At least it beats the tribal tramp stamps, but not by far..
09
Mar
10
Enough said
After a long–and much needed–hiatus taking me from Portland to Portugal then onto Abu Dhabi, Bangkok and finally Sydney, Australia. Sydney will be my base of operations and an important driver of CA over the next year or so..CA will also take on radical new directions–as it should–in assessing and observing our society..CA will also be working closely with other global initiatives bringing readers a more panoramic experience of our ever changing globe. So please stay in-touch as things at CA begin taking their new direction..
08
Jun
09
School meals around the world
Photos of school meals from around the World. Quite an interesting photo essay.
27
May
09
The green bubble burst
Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger of The New Republic suggest that the green eco-friendly bubble has already burst. They conclude that this isn’t the first time an eco bubble has inflated then burst. First signs of an eco-friendly society emerged in 1969 with an industrial pollution fire on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, generating public outrage.
…these past bursts of environmentalism waxed and waned with the rise and fall of the economy. But, perhaps more significantly, the green bubbles inflated during highly polarized periods in American society and politics, often fueled by disastrously violent episodes in foreign policy.
16
May
09
Hugh van Es
Photographer Hugh van Es has died today in a hospital in Hong Kong. Van Es took some of the most striking photos documenting the Vietnam War as well as other containment conflicts.
07
May
09
not very suprising
25
Apr
09
atlanta, georgia
Photo taken in Atlanta, Georgia, via MR.
Antwerp’s Diamond District is a three block area that holds eighty percent of the worlds diamonds. On top of that imagine an industry where three-quarters of everyday business is under the table and your bound to have some action. That’s why our love for a good hiest story has played the setting in countless novels, movies, and TV shows. So read here for the World’s Biggest Heist.
In 2003 Leonardo Notarbatolo was accused of organizing a ring of Italian thieves to break into a vault two floors beneath the Diamond Center. Notabatolo was released from prison this week after serving some six years behind bars.
They had executed the plan perfectly: no alarms, no police, no problems. The heist wouldn’t be discovered until guards checked the vault on Monday morning. The rest of the team was already driving back to Italy with the gems. They’d rendezvous outside Milan to divvy it all up. There was no reason to worry.
17
Apr
09
Tea Bags?? Really?
A moving photographic essay, Ruins of Detroit, from Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre documents the vacant skeleton of a once thriving US manufacturing city. More photos can be found via Time Photo Gallery.
Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes…the volatile result of the change of eras and the fall of empires. This fragility leads us to watch them one very last time: to be dismayed, or to admire, it makes us wonder about the permanence of things.
14
Mar
09
McGangBang
Check out the McGangBang mania in a truly American fashion. It actually makes me want to hurl, but then I remember it only cost $2.16. You’ve got to love the off-menu delicacies.
The naming, of course, is somewhat obscene — “gangbang” is defined as “sexual intercourse with multiple partners in turn or at the same time.” It’s illicit in more ways that one — chicken and beef most definitely make for an unnatural pairing.
04
Mar
09
Rob’s Recession Tips
03
Mar
09
did we have it right after all?
A great column discussing how the so called slacker generation may hold the key to a more sustainable economic future. Not recession proof, but recession-resilient.
WE MOVED to San Francisco and Brooklyn and Mission Hill. We jumped from job to job. Put off marriage. Never bought a place. And we never heard the end of it. We were drifters, they said. Layabouts. No respect for work and real estate or the value of a good pair of cufflinks.
You see, while Alan Greenspan and Countrywide Financial were creating a capitalism of disastrous excess, we were busy working on a more workable model. We brought you the Internet, worked on green technology, and filled the ranks of Teach for America. We crossed the color line, ate local produce, and bought secondhand clothing. We lived in smaller spaces, drove smaller cars, and took the subway to work.
As we begin to rebuild our tattered economy it may be time well spent studying how the slacker generation managed to live within their means. Read on via Boston Globe.
Penelope Trunk’s 5 emerging trends..I’ve already begun to notice the increasing backlash against baby boomers.
01
Mar
09
how much would you pay?
This photo via TC reminded me about Ryanair, who recently introduced a coin slot on their inflight toilets.
27
Feb
09
Jimmy Carter fact of the day
When Jimmy Carter signed Senate Amendment 3534 in 1978 he single-handedly revolutionized the American brewing industry. A portion of the amendment gave each household permission to produce up to 200 gallons of tax-exempt beer each year.
The American public had decided it liked its beer cheap, bland, and less filling, and the industry—which, after decades of consolidation, consisted of a mere 44 breweries in 1979.
Three decades later, the U.S. boasts 1,463 breweries, including 975 brewpubs. Bud Light and its analogs still dominate the market, but even your corner market may have at least a few selections to tempt the palate of Joe Microbrew: summer ales, double bocks, black lagers, maybe even a honey orange wheat ale.
Read the article here…Way to go Jimmy.
22
Feb
09
a collection of photos
A series of photos taken of workers from around the globe. Also photos from Lagos, Portugal can be viewed via Flickr.
Rep McHenry (r) award recipient of the Total Douche Award. Your words are the least inspiring and utter your complete ignorance…My pity rest with the constituents you represent..worst wishes.
A flat apparently untouched since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 has been uncovered in the German town of Leipzig. An architect apparently renovating flats stumbled upon the East German time-warp, with the calender reading “August 1988.” Previous residents seemed to have left the flat in a rush. Leaving rolls, Vita Cola, Marella margarine, Juwel cigarettes and a bottle of Kristall vodka strewn about the kitchen.
It appears the inhabitant of the humble flat fled in a hurry and shrivelled bread rolls still lay in a string bag. The only foreign product to be found was a West German bottle of deodorant.
Read on here, via BBC.
26
Jan
09
the writing on the wall
In 2006 only 15% of students wrote their SAT essays in cursive script, while all others responded in block lettering. Will there be a day when ordinary people can no longer decipher longhand writing?
Typing and texting have caused cursive skills to atrophy, and schools regard standards of style and legibility the same way they regard standards of dress.
25
Jan
09
recent photos of Hawthorne St
22
Jan
09
things worth pondering
British passengers on the Titanic died in disproportionate numbers because they queued politely for lifeboats while Americans elbowed their way on, an Australian researcher believes.
Behavioral economist, David Savage, takes an in-depth look at the 20th century maritime disaster.
19
Jan
09
caption this
Will Obama’s Change We Can Believe In go as far as expanding the ignominious wine service of the Bushie administration? Of course having a President that actually drinks wine will help.
According to Shanks (current White House Wine Steward), the White House currently stocks around 500-600 bottles. That is pathetic and another example of how America’s infrastructure has been allowed to deteriorate. During his eight years in office, Thomas Jefferson amassed a 20,000-bottle collection, which he kept in a cellar that he had built under what is now the West Wing. Two centuries later, that space is being used for other purposes, and the president of the United States has less wine in his basement than I have in mine.
12
Jan
09
things worth pondering
More illustrations from Patrick Moberg’s blog.
12
Jan
09
news from the front lines
A statue of Rigas Feraios, a Greek writer and revolutionary who died in 1798, stands vandalized with an anarchy symbol outside the Athens University.
Photos from the riots in Greece.
As technologies advance and more efficient transportation methods develop, we can only assume migration controls would only begin to weaken. The idea of abolishing national boarders isn’t as far-fetched as one may believe. Europe’s Schengen Agreement, which allows residents of participating countries to travel more easily through their borders, is just one example of how free-market forces have begun to dissolve national boundaries.
It has always struck me as odd that we are so keen to allow the flow of cash and goods across borders without let or hindrance, but try so hard to deny the same rights to people. That is both unfair and a denial of the free-market theories on which much of the world’s economy is built. Surely if free trade and the free movement of capital is so good for an efficient global economy, then the same should apply to the free movement of labour?
Continue reading Fred Pearce’s article Migration controls are the new apartheid, via New Scientist.
09
Jan
09
Nouveau Poor
Times are tough and analyst only predict tougher times ahead for 2009: Chronically Indigent Resent Influx of Nouveau Poor
Closely connected to the political landscape, the recently struggling pornography industry is asking for a $5 billion federal bailout. Video producers, directors, technical crew, and onscreen talent warn that the Government’s failure to invest could force many professionals onto the streets.
08
Jan
09
Filmed by Bike 2009
08
Jan
09
demographic inversion
This is the generation that grew up watching “Seinfeld,” “Friends,” and “Sex and the City,” mostly from the comfort of suburban sofas. We have gone from a sitcom world defined by “Leave It to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” to one that offers a whole range of urban experiences and enticements.
They are drawn to the densely packed urban life that they saw on television and found vastly more interesting than the cul-de-sac world they grew up in. And, by and large, I believe central cities will give it to them.
We will never return–nor would most of us want to return–to the close-knit but frequently constricting form of community life that prevailed 50 years ago. But, as we rearrange ourselves in and around many of our big cities, we are groping toward the new communities of the twenty-first century.
Deindustrialization, lower crime rates, higher gas prices, and a young population adopting different lifestyles than their parents have contributed to the general flight from today’s car-dependent surbia and into urban environments. Very similar comparisons can be made today that parallel the demographic inversion of European cities of the mid-19th century. Continue reading Alan Ehrenhalt’s piece on Urban Inversion.
Alan Ehrenhalt is executive editor of Governing Magazine and author of The United States of Ambition and The Lost City.
Casual Appearance 