Under American Falls

May 5, 2016, 2:18 am

World in focus — best photos for May 3, 2016

Builders install a deck at the popular Cave of the Winds attraction at Niagara Falls State Park, in Niagara Falls, New York. Construction is nearly finished on this year’s deck building at the base of the American Falls.: photo by James Neiss / The Niagara Gazette via AP, 4 May 2016

At the #MetGala, everyone seems a little starstruck - even the stars: image via NYT Fashion @NYTFashion, 4 May 2016

Man slaughtering an ox: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1635-40, pen and brown ink, white body colour, 117 x 150 mm (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich)

Hunting Still-Life (detail): Willem van Aelst, c. 1665, oil on canvas (Private collection)

The Slaughtered Ox: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1655, oil on wood, 94 x 69 cm (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

At the Met Gala: Maria Sharapova: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

Metropolitan

In the jungle of marble men and women

made of molten money

translated into slabs of slaughterhouse plasm --

you look at their grandly bared display arms

and think for the briefest moment of Aleppo burning

and then of raw viscera and dead game

painted by the Dutch --

the horror of the corporeal --

the old masters were right about these things --

cocktails with ancient sculpture at the met gala

feels like a visit to the oasis

a general view of escapism and denial

floated on everybody's offshore accounts --

in a way

you'd almost like to see their kind torn limb from limb,

their flesh gnawed by savage beasts --

and not a kind way.

At the Met Gala: Cocktails with ancient sculpture: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

Ghatkopar has become home to hundreds of farmers and their families who have flocked from the drought-hit Marathwada region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. They have travelled hundreds of kilometres in search of work and water.: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016

At the Met Gala: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jason Statham: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

Women in the camp stack supplies on tree branches to avoid their being eaten by wildlife: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016

At the Met Gala: Anna Ewers and the designer Jason Wu: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

Women leave the camp to fetch drinking water: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016

At the Met Gala: From left, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale and Marcus Wainwright: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

Anusha Jadhav travelled to the camp with her husband, Dadarao, and their son, “We want to stay in Mumbai,” Anusha says. “Even if it rains, we don’t want to go back.”: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016

At the Met Gala: Ms. Byrne, left, and Selena Gomez: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

A general view of the ‘Temporary Drought Refugee Camp at Barvenagar’ on the outskirts of Mumbai: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016

At the Met Gala: from left, Bryan Lourd, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

A woman and her child collect food packets at the makeshift camp for drought-hit farmers at Ghatkopar on the outskirts of Mumbai: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016

At the Met Gala: A swirl of textures.: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

A security guard sits next to an empty water tanker before it is refilled: photo by Subhash Sharma for The National, 4 May 2016

At the Met Gala: Circuit-board details: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

A woman sits on a terrace at Tiki hostel in Cantagalo favela, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Hostels in a few of Rio’s more than 1,000 slums serve not only as a cheap housing alternative for the more adventurous among the estimated 500,000 foreign tourists expected to arrive for the Olympics in August. The establishments also open up the rich culture of the city’s shantytowns for travellers, giving them a glimpse into once “no-go” areas where about one-fifth of Rio’s population lives.: photo by Pilar Olivares / Reuters, 4 May 2016

At the Met Gala: Feathered and curlicued: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

A souvenir hawker fans herself behind a veil at her stall selling Mao Zedong souvenirs outside the ‘Water Dripping Cave’ compound, where Mao Zedong stayed briefly for 11 days in 1966 and is thought to have contemplated the start of the Cultural Revolution there in Shaoshan, Hunan Province in central China.: photo by How Hwee Young / EPA, 4 May 2016

Jack Huston and Poppy Delevingne at the Met Gala: photo by Landon Nordeman for The New York Times, 4 May 2016

#DropOutTrump #DropOutHillary BECAUSE YOU ARE THE SAME LIARS: image via J.L. @jmargera, 4 May 2016

Breaking: SFPD now mandated to carry 3-foot batons to respond to "homeless, person-in-crisis and non-firearm" calls: image via Joe Eskenazi @EskSF, 4 May 2016

Need a pick me up? Here's my friend and colleague @VivianHo interviewing an important looking man with a pop tart: image via Kale Williams @sfkale, 3 May 2016

The Republican Jewish Coalition congratulates Trump as presumptive nominee: image via Ben Jacobs @Bencjacobs, 4 May 2016

The hashtag #DropOutHillary is blowing up on @twitter and we applaud #Twitter for allowing users to tweet freely: image via SOCIALITE NATION @SocialiteNation, 4 May 2016 Beverly Hills, CA

"I think he's a butthole." -- Commenter on @realDonaldTrump in 1989: image via Jon Campbell @joncampbell, 4 May 2016

Not that there was much doubt - but Trump tells Lester Holt that the Muslim ban is very much an idea he stands by: image via Sopan Deb @SopanDeb, 4 May 2016

A Sotheby's employee holds Lesedi La Rona Diamond on May Tuesday 3, 2016 in New York City. The diamond the size of a tennis ball that is the largest discovered in more than a century could sell at auction for more than $70 million. Sotheby's says it will offer the Lesedi la Rona diamond in London on June 29

A Sotheby’s employee holds the Lesedi La Rona Diamond in New York City. The diamond the size of a tennis ball that is the largest discovered in more than a century could sell at auction for more than $70 million. Sotheby’s says it will offer the Lesedi la Rona diamond in London on 29 June.: photo by Pascal Perich, 4 May 2016

A woman walks past street art in Beirut, Lebanon: photo by Hassan Ammar/AP, 4 May 2016

Fans dressed as movie Star Wars characters to cerebrate on the Star Wars Day in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, May 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

Fans dressed as movie Star Wars characters to celebrate on Star Wars Day in Taipei, Taiwan: photo by Chiang Ying-ying/AP 4 May 2016

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump arrive to speak to supporters at Trump Tower in Manhattan following his victory in the Indiana primary: photo by Spencer Platt, 4 May 2016

With his family by his side, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during his election night watch party at the Crowne Plaza Downtown Union Station where he announced he was suspending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination: photo by Scott Olson, 4 May 2016

↧

Where There's Smoke

May 6, 2016, 1:35 am

≫ Next: John Clark: Before the Birth of Uber and Lyft: Driving Cab in The City in the 70s

≪ Previous: Under American Falls

A child and a man sit on the tracks in front of Greek policemen in riot gear during a protest at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Gregorio Borgia/AP, 5 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 5, 2016

Children at a makeshift camp for refugees near the village of Idomeni not far from the Greek-Macedonian border: photo by Tobias Schwarz / AFP, 5 May 2016

Russian Sukhoi Su-34 military jets are seen flying in formation through a glass roof of a department store in Moscow during a rehearsal for a Second World War Victory Day parade: photo by Grigory Dukor/Reuters, 5 May 2016

Media members sit against the panoramic view of Kuala Lumpur from a skybox during a media preview at Kuala Lumpur Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, today. Skybox, 421 metres above ground level will be the latest tourist attraction at Kuala Lumpur Tower, the 7th tallest freestanding tower in the world.: photo by Ahmad Yusni/EPA, 5 May 2016

Girls perform on the stage of the Mangyongdae Children's Palace in central Pyongyang, North Korea May 5, 2016

Girls perform on the stage of the Mangyongdae Children’s Palace in central Pyongyang, North Korea today: photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters, 5 May 2016

New Indian citizens of Masaladanga and n...New Indian citizens of Masaladanga and nearby enclaves arrive to cast their ballots at a polling station in Cooch Behar district on May 5, 2016, during the final phase of state assembly elections in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.

New Indian citizens of Masaldanga and nearby enclaves arrive to cast their ballots at a polling station in Cooch Behar district during the final phase of state assembly elections in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal: photo by Diptendu Dutta/AFP, 5 May 2016

INDIA - Indian villagers eat ice cream on the side of a road in New Delhi. By @sajjadkmr #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto 4 May 2016

Kashmiri Muslims pray as an unseen custodian displays a holy relic, believed to be a hair from the Prophet Muhammad’s beard, during celebrations for Miraj-Ul-Alam (ascension to heaven) at Kashmir’s main Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar this morning: photo by Tauseef Mustafa / AFP, 5 May 2016

Kashmiri Muslims pray as an unseen custodian displays a holy relic, believed to be a hair from the Prophet Mohammed’s beard, during celebrations for Israa wal Miraj at Kashmir’s main Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar: photo by Tauseef Mustafa / AFP, 5 May 2016

American reality-show star Kim Kardashian takes a selfie as she rides on a classic car next to her husband, rap superstar Kayne West in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, May 4, 2016

American reality-show star Kim Kardashian takes a selfie as she rides on a classic car next to her husband, rap superstar Kanye West in Havana, Cuba. West, Kardashian and members of her reality-show-star family have become the latest celebrities to visit Havana.: photo by Desmond Boylan/AP, 5 May 2016

A boy rides a robot style vehicle outsid...A boy rides a robot style vehicle outside a shopping mall in Daqing, Heilongjiang province on May 2, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / NICOLAS ASFOURINICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images

A boy rides a robot style vehicle outside a shopping mall in Daqing, Heilongjiang province: photo by Nicolas Asfouri/AFP, 4 May 2016

A boy carries his belongings at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo’s al-Fardous district, Syria: photo by Rami Zayat/Reuters, 2 May 2016

A boy carries his belongings at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's al-Fardous district, Syria: photo by Rami Zayat/Reuters, 2 May 2016

SYRIA - Syrians shout slogans during an anti-regime protest in Bustan al-Qasr district in Aleppo. By Karam al Masri: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 5 May 2016

The war for Aleppo: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 5 May 2016

After two weeks of hiding at home or underground to escape death, life returns to Syria's Aleppo, report via @AFP: image via News18 @CNNNews18, 6 May 2016 Noida, India

50 civilians killed, scores critically injured in #Assad airstrikes near #Idlib's Sarmada: image via Orient News @OrientNewsEng, 5 May 2016

At least 30 killed, mostly women and children, in Assad airstrike on IDP camp in #Idlib's #Syria: image via habibti @ha_bibti, 5 May 2016

Women and children thought they could hide from Assads bombs in IDP camps. From Kamouneh IDP camp in #Idlib bombed today: image via Sami @Paradoxy13, 5 May 2016

#Syria: At least 10 refugees killed, tens wounded in heavy strikes on a refugee camp in #Idlib's n-countryside: image via Sakir Khader @sakirkhader, 5 May 2016

#Syria: At least 10 refugees killed, tens wounded in heavy strikes on a refugee camp in #Idlib's n countryside: image via Sakir Khader @sakirkhader, 5 May 2016

30+ dead. 80 injured inc women & children. They all sought sanctuary. @UNOCHA's @UNReliefChief on #Syria strike: image via UKUN NewYork Verified account @UKUNNewYork, 5 May 2016 New York, NY

Beach-goers stand still as a two-minute siren marking annual Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel is sounded in Netanya, Israel May 5, 2016

Beach-goers stand still as a two-minute siren marking annual Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel is sounded in Netanya, Israel today: photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters 5 May 2016

Remembrance Day Reality Show

As the two-minute siren sounds on the beach, everybody gets to remember

what they choose. Those are the rules

in the Selective Remembrance Day Reality Show -- history is yours

to make up as you go along

and if they're afraid enough everybody will agree with you, for as long

as it takes to burn the page.

GAZA CITY - A man inspects a damaged vehicle at his workshop after it was hit by an Israeli air strike. By @m55baba: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 5 May 2016

3:44 am #Gaza local time: Israeli fighter jets are flying at low altitudes: tweet via Mohamed Omer @Mogaza, 5 May 2016

Everything shook after this airstrike 10 seconds ago!!! #scary #Rafah: tweet via Mohamed Omer @Mogaza, 5 May 2016

Now as I type #Israeli F16s strike agriculture land east #Rafah #GazaUnderAttack: tweet via Mohamed Omer @Mogaza, 5 May 2016

Gaza needs your prayers and love now: tweet via Mohamed Omer @Mogaza, 5 May 2016

Those tank shells are made to suck the air out of our lungs! #GazaUnderAttack: tweet via Mohamed Omer @Mogaza, 5 May 2016

FIVE artillery shells on Foukhari area, Khan Younies now as I type... And here is the SIXTH!!! #HappeningNow: tweet via Mohamed Omer @Mogaza, 5 May 2016

tension now #gazaborder: tweet via Mohamed Omer @Mogaza, 5 May 2016

artillery shelling now east #Rafah south #Gaza Strip #Palestine: tweet via Mohamed Omer @Mogaza, 5 May 2016

last 24 hours, #Israeli military hit Gaza with 13 artillery shells, 11 missiles. 13 mortars fired on Israeli troops at #gazaborder: tweet via Mohamed Omer @Mogaza, 5 May 2016

So many screams and noises disturb your sleep, invade your dreams, break your silence without a permission from your ears #Gaza: tweet via Mohamed Omer @Mogaza, 5 May 2016

2 Girls schools were evacuated in a hurry after Israeli artillery rounds in their vicinity east of Shijaiya, #Gaza: image via Belal Dabour - Gaza @Belalmd12, 4 May 2016

Breaking: Israeli fighters launch 3 airstrikes on Rafah in southern Gaza Strip: image via Belal Dabour - Gaza @Belalmd12, 5 May 2016

#BREAKING THE 1ST MARTYR IN #GAZA 50 YO FEMALE JANA ALAMOUR KILLED BY THE ISRAELI SHELLING ( NOW ) #GazaUnderAttack: image via Dr. Basel Abuwarda @BaselAbuwarda, 5 May 2016

54 y-o Palestinian woman was killed by Israeli shelling in the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday. #GazaUnderAttack: image via #ICC4srael @Pray4Pal, 5 May 2016

54 y-o Palestinian woman was killed by Israeli shelling in the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday. #GazaUnderAttack: image via #ICC4Israel @Pray4Pal, 5 May 2016

Israeli Jets Pound #Gaza in Worst Violence since 2014 War #GazaUnderAttack: image via Anti-Media AntiMedia, 5 May 2016

Sheldon Adelson says he will support Donald Trump: image via the New York Times @nytimes, 5 May 2016

Exclusive: Top reason Americans will vote for Trump: 'To stop Clinton' - poll: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 5 May 2016

FBI likely to interview Clinton soon in emails probe: CNN: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 5 May 2016

In this Tuesday, May 4, 2016 photo, farmers work in a field of blossoming tulips in Den Helder, northern Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Farmers work in a field of blossoming tulips in Den Helder, northern Netherlands: photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP, 4 May 2016

TOPSHOT - Indian commuters travel throug...TOPSHOT - Indian commuters travel through a traffic jam on their way to New Delhi from Gurgaon on May 3, 2016. Hundreds of taxi drivers protested in New Delhi on May 2 against a ban on diesel cabs, the latest initiative aimed at improving air quality in the world's most polluted capital. India's top court on April 30 ordered taxis run on the dirty fuel off the city's roads, refusing industry requests for more time to switch to greener compressed natural gas (CNG). Many of Delhi's taxis already run on CNG, but the ban will impact about 30,000 traditional cabs and some working for app-based Uber and Ola services, according to taxi operators. / AFP PHOTO / CHANDAN KHANNACHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images

Indian commuters travel through a traffic jam on their way to New Delhi from Gurgaon: photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP, 4 May 2016

Traffic lines the highway as residents leave Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on Tuesday: photo by Jason Franson / The Canadian Press via AP, 3 May 2016

Wildfire in Fort McMurray...epa05290226 A picture provided by Twitter user @jeromegarot on 05 May 2016 shows a wildfire raging through the town of Fort McMurray, Canada, 03 May 2016. Weather conditions were making it more difficult to extinguish a forest fire that has forced the evacuation of some 70,000 people from the northwestern Canadian city of Fort McMurray. Alberta provincial authorities estimated that at least some 1,600 buildings in the city have been consumed by the flames, which have not caused any deaths or injuries so far. EPA/TWITTER.COM/JEROMEGAROT ATTENTION EDITORS : EPA IS USING AN IMAGE FROM AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE AND CANNOT PROVIDE CONFIRMATION OF CONTENT, AUTHENTICITY, PLACE, DATE AND SOURCE. EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

A wildfire raging through the town of Fort McMurray, Canada. Weather conditions were making it more difficult to extinguish a forest fire that has forced the evacuation of some 70,000 people from the northwestern Canadian city of Fort McMurray.: photo by Jerome Garot/EPA, 5 May 2016

Smoke fills the air as a small plane flies overhead in Fort McMurray, Alberta: photo by Kitty Cochrane/The Canadian Press via AP, 4 May 2016

Smoke hangs in the air as forest fires rage on in Fort McMurray, Alberta (AFP): image via Telegraph Pictures @TelegraphPics, 5 May 2016

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John Clark: Before the Birth of Uber and Lyft: Driving Cab in The City in the 70s

May 7, 2016, 10:48 pm

≫ Next: The Awaited

≪ Previous: Where There's Smoke

Halloween early 70s - North Beach | by Mr Flikker

Halloween, North Beach, early 1970s: photo by Mr Flikker, c 1975

I was knocking around San Francisco in the 1970's looking for a way to make a few bucks. A friend, a jazz saxophone player, who drove a taxi suggested getting a hack license. I did and drove cab for two years. At the time there were numerous small cab companies, fly by the seat of the pants operations, hiring anyone without a felony conviction who could steer an automobile. There were also four larger companies that had radio dispatch service -- you could supplement street pickups with home calls. Yellow had most of the radio business, followed by DeSoto and Veterans Cabs, the Grey Ghosts. You'd see them working the higher elevations, Pacific Heights and Nob Hill residences. Their drivers were often older, nicely attired. The fourth, City Cab, where I worked, got the scraps from the table. City Cab radio service covered Tenderloin bars and dives in the Outer Mission too shabby for the other companies. If you needed a cab in Hunter's Point, it was a waste of time to call Yellow, you called City. We had more in common with the independents -- no dress code, lots of writers, artists, stoners and a few miscreants. Many of the cabs were in a state of automotive decay, but all had a radio. You paid the company to rent the cab, your "gate," paid for gas and tipped out the dispatchers and doormen who could reward you with lucrative airport runs. It took the better part of the shift to make expenses. Anything you took in after that was in your pocket. Any time you didn't have a fare you were losing money. Anyone together enough to raise their hand streetside could get into a tiny room with you. You might guess this led to a lot of situations demanding a high degree of resourcefulness, and that guess would be right, but that's not what I want to talk about -- I want to tell you about Jimmy the Glove. Jimmy was the gas man. You'd get your car from him at the start of the shift and return it to him at shift's end. Jimmy was a short guy with greying hair who wore overalls that started clean at the beginning of the shift but acquired multiple layers of oil and grime by the end. And outsize gloves of course. He was often in a rage, directed at management, regarding the sorry state of the cab fleet. It wasn't unusual to find him throwing empty oil cans against the wall intoning exotic and profane fulminations directed at the company. He was always kind to the drivers and I liked him a lot. Once a month Jimmy would show up at the cab barn dressed in a swank suit, vest and tie, unroll a craps layout on top of the pool table and run an all night craps game for which he was both croupier and stickman. City Cab had its own literary magazine, the New Deep City Press. It featured poetry, journalism, short stories and art by drivers with the occasional contribution from locals like Gary Snyder and Spain Rodriguez. A 75 cent cover price and a few ads (Keystone Korner was an advertiser) kept it afloat for several years. Somewhere along the line the idea came up that it'd be a good idea to have a centerfold and the honor went to Jimmy the Glove. He appeared reclining on a sofa, naked but for gloves covering his genitals. It ran next to his "Fading the Main" column on craps strategy and was a hit with everyone. I think the cab barn, a metal shed, is still standing out near Bayshore and Oakdale but City Cab is gone, having splintered into several smaller companies. At that time San Francisco was a city with plenty of room for writers and artists who had day jobs to pay the rent. The "sharing economy" services, Uber and Lyft, and the faceless behemoths of the google bus fleet are a cold bore next to the color of the cab business back then. The New Deep City Press is a window into a bohemian subculture at a very particular time in San Francisco.

@jacobevans #sftaxi: image via Ethan @braunethan, 13 October 2012

Will Smith made me late for work | by peko-chan

Will Smith made me late for work. Old school San Francisco taxi parked in the Tenderloin during use as movie prop in the Will Smith film Pursuit of Happiness.: photo by peko-chan, 26 September 2005

Cartoon cover shows Maxie the Taxi tipping his cap

Cartoon cover shows Maxie the Taxi tipping his cap

The New Deep City Press, Spring 1977, cover by Jamie Maddox. The New Deep City Press presented the world as seen by San Francisco taxicab drivers in the 1970s. The publication nicely captured the spirit of the times in words, images and original art.: image via World of Taxis

Taxicab drivers pose for a photo at City Cab

Taxicab drivers pose for a photo at City Cab

Drivers pose for the camera at City Cab in San Francisco, 1976.: image by The New Deep City Press via World of Taxis

↧

The Awaited

May 9, 2016, 2:51 am

≫ Next: When the voices of children are heard on the green

≪ Previous: John Clark: Before the Birth of Uber and Lyft: Driving Cab in The City in the 70s

Stunning Reuters image of the red glow of the Canada wild fire underneath the northern lights #FortMcMurray: image via Julia Macfarlane Verified account @juliamacfarlane, 7 May 2016 Alberta, Canada

The worshippers of Dionysus invoke their god (after Euripides: The Bacchae)

BACCHANTES [like a wail]. Bromius, Bromius . . .

LEADER [progressively radiant]. He . . . is . . .

Sweet upon the mountains, such sweetness

As afterbirth, such sweetness as death.

His hand strap wildness, and breed it gentle

He infuses tameness with savagery.

I have seen him on the mountains, in vibrant fawn-skin

I have seen him smile in the red flash of blood

I have seen the raw heart of a mountain-lion
Yet pulsing in his throat.
In the mountains of Eritrea, in the deserts of Libya
In Phrygia whose copper hills ring with the cries of
Bromius, Zagreus, Dionysos,
I know he is the awaited, the covenant, promise,
Restorer of fullness to Nature's lean hours.
As milk he flows in the earth, as wine
In the hills. He runs in the nectar of bees, and
In the duct of their sting lurks -- Bromius.
Oh let his flames burn in you, gently,
Or else -- consume you it must -- consume you . . .
CHORUS. Bromius . . . Bromius . . .
LEADER. His hair a brush of foxfires in the wind
A streak of lightning, his thyrsus.
He runs, he dances,
Kindling the tepid
Spurring the stragglers
And the women are like banks to his river --
A stream of gold from beyond the desert --
They cradle the path of his will.
CHORUS. Come, come Dionysos . . .

[The worshippers of Dionysus invoke their god]: after Euripides: The Bacchae, 119-153: from Wole Soyinka (1934-): The Bacchae of Euripides, 1973

This photo taken in #FortMcMurray renders me utterly speechless. People, homes, businesses, trees, wildlife, gone ...: image via Wendy M @quillfeather, 7 May 2016

The inexorable law of tragedy

derives the conflagrationfrom a loose gas cap

but why should a forest harbour
a secret tragic wish to dieof humanity

Those who could still believe in a God

keeping up their courage

with a fable of the changeless

and the permanent

Smoke covering a vast area in @Canada. Our hearts go out to all those affected by the fires there. @SpaceStation: image via Tim Kopra @astro_tim, 8 May 2016 Houston, TX

Smoke from the fires in Alberta, primarily the 210,000-acre blaze near Fort McMurray, is affecting Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the north-central United States, and many areas in the eastern U.S. The map above was generated at 19:45 p.m. MDT May 7, 2016. Added yellow circle to emphasize a location on map, small red dots are fires burning.: image via NOAA Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product, 7 May 2016

On May 4, 2016, the the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) on the Landsat 7 satellite acquired this false-color image of the wildfire that burned through Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada. The image combines shortwave infrared, near infrared, and green light (bands 5-4-2). Near- and short-wave infrared help penetrate clouds and smoke to reveal the hot spots associated with active fires, which appear red. Smoke appears white and burned areas appear brown.: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, 4 May 2016

Dorian McCready, who was dropping off supplies to a command post, searched for a friend’s home in an evacuated neighborhood of Fort McMurray on Saturday to try to rescue some sentimental items for the friend: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 8 May 2016

Evacuees from the wildfire taking refuge at the Bold Center in Lac La Biche, Alberta, 137 miles south of Fort McMurray, on Saturday: photo by Tyler Hicks/The New York Times, 8 May 2016

The inexorable law of tragedy

Payback is a Maserati parked in your perfectly clean driveway back at base camp

reduced to karmic ash

while you chill with your phone in a sleeping bag
one among many isolated points of light
in the big gym at Lac La Biche

far from empty but as yet still untoasted downtown Fort Make Money

A displaced person looks at the fire on a mobile phone at a makeshift evacuee center in Lac la Biche, Alberta: photo by Cole Burston / AFP, 5 May 2016

A convoy of evacuees headed south from Fort McMurray on Saturday: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 8 May 2016

A vehicle is stored in a shipping container at Ferrari Maserati of Alberta, in Calgary, to protect it from hail storms. Low oil prices have negatively impacted Alberta’s economy.: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 12 October 2015

The waterpark at MacDonald Island Park in Fort McMurray. The increase in oil sands development has turned obscure Fort McMurray into a boomtown and an outsize contributor to the entire Canadian economy.: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 12 October 2015

A bus stop in Fort McMurray from which workers are taken to oil sands sites: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 12 October 2015

A bus chartered to take workers to and from oil sands sites sits in the new Parson’s Creek subdivision: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 12 October 2015

New houses in the Parson’s Creek subdivision attract oil sands workers who are looking to establish themselves in Fort McMurray: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 12 October 2015

one among many isolated points of light

The Syncrude oil sands plant, north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Alberta is home to the third-largest crude oil deposits in the world: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 12 October 2015

A tailings pond near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 12 October 2015

A

A tailings pond near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 12 October 2015

A scarecrow set up in a tailings pond, north of Fort McMurray. Many energy companies have too much invested in the oil sands to slow down or turn off the taps.: photo by Ian Willms for The New York Times, 12 October 2015

He . . . is . . .

Sweet upon the mountains, such sweetness

As afterbirth, such sweetness as death

Flames erupt as the convoy of #FortMacFire finally make their way through the city they fled days ago: image via Avery Haines @CityAvery, 7 March 2016

A massive wildfire, which caused a mandatory evacuation, rages south of Fort McMurray near Anzac, Alberta, Canada: photo by Chris Schwarz / Government of Alberta / Reuters, 4 May 2016

A plume of smoke hangs in the air as forest fires rage on in the distance in Fort McMurray. Numerous vehicles can be seen abandoned on the highways leading from the raging forest fires in Fort McMurray and neighbouring communities have banded together to offer support in the form of food, water, and gasoline.: photo by Cole Burston / AFP, 4 May 2016

Smoke billows from the Fort McMurray wildfires as a truck drives down the highway in Kinosis, Alberta: photo by Mark Blinch / Reuters, 5 May 2016

Officers look on as smoke from Fort McMurray's raging wildfires billows into the air after their city was evacuated: photo by Topher Seguin / Reuters, 4 May 2016

A toy car remains among the ruins of destroyed buildings after wildfires tore through the Waterways area of Fort McMurray: photo by Brad Readman / Alberta Fire Fighters Association / Reuters, 5 May 2016

A flock of birds flies in formation as smoke billows from the Fort McMurray wildfires above Kinosis, Alberta: photo by Mark Blinch / Reuters, 5 May 2016

Smoke and flames can be seen along the highway near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Canadian police led convoys of cars through the burning ghost town of Fort McMurray Friday in a risky operation to get people to safety far to the south. In the latest chapter of the drama triggered by monster fires in Alberta's oil sands region, the 50-car convoys are driving through the city at about 50-60 kilometers per hour (30-40 mph), TV footage showed.: photo by Cole Burston / AFP, 6 May 2016

Smoke rises in a burned-out neighborhood in Fort McMurray, Alberta, after wildfires forced the mass evacuations of the areas around Fort McMurray: photo by Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority / Reuters, 6 May 2016

A blazing housing estate in Huskvarna, Sweden: photo by Anna Hallams / TT News Agency / Reuters, 1 May 2016

Firefighters battle a three-alarm fire in the historic Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava in New York. Authorities say no injuries were reported in the blaze that broke out early Sunday evening in the church.: photo by Kathy Willens / AP, 1 May 2016

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright is splashed with water after hitting a three-run home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, in St. Louis: photo by Billy Hurst / AP, 2 May 2016

Police officers detain a protester during anti-capitalist protests following May Day marches in Seattle, Washington: photo by David Ryder / Reuters, 1 May 2016

Dilek Dundar, Can Dundar's wife, and his lawyer, 2nd left, overpower a gunman just after an attack on Can Dundar outside the city's main courthouse in Istanbul on May 6, 2016. A man shouted “traitor” and fired two shots at the prominent Turkish journalist outside a courthouse where he is on trial, accused of revealing state secrets for his reports on alleged government arms-smuggling to Syria. Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, escaped the attack unhurt, but Yavuz Senkal, a journalist working for private NTV television was slightly injured in one of his legs.: photo by Can Erok / AP, 6 May 2016

Villarrica Volcano is seen at night from Villarrica National Park in Pucon, Chile: photo by Cristobal Saavedra / Reuters, 4 May 2016

A Nepalese Hindu devotee takes a holy ba...A Nepalese Hindu devotee takes a holy bath as they mark the Mother's Day Festival at Matathirtha on the outskirts of Kathmandu on May 6, 2016. Nepalese Hindu devotees come from across the country to bathe, offer prayers and leave offerings at the Matathirtha Temple during the event, which honours mothers who have passed away. / AFP PHOTO / PRAKASH MATHEMAPRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images

A Nepalese Hindu devotee takes a holy bath as they mark the Mother’s Day Festival at Matathirtha on the outskirts of Kathmandu: photo by Prakash Methema/AFP, 6 May 2016

North Korean men and women carry bouquets of decorative flowers as they wait at the Kim Il Sung Square: photo by Wong Maye-E/AP, 6 May 2016

A horse gets a bath after a morning workout at Churchill Downs Friday, May 6, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. The 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby is scheduled for Saturday, May 7. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

A horse gets a bath after a morning workout at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby is scheduled for Saturday.: photo by Charlie Riedel/AP, 6 May 2016

I know he is the awaited, the covenant, promise,

Restorer of fullness to Nature's lean hours.

Tar Sands Healing Walk | by taylorandayumi

Tar Sands Healing Walk. Syncrude is one of many companies doing work up at the tar sands. The two bison in the photo were the only two I saw during my time in the region.: photo by taylorandayumi, 2 July 2013

Tar Sands Healing Walk. On the drive up to Fort McMurray from Edmonton, we went through a ferocious thunderstorm with heavy rain, wind and lightning. The lightning crashes were beautiful, as was this rainbow.: photo by taylorandayumi, 2 July 2013

Tar Sands Healing Walk. The thunderstorm eventually drifted off, leaving a gorgeous sunset. Because we were so far off, the sunset lasted for hours. It never got completely dark before the sun rose several hours later.: photo by taylorandayumi, 2 July 2013

Healing Walk | by Rainforest Action Network

Healing Walk | by Rainforest Action Network

The 2014 Tar Sands Healing Walk: photo by Rainforest Action Network, 28 June 2014

As milk he flows in the earth, as wine

In the hills. He runs in the nectar of bees, and

In the duct of their sting lurks -- Bromius.

Oh let his flames burn in you, gently,

Or else -- consume you it must -- consume you . . .

#TarSands Reporting Project film to premier at Media Democracy Days Friday 7pm: image via Vancouver Observer @VanObserver, 7 November 2014

More than 100 birds die after landing on #tarsands waste ponds in Canada: image via Shawna @S_WhiteBear, 7 November 2014

Picture of #Tarsands tailing ponds created by removal of Boreal forest - compared to Mordor by @londonmining #olsx: image via Occupy London @OccupyLondon, 8 November 2014

Reports of birds landing in toxic #tarsands tailing lakes spark investigation: image via Mike Hudema @MikeHudema, 5 November 2014

Nearly 100 birds land in three #oilsands tailings ponds: image via Everett Coldwell @EverettColdwell, 5 November 2014

RT @climateprogress: How oil companies lost $17B defying activists over Canada's #tarsands: image via Shawna @S_WhiteBear, 5 November 2014

Photographer @ianwillms documents a typical day in Alberta's Fort McMurray: image via AACC @artsandclimate, 11 November 2014

I know he is the awaited, the covenant, promise

How should this play any role in one of the world's largest aquifers? #TarSands #DirtyOil #WaterIsLife #NoKXL: image via tara zhaabowekwe @zhaabowekwe, 17 November 2014

Map showing the extent of the oil sands in Alberta, Canada. The three oil sand deposits are known as the Athabasca Oil Sands, the Cold Lake Oil Sands, and the Peace River Oil Sands: image by Norman Einstein, 10 May 2006

Athabasca oil sands mining field: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, acquired 29 July 2009 using EO-1 Advanced Land Rover data courtesy of the NASA EO-I team; caption by Holli Riebeek (NASA)

In the ranking of the world’s proven oil reserves, Canada stands behind only Saudi Arabia. Canada possesses an estimated 178.6 billion barrels of crude oil accessible using current technology. Of this reserve, 174 billion barrels are in Alberta’s oil sand fields, which cover 140,200 square kilometers (54,132 square miles) of the province. The largest oil sand field is Athabasca, shown here.

Oil sands consist of sand coated in water and a sticky film of bitumen, a heavy oil. The bitumen can be rinsed from the sand and refined into fuels. In some cases, the bitumen-encased sand can be pumped from wells like standard oil, but in Athabasca, the sands are at or near the surface. Here, oil companies scoop the sand from the surface after stripping off overlying vegetation and top soil. The result is illustrated in this true-color image. Earthy open-pit mines and muddy tailing ponds replaced the dark green boreal forest.

The mines follow the course of the Athabasca River, the dark brown ribbon of water that runs down the center of the image. The river is essential to the operation. Over the course of its very long lifetime, the river has eroded through the sediment that once covered the oil deposit, gradually bringing it close to the surface. Without the river, the oil sands would likely be buried beneath a thick layer of earth.

The river is also key to the mining process. To separate the bitumen from the sand, refineries bathe the sands in hot water. The contaminated water cannot be returned to the Athabasca River, from which it was drawn, and it ends up in tailing ponds, visible in the image. The tailing ponds are one of the environmental risks of these mines. The ponds replace natural wetlands and because they contain toxic chemicals, they are a threat to wildlife. In April 2008, hundreds of migrating ducks died after landing on a tailing pond, said news reports. Local residents worry that the toxic water may be leaking into the ground water or the Athabasca River, which, as the image illustrates, is very near many of the ponds.

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 23 July 1984 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 28 September 1985 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 14 August 1986 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 18 September 1987 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 4 September 1988 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 6 August 1989 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 24 July 1990 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 27 July 1991 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 13 July 1992 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 17 August 1993 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 26 July 1994 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 24 September 1995 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 22 June 1996 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 12 August 1997 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 5 July 1998 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 15 June 1999 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 13 September 2000 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 7 August 2001 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 11 September 2002 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 30 September 2003 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 28 June 2004 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 5 October 2005 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 21 August 2006 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 30 July 2007 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 25 July 2008 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 14 September 2009 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 3 October 2010 (NASA)

Athabasca Oil Sands: satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory, 15 May 2011 (NASA)

Buried under Canada’s boreal forest is one of the world’s largest reserves of oil. Bitumen—a very thick and heavy form of oil (also called asphalt) -- coats grains of sand and other minerals in a deposit that covers about 142,200 square kilometers (54,900 square miles) of northwest Alberta. According to a 2003 estimate, Alberta has the capacity to produce 174.5 billion barrels of oil. Only 20 percent of the oil sands lie near the surface where they can easily be mined, and these deposits flank the Athabasca River. The rest of the oil sands are buried more than 75 meters below ground and are extracted by injecting hot water into a well that liquefies the oil for pumping. In 2010, surface mines produced 356.99 million barrels of crude oil, while in situ production (the hot water wells) yielded 189.41 million barrels of oil.

This series of images from the Landsat satellite shows the growth of surface mines over the Athabasca oil sands between 1984 and 2011. The Athabasca River runs through the center of the scene, separating two major operations. To extract the oil at these locations, oil producers remove the sand in big, open-pit mines, which are tan and irregularly shaped. The sand is rinsed with hot water to separate the oil, and then the sand and wastewater are stored in "tailings ponds,” which have smooth tan or green surfaces in satellite images.
The process of extracting oil from the sand is expensive. It takes two tons of sand to produce one barrel of crude oil. Great Canadian Oil Sands opened the first large-scale mine in 1967, but growth was slow until 2000 because the global cost of a barrel of oil was too low to make oil sands profitable.

The images above show slow growth between 1984 and 2000, followed by a decade of more rapid development. The first mine (from 1967, now part of the Millennium Mine) is visible near the Athabasca River in the 1984 image. The only new development visible between 1984 and 2000 is the Mildred Lake Mine (west of the river), which began production in 1996.

After 2000, the price of oil began to climb, and investment in oil sands became profitable. The Millennium Mine expanded east of the Athabasca River, and the Steepbank Mine was developed in the east. The Mildred Lake Mine also shows evidence of growth. It is a trend that is likely to continue since permits have been approved to expand mines in this region. The large images include a view of additional mines developing to the north.

Oil sand mining has a large impact on the environment. Forests must be cleared for both open-pit and in situ mining. Pit mines can grow to more than 80 meters depth, as massive trucks remove up to 720,000 tons of sand every day. As of September 2011, roughly 663 square kilometers (256 square miles) of land had been disturbed for oil sand mining. Companies are required to restore the land after they have finished mining. In this series of images, the large tailings pond from the 1967 mine was gradually drained and filled in. Though the mining companies planted grasses on the site, the images don’t show plant growth as of 2011.
Tailings ponds contain a number of toxins that can leak into the groundwater or the Athabasca River. The mining and extraction process releases sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and fine particulate matter into the atmosphere.

Because it takes energy to mine and separate oil from the sands, oil sands extraction releases more greenhouse gases than other forms of oil production. The mines shown in the image emitted more than 20 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2008— a product of both oil production and electricity production for the mining operation. The effort produced the equivalent of 86 to 103 kilograms of carbon dioxide for every barrel of crude oil produced. By comparison, 27 to 58 kilograms of carbon dioxide are emitted in the conventional production of a barrel of crude oil.

Canada, a country with strict environmental laws, is the leading source of oil for the United States, the world’s largest consumer of oil. The oil sands contain enough oil to produce 2.5 million barrels of oil per day for 186 years. The United States consumes 18.8 million barrels of oil per day. TransCanada has proposed building a pipeline to bring oil from the Athabasca oil sands directly to refineries in the United States.

Nitrogen emissions from Athabasca oil sands mining operations, data acquired 2005 - 2010

Color bar for Emissions from Oil Sands Mining

Athabasca Oil Sands mining operations, Nitrogen emissions, data acquired 2005-2010: graphics by NASA Earth Observatory

Using data from a NASA satellite, researchers have found that the emission of pollutants from oil sands mining operations in Canada’s Alberta Province are comparable to the emissions from a large power plant or a moderately sized city. The emissions from the energy-intensive mining effort come from excavators, dump trucks, extraction pumps and wells, and refining facilities where the oil sands are processed.
Oil sands (also known as tar sands) are actually bitumen, a very thick and heavy form of oil that coats grains of sand and other minerals. Once extracted, that asphalt-like oil is partially refined so that it can be transported through pipelines to other refining facilities.

The top two maps above depict the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) in the air above the main oil sands mining operation along the Athabasca River, as observed from 2005 to 2007 (left) and 2008 to 2010 (right). The lower map shows those emissions in the broader context of the western provinces of Canada and the northern United States from 2005 to 2010. All data were acquired by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite.

The oil sands deposit in northwest Alberta covers about 142,200 square kilometers (54,900 square miles). Only 20 percent of the oil sands lie near the surface where they can easily be mined, while the rest of the oil sands are buried more than 75 meters below ground and are extracted by injecting hot water into a well that liquefies the oil for pumping. About 1.8 million barrels of oil were produced daily in 2010 from the Canadian oil sands.

NASA Earth Observatory images created by Jesse Allen, using OMI data provided courtesy of Chris McLinden, Environment Canada and Ronald van der A, KMNI. Mining permit footprints provided courtesy of Matt Hanneman, Global Forest Watch Canada. Caption by Michael Carlowicz, based on reporting from the American Geophysical Union.

Dust hangs in the sunset sky above the Suncor Millennium mine, an open-pit north of Fort McMurray, Alberta: photo by Peter Essick, in The Canadian Oil Boom: Scraping Bottom, National Geographic, March 2009

The oil sands industry has utterly transformed this part of northeastern Alberta in just the past few years, with astonishing speed. Where trapline and cabin once were, and the forest, there is now a large open-pit mine. Here Syncrude, Canada's largest oil producer, digs bitumen-laced sand from the ground with electric shovels five stories high, then washes the bitumen off the sand with hot water and sometimes caustic soda. Next to the mine, flames flare from the stacks of an "upgrader," which cracks the tarry bitumen and converts it into Syncrude Sweet Blend, a synthetic crude that travels down a pipeline to refineries in Edmonton, Alberta; Ontario, and the United States. Mildred Lake, meanwhile, is now dwarfed by its neighbor, the Mildred Lake Settling Basin, a four-square-mile lake of toxic mine tailings. The sand dike that contains it is by volume one of the largest dams in the world.

Nor is Syncrude alone. Within a 20-mile radius are a total of six mines that produce nearly three-quarters of a million barrels of synthetic crude oil a day; and more are in the pipeline. Wherever the bitumen layer lies too deep to be strip-mined, the industry melts it "in situ" with copious amounts of steam, so that it can be pumped to the surface. The industry has spent more than $50 billion on construction during the past decade, including some $20 billion in 2008 alone. Before the collapse in oil prices last fall, it was forecasting another $100 billion over the next few years and a doubling of production by 2015, with most of that oil flowing through new pipelines to the U.S. The economic crisis has put many expansion projects on hold, but it has not diminished the long-term prospects for the oil sands. In mid-November, the International Energy Agency released a report forecasting $120-a-barrel oil in 2030 -- a price that would more than justify the effort it takes to get oil from oil sands.

Nowhere on Earth is more earth being moved these days than in the Athabasca Valley. To extract each barrel of oil from a surface mine, the industry must first cut down the forest, then remove an average of two tons of peat and dirt that lie above the oil sands layer, then two tons of the sand itself. It must heat several barrels of water to strip the bitumen from the sand and upgrade it, and afterward it discharges contaminated water into tailings ponds like the one near Mildred Lake. They now cover around 50 square miles. Last April some 500 migrating ducks mistook one of those ponds, at a newer Syncrude mine north of Fort McKay, for a hospitable stopover, landed on its oily surface, and died. The incident stirred international attention -- Greenpeace broke into the Syncrude facility and hoisted a banner of a skull over the pipe discharging tailings, along with a sign that read "World's Dirtiest Oil: Stop the Tar Sands."

The U.S. imports more oil from Canada than from any other nation, about 19 percent of its total foreign supply, and around half of that now comes from the oil sands. Anything that reduces our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, many Americans would say, is a good thing. But clawing and cooking a barrel of crude from the oil sands emits as much as three times more carbon dioxide than letting one gush from the ground in Saudi Arabia. The oil sands are still a tiny part of the world's carbon problem -- they account for less than a tenth of one percent of global CO2 emissions -- but to many environmentalists they are the thin end of the wedge, the first step along a path that could lead to other, even dirtier sources of oil: producing it from oil shale or coal. "Oil sands represent a decision point for North America and the world," says Simon Dyer of the Pembina Institute, a moderate and widely respected Canadian environmental group. "Are we going to get serious about alternative energy, or are we going to go down the unconventional-oil track? The fact that we're willing to move four tons of earth for a single barrel really shows that the world is running out of easy oil."

Robert Kunzig, fromThe Canadian Oil Boom: Scraping Bottom, National Geographic, March 2009

Syncrude Canada's base mine, Mildred Lake, Alberta. The yellow structures are the bases of pyramids made of sulphur. It is not economically profitable for Syncrude to sell the sulphur, so it is stockpiled instead. Beyond the mining operation is the tailings pond, contained by what is recognized as the largest dam in the world. The extraction plant is just to the right in this photograph, and most of the mine is to the left: photo by TastyCakes, 4 April 2004; image by Jamitzky, 15 July 2006

It was only for a few minutes but the sight of rain has never been so good #ymmfire #FortMacFire: image via RMWB @RMWoodBuffalo 8 May 2016

I'd rather not live on a planet that looks like this. And you? #NoKXL Plz read up on the #TarSands and RT: image via Tinsel Korey @tinselkoey, 17 November 2014

↧

When the voices of children are heard on the green

May 10, 2016, 8:30 pm

≫ Next: But can my children eat an electronic card? / William Blake: Old Corruption's Song

≪ Previous: The Awaited

Melhoras meu mano @StephenCurry30 Os grandes desafios nunca são fácil! #VamoQVamo: image via Leandro Barbosa @TheBlurBarbosa, 25 March 2016

Steph Curry 1st 3 quarters: 0-9 from 3-pt range, 13 Pts. Steph Curry 4th quarter/OT: 5-7 from 3-pt range, 27 Pts.: image via SportsCenter @SportsCenter, 9 May 2016

William Blake (1757-1823): Notebook 23: draft ms. When the voices of children are heard on the green: image by Dmitrismimov, 7 September 2014 (British Library)

When the voices of children are heard on the green,
And whisperings are in the dale,
The [desires del.] days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,
My face turns green and pale.

Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down
And the dews of night arise;
Your spring and your day are wasted in play,
And your winter and night in disguise.

William Blake (1757-1823): first draft of Nurse's Song (1794) from Songs of Experience

Stephen Curry's 17 points in OT are the most ever scored in overtime of ANY game (regular season or postseason): image via ESPN Stats & Info @ESPNStatsInfo, 9 May 2016

12 minutes left in Game 4! Who ya got? #blazers #warriors: image via NBA TV Verified account @NBATV, 9 May 2016

Every Steph Curry highlight from his 40-point masterpiece in Portland: image via KNBR Verified account @KNBR, 9 May 2016

Last night's remarkable performance by the league’s reigning MVP was NBA magic: image via Forbes Verified account @Forbes, 10 May 2016

@StephGonnaSteph of the Year ... for all those times #StephGonnaSteph: image via image via NBA dot com Verified account @NBAcom 10 May 2016

Overtime recap. #Curry: image via HELLO my name is @JohnCTownsend, 9 May 2016

The rest of the NBA when they see Steph Curry is finally back: image via Gregory @Grego_2812, 9 May 2016

when billionaires cry: image via jason Verified account @Jason, 9 May 2016

Steph Curry made #PaulAllen feel like he's only worth $1 billion last night: image via Joe Jessie @Joe_McFly, 10 May 2016

...suddenly I had a vision, Windows Curry™, based on 3 points: speed, stability and reliability. #Paul Allen, #Curry: image via Ian Nose @IanNose, 10 May 2016

When you realize money might be able to buy happiness, but it can't buy Steph Curry #Paul Allen: image via Trenton Scharrenberg @TSberg8, 9 May 2016

When you own the arena but still pay for nachos. #StephCurry #PaulAllen: image via darrin bragg @darrinbraggg7, 9 May 2016

Steph Curry is still striking fear in the hearts of opposing fans. (h't) @BradFriedman: image via SB Nation @SB Nation, 24 February 2016

Steph Curry is the first player in @warriors history to win multiple MVP awards.: image via SportsCenter Verified account @SportsCenter, 10 May 2016

@StephenCurry30 is the first unanimous NBA MVP in league history: image via Complex Verified account @ComplexMag, 10 May 2016

First unanimous vote for MVP in nba history ! Congrats bruh @StephenCurry30 !!: image via Anjali World Verified account @anjaliworld, 10 May 2016

No one thought he could get here. They all counted him out. Now he is the first Unanimous MVP in NBA history.: image via Basketball Forever @Bballforverfb, 10 May 2016

Stephen Curry, No. 30, celebrates with teammates after making the game-winning 3-pointer against the Thunder Saturday night: photo by J Pat Carter via The New York Times, 28 February 2016

Congrats to @StephenCurry30 – the NBA's first-ever unanimous MVP: image via Los Angeles Times Verified account @latimes, 10 May 2016

↧

But can my children eat an electronic card? / William Blake: Old Corruption's Song

May 11, 2016, 1:43 am

≫ Next: Victory Day

≪ Previous: When the voices of children are heard on the green

Two Palestinian schoolboys walk past a g...Two Palestinian schoolboys walk past a graffiti painted on a wall of the United Nations school of Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip, on May 9, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / THOMAS COEXTHOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images

Two Palestinian schoolboys walk past a graffiti painted on a wall of the United Nations school of Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip: photo by Thomas Coex/AFP, 9 May 2016

#Palestinian refugee camp committees to shut down #UNRWA offices in West Bank: image via Ma'an News Agency @MaanNewsAgency, 8 May 2016

When Old Corruption first begun,

Adorn'd in yellow vest,

He committed on Flesh a whoredom --

O, what a wicked beast!

From them a callow babe did spring,
And Old Corruption smil'd
To think his race should never end,
For now he had a child.

He call'd him Surgery, and fed
The babe with his own milk,
For Flesh and he could ne'er agree,
She would not let him suck.

And this he always kept in mind,
And formed a crooked knife,
And ran about with bloody hands
To seek his mother's life;

And as he ran to seek his mother
He met with a dead woman --
He fell in love, and married her:
A deed which is not common.

She soon grew pregnant, and brought forth
Scurvy and Spott'd Fever;
The father grinn'd and skipt about,
And said, "I'm made for ever --

"For now I have procur'd these imps,
I'll try experiments!"
With that he tied poor Scurvy down
and stopt up all its vents.

And when the child began to swell,
He shouted out aloud,
"I've found the dropsy out, and soon
Shall do the world more good!"

He took up Fever by the neck,
And cut out all its spots --
And thro the holes which he had made
He first discover'd guts!

William Blake: Old Corruption's Song,from An Island in the Moon: A Satire (1784)

Tensions rise in West Bank camp over UN food aid - in pictures

Palestinian refugee Hiam Muwad, 52, a mother of one, holds her United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) food distribution card at her home in the Amari Refugee Camp in El Bireh. The United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees has decided to halt its food distribution programme in camps across the occupied West Bank and replace it with a cash card system.: photo by Heidi Levine for The National, 10 May 2016

Muwad said uncertainty over what will happen with the electronic cards “is an extra worry”: photo by Heidi Levine for The National, 10 May 2016

Palestinian refugee Yusra Khalil, 68, stands holding empty sweets boxes in her shop. According to UNRWA, the change to the cash card system will give families eligible for food aid greater flexibility and choice, as well as provide them with US$20 (Dh73) more to spend than the food parcels were previously worth.: photo by Heidi Levine for The National, 10 May 2016

But this message does not appear to have reached Amari where the rumour mill is in overdrive: photo by Heidi Levine for The National, 10 May 2016

A Palestinian woman and child at the entrance of their home. “UNRWA is trying to save money at the expense of the most vulnerable people,” said Ahmed Tomaileh, an activist on the camp’s residents committee.: photo by Heidi Levine for The National, 10 May 2016

Suha Hamad, 41, looks through a pile of medical records of her ill son with her daughter Lamar. “My husband is a blacksmith and the money he makes is not enough to live with, Suha says. “With the food parcel, we make our own bread, use the rice and the oil is of excellent quality. I use the money to buy medicine for my son.”: photo by Heidi Levine for The National, 10 May 2016

The closed UNRWA food distribution centre. Camp leaders are so angry about perceived signs of UNRWA scaling back its role that they have implemented protest measures which went into effect on Monday.: photo by Heidi Levine for The National, 10 May 2016

Until the agency’s recent decision to shift to cash cards, parcels in the West Bank consisted of oil, sugar, rice, flour and powdered milk rations and were distributed to the neediest of families every three months: photo by Heidi Levine for The National, 10 May 2016

UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness told The National that rumours of “a political plot to downsize UNRWA and make the refugee problem go away” were untrue. “Our mandate is not for sale,” he said, adding that he was not aware of the agency reducing its funding for camp organisations as Mr Tomaileh had charged.: photo by Heidi Levine for The National, 10 May 2016

A woman walks past chairs displayed on a red carpet in the Palace Festival on the eve of the opening ceremony of the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 10, 2016.

A woman walks past chairs displayed on a red carpet in the Palace Festival on the eve of the opening ceremony of the 69th Cannes Film Festival in France today: photo by Regis Duvignau/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Emergency forces and shoppers take place in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre on 10 May, 2016 in Manchester, England

Emergency forces and shoppers take place in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, England today: photo by Sean Hansford/MEN, 10 May 2016

TOPSHOT - Palestinian children play amid...TOPSHOT - Palestinian children play amidst wrecked cars in an impoverished area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, on May 9, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / THOMAS COEXTHOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images

Palestinian children play amidst wrecked cars in an impoverished area in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis: photo by Thomas Coex/AFP, 10 May 2016

A woman wearing a traditional hat, known as a non la, sweeps an entrance of a museum in Hoi An, Vietnam April 5, 2016. The non la hats are made of readily available materials such as palm leaves, tree bark and bamboo and are visible everywhere in the city, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Hoi An's history as a busy trading port is evident throughout its architecture, a mix of eras and styles, with traditional wooden Vietnamese houses, Chinese temples and French colonial buildings

A woman wearing a traditional hat, known as a non la, sweeps an entrance of a museum in Hoi An, Vietnam today. The non la hats are made of readily available materials such as palm leaves, tree bark and bamboo and are visible everywhere in the city, a UNESCO World Heritage site.: photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters, 10 May 2016

People react as they see North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a mass rally and parade in the capital’s main ceremonial square, a day after the ruling party wrapped up its first congress in 36 years by elevating him to party chairman, in Pyongyang, North Korea today: photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters, 10 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 10, 2016

Vehicles stop on the side of a road as a...Vehicles stop on the side of a road as a tornado rips through a residential area after touching down south of Wynnewood, Oklahoma on May 09, 2016. The tornado touched down quickly and destroyed an unknown number of structures before a series of other twisters riddled the area. One person is confirmed dead. == RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE / MANDATORY CREDIT: "AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / Josh EDELSON" / NO MARKETING / NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS / DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS / GETTY OUT ==

Vehicles stop on the side of a road as a tornado rips through a residential area after touching down south of Wynnewood, Oklahoma. The tornado touched down quickly and destroyed an unknown number of structures before a series of other twisters riddled the area. One person is confirmed dead.: photo by Josh Edelson/AFP, 10 May 2016

A tornado rips through a residential area after touching down south of Wynnewood, Oklahoma. The tornado destroyed an unknown number of structures before a series of other twisters riddled the area. One person was confirmed dead.: photo by Josh Edelson / AFP, 10 May 2016

A Sadhu or a Hindu holy man applies ashes on his body after taking a dip in the waters of Shipra river at the Simhastha Kumbh Mela in Ujjain

A Sadhu or a Hindu holy man applies ashes on his body after taking a dip in the waters of Shipra river during the second ‘Shahi Snan’ (grand bath) at the Simhastha Kumbh Mela in Ujjain, India: photo by Jitendra Prakash/Reuters, 9 May 2016

A woman works at the Kim Jong Suk Pyongyang textile mill during a government organised visit for foreign reporters in Pyongyang, North Korea May 9, 2016.

A woman works at the Kim Jong Suk Pyongyang textile mill during a government organised visit for foreign reporters in Pyongyang, North Korea today.: photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters, 9 May 2016

↧

Victory Day

May 12, 2016, 3:34 am

≫ Next: last transit of mercury

≪ Previous: But can my children eat an electronic card? / William Blake: Old Corruption's Song

World in focus — best photos for May 11, 2016

A Syrian woman cooks at a refugee camp on the northern Greek border point of Idomeni: photo by Petros Giannakouris / AP, 11 May 2016

The feeling that life is essentially inadequate to the human spirit, and yet that a good life must avoid saying so, is naturally at home with most versions of pastoral; in pastoral you take a limited life and pretend it is the full and normal one, and a suggestion that one must do this with all life, because the normal is itself limited, is easily put into the trick though not necessary to its power. Conversely any expression of the idea that all life is limited may be regarded as only a trick of pastoral, perhaps chiefly intended to hold all our attention and sympathy for some limited life, though again this is not necessary to it either on grounds of truth or beauty; in fact the suggestion of pastoral may be only a protection for the idea which must at last be taken alone.

William Empson: from Some Versions of the Pastoral, 1935

William Empson: Let It Go

It is this deep blankness is the real thing strange.
The more things happen to you the more you can't
Tell or remember even what they were.

The contradictions cover such a range.
The talk would talk and go so far aslant.
You don't want madhouse and the whole thing there.

William Empson (1906-1984), Let It Go, from Collected Poems (1949)

Dancers take part in a parade in Pyongyang a day after North Korea’s ruling party wrapped up its first congress in 36 years: photo by Damir Sagolj / Reuters, 11 May 2016

A Palestinian family sit next to their luggage as they wait to enter Egypt through the Rafah border crossing: photo by Khalil Hamra / AP Photo, 11 May 2016

Mideast Israel Palestinians Israeli strikes...epa05291303 A picture made available on 06 May 2016 shows Palestinian children sitting at the window of their family house in the east of Al Shejaeiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City near the border between the Gaza strip and Israel, 05 May 2016. Israeli air strikes hit four Hamas sites in the east of Gaza City overnight. According to media reports, the airstrikes were conducted as retaliation for mortar attacks on Israeli Defense Force personnel along the border region. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

Palestinian children sit at the window of their family house in the east of Al Shejaeiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City near the border between the Gaza strip and Israel: photo by Mohammed Saber/EPA, 6 May 2016

This Thursday, May 5, 2016 photo provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, shows the concert at the UNESCO world heritage site of Palmyra, the central city of Homs, where renowned conductor Valery Gergiev leads a performance by the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra from St. Petersburg, Syria. The renowned Russian conductor led a triumphant concert Thursday in the ruins of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, once terrorized by the Islamic State group, even as an airstrike on a refugee camp in the north left dozens of people dead and dozens wounded, including many children. (Olga Balashova/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

The renowned Russian conductor Valery Gergiev led a triumphant concert performed by the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra in the ruins of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, once terrorized by the Islamic State group, even as an airstrike on a refugee camp in the north left dozens of people dead and dozens wounded, including many children: photo by Olga Balashova/AP, 6 May 2016

Russia's Mariinsky Theatre performs at the amphitheater of the Syrian city of Palmyra, Syria in this picture provided by SANA: photo by SANA/Reuters, 5 May 2016

A long-exposure photograph captures a Russian serviceman as he takes part in a rehearsal for the Victory Day parade to mark the 71st anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II in Red Square in Moscow, Russia: photo by Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters, 5 May 2016

A boy sit on a tank on display at the Armored Corps memorial, before a ceremony marking the annual Memorial Day for soldiers and civilians killed in more than a century of conflict between Jews and Arabs, in Latrun near Jerusalem, Israel, Wednesday, May 11, 2016. Israel came to a standstill on Wednesday as sirens wailed across the country on its annual Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A boy sits on a tank on display at the Armored Corps memorial, before a ceremony marking the annual Memorial Day for soldiers and civilians killed in more than a century of conflict between Jews and Arabs, in Latrun near Jerusalem, Israel: photo by Ariel Schalit/AP, 11 May 2016

U.S. servicemen wait for an opening ceremony of U.S. led joint military exercise "Noble Partner 2016" in Vaziani, Georgia, May 11, 2016. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili

U.S. servicemen wait for an opening ceremony of U.S. led joint military exercise “Noble Partner 2016″ in Vaziani, Georgia: photo by David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters, 11 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for April 19, 2016

Indian policemen try to detain supporters of the Indian Kashmir politician, Engineer Abdul Rashid Sheikh, during a protest in Srinagar: photo by Farooq Khan / EPA, 19 April 2016

World in focus – best photos for April 15, 2016

Women gather at the base of the Tower of Juche Idea listening to songs in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea is marking the ‘Day of the Sun’, celebrating the day of birth of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung. The Day of the Sun is a national holiday.: photo by Franck Robichon/EPA, 15 April 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 6, 2016

The portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il are illuminated on the side of a building in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea on Friday opened the first full congress of its ruling party since 1980.: photo by Wong Maye-e / AP, 6 May 2016

Russian cadets share jokes as they wait for the start of a commemorative action ahead of Victory Day in the Victory Park Memorial complex at the Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow: photo by Yuri Kochetkov / EPA, 6 May 2016

Russian cadets attend a commemorative action ahead of the Victory Day...epaselect epa05291755 Russsian WWII veterans lay flowers at the Eternal Fire in the Victory Park Memorial complex at the Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow, Russia, 06 May 2016, on the day of memory of Saint Georges the Victorious, the heavenly patron of Moscow and warriors. Russia will celebrate the 71st anniversary of the victory over the nazi Germany in the World War II on 09 May 2016. EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

Russian WWII veterans lay flowers at the Eternal Fire in the Victory Park Memorial complex at the Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow, Russia on the day of memory of Saint Georges the Victorious, the heavenly patron of Moscow and warriors: photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA, 6 May 2016

Bulgarian veterans from World War II attend a military parade at the Alexander Batemberg Square in Sofia, Bulgaria to celebrate Day of Bravery commemorations: photo by Vassil Donev/EPA, 6 May 2016

Bulgarian veterans from World War II attend a military parade at the Alexander Batemberg Square in Sofia, Bulgaria to celebrate Day of Bravery commemorations: photo by Vassil Donev/EPA, 6 May 2016

A Macedonian police officer guards the Public Revenue Office in Skopje after it was targeted by protesters with water guns filled with paint, during a protest dubbed the ‘Colourful Revolution’: photo by Georgi Licovski / EPA, 11 May 2016

A doll of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is seen in the back pocket of a person as he waits for her to make a campaign stop at the Douglass Park Gymnasium in Indianapolis, Indiana: photo by Joe Raedle, 1 May 2016

Iraqi women walk past a damaged car following a twin suicide-bombing attack, claimed by ISIS, in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah: photo by Haidar Hamdani / AFP, 1 May 2016

Catholics participate in festivities in honor of the day of the Holy Cross, in Santiago Nonualco, 48 kilometers south of San Salvador. The inhabitants of Santiago Nonualco offer fruits to the Holy Cross in gratitude for the harvest obtained in the year and the beginning of the rainy season.: photo by Marvin Recinos / AFP, 3 May 2016

Marzuki, a sulfur miner, carries baskets of sulfur as he climbs up from the crater of Mount Ijen in Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia. Mount Ijen draws tourists by day and hundreds of sulfur miners by night. More than 9,000 feet above sea level, the men descend into the volcano's crater to dig out slabs of bright yellow sulfur, enduring toxic fumes, and back-breaking loads to earn $10 a day delivering a substance used to bleach sugar and vulcanize rubber.: photo by Binsar Bakkara / AP, 6 May 2016

Christopher Chin blows vapor from an e-cigarette at Gone With the Smoke Vapor Lounge in San Francisco, California. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced new federal regulations on electronic cigarettes that will be the same as traditional tobacco cigarettes and chewing tobacco.: photo by Justin Sullivan, 5 May 2016

A woman is carried away on a stretcher by medics after she was rescued from six days of being trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building, in the Huruma area of Nairobi, Kenya. After discovering the woman alive and conscious, rescuers administered an IV and oxygen but then had to work for a number of hours to free her from the rubble before taking her away to a hospital.: photo by Ben Curtis / AP, 5 May 2016

Uh Laremy Tunsiljust tweeted then deleted this: image via The REAL OG @oscargambler, 28 April 2016

Laremy Tunsil still waits in the green room: image via NFL on ESPN @ESPNNFL, 28 April 2016

Laremy Tunsil Posts Weird Gas Mask Pipe Smoking Twitter Video: image via Black Sports Online @BSO, 28 April 2016

[Untitled]: image via Pardon My Take @PardonMyTake, 28 April 2016

"I just know I got hacked. We're tying to find out who did it." Laremy Tunsil on video posted to Twitter account.: image via Sports Center @SportsCenter, 28 April 2016

Lutz Bachmann, a co-founder of the right-wing Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA), arrives in court in Dresden, Germany with his wife, Vicky: photo by Jens Meyer / Reuters, 19 April 2016

An Indian woman tries to collect drinking water after climbing down a dried up well at Bhakrecha Pada in Thane district in Maharashtra state, India. Much of India is reeling under a weeks-long heat wave and severe drought conditions that have decimated crops, killed livestock, and left at least 330 million Indians without enough water for their daily needs.: photo by Rajanish Kakade / AP, 4 May 2016

Jury members taste a dish during the European Final of Bocuse dâ€™Or cuisine contest in Budapest, Hungary

Jury members taste a dish during the European Final of Bocuse d'Or cuisine contest in Budapest, Hungary: photo by Tamas Kovacs/MTI/AP, 11 May 2016

A participant in the ''Bread Procession of the Saint'' takes part in a ceremony in honor of Domingo de La Calzada Saint (1019-1109), in Santo Domingo de La Calzada, northern Spain, Wednesday, May 11, 2016. Every year during spring season, ''Las Doncellas'' (White Virgins), hold a basket on their head covered with white cloth while they walk along this old village in honor of the saint.

A participant in the ”Bread Procession of the Saint” takes part in a ceremony in honour of Domingo de La Calzada Saint (1019-1109), in Santo Domingo de La Calzada, Spain. Every year during spring season, ”Las Doncellas” (White Virgins), hold a basket on their head covered with white cloth while they walk along this old village in honor of the saint.: photo by Alvaro Barrientos/AP, 11 May 2016

Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson and fellow Vote Leave campaigner Gisela Stuart MP enjoy an ice cream while in Charlestown, Cornwall, during a Vote Leave campaign visit

Boris Johnson and fellow Vote Leave campaigner Gisela Stuart MP enjoy an ice cream while in Charlestown, Cornwall, during a Vote Leave campaign visit: photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA, 11 May 2016

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari list...Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari listens at the start of a conference to tackle corruption at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London on May 11, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / LEON NEALLEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images

Nigerian Presiden Muhammadu Buhari listens at the start of a conference to tackle corruption at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London: photo by Leon Neal/AFP, 11 May 2016

Right-wing organisation Hindu Sena perform Hindu fire rituals in support of Donald Trump in New Delhi...epa05298860 Indian activists from the right-wing organisation Hindu Sena perform Hindu fire rituals in support of US Republicans presidential candidate Donald Trump in New Delhi, India, 11 May 2016. Right-wing organisation Hindu Sena activists prayed to the Hindu gods and performed rituals to ensure the victory of Donald Trump in US Presidential elections and urged the Indian origin people living in USA to vote and support him. EPA/RAJAT GUPTA

Indian activists from the right-wing organisation Hindu Sena perform Hindu fire rituals in support of US Republicans presidential candidate Donald Trump in New Delhi, India: photo by Rajat Gupta/EPA, 11 May 2016

Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Holds Kentucky Campaign Rally...An attendee wears campaign buttons before the start of an event for Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, not pictured, in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Clinton said she sees "a great role" for Bernie Sanders and his supporters in a "unified party," even as she said she welcomed Republicans who are not supporting presumptive nominee Donald Trump. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg

An attendee wears campaign buttons before the start of an event for Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, in Louisville, Kentucky: photo by Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg, 11 May 2016

Actress Anna Kendrick, a self-described lifelong RBF sufferer: photo by Jason Merritt via The Washington Post, 25 April 2016

Watch Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick sing 'True Colors' at #Cannes: image via People Magazine Verified account @people, 11 May 1016

Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick hit the star-studded red carpet for #Cannes Opening Gala: image via JustJared dot com Verified account @JustJared, 11 May 2016

Kristen Stewart of “Twilight” fame, often considered the poster girl for RBF: photo via The Washington Post, 25 April 2016

Kristen Stewart was one gentle breeze away from a red carpet nip slip at #Cannes: image via ELLE Magazine (US) Verified acccount @ELLEmagazine, 11 May 2016

#Cannes 2016 le clic-clac du jour de #KristenStewart #CafeSociety #WoodyAllen #photocall: image via Yan Bernard-Guilbaud @_yan_bg, 11 May 2016

Première photo de la journée @CarltonCannes Woody Allen et Kristen Stewart lounge VIP Madame Monsieur #cannes2016: image via Cannes69 @cannes69, 11 May 2016

serious case of womencrushwedesday! #cannes: image via Maria Estefanía Bello @estefaniabello, 11 May 2016

Swooning over these #redcarpet looks. #Cannes never disappoints. #Cannes2016 #france #glitz #glamour #fashion: image via The Luxe Lookbook@TheLuxeLookbook, 11 May 2016

The cast and director of CAFE SOCIETY on the top of the red carpet earlier this evening #Cannes2016: image via Cannes Film Coverage @CannesCoverage, 11 May 2016

@RonanFarrow pens blistering essay about dad Woody Allen and the media for THR: image via Hollywood Reporter @THR, 11 May 2016

Cannes: Woody Allen Gets Modest Standing Ovation at 'Cafe Society' Premiere: image via Hollywood Reporter @THR, 11 May 2016

#photographe #shooting #photo #studio #seancephoto #seancephotohomme #monaco #nice #cannes: image via Graphic Emotions @EmotionsGraphic, 2 May 2016

This artist's concept depicts select planetary discoveries made to date by NASA's Kepler space telescope in this image released May 10, 2016. Courtesy W. Stenzel/NASA/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY

This artist’s concept depicts select planetary discoveries made to date by NASA’s Kepler space telescope: photo by W. Stenzel/NASA/Reuters, 11 May 2016

↧

last transit of mercury

May 15, 2016, 4:02 pm

≫ Next: Thomas Wyatt: in Spayn (The ambassador revoked from his post returns to the city sought by Brutus in dreams)

≪ Previous: Victory Day

A competitor walks on tightrope during a performance in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, China: photo by China Daily / Reuters, 7 May 2016

that one last transit of mercury

on the night of a yellow moon

a broken rack in the old curiosity shop

no place to put away a friend

A jet airliner leaves a vapor trail as the planet Mercury is seen, lower left quadrant, transiting across the face of the sun in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mercury passes between Earth and the sun only about 13 times a century, with the previous transit taking place in 2006.: photo by David Becker / Reuters, 9 May 2016

El rejoneador Rodrigo Santos recoge un clavel. | by Emigdio Salgado

El rejoneador Rodrigo Santos recoge un clavel. Villa de Álvarez, Colima, México: photo by Emigdio Salgado (Millo Salgado), 27 April 2009

Arrival at the Dock Below the Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc's Grill Restaurant

Terrorism Stunt Prompts Hotel du Cap Panic: photo by Splash News, 14 May 2016

Actors play the part of casualties during a simulation of an attack by a suicide bomber inside a shopping center in Manchester, England. Police in Greater Manchester joined forces with other agencies to carry out a simulated terror attack to test the emergency response to a major terror incident.: photo by Sean Hansford / MEN / AFP, 10 May 2016

Terrorism Stunt Prompts Hotel du Cap Panic: Oraxy's commando boat buzzes Steven Spielberg's yacht, the Seven Seas: photo by Splash News, 14 May 2016

Russia will act to neutralize U.S. missile shield threat: Putin: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 12 May 2016

Terrorism Stunt Prompts Hotel du Cap Panic: Oraxy's commando boat buzzes Steven Spielberg's yacht, the Seven Seas: photo by Splash News, 14 May 2016

Remarkable evidence of ancient humans found under Florida river: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 13 May 2016

Oraxy's Commando Storms the Hotel du Cap's Dock

Terrorism Stunt Prompts Hotel du Cap Panic: photo by Splash News, 14 May 2016

French firemen wearing chemical protective suits take part in a mock chemical attack exercise at the Geoffroy Guichard Stadium in Saint-Etienne, France, in preparation of security measures for the UEFA 2016 European Championship.: photo by Robert Pratta / Reuters, 4 April 2016

Actors hired by a French internet start up stormed a top celebrity hotel as part of a sickening PR stunt: photo by Xposure Photos via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

The stunt was arranged by new French internet start up company Oraxy designed for the super rich: image by Oraxy via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

The men were wearing military fatigues and body armour and had their face hidden by balaclavas

The men were wearing military fatigues and body armour and had their faces hidden by balaclavas: photo by Xposure Photos via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

The military-style men raced up to the Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc, 30 minutes outside Cannes in a high-speed boat: photo by Xposure Photos via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

The six actors patrolled the French Riviera and circled huge yachts near the shore: photo by Splash News via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

The boat approached one of the hotels on the coast near the Cannes Film Festival: photo by Splash News via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

The boat, steered by one of the actors, came close to Steven Spielberg's Seven Seas, one of the large yachts in the French Riviera: photo by Splash News via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

Their presence comes as Cannes was placed on high alert after the world's stars descended on the city for the well-known 12-day film festival: photo by Splash News via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

The vessel approached a number of expensive yachts near the Cannes Film Festival: photo by Splash News via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

The six actors approached the five-star Eden Roc Hotel in Antibes: photo by Splash News via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

Cannes has drafted in hundreds of extra security guards, soldiers and police officers to guard the city during the festival: photo by AFP via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

The whole of France has been on high alert since the November terror attacks in Paris, which left 130 dead: photo by AFP via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

L#edenroc fête ses 100 #ans #antibes #monde: image via Routeur News @Routeur News, 21 May 2014

Police special forces advance on a ring road near the scene: photo by Youssef Boudlal/Reuters, 9 January 2015

A label reading “Dead” is pictured attached to the leg of a dummy hanging from a London Underground train in rubble during the Exercise Unified Response (EUR) planned training exercise combining all aspects of British emergency services, in Dartford, England. Britain's emergency services and search and rescues teams took part in a training exercise simulating a building collapse onto a London underground station.: photo by Justin Tallis / AFP, 1 March 2016

Police at Porte de Vincennes: photo by Dan Kitwood via The Guardian, 9 January 2015

George Clooney and his wife Amal Alamuddin arrive at the Eden Roc Hotel in Cap d'Antibes ahead of the start of the festival: photo by AFP via Hollywood Reporter, 14 May 2016

#Cannes: Organizers of Hotel du Cap Terror Stunt Apologize: image via Hollywood Reporter @THR, 14 May 2016

Paris, France. President Francois Hollande wears 3D glasses to watch the Philae probe as it lands on comet 67P: photo by Jacques Brinon/Reuters, 13 November 2014

Paris, France. President Francois Hollande wears 3D glasses to watch the Philae probe as it lands on comet 67P: photo by Jacques Brinon/Reuters, 13 November 2016

Emergency forces and shoppers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Center in Manchester, England, on May 10, 2016. Police in Greater Manchester joined forces with other agencies to carry out a simulated terror attack to test the emergency response to a major incident.: photo by Sean Hansford, 10 May 2016

Students are hit by a riot police water cannon during a demonstration to demand changes in the education system in Santiago, Chile: photo by Ivan Alvarado / Reuters, 11 May 2016

A reveler takes part in Correfoc in Barcelona, Spain. Correfoc, or fire-run, originates from a form of medieval street theater that represents the fight of good against evil through parades using fireworks and effigies of the devil. During the Correfoc, a group of individuals dress as devils and light fireworks. While dancing to the drums, they will set off their fireworks among crowds of spectators.: photo by Manu Fernandez / AP, 7 May 2016

A pilgrim walks on her knees to fulfill her vows, as pilgrims attend the 99th anniversary of the appearance of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children, at the Catholic shrine of Fatima, Portugal: photo by Rafael Marchante / Reuters, 12 May 2016

Visitors shout during their visit to the Quinta Nova da Assuncao mansion, where Reflexo theatre company performs the show Casa Assombrada, or haunted house, in Belas, near Sintra, Portugal. During a tour of the empty Quinta Nova da Assuncao mansion, there are apparitions, shadows, and the sound of doors randomly shutting. All accompanied by the terrified shrieks from the group of visitors.: photo by Rafael Marchante / Reuters, 13 May 2016

A model stands next to a German BMW M3 car on display at an auto show in Hanoi, Vietnam: photo by Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP, 7 May 2016

The former mayor of London and Vote Leave campaigner Boris Johnson wears protective equipment as he visits Reid Steel during a campaign stop in Christchurch, England: photo byDarren Staples / Reuters, 12 May 2016

*A French Internet company's fake terrorism stunt prompted panic at the famed Hotel du Cap*: photo by Splash News 14 May 2016

Ce n'est qu'un au revoir. #HotelDuCapEdenRoc #HDCER #EdenRoc #TimelessLuxury #OetkerCollection #Antibes #France: image via André xoxo @AndreLuvsU, 29 September 2014 Antibes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

In die plasmmarket

Man of the hour, one way or another. (Also, Kristen Stewart.): image via Steven Zeitchik @ZeitchikLAT, 11 May 2016

#Cannes2016 Guests arrive for screening during the 69th film festival #AFP Photo by@ACPoujoulat: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 12 May 2016

#Cannes2016 Eva Longoria arrives for the Money Monster Screening. By @antotweettweet #AFP #EvaLongoria #MoneyMonster: image via AFP Entertainment @AFPceleb, 12 May 2016

#Cannes2016 Jessica Chastain arrives for 'Money Monster' Screening. By @AlbertoPizzoli @LoicVenance @ACPoujoulat: image via AFP Entertainment @AFPceleb, 12 May 2016

#Cannes2016 Actress Araya A. Hargate arrives for 'Money Monster' Screening. By @ACPoujoulat: image via AFP Entertainment @AFPceleb, 12 May 2016

#Cannes2016 Julia Roberts walked barefoot up the @FestivalCannes stairs By @ACPoujoulat #AFP #MoneyMonster: image via AFP Entertainment @AFPceleb, 12 May 2016

#Cannes2016 Julia Roberts and George Clooney arrive for the Money Monster Screening. By @AlbertoPizzoli #AFP: image via AFP Entertainment @AFPceleb, 12 May 2016

#Cannes2016 George Clooney and his wife Amal arrive for the Money Monster Screening. By @ValeryHache #AFP: image via AFP Entertainment @AFPceleb, 12 May 2016

#Cannes2016 Julia Roberts and George Clooney arrive for the Money Monster Screening. By @AlbertoPizzoli #AFP: image via AFP Entertainment @AFPceleb, 12 May 2016

George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin on a Venetian water taxi: photo by Andrea Merola/EPA, 26 September 2014

St Mark’s Square is seen behind the Clooney weddingwater taxi: photo by AGF/Rex, 26 September 2014

US actor George Clooney told journalists at Cannes, "There is not going to be a President Donald Trump": photo by Loic Venance/AFP, 12 May 2016

On the trading floor of the open outcry pit

Traders and brokers speak on telephones on the trading floor of the open outcry pit at the London Metal Exchange Ltd, after an official opening ceremony of the LME’s new premises by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in London: photo by Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg, 13 May 2016

Traders and brokers speak on telephones on the trading floor of the open outcry pit at the London Metal Exchange Ltd, after an official opening ceremony of the LME’s new premises by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet in London: photo by Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg, 13 May 2016

A helicopter drops water over tyres burning in an uncontrolled dump near the town of Sesena, after a fire brokeout early on May 13, 2016. A huge waste ground near Madrid where millions of tyres have been dumped was on fire today, releasing a thick black cloud of toxic fumes that officials worry could harm residents nearby.

A helicopter drops water over tyres burning in an uncontrolled dump near the town of Sesena, after a fire broke out in a huge waste ground near Madrid where tyres have been dumped: photo by Pedro Armestre/AFP, 13 May 2016

Tires burn in an uncontrolled dump near the town of Sesena, after a fire broke out early on May 13, 2016. A huge waste ground near Madrid where millions of tires have been dumped burned Thursday, releasing a thick black cloud of toxic fumes that officials worry could harm residents nearby.: photo by Pedro Armestre / AFP, 13 May 2016

A Shape within the watry gleam appeard

Cast members (L-R) Melanie Thierry, Lily-Rose Melody Depp and Soko pose during a photocall for the film "La danseuse" (The Dancer) in competition for the category "Un Certain Regard" at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 13, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Cast members (L-R) Melanie Thierry, Lily-Rose Melody Depp and Soko pose during a photocall for the film “La danseuse” in competition for the category “Un Certain Regard” at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France: photo by Yves Herman/Reuters, 13 May 2016

Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound

Of waters issu'd from a Cave and spread
Into a liquid Plain, then stood unmov'd
Pure as th' expanse of Heav'n; I thither went
With unexperienc't thought, and laid me downe
On the green bank, to look into the cleer
Smooth Lake, that to me seemd another Skie.
As I bent down to look, just opposite,
A Shape within the watry gleam appeard
Bending to look on me, I started back,
It started back, but pleas'd I soon returnd,
Pleas'd it returnd as soon with answering looks
Of sympathie and love; there I had fixt
Mine eyes till now, and pin'd with vain desire...

John Milton (1608-1674): from Paradise Lost: A Poem in Ten Books (1667), 4. 453-69 (cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses 3. 407-36)

Narcissus: Caravaggio, 1598-99, oil on canvas, 110 x 92 cm (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome)

Roman de la Rose: French Miniaturist, c. 1380, manuscript (MS e Mus. 65), 295 x 225 mm (folio size) (Bodleian Library, Oxford)

Julia Roberts goes barefoot on the red carpet at Cannes #CannesFilmFestival #Cannes2016: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 12 May 2016

The Singer: Edouard Vuillard,1891, pastel, 28 x 20 cm (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid)

#Cannes2016 Julia Roberts walked barefoot up the @FestivalCannes stairs By @ACPoujoulat #AFP #MoneyMonster: image via AFP Entertainment @AFPceleb, 12 May 2016

Julia Roberts goes barefoot on the red carpet at Cannes #CannesFilmFestival #Cannes2016: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 12 May 2016

Receptionist gets 120,000 signatures on petition to outlaw making women wear heels at work: image via Reuters UK @Reuters, 12 May 2016

A photocall for Goosebumps

Queen Elizabeth II studies the programme as she attends the third day of the Royal Windsor Horse Show, which is held in the grounds of Windsor Castle in Berkshire: photo by Petras Malukas/AFP, 13 May 2016

Queen Elizabeth II studies the programme as she attends the third day of the Royal Windsor Horse Show, which is held in the grounds of Windsor Castle in Berkshire: photo by Petras Malukas/AFP, 13 May 2016

Slappy the Dummy rests on a chair prior to a photo call for Goosebumps in West Hollywood, California: photo by Mario Anzuoni / Reuters, 2 October 2015

French officials show off ‘Ocean One,’ an underwater humanoid diving robot, at the history museum in Marseille, France: photo by Claude Paris / AP, 28 April 2016

Migrant children help volunteers to hang a tarpaulin between containers at the Athens port of Piraeus on Friday, May 13, 2016. Hundreds of refugees and migrants continue to move everyday at government-built shelters and less than 1,500 people remain at Piraeus. The European Union's border agency says that the number of migrants arriving in the Greek islands dropped by 90 percent in April compared to the previous month. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Migrant children help volunteers to hang a tarpaulin between containers at the Athens port of Piraeus: photo by Thanassis Stavrakis/AP, 13 May 2016

An opposition supporter falls as she clashes with Venezuelan National Guards during a rally to demand a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela: photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters, 11 May 2016

Venezuela looters target chicken, flour amid worsening shortages: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 12 May 2016

A man helps to erect an inflatable doll depicting late President Hugo Chavez during a rally of PDVSA workers with President Nicolas Maduro (unseen) outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela: photo by Juan Barreto / AFP, 12 January 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 12, 2016

A Venezuelan opposition activist waves a flag in front of a police line during a demonstration in San Cristobal: photo by George Castellanos / AFP, 12 May 2016

A man stands on the roof of one of the buildings in the capital's main ceremonial square before a mass dance and torchlight procession, a day after the ruling Workers' Party of Korea wrapped up its first congress in 36 years, in Pyongyang, North Korea: photo by Damir Sagolj / Reuters, 10 May 2016

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: Protesters from Code Pink for Peace gather near Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's motorcade outside the Republican National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill during a meeting between Trump, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and GOP House leadership May 12, 2016 in Washington, DC. Ryan has yet to endorse Trump despite his being the final candidate in the race after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Gov. John Kasich dropped out of the race following the Indiana presidential primary. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Protesters from Code Pink for Peace gather near Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s motorcade outside the Republican National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.: photo by Chip Somodevilla, 12 May 2016

A boy plays with a machine gun during an event in remembrance of the upcoming Victory Day, marking the anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, in the southern city of Ashdod, Israel: photo by Amir Cohen / Reuters, May 2016

Activists of right-wing Hindu Sena, or Hindu Army, conduct Hindu rituals to ensure a win for U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump in New Delhi, India. While Trump has dominated the Republican primary race to decide the party's candidate for the November election, his calls for temporarily banning Muslims from America and cracking down on terrorist groups abroad have earned him some fans in India.: photo by Saurabh Das / AP, 11 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 13, 2016

A bird flies over the Statue of Liberty in New York: photo by Jewel Samad / AFP, 13 May 2016

Bids soar for gun used to kill Trayvon Martin. Bidding on Zimmerman’s 9mm Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol began at $5,000.: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 12 May 2016

Dubious bidders vie for ’Trayvon’ gun: image via Reuters TV @ReutersTV, 13 May 2016

A group of people who tried to cross the border walk back to a makeshift camp for refugees and migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

A man who tried to cross the border takes a rest as he walks back to a makeshift camp for refugees and migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

A group of people who tried to cross the border walk back to a makeshift camp for refugees and migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

A woman who tried to cross the border takes a rest as he walks back to a makeshift camp for refugees and migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 11, 2016. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

A woman who tried to cross the border takes a rest as she walks back to a makeshift camp for refugees and migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Zookeepers hold up a large net barricade to capture a zoo staff member dressed as a zebra at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, Japan: photo by Christopher Jue, 2 February 2016

People use Samsung Gear VR devices during the presentation of the new Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, in Barcelona, Spain: photo by David Ramos, 21 February 2016

A young Palestinian waits at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the southern Gaza Strip, after it was opened for two days by Egyptian authorities on Thursday: photo by AFP, 12 May 2016

epa05300699 A picture made available on 12 May 2016 shows Chinese sculptor Tian Yongjun working on a Mao Zedong sculpture outside his workshop in Shaoshan, Hunan Province in central China, 29 April 2016. Shaoshan is the hometown of former Communist leader Mao Zedong, popularly known as Chairman Mao. As the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution approaches on 16 May, there is scant mention of the revolution where millions of intellectuals were persecuted and tortured in a bid to purge Mao's critics in his this small town where he was hailed as a great hero and leader. EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG

Chinese sculptor Tian Yongjun works on a Mao Zedong sculpture outside his workshop in Shaoshan, China: photo by How Hwee Young/EPA, 12 May 2016

A worker stands in front of containers at a port in Shanghai: photo by Aly Song / Reuters, 10 May 2016

A worker sorts through silk at a silk factory in Pyongyang, North Korea: photo by Ed Jones / AFP, 9 May 2016

A woman attends a so-called “Victorian Picnic” during the Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival in Leipzig, Germany: photo by Tobias Schwarz / AFP, 13 May 2016

TOPSHOT - Aerial view taken on May 12, 2016 shows cars driving on the winding L401 country road past rapeseed fields near Nienstedt close to Bad Muender am Deister, central Germany. / AFP PHOTO / dpa / Julian Stratenschulte / Germany OUTJULIAN STRATENSCHULTE/AFP/Getty Images

Cars driving on the winding L401 country road past rapeseed fields near Nienstedt Germany: photo by Julian Straten/AFP, 12 May 2016

Cars driving on the winding L401 country road past rapeseed fields near Nienstedt, central Germany: photo by Julian Stratenschulte / dpa / AFP, 12 May 2016

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, accompanied by Chief of Staff Jaques Wagner, looks from a window at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, May 11, 2016. REUTERS/Adriano Machado TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX2DWXU

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, accompanied by Chief of Staff Jaques Wagner, looks from a window at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil: photo by Adriano Machado/Reuters, 12 May 2016

A guard stands watch at the Planalto presidential palace while a special session is being held in the Brazilian Senate determining whether to accept impeachment charges against embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff: photo by Mario Tama, 12 May 2015

A Brazilian army soldier on the ramp of the Palacio do Planalto in Brasilia, Brazil: photo by Igo Estrela, 12 May 2016

Indigenous people demonstrate against the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in front of the National Congress in Brasilia: photo by Andressa Anholete / AFP, 11 May 2016

Brazil's Rousseff bows out defiantly after historic Senate vote to put her on trial: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 12 May 2016

A Kashmiri man sleeps in a boat along the algae-covered Anchar Lake in Srinagar May 12, 2016

A Kashmiri man sleeps in a boat along the algae-covered Anchar Lake on Thursday: photo by Danish Ismail/Reuters, 12 May 2016

↧

Thomas Wyatt: in Spayn (The ambassador revoked from his post returns to the city sought by Brutus in dreams)

May 17, 2016, 12:34 am

≫ Next: Wallace Stevens: Seventy Years Later, from The Rock ("It is an illusion that we were ever alive")

≪ Previous: last transit of mercury

James Massey of Piper’s Model Makers cleans the City of London’s official 1:500th scale architectural model of central London, which has gone on public display at the City Centre gallery, London: photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA, 16 May 2016

y t

Tagus fare well t westward w thy strems

torns vp the grayns off gold alredy tryd

w spurr and sayle for I go seke the tems

~ t

the sonne y shewthe her welthi pryd

wyche

and to the town brutus sowght by drems

like bendyd mone doth lend her lusty syd

alone

My Kyng my Contry for whome <only alone> I lyve
~

of myghty love the winge for this me gyve

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542): in Spayn, c. 3 June 1539: text from British Library Egerton MS. 2711, fol. 69 (holograph); transcription via Richard Harrier, The Canon of Sir Thomas Wyatt's Poetry (1975)

The Ambassadors (detail): Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533, oil on oak (National Gallery, London)

Portrait of the Merchant Georg Gisze (detail): Hans Holbein the Younger, 1532, oil on wood (Staatliche Museen, Berlin)

Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan (detail): Hans Holbein the Younger, 1538, oil on oak (National Gallery, London)

Portrait of Thomas Cromwell: Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1533, oak, 76 x 61 cm (Frick Collection, New York)

View of Syon House across the Thames near Kew Gardens: Richard Wilson (1714-1782), c. 1760, oil on canvas, 104 x 139 cm (Neue Pinakothek, Munich)

View of London: Antonio Joli, 1743-50, oil on canvas, 151 x 278 cm (Private collection)

The River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral on Lord Mayor's Day: Canaletto, 1746-47, oil on canvas (Lobkowicz Collections, Lobkowicz Palace, Prague)

London: Greenwich Hospital from the North Bank of the Thames: Canaletto, c. 1753, oil on canvas, 66 x 112.5 cm (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)

London: The Thames and the City of London from Richmond House: Canaletto, 1747, oil on canvas, 105 x 117.5 cm (Private collection)

London: The Thames and the City of London from Richmond House (detail): Canaletto, 1747 (Private collection)

London: the Thames and the City of London from the Terrace of Richmond House: Canaletto, c. 1747, pen and ink with wash on paper, 337 x 540 mm (Private collection)

Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

City workers crossed the Millennium Bridge over the River Thames on a foggy morning in London: photo by Toby Melville/Reuters, 2 November 2015

A City worker shields his eyes from the sun outside of the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain, March 29, 2016. The Bank of England could be pulled in very different directions if British voters take the historic step of leaving the European Union in a referendum set for June 23.. REUTERS/Toby Melville

A City worker shields his eyes from the sun outside of the Bank of England in the City of London, Britain today: photo by Toby Melville/Reuters, 29 March 2016

A seagull flies past Westminster Bridge during a foggy day in central London, November 2, 2015. Airports across Britain suffered disruption on Monday as heavy fog led to delays and cancellations for a second day. Flights to and from London airports were being affected, while foggy conditions in the capital and across Europe were causing problems to airports around the country.REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

A seagull flies past Westminster Bridge during a foggy day in central London today. Airports across Britain suffered disruption on Monday as heavy fog led to delays and cancellations for a second day. Flights to and from London airports were being affected, while foggy conditions in the capital and across Europe were causing problems to airports around the country: photo by Stefan Wermuth/Reuters, 2 November 2015

Trading Ring Unveiled Inside London Metals Exchange's New Premises...Traders, brokers and clerks shout and gesture on the trading floor of the open outcry pit at the London Metal Exchange (LME), at their new premises on Finsbury Square, in London, U.K in London, U.K., on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016. The new LME ring has capacity to host 14 members. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Traders, brokers and clerks shout and gesture on the trading floor of the open outcry pit at the London Metal Exchange (LME), at their new premises on Finsbury Square in London: photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg, 18 February 2016

Passengers ride an escalator at Canary Wharf tube station in London on Tuesday: photo by Kevin Coombs/Reuters, 15 March 2016

↧

Wallace Stevens: Seventy Years Later, from The Rock ("It is an illusion that we were ever alive")

May 18, 2016, 1:36 am

≫ Next: Wallace Stevens: Forms of the Rock in a Night-Hymn

≪ Previous: Thomas Wyatt: in Spayn (The ambassador revoked from his post returns to the city sought by Brutus in dreams)

A man stands in a building earmarked for demolition in the Mathare neighbourhood of Nairobi, Kenya, May 17, 2016. Kenya's authorities tore down a badly built residential block in the poor Nairobi district on Tuesday, one of more than 250 shoddy buildings that could now face demolition after a six-story structure collapsed this month killing 51 people. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic SEARCH "MATHARE DEMOLITION" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "THE WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A man stands in a building earmarked for demolition in the Mathare neighbourhood of Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya’s authorities tore down a badly built residential block in the poor Nairobi district on Tuesday, one of more than 250 shoddy buildings that could now face demolition after a six-story structure collapsed this month killing 51 people.: photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters, 17 May 2016

Rock [Moab, Utah]: photo by Jim Rohan, 2 May 2016

It is an illusion that we were ever alive,

Lived in the houses of mothers, arranged ourselves

By our own motions in a freedom of air.

Regard the freedom of seventy years ago.
It is no longer air. The houses still stand,
Though they are rigid in rigid emptiness.

Even our shadows, their shadows, no longer remain.
The lives these lived in the mind are at an end.
They never were ... The sounds of the guitar

Were not and are not. Absurd. The words spoken
Were not and are not. It is not to be believed.
The meeting at noon at the edge of the field seems like

An invention, an embrace between one desperate clod
And another in a fantastic consciousness,
In a queer assertion of humanity:

A theorem proposed between the two --
Two figures in a nature of the sun,
In the sun’s design of its own happiness,

As if nothingness contained a métier,
A vital assumption, an impermanence
In its permanent cold, an illusion so desired

That the green leaves came and covered the high rock,
That the lilacs came and bloomed, like a blindness cleaned,
Exclaiming bright sight, as it was satisfied,

In a birth of sight. The blooming and the musk
Were being alive, an incessant being alive,
A particular being, that gross universe.

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955):Seventy Years Later, from The Rock, 1950, in The Rock (1954)

A fisherman sits to smoke on his boat at a Bak Angrout dried up pond at the drought-hit Kandal province in Cambodia

A fisherman smokes on his boat at a dried up pond at the drought-hit Kandal province in Cambodia: photo by Reuters, 16 May 2016

A man injured following clashes with Kenyan riot police officers, runs away from teargas, during a demonstration of Kenya's opposition supporters in Nairobi: photo by Carl De Souza/AFP, 16 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 17, 2016

Migrants rest in Tripoli after they were rescued off the coast of Libya: photo by EPA, 17 May 2016

CHANGZHOU, CHINA - MAY 12: A worker takes samples for quality of molten iron outside a furnace at the Zhong Tian (Zenith) Steel Group Corporation on May 12, 2016 in Changzhou, Jiangsu. Zhong Tian (Zenith) Steel Group Corporation is a privately-owned manufacturer that employs over 13,000 workers at its facility in China's eastern Jiangsu province. Since 2001, the company says it has adopted new technology to streamline the production of premium quality steel and to reduce environmental impact. The majority of its steel output is for the Chinese market with 20% earmarked for export, mostly to Asia. The company says it is profitable, but admits business has dropped marginally from past years. China is the world's largest steel producer, accounting for over 50% of global supply. China's government has vowed to cut production capacity at state-owned enterprises by up to 150 million tonnes over five years to ease concerns of an oversupply on global markets. However, its efforts appear to be overshadowed by a recent increase in steel prices that has revived production at some Chinese facilities that had been closed down. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A worker takes samples for quality of molten iron outside a furnace at the Zhong Tian (Zenith) Steel Group Corporation in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, China: photo by Kevin Frayer, 17 May 2016

A Sri Lankan resident wades through floodwaters in Pugoda: photo by Ishara S Kodikara / AFP, 17 May 2016

Men exercise on the banks of the River Ganges ahead of the Bengal mud wrestling championships in Kolkata: photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri / Reuters, 17 May 2016

A Sadhu or Hindu holy man combs his beard after taking a dip in the waters of Shipra river during Simhastha Kumbh Mela in Ujjain, India May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Jitendra Prakash TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A Sadhu or Hindu holy man combs his beard after taking a dip in the waters of Shipra river during Simhastha Kumbh Mela in Ujjain, India: photo by Jitendra Prakash/Reuters, 16 May 2016

Construction workers in Yangon, Myanmar: photo by Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP, 17 May 2016

A wrestler applies mud to prevent slipping due to sweat, at a traditional training centre on the banks of the river Ganges ahead of the Bengal mud wrestling championships, in Kolkata, India today: photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters, 17 May 2016

The starboard side of the world’s largest cruise ship, the 361m-long Harmony of the Seas, as it arrives in Southampton: photo by Peter Nicholls / Reuters, 17 May 2016

Pedernales, Ecuador, a month after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the city: photo by Rodrigo Beundia / AFP, 17 May 2016

A man runs past a riot police officer trying to kick him as supporters of Kenya’s opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy are dispersed during a demonstration in Nairobi: photo by Dai Kurokawa / EPA, 17 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 16, 2016

Toronto Blue Jays Jose Bautista (19) gets hit by Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor (12) after Bautista slid into second in the eighth inning of a baseball game at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas: photo by Richard W. Rodriguez / Star-Telegram via AP, 16 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 15, 2016

A reveller takes a break during celebration of Virgen de los Desamparados, or Our Lady of the Abandoned, at Diria, Nicaragua: photo by Oswaldo Rivas / Reuters, 15 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 17, 2016

A Palestinian boy plays with a ball in front of a mural at the Deir Al Balah refugee camp in central Gaza Strip: photo by Suhaib Salem / Reuters, 17 May 2016

A youth throws a stick at riot police officers during a protest in Paris. Truckers blocked French highways and workers marched through city streets Tuesday to protest longer working hours, but President Francois Hollande is insisting he won’t abandon the labour reforms that sparked their anger.: photo by Francois Mori/AP, 17 May 2016

Syrian boys seen on a bicycle in Deraa: photo by Mohamad Abazeed / AFP, 15 May 2016

A vendor eats her meal near busts of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong for sale at a curio market in Beijing, China, Monday, May 16, 2016. Exactly 50 years ago, China embarked on what was formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a decade of tumult launched by Mao Zedong to revive communist goals and enforce a radical egalitarianism. The milestone was largely ignored Monday in the Chinese media, reflecting continuing sensitivities about a period that was later declared a "catastrophe."

A vendor eats her meal near busts of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong for sale at a curio market in Beijing, China today: photo by Ng Han Guan/AP, 16 May 2016

A woman hangs laundry near her tent in front of the wired fence that separates Greece and Macedonia at a makeshift refugee camp on the northern Greek border point of Idomeni. Thousands of stranded refugees and migrants have camped in Idomeni for months after the border was closed.: photo by Petros Giannakouris / AP, 16 May 2016

Artists, Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst pose during a photocall to launch the Newport Street Gallery in London with Koon's piece "Play-Doh".

Artists Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst pose during a photocall for the exhibition ‘Now’ with Koons' piece Play-Doh at Newport Street Gallery in London: photo by Charlie Bibby/FT, 17 May 2016

epa05311531 An activist of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement named 'Sister Dominique' in front of a rainbow flag during an event held in front of the state parliament in Potsdam, Germany, 17 May 2016. The rainbow flag is flying in front of the Brandenburg state parliament on the same day. The flag has been popularised worldwide as a symbol of the LGBT movement. EPA/RALF HIRSCHBERGER

An activist of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement named ‘Sister Dominique’ in front of a rainbow flag during an event held in front of the state parliament in Potsdam, Germany: photo by Ralf Hirschberger/EPA, 17 May 2016

↧

Wallace Stevens: Forms of the Rock in a Night-Hymn

May 19, 2016, 12:47 am

≫ Next: "But it was in vain that I lingered beside the hawthorns"

≪ Previous: Wallace Stevens: Seventy Years Later, from The Rock ("It is an illusion that we were ever alive")

A police car explodes after being set on fire during an unauthorized counter-demonstration against police violence today in Paris, as Police across France demonstrate today against the “anti-cop hatred” they say they have endured during a wave of anti-government protests since early March: photo by Rielle Sicard/AFP, 18 May 2016

A police car explodes after being set on fire during an unauthorized counter-demonstration against police violence today in Paris, as Police across France demonstrate today against the “anti-cop hatred” they say they have endured during a wave of anti-government protests since early March: photo by Rielle Sicard/AFP, 18 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 18, 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 18, 2016

A police car burns during a demonstration against police violence and against French labour law reform in Paris: photo by Charles Platiau / Reuters, 18 May 2016

The rock is the gray particular of man's life,
The stone from which he rises, up -- and -- ho,
The step to the bleaker depths of his descents ...

The rock is the stern particular of the air,
The mirror of the planets, one by one,
But through man's eye, their silent rhapsodist,

Turquoise the rock, at odious evening bright
With redness that sticks fast to evil dreams;
The difficult rightness of half-risen day.

The rock is the habitation of the whole,
Its strength and measure, that which is near, point A
In a perspective that begins again

At B: the origin of the mango's rind.

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955): Forms of the Rock in a Night-Hymn, from The Rock, 1950, in The Rock (1954)

TOPSHOT - An overloaded car travels through the Assaga refugee camp in Diffa on May 17, 2016, close to the Niger-Nigeria border. Chief of Humanitarian Operations of the UN, Stephen O'Brien, vowed on May 17 to raise funds at the next World Humanitarian Summit for "significant" help to the more than 240,000 refugees displaced by Boko Haram in camps in south-east Niger. / AFP PHOTO / BOUREIMA HAMABOUREIMA HAMA/AFP/Getty Images

An overloaded car travels through the Assaga refugee camp in Diffa close to the Niger-Nigeria border: photo by Boureima Hama/AFP, 18 May 2016

An overloaded car travels through the Assaga refugee camp in Diffa close to the Niger-Nigeria border: photo by Boureima Hama/AFP, 18 May 2016

An overloaded car travels through the Assaga refugee camp in Diffa, close to the Niger-Nigeria border: photo by Boureima Hama / AFP, 18 May 2016

Hundreds missing after heavy rain triggers landslides in Sri Lanka - in pictures

Sri Lankan commuters drive through floodwaters along an expressway in the suburb of Athurugeriya in the capital Colombo: photo by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi / AFP, 18 May 2016

Hundreds missing after heavy rain triggers landslides in Sri Lanka - in pictures

Sri Lankan commuters drive through floodwaters along an expressway in the Colombo suburb of Athurugeriya: photo by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi / AFP, 18 May 2016

The area where a landslide struck in the village of Aranayake in central Sri Lanka: photo by President’s Office / AFP, 18 May 2016

Sri Lanka’s disaster management centre said that 114 homes have been destroyed and more than 137,000 people have been evacuated to safety: photo by Eranga Jayawardena / AP, 18 May 2016

A picture taken with a slow shutter speed shows a performer singing and dancing on stage during a media call for Singin’ in the Rain at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne: photo by Tracey Nearmy / EPA, 12 May 2016

Workers sit as they take a break near a banner of a new apartment in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/Beawiharta

Workers sit as they take a break near a banner of a new apartment in Jakarta, Indonesia: photo by Beawiharta/Reuters, 18 May 2016

Substitutes react after their team-mates scored a goal during the first school football tournament, in the rebel-held city of Douma, Syria: photo by Mohammed Badra/EPA, 18 May 2016

Substitutes react after their team-mates scored a goal during the first school football tournament, in the rebel-held city of Douma, Syria: photo by Mohammed Badra/EPA, 18 May 2016

Boys listen to their coach during a school football championship in the rebel-held town of Douma, eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta: photo by Bassam Khabieh / Reuters, 15 May 2016

Kurdish mourners gather around coffins in Sarikamis, on the outskirts of Diyarbakir: photo by. Ilyas Akengin / AFP, 18 May 2016

that which is near: point A

Members of the Chinese honour guard stand at attention during a welcoming ceremony for Mozambique’s President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing: photo by Mark Schiefelbein / AP, 18 May 2016

Models pose by an old sandstone chapel during a fashion show for label Romance Was Born on the waterfront of Sydney Harbour during Australian Fashion Week: photo by Jason Reed / Reuters, 18 May 2016

Graduating students from Barnard College during the Columbia University 2016 Commencement ceremony in New York. Barnard College is a private women’s liberal arts college founded in 1889: photo by Timothy A. Clary, 18 May 2016

Pakistani boys cool themselves off during a heat wave in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 18, 2016. Various parts of the country continued to experience an intense heat wave, with the temperatures reaching 49 degree Celsius (120 Fahrenheit) in Larkana and other cities. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Fareed Khan/AP

Pakistani boys cool themselves off during a heat wave in Karachi, Pakistan: photo by Fareed Khan/AP, 18 May 2016

Queen Elizabeth II leaves Buckingham Palace, London, ahead of the State Opening of Parliament. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday May 18, 2016. See PA story POLITICS Speech. Photo credit should read: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Queen Elizabeth II leaves Buckingham Palace, London, ahead of the State Opening of Parliament: photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA, 18 May 2016

Mangoes #9a: After the Fruit Bats: photo by Like Jazz, 4 January 2010

Mango trees during a storm, Srimongal, Syrhet, Bangladesh: photo by s_karr, 13 May 2009

↧

"But it was in vain that I lingered beside the hawthorns"

May 20, 2016, 2:58 am

≫ Next: Wallace Stevens: The Poem as Icon

≪ Previous: Wallace Stevens: Forms of the Rock in a Night-Hymn

In this undated handout picture taken recieved on May 19, 2016 from James Cook University shows life on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. Australia's Great Barrier Reef could be beyond saving in five years without "now or never" funding to improve water quality as climate change ravages the World Heritage-listed site, scientists warned on May 19, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY / MATT CURNOCKMATT CURNOCK/AFP/Getty Images

Marine life on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. Australia's Great Barrier Reef could be beyond saving in five years without “now or never” funding to improve water quality as climate change ravages the World Heritage-listed site, scientists have warned: photo by Matt Curnock/AFP, 19 May 2016

But it was in vain that I lingered beside the hawthorns -- breathing in their invisible and unchanging odour, trying to fix it in my mind (which did not know what to do with it), losing it, recapturing it, absorbing myself in the rhythm which disposed the flowers here and there with a youthful light-heartedness and at intervals as unexpected as certain intervals in music -- they went on offering me the same charm in inexhaustible profusion, but without letting me delve any more deeply, like those melodies which one can play a hundred times in succession without coming any nearer to their secret.

Marcel Proust (1871-1922): from Swann’s Way (1913), translated by C.K. Scott Moncrief and Terence Kilmartin, 1981

First opened in 1969, Everglades Parkway extends from Naples on the west coast of Florida to Broward County on the east. The American Automobile Association nicknamed it “Alligator Alley” because of the large number of alligators in the waterways on either side of the road, which the AAA believed would render it useless to cars.: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

An elderly Sri Lankan woman and a girl are shifted on a mattress at a flooded area in Colombo: photo by Eranga Jayawardena / AP, 18 May 2016

Patrick Pendville, owner of Animatrans, poses with a stuffed dog at a taxidermist's workshop in Aalst, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 29 April 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 19, 2016

Fans scuffle prior to the Europa League Final in Basel, Switzerland: photo by Lars Baron, 19 May 2016

A man sitting atop a container uses his mobile deviced at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 10, 2016. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

A man sitting atop a container uses his mobile device at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

A plastic gallon jug sits on a table at the Swamp Buggy Races: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2015

Rescue workersrecovered the bodies of 16 villagers buried in landslides in Sri Lanka after three days of torrential rains: photo by Ishara S Kodikara / AFP, 18 May 2016

TOPSHOT - French riot police officers stand guard after receiving some paint on their uniform, during a demonstration to protest against the government's labour reform on May 19, 2016 in Bordeaux. France was disrupted by a third straight day of strikes and demonstrations on May 19 as the prime minister called for protesters who torched a police car to face "harsh" punishment. The labour reforms have sparked two months of protests on France's streets, drawing 68,000 nationwide on Tuesday, police said, while organisers put the turnout at 220,000

French riot police officers stand guard after receiving some paint on their uniform, during a demonstration to protest against the government’s labour reform today in Bordeaux. France was disrupted by a third straight day of strikes and demonstrations as the prime minister called for protesters who torched a police car to face “harsh” punishment. The labour reforms have sparked two months of protests on France’s streets, drawing 68,000 nationwide on Tuesday, police said, while organisers put the turnout at 220,000.: photo by George Gobet/AFP, 19 May 2016

Bonnie Walsh began her racing career in 1976 when the Mile O’ Mud was located off of Radio Road and competed in unofficial “powder puff” races for female drivers. In 2005, Bonnie became the first woman swamp buggy driver to claim the Budweiser Cup Championship.: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Paolo Presti reacts next to the body of his dog Bianca, a Canadian shepherd, at the Samsara Eternity crematory for animals in Soignies, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 12 April 2016

A woman holds a baby after clashes between migrants happened at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Relatives of missing EgyptAir flight MS804 passengers react at the airliner’s centre at Cairo Airport: photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters, 19 May 2016

A swamp buggy race fan shows off her gun tattoo: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Cathy Vertongen, a taxidermist, works on a dead parrot at her workshop in Aalst, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 29 April 2016

A boy plays at a train station at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 10, 2016. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

A boy plays at a train station at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Chair of the Board of Governors of the F...Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Janet L. Yellen (L) chats with US Secretary of the Treasury Jacob J. Lew (C) during a welcome reception hosted by the City of Sendai on May 19, 2016. The group -- including US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi -- will converge at a hot spring town north of Tokyo where two days of meetings kick off from May 20. / AFP PHOTO / KAZUHIRO NOGIKAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images

Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Janet L. Yellen chats with US Secretary of the Treasury Jacob J. Lew during a welcome reception hosted by the City of Sendai, Japan: photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP, 19 May 2016

A woman holds her child at a train station at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Swamp buggy race fans pile into “Lumpy,” a custom built platform on the back of a truck at the Florida Sports Park: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Members of Sri Lankan military rescue team work at the site of a landslide at Elangipitiya village in Aranayaka: photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte / Reuters, 19 May 2016

Two young boys wrestle in the mud alongside the track during the Swamp Buggy Races: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Greenpeace protesters climb the British Museum in London, in protest against BP's sponsorship of the museum's Sunken Cities exhibition. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday May 19, 2016. See PA story ENVIRONMENT Protest. Photo credit should read: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

Greenpeace protesters climb the British Museum in London, in protest against BP’s sponsorship of the museum’s Sunken Cities exhibition: photo by Anthony Devlin/PA, 19 May 2016

Sri Lankan residents wade through floodwaters: photo by Ishara S Kodikara / AFP, 18 May 2016

A man jumps from a container at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 10, 2016. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

A man jumps from a container at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Cathy Vertongen works on a dead dog at her workshop in Aalst: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 29 April 2016

A man dresses a statue figure on the monument dedicated to Kiev city founders, in the national Ukrainian costume called Vyshyvanka, on the Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine. Ukrainians mark Vyshyvanka Day, named in honour of the Slavic traditional clothing Vyshyvanka: photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP, 19 May 2016

Lauren Bohnen and Patrick Silva are seen intertwined in front of “Kamp Feltersnatch” at the Florida Sports Park during the Swamp Buggy Races. “I enjoy swamp buggy races because it's like having a whole weekend with extended family to relax, throw back some beers, and watch some good ol' racing!” Lauren Bohnen said. “There were many beers involved so I don't remember the particular day.”: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

The stuffed body of a Yorkshire, named Doudou, at its owner Monique Kroonen-Dupont's home in Genval, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 29 April 2016

Children play as a man prays at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 10, 2016. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

Children play as a man prays at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

A general view of a Neapolitan pizza made to break the world record for the longest pizza ever made, by making a two kilometers margherita

A general view of a Neapolitan pizza made to break the world record for the longest pizza ever made, by making it a two kilometres margherita (16 inch wide) pizza stretching along the city waterfront, in Naples: photo by Circo Fusco/EPA, 19 May 2016

Pizza makers attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest pizza along the seafront of Naples. For the wood-fired pizza, which measured two kilometres, they used 2,000 kg of flour, 1,600 kg of tomatoes, 2,000 kg of mozzarella, 200 litres of oil, 30kg of fresh basil.: photo by Mario Laporta / AFP, 19 May 2016

Large turkey drums are placed in a metal container for sale at the Swamp Buggy Races: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Chancellor Angela Merkel tests a robotic arm standing next to KUKA CEO Till Reuter while visiting the KUKA Industrial Robotics factory in Augsburg, Germany: photo by Joerg Koch, 13 March 2015

Myriam Waeles poses with her stuffed duck, a mallard named Arthur, at her home in Lennik, Belgium. "Arthur was a special duck... He was always waiting for me at the door when I came home, walking next to me in the living room," Waeles said. "Having Arthur, stuffed next to me, comforts me.": photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 29 April 2016

People stand by a damaged car at a train station at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Two boys with Confederate Flag-inspired hats pierced with fishing hooks pose for a photo while seated on a tail gate: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Graves of pets in a cemetery for animals in Aywaille, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 8 April 2016

Supporters of Trinamool Congress (TMC) celebrate after learning the initial poll results of the West Bengal Assembly elections, in Kolkata, India: photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters, 19 May 2016

A girl holds an umbrella at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 10, 2016. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

A girl holds an umbrella at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Cathy Vertongen, a taxidermist, works on a dead parrot at her workshop in Aalst, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 29 April 2016

Indian Trinamool Congress (TMC) party supporters celebrate an early lead as vote counting continues following the West Bengal state assembly elections in Kolkata. Vote-counting is takaing place following state assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry. The makeup of India’s next government could lie in the hands of a trio of women who command a massive following in their regional heartlands, including a populist former movie star known as “Mother” to supporters.: photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP, 19 May 2016

Cast member Lea Seydoux poses during a photocall for the film "Juste la fin du monde" (It's Only the End of the World) in competition at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 19, 2016.

Cast member Lea Seydoux poses during a photocall for the film “Juste la fin du monde” (It’s Only the End of the World) directed by Xavier Dolan in competition at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France today.: photo by Regis Duvignau/Reuters, 19 May 2016

Sri Lankan flood victims flock around a bus to receive food parcels: photo by Eranga Jayawardena / AP, 18 May 2016

Cathy Vertongen works on a dead dog at her workshop in Aalst, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 29 April 2016

The Big Feature Winner Tyler Johns, the driver of “Patriot,” leaps into the “Sippy Hole” with Swamp Buggy Queen Christa Jo Roberts: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

HONG KONG - MAY 18: Supporters of visiting Zhang Dejiang, the chairman of China's National People's Congress, attend a rally on May 18, 2016 in Hong Kong, . (Photo by Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images)

Supporters of visiting Zhang Dejiang, the chairman of China’s National People’s Congress, attend a rally in Hong Kong: photo by Lam Yik Fei, 18 May 2016

A woman sits inside a train wagon at a train station at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Romanian actress Malina Manovici poses during the photocall for ‘Bacalaureat’ at the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival: photo by Julien Warnand / EPA, 19 May 2016

Taxidermist Cathy Vertongen works on a dead dog at her workshop in Aalst: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 29 April 2016

A woman sits by Yasmin, a twenty-day-old baby in her tent at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Spectators sit atop “Redneck Stadium,” the creation of Daniel Patrick Hoolihan IV, who defines rednecks as “people who would probably be having more fun than others.” He and his wife Dawn have been attending the races for 25 years.: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi look at a YuMi robotic arm in Hanover: photo by Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters, 13 April 2015

A swamp buggy race fan shows off her gun tattoo: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, escorted by Mamoru Mori, executive director of the museum and former astronaut, touches “Asimo,” a humanoid robot developed by Honda Motor Company, while visiting Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) in Tokyo: photo by Issei Kato / Reuters, 9 March 2015

Patrick Pendville, founder of Animatrans, shows a resin mask depicting the face of a dead dog at the Samsara Eternity crematory for animals in Soignies, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 15 April 2016

An American flag hangs from a pole mounted on the “Redneck Sky Bar,” a custom-built bar on the back of a pick-up truck: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Children play at a train station at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Britain's Queen Elizabeth smile as a robot waves during their visit at the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) in Berlin, Germany: photo by Michael Sohn / Reuters, 24 June 2015

Nicole Parton leans against a fence along the swamp buggy track at the Florida Sports Park: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Bad Luck Ext -- The grave of a dog named Belle

A model wears a hat as she presents a creation from the fashion label Bondi Bather during Australian Fashion week in Sydney, Australia, May 19, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray

A model wears a hat as she presents a creation from the fashion label Bondi Bather during Australian Fashion week in Sydney, Australia: photo by David Gray/Reuters, 19 May 2016

The grave of a dog named Belle, in a cemetery for animals in Aywaille, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 8 April 2016

Leonard Chesser’s orange, pro-modified two-wheel-drive “Dat’s Da One" outmuscles Tyler Johns’ V-8 super stock "Patriot" and the modified four-wheel drive buggy "Dat’s It," driven by Leonard’s 21-year-old daughter Amy: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Liverpool’s English midfielder and captain James Milner (L) falls next to Sevilla’s Argentinian midfielder Ever Banega during the Europa League final in Basel, Switzerland: photo by Fabrice Coffrini / AFP, 19 May 2016

The body of Chico, a Chihuahua, lies in a decorated basket at the Samsara Eternity crematory for animals in Soignies, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 12 April 2016

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (left) meets former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg at City Hall in London today, as the billionaire has warned Brexit would damage Britain’s economy: photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA, 19 May 2016

A custom-made sign at a campsite at the Florida Sports Park during the Swamp Buggy Races: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Chantal Bauchez poses with her stuffed Barbary macaque, named Moukys, at her home in Rebecq, Belgium: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 29 April 2016

A Sri Lankan woman wades through floodwaters inside her home in Kelaniya suburb of the capital Colombo: photo by Ishara S Kodikara / AFP, 18 May 2016

Patrick Pendville, founder of Animatrans, adjusts coffins made for animals at his shop in Brussels: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 15 April 2016

People walk past tents at a train station at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

The Mile O' Mud track at the Florida Sports Park as it appears off-season: photo by Malcolm Lightner via The Atlantic, 15 May 2016

Taxidermist Cathy Vertongen poses with a stuffed dog at her workshop in Aalst: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 29 April 2016

Google = Death

Softbank Robotics Event As Company Allows Android App Development For Pepper

An attendant holds a Google Inc. Cardboard virtual reality headset to demonstrate SoftBank Group Corp.’s Pepper the humanoid robot at a media briefing in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday: photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg, 19 May 2016

Fear of the real

A soldier films military officers following a mass dance performance in the capital's main ceremonial square, a day after the ruling Workers' Party of Korea wrapped up its first congress in 36 years, in Pyongyang, North Korea: photo by Damir Sagolj / Reuters, 10 May 2016

Fear of the real

feels real

funny

sometimes,
other

times maybe

not

so much

any more

The preparator Stefanie Griebsch fixes the bio-inspired robot ‘Orobot’ during a press preview exhibition called ‘Orobates - After 300 million years reanimated’ in the Phyletic Museum in Jena, Germany Scientists studied the movement processes of the 297-million-year-old prehistoric lizard Orobates pabsti and displayed the results in a special presentation.: photo by Jens Meyer / AP, 15 April 2016

BILLINGSHURST, ENGLAND - MAY 11: An auction house employee attaches the leg to the skeleton of a Eohippus, during the press preview of a forthcoming sale at Summers Place Auction House on May 11, 2016 in Billingshurst, England. The piece is expected to fetch between £5,000 - £8,000 GBP when it goes up for sale. Summers Place Auction house will sell the museum collection of the Emmen Zoo, an internationally acclaimed zoo in northern Holland, at their sale on June 7th, 2016 in Billinghurst, Surrey. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

An auction house employee attaches the leg to the skeleton of an Eohippus, during the press preview of a forthcoming sale at Summers Place Auction House in Billingshurst, England: photo by Dan Kitwood, 11 May 2016

A scale model of a dinosaur and a shadow of another in front of La Sapienza University headquarters in Rome. The realistic reproductions of dinosaurs are part of the ‘Dinosaurs in the flesh, science and art bring to life the rulers of a lost world’ exhibition.: photo by Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters, 10 April 2015

St. Peter's Basilica is displayed at Tobu World Square theme park in Nikko, Japan: photo by Carl Court, 1 May 2016

Police officers climb two fire ladders to reach a man standing on the KTLA radio tower in Hollywood, California: photo by Robyn Beck / AFP, 12 May 2016

Chelsea’s Willian in action against Liverpool: photo by Carl Recine / Action Images via Reuters, 12 May 2016

Sao Paulo supporters cheer on their team during the 2016 Copa Libertadores quarter-final first leg against Atletico Mineiro: photo by Nelson Almeida / AFP, 12 May 2016

A man walks along a street as a smoke bomb is thrown during clashes between ‘No border’ activists and Italian police at the Brenner train station, during demonstrations against Austria's possible decision to close the border with Italy: photo by Giuseppe Cacace / AFP, 7 May 2016

People carry an injured man after clashes between migrants happened at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

People carry an injured man after clashes between migrants happened at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

A Greek policewoman stands in a field after clashes between migrants happened at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

A boy climbs a tent at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 10, 2016. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

A boy climbs a tent at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters, 10 May 2016

↧

Wallace Stevens: The Poem as Icon

May 21, 2016, 1:11 am

≫ Next: Wallace Stevens: The World As Meditation

≪ Previous: "But it was in vain that I lingered beside the hawthorns"

UNCERTAIN OUTLOOK: In the English town of Hastings, like many other places in Britain, residents have mixed views on whether to remain in the European Union or not. Above, some people on the Hastings pier look towards the French coast, which is closer to the town than London, while others walk away.: photo by REUTERS/Luke McGregor/Reuters, 20 May 2016

It is not enough to cover the rock with leaves.
We must be cured of it by a cure of the ground
Or a cure of ourselves, that is equal to a cure

Of the ground, a cure beyond forgetfulness.
And yet the leaves, if they broke into bud,
If they broke into bloom, if they bore fruit,

And if we ate the incipient colorings
Of their fresh culls might be a cure of the ground.
The fiction of the leaves is the icon

Of the poem, the figuration of blessedness,
And the icon is the man. The pearled chaplet of spring,
The magnum wreath of summer, time's autumn snood,

Its copy of the sun, these cover the rock.
These leaves are the poem, the icon and the man.
These are a cure of the ground and of ourselves,

In the predicate that there is nothing else.
They bud and bloom and bear their fruit without change.
They are more than leaves that cover the barren rock.

They bud the whitest eye, the pallidest sprout,
New senses in the engenderings of sense,
The desire to be at the end of distances,

The body quickened and the mind in root.
They bloom as a man loves, as he lives in love.
They bear their fruit so that the year is known,

As if its understanding was brown skin,
The honey in its pulp, the final found,
The plenty of the year and of the world.

In this plenty, the poem makes meanings of the rock,
Of such mixed motion and such imagery
That its barrenness becomes a thousand things

And so exists no more. This is the cure
Of leaves and of the ground and of ourselves.
His words are both the icon and the man.

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955): The Poem as Icon, 1950, from The Rock (1954)

Relatives of missing EgyptAir passengers arrive at Cairo and Paris airports - in pictures

A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight 804 wipes her tears as she is comforted by unidentified people at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. Egyptian aviation officials say an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew on board has crashed.: photo by Michel Euler / AP, 19 May 2016

A relative of the victims of the EgyptAir flight 804 is escorted at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Egyptian military aircraft and navy ships were taking part in a search operation off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast to locate the debris of the plane.: photo by Michel Euler / AP, 19 May 2016

An Egyptian woman, who said her brother is among the passengers, grieves as she leaves the Egyptair in-flight service building where relatives are being held at Cairo International Airport. Officials say the search is now under way for the debris.: photo by Amr Nabil / AP, 19 May 2016

A student has her hands taped before training in a Mixed Martial Arts class at the UFC Gym in La Mirada, California: photo by Mark Ralston / AFP, 30 April 2016

South African veterinarians apply bandages and stitches to a poached de-horned rhinoceros that was left to die by poachers on a ranch in Bela Bela, some 150 kilometers north of Johannesburg: photo by Mujahid Safodien / AFP, 20 May 2016

A man passes closed shops at Hastings in southeast England May 9, 2016. To match Special Report BRITAIN-EU/UNDECIDED REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

A man passes closed shops at Hastings in southeast England: photo by Luke MacGregor/Reuters, 20 May 2016

Dead sardines blanket Tolten Beach in Temuco, Chile. The government has declared an emergency zone along Chile's southern coast as it deals with the algae bloom known as red tide, which kills fish with a toxin that paralyzes the central nervous system. Small-scale fishermen are demanding compensation.: photo by Felix Marquez / AP, 15 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 20, 2016

Members of volunteer’s battalion ‘Azov’ and their supporters from various right-wing movements burn smoke flares during a march in downtown Kiev, Ukraine. Activists demanded banning any elections on territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels until full observance of the Minsk agreements and protested against a draft law to give special status to the eastern regions locked in a conflict between the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatists.: photo by Sergey Dolzhenko / EPA, 20 May 2016

Volunteers of the Azov Civil Corps light flares during rally at the Ukrainian Parliament, Friday, May 20, 2016, against holding local elections in the occupied eastern territories of Ukraine. As part of an internationally brokered peace agreement, Ukraine must hold local elections in two eastern regions controlled by Russian-backed rebels, but there are major concerns about ensuring the vote takes place in a secure and safe atmosphere. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Volunteers of the Azov Civil Corps light flares during rally at the Ukrainian Parliament against holding local elections in the occupied eastern territories of Ukraine. As part of an internationally brokered peace agreement, Ukraine must hold local elections in two eastern regions controlled by Russian-backed rebels, but there are major concerns about ensuring the vote takes place in a secure and safe atmosphere: photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP, 20 May 2016

Finnish driver Jari Matti Latvala and co-driver Miikka Anttila, also from Finland, steer their Volkswagen Polo R WRC near Caminha, during the second stage of the Portuguese WCR rally: photo by Francisco Leong / AFP, 20 May 2016

Rescue workers inspect a sports centre after its roof collapsed at the City University in Hong Kong. The roof collapsed on May 20, injuring three people and sparking panic among eyewitnesses who said it sounded like an explosion.: photo by Dale De La Rey / AFP, 20 May 2016

South Korean policemen take part in an anti-terror and security drill at a mall in Seoul, South Korea, May 20, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

South Korean policemen take part in an anti-terror and security drill at a mall in Seoul, South Korea: photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters, 20 March 2016

South Korean rescue team members wearing chemical protective suits walk past a monster character during an anti-terror drill as part of a disaster management exercise at the COEX shopping and exhibition centre in Seoul. South Korea is holding its 2016 Safe Korea anti-disaster exercise this week against terrorist threats and natural disasters.: photo by Jung Yeon-Je / AFP, 20 May 2016

Relatives and friends of Salah Abu Laban, Sahar Qouidar, Ghassan Abu Laban and Reem al-Sebaei, all victims of EgyptAir flight 804, grieve following prayers for the dead, at al Thawrah Mosque in Cairo, Egypt. The plane crashed after disappearing from radar early Thursday morning while carrying 66 passengers and crew from Paris to Cairo.: photo by Amr Nabil / AP, 20 May 2016

Cuban actress Ana De Armas sits on the lap of Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez among photographers during a photo-call for the film Hands of Stone at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France: photo by Loic Venance / AFP, 16 May 2016

A Sri Lankan man uses an inflatable tube to move through a flood-affected area in Wellampitiya, outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Hundreds of boats plied deep floodwaters that have inundated thousands of homes in the Sri Lankan capital, delivering aid and rescuing the elderly and sick from rooftops as forecasters warned of more heavy rain.: photo by Eranga Jayawardena / AP, 20 May 2016

The scene after a massive landslide in Kegalle District, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Massive landslides triggered by torrential rains crashed down onto three villages in the central hills of Sri Lanka, and more than 200 families were missing Wednesday and feared to be buried under the mud and debris, the Sri Lankan Red Cross said.: photo by Eranga Jayawardena / AP, 18 May 2016

Kenyan policemen beat a protester during clashes in Nairobi, Kenya. Opposition protesters were calling for election officials to step down before upcoming votes.: photo by Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

A postman wears a mask during an awards ceremony for assisting police in drug-deal detection, in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China: photo by Reuters, 18 May 2016

A toddler tied to a rock in Ahmedabad, India. Barrier tape is tied around 15-month-old Shivani's ankle to prevent her from running away, while her mother Sarta Kalara works at a construction site nearby. Kalara says she has no option but to tether her daughter Shivani to a stone despite her crying, while she and her husband work for 250 rupees (USD $3.80) each per shift, digging holes for electricity cables in the city of Ahmedabad. There are about 40 million construction workers in India, at least one in five of them women, and the majority are poor migrants who shift from site to site, building infrastructure for India's booming cities. Across the country it is not uncommon to see young children rolling in the sand and mud as their parents carry bricks, or dig for new roads or luxury houses.: photo by Amit Dave / Reuters, 19 April 2016

Children cool themselves during a hot summer day in Jammu, India. The prolonged heat wave this year has already killed hundreds and destroyed crops in more than 13 states, impacting hundreds of millions of Indians.: photo by Channi Anand / AP, 20 May 2016

Athletics - IAAF Ostrava Golden Spike athletics meeting - Ostrava, Czech Republic - 20/05/16 Jamaica's Usain Bolt, Barbados' Ramos Gittens and Lesotho's Mosito Lehata compete in the men's 100m race. REUTERS/David W Cerny

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, Barbados’ Ramos Gittens and Lesotho’s Mosito Lehata compete in the men’s 100m race at the IAAF Ostrava Golden Spike athletics meeting, Ostrava, Czech Republic: photo by David W Cerny/Reuters, 20 May 2016

Opposition supporters affected by tear gas try to leave on a motorcycle. The supporters clashed with riot policemen during a rally demanding a referendum to remove Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela.: photo by Marco Bello / Reuters, 18 May 2016

A boy illuminates his home with candlelight during a 24-hour blackout, in the El Calvario neighborhood of El Hatillo, just outside of Caracas, Venezuela: photo by Fernando Llano / AP, 20 May 2016

Relatives of missing EgyptAir passengers arrive at Cairo and Paris airports - in pictures

Airport security staff stand near the EgyptAir counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said it was too early to say whether a technical problem or a terror attack caused the plane to crash.: photo by Raphael Satter/AP, 19 May 2016

Devotees pull the chariot of Rato Machhindranath during the chariot festival in Lalitpur, Nepal. Rato Machhindranath is known as the god of rain, and both Hindus and Buddhists worship Machhindranath for good rain to prevent drought during the rice harvest season.: photo by Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters, 17 May 2016

↧

Wallace Stevens: The World As Meditation

May 22, 2016, 1:25 am

≫ Next: Lets have ice cream at the junkyard / Wallace Stevens: Madame La Fleurie

≪ Previous: Wallace Stevens: The Poem as Icon

In the Room: Edouard Vuillard, 1899, oil on cardboard, 52 x 79 cm (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg)

Is it Ulysses that approaches from the east,
The interminable adventurer? The trees are mended.
That winter is washed away. Someone is moving

On the horizon and lifting himself up above it.
A form of fire approaches the cretonnes of Penelope,
Whose mere savage presence awakens the world in which she dwells.

She has composed, so long, a self with which to welcome him,
Companion to his self for her, which she imagined,
Two in a deep-founded sheltering, friend and dear friend.

The trees had been mended, as an essential exercise
In an inhuman meditation, larger than her own.
No winds like dogs watched over her at night.

She wanted nothing he could not bring her by coming alone.
She wanted no fetchings. His arms would be her necklace
And her belt, the final fortune of their desire.

But was it Ulysses? Or was it only the warmth of the sun
On her pillow? The thought kept beating in her like her heart.
The two kept beating together. It was only day.

It was Ulysses and it was not. Yet they had met,
Friend and dear friend and a planet's encouragement.
The barbarous strength within her would never fail.

She would talk a little to herself as she combed her hair,
Repeating his name with its patient syllables,
Never forgetting him that kept coming constantly so near.

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955): The World As Meditation, 1952, from The Rock (1954)

The Piano: Edouard Vuillard, 1896, glue-based paint on canvas, 213 x 154 cm (Musée du Petit Palais, Paris)

Seated Female Nude: Georges Seurat, 1886-87, oil on panel, 25 x 16 cm (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

Woman in Bath: Edgar Degas, 1883, pastel, 31 x 28 cm (Private collection)

Model from Behind: Georges Seurat, 1886-87, oil on panel, 25 x 16 cm (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

Interior (The Rape): Edgar Degas, 1868-69, oil on canvas, 81 x 114 cm (Museum of Art, Philadelphia)

In Bed: Edouard Vuillard, 1891, oil on canvas, 73 x 93 cm (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

↧

Lets have ice cream at the junkyard / Wallace Stevens: Madame La Fleurie

May 23, 2016, 12:29 am

≫ Next: Wallace Stevens: Questions Are Remarks (“Mother, my mother, who are you”)

≪ Previous: Wallace Stevens: The World As Meditation

The axe murderer next door | by michaelj1998

The axe murderer next door [Shooting Newton District, Los Angeles, California]: photo by michaelj1998, 13 May 2016

Lets have ice cream at the junkyard

Lets go for a ride on one of those ponies

Lets go look at the house where the axe murderer lived

Lets just stand in the doorway and like not go in that room

Lets sneak up back of Home Depot and see if there's any free stuff

Lets go for a ride on another one of those ponies

Summers like my favorite time of year

pick your poison [Los Angeles, California]: photo by michaelj1998, 11 May 2016

The axe murderer next door [Shooting Newton District, Los Angeles, California]: photo by michaelj1998, 13 May 2016

Front Porch [Lake Harbor, Florida]: photo by Mary, 5 December 2015

Plus 8 Acres [Lake Harbor, Florida]. 2 beds/2 baths + 8 acres. Appraised value $35,000. And it's been for sale for years.: photo by Mary, 7 December 2015

Blowing in the Wind [Lake Harbor, Florida]: photo by Mary, 8 December 2015

Dollhouse [Emeryville, California]: photo by efo, 2016

Portland: photo by Austin Granger, 27 April 2016

Sentinels. Black vultures stand guard over the Moore Haven Lock and Dam, a water control structure for the Herbert Hoover Dike.: photo by Mary, 24November 2015

Dirty Work.Abandoned migrant worker dormitory. [Moore Haven, Florida]"Whether they wash their clothes on any given day has to do with how tired they are when they return from the fields. If they haven't got the energy to wash them they hang their clothes anyway on the line to dry. This disheartens the camp generally because of the smell and because it causes cutters to live constantly among the dirt of the fields. It gets into their beds and their hair and their stores of food." -- Alec Wilkinson: BIG SUGAR -- Seasons in the Cane Fields of Florida: photo by Mary, 3January 2016

Caneworker Dormitory. [Moore Haven, Florida]"The cutters live in camps maintained by the growers... Some are surrounded by chain-link fences, a number have checkpoints and are off limits to outsiders." -- Alec Wilkinson: BIG SUGAR -- Seasons in the Cane Fields of Florida: photo by Mary, 3November 2015

Layers Upon Layers[Moore Haven, Florida]: photo by Mary, 24January 2016

Broken Dreams. Abandoned migrant worker dormitory. [Moore Haven, Florida]"... more than one in every three cuts himself or is cut by someone who has lost control of his knife, or wrenches his back, or suffers an attack of some kind in the heat, or steps in a rabbit hole and turns an ankle, or is bitten by fire ants, or pierces his eye or his eardrum with a sharp leaf while bending over and grabbing a stalk..." -- Alec Wilkinson: BIG SUGAR -- Seasons in the Cane Fields of Florida: photo by Mary, 4January 2016

Lets have ice cream at the junkyard | by michaelj1998

Lets have ice cream at the junkyard [Los Angeles, California]: photo by michaelj1998, 13 May 2016

pick your poison [Los Angeles, California]: photo by michaelj1998, 11 May 2016

The axe murderer next door [Shooting Newton District, Los Angeles, California]: photo by michaelj1998, 13 May 2016

Wallace Stevens: Madame La Fleurie

Tokyo Aquarium [Los Angeles, California]: photo by michaelj1998, 20 May 2016

Illustrated Wallace Stevens: Madame la Fleurie: James Romberger via The Hooded Utilitarian, 28 July 2011

Weight him down, O side-stars, with the great weightings of the end.

Seal him there. He looked in a glass of the earth and thought he lived in it.

Now, he brings all that he saw into the earth, to the waiting parent.

His crisp knowledge is devoured by her, beneath a dew.

Weight him, weight, weight him with the sleepiness of the moon.

It was only a glass because he looked in it. It was nothing he could be told.

It was a language he spoke, because he must, yet did not know.

It was a page he had found in the handbook of heartbreak.

The black fugatos are strumming the blacknesses of black . . .

The thick strings stutter the finial gutturals.

He does not lie there remembering the blue-jay, say the jay.

His grief is that his mother should feed on him, himself and what he saw,

In that distant chamber, a bearded queen, wicked in her dead light.

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955): Madame La Fleurie, 1951, from The Rock (1954)

#Newark #NJ #black #blurry #grainy #streetphotography | by StrangeGoodness

[Untitled, Newark]: photo by J Perez, 29 December 2015

2015-12-12_02-41-10 | by StrangeGoodness

[Untitled, Newark]: photo by J Perez, 24 November 2015

Mickey Mouse wants revenge | by blazedelacroix

Mickey Mouse wants revenge [Sweden]: photo by Blaise De la Croix, 1 May 2016

[Graffiti, San Francisco]: photo by Catherine Sparacino, 27 December 2016

[Untitled, Outer Sunset, San Francisco]: photo by Catherine Sparacino, 7 December 2015

Out for an early evening read | by philipgreene

Out for an early morning read [Guilford, Connecticut]: photo by Philip Greene, 18 May 2016

This_Love: photo by dea Max, 19 May 2016

Cohen Furniture, Peoria Warehouse District | by silverygelatin

Cohen Furniture, Peoria Warehouse District [Peoria, Illinois]: photo by Brian Rowe, 10 March 2015

Cohen Furniture, Peoria Warehouse District | by silverygelatin

Cohen Furniture, Peoria Warehouse District [Peoria, Illinois]: photo by Brian Rowe, 10 March 2015

Closed for Business [Peoria, Illinois]: photo by Brian Rowe, 16 February 2016

Peoria Graffiti [Peoria, Illinois]: photo by Brian Rowe, 23 March 2016

Secure privacy [Richmond, California]: photo by efo, 17 April 2016

If you can't afford cable | by michaelj1998

If you can't afford cable [Los Angeles, California]: photo by michaelj1998, 13 May 2016

Pauls [Los Angeles, California]: photo by michaelj1998, 11 May 2016

Mt. View Tea Room [Tyro, Virginia]: photo by efo, 21 May 2016

↧

Wallace Stevens: Questions Are Remarks (“Mother, my mother, who are you”)

May 24, 2016, 12:39 am

≫ Next: Stevie Smith: "I am a Child of this World" / The rout of the wandering infidel at Idomeni

≪ Previous: Lets have ice cream at the junkyard / Wallace Stevens: Madame La Fleurie

A boy wears women's shoes as he balances with donated tea on a beam placed in the mud at the northern Greek border station of Idomeni. Bad weather returned after a brief pause and conditions in the refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian where about 14,000 people are stranded have further deteriorated, many of its residents struggling struggling to cope with the many challenges posed by the heavy rain.: photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP, 14 March 2016

In the weed of summer comes the green sprout why.
The sun aches and ails and then returns halloo
Upon the horizon amid adult enfantillages.

Its fire fails to pierce the vision that beholds it,
Fails to destroy the antique acceptances,
Except that the grandson sees it as it is,

Peter the voyant, who says, “Mother, what is that” --
The object that rises with so much rhetoric,
But not for him. His question is complete.

It is the question of what he is capable.
It is the extreme, the expert aetat. 2.
He will never ride the red horse she describes.

His question is complete because it contains
His utmost statement. It is his own array,
His own pageant and procession and display,

As far as nothingness permit . . . Hear him.
He does not say, “Mother, my mother, who are you,”
The way the drowsy, infant, old men do.

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955): Questions Are Remarks,1949, from The Auroras of Autumn, 1950

World in focus — best photos for May 23, 2016

A refugee woman hangs clothes to dry at the sun after heavy rainfall at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece: photo by Kostas Tsironis / Reuters, 23 May 2016

Somali migrant Ijaawa Mohamed, 41, sits on a chair outside a room in the women’s section of the former prison of De Koepel: photo by Muhammed Muheisen / AP, 26 April 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 22, 2016

A young Sri Lankan flood victim looks on at a roadside camp in Kelaniya, on the outskirts of Colombo. Sri Lankan soldiers pulled more bodies from landslides and distributed food and water to hundreds of thousands of residents camped in shelters after major floods hit the island.: photo by Ishara S Kodikara / AFP, 22 May 2016

A boy rides a tricycle in between semi demolished houses in Guangfuli neighborhood, in Shanghai, China: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 28 March 2016

Iraqi refugee Fatima Hussein, 65, and others wait in a bus heading to a government interview for their asylum-seeking process outside the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem: photo by Muhammed Muheisen / AP, 6 May 2016

A woman smokes as she starts her electric bike at Guangfuli neighborhood in Shanghai, China: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 28 March 2016

A Dutch volunteer teaches an Afghan refugee woman how to ride a bicycle in a yard in the former De Koepel prison: Muhammed Muheisen / AP, 2 May 2016

TOPSHOT - A man leads school children away from teargas and a burning barricade in Kibera slum, Nairobi on May 23, 2016 during a demonstration of opposition supporters demanding a change of leadership at the electoral commission ahead of a vote due next year. Local media reported at least one killed in Kisumu in the west of the country, while police in Nairobi and the second city of Mombasa fought running battles with small groups of protesters. There was no immediate police confirmation of the reported death. Police had banned the planned demonstrations and scores of officers in riot gear guarded the building that houses the election commission headquarters in the centre of the capital. / AFP PHOTO / CARL DE SOUZACARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images

A man leads school children away from teargas and a burning barricade in Kibera slum, Nairobi during a demonstration of opposition supporters demanding a change of leadership at the electoral commission ahead of a vote due in 2017: photo by Carl De Souza/AFP, 23 May 2016

A migrant plays with a girl at the former prison of Westlingen in Heerhugowaard, northwestern Netherlands: photo by Muhammed Muheisen / AP, 8 April 2016

A camera screen shows German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere as he addresses a press conference after releasing the crime statistics in Germany for 2015, in Berlin: photo by John Macdougall/AFP, 23 May 2016

Syrian refugee Alaa Mohammed, 35, watches television in his room at the former prison of De Koepel: photo by Muhammed Muheisen / AP, 29 April 2016

A man sits in an alley in Guangfuli neighborhood: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 24 March 2016

A migrant sits outside her room while another runs in the corridor of the women's section of the former prison of De Koepel: photo by Muhammad Muheisen/AP, 26 April 2016

A Pakistani woman reads the Quran beside a relative’s grave in a cemetery in Karachi, to mark Shab-e-Barat. Muslims across the world consider Shab-e-Barat as one of the three most sacred nights, the night of fortune and forgiveness: photo by Rizwan Tabassum / AFP, 23 May 2016

Iraqi refugee Fatima Hussein, 65, prays inside her room in the former De Koepel prison: photo byMuhammed Muheisen / AP, 20 April 2016

Woman surnamed Xu watches TV at her eight-square-meter house where she lives with her husband at Guangfuli neighborhood. Residents experience extreme temperatures in their homes since many lack windows with glass and the walls are perforated with holes.: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 8 April 2016

↧

Stevie Smith: "I am a Child of this World" / The rout of the wandering infidel at Idomeni

May 25, 2016, 2:58 am

≫ Next: Some May Escape By Night: Stevie Smith: To Carry the Child / Wallace Stevens: The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain

≪ Previous: Wallace Stevens: Questions Are Remarks (“Mother, my mother, who are you”)

TOPSHOT - A boy sits on a bus as he waits to be transferred to a reception centre during an evacuation operation by Greek police forces of the makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni, on May 24, 2016. In an operation which began shortly after sunrise on May 24, hundreds of Greek police began evacuating the sprawling camp which is currently home to 8,400 refugees and migrants, among them many families with children, an AFP correspondent said. At its height, there were more than 12,000 people crammed into the site, many of them fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East and Asia, with the camp exploding in size since Balkan states began closing their borders in mid February in a bid to stem the human tide seeking passage to northern Europe

A boy sits on a bus as he waits to be transferred to a reception centre during an evacuation operation by Greek police forces of the makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni, today: photo by Yannis Kolesidis/AFP, 24 May 2016

Stevie Smith: Bog-Face: "I am a Child of this World"

Cranberry (vaccinium oxycoccos) in a bog, coastal Washington: photo by Keith Weller (Agricultural Research Service / U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)

Dear Little Bog-Face,
Why are you so cold?
And why do you lie with your eyes shut? --
You are not very old.

I am a Child of this World,
And a Child of Grace,
And Mother, I shall be glad when it is over,
I am Bog-Face.

Virgin boreal acid bogs at Brown's Lake Bog, Wayne County, Ohio: photo by U.S. National Park Service, 2004

World Chronicle Charlemagne: German Miniaturist, c. 1300, manuscript (Ms. 302 Vad.), 305 x 210 mm (Kantonsbinliothek Vadiana, St. Gall)

Sébastien Mamerot: The Campaigns of the French against the Turks: French Miniaturist, 1474-75, manuscript (Ms. français 5594), 320 x 230 mm (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)

Florence Margaret "Stevie" Smith (1902-1971): Bog-Face, from Mother, What Is Man? (1950)

The rout of the wandering infidel at Idomeni

Greek authorities began an operation at dawn on Tuesday to gradually clear the country’s largest informal refugee camp at Idomeni on the Macedonian border, blocking access to the area and sending in more than 400 riot police.: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 24 May 2016

Final daybreak in #Idomeni Police forces arrived at 6 AM, evac started an hour after, as camp was still fast asleep: image via Giorgos Christides @gchristides, 24 May 2016

Greek police move to shut down Idomeni refugee camp

Tent housing at makeshift refugee camp, Idomeni, Greece near the Macedonian border: photo by Al Jazeera, 24 May 2016

Greek authorities began evacuating the camp at Idomeni near the Macedonian border: photo by Dimitris Sideridis/Al Jazeera, 24 May 2016

Greek authorities have begun an operation to clear the country's largest informal refugee camp in Idomeni on the Macedonian border, blocking access to the area and sending in more than 700 riot police: photo by Al Jazeera, 24 May 2016

Idomeni camp was home to at least 8,400 people, including hundreds of children: photo by Dimitris Sideridis/Al Jazeera, 24 May 2016

Refugees and migrants are transferred on a bus to government camps from Idomeni: photo by Dimitris Sideridis/Al Jazeera, 24 May 2016

The rout of the infidel at Idomeni

Remember that the 1000s at #Idomeni are real people with stories, beautiful faces and names. This is Mohammed and Ahmed.: image via MSF Sea Verified account @MSF_Sea, 24 May 2016

Food has been blocked to #Idomeni. Bulldozers are taking down tents. Refugees scared and tired. #RefugeesWelcome: image via Paul Carr @aid_act, 24 May 2016

First 4 buses started coming out of #Idomeni #refugeesGR @d_tosidis @dwnews: image via Marianna Karakulaki @Faloulah, 24 May 2016

Irony: most buses who have been transporting refugees out of #Idomeni are from a company called Crazy Holidays.: image via Carol Moreno Verified account @anarina, 24 May 2016 Kentriki Makedonia, Greece

Looking back at Idomeni migrant camp Photo via @ReutersUK: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 24 May 2016

Greece starts evacuating squalid Idomeni migrant camp: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 24 May 2016

A boy carries his belongings during a forced clearing of a migrants' makeshift camp on the Greek-Macedonia border: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 24 May 2016

Greece begins to clear Idomeni refugee camp - in pictures

A migrant carries his belongings during a clearing operation by Greek police forces of a makeshift refugee camp near the village of Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonian border: photo by Yannis Kolesidis / AFP, 24 May 2015

Police stand next to an armoured vehicle parked on a railway line. The government’s spokesman for the refugee crisis, Giorgos Kyritsis, said Monday that police would not use force, and that the operation was expected to last about a week to 10 days.: photo by Ognen Teofilovski / Reuters, 24 May 2016

The camp, which sprung up at an informal pedestrian border crossing for refugees and migrants heading north to Europe, is home to an estimated 8,400 people -- including hundreds of children -- mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.: photo by Yannis Kolesidis / Reuters, 24 May 2016

At its peak, when Macedonia shut its border in March, it housed more than 14,000, but the numbers have declined as people realised the border was shut and began accepting authorities’ offers of alternative places to stay: photo by Yannis Kolesidis / AFP, 24 May 2016

A refugee boy on a wheelchair passes in front of riot police. In Idomeni, most have been living in small camping tents pitched in fields and along railway tracks, while aid agencies have set up large marquee-style tents to help house people.: photo by Yannis Kolesidis / Reuters, 4 May 2016

In recent weeks, the camp had begun taking on an image of permanence, with refugees setting up small makeshift shops selling everything from cooking utensils to falafel and bread: photo by Yannis Kolesidis / Reuters, 24 May 2016

Twenty buses carrying various riot police units were seen heading to the area while a police helicopter observed from above. An estimated 700 police were participating in the operation.: photo by Robert Atanasovski / AFP, 24 May 2016

The Greek government has been trying to persuade people staying in Idomeni to leave the area and head to organised camps. This week it said its campaign of voluntary evacuations was already working, with police reporting that eight buses carrying about 400 people left Idomeni on Sunday.: photo by Yannis Kolesidis / AFP, 24 May 2016

BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM - MAY 24: A woman passes a mural that has been painted on a derelict building in Stokes Croft showing US presidential hopeful Donald Trump sharing a kiss with former London Mayor Boris Johnson on May 24, 2016 in Bristol, England. Boris Johnson is currently one of the biggest names leading the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union in the referendum which takes place on June 23 and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has also backed a so-called Brexit. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

A woman passes a mural that has been painted on a derelict building in Stokes Croft showing US presidential hopeful Donald Trump sharing a kiss with former London Mayor Boris Johnson, Bristol, England: photo by Matt Cardy, 24 May 2016

US President Barack Obama waves as he disembarks from Air Force One at the Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City on May 24, 2016. Obama told communist Vietnam that basic human rights would not jeopardise its stability, in an impassioned appeal for the one-party state to abandon authoritarianism. / AFP PHOTO / CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULTCHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP/Getty Images

US President Barack Obama waves as he disembarks from Air Force One at the Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City today: photo by Christophe Archambault/AFP, 24 May 2016

A Shi'ite fighter stands next to a religious flag near Falluja, Iraq, May 24, 2016. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

A Shia fighter stands next to a religious flag near Fallujah, Iraq: photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters, 24 May 2016

As Greece begins to relocate migrants from Idomeni, we look back at scenes from the squalid camp on the Macedonia border: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 24 May 2016

Covered in blankets, refugees stand in line in front of an temporary refugee camp at the Greek-Macedonian border while the dawn already begins: Photo by Mohammad, a refugee who left Syria when faced with conscription for military service: image via Kevin McElhaney/Project #RefugeeCameras, 2016

Assad planes bombed residential buildings in the city of Aleppo: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 21 May 2016

Tree of life amid the rubble #Aleppo Photo: Baraa Al Halabi: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 22 May 2016

↧

Some May Escape By Night: Stevie Smith: To Carry the Child / Wallace Stevens: The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain

May 26, 2016, 1:13 am

≫ Next: In Trumplandia: A Mask of Power (Joseph Ceravolo: What chemicals have we forgotten?)

≪ Previous: Stevie Smith: "I am a Child of this World" / The rout of the wandering infidel at Idomeni

A group of teenage migrants heading to England hide from the police in high grass near #Calais By @maryaturner: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 14 May 2016

A handout picture released by the Italian Navy shows people jumping out of a boat right before it overturns in Canal of Sicily off the Libyan coast, 25 May 2016. The Italian navy says it has recovered five bodies from the overturned migrant ship.

Migrant boat with over 500 on board overturns and capsizes off the coast of Libya: photo by Italian Navy/EPA, 25 May 2016

The stories unaccompanied minors tell us of #Libya bring tears to our eyes and vomit to our throats: image via MSF Sea Verified account @MSF_Sea, 17 May 2016

Stevie Smith: To Carry the Child

A Syrian refugee kisses his daughter as he carries her through a rainstorm towards Greece's border with Macedonia, near the Greek village of Idomeni: photo by Yannis Behrakis / Reuters, 10 September 2015

To carry the child into adult life
Is good? I say it is not,
To carry the child into adult life
Is to be handicapped.

The child in adult life is defenceless
And if he is grown-up, knows it,
And the grown-up looks at the childish part
And despises it.

The child, too, despises the clever grown-up,
The man-of-the-world, the frozen,
For the child has the tears alive on his cheek
And the man has none of them.

As the child has colours, and the man sees no
Colours or anything,
Being easy only in things of the mind,
The child is easy in feeling.

Easy in feeling, easily excessive
And in excess powerful,
For instance, if you do not speak to the child
He will make trouble.

You would say a man had the upper hand
Of the child, if a child survive,
I say the child has fingers of strength
To strangle the man alive.

Oh it is not happy, it is never happy,
To carry the child into adulthood,
Let children lie down before full growth
And die in their infanthood
And be guilty of no man's blood.

But oh the poor child, the poor child, what can he do,
Trapped in a grown-up carapace,
But peer outside of his prison room
With the eye of an anarchist?

Florence Margaret "Stevie" Smith (1902-1971): To Carry the Child, from The Best Beast, 1969

Wallace Stevens: The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain

Freddy Nock of Switzerland walks on a tightrope during a competition in Wulong County, Chongqing, China: photo by Reuters, 30 March 2016

There it was, word for word,

The poem that took the place of a mountain.

He breathed its oxygen,

Even when the book lay turned in the dust of his table.

It reminded him how he had needed

A place to go to in his own direction,

How he had recomposed the pines,

Shifted the rocks and picked his way among clouds,

For the outlook that would be right,

Where he would be complete in an unexplained completion:

The exact rock where his inexactnesses

Would discover, at last, the view toward which they had edged,

Where he could lie and, gazing down at the sea,

Recognize his unique and solitary home.

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955):The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain, 1952, from The Rock (1954)

Mount Sinabung volcano spews volcanic ash into the air as seen from the Karo district in North Sumatra province, on May 25, 2016. Indonesian rescuers searched for survivors in scorched villages and devastated farmlands on May 23 after the volcano erupted in clouds of searing ash and gas, killing seven and leaving others fighting life-threatening burns. / AFP PHOTO / GATHA GINTINGGATHA GINTING/AFP/Getty Images

Mount Sinabung volcano spews volcanic ash into the air as seen from the Karo district in North Sumatra. Indonesian rescuers searched for survivors in scorched villages and devastated farmlands on Monday after the volcano erupted in clouds of searing ash and gas, killing seven.: photo by Gatha Ginting/AFP, 25 May 2016

TOPSHOT - Primary school children wear masks while studying in the classroom in Karo district, North Sumatra province, on May 24, 2016, as Mount Sinabung is seen spewing out volcanic ash through the school window reflection. Indonesian rescuers searched for survivors in scorched villages and devastated farmlands after a volcano erupted in clouds of searing ash and gas, killing seven and leaving others fighting life-threatening burns. / AFP PHOTO / FATIMA ELKAREEMFATIMA ELKAREEM/AFP/Getty Images

Primary school children wear masks while studying in the classroom in Karo district, North Sumatra province, as Mount Sinabung is seen spewing out volcanic ash through the school window reflection: photo by Fatima Elkareem/AFP, 24 May 2016

A farmer tries to save crops covered in ash after the eruption of Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, Indonesia. By Fatima ElKareem #AFP: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 24 May 2016

Precarity

People slide down a rope from a bridge during a rescue training in Chongqing, China.: photo by China Daily via Reuters, 23 May 2016

Those left in #Idomeni tell us they are desperate. This elderly woman from Syria was up early this morning...: image via MSF Sea @MSFSea, 25 May 2016

GREECE - Demonstrators hold a sign during the forced evacuation of refugees camp near Idomeni. By @SakisMitrolidis: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 May 2016

We have a responsibility to protect those fleeing persecution and violence. #RefugeesWelcome: image via AmnestyInternational @amnesty, 24 May 2016

GREECE - A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for refugees at the island of Lesbos. @AFPphoto: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 May 2016

Syrian school girls stand at entrance of Saif al-Dawla school in besieged rebel bastion of Douma. @AbdDoumany #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 25 May 2016

Not in for this?

Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (L) and his wife Britain's Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall prepare to try produce inside McGettigans Butchers store in Donegal, north-west Ireland, on May 25, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / PAUL FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Britain’s Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, try produce inside McGettigans Butchers store in Donegal, north-west Ireland: photo by Paul Faith/AFP, 25 July 2016

People walk past a mural on a restaurant wall depicting U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greeting each other with a kiss in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. Kestutis Girnius, associate professor of the Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius university, told AFP “This graffiti expresses the fear of some Lithuanians that Donald Trump is likely to kowtow to Vladimir Putin and be indifferent to Lithuania’s security concerns. Trump has notoriously stated that Putin is a strong leader, and that NATO is obsolete and expensive.”: photo by Petras Malukas / AFP, 13 May 2016

UK - Donald Trump kisses Boris Johnson on a mural in Bristol. By @geoff_caddick #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 May 2016

A protester holds up his fist as riot police prepare to intervene to disperse refinery workers holding a blockade of the oil depot of Douchy-Les-Mines, France to protest against the government’s proposed labour reforms: photo by Francois Lo Presti/AFP, 25 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 25, 2016

Riot police stand guard behind a fire as refinery workers hold a blockade of the oil depot of Douchy-Les-Mines to protest against the government’s proposed labour reforms. Refinery workers stepped up strikes that threaten to paralyse France weeks ahead of the Euro 2016 tournament as the government moved to break their blockades, escalating a three-month tug-of-war over labour reforms.: photo by François Lo Presti /AFP, 25 May 2016

#France Riot police officers detain a man during a demonstration against the labor reform in #Paris @LaurentCipriani: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 24 May 2016

An activist of the non-governmental environmental organization Greenpeace repaints with red paint a tuna logo on the building of the major French seafood wholesaler Petit Navire’s canning factory to protest against fishing methods in Douarnenez, western France: photo by Fred Tanneau/AFP, 23 May 2016

A U.S. Capitol Police officer reacts to a Code Pink for Peace activist’s protest sign: photo by Chip Somodevilla, 25 May 2016

A U.S. Capitol Police officer reacts to a Code Pink for Peace activist’s protest sign: photo by Chip Somodevilla, 25 May 2016

everyday in the inferno

Golu, 10, a boy living on the streets of Delhi, lays on cascading water of fountain on hot Indian summer afternoon: image via Roberto Schmidt @robertoindelhi, 20 May 2016

A young Sri Lankan flood victim looks on at roadside camp in Kelaniya. By Ishara S. Kodikara #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 22 May 2016

A schoolgirl runs past a barricade in #kibera, Nairobi during an opposition #IEBCprotests @AFPphoto @CarldeSouza1: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 23 May 2016

Monday in Nairobi, by @CarldeSouza1 for @AFPphoto: image via Tristan McConnell @t_mcconnell, 24 May 2016

Daisy Pearce of Melbourne is tackled by Emily Bates and Delma Gisu of Brisbane during the 2016 AFL Womens match between the Melbourne Demons and the Brisbane Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia: photo by Scott Barbour / AFL Media via The National, 23 May 2016

Bangladeshi men receive a face wash at a local barber shop near the port in Dhaka: photo by Roberto Schmidt / AFP, 25 May 2016

Yazidi refugee Yassir Hajji, 24, from Sinjar, Iraq, adjusts the eyebrows of his wife Gerbia, 18, in their room in the former of De Koepel prison in Haarlem: photo by Muhammed Muheisen / AP, 1 May 2016

A barber cuts his client’s hair under the staircase of his apartment building in Havana, Cuba. Cuba says it will legalise small and medium-sized private businesses by adding a category of small, mid-sized and “micro” private business to the Communist party’s master plan for social and economic development.: photo by Desmond Boylan / AP, 25 May 2016

A man shaves on the second floor of an old house in Guangfuli neighborhood in Shanghai, China: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 1 April 2016

Officer Nero Acquitted of all Charges in Freddie Gray Baltimore Case...epa05325397 A man screams at people leaving the Baltimore courthouse after police officer Edward Nero was acquitted of all charges in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, MD, USA, 23 May 2016. Freddie Gray died on 19 April 2015 when he sustained a spinal injury in the back of a Baltimore police van.

A man screams at people leaving the Baltimore courthouse after police officer Edward Nero was acquitted of all charges in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, MD, USA. Freddie Gray died on April 19 2015 when he sustained a spinal injury in the back of a Baltimore police van: photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, 23 May 2016

May 2016

A view of old houses surrounded by new apartment buildings in Guangfuli neighborhood in Shanghai, China. Small houses stand in the midst of freeways, pedestrian malls, and are perched on concrete islands in the middle of pits excavated for underground parking lots.: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 8 April 2016

The cast member Gerard Depardieu tries to kiss cast member Isabelle Huppert as they pose during a photocall for the film Valley of Love in competition at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes: photo by Yves Herman / Reuters, 22 May 2016

Tao Weiren sits in front of his two-story house in Guangfuli neighborhood. Widespread dissatisfaction with the compensation offered by local governments led to protests by residents and engendered the “nail house” phenomenon: residents who refuse to accept the buyout offer and stay put, boarding up their homes to fend off attempts to remove them.: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 8 April 2016

The 26th anniversary of Yemen Reunification Day

Yemenis gather during celebrations marking the 26th anniversary of Yemen’s reunification, in Sana’a, Yemen: photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA, 23 May 2016

Apartment buildings surround an old house, Guangfuli: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 18 April 2016

A girl puts on lipstick and kisses the shield of the police in front of the Macedonian government building in Skopje, Macedonia. Several thousand people protested in front of the building, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.: photo by Ognen Teofilovski / Reuters, 5 May 2015

A dog runs on the remains of old houses covered with a green netting in the Guangfuli neighborhood: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 18 April 2016

Li Guoqiang talks on his phone outside his house at Guangfuli neighborhood, in Shanghai, China. Li, 38, is a deliveryman who rents a place at Guangfuli.: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 1 April 2016

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In Trumplandia: A Mask of Power (Joseph Ceravolo: What chemicals have we forgotten?)

May 27, 2016, 1:32 am

≫ Next: Panachure

≪ Previous: Some May Escape By Night: Stevie Smith: To Carry the Child / Wallace Stevens: The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain

World in focus — best photos for May 26, 2016

An Orange County sheriff keeps an eye on demonstrators ahead of a speech from US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Anaheim, California: photo by Mike Blake / Reuters, 26 May 2016

Joseph Ceravolo: "The morning is warm..."

May 18, 1987

The morning is warm. A fan whirling

the air. The calm force of tiredness

shows in everyone's body

chewing, languidly talking.

What chemicals have we forgotten?

The air blows cold

down the northern corridor

the ink freezes in my fingers

no electronics can soothe love.

What chemicals have we forgotten?

Joseph Ceravolo (1934-1988): "The morning is warm..." (May 18, 1987), from Collected Poems, 2012

Travellers move through a security checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, in Atlanta: photo by David Goldman / AP, 26 May 2016

Displaced Somalis queue for aid in Beledweyne, north of Mogadishu on May 26, 2016. Hundreds of families have been forced out of their homes following flash floods in Beledweyne after torrential rains pounded the area in the last few days.The heavy rains led to the bursting of River Shabelle which caused massive floods in residential areas along the river. / AFP PHOTO / MOHAMED ABDIWAHABMOHAMED ABDIWAHAB/AFP/Getty Images

Displaced Somalis queue for aid in Beledweyne, north of Mogadishu. Hundreds of families have been forced out of their homes following flash floods in Beledweyne after torrential rains pounded the area.: photo by Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP, 26 May 2016

Security forces clash with demonstrators during a protest called by seven labour unions and students against the labour and employment law reform in Bordeaux, France today: photo by George Gobet/AFP, 26 May 2016

Citizens walk on the Corniche, or waterfront promenade along the Beirut coastline, Lebanon, Thursday, May 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Citizens walk on the Corniche, or waterfront promenade along the Beirut coastline, Lebanon: photo by Hassan Ammar/AP, 26 May 2016

TOPSHOT - Iraqi pro-government forces fire an anti-tank cannon near al-Sejar village, north-east of Fallujah, on May 25, 2016, as they take part in a major assault to retake the city from the Islamic State (IS) group. Iraqi forces, consisting of special forces, soldiers, police, paramilitary-fighters and pro-government tribesmen, launched a major assault to retake Fallujah, the scene of deadly battles during the US occupation and one of the toughest targets yet in Baghdad's war on the Islamic State group. / AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-RUBAYEAHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images

Iraqi pro-government forces fire an anti-tank cannon near al-Sejar village, north-east of Fallujah as they take part in a major assault to retake the city from the Islamic State group: photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP, 26 May 2016

Orange County Sheriff’s deputies take a protester into custody outside the Anaheim Convention Center where Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump held a rally: photo by Jae C. Hong, 26 May 2016

A Japanese police officer waits for the motorcade transporting US President Barack Obama to drive past near Shima, Japan: photo by Carlos Barria / Reuters, 26 May 2016

Boris Johnson is surrounded by Vote Leave and Vote Remain activists as he speaks in Winchester, as part of his tour on the Vote Leave campaign bus: photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA, 26 May 2016

House of Representatives and Senate tribunal staff prepare the tally board during the presidential and vice-presidential canvassing of votes at the session hall of House of Representatives in Manila: photo by Noel Celis/AFP 24 May 2016

epa05324583 US President Barack Obama (C-L) and Vietnam's President Tran Dai Quang (C-R) review an honor guard at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam, 23 May 2016. US President Barack Obama visits Vietnam for the first time from 23 to 25 May 2016, making him the third US President to visit the South East Asian country since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. During the first day of his visit Obama announced that the US will lift its arms embargo on weapon sales to Vietnam. EPA/MINH HOANG

US President Barack Obama (C-L) and Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang (C-R) review an honor guard at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam: photo by Minh Hoang/EPA, 23 May 2016

TOPSHOT - US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally at Santa Monica High School Football Field in Santa Monica, California, on May 23, 2016. Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton on May 23 rejected an invitation to take part in a final campaign debate against her rival Bernie Sanders, her campaign said. / AFP PHOTO / Ringo ChiuRINGO CHIU/AFP/Getty Images

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally at Santa Monica High School Football Field in Santa Monica, California: photo by Ringo Chiu/AFP, 24 May 2016

Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros - Paris, France - 23/05/16 An illustration photo shows a tennis ball which drops into water during rainfall. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

A tennis ball bounces in the rain during The French Open, Roland Garros, Paris: photo by Benoit Tessier/Reuters, 23 May 2016

People seen through a train’s windows on the Washington DC metro: photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP, 26 May 2016

Expandable space habitat fails to inflate in NASA's first test: image via Reuters Tech News #ReutersTech, 27 May 2016

Clinton says State Department emails report won't affect campaign: MSNBC: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 27 May 2016

In Trumplandia: What chemicals have we forgotten?

Even though sales are neck and neck at the moment, there's no masking the facts. This Chinese factory is expecting a Donald Trump victory over his likely U.S. presidential rival Hillary Clinton — and it's already churning out the costumes. Photo via @ReutersUS: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 27 May 2016

This Chinese mask factory is betting on a Trump victory over Clinton: image via Reuters Pictures Verified account @reuterspictures, 27 May 2016

There's no masking Trump's popularity at this Chinese party business: image via Reuters World Verified account @ReutersWorld, 27 May 2016

This Chinese factory expects a Trump victory -- and they're getting ready: image via Reuters U.S. News Verified account @ReutersUS, 27 May 2016

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Topeng_Bali.jpg

Various Balinese Topeng (dance masks), Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, Jakarta: photo by Gunawan Kartapranata, 2009

There is an unconscious propriety in the way in which, in all European languages, the word person is commonly used to denote a human being. The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it.

Arthur Schopenhauer: Psychological Observations, from Studies in Pessimism in Parerga und Paralipomena, 1851 (translated by Thomas Bailey Saunders)

Zina Saro-Wiwa: The Invisible Man, 2015: image via Trestle Mask Makers @Trestle_Masks, 10 May 2016

Voted! Not in the mask. It was added afterwards. #KYPrimary #GoVoteKY #Fridaythe13th #mask: image via Carl @BrainOfBlood, 17 May 2016

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

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

MaskTV: photo by James Reynolds, 2006

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Mictlantecuhtli_2.jpg

Mictlantecuhtli, god of the dead: Aztec, sculptor unknown; photo by Jamie Dwyer, 19 August 2008 (Museum of the Templo Mayor, Mexico City)

Joseph Ceravolo: Koyannisqatsi

April 8, 1987

A dog walks the master
among the big trees of the little city,
a dog walks his master in sun.
The trot of the wolf
walks inside the dog. Happiness
lights its eyes aslant with anxiety.

A building collapses while
an explosion blows the night
apart. A master takes a slave,
a monk converts an Inca
in the breathless night of America.
Scientific language breaks apart

in the saliva of the mouth.

Joseph Ceravolo (1934-1988): Koyannisqatsi (April 8, 1987), from Collected Poems, 2012

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/MictlantecuhtliTemploMayor_B.jpg

Mictlantecuhtli, god of the dead and king of Mictlan (Chicunauhmictlan), lowest and northernmost section of the underworld: Aztec, sculptor unknown, recovered during excavation of the House of Eagles in the Templo Mayor: photo by Thelmadatter, 23 March 2008 (Museum of the Templo Mayor, Mexico City)

For the Love of God: sculpture by Damien Hirst, 2007, platinum cast of a human skull covered with 8,601 diamonds; displayed at White Cube Gallery, London, asking price 50 million pounds: photographer unknown, via Daily Telegraph

Máscara de Xiuhtecuhtli: representation of Xiuhtecuhtli (Lord Turquoise), Central Mexican god of fire: Mixtec-Aztec, c. 1400-1521, mosaic of turquoise inlay and other materials; photo by Manuel Parada López de Corselas, 2007 (British Museum, London)

Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim erupts in violence: photo by Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times, 27 February 2016

Paramedics tend to a protester who was stabbed during the KKK rally in Anaheim. Many people at the park were demanding to know why police did not have a larger presence at the scene before the violence broke out.: photo by Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times, 27 February 2016

Miami-based Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, left, asks Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a question about his immigration proposal during a news conference Tuesday in Dubuque, Iowa. Ramos was later taken from the room: photo by Charlie Niebergall/AP, 25 August 2015

A security guard for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump removes Miami-based Univision anchor Jorge Ramos from a news conference Tuesday in Dubuque, Iowa. Ramos stood up and began to ask Trump about his immigration proposal: photo by Charlie Niebergall/AP, 25 August 2015

A security guard for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump removes Miami-based Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, left, from a news conference Tuesday in Dubuque, Iowa. Ramos stood up and began to ask Trump about his immigration proposal: photo by Charlie Niebergall/AP, 25 August 2015

Trumplandia es el horror -- Jorge Ramos

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks to reporters after arriving for a visit to the U.S. Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, Thursday, July 23, 2015. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks to reporters after arriving for a visit to the U.S. Mexico border in Laredo, Texas: photo by LM Otero/AP, 23 July 2015

Lightning from a severe storm fills the sky behind a grain elevator in Belvue, Kan., Wednesday, May 25, 2016. The storm produced tornadoes near Chapman, Kan. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

Lightning from a severe storm fills the sky behind a grain elevator in Belvue, Kansas: photo by Orlin Wagner/AP, 26 May 2016

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Panachure

May 28, 2016, 2:51 am

≫ Next: Containment

≪ Previous: In Trumplandia: A Mask of Power (Joseph Ceravolo: What chemicals have we forgotten?)

Trois Couleurs: image via Agence France-Presse Verified account @afpfr, 27 May 2016

liberties

the meek imploring eyes

of the side porch night cat

shining in the dark

a sudden salvo

explosions off somewhere

somebody's blowing things up again

as though there were something left

to celebrate

or destroy

A woman sits at the edge of the field of United States flags displayed by the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund on the Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts, ahead of the Memorial Day holiday on May 30. The 37,000 U.S. flags are planted in memory of every fallen Massachusetts service member from the Revolutionary War to the present.: photo by Brian Snyder / Reuters, 26 May 2016

Barack Obama à Hiroshima. "Il y a 71 ans, la mort est tombée du ciel" #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @afpfr, 27 May 2016

US President Barack Obama hugs Shigeaki Mori, a survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, during a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Obama paid tribute to victims of the world’s first nuclear attack.: photo by Jim Watson/AFP, 27 May 2016

Italie: 45 corps récupérés après le dernier naufrage de migrants en Méditerranée #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @afpfr, 27 May 2016

Trois naufrages cette semaine en Méditerranée font au moins 70 morts #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @afpfr, 27 May 2016

World in focus — best photos for May 27, 2016

Kyra Holland of Warrenton, Virginia, participates in the finals of the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland: photo by Alex Wong / AFP, 27 May 2016

French riot police use tear gas against a demonstrator at Place de la Nation, in Paris, France: photo by Christophe Petit Tesson / EPA, 27 May 2016

Fed reaction to data barrage is focus for stocks: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 27 May 2016

Kyrgyz men on horseback compete during their traditional game of “Oodarysh” during the celebrations of the 90th anniversary formation of the Chui region in the village of Kuntu, Kyrgyzstan: photo by Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP, 27 May 2016

French police in Nantes hold a man protesting the government’s proposed labour law reforms: photo by Stephane Mahe / Reuters, 27 May 2016

ANNAPOLIS, MD - MAY 27: The U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly over graduation ceremonies at the U.S. Naval Academy May 27, 2016 in Annapolis, Maryland. U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is the commencement speaker for this year's graduating class. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly over graduation ceremonies at the U.S. Naval Academy May in Annapolis, Maryland. U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is the commencement speaker for this year’s graduating class: photo by Mark Wilson, 27 May 2016

A man holds a bouquet of flowers and a torch as he faces riot police during a demonstration against the government's planned labor reform, in Lyon, France. The French government's labor market proposals, which are designed to make it easier for companies to hire and fire, have sparked a series of nationwide protests and strikes over the past three months. Masked youths clashed with police in Paris and striking workers blockaded refineries and nuclear power stations as an escalating wave of industrial action against labor reforms rocked France.: photo by Jean-Philippe Ksiazek / AFP, 26 May 2016

A small boy holds up a cardboard cover over his head to protect himself from the sun as he walks on the dried up bed of river Tawi in Jammu, India, Friday, May 27, 2016. Temperatures across much of northern and western India have hovered around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for weeks causing much distress, specially amongst the farming communities. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

A small boy holds up a cardboard cover over his head to protect himself from the sun as he walks on the dried up bed of river Tawi in Jammu, India: photo by Channi Anand/AP, 27 May 2016

Two Indonesian villagers run as they salvage their belongings near Mount Sinabung volcano at the Gamber village in Karo, North Sumatra: photo by Fatima Elkareem/AFP, 23 May 2016

Revellers dace as they take part in the Patum in the Catalan village of Berga, Spain Friday, May 27, 2016. The Patum of Berga is a popular festival whose origin can be traced to medieval festivities that is celebrated each year in the Catalan city of Berga during Corpus Christi. It consists of a series of dances by townspeople dressed as mystical and symbolical figures accompanied by the rhythm of a drum. One of the protagonist of La Patum is the fire, and the climax of the festival is the Salt de Plens (Fire Demons), who set the square on fire with hundreds of firecrackers burning at the same time. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Revellers dace as they take part in the Patum in the Catalan village of Berga, Spain. The Patum of Berga is a popular festival whose origin can be traced to medieval festivities that is celebrated each year in the Catalan city of Berga during Corpus Christi: photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP, 27 May 2016

Rescuers rush to help villagers to evacuate their homes following the eruption of Mt. Sinabung in Gamber village, North Sumatra, Indonesia: photo by Binsar Bakkara/AP, 22 May 2016

TOPSHOT - Men stand next to a fire as wo...TOPSHOT - Men stand next to a fire as workers on strike block the access to an oil depot near the Total refinery of Donges, western france, early in the morning on May 27, 2016 to protest against the government's planned labour law reforms.

Men stand next to a fire as workers on strike block the access to an oil depot near the Total refinery of Donges, western France: photo by Jean-Sebastien Evrar/AFP, 27 May 2016

An injured dog covered in volcanic ash crouches down in an empty village after it was abandoned following the eruption of Mt. Sinabung: photo by Binsar Bakkara/AP, 22 May 2016

A picture taken on the French island of La Reunion shows lava during the eruption of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano, in an uninhabited area. The last Piton de la Fournaise eruption occurred on 30 October 2015.: photo by Richard Bouhet / AFP, 26 May 2015

The Finance Minister in Brazil's interim government, Henrique Meirelles, photographed behind microphones during a press conference in Brasilia: photo by Evaristo Sa / AFP, 20 May 2016

Sylvie Lamontagne, 13, of Lakewood, Colorado, incorrectly spells 'panachure' during the final round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland: photo by Cliff Owen / AP, 26 May 2016

Lava spews during the eruption of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano on the French island of Reunion: photo by Richard Bouhet / AFP, 27 May 2016

The carcass of a dog lies on the volcanic ash-covered ground as Indonesian soldiers and villagers conduct search and rescue operations at Gamber village in Karo, North Sumatra: photo by Ardiansyah Putra/AFP, 22 May 2016

Mount Sinabung volcano spews volcanic ash into the air as seen from the Karo district in North Sumatra province: photo by Gatha Ginting/AFP, 25 May 2016

Embargoed to 1900 Friday May 27 European Space Agency handout image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken by the Rosetta orbiter in August 2015 when the object was at its closest point to the sun. Rosetta found evidence of basic building blocks of life in gases surrounding the comet. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Friday May 27, 2016. See PA story SCIENCE Rosetta. Photo credit should read: ESA/Rosetta/Navcam/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.

Comet 67P Churyumov Gerasimenko, taken by the Rosetta orbiter when the object was at its closest point to the sun. Rosetta found evidence of basic building blocks of life in the cloud of dust and gases surrounding the icy body known as comet 67P. The discovery backs up the idea that similar “dirty snowballs” could have been involved in kickstarting life on Earth.: photo by ESA/Rosetta/Navcam/PA, 27 May 2016

Comet 67P Churyumov Gerasimenko, taken by the Rosetta orbiter when the object was at its closest point to the sun. Rosetta found evidence of basic building blocks of life in the cloud of dust and gases surrounding the icy body known as comet 67P. The discovery backs up the idea that similar “dirty snowballs” could have been involved in kickstarting life on Earth.: photo by ESA/Rosetta/Navcam/PA, 27 May 2016

High school students study at night to prepare for college entrance exams at a high school in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, eastern China: photo by Stringer / AFP, 24 May 2016

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