Smoke rising from a government-held neighborhood in Aleppo on Thursday. Few civilians have taken advantage of a pause in Russian strikes to leave the area.: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 21 October 2016
Smoke rising from a government-held neighborhood in Aleppo on Thursday. Few civilians have taken advantage of a pause in Russian strikes to leave the area.: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 21 October 2016
A Yemeni artist sprays graffiti on a wall in protest against the ongoing conflict and the worsening economic situation in the war-affected country, in Sanaa, Yemen: photo by Yahya Arhab/ EPA, 21 October 2016
A Yemeni artist sprays graffiti on a wall in protest against the ongoing conflict and the worsening economic situation in the war-affected country, in Sanaa, Yemen: photo by Yahya Arhab/ EPA, 21 October 2016
A Microsoft cloud computing center in Quincy, Washington: photo by Richard Duvall / The New York Times, 21 October 2016
A Microsoft cloud computing center in Quincy, Washington: photo by
Richard Duvall / The New York Times, 21 October 2016
Cyber #attack hackers 'weaponised' everyday #devices with malware to mount assault: image via NewsInn @NewsInnOfficial, 21 October 2016
Dyn DNS, a company that essentially acts as a giant internet
switchboard, was bombarded with messages that overloaded its circuits: photo by
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times, 22 October 2016
Dyn DNS, a company that essentially acts as a giant internet switchboard, was bombarded with messages that overloaded its circuits: photo by Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times, 22 October 2016
A map of the areas experiencing problems, as of Friday afternoon: image by downdetectordotcom, 21 October 2016
BREAKING NEWS: The attack that crippled many major websites throughout today originated inside the United States: image via TheAnonMessage @TheAnonMessage, 21 October 2016
Reports that #Russia launched largest military deployment since the Cold War in the #Mediterranean #Syria #WWIII: image via Marwa Osman @Osman_Marwa1, 21 October 2016
Cyber attacks disrupt PayPal, Twitter, other sites: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 21 October 2016
Here's what we know about the cyber attack that disrupted websites on the U.S. East Coast: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 21 October 2016
The Internet of ransomware things #IoT #ransomware: image via Gabriel @gabpantoja, 21 October 2016
This Explains It. She Is Completely, Irrevocably Insane.
Clinton far ahead in Electoral College race: Reuters/Ipsos poll: Maurice Tammem, Reuters, 22 October 2016
NEW YORK - Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton maintained her commanding lead in
the race to win the Electoral College and claim the U.S. presidency,
according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project
results released on Saturday.
In the last week, there has been little movement. Clinton leads Donald Trump in most of the states that Trump would need should he have a chance to win the minimum 270 votes needed to win. According to the project, she has a better than 95 percent chance of winning, if the election was held this week. The mostly likely outcome would be 326 votes for Clinton to 212 for Trump.
Trump came off his best debate performance of the campaign Wednesday evening but the polling consensus still showed Clinton winning the third and final face-off on prime-time TV. Trump disputes those findings.
And some national polls had the race tightening a wee bit this week though others had Clinton maintaining her solid lead. But the project illustrates that the broader picture remains bleak for Trump with 17 days to go until the Nov. 8 election.
Trump did gain ground in South Carolina where his slim lead last week expanded to seven points, moving it into his column from a toss-up. Unfortunately for him, he lost ground in Arizona, which is now too close to call.
Additionally, he is facing a challenge for Utah’s six Electoral College votes from former CIA operative and Utah native Evan McMullin. The independent candidate is siphoning votes away from Trump in a state that is Republican as any in the nation. In some polls, McMullin is even leading. (The States of the Nation is not polling on McMullin.)
Utah, like almost all of the states, is a winner-take-all contest.
Clinton has also maintained a lead in Florida and Pennsylvania, which have a combined 49 Electoral College votes. Ohio remains too close to call.
According to the project, lower voter turnout generally benefits Trump but his best hope for success is if Republican turnout surges and Democratic turnout is low.
SYRIA - A Syrian orphan takes part in a practice session ahead of a theatre performance organized by local council of Douma. By @AbdDoumany: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
EGYPT - A ray of light illuminates the statue of Ramses II inside the temple of Abu Simbel, south of Aswan. By Mohamed el Shahed: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
INDIA - A tribal girl looks on during the Tawang festival in Tawang, near the Indo-China border. By @TauseefMUSTAFA #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
INDIA - A tribal man in traditional dress looks on during the inaugural function of the Tawang festival in Tawang. By @TauseefMUSTAFA #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
MYANMAR - The body of three-year-old child, victim of an exorcism ritual, is seen in a funeral van before burial in Twante. By Romeo Gacad: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
More than 200 #refugees and #migrants float in a rubber boat as they try to cross to #europe some 12 miles off shore #libya: image via Aris Messinis @ArisMessinis, 22 October 2016
In the last week, there has been little movement. Clinton leads Donald Trump in most of the states that Trump would need should he have a chance to win the minimum 270 votes needed to win. According to the project, she has a better than 95 percent chance of winning, if the election was held this week. The mostly likely outcome would be 326 votes for Clinton to 212 for Trump.
Trump came off his best debate performance of the campaign Wednesday evening but the polling consensus still showed Clinton winning the third and final face-off on prime-time TV. Trump disputes those findings.
And some national polls had the race tightening a wee bit this week though others had Clinton maintaining her solid lead. But the project illustrates that the broader picture remains bleak for Trump with 17 days to go until the Nov. 8 election.
Trump did gain ground in South Carolina where his slim lead last week expanded to seven points, moving it into his column from a toss-up. Unfortunately for him, he lost ground in Arizona, which is now too close to call.
Additionally, he is facing a challenge for Utah’s six Electoral College votes from former CIA operative and Utah native Evan McMullin. The independent candidate is siphoning votes away from Trump in a state that is Republican as any in the nation. In some polls, McMullin is even leading. (The States of the Nation is not polling on McMullin.)
Utah, like almost all of the states, is a winner-take-all contest.
Clinton has also maintained a lead in Florida and Pennsylvania, which have a combined 49 Electoral College votes. Ohio remains too close to call.
According to the project, lower voter turnout generally benefits Trump but his best hope for success is if Republican turnout surges and Democratic turnout is low.
SYRIA - A Syrian orphan takes part in a practice session ahead of a theatre performance organized by local council of Douma. By @AbdDoumany: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
EGYPT - A ray of light illuminates the statue of Ramses II inside the temple of Abu Simbel, south of Aswan. By Mohamed el Shahed: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
INDIA - A tribal girl looks on during the Tawang festival in Tawang, near the Indo-China border. By @TauseefMUSTAFA #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
INDIA - A tribal man in traditional dress looks on during the inaugural function of the Tawang festival in Tawang. By @TauseefMUSTAFA #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
INDIA
- Skilled workers prepare sandalwood agarbattis - incense sticks - at a
small scale industry in Ahmedabad. By Sam Panthaky#AFP:
image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
MYANMAR - The body of three-year-old child, victim of an exorcism ritual, is seen in a funeral van before burial in Twante. By Romeo Gacad: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
More than 200 #refugees and #migrants float in a rubber boat as they try to cross to #europe some 12 miles off shore #libya: image via Aris Messinis @ArisMessinis, 22 October 2016
A young girl looks on after being rescued as #refugees and #migrants try to cross Mediterranean Sea from #libya to #europe: image via Aris Messinis
@ArisMessinis, 20 October 2016
A man is rescued after falling in the sea as about 1000 #refugees and #migrants float in a three level wooden boat, off shore #libya: image via Aris Messinis
@ArisMessinis, 20 October 2016
GREECE - A Kurdish refugee prepares supper in the Ritsona refugee camp, north of Athens. By @lgouliam #AFP:
image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
GREECE - The Ritsona refugee camp, north of Athens hosts some 500 refugees, mostly Syrian and Syrian Kurd families. By @lgouliam #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
GREECE - The Ritsona refugee camp, north of Athens hosts some 500 refugees, mostly Syrian and Syrian Kurd families. By @lgouliam #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
GREECE - The Ritsona refugee camp, north of Athens hosts some 500 refugees, mostly Syrian and Syrian Kurd families. By @lgouliam #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
GREECE - The Ritsona refugee camp, north of Athens hosts some 500 refugees, mostly Syrian and Syrian Kurd families. By @lgouliam #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
YEMEN - A Yemeni craftsman works on shutters at his workshop at a market in the old city of the capital Sanaa. By Mohammed Huwais @AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
IRAQ - Members of Al-Hashd al-Shaabi faction are heading to frontline near Tall al-Tibah during operation to retake Mosul from IS. @Kilicbil: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
GAZA CITY - Palestinians wave Palestinian flags during a demo. against the division and in support with the national unity. By @MahmudHams: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
GAZA CITY - A Palestinian farmer weeds a field in Gaza City By @mohmdabed.:
image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
GAZA CITY - A member of Islamic Jihad Movement stands guard during a rally to mark anniversary of the movement's foundation. By @mohmdabed: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
CHINA - Two crows fly over the Forbidden City in Beijing. By Wang Zhao #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 October 2016
HAITI - People travel down a flooded street through the rain, during a tropical storm in the commune of Les Cayes. By @hectorretamal #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 21 October 2016
Men scoop rice for villagers in hurricane-devastated Pestel, Haiti: photo by Meridith Kohut for The New York Times, 21 October 2016
The assault on Mosul and what comes after: image via War College @War_College, 21 October 2016
A pesh merga soldier takes time out from war for prayers: photo by Bryan Denton for The New York Times, 17 October 2016
A pesh merga soldier takes time out from war for prayers: photo by Bryan Denton for The New York Times, 17 October 2016
The assault on Mosul and what comes after: image via War College @War_College, 21 October 2016
U.S. warship challenges China's claims in South China Sea: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 21 October 2016
Half of Republicans would reject Clinton win in election, nearly 70 percent would blame rigging: Reuters/Ipsos poll: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 21 October 2016
Newly crowned Oba of Benin Kingdom Eheneden Erediauwa is guided through a symbolic bridge by the palace chiefs during his coronation in Benin city, Nigeria: photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters, 21 October 2016
Newly crowned Oba of Benin Kingdom Eheneden Erediauwa is guided through a symbolic bridge by the palace chiefs during his coronation in Benin city, Nigeria: photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters, 21 October 2016
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft blasts off Wednesday from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carrying the Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko, as well as the American astronaut Shane Kimbrough, to the International Space Station: photo by Vasily Maximov/Agence France-Presse, 20 October 2016
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft blasts off Wednesday from Baikonur,
Kazakhstan, carrying the Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko,
as well as
the American astronaut Shane Kimbrough, to the International Space
Station: photo by Vasily Maximov/Agence France-Presse, 20 October 2016
People walk through gale-force winds as Typhoon Haima makes landfall on the South China coast, in Hong Kong, China: photo by Alex Hofford/EPA, 21 October 2016
People walk through gale-force winds as Typhoon Haima makes landfall on the South China coast, in Hong Kong, China: photo by Alex Hofford/EPA, 21 October 2016
A truck is driven on a flooded street in Qionghai, in China’s Hainan Province, on Tuesday after Typhoon Sarika swept through. Another strong storm, Typhoon Haima, struck the Phillipines late Wednesday.: photo by Agence France-Presse, 21 October 2016
A truck is driven on a flooded street in Qionghai, in China’s Hainan Province, on Tuesday after Typhoon Sarika swept through. Another strong storm, Typhoon Haima, struck the Phillipines late Wednesday.: photo by Agence France-Presse, 21 October 2016
People walk through gale-force winds as Typhoon Haima makes landfall on the South China coast, in Hong Kong, China: photo by Alex Hofford/EPA, 21 October 2016
People walk through gale-force winds as Typhoon Haima makes landfall on the South China coast, in Hong Kong, China: photo by Alex Hofford/EPA, 21 October 2016
A truck is driven on a flooded street in Qionghai, in China’s Hainan Province, on Tuesday after Typhoon Sarika swept through. Another strong storm, Typhoon Haima, struck the Phillipines late Wednesday.: photo by Agence France-Presse, 21 October 2016
A truck is driven on a flooded street in Qionghai, in China’s Hainan Province, on Tuesday after Typhoon Sarika swept through. Another strong storm, Typhoon Haima, struck the Phillipines late Wednesday.: photo by Agence France-Presse, 21 October 2016
The northern lights shine on Unstad, Norway, a surfing destination above the Arctic Circle: photo by Leslye Davis/The New York Times, 21 October 2016
The northern lights shine on Unstad, Norway, a surfing destination above the Arctic Circle: photo by Leslye Davis/The New York Times, 21 October 2016
John Ashbery: At North Farm
2016-500. Albany, CA.: photo by biosfear, October 2016
Somewhere someone is traveling furiously toward you,
At incredible speed, traveling day and night,
At incredible speed, traveling day and night,
Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes.
But will he know where to find you,
Recognize you when he sees you,
But will he know where to find you,
Recognize you when he sees you,
Give you the thing he has for you?
Hardly anything grows here,
Yet the granaries are bursting with meal,
The sacks of meal piled to the rafters.
The streams run with sweetness, fattening fish;
Birds darken the sky. Is it enough
That the dish of milk is set out at night,
That we think of him sometimes,
Sometimes and always, with mixed feelings?
John Ashbery: At North Farm, from A Wave (1984)
At Matanaka Farm
This granary, privy and schoolhouse at Matanaka [on the South Island] are New Zealand's oldest surviving farm buildings. These buildings are registered Category I historic places with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. The three largest buildings were prefabricated in Sydney, and the granary and stable still have their original "Patented Galvanised Tinned Iron" roofs. The stable has a harness room, stalls for the horses and a gig room. Fodder was stored in the loft and there was a dovecote in the loft at the north end. The storeroom was probably the place where bulk supplies were kept, since there are orders scribbled on the original interior lining. The granary stands, like the stable, on its original site. The privy, which was placed over a large pit, was once nearer the homestead. The school was originally a barn, here in the farmyard, but was shifted nearer to the house in the 19th century for use as a schoolroom. It was shifted back to the farmyard about the beginning of the 20th century. It is divided into a schoolroom and a room for the teacher: photo by Karora, 23 April 2008
This is not a memoir, so that
as we rolled over the small rise
and saw, set on
that bare hill, the plain
wooden farm buildings
painted a uniform
deep red, with faded
and lightly rusted
iron roofs, and tawny
grasses swaying all about
against the two
tone blue of sea and sky,
we knew
no one would remember
we had
seen these things.
as we rolled over the small rise
and saw, set on
that bare hill, the plain
wooden farm buildings
painted a uniform
deep red, with faded
and lightly rusted
iron roofs, and tawny
grasses swaying all about
against the two
tone blue of sea and sky,
we knew
no one would remember
we had
seen these things.
Matanaka farm building, Otago, New Zealand: photo by travelling light (Derek Smith and Maclean Barker), 30 August 2004
This stables at Matanaka is one of New Zealand's oldest surviving wooden buildings.These buildings are registered Category I historic places with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.: photo by Karora, 23 April 2008
This storehouse next to the granary at Matanaka is one of New Zealand's oldest surviving wooden buildings. These buildings are registered Category I historic places with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.: photo by Karora, 23 April 2008
Otahuhu, South Auckland: photo by bobsan88, 7 August 2015
Colville, Coromandel Peninsula, NZ: photo by bobsan88, 17 August 2016
Penrose, Auckland: photo by bobsan88, 9 October 2016
Huntley, Waikato, NZ: photo by bobsan88, 11 October 2016
Mokau, NZ: photo by bobsan88, 24 June 2016
Motor Camp Cabins. Mokau, NZ: photo by bobsan88, 24 June 2016
Tucumcari, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, October 2016
Tucumcari, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, October 2016
Tucumcari, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, October 2016
Tucumcari, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, October 2016
Belen, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, October 2016
Child of an FSA -- R.R. borrower? in front of house, Puerto Rico: photo by Jack Delano, December 1941 or January 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)
Federal housing project on the outskirts of the town of Yauco, Puerto Rico: photo by Jack Delano, January 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)
Movie theatre, Berlin, New Hampshire: photo by Charles Steinhacker, June 1973 (US National Archives)
Symonds St, Auckland: photo by bobsan88, 9 August 2015
[Untitled, NZ]: photo by bobsan88, 21 August 2015
Albuquerque, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizarraga, October 2016
guisados [Sunset Boulevard, Echo Park]: photo by Laurie Avocado, 6 October 2016
Dingbat alley [Normandie, LA]: photo by Andrew Murr, 13 October 2016
Land’s End, Foggy Night. San Francisco, 1953.: photo by Fred Lyon (Peter Fetterman Gallery)
Land’s End, Foggy Night. San Francisco, 1953.: photo by Fred Lyon (Peter Fetterman Gallery)
Yang Fudong: photo by Augen Tier, 2 October 2016
Yang Fudong: photo by Augen Tier, 2 October 2016
Yang Fudong: photo by Augen Tier, 2 October 2016
Ruatoria, East Coast, NZ: photo by bobsan88, 14 November 2015
great photos ...amazing title in this post...we think of God sometimes? (in Ashbery poem)
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Sandra.
ReplyDeleteYes, that makes two of us.
...:)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me of one of my hundred favourite Ashbery poems.
ReplyDeleteThe other poem is yours surely - are you in New Zealand?
And oh yes, great post-title...
Michael,
ReplyDeleteYes, the Matanaka Farm poem is mine.
Don't I wish we were in NZ.
As it is, the post is among other things a quiet homage to my wife, who did grow up in NZ.
We are and for some time have been, less by choice or inclination than by I don't know what, inertia, exhaustion, helplessness, or each by turns, precariously surviving in a collapsing old house on a collapsing hillside hard by a lethal freeway feeder in a refinery corridor in N. CA.
Angelica came from Wellington (South Island). The NZ photos in the post are by a North Islander, surfer I take it, bobsan88. Wonderful colorist. The clarity of light makes me think, in some ways, of New Mexico, also a great sky place... seen here in the fabulous work of Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga (el zopilote).
And thanks too about the title.
(I have never owned a smart phone or other smart device, and it's surely too late now...)
Interesting! I wondered because I'm in the middle of writing a longish essay about Lisa Samuels' 2009 poem Tomorrowland; Californian emigre to NZ, the poem being partly a response to that experience.
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Michael, and a large oops, for reiterating an apparently permanent confusion of north with south, when it comes to NZ geography, what with Wellington being at the bottom of the north isles... the whole arrangement's so counter my-brain-ative, if you get what I mean... said brain being now the better part of eight decades steeped in the aftermath of being born, severely exacerbated by the catastrophic effects of a car-on-corpus hit just outside the humble collapsing abode, here on the lethal feeder, not quite five years ago... and I don't even drive... so what am I doing here???
ReplyDeleteAbout the emigré poet...
First let me say that I find the botanical/poetic concentration of your blog noble and inspiring.
The plants were always wonderful, and social developments have never changed that.
The poetry though...
Your 17 Oct post spells out very generously the amplitude of your receptiveness to whatever poetry there is, and poetry ought to be grateful for that.
The third graph (if I remember correctly) of that post gets to the nut of it.
That is, the generosity.
If something is approved somewhere out there where the certifiably smart folk (orchestrators of social conversation) are, it must be of interest, I take to be the thesis.
"So the poem's onslaught is to a certain extent directed against itself - it too is undeniably beautiful and exquisite: how about those "Hyperions of crème brûlée"? Samuels, some readers may feel, is troublingly at home in the Jamesian/Whartonian tea-party of this poem, works the registers of nineteenth-century gentility almost too expertly. Perhaps Samuels' enjoyment of such literary vacuities is her equivalent to the long-running post-modern obsession with kitsch (e.g. Ashbery, Koons), which continues to re-emerge transformed into the grotesque cutesiness of the gurlesque, the sublime baseness of flarf, and so on."
A friendly and sympathetic critic gilding a rather ordinary plastic lily?
Poet has its cake of privilege and eats it too, breaking news.
Anyhow, you've now had us reading quite a bit of your own extremely readable (yay!!) poetry, which we enjoy enough to keep reading (I'm going blind, so reading comes slowly); and also that of the emigré, which you have so copiously written on, with such great kindness...
Hmm.
Keep in mind we here are both old, and not nearly so kind.
Let me put it this way. The postman who faithfully delivered the dumb old preelectronic mail to Angelica's home on Awarua Street in Ngaio was a relatively well known (if uncanonized, unconferenced, unpennsounded, and so on), actual, nonpostmodern poet, James Baxter.
Perhaps no longer well known nor known at all. However I do remember several of his poems. Zero literary vacuities.
I'm an unreconstructed saurian reactionary in these matters, I fear. Just not enough time left to waste any. And for me, the entire production of american pomo academic faux-po, with its selfconscious technical fiddlings, endless irony-laced genderobsesssions and so on, represents a vast, safe, evasive waste of time.
Worse still, safe, evasive, and condescending and insulting to the world. (Those Wittgensteinian island habitats for example... huh??)
Not that it doesn't create careers and so on. But then too, so too do all businesses, with their perpetual busy-ness.