KWBaker

Wes Anderson // Centered from kogonada on Vimeo.

From The Shower Series, an ongoing project in which Sharma invites subjects to take a shower in her bathroom—a project she says has sparked inspiringly fast and disarming relationships.

What’s in your camera bag?
Nikon D800, Nikorr 24-70mm 2.8, an old Canon G9 for snapshots, a mix of CF and SD Cards, a notepad, pens, Sharpies, a few promos I stash on the bottom of the bag, business cards, ID’s and money that go in my trustee VHS Cassette tape wallet, a Nikon battery charger, extra battery, a smartphone for directions. My Nikorr 50mm 1.4 and Nikon Speedlight SB-800 are on loan to a friend, but they usually tag along for the ride.

What is the one thing you would advise a photographer to carry with them at all times? A notepad is key because ideas are like vapor—you’ve got to trap them and ink them down. I also try to keep a micro-fiber cloth around to clean the gook off my lens.

What’s in your bag that is specific to the type of work you shoot? It is important for me to have a camera that has low digital noise especially when shooting The Shower Series—there are a lot of dark corners and with the contrast being sharp, we can go from very bright to very dark rather quickly. The D800 handles noise exceptionally well. While the shower portraits are dominantly shot in available light, I do keep a SB-800 around for a reason. Sometimes I’ll rig it on a stand, zoom the flash in pretty narrow, dial the power down to its lowest, and then if I make a little tin foil snoot and place it on it, it adds a very subtle highlight to those frozen water drops you see in the picture.

What’s the most unusual item in your camera bag? Used to be a hair ties! They would find a way to cushion themselves under my Billngham’s padding, but now every once in a while I’ll find a little ducky sticker stuck to my strap from my two-year-old’s shenanigans.

What can’t you live without? If you have no media cards you’ve got nothing but a really heavy camera bag that’s useless.

Any tricks for packing light, space-saving techniques? I think it helps to commit to a lens or two so you aren’t carrying unnecessary glass around.

Any makeshift, homemade items you’ve crafted over the years? I made a pinhole camera out of one of those Dominos salt cylindrical containers a while ago. I would carry a dark bag around and stick 4×5 black and white negative film in it. It was a funny looking thing, but it exposed beautifully. I should pull that thing out of the closet.

The post What’s In Your Camera Bag?: Photographer Manjari Sharma appeared first on Feature Shoot.

From Twain to Whitman to Kerouac, the open road as a symbol of freedom and adventure, of exhilarating escape from suffocating expectation, rings cool and clear through the American mythos. Whether you’re looking for natural wonders, jazz-infused ecstasies, fresh encounters or simply swift-wheeled liberation from the baggage of your tired old selfhood, the American landmass is cut through with tarmac to quicken your flight. For a little guidance on where to start, these 10 classic road trips encompass a wide range of the landscapes that cover the United States, from ice-bound Alaska to tropical Hawaii via Pacific beaches and barren badlands.

Nose through immense Alaskan wilderness on the Seward Highway

This 127-mile highway connecting Anchorage to Seward in the south of Alaska cuts through the wild, ice-bound landscape of Chugach National Park. Either side of the road, giant glaciers grind towards the sea, ice-capped mountains unfurl streams which expand into roaring rivers, and calm lakes sit still and secluded within vast fir tree forests. Drop into the Alaska Museum of Natural History in Anchorage before you set off to understand a little more of the immense forces that have shaped this varied and untamed terrain.

Some of the sights on the Seward Highway:

Groove past Pacific beaches and tropical forest in Hawaii on Maui’s Hana Highway

The Hana Highway curves, twists and gyrates along the tropical coastline of Maui, connecting Kahului and Hana on an old sugar plantation route. The road is framed by the glittering blue Pacific and sandy beaches on one side, and by tropical forest and deep waterfall pools on the other. Swim in crystal-clear streams before crossing the road to surf the salt-sharp waves. Also be sure to stop off at the Waikamoi Ridge Trail for a one hour stroll through verdant tropical forest, and to drop into the Garden of Eden Maui, a riotously colourful botanic gardens where they filmed portions of Jurassic Park.

Take a closer look at a few of the stops on the Hana Highway:

Ride the bends of the western coastline on the Pacific Coast Highway

This glorious sun-baked stretch of cliff-hugging highway travels all the way from Southern California to Washington state, although there’s no doubt that one of the most beautiful stretches runs between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Between these cities you can drop into Malibu for surfing and cocktails, Santa Barbara for wine and whale-watching, and of course Big Sur for utterly breathtaking coastal scenery: cross the Rainbow Canyon via the great white arches of Bixby Bridge, before brushing through towering Redwood Forest that runs down to meet the Pacific’s foam-laced fringe.

Also check out some of the attractions awaiting on the PCH:

Explore Utah’s hard-edged wilderness on Highway 12

Highway 12 threads through Utah’s rugged natural world of giant red rocks and dramatic limestone canyons. It begins among the otherworldly statuary of Bryce Canyon, an orange-hued field of sharp-edged hoodoos, and ends amid the exposed earth-buckling rockscapes of Capitol Reef National Park. En route you can peek into the bare sun-baked immensity of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which showcases a huge variety of stunning geological features and formations as well as fascinating paleontological sites.

See more of Highway 12′s rugged desert scenery:

Wind through a rugged rockscape on the Badlands Loop Scenic Byway in South Dakota

More breathtaking vistas of eroded rock can be enjoyed on South Dakota’s Highway 240, which loops for 40 slow miles through the bare, barren and evocatively named Badlands National Park. Jagged buttes and cliffs splice the blue skyline, containing within them one of the country’s richest fossil records. A pre-trip visit to the Ben Reifel Visitor Center helps reanimate the park’s prehistoric world, when it was roamed by rhinos and saber-tooth tigers. Today you can grab a bite at the Cedar Pass Restaurant, with its buffalo-meat tacos, though it might be better to pull over and picnic at one of the 14 spectacular viewpoints lining the byway.

See what visitors have to say about the Badlands National Park:

Cross the core of the United States on historic Route 66

Covering what feels like most of America, Route 66 ties together the landscapes of the old west with the modern metropolises of Los Angeles and Chicago, which bookend this great cross-country journey. Nicknamed the Mother Road, and one of the original highways within the U.S. highway system, it passes through the barren deserts of New Mexico and Arizona, between flat and dust-strewn plains of saguaro and tumbleweed, before kicking into farmland and forest as it journeys north towards the Windy City. En route are innumerable gas stations, motels and diners packed with kitsch Americana, well-placed to meet your physical and myth-making needs.

Check out some of the kitsch roadside attractions awaiting travelers on Route 66:

Follow a fresh and forested ridge on the Lookout Mountain Parkway

Lookout Mountain’s sharp skyline ridge cuts across three states, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. It is surrounded by a self-contained hilltop ecosystem of oak forest and mountain laurel, of canyons, caverns and cold-clear cataracts, that seems deliberately suspended above the doubt-ridden world below. All this can be explored along the Lookout Mountain Parkway, created by knotting together old rural byways passing through a series of national parks and preserves. The mountainside can also be viewed from a comfortable seat on the spectacular Incline Railway, which climbs a near-vertical route up the mountain’s forested slopes.

Take a closer look at the sights along the Lookout Mountain Parkway:

Roll through cool, sap-scented mountain air on the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Blue Ridge Parkway curves across a high and wild stretch of the Blue Ridge Mountains, joining Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smokies of North Carolina. It is flanked by a series of massive national forests, passing beneath a vibrant canopy before breaking out into mountaintop clouds or, on clear days, jaw-dropping vistas across the surrounding green-swathed hills and valleys. This ribbon of black tarmac soars for 469 breathtaking miles, and the 45 mph speed limit and frequent viewpoints give plenty of scope to study the wild flowers and the animals inhabiting the undergrowth on either side of the road.

See some of the beautiful parks on the Blue Ridge Parkway:

Shoot out from the mainland and across the turquoise waters on the Overseas Highway in the Florida Keys

Leaving behind the pine forests and cool mountain air of the central and eastern road trips, and the desertscapes of those on the west, the Overseas Highway covers an entirely new landscape: the open sea. Railroad bridges have been converted and adjoined to freshly built stretches of elevated road, flinging an audacious black streak across the turquoise waters. This streak carries U.S. Route 1 through the Florida Keys, from Key Largo out to Key West, so you can drop into these laid-back beachside communities as you go, whether for a drink or to meet the wildlife that inhabits the water either side of the highway itself.

A few of the places you’ll see on the Overseas Highway:

Drive beside the ship-strewn Atlantic on Route 1 on the Maine Coast

The green, rocky, crisp-aired northeastern edge of the United States is traversed by the venerable Route 1 as it runs through Maine, which has been carrying traffic since the 1920s. It winds alongside craggy cliffs, beneath the cries of gulls and above the many ships that continue to ply one of the world’s great migration routes. As it bends south, Route 1 passes a string of lighthouses that have directed ships and warned of attack since the 18th century. Among the best-preserved is Portland Head Light, adjoined by red-roofed keeper’s quarters, which first lit its 16 whale oil lamps back in 1791.

Don’t miss these stops on Route 1:

The post The Ten Best American Road Trips appeared first on Hopper Blog.

Waters made the announcement in front of about 500 people on the UC Berkeley campus during one of a special set of courses on food issues sponsored by the Edible Schoolyard and run by Michael Pollan and Raj Patel. She told the crowd about a dinner she hosted in January at her Chez Panisse restaurant attended by Janet Napolitano, the UC president and former Director of Homeland Security, and several campus chancellors. Waters spent some time pleading with them to take a more central role in directing the global conversation about food.

At one point, according to Waters, Napolitano dramatically stood up and declared that she intended to do just was Waters was asking. A “compact” was written up and passed around to the chancellors, who each run their campuses with a great degree of autonomy. “They all signed it,” she said.

Waters might have jumped the gun with her announcement, though. On Tuesday, university officials seemed surprised and worried that word had gotten out. At first, the media-relations office issued a statement to Modern Farmer that read, in its entirety: “President Napolitano is interested in agriculture and food security and is aware of all the research and outreach UC does in this regard. At this time, there is no food initiative.”

About an hour later, Peter King, Napolitano’s director of media relations, owned up: There is an initiative being planned, and it’s a big one, though details are vague so far. He said that a formal announcement, with at least some details, would be forthcoming in a matter of weeks. In general terms, the initiative will involve “not only our own food practices,” he said, referring to things like sourcing campus cafeterias with locally produced items, but also “exporting our research to address what many people think of as the most important issue the planet is facing” — the problems and challenges posed by the current food system. It will involve all 10 UC campuses, which include UCLA, Berkeley, and UC Davis, the latter of which is one of the top agriculture schools in the nation.

And, like the Edible Schoolyard, the initiative will likely involve academic curricula, perhaps putting food at the center of courses outside of ag- and food-oriented classes. It will be, King said, “soup to nuts in the world of food and farming. This will be big.”

Waters, after agreeing to an interview with Modern Farmer, did not return several messages left for her on Tuesday.

Napolitano has been on the job for less than six months, and has already started up several major sustainability-oriented projects. One goal she has is to make the UC system carbon neutral by 2025 — which would be no small feat. Whatever new food programs are launched will likely be integrated with the system’s sustainability program, which has been in place for about 11 years.

Napolitano also recently put the system’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Division under her direct command. That division, unsurprisingly, will play a major role in whatever programs emanate from the new initiative.

The “compact” signed by university officials at Chez Panisse included four general goals, according to King: to integrate disciplines such farming, economics, culture, and health in an effort to create a sustainable food model for California; to engage the public in that pursuit; to make UC system resources available to groups outside the university system; and to make the UC system the global leader on issues of food and farming.

King, allowing that details are still vague, said there’s only been one meeting — last week — to discuss concrete actions. Pressed for details, he said: “That’s what we’re trying to answer ourselves.” One major question officials are asking themselves, he said, is “how do we harness all this in a way that adds value back to campuses?”

King wouldn’t address why UC has been so secretive so far, except to reiterate that the plan is in its nascent stages. But the relative autonomy (and power) of each of UC’s campuses is probably one reason — that’s a lot of constituencies to keep happy, and their interests often conflict, especially when the administration is doling out programs. Another potential problem: the parlous (if often silly) cultural politics surrounding food and environmental issues. It’s one thing for a tenured professor and popular author like Pollan to criticize Big Food. But sadly, administrators of public universities need to tread carefully when they talk about issues like GMOs and climate change.

King also didn’t have much to say about funding, except that, at least in time, the initiative might end up drawing more money than it costs — presumably through grants and whatnot.

Of course, the UC system is already at the forefront of many of these issues, so much of the work will involve coordination of programs that are already in place. But it sounds like there will be lots of new programs, too: new research, new or revamped curricula, seminars and forums, new partnerships with outside groups. “Food is the new environmental movement,” King said, and the UC system is poised to “raise the public conversation about it.”

The post University of California Wants to Bring Edible Schoolyards to Campus appeared first on Modern Farmer.

On a mission to extract primitive art from New Guinea in the 1960s, Rich-boy American adventurer Michael Rockefeller went missing. In this book, award-winning journalist Carl Hoffman retraces Rockefeller’s journey into the heart of headhunter & cannibal territory, entering his own theory on what really happened to Rockefeller in the jungles.

For purchase information, Click Here

Feature: A towing business displays a supersized junk art rendition of Futurama's sociopath robot, Bender. ...

Sadly this is counter intuitive in today’s American society. We have been told since childhood that government “evens things out” and helps reduce income inequality. We were all regaled with stories of the Great Depression, where big government’s patron saint FDR bestowed “relief” to those stricken by the downturn of the 1930s. We were too young to understand that these myths were being propagated by people who benefited from an expanded government, namely the teachers (unions). We were also too young to understand that government actually extended the Great Depression for reasons we won’t go into here. We have been told our entire lives that government makes things more fair.

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Whispers, secrets and lies? Anonymity apps rise...


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The regional styles of Carolina, Memphis, St. Louis and Texas are all honored at the restaurant.

Blood sports aren’t all that popular these days. But bullfighting, beautiful, brutal and balletic, has been an important part of Spanish culture for hundreds of years. In the otherwise tame artists’ and expats’ town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, founded by the Spanish in 1511, we attended a bullfight recently and came away with one of the most authentic, un-touristy experiences we’ve ever had abroad, one that’s seared in our memory forever. While bullfights have been banned in some countries and toned down in others, in San Miguel tradition holds fast. Hemingway wrote that for a country to love bullfighting “the people must have an interest in death.” That’s certainly true in Mexico’s case, think of dia de muertos. Going to see one felt slightly illicit at first, gothic, decadent and antiquated, as befits what the author and bullfighting aficionado called “the only art in which the artist is in danger of death.”

We won’t get into a discussion of animal rights here, but while unquestionably meeting a cruel and bloody end the bulls are said to have a far better life than most of their ilk up until the final hour. And though they haven’t got much of a chance, there’s always the possibility that the bull will do some damage. The matador who risks nothing will never achieve greatness, and the best bullfighters stick their necks out the farthest. Prayers to the Virgin of Guadalupe are given before each event. In San Miguel the bullfight, or corrida, is in fact a corrida de rejones, meaning that the matadors – in this case rejoneadors – are mounted on horses. That may sound safer but repeatedly stabbing a raging, stampeding bull in the back, from the front, on horseback at full tilt while wearing a suit and hat takes serious cojones.

Corridas in San Miguel feature three rejoneadors taking on three bulls apiece. Each bull is dispatched in three stages called tercios in the classic Spanish style, wherein swords and lances of ever shorter length are driven into the bull’s back in increasingly precarious ways, until finally the animal collapses and is killed with a coup de grace. It’s gorgeous and a bit gruesome, a Goya painting come to life. Aside from the rejoneadors, there are toreadors armed only with capes and clownish forcados who keep the bull occupied between tercios while the rejoneador changes horses. The toreadors are the most colorfully, in some cases outrageously, dressed, all acid pop oranges and prostitute pinks, while the much younger rejoneadors are fairly soberly attired and the forcados look like Santa’s helpers. The latter literally grab the bull by the horns. Most of them end up smeared with a fair amount of blood by the end of the night.

During the fight countless vendors dispense souvenirs and also beer – served two at a time in a deft one-handed pour – wine and anything else you care to drink, as well as Cuban cigars nestled against big stacks of Bubble-Yum and candy on wide wooden trays. Souvenir wineskins painted with bullfighting scenes are sold outside the main gate of the old stone corrida, and can be filled from an enormous wine barrel wagon parked out front. You can also order an entire bottle of Johnnie Walker if you so desire – but you have to drink it all out of a plastic cup, Big Gulp style. As the fight begins both dust and cigar smoke cloud the air while the ubiquitous off-key brass band strikes up a tune. We’re pretty far up in the mountains, but the crowd is thick with Chilangos, the slightly pejorative term for people from Mexico City. The New Yorkers of Mexico, in other words – assholes. But the girls are great looking.

The main draw is always Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza, as famous in Spain as any movie star, considered by many to be the best rejoneador in the world. A little older than the others, he alone among the bullfighters wears a colorful brocaded jacket. The horsemanship and dressage is truly incredible, the rejoneadors effortlessly exerting total control over their mounts, executing twists and twirls even as the bull’s horns brush up against their flanks. In years past, the horses had mattresses strapped to them to minimize serious injury; these days the bull’s horns are filed down a bit. Eventually, no matter how fierce, the bull is killed. The rejoneador, assuming he hasn’t made a total hash of it, is then awarded a trophy determined by his bravery and skill in the ring – usually one of the bull’s ears, sometimes both if it’s been a particularly good fight. Often the rejoneador will toss one of them into the crowd.

There used to be an encierro, or running of the bulls Pamplona-style, in San Miguel before fights but it was nixed a few years ago either due to mounting casualties or too many alcoholics, depending on whom you talk to. Another tradition that seems to be in decline is the drinking of blood from one of the slain bulls, passed around in little paper cups and so riddled with adrenaline it gets you high. You can still purchase fresh blood from the butchers who hang around with their vans to take the bull carcasses away after each fight if you know who to talk to. Like fox hunting in England, bullfighting will eventually be banned even in Mexico, with its deep-rooted love affair with death. You need to go see one before that happens. –JPS

All photos by Jared Paul Stern.

The U.S. Navy was “reborn” on March 27, 1794 when Congress authorized the building of six heavy frigates. Though the new United States had a small navy during the Revolutionary War it was quickly disbanded in peacetime.

However, deprivations against U.S. shipping on the high seas convinced Americans that a blue-water, oceangoing navy was necessary. So the U.S. Navy, largely using the designs of master shipbuilder Joshua Humphreys, constructed six heavy frigates in six different American ports.

This project paid tremendous dividends later on as the innovative frigates, both more powerful than a standard frigate and faster than the larger “ships-of-the-line”--the battleships of that era--proved to be highly effective in a number of wars.

In Ian W. Toll’s phenomenal book Six Frigates: the Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy, he quotes Humphreys saying of this unique ship design:

They are superior to any European frigate, and if others should be in [the enemy’s] company, our frigates can lead ahead and never be obliged to go into action, but on their own terms, except in a calm; in blowing weather our ships are capable of engaging to advantage double-deck ships.

From these humble origins the U.S. Navy has grown to become the largest and most powerful in the world, but this project nearly failed to get off the ground due to fears about prohibitive cost and long-standing apprehensiveness regarding military establishments. This fear in large part stemmed from another anniversary that takes place this week in history.

One of the most important events that drew the ire of the British Colonies in America and sparked the American Revolution was the Quartering Act--called the Mutiny Act in England--passed by Parliament on March 24, 1765. Though the colonies often welcomed the arrival of troops to fight the French in the French and Indian War, many thought the measure was arbitrary and obnoxious. It was especially so because they were forced to pay for these troops with no real control over the cost or implementation.

The colony of New York particularly resented this Quartering Act, not for dislike of British troops, but the high-handed nature of British Parliament. Parliament carried the act out with total disregard for the New York Assembly which resisted making payments. In The Coming of the American Revolution, historian Lawrence Lawrence H. Gipson wrote, “The result was passing by Parliament in June, 1767, an act to suspend all legislative functions of the province until it had met fully the requirements of the Mutiny Act.”

The Quartering Acts gave Americans a long-term fear of standing armies and the quartering of troops in private homes and businesses. Also, most of the revolutionary leaders had a deep knowledge of the Roman Republic and its downfall in part due to a corrupted military establishment and masterful military leaders.

This fear led to the writing of the Third Amendment to the Constitution which states, “No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”

But fear of a powerful land army did not necessarily extend to the navy. British citizens had long accepted the construction of a potent navy due to its ability to defend their interests abroad and inability to crush liberties at home. George Washington and his Federalist political allies believed it was necessity to construct a Navy to adhere to the Federal government’s constitutionally mandated duty to “provide for the common defense.” Nevertheless, there was still resistance to establishing a permanent and expensive navy. Historian Toll wrote:

Opponents of ratification warned that the navy would expand the power of the federal government to the detriment of the states; that it would increase the public debt; that it would lead to higher taxes; and that its expense would fall on the small farmer of the impoverished interior of the country, who might never even lay eyes on the sea.

It must be noted though that in the early day of the Republic, the federal government had few responsibilities other than national defense, and this government was tightly restricted in scope.

In Marion Smith’s study, The Myth of American Isolationism: Commerce, Diplomacy, and Military Affairs in the Early Republic published by the Heritage Foundation, he wrote that in early American history the navy was “non-existent” and that this made U.S. commerce “a defenseless and wealthy target of plunder.”

Smith wrote:

Since American commerce could yield fruit only if U.S. citizens were able to travel and trade safely on the high seas, this vulnerability forced America to confront the nature of its national interests and how to best protect them. America’s future prosperity was a possibility, not a foregone conclusion.

The growing United States was largely reliant on commercial trade with other nations, and many Americans came to realize the necessity of some kind quick-striking force that could respond to threats on American shipping, and so supported the building of the six innovative frigates and the permanent establishment of the Navy.

This small navy performed admirably in the nation’s early military conflicts, going toe-to-toe with French and British war ships in the Quasi War with France and the War of 1812 with England, respectively. They also laid waste to the pesky Barbary pirates in several conflicts on the North African coast.

Some of these early frigates, like the USS Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides” for its near miraculous ability to deflect enemy cannon fire, became legendary for their exploits on the high seas and proved their worth to the American people.

In an era in which the U.S. Navy is the smallest it has been in nearly a century, and budget priorities have been directed to numerous projects outside of national defense, it is important for Americans to understand how much American prosperity has depended on having such a powerful force to protect liberty at home and interests abroad.

A hoax of exposure tries to fool people into believing or doing something utterly ridiculous. While other hoaxes are generally self-serving by nature, hoaxes of exposure are satirical sting operations done to expose a flaw in the system or to mock a particular set of beliefs. 10The Sokal Affair New York University physics professor Alan […]

The post 10 Hilarious Hoaxes Of Exposure appeared first on Listverse.

"Camp Potatochip" located in Potter County, PA.

Submitted by Brad Bireley from his PA Hunting Camp Portrait Project.

I had the good fortune to get a factory tour last week - the newish owners (in the grand scheme) Mimi Younkins and Mark Furman took a couple of hours out to show myself (and the Cuppow guys) around this original makerspace. Fantastic. R. Murphy had a long tradition of quality industrial knives, but Mimi has been working hard to jazz up the consumer side of the operation reaching out to chefs and food professionals in the area and abroad.

They have also confirmed the companies commitment to creating and finishing the products in-house as well as sourcing materials locally, or in the US as far as possible. Some great stories, for example using 1880s mahogany decking from an old oyster boat then turning that into the handles of oyster knives. #wild They also make those lustworthy blaze handled Island Creek Oyster knives, and have sourced pecan for handles that was salvaged from the flooring of defunct Chrysler plants in Cleveland. They don't yell about it but the stories are all there. Amazing. Almost all the maple handles come from Maine.


The middle row of green handled knives are all for various shellfish; scallops, clams, and oysters of all types. The Murphy green handles are a throwback to their leather cutting tools which had green handles so the wooden handled knives would not get lost among the folds of leather.

Super heritage-nerds may have heard of Hertler's, the defunct sporting goods retailer from Minnesota (sort of Cabela's before there was a Cabela's, "The arrival of the Herter’s catalog was like Christmas with bullets"*). R. Murphy made their bowie knife, fish fillet and camp knife, and Bull Cook knife; essential for use with Hertler's esoteric Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices. They still have deadstock - get after it.



Stamped blanks get a hole punched (we'll see why later) then straightened below.



The scale looking apparatus above is for testing hardness of metal, or Rockwells. Don't want to overwhelm you here or get too deep into metallurgy - let's pause and will rejoin for Part 2.

In Part 2 we see hefting (adding handles), 400 grit sharpening wheels, vintage labels and much more.

Remember the hole punched in the blanks? They are dangling from those now...

The stamped-out steel blanks are still pliable at this stage so must be hardened. Enter this 1500 degree molten salt bath. They are then quenched in a 400 degree bath and dipped into other solutions... Quench tank FTW! As the hardening, shaping, buffing and sharpening are all done in-house, R. Murphy can turn out upwards of 1,000 units a week - all on premises.


R. Murphy make a point of working with carbon steel for the home chef; it takes an edge better and holds it longer. Julia Child swore by them - I love em too.

The scales (wooden handles) are secured with brass and then sanded to shape - rather than bolting pre-made handles onto the knife and risking a non-smooth ridge. That sander takes the block down in a second - amazing.



I can't remember the punchline but when a guy who sharpens knives for a living tells a joke, you laugh...


That is a 400 grit wheel for those that are interested. Sharpening is done by hand.



Whether the 1980s incarnation of R. Murphy ran a tight ship or not [that owner had a side interest in racing cars - crashed into and beat Paul Newman famously], that letterhead is boss.



Great labels. #staysharp  The labels infact printed in Shirley, MA next door. Fan-flippin-tastic. #murphygreen #local




Wall of discontinued styles in the office. The more you dig the more you find. Jump over to their site now for 5% off and free shipping - get yourself a clam and oyster knife and stop by your fishmonger on the way home. #themusicisbetterandthedrinksarefree

Again - must say a huge thank you to Mimi and Mark for taking time out of their day for us, and the staff for taking care of us as well. - James.  Photos by Aaron Panone.

During President Obama’s State of the Union, he decided to roll out another of those bold-faced distortions in an attempt to convince the public that the government must be called in to correct some “injustice” that simply does not exist. This time it was wage inequality.

This wage inequality myth, perpetrated by the collectivist crowd for decades, claims there exists a pay differential between men and women. This is a categorical lie that has been played out for years to justify government meddling in the labor market when no such evidence exists.

The President and his cohorts like to hang their hat on the statistic that women “make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.” In and of itself, this is accurate. In actuality, it is a lie by omission. Obama would have you believe that women working the same hours, in the same career, and with the same educational background are somehow being short-changed and discriminated against. They are not, and I can prove it. When adjusting for quantifiable variables, there is almost no significant difference in pay.

Assume for a moment that an employer could get the same work from a woman at a 23% discount to a comparable man. Then ask yourself, why wouldn’t every employer only hire women to save money and increase profits? Where are all the female-only companies? Logic dictates that the majority of companies would be staffed primarily by females, but that is not the case. Both women and men are paid based on their skill set and what they produce, not based on their sex. It is capitalism at work, and the free market corrects any imbalance that may arise. The data supports this.

Explaining this false argument in detail would compromise an entire industry that is set up to fool women into believing they are victims (and we all know how the collectivists love playing the victim card). Moving into the new century, we have seen women enter careers and positions once filled only by men—and they are getting paid exactly the same pay.

Remember, for every industry in which a woman is paid exactly the same as their male counterpart, like say, a Major in the Army, another woman would have to be severely underpaid to balance out the equation in order to arrive at the 77 cent figure. Where are all of these half-priced workers, I ask you? I’d love to hire some! The answer, my friends, is there are none. They simply don’t exist.

What is left out of this discussion is how these numbers were computed. Once understood, the public will come to realize that the U.S. labor market is set up to pay people for what they are worth, not what social engineers and do-gooders feel is “fair.”

The 77 cent figure is determined by adding essentially all of the men’s salaries and all of the women’s salaries, coming up with an average wage, and comparing the difference. That difference is the 77 cent figure, but it leaves out all of the important variables that explain for the gap. You could just as easily factually state that women weigh just 77% of what men do, or that women are just 77% the height of men and still be accurate while actually lying by omission.

What really is going on here is occupational segregation. Men and women choose different careers for different reasons, and these choices in profession are the reason for most of the wage variation. Add in that men typically work more hours, and you end up with a much different picture than what Obama had painted for you with his colorful broad brush.

Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.  That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work.

Politifact defends the President’s claim, while simultaneously admitting that it is really a slight of hand that, although factually true, creates this false notion that the unobservant could easily fall prey to.

You see, women are indeed receiving equal pay for equal work. When we look at unmarried women without children and adjust for career and education level, they make more than men. Today, more women than men are graduating from college. In and of itself, this should move the needle in a large way without government intervention, but where are the calls for college equality in order to “level the playing field” to protect the disadvantaged young men?

Interestingly, when working as a self-employed entrepreneur, rather than a salaried position for someone else, women make less by choice. Now you can’t actually discriminate against yourself so why the lower pay? Women who chose to be self-employed tend to want to lead a more balanced life, rather than working solely for a large paycheck (the way men do). This occupational choice is left out of discussions because it again exposes the lie (by omission, of course!).

So what about the multitude of jobs that are cited where men significantly make more? Let’s see what these careers all have in common: Financial Adviser (SALES), Real Estate Broker (SALES), Retail Sales (SALES), Insurance Agent (SALES), Car Sales Person (SALES)… are you noticing the pattern?

It is clear that sales is the common denominator, but sex has no factor in the success rates in any of these fields. Instead, it is attaining and maintaining clients that drives the salaries in these fields. Sales is consistently listed as a hard industry because it deals with consistent rejection and long hours. Additionally, most of these jobs work on some type of commission structure, where paychecks are not stable and, at times, can even be negative. Given a choice, most women will choose the steady paycheck over the volatile earnings found in a higher earnings potential sales position. Does this mean women are being actively discriminated against, or are they just self-segregating?

Not choosing to go into fields that pay more is not some sort of war on women but instead the result of choices each individual makes. It should be noted that women in these volatile fields tend to excel when compared to their male counterparts, in part because they capture members of their own sex who (sometimes discriminately) choose them over a man. If you doubt this double standard, ask your female friends which sex they prefer their gynecologist to be.

Fields perceived of as having a higher risk are typically compensated with higher earnings. The “wage police” conveniently never highlight this factor in their wage gap arguments, either. It typically takes someone with a thick skin to build a career in certain fields, and the idea of doing this by working on a 9-to-5 schedule is not possible for most people. This example of long hours demanded by certain careers only adds to the self-imposed segregation when making that all-so-important career path decision.

Let’s not be mistaken on another key factor of success in sales, tenacity. In many cases, a driving factor is the testosterone component. And just as a career like nursing demands a more caring or estrogen component, testosterone-centered jobs pay more because of the higher-risk, higher-return tradeoff. There has never been a single case where a group of a hundred lone women set out across an ocean to tame a continent or recapture a city. Risky jobs (dominated by men) pay more, but the cost of being wrong often includes death and financial ruin. Men gravitate to risk because, in addition to the riches that may be acquired, women are more receptive to men of means. This is the most likely explanation to any differences that cannot be quantified through conventional mass data analysis methods.

When presented with one-sided perspectives, it is important to remind ourselves that sexism is a one-way street in American society. Pay inequality is just another ruse by the collectivists, like Obama, to manipulate misinformed women into providing political support for a nonexistent problem. Differences only seem to matter when it’s a woman. Persons really concerned about wage inequality can do three things that will greatly affect these numbers going forward: don’t have children, work more hours, and get a career in a STEM field. It is doubtful that many women will choose these simple solutions, that don’t involve more government meddling, to do their part in helping make the world more “fair.”

Photography retrospectives like the one currently on display by the late photographer Jerome Liebling at Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea (showing now through April 19th) have a way of grabbing me in a way a lot of art just can’t. The collection of 75 beautiful photos span some six decades and are a stunning look at both city life and beyond. It’s art, nostalgia and history all together at once. Liebling’s photographs embody all of those things in such an effortless way. Each has an interesting gesture, perspective, texture or theme. Often all of these elements are captured together to freeze moments in time. The collection of images is titled “Matter of Life and Death”, and the photos comprise everything from youth to death and all of the scenes in-between. The show was curated by Liebling’s daughter Rachel and is a moving selection of images capturing people from all walks of life.

Photography as a medium is inspiring to me mainly because of the fact that the process is so seemingly democratic (as camera technology is available to almost anyone), but it takes the eye and creativity of an artist to truly distinguish one’s work. As someone who occupies the very far end of the amateur photography spectrum, the more I progress, the less I realize I know. That and, you either have the eye or you don’t. Some things you can’t just muscle through.

More about the photographer Jerome Liebling:

Liebling’s body of work defies easy categorization. He was in his element in both color and black and white; at home on New York City streets or in Massachusetts apple orchards. Jerome Liebling grew up in Brooklyn, a first-generation son of European immigrants. During World War II, Liebling served in the 82nd Airborne. He enlisted to fight for a cause he believed in but returned from military service with a staunch anti-war sentiment that endured his entire lifetime. Back home, he enrolled at Brooklyn College under the G.I. Bill and studied design with the painter Ad Reinhardt and photography with Walter Rosenblum. In 1948, Liebling joined the Photo League, a socially minded photographers’ cooperative, where, along with Paul Strand, W. Eugene Smith and Aaron Siskind, he took to the streets to focus his lens on undocumented corners of urban life. In 1948, Liebling joined the Photo League, a socially minded photographers’ cooperative, where, along with Paul Strand, W. Eugene Smith and Aaron Siskind, he took to the streets to focus his lens on undocumented corners of urban life.

It’s one of America’s greatest rags-to-riches stories: two brothers, born into the utter poverty of lower-class Scotland in the mid-1800’s, immigrate to America and amass an inconceivable fortune all on their own. The Carnegie tale is a prime example of American industry at its finest, because in nineteenth century America, you didn’t exactly have to do everything by the book as long as you made billions.

That’s not to say that Andrew and Thomas Carnegie were purely driven by greed, after-all their name is emblazoned on buildings up and down the Northeast as a testament to their philanthropic spirit. From concert halls, to universities, to museums, the only thing the Carnegie’s liked more than making money, was putting their name on buildings, yet one of their most spectacular structures didn’t bear their name at all.

Toward the end of his all too short life Thomas, the younger of the two brothers purchased a vacation house on Cumberland Island, just off the coast of Georgia. Thomas was eight years Andrew’s junior and had spent his career assisting his brother with the daily operations of the family’s various corporations. Andrew was the idea man, while his brother did much of the grunt work, a role which helped make him both incredibly wealthy and incredibly tired. By his late-thirties, Thomas was ready to retire, and so he and his sizable family purchased “Dungeness Mansion” on Cumberland Island, a house with a history that rivaled that of the Carnegie’s themselves.

Dungeness had first been built by James Oglethorpe, the British general who founded the state of Georgia, as a hunting lodge in the 1730’s. After that, it purchased by Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene in the early 1800’s, followed by Henry Lee III, who was the father of General Robert E. Lee. After Lee’s death the house was left abandoned through the Civil War, until it was finally burned down in 1866.

Roughly fifteen years later, the Carnegie’s entered the picture and transformed the house into a full blown Queen Anne style mansion. The Carnegie’s incarnation of Dungeness was like something out of The Great Gatsby packing fifty-nine rooms, each of which was more grand than the last. Thomas unfortunately never got to see his massive manor completed though, as he died at the ripe age of forty-three, while construction on Dungeness was still underway.

The finished mansion was nothing but pure Southern glory. Lush trees lead up to a house that could only really be described as imposing. The arched windows, covered porches, epic entrances, and layered roofs seemed to go on forever. It was a house truly built for American royalty, but much like Mr. Carnegie himself, Dungeness met its demise far too early. The house burnt down in 1959, thirty-four years after the Carnegie’s moved out, in a reported act of arson. Today nothing but the ruins remain, but you can still get a sense of just how luxurious the life of a Robber Baron was. -JG

Cottage in Las Sabanas, Nicaragua built by Bruce Lavender.

One Wyoming farmer is refusing to be intimidated by the Environmental Protection Agency into demolishing a stock pond he and his wife built in 2012 on his eight-acre Wyoming farm. Andy Johnson and his wife Katie used pure water to fill their pond and filled it with brook and brown trout, ducks and geese. The Johnson’s three children we looking forward to playing there, and the Johnson’s horses could use the pond to drink and the surrounding area to graze.

But then the Environmental Protection Agency threatened Johnson on January 30 with a fine that could amount to $75,000-a-day because the agency claimed he violated the Clean Water Act by building the pond without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. It asserted that he had built a dam on a creek illegally, and that the residue from the Johnson’s pond could flow into other waterways. The agency gave him 30 days to hire a consultant to assess the environmental impact of the pond and come up with a restoration proposal that was acceptable to the EPA as well a schedule showing he would fix the problem in 60 days or less.

Johnson answered them that his stock pond, a man-made pond that is intended to attract wildlife to it, was exempt from the Clean Water Act rules and that not only had he had already checked Wyoming’s rules for building stock ponds fine, he had a letter from the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office that approved of his work. The letter stated, “Said permit is in good standing and is entitled to be exercised exactly as permitted.”

Johnson told FoxNews.com., “I have not paid them a dime nor will I. I will go bankrupt if I have to fighting it. My wife and I built [the pond] together. We put our blood, sweat and tears into it. It was our dream. This goes a lot further than a pond. It’s about a person’s rights. I have three little kids. I am not going to roll over and let [the government] tell me what I can do on my land. I followed the rules.” 

Johnson went into action when he received the letter from the EPA on January 30, contacting state lawmakers who forwarded his plight to Wyoming’s two U.S. senators, John Barrasso and Mike Enzi as well as Louisiana Sen. David Vitter. On March 12, The senators wrote Nancy Stoner, the EPA’s acting assistant administration for water, and demanded that the EPA back down, saying, “Rather than a sober administration of the Clean Water Act, the Compliance Order reads like a draconian edict of a heavy-handed bureaucracy.” They added:

Fairness and due process require the EPA base its compliance order on more than an assumption. Instead of treating Mr. Johnson as guilty until he proves his innocence by demonstrating his entitlement to the Clean Water Act section 404 (f)(1)(C) stock pond exemption, EPA should make its case that a dam was built and that the Section 404 exemption does not apply. 

The EPA has been trying redefine the boundaries of which bodies of water they can supervise under the Clean Water Act.

The senators’ letter took note of the EPA’s desire to expand its jurisdiction, writing,

“If the compliance order stands as an example of how EPA intends to operate after completing its current ‘waters of the United States’ rulemaking, it should give pause to each and every landowner throughout the country

Johnson views the situation as an opportunity to teach his kids an invaluable lesson. He said, “This is showing them that they shouldn’t back down. If you need to stand up and fight, you do it.”

I get to speak to business school students every once in a while and I love to take questions at the end of my talk.