Bill Murray's Blog, page 153

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World Population by Latitude

Interesting maps at Radical Cartography, and commentary on them by Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps.

Friday Photo Quiz #150 - Where in the World

It's a beautiful, world-class city. But where is it?

Can you name the city? The country?

The answer is after the jump.

The answer is ............................................................... it's Sydney, Australia. You're right, you don't see the Opera House. It, and the harbour bridge, are behind the near hill on the right.

There are almost 1000 photos in the Cities and Urban Life Gallery, and see more of Sydney, and Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Broome, Darwin, the outback and more i...

Wednesday HDR - Across the Tiber River, Before and After

Here's an example of turning a typically dreadful tourist snapshot into something you might hang on to.

You can't help the weather, and this was a pleasant enough day, but with a high overcast that washed out colors.

I'm always snapping away (ask Mirja) and if there's a body of water I'll be shooting across it. In this case, it's the Tiber River near the Vatican. It's one of those shots you skip through on your computer, and never look at again. But with a lot of spare time over the next wi...

The Eleven Minute Map

European history since 1000. Pop it out to watch it in full screen mode so you can see the years go by at the top, and some commentary at the bottom. Great stuff.

Midsummer Train

Rainbow by the lake at midsummer, and Rovaniemi in midwinter.

Having family and a little cabin on the lake in Finland, I check in most mornings on the latest Finnish radio news in English, from Finnish broadcaster YLE.

Here's something fun: There's a story about a special train that will travel almost all the way across the country this summer, Helsinki to Rovaniemi, starting on the eve of the midsummer holiday. Way up north there, it won't get dark the whole time. And they'll broadcast it...

Sochi Olympics Watch #13

The almost cosmic brilliance of the International Olympic Committee in picking Sochi as home of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games is again on display. See the article Russia 'foils Islamist plot to attack Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.'

"They said the plot had been devised by the Chechen rebel Doku Umarov, the head of Caucasus Emirate, a rebel group that seeks to wrest the Caucasus region from Russia in order to set up an Islamist state."

"The committee said surface-to-air missiles, TNT and grenad...

Ships - Wednesday HDRs

Ships, top to bottom, from the dockyards at Fremantle, Australia, The Ortakoy Mosque and the Bosphorus Bridge, Istanbul, Turkey, the Mekong Delta near Saigon, Vietnam, and Stockholm, Sweden. Click them to make them bigger. There's a little story about that Mekong Delta boat ride here.

All these HDRs are shot with Nikon cameras, combined in Photomatix, finished in Photoshop, some with Nik filters.

Common Sense and Whiskey, the Book - The Southern Caucasus, Chapter Fifteen

Here is Chapter Fifteen of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book, a very short trip through Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Track down previous chapters here. Click the photos to make them bigger. More photos and additional commentary are available at A Common Sense and Whiskey Companion. And here's the Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia Galleries at EarthPhotos.com. Order the entire book for $9.99 at Amazon.com, at BN.com, or the Kindle version (just $4.99).

 

The Wien Flughafen stood...

Next Week: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

14th century Trinity Church (Tsminda Sameba) near Mt. Kazbeg, Georgia.

Several days back we put up a list of links to reading about the Caucasus. Next week we'll publish our small contribution, the final chapter of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book, ($9.99 at Amazon.com, at BN.com, or $4.99 for the Kindle version.) here on the blog. It's the story of our quick rumble through the southern Caucasus, from Yerevan, Armenia to Tbilisi, Georgia and up the Georgia Military Highway to the Russian...