I had two friends run yesterday: Allen 3:48:23, Colette 5:27:14. They re-inspired me to start running marathons again; I will be running next year. I have been reading NY Times coverage of the marathon; the coverage was OK, even if they got caught up in security too much. HOWEVER, they had a fact wrong; spectators were still out into the street in 1977; it was in 1978 they finally pushed everyone back onto the sidewalks. I remember running down the avenue with my arms out touching the hands of spectators on both sides.

Eighteen years ago I started doing genealogical research; my dad was an orphan and we had some stories but no real knowledge of his family. I am mostly Irish though I have Scots, Italian, French, and maybe Cherokee ancestry. Last week I discovered my great gr gr gr grandparents marrying in 1846 in Naas, County Kildare, Ireland. Irish records y of are hard to find because there was a fire that destroyed many of the government records. So if you do not know the county your ancestries are from it is very hard to do any research; in fact county really is not enough you real need parish.

Marriage Record of Sarah Jane Malone nee Egan and Terence Rourke

Marriage of Sarah Jane Egan and Terence Rourk; 4 Dec 1846

Deborah Turbeville died; good photographer and I tend more towards Walker Evens, Lee Freidlander, and Edward Weston. Go look some nice stuff:

Her site, not many images though.

Many images from the web.

A friend posted this on FB; its a well written and thoughtful article by Susan Faludi. At first I was nervous that the article was going to support “Lean In” which I thought of as feel good upper class women’s movement to pat themselves on the back and sneer at women fighting to get salaries above the minimum wage. Faludi, though, I am happy to say has not bought into the phony “internal obstacles” pushed by Lean In. It is not internal obstacles holding most women, and in fact most men, back from receiving good wages and benefits but corporate greed.
From Faludi’s article:
What about “internal obstacles,” I asked Randall—the sort of obstacles that cause women to curb their ambitions because they’re afraid they won’t be likable? She pondered the question for a time. “I don’t know,” she said finally. “That’s just not the world I came from.”
Randall, one of two female textile workers interviewed by Faludi, worked at a job with no sick days. My father-in-law died of a massive heart attack at work; he was pressman. Though he had been feeling badly for several days he kept going into work because he had two young daughters and his company gave no sick days.

Fire Island tree toppled by Hurricane Sandy.

I have been watching Star Trek old and new the last couple of weeks. One theme seems to be recurring in all scifi including Star Trek our bodies are holding us back and we will evolve to be sometime in the future evolve to a “higher” form with no bodies just glowing clouds. First, the mind is not something separate from the body/brain it is something that emerges from the processes of the brain [emerges may not be the best word]. I think it os more likely that evolution of the mind will only occur when our brains evolve though maybe in the future we may help evolution by combining our brains and cybernetics. The Borg maybe our future.

To add to what I wrote yesterday. Besides Star Trek, I read David Hubel’s obitb

this week. Before Hubel’s and Dr. Torsten Wiese’s discovery the prevalent idea was that the brain basically projected what the eye saw onto a screen much like a movies projector. What Hubel and Wiese discovered was in fact the brain constructed our vision from bits and pieces, as the NY Times says deconstructs and then reconstructs visual scenes. The brain is a computer with input and output devices. It is not passive but actively participates in our perception of the world around us. This is much like photography, photographers are not passive reapers of images around them but actively participants of recording the world from deciding what to shot how to frame it in the camera to post processing, whether that is developing film and printing or running a digital image through software such Lightroom and Photoshop. I believe all our senses are reconstructs not passive. Please go read the obit.

Reading the NY Times today and on pages A12-13 found an Voting Bloc Graphics. Now it might be just the printing of my copy but the map there is totally illegible; the colors are far to light. You can not tell where Brooklyn ends and Queens starts; in fact it looks almost like Manhattan is connected to The Bronx the Harlem River is so hard to see. So I thought maybe it was just the printed newspaper then I went online to look at the “interactive graphic” and it was also impossible to understand. A few lines delineating neighborhoods would have helped:

http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/09/06/voting-blocs/

More Fire Island and even one in color:

Sandy and bushes on Fire Island

Pine needles

Fire Island Dune

Sand and Grass

Fire Island House and dune. This dune was flattened by Sandy.

I have been considering buying the Monochromic Leica. I am very drawn to working in B&W; the question is will: I feel unhappy with not being able to shoot color in six or seven months. I will definitely being buying a Leica in the future the question is Monochromic or full color (which of can take B&W and color); however from what I have read the B&W images of the monochromic are higher quality. I will probably sell my Cannon and its three lenses, Hasselblad xpan and its lens, and maybe my Rollie.

Dune, Fire Island

Grass and Trees, Fire Island

Grass and Light House

I have been coming to Fire Island for 18 years. It is beautiful. However, one of the things I have noticed is trash on the beach and in the water. The people who use the beach the most, swimmers, fishing men, surfers, birders, and tourists are leaving their trash all over the island. It is not because they are evil but rather lazy.

Some images showing the beauty of Fire Island:

http://www.panix.com/~cassidy/FireIsland/index.html