Bill Murray's Blog, page 120
December 12, 2014
Friday Photo #6, Masters of the Universe
Click this to enlarge. Walking along Oxford Street in London about dusk in January 2010, we came upon this office building, and it looked promising enough that I ran to get my tripod from our hotel room and came back in time to catch these guys about to leave for the day. Several exposures from a single RAW, tonemapped in Photomatix & finished in Photoshop.
There are 562 more HDR photos in the HDR Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.
December 8, 2014
No Comment
From Yonhap:
The government will review the legitimacy of disciplinary action by the daughter of the Korean Air chairman who forced a flight crew member to deplane, delaying other passengers from departing, an official said Monday.
Cho Hyun-ah, vice president of the national carrier and the eldest daughter of Korean Air chairman Cho Yang-ho, ordered a senior flight attendant on a plane heading to Incheon International Airport from New York on Friday to deplane for failing to follow in-flight service procedures, according to the company. Korean Air officials said the attendant had not asked Cho whether she would like a pack of nuts and did not provide the snack on a plate, as required by the service manual.”
December 6, 2014
Finnish Independence Day
Finland is not what you would call a major European nation. Tucked way��up there in the upper right on the map, when Finland is thought of at all it���s usually in the reflected shine of its fellow Nordic countries, with whom it shares good clean air, progressive social policies and high taxes.
This time of year, though, not a lot shines in Finland. Sunlight��last��scarcely longer than a good ride across its frozen lakes. Perhaps that lends itself to Finland’s two well known��-isms: stoicism and alcoholism.��And this year��its economy is being hammered��by the western sanctions on Russia.
But Finland is plucky. For months the nation of just four million fought the mighty Russian war machine to a draw, alone, in the 1939 Winter War.��With Europe���s longest border with Russia, some 800 kilometers, today Finland endures revanchist Russia���s air and sea probing without the NATO protection of its neighbors across the Baltic Sea, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Today is Finland���s 97th Independence Day. In the USA we mark each July 4th with fireworks and parades. Finns celebrate their independence from Russia with candles in their windows, in quiet hope, remembrance and with a great deal more self-awareness, I think, than we.
(See 238��photos in the Finland Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)
December 5, 2014
Friday Photo #5, Havana, Cuba
It seems incredible but ordinary Americans still can’t just hop on a plane and fly to Cuba. The rules have relaxed a little though, and nowadays with prior planning, a trip to Havana is possible. Click the photo to enlarge, and see this and 57 other photos from a 2012 trip in the Cuba Gallery at EarthPhotos.com. And here’s a story about the trip.
December 4, 2014
Chernobyl Film Using Drones
About a year ago I authored��the short book Visiting Chernobyl, based on a visit and my research. Having seen the subject of��this short video in person, I can recommend it as looking just��as��I saw it in March, 2013.
It’s from��a British freelance filmmaker��named Danny Cooke who��used a drone and camera to capture aerial footage of Pripyat, the town in the center of the exclusion zone made up��of scientists and engineers dedicated to keeping the reactors running. Read more in this��article at the Smithsonian magazine website.
December 3, 2014
Video: NATO Plane Buzzed by Russian MIG
This video, via Foreign Policy, purports to show a Russian MIG-31 from a Norwegian F-16.
“What the hell!” That was the reaction of a Norwegian fighter pilot as a Russian MiG-31 unexpectedly passed in front of his F-16.
November 28, 2014
Friday Photo #4, Watson’s Bay, Australia
This could be my single favorite HDR. Since the Sydney, Australia area is on Australia’s east coast it catches the sun’s first light each day. Here, waves crash against the rocks across the harbor from downtown, just south of Manly Beach, below��the bedroom��community of Watson’s Bay. Click it to enlarge.
See 408��more photos in the Australia Gallery and 562��more photos��in the HDR Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.
November 27, 2014
Happy Thanksgiving
It’s Thanksgiving in America. For anyone reading CS&W elsewhere who is unfamiliar, Thanksgiving is a much loved holiday free from the commercialism of most of the rest of the U.S. holidays. It really is only about getting together with family and friends, sharing a meal, usually turkey, and being grateful for the things you value in life. It’s kind of anti-commercial, really, even though the barrage of demands that you shop for the holidays starts immediately afterward.
For today at least, we all give thanks for things dear. So, happy Thanksgiving to you! And thank you for visiting Common Sense and Whiskey.
And, um, I don’t seem to have a photo of a turkey in my archives, so please welcome as a substitute, the world’s first Thanksgiving camel.
MOD Women
While Michelle Flournoy has apparently taken her name out of the running for U.S. Defense Secretary, it’s worth noting that there are currently five female��Defense Ministers in NATO: Italy’s Roberta��Pinotti, Albania’s Mimi Kodheli, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen, Norway’s Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide and Jeanine Hennis-Plasshaert of the Netherlands. That’s a record.
There are also female Defense Ministers in South Africa, Montenegro, Ecuador, Kenya, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Guinea-Bissau.
November 24, 2014
Dueling Holidays
The Festive Season, 2013 in Saigon, Vietnam
And the Holiday Season 2014, Missouri, USA
