If you feel the need to break barriers make sure that it is actually breakable. It is commendable to try to redefine some border, but is it really about the "border" or your "ego"?
Often checking your inner attitude is the most important thing before you go against the wall. Maybe the wall only exists in your head?
America (or better say the right wing of the country) continues to give Al-Qaeda and the Taliban brilliant propaganda material.
Instead of being true to their own "holy" constitution religious freedom is only granted to Christians. Mosques and Muslims are not welcomed. Hate trumps religious freedom. Muslim equals Terrorist. This is so 12th century thinking …
Once again America looses the moral high ground (remember systematic torture and ignorance of human rights of prisoners).
I especially loathe the American Rights constant whining about "protecting the constitution" on one side and trampling it when it comes to "not true Americans" (Liberals, Muslims, Hispanics etc.).
Don’t propagate "great American Liberties" if you are not really willing to share them with others AND live by the high standards it implies.
Click image for more wind.
History will remember Hurricane Katrina as one of the first big catastrophe of the Climate Change.
But it will also be remembered as an obvious marker of The great American Decline. New Orleans and the whole region still hasn’t recovered. It is a shame that the so called "richest country of the world" is unable to rebuild and invigorate such a great city.
There is one more thing about Katrina: it showed that such a big catastrophe need international cooperation and a highly efficient response team – and not amateurs and profiteers like it happened in the US.
Click images for more poverty.
Almost every year Asia is ravaged by Monsoon Rains. Each year many people die. It has happened before and I am afraid will happen again.
The Monsoon shouldn’t be a problem. Many nations face dangerous storms and floods.
But especially in Asia the infrastructure isn’t there to deal with such problems. While European countries build damns and other measures to tame the floods in many poor nations millions of people live close to the rivers in unsecured houses. These people are ignorant, just a bit of heavy rain sweeps away them away and kills them.
Yet again and again people move there, rebuild their wobbly houses, breed like mad and hardly do anything to improve the infrastructure.
For example the canals and power station at the Kajaki Dam in Afghanistan has been built 1953 with American help (and the whole project was a disaster from the beginning). But my point is that since that project the Afghan people themselves hardly made an effort to expand on this project or just keep it in shape.
But back to the floods and bad infrastructure.
Not all countries are that ignorant. In Thailand or Cambodia people have been building houses on stilts for centuries that can even stand against heavy floods. All their belongings are in the upper floor, so nothing gets damaged.
Stilts for rich people … (click for a larger version)
… stilts for the poor. (click for a larger version)
Pakistan and many other Asian Nations populations have exploded in the last 50 years. In many cases these nations were unable or unwilling to build the infrastructure to handle the masses. Corruption in all levels of society, incompetence and ignorance are also equally dangerous.
A good example is Pakistan at the moment. Although this country has a huge army way too few units helped with the disaster relief in the beginning. Most of the troops stayed on the border to India in case the archenemy would invade. National paranoia instead of competent help …
Click images for more gruesome details.
When you travel to exotic countries you will face slick salesman offering you endangered animals.
You can buy them cheaply, but you certainly can’t take them with you. Export is often strictly forbidden and punished with harsh sentences. But often these rare animals end up as food.
In either way tourism and poverty are a danger to these animals.
I still think 1941 is one of Steven Spielberg‘s best movies: funny, yet with political and social twists. But this is not Spielberg’s Genius at work, but Robert Zemeckis.
My favourite character from the movie is obviously played by the late John Belushi. Enjoy!
Click image for more details.
They always say "we are alone", but it’s actually our psyche that invokes that drama. The mind can’t really connect with another one – it can "swing" on the same wave length and feel recognized …
But our bodies can physically connect with each other, ranging from violent contact to total pleasure. When we arrive on this planet we actually LEAVE the closest contect we will ever have – the womb of our mothers – to be single creatures. Maybe it’s that primal closeness the mind and our bodies long for?
But in our last moments we don’t need to die alone. Another kind soul can physically and emotionally connect with us.
There is such a thing as a last comfort –unless your mind refuses to accept that …
Click image for more rain.
Another great Andō Hiroshige! I love the symmetry of the travellers going uphill and the trees all "pointing" to the left. The traveller to the right break this symmetry by fleeing against "the grain" …
Simple symmetric visual trick to evoke the stress and tension of a sudden rainstorm.
Click image for a larger pinkness overkill …
If stopped by the Cuteness Police put on your best smile and hand over your carrots.
Click image for more fat.
The rich and fat nations need to export all their extra nutritious and unhealthy food to the poor and starving people.
We need to reach a fat equality on this planet.
(This essay is partly inspired by the great Washington Post Project Top Secret America.)
Since 9/11 American Imperialism as well as sheer panic and political ignorance has created a two-headed monster in addition to the military-industrial-complex.
The first head is the privatization of war and the second is a HUGE apparatus of Intelligence Agencies beyond belief …
So President Obama has fulfilled his promise and the last "combat troops" are leaving Iraq. Finally "Mission accomplished?"
Hardly. The US leaves behind thousands of well armed "non-combat" troops to support the wobbly Iraq Government (which still doesn’t exist several months after the election) and there are still thousands of private "security contractors".
Another American who brought a lot of "Change" …
Under Donald Rumsfeld the way America fights it’s wars has greatly changed. Many tasks that were done by grants (ranging from cooking to guarding military installations) were outsourced to Private Security firms like Blackwater.
The private sector had always made a good profit from supporting troops, but the sheer scale of the private involvement made it all different. Companies like Blackwater and Halliburton overtook military and logistical operations like never before. And they made huge profits like never before.
In Iraq and Afghanistan trigger happy mercenaries were more feared than the regular coalition troops. And in many cases they were above the law, which means that Afghan or Iraqi Families had no chance to take any legal action against mercenaries who killed many people in non-combat situations. It was and still is a threat to all Western efforts in the Middle East, because these "irregular troops" are hardly a shining example of Western principles like the Rule of Law …
But the Private Soldiers also frustrated and angered many American Troops. Compared to them regular Soldiers are badly paid and have to stick to the Rules of Engagement. No surprise that many Iraq and Afghan Veterans went "private" after their Tours of Duty. It was and still is a big Gold Rush ….
Private Security Guards were not very appreciated in Iraq …
These "private" Armies do a lot of dirty work for the Pentagon and many other American agencies. Covert Operations are nothing new, but at least when the Government does it directly there is some form of Accountability. But thanks to the private sector it’s now easier to put a huge "distance" between the political masters and their dark interests and public accountability. Even the CIA and of course the regular troops have to follow certain rules and document their actions. Private Armies don’t need to follow such "limitations".
Click image for more awesomeness …
How to wage a war is to a certain degree "regulated" in the Geneva Conventions – which is a good thing. It brings at least some Humanity to the Madness. One of the biggest achievement were the Nürnberg Trials to prosecute and punish the German War Criminals.
But private security contractors operate (often) outside the Law of the Country they work in (like Afghanistan or Iraq) as well as outside the Laws of the Country they were hired by. So they ignore the Geneva Conventions as well as any other legal system to protect humanity.
Truth to be told: the US still refused to sign the treaty to join the International Criminal Court anyway.
So there is now a huge private Army of the American Shadow Empire. It not only gobbles up huge sums of money, but it also undermines American accountability and trustworthiness.
The US always had a several agencies to deal with its security needs: most famously the CIA for external affairs, the FBI for internal problems, the NSA as it’s global listening post plus the Security Service of the Armed Forces (like Naval Intelligence).
But after 9/11 and the failure of all these service to stop the hijackers this apparatus exploded. First the was a completely new agency with a huge budget: the Department of Homeland Security. Then more and more little agencies were founded and funded. The Security of the Homeland became a huge trough for Bureaucrats and private companies alike.
Give me more Security Agencies of I’ll scare you to death …
Today there are 45 American government organizations that do top-secret work. There are nearly 2.000 private companies that support or work on top-security projects. Over 800.000 people in the US have Top Security Clearance. No wonder Dick Cheney invented his own Security Clearance …
Instead of streamlining the lines of communication between it’s Intelligence Agencies, America has now a giant network that is even less efficient and hardly intelligent at all.
Even the Soviets didn’t have such an Apparatchik. And speaking of the Soviets – even during the heights of the Cold War America didn’t spend as much money on "security" and did have a much smaller "intelligence apparatus".
Welcome to Soviet-style Paranoia dear American Comrades …
The panic of 9/11 and the greed of politicians, bureaucrats and business has created this monster. It is amazing to see how weak the American Spirit is when confronted with a few Muslim Extremists. Not even the giant Soviet or the Chinese Armies could inspire so much Shock & Awe …
This is a "Freudenfest" for any Conspiracy Theorist and a nightmare for any Civil Rights Activist, because the American Public was only too eager to hand over it’s liberties as well as it’s Dollars. And American Paranoia doesn’t stop there. European Agencies and Governments are forced by America to comply and deliver any information this giant Moloch demands – or face serious political repercussions.
The US should over think it’s security concept and it’s national insecurities. It currently suffers more and more from paranoia it can no longer afford.
The US wouldn’t be the first Empire to die from Imperial Overstretch.
The Trillion Dollar cost of the Iraq war was borrowed from the Chinese. The American Tax payer will sooner or later face the burden – and the already incredible US Deficit will grow …
No other country spends more money on Defence and Intelligence like the US at the moment. Not even all G20 Nations spend as much.
The US will sooner or later die because of "Security Obesity". It’s addiction to it’s inefficient and ever hungry Military-Industrial-Complex will kill this great Nation …
If you use animals pain for your pleasure and entertainment you don’t deserve any better. I am not a vegetarian or even animal rights activist, but to inflict pain for “fun” on any creature is unbearable for me.
Or to rephrase the whole situation: don’t play with food when it’s alive. Give it a good life, kill it quickly and “human”.
Although Bread is not easy to make it is one of our oldest food. You need long term planning to farm the land, harvest the wheat and turn it into flour, gather yeast (first of all you have to understand the process of fermentation), build an oven and get into baking.
Anyone who has manually made bread know that’s a complex process and a lot could go wrong.
Obviously bread became very popular after we started the Neolithic agricultural revolution about (9.000 years ago). Interestingly wheat was first used in the fertile crescent and slowly improved into a better crop:
Cultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent after about 8,000 BCE. Jared Diamond traces the spread of cultivated emmer wheat starting in the Fertile Crescent about 8500 BCE, reaching Greece, Cyprus and India by 6500 BCE, Egypt shortly after 6000 BCE, and Germany and Spain by 5000 BCE. "The early Egyptians were developers of bread and the use of the oven and developed baking into one of the first large-scale food production industries." By 3,000 BCE, wheat had reached England, and Scandinavia. A millennium later it reached China.
So wheat was not native to the Americas until the Europeans arrived in the 16th century. The Americans had Maize and Potatoes (which was imported back to Europe).
Bread is not only nutritious but also delicious. And there is such a huge variety of recipes all over the world. Making bread was greatly improved by new insights into chemistry and industrial baking processes. Especially new milling processes helped to improve the quality of bread:
The industrialization of bread-baking was a formative step in the creation of the modern world. Otto Frederick Rohwedder is considered to be the father of sliced bread. In 1912 Rohwedder started work on inventing a machine that sliced bread, but bakeries were reluctant to use it since they were concerned the sliced bread would go stale. It was not until 1928, when Rohwedder invented a machine that both sliced and wrapped the bread, that sliced bread caught on. A bakery in Chillicothe, Missouri was the first to use this machine to produce sliced bread.
For generations, white bread was the preferred bread of the rich while the poor ate dark (whole grain) bread. However, in most western societies, the connotations reversed in the late 20th century, with whole grain bread becoming preferred as having superior nutritional value while white bread became associated with lower-class ignorance of nutrition.
Another major advance happened in 1961 with the development of the Chorleywood Bread Process which used the intense mechanical working of dough to dramatically reduce the fermentation period and the time taken to produce a loaf. The process, whose high-energy mixing allows for the use of inferior grain, is now widely used around the world in large factories.
More recently, and especially in smaller retail bakeries, chemical additives are used that both speed up mixing time and reduce necessary fermentation time, so that a batch of bread may be mixed, made up, risen, and baked in less than 3 hours. Dough that does not require fermentation because of chemical additives is called "no-time bread" by commercial bakers. Common additives include reducing agents such as L-cysteine or sodium metabisulfite, and oxidants such as potassium bromate or ascorbic acid. Often these chemicals are added to dough in the form of a prepackaged base, which also contains most or all of the dough’s non-flour ingredients. Using such bases and sophisticated chemistry, it has been possible for commercial bakers to make imitations of artisan and sourdough breads, traditionally made by semi-skilled labor working in smaller shops.
Recently, domestic breadmakers that automate the process of making bread have become popular in the home.
I am lucky to live in a country which has clung to it’s rich traditions of local bakeries and bread recipes. Sure, you also get all that industrial "empty" bread here, but also an amazing variety of sourdough and very old-school breads. Especially the Green Revolution has made many bakers look back and unearth old methods and recipes that had been discarded during the industrial revolution.
I did like eMail, but the new Maid Mail makes even SPAM extremely enjoyable.
Amazingly many people couldn’t believe that Freddy was gay after his coming out.
Even more amazing is that some people think that Gay men can’t be manly or fight in Wars (unless you are an American Right Wing Nut).
Why does being gay always include that odd feminization factor? Emasculating is such a stupid act of self defence. And even the toughest guy guys benefit from their so called feminine side anyway …
Click images for a larger thrill.
These days is not enough to have an amazing pint of view and simply enjoy those mountains or canyons.
No, we needs some whacky platforms for mad tourists to give them an extra kick by hanging over the abyss.
Nature itself is boring, we need to enhance the experience for some extra cash.
Dear Corporate, Marketing and PR-People please stop pretending that your company really cares about anything but itself and it’s profits.
You could yourselves a lot of your time and money – and spare us a lot of disappointment, anger and time as well.
Just tell us what you are willing to give us in exchange for our money, data and time – and we decide if it’s worth it.
Spare us the marketing platitudes and false "feel-good-shows" to get our endorsement. Sooner or later your greed will show through and that’s always ugly …
This is the mother of all phone – although I suspect that within one or two generations they will have forgotten this "eternal shape" apart from icons on their iPhone.
The good old wired phone was simple: no apps, no updates, no software crashes, no complex setup, no options, no manual, no additional features, no volume control, no different ring tones, no bloody music player, no extension slots, no memory cards, no USB port …
Just a phone and not even portable – and we loved it.
The proves that you can’t improve a "working solution" by adding more crap. The Killer Application of Phones is making calls. No more, no less. Everything else on top is negligible.
Thanks to the huge failure of the Copenhagen Climate Summit the ugly topic climate change has been largely ignored by the media and politicians in recent months.
The collapse of our banking system and the still wobbly economic situation was much more closer to us than the bloody weather.
But 2010 was so far another year of extreme extremes: torching heat in Russia and the US, floods in China, Europe and most terrible of all Pakistan.
Overall Pakistan’s dire situation doesn’t evoke much sympathy and therefore money. But it’s scale and impact and human life shows how much of a thread climate change is to all of us.
Still the most recent climate conference here in Germany produced no results at all.
This political squabbling seems almost surreal when people die by the thousands in China and Pakistan because of extreme weather …
Climate Change needs most of all political change. One planet – one weather system …
Mel Brooks has made many fine movies, but I think Young Frankenstein was his best.
Although released 1974 it still is funny – not many comedies aged that gracefully. It’s pace is a bit slow for today’s fast action world, but hey … the seventies were on a different speed anyway.
It takes many human lifespans for a tree to grow so tall and magnificent. Yet we seem determined to chop down every tree that is just tall enough to be useful for our industrial lifestyle.
We need to respect time and processes. We need to give nature space and respect to work and grow. Otherwise we destroy ourselves …
All modern browsers offer a privacy mode for "safely" browsing the web. Most people will use it for pr0n surfing and maybe some Social Network Stalking.
But it’s an illusion that this special mode can "hide" you on the net.
First of all you always will have an IP address that will allow any web site provider to identify you. When you dial in using your DSL or Cable Modem connection you get an IP assigned by your ISP. If you are using a business connection you probably have a static IP anyway.
Any device that is on the Internet has an IP address. No IP, no Internet.
It is possible to use so called anonymous proxy services or browser tools like TOR to hide behind behind another IP address, scramble your data and obfuscate your own IP address.
Is that real "safe" or better say anonymous browsing? Nope!
In many countries your ISP is required by law to protocol all your IP connections, which means some server is recording your surfing habits basically "at the source".
There is no way getting around that. Your ISP can always see from where your data packets come from or go to. Like I said before, you can use TOR or a VPN connection to scramble your data. So your ISP will at least see that you are talking to a VPN service.
All your traffic can be captured by the ISP and if the law services require it, they can try to crack the scrambled data.
But there are other problems: browser plug-ins like Flash or Java. They can betray you by telling websites your IP address. You either need to switch these plug-ins off or have a good security tool to make them shut up (at least for outgoing traffic).
Killing Flash takes out the joy of surfing most pr0n sites. And many other sites rely on Flash too.
So your best bet for anonymous surfing is TOR, but you have to allow it to kill Flash and some other plug-ins to make you really "invisible". But always remember that your ISP is able to see your outgoing and incoming connection (but not the scrambled data packets that are sent back and forth). Those packets can be captured and someone can try to decipher them.
Click image for more pollution.
Not all countries are as rich as the US or Europe. They lack the proper tools, facilities, training and government agencies to fight oil spills. The recent oil spill in China showed that people were willing to fight it with their bare hands.
Our oil-based lifestyle is toxic and dangerous. From drilling to refining and finally using it. Oil has to be handled carefully. And even after it’s burned it’s causing loads of problems.
Click image for a larger Wave.
Well, there is more than one famous ave in Japanese Art. This Andō Hiroshige has the same stirring qualities as Katsushika Hokusai‘s great Wave.
Click any image for a larger Shrimp.
This is once again a creature stranger than fiction. It’s small, has amazing colours and looks weirder than anything H.R. Giger could make up.
I was lucky enough to see one at the Hamburg Zoo and it is a unique strange something. I am glad evolution is so random, crazy and efficient at the same time.
You have to hold the iPhone 4 in a certain way to get a good reception. But that was only the beginning.
Here Steve Jobs demonstrates the upcoming iPhone 5 calling position.
Depending on the person you want to call and the carrier you are using it has to be a certain combination of expressive dance and worship in the direction of Cupertino.
Click image for more Nina.
There are only a few German Pop Stars that have achieved international recognition. Nina Hagen is one of them. She is pretty unique … almost desperate in her attempts to stand out.
This is a great portrait by Jim Rakete, who is also an internationally recognized artist on his own.
Inherit the Wind is one of the few "classic" movies about the conflict of religion versus science.
It is based on the book which in turn tries to reflect the Scopes Trial. Some people see it as one of the big modern fights between science and religion, but the reality is that it was all a cheap PR stunt:
Like so many archetypal American events, the trial itself began as a publicity stunt.
The press coverage of the "Monkey Trial" was overwhelming. The front pages of newspapers like the New York Times were dominated by the case for days. More than 200 newspaper reporters from all parts of the country and two from London were in Dayton.
Twenty-two telegraphers sent out 165,000 words per day on the trial over thousands of miles of telegraph wires hung for the purpose; more words were transmitted to Britain about the Scopes trial than for any previous American event.
Trained chimpanzees performed on the courthouse lawn.
Chicago’s WGN radio station broadcast the trial with announcer Quin Ryan via clear-channel broadcasts for the first on-the-scene coverage of a criminal trial. Two movie cameramen had their film flown out daily in a small plane from a specially prepared airstrip. H.L.
Mencken’s trial reports were heavily slanted against the prosecution and the jury which was "unanimously hot for Genesis." He mocked the town’s inhabitants as "yokels" and "morons." He called Bryan a "buffoon" and his speeches "theologic bilge." In contrast, he called the defense "eloquent" and "magnificent." Some creationists have claimed that Mencken’s trial reports turned public opinion against creationism.
As much as I like the movie and the great performance of all actors – it’s not "the real thing".
The debate still rages on in the US and some other countries were religious fundamentalists can’t cope with science. But there is no "contest" – science has long won the argument by simply delivering working technology and many solutions to human problems.
Religions so far have not alleviated the human condition. Religion was more a clamp on social progress than a transformer.
Until science took over as the tool to shape our societies there was hardly any social and technological progress. In the beginning science was shaped by many religious prejudices (like racism in eugenics). But science left religion behind … it’s time for us humans to catch up with all the scientific insights we have at our disposal.
Science will never be perfect, but it’s basic idea is to get better and leave wrong assumptions behind.
Religion doesn’t want to "improve" itself. The ideas and dogmas stay the same, even when they are wrong or simply not true.
The art of working with only two colours has mostly vanished. It was a financial constraint, because printing in four colours used to be very expensive. So designers made a special effort to use black and a special colour to maximum effect.
No matter how cute you are someone or something will eat you …
Commercial Airlines burn about 200 Million Tons of Kerosene each year. That’s a lot of fuel and a lot of CO2 as well.
But it seems like we might have found an replacement: fuel made from Algae. A German Team recently flew the first plane with that green stuff.
Growing algae based biofuel in Germany. Other sources can be Jatropha fruit.
Most amazing of all: the Algae replacement has about 10% more power per gallon, so airplanes actually fly longer with the same amount of fuel.
Now it’s time to start mass production …
The Art of Seduction can be subtle, but it’s intentions are never abstract. While Porn never leaves anything to the imagination, a true erotic Seduction leaves everything to the imagination.
Great Sex truly begins in your brain …
Click image for more detail.
What makes a great TV show: great characters, love to details and interesting plots. Futurama has a lot of brains, the writers pay a lot of attention to current affairs and know how to transform their observations into stimulating humor.
Like many great TV shows Futurama has a very complex cosmology.
Thanks to the lead brains Mister Groening and Mister Cohen.
Click Cover for more Heroism!
Guys like two forms of Pornography: sex and war. Every action or war movie is a masturbation on violence, heroism and camaraderie that only war breeds.
War Pornography is also about cowardice, because it’s consumed from a save distance away from any real bullets or obligations.
This cover has all the elements of the rugged armchair warrior: sweaty, tough, unshaved, in combat, battered and LONELY …
Being a great sender doesn’t guarantee a good public reception. A Genius in denial is painful to watch, especially when you’re a a true believer …
Andō Hiroshige‘s huge variety of work is simply amazing and should be a household name like van Gogh or Rembrandt.
Click image for more Heroism.
Males do really stupid stuff to test their metal and show their so called courage. Even when it means endangering or hurting other people or animals …
Courage is certainly not a synonym for intelligence.
Click image for more expensive innocence …
Madame Kidman has perfected the art of looking innocent, sexy and plain at the same time. This protrait perfectly captures that perfection. It is so perfect it borders on sterility …
PS: Does anyone know the great Photographer?
It seems that all mammals love to cuddle with someone or something warm and fuzzy. That social instinct is deeply ingrained in mammals.
Duncan: “true Americans” – aren’t they on reservations now? I know someone who says he...
orangeguru: @Duncan: Well the audience didn’t expect to share the dangerous spectacle that closely. I think... orangeguru: @Duncan: A gluten allergy is a terrible thing to have. It’s like beer without alcohol and Chicken... Duncan: I have a strange lack of sympathy for those in the crowd and in the way. Wonder if we’ll ever see a... Duncan: A very tasty story. One of the things I’m very grateful for is my tolerance of gluten, as gluten-free...
Leonardo: He looks lovely in such a pink coat! orangeguru: @Jason: Isn’t that amazing?! That’s what I call hiding the truth in plain sight and on stage... Leonardo: Quite good!
Jason: I can’t believe people didn’t figure it out sooner. After all, his band is named... orangeguru: @Duncan: The whole Arrangement of Keyboards needs an update. Too many rubbish keys – and there... Duncan: I suspect the Shift key suffers from the same obscurity as the Tab key, for those who have never pounded a... orangeguru: @Leonardo: Harhar – I love the B&W-Movie-Story! And yes, the TAB-Key seems a mystery to many...