Cooper Griggs

“Every noon as the clock hands arrive at twelve,
I want to tie the two arms together,
And walk out of the bank carrying time in bags.”

- Robert Bly, poet (b. 1926)

via http://yasahime.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3akyhq

The purr-fect crime. (gif via imgur)

larstheyeti:

The hero we deserve. (comic by theawkwardyeti)

Monks accepting alms, Luang Prabang.

In the wee morning hours, monks travel down the main road accepting food donations for their meals for the day.  Unfortunately, in Luang Prabang the event has become more of a tourism event than a local religious custom, with locals selling food to tourists that then donate to the monks on parade.  It is typical at this point to see tourists crowding around the monks, taking flash photos (a taboo in Laos), and generally creating a spectacle out of what used to be a quiet religious tradition.

Unsurprisingly, the reality of the situation is that the residents of this resort town have literally routed around the problem — the monks make a token trek on the main drag before heading down the back streets and alleys where you’ll still find the local residents giving donations.

The photos above are all from the main drag, sans flash, taken from a hopefully respectful distance.  While I witnessed the monks on the back streets, I refrained from taking photos there after reflecting on the scene I had just unwittingly contributed to.

I wish I had had the presence of mind to step back and document the tourist exhibition in abstract, framing the aggressive photographers instead of the unhappy monks.  It would have been more true to the experience, and it would hopefully help to remind others to be respectful in the future.

Temple, Vientiane Laos

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

A critical security issue in the network time protocol (NTP) has prompted Apple to push an automatic OS X update for the first time ever. Discovered by Google researchers, the flaw could allow a remote attacker to "send a carefully crafted packet tha...

And just like that, the Rockstar Consortium's lawsuit campaign against Android is over. The patent holding group (backed by Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Microsoft and Sony) has sold all of its commonly held patents to clearinghouse RPX for $900 milli...

(804): I told you that you should stop drinking and you responded "Thanks for telling me how to live, North Korea!".

Sony has just threatened to sue Twitter if it doesn't ban the accounts that keep posting internal emails that have been leaked by its hackers. The company's lawyer, David Boies, also asked the microblogging site to share the warning letter with user ...

(photo via deadmanwho)

 

Sony Pictures claimed it couldn't premiere The Interview after major theater chains pulled out due to threats, but independent operators (and the president) have successfully called it out. Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League tweeted that Sony has au...

via http://betteo.deviantart.com/art/skin-9-160074577

For the last 20 years, unassuming Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom has traversed the world, picking a spot, be it in Shanghai, New York, or Paris, and meticulously photographed what he saw. “I take between 1 and 80 photographs a day, almost every day, 12 months a year,” he says, referring to his “Photo Notes” project, which has now been turned into a book titled People of the Twenty-First Century. The “Photographic Journal,” published by PHAIDON, is the largest, most comprehensive work of his to date, and includes thousands of photos that, together, create a fascinating picture of mankind.

The “anti-sartorial” photographs of everyday people capture specific visual themes – people in red jackets, men with bare chests on roller blades – that are grouped together with the date, city and time range they were taken. And this combination and repetition is what makes the photographs so powerful. Viewed separately, they would hardly even catch our eye.

“I don’t use this diary to show what happens in my life but as a method of visualizing the development of my world view,” writes the artist. Much like the way stalagmites form in caves over hundreds of years, Eijkelboom’s landscape is the result of a methodical fixation to the banality of everyday life. Hans Eijkelboom’s “People of the Twenty-First Century” is available for around $26 (Via Citylab)

Google invited me down to Mountain View to preview the latest generation of their self-driving cars.

View

overview of the cu chi tunnel area


excellent explanation of the history and geography of the tunnels


example of the most complex way they could be set up, sometimes 15 meters under the ground


phil demonstrates how someone can disappear into the ground


me at the end of my 20 meters, glad for sunshine


phil, right behind me

outside saigon, vietnam: cu chi tunnels

i’m going to come right out and say i had a lot of misinformation about the tunnels.

i’d thought these were created during the late 60’s - nope, they were originally started when the vietnamese were fighting for independence from the french in the late 40’s.

i’d thought that people lived in the tunnels - nope, they were strategic and used during military engagement.

i’d thought all the tunnels were in the DMZ - nope, these were right on the doorstep of saigon, the southern capital.

we were able to go in and crawl through portions of the tunnels. i was only able to go about 20 meters before i had to come up. it wasn’t claustrophobia so much as i felt a bit overwhelmed by the history i was standing in.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (that's "North Korea" to the common man) has just four networks that connect to the world wide web -- and none of them are working today. "The situation now is they are totally offline," Doug Madory, director...

via http://www.desiretoinspire.net/

In this hilarious video recently uploaded by Alexandra Trew, Transformers villain Megatron unleashes a blistering rant at Trew after she poses next to him for a selfie at Universal Studios Hollywood. In his nonstop tirade, Megatron bemoans Trew’s obsession with social media and implores her to live life in the moment. Trew uploaded the video on December 16, 2014; as of this writing it has 1,972,000 views.

You will not receive a selfie so long as you stand before me with your ridiculous furred hoodie! When will you learn that your status updates mean zero to nothing to anyone, ever!

via Rudy Jahchan

saigon, vietnam: christmas in vietnam

we got into saigon late after our plane was delayed by 3 hours. we arrived early in the evening on saturday and the first couple of photos are from the minibus on our way into the city center.

there are 9.2 million people in saigon. and 7.5 motor bikes. the sea of people on motor bikes was astonishing for me right from the get go, and my awe really never subsided. the sheer number would be enough, but it’s really the way they move - dodging cars, buses, pedestrians, each other, all in a slow speed hum - it is a sight to behold.

after dumping our bags we went immediately out to see the city. we headed in a random direction and found ourselves in the heart of a christmas madness i’ve never even seen in the states.

the diamond department store is kind of like macys, with windows dressed for christmas. only, this is vietnam, and it’s 90 degrees, and only 7% of the population is christian.

it was explained to me by several vietnamese that the folks here love christmas as a concept. they celebrate it, embracing the elf caps and reindeer antler head bands, dressing their kids up in red, green, and white christmas outfits, and taking endless photos of themselves in front of christmas decorations.

but they don’t take it beyond that. it’s just a really fun reason to celebrate, nothing more.

so there we were, the saturday night before christmas, smack dab in the center of the biggest and most enthusiastic christmas party i’ve ever seen.

turns out that the streets are pretty packed every night - all year long. but there was a definite sense that this night was special.

not sure i recall the last time i saw so many people smiling in one place.

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blazepress:

Burning match in slow motion.