Author Archives: Editor

Haiti Earthquake Help is Slow to Arrive

by Editor

Here’s CNN footage of survivors trying to help people trapped in collapsed buildings. Medical help is not significantly present in Haiti at the moment. It is a shame that in the western hemisphere, so close to the richest nation on earth, it takes days to get a little medical assistance into a crisis zone. We think more about war and terrorists than we do about real threats that kill hundreds of thousands of people. Shameful.

YouTube‘s CitizenTube Channel is maintaining an updating playlist of videos taken on the ground in Haiti just after the earthquake and during rescue attempts.

You can donate to the Red Cross International Response Fund.  Also, giving blood is always one of the very best things you can do because it fills the blood banks and can be used almost anywhere.

You can also donate to Doctors Without Borders, which is putting medical personnel on the ground in Haiti to assist in saving lives.

More footage from Associated Press:

Videos From Haiti During and After Earthquake

by Editor | 1 Comment

This video shows shocking scenes of the carnage and death just after the earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday, January 12.  It is extremely graphic.  It shows dead and severely injured people.  This is terrible and tragic news from a desperately poor nation that has no medical infrastructure to deal with the injured.

YouTube‘s CitizenTube Channel is maintaining an updating playlist of videos taken on the ground in Haiti just after the earthquake and during rescue attempts.

You can donate to the Red Cross International Response Fund.  Also, giving blood is always one of the very best things you can do because it fills the blood banks and can be used almost anywhere.

You can also donate to Doctors Without Borders, which is putting medical personnel on the ground in Haiti to assist in saving lives.

One extra and disgusting note: on his Christian Broadcasting Network today, televangelist Pat Robertson told viewers:

And you know, Christy, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it, they were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the Prince, true story. And so the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free, and ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. . . the Island of Hispaniola is one island cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is, is, prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty, same Islands, uh, they need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I’m optimistic something good may come, but right now we’re helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.

I’m going to be very clear about something.  What this awful man is saying is truly disgusting and belongs back in the Middle Ages.  This is deeply primitive and racist thinking which is an embarrassment to our nation.  If you are watching this creep on television, please seriously reconsider what you are doing.

Podcast Novel: A Princess of Mars (Chapter 14)

by Editor

DOWNLOAD MP3 AUDIO

A Princess of Mars

This is the first John Carter of Mars novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan books. It was his first novel, published in 1917 and it’s a work of rip-roaring science fiction that has inspired many of the great writers in the genre.

Chapter 14: John Carter is in love but does not know how to behave.  Then he gets into a ferocious duel and must fight for his life.

You’ll find regular podcasts of all the chapters over the next couple of months. Subscribe to our feed.

Duration: 00:19:13
Read by Alessandro Cima

All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Terrible Earthquake In Haiti – Most of Capital City Destroyed

by Editor | 3 Comments

Most of the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, has been destroyed by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit yesterday. Bodies are lying in the streets. The death toll is expected to be enormous and the survivors need immediate help. The Red Cross is taking donations and sending teams to Haiti. You can donate to the Red Cross International Response Fund.  Also, giving blood is always one of the very best things you can do because it fills the blood banks and can be used almost anywhere.

You can also donate to Doctors Without Borders, which is putting medical personnel on the ground in Haiti to assist in saving lives.

How to Build a Working Star Trek Phaser

by Editor

Hack n Mod has a fascinating DIY instruction manual for building a Star Trek phaser that shoots Blue Ray laser light. I’m not interested in actually building a Star Trek phaser that shoots real laser light at all. But I’m interested in the whole idea of posting about how one would do such a thing. The images are interesting. I like phasers and would probably use one to take over the entire world.  If you build one of these things, please do not shoot yourself or anyone else in the eye with it.

Polaroid Gets Smart – Brings Back Classic Instant Film Camera

by Editor

Polaroid has used the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to announce a new line of classic instant film cameras!  Called the Polaroid PIC-1000, the camera will work with 10-packs of instant film just like the great old Polaroid cameras of the past.  This is a very smart move by a company that looked supremely dumb a few years ago when it canceled the best product it had ever created.  It was almost as dumb as Volkswagen canceling the Bug.

But no worries, we will have our instant pictures back.  Not even digital cameras are instant.  Not really.  You have to plug them into your computer or printer or something and get your files sorted out and then you may need to do a some digital color correction on them.  But with a Polaroid, you point click and enjoy the little whirring sound for a few seconds.  Then you hold your picture and watch it come to life!  There’s absolutely no good reason why digital should not coexist with analog technologies.  The main difference between working with film and working with digital, as I see it, is this –  with digital you know pretty much exactly what you are going to get when you take a picture.  With analog film you never know what you are going to get.  There’s a wonderful fuzzy zone filled with error and chance that Polaroids allow you to enjoy.  Each picture is a little surprise.

Jonas Mekas Film: As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

by Editor | 1 Comment

Jonas Mekas is one of our great independent filmmakers. He spent years writing a film column in the Village Voice. He founded the Anthology Film Archives in New York City. He makes lots of films with small cameras that he can carry almost anywhere he goes. That is, by the way, how filmmakers should be working today. If a filmmaker needs a truck, he or she is making a commercial.  I found this via the exceptionally brilliant underground film site, Bad Lit.

Scarlett Johansson Has Made a Magnificent Short Film: These Vagabond Shoes

by Editor | 3 Comments

I spend a lot of my very limited brain capacity wondering why Hollywood directors don’t run around with small cameras making their own little movies for YouTube.  Scarlett Johansson has made an excellent short film called These Vagabond Shoes which puts on display her obvious interest in and love for true cinema.  The person who has uploaded it to YouTube has somehow squeezed the image from widescreen to standard, but the film shines nevertheless.  I’m not sure why there’s a Russian overdub either, but just ignore it.  I think Ms. Johansson should upload the film herself properly and if she does, I’ll change the video link.  She has made a film that I’m certain is exactly what she wanted to make. It’s her personal expression of a fleeting and elusive subject.  The film’s about being alone and damn well liking it.  Kevin Bacon plays the film’s main character who gets dressed at just past 4:00 pm to leave his apartment and take a trip to a nearly empty Coney Island.  The film contains only small incidental sounds and very minimal dialog.  Its beauty lies in the attention to tiny details of behavior.  The multiple clocks in Mr. Bacon’s tiny apartment, all precisely set.  His careful re-tying of his shoe.  His placement of a hat upon his head and his hesitation when locking his door behind him.  These are the details of the lone person who sets out upon a small but important voyage through the terrifying public space.  Mr. Bacon’s character puts on the armor of his attire with a resolute dread that I can remember from my own time alone.  Ms. Johansson knows exactly what she’s doing.  Her character’s trip to Coney Island where he will purchase a hot dog and sit on a bench by the sea is a seeking out of the pleasure of being alone with one’s very own self and the not knowing what will come of that.  The uncertainty and the wide open strangeness of possibility when one is all alone in a very busy and enormous world is too much for most people to face.

Continue reading …

Animation: E.T.A.

by Editor

E.T.A. was directed by Henrik Bjerregaard Clausen, with character modeling and animation by Søren Andersen and Michael la-Cour.  The production company is called Junk.  The film gets the whole thing with the orbiting spaceship and the cockpit just perfectly.  It’s short and sweet and funny.  I love sci-fi with grungy control rooms and crap lying around.  And of course I bet GM built the poor guy’s ship.  Definitely.  It’s a junker.

Transportation Security Agents Want Nude Photos of Children at Airports

by Editor

Many airports in the United States and the United Kingdom have installed new full body scanners.  They are easy to spot.  You walk in and a security guard tells you to raise your arms out to the side.  Then what happens is they take a naked photograph of you.  Naked.  Nude.  Bare-assed.  Birthday suit.  Free as the wind blows.  Exposed.  Porno.

Why porno?  Because they take naked pictures and look at them.  They want to do it to children too.  And guess what?  In the U.K. it has suddenly been noticed that taking naked pictures of children in airports violates anti-child porn laws.  You bet.  Think about it.  Your kid in the machine.  Arms up in the air.  Being photographed naked through his or her clothes.  The TSA claims that a single operator in a booth will view the naked photos of boarding passengers and children.  Fine.  So think about that.  A little fat guy sitting in there with his sandwich and his can of Coke watching you and your kids naked.  Enjoy that image?  Still want to fly?  Or would you rather just drive now?

No one anywhere has the right to look at our naked bodies just because we are getting on an airplane.  No one.  I certainly will not enter one of these invasive machines under any circumstances.  I think that airline passengers wherever they might be should absolutely refuse to walk into these things.  That will create chaos and slow things down until these hysterical security people back off with the nude photos.  Causing an uproar about this is probably the one thing that will stop the roll-out of these machines.  President Obama may in fact expedite the increased use of these things. Well, he’s the bright bulb who’s hiding photos of U.S. military torture practices and now he wants nude photos of us and our kids.  Cool guy, huh?

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) calls these things the ‘naked machines.’

In many airports the machines are voluntary and offered as an option to avoid a pat-down.  Not for long.  The TSA wants these naked photos and they want them really bad.  Have you met some of these TSA agents by any chance?  My god!  They are as dumb as posts.  I met one a year ago at Los Angeles International Airport in the parking lot.  She said she was lost.  Lost!  She couldn’t find the terminal building.  I had to literally walk her through the airport to find her work station.  I was just a passenger on my way somewhere.  She was totally lost and completely at my mercy.  I could have led her anywhere and stolen her badge.  Trust me, if you can’t find the terminal at LAX, there’s something seriously wrong with you.  That is the level of training these people are receiving.  Another time, just months ago, I gave the finger to a TSA agent who tried to jump in front of me while boarding a crowded shuttle bus.  He got on his phone and called airport police, saying that he had a dangerous passenger who had given him and his officers the finger.  Four police cars showed up.  Guess what happened when the officer in charge listened to the irate TSA guy.  He smiled at him, then turned to me and said, “Sir, would you be interested in pressing any charges against the TSA?”  I said, “No thanks, but it’s nice to know that a cop understands I’m allowed to give the finger to the TSA.”  He said, “If you change your mind call me at this number.”  Then he handed me a card!  He said there were lots of complaints about the TSA people and that his officers were sick and tired of dealing with them because they didn’t understand any of the laws.  And now we are asked to trust these TSA nitwits with naked photographs of ourselves and our children?  Are you kidding?  Seriously?

Freedom of Expression? Really? When Was the Last Time You Heard a Slave Speak Freely?

by Editor

I found this Amnesty International video over at Silliman’s Blog today. It’s about the power of words to help defend freedom of expression around the world.  I’m all for that.  But can you take me seriously as a wealthy member of the Western world’s corporate structure?  The Amnesty video mentions a journalist jailed for ten years in China simply for sending an email.  So let’s stop and think for a bit about this ‘freedom of expression.’ Take China as an example.  The Chinese are essentially slave labor for the entire Western world.  They make our shirts, pants, toys, radios, shoes, dinnerware, jackets, telephones, etc.  They produce almost every single solid object you will touch during your day.  Everything.  They take their instructions from our corporations and they build these things for pennies a day.  They are slaves.  No doubt about it.  Their government is simply middle-management working for us.  So, while we may pretend to be interested in freedom of expression, we most certainly do not want our slaves talking freely.  Slaves who can speak their minds will gain their freedom and their hourly wages will increase.  They will no longer be our cheap labor – our slaves.  They will become expensive free thinkers just like us.  Our corporations and our politicians do not want freedom of expression for China under any circumstances whatsoever.  Morgan Freeman’s blazer was quite possibly made by a Chinese slave making 30 cents an hour.  When the Chinese decide that they want to fight for their freedom, they will be fighting us.  The world will change when the Chinese people shoot their leaders and lift their wages.  You think you’ve seen a global economic crash?  Just wait until our corporations can’t pay for their slaves in China anymore.  The bottom line has not changed for at least three hundred years: the world economy cannot function without slavery.

So the Amnesty video asks us for our words to help in the cause of freedom.  I’ve just written some.