Much of Ms. Head’s account was posted on the Web site of the World Trade Center Survivors’ Network, a nonprofit organization for which she served as president and as point person for corporate donations. But no part of her story, it turns out, has been verified. [From In a 9/11 Survival Tale, the Pieces Just Don’t Fit - New York Times]
In a 9/11 Survival Tale, the Pieces Just Don’t Fit
A Pulitzer Prize in Photography is in Order…
The composition and the content of this photograph are both amazing. On one half you have Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai being shot and on the other you have a group of protesters being beaten back.
After the jump, a graphic video of Nagai being killed.
William Faulkner Saved my Life (Sort of)
I spent a few days earlier this week up in San Francisco looking at colleges with the amazing new $39 Southwest Airlines fare from SAN to SFO. As I reached the San Diego airport, my mother noticed that I had my climbing chalk bag on the side of my backpack. Not wanting to get busted by obviously placing a bag filled with white powder on the side of my backpack, I hastily stashed the chalk into the main compartment and prayed that it wouldn’t make too much trouble.
Sadly, it (and a few undeclared liquids or gels that I didn’t know about) got me sent to secondary. I knew it was coming but the peculiar part about it was that the screener just sat their talking to me and pointing at things on her screen as if I knew what she was talking about. “There are a few things wrong here,” she said. “I’m very concerned about this… and this as well.” She handed the bag over to another man without giving him any descriptions of the items that worried her and we proceeded over to a side desk for further inspection.
As he went through the backpack, he did not look twice at the chalk bag but instead happened upon two very small tubes of sunscreen and lip balm. He then decided to rate my book choices, which happened to be The Collected Stories of William Faulkner and Americana by Don Delillo. He approved and I didn’t have too much more trouble. The thing is, I was extremely close to bringing a Hunter S. Thompson book which, I believe, would’ve put me in a worse light and possibly subjected me to more questioning. So thanks Faulkner, for making me look smarter and less like a crazy druggie.
College Applications
Well friends, the time has come. It is the fall of my senior year of high school and it is only fitting that I begin to plan my future. I am currently in the middle of applying for colleges and, right now, I’m not too stressed (ask me in two weeks). Of course, I am not going to speak about the specific colleges that I’m applying to so as not to mess up the application process but I am very excited for the next couple months and years. I will also be turning 18 in two days, very scary.
Theo Jansen’s Animals
The major theme of my classes this semester is integration of art, nature and engineering. The largest project we have is to think up some way to make all of these three things work together in harmony. As a way to get us started thinking about this was to have us build kinetic sculptures out of nature. As an example, my engineering teacher showed the class a video of Theo Jansen’s animals.
We all were appropriately amazed and a few people even swore to build a small walking apparatus during the 2 week project. It was not until today, however, when I realized the true genius behind Mr. Jansen’s work after watching his talk at TED. I never knew that he ‘evolved’ his designs and created knew ones using the best practices. Not only that but, more amazingly, the creatures have a small bit of intelligence, realizing when they are in water and such. This man is a modern Da Vinci, especially considering he makes all of his designs with plastic tubes and bottles. Video after the jump. Read more
Notebook Conspiracies
I went school shopping today to prepare myself for my final year of high school. As it should be, the farther you progress through your schooling career, the list of “required” supplies consistently dwindles. This year all I needed was the bare minimum — a few binders, some notebooks and some pens.
Everything was great until we started looking for cheap college ruled notebooks. Not caring too much about what I write in (I abuse them too much anyway), I figured I would get myself a nice cheap pack of 5 or 6 notebooks. A quick look down the aisle revealed a pack of wide ruled notebooks for something like $2 but nothing of the sort in college ruled. I decided to ask and it turns out Office Depot doesn’t stock packs of college ruled notebooks.
That’s right, if moderately socially conscious students (that is to say, ones who will not purchase from Wal-Mart) want to buy a cheap pack of notebooks, they’re going to have to do it someplace other than Office Depot. I realize that most colleges have bookstores for this type of thing but what about us poor high school students?