(Source: gardenfullofthoughts)

minusmanhattan:

Chicago #2767 by Jörn Vanhöfen. From his series “Aftermath.”

theepichumor:

Toby Ng - The World of 100

Have you ever asked yourself, what would the World look like as a small community of 100 people? Probably not. However, it is something to think about, as the reality would be startling - as much as you’d think so, the village would only have 7 computers, and only 1 person in the World Village would be educated at University level.

These facts are something that designer Toby Ng has thought about very carefully, and turned the results of his findings into a series of twenty infographics depicting ‘The World of 100’. Although aesthetically beautiful, with sharp lines and bold, vibrant colours, these infographics are often horrifying. 

The posters look as though they have come straight out of a children’s book; is this to mirror the naivety of those that are most likely to be looking at them on their computers?

“Look, this is the World we are living in.”

- Toby Ng

If you follow this blog, you will finally achieve true and lasting happiness

(Source: overonehundred)

thepoliticalnotebook:

Today, Bosnia marks the twenty year anniversary of the outbreak of war. Honoring the memory of those killed in the siege of Sarajevo, 11,541 red chairs have been lined up in 825 rows down the capital’s streets like a river of blood: one for each of the victims from April 6, 1992 until 1995. 

[MSNBC]

Photos: Amel Emric / AP

kateoplis:

Global March to Jerusalem | MSNBC

Palestinian organizers are calling for massive demonstrations on Friday to mark Land Day, an annual event that commemorates the killing of six Arabs who were protesting Israeli land policies on March 30, 1976. Tens of thousands are expected to participate in what organizers have billed a “Global March to Jerusalem.” The plan is to have protesters from neighboring countries march up to the Israeli border to “demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians and to protect Jerusalem,” according to organizers.

The future status of Jerusalem is at the heart of the Palestinian movement and is the theme for the global Land Day. East Jerusalem is regarded as the likely capital of a future Palestinian state. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian activist, explained some of the reasoning for the march to NBC News during a recent interview in Ramallah. ”In light of the total failure of the peace talks, and given the Israeli destruction of the last potential two-state solution through settlement activities, we realize nothing will change unless we change the balance of power,” said Barghouti.  He added that organizers are trying to achieve that through this “non-violent peaceful resistance.” […] 

This year will mark 36 years since Israel’s practice of expropriating Arab land to build Jewish settlements provoked protests by Arab residents in the Galilee and Negev. In addition to the six people who were killed, over 100 wounded during the ensuing violence. Since then Palestinians have commemorated March 30 as Land Day and have turned the day into a general protest against what they see as discriminatory practices by the Israeli government. So it seemed an appropriate date for activists to hold their march.

“The Global March to Jerusalem represents three things,” said Barghouti. “First of all, the unity of the Palestinian people, and their struggle to achieve freedom and end occupation, for Palestinians in and out of Palestine; second, it affirms the centrality of the issues of land and Jerusalem to achieving Palestinian freedom; and third, it provides international solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”

From Common Dreams:

Despite the participation of dozens of human rights groups and rallies planned in over 60 countries, an Israeli media campaign is working hard to portray the event as a “march of folly” and “dangerous publicity stunt” by “some of the world’s most notorious terrorists, tyrants and radicals” intent on harming the “thriving democracy” of a Jerusalem that enjoys “unprecedented prosperity and equal rights for all of its inhabitants,” according to a blindingly disingenuous op-ed piece by Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. Fight the propaganda, and support the march, by attending a rally, buying or listening to their gorgeous C.D., or watching some powerful videos in its honor.

kateoplis:

Happy World Water Day

cavetocanvas:

Walker Evans, Coal Dock Workers, Havana, 1933

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Evans arrived in Havana in spring 1933, just months before the collapse of the bloody eight-year reign of dictator Gerardo Machado. He had been commissioned by the Philadelphia publisher J.B. Lippincott to make pictures for Carleton Beals’s Crime of Cuba, a history of the country and an indictment of American support for Machado’s regime. Evans claimed never to have read the book, however, and would routinely distance himself from the ideological agendas of his employers. Instead, the photographer probably looked for inspiration to the model of Eugène Atget, the great encyclopedic chronicler of another city on the cusp of historic change. Evans made over 400 negatives during his stay, collecting the city with his camera: from street vendors and commercial signs to policemen, sleeping beggars, and the stevedores pictured here.

kateoplis:

Two long-lost friends, photographers and adventurers both, set out to visit one of Afghanistan’s most remote regions. Their journey, by foot, donkey and horse, gave them a newfound humility.

Time operates curiously in Afghanistan’s remote and inhospitable Wakhan Corridor. Tucked away in the country’s northeastern corner, the region’s 12,000 residents live very much the same as their ancestors did centuries ago.

While the pace of change is slow, life is short, and death is fast. The average life expectancy is thought to be less than 43 years, and the infant mortality rate is estimated to be at more than one-third. The harsh conditions make many of its inhabitants, both Wakhis and Kyrgyzs, look much older than they are.

Yet its remoteness is not without benefit. Because of the difficulty in reaching this 140-mile long strip of land bordering China, Tajikistan and Pakistan, the Taliban, and therefore the American military, have never ventured there.

There is no war.

When the French photographers and adventurers Fabrice Nadjari and Cedric Houin arrived in the first village, they found that even photographs, which freeze time, worked differently. The portraits they took with Polaroid cameras developed oddly, and degraded rapidly, because of the high altitude and harsh conditions. But this made them no less valuable to their subjects, many of whom had never seen a photograph. Some had never seen an outsider.

The local Afghans marveled at the fragile images and lined up to have their photos taken.

“There was something extremely precious in the way they were holding the image, in the way they wanted to get it as soon as it got out of the camera,” Mr. Nadjari said. “It was both the gift and the interaction.”

More about the Impossible Project on Lens.