:: Warbling Whales Speak a Language All Their Own
The songs of the humpback whale are among the most complex in the animal kingdom. Researchers have now mathematically confirmed that whales have their own syntax that uses sound units to build phrases that can be combined to form songs that last for hours.

:: september 11th roots
This is a bronze cast of a tree which was at the northwest corner of St. Paul's Church which was demolished during the terrorist attacks of September 11th. - plemeljr on flickr.

:: Gordon Parks, a Master of the Camera, Dies at 93
...the photographer, filmmaker, writer and composer who used his prodigious, largely self-taught talents to chronicle the African-American experience and to retell his own personal history, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.

:: A Love Affair With The City
My work featured in Friday morning's Metro newspaper, page 8. (March 3rd issue: pdf here - 4.5mb).

A very special thank you to Paul Berger for such a lovely New York City send-off.
:: Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina
In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, risk lives in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage of the briefings.

:: good news for photobloggers: you can sell your shots
local, current legislation: ...New York's right-to-privacy laws prohibit the use of someone's likeness for commercial purposes without the person's permission. But if the likeness is deemed to be art, the commerce restrictions do not apply.

:: people having seriously more fun than us
smitten's midair take on the blizzard in central park.

:: An Era Ends
After 145 years, Western Union quietly stopped sending telegrams.

:: Photo in the News: Orion Nebula
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured one of the most detailed astronomical images in history. beautiful.

:: This Won't Hurt a Bit
From Judith Warner's NYT guestblog. The NYTimes' corporate blogs have been a success, primarily, in my opinion, because of the amount of well-educated, polite (and even spellchecked) comments... some good discussion.

:: India's lost daughters: Abortion toll in millions
From IHT: In the two decades since ultrasound equipment, which allows prenatal determination of sex, became widely available, the number of girls born in India has declined steeply, despite a law banning doctors from disclosing the sex of a fetus to parents.

:: Second Avenue Kosher Delicatessen (1954-2006)
Keith Kin Yan's photo report on the end of an era, at Curbed's Eater.

:: arctic drilling measure is dropped
finally, some good political news.

:: the long history of a bus ride
juan williams' nytimes op-ed on the fuller story that honors rosa parks. a must-read.

:: walk the tunnel:
bluejake covers the Campaign to End AIDS' protest walk through the lincoln tunnel.

:: bill bennett's genocidal comments:
"I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down." -- Bill Bennet, former GOP Education Secretary

be fucking horrified. absolutely nothing can sublimate the evil in this statement. no following sentence. no context. no "statistic." -- don't be naive; this is an example of de-humanization, which is an integral component of genocide.

listen for yourself and then take action...

:: barack obama's podcasts
the junior senator from illinois jumps onboard. maybe they were right when they said that the revolution would be podcast.

:: vloggers get political in norway
i've never seen the word "vlogger" before, but i did hear that norway is the best place to live five years running...

:: best picture ever
so very, very true. at cityrag, from dailykos. (you just can't make this stuff up.)

:: The district has identified $35 million in projects to build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations...
in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. but in june of this year, the president and the government were busy cutting New Orleans district budgets for 2006, including the financial support for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project.

:: louisiana's wetlands
from national geographic, oct 2004: The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City.

:: message from New Orleans
9/2 information and a plea for equipment from the emergency services in New Orleans, at lightningfield.
:: im-ok.org
brandon stone's contribution to katrina refugees: Why this registry is different... By using the person's telephone number, you can find out immediately if there is information or not. This allows you to pinpoint a specific person or household..
:: James Doohan
March 3, 1920 - July 20, 2005.
:: muggles and wizards take over!
Joe Holmes covers the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince midnight book release at Scholastic's SoHo headquarters.
:: "why should we care?"
Nicholas D. Kristof responds to a letter writer who questions the involvement of the U.S. in African problems like Darfur.
:: bill clinton lets his anger over a column show
since when are new york times articles written like rumor-mongering blog entries?
:: 'daily show' personality gets his own platform
stephen colbert flies solo in cable spoof.
:: Bush urges more refineries, nuclear plants
wait, and coal is the future? are you fucking kidding?
:: adobe to buy macromedia in $3.4 billion stock deal
the deal is expected to close this fall.
:: chico - pope john paul II
on avenue b & houston in nyc, a vibrant catch at trevorlittle.
:: senate roll call to save the arctic refuge
we lost by two votes, but there are still ways to block the drilling...
:: MTA fails to pass subway photo ban
Ten months after the MTA first warned photographers to prepare to keep their lenses covered when descending into the subway, the agency board has not passed its controversial ban on unauthorized photography.
:: trader joes coming to manhattan
joy! now will their prices stay la or rise to nyc level?
:: fausto bertinotti and women in black
utterweb photos from an italian protest against the iraq occupation by the US and coalition troops, and for freeing hostage Giuliana Sgrena, an il Manifesto reporter kidnapped on Feb 4.
:: satellite photo of the gates in central park
via kottke. better than the gates, i'm actually more into the way the lakes look frozen.
:: sowing the seeds of democracy
one of a series abroad: photos of election day in afghanistan by brooklyn photographer masood kamandy.
:: the year of the Rooster and 4703
cucumber; eggplant; peanuts; beef with tofu and eggs; duck (with dipping sauce); chicken; loofa with fresh bamboo shoots, mushrooms...
:: MTA keeps vigilant watch over "harold and kumar"
see, this is one of the reasons why they don't want people taking photos in the subways.
:: Dear Johnny
by Steve Martin.
:: idiotarod
possibly genius.

:: JPG Magazine issue 1: origin -- derek and heather release the premiere issue of their photography mag, with contributions from some of our favorite photobloggers. rockin' the cmyk and on sale now.

:: tsunami aftermath
pages of graphic devastation photos.
:: del.icio.us/tag/tsunami
the growing resource of links recording the devastation.
:: donate now
support unicef in south asia tsunami relief efforts, plus an nytimes list of agencies also accepting contributions.
:: new york is so crowded, everybody's deserted it
dissecting the two faces of nyc, ours and theirs.
:: a promise unkept
nicholas d. kristof's nytimes interactive report on the darfur genocide.
:: help pale male
numbers are available on the site to call the mgmt company to request the return of pale male's nest. more info here.

:: sony, ken jennings, and me
hang in there, jason.

:: wayward kermit
a great shot from yoni brook for the new york times.

:: HP can blur your face
via kottke. it's like being on COPS, only without running nekked thru backyards.

:: the new moma...
photos from tien, who must be patient to have waited in such a long line.

:: seattle's new library
360-degree quicktime VR of the new central library, from the seattle times.

:: the left will rise
"not in our name" anti-war march and rally coverage, from lackadaisical in san francisco on nov 4... more photos beyond the first.
:: eclipse coverage
conversation from the kids at photoblogs.org.
:: one down. one to go, motherfucker.
'nuff said.