19 June 2010
technology or sci-fi? - Crop Circles
Whatever you think of their origins, they are usually intricate and captivating to look at; pretty, even.
Crop Circles - formations, usually found in grain crops, where the crop has been mysteriously found laid flat, in patterns, that did not exist in daylight the previous day. Although thought by many to be a phenomena of the 20th Century, crop circles and formations have been around for a very long time, and records even date back well before the invention of the camera.[SOURCE: World Mysteries article by Suzanne Taylor]
Some people have suggested that crop circles are the result of extraordinary meteorological phenomena. This hypothesis probably originated from a 1880 publication in Nature by investigator and amateur scientist John Rand Capron. Part of the publication reappeared in the January 2000 issue of Journal of Meteorology.
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of speculation by various paranormal, ufological, and anomalistic investigators ranging from proposals that they were created by bizarre meteorological phenomena to messages from extraterrestrials.
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led many New Age belief systems to incorporate crop circles, speculating their existence in relation to ley lines.
Some New Age supporters have arbitrarily related crop circles to the Gaia hypothesis, alleging that "Gaia", the earth, is actually alive and that crop circles are messages or responses to stimuli such as global warming and human pollution. However, the Gaia hypothesis is actually not a theory of the paranormal, as it originated from academic scientists. It asserts that the earth may be modeled as if a single super-organism, in that earthly components (e.g. biota, climate, temperature, sunlight etc) influence each other and are organized to function and develop as a whole. [SOURCE: Wikipedia: Crop Circles]
Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the subject of speculation by various paranormal, ufological, and anomalistic investigators ranging from proposals that they were created by bizarre meteorological phenomena to messages from extraterrestrials.
The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk horses has led many New Age belief systems to incorporate crop circles, speculating their existence in relation to ley lines.
Some New Age supporters have arbitrarily related crop circles to the Gaia hypothesis, alleging that "Gaia", the earth, is actually alive and that crop circles are messages or responses to stimuli such as global warming and human pollution. However, the Gaia hypothesis is actually not a theory of the paranormal, as it originated from academic scientists. It asserts that the earth may be modeled as if a single super-organism, in that earthly components (e.g. biota, climate, temperature, sunlight etc) influence each other and are organized to function and develop as a whole. [SOURCE: Wikipedia: Crop Circles]
How do they do it? By typing ropes to a board, placing the board against the crops, and then stepping on it. That flattens out the plant, and then it's only necessary to move on to more plants. And how did they keep their orientation to create such incredible, perfect geometric patterns? More ropes! Apparently, England has a surplus of rope and young men with too great a knowledge of geometry, too little with which to keep themselves occupied, and a powerful lust for laying intricate plans. [SOURCE: The Triangle by Aaron Sakulich, "The Iron Skeptic"]
18 June 2010
fitful wanderings from the web
• Will China's Three Gorges Dam slow the rotation of the Earth? Scientists say, yes, increasing a typical day by about .06 microseconds. It would also shift the pole position by about two centimeters (0.8 inch). So relax, don't hurry with that second cup of coffee before work, you have got extra time.
• Halliburton mops up the money! Only eleven days before the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, Dick Cheney's corporate alma mater buys up Boots & Coots, a company that specializes in cleaning up oil spills. Does a company that both builds oil rigs and cleans up oil spills have any motivation to prevent oil rig disasters? Boots & Coots also made a sizable profit cleaning up oil well blowouts in Iraq and Nigeria. Do the math.
• Ron Gilbert muses on oddities observed during interstate travel, and of automated toll booths that don't have signs indicating how much to pay.
• Does The Holy See see sainthood for the Blues Brothers? On the 30th anniversary of the film's release, "L'Osservatore Romano," the Vatican's official newspaper, called the film a "Catholic classic" and said it should be recommended viewing for Catholics everywhere. Says reporter Eric Lyman [from Reuters] "...aside from a brief appearance from Kathleen Freeman as a wrist-slapping nun referred to as "The Penguin" and the brothers' periodic claim that they were on a mission from God, spirituality does not play a significant role in the film".
• The Bowery's Whitehouse Hotel, still remains in operation as part flophouse,
part funky tourist hostel even though megabucks developer Sam "McSam" Chang wants to buy it and it gets uniformly bad Trip Advisor reviews. But why stay here for $30 buck a night when you can spend $450 bucks a night just down the street?
• Drug War Chronicle keeps you up-to-date on news about corrupt cops who've been caught.
IMAGE CREDITS TO: 1- Boots & Coots corporate logo; 2- Fansite Blues Brothers Central; 3- photo of the White House Hotel by Joshua Blankman, Everywhere Magazine.
• Halliburton mops up the money! Only eleven days before the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, Dick Cheney's corporate alma mater buys up Boots & Coots, a company that specializes in cleaning up oil spills. Does a company that both builds oil rigs and cleans up oil spills have any motivation to prevent oil rig disasters? Boots & Coots also made a sizable profit cleaning up oil well blowouts in Iraq and Nigeria. Do the math.
• Ron Gilbert muses on oddities observed during interstate travel, and of automated toll booths that don't have signs indicating how much to pay.• Does The Holy See see sainthood for the Blues Brothers? On the 30th anniversary of the film's release, "L'Osservatore Romano," the Vatican's official newspaper, called the film a "Catholic classic" and said it should be recommended viewing for Catholics everywhere. Says reporter Eric Lyman [from Reuters] "...aside from a brief appearance from Kathleen Freeman as a wrist-slapping nun referred to as "The Penguin" and the brothers' periodic claim that they were on a mission from God, spirituality does not play a significant role in the film".
• The Bowery's Whitehouse Hotel, still remains in operation as part flophouse,
part funky tourist hostel even though megabucks developer Sam "McSam" Chang wants to buy it and it gets uniformly bad Trip Advisor reviews. But why stay here for $30 buck a night when you can spend $450 bucks a night just down the street?• Drug War Chronicle keeps you up-to-date on news about corrupt cops who've been caught.
IMAGE CREDITS TO: 1- Boots & Coots corporate logo; 2- Fansite Blues Brothers Central; 3- photo of the White House Hotel by Joshua Blankman, Everywhere Magazine.
artists - Art Young
You can say that this is Dante revisited. The Quack Doctors -- "The sewers of Hell are flushed with patent medicines. Wallowing in this stream of mysterious decoction are the souls of the quack doctors, gulping their own poison. To add to the punishment, unceasing showers of large pills descend, the doctors frantically beating the air in their endeavors to ward off the bitter storm."
Art Young was a firebrand illustrator during the first part of the 20th century. And early in his career he revisited Hell, that famous Inferno once visited by Dante Alighieri, and immortalized in images by Gustave Dore.
Young’s interest in the nether world started early. As an adolescent art prodigy in small-town Wisconsin, he got ahold of and devoured the edition of Dante’s Inferno illustrated by Dore. It was, he later recalled,“ the first book to give me a real thrill.” That initial impression was lasting: Young went on to study art in Chicago, New York, and Paris, and became something of an expert on the history of illustration, but his enthusiasm for Dore never wavered. “[I] counted him the greatest artist of his time,” he said. “I estimated the gift of imagination in all of the arts as supreme. And Dore had it.” [Art Young, Art Young: His Life and Times, John Nicholas Beffel, ed., New York: Sheridan House, 1939, pp. 52, 133.]
I really have to thank Noah Berlatsky ["the Hooded Utilitarian"] for an excellent researched essay on Art Young, his art, his values, and the trials and travails he went through for maintaining them. Young was Socialist in political orientation, was amongst the people that hung about the Ash Can School of artists, a group known for painting and depicting gritty scenes of urban life, the poor and the working class. Considered Revolutionary more for their subject matter, than, their presentation styles, their work was influential in American Arts movements in the 1930s.Young was also a contributor to the radical publication The Masses. The magazine lasted about seven years, but was plagued with financial woes, thanks to Robber Baron Era Capitalists who bankrupted the publication with a long protracted harassment using the Courts to censor the publication's anti-big business point of view.
I write all this thanks to having unearthed a partial edition [there are pages that were removed, probably cut apart by some entrepreneur who likely saw profit in framing individual works of art [like the ones above and to the left side] and selling them piece by piece. I got the remains. A good bargain regardless.
poetry - I hate the sound of helicopters
I hate the sound of helicopters
be it troop burdened hueys stirring red clay
or civilian medevacs lighting down on the school parking lot
For me copters in the air mean only one thing
disaster drills that are real
At night, especially
that clattering whirr
breaking the silence
lights blinking in advance
afore the searchlight clicks on looking for a landing pad
Once, the clatter heralded napalmolive nightmares
thundering replacements for beyond exhausted grunts
followed by frantic retreats bearing frag wounded soldiers back to base
or Stateside,
Depending
And now it ain't much effing different
Only last mothers' day, two of 'em came
settling their haunches on the air strip down the road
to retrieve two souls
one merely shocked
the second, her body alive only in basic functions
the soul having already moved on
This is no place for Sky Team Eight
Blissfully blathering traffic patterns
for the benefit of commuters who watched in tv
prior to leaving work
no playful anchor banter about kids' softball teams
or fave recipes
Nope. Here it's just a grim reaper landing so that the lost soul might start the journey heavenward
a bit sooner
even if the ultimate destination
is, as an end run, less glorious
be it troop burdened hueys stirring red clay
or civilian medevacs lighting down on the school parking lot
For me copters in the air mean only one thing
disaster drills that are real
At night, especially
that clattering whirr
breaking the silence
lights blinking in advance
afore the searchlight clicks on looking for a landing pad
Once, the clatter heralded napalmolive nightmares
thundering replacements for beyond exhausted grunts
followed by frantic retreats bearing frag wounded soldiers back to base
or Stateside,
Depending
And now it ain't much effing different
Only last mothers' day, two of 'em came
settling their haunches on the air strip down the road
to retrieve two souls
one merely shocked
the second, her body alive only in basic functions
the soul having already moved on
This is no place for Sky Team Eight
Blissfully blathering traffic patterns
for the benefit of commuters who watched in tv
prior to leaving work
no playful anchor banter about kids' softball teams
or fave recipes
Nope. Here it's just a grim reaper landing so that the lost soul might start the journey heavenward
a bit sooner
even if the ultimate destination
is, as an end run, less glorious
short story - FaceBook game causes workplace murder
"Facebook Game Cause of Workplace Murder!" I heard the cops say as they hauled me, handcuffed, out of the building. I was dazed and splattered with blood! All because of a stupid game.
If only I'd never begun to play Bejeweled Blitz on FaceBook. That's what started this. That, and a perky - but not very smart - cleaning woman from work also played.
First we’d joke about our scores; a fine relationship since mine were usually much higher. But then she began outranking me; often as top winner in the weekly online tourney. That hurt. She was just a cleaning woman; I was a top engineer. It became embarrassing.
I became obsessed, playing late into the night until I got the "new high score". This affected my performance at work, but I bested her.
But when a revamped version of the game came online, I couldn't get the hang of it. She teased me.
"I see you got 9,600 to my 384,900," she'd cheerily call out.
It went from bad to worse. My supervisor called me after some diagrams I'd drawn were faulty. He warned me to deal with what it was that troubled me. He asked if I needed counseling. I said nothing. I couldn't talk about it.
I avoided going past her work area. Then one weekend a snowstorm came and shut everything down for four days. I thought 'surely, in a marathon session I could finally top her score'.
It didn't work. It was four days, barely sleeping, playing almost non-stop but never scored over 97,000. The cleaning woman? She topped 500,000 points, all in less than a minute's time.
Defeated, I finally quit and got a couple of hours restless sleep. I actually felt I wanted to die.
I woke up late, angry. Angry that a janitor, a woman no less, could persistently out-score me. The Weather Channel gave gale wind warnings as I left for work. I did not heed them.
Once off the bus, I stumbled. As I fell I felt the wind rush by me, razor sharp and merciless. I saw her then. I thought my life would flash before my eyes but all I could see was her face. I turned to face my doom, I wouldn’t die like this. Not like this… if I couldn't beat her at Bejeweled, I would have to kill her.
Once inside, I crept up behind her while she filled the mop pail. With a big plumber's wrench I slammed it down across the back of her head, again and again and again.
Only too late I realized what I had done. I was mortified, but relieved. For the first time in weeks, I stood up a little taller.
I knew what to do next. I will plead insanity! The tale so weird I'm sure I could get off. And this was Connecticut, in New England, "Blue State" country. Land of winter cabin fever. Surely folks here would be understanding. My nightmare was over.
LITTLE KNOWN FACTS: What the protagonist in this tale does not yet know most people found NGRI are likely to spend two to three times longer incarcerated, than had they said they were guilty of the crime. And in Connecticut if someone successfully pleads "Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity" they are placed under the purview of an agency that is like a combination Parole and mental health court review Board, known as the PSRB (or Psychiatric Security Review Board.
If only I'd never begun to play Bejeweled Blitz on FaceBook. That's what started this. That, and a perky - but not very smart - cleaning woman from work also played.
First we’d joke about our scores; a fine relationship since mine were usually much higher. But then she began outranking me; often as top winner in the weekly online tourney. That hurt. She was just a cleaning woman; I was a top engineer. It became embarrassing.
I became obsessed, playing late into the night until I got the "new high score". This affected my performance at work, but I bested her.
But when a revamped version of the game came online, I couldn't get the hang of it. She teased me.
"I see you got 9,600 to my 384,900," she'd cheerily call out. It went from bad to worse. My supervisor called me after some diagrams I'd drawn were faulty. He warned me to deal with what it was that troubled me. He asked if I needed counseling. I said nothing. I couldn't talk about it.
I avoided going past her work area. Then one weekend a snowstorm came and shut everything down for four days. I thought 'surely, in a marathon session I could finally top her score'.
It didn't work. It was four days, barely sleeping, playing almost non-stop but never scored over 97,000. The cleaning woman? She topped 500,000 points, all in less than a minute's time.
Defeated, I finally quit and got a couple of hours restless sleep. I actually felt I wanted to die.
I woke up late, angry. Angry that a janitor, a woman no less, could persistently out-score me. The Weather Channel gave gale wind warnings as I left for work. I did not heed them.
Once off the bus, I stumbled. As I fell I felt the wind rush by me, razor sharp and merciless. I saw her then. I thought my life would flash before my eyes but all I could see was her face. I turned to face my doom, I wouldn’t die like this. Not like this… if I couldn't beat her at Bejeweled, I would have to kill her.
Once inside, I crept up behind her while she filled the mop pail. With a big plumber's wrench I slammed it down across the back of her head, again and again and again.
Only too late I realized what I had done. I was mortified, but relieved. For the first time in weeks, I stood up a little taller.
I knew what to do next. I will plead insanity! The tale so weird I'm sure I could get off. And this was Connecticut, in New England, "Blue State" country. Land of winter cabin fever. Surely folks here would be understanding. My nightmare was over.
LITTLE KNOWN FACTS: What the protagonist in this tale does not yet know most people found NGRI are likely to spend two to three times longer incarcerated, than had they said they were guilty of the crime. And in Connecticut if someone successfully pleads "Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity" they are placed under the purview of an agency that is like a combination Parole and mental health court review Board, known as the PSRB (or Psychiatric Security Review Board.
17 June 2010
environment - Hydrofracking
The technique of hydraulic fracturing is used to increase or restore the rate at which fluids, such as oil, gas or water, can be produced from a reservoir, including unconventional reservoirs such as shale rock or coal beds. Environmental concerns regarding hydraulic fracturing techniques include potential for contamination of aquifers with fracturing chemicals or waste fluids. On the other hand, hydraulic fracturing is applied to remediation of environmental waste spills.
While international attention is focused on British Petroleum and it's part in the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, little is done about either monitoring or holding accountable gas extracting companies who are aggressively promoting this extraction technique in New York,Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia.
The Commonwealth of Virginia is facing its first Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling with a recent application in Rockingham County. This process requires a technique called hydrofracturing which involves the injection of high volumes of water, sand, and chemicals. Marcellus Drill deep into the ground to breakdown rock formations and release natural gas. There are unknown and unintended consequences of this technology, including potential contamination of ground and surface water.
It is true that the state of Pennsylvania fined Cabot Oil + Gas Corp $240,000 and ordered the company to plug gas wells that have contaminated residential water supplies, but citizens should not have to be subjected to corporate incompetence or indifference.
Moreover, thanks to a 2005 Congressional relaxation of government oversight about these kinds of operations, the damages that can be done by other sociopathic corporate "citizens" hasn't even begun to [pardon the bad pun] bubble to the earth's surface.
Read the thoughtful letter that two disinterested individuals (R. Brooke Lewis and Kathryn M. Zunich, M.D.) sent to the Rockingham County (Virginia) Board of Supervisors asking they move cautiously before permitting profit-motivated absentee corporations from permitting drilling to take place there. For more about the specific application before that Board of Supervisors, read the Shenandoah Valley Network website.
Finally, while this note focuses on the Marcellus Shale formation in western Virginia, similar geological strata and conditions can be found elsewhere. Learn more about whether this can affect you.
The Commonwealth of Virginia is facing its first Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling with a recent application in Rockingham County. This process requires a technique called hydrofracturing which involves the injection of high volumes of water, sand, and chemicals. Marcellus Drill deep into the ground to breakdown rock formations and release natural gas. There are unknown and unintended consequences of this technology, including potential contamination of ground and surface water.
It is true that the state of Pennsylvania fined Cabot Oil + Gas Corp $240,000 and ordered the company to plug gas wells that have contaminated residential water supplies, but citizens should not have to be subjected to corporate incompetence or indifference.
Moreover, thanks to a 2005 Congressional relaxation of government oversight about these kinds of operations, the damages that can be done by other sociopathic corporate "citizens" hasn't even begun to [pardon the bad pun] bubble to the earth's surface.
Read the thoughtful letter that two disinterested individuals (R. Brooke Lewis and Kathryn M. Zunich, M.D.) sent to the Rockingham County (Virginia) Board of Supervisors asking they move cautiously before permitting profit-motivated absentee corporations from permitting drilling to take place there. For more about the specific application before that Board of Supervisors, read the Shenandoah Valley Network website.
Finally, while this note focuses on the Marcellus Shale formation in western Virginia, similar geological strata and conditions can be found elsewhere. Learn more about whether this can affect you.
other voices - Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens
"The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter --
it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
IMAGE CREDIT: Fireflies in a Jar © 2010 [used with permission] Steven David Johnson, producing "eco-relational imagery". His work is poignant and thoughtful. He is a freelance photographer and a visual and communication arts professor at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Steve also does a photoblog of life around him, Virginia Journal.
it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
IMAGE CREDIT: Fireflies in a Jar © 2010 [used with permission] Steven David Johnson, producing "eco-relational imagery". His work is poignant and thoughtful. He is a freelance photographer and a visual and communication arts professor at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Steve also does a photoblog of life around him, Virginia Journal.
16 June 2010
fitful online wanderings
• ELBOT is a robot with a blog. Elbot's blog is personal and engaging, as he processes bytes into bits of information the average human can understand. Truly the next generation in the progression of intelligence is Artificial Intelligence. Ignore this amazing Progress at your own peril.
• BP Oil Spill damage even worse than originally thought. "We discovered things that were broken in the sub-surface," said a BP official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He said that mud was making it "out to the side, into the formation."
• Deep Politics considers the way society has been manipulated and influenced in the past at looks at alternatives to the mantra of "God equals Guns, Oil and Gold". An outgrowth of The Peace Project and 9/11 Truth.org.
• ATF busts Outlaw Bike Gang leadership. A federal indictment says gang carried out violent crimes to support a criminal enterprise whose leadership divided the country into regions. The court filings claim the gang used its large numbers for intimidation, to carry out assaults and even murder, acts that could be rewarded with pins and patches. Some of the arrests were in Connecticut.
• Miracles and Visions are amazing things! Also in Connecticut a man reports seeing Jesus in a tree! Skeptics may scoff but the phenomena of beatific visions is not that rare. Although I thought the image in the tree looked more like Homer Simpson, far be it for me to scoff.
IMAGE CREDITS TO: 1- Photo Researchers, Inc. and found on Science Clarified
• BP Oil Spill damage even worse than originally thought. "We discovered things that were broken in the sub-surface," said a BP official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He said that mud was making it "out to the side, into the formation." • Deep Politics considers the way society has been manipulated and influenced in the past at looks at alternatives to the mantra of "God equals Guns, Oil and Gold". An outgrowth of The Peace Project and 9/11 Truth.org.
• ATF busts Outlaw Bike Gang leadership. A federal indictment says gang carried out violent crimes to support a criminal enterprise whose leadership divided the country into regions. The court filings claim the gang used its large numbers for intimidation, to carry out assaults and even murder, acts that could be rewarded with pins and patches. Some of the arrests were in Connecticut.
• Miracles and Visions are amazing things! Also in Connecticut a man reports seeing Jesus in a tree! Skeptics may scoff but the phenomena of beatific visions is not that rare. Although I thought the image in the tree looked more like Homer Simpson, far be it for me to scoff.
IMAGE CREDITS TO: 1- Photo Researchers, Inc. and found on Science Clarified
news blip - serial killer put onlife support
FAREND, GA [UPI] The Warden of the Oswagatichie Regional Correctional Center [ORCC] ordered a comatose inmate, Bobby "Big Fist" Whalen, to be kept on life supports after he suffered a stroke last Wednesday. Whalen, age 49, was serving the first of 17 consecutive life sentences for his part in a ritual mass murder of migrant feather boa seamstresses working in an Atlanta, GA sweatshop back in 1979.
Franklin Upstand, Warden of the prison and an elder of the Hallelujah Enlightened Church of the Holy Redeemer, said that he was issuing this order after it was determined that Whalen would not survive without this measure taking place. Warden Upstand's decision was based on the length of Whalen's sentence and the Warden's faith that Justice must be rendered, however difficult the tests that society has to meet to accomplish the sentencing.
"I have faith that the Almighty has given us this challenge to show humanity's resolve. Members of the jury who convicted this barbarian spoke their intent clearly when they sentenced him. God would not have guided them to make this decision had He not intended to set Whalen as an example to others. His effort to escape his sentence by trying to die shows all of us what little remorse he had for the sins of murdering innocents."
The murders, and the trial that followed, somehow escaped the attention of the media in 1979. This time it's different. Warden Upstand said that his office has been deluged with calls from reporters and journalists across the country asking about his decision. Talon News reporters broke the story first.
Said Warden Upstart, "It is my earnest prayer that, now that the news media has gotten hold of the story, they will take a second look at the grizzly details, search into the facts behind the murders, and finally bring the sordid story to light so people will remember the poor women who died silently at this wretch's foul deeds."
"God has given us the technology to ensure that all murderers serve the full terms of their sentences. Why should we let it go to waste?"
Franklin Upstand, Warden of the prison and an elder of the Hallelujah Enlightened Church of the Holy Redeemer, said that he was issuing this order after it was determined that Whalen would not survive without this measure taking place. Warden Upstand's decision was based on the length of Whalen's sentence and the Warden's faith that Justice must be rendered, however difficult the tests that society has to meet to accomplish the sentencing."I have faith that the Almighty has given us this challenge to show humanity's resolve. Members of the jury who convicted this barbarian spoke their intent clearly when they sentenced him. God would not have guided them to make this decision had He not intended to set Whalen as an example to others. His effort to escape his sentence by trying to die shows all of us what little remorse he had for the sins of murdering innocents."
The murders, and the trial that followed, somehow escaped the attention of the media in 1979. This time it's different. Warden Upstand said that his office has been deluged with calls from reporters and journalists across the country asking about his decision. Talon News reporters broke the story first.
Said Warden Upstart, "It is my earnest prayer that, now that the news media has gotten hold of the story, they will take a second look at the grizzly details, search into the facts behind the murders, and finally bring the sordid story to light so people will remember the poor women who died silently at this wretch's foul deeds."
"God has given us the technology to ensure that all murderers serve the full terms of their sentences. Why should we let it go to waste?"
15 June 2010
travel - new york city
installing photos, outsider porn and the highline
We head into New York City this week to install some photos I sold to an up and coming powerhouse attorney. While in town we hope to take in some of the sites.
David Hurles is perhaps best known as "Old Reliable", an "outsider pornographer". OLD RELIABLE was also the name of a company back in the 70s & 80s that created slexy, (sleezy & sexy) images of hot guys with allot of tattoos, wrestling, boxing, sucking on stogies, and just being badass. back in the day. David now lives in a nursing home in Los Angeles, having suffered a stroke about a year ago.
A collection of his photos - a Project Space Exhibition curated by John Waters - is on exhibit at the:
Marianne Boesky Gallery
509 W. 24th St., NYC 10011
June 4 - 26, 2010
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 - 6
IMAGE CREDITS: David Hurles and a friend, 1960s BUTT Magazine. The Highline, in 2003, before conversion into a park. Arch News Now and (the smaller image) the entry to the Highline in 2009 Dwell Magazine.
We head into New York City this week to install some photos I sold to an up and coming powerhouse attorney. While in town we hope to take in some of the sites.
David Hurles is perhaps best known as "Old Reliable", an "outsider pornographer". OLD RELIABLE was also the name of a company back in the 70s & 80s that created slexy, (sleezy & sexy) images of hot guys with allot of tattoos, wrestling, boxing, sucking on stogies, and just being badass. back in the day. David now lives in a nursing home in Los Angeles, having suffered a stroke about a year ago. 
A collection of his photos - a Project Space Exhibition curated by John Waters - is on exhibit at the: Marianne Boesky Gallery
509 W. 24th St., NYC 10011
June 4 - 26, 2010
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 - 6
The Highline A formerly-abandoned 1930s elevated rail structure, running through the Chelsea section of Manhattan, the High Line has been transformed 
over the past few years into a landscaped pedestrian pathway. People have eventually come to recognizing the High Line as 1.5 miles of open space with no intersection with motorized traffic: people should see this in the same light as Central Park. I believe that there is no similar precedent for an elevated park anywhere else in North America. It's not designed as a transit corridor and in fact bikes (as well as skateboards and rollerblades) are not permitted. The High Line is located on Manhattan's West Side. It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to 34th Street, between 10th & 11th Avenues. Section 1 of the High Line, which opened to the public on June 9, 2009, runs from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street. Find out more at the Friends of High Line website.
The High Line is open from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM daily. Last entrance to the park is at 9:45 PM.
over the past few years into a landscaped pedestrian pathway. People have eventually come to recognizing the High Line as 1.5 miles of open space with no intersection with motorized traffic: people should see this in the same light as Central Park. I believe that there is no similar precedent for an elevated park anywhere else in North America. It's not designed as a transit corridor and in fact bikes (as well as skateboards and rollerblades) are not permitted. The High Line is located on Manhattan's West Side. It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to 34th Street, between 10th & 11th Avenues. Section 1 of the High Line, which opened to the public on June 9, 2009, runs from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street. Find out more at the Friends of High Line website.
The High Line is open from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM daily. Last entrance to the park is at 9:45 PM.
IMAGE CREDITS: David Hurles and a friend, 1960s BUTT Magazine. The Highline, in 2003, before conversion into a park. Arch News Now and (the smaller image) the entry to the Highline in 2009 Dwell Magazine.
poetry - wandering once more along paths uncharted
we met one odd auspicious eveningnot knowing where it would take us
not knowing long country drives
nor strange metaphysical adventures awaited
we were, and in some respects,
continue to be
like Narcissus and Goldmund
though the adventuresome terrain
has always remained ethereal
I have never fully understood
your journeys
but remain ever forbearing of
your intentions to take them
each psychic excursion
a watched exercise
in awesome terrifying mystery
now you wander once more
along paths uncharted
barely mindful of my fears
and perhaps even of your own
while you stand joyous
arms outstretched
at the edge of the next cliff
take care my friend
take caution
I love you
and want to hold your
thoughts with mine again
another day
environment - Bangaledesh - City of Shipbreakers
Hell on Earth. Deviant Art contributor Vitaly S. Alexius captures gripping images from the dead city where rusted shipping vessels are torn apart. Some quotes:"There are places on our planet, which literally resemble hell on earth... closed off to the tourists, where no photographers are allowed… and those that do, get their cameras taken away and arrested by the police…See what the area looks like from the air
Along the coast of Bangladesh are the ship breaking installations, where freighters and tankers are torn apart by hundreds of gritty, lean, strong, bronze-skinned, men--by manual labor.
These ShipBreakers scrap the world's ships with little more than their bare hands. ...they say it is better to work and die than to starve and die.This [place] exists because of the tide. It is one of those places -- like the Bay of Fundy in Canada -- where a host of geographical circumstances come together to create exceptionally large differences between the twice-daily high and low tides. Coupled with a soft, shelving beach, the tides at Alang make shipbreaking possible with a minimum of construction. There are no piers or drydocks. Ships are simply run onto the shore.
There are no cranes, no special equipment, no safety of any kind. Often, shipbreakers don't even have shoes. They carry metal scraps through the water, often cutting themselves on metal that litters the beach.Dangers arise very often: in fires caused by improper oil containment inside old tankers that catches fire from the welding; asbestos and poisonous smoke that fills in the air from the ship-cutting:
"There is a shadow of death on this place," says Ram Lalit, a 22-year-old worker. "This place is haunted by it."
and watch a 60 Minutes video about where ships go to die.
IMAGE CREDITS: The first two are unknown, the third, © 2000 Edward Burtynsky - Shipbreaking - Chittagong - Bangladesh. For a size perspective, do a simple left click of the mouse, then look in the lower right corner to see two men standing on the ship's rib section.
environment - Oyster Beds and Oil
From 1960, the American Petroleum Institute brings us this "informative" film about oyster farmers in Louisiana who are angry at the oil drilling industry. Well, guess what? The oil isn't hurting the oysters. In fact, they love oily water.
"...as long as business and industry are free to lend a helping hand to each other, everyone benefits..."
"...as long as business and industry are free to lend a helping hand to each other, everyone benefits..."
14 June 2010
more fitful online wanderings
• TruthOut reminds us that the war in Afghanistan continues to escalate.• From NPR and AlterNet - the Army Docs tell Soldiers with brain injury to stop complaining . Officially, military figures say about 115,000 troops have suffered mild traumatic brain injuries since the wars began.
• At ProPublica Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, defended the military's handling of soldiers who suffered brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Tom Mullins, New Mexico Republican Congressional hopeful said that the USA could litter the Mexican border with landmines to keep immigrants out, but then said he "...does not advocate this" [he just provides publicity for the idea].• The NRA defends Hillary Clinton acknowledging that rumors that the USA signed a treaty banning firearms are false. YHate posted more about this, plus also posted a great graphic. Go check it out.
• The US Federal Government must begin extending some federal employee benefits to same-sex couples and their children including employee assistance programs and child-care subsidies. President Barack Obama ordered this to take place effective "immediately". Existing law prevented the White House from extending all federal employee benefits to same-sex couples.
• Bet you didn't hear any of this on Faux News!
IMAGE CREDITS TO: 1- ProPublica; 2- ©2010, YHate, also known as GJB Graphics
mental illness systems
I work as a human rights advocate with and for people with psychiatric disabilities. I got started doing this after watching a friend get bounced back and forth between agencies and medications by workers (from line staff to psychiatrists and administrators) who had scant regard for human suffering. That was 27 years ago.
I can't say that much has changed.
Sure, the use of mechanical restraints has been reduced somewhat.
But it was the unnecessary deaths of poor souls held in them for unconscionable lengths of time - resulting in a highly publicized political outrage - that brought that change about, not any great change in public consciousness or caring. Human indifference about the sufferings of "...the mentally ill..." continues to remain a constant.
It is also sobering to witness how those who hold the purse-strings have adopted the words of the mantra first chanted by 1970s era ex-patient activists - that people with prolonged suffering can "recover". Yet the actions of the administrators have not evolved into either effective caring or coping options for those supposed to be the beneficiaries of clinical largesse. MH System administrators (and clinicians) still work hard to hinder their clients' from recovering.
Mind you, I'm not writing about CIA funded psych crimes like MK-Ultra or even the "extraordinary rendition" abuses conducted during the heyday of the Bush/Cheney era Iraq adventure. I'm thinking more of the little tortures, that eat away at one's soul, yet are encouraged and promulgated by folks making life-altering decisions about others yet who completely lack vision or understanding about the impacts of what they do. These little tortures are instead everything from lecturing people about obesity while prescribing drugs that cause rapid weight gain (such as Seroquel). Or denying people fresh air, or pushing clients into low paying careers (it is still the food - filth - filing and tending to flowers that are offered as "job possibilities") instead of trying to discern what people's talents are.
Finally (for now, at least) there is still no safe haven for people in crisis to go to. People still have to wait to when they are no longer able to make thoughtful self-admissions (ofttimes when many are actually willing to seek help) when at the most acute levels of psychic pain, to get into mental health facilities. They have to suffer indignities like social isolation, attempts at self-injury, or even arrest - before admitted in emergency to be shot up with drugs that numb one from reacting to adverse symptoms, but do little to make those symptoms go away.
I have no solution for correcting these societally tolerated wrongs, but I'm still not giving up. My friend still suffers from poorly designed treatment options - conceived mostly by people with no first-hand knowledge or experience what it is like to be on the receiving end; the very least I can do is make sure he isn't also horribly abused.
I can't say that much has changed.
Sure, the use of mechanical restraints has been reduced somewhat.
But it was the unnecessary deaths of poor souls held in them for unconscionable lengths of time - resulting in a highly publicized political outrage - that brought that change about, not any great change in public consciousness or caring. Human indifference about the sufferings of "...the mentally ill..." continues to remain a constant.
It is also sobering to witness how those who hold the purse-strings have adopted the words of the mantra first chanted by 1970s era ex-patient activists - that people with prolonged suffering can "recover". Yet the actions of the administrators have not evolved into either effective caring or coping options for those supposed to be the beneficiaries of clinical largesse. MH System administrators (and clinicians) still work hard to hinder their clients' from recovering.
Mind you, I'm not writing about CIA funded psych crimes like MK-Ultra or even the "extraordinary rendition" abuses conducted during the heyday of the Bush/Cheney era Iraq adventure. I'm thinking more of the little tortures, that eat away at one's soul, yet are encouraged and promulgated by folks making life-altering decisions about others yet who completely lack vision or understanding about the impacts of what they do. These little tortures are instead everything from lecturing people about obesity while prescribing drugs that cause rapid weight gain (such as Seroquel). Or denying people fresh air, or pushing clients into low paying careers (it is still the food - filth - filing and tending to flowers that are offered as "job possibilities") instead of trying to discern what people's talents are.
Finally (for now, at least) there is still no safe haven for people in crisis to go to. People still have to wait to when they are no longer able to make thoughtful self-admissions (ofttimes when many are actually willing to seek help) when at the most acute levels of psychic pain, to get into mental health facilities. They have to suffer indignities like social isolation, attempts at self-injury, or even arrest - before admitted in emergency to be shot up with drugs that numb one from reacting to adverse symptoms, but do little to make those symptoms go away.
I have no solution for correcting these societally tolerated wrongs, but I'm still not giving up. My friend still suffers from poorly designed treatment options - conceived mostly by people with no first-hand knowledge or experience what it is like to be on the receiving end; the very least I can do is make sure he isn't also horribly abused.
LINKS TO FOLLOW: Organizations and people who promote social justice and fairness in metal health: Mind Freedom, Ecopsychology Community, Freedom Center,
other voices - Terrance McKenna
Reclaim your mind - Terence McKenna (intro) from Olivier Ferland on Vimeo.
THANKS TO: YHate, who posted this excerpt before I did
making social change
Affecting Social Change is much more than mouthing slogans or sound bites. It can mean devoting hours - days - years - spending time with those who are reluctant and unwilling to hear the truths of others or to work at changing existing social policy or considering other ways of living.
Yet making the fundamental changes in the values that underlie oppressive social policies require interacting with those who oppose us.
This must be done before we get to the voting booth, before we get to legislative committee hearings or public forums.
We need to get our points across and to affect change in board rooms and private offices; in juvenile and adult corrections, mental health, the courts, in educational, cultural, legislative and personal spheres ~ where ever decisions affecting all our lives are made regularly and daily ~ and we need to do this now!
We must infiltrate the meeting places of adversaries and decision makers who oppose eliminating wrongs.
We must insist upon and make impact by directly negotiating policy change, laws and directions for the future. Once there, being heard, we have to make our points clearly enough to be effective advocates for change.
Now, affecting change doesn't necessarily make for chit chat or small talk at parties. You won't be making friends with those you meet and confront at policy plannings or while negotiating change, nor will your own friends necessarily want to know about the details of your efforts.
Even if we cannot immediately make changes to oppressive social policies or practices, our mere presence in some of these meeting places can prevent additional harmful policies from being implemented. Also ~ remember to stay in touch with others who know what you say to be true, and to refresh and replenish yourself from behind-the-scenes battles rather than burn yourself out. Stay healthy to battle successfully.
HISTORY: Written 11 November 1993 for a presentation at an Abuse Survivor's "Speakback" held in Waterbury, CT
artists - John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent is better known for his society portraits and domestic scene depictions. So it was a surprise to see the image posted here, "Gassed" while conducting a random roam through a website featuring his work.
For a couple of other good Sargent sites, check out CGFA's site and the Met's site of a Sargent exhibition. He has also done more than the yeoman's share of work involving nudes, but that's for a more mature audience. Look around the site and you'll find them.
For a couple of other good Sargent sites, check out CGFA's site and the Met's site of a Sargent exhibition. He has also done more than the yeoman's share of work involving nudes, but that's for a more mature audience. Look around the site and you'll find them.
other voices - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much;
it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
FDR's "Bill of Rights"
it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
FDR's "Bill of Rights"
• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.
everyday life
Two days before we went to Montreal, the compressor on the fridge finally died. A new fridge was delivered after getting back. If Bruce and I had done the move with the pick up truck it would have been anguish and angst. My vision was of ramps and dollies and lots of work and aggravation getting the two fridges moved but... what a surprise to watch these two haul it in on little more than a couple of sturdy belts. I'm sympathetic about their backs (if not now, then certainly when they get older).
Both men spoke with heavy accents. No way I'm gonna ask for their green cards. Both were polite and professional and quick.
By the way, this is the old fridge being carted away. We got it several years ago for $125 [usd] from folks moving out of state.
The stainless steel doors and the door-front ice dispenser were not as exciting as they seemed. I'm also glad to get back to a top/bottom door arrangement. Much easier to get at the food inside. Now to replace all the stuff that went beyond the point of saving.
travel - north adams, ma
Preparing for a gallery show - the Berkshire Artist's Colony has moved from Eagle Street to 107 Main Street. Here is the new space.
Here are the works I have submitted for the show; which opens Thursday, 24th of June. The works are varied in style and media: two collages ("Flotsam" and "Industry") two paintings ("Pilgrims" and "Mrs. Rockwell's Erratic") and photos. It will be interesting to see how BD and Ian will display them.
Here are the works I have submitted for the show; which opens Thursday, 24th of June. The works are varied in style and media: two collages ("Flotsam" and "Industry") two paintings ("Pilgrims" and "Mrs. Rockwell's Erratic") and photos. It will be interesting to see how BD and Ian will display them.
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