Genesis Project
Genesis is the latest project of world-renowned photographer Sebastiao Salgado, now on show in London. This image shows an Antarctic iceberg between the Paulet and the South Shetland Islands. Antarctica, 2005. The Genesis project is designed to reconnect us to how the world was before humanity altered it almost beyond recognition.
Anyway. I love this picture. A frozen castle, it's so beyond or before 'and they lived happily ever after'.
Cold War 2.0
© CZ 2007
Russia has successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile featuring multiple warheads that Moscow said could pierce any missile defence system, including the planned US shield in Europe.
President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia will aim missiles at Europe if the US goes ahead with its planned defence system.
"Of course I am an absolute, pure democrat. But you know the problem? It's not even a problem, it's a real tragedy. The thing is that I am the only one, there just aren't any others in the world. After the death of Mahatma Gandhi there's nobody to talk to," he concluded, referring to the Indian leader who championed civil rights and non-violent resistance to tyranny.
Well, here we have it, just a couple of the headlines this last week, the latter one mr. president Putin in an interview last monday. And gosh, this really sounds like the good old Breznjew days, the blind leading the blind. Aw, that warm fuzzy feeling of global power politics, once more myself mesmerizing in the glow of total annihilation. Finally It all makes sense again. Guess it's time to re-release Frankie Goes To Hollywood's masterpiece "Two Tribes". Can't wait.
Worldpressphoto 2007
click for larger view
'The picture ( Spencer Platt, USA, Getty Images ) shows a group of young Lebanese driving through a South Beirut neighborhood devastated by Israeli bombings. The picture was taken on 15 August 2006, the first day of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah when thousands of Lebanese started returning to their homes.'
Death is there, no dead bodies though, so guess the jury's taste is changing towards subtlety. Nice capture of the moment anyway. Cool Mini.
Bonsai Rainforrest
Endowed in my morning rituals of hot coffee and cigarettes (ah the wonderful world of perpetual demand : coffee to sooth a throbbing throat, which makes me yearn for a smoke, which hurts my...etc etc) so yeah, sipping/coughing, my twin mood, I sorta realized, well gosh, yes, oh dear... I am so exemplary for the mess we're all in.
Anyway i was reading about the flooding in Djakarta, Indonesia, and in a smaller article about the near depletion of the rainforrest in Sumatra and Borneo, and as the mind goes when confronted with things too big to handle, it cuts it down to tiny personal visuals and words, or well, suddenly i was thinking about Soylent Green I saw as a kid, especially that scene where Charles Heston visits this dome under gloomy skies, where the last living tree was standing. And then somehow, maybe because it was a rich guy who had that tree and maybe cause today our new government presented their plans for the future, I thought of Bonsai trees, free Bonsai Trees for everyone, with just one obligation: Keep it alive. I already could see the slogans: Nurture a bit of Nature.
Bonsai, dont you love it already, dont you love the ring of it? Bonsai..
And then I found this picture (see above) and lost direction and went like this:
1. In the eighties I had a haircut like that (tree), a less profiled one now (the guy).
2. According to Wikipedia 'a bonsai is not a genetically dwarfed plant. It is any tree or shrub species actively growing but kept small through a combination of pot confinement, and crown and root pruning', and thus there is still hope for me I guess, escaping this little contained and hairless life.
3. Also contemplated that Bonsai sounds really like Banzai, that Japanese battle cry during the war (II) before storming into a certain death, suicidal in their adoration for their emperor. The Japanese lost, sure deal.
Hmmm... why do I make everything so personal?
Symmetry/Nightswimming
*the Dutch best prepared for climate change
According to a recent study by the Universities of Princeton and Munich, The Dutch are the longest people in the world, at an average of 4,7 cm more then The Americans. This week the UN (IPCC) also published his rapport on global warming, saying sealevels may rise by 28-43cm this century. Gorilla saw the symmetry in all this.
Its makes you think, wondering how I get in the sum of things, only 1.78 tall. Its the small that fall first. Another inconvenient truth....?
Tsunami 2004
Crossing Borders
So far this year bout 25.000 (illegal) migrants from North Africa have tried to reach Europe by boat. Many died doing so. Yesterday, in the Street of Gibraltar, three of those refugees were picked up by Spanish authorities. They tried to reach the mainland by waterbike. Dunno about you, but hey lets welcome those cool heroes, give them a hat and medal. Clap clap.
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