Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food: Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 17 April 2011

Dennys: News Politics Comedy Science Arts & Food: Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 17 April 2011: "While the Japanese nuclear crisis continues unabated, the rest of the world has moved on, dreading the inevitable. At the moment the world community has pressured Japan to come up with a plan to contain or deal with the crisis over a nine month period.

Why the same people are in charge of this mess that created the mess is a mystery. It's as foolish as it was to trust BP to clean up the oil spill disaster in my own Gulf of Mexico. Serious hardships still exist as a result of President Obama and BP refusing to do what it takes to make things right, especially in Louisiana.

At the very least the President could do is refuse to allow BP access to any of America's oil fields on or off shore. The company has simply not earned the right to drill for oil on American soil or in our oceans."

Dennys Art Sanctuary: 38 Creative March Desktop Wallpapers

Dennys Art Sanctuary: 38 Creative March Desktop Wallpapers: "What do we think of when we reflect upon the month of March? We think of Winter ending, Spring coming in on the cool winds, soaking Spring rains, the trees leafing out and green weeds. There is the fun celebration of St. Patrick's Day. And there is the old adage, 'March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.' These designers took these all as their inspirations."

The Art of Don Simon

Don Simon, The Herd 2
This is from a series called Unnaturalism, which he describes:

Throughout history, particularly since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, mankind has been less than kind to our cohabitants on the planet. We build, produce, and consume with little or no regard to the impact it has on the environment. It is the nature of nature to adapt and evolve in order to survive, and we are forcing other species to deal with compromised, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems.

This series of triptychs depicts scenes resulting from our tragic indifference. They are rendered in a beautiful and natural way, highlighting the idea that we find this acceptable. We are numb to the damage -- and so, the unnatural becomes natural to us. This may be the saddest commentary of all.

Strangely beautiful and peaceful. View more of his art or watch a video

Half a Decade in Iraq

A lot can happen in five years. In five years, a toddler will grow old enough for her first day of school. In five years, a schoolboy of eight will become a teenager.

In five years, a proud country and its vibrant population has been reduced to a desolate killing field.

Ellen Weinstein - Camouflage, 2007 Collage

Lies, hundreds of them, that led up to the war in Iraq have been revealed. Five years later, the liars are still busy crafting the Iran propaganda.

Tony Auth - Roots, Unpublished Pen, ink, and wash

In 5 years, the American military has put down roots. At least 75 permanent bases have been established in Iraq.

Koren Shadmi - Tasting Victory, 2007 watercolor, ink and digital

In 5 years, countless Iraqis have been killed and wounded. (We've lost count, you see, since each Iraqi life is not precious enough to concern ourselves with an accurate count. Estimates are as high as a million deaths due to the war.) One in five displaced (around 2.7 million Iraqis). A generation traumatized. A cycle of violence set in motion. The economy and infrastructure of the country destroyed. 3,987 dead American soldiers.

Yes, a lot can happen in five years.

All images from Artists Against the War

send.a.message

As their website says: "It was meant to keep people apart, now it also brings people together."


For a donation of 30 euros, Palestinians in the West Bank spray paint your message on the wall. They will send you 3 digital pictures you can keep forever (long after the wall is gone). The money primarily goes to support local projects and organizations.

The Wall won't fall just because your text is written on it. True.
But your message reminds Palestinians trapped inside the Wall they have not been forgotten. You help to keep hope alive. 'Our' Palestinians want to send you one single, simple message: "we are human beings, just like you, with sense of humour and lust for life." That's why they do this, and enjoy it.

Little People

Street art with a twist

This one is called Small Gods and was taken in front of Westminster Abbey.


See more at Little People - a tiny street art project

Not a Big Truck; Series of Tubes

Visitors to Tate Modern will be able to try out five giant slides that have been unveiled at the London gallery.

The largest of the spiralling slides is more than 55m (182ft) long and descends from the fifth floor of the venue.

Artist Carsten Holler said his work, Test Site, was a "playground for the body and the brain". He says slides can help combat mental health problems.

The slides are the seventh exhibit in the series commissioned for the gallery's Turbine Hall. <BBC>

See more on the exhibit here including lots of photos, and one of those 360° interactive thingies.

In other transportation news, Toronto guerilla cyclists are taking bike lanes into their own hands, spray painting bike lanes - now prettier in pink. Hot.

Google Thinks I'm Spam

force-feeding at guantanamo
Originally uploaded by Natasha Mayers

Blogger won't let me publish anything. Here's what they say:

Your blog is locked
Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

I have to wait for a human being to review my blog before I can publish anything. WTF? I've had this blog for more than 2 years and now they think I'm spam? Their slogan should be "Blogger: driving you into the arms of Wordpress since 2005."

So in case you're wondering how you're reading this right now, and what's with the picture, I discovered I can still post through my flickr account. So, while you wait with bated breath until my next real post, enjoy the art show.

Please Keep our Streets Clean: Over 818 People Have to Sleep on Them

Seen around Toronto:

"Please Keep our Streets Clean: Over 818 People Have to Sleep on Them"

"Homeless Sleeping, QUIET"


"Approximately 5052 Homeless Living in Toronto as of April 2006"
Turns out these signs are the work of Mark Daye, a 4th year graphic design student at OCAD, who says:

Instead of rebranding a product, or service for my 4th year thesis project I chose to represent a local population that usually gets overlooked. I re-coded official signage and affixed 30 of them to poles in the downtown core with messages pertaining to an obvious but ignored urban sub culture. The goal was not only to catch people off guard by creating signs that acknowledge the homeless population on a seemingly official level, but to get people to think about codes of behaviour, conformity, acceptance and to maybe spare some consideration for the homeless who live mostly ignored in the city, blending into the background just like the signs.

"2 Homeless People Die Every Week in Toronto"

Via 3 excellent Toronto blogs: Torontoist, BlogTO, and Spacing Wire

UPDATE (APRIL 4): Reactionary Signs

what did you do while the earth was unraveling?

hieroglyphic stairway
- Drew Dillinger

it's 3:23 in the morning
and I'm awake
because my great great grandchildren
won't let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?

surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?

as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying?
did you fill the streets with protest
when democracy was stolen?

what did you do
once
you
knew?

I'm riding home on the Colma train
I've got the voice of the milky way in my dreams

I have teams of scientists
feeding me data daily
and pleading I immediately
turn it into poetry

I want just this consciousness reached
by people in range of secret frequencies
contained in my speech

I am the desirous earth
equidistant to the underworld
and the flesh of the stars

I am everything already lost

the moment the universe turns transparent
and all the light shoots through the cosmos

I use words to instigate silence

I'm a hieroglyphic stairway
in a buried Mayan city
suddenly exposed by a hurricane

a satellite circling earth
finding dinosaur bones
in the Gobi desert
I am telescopes that see back in time

I am the precession of the equinoxes,
the magnetism of the spiraling sea

I'm riding home on the Colma train
with the voice of the milky way in my dreams

I am myths where violets blossom from blood
like dying and rising gods

I'm the boundary of time
soul encountering soul
and tongues of fire

it's 3:23 in the morning
and I can't sleep
because my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the earth was unraveling?

I want just this consciousness reached
by people in range of secret frequencies
contained in my speech

Read it out loud. Listen to those delicious words. I also love the rhythm of the total thrust is global justice from love letter to the milky way

Poets for Global Justice is a collective of artists using poetry and spoken word to tell truths, empower youth, inspire imagination, and support movements for justice and ecology.

Solar Power in India/Wind Power in Africa

Photo by Donovan Wylie.

One of nine solar power stations replacing diesel generators on Sagur Island, West Bengal. Low carbon technologies allow this family and a new generation of local people to miss out on the pollution of 20th Century technology and its related health impacts.

Photo by Alex Webb.

It is not just in Ecocity that low carbon solutions are delivering an improved standard of living. This woman from Hluleka, one of the many remote, rural communities in South Africa, gets on with her day knowing she can look forward to a continuous electricity supply thanks to a combination of wind and solar power. Renewable energy is a cheap way of providing power for isolated communities.

From the amazing exhibit NorthSouthEastWest: A 360° View of Climate Change.

More on Art and Environment.

Grab Bag - From Iran to the "Dark" Continent

Interesting articles in the Toronto Star this week.

Iran's unseen art:

"Tabibzadeh pointedly satirizes the hypocrisy of an outwardly Islamic society wracked by sexual promiscuity and heroin or opium addiction. In one painting, a completely nude figure is covered by a headscarf — mandatory for women in Iran in all public spaces." Here's more art by Golnar Tabibzadeh and other Iranian artists.

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Despite AIDS, Africa endures by James Travers:

The great kaleidoscope of lands, languages and peoples sweeping north and east from Cape Town to Cairo is now synonymous with Stephen Lewis's pandemic, the corruption of kleptocrats and the mad, jumped-up generals who fight their wars with stolen children.

It's true that much of that is true. Most of the 49 years since Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa to independence were lost to suffering, Big-Man greed and boundless hostility over limited resources.

That's Africa's history, not its present or future. And it's certainly not the continent's character.

Beneath all the horrors roils a remarkable spirit. Despite the death and palpable despair, Africa is bursting with energy, the determination to turn nothing into something and, yes, hope.

Outsiders usually miss it. Overwhelmed, they see slums, not rudimentary industry, huge failures, not small successes, and victims, not the resilient.

"The fact that they survive on a $1 a day makes them the greatest entrepreneurs in the world," says Farouk Jiwa.

---

The `development of underdevelopment': Excerpt, How Western progress created African misery:

How do we talk about how to develop a meaningful political process in societies that have been fractured by colonialism and violence? What, indeed, does progress mean in societies that were systematically dismantled by the West in the pursuit of progress?

More on Art, and Africa

Strangely Beautiful

by Edward Burtynsky
Strangely beautiful photos of garbage and refuse.

Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.

Thanks to the Magical Urbanism blog.

More art, environment

Turn a Parking Space into a PARK

How to Turn a Parking Space into a PARK, "Just be sure you pay the meter."







More green design by Treehugger and Cameron Sinclair's Architecture for Humanity
Filed under: Art, Urban Issues, Environment

"Hello, Men!"

September 1970. Comic balloon printed on stickum paper. Designed to be cut out and pasted onto ad posters of the sort where a beautiful woman is juxtaposed with a masculine-oriented product.

From Bureau of Public Secrets