PhotoBlog

Nov

2010

9:38pm, EST

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women commemorated worldwide

In addition to Thanksgiving, it's also the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I found out because I ran into these pictures on the wire, and they're from all over the world. Here's a statement by the U.S. Secreatary of State, Hillary Clinton.

Vadim Ghirda / AP

A woman lights candles next to cardboard silhouettes representing women killed as a result of domestic violence in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, Nov. 25, 2010 during an event to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Romania, an European Union member state, still has no proper legal framework to combat domestic violence against women, with police unable to intervene if acts of violence take place inside the couple's home.

Jeffrey Arguedas / EPA

A woman who takes part in a rally in which thousands celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, puts the name of a victim of domestic violence on a wall of the Supreme Court in San Jose, Costa Rica, 25 November 2010. 12 Associations in defence of women rights called for the march.

JALIL REZAYEE / EPA

Afghan women who were either allegedly burnt by their male relatives or who tried to self-immolate, receive medical treatment at a local hospital in Herat Afghanistan, 25 November 2010, as world observes International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Afghanistan's independent human rights watchdogs and civil society organizations have been saying that gender violence has reached an alarming level in the country and efforts must be redoubled to tackle it. Forced marriages and a lack of education contribute to a recent spate of suicide attempts among women in Afghanistan. Ten women in the western town of Herat have committed suicide by self-immolation in the past year.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A man sticks a paper onto the costume of an activist known as 'Pirulina' that reads in Spanish 'Violence', before a march commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Guatemala City, Thursday, Nov. 25, 2010.

RAUL ARBOLEDA / AFP - Getty Images

Masked women take part in a demonstration for the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia, on November 25, 2010.

OLIVER WEIKEN / EPA

Two soldiers walk past mock coffins outside the law court during a demonstration to raise awareness for the growing number of women being killed in incidents of domestic violence across Israel in Tel Aviv, on 25 November 2010.

In defense of the turkey

By Robert Hood

In response to Mish Whalen’s PhotoBlog post in which she said turkeys are unattractive, I’d like to take a moment to defend the delicious bird.

Did you know Ben Franklin favored the turkey over the bald eagle as the symbol of America? Writing to his daughter from France in Jan. 1784, Franklin said:

I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree near the river, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour of the fishing hawk; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes it from him….

The turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on."

Here are more interesting facts about the distinguished bird:

• Turkey is the only native poultry breed of the Western Hemisphere.
• Turkeys can hear very well but they don’t have ears.
• Turkeys can see colors.
• When excited, a male turkey's head turns blue, when ready to fight it turns red.
• Turkeys are so sensitive that they can have heart attacks when they are startled.

Traveler gets patted down at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport

By Robert Hood

Really?!

I submit that if this is what we’ve come to then something needs to change. Between, paying extra for checked baggage, not getting a meal or a pillow, and now more aggressive pat downs, I’d rather stay home and just do something local.

msnbc.com story: Airports see few delays despite planned protests

Nov

2010

10:33am, EST

It can be risky to be a camera (or a DSLR photographer) in Kuwait

Raed Qutena / EPA file

A demolished TV studio is seen after an angry crowd stormed a Kuwaiti private television station on Oct. 17, 2010. Fajr al-Saeed, owner of the station, said she had received threats to her life after the talk show "Zain wa Shain" ("Good and Bad") was aired.

By Stokes Young, nbcnews.com

When this television studio was attacked in October, the AP reported that:

Kuwait has some of the most vibrant political debate and press freedoms in the Gulf, but censorship is widespread across the Middle East and journalists often face tight controls[...]

Interior Minister Sheik Jaber Al Khaled Al Sabah told the Arab Times newspaper that authorities had the attackers in custody.

"We will not accept an attack against anybody," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "This is an offensive act and it is not in line with our customs. We are on top of the situation to forestall further degeneration."

Since that time, the Kuwaiti Parliament has debated whether or not Scope TV should be able to broadcast after airing a "malicious program," according to the Arab Times.

Also, the Guardian reports this week that Kuwait has banned the use of digital single-lens-reflex (DSLR) cameras in Kuwait, citing a local English-language newspaper:

The Kuwait Times reports: "What most Kuwaiti photographers have come to wonder is how such a decision could be reached by authorities, especially considering digital cameras and cell phone cameras have the same abilities.

"What most people think of photography as a hobby has become a bit misguided due to the fact that the country has so little exposure to art."

Digital SLR cameras may have been targeted as "big black camera[s] tend to worry people", the newspaper said. "Taking a picture of a stranger would seem like much less of an issue if you were using a more discreet camera or even a cell phone."

This is a downright strange policy. My Micro Four Thirds point-and-shoot camera has 60% of the sensor size as a chip in a professional DSLR. My iPhone takes very nice, fairly big files. Why ban the big cameras? More the point, why ban any cameras? I wonder this in particular given how nice some of the DSLR pictures of Kuwait on Flickr are. From pictures from unusual perspectives to celebrations of development to beautiful landscapes to pictures of kids to nature photographs, it's hard to understand why a nation would want to restrict high-quality amateur images of its sights. See all of the Flickr pictures tagged "Kuwait" and "DSLR" here on Flickr.

Oh wait--it's not just Kuwait. We've asked here, about American laws, "Is photography a crime"? The comment thread on that post is worth reading and contributing to as well.

Broken Bridge across the Yalu River in North Korea

By Elena Grothe

Built in 1911 and destroyed in the Korean War, this broken bridge stands 100 miles south of the newer built China-North Korea Friendship Bridge, constructed in 1943. The China-North Korea Friendship Bridge was likewise bombed during the Korean War, but repaired and currently in use for auto and rail traffic.