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"As you sail towards Pitcairn, you approach one of the remotest of the world's inhabited islands, lying halfway between New Zealand and the Americas.  Four thousand eight hundred kilometres of open ocean separate you from them; a few archipelagos lie to the north; and the southern seas are empty to the ice caps of Antarctica.

If you call at Pitcairn, you will see a unique community of Anglo-Tahitian descent which turned a naval mutiny into a celebrated romance."

The facinating history of mutineers who formed a community on the island in the late 18th Century and existed in secret, largely isolated from the rest of the world.

Found via Cyrus Farivar's cfarivar.org, thank you kindly.

Today is Wednesday and on Sirharris.com that means Greyscale Wednesday. In finding a candidate I was spoilt for choice by the gallery of work at nyclondon on photography.



I found myself torn between the opening portrait of the Gerkin at St. Mary's Axe and this truly fantastical shot of Hampstead Heath, I shall stand by my nature orientated choice.

Continuing on the theme of the capital, I found via Pop Culture Junk Mail the following site entitled Animals on the Underground. I think you'll find it more than self explanatory with just the briefest glance. There are no cheeky monkeys alas, but there is a lazy cat (Oreo).

Enjoy your day.

After drinking heavily and smoking cannabis during the Guy Fawkes night celebrations a teenager boarded a train at Lewes to travel home. A friend watched him "climb onto the window ledge of the train door and onto the roof - but was unable to stop him". He witnessed his friend "standing with his arms outstretched before walking along the roof to the rear of the train".
Suddenly he heard a "thud" as the train passed at 70 mph under the Novington Lane footbridge.

"A coroner has condemned the habit of so-called "train surfing" - when young people cling to trains as they travel between stations."

Plumpton Green, East Sussex, BBC News, Thursday, 8 May, 2003


"Teenagers are risking their lives and the lives of passengers by 'surfing' trains in North Lincolnshire", "youths have reportedly been jumping on to the back of moving trains on the Barton to Cleethorpes line".

Lincolnshire, BBC News, 13 July, 2004


Tube Death blamed on Train Surfing, "Eyewitnesses reported seeing a man trying to hang on to the train as it left the station and it has been suggested he was waving at friends on the train."
"He was killed when he struck the tunnel wall at the end of the platform."

Chalk Farm, Northern Line, BBC News, 4 December, 2002


Reported Today:
"A teenager has lost both his legs after jumping onto the roof of a train with a group of friends and falling off." The 14-year-old boy, has "still to regain consciousness after having both lower limbs amputated".

Cheshire, BBC News, 28 September, 2004


And Finally:
Two men who lost limbs in previous years from "train surfing" sued Associated British Ports, owner of part of the land over which the railway runs, and the British Railways Board under the Occupiers Liability Act.

There is obviously still a modicum of sanity in the country it would appear:
Deputy High Court judge Anne Rafferty Q stated "These two youngsters were in my view fully aware of the risk, its nature and extent, and went on to take it".

No damages where paid to either men, and both were refused leave to appeal.

I found the following excellent introduction to many of life's biggest questions. I'd love to imagine you taking a moment to click on this site, do a little reading, hopefully followed by a little thinking.

I'd suggest giving open consideration to your real "self" can only be a very good idea, regardless of background, belief, culture or environment. Devote this fragment of time to work out, through the below site, what it is you really want out of your life.

Explore

For the Christians amongst us I'd also suggest a glance towards a site on Internet Evangelism Day 2005, I welcome any contact you feel necessary in regards to this.

"Goodbye England"

"Yet another report confirming what we all know - that educated Native Brits are getting out of England at a rate of knots. The projections showing the natives as a minority by 2100 look increasingly plausible. (This report stated that 43% of children in London schools were black or Asian. Given that [hyperbole]half of Central Europe now lives in the UK[/hyperbole], native Brit children must already be a minority in London)."

Found at UK Commentators is this piece on a measurable exodus occurring in England at present. The readers amongst you may also like to examine the source material stemming from this New Statesman article.

In reference to my topic, whilst completing my degree living in glorious Hatfield, Hertfordshire, I once read graffiti saying "go back home!! - turn out the whites"... and I've been accused of not having enough personal content on this site - see what you get!?

On this, the first official Landscape Monday, I present the work of flog.pixelbrand entitled: "Nach der Ernte".



Happy viewing dear reader.

Following an excellent break from the UK I return with the following splash of colour, presented by Daily Dose of Imagery.

I shall be unavailable over the next seven days as I travel to Paris. I searched the sources for an illustration of the city and the following came from the excellent PhotoBlog of Julia.



Enjoy your week.

One of my regular reads has caught me peeping (by proxy). If I can make one request it will be for Susurration to jump on the RSS train and let me keep track via NetNewsWire etc.

Either way, I give my kind regards to the author.

"Abraham Maslow is known for establishing the theory of a hierarchy of needs, writing that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied."

An interview loosely detailing psychological systems in the game "The Sims 2" refers to Maslow's work on the basic human desires and their orders of precedence.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Note their link for further reading provides practical application of these rules. In this George Norwood suggests the spiritual needs form a separate category above self-actualisation. I personally believe life illustrates you can be successful in self-actualising (e.g. a sporting champion or musical success) and still find that further void requiring matters of the spirit. Maslow initially appears to combine creativity with spirituality as a single need.

Today is the first posting as part of my "Greyscale Wednesday" series. Presented to you are two very different works, I feel, both enhanced by their monochrome palette.

The first is linked from Life Magazine's: 100 Photographs That Changed The World



..."The Ohio National Guard, called in to quell the turmoil, suddenly turned and fired, killing four; two were simply walking to class. This photo captured a pivotal moment: American soldiers had just killed American kids."

The second image is linked from BURP and depicts jazz in Harlem, 1958, on the website harlem.org.

No sooner have I outlined a photo schedule than I find myself displaying the exception to it. Some feeble words from myself are neither going to detract or enhance the spectacle of this photograph.



You'll also have to excuse my smiling but one of my favourite reads, UK Commentators gave my humble online offering a mention, for which I am very grateful.
In response to his comment, I feel Laban Tall writes the kind of daily content I would like to write, if I could only focus my socio-political opinions into similar coherency. My following of similar broadsheets and national/world news syndicators leads to a tangled mess of distrust, from which I can not put together a compelling opinion. I present what I do on Sirharris in the hope that if I can't shed light on the serious concerns, I can at least provide a distraction from them.

Following a comment made by my girlfriend regarding favourite images I link to, I thought it best to add some kind of predictable pattern to what you can expect.

In a flash of conformity towards your varied expectations I came up with the following:

Landscape Monday
I've been told the image shown on Sunday was great (you should really thank the artist). I'll shall endeavour to find you more inspirational vistas in order to conclude your sleep deprived weekends. The "landscape" is not to be restricted in location; Likely possibilities could include urban, natural, digital/artificial, etc.

Greyscale Wednesday
Something black and white and suitably compelling. These are a special favourite of mine.

Understand please that I shall still post additional images as I find them. Lets see how this works.

Given a few moments of clear space following my drive back from church I felt compelled to pursue some previously uninvestigated links.



The previous is entitled "Simple Landscape" from the excellent Deceptive Media I'd urge you an archive examination if you like what you have just seen.

I trust you are having a good weekend.

Here Daily Dose of Imagery tests the limitations of how many colours the viewer's eye can stomach before something intense occurs. As mentioned in readers' comments the composition contains stark elements of contrast both politically, and spectrally.

I've previously said, more than sufficiently I'm sure, how much I enjoy the work of this aforementioned site. You only need view other photography at this same location to realise some work is experimental, personal and yet shared with us to illustrate the wide variety of undertakings. Other pieces presented are shown knowing with all certainty they will please the vast majority of viewers. I like to see an artist keen to share both the crowd-pleasing works and those exposing themselves to predictable, subjective, critique. To illustrate my point examine the archives for the photograph Burger King Crime Scene. Could anyone sincerely suggest that was taken with any pandering to create the response "oh nice, better bookmark this site". It's pleasing to see such variety.

In closing, I appreciate the irony in me being little more than a poor man's reblogger whilst singing the praises of original creative work. I am certainly not proud of this.

"Good feedback is rare. It can take a long time to find people who know how to provide useful criticism, instead of simply telling you all the things they think are 'wrong' with you or whatever you've made. A good critic spends as much energy describing what something is, as well as what it isn’t."

I found the article entitled How to give and receive criticism a useful perspective for dealing with this subject. Briefly recall your working day, you may notice how many times you are required to either provide or absorb a critical opinion.

Reference: The ever knowledgeable - Photo Matt

I'm not a person for endless routine announcements, this site has surely been a testament to that. I like to tell you when something is starting, and inform you when something is completed. I first registered Sirharris.com mid 1998, I dread to think how many times regular service has been suspended since then. Over the past few days one of these interruptions has been as I move from one host to another. I didn't tell you, I merely aimed to do so as swiftly as possible (it ended up taking a few days by accident). The following day I was pleased to see recognisable domains in my visitors log telling me some of you have stuck with me through this period.

To whoever reads this, thank you.

This post is split into two parts. Part A is the news item itself. Part B is the process of which this news is abstracted and the benefits of knowing this.

"Environment officials in Beijing have warned Chinese managers that if they fail to meet pollution reduction deadlines, they will be banned from raising stock market capital for three years."

This presents the ethical dilemma illustrated in the book "A Clockwork Orange". An act for the benefit of good is being accomplished through negative consequence. Business pollutes, business cares about making money, threaten the source of income and suddenly business must logically consider pollution in their planning. Is it right that good is accomplished through this negative reinforcement? or doesn't it matter as long as the result is positive?

The second part of this post talks about sources of information. I noticed this news item on the Great News Network. They were referring to a site I have previously visited entitled GreenBiz. The initial and, in this instance, most informative source though is Ethical Corporation.

I can't recommend highly enough the concept of corporate responsibility championed by Ethical Corporation. Businesses, like people, can do what they wish. They shall be held accountable for the choices they make, if these choices have negative consequence amends must be made. That is corporate responsibility. The commodity they ultimately trade on is public credibility.

Reference: Grow a Brain

"Alexander Yuvchenko was on duty at Chernobyl's reactor number 4 the night it exploded on 26 April 1986. He is one of the few working there that night to have survived. He suffered serious burns and went through many operations to save his life, and he is still ill from the radiation. He recently broke his silence for a documentary to be shown on the Discovery Channel. Here he speaks to Michael Bond about what happened that night"

Read the inspiring tale of human perseverance at New Scientist.

I've been struggling with unreliable internet access of late. For the few excellent people who regularly follow my online findings, I'm sorry.