Wet Leaves

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 A sign sits amid rubble at a building that was damaged during a demonstration in Dellwood, Missouri following the Michael Brown verdict in Ferguson: photo by Justin Sullivan via The Guardian, 29 November 2014

out on the dark bay rain begins falling
sweeps in over the hills
while the beholders scatter their glims upon the sea
for every day above the dirt 
ahead of the liquidators 
you ought to give thanks no matter sullen
wet leaves
beauty is in short supply

Sullen Beauty Supply Center... and Rudy's, next door. Richmond, California: photo by efo, 16 October 2005

27 April, 1986: The first photo to be taken of the reactor, at 4pm, 14 hours after the explosion. This was taken from the first helicopter to fly over the disaster zone to evaluate radiation levels. The view is foggy due to radiation, which also explains why the shot was not taken too close to the window. Later, radiation experts learnt that at 200 metres above the reactor, levels reached 1500 rems, despite the fact that their counters did not exceed 500 rems: photo by Igor Kostin from Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter via The Guardian, 26 April 2011

May 1986: In the 30km no-go zone around the reactor, liquidators measure radiation levels in neighbouring fields using antiquated radiation counters, wearing anti-chemical warfare suits that offer no protection against radioactivity, and "pig muzzle" masks. The young plants will not be harvested, instead used by scientists to study genetic mutations in plants: photo by Igor Kostin from Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter via The Guardian, 26 April 2011

Summer 1986: The majority of liquidators were men called up from military reserves because of their experience in clean-up operations or chemical protection units. The army did not have adequate uniforms for use in radioactive conditions, so those enlisted had to cobble together their own clothing made from lead sheets measuring 2-4mm thick. These sheets were cut to size to make aprons covering their bodies in front and behind, especially to protect the spine and bone marrow. 'The clever ones also added a vine leaf for extra comfort,' said Kostin: photo by Igor Kostin from Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter via The Guardian, 26 April 2011

 September 1986: Liquidators clean the roof of reactor 3. Initially, workers tried clearing the radioactive debris using West German, Japanese and Russian robots, but they could not cope with the extreme radiation levels, so the authorities decided to use humans. Employees could not stay any longer than 40 seconds at any one time, before the radiation dose they received reached the maximum a human should receive in his entire life. Many liquidators have since died or suffer from severe health problems: photo by Igor Kostin from Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter via The Guardian, 26 April 2011

View of West of Delhi (and air pollution). I think Delhi is one of the few big capitals with so few towers. Taken from Jama Masjit: photo by Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier, 12 January 2011

President Barack Obama and the family of Michael Brown separately appealed to the protesters for calm. Here, snow falls as Missouri National Guard stand outside the police department in Ferguson: photo by Jeff Roberson / AP via The Guardian, 29 November 2014

Smog envelops buildings on the outskirts of the Indian capital New Delhi: photo by Roberto Schmidt /AFP via The Guardian, 29 November 2014

Zenica, Bosnia. A woman walking in heavy smog in the early morning: photo by Dado Ruvic / Reuters via the Guardian, 19 November 2014

@RMoranABCTo be honest this is also how Los Angeles does Fall (November 2012) #smog;}: image via Anne LaBarbera LL.B. @AnneLaBarbera, 6 November 2014

 glad to see it that it is raining and it's raining hard #california #californiarain: image via Hungry Hungry Zombie @ZEROINTELLIGENCE, 8 September 2014 Moreno Valley, California

Violent protests and looting erupted in the US town of Ferguson, Missouri, after a grand jury chose not to press charges against a white police officer who shot dead unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. Here, Brown’s mother Leslie McSpadden and other protesters react after hearing the grand jury’s decision: photo by Jewel Samad /AFP via The Guardian, 29 November 2014

A man collects rubbish at the fishing port of Conakry in Guinea. Earlier this year, the World Health Organisation vaccinated some 200,000 fishermen on islands north of Conakry. The area had been identified as a major transmission source for cholera since the fishermen set up temporary shelters with no toilets or clean water. Guinea has recorded only one cholera case this year, down from thousands, in a rare success that experts cautiously attribute to the vaccinations against the water-borne disease, and hand-washing in the campaign against Ebola: photo by Jerome Delay / AP via The Guardian, 29 November 2014

A FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT RT @PDPJ: #Ferguson protesters light an American flag on fire outside the police station: image via liza @blogdiva, 29 November 2014

  

Ferguson: photo via Alice Speri / Vice News, 18 August 2014

Rollin' In It: Celebrating the Tyranny of Freedom

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How much is that AGENT in the window? Lol #BlackFriday #AsSeenOnTV: image via Ming-Na Wen @MingNa, 28 November 2014

Americans now live in a time and a place in which freedom and autonomy are valued above all else and in which expanded opportunities for self-determination are regarded as a sign of the psychological well-being of individuals and the moral well-being of the culture.

 

Shoppers Kelly Foley, Debbie Winslow and Ann Rich use a smartphone to look at a competitor’s prices whilst in a Target store in South Portland, Maine on Black Friday: photo by Robert F Bukaty/AP via The Guardian, 28 November 2014

This article argues that freedom, autonomy, and self-determination can become excessive, and that when that happens, freedom can be experienced as a kind of tyranny.

Women flip through a coupon book at Toys R Us in New York on Black Friday: photo by Andrew Burton via The Guardian, 28 November 2014

The article further argues that unduly influenced by the ideology of economics and rational-choice theory, modern American society has created an excess of freedom, with resulting increases in people's dissatisfaction with their lives and in clinical depression.

Who has taken advantage of our @PennySkateboard deal for #BlackFriday so far: image via Tilly's @Tillys, 28 November 2014

One significant task for a future psychology of optimal functioning is to deemphasize individual freedom and to determine which cultural constraints are necessary.

Customers at the tills of a Walmart store in Bentonville, Arkansas on Black Friday: photo by Gunnar Rathbun/Invision for Walmart via the Guardian, 28 November 2014

text: Self-Determination: The Tyranny of Freedom (Abstract): Barry Schwartz, American Psychologist, 2000

I camped out overnight for #Black Friday! Took this shot with my iPhone from the parking lot: image via John Sowers @johnsowers , 28 November 2014

Britain doesn't need #Black Friday. Sadly, since it's a materialistic consumer-fest driven by greed, it's here to stay: image via Archbishop Cranmer @His_Grace, 28 November 2014

 

Cosby Show 50% off today. #black friday #billcosby: image via jean-luc bilodeau @jblives, 28 November 2014

Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle: Of Many Worlds in This World

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The Earring: George Hendrik Breitner, c. 1893, oil on canvas, 85 x 58 cm (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam)

Just like as in a Nest of Boxes round,
Degrees of sizes within each Boxe are found.
So, in this World, may many Worlds more be
Thinner, and lesse, and lesse still by degree;
Although they are not subject to our Sense,
A World may be no bigger than two-pence.
Nature is curious, and such worke may make,
That our dull Sense can never finde, but scape.
For Creatures, small as Atomes, may be there,
If every Atome a Creatures Figure bear.
If four Atomes a World can make, then see
What severall Worlds might in an Eare-ring be:
For Millions of those Atomes may bee in
The Head of one small, little, single Pin.
And if thus small, then Ladies may well wear
A World of Worlds, as Pendents in each Eare. 



Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673): Of Many Worlds in This World, from Poems and Fancies, 1653

W.B. Yeats: The Second Coming (A Sideshow)

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Can't front, this #sideshow looks poppin. Lmao!: image via Eric Junior @ericjunior, 27 November 2014

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
 

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

W.B. Yeats: The Second Coming, 1919, first published in The Dial, 1920

 

Helicopter covering protests catches a sideshow in action. Classic #oakland move: image via Michael Cosentino @cosentino, 27 November 2014

 

#Oakland Police have guns drawn aimed from behind at large #sideshow. At least 100+ cars being blocked in: images via ReallyRick @TheReallyRick, 27 November 2014 Oakland, CA

Extremely heavy police presence at port of #Oakland after shots fired. Police break up sideshow, have them surrounded: image via Veronica De La Cruz @VeronicaDLCruz, 27 November 2014  

Then people scrambled and were blocked on all sides. #sideshow over: images via Stan A. @PureStanarchy, 27 November 2014

 

A car fire. (Yes, that is a Port of #Oakland mployee driving a forklift on other side of the fence.) #sideshow: images via Oaklandish Chick @oaklandishchick, 27 November 2014 

They set fire to a car and The police are just near by. I can smell revolution!!! #oakland #Ferguson: images via vänsterflatan @Vansterflatan, 27 November 2014 

Vehicle goes up in flames after #sideshow. Both sides of Maritime blocked by cops, boxing in cars #Oakland port: image via Veronica De La Cruz @VeronicaDLCruz, 27 November 2014 

 

Holy hell, this sideshow in #Oakland is nuts! First they try to ram their way out, and now a car's on fire: image via Tom Dan @TomDanTheRock, 27 November 2014

 

omg, they are trying to break through the fence like #j28. #oakland #sideshow: image via mary mad @marymad, 27 November 2014 

One of cars trapped by police gets caught trying to break thru fence. People trying to escape cops #Oakland #sideshow: image via Veronica De La Cruz @VeronicaDLCruz, 27 November 2014 

Some pedestrians on foot try to leave area, are turned back by police in #oakland #oaklandsideshow: image via Bill Budington @legind, 27 November 2014

Hard to see but appears to be about 10 men sitting on ground hands behind their backs arrested. #Oakland #Sideshowd in: images via ReallyRick @TheReallyRick, 27 November 2014 Oakland, CA

 

Yeah looks scary RT @sfchronicle: #Oakland sees violent protests for 3rd straight night #Ferguson: image via Catherine Bracy @cbracy, 27 November 2014

Glory

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  Ohne Titel (3. Aug. 05) / Untitled (3 Aug 05): Gerhard Richter, 2005, oil on postcard, 10.7 cm x 16.7 cm (Gerhard Richter Art)

The lurid carmine sunset hemorrhaging

across the western ocean as the winter sun drops

behind the mountain, and a pink orange smog enriched

glory shocks the mind of the sky
.........................................after all the sails

on the horizon have disappeared, the no

memory option remains the only open

gateway for all those sails of deceptive promise

to have once passed through

 

Golden Gate: Gerhard Richter, 1989, oil on colour photograph, 10 x 15 cm(Gerhard Richter Art)

Untitled (1.5.89): Gerhard Richter, 1989, oil on colour photograph, 15 x 10 cm (Gerhard Richter Art)

Ohne Titel (28.2.08) / Untitled (28.2.08): Gerhard Richter, 2008, lacquer on colour photograph, 10 cm x 15 cm (Gerhard Richter Art)

Abstraktes Bild / Abstract Painting: Gerhard Richter, 1989, oil on canvas, 72 cm x 102 cm (Gerhard Richter Art

Ohne Titel (23. Nov. 99) / Untitled (23 Nov 99): Gerhard Richter, 2009, oil on colour photograph, 9.9 cm x 14.9 cm (Gerhard Richter Art)

Ohne Titel (12. Mai 2009 / Untitled (12 May 2009): Gerhard Richter, 2009, oil on colour photograph, 12.6 cm x 16.8 cm (Gerhard Richter Art)

Ohne Titel (4.6.08) /Untitled (4.6.08): Gerhard Richter, 2008, lacquer on colour photograph, 10 cm x 14.8 cm (Gerhard Richter Art)

November: #17 of 54 — sheet 9 of 27 (recto) — 8 Nov 2008: Gerhard Richter, 2008, ink on paper (Gerhard Richter Art)

Ohne Titel (28.2.08) / Untitled (28.2.08): Gerhard Richter, 2008, lacquer on colour photograph, 10 cm x 15 cm (Gerhard Richter Art)

Riot line. March turns away and continues down Broadway. #Oakland #shutitdown: image via OccupythePort @occupytheport, 25 November 2014

November: #23 of 54 — sheet 12 of 27 (recto) — 12 Nov 2008: Gerhard Richter, 2008, ink on paper (Gerhard Richter Art)

I found that extra 1000 cops. 40th and San Pablo btw... not a good place to be right now: image via Bri. @zuchinno, 26 November 2014

LIVE: #OAKLAND Police Declare Unlawful Assembly, Mercedes-Benz Dealership Vandalized: image via Breaking911 @Breaking911, 26 November 2014

  Massive police presence as freeway is taken over on both sides. #Oakland #shutitdown: image via OccupythePort @occupytheport, 25 November 2014