Philip Larkin: Kid Stuff

January 16, 2015, 1:38 am

≫ Next: Mohamedou Ould Slahi: Guantánamo Diary

≪ Previous: Ezra Pound: Canto I: Into the Underworld (A Poetry Comic by Nora Sawyer)

#mwoodsphotos: Absolute Beginners, Notting Hill... @mwoodsphotos at @BridgemanImages #children #London #photography #Poverty #homeless #children:image via Susan Israel @bondi_izzy, 6 January 2015

It was that verse about becoming again as a little child that caused the first sharp waning of my Christian sympathies. If the Kingdom of Heaven could be entered only by those fulfilling such a condition I knew I should be unhappy there. It was not the prospect of being deprived of money, keys, wallet, letters, books, long-playing records, drinks, the opposite sex, and other solaces of adulthood that upset me (I should have been about eleven), but having to put up indefinitely with the company of other children, their noise, their nastiness, their boasting, their back-answers, their cruelty, their silliness. Until I began to meet grown-ups on more or less equal terms I fancied myself a kind of Ishmael. The realisation that it was not people I disliked but children was for me one of those celebrated moments of revelation, comparable to reading Haeckel or Ingersoll in the last century. The knowledge that I should never (except by deliberate act of folly) get mixed up with them again more than compensated for having to start earning a living.

Mothers and young children flock round an ice cream van in a back street in Hulme, Manchester: photo by Shirley Baker (9 July 1932 - 21 September 2014), 1965 via The Guardian, 8 October 2014

Today I am more tolerant. It's not that I loathe the little scum, as Hesketh Pearson put it; merely that 'the fact is that a child is a nuisance to a grown-up person. What is more, the nuisance becomes more and more intolerable as the grown-up person becomes more cultivated, more sensitive, and more engaged in the highest methods of adult work' (Shaw). I don't know about highest methods of adult work: what makes the contest between them so unequal is that the child is younger and so in better physical shape, life hasn't yet cut it down to size, it's not worried about anything, it hasn't been to work all today and hasn't got to go to work all tomorrow, all of which makes it quite unbearable but for none of which can it fairly be blamed. The two chief characteristics of childhood, and the two things that make it so seductive to a certain type of adult mind, are its freedom from reason and its freedom from responsibility. It is these that give it its peculiar heartless, savage strength.

Philip Larkin (1922-1985): excerpts from The Savage Seventh (a review of Iona and Peter Opie: The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, 1959), first published in The Spectator, 20 November 1959, reprinted in Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982, 1983

Two young girls swing on a rope attached to a lamppost outside a corner shop in Hulme, Manchester in the evening light: photo by Shirley Baker (9 July 1932 - 21 September 2014), 1965 via The Guardian, 8 October 2014

Islamabad, Pakistan.Afghan refugee girls sit in a hole in the ground, playing with a doll in a slum: photo by Muhammed Muheisen / AP via The Guardian, 4 January 2015

An Afghan refugee child plays with a kite

An Afghan boy in Pakistan plays with a kite: photo by Muhammed Muheisen / AP via The Guardian, 31 October 2014

An #Afghan #refugee #child child plays with a kite on the outskirts of Islamabad, #Pakistan, on Monday #childrenoftheday: image via Voice of Afghanistan @VoiceAfghan, 6 January 2015

An #Afghan #refugee #child girl washes a bed in a polluted stream, poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad #Pakistan: image via Voice of Afghanistan @VoiceAfghan, 6 January 2015

An Afghan refugee boy chases bubbles while playing on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan: photo by Muhammed Muheisen / AP via The Guardian, 31 October 2014

A Yemeni boy walks past a mural reading ' Why did you kill my family' on Dec. 13, 2013 in the capital Sanaa #drones: image via Voice of Afghanistan @VoiceAfghan, 4 January 2015

‘Every child under the age of 10 seems to be careering excitedly towards unsuspecting passers by, while a tired-looking parent vaguely attempts to assume some semblance of control’: photo by: DR Hutchinson/Getty via the Guardian, 29 December 2014

Family: photographer unknown, c. 1955 (Ben Evans Recreation Program Collection, Seattle Municipal Archives)

Two youths in Uptown, Chicago, Illinois: photo by Danny Lyon (b. 1942) for the Environmental Protection Agency's Documerica project, August 1974(U.S. National Archives)

Three young girls on Bond Street in Brooklyn: photo by Danny Lyon (b. 1942) for the Environmental Protection Agency's Documerica project, July 1974(U.S. National Archives}

Chicano boy, Second Ward, El Paso: photos by DannyLyon (b. 1942) for the Environmental Protection Agency's Documerica project, June/July 1972 (US National Archives)

School girl on street in North Philadelphia: photo by Dick Swanson (b. 1934) for the Environmental Protection Agency's Documerica Project, August 1973 (US National Archives)

Squatting Girl / Spider Girlwith Green Car (New York): photo by Helen Levitt (1913-1909), 1980 via The Guardian, 24 October 2014

Boy with finger in his mouth: photo by Weegee/International Centre of Photography via the Guardian, 9 January 2015

Girls in movie theatre with doll: photo by Weegee/International Centre of Photography via the Guardian, 9 January 2015

Two grinning boys, Manchester: photo by Shirley Baker (9 July 1932 - 21 September 2014), 1965 via The Guardian, 8 October 2014

Pupils from the Latymer School, London: photo by Jane Bown (1925-2014) for The Observer, 1963, via The Observer, 21 December 2014

Beatles fans in East Ham, London: photo by Jane Bown (1925-2014) for The Observer, 1963, via The Observer, 21 December 2014

In Room 34, Bablake School, Coventry:photo by allhails, 17 December 1954

Bablake School, Coventry: Perkins and Weaver in a full and frank discussion: photo by allhails, 19 May 1955

At the fair, Hearsall Common, Coventry: photo by allhails, 30 May 1955

At Hearsall Common fair, Coventry: photo by allhails, 4 June 1955

A quiet moment in Room 34, Bablake School, Coventry:photo by allhails, 17 December 1955

A quiet moment in class, Bablake School, Coventry:photo by allhails, c. July 1956

At Bablake School, Coventry. "Pip" Jones, one of the great characters in our school form:photo by allhails, c. July 1956

At Bablake School, Coventry:photo by allhails, mid-1957

If I knew how to take a good photograph, I'd do it every time #RobertDoisneau #photojournalism #children: image via Mark Denham @DenhamMark, 5 January 2015

Salford, UK. Children playing outside in Broughton Green, as the late autumn sunshine casts shadows of a bare tree on their house: photo by Christopher Thomond for the Guardian, 3 November 2014

Afghan refugee girls listen to their teacher during their daily Madrassa, or Islamic school, at a mosque

Afghan children during their madrassa, or religious school, in a mosque: photo by Muhammed Muheisen / AP via The Guardian, 31 October 2014

Islamabad, Pakistan. Afghan refugees and internally displaced Pakistani children attend their daily madrasa, or Islamic school, at a mosque on the outskirts of the capital: photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP via the Guardian, 15 January 2015

#NewYear offers little chance for #children's #education in #Syria, warns UNICEF:image via UN News Centre @UN_News_Centre, 6 January 2015

#IslamicState #School Closures- 670,000 #Children deprived of Education #Refugees #Syria:image via World Relief Memphis @WRMemphis, 6 January 2015

RT @pn_antilogias: @FRANCE24: School attacks killed 160 #Syrian #children in 2014: UN image via semprecontro @semprecontro, 6 January 2015

This summer in #Lebanon in this and other villages we held camps for the #Syrian refugee #children: image via New Fields @NewFields, 5 January 2015

Extreme #poverty drives #Afghanistan #children to work in odd jobs No school Stolen childhood: image via voice of Afghanistan @VoiceAfghan, 5 January 2015

This tiny tot is likely to become #PeshawarAttack militant. Pic: Taken from IS child camps near Mosul, Iraq. #children: image via Apurva #Apurvamahendra, 6 January 2015

How was 2014 for #Palestinian #Children? via @DCIPalestine #FREE_PALESTINE #ICC4Israel #BDS: image via Sam Fisher 6 @echelon, 5 January 2015

#Yemen armed #children belong to houthi militants in Hodida #city:image via Fuad Al-Hothefy @Fuad_PRYC, 6 January 2015

Are you sure that all #children are #innocent? I feel sorry for #future #generations this is what they call for #jihad: image via Yecidia @yezidia, 5 January 2015

Donetsk, Ukraine. A child holds a weapon outside a bombshelter that is used as accommodation by locals whose homes have been destroyed in shelling attacks: photo by Valeriy Sharifulin/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis via The Guardian, 22 December 2014

Kurdish children from the Syrian town of Kobani play at a refugee camp in the border town of Suruc, Turkey: photo by Osman Orsal / Reuters via The Guardian, 29 November 2014

Afghan refugees living in Islamabad: photo by Anadolu Agency via The Guardian, 1 December 2014

Mazar-i-sharif, Afghanistan. A child plays at a camp for internally displaced people. As winter sets in across the region, many Afghans struggle to provide adequate food and shelter for their families: photo by Farshad Usyan / AFP via The Guardian, 4 December 2014

Children, internally displaced due to fighting between rebels and forces loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, walk past tents at the Jarjanaz refugee camp in Idlib, Syria: photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters via The Guardian, 6 December 2014

A Syrian boy plays on a skateboard in Ankara, Turkey. Syrian refugees across the Middle East, some in exile for a fourth winter, face freezing temperatures, hunger and increasing hostility from locals as governments struggle to cope with the humanitarian crisis. Lebanon and Jordan are tightening their borders to stem the flow of those trying to escape, while in Turkey, widely praised for hosting around half of Syria’s estimated 3.2 million refugees, the influx threatens to upset the country’s delicate social balance: photo by Umit Bektas/Reuters via The Guardian, 6 December 2014

Gaza City, Gaza. A Palestinian boy looks out through a hole in his damaged family home: photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters via The Guardian, 4 January 2015

Ahmadabad, India. Students pour water on each other as part of a ritual bath on the eve of Magh Purnima: photo by AP via The Guardian, 4 January 2015

Kabul, Afghanistan. An internally displaced child washes her feet at a hand pump as she and others wait for their parents to collect food relief aid from the World Food Programme: photo by Shah Marai/AFP via The Guardian, 14 January 2015

@Raqqa_SI: Syrian refugees #children going to school despite everything. Atmeh camp, in Idleb, Idlib, #Syria: image via Maey @MaeyCat, 6 January 2015

Despite crying from the cold, Ibrahim, seven, seen here standing at the entrance to his shelter, has helped his father clear snow from the roof to prevent it collapsing. The refugee family in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley have only a makeshift tent to protect them from the cold, with temperatures dipping below -5C (23F): photo by Ralph Baydoun/World Vision via The Guardian, 15 January 2015

A boy warms his hands by a fire at a makeshift garage in a camp in Arsal: photo by Maya Hautefeuille/AFP via The Guardian, 15 January 2015

A Syrian boy, right, looks out through the door of his snow-covered shelter in Deir Zanoun: photo by Hussein Malla/AP via The Guardian, 15 January 2015

#Pray for #Children and Give #charity #Syria: image via Sis Convince Me @SisConvinceMe, 5 January 2015

Suruç, Turkey. A Kurdish boy from the Syrian town of Kobani holds onto a fence that surrounds a refugee camp: photo by Yannis Behrakis / Reuters via The Guardian, 3 November 2014

# It's not #death [t]hat scares us, if we die 4 a better #life 4 our #children. What scares [us] is 2 die without meaning:image via geen Alhasan @GeenHasan, 6 January 2015

#syria #pain #children #world #storm Happy New real year Welcome in syria:image via ABD @mmoawea, 6 January 2015

#syria #pain #children #world #storm We were [to] have houses but after Alassad start[ed] a war we [have] been homeless for freedom:image via ABD @mmoawea, 6 January 2015

↧

Mohamedou Ould Slahi: Guantánamo Diary

January 17, 2015, 1:45 am

≫ Next: Ivor Gurney: Possessions

≪ Previous: Philip Larkin: Kid Stuff

Five more #Guantánamo detainees transfered to #Kazakhstan - #US: image via Sputnik @Sputnikint, 30 December 2014

The Long Flight

Mohamedou Ould Slahi describes the flight to Guantánamo: image via the Guardian, 16 January 2015

In November 2001, Mohamedou Ould Slahi was arrested in Mauritania and taken to Amman by Jordanian armed forces. He was interrogated and held in solitary confinement for seven and a half months. Then a CIA rendition team took Slahi to Bagram air base in Afghanistan. From there, two weeks later, he was flown to Guantánamo Bay.

Around 4pm, the transport to the airport started. By then, I was a “living dead”. My legs weren’t able to carry me any more; for the time to come, the guards had to drag me all the way from Bagram to GTMO ...

The arrival at the airport was obvious because of the whining of the engines, which easily went through the earplugs. The truck backed up until it touched the plane. The guards started to shout loudly in a language I could not differentiate. I started to hear human bodies hitting the floor. Two guards grabbed a detainee and threw him toward two other guards on the plane, shouting “Code”; the receiving guards shouted back confirming receipt of the package. When my turn came, two guards grabbed me by the hands and feet and threw me toward the reception team. I don’t remember whether I hit the floor or was caught by the other guards. I had started to lose feeling and it would have made no difference anyway.

Another team inside the plane dragged me and fastened me on a small and straight seat. The belt was so tight I could not breathe. The air conditioning hit me, and one of the MPs was shouting, “Do not move, Do not talk,” while locking my feet to the floor. I didn’t know how to say “tight” in English. I was calling, “MP, MP, belt ...” Nobody came to help me. I almost got smothered. I had a mask over my mouth and my nose, plus the bag covering my head and my face, not to mention the tight belt around my stomach: breathing was impossible. I kept saying, “MP, Sir, I cannot breathe! ... MP, SIR, please.”But it seemed like my pleas for help got lost in a vast desert.

After a couple minutes, ____________ was dropped beside me on my right. I wasn’t sure it was him, but he told me later he felt my presence beside him. Every once in a while, if one of the guards adjusted my goggles, I saw a little. I saw the cockpit, which was in front of me. I saw the green camo-uniforms of the escorting guards. I saw the ghosts of my fellow detainees on my left and my right. “Mister, please, my belt …hurt …” I called. When the shoutings of the guards faded away, I knew that the detainees were all on board. “Mister, please … belt …” A guard responded, but he not only didn’t help me, he tightened the belt even more around my abdomen.

Now I couldn’t endure the pain; I felt I was going to die. I couldn’t help asking for help louder. “Mister, I cannot breathe …” One of the soldiers came and untightened the belt, not very comfortably but better than nothing.

“It’s still tight …” I had learned the word when he asked me, “Is it tight?”

“That’s all you get.” I gave up asking for relief from the belt.

“I cannot breathe!” I said, gesturing to my nose. A guard appeared and took the mask off my nose. I took a deep breath and felt really relieved. But to my dismay, the guard put the mask back on my nose and my mouth. “Sir, I cannot breathe … MP … MP.” The same guy showed up once more, but instead of taking the mask off my nose, he took the plug out of my ear and said, “Forget about it!” and immediately put the ear plug back. It was harsh, but it was the only way not to smother. I was panicking, I had just enough air, but the only way to survive was to convince the brain to be satisfied with the tiny bit of air it got.

The plane was in the air. A guard shouted in my ear, “Ima gonna give you some medication, you get sick.” He made me take a bunch of tablets and gave me an apple and a peanut butter sandwich, our only meal since the transfer procedure began. I’ve hated peanut butter since then. I had no appetite for anything, but I pretended I was eating the sandwich so the guards don’t hurt me. I always tried to avoid contact with those violent guards unless it was extremely necessary. I took a bite off the sandwich and kept the rest in my hand till the guards collected the trash. As to the apple, the eating was tricky, since my hands were tied to my waist and I wore mittens. I squeezed the apple between my hands and bent my head to my waist like an acrobat to bite at it. One slip and the apple is gone. I tried to sleep, but as tired as I was, every attempt to take a nap ended in failure.

The seat was as straight as an arrow, and as hard as a stone.

#EEUUenvía a cinco prisioneros de #Guantánamoa Kazajistán para reubicación: image via Reuters Latam @ReutrsLatam, 31 December 2014

After five hours, the prisoners are transferred on to another flight for the final leg of their journey.

The plane seemed to be heading to the kingdom of far, far away. Feeling lessened with every minute going by; my body numbed. I remember asking for the bathroom once. The guards dragged me to the place, pushed inside a small room, and pulled down my pants. I couldn’t take care of my business because of the presence of others. But I think I managed with a lot of effort to squeeze some water. I just wanted to arrive, no matter where. Any place would be better than this plane.

After I don’t know how many hours, the plane landed in Cuba. The guards started to pull us out of the plane. “Walk! ... Stop!” I couldn’t walk, for my feet were unable to carry me. And now I noticed that at some point I had lost one of my shoes. After a thorough search outside the plane, the guards shouted, “Walk! Do not talk! Head down! Step!” I only understood “Do not talk,” but the guards were dragging me anyway. Inside the truck, the guards shouted, “Sit down!” Cross your legs!” I didn’t understand the last part but they crossed my legs anyway. “Head down!” one shouted, pushing my head against the rear end of another detainee like a chicken. A female voice was shouting all the way to the camp, “No Talking,” and a male voice, “Do not talk,” and an Arabic translator, _________________________ _____ __________________________________________, “Keep your head down.” I was completely annoyed by the American way of talking; I stayed that way for a long time, until I got cured by meeting other good Americans. At the same time, I was thinking about how they gave the same order two different ways: “Do not talk” and “No talking.” That was interesting.

By now the chains on my ankles were cutting off the blood to my feet. My feet became numb. I heard only the moaning and crying of other detainees. Beating was the order of the trip. I was not spared: the guard kept hitting me on my head and squeezing my neck against the rear end of the other detainee. But I don’t blame him as much as I do that poor and painful detainee, who was crying and kept moving, and so kept raising my head. Other detainees told me that we took a ferry ride during the trip, but I didn’t notice.

After about an hour we were finally at the promised land. As much pain as I suffered, I was very happy to have the trip behind me. A prophet’s saying states: “Travel is a piece of torture.” This trip was certainly a piece of torture. Now I was only worried about how I was going to stand up if they asked me to. I was just paralysed. Two guards grabbed me and shouted “Stan’ up.” I tried to jump but nothing happened; instead they dragged me and threw me outside the truck.

The warm Cuban sun hit me gracefully. It was such a good feeling.

EEUU envía a cinco prisioneros de AJEnglish: Five more #Guantánamo detainees freed : Al Jazeera English ... #SriLanka: image via News @BreaknNews, 31 December 2014

The False Rendition

In August 2003, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, authorised a plan to subject Slahi to “special interrogation”, whereby he would be subjected to a fake rendition process and led to believe he had been delivered to another country where he would be subjected to more brutal treatment. On 24 August, an interrogation team burst into his isolation cell.

“Blindfold the motherfucker if he tries to look …” One of them hit me hard across the face, and quickly put the goggles on my eyes, ear muffs on my ears, and a small bag over my head. I couldn’t tell who did what. They tightened the chains around my ankles and my wrists; afterwards, I started to bleed. All I could hear was _____ cursing, “F-this and F-that!” I didn’t say a word, I was overwhelmingly surprised, I thought they were going to execute me.

Thanks to the beating I wasn’t able to stand, so _____ and the other guard dragged me out with my toes tracing the way and threw me in a truck, which immediately took off. The beating party would go on for the next three or four hours before they turned me over to another team that was going to use different torture techniques.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi's manuscript - description of the boat trip

Slahi’s manuscript, in which he describes being tortured on the boat: image via the Guardian, 16 January 2015

“Stop praying, motherfucker, you’re killing people,” _____ said, and punched me hard on my mouth. My mouth and nose started to bleed, and my lips grew so big that I technically could not speak anymore. The colleague of _____ turned out to be one of my guards, ______________________________. _____ and __________ each took a side and started to punch me and smash me against the metal of the truck. One of the guys hit me so hard that my breath stopped and I was choking; I felt like I was breathing through my ribs. I almost suffocated without their knowledge ...

After 10 to 15 minutes, the truck stopped at the beach, and my escorting team dragged me out of the truck and put me in a high-speed boat ... Inside the boat, _____ made me drink salt water, I believe it was directly from the ocean. It was so nasty I threw up. They would put any object in my mouth and shout, “Swallow, motherfucker!”, but I decided inside not to swallow the organ-damaging salt water, which choked me when they kept pouring it in my mouth. “Swallow, you idiot!” I contemplated quickly, and decided for the nasty, damaging water rather than death.

_____ and ____________ escorted me for about three hours in the high-speed boat. The goal of such a trip was, first, to torture the detainee and claim that “the detainee hurt himself during transport,” and second, to make the detainee believe he was being transferred to some far, faraway secret prison. We detainees knew all of that; we had detainees reporting they had been flown around for four hours and found themselves in the same jail where they started. I knew from the beginning that I was going to be transferred to __________________, about a five-minute ride. __________________ had a very bad reputation: just hearing the name gave me nausea. I knew the whole long trip I was going to take was meant to terrorise me. But what difference does it make? I cared less about the place, and more about the people who were detaining me...

When the boat reached the coast, _____ and his colleague dragged me out and made me sit, crossing my legs. I was moaning from the unbearable pain.

“Uh … Uh … ALLAH … ALLAH … I told you not to fuck with us, didn’t I?” said Mr X, mimicking me. I hoped I could stop moaning, because the gentleman kept mimicking me and blaspheming the Lord. However, the moaning was necessary so I could breathe. My feet were numb, for the chains stopped the blood circulation to my hands and my feet; I was happy for every kick I got so I could alter my position. “Do not move motherfucker!” said _____, but sometimes I couldn’t help changing position; it was worth the kick.

“We appreciate everybody who works with us, thanks gentlemen,” said _________________. I recognised his voice; although he was addressing his Arab guests, the message was addressed to me more than anybody. It was nighttime. My blindfold didn’t keep me from feeling the bright lighting from some kind of high-watt projectors...

After about 40 minutes, I couldn’t really tell, ______________ instructed the Arabic team to take over. The two guys grabbed me roughly, and since I couldn’t walk on my own, they dragged me on the tips of my toes to the boat. I must have been very near the water, because the trip to the boat was short. I don’t know. They either they put me in another boat or in a different seat. This seat was both hard and straight.

“Move!”

“I can’t move!”

“Move, fucker!” They gave this order knowing that I was too hurt to be able to move. After all I was bleeding from my mouth, my ankles, my wrists, and maybe my nose, I couldn’t tell for sure. But the team wanted to keep the factor of fear and terror maintained.

“Sit!” said the Egyptian guy, who did most of the talking while both were pulling me down until I hit the metal. The Egyptian sat on my right side, and the Jordanian on my left.

“What’s your fucking name?” asked the Egyptian.

“M-O-O-H-H-M-M-EE-D-D-O-O-O-U!” I answered. Technically I couldn’t speak because of the swollen lips and hurting mouth. You could tell I was completely scared. Usually I wouldn’t talk if somebody starts to hurt me. In Jordan, when the interrogator smashed me in the face, I refused to talk, ignoring all his threats. This was a milestone in my interrogation history. You can tell I was hurt like never before; it wasn’t me anymore, and I would never be the same as before. A thick line was drawn between my past and my future with the first hit _____ delivered to me.

“He is like a kid!” said the Egyptian accurately, addressing his Jordanian colleague. I felt warm between them both, though not for long. With the co-operation of the Americans, a long torture trip was being prepared.

I couldn’t sit straight in the chair. They put me in a kind of thick jacket which fastened me to the seat. It was good feeling. However, there was a destroying drawback to it: my chest was so tightened that I couldn’t breathe properly. Plus, the air circulation was worse than the first trip. I didn’t know why, exactly, but something was definitely going wrong.

“I c … a … c … n’t br … e … a … the!”

“Suck the air!” said the Egyptian wryly. I was literally suffocating inside the bag around my head. All my pleas and my begging for some free air ended in a cul-de-sac.

I heard indistinct conversations in English, I think it was _____ and his colleague, and probably _________________. Whoever it was, they were supplying the Arab team with torture materials during the three- or four-hour trip. The order went as follows: They stuffed the air between my clothes and me with ice cubes from my neck to my ankles, and whenever the ice melted, they put in new, hard ice cubes. Moreover, every once in a while, one of the guards smashed me, most of the time in the face. The ice served both for the pain and for wiping out the bruises I had from that afternoon. Everything seemed to be perfectly prepared. People from cold regions might not understand the extent of the pain when ice cubes get stuck on your body. Historically, kings during medieval and pre-medieval times used this method to let the victim slowly die. The other method, of hitting the victim while blindfolded in inconsistent intervals, was used by the Nazis during the second world war. There is nothing more terrorising than making somebody expect a smash every single heartbeat.

We live in the void of metamorphoses... But… Are we near to our conscience, or far from it? #CIATorture #HumanRights: image via James Luchte, 25 December 2014

The False Confession

US redacts Mohamedou Ould Slahi's '#Guantanamo Diary' #WikiLeaks: image via hazelpress @hazelpress, 16 January 2015

In autumn 2003, soon after his false rendition, Slahi was moved to a blacked-out isolation cell built specifically for his interrogation. A delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross that visited in September was not allowed to meet with him. Eventually, his interrogators presented him with a proposition.

“_________________ wants to see you in a couple of days,” _________ said. I was so terrified; at this point I was just fine without his visit.

“He is welcome,” I said. I started to go to the toilet relentlessly. My blood pressure went crazily high. I was wondering what the visit would be like. But thank God the visit was much easier than what I thought. _____________ came, escorted by _________. He was, as always, practical and brief.

“I am very happy with your cooperation. Remember when I told you that I preferred civilised conversations? I think you have provided 85% of what you know, but I am sure you’re gonna provide the rest,” he said, opening an ice bag with some juice.

“Oh, yeah, I’m also happy!” I said, forcing myself to drink the juice just to act as if I were normal. But I wasn’t: I was like, 85% is a big step coming out of his mouth. _____________ advised me to keep cooperating.

“I brought you this present,” he said, handing me a pillow. Yes, a pillow. I received the present with a fake overwhelming happiness, and not because I was dying to get a pillow. No, I took the pillow as a sign of the end of the physical torture.

We have a joke back home about a man who stood bare naked on the street. When someone asked him, “How can I help you?” He replied, “Give me shoes.” And that was exactly what happened to me. All I needed was a pillow! But it was something: alone in my cell, I kept reading the tag over and over.

“Remember when _____________ told you about the 15% you’re holding back,” said _________ a couple of days after _______________ visit. “I believe that your story about Canada doesn’t make sense. You know what we have against you, and you know what the FBI has against you,” he continued.

“So what would make sense?” I asked.

“You know exactly what makes sense,” he said sardonically.

“You’re right, I was wrong about Canada. What I did exactly was …”

“I want you to write down what you’ve just said. It made perfect sense and I understood, but I want it on paper.”

“My pleasure, Sir!” I said.

---

I came to Canada with a plan to blow up the CN Tower in Toronto. My accomplices were ________________________________________________________ and ___________. ___________ went to Russia to get us the supply of explosives. _____________ wrote an explosives simulation software that I picked up, tested myself, and handed in a data medium to ______________. The latter was supposed to send it with the whole plan to _____________ in London so we could get the final fatwa from the Sheikh. _________ was supposed to buy a lot of sugar to mix with the explosives in order to increase the damage. ______________ provided the financing. Thanks to Canadian intel, the plan was discovered and sentenced to failure. I admit that I am as guilty as any other participants and am so sorry and ashamed for what I have done. Signed, M.O. Slahi

When I handed the paper to __________________, he read it happily.

“This statement makes perfect sense.”

“If you’re ready to buy, I am selling,” I said. ______________ could hardly hold himself on the chair; he wanted to leave immediately. I guess the prey was big, and _____________ was overwhelmed because he reached a breakthrough where no other interrogators had, in spite of almost four years of uninterrupted interrogation from all kinds of agencies from more than six countries. What a success! ______________ almost had a heart attack from happiness.

“I’ll go see him!”

I think the only unhappy person in the team was _______, because ____ doubted the truthfulness of the story.

"It is in your self-interest to find a way to be very tender", Jenny Holzer, 1983-85: image via Ian Alan Paul @IanAlanPaul, 22 December 2014

Indeed the next day _________________ came to see me, escorted as always by his ______________. “Remember when I told about the 15% you were holding back?”

“Yes, I do.”

“I think this confession covered that 15%!” I was like, Hell, yes!

“I am happy that it did,” I said.

“Who provided the money?”

“_________ did."

“And you, too?” _____________ asked.

“No, I took care of the electrical part.” I don’t really know why I denied the financial part. Did it really make a difference? Maybe I just wanted to maintain the consistency.

“What if we tell you that we found your signature on a fake credit card?” said ______________. I knew he was bullshitting me because I knew I never dealt with such dubious things. But I was not going to argue with him.

“Just tell me the right answer. Is it good to say yes or to say no?” I asked. At that point I hoped I was involved in something so I could admit to it and relieve myself of writing about every practicing Muslim I ever met, and every Islamic organisation I ever heard of. It would have been much easier to admit to a true crime and say that’s that.

“This confession is consistent with the intels we and other agencies possess,” _____________ said.

“I am happy.”

“Is the story true?” asked __________.

“Look, these people I was involved with are bad people anyway, and should be put under lock and key. And as to myself, I don’t care as long as you are pleased. So if you want to buy, I am selling.”

“But we have to check with the other agencies, and if the story is incorrect, they’re gonna find out,” _______________

“If you want the truth, this story didn’t happen,” I said sadly. __________ had brought some drinks and candies that I forced myself to swallow. They tasted like dirt because I was so nervous. __________ took his ______ outside and pitted him on me. ____________ came back harassing me and threatening me with all kinds of suffering and agony. __________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________.

“You know how it feels when you experience our wrath,” ____________ said. I was like, what the heck does this asshole want from me? If he wants a confession, I already provided one. Does he want me to resurrect the dead? Does he want me to heal his blindness? I am not a prophet, nor does he believe in them. “The Bible is just the history of the Jewish people, nothing more,” he used to say. If he wants the truth, I told him I have done nothing! I couldn’t see a way out. “Yes … Yes! … Yes!” After ____________ made me sweat to the last drop in my body, _________________ called him and gave him advice about the next tactics. ___________ left and _____________ continued.

“_________________ has overall control. If he is happy everybody is. And if he isn’t, nobody is.” ______________ started to ask me other questions about other things, and I used every opportunity to make myself look as bad as I could. “I’m going to leave you alone with papers and pen, and I want you to write everything you remember about your plan in Canada!”

“Yes, Sir.”

Two days later, they were back at my door.

Redactions marked in the text were made by the US government when Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s diary was cleared for public release

Mohamedou Ould Slahi: excerpts from Guantánamo Diary, 2015, via The Guardian, 16 January 2015

Five more #Guantánamo detainees freed: Al Jazeera English #SriLanka: image via News @BreaknNews, 31 December 2014

11 reasons this January 11th must be #Guantánamo’s last anniversary: image via AmnestyInterntional @amnesty, 11 January 2015

Former #Guantánamo Guard: CIA killed prisoners & made it look like suicide: image via AnonyOps @AnonyOpsAerial, 16 January 2015

A man who is no more a terrorist than Forrest Gump was

Where is justice for the men still abandoned in Guántanamo Bay? A man who is no more a terrorist than Forrest Gump was remains incarcerated four years after he was cleared for release: Morris Davis, The Guardian, 16 January 2015

“I will be back soon,” I said, as we stood up and shook hands. Then I turned and walked a few steps to the gate, and waited for the guard to unlock it so I could leave. Those were the last words I said to Mohamedou Ould Slahi after I met him in the tiny compound he shared with Tariq al-Sawah in the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay. That was seven and a half years ago. I have never been inside the camp again. Slahi has never been out.

I didn’t know, that afternoon in the summer of 2007, that in a few weeks I would send an email to the US deputy secretary of defence, Gordon England, saying I could no longer in good conscience serve as chief prosecutor for the Guantánamo military commissions. I reached that decision after receiving a written order placing Brigadier-General Tom Hartmann over me and the Pentagon general counsel, Jim Haynes, over Hartmann.

Hartmann had chastised me for refusing to use evidence obtained by “enhanced” interrogation techniques, saying: “President Bush said we don’t torture, so who are you to say we do?” Haynes authored the “torture memo” that the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, signed in April 2003 approving interrogation techniques that were not authorised by military regulations –- the memo where Rumsfeld scribbled in the margin: “I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing [for detainees during interrogations] limited to 4 hours?” Rather than face a Hobson’s choice when they directed me to go into court with torture-derived evidence, I chose to quit before they had the chance.

Slahi and al-Sawah had been recommended to me as potential cooperating witnesses. Before I met them, I asked one of my prosecutors to review their files and check with other agencies to be sure nothing had been overlooked. We attended a meeting where those who had spent years investigating Slahi briefed their findings. The end result was a consensus that, like Forrest Gump, Slahi popped up around significant events by coincidence, not design.

I love this movie #ForrestGump: image via Anthony @Tshavez, 11 January 2015

Several times I met Slahi and al-Sawah to try to secure their cooperation. They had a garden inside their compound where they grew herbs and vegetables. I don’t like hot tea even in the dead of winter, but whenever I visited, Slahi insisted on brewing tea using mint fresh from the garden. I recall sitting outside his hut in the Guantánamo heat, soaked in sweat, drinking hot tea and spitting mint leaf remnants on the ground as we talked.

I thought Slahi would be transferred out when President Obama took office. It seemed likely in 2010 when US district court judge James Robertson ordered him released after finding that incriminating statements he made were obtained by coercion, and that other evidence only proved there was smoke but no fire.

But instead of transferring Slahi, the Obama administration appealed and the US court of appeals proved to be an impenetrable barrier, just as it has in every case where a detainee won a habeas challenge at the district court level.

It has been four and a half years since Slahi’s release was ordered and he is still within sight of where he and I shook hands for the last time in 2007.

We were told that all the men at Guantánamo were the “worst of the worst”. In my job as chief prosecutor, where my focus was on reviewing cases for potential criminal prosecution, it was obvious the label was mostly hype. While the label fits a few -– like Jhald Sheikh Mohammed –- fewer than 4% of the 779 men ever sent there have or will face charges.

Six military commissions have been completed since they were first authorised by George Bush in November 2001. Five of the six men convicted and sentenced as war criminals –- Hicks, Hamdan, Khadr, al-Qosi and Noor Uthman Mohammed -– are now back in their home countries. (Hamdan and Mohammed have since been cleared.) What does it say about American justice when a person fares better being a convicted war criminal than someone we could not even charge?

Men were sent to Guantánamo because some in the Bush administration thought it was outside the reach of the law and we could exploit people there with impunity. Time proved them wrong. We have spent more than $5bn on detention operations at Guantánamo since it opened 13 years ago. There are 122 men there now at a cost of about $3m a year each. Almost half are approved for transfer, a status in which many have languished for years as the US tries to beg and bribe other countries to take them. And now some members of Congress want to make it more difficult for Obama to close it before he leaves office in January 2017.

I hope many will read Slahi’s book, and come to appreciate that Guantánamo is not just an abstract concept. It is a real place where real people have spent years wondering if anyone will ever come back for them.

America has paid a heavy price for a bad decision made 13 years ago, but it pales in comparison to the toll on those who remain trapped in the black hole of Guantánamo.

Scannal ó SAM "@RTUKnews: Investigation launched into #CIAtorture report’s censored content": image via Cabrini de Barra #Cabrinid, 9 January 2015 Waterford, Ireland

Current work on display @ the #Guantanamo Museum: "Arrows to Mecca" by C. McManus & J. Susman: image via Ian Alan Paul @IanAlanPaul, 26 December 2014

↧

Ivor Gurney: Possessions

January 18, 2015, 3:57 am

≫ Next: Ivor Gurney: First Time In [“After the dread tales ... ”]

≪ Previous: Mohamedou Ould Slahi: Guantánamo Diary

#CoopersHill #Brockworth overlooking #Witcombe #Gloucestershire: image via Ed Buxton @EdBuxton, 14 January 2015 South West, England

Sand has the ants, clay ferny weeds for play
But what shall please the wind now the trees are away
War took on Witcombe steep?
It breathes there, and wonders at old night roarings;
October time at all lights, and the new clearings
For memory are like to weep.
It was right for the beeches to stand over Witcombe reaches,
Until the wind roared and softened and died to sleep.

Ivor Gurney (b. Gloucester 28 August 1890 d. London 26 December 1937): Possessions, written 1922, first published 1934, as appearing in Collected Poems, 1982

Beautiful #whitethursday #snowday - one of many benefits working in a #countrypark - lovely #sitka & #beech: image via Beechbrae @BeechBraeWood, 11 December 2014

Carpet of leaves beneath the #beech trees on the hillside near #Stubbing Pond #Wingerworth: image via Alan Heardman @DelepChimney, 2 December 2014

↧

Ivor Gurney: First Time In [“After the dread tales ... ”]

January 19, 2015, 12:41 am

≫ Next: Projections of a Dream

≪ Previous: Ivor Gurney: Possessions

I agree "Lessons of #GreatWar still relevant"... but did we learn anything?: image via Green Fields Beyond @GFB1914, 19 December 2014

After the dread tales and red yarns of the Line
Anything might have come to us; but the divine
Afterglow brought us up to a Welsh colony
Hiding in sandbag ditches. Then we were taken in
To low huts candle-lit, shaded close by slitten
Oilsheets, and there but boys gave us kind welcome,
So that we looked out as from the edge of home.
Sang us Welsh things, and changed all former notions
To human hopeful things. And the next day's guns
Nor any Line-pangs ever quite could blot out
That strangely beautiful entry to War's rout;
Candles they gave us, precious and shared over-rations --
Ulysses found little more in his wanderings without doubt.
'David of the White Rock', the 'Slumber Song' so soft, and that
Beautiful tune to which roguish words by Welsh pit boys
Are sung -- but never more beautiful than here under the guns' noise.

Ivor Gurney (b. Gloucester 28 August 1890 d. London 26 December 1937): First Time In, written between 1920 and 1922, first published 2000

Soldiers of the English infantry in France during the first world war: photo by Fototeca Storica Nazionale via The Guardian, 16 December 2014

#GreatWar October 1916 Members of the #RoyalGarrisonArtillery: image via David Doughty @DavidWDoughty, 17 January 2015 Melbourne, Australia

Firing trench line at Passchendaele: photo by The Discovery Channel via The Guardian, 8 November 2014

Highland Territorials in trench with mascot dog: photo by The Discovery Channel via The Guardian, 8 November 2014

Officers of the 9th Rifle Brigade enjoy themselves in August 1916 after a torrid time in the Somme trenches. Of the eight officers in the picture, five were killed and two wounded during the war: photo by Richard van Emden via The Guardian, 8 November 2014

from Battle of the Somme by Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell, 1916: film still courtesy Imperial War Museum via the Guardian, 25 February 2014

March 1917: Members of a Royal Garrison Artillery working party carry duck-boards across the frozen Somme canal at Frise, France. The village was on the front line of the 1916 Battle of the Somme, in which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed: photo by Lt J W Brooke/Imperial War Museum via The Guardian, 6 May 2014

Trees line the Somme canal at Frise where outlines of trenches can still be seen today: photo by Peter Macdiarmid via The Guardian, 6 May 2014

A section of the Verdun battlefield seen today #GreatWar: image via Brian Altobello @since1775, 19 November 2014

Wales' Chris Coleman and the squad visit the Welsh war memorial at Flanders Field #GreatWar: image via FA Wales @FAWales, 17 November 2014

↧

Projections of a Dream

January 20, 2015, 2:46 am

≫ Next: Tom Clark: Evening Train

≪ Previous: Ivor Gurney: First Time In [“After the dread tales ... ”]

ICYMI - @ATLHawks special court projection for #MLK day: image via NBA @NBA, 19 January 2015

For #MartinLutherKingDay, here's a @Space_Station photo of Atlanta, where #MLK, who inspired us to dream, was born: image via NASA @NASA, 19 January 2015

Empire State Building tonight in red, black and green for Martin Luther King. #MLK: image via Negar Mortazavi @NegarMortazavi, 19 January 2015

a burnt cross outside #MLK house 1960 We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools #MLKDay: image via Phil @Phillip_Thomas, 19 January 2015

#MLK was only 34 years old when he shared The Dream with 250,000 people.#MLKDay: image via Matthew Ward @HistoryNeedsYou, 19 January 2015

Martin. Joy. #ReclaimMLK: image via deray mckesson @deray, 19 January 2015

Denied access to a white hotel, MLK & Coretta spent their wedding night at a black funeral home. @ReclaimMLK: image via Tyree Boyd-Pates @TyreeBP, 19 January 2015

Via @splcenter: On #MLKDay, remember his deep & still relevant political analysis: image via Elianne Ramos @ergeekgoddess, 19 January 2015

"The time is always right to do what is right" - Martin Luther King #MLK: image via Montee Ball @ballrb28, 19 January 2015

"The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important." - Martin Luther King #MLK: image via ANTONIO CROMARTIE @CRO31, 19 January 2015

MartinLutherKing, Jr. and Malcolm X, Washington, D.C.: photo by Marion S. Trikosko, 26 March 1964(U.S. News&WorldReport Photograph Collection, Library of Congress)

"Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Presiden Lyndon Johnson in background."

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.; President Lyndon Johnson in background, Washington, D.C.: photo by Yoichi Okamoto, 18 March 1966 (Lyndon Baines Johnson Library / National Archives and Records Administration)

Birmingham, Alabama: average Negro homes: photo by Marion J. Trikosko, 14 May 1963 (U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Group of African Americans viewing the bomb-damaged home of Arthur Shores, NAACP attorney, Birmingham, Alabama: photo by Marion S. Trikosko, 5 September 1963(U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Bomb-damaged trailers at the Gaston Motel, Birmingham, Alabama: the wreckage of a bomb explosion near the Gaston Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr., and leaders in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were staying during the Birmingham campaign of the Civil Rights movement: photo by Marion J. Trikosko, 14 May 1963(U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Riot damage in D.C.: the ruins of a store in Washington, D.C., that was destroyed during the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.: photo by Warren K. Leffler, 16 April 1968 (U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Washington D.C. riot, April '68, Aftermath: members of the D.C. National Guard patrolling streets as pedestrians walk by: photo by Warren K. Leffler, 8 April 1968(U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress))

D.C. riot. April '68. Aftermath. A soldier standing guard on the corner of 7th & N Street NW in Washington D.C. with the ruins of buildings that were destroyed during the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.: photo by Warren K. Leffler, 8 April 1968 (U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

"Don't work" sign promoting a holiday to honor the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., on a shop on H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.: photo by Marion J. Trikosko, 3 April 1960 (U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

King was jailed 29 times over the course of his life. Even arrested for driving 30 mph in a 25 mph zone. @ReclaimMLK: image via Tyree Boyd-Pates @TyreeBP, 19 January 2015

The FBI memo where King was labeled "the most dangerous Negro in the future of this nation".@ReclaimMLK: image via zellie @zellieimani, 19 January 2015

Don't believe that? Here are leaked letters sent by the @FBI to MLK [in 1963] in an attempt to break him. @ReclaimMLK: image via TheAnonMessage @TheAnonMessage, 19 January 2015

"We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools"- Martin Luther King #MLK: image via Navorro Bowman @NBowman53, 19 January 2015

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." #MLK: image via Nicholas Soto @nEkoSoto, 19 January 2015

reclaimMLK demonstrators block entrances to #Oakland federal building: image via KTVU @KTVU, 16 January 2015

At takeover of #Oakland federal building happening now. #MLKSHUTITDOWN: image via Dani McCain @drmcclain, 16 January 2015

Spotted in #Oakland #Chinatown, Malcolm X and dragons. Of course: image via Timmy @timmyhlu, 16 January 2015

Outside of #Oakland PD Eastmont Station: image via Elissa Harrington @EHarringtonNews, 17 January 2014

Protesters observe MLK Day by shutting down San Mateo Freeway with giant Palestinian flag: image via Max Blumenthal #@MaxBlumenthal, 19 January 2015

Great sign from today's #MLK march: image via Elizabeth Plank @feministfabulous,19 January 2015 Manhattan, NY

Pagans United for Justice are starting to gather for the march to #ReclaimMLK in #Oakland: image via T. Thorn Coyle @ThornCoyle, 19 January 2015

"@KQED: In #Oakland, a 5 a.m. Protest at Mayor Libby Schaaf’s House Via @KQEDNews #MLKDay": image via Oakland Grown @OaklandGrown, 19 January 2015 Oakland, CA

About 30 people protested outside the home of Oakland, California, mayor Libby Schaaf on Monday, calling on her to fire police officers with violent records: photo by Noah Berger/Reuters via The Guardian, 19 November 2015

Quotes by MLK projected onto #Oakland mayor's garage. #ReclaimMLK: image via Julia Carrie Wong @juliacarriew, 19 January 2015

“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.” #MLK: image via Muhammad Ali @MuhammadAli, 19 January 2015

It really has. #ReclaimMLK on #MartinLutherKingDay: image via Occupy Wall Street @OccupyWallStNYC, 19 January 2015

Another reclaimed billboard. #oakland #MLKalsoSaid: image via eli of the tiger @IraSass, 19 January 2015

↧

Tom Clark: Evening Train

January 21, 2015, 1:28 am

≫ Next: New Moon (Not Dark Yet)

≪ Previous: Projections of a Dream

Transmission lines and railroad near Salton Sea, California. District of Los Angeles smog obscures the sun: photo by Charles O'Rear, May 1972 for the Environmental Protection Agency's DOCUMERICA Project

Train whistle in cold January night

down by the water

lonesome sound

from a long way off
amid memory forest
Harlem Avenue 1947

or 1948

late

upstairs

in the exile bedroom

at grandparents' house

across from the house

of the mysterious famous gangster

in the dark
under the attic rafters
hour after hour
imagining a meaning

to fit

the brilliant silvery word

Zephyr

Evening train (Albany, California): photo by efo, 6 November 2012

In Evening Train we witness people on a bus, a window in the night, greenery, a bird on its perch—and then at the center of this world, something nameless seems to open. It’s hard to say just what happens, other than the words of each poem itself. But that isn’t quite right. It’s as if the words are a way for the poet to inscribe silence. You turn the page, wondering, and it arrives again—something quite beyond what is told. Tom Clark is a master.

—Aram Saroyan

A long time fan of Tom Clark’s poetry, I have turned to his books and blog for years to find inspiration, entertainment, and truth. His is a poetry that I can trust—at once spare and direct, witty and uncompromising, personal and universal, intelligent and deeply felt. I rely on Clark to reveal the nation I live in but often fail to see, complete with its environmental degradation, commercial excess, and kitschy spiritualism. His poems live at the intersection of truth and beauty, weaving the threads of the humdrum and the unbearable with the mystical—or at least with a longing for the mystical. Tom Clark is undoubtedly one of the great living American poets.

— Nin Andrews

Tom Clark is a master of surprise. He is a poet twenty-four hours a day and in possession of a very entertaining mind. He gets the familiar and the strange to dance together, and the dance steps are never the ones you expect. There is pathos in the humor of the situation: "First it's stuffed bunnies they're giving you. Next it's ice cream and then the nice surprise -- you're at the hospital, having an operation." Clark has the ability to guide words as they "turn a nowhere into a putative somewhere" -- to take the complications of mental or physical experience and redeem them in lyric poems of notable brevity. Evening Train is smart and companionable and joyously imaginative.

— David Lehman

These poems are radically, almost luridly, American, mapping out landscapes imagined, described, and entered into with stunning visual acuity and incisive intelligence. Yet the language has a spareness, a near egoless authority, giving this book wondrous aesthetic tension. Evening Train confirms what readers of this major American poet have long known: Tom Clark is a contemporary master.

—Terence Winch

Cherokee Yard, Tulsa, Oklahoma: photo by Wade Harris (Wade from Oklahoma), 8 December 2013

Evening Train by Tom Clark: A Review by Billy Mills

Evening Train by Tom Clark, BlazeVOX Books, 2014, ISBN: 978-1-60964-187-0, $16.00

The first thing to say about Tom Clark is that he is an American poet; this may seem too obvious to need stating, but it is fundamental to his art. The language, social norms and history of the United States are woven into the very fabric of his verse. This is made explicit in the first poem in Evening Train, ‘Moving House’, where the process of house removal is folded into the myth of Manifest Destiny, a people

…always moving out
ahead of the next wave yet not
riding the last wave to the crest

Clark writes poems that encompass memory (a central preoccupation), the natural world and our role in it, ageing and death, the interface between technology and social control: but all these matters are examined in a landscape that is specifically American and generally urban. Many of the poems set in the now reflect the geography of the city of Berkeley, where Clark has lived for many years. For instance, the almost surreal, apocalyptic poem ‘skyfalling’ is firmly anchored to a specific street junction in a precise social milieu:

Ninth and Bancroft, West Berkeley
insecure householder half dressed
emerges from behind barred gate
looks up into dark sky
one arm bent overhead as if to shield, crouching --

Railway Station, Bielskobiala, Poland, night: photo by czako_o, 16 December 2008

Equally, the poems of memory tend to be firmly located in space and time. For Clark, there is no escape from what was:

There is no such thing
as a clean break
with the past

Chase it off, it comes sneaking
straight back

And so he makes no attempt to chase it off, but holds his memories up to the light, to examine how his past has made him what he is.

Railway Station, Bielskobiala, Poland, night: photo by czako_o, 16 December 2008

And part of this is a political animal, concerned with questions of the environment and our relationship with it; his inadvertent killing of a ladybug leads him to the perception that

Beautiful things ought to be left alone
In a natural state

Frequently, he observes the intersection between this ‘natural state’ and his own urban environment; deer in the city crossing through a ‘lethal stream’ of traffic, for instance. Like memory, nature cannot be confined, and if you try to it will pop up again where least expected.

Railway Station, Bielskobiala, Poland, night: photo by czako_o, 16 December 2008

Clark is an active blogger, but his adoption of new technology hasn’t blinded him to the dangers of ‘A generation/mesmerized by/small screens’. These are the opening lines of ‘Blank (Don’t Be Late)’, the first of a run of poems in the second half of the book that are concerned with the digital world. In these poems, Clark imagines a kind of virtual world, with forests of ‘cell phone tower trees’, a world controlled by computers where people feel constrained not to speak out for fear of ‘administrative penalties’ and where even those dependent on medical care are doomed to wait

not for any imaginable compassion

but for the computer
malfunction
to end

Railway Station, Bielskobiala, Poland, night: photo by czako_o, 16 December 2008

Questions of health and mortality are also important to his work. His poems about death are reminiscent of the work of Cid Corman, the same matter-of-fact idiom is evident in the writings of both men. In these poems, a sliver of light through a curtain prefigures the closing of a coffin lid. In ‘Negative Development’, the perception that ‘Old is a kind of plague’ follows from the lines:

Death avoidance.
A game of tag.
An everyday thing.

The untypical heavy end-stopping of the lines enacting the subject in a carefully crafted stanza.

Railway Station, Bielskobiala, Poland, night: photo by czako_o, 16 December 2008

There is an almost Buddhist calm at the back of Clark’s view of death which, again, reminds the reader of Corman, an attitude that informs the final poem in the book, ‘Blown Away’.

unmoored yet not unmoved
tossed cloudward, flipped
sans volition
into the flow

Railway station, Poland: photo by czako_o, 13 February 2007

Clark’s language is, as already noted, pure American. This is explicit in the poem ‘So Now You Know’, which is a litany of idiomatic phrases beginning ‘you can blow’, but is really the given condition of his writing. These poems give the impression of being casually constructed, conversational, almost easy, but this is just a superficial impression. If he is engaged in conversation, he takes it to some very odd places, to silence, as a rule. When you reach the end of one of his poems, you may not be entirely clear on what exactly has been said, but you do have a clear sense that there is nothing more to say.

Not that the poems are unclear, the language is as limpid as you could ask for, the ‘content’ is in no ordinary sense obscure. Whatever confusion that might arise stems from the fact that the act of reading does not exhaust the best of Clark’s poems; they linger in the mind like unresolved questions, inviting contemplation. As the poem ‘Words’ has it

Even in the middle of nowhere
there are words

words turn nowhere into a putative somewhere.

I can think of no more accurate description of these poems.

-- Billy Mills, from Elliptical Movements, 12 January 2015

Drawbridge No. 8 (Richmond, California): photo by efo, 27 July 2010

Amtrak train 734 (Pinole, California): photo by efo, 30 April 2006

California Zephyr, Oakland: photo by efo, 27 November 2005

The Burlington Zephyr. East Dubuque, Illinois

The Burlington Zephyr, East Dubuque, Illinois: photo by John Vachon, April 1940 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Burlington and Quincy streamliner pulling out of the Union Station

Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Burlington and Quincy streamliner pulling out of the Union Station

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Zephyr streamliner pulling out of Union Station, Chicago: photo by Jack Delano, February 1943 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Chicago, Illinois. Steam and diesel engine at the Union Station

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Denver Zephyr diesel locomotive and older Pennsylvania Railroad steam locomotive side-by-side at Union Station, Chicago: photo by Jack Delano, January 1943 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

Silver Pilot. E Unit Zephyr, at Illinois Railway Museum, Union, Illinois: photo by cradek23, 12 July 2008

Zephyr, Snowy Glenwood Canyon. The eastbound California Zephyr passes through Glenwood Canyon and along the Colorado River on a snowy February afternoon. In the background, the Bair Ranch has been a working cattle spread since 1919 and now also is a popular small resort. The Glenwood Canyon passage, just east of the town of Glenwood Springs, is one of the most fabled scenic stretches on the Zephyr route: photo by George Hendrix, 6 February 2010

The California Zephyr pauses at Osceola, Iowa on an unseasonably warm February night: photo by lzcdome, 2002, posted 25 October 2009

A slice of history. Nebraska Zephyr with 1959 Edsel, Le Claire, Iowa: photo by Tristan Garrett, 25 July 2011

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Twin Cities Zephyr preparing to stop at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin: photo by Loyd Wollstadt, 1956; image by Roger Wollstedt, n.d.

Burlington Northern Metra 112 at Naperville, Illlinois: photo by Laurence's Pictures, 26 December 2010

Amtrak's Illinois Zephyr heads east amidst very large snow flakes at Naperville, Illlinois: photo by Laurence's Pictures, 24 December 2008

Nebraska Zephyr at Rock Island, Illinois railway museum: photo by Laurence's Pictures, 21 July 2011

View in a departure yard at Chicago and Northwestern Railroad's Proviso yard at twilight, Chicago, Illinois. Brakeman is signaling with a red flare and the train is going by during exposure: photo by Jack Delano, December 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

View in a departure yard at Chicago and Northwestern Railroad's Proviso yard at twilight, Chicago, Illinois: photo by Jack Delano, December 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

↧

New Moon (Not Dark Yet)

January 23, 2015, 1:06 am

≫ Next: Mystery Goo: Mercy, Mercy Me

≪ Previous: Tom Clark: Evening Train

The New Moon above Calgary tonight with glowing Earthshine ~ Magical Mystical #Earthshine #NewMoon #yyc #Canada: image via Joy Daniels @JoyousBounce11, 22 January 2015

cold old tired early late
bright new moon above the bay

cradling to its bosom its heavy sorrow

laden mars violet childhood one

more time

The Parkes radio telescope in western New South Wales, where the fast radio burst was detected: photo by CSIRO, ATNF/AAP via The Guardian, 21 January 2015

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are one of the most tantalizing mysteries of the radio sky; their progenitors and origins remain unknown and until now no rapid multiwavelength follow-up of an FRB has been possible. New instrumentation has decreased the time between observation and discovery from years to seconds, and enables polarimetry to be performed on FRBs for the first time. We have discovered an FRB (FRB 140514) in real-time on 2014 May 14 at 17:14:11.06 UTC at the Parkes radio telescope and triggered follow-up at other wavelengths within hours of the event.

from A real-time fast radio burst: polarization detection and multiwavelength follow-up (Abstract): E. Petroff et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 447, Issue 1

CSIRO cuts are front-page news in Parkes. Photograph: Julian Chung/Guardian Australia via The Guardian, 2 July 2014

The pinhole is narrowing, but it's not quite dark yet...

Detach into Future self, clarity and illumination by breaking free of past life identities #newmoon: image via Slater Bradley @slaterbradley, 20 January 2015

A fleeting but immensely powerful celestial signal has been “heard” live for the first time, radio astronomers in Australia have announced, bringing scientists a step closer to discovering its mysterious origins.

“Fast radio bursts” last only milliseconds but produce more energy in that time than the sun does in 24 hours. Their source has baffled astronomers since 2007, when researchers first detected “a bright millisecond radio burst of extragalactic origin” buried in a 90-hour pulsar survey taken at the Parkes observatory in western New South Wales.

Since then just seven more bursts have been identified, but only ever picked up weeks after the signal was received. Last May, for the first time, astronomers caught a live one.

“It was chaos,” said Emily Petroff, the Swinburne University PhD student leading the project that detected the burst.

An email alert went out 10 seconds after the discovery. Telescopes in California, the Canary Islands, Chile, Germany, Hawaii and India scrambled to point their receivers at the same patch of sky where the signal was heard. Astronomers quickly made optical, infrared, ultraviolet and x-ray observations of its traces.

News of the discovery was published on Tuesday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was beamed from the Parkes radio telescope in rural NSW: photo by Julian Chung/Guardian Australia via The Guardian, 2 July 2014

One theory suggests the bursts could be an energetic flare emitted by a dead star with a particularly strong magnetic field. More enticingly, it could also be evidence of a massive star five billion light years away undergoing a cataclysmic collision or collapse, and forming a black hole. “This would essentially be a death signal, the signal of a black hole forming,” Petroff said.

Around 10,000 fast radio bursts are thought reach our galaxy each day, but telescopes can only survey a small patch. “We’re very rarely pointing in the right direction at the right time,” Petroff said. “Every once in a while we just get super lucky.”

At the very least, this latest detection gives fast radio burst hunters some clues about where to look. “We’ve set the trap. Now we just have to wait for another burst to fall into it.”

Petroff said the radio signals “essentially encode information in them of all the things they’ve pass through between their emitter and our telescope”. That means figuring out the trajectory of the signal and its exact age might yield answers to even deeper questions: about the matter that exists between galaxies, even the weight of the universe itself.

That work is threatened by an earthly source: science funding cuts by Australia’s federal government have hit the Parkes observatory hard. The dish that helped broadcast the 1969 moon landing could shut within two years “without substantial, long-term external investment,” senior astronomers have warned.

“As it stands, in the field of fast radio bursts, Parkes is by far the world leader,” Petroff said. If it did close, “it would be very difficult to keep operating on the same level”.

Dying star could be behind immensely powerful radio bursts 'heard' live: Astronomers may be one step closer to discovering origins of mysterious signals after detecting the millisecond-long blip live for the first time: Michael Safi, The Guardian, 21 January 2015

Jobs could be on the line at 'the dish' as the CSIRO faces budget cuts: photo by CSIRO/AAP Image via The Guardian, 2 July 2014

Super Moon in Aquarius Tonight - January 20th 2015: image via Evolve and Ascend @evolveandascend, 20 January 2015 Asbury Park, New Jersey

The everyday reality of #climatechange: image via 350 dot org @350, 20 January 2015

#Climatechange boosting risks of conflict in fragile states - report: image via King Stevens @zypyxx,14 January 2015

#ClimateChange is laying waste to #water supplies, warns @FarmBureau: image via Jason Lamarche @Lamarche, 14 January 2014

#Canada won’t commit to meet #USA methane cuts #oilandgas # #climatechange #regulation #cdnpoli: image via WestCoastNativeNews @WCnativenews, 14 January 2015

The world’s largest polluters are being subsidized by your governments. #climatechange: image via Ben and Jerry's @benandjerrys, 14 January2015

Leave #fossilfuels buried to prevent #climatechange Do you agree?: image via RelayBlue @Relay_Blue 14 January 2015

I am a floating force of life, waiting to be honored by....you. Time is running out. @Extinction_OPS @#climatechange: image via The Earth @myearthfriend, 14 January 2015

Dark Snow Doesn't Bode Well For North America #environment #climatechange: image via Reg Saddler @zaibatsu, 16 January 2015

Study quantifies huge amount of runoff from Greenland's snow-melt rivers #climatechange: image via Bob Berwyn, 14 January 2015

Meltwater in Greenland Ice Sheet Hastened - #climatechange image via start your acc here @xencasartup, 22 January 2015

Two sub-glacial lakes have drained in Greenland raising concern abt #climatechange + ice sheet: image via As It Happens @cbcasithappens, 22 January 2015

Oceans rising far faster than in the past, says new study @TorontoStar #climatechange #cdnpoli: image via As It Happens @cbcasithappens, 14 January 2015

Researchers worry that #climatechange will accelerate melting of Andes #Glaciers #cdnpoli: image via Blue Channel @bluechannel24, 22 January 2014

Oka Road entry to the percolation ponds #climatechange: image via #ClimateAction @EcoWarrior1980, 22 January 2014

Dry percolation ponds off Los Gatos Creek at Dell Ave #climatechange: image via #ClimateAction @EcoWarrior1980, 22 January 2014

Will we burn all the fossil fuels we have in order to meet the world’s demand for energy, even if it results in climate chaos?: photo by Murdo Macleod/Murdo Macleod via The Guardian, 22 January 2015

Jilin, China. Smog along the banks of the Songhua river as temperatures reach minus 14C. The air quality index in north China’s Jilin province has risen to 260, indicating high pollution: photo by ChinaFotoPress via the Guardian, 22 January 2015

In Bangladesh, a woman searches the riverside in Dhaka for any plastic she can sell for recycling. Around a third of the city’s 15 million residents live in poverty: photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via the Guardian, 13 December 2014

An aerial view taken from an Indian Air Force's helicopter shows a flooded Srinagar city. Anger mounted over what many survivors said was a bungled operation to help those caught in the region's worst flooding in 50 years: photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters via the Guardian, 13 September 2014

A Filipino man carries a plastic sheet from his house after strong waves caused by typhoon Hagupit battered a coastal village in Legazpi. Residents began trickling back to their homes when local authorities reported the typhoon had passed. Nearly 900,000 people had moved out of their homes into shelters: photo by Aaron Favila/AP via the Guardian, 13 December 2014

A solitary figure watches the strong waves lashing a coastal village: photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA via the Guardian, 6 December 2014.

A resident does what he can to secure the roof of his shanty home in Tacloban city: photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA via the Guardian, 6 December 2014

Waves crash into houses along the coast: photo by Aaron Favila/AP via the Guardian, 6 December 2014

A man reacts as strong winds and rain from Typhoon Hagupit hit the shore in Legazpi: photo by Aaron Favila/AP via the Guardian, 6 December 2014

Residents wade through floodwater in Borongan city: photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA via the Guardian, 6 December 2014

Motorists make their way through fallen trees in the town of Taft, Samar island: photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA via the Guardian, 6 December 2014

A Qantas Airways Boeing 737-800 flies through storm clouds above Sydney after the Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning: photo by David Gray/Reuters via the Guardian, 13 December 2015

↧

Mystery Goo: Mercy, Mercy Me

January 24, 2015, 5:17 am

≫ Next: Nin Andrews / Vanessa Winship: Home Comforts

≪ Previous: New Moon (Not Dark Yet)

San Francisco Bay bird rescue: Mystery goo bedevils experts: #sfchronicle page one: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 20 January 2015

Wintering seabirds: image via International Bird Rescue, 23 January 2014

A mysterious substance is coating the feathers of seabirds in the San Francisco Bay area and leaving them vulnerable to cold temperatures: photo by Justin Sullivan via The Guardian, 23 January 2015

San Francisco Bay map showing eastern shoreline locations of the first affected birds to be found: image via International Bird Rescue, 17 January 2015

"East Bay Regional Park Event 1/16/15 incoming Surf Scoter"

A male Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), one of hundreds of waterbirds found over the past week on East Bay beaches coated with a mysterious odorless substance, clear to pale gray in color, that like petroleum breaks down the bird’s feather structure, destroying its ability to regulate body temperature in the cold San Francisco Bay waters. The unidentified rubber cement-like goop mats the seabirds' feathers causing the animals to lose their insulation and become hyperthermic: photo by Cheryl Reynolds/International Bird Rescue, 17 January 2015

Surf Scoterscontaminated by mystery substance in waters along eastern shoreline of San Francisco Bay: photo by Cheryl Reynolds/International Bird Rescue, 17 January 2015

Eared Grebes contaminated by mystery substance in waters along eastern shoreline of San Francisco Bay: photo by Cheryl Reynolds/International Bird Rescue, 17 January 2015

Removing @MysteryGoo from birds: Baking soda, vinegar & @DawnDish soap: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 23 January 2015

Volunteers wash a male surf scoter at the International Bird Rescue in Fairfield, California. The death of 100 birds in the San Francisco Bay Area has baffled wildlife officials who say the feathers of the birds were coated with a mysterious substance that looks and feels like rubber cement: photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez/APvia The Guardian, 23 January 2015

San Francisco Bay birds succumbing to mysterious 'grayish goo': Substance saps birds’ ability to insulate against cold – about 100 have died: Associated Press in San Francisco via The Guardian, 20 January 2015

A mysterious sticky substance has been found coating the feathers of about 300 seabirds in the San Francisco Bay area in the past few days, and wildlife officials blame it for dozens of deaths.

California department of fish and wildlife authorities were expected to conduct necropsies and laboratory tests on Tuesday to try to uncover the source of the grayish gunk, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. About 100 birds have died so far.

Officials believe the substance was dumped into San Francisco Bay. It is not a public health or safety risk to humans.

Fish and wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan said analysts already know it is not a petroleum-based substance, and said it killed the birds by sapping their ability to insulate themselves against the cold. They froze to death.

The interim executive director of International Bird Rescue, Barbara Callahan compared the goo to rubber cement.

“It’s kind of gray. It’s hard to get off in the wash,” she said. “It is sticky, but it doesn’t want to come off the feathers.”

The coated birds were concentrated in suburban areas east of San Francisco, including the cities of Alameda, San Leandro and Hayward. Callahan said the goo was probably a man-made product, meaning a pipeline burst or something was intentionally used to foul the East Bay.

She said workers at International Bird Rescue have had to pretreat birds with baking soda and vinegar to loosen the substance before washing it off with dish soap. The usual treatment for washing pollutants such as oil, roofing tar, cooking oil from fast-food restaurants and glue traps did not work.

“I’ve worked 20 years in this business, handling oil spills all over the world, and I’ve never seen a product like this impact animals in our clinic,” Callahan said.

The treatment cost is upward of $8,000 a day to pick up and treat the birds.

“We are doing everything we can as an organisation,” she said. “I hope our supporters recognize that we need some help.”

@AudobonCA: Appreciate all your volunteers helping us make "Every Bird Matters" #MysteryGoo response: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 22 January 2015

New seabird update: 242 in care, 55 washed, 187 awaiting wash: SF Bay mystery goo: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 19 January 2015

A rescued Bufflehead sea duck that is coated in an unknown substance is seen at International Bird Rescue's San Francisco Bay Center in Fairfield. Hundreds of birds coated in the same substance were found at different places along the East Bay shoreline, starting on Friday, January 16, 2015 and transferred to International Bird Rescue for further care: photo by Cheryl Reynolds via International Bird Rescue, 21 January 2015

#MysteryGoo seabird numbers: San Francisco Bay Center: 322=Admitted 263=Live in care 163=Washed: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 22 January 2015

RT @IntBirdRescueState lab: (PIB) not culprit #MysteryGoo killing seabirds SF Bay: image via Julia Freeman @JuliaMacauley, 21 January 2015

#Mystery Goo: What is responsible for coating birds in a deadly goo off the CA coast?: image via WESH 2 News @WESH, 21 January 2015

Good work! #Mystery Goo Seabird Rescue from @IntBirdRescue: image via Monterey Bay Aquarium @MontereyAq, 21 January 2015

Amber Transou with International Bird Rescue holds two live surf scoters in Alameda that got coated with the gooey substance. Photo: Mike Kepka / The Chronicle / ONLINE_YES

Amber Transou with International Bird Rescue holds two live surf scoters in Alameda that got coated with the gooey substance: photo by Mike Kepka/San Francisco Chronicle, 19 January 2015

Mark Russell with International Bird rescue rescue secures a live surf scoter affected by mysterious substance on Monday January 19, 2015 in Alameda, Calif. Recently a rash of birds deaths have been caused by substance. Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Mark Russell with International Bird rescue rescue secures a live surf scoter affected by mysterious substance on Monday January 19, 2015 in Alameda, Calif. Recently a rash of birds deaths have been caused by substance. Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Mark Russell with International Bird Rescue secures a live surf scoter affected by mysterious substance on Monday in Alameda: photo by Mike Kepka/San Francisco Chronicle, 19 January 2015

Surf scoters comprise about 70% of the birds that were collected #MysteryGoo San Francisco response: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 23 January 2015

Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), young male: photo by John Gresham, 29 February 2008

Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), male: photo by USFWS Southwest Region, 21 February 2009

Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata), male (left) and female (right): photo by Omar Runólfsson, 24 April 2011

Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata), male (left) and female (right): photo by Omar Runólfsson, 24 April 2011

Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata), female (left) and male (right): photo by Omar Runólfsson, 24 April 2011

Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), male: photo by Omar Runólfsson, 24 April 2011

File:Surf Scoter - Arrowhead Marsh Oakland CA.jpg

Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), male, Arrowhead Marsh, Oakland, California: photo by Len Blumin, 7 November 2006

Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), male, Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, California: photo by Alan D. Wilson, December 2007

Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), Los Osos, Morro Bay, California: photo by Mike Baird, 28 March2007

Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata), male, Monterey Bay, California: photo by Ben Lascelles, 17 January 2009 (via Internet Bird Collection)

Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata), male and female swimming together, Coronado Cays, California: photo by Peter Vercruisse, 13 February 2004 (via Internet Bird Collection)

Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata), group swimming near the dock, Boundary Bay, British Columbia: photo by Ken Havard, 7 April 2014 (via Internet Bird Collection)

Majority SF Bay #MysteryGoo seabirds: Surf Scoters with 200+ brought to our center: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 23 January 2015

Shot...... #seaduck hunting: image via jeff coats @pitbossH2Ofowl, 24 March 2014

#seaduck hunting thank you Jimmy for the picture: image via jeff coats @pitbossH2Ofowl, 22 January 2014 Ocean Pines, MD

#seaduck hunting: image via jeff coats @pitbossH2Ofowl, 21 November 2014 Ocean Pines, Maryland

#surfscoter: image via jeff coats @pitbossH2Ofowl, 24 October 2014

#seaduck hunting #surfscoter: image via jeff coats @pitbossH2Ofowl, 16 December 2014 Maryland, USA

@pitbossH2Ofowl:Salt Ice #seaduck hunting: image via Cam Pauli @CamPauli, 24 January 2014

#CaliforniaDFW scientists say #MysteryGoo not petroleum or polyisobutylene PIB : KQED: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 21 January 2015

State lab: polyisobutylene (PIB) not culprit: #MysteryGoo: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 21 January 2015

A bird is cleaned at the International Bird Rescue in Fairfield, California January 20, 2015. (Reuters/Robert Galbraith)

A bird is cleaned at the International Bird Rescue in Fairfield, California. California officials are unable to identify a grey, goo-like substance that has been found coating the feathers of hundreds of birds. More than 200 seabirds have been found dead along the coast, while more than 300 have been rescued so far: photo by Robert Galbraith/Reuters. 20 January 2015 (Reuters/Robert Galbraith)

Mystery goo continues to affect seabirds on San Francisco Bay, no word yet on source: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 20 January 2015

Goo Seabird #s: Total 360 collected, 280 live brought to ctr, 38 died after transport. In care 242: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 20 January 2015

Contaminated sandpiper being cleaned. Latest update: Seabird mystery goo emergency on San Francisco Bay: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 20 January 2015

Washing Seabirds of SF Bay #MysteryGoo: Clean birds looking great: Surf Scoter: image via BirdRescue.org @IntBirdRescue, 21 January 2015

RT @IntBirdRescue: Updated #MysteryGoo seabird #s from our #SF Bay Center: 321=Admitted 274=Live in care 135=Washed: image via Kris Vera-Phillips @queenkv. 21 January 2015

Clean/poolside: Surf Scoter Bufflehead and Goldeneye: #Birds in care @IntBirdRescue #MysteryGoo: image via Ed Joyce @EdJoyce, 23 January 2015 California

↧

Nin Andrews / Vanessa Winship: Home Comforts

January 25, 2015, 1:32 am

≫ Next: Gérard de Nerval: El Desdichado (Chimeras)

≪ Previous: Mystery Goo: Mercy, Mercy Me

Untitled: photo by Vanessa Winship, from She dances on Jackson (2011-2012), Mack Books, 2013

Southern Accent

The day I came home with a busted lip and two black eyes,

my mother said the problem with me

was my southern accent. Get rid of that extra y

in Dayaddy, and you’re talking about your father,

not some deity.

I tried to tell her it began with a dayare,

but my mother said it was dare, not dayare,

and besides that, she didn’t want to hear one thing about it.

A girl is supposed to act nice.

And speak like a lady.

If you’re going to fight like a boy,

you can cut your hair like one, too.

What’s more, that stuff growing on top of your head

is not hay as in hayer, it’s hair.

Driving to Watson’s Beauty Salon downtown

on Jefferson Park Avenue, she instructed me

to open my mouth nice and wide, say ahhh, not ayyy.

I didn’t mean to, I tried to explain.

It was just an accident.

Not everything rhymes with Bayer, my mother commented.

She was from New England. She wasn’t like me.

But I never could get it right. No matter how hard I tried,

I’d hear my father’s voice,

his Memphis drawl in the back of my head:

You being about as helpful as a crawdayaddy under a rock?

When was the last time you peeled your mama spuds

or washed your hayands and said something sweet

with a smile on those rosebud liyips?

I knew how to answer him, keep my eyes cast down,

my voice a wisp: No, Sir. Yes, Sir. Or, if I dared:

Can I please be excused?

No Ma’am, he’d answer just as quick as a blink.

You can. But you may not.

Not as long as you don’t know

which word is proper,

and what kind of excuse you might be.

Nin Andrews: Southern Accent, from Southern Comfort (CavanKerry), 2009

[Untitled: photo by Vanessa Winship, from She dances on Jackson, c Vanessa Winship 2013]: image via Caroline T @martine_hi, 12 May 2013

Summer

Sometimes in the middle of the day, Jimmy and I’d rest on the upside-down feed buckets beside the sugar maples, sip Cokes and talk about our dreams, maybe watch the horses slurp water and swish off gadflies. Jimmy talked about Sarah Lee, his girl (he liked to say so long after she wasn’t). Then he would lie back with his ball cap over his face while I fished dead frogs out of the trough. I’d think about what it’s like to be the girl every boy talks to about the girl he likes. Sometimes I watched him sleep until the lizards ran out to wait by the water for insects to light. If I wanted to, I’d pick off their tails and show them to Jimmy when he woke.

Nin Andrews: Summer, from Southern Comfort (CavanKerry), 2009

[Untitled: photo by Vanessa Winship, from She dances on Jackson, c Vanessa Winship 2013]: image via Lydia @LydiaEvansPhoto, 10 August 2013 Westminster, London

[Untitled: photo by Vanessa Winship, from She dances on Jackson, c Vanessa Winship 2013]: image via Art Limited @arlimitednet, 15 June 2013

↧

Gérard de Nerval: El Desdichado (Chimeras)

January 26, 2015, 4:04 am

≫ Next: War of the Climate Worlds: Warming Trend 1, Snowmageddon 0

≪ Previous: Nin Andrews / Vanessa Winship: Home Comforts

#SeaSparkle: Why the magnificent blue glow of #Hongkong seas is as dangerous as it is gorgeous: photo by Kin Cheung/AP; image via Times of India @timesofindia, 22 January 2015

Je suis le Ténébreux, – le Veuf, – l’Inconsolé,
Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la Tour abolie:
Ma seule Etoile est morte, – et mon luth constellé
Porte le Soleil noir de la Mélancolie.

Dans la nuit du Tombeau, Toi qui m’as consolé,
Rends-moi le Pausilippe et la mer d’Italie,
La fleur qui plaisait tant à mon coeur désolé,
Et la treille où le Pampre à la Rose s’allie.

Suis-je Amour ou Phébus ? … Lusignan ou Biron ?
Mon front est rouge encor du baiser de la Reine;
J’ai rêvé dans la Grotte où nage la sirène …

Et j’ai deux fois vainqueur traversé l’Achéron:
Modulant tour à tour sur la lyre d’Orphée
Les soupirs de la Sainte et les cris de la Fée.

Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855): El Desdichado, 1853, from the sonnet sequence Les Chimères, in Les Filles de Feu, 1854

J’ai rêvé dans la Grotte où nage la sirène …

It looks cool, but learn the problem with Hong Kong's waters glowing blue #SeaSparkle #algae: photo by Kin Cheung/AP; image via The Terra Mar Project @TerraMarProject, 23 January 2015

I am the dark one, - the widower; - the unconsoled,
The prince of Aquitaine at his stricken tower:
My sole star is dead, - and my constellated lute
Bears the blackSun of the Melencolia.

In the night of the tomb, you who consoled me,
Give me back Mount Posilipo and the Italian sea,
The flower which pleased so my desolate heart,
And the trellis where the grape vine unites with the rose.

Am I Amor or Phoebus? . . . Lusignan or Biron?
My forehead is still red from the kiss of the queen;
I have dreamd in the grotto where the mermaid swims . . .

And two times victorious I have crosst the Acheron:
Modulating turn by turn on the lyre of Orpheus
The sighs of the saint and the cries of the Fay.

Nerval's sonnet translated by Robert Duncan as El Desdichado (The Disinherited) in Bending the Bow, 1968

Les Chimères

Fluorescent Algal Bloom in #HongKong may be beautiful, but is likely #toxic #SeaSparkle: photo by Kin Cheung/AP; image via Green Atom @greenatmnet, 23 January 2015

@AP #NoctilucaScintillans aka #SeaSparkle #SingleCelledOrganism functions as animal and plant: photo by Kin Cheung/AP; image via Julian Sapp @JulianSapp, 22 January 2015

#SeaSparkle is quite beautiful but so sad. Rare instance of pollution looking anything but horrible: photo by Kin Cheung/AP; image via Jason Miller @Good_Food_Dude, 23 January 2015

The glow from a Noctiluca scintillans algae bloom along the seashore in Hong Kong. The luminescence, also called Sea Sparkle, is triggered by farm pollution that can be devastating to marine life and local fisheries, according to University of Georgia oceanographer Samantha Joye: photo by Kin Cheung/AP via The Guardian, 23 January 2015

Ma seule Etoile est morte

Peruvians ride a motorbike across land affected by extensive gold mining and deforestation, in Huaypetue, Manu province, Madre de Dios region, Peru in July, 2010. This area was pristine rain forest 20 years ago: photo by Ron Haviv/VII Photo/Everydayclimatechange via the Guardian, 20 January 2015

Florida, US. United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: photo by Mike Brown/Reuters via The Guardian, 21 January 2015

La fleur qui plaisait tant à mon coeur désolé

A Syrian man carries wood for a fire in the rebel-held city of Douma. Three small girls and an elderly man died in Syria during the week due to bitterly cold temperatures and a week-long storm: photo by Abd Doumany/AFP via The Guardian, 13 December 2014

A forest destroyed by wildfires in the Tete province, central Mozambique. Many hectares of forest are lost each year due to the uncontrolled fires started by local communities with the aim of increasing agricultural fields, poaching and production of charcoal: photo by Carlos Litulo/Redux/Everydayclimatechange via the Guardian, 20 January 2015

à la Tour abolie

Smoke rises following a reported airstrike by govt forces on the besieged rebel-held town of #Douma: image via Han Solo @thandojo, 24 December 2014

Girl #douma have With blood bombing flight Assad! From page: Ahmed Abul Khair #Aleppo, Syria today: image via SYRIAREVOLUTION2011 @samirkaji, 25 December 2014

In the pic,The rest of human body Actually its a rest of a child body Go Complete sleeping world #Douma #Damascus: image via Mnawakh, 27 December 2014

Merry christmas from #BigPrison #Ghouta extermination camp #Syria #assadwarcrimes: image via Syrian Reporter @ReporterSyrien, 26 December 2014

From #Douma Christmas in the Big prison of Ghouta #BigPrison: image via Raqqa_SI, 29 December 2014

La neige sur les villages libanais #Douma #photo #Liban #Xena: image via NT Info @NTinfoMonde, 7 January 2014

From a daily life of a Syrian man in #Douma - #Syria #photo #Liban #Xena: image via Ziad S Homsi @ZiadHomsi, 8 January 2015

Berjuang hidup.#Douma #Damascus #Syria, 7-1-15. #MusimDinginGarisDepan #KeluargaKitadiSuriah @DoumaRevolution: image via Sahabat Suriah #sahabatsuriah, 9 January 2015

#Damascus, a tragedy of epic proportions, civilians leaving #Douma after 2 year siege by Assad's forces: image via Syrianora @syrianora, 18 January 2015

Thousands flee rebel area east of Damascus #Douma #Syria: image via habibti @ha_bibti, 19 January 2015

Douma, Syria. Men carry injured victims following a reported air strike on the besieged rebel-held town, which faces frequent aerial and tank bombardment and the siege means food is scarce and medical facilities are ill-equipped to handle either illness or injury: photo by Sameer Al-doumy/AFP via The Guardian, 21 January 2015

Douma, Syria. Residents of the besieged rebel town eight miles north-east of Damascus, ride through the street at night during a blackout: photo by Abd Doumany/AFP via The Guardian, 20 January 2015

Smoke rises from the Syrian border town of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab) following the US-led coalition air strikes against the Islamic State targets near Mursitpinar border crossing on Friday in Suruc, Turkey: photo by The Asahi Shimbun via The Guardian, 24 January 2015

The black Suns of Melencolia strangely resemble alien spores -- our earliest ancestors?

#schwarze-sonnen... de la mélancolie #ElDesdichado: image via lucileee* @questcequelart, 7 November 2014

Rends-moi le Pausilippe et la mer d'Italie...

Rends-moi le Pausilippe et la mer d'Italie... #Nerval (poète) Louise Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont (peintre): image via plinous @plinous, 7 December 2015

Je suis le Ténébreux, – le Veuf, – l’Inconsolé

A wild Bengal tiger walks in a lake during a hot summer day in Ranthambore National Park, India: photo by Aditya Singh via the Guardian, 23 January 2015

Je suis le Ténébreux, – le Veuf, – l’Inconsolé,
Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la Tour abolie:
Ma seule Etoile est morte, – et mon luth constellé
Porte le Soleil noir de la Mélancolie.

Dans la nuit du Tombeau, Toi qui m’as consolé,
Rends-moi le Pausilippe et la mer d’Italie,
La fleur qui plaisait tant à mon coeur désolé,
Et la treille où le Pampre à la Rose s’allie.

Suis-je Amour ou Phébus ? … Lusignan ou Biron ?
Mon front est rouge encor du baiser de la Reine;
J’ai rêvé dans la Grotte où nage la sirène …

Et j’ai deux fois vainqueur traversé l’Achéron:
Modulant tour à tour sur la lyre d’Orphée
Les soupirs de la Sainte et les cris de la Fée.

"@leoleihuan: Gérard de #Nerval, ouverture des Chimères. #poésie" Superbe et sombre comme un poème de ... #de Nerval: image via Hervé #hervelille, 23 November 2015

I am the dark one, - the widower; - the unconsoled,
The prince of Aquitaine at his stricken tower:
My sole star is dead, - and my constellated lute
Bears the black Sun of the Melencolia.

In the night of the tomb, you who consoled me,
Give me back Mount Posilipo and the Italian sea,
The flower which pleased so my desolate heart,
And the trellis where the grape vine unites with the rose.

Am I Amor or Phoebus? . . . Lusignan or Biron?
My forehead is still red from the kiss of the queen;
I have dreamd in the grotto where the mermaid swims . . .

And two times victorious I have crosst the Acheron:
Modulating turn by turn on the lyre of Orpheus
The sighs of the saint and the cries of the Fay.

I am the dark one

Loco y genio #nerval: image via Francisco Ramirez @panchoramyrez, 29 January 2014

Acheron están trabajando en nuevos temas

#Acheron están trabajando en nuevos temas #DeathMetal #BlackMetal: image via Friedhof Magazine @Friedhgma, 14 December 2014

Et j’ai deux fois vainqueur traversé l’Achéron

Coal is the primary energy source fueling China’s economic rise but this seemingly endless stream of heavy dump trucks filled with coal on a Gobi Desert highway in Inner Mongolia is far from the big urban electricity consumers on the east coast. China now consumes more coal than the rest of the planet combined and emits more carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, than any other country on the planet: photo by James Whitlow Delano/Everydayclimatechange via the Guardian, 20 January 2015

Coal miners ride a hopper out of a coal mine in Meghalaya, northeast India. India has yet to set a cap on its still-growing emissions.Coal accounted for 44% of India’s energy consumption in 2012 while renewable sources like nuclear and hydroelectric plants made up 5%. India’s priority to bring electricity to the 300 million Indians who currently live without it will be cheaply met with coal-fired power plants. India’s attitude toward emissions reduction illustrates the conflict developing nations face in the battle against climate change as they endeavour to climb to developed nation status: photo by Suzanne Lee/Everydayclimatechange via the Guardian, 20 January 2015

The Damned Being Plunged into Hell (detail): Luca Signorelli, 1499-1502, Fresco, Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto

I dont know why I like his work, it depresses me a little, but I do (All These Black Suns Are Ours)

Melencolia I: Albrecht Dürer, 1514, engraving, 239 x 189 mm (Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe)

I saw this piece of art work by #Durer years ago, I dont know why I like his work, it depresses me a little, but I do: image via Andrea Povey @Richard1483, 13 March 2013

After melancholy comes catharsis and enlightenment #Richard Burton #Durer #All Soul's Night: image via mogg morgan @ombos, 1 November 2013

Melencolia I: Albrecht Dürer, 1514

Melencolia I: Albrecht Dürer, 1514, engraving, 239 x 189 mm (Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe)

Melancholia I #Engraving by #Durer: image via Argent Arts @ArgentArts, 12 March 2014

...et mon luth constellé
Porte le Soleil noir de la Mélancolie

1st tweet deserves #masterpiece #Melencolia I, 1514, engraving. A. #Durer img via @britishmuseum: image via Scratched Images, 1 June 2013

↧

War of the Climate Worlds: Warming Trend 1, Snowmageddon 0

January 27, 2015, 6:55 am

≫ Next: Balls

≪ Previous: Gérard de Nerval: El Desdichado (Chimeras)

cc @willystaley RT @ProfJeffJarvis:#snowpocalypse already melting. A scuba diver now in the subway: image via Aaron Stein @aaronjstein, 27 January 2015

The best the meteorologists, those massively over-rated data-interpreting priestlets, had to offer, in the end, after the shelves had been emptied, the roads and schools closed, and the scare-movie forecasts of snowpocalypses and snowmageddons and snowzillas melted away to reveal not much more than a lot of studio-world panic and hype, a bit of drizzle, some snow flurries, a certain amount of slush, a few wind gusts... were a few mumbled half-apologies, and now over to you.. well, you know, maybe not the end of civilisation as known, after all that. Uh, beg your pardon, we were, uh, wrong.

Here come the snow bands at long last. We'll see what we can eke out: image via Kate Bilo CBS3 @katebilo, 27 January 2014

You can almost make out the thin edge of desperation in the hopeful on-air voodooing, the studio dummy squeezing the display pointer joystick hard, trying to shake a reluctant snowflake or two out of every possible shadowy bank of cloud... Poor things, harrowing work one imagines. They'll need a couple days off surely, after all this non-drama.

@Gary Szatkowski Very light snow here in Marlton, NJ: via Dan DiRico @Dan1248, 27 January 2015

@jesstutt We're going to get some snow. But not the amounts we forecast. Not even close: via Gary Szatkowski @Gary Szatkowski, 27 January 2015

@Bbmoney13 Brandon, I'm sorry for the poor quality weather forecast. That's not cryptic: via Gary Szatkowski @Gary Szatkowski, 27 January 2015

Yeah! It's starting!

Yeah, it's starting! #SNOWPOCALYPSE: image via Fred Graver @fredgraver, 26 January 2015

Dedicated public servants beginning their trek to work in Washington D.C. #blizzardof2015 #Snowmageddon: image via Bill Bee @BillBee2, 26 January 2015

Your IPO will not save you from Snowpocalypse

YOUR IPO WILL NOT SAVE YOU FROM #Snowpocalypse: image via Ben Kesling @bkesling, 26 January 2015

BEST. SNOW. SIGN. EVER! #Snowmageddon2015 #snowpocalypse: image via Trita Parsi @tparsi, 26 January 2015

Snowmageddon, I'm coming for you!

Come at me #snowstorm2015. I dare you. :P: image via Raymond Wong @raywongy, 25 January 2015

It's here! Blazing through the city and gaining traction like a huge damp fluffy earmuff!

#2300 and no private vehicles are allowed on the streets... Just the noise of the wind. #Snowpocalypse: image via Ross Fitzpatrick @kaled10, 26 January 2015 Brooklyn, NY

We've heard #snowpocalypse and #Snowmageddon RT what you'recalling it. @JoeRockWBAB2015: image via 102.3 WBAB 1023 @WBAB, 26 January 2015

Under the Brooklyn Bridge #East River #Snowstorm2015: image via scenesfromnyc @postcadsfromnycy, 26 January 2015

It's here! Blazing through the city. #snowday #snowstorm2015: image via Ester B. @nycjunkgirl, 26 January 2015

Rush hour heavy build up now at the BBT. #snowstorm2015: image via nycphotog @nycphotog, 26 January 2015

Interlude: Snowmageddon: A Co(s)mic Masque

I see potential for a #DoctorWho moment. #snowstorm 2015 @GMA: "Do you wanna build a snowman... or nine and a half?": image via Sarah Case @WYSarahC, 26 January 2015

We are the children of Snowmageddon. Take pity on us.

We cry out to be heard, but no one is listening.

We are hollow with sadness, yet we were meant to be bringing smiles!

Whatever molded us must have been attempting to create us in its own image.

You can see that the experiment was successful, no one wants to come near us.

Please, get us out of here!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/First_aid_masks_for_CPR_training.jpg

Masks in showcase of first aid supplies shop, Berlin: photo by Till Krech, 2006

Mask after mask melted away, nothing of what may once have been inside us now remains

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Bodiemask.jpg

Mask found in window of Bodie, California ghost town school house: photo by Tahoenathan, 2009

Behind its empty eyesockets the same nothing is not going to be waiting up for us

Masks in showcase of first aid supplies shop, Berlin: photo by Till Krech, 2006

And while we hide, as it were, our [faces] from them, Its thoughts have collapsed inward upon themselves

MaskTV: photo by James Reynolds, 2006

Mask after mask melted away

The ancestors like stone guardians look on with eyes of stone, everything beneath their hollow gaze collapsingg

Masks in showcase of first aid supplies shop, Berlin: photo by Till Krech, 2006

And we hid as it were our [faces] from them

Mask found in window of Bodie, California ghost town school house: photo by Tahoenathan, 2009

Get the Milk! Get the Bread! Get the Toilet Paper! It's Snowmageddon!

Live pic from outside of Whole Foods in NYC: image via Matthew @Matthops82, 26 January 2015

Are you ready? @peers @LivingfreeNYC @HarlemHCL @DesksNearMe @impacthubnyc @tummler10 #Snowmageddon2015 #Snowmageddon: image via weleet @Weleetweet, 26 January 2015

When you really want McDonalds and you just dgaf #Murica: image via Hayley Thompson @Hayleymarie326, 26 January 2015

Luckily we got everything we need yesterday #snowpocalypse: image via Chelsea Northrup @ChelseaNorthrup, 26 January 2015

The great bread crisis of 2015. #blizzard2015 #snowpocalypse: image via Meredith Frazier @MeredithF, 26 January 2015

This is what a grocery store in my neighborhood looked like earlier this evening #snowpocalypse: image via Tonya J. Powers @tonyajpowers, 26 January 2015

Side-note: The struggle is real! #snowstorm2015: image via Madame Dumas @AHumanLearning, 26 January 2015

GUYS! We've got #BreadandMilk...shelves have just been restocked.#stockedup #snowstorm2015 #snowpocalypse: image via Palmer's Market @PalmersMarket, 26 January 2015 Darien, CT

The shape of a possible post-snowpocalyptic future world

guuuuuuuys, you ready? #snowstorm2015 #thedayaftertomorrow: image via Emily @Emmbaly, 26 January, 2015 Brooklyn, NY

Don't worry East Coast. Help is on the way. #Snowpocalypse: image via Danny Sullivan @dannysullivan, 26 January 2015

#Boston warns residents of #Juno via @triciamcc1: image via Andrew P. Marcinek @andycinek, 26 January 2015 Grafton, MA

2:50 pm: Right now at Times Square in NYC where moderate to heavy snow is falling. #Juno Webcam image via @EarthCam: image via The Weather Channel @weatherchannel, 26 January 2015

storm #JUNO ooking solid from space in this last @nasa image ... should intensify tonight along the eastern seaboard: image via Mario Picazo @picazomario, 26 January 2015

@NOAASatellites eyes developing US Nor'easter. Blizzard conditions expected #Snowmageddon: image NASA @NASA, 26 January 2015

Sorry @CP0031 looks like I arrived in Montreal first #snowpocalypse: image via Tyler Seguin, 26 January 2015

In the Ice Box -- where the cold is deep and real

'It was cold, very cold': migrant children endure border patrol 'ice boxes': Carla’s recollections are all too familiar to immigration lawyers and advocacy groups who have long complained about the brutal conditions in temporary holding cells for undocumented border-crossers of all ages.But of all the stories that have been recounted, those involving children are the most visceral.

Ed Pilkington in Bay Shore, New York for The Guardian, 26 January 2015

Imagine being taken into a room. It is cold – very, very cold – and you shiver under the single layer of clothes that is all you are allowed to wear. The room is concrete and entirely bare: nothing on the walls, no furniture, no bedding of any sort other than the thin sheet you have been given. The only window allows guards to look in at you, but gives you no view of the world outside.

You sit in the room, huddled on the cold, hard floor, seeking warmth under the sheet. The room is lit by neon lights that are kept on 24 hours a day, and after a while you lose track of time. Is it day, is it night – you no longer know. Though there are many other people in the room with you, they are all strangers and no-one speaks to you. You are utterly alone.

And you are 7 years old.

Carla (not her real name) was 7 years old when she was picked up by officers of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) last June, after she crossed the Mexican border into the US near Hidalgo, Texas. At the end of a grueling 10-day journey from El Salvador, which she left to escape danger and poverty and in the hope of being reunited with her parents in New York, she was taken by border patrol officers to a temporary holding station.

For the first two days, Carla had the company of her cousin, a woman in her early 20s, who had made the journey with her. But then her relative was separated from her and released. For the following 13 days – as official immigration papers record – Carla was detained in the concrete room, surrounded by about 15 other undocumented immigrants like herself.

When she described the room to the Guardian she called it an “hielera” – “ice box” in Spanish. “It was cold, very cold,” she said, through a translator. “The lights were on all the time, and the floor was hard. I couldn’t sleep.”

She was fed an apple and milk for breakfast, the same for lunch, and a sandwich at night. “I was hungry all the time.”

After her cousin left, she was scared. She had no idea what would happen to her or how long she would be kept there, and she feared she would never see her parents again. She cried a lot; so much so that other children in the room were irritated. “They told me to shut up,” she said.

In all, she spent 15 days in the border station, far longer than the 72-hour limit set out in federal guidelines. She was granted two calls to her parents, who were already living in Long Island, having themselves made the journey from El Salvador the previous year.

Carla’s parents remember what she said to them when she phoned: “I’m cold, I’m very tired, I want to leave this place,” she said.

Carla’s recollections are all-too familiar to immigration lawyers and advocacy groups who have long complained about the brutal conditions in temporary holding cells for undocumented border-crossers of all ages. But of all the stories that have been recounted, those involving children are the most visceral.

Carla’s attorney, Bryan Johnson, runs a law firm in Bay Shore, Long Island that deals exclusively with immigration cases. He has more than 200 unaccompanied minors on his books. Since last summer he has seen more and more children passing through his office with harrowing stories to tell about their harsh treatment in border stations.

Johnson grew increasingly concerned about what he believed to be flagrant violations of official guidelines about the care of children. Eventually he decided that he had to take action, in an attempt to deter government officials from continuing the breaches.

He has lodged a legal petition aimed at senior officials within the Obama administration. He has written to a federal prosecutor in Texas whose district covers the border zone, calling for the criminal prosecution of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, Jeh Johnson, and his predecessor Janet Napolitano.

The dramatic request for a criminal prosecution is justified, Johnson believes, because the DHS presides over a system that has deprived his child clients of their constitutional rights to adequate food, shelter, clothing and medical care while detained at border stations.

“We are talking here about a violation of the laws and of the US constitution which states very clearly how the government must treat people in its custody. It has been stunning to me to discover how bad the conditions are. I knew about the ‘hieleras’ but I didn’t know that children were being subjected to the same brutal conditions with no regard to the law,” he said.

Last week, Jeh Johnson posted an open letter on the DHS website in which he explained the Obama administration’s current approach to immigration. He said that while the president had announced an executive action to allow up to 5 million undocumented immigrants to “come out of the shadows” and become taxpayers, that related only to those who have lived in the US for at least five years.

Johnson went on to warn more recent arrivals that the administration has clamped down on border crossers. Anyone they found would be “apprehended, detained, and turned back in accordance with our laws”.

He had a particular message for children: “Children in Central America looking for family and a safer life in the United States must be … discouraged from the unlawful, dangerous path through Mexico, in the hands of a criminal smuggling organisation. Last summer I personally saw hundreds of children who made that journey. It brought tears to my eyes. No child should ever face that ordeal; it is not for children.”

The DHS secretary made no reference to the conditions that such children are forced to endure in US government holding cells along the border. Conditions like those experienced by Tatiana (not her real name), who is cited in the legal petition calling for Johnson to be prosecuted. Speaking through a translator, she described to the Guardian what happened to her and her nine-month-baby Rafael (also a pseudonym) when they were detained at a border station in Texas in July, having travelled by bus and boat to the US from Honduras.

“I’d heard about the ice boxes, that they were very cold, but I had no idea they were quite that bad,” she said. “We were so cold all the time.”

She said she was shocked by the concrete cell in which she and her baby were kept for 10 days. “I thought of the US as a country where human rights are respected, especially of children. I thought of it as a place of freedom, full of sunlight, where you’d feel the wind like you were outside.”

The Guardian has seen official documents that record the number of days both Tatiana and Carla spent in the holding cells. The documents also confirm the girls’ real names, which are not being disclosed here at the request of their legal representatives and families.

Tatiana was 16 at the time of her detention, a child herself. “The room was so cold you almost couldn’t breathe, it made your nose hurt,” she said. There was no bedding, not even a blanket, and she slept fitfully with Rafael in her arms. After a few days the baby caught a cold and stopped eating solids, and for a couple of days he wouldn’t even take his mother’s milk. His weight fell from 23lbs when he arrived at the border station to 15lbs.

She said she didn’t ask for medical treatment for her son because of an incident she had witnessed involving another mother in the holding cell. The other woman had asked a guard for help with her infant child who was suffering from the cold, and the guard replied: “Why do you come here if you don’t like it? You should go back home.”

After that, Tatiana decided to keep quiet about her own son’s difficulties. “It felt bad: your son is sick but you say nothing because you’re scared,” she said.

Both Tatiana and Carla were detained last summer during an exceptional surge of unaccompanied child immigrants crossing the border illegally. More than 50,000, largely from Honduras and other Central American countries, arrived in a matter of weeks, overwhelming the CBP and child services

Since then, the numbers have receded. But groups working with undocumented immigrants warn that children continue to be subjected to harsh conditions in the “ice boxes” in border stations.

“Nothing has changed in terms of the abuse and impunity of border agencies, and nothing has changed in terms of the brutal conditions that children endure in confinement,” said James Lyall, a staff attorney in the Tucson, Arizona office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

He added: “We consistently continue to hear stories of people locked in ‘hieleras’ in isolation, without medical care, lights on all night, no blankets – that remains a constant theme.”

In a statement to the Guardian, the CBP said that the border stations where Carla and Tatiana were held were “designed to provide for the security, safety and well-being of those in our custody and are maintained in accordance with applicable laws and policies. Temperatures are set at 70F (21C) and detainees are provided blankets. Facilities are illuminated to provide for the safety of those in custody and agency personnel.”

The statement goes on to say that the CBP “investigates all allegations of misconduct, and is committed to improving on the progress made in detainee treatment and continuing to emphasise policies that protect human life and treat individuals with dignity and respect”.

That conflicts, however, with the ACLU’s account of events. Together with a coalition of immigration advocacy and civil rights groups, the organisation filed a complaint last summer on behalf of 116 unaccompanied minors aged 5 to 17 who it alleged had experienced “abuse and mistreatment” while in CBP custody.

Despite early promises by the Obama administration to conduct a full investigation into the allegations, none has been forthcoming, and the Office of Inspector General, which oversees civil rights at the border, has yet to issue its response.

Both Carla and Tatiana, now 8 and 17 respectively, eventually made it to Long Island to be reunited with their parents. Both are prospering: they are at school, and say that they are happy and are being treated well. Their American dream has begun.

Tatiana said she doesn’t regret having come to the US, despite her experiences at the border. “I’m with my parents and my child,” she said. “I’m safe. You don’t get hurt or killed just by stepping outside in Long Island.”

But she still thinks about the 10 days she spent with her baby in an ice box. And she has a message for the government: “Have a little heart when you see children sleeping on the hard floor in the cold. Treat people better. Make changes. We are all human beings.”

Migrants without papers sit in a holding cell at the US Border Patrol detainee processing center in McAllen, Texas: photo by John Moore via the Guardian, 12 December 2014

Freezing cells and sleep deprivation: the brutal conditions migrants still face after capture: In a week of outcry over the Senate’s report on CIA torture, human rights groups say harsh treatment of migrants still meted out the on US border: Ed Pilkington in New York for The Guardian, 12 December 2014

Josefina Peralta made the gruelling journey from her home in Honduras to Texas in May, venturing a perilous crossing of the Rio Grande River and passing across the US border at night in search of safety, opportunity and a new life. Within hours of making the crossing, she was picked up along with her infant daughter and four other women by officers of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and taken to a temporary holding station in a rural area outside McAllen.

Peralta (not her real name) was put into a 15ft by 45ft concrete cell with about 30 other migrants from Central America who had made the similar dangerous and traumatic journey. Her clothes were still wet from crossing the river, but according to the account she gave human rights researchers, CBP officers wouldn’t let her change into the dry clothes she had ready in her backpack.

The cell was a “cold box”, she said, and she and her child shivered on the concrete floor. She reported losing sense of time, as there were no windows in the border station where they were being held.

She was detained in the border station for two nights and two days, by her estimation, then flown to the Tucson border station, where she was held for a further seven days. There she and her daughter were again put into a cell so cold that her lips chapped, she developed a cough and eventually contracted a fever that led to a brief hospitalisation.

Peralta’s story is told as part of a survey of Central American migrants who passed over the US border illegally this summer and who were held in temporary detention facilities in southern Arizona. The report, produced by human rights activists working with Guatemalan migrants along the border, found a pattern of alleged violations in CBP border stations that included widespread reporting of the extreme cold of the sort that made Peralta sick.

Of the 33 adult migrants who were interviewed in depth for the report after coming through Tucson-area border stations between May and July, 94% complained that the bare concrete cells in which they were kept had been too cold or even freezing. Each detainee was allowed only a single garment in which to sleep, with only a bare concrete floor to lie on.

Many complained of sleep deprivation, having been disturbed by the cold, the lack of bedding, loud noises outside the cells and being woken up in the middle of the night by agents to sign release papers. Thirty of the 33 individuals in the survey said they had been unable to sleep because of the bright lights that were kept blazing inside the cells 24 hours a day.

The experiences of Peralta and her fellow migrant detainees are not isolated. Immigration lawyers and human rights groups have long reported a pattern of alleged violations by CBP officers – a trend which, the organizations believe, suggests a systemic level of abuse designed to punish those who have illegally entered the US, intimidate them into waiving their rights and submitting to instant repatriation, and deter others who might follow them.

In the week of the explosive Senate intelligence committee report on the CIA's interrogations of terror suspects under the Bush administration, parallels are being drawn with the abusive detention techniques still routinely practiced on US soil. Though the more recent reported abuses are nowhere near as grotesque as the torture revealed by the Senate report, they do amount, advocacy groups say, to systematic rights violations that incorporate some techniques also deployed in the CIA’s now-discredited rulebook, including sleep deprivation, disorientation and psychological abuse.

Blake Gentry, the Tucson-based researcher who compiled the survey in which Peralta’s story is told, said that many of the temporary detention centres were built in remote areas along the southern border in the wake of 9/11, following the same architectural principles as the secret prisons developed by the CIA in Afghanistan and other countries. The buildings are often windowless, the absence of natural light causing disorientation among detainees.

“When we asked former detainees how long they were held in the border stations, we heard over and over again that they did not know. We asked why, and they said because they weren’t sure whether it was night or day.”

Accounts of harsh treatment in CBP border stations have been recorded persistently over several years. In 2011, the border organization No More Deaths carried out a survey of 13,000 migrants in which more than half reported inhumane conditions in temporary holding cells, with one of the most common complaints being extreme cold.

The report compared the experience of detainees against the UN’s definition of “psychological abuse”, as given in the convention against torture, and found several similarities. In addition to extreme temperatures, there were instances of detainees being forced to stand in strenuous or painful positions, apparently as a form of humiliation; prevention of sleep through forced standing or banging on cell doors; and “playing music, such as traumatizing songs about people dying in the desert, loudly and continuously”. (The use of loud music in border stations appears to have been stopped.)

No More Death’s Hannah Hafter said that what concerned the group most was the lack of oversight of the border patrol stations, which are often located in remote, rural areas. She said the absence of scrutiny allowed an official view to proliferate that she described as the “dehumanization of immigrants in custody – the message is going out that they do not deserve basic human rights”.

In response to Guardian questions, the CBP said that the border stations were designed to provide for the “security, safety and well-being of those in our custody”. In a statement, the agency said that temperatures in the cells were set to 70F (21C) and detainees were given blankets, while facilities were lit to ensure the safety of the immigrants in custody and border agents.

“As a matter of policy, border patrol agents are required to treat all those they encounter with respect and dignity. This requirement is consistently addressed in training and consistently reinforced throughout an agent’s career. On a daily basis, agents make every effort to ensure that people in our custody are given food, water, and medical attention as needed. CBP takes the welfare of detainees seriously and does not tolerate agent misconduct or abuse and investigates all allegations of misconduct.”

Yet human rights groups report a continuing and persistent pattern of alleged abuses along the border. Americans for Immigrant Justice has chronicled the use of so-called “Hieleras” or “ice boxes” in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where migrants who have illegally crossed into the US are kept in freezing holding cells, in some cases for several days.

Among those subjected to harsh treatment, the group has found, are numerous migrant children. Children have described temperatures in the cells that turned their lips blue and made their fingers numb.

AI Justice’s executive director, Cheryl Little, said that though the complaints “do not rise to the level of the Senate intelligence report, we are talking about systemic techniques that could be described as abusive. These are people who have risked their lives to cross the border in search of security and freedom – all they are looking for is due process.”

In several cases, AI Justice has found, the brutal conditions in the border stations intimidated detainees into signing documents in which they waived their rights to a full hearing, thus prompting instant deportation. “It’s a common belief among immigrants that the system is designed to force them into giving up their rights.”

In October, the American Civil Liberties Union presented evidence to the UN's committee against torture in Geneva in which it itemised cases of what it called the “abhorrent treatment of unaccompanied minors at border patrol stations”. It cited instances of children being forced to stand in stress positions for long periods of time and consistent reports of minors “being held in unsanitary, overcrowded, and freezing-cold cells”.

The ACLU’s border litigation staff attorney, Mitra Ebadolahi, said: “The core question at play here is whether people are treated with a basic level of dignity in their encounters with law enforcement officers. It may not amount to torture, but it’s still a form of very serious abuse, particularly when we are dealing with a population that has already suffered extreme trauma crossing the border.”

The relative absence of oversight for the temporary holding stations along the border has attracted Congressional attention. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a Democratic representative to Congress from California who has introduced legislation to ensure humane treatment of immigrant families at the border, told the Guardian: “We have an obligation as Americans to ensure that everyone in our government’s custody is treated with basic human dignity. I remain extremely concerned about the conditions in which migrants, including young children, are held at border patrol stations.”

Roybal-Allard is pressing CBP to implement improvements to standards and oversights as quickly as possible. She also wants to see “complete and independent investigation of at least 28 fatalities involving CBP personnel since 2010.”

US border patrol vehicle drives along the US-Mexico border fence near Nogales, Arizona: photo by John Moore via the Guardian, 12 December 2014

Ok, we're totally ready for this. Bring it!

Warm in my house during #snowmageddon: image via Rachel Geller @DrRachelGeller, 26 January 2015

Blizzard is just starting, looking at my house during #snowmageddon: image via Rachel Geller @DrRachelGeller, 26 January 2015

My dog's totally ready for this. Bring it, #snowmageddon #blizzardof2015: image Kyle Becker @IJReviewEditor, 26 January 2015

And don't forget that this storm could be history-making, potentially, so plan ahead now!

A tugboat sails on the East River during the early hours of the snow storm in New York: photo by Jewel Samad/AFP via The Guardian, 26 January 2015

People look out from office building windows as snow falls in downtown Philadelphia on Monday. The Philadelphia-to-Boston corridor of more than 35 million people began shutting down and bundling up against a potentially history-making storm: photo by Michael R. Sisak/AP via The Guardian, 26 January 2015

A man with multiple bags of groceries from Fairway food market in New York City ahead of the approaching blizzard on Monday The predicted extreme snowfall is triggering panic-buying of supplies at local stores: photo by Ruaridh Connellan/Barcroft USA via The Guardian, 26 January 2015

The deserted East River ferry path in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, at the start of winter snowstorm Juno on Monday. The major snowstorm has the potential for blizzard conditions and could drop more than 2ft of snow: photo byLaurentiu Garofeanu/Barcroft USA via The Guardian, 26 January 2015

With a road sign warning of an expected blizzard, morning commuters travel across the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge into downtown Boston on Monday. The Boston area is expected to get hit with about two feet of snow in the winter storm: photo by Charles Krupa/AP via The Guardian, 26 January 2015

People walk along a Manhattan street in heavy snow on January 26, 2015 in New York City: photo by Spencer Platt via The Guardian, 26 January 2015

People cross a snow covered Broadway in the Upper West Side neighborhood of New York: photo by Craig Ruttle/AP via The Guardian, 26 January 2015

A pedestrian walks across 8th avenue following road closures on January 26, 2015 in New York City: photo byAlex Trautwig via The Guardian, 27 January 2015

↧

Balls

January 28, 2015, 12:14 am

≫ Next: Wislawa Szymborska: Utopia

≪ Previous: War of the Climate Worlds: Warming Trend 1, Snowmageddon 0

This guy turned his #Home into a #Crazy #PlasticBall #Prank: image via Joe Pardo @Dreamerspodcast, 23 January 2015

It's a beautiful brave new world over and over Apple sold 74.6 million copies of iPhone 6 in the last quarter and

If you've ever wondered where all that plastic crap goes when it's through using you

Never forget it's always continuing to do good stuff even though you may not know quite what that is exactly

Asylum, New York. Plastic play balls line the corridor of a psychiatric hospital: photo by Daniel Barter and Daniel Marbaix. from States of Decay (Carpet Bombing Culture, 2013): image via The Guardian, 17 July 2013

Superballs

You approach me carrying a book
The instructions you read carry me back beyond birth
To childhood and a courtyard bouncing a ball
The town is silent there is only one recreation
It’s throwing the ball against the wall and waiting
To see if it returns
One day
The wall reverses
The ball bounces the other way
Across this barrier into the future
Where it begets occupations names
This is known as the human heart a muscle
A woman adopts it it enters her chest
She falls from a train
The woman rebounds 500 miles back to her childhood
The heart falls from her clothing you retrieve it
Turn it over in your hand the trademark
Gives the name of a noted maker of balls

Elastic flexible yes but this is awful
You say
Her body is limp not plastic
Your heart is missing from it
You replace your heart in your breast and go on your way

TC: Superballs, from The Sand Burg (Ferry Press), 1966

Manila, Philippines. Children walking beside a river filled with rubbish in the capital: photo by Noel Celis/AFP via The Guardian, 27 January 2015

Crowds outside the Apple store on Regent Street in central London on iPhone 6 release day: photo by Michael Tubi/Demotix/Corbis via The Guardian, 22 September 2014

Andreas Gibson celebrates with employees outside the Fifth Avenue Apple store after being the first to exit with an iPhone 6 in hand on the first day of sales in Manhattan, New York: photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters via The Guardian, 22 September 2014

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Wislawa Szymborska: Utopia

January 29, 2015, 3:12 am

≫ Next: Fashion Week

≪ Previous: Balls

Zalew Wislany, Warmia, Poland: photo by LeszekZadio, 19 June 2009

Island where it all becomes clear

solid ground beneath your feet

.. the only roads are those that offer access

bushes bend beneath the weight of proofs

the tree of valid supposition grows here
with branches disentangled since time immemorial

.. the tree of understanding, dazzlingly straight and simple
.. sprouts by the spring called now I get it

the thicker the woods, the vaster the vista
the valley of obviously

if any doubts arise, the wind dispels them instantly

echoes stir unsummoned
and eagerly explain all the secrets of the worlds

on the right a cave where meaning lies

on the left the lake of deep conviction
truth breaks from the bottom and bobs to the surface

unshakable confidence towers over the valley
its peak offers an excellent view of the essence of things

for all its charms, the island is uninhabited
and the faint footprints scattered on its beaches
turn without exception to the sea

all you can do here is leave
and plunge, never to return, into the depths

into unfathomable life

Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012): Utopia (1976), translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh

Sunrise swan, Warmian-Mazurian, Poland: photo by , 16 April 2013

Wyspa na której wszystko się wyjaśnia.
Tu można stanąć na gruncie dowodów.
Nie ma dróg innych oprócz drogi dojścia.
Krzaki aż uginają się od odpowiedzi.
Rośnie tu drzewo Słusznego Domysłu
o rozwikłanych wiecznie gałęziach.

Olśniewająco proste drzewo Zrozumienia
przy źródle, co się zwie Ach Więc To Tak.

Im dalej w las, tym szerzej się otwiera
Dolina Oczywistości.

Jeśli jakieś zwątpienie, to wiatr je rozwiewa.

Echo bez wywołania głos zabiera
i wyjaśnia ochoczo tajemnice światów.

W prawo jaskinia, w której leży sens.

W lewo jezioro Głębokiego Przekonania.
Z dna odrywa się prawda i lekko na wierzch wypływa.

Góruje nad doliną Pewność Niewzruszona.
Ze szczytu jej roztacza się Istota Rzeczy.

Mimo powabów wyspa jest bezludna,
a widoczne po brzegach drobne ślady stóp
bez wyjątku zwrócone są w kierunku morza.
Jak gdyby tylko odchodzono stąd
i bezpowrotnie zanurzano się w topieli.

W życiu nie do pojęcia.

Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012): Utopia (1976)

Frombork, Warmia, Poland: photo by LeszekZadio, 8 August 2013

Landscape with fences. Northeastern Poland, Podlaskie region: photo by Jerzy Radimersky, 12 April 2013

Zamarzniety Kawalek Baltyku (Zalew Mislany) Stanczyki Stanczyki (northern Poland): photo by Patryk Hejduk (paprycjusz), 31 March 2013

Zamarzniety Kawalek Baltyku (Zalew Mislany). Tolkmicko, Warmian-Masurian, Poland: photo by Chris ZaMaloCzasu (xpisto1), 17 March 2013

Artist's impression of New Moral World, Robert Owen's ideal for a utopian community at New Harmony, Indiana (1825); Owenites fired bricks to build it but construction never took place: drawing by Stedman Whitwell, architect (J.R. James Archive, University of Sheffield)

File:New Harmony by F. Bate (View of a Community, as proposed by Robert Owen) printed 1838.jpg

A bird's eye view of a community in New Harmony, Indiana, as proposed by Robert Owen: drawn and engraved by F. Bate, London 1838; published by "The Association of all Classes of all Nations", at their institution, 69, Great Queen Street. Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, 1838. Inscribed at bottom of plate: A Bird's Eye View of a Community, as proposed by Robert Owen Esq.re is respectfully dedicated to the following classes of society: To the Landowners, as being the only means whereby their Estates can be rendered permanently productive, and their Rents secure. To the Capitalists, as offering the safest speculation, and most gratifying ways of investing their surplus Capital, without risk of failure. To the Clergy, and Instructors of Mankind, as the only and speedy means of bringing about that great desideratum they have so much at heart, namely, the suppression of Vice & Error, by the removal of the causes of Crime (Ignorance & Poverty), the dissemination of Truth, & the establishment of Virtue. To the industrious Wealth Producers, as affording the only arrangements, whereby they can secure their true and rightful position in Society, and the just & honest participation in the Wealth created by their talents and industry. And lastly, to the Government of the British Empire, shewing the arrangements, whereby the duties of Government may be rendered safe, easy, and delightful, instead of as heretofore, being one of danger, difficulty, error, confusion and disatisfaction; image by Michael Gäbler, 6 April 2006

New Harmony on the Wabash River (New–Harmony am Wabash): Karl Bodmer (1809-1893), 1832-33, from Bodmer: Reisen in das Innere Nordamerikas 1832-1834, published 1840-41; image by Michael Gäbler, 26 May 2006

New-Harmony aus Wabash (New Harmony on the Wabash): aquatint by Karl Bodmer (1809-1893), from Maximilian, Prince of Wied’s Travels in the Interior of North America, during the years 1832–1834: Prince Maximilian of Wied, published by Rudolf Ackermann, 1839; image by John Sweeney, 21 February 2012

Accurata Utopia Tabula (Karte des Schlaraffenlandes): Matthäus Seutter (1678-1757), via Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps; image by Goustien, 19 February 2009

The Island of Utopia: Ambrosius Holbein, 1518, woodcut, 17.8 x 11.8 cm (Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel)

Bridal Procession in a Spring Landscape: Adrian Ludwig Richter, 1847, oil on canvas, 93 x 150 cm (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden)

Christine de Pisan: The Book of the City of Ladies: French Miniaturist, c. 1405, manuscript (Ms. français 607), 360 x 270 mm (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)

"@PaisajeGeo: Hay que respetar la naturaleza" #UTOPIA: image via Cuchitril @facumosqueira, 1 January 2015

Lugares de #Utopia en la Naturaleza El Bosque Bamboo en Japón @subversivos: image via Isabel Aranjuez @isaranjuez, 7 January 2015

Sitting by the ocean.. alone on an endless beach.. in a land far far away.. under a starry night.. @Utopia #NoWords: image via Sonik Shah @sonikshah, 31 December 2014

Meditating on the 20th century … La Jetée, Chris Marker's much-celebrated short film, made from a series of still images: photo by British Film Institute via The Guardian, 15 April 2014

MT "@guardian: Are you a commuter? Share your experiences" #dystopia: image via ChrisWhiteWrites @chriswhitewrite, 28 January 2015

Read my new #blogpost about #utopia (the perfect society; NOT the TV show) and whether its really what its cut out: image via theLEGEND @anya_felix11, 13 January 2015

Can we see better days ahead or is #dystopia our destiny? The Real Culture War #Collectivism: image via Stephanie L. Schmidt @QuoteStephanie, 14 January 2015

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Fashion Week

January 31, 2015, 5:11 am

≫ Next: Just a perfect day for global epic reflection

≪ Previous: Wislawa Szymborska: Utopia

#YPG and #YPJ liberate many villages around #Kobani: image via Sherzad Ali #Kurd @SheroHalibaz, 30 January 2015

Kurdish people hold a picture of dead fighter during a celebration rally near the Turkish-Syrian border at Suruç on Tuesday: photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP via the Guardian, 30 January 2015

'We are so proud'-- the women who died defending Kobani against Isis: This week Kurdish forces took full control of Kobani, a Syrian town near the Turkish border, after months of bombardment by Islamic State. Mona Mahmood speaks to four Kurdish families about the female fighters who died helping to wrest control of the town from Isis: Mona Mahmood via The Guardian, 30 January 2015

ShireenTaher

Shireen Taher had hoped to study English literature at university: photo by The Guardian, 30 January 2015

Mustafa Taher, 30, a lawyer and Kurdish language teacher, on his sister

A few months after the revolution in Syria broke out, the Syrian regime permitted predominantly Kurdish towns in Syria to teach the Kurdish language in their schools. This included my home town, Kobani. My sister Shireen, then 19, was supposed to study English literature at Damascus University in autumn 2012, but it became inconceivable to travel between Kobani and the capital given the increase in violence throughout Syria. Shireen instead studied the Kurdish language in Kobani while waiting for the chance to join the university.

Of my 11 brothers and sisters, I was closest to Shireen. We were more like friends than sister and brother. She was sensitive, fond of parties and loved sport. We were great fans of Barcelona football team. When the World Cup final was held in Johannesburg in 2010, Shireen travelled to Damascus where I worked as a lawyer, so we could watch the matches which were screened in large parks.

Shireen was inspired by her female Kurdish language teacher, Vian, 29, a fighter with the Kurdistan Workers’ party, PKK. It was a sombre day for the locals of Kobani when Vian was killed in a fight against Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaida affiliate and Syrian jihadi rebel group, in the Syrian town of Tel Abyad on 26 July 2012. At the funeral in Kobani to extol Vian’s martyrdom, my father gave his old gun to Shireen and told her to follow her teacher and be a fighter –- despite my mother’s disagreement. Shireen vowed to join the People’s Protection units, YPG, to seek revenge for her teacher and defend Kobani. If Shireen had not volunteered, I would have done.

Shortly afterwards, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) launched attacks against Kobani. They were initiated by a car bomb at the Red Crescent centre on 11 November 2012. My father, 67, and his friend were nearby and were killed, alongside 12 other martyrs. During my father’s funeral, Shireen said: “I always thought that one day my father would be named as the father of martyrs, but I never thought that I would become the daughter of a martyr.”

Our father’s death gave Shireen an enormous jolt to adhere to his will and be an outstanding fighter. Especially after we went to the mortuary for his body. It was hard to identify given the massive damage caused by the explosion. Shireen was devastated by the martyrdom of several of her friends. She could hardly cope with the loss of her father and teacher. Life became meaningless for Shireen. She would spend days training in the military camp on weapons like the Kalashnikov, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades.

During her two years of training, Shireen would visit us. I could not believe how much her personality changed during her long embedding in the military camp in a Kobani suburb. She used to have a Barcelona flag around her neck and wore full makeup. I can’t remember her hands without rings or bracelets. Her bag, which was full of perfume and cosmetics, came to be loaded with bombs and bullets.

The day I decided to move my mother and sisters to Turkey, like most of the locals of Kobani, to escape the hellish Isis attack against our town, my mother insisted that I call Shireen. She told my mother: “If you leave Kobani, you won’t be my mother any longer.” But after three days, Shireen asked my mother to leave as soon as possible as Isis was getting closer to the city.

A group of Free Syrian Army fighters walk by destroyed stores in northern Kobani near the border crossing, December 15: photo by Mohammed A. Salih via All Monitor/Iraq Pulse, 23 December 2014

Shireen was camping west of Kobani when Isis militants were pushing forward towards the city with their heavy weapons and tanks. The Kurdish resistance was able to distract the progress of Isis with their light weapons but they could not stop it forever. Shireen was hiding in a trench near the Kurdish radio broadcast office. I rang her from Turkey five hours before her martyrdom to check on her. She said: “Do not worry, I’m still alive.” At 8pm, my other sister –- who had stayed in Kobani working in the hospital as a nurse – called Shireen out of her fear for her safety. Shireen asked her not to contact her any more as the fight was getting worse and she could no longer speak on her mobile.

When my mother answered, the man told her to come and get her daughter’s head.

Then we heard about a heavy fight launched by Isis against Kobani. At 10pm, we got a call from my sister’s mobile. It was a man’s voice. He asked if he was speaking to Shireen’s family. One of my sisters confirmed that we were, and he told her that Shireen was killed by Isis and she needed to collect Shireen’s head.

Before my sister could break the news of Shireen’s martyrdom to my mother, the Isis militant contacted my mother in Turkey and told her Shireen wanted to speak to her.

When my mother answered, the man told her to come and get her daughter’s head. My mother lost consciousness , and was taken to hospital.

We called Shireen’s friends at the war front, who said Shireen and five other female fighters were ambushed on 30 September by an Isis tank that shelled them all to death. I returned to Kobani to get Shireen’s body for her funeral, but her friends told me her body was still with Isis and no one was able to go into the district where she had been killed. I returned to Turkey with my sister – she had a nervous breakdown and could not stay in Kobani any more.

Although Shireen’s martyrdom was heartbreaking for my family, we are all proud of her sacrifice and the sacrifice of all her friends killed defending Kobani.

FIGHTING TERRORISM FOR THE WORLD #Kobane #YPG @KurdisCat #shahedbaz: image via Leila Peterson @leila53233, 30 January 2015

Hameera Muhammed

Hameera Muhammed: photo by The Guardian, 30 January 2015

Muhammed Khashman, 45, a businessman who is a refugee in Turkey, remembers his sister’s adopted daughter, Hameera Muhammed

Hameera was born three months after her father was killed in a car accident in 1982. It was difficult for her mother to cope with the expense of four children on her own. My sister, a friend of Hameera’s mother, offered to adopt the baby and raise her with her eight children in Kobani. Hameera was cheerful with a sense of humour, and married a taxi driver from Kobani when she was 18.

On a trip to Aleppo two years ago, Hameera’s husband was killed by a sniper while she was giving birth to their youngest son. It took Hameera three days to get her husband’s body back to Kobani as a result of heavy fighting between the Syrian army and the rebels in Aleppo. It was hard for Hameera to cope with the expense of her five kids. She relied only on selling dairy products from a cow that had been owned by her husband and on subsidies from her parents. Her father-in-law offered Hameera and her children a room in his house but she refused to leave her home. After a series of quarrels, her father-in-law took Hameera’s five kids to his house and she went to live with her parents.

Hameera was devastated by the loss of her kids. She wanted to see her baby to breastfeed him but she was not allowed. All of Hameera’s mother’s attempts to repair the rift between her and her father-in-law did not work. Hameera’s depression and her yearning to be reunited with her kids became obvious. When the fight escalated in Kobani between Isis and Kobani’s fighters last September, Hameera’s family was one of thousands who crossed the border into Turkey. Driven by fear and horror, Hameera’s mother was unable to check whether she had all her nine children with her. It was only when she reached the refugee camp in Turkey that her eldest daughter told her Hameera had stayed in Kobani to fight Isis, and that she had joined the resistance.

After a week, Hameera contacted her mother asking for forgiveness. She said he thought joining the resistance in Kobani to fight against Isis would make her father-in-law treat her differently and let her see her children. She told her mother she had been wounded in her shoulder and hand during a fight against Isis. Hameera’s mother pleaded with her to come to Turkey. She said she was not well trained, that the war is not a joke and that it is for men not women.

It was the first day of observing Eid al-Adha in Turkey, so I visited my sister in the camp to check on her and her family. They were on the phone to Hameera, who told them she was getting better but she missed them and her kids. Hameera’s mother asked her to come back as the fight was getting tougher and she was worried about her. Hameera’s answer was that she wouldn’t be able to speak on the phone any more.

Ten days later, Hameera’s sister got a phone call from someone who said Hameera had been hiding in a building with a few other fighters when a mortar had shelled the building and killed them. The building was still occupied by Isis and Hameera’s body with others were inside.

Hameera’s mother insisted on giving her a funeral in the camp as a martyr. She hopes she will get Hameera’s body back so she can bury her in Kobani and her kids can visit her.

Wreckage left by fighting on a street in the centre of Kobani: photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP via the Guardian, 30 January 2015

Garbage

London, UK. Members of staff carry a painting by Paul Cézanne titled Vue sur L’Estaque et le Château d’If, which is estimated at £8-12m, during the impressionist, modern and surreal art preview at Christie’s auction house: photo by Ben Stansall/AFP via The Guardian, 30 January 2015

Liaoning, China. A woman picks up recyclable materials, as seagulls look for food, at a garbage disposal plant in Dalian: photo by Reuters via the Guardian, 30 January 2015

Shanghai, China. A worker passes an advertisement in the city: photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP via the Guardian, 30 January 2015

Weegee, 1940, by Red Grooms, features in the Wadsworth Atheneum’s new exhibition – Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008: photo by Wadsworth Atheneum via the Guardian, 30 January 2014

Victory

FIGHTING TERRORISM FOR THE WORLD #Kobane #YPG @KurdisCat #shahedbaz: image via Leila Peterson @leila53233, 30 January 2015

#Kurdish women have defeated #ISIS & thrown them out of #Kobani ...? #Beauty #Brains #Bravery #ISIS Blessed #SaffronGirl, Varsha Singh, Ms. Moon Beam and 7 others: image via Dr Jwala Gurunath @DrJwalaG, 30 January 2015

Heroines of #Kobani transformed narrative of resistance against ISIS. They defend homeland, international help vital: image via Barham Salih @BarhamSalih, 26 January 2015

Kurds 'take full control' of #Kobani from Islamic State - #c4news: image via Channel 4 News @Channel4News, 26 January 2015

the freedom square bird is on its feet in the middle of all the destruction, #kobani: image via Frederike Geerdink @fgeerdink, 30 January 2015

Fashion Week

Copenhagen, Denmark.Models blow glitter into the audience during Copenhagen Fashion Week: photo by Simon Laessoe/AFP via The Guardian, 28 January 2015

A model walks the runway during the Franck Sorbier show at Paris Fashion Week: photo by Bertrand Rindoff via The Guardian, 28 January 2015

Paris fashion week: the catwalk at Julien Fournié: photo by Victor Boyko via The Guardian, 28 January 2015

Berivan Fadhil

A young peshmerga female fighter still patrols Kobani's empty streets: photo by Anadolu Agency via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

Ibrahiem Fadhil, 46, a shopkeeper and now a refugee in Turkey, recalls his sister

Berivan was a 22-year-old ordinary, smart, ambitious girl, trying to find her way in a wildly violent place like Syria. I never thought I would see the day when Berivan would be holding a gun to defend her town Kobani to her last drop of blood. Scenes of horror and brutality in Syria were highly affecting her. She could not sleep for a few nights after she watched the Isis military campaign against the Yazidi minority in Sinjar, and was frightened that Kobani would face the same fate. Berivan said to her mother: “I’m going to join Kobani’s fighters and no power on earth can stop me.”

Berivan was only two when her father was killed in a car accident in Aleppo, leaving behind a family of seven kids without any support. Despite the difficult circumstances, Berivan did really well in school, with the aim of fulfilling her dream of joining a college of medicine. It was only a few days before her final exam when the revolution broke out in Syria.This meant that she was not able to travel to Aleppo to do the test.

Berivan’s mother was terrified by the kidnapping of a number of Kurdish students by Isis militants while they were on their way to do the exam in Aleppo. It was a hard choice, but Berivan’s mother preferred that if her daughter were to be killed, it should be in defence of Kobani rather than from a kidnapping or murder by Isis. It would be a more honourable death for the family.

We had to leave Aleppo two years ago to escape the heavy shelling of the Syrian army planes that accompanied the clashes between factions and devastated the life of the locals. Being at home most of the time, Berivan’s dream of becoming a doctor was withering with the escalation of violence in Syria. She spent most of her time listening and watching news of the war in Syria and the rapid advance of Isis in Iraq.

We did not have many options. We headed to Riqa where we have a few relatives, seeking refuge and protection. But it was not long before Isis ravaged Riqa and turned it into its main base for the Islamic state, where military campaigns are waged against its enemies including the Kurds. All the Kurds were a target for Isis, under the accusation of being defectors and loyal to the Syrian regime.

There was no other escape but to go back to Kobani, which we did a few months ago. The town was relatively secure under the control of the Kurdish labour party, despite the shortage of water and power as a result of the tough siege imposed by Isis on all entrances to the city. Most food products and fuels were smuggled into Kobani, business was dead, and we relied on our savings to maintain our life.

When the danger of Isis was creeping back towards the Kobani suburbs six months ago, lots of Kurdish men and women volunteered to join the Kurdish People’s Protection forces in preparation for a showdown. It was the moment Berivan had been yearning for. She did not wait to get her family’s approval and enrolled with the force. She embedded in military camps for training on light weapons with her cousins and friends. The military camp was in the Kobani suburbs and Berivan could only come home once a week. I used to go and see her in the camp when she could not make it home. I could see that she was mainly talking about politics and human rights abuses. She said she would not stand a second in Kobani under the Isis command.

As a family we could not object to Berivan’s decision as most of the young Kobani locals had left their schools or jobs to focus on training for the protection of Kobani. It was a big relief for my mother that Berivan stopped asking to go to Aleppo to do her final exam -- this put an end to the ongoing nightmare of Isis kidnapping Berivan and selling her as a slave, as they had done with Yazidi women. As a man with three kids, I could not join in with the training out of fear for my kids’ future if I were to be killed.

In the eighth months Berivani spent in the military camp, I tried in my visits to her to warn her of the risks of being killed as she was young and not used to military life. But she would not let me finish. Her morale was high and she would not reconsider.

Although we were swamped with fear and worry about Berivan getting killed in a fight, she was still haunted by the dream of completing her studies. She used to spend long hours reviewing her school books when she was allowed home. But the security situation deterioration rapidly. Isis increased the intensity of their attacks against Kobani villages with mortars, artillery and car bombs.

Most of the villagers ran to the centre of Kobani, fearing Isis attacks. We were worried about our family and about the kids who were terrified by the mortars that would fall randomly on the city. I rang Berivan to say: “We are all leaving to Turkey, what are you going to do?” She replied: “I’m not coming with you, it has become a matter of life and death to defend Kobani.”

We became really worried on 18 October. Berivan’s mobile had been switched off for days. It was difficult to reach the military camp or to know where, until my mobile rang. It was Berivan’s friend. He said: “I’m sorry to let you know that Berivan was killed by a car bomb as she was advancing towards Isis positions.”

I’m so proud of her martyrdom –- I refuse to get consolation for her loss and would rather be congratulated for her heroic death.

Fighters and civilians bury the bodies of three civilians after an IS mortar attack on Kobani on December 16, The civilians were killed by the type of IS-fired mortars that regularly fall in and around YPG-controlled areas. That morning, a father, his son and their neighbor became victims. The father, Ahmed Abud, was an Arab man married to a Kurdish woman. After IS overran his village, he had sought refuge in Kobani. He is survived in Kobani by his wife and a daughter. "He was a very good man. We used to help each other in moments of need," said Abu Yasin, one of Abud's neighbors. "He wanted to go back to his village once it was liberated.": photo by Mohammed A. Salih via Al Monitor/Iraq Pulse, 23 December 2014

Chanel

Chanel at Paris fashion week: photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters via The Guardian, 28 January 2015

A model poses at the Chanel show:photo by Pascal Le Segretain via The Guardian, 28 January 2015

Chanel Threw a Magical Garden Party for Its Couture Show #FashionWeek: image via Michelle Cook @michelleeetco, 27 January 2015

So Pretty!! ThankU^^ "#CHANEL #itschanelhautecouturebaby" @xxxibgdrgn's Insta Video: image via Rika F. @solysombra0518, 27 January 2015

The bride with male bridesmaids at Chanel: photo by Rindoff/Dufour via The Guardian, 28 January 2015

There's a LOT going on with this #Chanel dress: image via stuart emmrich @StuartEmmrichNY, 27 January 2015

Oh to be at the @Chanel Couture show! #fashion #chanel: image via B Public Relations @BPRsocial, 29 January 2015

Take a tour of Karl Lagerfeld's #Chanel greenhouse: image via Grazia Live @Grazia_Live, 27 January 2015

Kristen Stewart to star in a @CHANEL campaign with Alice Dellal and Vanessa Paradis #Chanel: image via Grazia Live @Grazia_Live, 27 January 2015

Ruhan Hassan

Ruhan Hassan, right, with a fellow fighter in Kobani: photo by The Guardian, 30 January 2015

Adnan Hassan, 50, a refugee in Turkey, talks about his niece

Ruhan, 19, wanted to know more about the political rights of the Kurdish people in Syria. She was keen to attend all the national activities organised by the different political movements in Kobani. She was the youngest child of a family with seven kids and limited financial resources, and they could not afford to send her to the city to complete her secondary schooling.

Ruhan read a lot about the Kurdish labour party leader, Abdullah Öcalan, co-founder of the PKK, who has been in jail in Turkey for more than 15 years. Ruhan was inspired by his books about Kurdish women and their rights. She joined the women’s protection force in Kobani and in 2013. Ruhan proved to have good skills in fighting against the terrorists, and she encouraged her cousin to join the fight too.

All the fighting forces in Kobani were on alert after the massive attack launched by Isis against Kobani last September. Ruhan’s father asked her to come home and leave the fight to men. She said she preferred to be dead rather than live under the control of Isis and be taken as a slave.

The situation was worsening in Kobani with the flooding in of more Isis fighters. Ruhan’s family struggled to stay to be close to her, but Isis militants started to shell the city centre. There was no way they could stay in Kobani – even their Arab neighbours became a risk after collaborating with Isis against the Kurds. Ruhan’s father told her she needed to flee with them to Turkey. Ruhan said she had decided to die in Kobani.

Like most of the Kurdish families in Turkey, Ruhan’s family watched Kurdish TV to keep up with the news of the fighting and the names of wounded and martyrs among the Kurdish fighters in Kobani.

Then the TV announcer read the names of the martyrs. Ruhan’s mother jumped out of her chair when she heard Ruhan’s name. It was a terrible and sad day. The family ran to the Turkish border to go back to Kobani to find out what had happened to Ruhan. Getting back to Kobani was impossible under the non-stop fight with Isis and the military siege imposed by the Turkish police.

Ruhan’s father kept trying her cousin and other friends for any news of his daughter. Her cousin said Ruhan had been at the western front of Kobani with three other female fighters firing against Isis until they ran out of ammunition. They did not want to be taken as prisoners by Isis so they used their last hand grenades to kill themselves.

A mannequin in the ruins

Kobani, Syria. Musa a 25-year-old Kurdish marksman, stands on top of a building as he looks at the destroyed Syrian town. Kurdish forces recaptured the town on the Turkish frontier in a symbolic blow to the jihadists who have seized large swathes of territory in their onslaught across Syria and Iraq: photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP via The Guardian, 30 January 2015

Visited #Kobani today. The city was shattered, residents will need lot of assistance to reconstruct it. Story coming.: image via Ayla Albayrak @aylushka_a, 28 January 2015

A mannequin is pictured amongst the debris of a street in Kobani: photo by Osman Orsal/Reuters via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

Kim

‘When [Kim] Sears screamed “Fucking have that, you Czech flash fuck,” she placed herself in the luminous company of some memorable cursing that deserves recognition.’: photo by BPI/REX via The Guardian, 30 January 2015

A noise would awaken or impersonate Kim.

As if these things were self evident
In her sleep ancient lunar fish enacted,
As if before an underwater window,
A comic mimicry of a sunken world,
The one Kim wished to inhabit -- as if
Wishing were the next best thing to being
There. When the white moon comes up in the black
Cold winter night, the skin of empire drifts off
Like a poison that's evaporated;
Funny, thought Kim, how the film over words
Loses its toxic power in certain lights
Above implication's dowager kingdom.

Montauk I by Willem de Kooning is part of the Atheneum’s collection of Abstract Expressionism: photo by Wadsworth Atheneum via the Guardian, 30 January 2014

Swearing by Murray: Kim Sears’s outburst happened during her fiance’s Australian Open semi-final win over Tomas Berdych: photo by Paul Crock/AFP via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

Style Section

Members of a Kurdish armed group celebrate victory over Isis: photo by Anadolu Agency via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

Burnt out cars litter the streets of Kobani: photo by Anadolu Agency via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

A half built building in Kobani, damaged by months of fighting: photo by Anadolu Agency via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

Fighters of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) patrol on a motorcycle in Kobani, damaged by months of fighting: photo by Osman Orsal/Reuters via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

People walk over the rubble-filled streets: photo by Osman Orsal/Reuters via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

A fighter of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) flashes a V-sign:photo by Osman Orsal/Reuters via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

A general view of Kobani streets shows the devastation after weeks of fighting: photo by Anadolu Agency via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

↧

Just a perfect day for global epic reflection

February 2, 2015, 5:16 am

≫ Next: William Carlos Williams: The Thing

≪ Previous: Fashion Week

Amazing day at the #SuperBowl: image via Britney Spears @britneyspears, 1 February 2015

@JimmyFallon's #SuperBowl show started with this epic a capella "We Are the Champions" video: image via JustJared @JustJared, 1 February 2015

#AmericanSniper has officially broken the box office record for #SuperBowl weekend: image via Geek Nation @GeekNation, 1 February 2015

#AmericanSniper set a #SuperBowl weekend record at the box office: image via Variety @Variety, 1 February 2015

I'd watch #AmericanSniper again right now if I could: image via Andrew Day @Andrew_S_Day, 1 February 2015

#AmericanSniper Shoots Down Super Bowl Weekend Record With $31.9M: image via FOX 11 Los Angeles @myfoxla, 1 February 2015

FASHION STATEMENT #FashionStatement: image via IG:steloolive @stelooive, 28 January 2015

Staring hard into the face of the future and seeing yet another giant boring machine tunneling toward me made me think of how it might feel to be drinking three liters of Dr Pepper while viewing the game action from Britney's vip suite if the Super Bowl were being mysteriously attacked by a huge steroidal iPhone with revolving Alien terror teeth

London, UK. Workmen watch as the tunnel machine, named Elizabeth after the Queen, breaks through into Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

A workman is seen through a drill after the Crossrail breakthrough into the east-end of Crossrail's Liverpool Street station in London: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

Composite image of workmen looking on as tunnel machine, named Elizabeth after the Queen, breaks through into the east-end of Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station in LondonLondon: composite photo by Anthony Devlin/PA via The Guardian, 29 January 2015

Workers look on as a Crossrail tunnelling machine makes the first breakthrough into the City of London, 40m below ground under Liverpool Street: photos by Anthony Devlin/PA The Guardian, 30 January 2015

Tunnel machine Elizabeth breaks into Liverpool Street station: images via Crossrail Project @Crossrail, 29 January 2015

Disneyland is taking action amid a California measles outbreak: photo by H Lorren Au Jr/AP via the Guardian, 22 January 2015

Running up the numbers in Neverland

Katy Perry headlining the Super Bowl halftime extravaganza: playful and pop: photo by Byan Snyder/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

As anyone who saw Madonna carried into the arena by a platoon of Roman centurions three years ago will have realised, the halftime show at the Super Bowl is no place for understatement. Yet Katy Perry’s grand entrance redefines the term kitsch. She emerges standing on the back of a giant puppet tiger which advances across the stadium, red eyes flashing, while Perry shakes its enormous golden reins while belting out Roar, clad in a Jeremy Scott outfit constructed of tongues of vinyl flame. It’s The Hunger Games as reimagined by the producers of Strictly Come Dancing.

The opening sets the tone for a high-octane show as notable for its surreal camp as for its tunes. Over 12 minutes, Perry manages to squeeze in four costume changes, nine songs (including three by Missy Elliott), and two backing dancers dressed as cuddly sharks, during an interlude in which the stage seems to turn into a cross between Club Tropicana and the hill from Tellytubbies. Perry’s sturdily-constructed pop tunes are whipped up into a hectic megamix, each number the excuse for ever more outlandish staging.

-- Alex Needham: from Super Bowl halftime show review -- epic, lung-busting kitsch: The singer emerged on a giant tiger, danced with people dressed as sharks - and narrowly avoided being upstaged by Missy Elliott, The Guardian, 1 February 2015

Workers at a Foxconn factory in China: photo by Darley Shen/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

The typical worker at Apple’s main manufacturer is a young man of 27, a “migrant worker” who grew up in a village. One among 170,000 employees, he (two-thirds of staff are male) earns about £180 a month at China’s biggest technology manufacturer, most likely in one of its airport-sized facilities in Shenzhen, about an hour’s drive from Hong Kong. Those wages are more than many blue-collar jobs in China -- and many go to Foxconn for a short-term summer job before returning to school or university in the autumn. The biggest threat to their livelihood might not be Apple; instead, it’s Foxconn’s plan to install robots to eliminate errors.

Apple’s rise has come through lucrative contracts with Foxconn and many other suppliers in and around Shenzhen handpicked to meet exacting deadlines and quality controls. Apple boss Tim Cook says it is impossible to find companies of such scale in the US.

Workers typically put in 56 to 61 hours a week (despite the local legal maximum of 60), some doing seven-day stints without a break during the summer as orders are ramped up for new devices to be launched in the autumn. A Fair Labor Organisation investigation in 2012 found that required 15-minute breaks every two hours were sometimes ignored. The strain drove some to suicide in the past; Apple has repeatedly pledged to improve its labour practices, with counselling and labour monitoring.

-- Charles Arthur: from Planet Apple, The Guardian, 1 February 2015

A Chinese customer buys two new iPhone 6s: photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP via The Observer, 31 January 2015

Financially, is this the peak?

Apple was 90 days away from bankruptcy when Steve Jobs rejoined it in 1997-- as he later revealed -- but Apple now tends to downplay its financial success ahead of quarterly profit announcements in order to surprise investors and analysts.

This quarter’s profits were on another scale, though. Sales in the three months to the end of December were up 30% to $74.6bn. Those profits of $18bn were up 37%.

It was the fastest quarterly growth since March 2012, but then Apple was half the size it is now. As Apple’s chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, said: “For a company of our size that is not a small feat.”

Katy Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said it was a “quarter for the record books” and increased her share price target from $126 to $133, indicating she believes there is more growth to come. The shares, which jumped 5% in after-hours trading following Apple’s results, closed at $117 on Friday.

The big challenge now, says Geoff Blaber, vice-president of research for CCS Insight, is to find the next growth opportunity. “Western Europe and north America are becoming saturated: to have room for growth Apple has to rely on taking growth from [Google’s] Android operating system based devices,” he says. “The big, big, focus is on China and to a lesser extent India.”

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Apple’s revenue in the year to September to grow 22%, but growth to slow to 4% in the following year.

Are there many people left who want an iPhone?

Apple sold a record 74.5m mobiles in the quarter, 46% more than in the same period a year earlier. “Demand for iPhone has been staggering, shattering our high expectations,” chief executive Tim Cook said. “This volume is hard to comprehend.”

The phones accounted for two-thirds of Apple’s revenue, and were worth more than Microsoft and Google’s latest quarterly sales combined.

“Seems like the whole world wants an iPhone,” Steven Milunovich, an analyst at UBS, wrote in a note to investors, pointing out that consumers had demanded even more phones but Apple couldn’t produce them fast enough until recently.

However, Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Bernstein Research, cautions that Apple’s growth may be too reliant on the seven-year-old product

line.

“A bet on Apple is increasingly a bet on the iPhone,” Sacconaghi says. “The good news is, iPhones are great. The bad news is, right now that’s driving over 100% of the revenue growth of the company.”

-- from What do you do after you become the world's most profitable company?: Rupert Neate, The Observer, 31 January 2015

Tim Cook unveils the Apple Watch in California last year: photo by Zuma/Rex via The Observer, 31 January 2015

How important is China?

Very: iPhone sales are exploding in the country. Apple overtook local producer Xiaomi to become China’s biggest smartphone seller in the last quarter. Chinese sales, which had been weak for Apple until it released the latest bigger-screen phones, came in at $16.1bn, up 70% on last year – when it also did not have a deal giving it access to China Mobile’s estimated 760 million subscribers.

Revenues in China are quickly catching up with the amount it collects in the whole of Europe, where sales were $17.2bn, up 20%.

“I was there [in China] right after the launch in October, and the excitement around the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus [was] absolutely phenomenal,” Cook said during his call with analysts. “You can tell that we’re a big believer in China.”

Apple plans to double the number of its stores in greater China to 40 by mid-2016. “It’s an incredible market,” he said. “People love Apple products. And we are going to do our best to serve the market.”

Only a year earlier, in October 2013, Apple was the No 6 smartphone maker in China, trailing Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo, Samsung and Yulong, according to research firm Canalys.

“This is an amazing result, given that the average selling price of Apple’s handsets is nearly double those of its nearest competitors,” Canalys says. “While Chinese smartphone vendors are quickly gaining ground internationally, Apple has turned the tables on them in their home market.”

Can it afford for the Apple Watch to fail?

It has been five years since Apple launched its latest truly new product -- the iPad -- in 2010. To live up to its name for innovation, and diversify revenues away from reliance on the iPhone, Apple needs the Apple Watch to be an unqualified success.

Cook announced that the watch would go on sale in April, giving the company a boost in its third quarter when it will not benefit from Christmas or the Chinese new year, which will have helped the previous two quarters. “We’re making great progress in the development of it,” he said.

Apple describes the new product – often referred to as the iWatch, although it has not been officially named – as the “most personal device ever” and it is thought it will be able to monitor its wearer’s health as well as connect to an iPhone to provide several other functions. Cook said app developers had already impressed him with “some incredible innovation”.

Carolina Milanesi at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech says the watch will help Apple extend its sales into a much wider market. “They have been very smart in pushing it as jewellery and design rather than how technologically smart it is,” she says. “They are concentrating more on impressing the design and fashion world than the tech bloggers.

“I think this will be a much more irrational buy than with an iPad. With an iPad you wanted an iPad: this is going to be more of a fashion statement.”

She said the launch would benefit from the fashion and marketing skills of Angela Ahrendts, the former Burberry boss Apple hired last year on a $73m pay package as its head of retail.

Apple poached a string of big names from fashion and design to join its watch team, including Patrick Pruniaux, former vice-president of sales at Tag Heuer and former Yves Saint Laurent boss Paul Deneve, who is now Apple’s “vice president of special projects”.

-- from What do you do after you become the world's most profitable company?: Rupert Neate, The Observer, 31 January 2015

Taylor Swift prefers downloads to streaming: photo by Darley Shen/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

US: Pop stars

Apple transformed the music business with the launch of its iTunes music store in 2003, making buying digital music easy and fast. Since then iTunes has become a behemoth -- but the rise of streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer and Pandora has made “buying” tracks less popular, leading to a slump in digital sales.

Some major pop artists, such as Taylor Swift, still prefer sales over streams: in October she removed all her songs from Spotify, and had the year’s second-best selling album with 1989 (behind the Disney soundtrack for Frozen). Pharrell Williams had the most downloaded song with Happy.

Even so, Apple sees that downloads are becoming passé. Having bought Dr Dre’s company Beats Electronics, it is expected to wrap the streaming service that came with it into iTunes this year, and make Beats headphones (which have a huge following) into a new gateway for Apple products.

Will Swift be able to shake that off? She might not have a choice.

-- Charles Arthur: from Planet Apple, The Guardian, 1 February 2015

With dignity and restraint (is it a lion or is it a tiger?)

Missy Elliott and Katy Perry play the Super Bowl: photo by Christopher Polk via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

Missy Elliott doesn’t exactly strike a note of sobriety, but she does stop the show disappearing down the rabbit hole. Wearing a startling, waist-length hair weave, her salvo of Get Ur Freak on, Work it and Lose Control almost steal the slot from under Perry’s nose: almost 15 years since they were released, these songs still sound like the future. The only way Perry can top it is by reappearing in a star-spangled silver outfit and flying around the stadium on a platform which seems to be propelled by a giant sparkler-shooting star. So naturally she does, inevitably while singing Firework. It’s a wildly over-the-top ending for a show that didn’t know the meaning of “too much”, but which somehow never overwhelmed its star.

As ever, no expense spared as the nation’s favourite show kicks off: photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

Things are barely underway and some of the dancers look like are on their way to the yellow brick road: photo by Christopher Polk via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

A giant tiger carries Katy Perry into the stadium for her to belt out her hit single Roar: photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

And here she is! On a big lion! Of course she is! Or is it a tiger? It’s a big cat, anyway: photo by Karl Walter via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

A: So what’s the plan for the half-time show? B: Katy Perry. Massive tiger. Looks like a horse: photo by Jamie Squire via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

“Is that your chiiiick?” For goodness sakes, it’s Katy Perry, Missy!: photo by Christopher Polk via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

People often say they’re scared of sharks. They should count their lucky stars they’ve never had to spend time with two-legged sharks. While dancing.: photo by David J. Phillip/AP via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

It’s a primary colour blitz as Perry and pals work through their routine: photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

The Patriots fans are getting excited ...: photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

... as are the Seahawks fans: photo by Timothy A Cleary/AFP via The Guardian, 1 February 2015

That was not the most exciting #SuperBowl ever (but it does rank pretty high): image via FiveThirtyEight @FiveThirtyEight, 1 February 2015

In the huddle

JUST GIMME A KISS…BRIT... @britneyspears #2001HALFTIMESHOW #WALKTHISWAY #REUNITED: image via Steven Tyler @IamStevenT, 1 February 2015

PRAISE — Britney Spears just saved the #SuperBowl: image via Bustle @bustle, 1 February 2015

Who was better? RT for Britney Spears FAV for Katy Perry: images via Feim vol.1 @FeimM, 1 February 2015

I'm so sorry but no halftime show will ever top Steven Tyler with Britney Spears, 'N Sync, & Nelly. #2001: image via Adrianna @_peruz, 1 February 2015

Let's take a moment to remember this #SuperBowl brilliance: image via Hayley Podschun @haypod22, 1 February 2015

@britneyspears vip suite @SuperBowl @etnow: image via Canaan Rubin @CanaanRubin, 1 February 2015

I'm not sure I am emotionally prepared in case of a @britneyspears special guest halftime appearance #SB49: image via Ariel Ufret @arielufret, 1 February 2015

If Britney Spears did this year's Halftime Show: image via T.Kyle @tkylemac, 1 February 2015

The Day After: A Day of Honour

Proudly supporting #ChrisKyle and #ChrisKyleDay on 2/2/15. Urging everyone to go and follow @ChrisKyleFrog: image via Shane Read @srcreate, 30 January 2015

Governor Abbott of Texas has announced that February 2nd will be #ChrisKyleDay across our great state: image via Chad Anders @caught_lookin, 30 January 2014

American Cinematic Icon Clint Eastwood, like a BOSS #ChrisKyleDay #Feb2 #American Sniper: image via Infidel @HeidiL_RN, 31 January 2015

Chris Kyle Traitor, Racist, Mass Murderer, War Criminal #ChrisKyleDay #Feb2 #American Sniper: image via DJ Rubiconski @Rubinconski, 31 January 2015

Monday is proclaimed #ChrisKyleDay in Texas #military: image via Military Trending @militarylizer, 31 January 2015

Awesomeness > Feb 2nd Declared #ChrisKyleDay in Texas via @GregAbbott_TX @ChrisKyleFrog: image via I Yam What I Yam @Nvr4Get91101, 30 January 2014

Three liters of Awesomeness

taste of #murica: image via matty @MatthewHayward2, 1 February 2015

Ready for the big game tomorrow. @BehemothbeerNZ #murica #SuperBowl: image via the Beer Library @BeerLibraryCHCH, 31 January 2015

What soldiers do in their free time #murica: image via Josephine Behrends @josephinebehre2, 31 January 2015

Going on a date with my girl to see #americansniper: image via roray @realroray, 31 January 2014

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!???? EVERY PUBLIC OFFICIAL IN THIS STATE HAS ME RAGING TODAY. @GovAbbott #ChrisKyleDay: image via k-cobb @KristinaCobb, 30 January 2015 Austin, Texas

Texas Governor to declare #ChrisKyleDay in honour of sniper: image via Canoe Politics @canoepolitics, 31 January 2015

#American Sniper #1 Domestic War Movie of all time. #ChrisKyleDay: image via Bang Zoom @VikingMike88, 31 January 2015

Bradley Cooper in American Sniper: photo uncredited/AP via The Guardian, 29 January 2014

Former US navy Seal Chris Kyle: photo by Paul Moseley/AP via The Guardian, 20 January 2015

Heightened for the screen … American Sniper is based on Chris Kyle’s memoir of the same name: photo by Keith Bernstein/AP via The Guardian, 20 January 2015

Chris Kyle, who was shot dead at a Texas gun range in February 2013, has become a divisive figure. Public statements suggested he relished his job, and in his book of the same name as the film, co-written with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice, he portrayed the Iraqis and Islamic insurgents he killed as “savages”. Kyle’s story has also fueled controversy on social media, where advocacy groups have detected a disturbing rise in Islamophobic comments and anti-Muslim threats inspired by the movie: photo by Paul Moseley/AP via The Guardian, 31 January 2015

Jane analyzes the weekend box office w/ #AmericanSniper breaking #SuperBowl Weekend Record: image via Reel Life with jane @reellifejane, 1 February 2015

#AmericanSniper set a #SuperBowl weekend record at the box office: image via Mohamed Omer @MohamedOmar, 1 February 2015

This is why #AmericanSniper should not be awarded for anything except America's crappiest movie after Gili: image via Fatimah @Fatimahs1990, 1 February 2015

What if the other guys got to play too?

Isr amb. 2 US watched 2 much #AmericanSniper - Watch this! @AmbDermer: Breaking Protocol, Choosing Sides: Go Patriots: image via Bea @Bea4Palestine, 1 February 2015

Palestinians walk on a stone wall that was painted by local artists in an attempt to bring more colour to Gaza City: photo by Wissam Nassar/Xinhua Press/Corbis via The Guardian, 31 January 2015

Beit Hanun, Gaza Strip. A Palestinian girl sleeps on a mat at her destroyed home. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said it cannot afford to repair Gaza homes damaged in last year’s war because donors have failed to pay and cutting subsidies to displaced residents now renting alternative accommodation could force large numbers back to UN schools and centres which are already sheltering 12,000 people: photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via The Guardian, 30 January 2015

In Gaza City, a Palestinian boy wearing a military costume arrives at a graduation ceremony for Palestinian youths who were trained at one of the Hamas-run liberation camps: photo by Suhaib Salem/Reuters via The Guardian, 31 January 2015

Wallops Island, Virginia. An unmanned rocket owned by Orbital Sciences Corporation explodes just seconds after launch, on what was to be a resupply mission to the International Space Station: photo by Steve Alexander/AFP via The Guardian, 29 October 2014

Fireworks over Super Bowl Central in Phoenix! #SB49: image via Super Bowl @SuperBowl, 28 January 2015

↧

William Carlos Williams: The Thing

February 3, 2015, 4:47 am

≫ Next: No More Tangles: The birth of a truly digital world in which nothing can ever again go wrong, mostly

≪ Previous: Just a perfect day for global epic reflection

Student life in Radcliffe dormitory: photo by Lynn Miller, n.d., c. 1960s (Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America)

Each time it rings
I think it is for
me but it is
not for me nor for

anyone it merely
rings and we
serve it bitterly
together, they and I

WilliamCarlosWilliams: The Thing, from The Clouds (1948) in The Collected Poems: Volume II, 1939-1962 (1988)

TELEPHONE SERVICE CORONET 07/01/1954 p. 7

Bell Telephone System advertisement for telephone service: Coronet, 1 August 1954 (Gallery of Graphic Design)

TELEPHONE SERVICE BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS 10/01/1930 p. 9

Bell Telephone System advertisement for telephone service: Better Homes and Gardens, 1 October 1930 (Gallery of Graphic Design)

Bell Telephone System advertisement for telephone systems: Life, 12 December 1936 (Gallery of Graphic Design)

Bell Telephone System advertisement for telephone service: Time, 15 June 1942 (Gallery of Graphic Design)

Bell Telephone System advertisement for telephone service: Life, 29 October1955 (Gallery of Graphic Design)

Bench, Austin, Texas: photo by Gary Gumanow, May 2012, posted 6 February 2013

Last Call, George's, Vernalis, California. Argus c3 with long expired (and damaged) technical pan: photo by efo, 22 June 2014

Telephone booth near Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome: photo by Warburg, November 2007

Bobby's Bus Shelter, near Baltasound, Unst, Shetland: photo by Ella Mullins, 15 July 2010

Untitled: photo by Joshua Perez (StangeGoodness), 7 June 2013

Untitled: photo by Joshua Perez (StrangeGoodness), 15 November 2013

@jobsworth #London in the 1929s: #Telephone #Engineer /v @oldpicsarchive: image via Alexander Ainslie @AAinslie, 8 January 2015

Escucha a Lady Gaga y Britney Spears cantar a dúo #Telephone: image via Exuavisa@ecuavisa, 10 January 2015

Mobile users are rediscovering the pleasure of talking on the phone #communication #telephone: image via ChitrChatr @chitrchatr, 14 January 2015

136 years ago today Queen Victoria was given a demonstration of a brand new invention, the telephone #telephone: image via Excell Group @ExcellGroup, 14 January 2015

Angela #Merkel avec son premier #telephone cellulaire, vers 1992 (via @PhotosHistos): image via Mutant @Digitaliseur, 16 January 2015

Brooklyn Bridge tourist snapping a selfie as a man threatens to jump off the bridge behind her: photo by Paul Martinka via The Guardian, 11 December 2013

Lena Dunham using iPhone with personalized cover design to snap a bedroom closet mirror selfie: image via The Guardian, 11 December 2013

Kim Kardashian takes a selfie of her bum

Kim Kardashian takes a selfie of her bum

Kim Kardashian snapping an iconic iPhone bum selfie in front of a mirror: image via The Guardian, 11 December 2013

Geraldo Rivera snapping an iPhone bathroom mirror selfier: image via The Guardian, 11 December 2013

Sasha and Malia Obama snapping a selfie: photo by Joe Klamar/AFP via The Guardian, 11 December 2013

David Cameron, Helle Thorning Schmidt and Barack Obama pose for a selfie during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela: photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP via The Guardian, 12 December 2013

David Cameron, Helle Thorning Schmidt and Barack Obama pose for a selfie during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, with Michele Obama looking off to right: photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP via The Guardian, 12 December 2013

#LAX airport love old #telephoneboots cause U don't see them anymore am CallingU Cookie: love life adventure #Telephone: image via Bai Ling @ReaBaiLing, 28 January 2015

↧

No More Tangles: The birth of a truly digital world in which nothing can ever again go wrong, mostly

February 4, 2015, 4:45 am

≫ Next: Flann O'Brien: Is it about a bicycle?

≪ Previous: William Carlos Williams: The Thing

#Circuitboard design for custom rig. A human in the US is turning this idea into reality as we speak. NEW SHOW > 2015: image via Mr Shepherd RBB Systems @MrShphrdRBBSystems, 20 December 2014

Have you ever seen a more incredible image from a dashcam? (This is TransAsia Flight #GE235, via @missxoxo168): image via brian stelter @brianstelter, 4 February 2015

Port Newark-Elizabeth marine terminal, New Jersey: image by Benjamin Grant/Digital Globe/Caters News Agency via The Guardian, 3 February 2015

JUST IN: BREAKING NEWS: 8 confirmed dead in TransAsia plane crash: image via Breaking News Feed @PZFeed,, 4 February 2015

Can outsourcing your #SMALLBATCH orders save you money long-term? #circuitboard: image via RBB Systems @RBBSystems, 19 January 2015

Circuit boards that dissolve into sugars in the presence of engineered bacteria could be the future of mobile phone recycling: photo by Alamy via The Guardian, 30 September 2014

San Francisco salt ponds: image by Benjamin Grant/Digital Globe/Caters News Agency via The Guardian, 3 February 2015

A circuit board from a mobile phone: photo by Alamy via The Guardian, 22 September 2014

TransAsia Flight #GE235 crash landing caught via @Missxoxo168’s dash cam: image via Byron Conway @aricochet, 4 February 2015

Found this cool photo by the Harbor: #circuitboard #chelseacreek #bostonharbor #atlanticocean #lowtide #colony col...: image via A Boston Taxi Cab @ABOSTTaxiCabRBB Systems @RBBSystems, 30 November 2014

CECN19 IBM computer chip circuit board from a mobile phone: photo by Alamy via The Guardian, 22 September 2014

My souvenirs from #sciencemuseum #recycled #circuitboard cooasters!: image via Saija Saarenpaä, 3 August 2014

Boca Raton, Florida: image by Benjamin Grant/Digital Globe/Caters News Agency via The Guardian, 3 February 2015

A Raspberry Pi is an ideal introduction to computing and robotics: photo by Linda Nylind for the Guardian, 7 December 2014

Circuit boards are made with a thermoset of glass that isn’t easily recyclable: photo by Leah Borromeo via The Guardian, 7 May 2014

#Taipei: 9 dead; many trapped; 58 on AR-72; dash-cam catures dramatic crash into brdge/taxi river, more than 10 hurt: image via NewsWatchCanada @newswatchcanada, 4 February 2015

The new Raspberry Pi 2 has a faster, quad-core processor, twice the amount of memory and six times the performance, but costs the same $35: photo by RS Components via The Guardian, 2 February 2015

Venice, Italy: image by Benjamin Grant/Digital Globe/Caters News Agency via The Guardian, 3 February 2015

Hackers are using increasingly sophisticated means to access data, but for what ends?: photo by Roz Woodward via The Guardian, 16 June 2011

That dashcam shot of #GE235so surreal it looks like a scene from the movie Knowing: image via Ed Junaidi @edjunaidi, 4 February 2015

Barcelona, Spain: image by Benjamin Grant/Digital Globe/Caters News Agency via The Guardian, 3 February 2015

Electronic waste refining could be big business for the US

Electronic waste in California: photo by Steve Yeater/AP via The Guardian, 28 November 2011

The industrial section of Tokai, Japan: image by Benjamin Grant/Digital Globe/Caters News Agency via The Guardian, 3 February 2015

The price of memory chips for mobile phones and computers has soared by 19%, a three-year record, following a fire at a factory in China belonging to Apple supplier SK Hynix. Hynix is said to supply chips to Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Dell and Sony: photo by Andrew Brookes/Corbis via The Guardian, 6 September 2013

#GE235: Motorist captured image of #Taiwan plane crash via dash cam: image via Yahoo Singapore @YahooSG, 4 February 2015

Dallas-Fort Worth airport, Texas: image by Benjamin Grant/Digital Globe/Caters News Agency via The Guardian, 3 February 2015

‘Students develop better ways to approach and think about problems, which is just as valuable as the technical skills themselves.': photo by flickr via The Guardian, 18 December 2014

TERRIFYING PHOTOS: Dashcam footage shows TransAsia Flight #GE235 ATR 72 as it impacted Keelung River @missxoxo168: image via Breaking911 @Breaking 911, 4 February 2015

@gymdixon sorry bud, wired it wrong #circuitboard: image via ben evison @bevisonswfc, 1 February 2015

Dadaan refugee camp, Kenya: image by Benjamin Grant/Digital Globe/Caters News Agency via The Guardian, 3 February 2015

What we know about the crash of flight #GE235: image via reportedly @reportedly, 4 February 2015

↧

Flann O'Brien: Is it about a bicycle?

February 5, 2015, 2:51 am

≫ Next: Edward Thomas: The Owl

≪ Previous: No More Tangles: The birth of a truly digital world in which nothing can ever again go wrong, mostly

Gorgeous #FullMoon over the Sperrins tonight @barrabest #SkyFullOfStars: image via Naomh @naomhs, 2 February 2015 Northern Ireland

Policeman MacCruiskeen put the lamp on the table, shook hands with me and gave me the time of day with great gravity. His voice was high, almost feminine, and he spoke with delicate careful intonation. Then he put the lamp on the counter and surveyed the two of us.

'Is it about a bicycle?' he asked.

An Autocycle. We haven't really had a clear shot of an autocycle before, so I was delighted to spot this one alone and palely loitering outside Margaret O'Doherty's Hotel at Malin Head in Co. Donegal...: photo by Robert French for Lawrence Photographic Studios, Dublin, between 1907 and 1911 (?) (National Library of Ireland)

'Not that' said the Sergeant. 'This is a private visitor who says he did not arrive in the townland upon a bicycle. He has no personal name at all. His dadda is in far Amurikey.'

'Which of the two Amurikeys?' asked MacCruiskeen.

'The Unified Stations,' said the Sergeant.

'Likely he is rich by now if he is in that quarter,' said MacCruiskeen, 'because there's dollars there, dollars and bucks and nuggets in the ground and any amount of rackets and golf games and musical instruments. It is a free country too by all accounts.'

Next stop, America! Locomotive 107 at Valentia (Valencia) Harbour Station in County Kerry: photo by Robert French for Lawrence Photographic Studios, Dublin, c. 1904 (between 1901 and 1908) (National Library of Ireland)

'Free for all,' said the Sergeant. 'Tell me this,' he said to the policeman, 'Did you take any readings today?'

'I did,' said MacCruiskeen.

'Take out your black book and tell me what it was like a good man,' said the Sergeant. 'Give me the gist of it till I see what I see,' he added.

Whose name would you write down, if you owned this? #annoying #revenge #blackbook: image via Epic Boxx @EpicBoxx, 8 November 2014

MacCruiskeen fished a small black book from his breast pocket.

'Ten point six,' he said.

'Ten point six,' said the Sergeant. 'And what reading did you notice on the beam?'

Drawing of Artificial Arm: US Department of the Interior, Patent Office, 11 August 1865 (Cartographic and Architectural Records Section, US National Archives)

'Seven point four.'

'How much on the lever?'

View from top of Nelson's Pillar, Sackville Street (O'Connell Street), Dublin: photo by W.D. Hogan, c. 1921 (National Library of Ireland)

'One point five.'

There was a pause here. The Sergeant put on an expression of great intricacy as if he were doing far-from-simple sums and calculations in his head. After a time his face cleared and he spoke again to his companion.

Elisha Otis's Elevator Patent Drawing: US Department of the Interior, Patent Office, 15 January 1861 (Cartographic and Architectural Records Section, US National Archives)

'Was there a fall?'

'A heavy fall at half-past three.'

'Very understandable and commendably satisfactory,' said the Sergeant. 'Your supper is on the hob inside and be sure to stir the milk before you take any of it, that way the rest of us after you will have our share of the fats of it, the health of it.'

New Living Pictures. Sackville Street and O'Connell Street, Dublin: photographer unknown, c. Spring 1913 (National Library of Ireland)

Policeman MacCruiskeen smiled at the mention of food and went into the back room loosening his belt as he went; after a moment we heard the sounds of coarse slobbering as if he was eating porridge without the assistance of spoon or hand. The Sergeant invited me to sit at the fire in his company and gave me a wrinkled cigarette from his pocket.

#amywinehouse #queen #blackandwhite #cigarette: image via beka @beka_kakabadze, 16 January

'It is a lucky thing for your pop that he is situated in Amurikey,' he remarked, 'if it is a thing that he is having trouble with the old teeth. It is very few sicknesses that are not from the teeth.''Yes,' I said. I was determined to say as little as possible and let these unusual policeman first show their hand. Then I would know how to deal with them.

General John Adams CSA. He was KIA at Franklin, Tennessee in Nov. 1864. His father was a #Strabane #Tyrone emigrant: image via Damian Shiels @irishacw, 1 November 2014

'Because a man can have more disease and germination in his gob than you'll find in a rat's coat and Amurikey is a country where the population do have grand teeth like shaving lather or like bits of delph when you break a plate.'

Draw! Boy drawing a cowboy on a wall at Essex Street, Dublin: photographer unknown, 1953 (National Library of Ireland)

'Quite true,' I said.

'Or like eggs under a black crow.'

'Like eggs,' I said.

Drawing of Hat to Prevent Drowning: Department of the Interior, Patent Office, 14 October 1840 (Cartographic and Architectural Records Section, US National Archives)

'Did you ever happen to visit the cinematograph in your travels?'

'Never' I answered humbly, 'but I believe it is a dark quarter and little can be seen at all except the photographs on the wall'.

#CharlieChaplin, #PauletteGoddard and #NormaShearer, 1936 #oldhollywood #FotoCinéphila #FotoKabemayor: image via Luis A. Cabezón, 10 December 2014

'Well it is there you see the fine teeth they do have in Amurikey,' said the Sergeant.

Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan), b. Strabane, County Tyrone, UK, 15 October 1911 d. Dublin, Republic of Ireland 1 April 1966: from Chapter 4 in The Third Policeman, writ 1939-1940, first published 1968

The Mall in Tralee, County Kerry: photographer unknown, c. August/September 1952 (National Library of Ireland)

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“I saw that my witticism was unperceived and quietly replaced it in the treasury of my mind." #flannobrien 47yrs dead today: image via Pub n Snugs @Pubsabdsnugs, 1 April 2013

#LittleMuseum of #Dublin preserves #FlannOBrien's belongings @dublinmuseum: image via UE English @ueenenglish, 4 February 2015

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Edward Thomas: The Owl

February 6, 2015, 4:46 am

≫ Next: Leaving Debaltseve: "The whole town is destroyed"

≪ Previous: Flann O'Brien: Is it about a bicycle?

Beautiful barred owl at Munroe Falls Metro Park #barredowl: image via Summit Metro Parks @metro_parks, 5 February 2015

Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved;

Cold, yet had heat within me that was proof

Against the North wind; tired, yet so that rest

Had seemed the sweetest thing under a roof.

Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest,

Knowing how hungry, cold, and tired was I.

All of the night was quite barred out except

An owl’s cry, a most melancholy cry

Shaken out long and clear upon the hill,

No merry note, nor cause of merriment,

But one telling me plain what I escaped

And others could not, that night, as in I went.

And salted was my food, and my repose,

Salted and sobered, too, by the bird’s voice

Speaking for all who lay under the stars,

Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.

.....Edward Thomas (1878-1917): The Owl, from Poems (1917)

"@RicheyWoods: My favorite #Superb_Owl is the #BarredOwl"#barredowl: image via Go Mt. Charleston @ Go Mt. Charleston, 1 February 2015

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Leaving Debaltseve: "The whole town is destroyed"

February 7, 2015, 6:03 am

≫ Next: Thomas Wyatt: The longe love that in my thought doeth harbar / Petrarch: Amor che nel penser mio vive e regna

≪ Previous: Edward Thomas: The Owl

Entering the gates of hell, #Debaltseve. No water, no food, no electricity and death on every street corner. #Ukraine: image via Maxim Tucker @MaxRTucker, 3 February 2015

Evacuation of civilians from #Debaltseve to the #Ukraine-controlled territory @olarhat: image via EuroMaidan @EuromaidanPR, 6 February 2015

One more picture from #Debaltseve "@AFP: A bus carries civilians to safety from the Ukrainian town of Debaltseve”: image via Volodymyr Shuvayev @shuvayev, 6 February 2015
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Heartbreaking MT@france7776 Elderly woman says goodbye to family before evacuation fr #Debaltseve Pic RFE/RL #Ukraine: image via The Power Of One @france7776, 6 February 2015

People line up outside Debaltseve municipal building for food handouts: image via Peter Leonard @pete_leonard, 6 February 2015

Inside #Debaltseve: image via Will Vernon @BBCWillVernon, 6 February 2015

Morale of #Ukraine troops high at #Debaltseve. "I´m afraid, but will never stop fighting for our nation", said Vasya: image via Oystein Bogen @oysteinbogen, 5 February 2015

Russian tank column reportedly destroyed near #Debaltseve. Information Resistance reports. Media are asked not to spread routes info: image via UKRAINE TODAY @uatodaytv, 4 February 2015

RU forces purposefully shelling buses w/people evacuating from #Debaltseve: image via Ukraine Reporter @StateOfUkraine, 4 February 2015

Civilians evacuating #Debaltseve. "The whole town is destroyed." #Ukraine: image via joanne mariner @jgmariner, 3 February 2015

The town of Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine was once home to 25,000 people. Now it is a Ukrainian army stronghold that has sustained heavy shelling from pro-Russian separatist positions over the past week. Amnesty International estimates that 2,000 residents have been evacuated since 28 January, and 7,000 remain: photo by Petr Shelomovskiy/Demotix/Corbis via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

A woman wipes tears from her face while waiting on a bus to leave Debaltseve when the road out of town is deemed to be safe enough: photo by Petr David Josek/AP via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

An elderly woman in Debaltseve collects water from a puddle. The thousands of residents who remain lack running water, food, electricity and basic medical supplies, according to Amnesty: photo by Reuters via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

A woman cooks on a fire outside her house in Debaltseve. The current fighting in eastern Ukraine is the most intense since a fragile ceasefire was signed in Minsk five months ago: photo by Reuters via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

Ukrainian soldiers guard a check point near Debaltseve, which is home to a strategic railway junction that lies between the separatist-held cities of Luhansk and Donetsk: photo by Petr David Josek/AP via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

A woman carries her belongings to a building used as an evacuation centrein Debaltseve: photo by Petr David Josek/AP via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

Debaltseve residents sit on a bus waiting to be evacuated: photo by Manu Brabo/AFP via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

"The past 2 weeks have been terrifying" - the people fleeing Ukraine town of #Debaltseve: image via BBC News (World) @BBCWorld, 5 February 2015

A boy looks through a bus window, waiting for departure. The UN estimates that the conflict in eastern Ukraine has left more than 5,100 people dead and displaced more than 900,000 since April 2014. Five Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 27 wounded in fighting with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s eastern regions in the past 24 hours, Kiev military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on Tuesday: photo by Reuters via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

A Ukrainian soldier stands watch on the road between Debaltseve and the Ukrainian-controlled town of Artemivsk, also in the Donetsk region. On Monday, pro-Russian separatists vowed to mobilise up to 100,000 fighters for their latest east Ukraine offensive: photo by Manu Brabo/AFP via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

A house catches fire after shelling. Mobile phone networks are down, so it''s not possible to call the fire brigade: photo by Petr Shelomovskiy/Demotix/Corbis via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

A Ukrainian tank stands at a military checkpoint in the town: photo by Petr Shelomovskiy/Demotix/Corbis via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

Ukrainian soldiers assist another soldier who was wounded during clashes with pro-Russian separatists near Debaltseve: photo by Manu Brabo/AFP via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

Ukrainian soldiers try to push-start an armoured personnel carrier at a military checkpoint in Debaltseve: photo by Petr Shelomovskiy/Demotix/Corbis via the Guardian, 3 February 2015

#Debaltseve: They've packed what they can carry and await evacuation. Need to run an artillery gauntlet out. #Ukraine: image via Maxim Tucker @MaxRTucker, 30 January 2015

A man glances back from breadline, #Debaltseve, as rockets impact 500m away. Rest don't flinch, used to it. #Ukraine: image via Maxim Tucker @MaxRTucker, 30 January 2015

#Debaltseve's remaining residents charge phones using a generator. The town has had no elec for over a week. #Ukraine: image via Maxim Tucker @MaxRTucker, 30 January 2015

#Ucrania Decenas de Soldados rusos muertos cerca de #Debaltseve @conucrania via @AMykhailova: image via Jon zapedzki @Jonzapedzki, 30 January 2015

Timur Kovalskiy, mercenary from Almaty (Kazakhstan). Attacks #Debaltseve 4 Russia via @RUopo14enec @en_informnapalm: image via nline-Smi@evro_maidan, 6 February 2015

Ukraine goes to #EU @photosandbacon #EuroMaidan #EU: image via EuroMaidan @InfoEuromaidan, 4 February 2015

President Vladimir Putin with Chancellor Angela Merkel and President François Hollande in Moscow for an urgent meeting over Ukraine: photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP via The Guardian, 6 February 2015

US Senators threaten legislation requiring #Washington to arm #Ukraine: image via UKRAINE TODAY @uatodaytv, 7 February 2015

Guardian: #Putin and #Ukraine leader to hold phone talks after inconclusive end to summit: image via UKRAINE TODAY @uatodaytv, 7 February 2015

Every tenth Russian thinks full scale war with #Ukraine already underway - poll: image via RT @RT, 2 February 2015

German soldiers killed at Stalingrad: photo by USSR Ministry of Information, February 1943 (via Contemporary Military Historian)

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