Parade's End (BBC)

I'm in England now and watched the first episode of a new Tom Stoppard/BBC drama "Parade's End" last Friday -- a tetralogy (four related novels) by Ford Madox Ford published between 1924 and 1928. Set mainly in England and on the Western Front in World War I, where Ford served as an officer in the Welch Regiment. Hailed by some as "possibly the greatest 20th-century novel in English".  I enjoyed the first episode and Benedict Cumberbatch is a superb actor.  Great supporting cast with Rebecca Hall (daughter of Sir Peter Hall) as his mean, socialite wife and Adelaide Clemens as the suffragette he falls in love with.  I wish people would stop comparing it to Downton Abbey as it is an entirely different creation. Below is a review by the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9498260/Parades-End-BBC-Two-review.html

Archery and Revolution

LONDON (AP) - Maybe it's the effect of "The Hunger Games" and bow-and-arrow-toting heroine Katniss Everdeen, or the lure of competing at a 200-year-old venue. Or maybe it's the Robin Hood factor. Whatever the reason, archery is hot at the London Olympics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archery

"The profile of our sport has never been higher," said Brady Ellison, the world's top-ranked archer who helped the U.S. win a team silver medal. The sport is getting a boost from the popular "The Hunger Games," plus more archery in films like "Brave" and "The Avengers."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/archery-olympics-hunger-games-london_n_1738182.html

Usain Bolt and his iconic archery pose

And the new NBC series (Revolution) starts in the Fall and features, yes you've guessed it, more archery! The series takes place 15 years after all forms of electricity have mysteriously ceased working, forcing the population of the U.S. to regress to an agrarian lifestyle, some keeping to themselves and living off the land, while others find themselves terrorized by local militia. Against this sweeping backdrop, a smaller, family-driven drama takes place, with Tracy Spiridakos' character travelling to find her estranged uncle and rescue her brother.

Bob Dylan's Tempest

Bob Dylan will release his dark and apocalyptic new album "Tempest" on September 11th.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/aug/06/bob-dylan-tempest-first-listen

Getty Images

According to Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan describes Tempest, his 35th studio album, as a record where "anything goes and you just gotta believe it will make sense." But it isn't the record he set out to make. "I wanted to make something more religious," he says. "I just didn't have enough [religious songs]. Intentionally, specifically religious songs is what I wanted to do. That takes a lot more concentration to pull that off 10 times with the same thread – than it does with a record like I ended up with."  Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-on-his-dark-new-album-tempest-20120801#ixzz22oNI5CAr

Standard Charter and another British banking scandal

Hot on the heels of the recent HSBC involvement in money laundering for Mexican drug traffickers and Barclays' role in rigging the Libor interest rates, we now hear that another British bank -- Standard Chartered -- enabled Iranian banks and corporations to hide roughly 60,000 illegal transactions worth at least $250 billion within the bank, New York State’s banking regulator charged Monday.
http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2012/08/06/n-y-regulator-accuses-standard-chartered-of-illegal-transfers/

According to the British "Telegraph" newspaper, Standard Chartered is accused of leaving the US financial system "vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes"...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/alistair-osborne/9457293/Iranian-terrorism-charges-put-Standard-Chartered-in-the-dock.html

According to Reuters: In a rare look inside a bank, the regulator described how Standard Chartered officials debated whether to continue Iranian dealings. In October 2006, the top official for business in the Americas, whom the regulator did not name, warned in a "panicked message" that the Iranian dealings could cause "catastrophic reputational damage" and "serious criminal liability."

A top executive in London shot back: "You f---ing Americans. Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians." The reply showed "obvious contempt for U.S. banking regulations," the regulator said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/06/us-standardchartered-iran-idUSBRE8750VM20120806?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71

Battle of the Sprint Kings

I can't wait to see the final of the Mens Olympic 100m at 3:50 p.m. Chicago time today. I find it far and away the most exciting of Olympic events! The 100 meters isn't merely a sport; it's a primal interest, perhaps our most basic and raw form of competition. It's universal; every nation, no matter how rich or poor, can participate. Usain Bolt won gold for Jamaica in Beijing four years ago and now there's a slew of blazing competitors looking to beat him, including another Jamaican, Yohan Blake.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/olympic_infographics_and_data/9453618/London-2012-Olympics-battle-of-the-sprint-kings-Usain-Bolt-and-Yohan-Blake.html

Yohan Blake (left) and Usain Bolt

Update:  The Lightning Bolt did it again....in 9.63 (a new Olympic record).
OLYMPIC 100m FINAL TIMES

• 1 Usain Bolt (JAM) 9.63
• 2 Yohan Blake (JAM) 9.75
• 3 Justin Gatlin (USA) 9.79
• 4 Tyson Gay (USA) 9.80
• 5 Ryan Bailey (USA) 9.88
• 6 Churandy Martina (NED) 9.94
• 7 Richard Thompson (TRI) 9.98
• 8 Asafa Powell (JAM) 11.99

London's medieval volcanic disaster?

Scientists are searching for the source of a disaster that wiped out around a third of Londoners in 1258:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/05/medieval-volcano-disaster-london-graves

10,500 medieval skeletons found@Spitalfields Market London
Photograph: Elly Godfroy / Alamy/Alamy

Wolf Lake

Walked around Wolf Lake this afternoon (Hammond, Indiana) which is a 30 minute drive from Chicago. Saw white egrets and blue herons. Below are some interesting facts about Wolf Lake, courtesy of Wikipedia: 

History: Wolf Lake in Illinois has a storied history that somehow has lost track of the origins of the name that goes back over 150 years. Part of this history includes visits by Abraham Lincoln in which Mary Todd Lincoln nearly drowned.  In 1924, the body of Bobby Franks was found in a culvert just northwest of the lake. Franks was the victim of the so-called "thrill killers," Leopold and Loeb – the subjects of what was termed the "Trial of the Century."

Ecology: Wolf Lake, along with the other neighboring lakes, was once among the most biologically diverse places in the Midwest. Eighty years ago, the renowned naturalist Donald Culross Peattie described Wolf Lake as one of North America’s preeminent natural areas, “…a famous hunting ground for aquatic wildlife...where the plants form one of the most remarkable assemblages of aquatics in the country...no body of water of equal size can boast such a list.” It is still an extremely unique and diverse area. On August 23, 2002, more than 150 experts in botany, zoology, and related ecological fields assembled at Wolf Lake and in the surrounding forest, prairie, and marshland to identify and record as many living organisms as possible within a single 24 hour period. The purpose of this undertaking, known as the Calumet Bioblitz, was to document the extraordinary biodiversity of green pockets that have survived within the urban and industrial landscape south of Chicago.  The water in Wolf Lake was about 18 inches higher until 1998 when the Illinois Department of Natural Resources removed several beavers and their dams that had been built across Indian Creek. The subsequent drop in water depth encouraged weed growth and changed fishing conditions.  Beaver sign indicates that there are beaver on the lake currently.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Lake_(Indiana/Illinois)

Photo of white egret on Wolf Lake: Marge Ishmael

Fire Rainbows

Photo: Ken Rotberg

Psychedelic clouds

A "fire rainbow" or iridescent cloud appeared in the sky on July 31 over South Florida. This rare phenomenon occurs when clouds containing uniformly sized water droplets diffract light and scatter wavelengths into a colorful ring-like pattern. Iridescent clouds are formed by a different process than rainbows, which occur through refraction and reflection instead of diffraction.

Shot by Ken Rotberg in Delray Beach, Florida.  "I noticed the sun dropping behind a huge storm cloud in the west and noticed the ridge line and a little flare. Thought it was worth the trip outside with the camera. I shot a total of 101 images. I was just amazed at what I was witnessing. Watching it slowly change. There was nobody near me at the time to share it with!" said Rotberg.  He used a Canon Powershot SX 260 HS that has a 20x optical zoom. "And what is important on the camera was to set the metering to Spot. This causes the clouds to go dark but brings out the color in the clouds. I did minor corrections in Photoshop to bring out the details of the images," said Rotberg. You can see more of his great photography here.  

In the Shadow of Wounded Knee

It looks as though it might be worth buying this month's National Geographic. The proud Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota have so far resisted the lure of gambling or tourist dollars on their Pine Ridge Reservation. Unlike the Navajo Nation or the Cherokee Nation, the Oglala Lakota are one of the poorest tribes in the United States and are facing calls to open their culture to the public in return for profit.

"After 150 years of broken promises, the Oglala Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota are nurturing their tribal customs, language, and beliefs. A rare, intimate portrait shows their resilience in the face of hardship."

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/08/pine-ridge/fuller-text

London: The New Babylon

There's a new Julien Temple documentary about to be released about London:
http://www.digitalspy.com/video/v1745423694001/london-the-modern-babylon-trailer.html

http://www.camdennewjournal.com/reviews/cinema/2012/aug/love-letter-london-julien-temples-tribute-capital-london-modern-babylon

According to the Guardian: "Julien Temple has created a brilliant, exhaustive and exhausting clip-collage, a visually throbbing cine-quilt that basically proves the Sex Pistols got their most famous title wrong. It's Anarchy in London, not Anarchy in the UK. London is where the dense swirl of creativity, energy and violence is to be found. In comparison, the rest of the country is placid and dull. It's arguably a bit more subversive than Danny Boyle's masterly Olympic opener – though perhaps no less heartfelt."

A Swirl of creativity & violence ... London: The Modern Babylon.

Close encounters of the polar kind

Jane and I narrowly missing death by polar bear at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum this morning:
http://www.chias.org/ 

Chicago Butterflies

Jane and I went to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum http://www.naturemuseum.org/ this morning -- can't believe I'd never been there before. It was great!  Free to Illinois residents on Thursdays and there's a very nice outdoor prairie trail, a tea room and gift shop. Here are three photos we took in the butterfly garden:

Photo: Marge Ishmael

Photo: Marge Ishmael

Photo: Jane Masterson

Baby kangaroo and wombat orphans are best friends

Are these two cute, or what? After they were both abandoned, Anzac the joey (baby kangaroo) was placed with Pegg the wombat orphan and the two now sleep together at the Wildlife Kilmore Rescue Centre in Victoria, Australia. Workers explained that the unlikely friends are comforted by each others movement and heartbeat. One of the reasons the lively duo get on so well is their similar personalities - with Anzac described as very social while Peggy is boisterous and cheeky.

Photo: Daily Mail

Preserving the Sacred Lands of Wirikuta

The sacred lands of Wirikuta in the mountains of Mexico are under threat from international mining corporations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirikuta

"The sun never sets....it is man who moves away from the light."

Standing Bear and the Trail of Tears

Above: Statue of Chief Standing Bear stands proud as the lights of the Conoco-Phillips refinery glow in the dusk light less than 1000 yards away.
Below: Washington Post blog about the journey along the route of the controversial Keystone pipeline:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/keystone-down-the-line/2012/07/30/standing-bear-and-the-trail-of-tears/

Call Me Maybe (US Olympic Swim Team)

This video by the 2012 USA Olympic Swim Team is very catchy and cute: