Time Travel

I have serious doubts that this is real but I sure wish it was.

The Drying Of The Euphrates

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/world/middleeast/14euphrates.html?ref=multimedia

"The Drug War in Six Acts" by Ben Wallace-Wells

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/drug-war-six-acts


An in insightful and descriptive piece for Mother Jones looks into how U.S. drug enforcement
inadvertently worsened the problem. Violent means of enforcement only lead to more violent means of production and transport. Read this article of the chance arises.

Some Sketches By Paul Madonna

http://www.paulmadonna.com/index.htm

Why Thornton Wilder Loved Arizona

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Presence-of-Mind-The-Great-Escape.html

He wrote "Our Town." He wrote "The Merchant of Yonkers." He wrote "The Skin of Our Teeth" and "The Bridge of San Luis Rey." He was an accomplished playwright and novelist with two Pulitzers packed away somewhere. Born in April of 1897 in Madison, Wisconsin, Thornton Wilder was one of six children born to Amos and Isabella Wilder. Thornton moved to China with his family due to the diplomatic work of their father but returned to California in 1912.
Wilder has been a fascinating writer with an even more fascinating life. Many stories about him have circulated through public for years, some questioning his sexuality(most likely), his use of Gertrude Stein's de-constructivist style(sometimes), his time in the armed forces during both world wars( Coast Guard and Air Force), as well as his hiatus to Arizona to work on his final novel, "The Eighth Day." The following was taken out from a piece by Tom Miller for Smithsonian Magazine:

Shortly after noon on May 20, 1962, Wilder backed his five-year-old blue Thunderbird convertible out of the driveway of his Connecticut home and lighted out for the Great Southwest. After ten days on the road and almost 2,500 miles, the Thunderbird broke down on U.S. Highway 80, just east of Douglas, Arizona, a town of some 12,000 on the Mexican border about 120 miles southeast of Tucson. Douglas lay on the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert, and summer temperatures there routinely exceeded 100 degrees, broken only by occasional thunderstorms.

Wilder checked into the Hotel Gadsden, where rooms cost from $5 to $12 a night. Named for the United States diplomat who, in 1853, negotiated with Mexico for the land Douglas sits on, the Gadsden has an ornate, high ceiling with a stained-glass skylight. Its staircase is of Italian marble. Its restaurant offered a fried cornmeal breakfast with butter and syrup for 55 cents and a lunch of calves' brains, green chili and scrambled eggs with mashed potatoes for $1.25.

The Phelps Dodge copper smelter just west of town dominated the landscape—and the local economy. Established at the beginning of the 20th century by mining executive James Douglas, the town was laid out in a grid with streets wide enough for a 20-mule team to make a U-turn. It mixed an Anglo upper and merchant class with a strong, union-oriented Mexican-American working class; schools were loosely segregated.

A Supposedly Harmless Ingerdient In Herbicide Is Now Proven To Be Dangerous

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=weed-whacking-herbicide-p

According to an article in Scientific American, "Roundup," a ubiquitous weed-killer may be much more harmful than previously thought. While the active ingredient, Glyphosate in Round Up has undergone rigorous inspections for safety, the additional ingredients which have mainly been used as preservatives and amplifiers, went largely unchecked. The ingredient polyethoxylated tallowamine, or POEA was found in doses concentrated enough to cause serious harm to several types of animal cells.

Capote And The Non-Fiction Novel

Silent And Unexpected Coup in Honduras

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/world/americas/30honduras.html?_r=1


President Manuel Zelaya was startled awake on Sunday by members of the military and ousted to Costa Rica. Political tension in Honduras has been mounting for weeks because of the president's attempt to pass a referendum which would permit Zelaya to extend his term. The coup still came as a big surprise to Honduras and the rest of the world.
Many Hondurans came by the presidential compound to protest the actions of the military, some believing that the C.I.A. may have been involved. The Honduran Supreme claimed that the military had acted to to defend the law. Roberto Micheletti, the president of Congress, will be taking over Zelaya's duties.

Joe Sacco Speaks At Walker Art Center

Illustrator and journalist Joe Sacco delivers a talk at the Walker Art Center about some of the different scenes that he drew up for his graphic novels "Safe Area Gorazde," "Palestine," "The Fixer," and others.

The Photography Of Lena Herzog

http://lenaherzog.com/default.asp

Featured in the Spring 2009 issue of The Paris Review, Lena Herzog is a self-taught photographer from Ekaterinburg, Russia.

St. Petersburg Times Takes On Scientology

http://www.tampabay.com/news/article1012148.ece

In a 3 part series for the St. Petersburg Times, Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin interviewed Scientology defectors to learn more about some of the harsh methods used to maintain control or collect money from subordinates by some senior members.

Bolivia's Cocaine Trade: A Photo Essay By Marco Vernaschi For Mother Jones

http://www.motherjones.com/photoessays/2008/07/bolivias-cocaine-trade-bitter-leaf

How and Why Bolivian families are turning their attention to the lucrative coca business.

Down And Out In Fresno

http://www.esquire.com/features/down-and-out-0709

Colby Buzzel rents himself a $10 a month, one-person tent(and a hammer) in one of Fresno's infamous "Tent Cities" to learn more about its residents.

Favela Art

http://jr-art.net/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8091890.stm

French Artist JR creates gargantuan posters of staring eyes and has them placed on favelas, buildings, railroad cars, stairs and other structures throughout Rio de Janeiro.

Heavy-Handed Desaturated Blurs Called People

The bricklayer around the corner and two priests outside the bakery.

Last Stand Of The American Salmon

http://www.mensjournal.com/salmon

For most of history, salmon thrived in what seemed like endless abundance in the Pacific Northwest’s three great river systems — the Columbia, Sacramento and the Klamath — that extend thousands of miles through California, Washington, and Oregon, and beyond that, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, and Canada. The Rapid River leads to the Upper Salmon River, then the Salmon, and then the Snake before merging into the Columbia, which was once the world’s most productive salmon spawning ground.

For the region’s Indian tribes, the fish provided nutrition as well as prosperity. Commercial fishermen have shared in the bounty. Thousands of oceangoing fishing boats have harvested salmon along most of the West Coast. But no longer. The populations of wild salmon species that return to the Columbia have virtually disappeared; most are on the endangered species list. Last summer salmon populations were so small that commercial fishing was banned almost everywhere off the West Coast.

G. Bruce Knecht investigates the causes, concerns, and solutions behind the disappearing species of wild salmon in the Columbia river and its tributaries.

Good-Bye Misty

Sleep well Misty, my best friend of 11 years. We'll run into each other again in one life or another, one form or another, one way or another. Goodbye...for now.

What's Happening To All The Pacific Oysters?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009336458_oysters14m.html

Both the Seattle Times and The Portland Oregonian report that oyster harvesting in the Pacific Northwest has been declining gradually for the last decade, and significantly since 2005. The blame was initially placed upon Vibrio tubiashii, a bacteria known to kill oyster larvae, but after attempts were made to kill the bacteria using ultraviolet water-treatment systems, the problem persisted. Later it began to unravel that the Seawater pH levels would drop below normal causing the water to become acidic, due to the ocean absorbing higher levels of Carbon Dioxide. Unfortunately, the winds that blow off Washington's coast replace marine surface waters with much colder and more acrid seawater from below. The wild oyster larvae are killed before they have the opportunity to attach to shells. Researchers are also worried that this may devastate marine life further up the chain.Large and popular fish such as Salmon and Pollock depend on shellfish for a majority of their diet.

The Moon And The Sledgehammer

“It’s a good job the moon’s well up there,” the old man says. “I got room enough to swing a sledgehammer underneath him.” As peculiar as it is hypnotic, Philip Trevelyan’s 1971 oddity documents a bold British family living off the grid in the Sussex woods. On the outskirts of London, the elderly Mr. Page, along with his two sons and daughters, makes do with little. Lacking running water and electricity, their only links to “modern” technology are the steam tractors they repair to make a living and the rifles they use to shoot their next meal. Gripping his camera, Trevelyan steps uncomfortably close to these craftspeople, molding an intimate family portrait that is at once perplexed and awestruck.

The women knit and garden; the men rev their engines; and Mr. Page decries the urban London lifestyle. They seem at first naive about the ways of the world, but Trevelyan captures something poignant in their uncluttered harmony with the land. Birds and bugs swarm the farm. A rotting piano left outdoors sounds eerily beautiful. A kitten dances with the hands of Mr. Page’s son as he fantasizes about the moon, drawing its shape in the soil. Mr. Page scoffs at these imaginative ramblings, less because he’s uninterested in the heavens than because he sees more that’s worth cherishing in his wooded oasis. He may be right—and that’s what makes this bizarre biography so unforgettable.—S. James Snyder (From Time Out New York)

This is a very strange and outlandish film from director Philip Trevelyan. The 1971 documentary may seem absurd or unnatural at times, but creates a fetching atmosphere around the Page family, who construct a mosaic of their various personalities throughout the length of the film.

http://www.themoonandthesledgehammer.com/

Man On Wire

Beautifully shot. Beautifully told. Beautiful film, enough said.

Chicago Public Radio Explains What Lead To The Economic Meltdown

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242

The U.S. economy has been in a state of turmoil for a while. While hundreds of billions of dollars are pumped into the banking system by the Obama administration and the unemployment rate is steadily rising, people are quick to make assumptions and cast blame to who or what caused the economic meltdown.
"The Giant Pool Of Money" episode from This American Life, attempts to pinpoint the several factors of the housing crisis which has lead to devastation on Wall Street, Detroit, and in numerous suburbs.

Who Is Jacob Zuma?

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/south-africa-zuma

" Jacob Zuma is a former goatherd, a master of traditional Zulu stick-fighting, a resistance hero, a one-time spymaster, a graceful dancer, and the father of some 20 children. He has been tried for rape and indicted for corruption, racketeering, and fraud. He has been called the next Mandela and the next Mugabe, a black Jesus and a crass rube. By the time you read this, he will almost certainly be the new president of South Africa. Here is the story of his sometimes troubling rise—and what it portends for the future of his country." - Douglas Foster

A Tip Of The Hat

A Saturday afternoon at Meyer The Hatter in New Orleans may get hectic, especially when swarms of music buffs make their way down for the Jazz and Heritage Festival towards the end of April. The annual festival attracts large crowds who gather for the barbecue, the bar scene, the nearly limitless number of music acts, and a visit to Sam Meyer. “My wife was here, my boys were here, my grandchildren came in to help with all the people, “ said Meyer, 83, with his welcoming Southern accent.
A hat may just be another fashion accessory no different than a tie or pair of shoes. Styles change, opinions change and lives change. Rarely is anything certain and still the hat industry has remained virtually unaltered. Hats have been passed down as heirlooms and they have been sold off to pawn shops. They have been habitually packed away into old boxes in a damp and moldy corner of someone’s garage. They have been sold off at yard sales for mere change. They have been left forgotten in more than a few closets.
When you were younger, you probably dug through the stack of boxes in your uncle’s garage and found it. You passed your neighbor’s lawn one day and saw it laying at a yard sale. You went digging through the closet for Christmas presents and stumbled upon it. Yes, you saw it and there was an instant spark.
It becomes more than a fashion accessory. It becomes a story, a personality and a statement combined. “People don’t look at John Wayne’s boots,” said Meyer. “Where would John Wayne be without his hat?”
Around since 1894, Meyer The Hatter has witnessed an economic depression, two world wars, the advent of the atomic bomb, and an arms race with the Soviet Union. Taking up three floors of a building on the corner of St. Charles Ave and Canal St in downtown New Orleans, the traditional hat shop began with a handshake between Sam Meyer’s grandfather and a Stetson hat representative.
The long and narrow sales floor is stocked from floor to ceiling with every type of traditional hat. There are bowlers, fedoras, cowboy hats, panamas, newsboy caps, homburgs, deerstalkers, berets, top hats, telescope hats and even safari helmets.
Most hats are still assembled by hand out of wool or fur, usually either beaver or rabbit. They are molded over a wooden block with steam to shape the top part (the crown). The brim is ironed flat and cut to a specific size. It is then placed on a wooden flange to create a chosen shape. A hat is then stiffened with shellac or any other coating if necessary and then sanded to smooth out any rough edges. Finally comes the application of a leather inner band and sometimes an outer band to the finished product. “In all, there are twenty to thirty small steps, “ said Meyer. “It’s a squarely intricate process.”
Very few companies still manufacture hats and even fewer make it to the shelves of Meyer The Hatter. Some of the trusted brands include Biltmore of Canada, Stetson of St. Joseph, Missouri, and Borsalino of Italy.
Customers come from every walk of life. There are the lifetime customers that Meyer has known since that day in the 1940’s when him and his brother started helping around in the shop. “I got some very old and loyal folks that keep coming back, “ said Meyer.
Recently there have been rising numbers of younger customers who have taken a liking to hats. “All these young folks come in here now,” said Meyer. “They love to buy small-brimmed hats and caps. We sell tons of those.”
These last few months have seen businesses, large and small, calling it quits. Financial markets have become as unpredictable as fashion trends. Despite folding and gloom everywhere, the heart of the traditional hat industry continues to beat, even though less than 1% of men wear hats.
There have been days when the lively Sam Meyer was running back and forth between different people to keep up with orders, frequently picking up a ringing phone to give directions to the store or check for a customer’s size. Some days are much quieter but Meyer is thankful for every single day of the more than 60 years that he has dedicated to the hat trade. “We’ve just done beautifully,” said Meyer. “We’ve been blessed with a good little business.”
Sam Meyer’s shop isn’t the only hat store with a reputation for thriving. JJ Hat Center in Manhattan has been outfitting New Yorkers for the last 98 years, since it first opened in 1911.
Marc Williamson loves his job and he loves hats. For the last 12 years he has been the manager of JJ Hat Center near the corner of 32 St and Fifth Av. His favorite style is the newsboy cap and he can usually be found at a workbench towards the back of the store, using a 250-degree steamer and a brush to clean off several fedoras while the store mascot, JJ the cat, lounges at his side.
He brings out two Panamas, named for being worn by Theodore Roosevelt when he visited the Panama Canal. They were both made in Ecuador out of straw but the first one is loosely woven while the second is woven so tight, that its smoothness can only be matched by silk. “Someone can make five of these in a day,” said Williamson, holding up the first hat. “One like this would take a month by hand,” said Williamson, pointing to the tightly woven hat.
Recounting a day when a young woman entered the store looking to re-shape and clean her grandfather’s old military dress hat as a birthday gift, Williamson takes pride in knowing that he can restore and illuminate a piece of history in everyone’s life. “We have people coming in with their father’s hat, their grandfather’s hat,” said Williamson.
Many people within the traditional hat industry claim that hats lost popularity when JFK was the first president to deliver his inauguration speech without wearing a hat. Although this is true, there are other reasons that people discuss. Hairstyles for men became fashionable and caused hats to almost become completely obsolete. “You’re not going to get a $200 haircut and then wear your hat over it,” said Williamson.
Another reason that hats slipped off the radar for a while is the counterculture movement of the 1960’s. “It was in style to be against the establishment,” said Williamson. “Establishment was viewed as a suit, a tie, and a hat.”
A hat may be judged by the quality of the felt, the leather sweat band, or its durability against the weather, but what really garners attention for a particular hat comes down to who is wearing it.
It was only after Harrison Ford wore his signature brown Fedora in Indiana Jones and after Notorious BIG performed in videos wearing his black suit, black cape and black fedora, that traditional hats were ready to come back and join the mainstream. This time it looks like they may be staying for good.

CONFESSIONS OF A SUPERHERO

I caught this film on the Sundance channel when I went home one weekend. It took some time to get used to but once you get caught in the flow of the characters, it becomes a great film. The film follows four different people who make a living dressing up as superheroes and taking pictures with tourists along Hollywood Boulevard.

Lights That Go Bump In The Night

Afghanistan's First National Park

Afghanistan is taking the first steps to creating a national park in the mountainous region west of Kabul. The park is to be called Band-e-Amir and consists of several mountains and valleys along with scattered lakes. The project was aided by environmental scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society. The area was a well-known destination for camping and hiking during the 1950's, 60's, and 70's but was neglected during the several wars and Taliban occupation that took place. The park still has a surviving population of wolves, wild sheep and goats.

Photo from NY Times.

Cuba Then and Cuba Now

Just stumbled upon this really interesting though seriously way-too-long feature piece from the New York Times Magazine. The article by Roger Cohen delves on the rapidly changing nation and how so many aspects of it have been reformed, reworked, revamped and tweaked every which way even if other aspects remain untouched since Castro declared the revolution.

Photos from New York Times Magazine website. Check out the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/magazine/07cuba-t.html?ref=magazine

Can elephants detect seismic vibrations with their feet?

http://nhmag.com/master.html?http://nhmag.com/homefeatures/0402_home.html

In an article for Natural History, Alan Burdick looks into the research behind the theory that an elephant's vocal calls generate both sound and vibrations in the ground. The vibrations can be detected by another elephant's feet for up to 20 miles away. This type of signaling is supposedly used by an elephant to declare its presence, warn of approaching danger, or attract mates.

Solitary Confinement: Just how bad is it?

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande

This New Yorker piece by Atul Gawande is an insightful and in-depth look into the practice of putting prisoners into solitary confinement and the resulting psychological trauma. From experiments on loneliness with primates to the delusional behavior that confined inmates display, Gawande explores the question of whether solitary confinement really is a justifiable punishment . Toawards the end, one is left to wonder if solitary confinement actually disciplines anybody or just exacerbates paranoia and destructive behavior.
Gawande has written numerous pieces for the New Yorker about the delicate and not-so-delicate intricacies of a surgeon's life. He was made a staff writer in 1998.

Doug's Oasis of Cairns

Towards the very bottom of New York's forgotten borough (Staten Island), spread along the beach of Mount Loretto, lies a whole different world. Rock walls, benches of driftwood, rock cairns and pyramids of rusty car parts line the beach. Walking among these sculptures transports any mindset to something fantastical and otherworldly.
Douglas Schwartz is 59. He is employed by the Staten Island Zoo as a zookeeper and he has worked on his beachfront cairns for the last 13 years. His work has been accused of being a "sophmoric prank." It has been accused of being a "devil worshiping ground." It has remained vulnerable to windy days, changing tides, and the boisterous antics of preteens with their first sip of King Cobra.
"What I made as a bench for the happy children to sit on, they saw as a sacrificial alter," he told the New York Times in 2006.
Schwartz's work is constantly changing, being blown over and knocked down, then rebuilt at some other point in some other way. It grows in height, it expands to other parts of the beach, it gets swallowed by the lurping waves of the ocean, it collapses onto itself. With the passing months and years, one might begin to think that it had a life of its own. You can almost feel it breathing when you sit down on one of those driftwood benches and run your fingers over the contradictory saviness of a rock. A rock with rough sandpaperlike texture and smooth fractuations, acute and compacted towards a northern degree while blunt, porous and shedding the dust of its crumbling semblance all points east and west.
"It's a concrete, real gesture," Shwartz told the New York Times. "People see this and they think, 'He must really believe in something.' They're not sure what it is, but they know it must be something."

Now what about Bonnie and Clyde?

Bonnie Parker was 23 and Clyde Barrow was 24 when their stolen Ford V8 sedan came upon a police ambush outside of Gibsland, Louisiana. A total of 130 rounds from six police officers riddled the car with the infamous duo inside.
Next month marks the 75th anniversary of Bonnie and Clyde's grim demise. Along with another accomplice named W.D. Jones, Bonnie and Clyde spent three months terrorizing banks, mom n pop stores, and anybody who got in their way.They made themselves known all across Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri.
When the pictures that W.D. had taken of the couple were discovered by police, Bonnie and Clyde quickly became "criminal superstars". It was then that they joined the ranks of Al Capone, Ma Barker, John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd.
They were both young and unmarried. They stole cars whenever they needed one and switched the plates to remain undetected. Bonnie smoked cigars. Clyde could shoot an M1918 Browning automatic rifle. Bonnie was able to load the weapon quicker than Clyde. Clyde knew how to drive the living hell out of any car. Bonnie could navigate them anywhere. Together they would make history.


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Indelible-Images-Notorious.html?c=y&page=1

Medical CT Scanners used to create what!?!?!

What a wind-up tin bunny looks like on the inside. Are CT scanners the new photography medium?? Now I know why docotors take a very long time in the Emergency Room. Ghostly. Yes. Captivating. Yes.


Courtesy of The New York Times. The innards of a mechanical dog toy. The image was taken using a CT scanner by Satre Stuelke in Manhattan. Stuelke is an artist and medical student. Probably medical student moreso now. Stuelke was an art professor at the School of Visual Arts and is now a medical student at Weill Cornell Medical College.

www.radiologyart.com

Waltz With Bashir

Set in Beirut during the 1982 Isreali invasion of Lebanon which was titled "Operation Peace for Galilee," Waltz with Bashir deals with Ari Folman's long lost memories of the completely useless and unnecessary violence accompanied by some bitter mis-deeds that he witnessed during his time in the Isreali Defense Forces.
The animated documentary tracks Ari, who is 20 years older, seeking out his old friends from the military to piece together everything that they remember about shipping off to Lebanon, fighting in the streets of Beirut, accidentally claiming innocent lives, being ambushed at every corner and silently looking on as the Sabra and Shatila massacre occured.
The soundtrack does a great job of setting mood and cadence, especially in such visually stimulating scenes as where Ari is bathing in the sea with his friends and watching flares shooting over the damaged rubble of Beirut.
The title of the film derives its name from a particular scene in which the commander of Ari's infantry unit forcefufully grabs a machine gun from another soldier and runs to the middle of the street amidst sniper and rocket fire from an abandoned hotel, firing widly all around in what seemed to be a "waltz" while posters of Bashir Gemayel hung everywhere.

A Few Pictures of mine ( Corner delis and shrines and lunch trucks, oh my! )

Everything was calm on the beach that day. There was a light fog and every now and then, a shipping tanker would roll out of the distance. This fisherman came out when he realized that there was no wind that day. He baited his fishing rod with some chum (fish heads) and weighed it down with a 3 ounce weight.
He never caught a single fish. He told me he did not really care for catching anything. He just wanted to feel the sand under his feet and appreciate the view. "Ain't nothin to really catch around here anyway," he said. "But I just love to cast out the bait."
Over and over, he cast his line out. It glided out into the sky 30, 40, 50, 60, 60 feet and went down into the sea. Its arc was still etched in my mind along with the prevalent buzzing sound that the fishing line makes when traveling.
I made my way back to the parking lot. The man just stood staring at the ocean, meticulously scanning every tiny ripple. Picking up his fishing rod, he cast again. It was back to work tomorrow.

New Documentary about LA Gangs

This documentary directed by Stacy Peralta, who is noted for his Bones Brigade skateboard videos as well as the film Dogtown and Z Boys, sinks the viewer into the everyday life of gang members in LA. It is narrated by Forest Whitaker and has already made news at the Sundance Film Festival, Torino Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival and many others.
There have been several articles about the violence between the different rival sects of the bloods and the crips but none are thorough. They are mostly fragmented and speculative. The same could be said about any documentary film attempts which attempt to cover the lack of information with sensationalism and shock to scare the viewer into locking his or her door.
The film follows the emergence of of the Crips in the late 60s to early 70s by a pair of high school students to rival other notorious gangs of older boys in LA. They used to be called "cribs" to signify the young status of its members but the name eventually changed to "crips" to
represent the canes that the members carried. The gang became notorious and expanded rapidly not just to different parts of LA county but all over the country such as Houston, Texas and Bronx, NY.
The bloods supposedly arose from a splinter group of the crips and was ostracized. There only option was to meet with a "council" of other gangs to form a larger and stronger sect that can threaten the crips. The documentary traces the rise as well as the several attempts between different groups and ex-members to reconcile.The Film also covers the different activites of the gangs to finance their lifestyles and looks at the turf battles that fluctuate wildly along the streets like frontlines. Reconciliation attempts are also observed by different ex-members who have either had a change of heart or learned bluntly that life behind the steel bars of San Quentin would make even the most brutal of men sweat profusely. There are different groups promoting peace between the gangs along with many active members who just want to get out and live their lives but are bound to their gang: the only chance of leaving is by a bullet, whether it be friend or foe.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89209781


This is a piece by Michael Walker that appeared in Mens Vogue and NPR. He spent months watching and interviewing cargo pilots. He does an amazing job of portraying the daily life of a "freight dog,"looking at the fast-paced and stressful work, the antiquated planes, the peculiar cargo as well as the unpredictable weather. Walker portray "freight dogs" as the crazy yet brilliant gang of brazen assholes that they really are.

Every Saturday afternoon, a small group of people, mostly retirees, gather along Main street in White Plains. They carry posters and placards protesting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Every few seconds, a supportive driver comes down the street, honking and cheering. Some pedestrians wave. Others just display a look of puzzlement.

Receipts

I realized that the only thing I have in abundance is receipts (grocery stores, delis, diners, restaurants, etc.) so I thought it would be cool to start collecting them and writing up everything I can remember about being at that certain place and everything i saw and did. Doesn't sound too wonderful but it kills some time for spring.

I took this picture of a freind at some diner. The morning light was interesting. The food not so much.

Cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2008_12_02/en/index.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSL9270441._CH_.2400

http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/contentCholeraZimbabwe.aspx

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7NZSZT?OpenDocumenthttp:

//www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5323595.ece

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7780728.stm

http://www.healthline.com/blogs/outdoor_health/2008/12/cholera-in-zimbabwe.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNXc0HEDDrE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-tBP2sVMQ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM5rLNysU4Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbDvsEyLAQI

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=cholera-in-zimbabwe-old-epidemic-in-2008-12-12

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98013280

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2008/2008-12-10-02.asp

http://www.zimbabwetoday.co.uk/2009/01/index.html

http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2008/08112711451003.htm

Just a short...kind of short list of links to several articles and videos regarding the cholera outbreaks in Zimbabwe. The sudden rise of the disease may be attributed to several things. From an economic perspective, Zimbabwe, especially the rural areas, is and has been for quite some time, in a severe economic crisis. By severe I also mean that not just sensationalized severe but extremely high rates of unemployment and inflation. Most people who do get cholera do not have the capital or means to get to a field hospital. Most bus or cab drivers will not even take Zimbabwean dollars.
From an environmental perspective, cholera is the direct result of a freshwater system (ground water, rivers, ponds, etc.) that has been polluted immensely and mismanaged. A water system under stress from waste (human, livestock), garbage,chemicals, development and a dense population. This is what may have led to the presence of cholera in the water and surrounding areas but overall mismanagement of the situation by officials, doctors, scientists and others is what allowed several sporadic cases to erupt into a full-blown epidemic.

I'll catch that pesky senior thesis

Senior project ideas. Some sources that I'm looking through for an interesting story.

http://www.who.int/en/ World Health Organization site (publications, lists,

statistics, etc.)

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/ Stories, press releases, photos, research

articles. Deals with worldwide disease,

crisis, particularly in Africa, Middle East

http://www.epa.gov/ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( Articles,

information, articles, database and maps of

environmental issues)

http://www.cdc.gov/ Basic information regarding health and disease

http://www.unep.org/ United Nations Environment Program ( worldwide

survey of ecological fitness, key areas (hotspots)

discussed, contains resources for journalists page)

http://www.edf.org/home.cfm Environmental Defense Fund ( Has a "for the media

page" which provides, press releases, names, e-mails,

info, numbers of numerous experts and lawmakers)

http://www.actionbioscience.org/environment/ List of current environment,

biodiversity, evolution,

biotechnology, etc. problems

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_environmental_disasters Insight and data

for a plethora of

environmental

disaster case studies.

Many links included.