Oddities

Okay, here you can see the bees better. This was only the second black and white (after Picture 1 of this) that I took with my Nikon N80, and luckily it came out decent, I think. I'm going to try more of these next summer, if possible, as it occurred to me recently that....well....I like bees. :-) These ones are honeybees, but I don't know if they're domestic or wild. Supposedly all the ones in America are domestic, but I know very little about bees in the rest of the world.

I originally had it noted down that I took this in Cleveland Union Terminal, but I was suspicious that this was incorrect, and indeed Simplyjake has informed me that really it's a shopping mall, the first of its kind in the U.S. See his comments below for more info.

This was a lucky shot, lucky because shooting conditions were horrible, in a moving car with limited light and 200 speed film, but I got it. I hope you like it.

Yes, this really is New York City. A few years ago I saw an amazing panorama of lower (southern) Manhattan from a JetBlue flight, and kicked myself for not photographing it. I've been trying to get another chance ever since, and once again this year I failed. I did get a little bit of the lesser-known parts of New York, though. This is upper (northern) Manhattan, and you can see the north end of Central Park down there, featuring the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, not used since a year before it was named as such. It was built in 1862, meaning it was in service 1862-1993, receiving water from the famous Croton aqueduct, as it was never big enough to be a collecting reservoir.

Here's another shot of an odd section of New York. That airport down there isn't LaGuardia, it isn't JFK, it isn't Newark, it isn't MacArthur, or even the now-closed Flushing, but rather is Floyd Bennet Field, which has some claim to being the city's oldest airport, being built in 1929, although Flushing was actually built in 1927, as was Republic. Roosevelt field, the origin of Lindbergh's transatlantic flight, was even older, dating to 1917, but it doesn't survive today, having been replaced by a mall. Therefore, Floyd Bennet Field's claim to being the oldest in the New York area is very dubious, although it's probably the second oldest within the official city limits (Flushing would be the oldest, I think). It's now a museum, and features some of the oldest surviving airport buildings in the United States, and therefore the world, dating back to 1930. It doesn't host regular flights anymore, meaning that Republic can lay claim to being the New York area's oldest functioning airport within New York State, although Teterboro airport in New Jersey is even older, dating to 1917, and is owned by the Port Authority of New York.

When I was at Carousel at the end of 2007, it was undergoing a renovation into a new complex which will be called, in Orwellian fashion (When are we going to come up with a better metaphorical author than Orwell??? I'm sick of him.) Destiny USA. Pyramid Companies, who own Carousel/Destiny, hope that when complete, the complex will be larger than the Mall of America, which could easily make it the largest such facility in the U.S., and probably the world. As one can see from the condition of Ontrack, and from all of these electric transformers to feed the mall's 24-hour lighting (see the next picture), environmental concerns seem to be the dead last priority, in spite of massive propaganda to the contrary. They aggressively present their (meaningless) environmental awards on their website, such as Greening USA: www.destinyusa.com/ and I would provide the specific link, except for that their website seems to be so poorly designed that Firefox interprets its actions as being equivalent to malware, blocking all the popups. Hmm.....wouldn't it just be better to do additional pages, whether in Flash or HTML???? In any case, while there, I found inadequate public transport provision (although Centro does provide bus services), too many cars, ironically inadequate parking (probably due to lack of public transport combined with the transformers seen here, above ground and in the way) and massive waste of electricity. Why can't they bury the transformers??? I'm not an expert, so I don't know. I do wonder about the fact that the whole site is a brownfield, though. If I were a construction worker, I wonder if I would ask my union to say no to digging there. A much longer and better description of Carousel Mall (albeit one that predates construction) and its problems can be found here however: eddyburg.it/article/articleview/6786/0/221/ This link was censored on Facebook, as a source cited on it (but not included on the site in question) was deemed "abusive." I have no idea what that means, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was merely critical of one corporation or another. Incidentally, I have no idea what the Sports Authority think of all of this. No offense is intended. They're probably just locating where they can make money (Carousel has been accused of gutting the downtown, thus making the location of businesses anywhere but Carousel unprofitable), so none of this is really about them. In addition, this photo, is not very interesting. The next one is much funnier......

I had surprisingly good luck with my Contina on my Carousel trip, and it was actually a good thing that I brought it, since I had originally not known about Destiny USA or any of the absurdities associated with it. Again, nothing against American Eagle, as I suspect the situation in Syracuse would coerce them into locating at Carousel regardless of their preference. I was just at Carousel to shop for Christmas, and I found the whole thing thoroughly amusing to boot. All of the greenwashing was so preposterously, transparently dishonest that it was like something out of The State, The Daily Show, The Onion, or Monty Python, except, it was real, which maybe made it far funnier. I think the only things that kept me from laughing insanely were that, first of all, it was all so depressing as well, and that second of all, when you're under constant surveillance and harrassment from security, even taking photos can be risky, so the combination of photography and laughing is sure to subject you to serious trouble. Human emotions aren't allowed in malls, you know. :-) In any case, to explain what I love about this photo.....First of all, I was amazed at how well the Contina was able to deal with the limited indoor light, but on the other hand there are those massive skylights overhead, which illustrate how natural light has a far stronger effect on film than artificial light. The whole mall is quite bright in the daytime, and I'm sure that if the power went out, it would only be a serious problem for the cash registers and the computer/electronics stores. A very hot or cold day might present problems for climate control, too, but not until the indoor temperature change, which could take awhile. Therefore....if Destiny USA were serious, first of all about the environment, and second of all about profit, they would only use the lighting after dark................. Look carefully. Right under one of their greenwash signs, in the upper left, is a light blazing in broad daylight, under the skylights. Look around the photo carefully and you'll see that all of the other lights are lit, too. This is no doubt costing Pyramid (and the other businesses involved) a fortune, in addition to wrecking the environment by raising demand for electricity, something that nearly every environmental group has been begging people to deal with since the 1970s. If you combine this with the cars, the lack of public transport, and so on...you get the picture. The whole thing was a living satire, and it reinforced the impression I get whenever I'm in the U.S., that ever I go back, the problems have gotten worse, with little action done except to make them worse.

Ironically, my picture of Welsh cider, while taken on a visit to Wales, was actually part of a side trip to Bath, in England!! This brand is Orchard Gold, which I had never had before.

Working on the accidental high saturation version of Picture 1, I decided to crank the saturation even more, and the result was this super saturated version, which I think resembles a painting.

I've forgotten the name of this pet shop, but it's on Jindrisska, or Senovazne Namesti to be more precise (I don't know which is on the address). The gerbil on the right (or at least I think these are gerbils), was giving me a fair amount of attention, which I found a little bit surprising. Usually only rats will pay this much attention to a passing human.

Here's an alternate shot of the gerbils.

While post-processing the first shot of the pond, I accidentally discovered this artistic treatment in Gimp. I hope that you like it.

I found this sticker on the wall of Nadrazi Hostivar, and I still haven't figured out exactly what it's supposed to mean. It's got a date on it, as you can see, although it's hard to read. It's 22-11-2009, or November 22nd, 2009. I have no idea what the significance of that date is, or the significance of any aspect of this sticker.

Zermatt isn't the only city I've been to with a lot of electric vehicles, but it is the first I've been to where other motor vehicles are banned (with the exception of the fire department, who have Land Rovers). Most of the existing electric vehicles aren't private cars, though, but taxis like these. In overall terms, though, even these are unnecessary, as Zermatt is small enough to be walkable in its entirety, and has good rail connections to just about everywhere Switzerland.

Yes, this was and is real. Funnily enough, I've never seen it in the United States, even if "The Simpsons" is an American show. It's popularity in the Czech Republic has remained very strong, and it probably is more successful there at this point. So, the market for gimmick beer is perhaps greater.

I don't remember which restaurant this was at, but I found it amusing. It isn't clear whether it's really intended to tell people not to take outside food in, or if it's meant as a joke about fast food.

This was the first time I ever found wine that was low-end enough to be canned. The brand name is like a satire.

These toilets have elaborate enamel work on them, but are interesting more for how modern they look, in spite of the overdone decorations. Obviously, they're original, and quite beat up. I presume they were found in the collapsed decks in 1970. Supposedly, one toilet on the ship was tested at the time and found to still work, although presumably it wasn't either of these.