Beautiful, beautiful bark

No, no dog speak here.
(Although there might have been one or two nearby, just off-camera, having a meaningful conversation while standing on three paws. :))


Have a look.

Improbable Book of the Week (2)

The Stray Shopping Carts
of Eastern North America:
A Guide to Field Identification

by JULIAN MONTAGUE

In a nutshell:

"A must-have for anyone with a passion for shopping carts and a love of the great outdoors.

In The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America author Julian Montague has created an elaborate classification system of abandoned shopping carts, accompanied by photographic documentation of actual stray cart sightings. These sightings include bucolically littered locations such as the Niagara River Gorge (where many a cart has been pushed to its untimely death) and mundane settings that look suspiciously like a suburb near you.

Working in the naturalist's tradition, the photographs depict the diversity of the phenomenon and carry a surprising emotional charge; readers inevitably begin to see these carts as human, at times poignant in their abandoned, decrepit state, hilariously incapacitated, or ingeniously co-opted. The result is at once rigorous and absurd, enabling the layperson to identify and classify their own cart spottings based on the situation in which they were found."

Light is light is...

... What the heck IS it?

No, really: think about it - really think about what light is, what it means.

It's always there, even by proxy, i. e. by its very absence - but WHAT is it?

Light is defined as a wavelength visible to the eye.

But why is it visible to the eye?
And, more importantly, where does it come from?

I want you to think about it until you can think no more
(Maybe then you'll know. ;)


In the meantime, you gotta see this (and in the next nanosecond you shall, whether you want it or not):

CLICK ON IT


(The author of this fabulous photograph is

Ibrahim Lujaz from the Republic of Maldives

"Arab" is the new Jew

(aka "Muslim is the new Jew")

I saw a nice programme yesterday, an episode of the series Who do you think you are?, about the actress Julia Sawalha's quest for her ancestors. (Her father, the renowned actor Nadim Sawalha, was born in Jordan.)

At a certain point, after filming a group of Beduins in the Jordanian desert, the actress recounted how one of the Beduins asked her, earnestly, whether they (= the crew) were 'making another film that would show that Arabs or Muslims were all terrorists and they should be shot, all of them'. (I am paraphrasing, but it's close enough.)
Of course Sawalha assured him that they were doing no such thing and promised to send him a copy of the programme. 'But he looked me in the eyes, so deeply, as if he weren't quite sure' (= whether she was telling the truth about the intended "message" of the programme), she said.

I felt that was so sad.

What's even sadder, this reticence about Arabs/Muslims is not at all surprising. On a global level I started noticing it - as did you, I am sure - soon after September 11, 2001 (OT: I really wish the Americans would stop calling it "nine-eleven"...), when a little boy in the USA was viciously attacked because he was a Muslim (or maybe just perceived as one, not that it matters).

On a personal level, I've been struck and saddened by this phenomenon ever since I "met" somebody on a philosophy message board. He liked what I had written and told me so in a very kind personal message. I was very glad to receive that message; but, being a friendly gal myself, I made a remark (a very kind one) about the meaning of his nickname which, I had noticed, was Arabic. I am not sure what exactly his feelings were, but by the serious (still kind) tone of his reply I realised that he didn't appreciate the attention I had paid to his nickname, shifting it away from the philosophy debate; that he wasn't sure about my attitude towards him; that he was maybe disappointed by the fact that I had noticed his Arabic nickname.

I wasn't offended (of course) or even embarrassed - but I did feel great sorrow. I felt deeply sorry for him; I felt sorry for all Arabs and/or Muslims (no, it's not the same - and that's part of the problem) that they should be forced to screen every single sentence or remark for possible indications of a generalised contempt - or worse - for Arabs/Muslims. And I felt sorry for myself, and for all of us, that the world has come to this.

What's even more disturbing is the openness I've been noticing lately (on message boards and other such public forums) with which those who "don't like" Arabs and/or Muslims express their opinions. So, not even the present-day political correctness (which I normally loathe) can protect people of Arabic origin or Muslim faith against open hostility, based solely on their "race" and/or faith...?

That is alarming.

And because I refuse to live in such a world - even though I have to - here I am, writing about it: because writing is a parallel life ("I write, therefore I think") - or rather, a substitute for life, an Ersatz living, if you fancy fancy words.


INSERT INTERRUPTION HERE...


Judging by the sound of it, my PC is about to take off...
(I can tell it will fly - through the window - if it doesn't shut up.)
I can't work like this; I'll end this post tomorrow.
Or the day after.

Or - hey, this is a good idea! - YOU can end it for me... :)


P.S. It's the day after and the PC is still unseemly loud. I cannot be inspired to write under such circumstances. But, luckily, other people are interested in the (more or less) same topic, so here's an interesting article about the perception of Arabs among "Soviet" Jews in Israel:

My poor cousin, my feared enemy

And speaking of flying...

A zeppelin over the Tower of David,
Jerusalem, April 11, 1931

Now there's a photograph the likes of which you don't see everyday.

If you love it, like we do, then you'll love the blog from which it was taken:

SHORPY
The 100 Year Old Photo Blog