Deputies rope, handcuff 7-foot alligator near elementary school

Deputies rope, handcuff 7-foot alligator near elementary school.

“Unfortunately, the gator did not want to wait and started walking southbound along the sidewalk of Forest Lakes Boulevard toward the intersection of Pine Avenue where children were in the process of crossing the street to school,” the sheriff’s office said.

Discovery of ‘killer’ shrimp alarms experts – Science, News – The Independent

Discovery of ‘killer’ shrimp alarms experts – Science, News – The Independent.

For the first time the vicious shrimp Dikerogammarus villosus has been found in Britain, causing consternation among scientists charged with keeping the country’s waterways stocked with native wildlife.

Visually, the brown crustacean may not inspire in the public the terror generated by more fearsome monsters of the deep, but a hint of the menace scientists say it is capable of can be gleaned from its nickname: the killer shrimp.

A particularly voracious and aggressive predator, Dikerogammarus villosus preys on a range of invertebrates, particularly native shrimps and young fish, sometimes causing their extinction. It tends to dominate its habitat, killing and maiming unselectively.

You never can tell: George Bernard Shaw, the secret snapper – News, People – The Independent

You never can tell: George Bernard Shaw, the secret snapper – News, People – The Independent.

George Bernard Shaw once wrote: “If Velasquez was born today, he would be a photographer and not a painter.” But the Irish playwright may also have thought his true calling lay behind the camera, according to researchers who have rediscovered more than 20,000 of his photographs.

___

When asked why he had taken up photography, Shaw once said: “I always wanted to draw and paint. I aspired to be a Michael Angelo, not a Shakespear [sic]. But I could not draw well enough to satisfy myself… So when dry plates and push buttons came into the market I bought a box camera and began pushing the button.”

William Klein: “Photo reportages need context” – British Journal of Photography

William Klein: “Photo reportages need context” – British Journal of Photography.

He says: “Yesterday evening I saw a screening of photographs and it reminded me a little about this old joke: it’s a tourist who comes back from a trip and he tells the story of when he saw a leper. He had two stumps instead of hands. So the other guy asked him: ‘What did you give him?’… ‘I gave him f/8 125.’ And I felt this yesterday evening.”

Beautiful images are not enough…

This is the failure of education, ideology and intellect. This is why the industry fails to attract capital from the outside world. This is why the photographic agencies run by the perpetuators of this ideological paradigm will not be the centre of the revolution that is coming.

When I say revolution, I do not mean technological or some sort of violent overthrow based on the misery of the masses. It is through research and the application of a more self aware ideology where the public are not patronised and engaged instead.
Remove this layer of moral superiority within the ivory towers of the art, gallery, academic, photographic and agency world free from the scrutiny of the public and the audience might start listening….

This is a strong statement but lets ask a few questions:-

1. Do the public know that there is suffering in the world?
2. Do people know disease exists in the world?
3. Do the public believe in the visions of Africa given by the photographic world as fair?
4. Do the public understand that capitalism is not perfect?
5. Do the public know that disease kills the poor more than the rich?
6. Do the public understand that war has some pretty brutal and visceral acts on the edge of human behaviour?

I think the answer to all of these, is a resounding “YES”. Next question is to ask “What value is being added here by photojournalism?”

Bits Pics: Kodak’s 1975 Model Digital Camera – NYTimes.com

Bits Pics: Kodak’s 1975 Model Digital Camera – NYTimes.com.

A post on Kodak’s Web site from 2007, written by Steve Sasson, the inventor of the digital camera, explains exactly how this camera was created, from a mishmash of lenses and computer parts and an old Super 8 movie camera.

Mr. Sasson called it “film-less photography” and took a “year of piecing together a bunch of new technology” to create a digital camera that ran off “16 nickel-cadmium batteries, a highly temperamental new type of CCD imaging area array, an a/d converter implementation stolen from a digital voltmeter.”

__________

Kodak the company of creative invention