400 Tons!!!

Four hundred tons of radioactive contaminated water leak out of the Fukushima power plant into the ocean each and every day...

Funny Ha-HA, Or Funny Sick?

"If its [function] is just something like getting rid of e-mail spam and it determines the best way of getting rid of spam is getting rid of humans..."   -Elon Musk

Hey, the guy's no joke, neither are his... jokes. 

Help Us, Save Us... Anyone!?

Well, the American people have spoken! Dissatisfied with our current lot and our current crop of ineffectual, so called leaders, we once again ran screaming to the flip side of the same sad coin to elect those who can get things done- and in the worst possible way. Case in point- soon to be Senate Majority Leader Mad Max Mitch O'Connell gathered mucho support because of his pro-US stance on Big Coal- his gun ho, yahoo supporters completely oblivious to the fact that his filthy rich wife is in the business of shipping in cheap coal from... Columbia (along with a little blow on the side). The "git the gov'ment out of my Medicare" brain fart mentality goes a long (long) way in brainwashing the Republican faithful, along with copious amounts of voter suppression and under the counter racism galore. These guys are determined to run whatever's left of the earth into the ground, out of the ground and straight into their ever lovin' pockets. And they won't stop until there's nothing left to hide behind...

9/21/14 NYC- Photo: © S. Banos

Climate Change Facts  vs.  Climate Change Hucksters

9/21/14 NYC- Photo: © S. Banos

Pretty Scary Shit...

And it's just starting up (but No Worries)!

350.org

ClimateChange/Climate March

"...more than 2.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide released into the air every second."

Climate change means, amongst other things: less land to live on, and less potable water and food, particularly in areas already stricken with famine and drought- which in turn means... more (many more) people fighting for whatever remaining: food, land and water.

What promises to be the biggest climate protest will occur in NYC this Sept. 21st...

Self Destruction

Unfortunately, since this video was made, we have not only failed to curtail our own self destruction, we have redoubled our effort to destroy the very planet we live and depend upon and everything within it...

Cool!

Definitely one of the coolest things I've seen in quite sometime! And more than a little ironic in the sense that this was how it was always depicted in the cheapo, Grade B, Sci-fi flicks of yore...
(via Boing Boing)

Pandora's Promise

The trailer for Pandora's Promise starts off briefly mentioning the names of our most infamous, peace time, nuclear catastrophes: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima. It sounds like yet another hard hitting expose of our dreaded "Friendly Atom." Midway through however, it injects the argument(s) favored by pro nuclear, "pro environmental" advocates (insert sarcastic oxymoron jokes here). They point out that we cannot continue our current (let alone increased) power consumption without incorporating nuclear into the mix on a large scale, global basis- not to do so they warn, will result in unprecedented global warming. What they don't tell you, won't tell you, is that it's a short term, short sighted fix that will poison our planet for millenia to come. And, of course, what they will tell you is that it can now be done in a safer, cleaner and more efficient manner... Bull, bull, and bull. The same decades old promises (of a broken, failed industry) spilling from the mouths of brand spanking new converts.

No matter how you color, dress and disguise it, nuclear power is the deadly poison that keeps on poisoning en masse for untold hundreds of years to come. And nuclear power plants no matter how brand spanking new and efficient are still vulnerable to catastrophes of biblical proportions due to human error, terrorism and natural calamities; and to this day we still have no safe method to store their deadly waste (again, deadly for centuries- now there's a slogan) or the needed areas "guaranteed" geologically sound for that required period of time. It's an industry essentially built on a house of cards from start to never ending finish with millions of lives at stake for thousands of years. Cool!!!

Basically, we've painted ourselves into a radioactive, smoked filled corner of our own making. The time to adequately prepare ourselves has long past, we should have been heavily investing into alternative R & D as our #1 priority since the '70s. But Grandpa Ronnie told us not to worry. And like the children that we are- we didn't.

And so here we sit in a brand new century, royally fucked with the worst yet to come- and we got warmed over shit served on a brand new platter for today's menu...

*Just a little something for all to ponder while I'm away (see yas full force come July- preposted a coupla things for the interim).

It's Finally Over...

Benito Juarez

Wish I could gloat- but living in a non battleground state, I voted Jill Stein (Green Party) for President. Anyway, we can now all safely return to the joys of drug commercials for geriatric old farts like me, while eating our tumor inducing, genetically modified organisms.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party has to figure out how the hell they're gonna win anything on a national level when they can no longer rely on all the White men in the country to buy them the vote. The changing demographics in the US of A puts them in one helluva predicament- without letting in the very people they so absolutely abhor (all those nasty, yucky people the color of the earth), they won't be able to win the big ones. Maybe I can gloat after all...

And congratulations- Elizabeth Warren!

TOP(PED)!

I submitted this photo (containing approx. 8 security cameras) to Mike Johnston at TOP as a "counter balance" (if such is the appropriate term) to his post Friday concerning how we as photographers (professional and otherwise) continue to be unduly harassed by "authorities" (of what I'm not quite sure), as we go about doing what we are legally and unquestionably allowed to do. So I was quite honored to have it suddenly appear in a Random Excellence post...

Photo: S. Banos

I've always looked upon our flag with mixed emotions- proud for all the great good it inevitably stands for, shamed for all the... well, undeniable evil perpetrated in its name not only upon its own citizens, but on those of countless other countries. Of course, most citizens either conveniently choose to dismiss or deny the latter (eg- racism, economic enslavement both foreign and domestic, wars of convenience, etc). If only the average citizen was as aware of the abhorrent injustices committed in our name to this day as they are of the everyday occurrences of their favorite celebrities and sport teams! Still, I've always tried to maintain some small semblance of hope that America would continue to improve, if only by increment. Americans after all, like most people anywhere, are a generally generous and decent lot.

I wish I could be as proud, as confident, as hopeful for the future as that young father posing with his infant child! I suppose parenthood demands it. But optimism is no longer part of my outlook, and I'm not even talking economy. Basic liberties and cherished civic guarantees are gradually and purposely being eroded and eradicated- and they are as nothing compared to the sacrilege we have savaged upon our environment.

Cliche as it may be, and is, even the most cursory acquaintance with history will reveal our growing and undeniable parallels with The Roman Empire, particularly the part labelled- The Fall. Our obsession with celebrity and spectacle, consumerism and self have deluded and blinded us to the inevitable consequences of our own actions.

The roar of the Coliseum beckons...

Conservative Parents Everywhere!!!

You guys got kids, right? I don't have a worry, don't gotta one- I'll be cashing out in another 25 years, if not sooner... just like the fat bastard so rich he spends every day spewing ever more deluded rantings no real working person with the slightest would ever believe.

But I assume you worry about your kids- right? You know, like their well being, and future and stuff... You like, love them, right? Right? Then time to embrace the Conservative in you and start facing the fact that this planet you're leaving them is... dying!  
 

I realize you think "science" all a myth- unproven, hysterical, left wing propaganda. The Great Liberal Lie! Otherwise, you wouldn't be so preoccupied with your real religion- making money at any cost, even at the very expense of the planet that keeps you alive. Just hope the religion you go through so much trouble trying to convince everyone else you really believe in comes through and Raptures your ass on up high into the heavens you're so busy polluting with your SUVs and your non regulated, profit inducing carbon emissions- cause pretty soon there aint gonna be shit to eat down here!

Not to worry- fat man's got your back! Your kids can bet on it...

The Interrupters- Blessed Are The Peacemakers

...For they will be called children of God.

Any teacher capable of teaching in any effective, worthwhile or measurable manner in any inner city you choose realizes that every student who enters their classroom does so with a minimum of two strikes already against them. Inadequate health care promotes chronic health conditions; lack of fresh, healthy foods at local venues exacerbates the obesity epidemic, and greater environmental stress levels add significantly to the rising asthma rates. Those are but the secondary, incidental dangers of life in the hood. Then you get to the more apparent, better publicized dangers to health and well being that few in mainstream America are willing to acknowledge long enough to confront, reassess and rectify in any meaningful recourse beyond lip service. While every inner city is home to some of the most loving, resourceful and industrious people found on earth, few are able to deny the rampant problems caused by drugs, abusive or absentee parents, and an omnipresent violence so pervasive that it ultimately perverts and dominates the way children think, interact and live their fragile, at risk lives.

Into this maddening mix walk The Interrupters, products of the very environment described above. They're the lucky ones who not only survived, but somehow managed to overcome, and are now hellbent on trying to prevent however many lives they can from going down the same wretched road they crashed and burned on- one volatile life at a time. These are the people who can reach at risk youth in their homes, on their streets, in their very minds and hearts. A special breed born of the same desperation, who now give back in ways no school teacher, social worker, preacher, and certainly no cop, could rarely, if ever, realize. We need so many more of them- but even they are ultimately a stop gap measure, a band aid on a festering, mortal wound.

There's little question that unemployment is the inner city's most insidious disease, the major usurper of dreams and aspirations, it's outright greatest killer. Employment is key to helping transform neighborhoods, where everyday life is a veritable minefield of handguns, threats and violence, into thriving environments where hope is a reality- one you can dream, achieve and live right there, with other people who look just like you. Unfortunately, we now live in an era where the cost of higher education is increasingly out of reach even for lower middle class incomes, and the most vulnerable of our youth are left to answer their nation's highest calling either by serving as the raw material for their country's latest overseas misadventure, or by "participating" in its most rapidly growing, domestic employment opportunity (for those folk furthest from the inner city)- the prison industrial complex. One of the most pervasive and pernicious "opportunities" for at risk youth to finally make it out of the ghetto!

KKK Good, Reality Bad...

During my fifty six years of living in the U.S. of A, I have repeatedly witnessed how our clean cut, respectable Republican sons of bitches methodically erode and undermine the rights our citizenry have selflessly sacrificed, fought and died for. They've effectively dumbed us down by eviscerating and abandoning a once world class public education system and then eliminating tuition free higher education. They've wantonly shipped out the manufacturing jobs that formed the backbone of our once prosperous middle class (with the eager support of their Democratic brethren from the other side of the very same coin), and you know they're just itching to destroy the last vestige of our so called safety net by driving a stake into the still beating heart of Social Security. Make no doubt, these heartless bastards will not stop until the white majority is a silent, compliant work force of scared shitless drones, ever thankful for being that one small whisper above the enslaved brown skinned masses this nation was built on.

Having wrecked the proverbial American Dream with endless war while promoting mindless consumerism under ever decreasing wages, they happily continue to play us one against the other, and should any of us stop to ponder and complain- they sanctimoniously exhort... Class Warfare! Unsatisfied with poisoning our present and sabotaging our future, their bountiful, limitless greed now seeks to delude and divorce us of our very past, so that we no longer acknowledge their sins and just revel in their fanciful, shameless machinations...

2012- Year In Review

Well, I gotta be honest here folks, it's not for lack of trying- but I haven't taken a decent shot all year. The good news is that at least I have one new friend from Africa who, if I just let him have his way, wants to make me a rich man, a very rich man- and from the dental bill I'm about to incur from eating a piece of popcorn watching godawful Melancholia recently, he reached out just in time.

Meanwhile, I pledge to redouble my efforts to introduce legislation banning Uggs throughout the world- particularly since I failed so miserably in having similar legislation passed concerning Birkenstocks. This time failure is not an option!

Once passed, we cannot rest, other challenges just as dark, just as threatening, await us. They lurk in the shadows today- but tomorrow? Yes- I speak of none other than the dreaded toe shoe things!!!

Methane-Insane

This is something that could put a serious dent in everyone's plans for several years to come... Bigtime!

On a much more immediate and somewhat more local level- there's always the real possibility of a brand new war (it's just not the same with only one- and an old forgotten one at that) to start the new year off on the good foot... like say, with Iran.

Self Reflection

56 (and counting...)

I first attempted blogging in '04 during a period of unemployment right 'round my mid century mark, and transferred to Blogger in '07 when I finally decided to seriously commit to the damn thing, that is, develop the discipline to post most every day with something to say, present or show of some particular relevance or "importance." At first I wanted to create the largest audience possible, and after a couple of years of that said, "fuck it," it is what is. Just as I had concluded with my photography, it's ultimately something I do for myself, which at first sounds incredibly selfish and self defeating- particularly considering a medium that is so inherently meant to be shared, as is... a blog. But in a time when everyone is a photographer and everyone has something to say (and the means to do it), the choices are numerous, the alternatives plentiful. Fact of the matter- you can reach a helluva lot more people now simply via Facebook.

I can't deny what a leak it still is being able to meet, contribute, and share online; but I've pretty much said most of what I've wanted to say- as loudly and articulately as I possibly can. And with the work involved, I certainly don't want to embark on repetition for an ever decreasing "return." Curiously, others are also reassessing their roles in blogdom, and others still perhaps quietly fading away- some having already succumbed to... the inevitable(?). In fact, when you come down to it- it's hard to think of many (any?) "successful" photo blogs nowadays that are not at least partially funded in some manner.

Soon come, we'll be turning the corner on post 1,500- we'll see where we take it from there... And as always, thank you for dropping by.

The Future Imperfect

Sometime this mid to latter century, your children's children will ask their parents whatever happened to these magnificent animals, when all that's left are hordes of jellyfish floating in a toxic soup of oxygen depleted water, man made chemicals and islands of wandering plastic waste. They'll somehow find the time to ask the way kids inevitably do- whenever there's a break from the recurrent global conflicts over potable water and arable lands.

And someone will have to tell them that no one cared enough about them or any other living thing (with the exception of their own venal selves)- so we knowingly continued to pollute, over fish, and enthusiastically convert two thirds of the world's surface area into the largest open air sewer known to humankind. Someone will have to tell them, that yes, the signs were both abundant and evident that our largest life source was in obvious, imminent danger and yet we continued to abuse it unabated, somehow maniacally setting aside the obvious conclusion that it would ultimately endanger our own survival.

Someone will have to answer them, but it won't be me, and it won't be you. And with that reassurance we'll continue to mine every last remaining gasp of fossil fuel no matter the environmental cost, we'll continue to vote for every policy that benefits wanton, short term economic growth, and we'll most happily continue to deny that we have reached that point of no return where the earth itself can no longer rebound, forgive or maintain us...   (BoingBoing)

Facing Up To Facebook

All the childhood lectures about not giving in to peer pressure have been recently haunting me anew- and in a very big way. I work full time, I tutor on the side, I run one of the most successful photography blogs of all time, I take a picture here and there (okay, I kinda exaggerated one of those). And yet I'm not complete, not really, not even close, because I... don't do the Face.

I could double, triple, quadruple my hits, sell my photos to private collecters, exhibit in countless name galleries and be published in the glossiest publications- with thousands of fans and friends worldwide... if only I'd do the Face.

Maybe I could just ease into it gradually with a tattoo, a DSLR, the latest full featured photoshop (what # and letter are they up to?), Twitter, an ipod, an iphone, an ipad, piercings...

SHIT--- I HAVEN'T SEEN AVATAR!!!

Collapse

Don't remember where I found this, and I have yet to see it- but it sure as hell looks damn interesting...

WE'VE BEEN WARNED!

Although I'm often made to feel the raving, ranting, lunatic fool whenever I make mention of this- THE WRITING'S ON THE WALL, FOLKS! This planet's fucked- BIGTIME! The signs are all around us, and they have nothing to do with that ol' time religion or mystic prophecy- and everything to do with that thing we once believed and took stock in-- S-C-I-E-N-C-E.

...the last time the planet was likely more than a degree or so warmer than today, sea levels were around 20 feet higher due to significant melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets....

Our lives of quiet desperation will, in several decades time, be replaced with panic of worldwide proportion. Now, my withered self will be ready to move on out unnoticed (hopefully, drink in hand) with the incoming tide when the time comes- but all you with children out there, I don't understand how you guys can remain so freaking bloody calm. This is gonna out Hollywood any Hollywood global catastrophe and last way longer than an hour and a half, and Mr. Krugman, here, makes no mention whatsoever of the concurrent major conflicts that will also arise in response. The second half of this century will be a very, very different place for those lucky(?) enough to survive...