Dennis Hollingsworth

surfer

Here are a few keepsakes from the recent surf this weekend:

Every so often, I come across a satellite image that arrests my attention such as this one. I remember a newspaper clipping I thumbtacked to my old studio wall years ago, an aerial shot of a flood. I posted it on the wall, upside down, in a Baselitz maneuver to make the image strange.

This image is of the Sudan documents the Arab ethnic cleansing by the Janjaweed tribe of the black Sudanese.

The question arises: why images of disaster areas? Why not loot a website such as this one, one of many sites that upload satellite images of the earth?

The first reason that comes to mind is that the law of serendipity mandates that one should not go about looking for it. It should present itself to you... kind of like falling in love: those who try to fall in love are a pathetic sight. And I guess that these images present themselves to the attention of the media because the news media sell with the tool of fear, bad news being good business for them. Add to this my aformentioned avoidance of "Looking For Mr. Goodbar" techniques, by trolling for "love" in surfing the earth imaging websites for similar images.

What does this all mean? Then is it only happenstance? Accident?. This is that which is just-what-is-served-up to me? Well, there is the possibilty that we are about to witness death on the scale of Rwanda... again... soon.

Or better, click this link, read to the last paragraph and tell me what the word "interfere" means.

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Did you know I have been an active star gazer in the recent past? There was a time when I got serious about my long held desire to learn the night sky. I researched books and magazines and eventually purchased a large telescope (an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain by Meade) and here's what I learned: you don't need a telescope at all.

In fact, a telescope isolates too much of the night sky if you want to learn the sky, spanning the overall schema to the particular stars themselves. A good set of binoculars are best (and image stabilized binocs are better) and together with a good database (star charts, books and magazines), this is fodder for years of amateur star gazing pleasure. I eventually sold the telescope (thanks be to eBay) and here in Spain, I have the binocs... and now, a very nice terrace.

These shots are of the current fly by of Saturn by the Cassini-Huygens probe. In about six hours, the spacecraft will download information and images of the shot through the rings.

What a wonder this (modern) life is!