THE MONSTER THAT ATE UBUD




"A Guide to Enlightenment for the Serious Dim Bulb" by Newmi a.g. Newman and David Trevelyan is a wacky irreverent chronicle of the adventures of the Fung Shoe brothers in a village in Bali where they learn to be careful about what you ask for.

"This is a strange and quirky cosmic comic book that deserves to garner a huge following .... it might become a sort of a 'cult' book that will take a little time to connect with enough funny bones ... but I think it will. "  Canadian Filmmaker, Penny Joy (Gumboot Productions)

Take a look inside at Amazon.com

RIO BRANCO: A GRINGO'S VIEW

(Part 6: Colors in the neighborhood)

A walk to the bakery on a misty morning yielded these. It seemed that there were colors wherever I looked.

And here are a few more from the next day under bright sunlight.

CHOLERA IN HAITI:

This isn't bad luck, this is poverty

Doctors fear that an outbreak of cholera could be spreading towards Haiti's capital in a 
fresh blow after the devastating earthquake earlier this year.   Photo: AP

Via boingboing.net

Today, cholera is all but non-existent in developed countries. Not because we're immune. Not because we have access to a miracle drug. It's simply about money. Money, and the will to build public sanitation systems that treat the poor and the wealthy to an equal level of separation between what we drink and what we excrete.

And it is all about the money. What kills you isn't so much the diarrhea, itself, but the loss of fluids and essential salts and minerals. Replace enough of those, soon enough, and people tend to survive.

Right now, people are dying in Haiti not because we don't know how to save them, but because of a lack of access, both to clean water and to Oral Rehydration Therapy. In other words, they are dying not because of a disease, but because of poverty.

How You Can Help:

• Donate to Doctors Without Borders and help get Oral Rehydration Therapy to people who need it.
• Donate to World Vision, which does both medical work, and helps bring clean, safe drinking water to communities around the world.
• Donate to Water.Org, a charity devoted to water infrastructure projects.

Read the full report posted at boingboing by Maggie Koerth-Baker.

RIO BRANCO: A GRINGO'S VIEW

(Part 5: Colors and Lights at Mercado Velho)





Mercado Velho is the renovated new old market at the riverfront. Flavio, Felipe and I went there on Sunday night to see the performance of our friends Jabuti Bumba as they presented some homegrown popular culture. Of course, I brought my camera to catch some colors and, as the darkness fell, it turned out that there were three shows.


Jabuti Bumba...






The bridge and the riverfront...






And the new old market...

DROUGHT IN AMAZÔNIA

The Rio Negro, which joins together with the Rio Solimões to form the Amazon River at Manaus, has reached the lowest level in its 102 year recorded history. Shipping along it to the export port and markets of Manaus has stopped. Yes, "There's trouble in River City."

Here is the full story at NPR and at treehugger. Bottom line: the dangerous interactions between the warming of ocean waters, deforestation, interior development and increased fires appears to be changing the climate across much of the Amazon Basin.

Here in Acre, and in nearby Bolivia and Peru, the rains have started again and the rivers are slowly rising but the rubber tappers and nut gatherers are reporting warming trends that have made them very concerned. The ironic fact is, despite decreases in the rate of deforestation, the number of fires has been increasing which suggests that areas of regrowth (after past fires) and scrub are burning and the forest simply is not as moist and resilient as it used to be.

This news arrives as the Brazilian government is gearing up to begin work on the much-disputed Belo Monte hydro project which is predicted to run at extremely low efficiency during the dry season which is now predicted to become longer and plagued more frequently by severe drought.

Evidently, the dam builders have not built global warming precipitation projections into their bids because there is no Federal requirement that they do so. In the current election campaign for President of Brazil, both leading candidates Dilma Rouseff and José Serra have been promising massive infrastructure development programs without being willing to discuss the sustainability issues for Amazônia. This is the reason that Marina Silva (who garnered 20 million votes in the first round) and the Green Party have (controversially) refused to endorse either candidate in the final round (election day is 31 October).

About 70% of Brazil's energy is hydro-dependent. When I asked an expert what might be done if the prolonged drought scenario manifests as the new climate, he said, "I guess they'll have to build more dams." At this point 146 hydro projects are planned across the full Amazon, 68 of them in Brazil. Here's a new website with an interactive map of the projects.

In pretty realistic terms, it can be said that the future of Amazônia is being determined by the policies and programs now being set in concrete. And this is yet another reason to relate to and support the coalition of NGOs and indigenous peoples who are determined to stand against the Belo Monte dam which has become the iconic struggle over mega-projects in Amazônia. Here's how you can help.

LEAFCUTTERS

"A Marvel of Ants" by Bence Máté

When people ask me what is the most impressive wildlife I've seen in the Amazon forest, my answer, without hesitation, is "ants!" Now, Bence Máté has won the prestigious 2010 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year with his photo of Leafcutter ants.

They cut the leafs to feed the fungi they cultivate to feed to their larvae and, according to Wikipedia:

Next to humans, leafcutter ants form the largest and most complex animal societies on Earth. In a few years, the central mound of their underground nests can grow to more than 30 metres (98 ft) across with smaller, radiating mounds extending out to a radius of 80 metres (260 ft), taking up 30 to 600 square metres (320 to 6,500 sq ft) and containing eight million individuals.

And, by the way, Bence Máté is also an extraordinary bird photographer.Here's another one of his award-winning photos:

MORE COLORS (On the Streets)

Ever since plunging into the series Rio Branco: A Gringo's View the colors keep leaping out at me wherever I go. Here's a few more that I just added to the set Colors on the Streets.

RIO BRANCO: A GRINGO'S VIEW
(Part 4: Colors on the Streets)

RIO BRANCO: A GRINGO'S VIEW

(Part 3: Colors on Walls)

RIO BRANCO: A GRINGO'S VIEW

(Part 2: Colors in the Market)

Continuing the series...

RIO BRANCO: A GRINGO'S VIEW




I love making photos of what I see in Rio Branco. I say "making" photos because the intense overhead tropical light often seems to push the colors into a blur of brightness and sort of wash them out. But later, when I get to do the other half of photography in the computer it's the colors that stand out. Whether rough or polished, mundane or chic, the colors give Rio Branco its special vibrancy, revealing it as a garden of vibrating life that retains its glow even after dark.

So, here starts a little study selected from recent photos of what I see on daily walks. Some of the images are promising; some are not so great. Like I said, it's a study.