couldn't resist putting original parrot sketch on the blog

Still works. It wa sa great idea then and still remains so.



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and now we have fingerboarding

Have a look here http://www.bulletinboardforum.com/youtube/FDzYexhX8Gc/Fingerboard.html

And on youtube there are lots of fingerboard clips. I am now in an ongoing state of gobsmackobeia- What people are showing daily on the internet. A whole world that wa spassing me by.

Whilst I am thinking about it I went to see Blood Diamond. Good film. De Caprio was very good.

Jonathon Swift eats babies

A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick [sic], commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a satirical pamphlet written by Jonathan Swift in 1729. The work has now become one of the epitomes of satire, and the modern phrase “a modest proposal” derives from the work.Swift proposed that poor Irish families sell their children to be eaten, thereby earning income for the family.
Written as an attack on the indifference of landlords to the state of their tenants and the political economists with their calculations on the schemes to raise income, the essay contains scathing comments about the state of the poor and their landlords.
Swift goes to great length to support his argument, including a list of possible preparation styles for the children and calculating the financial benefits of his suggestion. He uses common methods of argument throughout his essay, such as appealing to the authority of “a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London” and “the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa” (who had already confessed to not being from Formosa in 1706). Swift couches his arguments in then-current events, exploiting common prejudice against Papists and slyly pointing out the predations of England. After enumerating the benefits of his proposal, Swift addresses possible objections including the depopulation of Ireland and a litany of other solutions which he dismisses as impractical.
This essay is widely believed to be the greatest example of sustained irony in the history of the English language.[citation needed]. Much of its shock value derives from the fact that the first portion of the essay describes the plight of starving beggars in Ireland, so that the reader is unprepared for the surprise of Swift’s solution when he states, “A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.”
Even today, readers unacquainted with its reputation as a satirical work often do not immediately realize that Swift was not seriously proposing cannibalism. It is no longer true, as it was in Swift’s time, that any educated reader would be familiar with the Satires of Horace and Juvenal, and so recognize that Swift’s essay follows the rules and structure of Latin satires.
The satirical element of the pamphlet is often only understood after the reader notes the allusions made by Swift to the attitudes of landlords, such as the following: “I grant this food may be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for Landlords, who as they have already devoured most of the Parents, seem to have the best Title to the Children.” Swift extends the metaphor to get in a few jibes at his perception of England’s mistreatment of Ireland, noting that “For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.”The satirical intent of A Modest Proposal was misunderstood by many of Swift’s peers, and he was harshly criticized for writing prose in such exceptionally “bad taste.” He came close to losing his patronage because of this essay.[citation needed] Swift’s audience confused the essay’s subject—indifference to the suffering of the Irish poor—with the essay’s topic of cannibalism. This effect was accentuated because nothing in the unrelentingly sincere tone of the narrative voice hints that the proposal is unpalatable.



I found this and I am suprised at the use of Swift. yet one gets the feeling that people like the shock value as simple sensationalism. Not trying to say anything or if so only at a very superficial level. In fact all in tune with current cultural mores.

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South East England Snow

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Tango class near the Arsenal

I went to the Tango class at the factory dance studio,tangoinlondon.com. The Factory is a dance school/gym that is situated not far from the new Arsenal football stadium. There is a modern Gym and lots of dance and sports classes incuding pole dancing and fencing tuition from the leading lights in modern Olympic British Fencing.
The Tango class was very informal and friendly. This week they taught a milonga class. Steve went through a whole range of techniques and steps that everyone found both enjoyable and informative. Steve also bucks a trend in London for charging exorbitant sums of money and teaching very little. There are others with similar principles like Tango Federico. All in all a very enjoyable evening was had by all.


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Parental Madness

http://media.santoalt.com/35e472594ff3afd1d1e0bd3a76dc9931.wmv

Photography and 3D scanning

Have a look at the website of this photographer who worked with supermodel Naomi Cambell to create a scan of her
http://www.showstudio.com/projects/naomi/





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More of Ben Street Performing

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Covent Garden Street performing

here is Ben a street performer in Covent Garden teaching audience volunteers to relax, maybe.



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Hiccup Monkey

From the Sun the following story SOKOJOO the baby monkey has been abandoned by her mother - because of her chronic HICCUPS.
The tiny Colobus started the noisy spasms within days of being born on December 30.

Staff at Newquay Zoo in Cornwall said she was gulping down milk from her mum Sierra too quickly and making the ’hic’ sound after every feed.

The problem got so bad that Sierra refused to feed her and started sitting on top of the 800g mite as a sign of rejection.



Cute ... Sokojoo will be slowly reintroduced to
the Colobus monkey adults
Keepers have now removed Sokojoo from the Colobus enclosure and are hand-rearing her with a bottle.

Cute picture


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Flickr possibilities

Check this website for all sorts of options http://thomashawk.com/2007/01/top-10-hacks-on-flickr.html

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mechanical elephant

As reported on the site of redbaronsantiques, In the years immediately following WWII, Europe was badly beaten and bombed out. Morale and optimism were virtually nonexistent. Enter mid- century visionary and successful English inventor Frank Stuart.

Stuart was intent on developing a way to boost the European economy as well as brighten the spirits of the general populous. The fruit of his labor is this mechanical Robot Walking Elephant Car.

Powered by a four cylinder Chevy engine, all hydraulics, tucked neatly inside the body cavity. The elephant literally skates along at speeds of up to 20 mph.

Stuart made three of the in 1947. One is permanently housed in a museum in Austria, one as well used for decades by the Hudson Department store in Detroit (it was later sold to a private museum in Chicago where it resides today) and one was kept by the inventor. It is the latter pictured here and it comes to us from his family who cared for it after his demise. In all likelihood, it will be the only one ever to come up for public auction.

It has been featured over the years on Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Forbes and the October 1999 issue of Architectural Digest Motoring. It has graced the presence of numerous parades and festivals over the years, but its crowning achievement came in 1952 when President Eisenhower rode it to the Republican National Convention in front of a hoard of reporters, cameras and well wishers.

Its smile elicits a smile from all who see it and its value lies in its ability to attract attention and goodwill in parades, as an advertising tool or just in appreciation of one man's labor of love.

It is truly among the rarest and most unique mechanical collectibles ever sold at auction.

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10 free photographic lessons

Yes there are 10 free online lessons here http://www.morguefile.com/archive/classroom.php






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How to get bank charges repaid promptly

From a report in the Daily Mail,

A man who was fed up with paying massive bank charges decided to give one of the high street giants a taste of its own medicine.

When Royal Bank of Scotland refused to refund £3,400 charges that Declan Purcell believed he was owed, he sent in the bailiffs.

Stunned customers at his branch of RBS watched as debt collectors seized four computers, two fax machines and a till filled with cash.

The branch manager was told that the items would be sold unless RBS came up with the money owed to Mr Purcell.

Only when the manager gave an undertaking that the debt would be paid did the bailiffs leave.

What a lark.
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the power of digital photography

The following was reported on Ananova website, An Italian burglar was caught after failing to steal a digital camera which she had used to take a picture of herself.

Lucia di Matta, 46, took jewellery and other valuables from a flat in Turin, but left the camera with her picture on it after she decided it was old and not worth stealing.

An Italian police spokesman said: "She put it down on a table without realising that she had accidentally taken her own picture with it."

Police identified her after the owner of the flat came back to find the money and jewellery missing but the extra picture on his digital camera.

The woman was given a suspended sentence and ordered to return the money and valuables to her victim.

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Body language well not quite

http://www.xuol.net/hosted_pages/x9YTxff3pHU


So many pretentious books on this subject. Interesting to see a send up.

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Fox news brings us a virgin birth

MANCHESTER, England — A British zoo announced Wednesday the virgin birth of five Komodo dragons, giving scientists new hope for the captive breeding of the endangered species.

In an evolutionary twist, the newborns' eight-year-old mother Flora shocked staff at Chester Zoo in northern England when she became pregnant without ever having a male partner or even having been exposed to the opposite sex.

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Phones show you where to go

According to the BBC we will soon be getting phones that have Gps systems on them. Well I will be able to find my way to jobs.



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Strange what captures people of the internet

I am lost for words. The strange world of reality TV and reality internet.


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what the duck cartoon google it

© 2007 Aaron Johnson

Duck cartoons meet photography

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CNN report to cliche or not to cliche

Dolce & Gabbana
Models in space-suit style zip-heavy jumpsuits in whites and metallic colours strode down the catwalk, watched by over 1,000 reporters, buyers and photographers, as the lights flicked from blue to white and the soundtrack of the film "2001 -- A Space Odyssey" filled the converted cinema.

Space suits and 2001 Creative???



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Yahoo Panda story

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BBC reports on Dali exhibition at Tate Modern

Dali's heroes included Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton

An unfinished short Salvador Dali hoped to make with Walt Disney will form part of a Tate Modern exhibition about the Spanish artist's fascination with film.
Dali worked on Destino for more than nine months between 1945 and 1946, but money ran out before it was completed.

The six-minute film was eventually made in 2003 by Disney's nephew Roy and was nominated for an Academy Award.

The short will feature in Dali & Film, running at the Tate Modern gallery in London from 1 June to 9 September.



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F-Secure gone Phishing

F-secure informs us how virus writers are quick to use natural disasters

Helsinki, Finland - January 19, 2007, A significant network attack was launched globally in the early hours of Thursday morning (GMT) using news of a European storm as the hook to lure the unsuspecting. The message, which was created and launched literally as the storm raged, is exploiting a timely widescale media event as the key mechanism for delivering its payload.


The Trojan was distributed in messages with subject line of "230 dead as storm batters Europe". The payload in this case was the Small.DAM Trojan that was downloaded into all vulnerable machines upon opening of the spam mail’s attachment such as "Read More.exe". Once inside the machine, the Trojan creates a backdoor that can be exploited later by the malware authors behind the assault.

As has been seen with other attacks, the likely intention is to create a new raft of zombie computers to steal information and to further propagate large-scale spam and phishing runs.

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A baby Loris

How about this picture. The story is the attempt to save the Loris from extinction. Picture from the BBC website.



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new horisons probe moving towards Jupiter

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Dennis leary at baseball match

watch this

Scammers beware

Have a look at this news story http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6150592.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1009_3-0-10&subj=news


Given my earlier post the above story shows what can happen to scammers. And it explains phishing.

ALERT identity scam or get your bank details scam

Attached is the first E mail I received and also a link chas found relating to the same type of wording. It is pretty obvious that it is either a poor practical joke or some type of a scam. But there is always a chance that someone might be fooled and that they could give away enough information to create an identity scam.


On 18 Jan 2007, at 10:49, Dusty Richard wrote:
My name is Dusty Richard,i work with Bowmer & Kirkland Uk Construction Company and i am from Uk, in the company that i work we have a big contract in NEW ZEALAND to build a petroleum refinary for the country, there i meet my fiancee named Debby Terry and we are planning to come back to the united kingdom to have our monumental or chestration mean wedding on the 24th of feb 2007. So your service will be needed at the receiption after the church service which will start from 12:00pm to 2:00pm, i will like you to state all your charges within this period of time and get back to me. Finally i will like you to get back to me with your contact details as stated below;

Your full name:
Your full contact address:
Home/cell contact telephone number:

I will be really glad to meet you, have a nice day and stay blessed.
My heartfelt regards,
Dusty

Name: Dusty richard
E-mail address: dusty_ric02@yahoo.com


Here is the link we found that is similar

http://boards.dallasstars.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=444194&Main=444170

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Amused me

From a manifesto on Stuckism,"The Stuckists are, therefore, opposed to the current pretensions of so-called Brit Art, Performance Art, Installation Art, Video Art, Conceptual Art, Minimal Art, Body Art, Digital Art and anything claiming to be art which incorporates dead animals or beds - mainly because they are unremarkable and boring."

"SUMMARY

Stuckism is a radical and controversial art group that was co-founded in 1999 by Charles Thomson and Billy Childish (who left in 2001) along with eleven other artists. The name was derived by Thomson from an insult to Childish from his ex-girlfriend, Brit artist Tracey Emin, who had told him that his art was 'Stuck'. Stuckists are pro-contemporary figurative painting with ideas and anti-conceptual art, mainly because of its lack of concepts. Stuckists have regularly demonstrated dressed as clowns against the Turner Prize. Several Stuckist Manifestos have been issued. One of them Remodernism inaugurates a renewal of spiritual values for art, culture and society to replace the emptiness of current Postmodernism. The web site www.stuckism.com, started by Ella Guru, has disseminated these ideas, and in five years Stuckism has grown to an international art movement with over 100 groups round the world. These groups are independent and self-directed."

Digital Photographer magazine and sensors

I picked up a copy of Digital Photographer magazine issue 52 at the SWPP convention on the weekend. There were some very interesting pieces. I enjoyed reading an article,' sensors explained 'on page 56. Very informative.


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poetry break

"Procrastination is my sin.
It brings me naught but sorrow.
I know that I should stop it.
In fact, I will - tomorrow!
Gloria Pitzer

Grand Hotel Eastbourne

I was working in the Grand on Saturday. What a wonderful Hotel. A magnificent example of Victorian splendour. One of the pictures shows a table of young people with interconnected balloon hats. after completing this construction the creator felt the need for a ventilator. The other is of a mentalist called Graham Jolley who is astounding.

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Novetel see below

working tonight in Greenwich

we were working tonight at a celebration for trainees of Barclays bank. It was at the novotel. The people who employed us did the decor and it was fascinating how they could achieve so much impact in what was quite a small room. I enjoyed seeing the quality of the food that the hotel put on as well as the way they laid it out.
But more than this I am still fascinated by peoples reactions and watching for those sweet expressions when they are truly relaxed and smiling. It feels good when I catch those moments.


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Have a look

Have a look at the blog of nils jorgenson http://nilsphoto.blogspot.com/

interesting article in2point 4 magazine

Have a look here http://2point8.whileseated.org/?p=102 I mentioned this interview earlier, its worth a look, the pictures at the end made me smile.

Morning Light

Clown at the new year parade

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from discussion in2point8 magazine

A discussion with Nils Jorgensen, "Q: I’ve mentioned elsewhere here (or at least I thought I did) that there are two strong and particular streams in street photography: the Sander/Arbus/conversation side and the H.C.Bresson/Winogrand/candid side. Can you talk a bit about how you ended-up on the moment-based Winogrand side? Have you done much conversation-based portrait work, or is it always candids?

A: Getting involved and talking to people is simply not the way I like to work, nor has it ever occurred to me to do so. It is not in my nature to approach people unless forced to for some reason. It could be that early on I was too embarrassed to approach people, and have simply kept working like that ever since. But the truth is I don’t really want to disturb the flow of life around me. I much prefer waiting and hoping for something to happen. It’s also much simpler. For me the whole point of photography is not to interfere with what is happening, or might be about to happen. It could be more interesting than what I might have in mind anyway. If nothing happens, that’s just too bad." An interesting dichotomy? I think the situation is far more complex than this. Can one be a fly on the wall? Invisible? Can the attempt to try and be invisible lead to actually being more obvious.

I don't have a perfect answer. As Pressmen working in the style of fake/spoof/comic/digital paparazzi we tend to use what might be called a conversationalist approach. But that can allow us the conditions to move to a more candid approach. I suppose it is all about flexibility and feeling the correct way on each individual job.

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Photograpers umbilical cord!!

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A little colour from a past season

Spring

another picture from susan and phils xmas party

The pianist and trumpet player make a good addition to play at your party.


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Little bit of cooking in the square

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Boys on a boy, new years eve Bournmouth

New Year Parade 2007