Author Archives: HassanJDVefvwac

A Travel Query for the Hive Mind

by HassanJDVefvwac Posted on February 19, 2017

Mother Jones

Ben Cawthra/Rex Shutterstock via ZUMA

OK, hive mind, I have a question for you. My sister is heading to London later this year, and this time she has a shiny new iPhone to take with her. She’s on T-Mobile, so allegedly she’ll have access to calling, texting, and low-speed data without doing anything. So here’s one plan:

Download the maps she needs before she leaves.
Rely on T-Mobile for calling and texting.
Use WiFi whenever she’s at the hotel, in a coffee shop, etc.
Register for The Cloud, and use that when she’s out and about.
When all else fails, use T-Mobile’s low-speed data.

Alternatively:

Buy a SIM when she gets there and use local calling, texting, and high-speed internet.

Do I have any T-Mobile readers who have been to London lately? What’s the dope? What do you think her best alternative is?

UPDATE: Thanks everyone! It sounds like T-Mobile’s native service works pretty well.

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A Travel Query for the Hive Mind

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100-Plus Photographers Capture 49 Cities

by HassanJDVefvwac Posted on December 6, 2014

Mother Jones

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Take a quick look at The World Atlas of Street Photography and you’ll see right away that editor Jackie Higgins worked from a rather loose definition of the genre. Which isn’t not necessarily a bad thing for a book billing itself as a “World Atlas.” You want to give readers a full range of what exists under a broad definition of street photography, right?

Like any compilation work, though, the book is a mixed bag. A follow-up to The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti, it pulls together work by living photographers who do street photography in one form or other. Some you’ve undoubtedly heard of, but there are plenty you haven’t, and a number of notable street photographers whose work isn’t included. That’s where the “World Atlas” thing causes a bit of trouble. No Robert Frank? No Anders Petersen or Morten Andersen? No Jacob Aue Sobol? Bruce Davidson? Maybe these people didn’t want to take part. Or maybe the editors didn’t feel they should be included. And really, anyone familiar with the genre would come up with an entirely different lineup. Such is the nature of these sorts of books. Let’s be honest: Part of the draw is the chance to nit pick.

From “A City Refracted,” 2012–2014. Graeme Williams

Mumbai, India, 2007–2013. Maciej Dakowicz


The book is broken down by location, and Higgins makes a valiant effort to truly make it a worldwide survey. With more than 100 photographers shooting in 49 cities, there’s a great geographic and stylistic distribution. You have Martin Parr in Dubai, Wim Wenders in Houston, Pieter Hugo in Lagos, Trent Parke and Narelle Autio in Sydney, Alex Webb shooting Istanbul, David Goldblatt in his native South Africa, and much more.

All of the work is from existing, if not previously published, projects, such as Luc Delahaye’s L’Autre (a series of candid portraits from the Paris Metro), Nikki S. Lee’s performance art “Projects” series masquerading as street photography, and Michael Wolf’s Transparent City project.

From “Ramos,” Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2009–2012. Julio Bittencourt

Fenchurch Street, 11 a.m., from “London’s Square Mile,” 2006–2013.
Polly Braden

A few bodies of work feel imitative, or leave you with that feeling of “Hell, I can take photos at least as good!” It’s a refrain you often hear from people who have been to an exhibit of Garry Winogrand, or of any street photographer, for that matter. I wouldn’t say that about Winogrand, but there are enough projects in this book that make me think, “Why was this included?” to leave me with an uneven feeling about the book.

At the same time, some of the work truly inspires. Alex Webb’s groundbreaking juxtapositions and Daido Moriyama’s contrasty explosions of black and white expand the boundaries of the street photography genre. Then there are photographers who push the envelope of what is even considered street photography, like work from Doug Rickard’s “A New American Picture,” a series of images lifted from Google Street View.

Appold Street, 6 p.m., from “London’s Square Mile,” 2006-2013. Polly Braden

The Wall Street Guy, New York City, 2008 (from “Stolen Moments,” 2008–present).
Yasmine Chatila

Shanghai, China, March 2011. Ying Tang

All that said, there’s a lot of amazing photography within these 400 pages. And the brief history of street photography for different cities is a great touch. Some of the best work, however, seems overly familiar—though to a nonphotographer it may not. Aside from that, the range of photographers represented seem to tilt more heavily toward the museum or ArtForum set: fine-art type photography that just happens to be set in the streets. And that’s not really my bag. But there’s also a lot that is totally up my alley. Like I said: mixed bag.

Even if I wasn’t overly wowed by the broad overview, I can understand what the book is trying to accomplish. Like most surveys, it’s a fine enough introduction to the current state of street photography in all its forms. The write-ups offer a quick background on each photographer and their included body of work, enough to provide a great starting point.

But if you’re seeking a deeper dive into the masters of the genre, you might want to check out the truly excellent Bystander: A History of Street Photography, by Joel Meyerowitz and Colin Westerbeck; Leo Rubinfien’s recent, massive Garry Winogrand book; the new Robert Frank book; and the reissue of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s monumental Decisive Moment.

Moorgate Station, London, UK, 2005. Matt Stuart

From “Rio: Entre Morros,” Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2010. Claudia Jaguaribe

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100-Plus Photographers Capture 49 Cities

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NEW STUDY: 72 Percent of Fox News Climate Segments Are Misleading

by HassanJDVefvwac Posted on April 7, 2014

Mother Jones

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According to a Pew study released last year, 38 percent of US adults watch cable news. So if you want to know why so many Americans deny or doubt the established science of climate change, the content they’re receiving on cable news may well point the way.

According to a new study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, misinformation about climate science on cable news channels is pretty common. The study found that last year, 30 percent of CNN’s climate-related segments were misleading, compared with 72 percent for Fox News and just 8 percent for MSNBC. The study methodology was quite strict: segments that contained “any inaccurate or misleading representations of climate science” were classified as misleading.

By far the worst performer was Fox (this is hardly the first study to associate this channel with sowing reams of doubt about climate change). Notably, the UCS report found that “more than half” of the channel’s misleading content was due to The Five, a program where the hosts regularly argue against climate science. For instance, Greg Gutfeld, one of the show’s regular co-hosts, charged on September 30 that “experts pondered hiding the news that the earth hadn’t…warmed in 15 years, despite an increase in emissions. They concluded that the missing heat was trapped in the ocean. It’s like blaming gas on the dog if the ocean was your dog.” (To understand what is actually going on with the alleged global warming “pause,” and why the deep oceans may well explain part of the story, click here.)

You can watch Gutfeld’s comments here:

As Gutfeld’s statement suggests, one of the standard Fox practices was sowing doubt about scientists themselves. On February 13, 2013, for instance, Sean Hannity commented, “I don’t believe that this global warming nonsense is real,” and then went on to mention “phony emails” from climate scientists. (If you want to know what was actually up with those emails, read here.)

Fox’s two most accurate programs with respect to climate science were The O’Reilly Factor and Special Report with Bret Baier. As the UCS study put it, “O’Reilly and Baier’s programs, although also airing a number of segments containing inaccurate statements about climate science, were responsible for nearly all of the network’s accurate coverage.”

In contrast to Fox, the study found that MSNBC was overwhelmingly accurate in its coverage, and also devoted a great deal of attention to climate change. That was particularly the case for programs hosted by Chris Hayes, whose All In With Chris Hayes featured 30 segments about climate change. When MSNBC did err, the study found, it was because hosts or guests “overstated the effects of climate change, particularly the link between climate change and specific types of extreme weather, such as tornadoes.”

CNN provides the most interesting case in the analysis. In general, the network was usually accurate; when it erred, however, it tended to be because climate-denying guests had appeared in “debates” the network hosted over the reality of climate change. Take a January 23 debate on Out Front with Erin Burnett, for instance, in which Erick Erickson of RedState (then a CNN contributor) claimed that “the 1950s had more extreme weather than now.”

Overall, the UCS report calculated that if CNN had not hosted misleading science debates, it would have improved its accuracy rating to 86 percent. “The biggest step that CNN could take to increase the accuracy of the information it provides to its viewers,” the study concluded, “is to stop hosting debates about established climate science and instead host debates and discussions about whether and how to respond to climate change through climate policy.”

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NEW STUDY: 72 Percent of Fox News Climate Segments Are Misleading

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