Saturday, September 09, 2006

my Chronicles from the Sprawl (8/n) - Nine Eleven

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Ground zero through a protective wire mesh laid in place, probably, by the reconstruction workers.

(advanced topic for signal processing: lookout for Nyquist's - De Moivre's - patterns at different magnifications).

Satellite photo:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=40+42+41.32+N+74+00+43.92+W&ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=40.711478,-74.0122&spn=0.004042,0.013475&t=k&om=1

Thursday, September 07, 2006

my Chronicles from the Sprawl (7/n) - Imagine

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Photo 1: Strawberry Fields Memorial

Photo 2: Dakota Building (entrance)

Imagine
John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Satellite photos:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=40.77573,-73.97526&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&z=17&ll=40.775732,-73.97526&spn=0.004038,0.013475

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=40.77637,-73.97665&ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=40.776374,-73.976655&spn=0.004038,0.013475&t=k&om=1

also of interest:

http://www.centralparknyc.org/virtualpark/southend/strawberryfields


[ In July to October, 2006, I plan a series of posts celebrating the 20th anniversary of the William Gibson "Sprawl Trilogy". This is one of such posts. To find the other posts just search for the link near the upper right corner of any page of this blog. Click HERE for more details ]

Saturday, August 26, 2006

my Chronicles from the Sprawl (6/n) - Marcel Duchamp @ Philadelphia Museum of Art (revisited)

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see also:

http://lasers-in-the-jungle.blogspot.com/2006/07/marcel-duchamp_08.html

Satellite photo:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=philadelphia&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&z=19&ll=39.965336,-75.180586&spn=0.001022,0.003369

[ In July to October, 2006, I plan a series of posts celebrating the 20th anniversary of the William Gibson "Sprawl Trilogy". This is one of such posts. To find the other posts just search for the link near the upper right corner of any page of this blog. Click HERE for more details ]

my Chronicles from the Sprawl (5/n) - Grover's Mill Pond, NJ

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Satellite photo:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=40.312624,-74.60563&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&z=19&ll=40.312624,-74.605633&spn=0.001016,0.003369

my Chronicles from the Sprawl (4/n) - Masonic Boston

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satellite photo:


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=43.6,-79.3&ie=UTF8&om=1&t=k&z=19&ll=42.357484,-71.061837&spn=0.000985,0.003369&iwloc=A

my Chronicles from the Sprawl (3/n) - Postcards from THE falls

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Satellite photo:


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=43.6,-79.3&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&z=15&ll=43.081302,-79.070663&spn=0.015578,0.053902

my Chronicles from the Sprawl (2/n) - The North

Toronto (Canada) - The farthest north point in my journey.

Picture: Downtown Toronto with the CN Tower - the World’s tallest building [ http://www.cntower.ca/portal/ ]

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satellite photo:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=43.6,-79.3&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&z=18&ll=43.641825,-79.387314&spn=0.001929,0.006738

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

my Chronicles from the Sprawl (1/n) - Have car, will travel

Have car, will travel


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The house was not included :-(

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Kandinsky & Dali

Kandinsky_Composition_VII_Tretyakov_Gallery_Moscow

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His offices were located in a warehouse behind Ninsei, part of which seemed to have been sparsely decorated, years before, with a random collection of European furniture, as though Deane had once intended to use the place as his home. Neo-Aztec bookcases gathered dust against one wall of the room where Case waited. A pair of bulbous Disney-styled table lamps perched awkwardly on a low Kandinsky-look coffee table in scarlet-lacquered steel. A Dali clock hung on the wall between the bookcases, its distorted face sagging to the bare concrete floor. Its hands were holograms that altered to match the convolutions of the face as they rotated, but it never told the correct time. The room was stacked with white fiberglass shipping modules that gave off the tang of preserved ginger. "You seem to be clean, old son," said Deane's disembodied voice. "Do come in."

William Gibson, "Neuromancer", 1984

[ In July to October, 2006, I plan a series of posts celebrating the 20th anniversary of the William Gibson "Sprawl Trilogy". This is one of such posts. To find the other posts just search for the link near the upper right corner of any page of this blog. Click HERE for more details ]

Sunday, July 30, 2006

1939/45 (those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it)

Possibly 62 million people lost their lives in World War II—about 25 million soldiers and 37 million civilians, with estimates varying widely. This total includes the estimated 12 million lives lost in the Holocaust.

un resolutions 425/1391/1496 (those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it)

In May 2000, more than 22 years after United Nations Security Counsel Resolution 425 was passed, Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon. Prior to the withdrawal, opposition voices inside Israel were putting high pressure on the Israeli government to withdraw from Lebanon as they saw no valid reason for staying there and having to sustain the Lebanese resistance attacks.

Lebanon had not lived up to its end of the Resolution which called for the Lebanese government to assert its control over the southern region.Lebanon was called on by UN Resolution 1391 of 2002 and urged by UN Resolution 1496 of 2003 to do so.

As a result of Lebanon's inability to assert control of the region, Hezbollah,funded by Iran holds de facto sovereignty over much of South Lebanon.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

World War 4

Thursday, July 27, 2006
Associated Press

In the message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahiri, second in command to Usama bin Laden, said that Al Qaeda now views "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us."

The Egyptian-born physician said that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and Palestinian militants would not be ended with "cease-fires or agreements."

"It is a Jihad for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," al-Zawahiri said. "We will attack everywhere." Spain was controlled by Arab Muslims until they were driven from power at the turn of the 16th century.

He also said that Arab regimes were complicit in Israeli fighting against Hezbollah and the Palestinians. "My fellow Muslims, it is obvious that Arab and Islamic governments are not only impotent but also complicit ... and you are alone on the battlefield. Rely on God and fight your enemies ... make yourselves martyrs."
...

Sunday, July 23, 2006

1947/48/49 (those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it)

In 1947, following increasing levels of violence together with unsuccessful efforts to reconcile the Jewish and Arab populations, the British government decided to withdraw from the Palestine Mandate. The UN General Assembly approved the 1947 UN Partition Plan dividing the territory into two states, with the Jewish area consisting of roughly 55% of the land, and the Arab area roughly 45%. Jerusalem was planned to be an international region administered by the UN to avoid conflict over its status.

Immediately following the adoption of the Partition Plan by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947, David Ben-Gurion tentatively accepted the partition, while the Arab League rejected it. Attacks on civilians chiefly by Arabs but also by Israelis soon turned into widespread fighting between Arabs and Jews, this civil war being the first "phase" of the 1948 War of Independence.

The State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, one day before the expiry of the Palestine Mandate.

Following the State of Israel's establishment, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq joined the fighting and began the second phase of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. From the north, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, were all but stopped relatively close to the borders. Jordanian forces, invading from the east, captured East Jerusalem and laid siege on the city's west. However, forces of the Haganah successfully stopped most invading forces, and Irgun forces halted Egyptian encroachment from the south. At the beginning of June, the UN declared a one-month cease fire during which the Israel Defense Forces were officially formed. After numerous months of war, a cease fire was declared in 1949 and temporary borders, known as the Green Line, were instituted. Israel had gained an additional 26% of the Mandate territory west of the Jordan River. Jordan, for its part, held the large mountainous areas of Judea and Samaria, which became known as the West Bank. Egypt took control of a small strip of land along the coast, which became known as the Gaza Strip.

During and after the war, then Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion set about establishing order by dismantling the Palmach and underground organizations like the Irgun and Lehi. Those two groups were classified as terror organizations after the murder of a Swedish diplomat.

Large numbers of the Arab population fled or were driven out of the newly-created Jewish State. (Estimates of the final refugee count range from 600,000 to 900,000 with the official United Nations count at 711,000.) The continuing conflict between Israel and the Arab world resulted in a lasting displacement that persists to this day.

Immigration of Holocaust survivors and Jewish refugees from Arab lands doubled Israel's population within a year of independence. Over the following decade approximately 600,000 Mizrahi Jews, who fled or were expelled from surrounding Arab countries and Iran, migrated to Israel.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Turn on red

For someone from Europe driving in the USA probably to most weird thing about traffic laws is the fact that quit often you can cross a red light if you are turning right (and some times if you are turning left).

Unfortunately the exact law varies from state top state and sometimes changes from one part of the state to another.

Also a large collection of traffic signs supersede or, sometimes, reeenforce the generic laws.

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