Unearthly Beauty

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Untitled, from the series Site/Cloud: photo by Daisuke Yokota via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

[Aphrodite reveals herself]

And so he took her hand,

and she, Aphrodite, Laughterlover,

turned aside her face

and cast her eyes on the ground,

and she walked, slowly, to the bed,

Untitled, from the series Tokyo After Dark: photo by Cesar Ordoñez via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

Minamisanriku, Motoyoshi, Miyagi Prefecture, by Kōzō Miyoshi, who was among the first photographers to engage with the 3/11 disaster by travelling to the sites of destruction: photo by Kōzō Miyoshi via The Guardian, 30 March 2015.

and the bed was set with smooth cloths

and with the skins of bears and lions

.................he had killed, in the mountains, on the high slopes,

and they went up into the bed,

Untitled, from the series Tokyo After Dark: photo by Cesar Ordoñez via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

Rikuzentakata: photo by Naoya Hatakeyama via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

and he loosed her flashing jewelry,

her pins, and her twisted brooches,

....................................and her earrings, and her necklaces,

and he loosed her sash and her shimmering robe

and folded them and set them on a silver-studded chair,

Untitled, from the series Tokyo After Dark: photo by Cesar Ordoñez via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

From the series Caesium, by Masato Seto, one of the few photographers to gain direct access to the nuclear plant after the disaster: photo by Masato Seto via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

and he lay with her,

Anchises,

a man with a goddess,

 

Untitled, from the series Tokyo After Dark: photo by Cesar Ordoñez via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

Nobuyoshi Araki scratched these negatives with a pair of scissors. The resulting jagged marks are seen here in the series Shakyō Rōjin Nikki: photo by Nobuyoshi Araki via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

for it was the will of gods and fate, and he knew not clearly,

he knew not clearly.

Untitled, from the series Tokyo After Dark: photo by Cesar Ordoñez via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

Deer 3, November 2011, Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture –- from the series Is the Blood Still Red?: photo by  by Masaru Tatsuki

And at the time when the herdsmen

round up the cattle and sheep and urge them home from the pastures

she poured sweet sleep on Anchises

 

Untitled, from the series Tokyo After Dark: photo by Cesar Ordoñez via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

From the series Mushrooms from the Forest: photo by Homma Takashi via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

and she dressed,

and she stood in the doorway,

 

Untitled, from the series Tokyo After Dark: photo by Cesar Ordoñez via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

Deserted Town, from the series The Abandoned Animals of Fukushima:  photo by Yasusuke Ota via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

and her head was high as the roof-beam,

and from her cheeks

........................shone beauty,

unearthly beauty, the beauty of Kytheria.

Untitled, from the series Tokyo After Dark: photo by Cesar Ordoñez via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

From the series Rasen Kaigan (Spiral Shore): photo by Shiga Lieko via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

And she woke him, and said:

........Trojan, you sleep so soundly!

........Tell me,

........Do I still look the same

....................................as when you first saw me?

Untitled, from the series Tokyo After Dark: photo by Cesar Ordoñez via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

From the series Rasen Kaigan (Spiral Shore): photo by Shiga Lieko via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

And he woke, and he heard,

and he saw the throat and dark eyes of the goddess.

Homeric Hymn V: excerpt (lines 155-184), translated by John P. Niles, in Arion volume 8 number 3, Autumn 1969

Untitled, from the series Tokyo After Dark: photo by Cesar Ordoñez via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

Onahama, Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, from the series Mirrors in Our Nights: photo by Takashi Arai via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

ὣς εἰπὼν λάβε χεῖρα: φιλομμειδὴς δ' Ἀφροδίτη
ἕρπε μεταστρεφθεῖσα κατ' ὄμματα καλὰ βαλοῦσα
ἐς λέχος εὔστρωτον, ὅθι περ πάρος ἔσκεν ἄνακτι
χλαίνῃσιν μαλακῇς ἐστρωμένον: αὐτὰρ ὕπερθεν
ἄρκτων δέρματ' ἔκειτο βαρυφθόγγων τε λεόντων,
τοὺς αὐτὸς κατέπεφνεν ἐν οὔρεσιν ὑψηλοῖσιν.
οἳ δ' ἐπεὶ οὖν λεχέων εὐποιήτων ἐπέβησαν,
κόσμον μέν οἱ πρῶτον ἀπὸ χροὸς εἷλε φαεινόν,
πόρπας τε γναμπτάς θ' ἕλικας κάλυκάς τε καὶ ὅρμους.
λῦσε δέ οἱ ζώνην ἰδὲ εἵματα σιγαλόεντα
ἔκδυε καὶ κατέθηκεν ἐπὶ θρόνου ἀργυροήλου
Ἀγχίσης: ὃ δ' ἔπειτα θεῶν ἰότητι καὶ αἴσῃ
ἀθανάτῃ παρέλεκτο θεᾷ βροτός, οὐ σάφα εἰδώς.

ἦμος δ' ἂψ εἰς αὖλιν ἀποκλίνουσι νομῆες
βοῦς τε καὶ ἴφια μῆλα νομῶν ἐξ ἀνθεμοέντων:
τῆμος ἄρ' Ἀγχίσῃ μὲν ἐπὶ γλυκὺν ὕπνον ἔχευε
νήδυμον, αὐτὴ δὲ χροὶ̈ ἕννυτο εἵματα καλά.
ἑσσαμένη δ' εὖ πάντα περὶ χροὶ̈ δῖα θεάων
ἔστη πὰρ κλισίῃ, κεὐποιήτοιο μελάθρου
κῦρε κάρη: κάλλος δὲ παρειάων ἀπέλαμπεν
ἄμβροτον, οἷόν τ' ἐστὶν ἐυστεφάνου Κυθερείης,
ἐξ ὕπνου τ' ἀνέγειρεν ἔπος τ' ἔφατ' ἔκ τ' ὀνόμαζεν:

ὄρσεο, Δαρδανίδη: τί νυ νήγρετον ὕπνον ἰαύεις;
καὶ φράσαι, εἴ τοι ὁμοίη ἐγὼν ἰνδάλλομαι εἶναι,
οἵην δή με τὸ πρῶτον ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖσι νόησας;

ὣς φάθ': ὃ δ' ἐξ ὕπνοιο μάλ' ἐμμαπέως ὑπάκουσεν.
ὡς δὲ ἴδεν δειρήν τε καὶ ὄμματα κάλ' Ἀφροδίτης,
τάρβησέν τε καὶ ὄσσε παρακλιδὸν ἔτραπεν ἄλλῃ:
ἂψ δ' αὖτις χλαίνῃ τε καλύψατο καλὰ πρόσωπα
καί μιν λισσόμενος ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα:

Homeric Hymn V: excerpt (lines 155-184), Greek text (c. 6th-7th c. BC) edited by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, in Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica, Loeb Classical Library Volume 57, 1914

Aphrodite on a swan: tondo from an Attic white-ground kylix, by Pistoxenos Painter, c. 460 BC, found in Tomb F43 in Kameiros (Rhodes): image by Marie-Lan Nguyen, 2007 (British Museum)

 

So speaking, he caught her by the hand. And laughter-loving Aphrodite, with face turned away and lovely eyes downcast, crept to the well-spread couch which was already laid with soft coverings for the hero; and upon it lay skins of bears and deep-roaring lions which he himself had slain in the high mountains. And when they had gone up upon the well-fitted bed, first Anchises took off her bright jewelry of pins and twisted brooches and earrings and necklaces, and loosed her girdle and stripped off her bright garments and laid them down upon a silver-studded seat. Then by the will of the gods and destiny he lay with her, a mortal man with an immortal goddess, not clearly knowing what he did.

But at the time when the herdsmen drive their oxen and hardy sheep back to the fold from the flowery pastures, even then Aphrodite poured soft sleep upon Anchises, but herself put on her rich raiment. And when the bright goddess had fully clothed herself, she stood by the couch, and her head reached to the well-hewn roof-tree; from her cheeks shone unearthly beauty such as belongs to rich-crowned Cytherea. Then she aroused him from sleep and opened her mouth and said:

'Up, son of Dardanus! -- why sleep you so heavily? -- and consider whether I look as I did when first you saw me with your eyes.'

 

So she spake. And he awoke in a moment and obeyed her. But when he saw the neck and lovely eyes of Aphrodite, he was afraid and turned his eyes aside another way, hiding his comely face with his cloak.

Homeric Hymn V: excerpt (lines 155-184), translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, in Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica, Loeb Classical Library Volume 57, 1914

Rusting wreck east of the port of Diakofti, Cythera, Greece [in ancient mythology the isle of Kythera, sacred to Aphrodite, "the Kytherian"]: photo by Khayman, 1 June 2008

Portrait of Cultivation: photo by Shiiga Lieko via The Guardian, 30 March 2015

Frank O'Hara: On Dealing with the Canada Question

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Homeland Security sells a 3D printed drone for $1,100. Enter coordinates and it drops stuff "like in Hunger Games": photo Shane Bauer via Shane Bauer @shane_bauer, 7 September 2014

Untitled: photo via innersalts (Considerable Sacrificial Rituals)

Amazon employees look to the skies at the company’s secret Canadian drones site somewhere in British Columbia, only 2,000ft from the US border: photo by Ed Pilkington for The Guardian, 30 March 2015

Amazon tests delivery drones at secret Canada site after US frustration: Exclusive: Guardian gains access to unnamed British Columbia site where tech giant’s roboticists and engineers, stymied by American regulation, are now developing their unmanned domestic delivery service: Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, 30 March 2015

 

Amazon is testing its drone delivery service at a secret site in Canada, following repeated warnings by the e-commerce giant that it would go outside the US to bypass what it sees as the US federal government’s lethargic approach to the new technology.

The largest internet retailer in the world is keeping the location of its new test site closely guarded. What can be revealed is that the company’s formidable team of roboticists, software engineers, aeronautics experts and pioneers in remote sensing –- including a former Nasa astronaut and the designer of the wingtip of the Boeing 787 –- are now operating in British Columbia.

The end goal is to utilise what Amazon sees as a slice of virgin airspace –- above 200ft, where most buildings end, and below 500ft, where general aviation begins. Into that aerial slice the company plans to pour highly autonomous drones of less than 55lbs, flying through corridors 10 miles or longer at 50mph and carrying payloads of up to 5lbs that account for 86% of all the company’s packages.

Amazon has acquired a plot of open land lined by oak trees and firs, where it is conducting frequent experimental flights with the full blessing of the Canadian government. As if to underline the significance of the move, the test site is barely 2,000ft from the US border, which was clearly visible from where the Guardian stood on a recent visit.

The Guardian was invited to visit Amazon’s previously undisclosed Canadian drone test site, where it has been conducting outdoor flights for the past few months. For the duration of the visit, three plain-clothed security guards kept watch from the surrounding hills.

Amazon’s drone visionaries are taking the permissive culture on the Canadian side of the border and using it to fine-tune the essential features of what they hope will become a successful delivery-by-drone system. The Guardian witnessed tests of a hybrid drone that can take off and land vertically as well as fly horizontally.

Amazon said that by the time the FAA approved a licence to test-fly a prototype drone for its planned Prime Air service the aircraft was already obsolete: photo by Zuma/Rex via The Guardian, 24 March 2015

 

In Joe’s deli the old lady 

greets me Sonny     the man with  

the rolls is my son, Sonny, how 

are you today in the cold out? fine  

and coffee too and Camels

  ...............................well  

a saucepan smells of eggs soft sour 

Tanya.......the Barone Gallery  

tomorrow.............the light broke  

before I even got out of bed  

and then it got put together again  

you discard your jacket

  ...........................and go  

sweatered into the afternoon 

wait for me

  ...............I’m staying with you 

fuck Canada

Frank O'Hara (1926-1966): from Variations on Saturday, 10 December 1960, in Love Poems (Tentative Title), 1965

Camel Cigarettes ad, girl in pool: photo by Nickolas Muray (1892-1965), 1956 (George Eastman House)

A couple are seen in the middle of the Vancouver riot after the Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup decider: photo by Rich Lam via The Guardian, 15 June 2011

The Halo Drop Drones vendor got nervous about us taking too detailed of pictures, in case we wanted to duplicate them: photo Shane Bauer via Shane Bauer @shane_bauer, 7 September 2014

A drone company is set up at an Urban Shield site, but the county is waiting for FAA permission to use them: photo Shane Bauer via Shane Bauer @shane_bauer, 7 September 2014

Drones for cops at Urban Shield: photo via Shane Bauer photo Shane Bauer via Shane Bauer @shane_bauer, 7 September 2014

Lets do it Sweden #FuQCanada: image via Daniel James Hoeffel @Hoeffs_11, 21 February 2014

Beyond Gaming

.

Facebook sees a world beyond gaming and entertainment for its virtual reality headset, meaning social networking will soon take a step into VR if the company gets its way: photo by Tom Dymond/REX via the Guardian, 27 March 2015

Beyond gaming

there's nowhere

left but here

Beijing, China. A model walks the runway during China fashion week: photo by Feng Li via The Guardian, 26 March 2015

Beijing. Officials talk through a painted backdrop of the Great Wall of China before the arrival of the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena: photo by Feng Li via The Guardian, 26 March 2015

Beyond Gaming: The Limitations of Mimicry

Panda costumes hang at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in China, Keepers who interact with the pandas must wear costumes in order to mimic conditions of the wild. The costumes are made to smell like pandas too: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 23 April 2014

Keepers move a panda to a new part of the reserve as part of its training at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in China. Pandas learn to find their own food and water, look for shelter and become aware of their environment: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 23 April 2014

 

Wolong National Nature Reserve, China. Director Nicolas Brown and Dr. M. Sanjayan, dressed as trees, wait with cameraman Robin Cox in the panda suit to film a new series to air next year on wildlife and humans for PBS and National Geographic TV: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 23 April 2014

  

A panda is moved to its next level of training at China's Wolong National Nature Reserve: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 23 April 2014

Panda keepers wait for a panda to leave its cage into the Wolong National Nature Reserve at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in China: photo by Ami Vitale via The Guardian, 23 April 2014

 

 
A researcher dressed in a panda costume puts a panda cub into a box before its physical examination at the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Centre for the Giant Panda in Wolong National Nature Reserve, China: photo by Reuters via The Guardian, 7 December 2010

Four giant pandas at a Chinese rescue centre have died from the canine distemper virus: Photograph: AFP via The Guardian, 6 February 2015

Beyond Gaming: The Shrinking World of the Living: Pablo Neruda: Keeping Quiet

A golden langur on an island in the Umananda river in Guwahati, in Assam. The langur is one of India’s most endangered primates: photo by Partha Hazarika/Barcroft India via the Guardian, 27 March 2015

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

Kolkata, India. Jalada Prasad, a six-month-old male Indian one-horned rhinoceros, runs around his enclosure on his debut in front of the public at Alipore Zoological Garden: photo by Bikas Das/AP via The Guardian, 27 March 2015

For once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language;
let's stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

An Indian one horned rhino in the Kaziranga national park, Assam, India. The park is a rhino sanctuary and is helping to revive the species and protect them from poachers: photo by Paul Hilton/HSI via The Guardian, 8 January 2015

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Naypyitaw, Burma. A baby elephant, which was found in a river during the rainy season, plays with white elephants, seen as sacred signs of good fortune, peace and wealth: photo by Damir Sagolj / Reuters via The Guardian, 12 November 2014

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Mahouts return home with their elephantscarrying grass to feed them on the eve of the rhino census in Kaziranga national park in Assam, India: photo by TR/EPA via The Guardian, 27 March 2015

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

Assam, India. Forest officials count rhinos during a census at Kaziranga national park. The census takes place every two years, with 2,329 rhinos counted in 2013: photo by Biju Boro/AFP via The Guardian, 27 March 2015

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

Rasuruan, Indonesia. A seven-day-old female Sumatran elephant calf stands with its mother at the Safari zoo. Smallest of the Asian elephants, Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatrensis) is facing serious pressures arising from illegal logging and associated habitat loss, and fragmentation in Indonesia: photo by Fully Handoko / EPA via The Guardian, 14 November 2014

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

A billboard in Hanoi, Vietnam, reads: ‘Rhino horns are just like buffalo horns, human hair and nail. Do not waste your money,’ to mark the World Rhino Day on 22 September. This year’s theme was ‘Five rhino species forever.’: photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA via The Guardian, 26 September 2014

Now I'll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973): Keeping Quiet, from Extravagaria, translated by Alastair Reid, 1974

A herd of wild elephants with newborns crosses a tea garden to enter a paddy field in Sonitpur, Assam, India. According to reports, five people have been killed by the herd in the last two months and it has destroyed a large area of ripe paddy fields: photo by STR/EPA via The Guardian, 28 November 2014

Global Gaming: The Law of the Stronger

An Indian man feeds an elephant, which is hired out for weddings and parties, on the banks of the river Yamuna, New Delhi: photo by Money Sharma/AFP via The Guardian, 7 February 2015

Tiger (Panthera tigris). A Sumatran tiger named Dara, trapped by tiger poachers. Indonesian conservationists have found 120 traps set up by poachers to snare critically endangered Sumatran tigers in Kerinci Seblat national park, according to officials. Poaching is the greatest immediate threat to this endangered species, of which there are as few as 3,200 in the wild. According to Traffic, parts from a minimum of 1,590 tigers were seized between January 2000 and April 2014 – an average of two animals per week. Every part of the tiger — from whisker to tail — is traded on the black market. Tigers are mounted as trophies, skins worn as status symbols, and their parts used in traditional medicine, as tonics and folk remedies: photo by Kerinci Seblat National Park/AFP via The Guardian, 7 February 2015

Two sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) at the Vietnam Bear rescue centre in Tam Dao national park, Vietnam. The bear’s gall bladders are used in traditional Chinese medicine and although bile is milked from commercially farmed bears, wild bears are often taken to stock or restock these small farms. Bear meat, particularly the paws, is considered a culinary delicacy. Killing bears is illegal in all bear range countries but is largely uncontrolled. The species is extinct in Singapore and has possibly become extinct in Bangladesh and China. They are banned from international commercial trade: photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus). This endangered species is endemic to Borneo and found in Brunei, Indonesia (Kalimantan) and Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak). It is poached for the illegal pet trade and bush meat, and is also hunted for bezoar stones, an intestinal secretion, used in traditional medicine. In Sarawak, less than 1,000 animals are thought to remain with populations in Borneo ranging between 1,000 and just 100. Banned from international commercial trade: photo by Suzi Eszterhas/Corbis via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

Asian rhino (Rhinocerotidae spp.). There are fewer than 4,000 wild rhinos in Asia. All three Asian species are highly targeted for their horns. Two, the Javan and Sumatran rhinos are critically endangered. The animals are killed and their horns sawn off and smuggled to their destination markets in Asia: photo by STR/EPA via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) are among the most heavily traded species in Southeast Asia with approximately 340,000 skins exported annually for use in the fashion industry. Although more than 20% of exports are declared as captive-bred, a Traffic report argues that the cost of breeding, feeding and maintaining the snakes to reach slaughter size appears much higher than the market price. A skin sold in an Indonesian village for $30 can fetch up to $15,000 as a python skin handbag from a famous fashion house: photo by Mark Conlin/Alamy via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

The Burmese star tortoise (Geochelone platynota), is a critically endangered species native to Burma. It is used for meat and traditional medicines in Asia and is highly sought after for the international pet trade, with collectors in Europe and North America willing to pay thousands of dollars for an individual. There are concerns that there may now be no viable wild populations. Commercial harvest and trade of this species is illegal under Burmese law, although export of captive specimens is permitted from one facility within the country, which also contributes to a future release program: photo by Minden Pictures/Corbis via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

A slow loris carried by a wildlife department official in Kuala Lumpur. It was among animals estimated to be worth $20,000, including juvenile eagles and a Malayan sun bear cub, seized during an operation against illegal wildlife traders earlier this month: photo by Olivia Harris/Reuters via the Guardian, 27 March 2015

Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) are among the most trafficked mammals in Asia. Sunda pangolin are critically endangered and IUCN reports that wild populations have halved in the past 15 years. They are in high demand both for their meat and for their scales, which are used in traditional medicine — and as love charms. Tens of thousands of Sunda pangolins have been poached from the wild, headed primarily to China where it is considered a luxury food: photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

Gaming the Wild: Pangolin

Often known as scaly anteaters, pangolins are the only mammal with scales. Their closest relatives are anteaters, armadillos and sloths. These two will end up on a dinner table in Gunagzhou, southern China, one of the areas of the world where their flesh is considered a delicacy. The illegal trade in pangolins is estimated to be worth about $19bn (£12.7bn) a year: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid  via the Guardian 10 March 2015

A critically endangered pangolin curls up into a ball to resemble a giant pine cone as a poacher nears the tree where it is trying to hide: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid  via the Guardian 10 March 2015

A poacher catches a juvenile sunda pangolin in Indonesia: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

Poachers across Indonesia sell critically endangered live pangolins to middlemen for $28 (£18.70) to $31 per kilo; the average size of a pangolin is six to seven kg.: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

Already this year 125kg of pangolin scales were intercepted by the Indonesian authorities en route to Hong Kong: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian, 10 March 2015

A poacher holds up the skin of a pangolin with the scales still attached: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

 
The sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) is one of two Asian species of pangolin listed as critically endangered on the IUNC red list: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

Pangolin are a bit like a friendly, flightless dragons. Many of them have no problem being around people: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

Palm oil plantations, such as this one covering thousands of hectares, are causing habitat-loss for many Indonesian species, although pangolins are one of a few that have limited tolerance to palm-oil habitats. The average monthly wage for an Indonesian working full-time on a plantation is $47 and many turn to poaching because they can earn 10 times as much: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015