Pictures from Madeira
Grok Headline matches for Pictures from Madeira
BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures:
Watch me grow
BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures:
Watch me grow
06/30/2004 09:31 AMNot enough cat pictures on the net?
Not enough cat pictures on the net?
06/06/2005 12:09 AMFrom CNN Money, Bank of America gets personal: Bank of America will
require Internet clients to register their computers and assign a
digital image, such as a photo of a pet, to their accounts in an
effort to cut down...
Pictures of Nothing
Pictures of Nothing
01/01/2005 12:36 AMEnd-of-2004 remarks, punctuated by five pictures of nothing...
"pictures"
"pictures"
12/10/2003 10:15 PME3 in Pictures
E3 in Pictures
05/19/2004 07:16 PMthese pictures
these pictures
02/17/2004 06:09 AMFriday .. these
authenti-city.com/friday.htm
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No pictures please
No pictures please
06/17/2004 06:34 AMUSA Today Jun 17 2004 10:55AM GMT
pictures
pictures
12/12/2003 04:36 AMAlbum 2 .. his .. 2
healingiraq.blogspot.com/10dec2.html
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site | 5 links
SID in Pictures
SID in Pictures
05/27/2004 01:47 PMPictures and Lies
Pictures and Lies
03/06/2004 02:06 AMI was poking around the Web today and in the space of a minute, ran
across two completely different pictures that made me shake my head
and think “That’s a lie.†Here they are...
Last Year in Pictures
Last Year in Pictures
01/03/2004 12:14 AMA Year in Pictures: My buddy Rob has shuttered
AYearInPictures.com after
giving us all...well, a year in pictures.
After publishing a picture a day for the last year I think
it's time to close the doors and move onto something else. I consider
this project to be a huge success. It was intended as a way for me to
motivate myself to improve my photography skills by challenging me to
find new and interesting subjects on a consistent basis. I won't claim
to have published 365 masterpieces, but a few of them were pretty
good.
Thanks Rob — I'll never look at a church, a butterfly,
or a ballgame the
same way again. This one in
particular is a postcard just waiting to happen. The last one he
publishes with this entry is a beaut too.
To get the full effect of what Rob was able to do with a camera, go
to one of the category pages,
and just start scrolling.
Click here to comment on this entry
Moving pictures
Moving pictures
01/16/2004 11:27 AM
I wanted to demonstrate the SpamBayes plug-in for the school, and I
realized I ought to try the screen-capture feature of the free Windows
Media Encoder 9. The results were stunning. I set up a new session,
pointed it at Outlook's main window, and began encoding. Then I talked
through a demonstration of SpamBayes' configuration manager, its
Delete and Recover toolbar buttons, and my techniques for integrating
SpamBayes with Outlook's filtering and foldering. Along the way I
pointed with the cursor to items of interest, opened and closed dialog
boxes, and drove the Outlook interface as I normally do.
The resulting six-minute video had the same format as my Outlook
window, which happened to be about 750-by-620. The file came in at
just under 3MB. I FTP'd it to my Website and, because I'd chosen the
progressive-download option, playback was immediate. It was also
perfectly readable and audible. Elapsed time from the moment I thought
of trying this to the end of playback: about 25 minutes. Next time
it'll take 10. Why don't more people do this? Because it wasn't this
easy before. Now, it is. [Full story at
InfoWorld.com]
I wanted to post that video here, but I'm afraid I can't because it
reveals too much of the contents of my inbox. However, I'll definitely
be using this technique in the future. One killer application, if you
sit in on a lot of WebEx demos as I do, is the ability to record them,
play them back, and publish excerpts from them.
...Christmas pictures
Christmas pictures
12/31/2003 08:30 PMSheila put up
Christmas
pictures...
Happy New Year to all!
In pictures: D-Day events
In pictures: D-Day events
06/06/2004 07:54 AMNormandy hosts a weekend of events to commemorate 60 years since the
D-Day landings.
Motorola MPx Pictures
Motorola MPx Pictures
03/08/2004 11:19 PMThe upcoming Motorola MPx is so hot that it's getting otherwise
non-techy geeks excited. Tycho, who co-authors the popular web comic
Penny Arcade (and who...
In pictures: After the siege
In pictures: After the siege
09/04/2004 10:10 AMImages from Russia of the aftermath of the school siege bloodbath in
Beslan.
iMac G5 in pictures
iMac G5 in pictures
08/31/2004 05:00 PMCNET News.com Aug 31 2004 9:37PM GMT
Panos Pictures
Panos Pictures
07/14/2004 05:16 AMPanos Pictureshttp://www.panos.co.uk/Panos Pictures is a London-based independent photo agency
representing photojournalists worldwide. Our photographers document
issues and geographical areas which are under-reported, misrepresented
or ignored. In a media climate dominated by celebrity and lifestyle
Panos aims to provide fresh perspectives on the world. Panos
photographers are available for assignment on every continent. Their
in depth knowledge of local conditions enables them to deliver even in
the most difficult situations. This website allows you to search,
download and purchase from our ever growing archive of digitised
images. If you cannot find the image you require our experienced
researchers are on hand to help you locate what you are looking for in
our physical archive of over 500,000 images. Half of the profits from
the agency are given to the Panos Insititute to further its work on
issues around media and communications, globalisation, HIV/AIDS and
environment and conflict. This has been added to
Reference Resources
Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.
Marathon pictures
Marathon pictures
07/19/2004 02:53 PMOur 2004 Rock-n-Roll Marathon pictures are online.
Microsoft gets into pictures
Microsoft gets into pictures
07/21/2004 08:13 PMDirect and Related Links for 'Microsoft
gets into pictures'
Digital Media Thoughts reports that Microsoft has their eye on
offering the next new video standard for the broadcast industry. While
the industry is considering the latest successor to the standard video
format, MPEG-4 AVC or H.264. Microsoft would prefer to see the
industry move to their own VC-9 and MPEG-4 AVC formats instead….
New iRiver PMC-100 Pictures
New iRiver PMC-100 Pictures
07/29/2004 01:10 PM
DAPreview found
some new hi-resolution shots of the upcoming iRiver PMC-100, the
Microsoft-based Portable Media Center that is the cousin to the
non-Microsoft PMP-120/140. It looks considerably different than the
original, more slab-like mockup we'd shown you, but it does look a lot
more practical to use. It also looks like it is probably just a
remolded bit of plastic that fits over the same hardware that powers
the PMP-1xx series players.
I still like the old design better, but I also know which one I'd
rather hold in my hands for two hours at a time.
Read
- Fresh pics of the iRiver PMC-100 [DAPreview]
Related
More iRiver PMP and PMC Details [Gizmodo]
Hello - Google gets into pictures
Hello - Google gets into pictures
07/29/2004 08:41 PMDirect and Related Links for 'Hello -
Google gets into pictures'
Been wondering what Google’s latest endeavor is? Google has
recently announced their picture sharing service called
“Hello”. Designed to allow their users to share photos
without fear of emailing attachments to each other, it is the perfect
solution for sharing your favorite pictures with loved ones. Hello is
a free service and definitely worth checking out….
LinuxWorld in Pictures
LinuxWorld in Pictures
08/05/2004 02:13 PMET's Loyd Case hit the West Coast edition of LinuxWorld and saw some
cool hardware and neat gadgets based on the upstart operating system.
But is the commercial rush drowning out the counterculture nature of
the Linux community?
"really cool pictures taken from the
air"
"really cool pictures taken from the
air"
08/10/2004 09:24 PM"these nutty pictures"
"these nutty pictures"
08/17/2004 09:24 PMCaptioned Pictures in CSS
Captioned Pictures in CSS
08/18/2004 10:26 AMPhoto Cards:
Here's a good, simple, obvious solution to an annoying problem.
Whenever a picture needed a caption, I surrounded the entire thing in
a DIV and floated it left or right. However, I had to set the width
of the DIV so it would float correctly, and to do this, I had to know
the width of the image, which may or may not have been available at
code-time.
Though, we have to remember the width of floated blocks
must be set (otherwise they may be spread to the full width and
there's no floating). Of course, we can solve it by setting
display:inline to the DIV — the width of floating element is
then adjusted by its content. But we have to remove all blocks inside
it (inline elenent must not contain blocks) and use only line breaks
BR. Sometimes this simplified formatting may be
sufficient.
I never would have thought to set a DIV to "display: inline." Yes,
now you have an ugly BR tag, but you've traded an unknown problem (the
width of the image) for a known one (the existence of a BR), and I can
live with that.
(BTW, I'm finding all these great CSS articles via this feed,
which has the most fantastic set of CSS links I've seen every single
day. I don't know anything about the site except that each day its
full of great new solutions to thorny CSS issues. I understand its
some kind of roll-up site for a bunch of CSS links from a bunch of
different people, but I don't really care. Just keep them
coming.)
Click here to comment on this entry
In pictures: D-Day memorials
In pictures: D-Day memorials
06/06/2004 06:51 AMNormandy hosts a weekend of events to commemorate 60 years since the
D-Day landings.
They're coming in through the
pictures...
They're coming in through the
pictures...
09/24/2004 03:55 PMMiles, the tinyapps.org guy, points us to a an article about yet
another Microsoft vulnerability. It turns out that there's a way that
just downloading a jpg can let a virus in. You can run a utility on
this page to see if your machine is vulnerable (mine was), and there's
also a link to the page with the plug for the hole. It does not
require you to upgrade to SP2, a fate some of us are postponing. What
next, viruses that get in if you type too slowly?...
New UnrealEngine 3 Pictures
New UnrealEngine 3 Pictures
09/27/2004 09:33 AMFirst N-Gage 2 Pictures
First N-Gage 2 Pictures
04/09/2004 03:55 PMJOEL JOHNSON --Someone has leaked the first shots of Nokia's next
N-Gage iteration, and sadly all the reports are true: Sidetalkin', the
go-to joke of 2003 is no more. What's more, there is also a proper MMC
slot so that games can be inserted without removing the battery.
Although this...
Railroad Pictures
Railroad Pictures
11/02/2003 02:08 PMBento Pictures
Bento Pictures
05/13/2004 12:54 AMBento box character photos .. yemeinle oynama jerry! .. puo' succedere
di tutto .. Japanese Lunchboxes .. ª¦Š†§ª .. look this cool? ..
Advanced sushi .. Fear of Bento .. Japanser .. gemaakt .. bento ..
lunch
www-personal.umich.edu/~msittig/bento
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In pictures: New EU celebrates
In pictures: New EU celebrates
05/01/2004 03:15 AMPictures of Lauren
Pictures of Lauren
03/23/2005 02:33 AMShe needed some photos for professional reasons, so I took a bunch and
then, while fiddling around with PhotoShop, discovered that you can
have some serious fun in the glamorizing line. Herewith
Lauren Wood, Ph.D. with
plumblossoms, twice...
Fuzzy Pictures
Fuzzy Pictures
10/29/2003 09:12 AMFinally Fuzzy2 got released
Pictures from Iraq
Pictures from Iraq
04/24/2004 11:56 PM
Pictures from
Iraq Allegedly from someone who served in Iraq.
Free Pictures
Free Pictures
04/04/2005 10:11 AMWhere To Find Great Free Photographs And Visuals For Your
Own Online Articles: Great roundup of free stock photography
resources, via LifeHacker.
The Power of Pictures
The Power of Pictures
05/07/2004 01:31 PMBy many accounts, the horrible treatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers
and mercenaries has been going on ever since the end of the invasion.
The Red Cross warned U.S. officials a year ago.
Yet it took those ugly
photographs to turn this into the huge story that it's become.
Which raises some questions:
Suppose the Americans hadn't bothered to take pictures of each other
in that infamous prison? Suppose they'd just gone on abusing the
prisoners without cameras? Does a story exist without pictures?
Getting the My Pictures Directory
Getting the My Pictures Directory
07/15/2004 03:48 PMGrok Description matches for Pictures from Madeira
GrokA matches for Pictures from Madeira
Pacific Beach, June 14, 2004
Pacific Beach, June 14, 2004
06/24/2004 11:23 AMThe driver, I found out later, was drunk, from Texas, and had only one
arm .. Drunk Driving Rampage
chrisrico.org/cars/cars.html
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site | 4 links
Hamilton Beach Stay or Go makes terrible
coffee
Hamilton Beach Stay or Go makes terrible
coffee
07/30/2004 03:41 PMI’ve been wanting a thermal carafe coffee maker for some
time. The traditional drip coffee maker uses a hotplate to keep the
coffee warm after brewing, but this causes the coffee to continuously
brew in the pot. That results in bad coffee.
Recently when I was in Target, I noticed they had a number of
thermal carafe coffee makers at prices ranging from $40-$60, so I
picked one up. It turned out to be a huge mistake.
The albatross I bought is known as the Hamilton Beach
Stay or Go Coffee Maker and every cup of coffee that comes out of
it has a stale, oily taste. I can’t even bring myself to drink
it.
Asian-Pacific PC market to grow 12.8% in
2005
Asian-Pacific PC market to grow 12.8% in
2005
03/25/2005 09:19 PMZDNet Mar 26 2005 1:33AM GMT
Coffee With Networking for Macmillan's
World's Biggest Coffee Morning
Coffee With Networking for Macmillan's
World's Biggest Coffee Morning
09/13/2004 03:17 AMWorlds Biggest Coffee Morning Event to auction off lots from original
works of art to lunch with IT/telecoms journalists. Great fun for a
great cause. [PRWEB Sep 13, 2004]
USC Marshall School of Business
Announces Finalists for Asia-Pacific
BioBusiness Leadership Award 2005
USC Marshall School of Business
Announces Finalists for Asia-Pacific
BioBusiness Leadership Award 2005
03/17/2005 02:52 AMThe USC Marshall School of Business today announced the finalists of
the Asia-Pacific BioBusiness Leadership Award 2005 to be presented at
its annual Asia-Pacific Business Outlook Conference on April 7, 2005
[PRWEB Mar 16, 2005]
War In The Pacific ShipsGary Grigsby
brings the joys of tabletop gaming to
the PC with War In The Pacific
War In The Pacific ShipsGary Grigsby
brings the joys of tabletop gaming to
the PC with War In The Pacific
07/08/2004 10:11 PMGigex Jul 9 2004 2:45AM GMT
Ivan Richman, From Dania Beach, FL,
Announces Plans to add another Enormous
Organization with AMS in COGNIGEN that
offers telecommunication products at
great prices but using Long Distance and
Dish Network as His Lead Products as
well as Free Weight Loss Supplements
with AMS.
Ivan Richman, From Dania Beach, FL,
Announces Plans to add another Enormous
Organization with AMS in COGNIGEN that
offers telecommunication products at
great prices but using Long Distance and
Dish Network as His Lead Products as
well as Free Weight Loss Supplements
with AMS.
08/27/2004 02:04 PMIvan Richman, a successful internet entrepreneur, chooses to go full
time to build and add a million dollar business with Dish Network and
COGNIGEN. Ivan is looking for current MLM distributors who are not
satisfied with their current companies, and who want to team up with
millionaire makers under a specialized and unique internet marketing
system. [PRWEB Aug 27, 2004]
Robogames 2005 photos
Robogames 2005 photos
03/28/2005 01:17 PMXeni Jardin:
A plethora of pixels from the ROBOGAMES in San Francisco this past
weekend.
Link to
Scott Beale/Laughing Squid's batch, and
Link
to more by Thomas Hawke.
Link to Robogames home.
Previously on Boing Boing: Ro
bolympics photos!,
More Robolympics photos,
Still! More! Robolympics! Photos!,
Son of Bride of Robolympics Photos!.
Xeni's Wired News report, 2003: Let's See,
Roborace? Roborally?
Barrier Therapeutics to Present at
Pacific Growth Equities 2005 Life
Sciences Growth Conference
Barrier Therapeutics to Present at
Pacific Growth Equities 2005 Life
Sciences Growth Conference
06/05/2005 11:53 PMMarket Wire May 31 2005 2:39PM GMT
Alcatel Pilots Tunisian 3G
Alcatel Pilots Tunisian 3G
06/30/2004 05:57 PMUnstrung.com Jun 30 2004 9:13PM GMT
HP brings OpenVMS to the SuperDome
HP brings OpenVMS to the SuperDome
05/07/2004 01:35 PMThe venerable operating system gets its first European airing on the
Itanium 2-based SuperDome, proving there's life in the old dog yet.
CES 2005: Photos From the Second 24
Hours (PC World)
CES 2005: Photos From the Second 24
Hours (PC World)
01/06/2005 10:04 AMPC World - IPod accessories, waterproof cameras, and slick cell phones
highlight today's photo gallery.
OpenVMS alive and kicking on SuperDome
OpenVMS alive and kicking on SuperDome
05/07/2004 05:00 AMZDNet UK May 7 2004 9:08AM GMT
HP Ships Amped-Up Superdome Server
HP Ships Amped-Up Superdome Server
03/20/2003 01:05 PMHewlett-Packard is shipping an amped-up version of its flagship
Superdome Unix server,
which the company hopes will woo Sun customers and keep IBM at bay in
the Unix market.
The upgraded Superdome is part of the new HP's efforts to sell more
profitable hardware
that boosts services and software revenue.
Consumer electronic prices down 0.8% in
January 2005
Consumer electronic prices down 0.8% in
January 2005
03/31/2005 11:24 PMZDNet Apr 1 2005 3:42AM GMT
Tunisian on Trial for 'Qaeda Bomb Plot'
in Germany
Tunisian on Trial for 'Qaeda Bomb Plot'
in Germany
05/04/2004 12:14 PMReuters via Wired News May 4 2004 3:28PM GMT
Can HP's 'Arches' Superdome server save
Itanium?
Can HP's 'Arches' Superdome server save
Itanium?
03/31/2005 07:29 AMIntel's Itanium could get a boost when Hewlett-Packard releases a
top-end server designed for the chip.
Tunisian on Trial for 'Qaeda Bomb Plot'
in Germany (Reuters)
Tunisian on Trial for 'Qaeda Bomb Plot'
in Germany (Reuters)
05/04/2004 08:03 AMReuters - A Tunisian man, said by prosecutors to
have trained with al Qaeda and met Osama bin Laden, went on
trial Tuesday accused of plotting to bomb Jewish and U.S.
targets in Germany.
Top Paying Keywords Announces 3.0% Drop
in Keyword Prices Since January 2005
Top Paying Keywords Announces 3.0% Drop
in Keyword Prices Since January 2005
04/10/2005 04:04 AMTopPayingKeywords.com announced today the release of its April 2005
keyword database. The database shows a 3.0% drop in keyword prices
since January 2005. [PRWEB Apr 10, 2005]
Tunisian bl0gger finally released from
prison after hunger strikes, alleged
torture
Tunisian bl0gger finally released from
prison after hunger strikes, alleged
torture
11/18/2003 03:14 PM35-year-old Tunisian
blogger
Zouhair Yahyaoui, imprisoned since June 2002 for criticizing the
Tunisian government on his weblog, was released on parole this
morning. An overjoyed Sophie Elwarda -- his fiance, who campaigned
tirelessly for his release -- tells BoingBoing:
"Zouhair returned to
his family's home shortly after his release. This morning even, he was
still unaware of this decision and thus has just stopped the hunger
strike he started on November 2nd. He is very weak and suffers from
his dental abscess due to poor medical care in prison, but seemed to
be in a good mental state when he talked to us on the phone and thanks
all those who have been supporting his case during all these months.
He does not forget the people he left behin him and said to one of his
friends: "Two years are nothing compared to the long sentence of some
of my fellow prisoners ". I can only express a very great happiness
to know he is free, at his place finally, after this year and half of
battle.
I thus dedicate my joy to all those who, by their thought, their
messages of support (to which I sometimes forgot to answer), their
presence, their combativity, their perseverance, allowed this day to
come and that I write, finally, the press release I've always dreamed
of ! I also dedicate it to all NGOs which supported Zouhair (by
regard for those that I might forget, I do not make the list), to all
the journalists who have been the echo of our voice, to his courageous
family and to all those forming what Zouhair calls "his XXL family".
And if I had only one hope to express, it would be this one: May this
press release be REALLY the last !"
Background on Zouhair's case
here; Reporters Without Borders press release
here.
Blair grilled by Little Ant & Dec
Blair grilled by Little Ant & Dec
04/02/2005 04:38 AMTony Blair confesses admits John Prescott has a "grumpy face" on a
show to be broadcast on prime time TV.
Tunisia
Tunisia
02/01/2005 10:10 PM
« The Sousse Ribat. Four galleries of photos from Tunisia; Black
& White, Colour, Carthage<
/a> and El Jem.
The people of Tunisia were decidedly uninterested in being
photographed and would hide their faces the moment they spotted a
tourist from 100 paces away. Next time, I go dressed as a Jawa. »
Tunisia was the destination for our winter holiday this year which
conjured a mixture of the exotic and the 'Star Wars' familiar in the
imagination. We departed late on Christmas Eve on a plane that had the
most cramped seating I've ever had the displeasure of sitting in and
still have the bruises on my kneecaps to prove it. I drank 3 glasses
of wine and chewed my fingernails to the quick to tamp down the
swirling homicidal urges directed at the woman in the seat in front of
me who kept bouncing the back of the seat not realising that the bumps
she was feeling in her back were my knees.
Fortunately, the flight was only four hours long. At passport
control, I watched a rather intimidating customs official linger over
every person and I began to be quite nervous about being a Yank. I
gave the man my papers and tried to do my best 'customs casual' hoping
that there wouldn't be a squad of armed guards if I looked too tense.
While waving about the folded receipt for my residence permit renewal
application that he found in the back of passport, "What's this?!", he
asked. I explained what it was and he then went through each and every
stamp in my passport. Twice. A few other questions and he tired of
toying with me and let me pass. A metal detector and two more passport
checks awaited us. Jarkko half-jokingly said to some other Finns on
the elevator in the hotel that he wouldn't be surprised if there was a
passport check at the room door. Welcome to Tunisia....
We strolled into Sousse on Christmas morning in search of coffee and
a general idea of the place we had flown into the night before. Sousse
is very much a product for the consumption of the tourists who come
there to visit but even with that in mind there were no McDonald's, no
Pizza Huts, no porn, no giant new shopping malls. There were a lot of
Santa and New Year decorations which were clearly part of the tourism
package but otherwise there were few signs of American/European
culture having found its way into Tunisia which was a refreshing
change of pace. Our 4-star hotel room even lacked a TV, telephone and
anything else electronic. It was paradise. We found a cafe and, after
nearly two years of strong Finnish coffee, the Tunisian coffee I
ordered 3 consecutive cups of was so good as to be sublime. I wanted
to order a thermos of it to go and I fantasized about a coffee
pipeline from the mediterranean to Finland.
The Sousse medina was like running a gauntlet at a an American vacuum
salesman convention in Las Vegas. Primed for an international
clientele, i.e. tourists, the shopkeepers would step into your path
and attempt to get you to look at their touristy crap at low prices
just for you. "Päivä! Päivä! Mitä kuuluu?" and "Raha on loppu?" was
their mantra to the pale folks like us dressed in black unless they
noticed my camera and then it was either "Wie gehts?" or something in
Dutch. I must admit that I admired their polyglot approach to pitching
their wares even if I wasn't so fond of their aggressive sales
tactics. Touristy towns always attract grifters. On our last day, we
experienced what I called a 'Tunisian mugging' delivered to us by an
old man who caught us off guard by speaking very good English and
offering to show us the way to the great mosque in the medina. A few
scary alleyways later, I shook his hand, thanked him and it dawned on
me that we had been had in the least clever manner possible. We gave
him a few coins and wandered back into familiar territory somewhat
relieved.
On the first evening in Sousse, we had a few drinks in the hotel pub
with a congenial bartender who would show his approval or disapproval
of drink choices and keep the flow of little plates of finger foods
coming all evening. At some point, between the second and third
indigenous cocktail concoction, a local businessman started chatting
us up and extolled the wonders the tax-free status businesses enjoy
for five years in Tunisia. I asked, of course, "What happens after
five years?", and he laughed a little too heartily and said, "You
change the name of the business." Apparently, Tunisians also enjoy a
Mexican-style privilege where they are allowed to hop over to Italy as
a source of cheap agricultural labour. The train to Tunis the
following day was a tour moving through olive groves and piles and
piles of rubbish. Hundreds of tissue paper thin plastic bags in white,
black, pink and other colours lay on open fields catching the wind
which looked like some post-modern crop ready for harvest. After so
many kilometers of rubble, rubbish and olives, a giant superdome of a
football stadium rises up out of the plain just outside Tunis which
instantly tells you where the national priority lies. The Lonely
Planet guidebook mentions, "Westerners are often shocked by the
depressing amount of litter in the countryside; it's not unusual to
see rubbish being thrown from cars or buses.", and continues to
mention that forests and animals are all but gone as well as
widespread pollution from heavy industries and water scarcity place
Tunisia pretty low on the environmental health index. I think anyone,
not just westerners, would be appalled by the rubbish covering the
countryside. I have a few German sayings that my mother used to quote
frequently that all basically say that you don't have to be rich to
avoid living like a pig. It makes you incredulous that empires fought
over this once prosperous and lush land that is now a giant landfill.
The Tunis medina was much larger, much more interesting and filled
with local goods instead of the tourist crap and the pushy salesmen
that went with it. It is not, not for the claustrophobic or
those who like personal space in a crowd. One local man got Jarkko's
attention and pointed from his eye to Jarkko's jacket pocket and let
him know he should be mindful of pickpockets in the very tight crush
of people. It was just a brochure for Carthage, but it was very nice
of him to try and help the obviously 'not from around here' shoppers.
I bought only one thing in Tunisia and that was an authentic fez. The
local costume is a brown wool cape with pointy hood [think Jawa] and
red wool fez sans tassel. I wanted to buy one fez with a tassel for
the perl pod mullah, but the man refused saying that those were only
for tourists. Uh...Yah. :)
After 8 years of Latin and Roman history, I was really excited about
seeing Carthage, but having seen downtown Tunis before riding the
local train out to the ruins I was already lowering my expectations.
Carthage is reportedly an upscale suburb but they must not expect
anyone to visit it on their own as there are few signs to the
scattered sites, no maps, and no visitors office for information. A
pile of garbage was sitting in front of a European embassy where
several cats were picking through it casually. I suppose that
'upscale' simply means better a garbage selection for the local stray
cats. The view of Tunis and the sea from Byrsa Hill was beautiful, but
after the museum the rest of the ruins were a bit too shabby for me to
bear. We headed back into Tunis to get some lunch and catch the train
to Sousse and, while I was waiting in line at the tabac, I watched
with some fascination a calligrapher decorating cards for people who
wanted something special for their New Year greetings.
After the depressing state we found Carthage and since we couldn't
make the trip to Dougga we decided to head for El Jem which the
guidebook spoke very highly of for its colosseum that was third
largest in the Roman empire. Getting there was half the fun since,
aside from the twice daily train, the only way to get there was via
louage. A louage is a shared ride where you go to the station, state
your destination and expect to ride on the roof of the minibus because
the guy with the goats needs more room and goats are more difficult to
tie down. Most of the roads are 2-lane and crowded with slowly moving
trucks so the louage drivers are constantly leapfrogging through
traffic. After a few terrifying moments where I could count the moles
on a truck drivers' face, I decided to stare out at the passing
scenery until we reached El Jem. :) Drivers chat on their mobile,
change the radio station, make change for passengers and pass slower
traffic all at the same time. It was a very cool experience, a bit
unsettling, but the view of the colosseum from the outskirts of town
was enough to know that even walking there would have been worth the
trip. El Jem, formerly known as Thysdrus, built its wealth by being a
transport hub in the olive trade and became the most opulent city
within the Roman empire by 238 AD. The city revolted, assassinated the
tax collector and proclaimed the African proconsul Gordian as Emperor
when Emperor Maximus attempted to apply a heavy tax and relocate that
wealth to Rome. Furious, Maximus punished the city and it faded from
the memory of time and would only be remembered much later through
some references made by Catholic priests.
The food was very good, especially the couscous and the olives.
Tunisian Celtia beer is a light pilsner that is surprisingly good as
are some of the local wines that we got bombed on one evening when it
was stormy outside and didn't want to leave the restaurant. The
appetizers are divine and full of fresh vegetables that I've not seen
in years, which I ate in spite of the brief thought of the fields
filled with rubbish contaminating the food supply. Hey, pollution
tastes yummy with enough chili and onion served with it. :)
Tunisia is a very interesting place and I'd recommend it to anyone
who is willing to deal with the inconveniences of a country that
hasn't quite made it to the 21st century or, more precisely, it has
many of the bad parts of modernization without most of the good ones.
If we decide to return sometime, we'll avoid the tourist compound,
hire a local guide and head for some of the more out of the way
places. Don't leave home without a good guidebook as you won't get
very much information from the tourist bureaus or a reasonable supply
of pocket tissue packs since toilet seats, hand soap and toilet
paper are rare commodities in public toilets. Next year, we're going
to go somewhere hot, sunny and more modern for our winter holiday. :)
Grilled-cheese casino buys again
Grilled-cheese casino buys again
12/27/2004 10:51 AMUSA Today Dec 27 2004 1:52PM GMT
Nominee Is Grilled Over Program on
Pesticides
Nominee Is Grilled Over Program on
Pesticides
04/07/2005 02:56 AMStephen L. Johnson, President Bush's nominee to lead the Environmental
Protection Agency, encountered unexpected turbulence at his Senate
confirmation hearing.
'Victim' grilled on Jackson story
'Victim' grilled on Jackson story
04/05/2005 11:54 PMA man who told a California court Michael Jackson molested him as a
child admits he initially denied it.
Oracle v. DOJ: Government grilled in
closing
Oracle v. DOJ: Government grilled in
closing
07/20/2004 05:47 PMspecial coverage The Justice Department starts an afteroon of closing
arguments under a hail of tough questions.
Apple grilled again over advertising
claims
Apple grilled again over advertising
claims
06/11/2004 03:56 PMThe UK-based Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is after Apple for
false advertising claims. This is the second time Apple has been
grilled by a UK advertising watchdog, and the third time complaints
over the G5's presentation have arisen.
First Ever 3G Call in Tunisia
First Ever 3G Call in Tunisia
09/22/2004 04:42 AM3G Sep 22 2004 8:11AM GMT
ZTE Touts Tunisia 3G
ZTE Touts Tunisia 3G
09/21/2004 02:34 PMUnstrung.com Sep 21 2004 5:26PM GMT
Pictures from Madeira
