www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4CsCuMcSPs
or
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/sep/28/samuel-l-jackson-obama-video?INTCMP=SRCH
Not everyone - ie. snobs, prudes and neo-cons - will be happy with this advert but man did it make me laugh on a Saturday morning at work. Good on yer Sammy and the little girl sidekick! Go Obama!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4CsCuMcSPs or http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/sep/28/samuel-l-jackson-obama-video?INTCMP=SRCH Thanks to a four-day weekend I finally decided to put this little clip together, filmed about 4 years ago. This is one of my favourite journeys and while Spielberg and Scorsese have nothing to fear, keep in mind that it was shot in the middle of the night, the temperature was about minus 18C and to operate the camera I couldn't wear gloves, hence things getting shaky towards the end. The music - Chattanooga Choo Choo by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren - comes coutresy of the Youth Orchestra of Chotěboř, a small town where time stands still located near Brod. Landscaped Corniche One of the saving graces of life in the sand is the Arabian/Persian Gulf, a mere five minutes from my front door. Not much of a sea as it happens: a paltry 90 metres at its deepest point and in nearby Dareen Bay the water is so shallow that it’s almost stagnant. At low tide you can spend 15 minutes wading out before it reaches your chest. The Gulf If this patch of sea wasn’t fed by the Indian Ocean through the Straits of Hormuz at its eastern end and the Shatt al-Arab (hehe) that merges the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers in the west it would undoubtedly dry up like the Dead Sea. Indeed, the Saudis and Emiratis and Bahrainis are all doing their level best to speed the process as their drinking water and tap water is derived from boiling the sea – not very respectful, much like oil production, come to think of it, of the world God apparently created. A desert prince once proposed, in all seriousness, towing an Arctic iceberg here to wash their feet in. Desalination Plant Saudis on average use six times more water per year than citizens of the UK. A perplexing statistic considering that pre-oil (1930s) all these people did was wander round the desert looking for water, so you’d think they’d have some respect for it. Nothing of the sort. At work I often go into the toilets and find taps blasting away, not a person in sight, left on after the Saudis have washed their feet in the basin. Same thing down on the beaches where there are many water taps which are left running after use. Too much trouble turning them off, I suppose, and hey what are Bangladeshis for anyhow? There must be something in here! Having invested in a pair of goggles I set about investigating the underwater wildlife. Waste of money as it’s so cloudy that I can barely see one metre in front. The sea is also so salty that you can float and come out coated in the stuff as well as assorted chemicals from the nearby industrial plant. Let's try and catch that boat, Daddy. Yet there is wildlife out there. Storks and flamingos are common, as well as a big brown bird with a sad cry and huge wings rather like paddles. Most fish have either been caught and eaten or poisoned, but at sunset huge shoals of tiny fish shoot through the water’s surface and on one occasion I watched a shoal being pursued by a metre long silver-blue Barracuda which soared out of the water in pursuit. I’m still waiting for a sighting of the Dugong, or sea cow, which feeds on sea grass. Although, just last week as I was getting ready to swim, there was a beast with jaws chomping at the surface, so as the theme tune to Jaws the movie drummed in my head I gave swimming a miss and haven’t been back in since. This only encourages the flamers. Another time, as I rode my bike along the corniche, sniggering at/commiserating with the local ladies dressed head to toe in black, up to their chests in water while the husband paddles about in trunks, I came to a jetty, and was gagging from the stench coming from an object ahead. On closer inspection it was a large turtle that had been dragged out of the water and killed. Why? You’ll have to ask the perpetrators. Compassion isn’t a factor of life out here. |
Nb. Doesn't work in Google Chrome
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FOTO BEDSIDE TABLERussell Shorto FOOD FOR THOUGHT
‘I don’t understand why when we destroy something created by man we call it vandalism, but when we destroy something created by nature we call it progress.’ Ed Begley Jr. * "The more I see of Humans the more I like my dog." Mark Twain * Only when the Last Tree Is Cut Down, The Last Fish Eaten, And the Last Stream Poisoned, Will Man Realize That Money Cannot be Eaten Cree Indian proverb Nb. Doesn't work in Google Chrome, no idea why not...
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