Roya’s Handstand on Potato Chip Rock
Category: Cool People
Paul Allen’s Tweet – 40 Years of Microsoft
Where was I? Finishing high school.
Little Girl on the Beach – Karen Pearson
After decades of being out of print, iconic sixties image Little Girl on the Beach by John Pearson is finally available again as a 21 1/4″ x 18″ black & white poster, distributed exclusively through Amoeba Music. The subject of the photograph is actually one of Amoeba Music’s owners, Karen Pearson, who was four years of age when her father snapped the iconic image on a Bay Area beach in 1965. Not planned or staged/posed in any way, the casually taken photo began its ubiquitous life almost by accident when, upon the suggestion of 
others in the Bay Area Photographers Association, it was entered as part of a children’s alphabet themed exhibit in the San Francisco Art Festival that year. The photo, chosen to represent “J for Joy” in the festival, would go on to become globally popular, and would also become Pearson’s best known photograph.
Eve of Destruction – by Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire wrote Eve of Destruction in a single session in 1965. It became a number 1 hit and it made McGuire one of the classic “one hit wonders.” I recently listened to it again and I was amazed that 49 years after it was written, it rings as true today as it did in the sixties.
- Ok, there is still “hate in Red China” but there is lots of hate in other places. Red China just has started making all the stuff we use in the whole world now. So we have to live with them.
- You don’t go to space for four days, you go for four months, but when you return, it’s still the same old place. Except, we need Russian capsules now to get there.
- We don’t have issues in Selma, Alabama now, but we have them in Ferguson, Missouri.
- And we’re totin’ more guns than ever.
- More than handfuls of senators still don’t pass legislation.
Barry McGuire probably didn’t know how visionary his song was at the time. Here he is in 2011:
Of course, if you want to hear the original version, here it is:
“Eve Of Destruction”
The eastern world it is exploding
Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’
You’re old enough to kill but not for votin’
You don’t believe in war but whats that gun you’re totin’?
And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin’
But you tell me
Over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction
Don’t you understand what I’m tryin’ to say
Can’t you feel the fears I’m feelin’ today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ away
There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave
Take a look around you boy, it’s bound to scare you boy
And you tell me
Over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction
Yeah my blood’s so mad feels like coagulating
I’m sitting here just contemplatin’
I can’t twist the truth it knows no regulation
Handful of senators don’t pass legislation
And marches alone can’t bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin’
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’
And you tell me
Over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction
Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
You may leave here for four days in space
But when you return it’s the same old place
The pounding of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead but don’t leave a trace
Hate your next door neighbor but don’t forget to say grace
And tell me
Over and over and over and over again my friend
You don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction
Mmm, no, no, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction
Rendezvous with Virgin Galactic White Knight
The pilot of a Virgin America flight facilitates a wing to wing encounter with the Virgin Galactic White Knight and creates a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle for the passengers. I always thought that Branson’s Virgin companies were cool. This tops it off.
It’s not every day that you get to fly next to a spaceship!
Ode to Portland – by Carrot Quinn
Portland you’ve been so beautiful, but I know that that’s the way the summer goes. Summer is when everyone forgets about the winter. The damp grey skies, the salad mister rain. The mornings so dark you have to turn all the lights on when you wake up. The way everyone struggles. Being here now makes me almost want to live in Portland again, but I know too that this is not the frumpy, disheveled city that I came of age in. This new city is full of beautiful, monied yuppies, who work tech jobs and spend their evenings “trying new restaurants”. Maybe, one day, when I’ve made my fortune, I’ll come back, and buy expensive products for my hair. Until then I’ll live in exile in the hinterlands, with all the other people who look like they got dressed in the dark.
The Afghan Girl
According to Wikipedia, journalist Steve McCurry took this picture of an Afghan girl in a refugee camp in 1984. The image appeared on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic and quickly became iconic. It has been named the most recognized photograph in the history of the magazine and the cover is one of the most famous of National Geographic.
The picture became a symbol of the Afghan conflict in the 1980s, when the Soviets waged their war there, and when the U.S. armed the mujahedeen – a group from which indirectly Osama bin Laden eventually arose.
She was known only at the Afghan Girl. Nobody, including McCurry knew her name. Since Afghanistan remained closed to the Western world until the Taliban was finally removed by the Americans in 2001, any of McCurry’s attempts to find and identify her remained unsuccessful, even though a number of women came forward, falsely, and a number of men claimed she was their wife.
Eventually she was located in 2002 when she was around thirty years old, in a remote region of Afghanistan. Her name was Sharbat Gula and her identity was confirmed using iris recognition. She vividly recalled being photographed. She had been photographed on only three occasions: in 1984 and during the search for her when a National Geographic producer took the identifying pictures that led to the reunion with Steve McCurry. She had never seen her famous portrait before until they showed it to her in January 2002.
Here are her pictures in 2002:
Text
Begin…begynne…
One of my blogger friends is an old AFSer and his family is hosting another student this year.
Another Story of a Prisoner of War in Vietnam: Hubert Buchanan
In the wake of yesterday’s post about John McCain returning to Vietnam, I came across this story of another prisoner of war: Hubert Buchanan. He did an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit on August 9th. He spent some of his time at the “Hanoi Hilton” where he undoubtedly met John McCain, who was also there at the time.
John McCain in Vietnam
Here is John McCain shaking hands with Vietnam’s Defense Minister, Gen. Phung Quang Thanh. Apparently McCain is on a visit to Vietnam.
This must be strange and difficult. McCain was a prisoner in North Vietnam for years in the early 1970s. He was humiliated, tortured and beaten, kept in solitary confinement, deprived of medical aid and nourishment.
I learned about McCain’s journey in his book Faith of my Fathers which I reviewed here.
I just re-read that review and this was my closing paragraph:
As I was reading this, enthralled in the story, amazed how any man could endure such hardships and make such sacrifices, I kept having to remind myself that this man I was reading about, and his time in the 1960ies, was the same man that was all over the news right now as the nominee of the Republican Party for president. It didn’t seem real, or possible.
I highly recommend reading Faith of my Fathers to anyone wanting to understand the man John McCain and the experiences of a prisoner of war. If you only read one chapter, read the one about “John McCain’s Towel.”
I can only imagine that going back to Vietnam after the tortures he has endured there must be very challenging.
Trisha Sparring on Stage with Three World Champions of Public Speaking
In the mid 1990s, when I was an active member of Toastmasters International, I participated in a number of speech contests. It’s very challenging when you compete against accomplished Toastmasters, many of whom have years of experience. It’s like going into a sparring ring with a bunch of black belts. In the end, out of over 25,000 contestants worldwide, one will be the World Champion of Public Speaking. There is only one per year. It’s like winning a gold medal in the Olympics – the sport being public speaking.
Each year, the Toastmasters International Convention culminates in the International Speech Contest, the final speech contest which crowns the World Champion of Public Speaking. A panel of experienced Toastmasters judges evaluate nine contestants from different parts of the world, all of whom have advanced to the finals following a year-long process of elimination through club, area, district and semifinal competitions. Criteria used in judging includes speech content, organization, voice quality and gestures.
For a list of all the World Champions since 1938, click on the link in the above quote. Let me point out three of them:
- 1995 – Mark Brown
- 2001 – Darren LaCroix
- 2005 – Lance Miller
These three World Champions put on a training workshop today in San Diego that we attended. When we arrived, there was a basket where they collected business cards, presumably for a drawing of a set of CDs. Trisha dropped her business card for good measure. There were some 200 people there, so what would be the odds?
Since we had arrived a few minutes late, she did not know that the real purpose of the basket of cards was to draw “volunteers” to go on stage and start giving a speech that the masters would then critique. They picked three unlucky subjects. The third one was Trisha, who had no idea what was coming. She had no speech prepared.
Before she had time to get nervous, she found herself on stage, starting a speech she was making up on the spot, being critiqued brutally by not one, not two, but three World Champions of Public Speaking and all veteran professional speech coaches.
She held her own and I am proud of her.
I know there is a speech in here somewhere. One day it will start:
So I went to a speech training by three World Champions and I misread the situation and put my business card in a basket…
JD3 – Monster
Jeremy Dixon is a software designer come monster truck builder. This is a perfect example of somebody who seems to be making a living out of following his passion, rather than “selling out” to life. I am not much into cars, but I have to say, this would be a fun thing to drive around from time to time, especially when going on hiking trips. I think I could skip the hiking with this thing. Check out his site at JD3.com.
The Sound of Languages
This girl is actually very good at imitating languages. She has real talent.
Bill Gates to Bring Cool Back to Microsoft
Since Steve Ballmer was blamed for lack of vision and sluggish execution, causing much of Microsoft’s decline, I concur that having Gates back inside the company, working technology, should be very helpful to the new CEO – perhaps.
On his very first day back on the job, Gates tried to install Windows 8.1 on his laptop, upgrading from Windows 7. But he couldn’t do it for several hours. He got Nadella to help. Still, by noon, no success. After some choice expletives, they both gave up and Gates will stay on Windows 7 for now.
I know what that’s like. I have needed help installing many a Microsoft product in my career. I can already tell, having Gates back at work at Microsoft will be great for the company. At least the install programs will be working soon!
This reminds me of what Steve Jobs supposedly said when he came back to Apple in 1996 when the company was close to bankruptcy. When his team asked him what he thought the problem was, he said: “The products suck!”
I can just see it:
Bill Gates returned to the company and he saw that the products sucked.
And Bill Gates said: Let there be cool products. And there were cool products.
And Bill Gates said: Let there be a cool CEO with a hoodie. And there was a cool CEO with a hoodie.
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