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The middle distance fell away, so the grids (from small to large) that had supported the middle distance fell into disuse and ceased to be understandable. Two grids remained. The grid of two hundred million and the grid of intimacy. Everything else fell into disuse. There was a national life—a shimmer of national life—and intimate life. The distance between these two grids was very great. The distance was very frightening. People did not want to measure it. People began to lose a sense of what distance was and of what the usefulness of distance might be.

A great many things fell into the canyons of Trow’s “middle distance” for a great many people. Church, for instance, and community organizations like Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs.

Neighborhoods.

Neighbors even.

Co-worker: I’m alive and there’s a check somewhere with my name still being printed on it.

George Bellows (American, 1882 - 1925)
Stag at Sharkey’s, 1909
oil on canvas
92.cm x 122.6cm

The backgrounds of the Laforet photos also instantly reminded my of these wonderful photographs by a photographer who shot the sides of semis as they barreled down the highway past her lens. It made for beautiful color patterns. I can’t remember her name and googling “truck, semi, photographer, color, streaks” isn’t doing the trick. Go figure.

Given that I’ve shot diving from the overhead position, beneath the surface through a window, and from almost every possible side angle, I decided to take my last tilt-shift of the games, as well as to play with pans shot between 1/8th and 1/15th of a second.

This is how silly warning stickers like “Do not apply the cheese grater to your genitals” get made. First you are like “What the…?” Then you think, “Wow, that warning is specific as hell… What sick mind in Legal dreamed this up and decided that it rose above the disclaimer threshold?

Then it dawns on you: “Some knucklehead (not in Legal) actually tried this at home (and sued the company when it didn’t work out).

So now, somewhere in Ohio, a lawyer is shaking his head and drafting new voting security compliance rules which includes Rule 4: DON’T TAKE THE EFFING MACHINE HOME WITH YOU AT THE END OF THE NIGHT.

Speaking of which, apparently some of the poll workers even cast ballots on machines while on sleepover. Which will give rise to Rule #5:

“For the avoidance of doubt, in the event of a breach of Rule 4, under no circumstances shall a poll worker cast a ballot in his Home. For the purposes of this Rule 5 the term “Home” shall mean the poll worker’s house, premises and any attached or stand-alone structures on the premises including, but not limited to, garages, porches, tool-sheds, shanties and lean-tos”

“We have a subprime financial system… not a subprime mortgage market.”

Roubini believes that as a result, up to a third of the regional banks will go under.

“These bailouts will add hundreds of billions of dollars to an already gargantuan federal debt, and someone, somewhere, is going to have to finance that debt, along with all the other debt accumulated by consumers and corporations. ‘Our biggest financiers are China, Russia and the gulf states,’ Roubini noted. ‘These are rivals, not allies.’”

(found via Jo)

(thx to Fresh)