16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Buddhist Fire    1963

There are many photographs which are too gruesome or gory to make it onto the news but that doesn't mean that the ones deemed worthy are not heart-breakingly awful and hard to look at.
Monk Thich Quang Duc, sat down on a cushion at a busy Vietnamese crossroads, poured a can of petrol over himself and said a prayer before striking a match and dropping it on himself.
It was inj protest at the rising rivalry between the Catholics and the Buddhists and witnesses state that the Monk didn't even move and remained absolutely still even while burning.
US President, John F. Kennedy, said of of the photograph: 'No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world' and the photographer, Malcolm Browne, described the scene he captured as: 'Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning human flesh. As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.'

Special Guest Blogger: Philo Farnsworth

For those of you who haven’t spent your Friday nights reading patent filings (honestly, what are you doing with your lives?), let me introduce myself. I am Philo T. Farnsworth. I was a farm boy from Idaho who grew up to be the man who was granted the first patent for the television by the United States Government.
People always ask me how does a teenager in a horse-drawn plow come up with the world’s first working all-electronic television system and it was simple. I was bored.
In 1921, I was fourteen years old, tilling a potato field in Idaho. I looked back at the neat, parallel rows I’d just plowed, and it hit me like a heavy clod of dirt). Why couldn’t we scan an image the same way? Line by line. Electronic beams moving back and forth across a vacuum tube, just like my plow moving across the dirt.
While most fourteen-year-olds were worrying about puberty or how to talk to girls, I was drawing diagrams for an image dissector on a blackboard for my high school chemistry teacher.
Fast forward a few years to San Francisco. I wasn’t exactly living the high life, I was basically a mad scientist in a rented lab, trying to prove that mechanical spinning disks (the television of the time) were a joke. Mechanical TV was clunky, loud, and looked like a moving shadow through a screen door.
In 1927, I finally did it. I transmitted a simple straight line using my video camera tube. My wife, Pem, was there. I turned to her and said, "There you are, honey. A line." and she was thrilled or as thrilled as one can be when their husband spends the grocery money on vacuum tubes and glass blowing. But that line was everything. It was the birth of the electronic age. It was the moment I built the world’s first working all-electronic television system. I figured I’d be a billionaire by Tuesday.
By 1930, I had the patents, but I also had a target on my back. A little company called RCA decided they didn't want to pay me and claimed their guy, Zworykin, invented it first.
We went to court. It was a mess. But remember that high school teacher? He had kept the drawing I made on the blackboard when I was fourteen. Long story short, I won. I am officially the guy who was granted the first patent for the television by the United States Government. Suck on it, RCA.
However, the world is a strange place. My technology, specifically the image dissector, ended up being used by the Germans to broadcast the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Imagine that. I’m sitting in my lab and halfway across the world, my invention is being used by Nazis to show Jesse Owens making them look like losers in high-definition (for the time).
Once television became a thing and commercials for soap and cigarettes started clogging up the airwaves, I got bored again. Also, I was tired of fighting lawyers. I moved on to something bigger. Something hotter, I invented a small nuclear fusion device called the Fusor.
While everyone else was trying to figure out how to make color TV work, I was in my basement trying to bottle the sun. I wanted to give the world clean, limitless energy. I wanted to fix the planet. Unfortunately, the world was more interested in watching I Love Lucy.
The Fusor technically worked, but it wasn’t the energy for everyone miracle I’d hoped for, still, you’re welcome, science.
In my later years, I became somewhat dependent on alcohol. Look, if you had spent your youth fighting corporate giants for the rights to your own brain, and your middle age trying to build a sun in your garage, you’d probably fancy a drink too.
Television had turned into a monster and by the 1960s, It wasn't the educational, world-uniting tool I had envisioned. It was a wasteland and I didn’t even let my own kids watch it much. The irony wasn't lost on me that I’d created a window to the world, and I didn't like the view.
Eventually, the lifestyle and the stress caught up with me. I became seriously ill with pneumonia and died which is a real drag when you’ve still got three or four more world-changing inventions in your head but what I left behind was a bit of a mixed bag really as i was the man who gave you the ability to watch a man walk on the moon from your living room, but I’m also the reason people know what a Kardashian is.

How Else Can We Take This?

 I, and many others, have made links between the current Israeli regime and the NAZI's and it is hard to dispute when the National Security Minster of the Israeli Government, Itamar Ben-Gvir, posts CGI video's of him sending weeping Palestinians on a conveyor belt into Nazi style death camps.
What else are we supposed to think when we see images like this and hear senior Israeli leaders talking like Nazi's while committing almost every single war crime and crimes against humanity including genocide?
Ben-Gvir claims proposal for illegal forced displacement of the two million people in Gaza is ‘realistic’ and has set out a plan to forcibly expel the Gazan population to other nations  abroad: 'by any means', a further war crime.
Ever since Donald Trump's half baked and useless ceasefire deal,  Israeli attacks in Gaza have continued and almost 1,000 have died since it was announced and earlier this year an independent UN inquiry found that Israel continued to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza.
Ben-Gvir has also shared footage from a site where Palestinians convicted of attacks by Israeli military courts are to be executed as well as other videos showing him revelling in the mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part staged a visit to a military outpost in Gaza this week and insisted that the Israeli military will not draw back from the areas of Gaza that it occupies, now 65% which is far beyond the 53% agreed under the ceasefire.
The British foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, promised on Tuesday to introduce a 'comprehensive reset' of the UK’s policy on Israel in the coming weeks and the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council have agreed that they have concerns over occupation and annexation of Gaza and the West Bank but warn that this may fuel antisemitism in the UK.
The Israeli embassy referred to Miliband by saying that: 'If Britain acts against the state of Israel, the state of Israel will act against Britain'  which is a very vague threat but it would not be Britain alone as the EU have also announced a reset so as Israel makes the links between the Nazi's and themselves even more tenable, it's only friend is a man with rapidly diminishing brain power in the White House and the ignorant who will surely read this and despite all the evidence, still disagree that Israel, of all nations given their history, is the closest thing we have to the actions of the Third Reich.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Auschwitz Scratches    1946

Anyone who has ever been to Auschwitz cannot fail to be moved to hear of what was going on in the largest of the 50 gas chambers and gas vans during World War II to murder people en masse.
The complex imprisoned 1.3 million people and resulted in the murder of approximately 1.1 million men, women, and children and all because of their religion, sexual statues, disability, political leanings or where they were from.
The scratches were made by the men, women and children desperate to escape before the SS men escorted them to the gas chambers which is hard to imagine the sheer panic and desperation when the cell door opened.
In total an estimated 11 million died in the camps, most of which were destroyed after the War but Auschwitz was preserved to serve as a historical memorial site and museum to show the horrors of an evil political ideology taken to the extreme which pits us against each other.

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Mushroom Cloud    1945

This photo is the first test by the Americans in Socorro, New Mexico, the birth of the most devastating weapon us humans have ever produced  and which would 3 weeks later be dropped on a Japan City, Hiroshima and killed 140,000 people and another 3 days later on another one in Nagasaki killing another 80,000.
Today there are nine nations with nuclear weapons and today's versions are all over 3,000 times more powerful than the ones dropped on Japan.
In a nuclear war, nobody wins, everybody loses and the last thing we would see is this Mushroom Cloud which sums up the ultimate madness and folly that we have reached, to almost quote Sun Tzu, a madman will burn the World to the ground to rule over the ashes and after a nuclear war, ashes is all that would remain.

Special Guest Blogger: Miguel de Cervantes

I was just a regular guy in Madrid trying not to get stabbed so that naturally ended with me stabbing someone but it started in 1569. I was young, I had two working hands and I possessed that dangerous cocktail of pride and boredom that usually leads to a courtroom appearance. I got into a bit of a disagreement with a gentleman named Antonio de Sigura. In my defense, the guy was asking for it. In the law’s defense, puncturing a man with a sword is generally frowned upon.
A warrant was issued for my arrest, and the punishment was having my right hand cut off and being exiled for ten years. Now, as someone who planned to write for a living, the cutting off the hand part felt like a bit of a professional setback. So, I did what any rational, brave Spaniard would do and ran for the border like a man whose pants were on fire.
I ended up in Italy and for anyone fleeing the law, Italy is great. The pasta is excellent, and everyone is too busy arguing about art to notice a fugitive writer in the corner.
By 1571, I decided that since I couldn't be a civilian without being arrested, I’d become a hero and joined the navy. Specifically, I fought in the Battle of Lepanto against the Ottoman Empire.
I was sick with a fever on the day of the battle, shaking like a leaf in a Mediterranean gale. My captain told me to stay in bed. I told him I’d rather die fighting than stay tucked in like a lapdog. It sounded very poetic at the time but then I got shot. Twice in the chest, once in the left hand.
The result? I spent six months in a hospital in Sicily and walked away with a useless left hand that functioned only as a paperweight.
After five years of playing soldier, I was finally heading home to Spain in 1575 with letters of recommendation from Don John of Austria himself. I was basically carrying the ultimate Get Out of Jail Free card.
As my ship, El Sol, neared the Spanish coast, we were jumped by Barbary pirates. My luck, as usual, was functioning at a sub-zero level because I was carrying those fancy letters of recommendation, the pirates thought I was a high-ranking aristocrat. They thought, Jackpot! This guy’s ransom will buy us a new fleet and several islands.
They took me to Algiers. My ransom was set at 500 gold escudos. My family, God bless them, didn't have 500 gold escudos. They didn't have five gold escudos but they did have some goats and a lot of prayer. So, I spent the next five years as a slave.
Now, some people would accept their fate but not me, and over the next five years, I orchestrated no fewer than five escape attempts, one of which included trying to walk to a nearby Spanish Town Oran but getting lost and after three days walking back to prison.
Finally, in 1580, the Trinitarian friars managed to scrape together enough money to buy me back. I returned to Spain at the age of 33, broke, disabled, and with five years of kidnapping trauma under my belt. Naturally, I decided the best thing to do was get a job in government administration as a tax man but it turned out I was much better at getting shot than I am at accounting.
I was eventually thrown into prison (again) for irregularities in my accounts but it was there that i hit upon the idea of writing a novel about a nobleman who reads too many books and decides he’s a knight-errant. People think Don Quixote is a satire of chivalry but mostly, it’s a reflection of my life.
I published Part One in 1605. I was 58 years old. In the 1600s, being 58 was the equivalent of being 112 today but the book became a sensation. It was translated into multiple languages and I became famous across Europe.
And do you know how much money I made? Almost none. I sold the rights for a flat fee because I needed to buy bread. While everyone was laughing at my knight and his squire, I was still struggling to pay my rent. Then, some douchebag named Avellaneda wrote a fake sequel to my book while I was still working on Part Two.
I had to write Part Two just to spite him. It’s arguably better than the first one, mostly because I spent half the book making fun of the guy who tried to rip me off.
I died in 1616, on the same date as that Shakespeare fellow in England (though we used different calendars, so don't get pedantic with me). I left this world with no money, one working hand, and a story about a crazy guy on a skinny horse but as Don Quixote himself said: 'Fortune may have yet a better success in reserve for you, and they who lose today may win tomorrow' but I maybe should have added Or the day after. Or several decades after they're dead. Either way, keep tilting at those windmills. 

No More Dumpster Donny

The Trump administration has called using cruel nicknames for Donald Trump as inappropriate and i agree, it is childish and really not becoming for adults to take a trait of a person and use it as a nickname to belittle them.
So sure Trump has that weird Orange coloured skin but do we really need to call him a Mango Muppet, Melon Maniac, Agent Orange or the Tangerine Toddler? Even worse when the name calling also includes his fascist tendencies in such names as the Mango Musolini,Napoleon Bonaspur, The Tangerine Tyrant, Combover Calligula, Apricot Adolf, Trumpoleon or the Grapefruit Gaddafi.  
I despair when i see nicknames about his morbid obesity, true the guy is very very overweight but do we really need to go to Hippopotus, Fattyshack, Cankles McTacotits or Humpty Trumpty?
Not being able to open his mouth without a lie coming out could be an illness so  Lie-a-tollah, The Lyin' King and Uncle Scam could be making fun of his disability as is SpongeBlob Shartpants, Shitler, Diaper Don and Baron von Shitzinpantz, the guy has no control over his bowels, give him a break!!
His history of being unfaithful to his wives as well as a sex offender and almost certainly a pedophile also come in for some stick in names such as Dopey Mcgropey, Fondling Father, Cheetolini, Pumpkin McPornhumper and the Tangerine Tot Toucher but i say enough, let's be grown up about this and stop the name calling and give the Commander in Thief a break .  

16 Photographs

I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet. 

 Lepa Radic        1943

The 1st and 2nd World Wars showed just how inhumane we can be to each other on a massive scale and there are plenty of photographs which show it in stark horror but this one, the first in a series which ends with the limp, lifeless body of 17 year old Lepa Svetozara Radic hanging from her makeshift gallows, always struck me as particularly chilling.
Don't know if it her passive face while she awaited her fate as the guard affixes the noose or the story behind it where after weeks of torture in an attempt to extract information, she was offered her life in return for the names of her Yugoslavian resistance movement comrades but she refused and repeated that she was not a traitor and apparently her last words were: 'I will be killed, but there are those who will avenge me'.

A Guide To The Top 5 Alien Types

There may be two types of people in this World, those that believe in Aliens and those who don't but for those who have seen them there are five basic types,  The Greys, The Nordics, Tall Whites, Reptilians and Insectoids.  
Astrophysicist, Dr. Eric Davis, has collated what people claim say they saw and The Greys is the most common, short humanoids with grey skin and large black eyes and apparently are not shy about inserting probes in places where probes should not be inserted unless by a medical professional.
The second most common are the Nordics who are described as tall and almost human in appearance with blue-eyes and blonde hair and can communicate with us  telepathically unlike the third most 'seen' alien who are the Tall Whites who stand over six feet tall with pale white skin, bald heads, and light blue or green eyes.
Less common are the Reptilians who are said to be humanoid creatures that stand upright, but have reptile-like skin asnd the fifth most sighted alien which is the Insectoids who look a bit like praying mantises, if praying mantises could stand and were about six to nine feet tall and wear robes and jewels as well.
There you go then but it is all obviously very useless if you are being pursued by a Grey skinned alien waving a probe around it's head or a walking praying mantis in a robe but no need to make them even more angry by getting their classification wrong, that's just poor manners.

16 Photographs

Us humans are capable of creating things of immense beauty as well of being capable of depraved cruelty to each other and create inventions which can immeasurably improve all our lives as well as invent horrific weapons to wipe out millions of souls in the blink of an eye.  
Photographs possess a silent power that offers a poignant portal into moments forever suspended that do not merely document the past but provoke profound contemplation by confronting us with the fragility of human existence, the weight of historical choices, and the capturing both immense tragedy and quiet hope.
I have picked out 16 photographs which still make me ponder now on the cruelty, beauty and horror of us and our Planet.

Xmas Day 1914

I have often wondered what would happen if two armies facing each other said no, we are not going to fight each other and just laid down their guns and got together for a game of football instead.
This picture from 1914 shows exactly when that did happen and the German and British armies got together in No Mans Land on Christmas Day, sang some carols, shared beer and cigarettes and had a game of football.   
Reports and photographs of these unofficial ceasefires reached the papers back home and the military authorities declared that  informal truces with the enemy were to cease and any officer or non-commissioned officer found to have initiated one would be tried by Court Martial with harsh punishment for any man caught refusing to fight.
The small truces of 1914 never happened again but amidst the bloody and horrific slaughter, a rare glimpse of human kindness.