Impolite Company

Leaves

The pink almost makes it too hard for me to look at this one:

The Pussycat Swallowtail

Of course I didn't loose[sic] it! My dear man the Pussycat Swallowtail

is the rarest butterfly in the entire world! It's the only butterfly

that escaped Lord Beasley.

                                --Gilligan's Island

This, my friends, is not the illusive pussycat swallowtail (as far as I know) but just another big ol' butterfly I saw in my backyard:

Originally, I didn't plan on the upper wings to be out of focus and the main body sharp but I like the effect in retrospect.

Bee with Pollen?

I was out looking at my garden this morning when I saw three bees tumbling in and out of a zucchini blossom and so I grabbed my camera and took the following picture.  Is that pollen on the bee's back? 

Here's a second crop of the same picture, probably blown up a little bit too big for the clarity of the focus but I still kinda like it:

Butterfly in the Back Yard

I took this shot a few minutes ago--the cool thing about all the rain we've had lately is that the wildflowers I planted last fall have finally bloomed.  Well, okay, that's just one of the cool things about it:

Unseen Hemingway

Life Magazine just recently uncovered a small treasure trove of pictures of Ernest Hemingway, taken in conjunction with their publishing of The Old Man and the Sea in the magazine.  Thanks to NPR for posting their story on the photos via The Picture Show:

An infamously surly character, Hemingway was resistant to Eisenstaedt's camera. Only after much cajoling would the writer put on a shirt, and only with the help of his wife and a cocktail would he acquiesce to a portrait. Eisenstaedt resorted to taking stealthy candids of the writer, and for years after recalled it as his most difficult assignment. Very few photographs from the assignment ran in the magazine; some were rendered as drawings. But today, almost 60 years later, the photographs have resurfaced.

First Lady at Notre Dame Cathedral

The White House has posted a lovely photo from Michelle Obama's visit to Notre Dame:

The View From My Window

Andrew Sullivan regularly posts pictures sent in by readers of the view outside their window called The View From Your Window (actually, I'm just assuming they're from readers--either that or he really travels a lot to some rather mundane locations).  So, when Moon and I were both rather curious as to why there has been a church van parked outside my house for the last three hours, I thought I'd capture the moment in pictures.  I went outside and no one accosted me so I'm just working under the assumption that they're not here for me:

Happy Birthday, President Lincoln

It's Lincoln's birthday and I just got the scoop from The New York Times, The Lede ('Emo Lincoln' Gets the Flickr Treatment) that the Library of Congress has a Flickr collection of Abe photos.  So, of course, you get them here because they're public domain and kinda cool:

It's Gotta Be the Ears

I pulled this photo from the White House web site (which makes it public domain, right??)--if you didn't know that salient fact, could you recognize who this was simply from his ears?

Inauguration: Words for How We Feel

Crooks and Liars posted about this video this morning,that I think looks pretty damned cool.  It's by Emily Troutman (here's her blog who we are/how we live) and features pictures taken across DC with people holding up the words that show how they feel at the dawn of the new administration.  Here's a bit of how she describes it at Words for How We Feel Now:

This week I made my way around Washington, D.C. and asked hundreds of people to pick words to represent how they feel now, at the dawn of a new beginning for the United States. Participants chose from 26 words:

Alive, Angry, Anxious, Awed, Believe, Curious, Dancer, Excited, Grateful, Happy, Hopeful, Human, Humble, Jealous, Joyful, Love, Obama, Patient, Proud, Ready, Scared, Skeptical, Tired, Together, Wonder, Worried

President Obama: Words for How We Feel Now from Emily Troutman on Vimeo.

Transparency and Tight Lobbying Limits

Talking Points Memo has a transcript of Pres. Obama's words to his White House staff when he spoke to them about a new era of transparency and openness, responsibility to the American people and the tightest limits on lobbying ever instituted by a president in the US.  I haven't verified that claim but I will share the text with you--it seems that the White House website isn't quite up to speed yet, so that's why I'm going with a third party vendor, Remarks by the President Welcoming Senior Staff and Cabinet Secretaries:

But the American people deserve more than simply an assurance that those who are coming to Washington will serve their interests. They also deserve to know that there are rules on the books to keep it that way. They deserve a government that is truly of, by, and for the people. As I often said during the campaign, we need to make the White House the people's house. And we need to close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely, and lets them use their time in public service as a way to promote their own interests over the interests of the American people when they leave.

Smithsonian Slideshow of Past Inaugurations

I've got a theme going here, don't I?

Cuba: The Revolution at 50

When I got to talking about Cuba over the past few days, I didn't realize that the 50th Anniversary of the revolution was today.  I want to avoid Cuban overload but I do think that continued thought about Cuba and our relations with this country is important.  So I'll link to a New York Times article on the continuing tragedy of those who try to escape Cuba and speak out against the government:  Cuban-Americans Mark Revolution's Anniversary Wearily  and a shorter BBC article marking the anniversary:  Cuba Marks 50 Years of Anniversary.  Ah yes, one more thing--a piece by Andrea Mitchell on the future of Cuban/US relations:  After 50 Years, What's Next for US-Cuban Ties.  I also found a pretty good slideshow of photographs out of Cuba from the past couple of years--deteriorating around the edges, but still beautiful:

Christmas Hike

Sorry, I've had this up for hours with no introduction.  I posted it while talking on the phone and I'm not very good at the whole multi-tasking thing and so I figured I'd add some details later when I had the chance.  Which I'm doing now and everyone's happy.  These are a few pictures I took while "hiking" around with my brother in the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park.  I say hiking, but it was on well-worn and graveled paths, so it wasn't really anything hardcore.  But it was a good, long ramble that led up to a fire tower from which the last couple of pictures in the slideshow were taken.  Sadly, my batteries ran out of juice so I couldn't snap the obligatory panaromic shot.  Have fun:

Please Don't Divorce Us

I don't have confirmation on the numbers but if Prop 8 passes constitutional muster with the California Supreme Court and is found to operate retroactively, there are around 18,000 couples whose marriages will be void.  The Courage Campaign has put together a Flickr slideshow of people who will be "divorced" by the state who sent their pictures in:

Happy Winter Solstice

I don't know much about Winter Solstice or folks who celebrate it, so I won't try to be their defender nor their critic.  It does seem to make a certain amount of sense to celebrate the turning of the seasons and the cycles of life--despite our high degree of being shielded from nature and the seasons by technology and climate control, it still affects us.  I'm just going to throw a quote from Solstice into the mix and a beautiful slide show of winter pictures from Sleachim on Flickr and lament that the seasons don't show more obviously in Texas:

The Earth is actually nearer the sun in January than it is in June -- by three million miles. Pretty much irrelevant to our planet. What causes the seasons is something completely different. The Earth leans slightly on its axis like a spinning top frozen in one off-kilter position. Astronomers have even pinpointed the precise angle of the tilt. It's 23 degrees and 27 minutes off the perpendicular to the plane of orbit. This planetary pose is what causes all the variety of our climate; all the drama and poetry of our seasons, since it determines how many hours and minutes each hemisphere receives precious sunlight.

Classic Boxing Photos

These run the gamut from some shots of Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson all the way through Mike Tyson (including at least one from Tyson-Holyfield--chomp!).  There are some really good shots of Muhammad Ali, my personal favorite.  I know not everyone likes The Boxing--maybe I'll throw in a slideshow of puppies or something in the future to balance it out:

Photos from WOLBI

Those of you out there who know me know that I spent a year in the Adirondacks at a school called Word of Life Bible Institute.  It's certainly a unique place and I'm not certain that I've done it justice any of the times I've talked about it, whether in speaking of the peculiar rules and atmosphere or in trying to convey who I was at the time.  Another thing I know I haven't been able to capture is the beauty of the place and this morning I decided to go through Flickr and see if I could find any good shots.  The one slideshow that I like is totally from the fall and there are some nice shots that do a nice job.  I haven't found a good set of winter shots, which is what I'd really like to find.  For now, here's a slideshow of WOLBI in Pottersville, NY during the autumn:

Blizzard!

Or what passes for one when you live in Austin, TX:

Busy Day

I went to Mark Winne's book reading last night at Bookpeople and will be posting soon--his book Closing the Food Gap discusses food insecurity for those in poverty and problems with our food industry.  Here's a photo from the reading to act as the official placeholder till I get a moment to write: