1. Original
2. After "auto colour"
3. After "auto contrast"
Is the first or the second the most genuine? Not sure. Certainly the sky looked nothing like the third image.
Ossian
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Photo alteration
1. Original
2. After "auto colour"
3. After "auto contrast"
Is the first or the second the most genuine? Not sure. Certainly the sky looked nothing like the third image.
Ossian
Monday, March 30, 2009
This is not bankruptcy, it's robbery
Barack Obama backs 'bankruptcy' to save US car industry
"'What I am talking about is using our existing legal structure as a tool that, with the backing of the US government, can make it easier for General Motors and Chrysler to quickly clear away old debts that are weighing them down so they can get back on their feet and on to a path to success; a tool that we can use, even as workers are staying on the job building cars that are being sold.'" (Guardian)
They can't just tell the creditors you're not getting paid but we're carrying on in business - this is kindergarten logic. If GM is bankrupt then GM must be sold off to pay the creditors. Otherwise it's daylight robbery. Don't imagine the creditors are just a load of rich people who won't feel any pain - they're probably pension funds, insurance companies etc. Nobody is going to lend any money when they know it's all going to be written off later.
This bailing out is collapsing under the weight of its own silliness. They should have nationalised the banks properly, to ensure that any money put in was still in the right hands, i.e. the public's. If they'd applied logic instead of panic things would not be at this farcical, painful and disastrous stage. You can't turn straw into gold - no amount of moving the goalposts is going to turn worthless "assets" into anything other than damage that we have sustained.
I've said all along it's no use pouring every bit of water you've got into a leaky bucket. As long as they haven't nationalised the banks or kept everything under control with a specially constituted state commercial agency we will continue to haemorrhage money. At the same time if we don't erect protective tariffs our industries will be wiped out completely. They have already been allowed to be savaged by unscrupulous competitors who know nothing of human rights or fair working conditions. Everything from bonded child labour to prison slave labour to industrial dormitories with company stores have been allowed to compete unfairly with our better geared native industries in western Europe.
I still remember when my Dad's clothing factory was sunk with the loss of about 20 jobs by cheap imports from Taiwan. What did Taiwan ever do for us?
Ossian
Response by Feargal Mooney (Gravitas constituency candidate designate): "The only solution that is going to work is to adopt what Gravitas has been proposing since the millennium, a world amnesty for all personal debt, backdated to 2000 and repeated every 100 years. Who would not vote for this now that banks are all getting trillions and the government is printing money? Why should Joe Public be left out?" Vote Gravitas to own your own house and car now. If you haven't got a house and car, we'll order them up for you to boost the building and car industries. (Of course it will be an electric car running on electricity generated from biocharcoal, which is made out of what politicians talk.)
"'What I am talking about is using our existing legal structure as a tool that, with the backing of the US government, can make it easier for General Motors and Chrysler to quickly clear away old debts that are weighing them down so they can get back on their feet and on to a path to success; a tool that we can use, even as workers are staying on the job building cars that are being sold.'" (Guardian)
They can't just tell the creditors you're not getting paid but we're carrying on in business - this is kindergarten logic. If GM is bankrupt then GM must be sold off to pay the creditors. Otherwise it's daylight robbery. Don't imagine the creditors are just a load of rich people who won't feel any pain - they're probably pension funds, insurance companies etc. Nobody is going to lend any money when they know it's all going to be written off later.
This bailing out is collapsing under the weight of its own silliness. They should have nationalised the banks properly, to ensure that any money put in was still in the right hands, i.e. the public's. If they'd applied logic instead of panic things would not be at this farcical, painful and disastrous stage. You can't turn straw into gold - no amount of moving the goalposts is going to turn worthless "assets" into anything other than damage that we have sustained.
I've said all along it's no use pouring every bit of water you've got into a leaky bucket. As long as they haven't nationalised the banks or kept everything under control with a specially constituted state commercial agency we will continue to haemorrhage money. At the same time if we don't erect protective tariffs our industries will be wiped out completely. They have already been allowed to be savaged by unscrupulous competitors who know nothing of human rights or fair working conditions. Everything from bonded child labour to prison slave labour to industrial dormitories with company stores have been allowed to compete unfairly with our better geared native industries in western Europe.
I still remember when my Dad's clothing factory was sunk with the loss of about 20 jobs by cheap imports from Taiwan. What did Taiwan ever do for us?
Ossian
Response by Feargal Mooney (Gravitas constituency candidate designate): "The only solution that is going to work is to adopt what Gravitas has been proposing since the millennium, a world amnesty for all personal debt, backdated to 2000 and repeated every 100 years. Who would not vote for this now that banks are all getting trillions and the government is printing money? Why should Joe Public be left out?" Vote Gravitas to own your own house and car now. If you haven't got a house and car, we'll order them up for you to boost the building and car industries. (Of course it will be an electric car running on electricity generated from biocharcoal, which is made out of what politicians talk.)
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
How restorers ruined the last portrait of Shakespeare
News, Art - The Independent"The so-called 'restoration' could now go down in art history as one of the biggest blunders on record."
I put it to you that this looks like it could be a portrait of the great man, not just on the basis of intuition and the at once observant and reflective look.
Am I imagining it?, but no, I'm sure there is a similarity between this face and the face of Bob Dylan, perhaps one of the few people alive who could be compared to Shakespeare for verbal inventiveness and facility. Do they share a set of genes? A small question in some ways, but there it is...Noël Knowall
Good news
Scientists film HIV spreading for first time:
"Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding how HIV spreads through the human body after filming the process for the first time ever." (Telegraph)
Newsdesk
"Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding how HIV spreads through the human body after filming the process for the first time ever." (Telegraph)
Newsdesk
London G20 sub-committee on Quantitive Easing
From Luis Bunuel's The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
A preparatory meeting for Gordon Brown's London G20 special sub-committee on Quantitive Easing. Will President Obimma attend, I wonder. Gordon mentioned him in his speech to Congress. (Who is President Obimma?, by the way, and how strange that he should have a name so like the US president's.) Let's hope Alkie Ada doesn't show up, you know what a boor she is.
Zoz
Friday, March 27, 2009
Listen: Leonard Cohen concert in London (complete)
Exclusive First Listen: Leonard Cohen : NPR Music
"Now 72 years old, Leonard Cohen has spent much of the past decade in solitude, exploring his own spirituality and his place in an ever-changing world. But in July of 2008, he took the stage at London's 02 Arena and gave a stunning performance, as part of his first tour in 15 years."
This is one of the best things ever online. It also makes me want to buy the album, so it's a winning ploy. "Thank you friends. We're so privileged to be able to gather on occasions like this, when so much of the world is plunged into darkness and chaos." [Applause] "So...Ring the bells that still can ring."
Ossian
"Now 72 years old, Leonard Cohen has spent much of the past decade in solitude, exploring his own spirituality and his place in an ever-changing world. But in July of 2008, he took the stage at London's 02 Arena and gave a stunning performance, as part of his first tour in 15 years."
This is one of the best things ever online. It also makes me want to buy the album, so it's a winning ploy. "Thank you friends. We're so privileged to be able to gather on occasions like this, when so much of the world is plunged into darkness and chaos." [Applause] "So...Ring the bells that still can ring."
Ossian
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Soundings
New Short Stories
The opening paragraphs of the stories are now online. There are complete stories and a sound recording etc from previous years too.
Related links:Newsdesk
The opening paragraphs of the stories are now online. There are complete stories and a sound recording etc from previous years too.
Related links:Newsdesk
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Light house
Party lights. 19 March 2009. Sphagnum
Google Streetview can keep the day, I'll take the night and the half light (with a nod to Mr Yeats).
Ossian
The Spotted Dog: Demolition in progress?
Demolition sign on the Spotted Dog, 20 March 2009. Sphagnum
Don't cry but, "Willesden Green has a long history with the area being recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086 as 'Wellesdone'. By the 14th Century a small settlement had formed around a woodland clearing, which later became Willesden Green. By the middle of the 18th century the village had grown and had its own pub, ‘The Spotted Dog’." (Ref: Willesden Green Conservation Area). It used to be said that a taxi driver might not know where Willesden High Road was but could take you to The Spotted Dog.
Where no bikes were before
Brent, March 2009. Sphagnum
Signs like this have just appeared on the path all around the park behind the sports centre. Why invite bikes where few are ever seen, other than small children's ones? Some jobsworth looked at a trike and thought, "Let's order some signage." Do they have to mark everything in sight? This was a lovely tree lined park where you would search hard to find any sign at all, and now it has these industrial blue and white intrusions at intervals on the path all around.
Ossian
Spotted in the Willesden bookshop
Copies of New Short Stories 3 on display beside the cashier's desk today in the Willesden bookshop, Willesden library centre, High Road, NW10
Google "Streetview" Willesden
View Larger Map
This is where it lands if you just search for "Willesden NW10". It's the roundabout on the junction of Pound Lane and Willesden High Road, beside the Willesden bus garage. There are absolutely awesome 360° views. You can "walk around" and see Herald House in great detail and now there are worries here about our priceless collection of Frank Bacon's and Jack Pollock's.
Harry Lemon, Travel Correspondent
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Shoot the old women and children
BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Israel troops admit Gaza abuses
"An Israeli military college has printed damning soldiers' accounts of the killing of civilians and vandalism during recent operations in Gaza. One account tells of a sniper killing a mother and children at close range whom troops had told to leave their home. ... In another cited case, a commander ordered troops to kill an elderly woman walking on a road, even though she was easily identifiable and clearly not a threat." (BBC)
"You know what," (Ollie to Stan), "we're going to have to investigate!" (Flicks tie out.) "Why is that?" (Stan, with perplexed look, scratching head.) "Doh! Because we don't know what we did! Can't you even see that?!" (Stan looks lost.)
Zoz
"An Israeli military college has printed damning soldiers' accounts of the killing of civilians and vandalism during recent operations in Gaza. One account tells of a sniper killing a mother and children at close range whom troops had told to leave their home. ... In another cited case, a commander ordered troops to kill an elderly woman walking on a road, even though she was easily identifiable and clearly not a threat." (BBC)
"You know what," (Ollie to Stan), "we're going to have to investigate!" (Flicks tie out.) "Why is that?" (Stan, with perplexed look, scratching head.) "Doh! Because we don't know what we did! Can't you even see that?!" (Stan looks lost.)
Zoz
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Hundreds died because of NHS management incompetence
Health secretary apologises over damning report on Mid Staffordshire NHS trust | Society | guardian.co.uk: "Between 400 and 1,200 more people died than would have been expected at Mid Staffordshire NHS foundation trust over three years, the report said."
There is stupidity and there is laziness and then there is just downright arrogance and indifference, combined with professional incompetence. And it's all under NEW LABOUR, not old Labour, not the Tories. Anyone with eyes can see that Gordon Brown and everyone he surrounds himself with are sleepy-headed, bureaucratic time servers, pen pushers and lead swingers. They all have the same square, dull, miserly, insensate look of the petty-minded and unaware. In the words of the redoubtable Bob Geldof, "People are dying NOW!" When will we ever get some leaders who have an ounce of believability and an iota of competence?!?! Sorry for the rant, but this is very close to home for many, if not all of us - and you're only lucky if it isn't your turn yet to fall into their slow-motion, mindless death-grip.
Zoz
There is stupidity and there is laziness and then there is just downright arrogance and indifference, combined with professional incompetence. And it's all under NEW LABOUR, not old Labour, not the Tories. Anyone with eyes can see that Gordon Brown and everyone he surrounds himself with are sleepy-headed, bureaucratic time servers, pen pushers and lead swingers. They all have the same square, dull, miserly, insensate look of the petty-minded and unaware. In the words of the redoubtable Bob Geldof, "People are dying NOW!" When will we ever get some leaders who have an ounce of believability and an iota of competence?!?! Sorry for the rant, but this is very close to home for many, if not all of us - and you're only lucky if it isn't your turn yet to fall into their slow-motion, mindless death-grip.
Zoz
Boris's odes
Here's a really Right-wing idea: learn poetry
"...My teachers probably spent more time in Japanese POW camps than they did at teacher-training college, and yet they had one utensil of instruction for which I will always be grateful. They made us learn stuff, and spout it out, and we blushed if we got it wrong; and the result is that I am a kind of slightly wonky poetry jukebox. There must be thousands of texts in there: snatches, fragments and large numbers of whole poems. I could do you a dozen Shakespeare sonnets, the whole of Lycidas (186 lines of the thing) and the first 100 lines of the Iliad in Greek. ... As anyone who loves poetry will testify, when you learn a good poem, you make a good friend. ... What is the point of education, what is the point of civilisation, what is the point of our benighted money-grubbing species and what is the point of Conservatism if we don't instruct our children in the chief glories of their inheritance?" (Telegraph)
Typically amusing faux rant by the Mayor of London.
"...My teachers probably spent more time in Japanese POW camps than they did at teacher-training college, and yet they had one utensil of instruction for which I will always be grateful. They made us learn stuff, and spout it out, and we blushed if we got it wrong; and the result is that I am a kind of slightly wonky poetry jukebox. There must be thousands of texts in there: snatches, fragments and large numbers of whole poems. I could do you a dozen Shakespeare sonnets, the whole of Lycidas (186 lines of the thing) and the first 100 lines of the Iliad in Greek. ... As anyone who loves poetry will testify, when you learn a good poem, you make a good friend. ... What is the point of education, what is the point of civilisation, what is the point of our benighted money-grubbing species and what is the point of Conservatism if we don't instruct our children in the chief glories of their inheritance?" (Telegraph)
Typically amusing faux rant by the Mayor of London.
Views and reviews
"Inspiring night at Costa Coffee for the Short Story Night, with writers Jo Lloyd, Jill Widner, and Margot Taylor. Wise words from Rana Dasgupta who this year replaced Zadie Smith as judge of the Willesden Herald prize" (Lane7)
"I’ve just finished reading Jo Lloyd’s Work, and it is superb - a poignant and sensitive study of loneliness, bond-building and alienation within the workplace, that is subtly understated, and all the more powerful for that." (Jenny Barden)
"Another highlight is Amy by Nick Holdstock, who very ably and wryly depicts the sometimes quite contrary nature of the male psyche. The collections ends on a very high note with Ben Cheetham’s The Hate Club, a great evocation of how cruel hormone-ridden teens can be, and the pain that such actions can cause later in life." (Authortrek)
In the news on the prestigious BBC National Short Story Award site (The Short Story)
Results
Dedicated website: New Short Stories
"I’ve just finished reading Jo Lloyd’s Work, and it is superb - a poignant and sensitive study of loneliness, bond-building and alienation within the workplace, that is subtly understated, and all the more powerful for that." (Jenny Barden)
"Another highlight is Amy by Nick Holdstock, who very ably and wryly depicts the sometimes quite contrary nature of the male psyche. The collections ends on a very high note with Ben Cheetham’s The Hate Club, a great evocation of how cruel hormone-ridden teens can be, and the pain that such actions can cause later in life." (Authortrek)
In the news on the prestigious BBC National Short Story Award site (The Short Story)
Results
Dedicated website: New Short Stories
Monday, March 16, 2009
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