Thursday, September 23, 2021

“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.”

“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.”

 Destin Sparks  [Quotes on Photographt]


Nikon has announced the $300 Nikkor Z 40mm f/2 Ultra-Compact prime lens. The company claims the new optic will provide extraordinary bokeh and fantastic image quality for both video and still photos, all in a very tiny package.

Nikon says that many creators have told it that they want extremely small lenses with fast apertures to compliment the lightweight Z series mirrorless cameras, and the new 40mm f/2 will deliver on that request in a lens that it says is great for travel, street photography, and everyday use.


Paul Keating is wilfully blind to China’s international aggression through cyber-attacks, which have caused major disruption to our university and corporate sectors.

Paul Keating is a living legend, a great prime minister who had a vision for our place in the world. He was right about the Asian century and led us to think about Australia as part of Asia, not from Asia.

In an article in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday, Keating colourfully and rightly highlighted the narrowness of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s foreign and defence policies, yet his attacks reveal that – like Morrison – he has fallen into the trap of binary thinking: that Australia’s only choice is between a declining United States or a rising China.

Why my hero Keating is wrong on China and our national security


Dickens’s Multitudes New York Review of Books


Taking a chance in Afghanistan: A Bengali traveller goes to Kabul in the 1920s Scroll

Robert Darnton and Zhang Chi: a conversationVoltaire Foundation

The Truffle Hunters’ review: A rich and poignant portrait of the quest for culinary gold Scroll


Big cats likely sick with COVID-19 at National Zoo in Washington NY Post


United in Science 2021

A multi-organization high-level compilation of the latest climate science information – “This report has been compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on behalf of the United Nations Secretary General to bring together the latest climate science related updates from a group of key global partner organizations: WMO, Global Carbon Project (GCP), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Health Organization (WHO), the Met Office (United Kingdom, UK) and the jointly sponsored WMO/Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO/International Science Council (ISC) and World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). The content of each chapter is attributable to each respective entity