
If America Is Richer, Why Are It's Families So Much Less secure?
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sheet music art
Bella C. Landauer Collection of Aeronautical Sheet Music
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thanks to Coudal Partners
iraq
Desperate Martians Now Wooing Venusians
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EUROPE and the world have witnessed over the last few days the unfolding of a diplomatic offensive that is designed to convince Europeans, "to put Iraq behind them." The effort is, in fact, geared to persuade not only Europeans but also the world that with the recent elections in Iraq, there is a new game that must be played, and the name of that game is democracy.
The reality is that the old game of domination and occupation continues, and the US is not winning. The triumphalism that accompanied George W. Bush’s tour of "Old Europe," with his brand new Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, at his side, was a public relations effort to counter the reality of the spread of a wide and deep resistance in Iraq. There is not only the military resistance that we witness day-to-day on television. There is also a political resistance that is broader than the military resistance. There is, as well, massive civil resistance, which encompasses not only trade union opposition but all those acts ordinary citizens engage in day-to-day to deny legitimacy to the occupation that James C. Scott calls the "weapons of the weak."
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Tomgram: Schwartz on Why the Military Is Failing in Iraq
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In fact, in the week when the American death toll crept over another grim mark almost without notice and, just this Friday, four American soldiers were reported killed in Anbar Province and a fifth in a vehicle accident, oil and gas pipelines also went up in the northern part of Iraq; politicians dithered and negotiated and argued over a future Iraqi government that may have little power and less ability to rule the country; while, as a BBC headline had it, "Iraq insurgents seize initiative"; one of the most devastating car bombs of the war hit a gathering of potential police recruits in Hilla; a judge, his son, and a trade unionist were among the assassinated; suicide bombers hit the Ministry of the Interior; numerous Iraqi policemen and army troops as well as recruits and potential recruits were slaughtered; more roadside bombs killed American soldiers; uncounted civilians died; America's detention centers in the country, themselves incubators for insurgents, were reported to be bursting with prisoners; the contested oil city of Kirkuk grew yet more combustible, given Kurdish demands, Shiite desires, and Turkish threats ("Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has said that ‘in case of fighting in Kirkuk, Turkey cannot remain a spectator'); and in a bizarre twist which caught something of the madness of the situation (though it is also a commonplace for Iraqis), as the week ended, a kidnapped Italian journalist, freed by her captors, and in a car driving towards Camp Victory at Baghdad International Airport to return home, was wounded and an Italian intelligence officer with her killed by quick-to-shoot American troops, potentially tossing Italian politics and a close Bush ally in the "coalition of the willing," Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, into turmoil; and finally, an NPR journalist, Deborah Amos, threw up her hands and declared that, between escalating dangers and American military control over reporting, the state of Iraq was essentially an unreportable story for American journalists. "When you read a news report, look at the second line. More and more you will find it reads: ‘according to the U.S. military' or ‘according to officials.'" She added, "You can no longer just rely on your news du jour, whether it's NPR or the New York Times," and went on to describe NPR's offices in Iraq in this way: "She said most NPR reporters are holed up in a compound on a hilltop that resembles a base for a Colombian drug lord. The guarded compound has a vault that journalists can step into if ‘they' come to get them."
Under the circumstances, it might be reasonable to ask exactly whose future in Iraq was, in General Myers phrase, "absolutely bleak." Certainly, Iraq's was. And yet, amid that bleakness, the American military effort barrels on, as Michael Schwartz explains below, based on a strategic theory of the Iraqi insurgency which is only likely to lead to further failure, more chaos, more slaughter, and an ever stronger insurgency. When you've read Schwartz, check out the striking collection of quotes that acts as a perfect illustration for his piece at Ari Berman's Daily Outrage blog at the Nation magazine on-line.
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The recruiter and your kid
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What amazes me is how the Army makes no connection between the mistreatment of Guardmen and Reservists and enlistment.
Look, let's not be naive, some of these kids can't wait for a chance to kill as many sand niggers as possible and prove how macho they are, but most are looking for a path forward, and Dr. Whitehurst's mealy-mouth, if well-intentioned advice, isn't going to work.
But you need to offer a clear alternative to military service, not just killing is a bad, bad thing. They don't think that is the case, or if they did, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Any bitch of a teacher that thinks one dies honorably for their country needs a weekend at Walter Reed. Because these kids aren't dying, they're getting brain trauma. 90 percent of the wounded live, the highest ratio in military history. We are creating a generation of cripples.
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'I just want to survive and go home with all my body parts'
Fears of soldiers on patrol in Mosul as US military death toll in Iraq tops 1,500
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The city was quiet but the soldiers sitting and swaying inside the Stryker were animated by their favourite debate: was it better to be five metres or 20 metres from an explosion?
The front gunner belonged to the 20-metre school, figuring the greater distance reduced your chances of losing limbs to the blast. The two rear gunners scoffed and said that would increase the odds of being hit by shrapnel, which fanned upwards and outwards.
Five months of patrolling Mosul had furnished evidence for both views and the discussion was as well-worn as the Stryker's tyres.
Sergeant David Phillips, 23, sighed and patted his flak jacket. "I just want to stay alive and go home with all my body parts." He spoke for 150,000 American soldiers in Iraq.
Yesterday the number of US military deaths since the March 2003 invasion crept over 1,500.
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America's China Gambit: Why Showing our Limits in Iraq Has Hurt Us
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A few weeks ago, I happened to be included at a dinner at the home of the Deputy Chief of Mission of the Singapore Embassy, Susan Sim, who invited a small handful of people together to toast a mutual friend. One of the other guests was a senior Pentagon official who covers East Asia & Pacific Affairs.
I told him that it seemed to me that the distraction of Iraq was harming American interests in several ways. First, America had shown the world its limits -- financially and militarily -- with the Iraq invasion and occupation. The consequences of this are enormous as it erodes the confidence that allies have in our ability to stand with them in times of crisis and incentivizes the world's bad actors to maximize their objectives during a time when the American response will be more bluster than bite.
Secondly, the Iraq conflict has distracted America from many other important foreign policy questions. American leadership seems invisible in global trade policy today. The White House also seems to have informally kicked USTR out of the Cabinet -- with the White House statement that all cabinet level appointments had now been concluded, implying cryptically that USTR and the Environmental Protection Agency were now demoted departments.
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thanks to 'Just World News' by Helena Cobban
engraving
MINING PRINTS
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During Victorian times there was great public interest in mining disasters and the Illustrated London News and the Graphic among other popular magazines of the time dispatched an artist to capture the scene at the stricken mine. The sketch was rushed back to the office and a skilled wood engraver would make the plate to produce the magazine.
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THE FATAL ACCIDENT AT NEW HARTLEY COLLIERY.
(The shaft viewed from the horse-hole.)
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thanks to The Cartoonist
oh! canada!
A word from Canada
by Helena Cobban
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Heck, maybe I'll have to move to Canada after all. I can't think of a single former US government minister with the wit, the wisdom, and the sheer perspicacity that Lloyd Axworthy displayed in this carefully crafted letter to Condi Rice.
[...]
Dear Condi,
I'm glad you've decided to get over your fit of pique and venture north to visit your closest neighbour. It's a chance to learn a thing or two. Maybe more.
I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were carefully rigged to show results.
But, gosh, we folks above the 49th parallel are somewhat cautious types who can't quite see laying down billions of dollars in a three-dud poker game.
As our erstwhile Prairie-born and bred (and therefore prudent) finance minister pointed out in presenting his recent budget, we've had eight years of balanced or surplus financial accounts. If we're going to spend money, Mr. Goodale added, it will be on day-care and health programs, and even on more foreign aid and improved defence.
Sure, that doesn't match the gargantuan, multi-billion-dollar deficits that your government blithely runs up fighting a "liberation war" in Iraq, laying out more than half of all weapons expenditures in the world, and giving massive tax breaks to the top one per cent of your population while cutting food programs for poor children.
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photography
Singapore: Sungei Buloh
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Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is Singapore's biggest nature reserve of the mangrove eco-system. It was opened in 1993 and it has since been a favourite haunt for students, bird-watchers and nature photographers. The photos in this gallery was taken since 2003 and it is a visual documentary of the common sights of the reserve.
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thanks to RangeFinderForum.com
promises
A Promise to My Grandfather: A Follow Up
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[Promoted from the diaries by DavidNYC. My father is a Holocaust survivor - and my grandfather a victim of it - so I imagined this diary might have special meaning for me as I read it. But I could never have imagined the stunning conclusion. I insist that you read to the very end of this miraculous story.]
After writing my diary "A Promise to My Grandfather" yesterday, I received over 40 emails from all over the country (I am still getting some right now) from those that were also impacted by the Holocaust. I read each one of them and shed a tear for every word. Many thanked me for sharing the story of my grandfather, but I should thank all of them for their stories. It helped me see that I am not alone in my pain, but also to see that there is hope. Hope that there are those that want to fight the hate that is now forming and stop it before we repeat it.
However, there was one email from BettyG in San Rafael, California that moved me that it is taking me way too long to write this diary.
Here is my follow up with BettyG's email.
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Don't miss this one.
panos
An incredible example of street photography and it's a 360 pano. Incredible!
The Street Photographer
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iran
Dahr Jamail has had some of the best first hand writing on Iraq. I received this letter from my sister Madelane and her anarcho-vegan son Cameron on Feb 21. I leave you to guess what his input was.
Dahr Jamail at Kane Hall last night
Cameron saw him last night at Kane Hall. He was very impressed, but said that he mostly reiterated what was said on his weblog. Apparently, he will also be apeaking to the Bainbridge Island High School. Dahr Jamal was told by Scott Ritter who still has extensive ties within the government and especially CIA that an "anonymous unimpeachable source" (Dahr's quote) that there will be bombing campaings against Iran starting in may. That's just what we need to do, go bomb a nuclear power!!! What lovely thoughts this brings to mind. Huh big brother?!?!?! May that Asshole rot in the deepest pit of HELL which is reserved soley for taxidermists, lawyers, and him! (i hope he has fun with all that piped in muzak and the faux 80's waiting room..... scary huh?) I take it you've already guessed that I have had help writing this, I'll let you decide who said what (even though you know that i'm the one with the FUNNY sence of humor)
Bush: Attack on Iran 'ridiculous'
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"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. Having said that, all options are on the table," Bush said.
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thanks to Political Animal
Iran readies military, fearing a U.S. attack
Tensions with Bush administration surge over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambition
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Iran has begun publicly preparing for a possible U.S. attack, as tensions mount between the Bush administration and this country's hard-line leaders over Tehran's purported nuclear weapons program.
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thanks to Antiwar.com
IAF: Israel must be prepared for an air strike on Iran
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Israel Air Force Commander-in-Chief Major General Eliezer Shakedi said Monday that Israel must be prepared for an air strike on Iran in light of its nuclear activity.
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thanks to Antiwar.com
Tomgram: McGovern on the Iranian and Israeli nuclear programs
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For a host of good reasons -- the huge and draining commitment of U.S. forces to Iraq and Iran's ability to stir the Iraqi pot to boiling, for starters -- the notion that the Bush administration would mount a "preemptive" air attack on Iran seems insane. And still more insane if the objective includes overthrowing Iran's government again, as in 1953 -- this time under the rubric of "regime change."
But Bush administration policy toward the Middle East is being run by men -- yes, only men -- who were routinely referred to in high circles in Washington during the 1980s as "the crazies." I can attest to that personally, but one need not take my word for it.
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motorcycles
Finding this site is a whack on the side of the head.
Motorcycles of the 20th Century
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thanks to J-Walk Blog
You meet the nicest people on a Honda. At least in 1962 when I bought my first motorcyle just like this except it was red instead of blue.
I had several other Hondas that gave me long miles and much pleasure. I had a Ducati like the one above but it was very rough and I only rode it for a week until I started restoring it. I dragged it around for years until I finally let it go unfinished.
I had two of these. Parts of both are in my basement. A cafe racer project that I have been dragging around for years. Maybe it's time to get rid of it. Or not.
I've had two BMWs. I have one almost like this. Same color but a 1982 with a few upgraded parts such as cast wheels. It has sat for almost 3 years after being my daily transport for 5 years. I think I need to start working on it...as soon as Katie moves her stuff out of the basement, which should be in a couple of weeks. It's the best bike I've ever owned.
Commentary: A third intifada?
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No sooner out of the starting blocks on a rerun of the Mideast peace process than an avalanche threatened to close the road. This time it was not the Palestinians and the long-running shell game whose champion player was the late Yasser Arafat. Israeli commentators are already referring to the gathering storm as "the third intifada."
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thanks to Antiwar.com
Hidden costs of Israel's occupation policies
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Israelis are paying a high but rarely acknowledged economic and social cost for nearly 40 years of occupation, says a report commissioned by Oxfam published today.
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thanks to Aron's Israel Peace Weblog
Olso All Over Again It's Not the State; It's the Liberation
by Amira Hass
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The excitement that accompanied the rejection of the original composition of the Palestinian government by the Palestinian Legislative Council last week blurred the fact that there was no debate about the purpose of the new Palestinian government.
There was no challenge to the way the Palestinian governments since 1994 have perceived their function as "governments of the nascent state." It is a concept that has been accepted alongside the belief - once shared by many Israelis - that all it takes is a vaguely worded agreement to create a dynamic that will necessarily lead to a state. In other words, the belief that the liberation of the territory in which that state will exist will take place on its own.
But it is precisely the thesis of Oslo, that the process would inherently lead to a Palestinian state worthy of the name, that collapsed. The Oslo years proved that Israeli governments exploited the period of negotiations to strengthen the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. That construction, which goes on to this very day, undermines the chance to reach a peace agreement based on an independent Palestinian state beside Israel.
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thanks to Aron's Israel Peace Weblog
sign art
Japanese Warning Signs
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Even without Japanese abilities these signs are easy to understand. And quite entertaining.
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thanks to Photoethnography
delusions
America No. 1?
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No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:
The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
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first pictures
While I haven't posted anything about the Burke and James project for some time (or anything else, for that matter) I did get some pictures taken with it using the 120 roll film back before reality intruded into my life. Good news! Everything works. I took some portraits of my Mamiya Universal using the 10 inch lens. A shorter lens would be better but that's all I had at the time.
Mamiya Universal, 100/f3.5, front
Mamiya Universal, 100/f3.5, back
Mamiya Universal, 100/f3.5, lens detail
No light leaks and the lens is great (and has incredible coverage.) A little long for close-ups since the longer lens means longer bellows extension. Nick sent me his 5 inch Elgeet. I was hoping that it would work as a wide angle (36mm equivalent) on the 4x5 but it doesn't cover 4x5. It barely covers 6x7 on 120 roll film and I can't focus it at infinity. It needs a recessed lensboard since it such a big lens.
The small lens in front of the B&J is also a 5 inch lens. A Kodak Ektar from my Speed Graphic.
The Elgeet is a very curious lens. There are some internal markings and something is loose in the front lens cell.
It appears to be a custom lens made for the space industry. What it is designed for I have no idea. Nick picked the Elgeets up at a surplus sale. I can't use it for general photography work but I tried it for close-ups. Very interesting.
Leica IIIc
The 5 inch Elgeet has one redeeming factor — it's a really fast f2, which is very unusual for a view camera lens. These images are at 200% on the film. At f2 there is a razor sharp area of focus. And lots of aberrations. Nick suggested seeing what the aberrations look like in color. That will be next. The next pictures were taken with the lens stopped down to it's maximum — f22.
FED 2
FED 2 Detail
Click on the link of the above picture to see it at scanning resolution (800dpi) to give an idea of the detail in these pictures. They would make spectacular 16 x 20 prints.
FED 2 Film Counter
The next step is to get the 210mm lens attached to a lens board with the Packard shutter for a normal lens for the 4x5 and built a recessed lens board that will accept the 5 inch Kodak Ektar lens board for a wide angle. Still need to find that film changing bag. Bit by bit.
i returneth
I think I'm back. When the bronchitis kicks in my asthma also kicks in but now I'm able to breathe again. My mom goes in tomorrow for more tests and will start radiation thearapy in about a week. The famiy is still trying to figure out how we are going to make this happen. This has fallen mostly on my brother Terry and he is pretty maxed out. One day at a time. Thanks again for the well wishes.
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