Time for another sandwich

A landscape from Joshua tree, Barker Dam Lake 

(who'd think there would be a lake in a place a desolate and dry as Joshua Tree?):

...juxtaposed/sandwiched with two different frames of rolling stones, also Joshua Tree. 

They make for an interesting vision. Questions abound - how did the rolling stones get there?? What has rounded them, and rolled them to this place? Here's the two sandwich prints:

The little details are intriguing:

There are many such conundrums to be found at Joshua Tree NP.

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Perhaps the two rolling stones are not solid rock, but lenses, allowing a view to geologic history, the shaping of this place by nothing else but water, vast quantities of it, over many millions of years, more fingers and toes than you can count on.

This one really screamed 'hand-color me!' So I did.

I must admit that after i scanned this, i hit the 'hue/saturation' buttons rather hard :-)

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In the occasional 'whatever catches my eye file':

I find this to be very depressing:

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Want-to-sell-a-24-million-painting-fast-10827174.php

“Most of my top clients are on Instagram,” said Gorvy, who joined in March 2015 and has 54,000 followers. His daily posts are a mix of art images, artist quotes, personal musings, lyrics from David Bowie or Leonard Cohen. “That’s where the future is. It’s now, it’s happening.”

When i went into art directing in 1976, you could call up a creative director at an agency, get a few minutes of his/her time = some human contact, Same w/ fine art photo gallery people. I always thought it was about 'human contact'. Is instagram 'human contact'??
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Obama names Utah, Nevada monuments despite GOP opposition

[Associated Press]

Brady Mccombs, Associated Press

Associated PressDecember 29, 2016

https://www.yahoo.com/news/obama-names-utah-nevada-monuments-221032843.html

FILE - This April 5, 2012 file photo shows rock formations in Gold Butte, located about 90 miles northeast of Las Vegas. President Barack Obama designated two national monuments Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016, at sites in Utah and Nevada that have become key flashpoints over use of public land.

But Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye called it an exciting day for his tribe and people of all cultures.

"We have always looked to Bears Ears as a place of refuge," Begaye said. "The rocks, the winds, the land — they are living, breathing things that deserve timely and lasting protection."

Some westerners, the Clive-Bundy-type crowd, view their 'rights' ( to 'manage', mine, profit from the resources of the land) as superior to the larger 'rights' of those who would want it saved intact, or at least as intact as is possible at this point in time.

Let's back to a more basic concept - Who really 'owns' land?

Answer: No one. Not really.

Onward upward

This one is sort of an opposing throw back to the first montage print i made work:

I have called it 'The edge of the world' for obvious reasons.

It's very simple - just 2 negs, dodged to blend well. Took me about 25+ sheets of paper to get it right.

'Onward upward' is the opposite - the stairs at Alcatraz lead into... the forest of Muir woods, huge redwoods, an escape indeed, if there ever was one. I have titled it 'Onwards, Upwards'.

After 30+ years, i hear an echo in here somewhere. It is most welcome, i am glad i see/hear.. a thread, a method to my madness.

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The 'whatever catches my eye' file is really fat this month.

Craig Childs, a great writer:

"I believe the earth will survive us. It has survived far worse than us. Its 3.5-billion-year life history is a gauntlet of apocalypses. In every ancient crater and dinosaur fossil bed, you see a story of global endings.

Whether we survive ourselves is more the question.

And what of most other living things? Will they survive us?

I'm not willing - or even able - to wait the 6 to 10 million years it would take to return to current levels of biodiversity. That's how long global mass extinctions have taken to recover in the past. Key indicators point to us being in such an extinction right now. So, you have to ask, what comes next?

The most likely scenario, or at least the most hoped for, is that the planet remains generally supportive, and climates are stable enough we get to keep our pretty cities and bucolic countryside."

((This bloggers comment? - oh, no - i think it will get much worse, and take much longer to get better than we can imagine. Joni mitchell sang "we are stardust we are golden..."

No, we are poisonous cruel and thoughtless, we will get our comeuppance, our due, sometime soon ))

http://www.houseofrain.com/bookdetail.cfm?id=1344621970977

"I sit still listening to the many heartbeats of the forest. Summer has, fall has turned, and the world of animals moves ahead."

http://www.houseofrain.com/rantsandwritings.cfm?mode=detail&id=1479222002750&group=writings

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Narwhals, Tusked Whales of the Arctic, See With Sound. Really Well.

Trilobites

By JOANNA KLEIN NOV. 9, 2016

Wondering how climate change and the prospect of an ice-free Arctic might affect narwhal behavior in the future, scientists tracked these whales over the ice in helicopters. Knowing that whales use echolocation — sending out clicks of sound that bounce off objects in the environment around them — they placed microphones underwater and listened.

They found that with clicks of sound, like a flashlight switching on and off, the narwhals scanned their underwater world to receive narrow snapshots and reconstructed them into a larger acoustic picture — one with more resolution than any other animal on the planet, with the possible exception of beluga whales.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/science/narwhals-echolocation.html

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You think Photoshop is some great software? You ain't seen nothin' yet, read this article, until you get to the part about how after all the information is loaded and the 'start' button is pushed, it takes several days to generate an image.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/science/shipwrecks-black-sea-archaeology.html

here's a depiction of the robot/drone that gathers:

and the product:

If you think humans are the only creatures that have smarts, feelings, empathy, perception beyond themselves, you are oh so wrong.

How a Donkey Became My Running Partner

We’d agreed to take this donkey because we figured he’d be fun and trouble-free. I didn’t know he’d set my life on an entirely new course.

Running With Sherman

By CHRISTOPHER McDOUGALL NOV. 17, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/well/move/how-a-donkey-became-my-running-partner.html

'Running With Sherman' is a weekly column exploring connections between humans and animals. 

Next week: Training a Donkey

Looks like this could be a very interesting story...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/well/move/how-to-save-a-donkey-it-helps-to-have-a-goat.html

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A wild bottlenose dolphin, tangled in a fishing line, swims up to a diver in Hawaii and waits while the diver cuts the line free.

When a dolphin needed help off the coast of Hawaii, he was determined to let a scuba instructor know.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/23/16663801-diver-who-saved-dolphin-he-swam-right-up-to-me?lite

But yet slaughter of dolphins continues in Taiji, Japan:

Yes, the water is red - blood red. Humans aren't the smartest animals by any means. 

We are however the meanest, greediest, we lack morality that animals have.

Have you read stories about dogs that will not leave their sick/dying friend's side?

Or dogs that find their way to their owners grave??

Hope i have given you a few things to ponder :-)