Dunque, s’è detto che Silvio Berlusconi, otto anni fa, riuscì a unire nella Casa delle Libertà tutte le forze del centrodestra, vincendo le elezioni. Nicola Tranfaglia, nell’articolo del giugno 2002 su la Rivista dei Libri, mise giustamente al primo posto questo fattore.

Ma sarebbe un errore attribuire, come fanno ancora alcuni osservatori, la vittoria del Cavaliere soltanto a una questione di ingegneria elettorale o anche all’indubbio dominio mediatico di cui il leader di Forza Italia si è giovato, grazie alla televisione (le tre reti Mediaset e una della Rai) e ai numerosi giornali (tra cui il Corriere della Sera e Panorama) che lo hanno sostenuto durante la lunghissima campagna elettorale. Le ragioni del suo successo riposano su un processo compiuto di egemonia culturale nella società (attraverso il controllo della cultura di massa) fondato su un modello complessivo che la destra è riuscita in questi anni a imporre agli italiani, soprattutto attraverso lo strumento televisivo, e che poggia su un’idea di modernizzazione “all’americana”. La sinistra non ha contrastato abbastanza il diffondersi di questo modello e, amio avviso, non ha saputo contrapporne uno alternativo.

Un “processo compiuto di egemonia culturale”, questa è la chiave: la vecchia solida egemonia culturale della sinistra, di cui si è sempre dibattuto, venne sconfitta otto anni fa, anche se ha continuato ad “anfanare” fino a oggi. E la sinistra, che certo non poteva contrastare questo modello (come? Con una rivoluzione e conseguente dittatura del proletariato?), non ha saputo fare l’unica cosa che doveva: contrapporne uno alternativo. Quel che penso in proposito, in forma sintetica e approssimativa, l’ho scritto qui: la malvagità del banale è il frutto di questa modernizzazione.
Continua Tranfaglia:

Si tratta di una modernizzazione fortemente individualistica, che punta sul denaro e sul successo come elementi fondanti e che privilegia il destino dell’individuo-produttore rispetto a ogni altro valore collettivo. Alla caduta delle ideologia tradizionali (a cominciare da quella della realizzazione di una società socialista) si è sostituita una nuova ideologia basata su una concezione delle libertà individuali slegata da ogni concetto di solidarietà sociale, fortemente contraria a ogni intervento dello stato, e che ha i suoi capisaldi reali in una sorta di sacro egoismo della persona e di sostanziale darwinismo sociale.

Il sacro egoismo della persona: un concetto antico e ben noto, da cui pochi sono immuni, ammettiamolo. Ma è il farne cultura dominante che non funziona, nel senso anche solo puramente meccanico. Una macchina con un difetto, un difetto importante, non può funzionar bene.

(continua)

Royal Parade after morning rain, with the Beach Super’s Office in the middle of the chalets and the Cafe to the left shuttered for the winter. And Filey Sands pretty much to ourselves.

Here’s a shot of “Spaceship Earth” across the lake at Epcot in Orlando. There definitly is no place on earth like Disney!

Friend of Orchard Chris George has just popped into the towers to show us the results of his new toy – a 360 degree camera rig. The kit takes panoramic photos with total coverage – side to side up and down – if you can see it – it takes a photo of it.

Some great examples over on Georgie’s website.

Posted by Chris.

CBH Resources has decided to develop its Panorama copper-zinc project in the Pilbara as an underground mine with capital costs estimated at $150 million.

The Sydney-based company today said a recent scoping study on the project revealed it was more economical to develop the project as an underground operation.

Panorama is located about 160km from Port Hedland.

The study found that an underground operation will have a production rate of 600,000 tonnes each year over an initial mine life of seven years.

It has been estimated that the mine will produce a total of 185,000t of zinc, 70,000t of copper and 880,000 ounces of silver throughout its anticipated life.

CBH said it is currently quantifying the underground mine reserve. The resource stands at 6.3 million tonnes at 3.3 per cent zinc and 0.5 per cent copper.

“Current indications are that the required capital expenditure for the underground mine development will be approximately A$150 million based on a production rate of 600,000 tonnes per annum,” CBH said in a statement.

“GR Engineering Services has been engaged to validate the project capital cost estimates with this work expected to be completed within two months.”

Meantime, CBH has appointed PCF Capital Group to find a suitable partner to develop Panorama.

Sunset

It’s almost here! The day I wait for every year, checking the paper almost daily for the announcement, tuning in the local radio station in hopes of catching the official date of the opening ceremonies for Simcoe Panorama.

This year they are throwing the switch on Saturday November 28th at 6 p.m. at Wellington Park.  The lights will by on from 5:30 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. each day until January 2, 2010. The displays are lit up with floodlights and decorative lighting, and strategically placed along the Lynn River, creating the “River of Lights”.   Thousands of people visit the Christmas Panorama in Simcoe each year, and for many of them, including us locals, this visit has become a much-anticipated tradition. Beginning December 11th until January 3, visitors can enjoy Horse-drawn Trolley Rides, providing a time-honoured tour of the Panorama display, on weekends, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Here is the link to the web-site with further information regarding the Simcoe Panorama “River of Lights”. http://www.simcoepanorama.ca/

A quick image from the Mornington Peninsula about a month or so ago now.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and I took this from one of the observation points whilst on my way to meet some friends at the Portsea pub for lunch. The bay and Peninsula looked great… but not great enough for me to set up a tripod and shoot it properly if you know what I mean.

I was very impressed that this 11 shot stitch that I took handheld from on top of a steel guard railing worked so well, when the images were input into PTGui the greatest control point distance on the auto alignment was less than 10 pixels out !  So maybe that’s part of the reason I’m posting this.. who needs overpriced pan heads when you can shoot 11 image stitches like that !

‘ Arthurs seat  –  Canon 5D2. ’

Each time I return to Gettysburg, I seem to find myself at Little Round Top, shooting from the top of the castle-like monument there.  It offers a good view of Devil’s Den and the fields beyond, all the way to the PA Memorial and Pickett’s Charge to the north.  So I know that I already have this particular shot (I think I even posted it here last year), but no matter, here’s this year’s rendition:

Panorama from Little Round Top

Panoramic shots are something that I keep saying I’m going to do more work with, although it seems that I rarely manage to.  In part I blame this on the locations I often end up at, which many times are cluttered and offer little in the way of wide-open angles.  I also blame it on my own lackluster memory, which often fails to remember to try out new tricks.

I’ve read some articles on panoramas and worked with a couple of different software sets, and I’ve pretty much condensed it down to two options – either shell out big bucks for special pano equipment, or settle of the down and dirty approach.  I go for the second option.

Down and dirty works like this: shoot in manual mode, with the same settings in each scene.  Do not adjust focal length between shots, and lock the focus at the hyperfocal distance, then switch it to manual so the focus point remains the same throughout.  Most importantly, be sure to overlap each shot by at least 33%, otherwise you’ll get faulty match ups.

Canon’s included pano software works okay, but I see it as another workflow step that can be avoided by just using the Photomerge feature in Photoshop, which works just as well, if not better.  It will take a while to process, especially if you computer has weaker guts.  But once it’s done, you’ll almost always see that the middle is fatter than the ends, so you have to crop in somewhat to square it off (this is why I always shoot panos wider than appears necessary).  Then it’s adjustment layers as normal.

The pano above came out really well this time around – if you zoom into the full-sized version, you can even count the troops in a column near the intersection by Devil’s Den.  I really need to remember this technique and pull it out of my bag more often.

Panorama | Ue: Schulz attacca Roma su D’Alema

Ue: Schulz attacca Roma su D’Alema Ue: Schulz attacca Roma su D’Alema 2009-11-23 13:06:00(ANSA) – ROMA, 23 NOV – Roma non ha sostenuto la candidatura di D’Alema in Europa, attacca Martin Schulz (Pse), e dal governo arrivano smentite e secche repliche.’Schulz e’ il vero autore del fallimento clamoroso di D’Alema: le sue sono bugie e tutta Europa lo sa’, afferma il ministro degli Esteri, Frattini.

Per il sottosegretario Bonaiuti, e’ ‘fuori dal mondo’ che Schulz ‘tenti di addossare al Governo italiano la responsabilita” della vicenda.

Fonte:
http://www.panorama.it/home/articolo/idAA020001488647?template=templateSky

Tonight immediately after East Enders, Panorama’s ‘Lethal Enterprise’ programme will explore the charge of Joint Enterprise, a centuries-old legislation recently been resurrected with devastating results and is seeing swathes of gang members bundled into prison, often for the actions of just a handful of them or, in some extreme cases, just one.

The most popular application of the law of Joint Enterprise was that of the case of a shooting and murder of a London policeman in the 1950s by Christopher Craig, a 16 year old. Craig’s accomplice, Derek Bentley, 29, ordered Craig to ‘Let him have it!’ It was believed by the court that ‘Let him have it!’ meant to shoot the policeman rather than hand the gun over to him. Convicted of murder, Craig was too young to hang at 16 but the older Bentley, co-charged under Joint Enterprise, was equally found guilty of the murder even although he did not pull the trigger. Bentley hanged in 1953.

I doubt very much that all those misguided young people huddled together on street corners are aware of how this law affects them. I can’t help thinking that all those crazy movie scenes that glamorise drive-by shootings and greedy rappers that encourage holding ‘glocks’ should educate these kids and let them know what it really means to be a gang member – You don’t have to be the one caught holding the can, you just have to be there!!!

My heart bleeds for all those youngsters, no more than boys and girls who find comfort and security in being part of a family of thugs. I can’t really relate to that state of mind, but it’s not for lack of trying. It’s probably because I can only think about it and not feel what they do. How would I begin to understand or appreciate a situation where a group of people who steal and kill for a living are a better choice than what is supposedly my family? For some it’s a choice between lesser evils.

The Panorama advance publicity explains that the programme will explore the ‘catch all’ aspect of its application, particularly in relation to gang members, and possible miscarriages of justice as a result. It’s sad to think of the many lives of young people who could have dodged lives of incarceration, mainly because they’re at the wrong place at the wrong time, and have poor judgement in choosing the company they keep. I don’t know how I feel about this new law.

I know gang crime is an issue, but resurrecting a law to throw them in already crowded prisons seems to me like all they’ll achieve is success in breeding professional hardened criminals. With the hoody prejudice in the UK, what’s to stop a truck load of trigger happy policemen from driving into an estate and arresting a bunch of young people and one dead body? Some people will go from being witnesses to accomplices and there’ll be a lot of accidental criminals as a result of this. Forget the young hoodies for a minute, this could apply to anyone who is at a scene of a crime and unable to prevent it from happening. No?

Perhaps this law may deter more young people from taking part in gang related crime and more importantly murders. But are the right people making the right noises about this. I don’t see young people setting a reminder on Sky Plus for a Jack Straw news briefing and tt’s one of those details that easily gets lost in an East Enders or Hollyoaks plot. But get 50cent on about (why he’d care – I don’t know) and all the other rappers with street cred (I’m a bit stale on Hip Hop news, is 50 still relevant?)

I’m not saying young people gang bang because of rap and hip hop, but what I am saying is that music, film and other social media are more effective in changing what has now become such a violent culture on our streets among our young people. I grew up listening to Dre, Nas and the one with the fat lips – what’s his name again – with the hot wife formerly in one of the most popular female groups, and I’m no more criminally inclined than the average Joe Bloggs.

The day that a young person’s role model ceases to be a ditsy blonde whose entry into the spot light was a sex tape, or a multimillionaire with a lyrical gift a massive empire and a string of criminal records for almost every crime under the sun – that will be the day we can say things have shifted… our young people have seen the light.

E’ sicuramente il calendario più atteso dell’ultimo anno, destinato ad entrare nella storia dei calendari italiani: è quello di Cristina Del Basso, la supermaggiorata del Grande Fratello, divenuta celebre per il suo corpo esplosivo e per i suoi atteggiamenti lascivi.
> LEGGI L’ARTICOLO
LE IMMAGINI DEL CALENDARIO DI CRISTINA DEL BASSO

Once again I have been lured by panoramas and the thrill of just doing it ‘on the hoof’ (ie. little or no pre-planning or setting up of the camera and no tripod) and utilising different methods to stitch it.  In this case it was a series of 3 images with the camera on full auto (exposure, white balance, ISO, focus etc) and in the dreaded JPEG format.  Stitched via Hugin (Above Left) and PSE7 (Above Right) but I did no other processing of the basic JPEG files.  In terms of the stitch both are ’seamless’ but Hugin appears to have tinkered with the contrast, particularly noticeable in the sky.  Time wise, PSE7 was a fraction quicker than Hugin but as both methods were totally ‘hands off’, I made a cup of coffee whilst the software did its stuff so it really was a case of “who’s counting”?

All in all great fun and very pleasing results whichever method you choose.

Chasing a San Francisco dawn shot when all the elements line up has taken many many trips back and forth to this location(s). There are so many vantage areas in this area, lining up one that you think is the best you can find is another, I am always self checking the decision. While the location is dead simple to get to, making the finer detail choice of where at the location to shoot is not. I have hiked down, up, to the left and right all cool angles, but I think this maybe my favorite little spot …

I was not leaving much to chance this time round, the evening before after I shot the night shot I hiked to a little area to confirm the morning shoot. Morning shoot confirmed, time to get a feed from the little Pizza Place in Sausalito. Pretty god Pizza, Awesome landscape image on their wall inside the restaurant .

With a 4am wake up Iphone buzzer I was out the door by 4.15am and down by the waters edge in Sausalito with my morning coffee by around 4.45am … After spending a few moments sucking in as much of Sausalito as I could I ventured off to the morning shoot.

Now on the way to the shoot you pass SO MANY more cool spots to view the city and the bridge that its real hard not to stop and starting shooting all of them one by one. But I had promised myself a image I have wanted for a LONG ASS TIME and this morning was going to be one of the last chances. So struggling past location after location I moved up to the area I need to be and started out on the hike … Not an overly long hike, but dark and spooky with the Point Bonita Lighthouse which you can not see through the fog but can hear its horn loud and clear. I had thoughts of the movie “Interview With A Vampire” where they drive across the bridge at the end of the movie I think it is, spooked the crap outta me for a moment before I came to my senses and thought, I’ll just stab the crap out of them with the tripod and then beat the living shit out of them with it … The shit that goes though my mind when given the chance in those situations …

Dawn was breaking first light was just visible and I was set up on my marker from the night before  (a small pile of fist sized rocks) Hey nothings left to chance when time is short!

Just above the fog with the lights of San Francisco stilling lighting up the bay and an orange sky, this looked like a good morning.

4 image stitch at 200mm

It has been a long time for me since blogging here, I officially became a lazy workaholic but things will change over the next 2 month since i will have more time to update and go on with this blog and new plans.

Meanwhile, i would like to share these links to a program we have been doing me and few others called Panorama.

News from Finland in languages  like Arabic,French,Spanish,Russian. Check it out, and all opinions are welcome!

http://m2hz.net/jaksot/panorama-2

http://m2hz.net/jaksot/panorama-1-ranska

Thanks for reading.

Sasi, from the cold north!