The Binary Circumstance

Male photographer Terry Donovan tries posing like he poses his female models.

First, I really thought that the shots would be funny. Second, it was about the only truly creative idea I had ever had. While I’ve often seen photographers do nude self portraits, I had never seen a male photographer try to adopt the same poses as his female models. Third, what better way to blunt the criticism that most nude art degrades women? I’m saying that I’m perfectly willing to do anything that I ask my models to do. And I really think that the more feminine the pose, the funnier the shots become.

He created the original poses for his models, therefore he’s not doing what he asked his models to do. In fact, he can’t. He could asks a female photographer to make him pose, but that’s still not the same thing as being a woman who is told by Terry Donovan how to pose.

The only thing the pictures show is the Donovan looks just as bad in his poses as his female models do.

It’s not about the poses, it’s about the photography.

From Metafilter.

I have some new neighbors.

They are alpacas.

From Alpacas.com, the Official Website of the Alpaca Owners:

Alpacas were a cherished treasure of the ancient Incan civilization and played a central role in the Incan culture that was located on the high Andean Plateau and mountains of South America. Alpacas were first imported to the United States in 1984. Alpacas are now being successfully raised and enjoyed throughout North America and abroad. There are two types of alpacas - the Huacaya and the Suri. The lifespan of the alpaca is about 20 years and gestation is 11.5 months. Alpacas eat grasses and chew a cud. Adult alpacas are about 36″ tall at the withers and generally weigh between 100 and 200 pounds. They are gentle and easy to handle. Alpacas don’t have incisors, horns, hooves or claws. Clean-up is easy since alpacas deposit droppings in only a few places in the paddock. They require minimal fencing and can be pastured at 5 to 10 per acre.

Alpacas produce one of the world’s finest and most luxurious natural fibers. It is clipped from the animal without causing it injury. Soft as cashmere and warmer, lighter and stronger than wool, it comes in more colors than any other fiber producing animal (approximately 22 basic colors with many variations and blends).This cashmere-like fleece, once reserved for Incan royalty, is now enjoyed by spinners and weavers around the world.

Jay McCarthy highly recommends Richard D. Fuerle’s book Natural Rights: A New Theory.

It sounds like a fantastic read.

Jay quotes a few passages. Here’s a great quote about government:

The propaganda that government people are the servants of the people, who are really the masters, would be hilarious were it not taken seriously by so many. What servant tells his master what he can eat, smoke, grow, produce, who he can hire, promote, and on and on? What servant shoots and kills his master because he does not comply with the servant’s orders? What servant lets his master die in agony by preventing his master from taking life-saving medicine or pain-killing drugs? What servant takes his master’s guns away so that his master can no longer defend himself from his servant?

Why do so many believe this nonsense?

Collective-think changes perceptions.

The move to seize Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s home for a hotel which I first dicussed here, is progressing according to The Seattle PI.

People from across the country are getting behind a campaign to seize Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s farmhouse to build a luxury hotel, according to the man who came up with the idea following a Supreme Court decision favoring government seizure of private property.

“We would act just as these cities have been acting in seizing properties. We would give Souter the same sort of deal,” said Logan Darrow Clements, of Los Angeles.

Town Clerk Evelyn Connor has had to return checks from people wishing to donate to a hotel construction fund. A rival proposal from townspeople would turn Souter’s land into a park commemorating the U.S. Constitution.

Souter has declined to comment on the matter, but he has defenders, like Betty Straw, his sixth-grade teacher.

“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “They’re just doing it for spite.”

Well, duh…

The 65-year-old justice has lived for decades in his family’s home in this central New Hampshire town, about 15 miles from Concord. His 8-acre property is undisturbed by neighbors whose yards are strewn with rusting farm equipment and old pickup trucks.

The house, more than 200 years old, is one of the few remnants of the original East Weare village, which was seized 45 years ago to make way for a dam.