Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Against drilling for oil in the Arctic seas off Greenland - Greenpeace Live

gobeyondoil
A new era, beyond oil...
Our campaigners have evaded a huge security operation and have scaled Cairn Energy's controversial oil rig in the Arctic seas off Greenland, shutting it down - live updates below.
Arctic drilling has got to stop. Tell Cairn's boss, Bill Gammell to stop drilling now.
Take Action >
For background on Cairn's Arctic drilling, watch this video. Action updates appear automatically below. To send a message to the ship, reply to @gp_espy on Twitter.
Read more at www.gobeyondoil.org

"for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"

Imre Kertész

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2002

Imre Kertész

Prize motivation: "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history"
Read more at nobelprize.org

The long, slow, and painful death of photojournalism

Somebody has to bring home the content - who will that be when the people who did it have packed their bags and gone home?
For the last thirty-odd years, I’ve been listening to people talk about, or predict the death of photojournalism. John Szarkowski, the legendary curator of photography at MOMA New York even said that photojournalism stopped being interesting after 1958; I was just out of nappies then. Yet, somehow I’ve devoted just about all my working life to social documentary photography and nearly 25 years to photojournalism.
Okay, I’m that friend and I’m stepping forward and calling it. “Photojournalism: time of death 11.12. GMT 1st August 2010.” Amen.
Read more at www.epuk.org

Model Release - Photographers - Editorial - Newspapers - Myths - Facts

Here is a clearly-written description of when a model release is needed and when it is not in the USA - other countries' mileage varies.

Don’t Buy In to the Model Release Myth

The myth I’m writing about today has undoubtedly caused thousands of excellent, award-winning photos never to be taken. It’s the myth of the model release for editorial use.
Photography columnists, unaware of their First Amendment rights, have been fanning the fires of this issue for years. A wall of mythology has built up around the subject, and I’ll make the first move to break it down for you:
No, editorial stock photographers: you do not need model releases.
A good rule of thumb would be to ask yourself, “Would a newspaper photographer ask for a model release in this situation?”
You might now be asking, “So why was I under the impression that model releases are always required?”
Read more at rising.blackstar.com

Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Golden Light Sutra

At death, when phlegm, wind and bile have been exhausted
the body is filled with urine and foul matter
Not pleasant, it becomes a heap of worms
Discarded like wood at the charnel ground

Speed Limits On British Roads

... because I am always forgetting the maximum speed on unmarked single carriageways and have to deduce it backwards from remembering that sometimes there are 50mph signs on them, so that 'no sign' must mean a higher speed than that, and it cannot be 70mph because that is for motorways - ergo is must be 60mph


Speed limits  Built-up areas * Single carriage-ways Dual carriage-ways  Motorways 
 Type of vehicle mph (km/h) mph (km/h) mph (km/h) mph (km/h)
 Cars & motorcycles
(including car-derived vans up to 2 tonnes maximum laden weight)
30 (48) 60 (96) 70 (112) 70 (112)
 Cars towing caravans or trailers
(including car-derived vans and motorcycles)
30 (48) 50 (80) 60 (96) 60 (96) 
 Buses, coaches and minibuses(not exceeding 12 metres in overall length) 30 (48) 50 (80)  60 (96) 70 (112)
 Goods vehicles(not exceeding 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight) 30 (48) 50 (80) 60 (96) 70 (112) **
 Goods vehicles
(exceeding 7.5 tonnes maximum laden weight)
30 (48) 40 (64) 50 (80) 60 (96)
* The 30 mph limit usually applies to all traffic on all roads with street lighting unless signs show otherwise.
** 60 mph (96 km/h) if articulated or towing a trailer.
Read more at www.direct.gov.uk

Gussied Up

The origin of "gussied up" is unclear, but it probably stems from the American and Australian slang term "gussie," a nic...