Bill Murray's Blog, page 150
August 3, 2012
Friday Photo Quiz #157 - Where in the World?
This is Main Street in a national capital.
Not enough information? Okay, here's the international airport outside town:
Can't be a huge country with a tiny little capital-city airport, can it? Can you name the city? The country? The answer is after the jump.
And a good weekend to all from CS&W & Earthphotos.com.
And the answer is ............................................................... the street is Prospekt Nezavisimosti, the main street in Minsk, Belarus, designed...
August 2, 2012
Vignette: Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Cameron Highlands is a temperate hill station about halfway up the otherwise blistering Malaysian peninsula. Bill Cameron was a surveyor, working for the British government in 1885. Just 125 years ago, these highlands were being mapped for the first time. (Photos from Malaysia)
About five or eight of us jumped off the train at Tapah Road, Malaysia, on schedule at 9:51. Ten minutes later a taxi rolled up and we piled in, Mirja and Peter and me.
Peter's an Aussie who runs transport for a coal...
July 27, 2012
Friday Photo Quiz #156 - Where in the World?
In honor of the London Olympics, this week's quiz comes from an honest to goodness, real British overseas territory. There are only fourteen of them left, although some comprise islands separated by hundreds or even thousands of miles.
This is hard. In fact, it just may be impossible unless you already know the answer. Here are two photos. At bottom is the most famous feature in the capital city, Jamestown - Jacob's Ladder, 699 steps up to an old fort at the top of the hill.
Can you guess...
July 26, 2012
Sir, New Mexico, Old Mexico, It Doesn't Matter
Those of us in Georgia were all considered impossible southern rubes when, the story goes, New Mexico resident Wade Miller tried to order tickets to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta was refused. It seems he gave his address as New Mexico and the Atlanta phone attendant refused to sell the tickets on the grounds that he or she could only sell domestically, and not to Mexicans.
So it's a little redemptive to read that
"London Olympic organizers mistakenly displayed the South Korean flag on a jumbo...
July 25, 2012
Dear London,
From a friend in London:
"The latest is that the security firm is not secure, the food and drinks companies will not be supplying food or drink and the British archery Paralympic champion got that way in a road-rage attack. On the rare occasions that I go into London, I hear messages from Boris Johnson, London’s blond explosion of a mayor, telling me that transport will be disrupted so I’m not learning anything to my advantage so far.
I would use the comedy channel to wake up to b...
Wednesday HDR - In the Middle of the Night
An uncommon domestic photo - at least here on CS&W - from back in March, en route to Hanava. You have to stay up pretty late to see South Beach in Miami this deserted. Or have a hotel room with this view. Which was really, really loud until it got late.
On the other hand, I can heartily recommend Jerry's pastrami. Click the photo to make it bigger.
Multiple exposures with a Nikon D700, finished in Photoshop with Nik filters. The photos from Cuba are here.
July 24, 2012
"there is going to be at least 10 minutes for us to break the fast."
Outside Fez, Morocco at dawn.
On a trip through Morocco, we once spent a couple of days with a driver named Mohammad, who conveyed to me the most elaborate thing I’ve ever been made to understand with my schoolboy French. He told us how just this past year he’d left Morocco for the first time - to the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. He was awed by it all and spoke of the whole experience with awe and obvious warmth.
I asked if he worked, himself, during the holy month of Ramadan, when th...
July 18, 2012
It Never Was a Very Nice House Anyway
Here's Syria's Baath Party office in Beirut, from a visit to Lebanon in August 1999, when Hafez Assad (in the posters), Bashar's father, was still in charge. Hafez Assad died in June 2000, and Bashar has been in charge since. Although the House of Assad looks considerably more shaky this morning.
Where will Bashar and the wife go? Russia says no (although that was two weeks ago). Tunisia is said to have offered (although that was almost six months ago). Belarus, maybe. Iran? Any number of un...
July 13, 2012
Friday Photo Quiz #155 - Where in the World?
Check that architecture. Looks Nordic, all right, but what about those icebergs!? Can you guess where this might be?
The answer is below. A good weekend to you, from CS&W & EarthPhotos.com.
And the answer is ............................................................... it's the west coast of Greenland, a little village called Ilullisat. Read a story about our trip to Greenland here, from Common Sense and Whiskey, the book.
There are more photos in the Greenland Gallery at Eart...
July 12, 2012
No Trains, Planes, nor Automobiles
Here's a repost, with kind permission, from the blog brokedownpalette. It's written by Rick Lewis, who is CEO at La Casa de la Mujer de las Américas, and is living for the moment in Cotacachi, Ecuador.
No Trains, Planes, norAutomobiles
Originally posted on brokedownpalette on June 29, 2012
The internet connection failed at home as I joined a few new acquaintances for a day trip to nearby Ibarra, the capital of Imbabura Province. The city is ten times the size of Cotacachi, and for those who l...
