text:
(Holly Near singing "Two Good Arms" at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1987)
In 1977, Charlie King wrote a song about Sacco and Vanzetti called "Two Good Arms". The chorus uses lines from letters they wrote trying to prove their innocence, and the title comes from a phrase in one of those letters. Holly Near eventually recorded this song on one of her albums, but before that she sang it at concerts. As a teenager, I had read "Justice Denied in Massachusetts", the very famous poem about Sacco and Vanzetti by Edna St. Vincent Millay, who used her influence as a poet and Nobel Prize winner to try to keep these innocent men from being executed. I was devastated by this wrong which had been done before I was born.
Later, when as an adult I heard Holly's rendition of "Two Good Arms", I felt the same emotions of grief and outrage come up in me. I was singing along one day when my daughter, still very young, came into the room. I had tears on my cheeks and my voice was pulsating with feeling. She asked me what the song was about. I hesitated, but I told her. She begged me to say Sacco and Vanzetti had not been killed, that no one would have coldbloodedly sent them to their death. I saw, in that moment, the reality of capital punishment land in her consciousness, the immorality of killing to punish murder. I wanted to take it back, to give her a chance at living in a world where we had other methods of dealing with extremely damaged people.
(Photograph of a protest against the Briggs Initiative organized by the Metropolitan Community Church, located in their "In Our Own Words" History Project -- date, location, and photographer unknown, but likely 1978 and Bay Area)
When I moved to San Francisco in March of 1978, I immediately plunged into radical political organizing. There was a lot to choose from, but most of the lesbians I knew or wanted to know were focused on two main issues at that time: Defeat of the Briggs Initiative (Proposition 6), and defeat of expanding the death penalty (Prop 7).
The Briggs Initiative would have removed gays and lesbians from school teaching. The way it was written, it was also a club that could have been used against straight teachers, and that angle was successfully exploited by the grassroots work of Lesbian Schoolworkers (the group which got my attention) and BACABI (Bay Area Coalition Against The Briggs Initiative). The mainstream gay organizations (predominantly white, male, non-working-class) put everything they had into defeating the Briggs Initiative. But when it came to the death penalty effort, I found myself surrounded by working folks, people of color, and/or political dykes.
The preceding June, two-thirds of California's electorate had passed Prop 13, which began the decline in California's school funding that continues today. For the past few years, measures against lesbian and gay rights had been passing in state after state. These were the first lapping wavelets of conservative rise to power, portending a tsunami (Ronnie Raygun) on its way. It's important to remember they were trying out several planks: Hate queers. End public funding of essential community services. Build more prisons and kill more prisoners. This is an interrelated ideology, and taking on only one of their toxic tentacles made no sense to me.
On the evening of 7 November, 1978, I and my friends were part of a huge crowd on Castro Street listening to the election results come in. When it was clear Prop 6 had gone down, a massive party began. But I didn't join the celebration. Prop 7 had vastly expanded the death penalty in this newly adopted state of mine, golden California, the land of freedom and promise. I went home, crawled into bed, and wept.
Prop 6 was defeated by 58% of the electorate. An almost identical percentage voted for the death penalty expansion. I had a lot to think about.
(Matthew Shepard)
On the morning of Sunday, October 18, 1998, I attended Meeting For Worship at the Friends' Meeting House in Austin, as I did most Sundays. Worship was silent for the first half hour that morning, with no one rising to speak. I was sitting on the south side of the room so I could see the trees out the high windows on the north wall. But I was also in a perfect position to see the face of a young man I'll call Sullivan (to protect his confidentiality) when he rose from his chair opposite me to speak during the second half of worship.
His standing created an immediate air of anticipation in the room. Sullivan was openly gay, partnered with Antonio, another man in meeting; they were both admired for their hard work. I had never seen Sullivan speak in Meeting; indeed, I'd seldom heard him speak anywhere. He clasped his hands that morning, but I could see they were shaking. He stared at the floor for a minute, gathering himself.
Six days earlier, Matthew Shepard had been murdered.
I'll do my best to repeat exactly what I heard Sullivan eventually say, in a strained, halting voice:
"It's been a hard week...When I heard the news, I wished Antonio were home. I had trouble waiting for him to come home, so we could talk. Finally, I did what I often do when I need help. I opened the Midrash and began reading.
"I turned to a section about when the Israelites fled Egypt in search of freedom. When they fled across the Sea of Reeds, in a way opened by Yahweh, the Midrash tells of how the angels in heaven were gathered around G*d, watching the events unfold. They were filled with fear as Pharaoh's army came after the Israelites, chasing them into the gap, closing on them. But when the Israelites reached dry ground and the waters behind them closed over the chasing soldiers, all the angels broke into gleeful celebration. As they cheered and danced, one of them noticed that G*d was sitting slumped, tremendous sorrow on his face. The angel asked 'Why are you not happy that Your people reached safety?'
"G*d replied, 'How can I be happy, when My people are drowning?'"
Sullivan stood a few seconds more, as shock reverberated around the room, then sat down, twisting his hands together. More than one of us burst into tears.
(Curved Corridor, Island No. 3, Ellis Island 1998, gelatin silver print by Stephen Wilkes)
Last June, a divided Supreme Court ruled out use of the death penalty in this country for anything except first-degree murder, even child rape. The New York Times article reporting the decision stated it was "the third in the last six years to place a categorical limitation on capital punishment. In 2002, the court barred the execution of mentally retarded defendants. In 2005, it ruled that the Constitution bars the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of 18." The article went on to insist "there was no suggestion from the majority that the court was moving toward the abolition of capital punishment." Not from this Supreme Court, no, I wouldn't expect a movement toward joining most of the rest of the world in re-examining the meaning of justice and punishment.
We are, for the time being, still held sway by John Walsh notions of retribution, of seeking some amorphous definition of "closure" when violence intrudes into our personal lives and takes away something irreplaceable. When I hear family members claiming they want the death of someone who murdered one of their own because it will bring them "peace", I always suspect they are mistaking closure for denial. If a murderer is dead, it's easier to shut away the emotions and thoughts attached to the murder. The problem is, capital punishment not only doesn't work as a deterrent, not for most of the people who commit murder -- it actually, over time, creates a culture where we are desensitized to the value of human life.
I know what it is to live with this kind of loss. I myself have felt homicidal in response to seeing irreparable damage and death of those I love, administered by the hands of people who need to be stopped. But I hold myself to a different standard, and I'd like to live in a society where our highest goals are perhaps beyond our everyday reach, yet we do not abandon them as goals.
(Hammer and Nails glass sculpture by Hans Godo Frabel)
Several years ago, I was close friends with a couple of dykes who were building their own house on 70 acres near Hamilton Pool, west of Austin. They lived hand to mouth and were in dire need of other carpentry-skilled hands to help them, so they created a series of weekend workshops to teach women the basic trade, in exchange for a small fee and the chance to camp out on their land. I signed up for one weekend, driving back and forth each day because it was hotter'n'hell and I liked to sleep without fireants around.
Also, to be honest, it was a vegetarian weekend, with one woman attending whom the rest of us called The Vegan Cop behind her back because she was so militant about trying to govern the eating habits of others. Friday afternoon, on the way out there, I'd passed by a favorite barbecue joint and stopped to buy two chopped meat sandwiches with a big RC and a side of slaw -- eating my dinner in advance so I could fore go the uncertain potluck later. After I'd eaten, I got worried about my breath smelling like carne, and had brushed my teeth beside my car, drawing the stares of cowboys in pickups.
Each workshop involved a special project, and our weekend task was to build a large deck on a rocky ridge overlying the Pedernales River valley. Late afternoon on Sunday, we were to the point of nailing down the plywood decking, having completed the frame, steps, and railings. Laney, the main carpenter, had instructed us to drive the nails fast and hard, with the intention of making the nail head bite down into the wood on the final blow, leaving nothing to stick up above the level surface. There were about a dozen of us spread out over the large deck, whaling away with great volume and vigor, an exhilarating end to a hard-working weekend. I had started a nail and kept my spread hand on the wood next to it, a couple of inches away for safety. But I allowed myself to become distracted by the conversation of a couple nearby, whose incessant bickering made it fairly certain they were in the throes of breaking up. My brain, without my direct guidance, decided what I really wanted to do with my right-handed hammer swing was connect to my left hand instead of that measly nail. The blow came down on my left index finger with all the force my biceps could muster. The end of my finger burst like a ripe tomato.
It didn't hurt for a few seconds. The shock was in the appearance. I held up my finger stupidly and said to the nearest woman, "What happened?"
She was a clipped-of-speech butch who worked as a prison guard. She said "Put something cold on it" and went back to hammering. When I didn't move -- her sentence didn't really make sense to me, I was in such shock -- she got up irritably and went to the nearby cooler. But all the ice had melted, and the only thing left was a Pepsi in a can. She brought that back to me and said "This is still cold, hold it again your finger."
As if sleepwalking, I did what she said. It didn't help, and contact with the ruptured flesh finally registered as pain. I cried out "Oh my god, oh my fucking god." This got the attention of others, and Laney rushed over, her back and breasts covered in sweat, her workpants stiff with sawdust.
"Come on" she said. "Let's walk you back to the house." She helped me stand and led me gently through the mesquite, a direct path instead of by the dirt road, so we'd get there faster. Once we were out of sight of the work crew, she stopped and lifted my chin, looking kindly into my eyes.
"That must hurt like the end of the world" she said. "You don't have to pretend to be all tough with me, and those other butch wanna-bees can't see you now, you can let go."
I did. I promptly dropped to the ground and began wailing as if I was three years old. She was startled, but squatted beside me and rubbed my neck as I cried my heart out. When I was done, I felt better and worse -- I wasn't in shock any more, but the throbbing in my finger was all-consuming.
At the house, I washed the wound myself and bit onto a towel while Laney poured peroxide over it. I should have gone to an ER and gotten stitches -- the scar is still very visible and utterly numb -- but I didn't want to do it by myself and no one else was available. She wrapped a thick bandage around it and recommended I hold my hand in the air, to keep the swelling down. When the others arrived for dinner, I sat a little apart, afraid someone would jostle me, while I picked at my tofu pasta salad. Before it got inky dark, I left, determined to drive home. I don't remember the trip. In particular, I don't remember negotiating the two bob-wire-and-post cattle fences I had to get out and open, drive through, and loop shut again before reaching the main road.
The next day I tried to work but could not type, of course. My supervisor, a buddy, sent me home but first he explained to me about the concept of closure: How if you don't tell the brain what to while you are in motion, and if it does not have muscle memory to direct it, the brain will search for closure on its own. What it knew best was where my other hand was, so it closed the circuit for me. He said this is why when you stub a toe, you'll often keep stubbing that same toe: Your mind is now hyper aware of an injured part and if you don't pay attention while you're walking, closure will involve making contact with that wounded part of the body again.
It was a great lesson. Ever since, when I've begun doing something new with my body, I've reminded myself "closure" which means "pay attention, or else some other part of you will be making the decisions".
(Homecoming by Herlinda Spahr)
When one becomes a pacifist, an opponent to the taking of human life under any circumstances, it's not a final destination you reach and set up a comfortable home. It requires constant thought and work to stop wearing your sword.
The airwaves are now filled with stories related to the US Airways story: 150 passengers, 3 flight attendants, and 2 pilots walking away from a controlled crash landing in the Hudson River. It's pre-empting everything right now, including (and seemingly especially) Bush's departure. More than one blogger has pointed out it's a return of the wheel, with implicit redemption offered, i.e., fratboy fuckup allows terrorists to fly planes into New York's most vigorous symbols and never catches the perpetrator behind it, instead using all his power and influence to dismantle the economy, military, and culture whose best qualities were what the terrorists objected to in the first place. (Like he forced hugs on all those Katrina victims.) But now, with hope standing in the wings, we return to what us most proud about being American: Competence, genuine compassion (not the mealymouthed judgement-poisoned kind of conservatism), and community response.
I agree, we're responding as a culture to the symbolism. One literary/arts blog (Dykes To Watch Out For) has a fascinating thread about how many of us are weeping over this story without clear comprehension. But I think the relief and catharsis we're experiencing has its roots much farther in time. I'm remembering the jeering campaign slogan Reagan used for re-election: Are you better off than than you were four years ago?
It was shocking to hear this coming out of the TV screen. It was a dogwhistle for the middle class (and those who aspired to it), who wanted to claim moral superiority over dirty working people whose obvious failings (not being white, not being married, not being Christian) were what was keeping them/us from individual financial prosperity. It was permission to begin the polarizing hatred that is the ultimate conservative weapon against dismantling pluralism, tolerance, and shared prosperity -- which the fundies hate every bit as much as Osama Bin Laden does, and for the same reason (terror of modernity).
[In a related vein, I recommend you read Sara Robinson's essay at Campaign for America's Future on how Their use of the phrase "moral clarity" does not mean what we mean when we say it, found here.]
After catharsis, we have an opportunity to think freshly about the nature of the world and our place in it, as those passengers on US Airways Flight 1549 are undoubtedly doing this weekend. What will justice and closure mean for us, as we click shut the door on Bush? I for one make a distinction between punishment (tempting as that is) and accountability. I'm willing to give up on holding accountable all those of you who voted for Bush, once or twice. You're already being punished for your mistake, and though it is likely whatever you're suffering is not as severe as those in other parts of the world because of his having been granted the power to shit on the planet, still, I'm hoping for more learning to come out of this nearly incomprehensible mess. For me and for you.
I'm not willing to relinquish accountability for those who sought public office, however, and claimed our trust. When I separate out the feelings that push me toward wanting vengeance -- when I assert my intellect and deny my lizard brain the right to make decisions (beware your fingers) -- then I'm clear: Only those who still dream of a place in the system as it was would be deluded by the "hope" that perhaps we can leave the culprits free to go on doing more of what they've already done. I believe in rehabilitation, but it must be demonstrated, not declared as an intention. Or, as we say in 12-step circles, action not words. And, since we're dealing with the spree of a dry drunk, that is especially apt.
Real hope resides in a vision which steps outside of the system as it has existed and seeks complete disclosure of all that has remained concealed, with a belief that we'll know how to respond when we have that information. Restore transparency, fully empower investigation, and trust our process (our once and future process) to set us back on the path of being a force for good in this world. I do believe everything else will follow, if we begin there. The wheel will turn again without a jarring lurch, because for me, closure is remembering all which has happened without letting pain determine my future place on the spinning rim.
[Cross-posted at Group News Blog.]
Labels: Briggs Initiative, closure, death penalty, Holly Near, Matthew Shepard, memoir, pacifism, Sacco and Vanzetti, Two Good Arms, US Airways Crash
ANA SISNETT: 1952-2009
(Ana Sisnett, photo from Austin American-Statesman 14 January 2009 obituary, photographer not named)
Oh my gentle friends, we've lost Ana Sisnett.
Way too early. And cruelly before she could see Barack Obama assume the office of the Presidency.
She's been fighting ovarian cancer for three years. She died at home, in loving care, on Tuesday afternoon, at 56 years of age. She is survived by her partner, Priscilla Hale; her daughter Meredith Sisnett, age 36; her son Ghamal Webb, age 31; and two adored grandchildren. She is also survived by a vast community who knew her as an artist, writer, poet, community activist, builder of bridges, and friend.
(Ana Sisnett featured at Hello, Austin)
I first met Ana in 1995 when I began volunteering at WATER House (Women's Access To Electronic Resources). Ana was part of the Foundation for a Compassionate Society, which funded WATER, and she had set up WATER's training program in computer technology for underserved women and girls. At around that same time, she began working with Sue Beckwith at Austin Free-Net, a non-profit organization that offers free Internet access and classes in over forty sites in Austin, many in neighborhoods with large African American and Latino populations. It is because of my training at WATER, mostly done by the very patient Amanda Johnston, that I came to the online world and eventually to blogging.
Ana eventually became Executive Director of Austin Free-Net. Her obituary at that organization's website states:
'Ana and Austin Free-Net were featured on the cover of the Austin Chronicle's 2003 Best of Austin issue, when AFN was voted "Best Internet Safety Net and Digital Divide Bridge." She was also among community technology leaders in the U.S. given the Education Technology Think Tank (ET3) 2003 Technology to Empower Communities (TEC) Champion Award. In 2000, Texas Monthly Biz cited her as one "The 25 Most Powerful Texans in High Tech," and she was the recipient of the City of Austin's 2001 Susan G. Hadden Telecommunity Award.
(Ana Sisnett from 2003 Austin Chronicle's Best of Austin edition)
'Ana was often called upon by media, researchers, and policymakers to provide expert testimony for Austin and Texas e-government initiatives, and to participate in conferences, town halls, and other gatherings focused on equitable access to the technology and training. She was an invited panelist at the Barbara Jordan National Forum on Public Policy, Goodwill International Industries annual conference, keynote speaker at the St. Louis Brown Bag Technology Collaborative, and mentor during the 2002 Community Technology Centers Network Leadership Institute. She served on the KLRU Public Square and Digital Divide brain trusts, and was a member of the River City Youth Foundation's Community Advisory Board.
"Her local, national and international volunteer and paid activism included community media and cultural productions, anti-oppression workshops, AIDS/HIV awareness initiatives, and community technology training, access, policies and issues. As a co-"Technomama" during the '90s, Ana provided Internet trainings in English, Spanish and Portuguese in Europe, Latin America, and throughout the US for non-governmental organizations working on the UN Human Rights and Women's conferences in the mid-90s."
[An interview with Ana concerning her work with Austin Free-Net can be found here.]
Despite this geeky resume, Ana in person was passionate, funny, and projected more of an artistic persona. I saw her most often at poetry readings, where her work was enormously popular, both because of its accessible, eloquent content and her sizzling delivery. Her voice was deep, full of humor, and carried delicious flavor from her birthplace of Panama plus childhood years in Barbados and Jamaica. The poem that everyone always wanted to hear, no matter what else was on the bill, was the one she'd written about mangoes. A paean to her upbringing, to sensuality, and to the unique beauty of mangoes themselves, her reading of it filled us with ache and joy simultaneously. I particularly remember a reading at the Tillery Street Theater where Carole Metellus, another island woman poet and good friend of Ana's, stood up and devoured a mango while Ana read the poem, ripping open the rind with her teeth and reducing us all to goo by the time she was done.
In 2005, when several thousand New Orleaneans stranded first by Hurricane Katrina and then by our government arrived at the Austin Convention Center, Ana was instrumental in getting computer access set up for these folks, and later helped with the oral history project collecting their stories.
I have a strong memory of the reading at BookWoman in early 2002 launching the publication of Affirming Flame: Writings by Progressive Texas Poets in the Aftermath of September 11th by Evelyn Street Press. I had two pieces in that anthology, and performed them both. But Ana's poem is what I remember as the room-shifter, giving us all permission to feel more than a single emotion, insisting we make connections between ourselves and other parts of the world. That poem is here (I have tears in my eyes that we/you will never get to hear how it lived in her voice):
Illegal Haikus: Not for Purists
Insecurity lands home
Leaves me to wonder
Where is home?
Multinational mass control
Consolidated ownership:
Cantor Fitzgerald
700 dead under the
rubble of "trillions of dollars
handled each day"
back to work with teary eyes--
Such is the arithmetic of grief
Rising sums of human capital,
Fodder for the New World Order.
Declare a state of high alert
Each time a black man's body
Sweeps a country road
or stops bullets on city streets.
"Suck me
Lick me
Quickly..."
illegal haikus
Urgent whispers
During times of endless wars.
© Ana Sisnett, 2001
(Granny Jus' Come by Ana Sisnett)
In contrast to her razor-keen political poetry and her heart-skipping erotic verse, Ana was also nationally known as a children's book author for Granny Jus' Come and Two Mrs. Gibsons. I gave away copies of Granny Jus' Come to every family I knew with small children. Written in the dialect of Ana's childhood, it's the joyful story of a little girl's love for her grandmother who is coming for a visit. When I got to hear her read this aloud, I thought about her being a grandmother, how she stood with those strong legs and powerful posture at the center of five generations, immortalizing the love she had for her granny and certain of a matching love from her lucky grandchildren.
I also have a strong memory of how angry I was when I heard that during routine oral surgery, a mishap had cut a nerve and damaged both facial control and speech. This, in such a stunningly beautiful woman whose voice was essential to so many -- I found it an injustice hard to bear. But Ana faced it head-on, calm, smart, and fearless. She worked through the damage and returned to her public readings in due time.
(Visual art by Ana Sisnett, title not known)
Ana had moved into visual arts, where of course she quickly displayed expertise and profound connection. It really seemed there wasn't anything she could not do. Her Austin American-Statesman obituary reminds me that she was a volunteer and organizer for ALLGO (Austin Latino/a Lesbian Gay Organization) and for Alma de Mujer, an indigenous women's retreat and arts center. It also stated she moved to Los Angeles at age 13, and obtained her degree in Spanish and Communications from the University of California at San Diego.
But what come into my mind, when I think of her, is how gold flashed in her mouth when she laughed -- I remember her as laughing and grinning, not serious as she is in online photos. I remember her stunning hair, with veins of pure white among the black. I remember her dancing. I remember how, when she was about to speak, everybody around her shut up with anticipation. I remember her unshakable kindness, her self-confidence, how you could absolutely rely on her to not dampen her own intelligence or skirt the holy need for making connections where none were immediately evident. Mostly, in a tight community where small-town values (and gossip) do exist, I remember that I never once heard anyone speak of her except with gladness and respect. She was a passionate artist and activist who did intensely important work but made no enemies along the way, whose name when uttered instantly lit up the face of anybody who'd ever met her. She was a Big Woman. Her passage leaves a gaping hole in our fabric.
(Texas Lesbian Conference 2000, Houston Texas; L-R: Standing -- Priscilla Hale, Carole Metellus, unknown; Sitting -- Dawn Surratt, Ana Sisnett, Maggie Jochild, Harper)
Ana's friend Carole Metellus had organized a daily meditative reflection for Ana during her recent life transformation. Her request states: "I am asking, that wherever we may be at 3 p.m. CST daily, that we cease our activities for 5-10 minutes to hold Ana on her journey and support Priscilla in hers. If you are able, it would be valuable to light a WHITE candle to initiate the moment as we collectively offer them our good energies." Carole has asked that we continue this practice until we can partake in a more formal farewell.
ALLGO now has this notice up:
"Celebrating Ana
Join us Saturday, January 24, at 1:00 PM
as we honor Ana Sisnett's life and spirit
600 E 50th St, Austin, TX"
[Excerpts of a KUT Radio (90.5 FM) interview with Ana's friend Kate X Messer on her passing can be listened to here.]
Labels: Affirming Flame, ALLGO, Alma de Mujeres, Ana Sisnett, Austin Free-Net, Granny Jus' Come, poetry, Technomama, WATER House
BROAD CAST 15 JANUARY 2009
Ken Jennings, superstar from Jeopardy, has his own blog and published the map above, which was created in 1999, probably appearing in Newsweek, and "purports to show Jeopardy! popularity regionally in the U.S".
Daily Routines: How writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days. Fascinating details about how Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, Fred Rogers, James Thurber, and Joseph Campbell, among others, brought order to their hours.
(Screen capture from 1969-70 television show "My World and Welcome To It", based on life and work of James Thurber.)
For "news junkies and media mavens", Media Bloodhound has created a 2008 Fact or Fiction Challenge, a compilation of quotes and headlines culled from this past year at their blog. The trick is to tell which ones are real and which are satire.
An article by Fred Pearce in Conservation Magazine points out that bananas are "sterile, sexless mutants" which " has been at an evolutionary standstill ever since humans first propagated it in the jungles of Southeast Asia at the end of the last ice age". This means that almost all of us eat only one, massively sprayed variety, the Cavendish. And, as the article points out, it brings to bananas the same mono-crop risk that hit potatoes in Ireland in the 1840s. This plant may be on the verge of extinction. Read more at The Sterile Banana. Also at this site, an article on how the total number of natural disasters has quadrupled in the past two decades at Environmental Refugee Crisis.
(Banana flower before fruit; photo from Beechwell House Garden.)
A study conducted by Freedom to Marry "unequivocally shows" that "voting to support the freedom to marry and opposing anti-marriage measures helps rather than hurts politicians". A review of 1100 legislators' votes from 2005 to the present on laws concerning same-sex marriage and family protection demonstrated they are consistently re-elected. "In fact, these legislators are re-elected no matter what party they represent or if they changed their vote from opposing to supporting marriage equality. Even better, legislators who run for higher office win after voting in favor of marriage for same-sex couples." The study can be downloaded (as a PDF file) here or read online here.
(Card from Stella Marrs.)
The traveling contemporary art exhibition called Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet is a groundbreaking collaboration between museums, artists, and conservationists to bring attention and protection to eight World Heritage sites: Komodo National Park, Indonesia; El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, Mexico; Southeast Atlantic Forest Reserves, Brazil; Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, China; the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador; iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa; Mount Kenya National Park, Kenya; and Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, which straddles the U.S.-Canadian border. The five-year collaboration is between the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Berkeley Art Museum / Pacific Film Archive, and the environmental organization Rare. Read about what the artists did at these sites at Human/Nature in Orion Magazine online.
(HDR photo of Devils Peak from WebEcoist.)
Labels: bananas, Broad Cast, Daily Routines, environmental refugees, Freedom to Marry, Human/Nature, Jeopardy, lesbian/gay marriage, Media Bloodhound
GINNY BATES: DRAGONBANE
Here's another installment of my Great American Lesbian Novel (in progress), Ginny Bates. If you are new to reading GB, go to the section in the right-hand column labeled Ginny Bates to read background and find out how to catch up.
Two nights later, after coming back from the campfire and showering off sand and smoke, Myra crawled into the king-size bed beside Ginny and, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dark, said softly "Happy other anniversary."
"I wondered if you remembered" said Ginny sadly.
"I thought of it off and on all day, but we were always around other people" said Myra. "Ginny, I adore being your lover. I always have and I always will."
"I don't think we can call ourselves lovers right at the moment. Can we, Myra?"
"Well, we're naked in a bed together. We've reclaimed most of our physical intimacy" said Myra.
"That's not making love. I'm not complaining, Myra, or trying to push you."
"I believe you, Ginny. No...I guess it's not." Myra lay thinking for a minute. She was glad to not sweat all night long, but she still missed not being able to hear surf, peepers, and wind from this beach house bedroom. Finally she said "I miss you. I miss our lovemaking."
"Glad to hear it" sighed Ginny, rolling over to put her head on Myra's shoulder. There was another long interval before Ginny said "Well, maybe I want to push this much: Do you really believe we'll go back to being lovers, or will you decide to stay in this comfortable place? Lots of women do, especially women our age."
"I can't imagine me settling, Ginny. Can you?"
She felt Ginny's body relax in ways she hadn't known Ginny was tense. "No" said Ginny. Myra heard Ginny slide into sleep.
The following morning, Margie and Frances drove into Galveston to meet Amy and her two sons, coming in for the day from Houston. After lunch, Myra was writing when Gillam came in the front door with Mimi by the arm. He said "Now go use the toilet. We're not dogs."
Mimi stomped her bare feet across the tile floor and slammed the bathroom door shut. Gillam turned to Myra and said "We're all hanging out in the kiddie pool after a swim, and she stands up to pee in the water where we're soaking." His exasperation was tinged with humor.
"I'm sure they've all done it" Myra commented.
"Yeah, well, the volume of liquid there to absorb it is much less than our pool at home" he said, looking down at his wet trunks. Mimi came out of the bathroom and stomped by him again, leaving the screen door open. He reached over to shut it and said "Time for a nap." Instead of following her out, however, he poured himself a glass of lemonade and sat down at the table with Myra.
They almost never had time where it was just the two of them any more. No complaining she admonished herself. He lives next door, he vacations with you, he's entrusted his extraordinary children to you. She waited for the lecture to take.
"I'm getting a little tired of her treating me like the worst carnivore on the planet" Myra said. "I mean, she's still catching her share of fish with Allie and Edwina, only now she leaves before the slaughter begins. And I'm the one who's making sure she gets a complete set of amino acids with every meal."
"That's her right, as center of the Mimiverse" said Gillam with a grin.
"Ginny eats as much seafood as I do other kinds of meat" continued Myra. Gillam raised his eyebrows and said "I'm on your side, Mom, but even I can't agree with that."
"It's the snake thing, isn't it?" said Myra.
"Yeah. I'm sorry I didn't get them inside fast enough." Gillam kept peeling skin from the sunburn he'd gotten the first day here, letting patches of it fall on the floor.
Myra said, with a grin, "I like you better unapologetic. Most of the time, anyhow. Jane's good for you."
He smiled to himself. "Mimi's focused on blaming you because you can take it. And because she picks up a lot of her direction from Margie, you know."
"You're right that Margie never blinked at taking me for granted" said Myra. "Her engagement was with Ginny, I was often simply furniture."
"Not when it counted" said Gillam, pulling at a patch of skin that wasn't quite ready to be parted from him yet. A brief expression of pain crossed his face. Then he said quietly "You know, that guy lives somewhere in Texas now."
Myra didn't have to ask Gillam which guy he meant, she knew instantly. "Where did you find that out?"
"From Margie." Gillam met her eyes. "One of her old high school friends, so-called friends, calls periodically with an update, mostly to fish for Margie's reaction. She says he's not on parole on any more, and there's been no repeat offense."
"That we know about" said Myra.
"Yes, exactly" said Gillam. "But Margie says he's cut all ties with his family. I told her I think that's a good sign."
"Why?" Myra thought it could mean he was becoming a dangerous loner.
"Well, you did. You left behind a toxic family. Not that I'm comparing you to him -- " Gillam looked suddenly worried.
"No, I've never slid over the line he did. But I agree with you, if he was still tight with that father of his, I'd be more inclined to see him as a continuing menace" said Myra. "Listen, Gillam...Is Margie all right? Does she have regrets about how we handled it?"
"You could ask her yourself" said Gillam. "She has no trouble talking about it." Which answered Myra's question, she decided. He had drained his glass. He stood and said "I'm going to hose off the urine marinade urchins and force them down for a rest." He left his glass full of ice on the table. Myra pulled it over, filled it with more lemonade from the pitcher and took a drink as the sound of shouting children came in the open door.
The next month, a week after Charlie's first birthday, the Golden Horde streamed to Myra and Ginny's house on Sunday afternoon for Heroic Quest day. Myra met them in the dining room, looking serious, and said "Instead of our usual adventure, we have a dangerous problem to solve."
"For real?" asked David, pushing back his hair to look at Myra's face closely.
"I'm afraid so. We had a visitor last night, in our yard. Stick to the brick walkway, and don't step on the clues. See if you can figure out what it was." She led them outside. Charlie reached for Ginny, who picked him up to carry him.
At the point where the waterfall rocks rose up, the head of the pond, as Myra thought of it, there was always a muddy patch. Today an enormous three-toed track sunk deep into the mud. Smeared impressions of the same tracks led around the pond and even appeared on top of the bench: Whatever made them had perched there for a bit. In the leaf litter and mulch underneath David's pear tree by the meditation bench and Charlie's new plum tree, set into a bed between the waterfall and the side bench, were drag marks where something heavy had disturbed the soil. On the brickwork beside the barbecue pit was a patch of blackened scorch. The final piece of evidence were various greeny-black shards of metal, all the same irregularly rounded triangle, with a sticky roughness underneath at the corner as if they had been ripped from organic tissue.
"Let me tell you straight off, nothing came through the gates. I checked the security log. And I investigated the entire perimeter: Nothing climbed the fence anywhere." Myra's eyes were somber.
"How could it get in, then?" said David, almost whispering.
Leah pointed to the overcast cast with a single small finger.
"A bird?" said Charlie.
"Well...what flies, has wings big enough to push away the mulch this much, leaves shards of metal behind, and – I shudder to say it – belches fire after drinking?" Myra was avoiding looking at Ginny's face, because she'd start laughing. Her money was on Mimi, and sure enough, it was Mimi who said "A dragon. A dragon?"
When Myra nodded slowly, each pair of wide eyes looked down at the scales Ginny and Annie Gagliardi had carefully constructed a few days before, now horrific talismans resting in small palms. Charlie stopped trying to put his in his mouth.
"A dragon landed in your yard?" repeated David, begging for contradiction.
"I guess this pond looked like a wonderful place to take a long drink" mused Myra. "I've heard there are colonies of enormous dragons who live on uninhabited islands in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. I think they migrate back and forth between there and the lava fields around Mount Lassen in California, which is a part of a volcanic range, you know. There are unexplored lava tubes going down to regions where magma is just an earth rumble away. I bet they spend the winters there, restoking their fuel, and summers up in the islands where no one dares intrude. This house would be on the flight path between the two. I can show you on a map when we go inside."
Leah looked as if she thought going indoors would be an immediately preferable action. Myra added "I don't think they fly around during the daytime. If they did, we'd have seen dragons, wouldn't we?"
"So could we stay with you tonight and watch for them through the window?" asked Mimi.
Myra heard Ginny giggle. Any pretext at all for spending the night...
"Well, no. The reason why I need your help is to figure out how to keep the dragon from returning. You see – sometimes we're out here after dark. Me and Bubbe. And dragons are known to eat people. As well as kitties and doggies."
Leah's worst fears were verified. She edged closer to the house, scanning the clouds above. Myra said "What could we do to keep this yard, all our yards, safe from a visiting dragon?"
"Kill it" said Leah easily. Mimi wheeled on her with violent intent. Myra said swiftly "Absolutely not. No killing of dragons, and no putting them in a zoo. We have to come up with another way."
Mimi was distracted from launching herself at Leah by this emphatic statement. She squinted at Myra, readjusting her opinion, Myra hoped.
"We could ask it to stay away" said David. "Like the children talked to the Warrum Arsenica."
"Ah, the Warrum Arsenica was a different kind of creature. Dragons are not known for cooperating with humans. Besides, I don't speak Dragonish, do you?"
David considered lying and inventing his own version of Dragonish, Myra saw the urge on his face. She intercepted with "Listen, we need to brainstorm about this. Bubbe has the blackboard set up, let's go inside and have a snack while we put our heads together around the dining table. Bring your dragon scales, we can put them in your treasure boxes if you want."
Each child had their own wide drawer in the cupboard array opposite the kitchen, and these were referred to as treasure boxes. Myra assembled peanut butter on apple slices while Ginny got scales stowed and hands washed. Ginny stood by the portable blackboard to take notes with colored chalk, in both letters and pictographs. Ginny's notes were lovely to behold.
After half an hour, the following options were portrayed in Ginny's bold letters and clear doodles:
Buy a lion to guard the yard
Fill the pond with milk instead of water ("But what about the swimming pool?" asked Myra the killjoy)
Figure out which plants dragons hated and plant those in each yard
Cover the pond and pool with a giant mirror
Ask advice of Margie, who was deemed an expert in general by Mimi but also, David pointed out, had once ridden a dragon because Bubbe had painted it
Ask the advice of Sima and Annie Gagliardi, who worked with metals and this somehow made them likely to know about metal-scaled creatures
Myra began gathering empty sippy cups and said "Well, that's a good set of ideas. Now, much as I'd like to live with a lion, the fact is they're wild animals who don't tame, so having a lion in the back yard would be just as dangerous as the dragon. And the milk option, well, we can see that wouldn't be practical, can't we?" She appealed to Charlie, who'd wanted a milk pond very much. "Where would the leviathan and other fishies go to live?"
"I suggest we print out our photos of the tracks, grab the scales, and walk over to Aunt Margie's for a confab" said Ginny. Margie had been informed of the scheme, and sitting at her kitchen table were Sima, Chris, and Annie, waiting for the dragon conference.
It was a memorable day. Mimi was deathly earnest in her agenda to keep the dragon from harm, and the aunties turned out to have lots of interesting suggestions. Sima and Annie offered to make a dragonbane sculpture, a small magical shape which could be mounted on the top stone of the waterfall. Chris said she would sage it, to release its powers. While they were awaiting that foolproof talisman, Margie listed a few plants which she assured them were irritating to dragons. Ginny and Myra loaded the children into a car and they went to Ginny's favorite nursery, where the plants happened to be in stock. Back home, these were transplanted into large pots and arranged around the pond, while Moon and Gidg stood guard.
Before heading home for dinner, Ginny helped the little ones get filthy mixing plaster of Paris to make a cast of the dragon footprint. Leah became anxious during the latter stage of this task, as dark was beginning to fall. She asked to be carried for the walk home. Myra thanked them all formally for their assistance in "insuring a balance between human needs and those of the rest of nature", a phrase she felt certain Mimi would memorize and aim back at her as soon as possible.
The day after Myra's 63rd birthday, at noon, Jane went into labor. Gillam called Myra and said "Her water's broke and after the last time, I'm getting her to the hospital as fast as possible, her baby canal is like a jetway now."
"We're coming to get the kids" said Myra and hung up. Gillam and an already strained-looking Jane waved at them from the front door as Myra and Ginny came in the back door. "Call everybody" yelled Gillam "except Carly, he's on his way there." He shut the door. The children turned as one and looked at their grandmas.
"A new baby!" crowed Ginny. "When they come back, they'll have a new baby brother or sister for you!"
"Can we name this one after me?" asked Leah.
"No, everybody gets a fresh name" said Myra, forgetting the fact that Leah was named after both her and Ginny. "Let's pack bags, you're going to stay overnight at our place."
The children began yelling and crawling upstairs, Myra behind them. Ginny sat down at the phone and started making calls.
But nobody else had a chance to get to the hospital after work. When Gillam called three hours later, he told Ginny "She's here. Born about 20 minutes ago. Everybody is fine, and she looks just like you."
"It's a girl!" Ginny turned and screamed to Myra. "Another sister!"
"Already?" said Myra. "Godamighty."
Leah repeated "Godamighty. What sister?"
Ginny said "What's her name?"
Gillam chuckled. "Well, she's the last, so we emptied out the store shelves for her. You ready? Lucia Christina Allene Rebekah Rose. Bates-Josong."
Ginny was laughing. "Good job. Lucia is for Jane's sister Lucy, I'm gathering. And the rest are self-evident except -- Rebekah?"
"It's the middle name of both Frances and Edwina -- and Sima's Hebrew name is Rivka" said Gillam.
"Oh, bless you son. Bless you both." Ginny's voice was thick with emotion. "Do I get to -- share the names?"
"You do. We'll be here overnight, maybe come home tomorrow. Eventually Jane's family will arrive, and we can get help from them. Carly and Eric are here, of course. And we know the kids are in good hands. I need to go, will you make the calls for me?"
"My honor and delight" said Ginny. "I love you so much, Gillam."
"Same here. I'm -- well, you know how happy I am at this moment. We have a full house."
"Take care, get rest. Call for anything."
When she got off the phone, she went to sit beside Myra and took her hands in her own. Myra shushed the children and gathered them around to listen.
"We have a new Bates-Josong girl -- a baby sister for you all. She'll be coming home tomorrow. She is doing great, and your mama is fine, and your daddy is beside himself. And -- her name is Lucia Christina Allene Rebeka Rose."
Mimi began chanting the name like a counting-out rhyme, and David joined her, holding up his hands so they could play patty-cake on each other's palms. Myra helped Leah and Charlie do the same, and the names bounced around the walls of the room. In the middle of the cacophony, Ginny walked to the kitchen phone to make a second round of calls.
© 2009 Maggie Jochild.
Labels: Ginny Bates: Dragonbane [164]
LOLCATS WEEKLY ROUND-UP, 13 JANUARY 2009
Here's the weekly best of what I've gleaned from I Can Has Cheezburger efforts. There are some really creative folks out there. As usual, those from little gator lead the pack.
Maru the Sliding Box Cat -- with Hot Slo-Mo Action


text:
Into The Grey Zone
By Sky News
Jan 18 2021 32 mins 133
What do assassinations, cyber hacks and disinformation have in common? They're all weapons used by states against each other in a grey zone of harm that sits - deliberately - under the threshold of war, but could be just as dangerous if ignored. Sky News journalist Deborah Haynes explores this often invisible battlefield, where anything can be - and is - used as a weapon and anyone, anywhere can be a target.
Episode Two: Truth vs Lies
Jan 18 2021 47 mins
This episode explores a battle between truth and lies that's threatening democracies around the world. It looks at how information is used as a weapon, not just by hostile foreign states, seeking to divide and weaken rival nations, but also by domestic politicians and other actors.Sky News journalist Deborah Haynes speaks to the author of a book on the history of disinformation, Professor Thomas Rid , who talks about fake news during the Cold War and warns about the risk of political violence today when people can no longer agree on facts.It's a warning that played out on the streets of Washington DC in January when supporters of Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol building, spurred on by a false belief that Joe Biden had stolen his way to victory in the 2020 presidential election.Deborah also visits one of the UK's best-known fighters of suspected Russian and Chinese fake news, who battles online trolls from his remote cottage in Scotland. And if you think that sounds strange, remember, in the grey zone, the frontline is everywhere!Interviews:Thomas Rid, professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University, author of Active Measures – the secret history of disinformation and political warfareLinas Linkevicius, foreign minister of Lithuania until December 2020Keir Giles, author of a handbook on Russian information warfare for NATO, senior consulting fellow at Chatham HouseDaniel Jones, founder and president of Advance DemocracyBen Nimmo, head of investigations at GraphikaBen Wallace, United Kingdom's defence secretaryKate Jones, director of Oxford University's diplomatic studies programme.Credits:Written by Deborah Haynes and Chris ScottNarrated by Deborah HaynesEdited and produced by Chris ScottProduction support from Sophia McBride and Victoria SeabrookAdditional voices provided by Cayetano DelgadoThe head of Sky News Radio is Dave Terris
Episode One: The Gathering Storm
This episode seeks to explain what the grey zone is. It includes a warning from General Sir Nick Carter, the head of the UK's armed forces, and Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, about the danger of ignoring attacks in this murky space, while Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb, a former director of UK special forces, warns: "We're being boiled like a frog!"Sky News journalist Deborah Haynes then travels to Salisbury with the widow of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko to visit the site of one of the most high profile grey zone attacks – the poisoning of another ex-Russian agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia.Lord Mark Sedwill, a former national security adviser, talks about how he led the UK's response to nerve agent poisoning and the fake news that followed.Finally, Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative website Bellingcat, describes how he and his team revealed the true identities of the Russian military intelligence officers named by the UK as prime suspects in the attempted assassination. Russia denies involvement.Interviews:General Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defence staffBen Wallace, defence secretaryLord Mark Sedwill, former UK national security adviser, former cabinet secretaryLieutenant General (retired) Graeme Lamb, former director of UK special forcesMarina Litvinenko, widow of former Russian spy Alexander LitvinenkoEliot Higgins, founder of the investigative website BellingcatColonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former commanding officer of the UK's Joint, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear RegimentCreditsWritten by Deborah Haynes and Chris ScottNarrated by Deborah HaynesEdited and produced by Chris ScottProduction support from Sophia McBride and Victoria SeabrookThe head of Sky News Radio is Dave Terris
Introducing Into the Grey Zone
Jan 01 2021 2 mins
What do assassinations, cyber hacks and disinformation have in common? They're all weapons used by states against each other in a grey zone of harm that sits - deliberately - under the threshold of war, but could be just as dangerous if ignored. Sky News journalist Deborah Haynes explores this often invisible battlefield, where anything can be - and is - used as a weapon and anyone, anywhere can be a target. The series examines grey zone assaults; from the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the UK and the killing of a nuclear scientist in Iran; to attempts to influence elections in the United States; and a suspected North Korean cyber-attack on the NHS. The podcast also includes interviews with spies and military chiefs who warn about the threat to daily life if attacks in the grey zone go unpunished. In the words of one former head of the UK's special forces: "We're being boiled like a frog!" CreditsWritten by Deborah Haynes and Chris ScottNarrated by Deborah HaynesEdited and produced by Chris ScottProduction support from Sophia McBride and Victoria SeabrookThe head of Sky News Radio is Dave Terris
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I have written posts on how I shoot my panoramic before but I though it was time for another one with some additional detail. This will be a behind the scenes from the aspect of peeling back the layers of how I shoot and process, not because it has pics of me shooting.
I will break this up into three sections being the Gear I use, how I shoot and how I put it all together.
These days with cheap one shot cameras and cell phones having panoramic modes it becoming easier to shoot panoramic images but panoramic images are not just about shooting a wide photo, they are about capturing the mood and detail of a moment and detail is where the two aforementioned methods fall short.
You can enhance detail in two ways; use a high resolution camera, with a good lens or break the image up into lots of segments. The more segments you have, the higher the resolution of the final image and therefore the more detail but this comes at the expense of time, which you don't always have lots of. So the first aspect is the choice of pano heads.
When it comes to choosing a pano head you have two options, manual or robotic.
Manual heads are exactly what the names suggests. They are designed to hold the camera correctly so that it rotates and swivels around the lens' entrance pupil and they often allow you to move in predetermined increments depending on the lens and camera configuration. They come in single and multi-row varieties and can do pretty much what most Panoramographers will need.
In my opinion there is only one option when it comes to manual heads and that is without a doubt 360P . They make the best manual heads I have ever seen or used and I have their top of the range head for all my normal and tricky panoramic work.
You are in full control of the scene and cam move back to image segments if you need to re-shoot them.
Don't require batteries to run.
Large panoramic images require a lot of segments and errors can creep in with a manual head.
Robotic heads are again exactly what they sound like. They are based on the same principles as manual heads but all the movement is being done by software and servo motors. These heads are designed for taking huge panoramic images that need multiple segments and precision accuracy. Some of the more advanced versions can also trigger the camera's shutter and control bracketing meaning they can be left totally unattended.
Can Be left unattended and triggered remotely.
Ideal for very large panoramic images with exceptional detail.
Inflexible from the point of view that you cannot go back and shoot a single segment.
Which do I use most, well it depends what I am shooting. For everyday work and landscapes with fast changing lighting, I opt for the manual head and use the Robotic head for huge panoramic imagery.
A while ago I said the I felt that the Nikon D800E was the ultimate panoramic camera and I still believe this. It is the ultimate combination of size, weight, resolution and high ISO performance that a panoramic photographer could ask for. Its 36mp resolution means higher res panoramic images with less segments which is great where you have serious time constraints.
I use two lens combinations, a Nikon AFS 14–24mm f/2.8 lens when shooting with my manual head and a Nikon 35 f/2D when shooting with the Robotic head.
When it comes to storage, I only use Lexar CF cards and the D800E needs the 1000X cards especially when shooting with the Robotic head where you cannot afford to hit a full buffer and have the camera stop taking shots. If this happens you can end up missing frames or with the entire panorama being out of sequence, especially if you are shooting HDR.
Shooting ultra-wide panoramic images is not as easy as one would think. Aside from all of the technicalities involved in actually shooting, composition is key to have an interesting image. The mistake people often make is that just having a wide image doesn't make it interesting. If the scene is boring, capturing it in panoramic form will just mean you have a whole lot of boring. Additionally you have issues such as phenomena that occurs that I call planar distortion, This happens when you unwrap a cylindrical image and print it on a flat sheet and it causes straight lines to curve away from the centre of the image and can also cause a very distinctive U or W.
The key is to be able to envisage in your mind what the final result will look like but cell phone panoramas have helped you to shoot a quick image to get a rough idea of what you will be getting.
The next ting you need to consider is lighting. Harsh midday lighting, seldom produces a breathtaking panorama which is why many of the best ones are taken close to sunrise of sunset. This in itself creates an problem because both sunrise and sunset are characterised by fast changing lighting conditions meaning you have to be very clever about how you shoot, especially for panoramas that can take 30 minutes to complete.
Then there is the question of how wide do you shoot. My opinion is that you always shoot 360° even if you don't need to. By having a complete 360 ° image you can shift your composition left and right and then crop which you can't do if you don't have the extra information on both sides.
All of my panoramic shots use a technique that starts off as HDR. What this essentially means is that you are capturing multiple exposures for each segment that will eventually be blended into a single High Dynamic Range image that will then be tone-mapped so that it can be worked on in an 8 or 16bit colour environment. I shoot between 5 and 9 images per segment depending on the lighting conditions.
Merge to HDR and tone-map.
Tone-map the resulting panoramic HDR image.
My processing starts in Photomatix where I merge the bracketed exposures from each segment into single images. I have used a few HDR packages and Photomatix is still the one I prefer.
Once the images are merged into a HDRI images, I also tone map them as part of the next step. We are going to use both the tone-mapped and HDRI images as it is not a good idea to tone-map individual frames and then try stitch them due to the fact that you don't get consistent tonality.
For stitching you really only have one option, PTGUI, It is the one that you will find most professional Panoramographers will recommend.
While PTGUI is great, it has one draw back being that it doesn't generate control point well for HDRI which is not a train smash because they are huge files to work with. I use a little work around that solves both the PTGUI and file size problem in one step.
What I do is bring in the tone-mapped JPG files and use those to generate the matrix of control points. I am not worried about what the colour or blending looks like, just that everything is correctly aligned. Next I save the alignment as a PTGUI template.
The next step is to start a new project and bring in the HDRI images. When asked for lens info etc, I just ignore it and go to the file menu and apply the template I created using the tone-mapped images. After that I don't touch anything except for the most crucial step.
I go into the Exposure / HDR menu, Enable HDR Stitching, select True HDR and I select "Optimize Now" then further down under "Automatic Exposure and Color Adjustment". If you don't do this you can get colour and exposure shifts in areas like the sky.
Finally I output the image selecting only to create the HDR panorama.
The next step is to the huge stitched HDRI pano back into Photomatix which requires a lot of RAM. The things to remember here is to keep the image as simple and as realistic as possible. I only use the normal option as a base and then adjust as need be. The other important this to do is make sure you have enabled the 360° option so that the left and right side of the image tone-map consistently.
This entry was posted in Gigapan, Panorama, Tech Stuff, Uncategorized.


Finally, after the longgggg planning of visiting the Yas waterworld- this is it!!! We went there in the middle of the season - the sun just started to give the right heat in our body - just so perfect!!
Yas Waterworld is a theme park based on an Arabic folklore "The Legend of the Lost Pearl". The exciting rides and slides depict the adventure of Dana on her journey to find the lost pearl It is the home of of the first 360 degree looping waterslide in the UAE and the world's first Hydromagnetic-powered waterslide. Since it opened last 2013 of January many of guests can't get enough of this thrill and exciting experience.
It was Saturday noon and the queue is not that bad at all. We had paid for the entrance fee and for the locker and we also loaded some amount in our waterproof wristband for easy payment inside the waterpark.
Yas Waterworld's lobby is where the changing room, locker and souvenir shops are located. It's like an old arabic market place where people gather.
Since we arrived noon, we decided to take our lunch at Dana's Diner first and good thing the queue is not that busy. I had hotdog sandwich and Beef Burger for Albert. The price range from 45 to 60 dirhams. By the way, I was pretty surprised that the serving is huge and sooo good.
After a good meal and good chat with friends -our fun begun!!
The waterpark rides are classified into four categories: Adrenaline Rush rides have the highest thrill level, made especially for the fearless! For those who want to scare themselves a little, there are Exciting Adventure rides. For medium thrill level, there are Moving and Grooving rides where you can have fun without screaming at the top of your lungs! Lastly, the Young Fun rides are for the little ones and for the kids at heart.
My man first tried the RUSH RIDER and he enjoyed it a lot.
The first ride I tried was the Bandit Bomber - the longest suspended rollercoaster for 550 metres with onboard special water and laser effect. But unfortunately, we don't have picture here :( But were laughing out loud when we saw the pictures captured by the theme park.
And this is what ladies enjoyed most!! YADI YAS it's not a lazy river, it's more like an action-packed wadi ride.
Hubby and I after trying the Serpent Spin. Not scary as it looks like.
After a tiring and fun day we still ended up having smile on our face. This is truly a wonderful experience.
Thumbs up for Yas Waterworld for the amazing theme park with world class amenities.
Check out here for Yas Waterworld updates and prmotions!


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A central question in economics is why some countries are substantially richer than others. The income per capita of the five richest countries in the world is 30 times the income of the five poorest. It is a fundamental quantitative question for which growth and development economists still have no definite answer. The first chapter of this dissertation contributes to this literature. The chapter offers new evidence on the sources of cross-country income differences by investigating the role public capital in development accounting. I explicitly measure private and public capital stocks, and I find large differences in both types of capital across countries. Moreover, differences in private capital are larger than the ones I find for total capital for the richest and poorest countries. The methodology I use implies a share of public capital in output of at most 10%. My findings indicate that differences in capital stocks can not account for a substantial part of the observed dispersion in income across countries .
Other macroeconomic facts of underdeveloped and developing economies may also explain their low income per capita. These facts may be related to economic policies that could distort the allocation of resources in these economies. In the second chapter of this dissertation I document differences in labor supply between a set of Latin American countries and the U.S. in the period 1990-2005. In the U.S. the female labor force participation was 69% by 1990, while in Brazil and Mexico was 39% and 37%, respectively. Females began to participate more in the labor market of these countries after more households acquired access to basic infrastructure and when distortive policies affecting the price of household appliances were partially removed. I use a model of home production with endogenous labor force participation to account for these facts. I conclude that the price of household appliances and access to infrastructure are quantitatively important in explaining cross-country labor supply differences.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 95-96).
Cubas Norando, German. "Essays on infrastructure, female labor force participation and economic development." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2010.


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Brighten A Christmas No. 6: Mother of 2 loses job because of COVID threat
MANSFIELD - The threat of COVID-19 cost a 40-year-old woman her long-term job.
She and her family are featured in Brighten A Christmas case No. 6. The woman was working on the staff at a private household at the beginning of the pandemic.
She could not find work in the Columbus area doing the only work she knows. In addition, the woman was not eligible for unemployment, resulting in the family coming back to Mansfield, where they have a support system.
Because of the health crisis, the mother's prospects of finding employment are limited. The family is getting by on a limited income that leaves no room in the budget for Christmas gifts.
The woman and her husband have two daughters, ages 9 and 4.
The older girl is described as a tomboy through and through. She likes Legos, Hot Wheels and action figures.
Her younger sister is quite the opposite. She's a typical "girly girl." She loves all things that are sparkly and glittery.
Anyone who would like to help the family in case No. 6 can drop off cash, checks or gift cards at any of the nine locations of Mechanics Bank. People should designate case No. 6 on an envelope.
Stories for Brighten A Christmas, now in its 74th year, will continue daily through Dec. 11. A designated shopper, Barb Stamper, branch manager at the Mechanics Bank on Ashland Road, will buy gifts with the donations.


Facebook, Inc. is an American online social corporation based in Menlo Park, California. Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, laterally with fellow Harvard college students and roommates.
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Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag is an Action and Adventure video game that was released in November 19, 2013. Today you can easily download Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag game for PC from our website.
Developers of this installment are Ubisoft Montreal Studios and it was published by Ubisoft Studios.


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HomeTop StoriesWorld Diabetes Day: Stemming Mortality Rate From A Silent Killer
World Diabetes Day: Stemming Mortality Rate From A Silent Killer
…. theme of this year's World Diabetes Day is "Women And Diabetes:Our right to a healthy future.Journalists takes a look at the csuses, cure and ravages of the global scourge.
At a crowded tea spot in a quiet neighbourhood of Suleja in Niger State and close to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), a large number of low-income earners eagerly wait for their turn to have a hot cup of tea and bread before heading to their places of work.
The young and old all want the attention of the busy tea man also known as (Mai shayi) in Hausa language. As they get their hot cups of Shayi, the vendor grabs his large spoon, takes turns to scoop mounds of processed sugar from a bowl and empty same in their rubber tea cups.
This Mai-shayi spectacle, is just one of the ways Nigerians consume processed sugar daily.
After joining the tea party, Journalists Weekend attempted to speak to the obviously happy customers who were engrossed in discussions of matters that bother their communities far and near Suleja.
How to do you cope with the intake of large amounts of sugar? Ali Bakwara, 29, who hail from Mokwa in Niger State simply replied, "I take 'Maganin Basir' (Herbs against piles and all sugar related diseases) and that's why I and many other persons here don't bother about our sugar intake," said Bakwara, who is a professional mason based in the city of Suleja.
Another customer interjected, claiming to love sweet things. "I love sweet things, we have our way of burning anything that will lead to high blood sugar in our bodies and it has been with us for generations," said Aliyu who appeared so confident.
Have you heard of diabetes mellitus (blood sugar) consuming too much sugar (or sugary foods and drinks) can make you put on weight and weight gain from eating too much of any food can make a person's chance of getting diabetes greater, Journalists Weekend enquired from the customers, arousing their interest in the subject.
Many at the venue dismissed the claims and said diabetes is a "rich man's disease", as they joked off the rather serious matter.
Before leaving the spot,Journalists Weekend was able to get one man who knew about diabetes. He agreed that the disease remains a killer in several parts of Nigeria.
Danlami Abdu, 42, a trader said, "I know a family who had a diabetes patient in the past; I actually don't know the state of the man today, but they are always on alert as the man is always sick with swollen legs. I really sympathise with the family, but actually I can't tell you much about that family now because they have relocated from my area," Abdu said.
Diabetes, often referred to by doctors as diabetes mellitus, describes a group of metabolic diseases in which the person has high blood glucose (blood sugar), either because insulin production is inadequate, or because the body's cells do not respond properly to insulin, or both.
Patients with high blood sugar will typically experience polyuria (frequent urination), they will become increasingly thirsty (polydipsia) and hungry (polyphagia).
Medical experts have it that diabetes is a long-term condition that causes high blood sugar levels. In 2013 it was estimated that over 382 million people throughout the world had diabetes.
The disease has been categorised into- Type 1 Diabetes – the body does not produce insulin. Approximately 10% of all diabetes cases are type 1. Type 2 Diabetes – the body does not produce enough insulin for proper function. Approximately 90% of all cases of diabetes worldwide are of this type. Gestational Diabetes – this type affects females during pregnancy.
The most common diabetes symptoms include frequent urination, intense thirst and hunger, weight gain, unusual weight loss, fatigue, cuts and bruises that do not heal, male sexual dysfunction, numbness and tingling in hands and feet.
It is believed that as at 2014, an estimated 422 million adults were living with diabetes, compared to 108 million in 1980. If the epidemic of 'Diabetes' were a country, it would come in at third place in terms of population, behind only China and India.
The global prevalence of diabetes has nearly doubled since 1980, rising from 4.7 per cent to 8.5 per cent in the adult population. This reflects an increase in associated risk factors such as being overweight or obese. Over the past decade, diabetes prevalence has risen faster in low and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.
World Diabetes Day is the primary global awareness campaign focusing on diabetes mellitus and is held on November 14 each year.
The attention of the international community began to be focused on the ailment after the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/61/225 in 2007 designating that date as World Diabetes Day.
The document recognised the urgent need to pursue multilateral efforts to promote and improve human health, and provide access to treatment and health-care education. The resolution also encouraged Member States to develop national policies for the prevention, treatment and care of diabetes in line with the sustainable development of their health-care systems.
Sadly, about 2.1 million women die every year from diabetes globally, with Nigeria accounting for many of the dead. The disease is recognised as the ninth leading cause of death in women, yet many women with the disease are unaware they have it.
In 2016, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that about 1,707,000 Nigerians are living with diabetes mellitus.
Experts say persons living with undetected or poorly managed diabetes would develop a wide range of complications, including diabetes mellitus foot syndrome, which sometimes results in the amputation of the patient's leg and death.
They posited that diabetes foot, in particular, could be deadly if not detected on time. It can lead to lower extremity amputations. A diabetic faces the risk of foot amputation at least 25 times more than the person living without the condition.
In view of this, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) which Nigeria is one of the 32 countries of the IDF African region claimed that about 415 million people have diabetes in the world and more than 14 million people in the AFR Region.
By 2040 according to the group, this figure will more than double. By it records, there were more than 1.56 million cases of diabetes in Nigeria in 2015.
Members of IDF in Nigeria marked the day with free diabetes screening and diabetes foot care education for the public because early detection could save individuals from these complications.
Of the theme, they said that it should be of particular interest to Nigerians because the country has one of the highest numbers of persons living with diabetes in Africa.
The country also has a large number of women living with diabetes and they are worse off because many do not have access to diagnosis, education, treatment and care.
According to IDF, two out of every five women with diabetes are of reproductive age, accounting for over 60 million women worldwide.
Researchers, NGOs task on diabetes cure as 20, 000 people get free diabetes screening
The governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, challenged world leaders, researchers and charitable organisations to join efforts in finding a cure for diabetes.
Obaseki, made the call on Monday, in commemoration of the United Nations World Diabetes Day, celebrated on November 14, each year.
He said, "While previous efforts at finding a lasting cure for diabetes have produced drugs with which diabetes sufferers could manage the health condition, millions of people across the world still bear the disease burden, denying them of fulfilment and happiness."
He advised stakeholders, namely; research institutes, governments, non-state actors, pharmaceutical companies and charities, multilateral organisations as well as individuals to come together and create a common platform for a robust discussion on funding, the application of advanced technology in research to find a cure for the disease.
"Individually, we all have a role to play in our collective fight against diabetes. Regular medical check, the right diets, exercise and an adjusted lifestyle could help put the disease at bay," Obaseki said.
He emphasised the need for a proactive approach to the management of health-related issues and urged people to prioritise their health.
"As a government, health care is a major pillar of our developmental plan for Edo State. One of our strategies is prevention. We are convinced that preventive approach as against a reactive approach, saves costs, if any, and eliminates pains and suffering associated with treating a disease. Our programmes on malaria and polio prevention, align with our preventive strategy," the governor said.
He assured that his administration will heighten the campaign on preventive health care system as he begins his second year in office, to galvanise more people to place more premium on their health.
Meanwhile, as part of efforts to reduce the burden of diabetes in Nigeria, Biofem Pharmaceuticals has embarked on free blood glucose screening to over 20, 000 residents of Lagos State.
The campaign, which started last Tuesday in four designated centres across the state, including Computer Village Ikeja; Trade Fair Aspamda; Ikotun; and Victoria Island, is one of Biofem's activities to commemorate this year's World Diabetes Day marked every November 14 to raise awareness on the dangers of the scourge.
Speaking in a press briefing to announce the screening and awareness campaign, the head of Marketing, Biofem, Usifo Augustine, said the organisation decided to raise awareness on the scourge because many Nigerians were dying from the silent killer, while several others who are living with it are not aware they are infected.
He said: ''That is why we have, in conjunction with our partners in South Korea, SD Biosensor, secured a very unique and smart blood glucose machine called Codefree Blood Glucose Monitor, which we use for our screening exercises.''
He lamented that more than half of those living with diabetes in the country were not aware hence, the high number of deaths occasioned by the disease is on the rise.
According to him, "We have been championing major campaign on diabetes because we realised government's body language seems to favour causes on communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis. And we feel that because diabetes is a very insidious disease, it is actually killing us more than these communicable diseases.
"We are encouraging people to come out and get screened because that is the only way to know their status whether they are normal, pre-diabetic, or diabetic. Those pre-diabetic can actually reverse themselves back and become normal again meaning ,"For those who do not bother to check, once they move from pre-diabetic stage to diabetic stage, it means they have signed a lifetime marriage with the disease condition, and that is part of what we hope to avoid through our various interventions," he stated.
He called on Nigerians to avoid risky behaviours that can lead to diabetes, adding that those with genetic predisposition must embrace healthy lifestyles so they do not come down with the disease later in life.
"Sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits, smoking, drinking, among others are major risk factors for diabetes. Age and obesity are risk factor. Gestational diabetes is also a risk factor, but with healthy living, the possibility of coming down with it is very slim," he said.
Augustine warned Nigerians not to overload themselves while eating, adding that it was better to eat lower portions of food frequently than eating heavy, "because the body is better at managing the foods we give it. We should eat more of complex carbohydrate that takes time for the body to breakdown, than the several processed foods we eat, as these could affect the blood sugar level of the body negatively," he warned.
In 2015 alone, about 120,000 Nigerians were said to have lost their lives to diabetes; which may, if recent predictions are relied on, become the number one cause of deaths in the country among other non-communicable diseases, thereby topping the chart, as against cardiovascular diseases currently leading the causes of deaths occasioned by NCDs in Nigeria.
What is even more worrisome is that apart from the over five million Nigerians currently suffering from the chronic disease, indications show that not less than an entirely different five million Nigerians are diabetic but unaware since it does not come with symptoms.
By indication, this shows that more than 10 million Nigerians are actually suffering from diabetes in the country; a figure experts say will continue to increase unless Nigeria and Nigerians make conscious efforts to tackle it head on.
This is evident in the steady rise of diabetes, diabetes-related complications or deaths recorded in the country, leaving most sufferers at the mercy of the disease, since they are neither aware of the disease or are unable to receive treatment.
Over the past 30 years, the prevalence rate of the disease was said to be 0.4 per cent among the Nigerian population; in 1992, it rose to 1.6 per cent; in 2004 it was 3.1 per cent, and just recently, it has risen above 4.5 per cent, according to a survey conducted by Osuntokun et al.
But experts at the launch of the Base of Pyramid Project by Novo Nordisk say the steady rise of the disease in the country is associated with lifestyle changes; overweight and obesity, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, dietary changes and cigarette smoking, adding that if nothing was done both on the part of the citizens and the stakeholders, the disease may spiral into a national health emergency that would take more lives out of their prime; a disease they have noted was partly preventable.
The National Vice President, Diabetes Association of Nigeria, Dr Ejiofor Ugwu, said 75 per cent of diabetics globally reside in low and middle income countries like Nigeria, where majority could barely afford treatment cost.
To manage diabetes, it is said to be expensive especially to low income earners in rural areas. Many families in Nigeria could hardly raise N20, 000 average monthly maintenance care for diabetes. Experts say prevention is key to reducing the prevalence in the country.
Although, Nigeria is said to be lacking in adequate health structures to fight the menace, the need for more awareness have been advocated as diabetes drives poverty into the family.
LEADERSHIP.
Fani-Kayode Reacts To Tinubu's Claim That Jonathan Won Gold In Corruption
Still On PDP's Floundering Opposition Politics


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The real reason North Korea threatened to 'mercilessly destroy' Seth Rogen
By Zack Beauchamp@zackbeauchamp Jun 26, 2014, 4:50pm EDT
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Seth Rogen and James Franco are making a comedic movie about assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Shortly after the trailer premiered on Wednesday, the North Korean government information ministry threatened to "mercilessly destroy anyone who dares hurt or attack the supreme leadership of the country even a bit."
It certainly looks like yet another case of North Korea being crazy and aggressive. But this may actually be a pretty canny bit of public diplomacy by Pyongyang — and one that many Americans, by laughing at "crazy" North Korea, are unwittingly playing right into. According to North Korea expert Jennifer Lind, spewing apparently non-sensical threats at Hollywood funnymen is part of a larger, deliberate strategy to manipulate the West's view of North Korea. The more Americans point and laugh at those crazy North Koreans, the more we help them in that project.
The trailer for the Rogen/Franco movie, The Interview, is in fact funny. It explains how two bumbling journalists end up involved in a CIA plot to kill Kim Jong-Un. North Korea, naturally, disagreed.
Kim Jong Un Looking At Things (KCNA)
"A preview of a film on insulting and assassinating the supreme leadership of the DPRK is floating in broad daylight in the U.S., a kingpin of international terrorism and its cesspool, shocking the world community," a spokesman howled. "Those who defamed our supreme leadership and committed the hostile acts against the DPRK can never escape the stern punishment to be meted out according to a law wherever they might be in the world."
Is this rhetoric crazy? Sure. But according to Lind, a professor at Dartmouth College, it's crazy in pretty fox-like way.
"I really object when people say, 'Oh, Kim is crazy,'" she says. Their Rogen/Franco threat plays into the strategy of "behaving [so] erratically, so bizarrely, that we're never quite sure what they're going to do."
The North Koreans aren't the only people to employ this negotiating strategy
North Korea wants the world to think it's crazy, according to Lind, as a negotiating tactic. "We are so convinced [of their insanity]," she says, "that I think it stays our hand in many crises."
She cited, as an example, North Korea's 2010 torpedoing of a South Korean naval ship. "Normally, when someone kills an American or an American ally, the US has responded in a pretty forceful manner," but nothing happened here — likely in part because US policymakers were worried that North Korea would retaliate irrationally. The crazy veneer "is a way for them to enhance deterrence."
North Korea's strategy here is rooted, Lind speculates, in the country's fundamental weakness. The North Koreans "are going to lose" any full-on war with South Korea and the United States. But they have enough nukes and conventional weapons to do real damage on the way down. So by making it seem like they'll respond insanely to the slightest move against them, the North Korean leaders deter even the most limited retaliation from the South — which overall lowers the risk of escalation into a full-blown war.
The North Koreans aren't the only people to employ this negotiating strategy. President Richard Nixon tried to convince both the North Vietnamese and the Soviets that he was itching to launch America's nukes to scare them into concessions. Nixon called it "the madman theory" in private conversations.
Now, we can't be 100 percent sure that the Seth Rogen threat is a deliberate madman play. "Whenever you're asking the question, 'Why did North Korea just do X?'", Lind says, "we're probably not in a realm where there's an answer." There's just too little public information about how the North Korean regime makes decisions to be sure.
But the madman theory is, she says, a very plausible explanation. And if it's true, the bigger problem here isn't what North Korea said — it's how the Western media chose to interpret it.
Miquel Benitez/Getty Images
Most outlets reported this as a quasi-serious threat, as a way of laughing about how "crazy" North Korea. Search Google News for "Seth Rogen North Korea" and take a look if you want proof. This would seem to play right into any North Korean strategy of convincing the world of its own insanity. The crazier they look in the media, the more juice the madman theory gets.
Again, that's not to say we shouldn't make fun of North Korea. Dictatorships deserve to be satirized, especially ones as horrific as the Hermit Kingdom's. But when you're mocking North Korea, it's worth keeping in mind that they're brutal, but not necessarily dumb.


This special weekend Yoga retreat offers friendly seclusion and the chance for deep rest, away from life's pressures and concerns.
In the quiet of the garden yoga studio, 2 gentle Yoga sessions a day will open and ease your body, whilst giving your nervous system vital relief. Optional guided meditation will support you in finding stillness of mind and softening of heart, plus guidance (if desired) on how to embed or begin a regular home practice.
Rooms are comfy and welcoming with luxuriously soft cotton sheets and pillows to soothe you to sleep.
All have lovely views over the tranquil garden and woodlands of this country home near Penzance, Cornwall.
All meals are included from dinner on Friday to breakfast on Monday.
"It was just like arriving to my dream country cottage.
Everything has been thought of and I felt at home straight away. I can't believe there's such a perfect Yoga space too.
"Julia, your teaching always delights me.
I leave taller, fresher, reminded that I don't need to push so hard. The way you teach is delicate, nourishing and kind.
On the Saturday limited space is opened up for day guests. This special day of nurturing includes 2 Yoga sessions and a delicious professionally prepared vegan/vegetarian lunch and afternoon tea.


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Q: JWT e Identity MVC 5 Salve galera,
Estou procurando como utilizar os dois (JWT com Identity MVC 5), mas não encontro nada sobre isso, só encontrei para o Identity .Net Core 2, esse não serve pra mim porque a aplicação já foi criada em MVC 5. Alguém sabe se isso é possível? Ou realmente só da no .Net core 2?
Obrigado

A: Encontrei a resposta, caso alguém tenha a mesma dúvida ta aqui:
jwt + mvc identity

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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