Dave Bender: Compelling Photography

Monday, March 5

After Words, We'll Talk (Original Photograph)

After Words, We'll Talk

Click on image for full-sized photo.
(Photo: Dave Bender)

...And The Cow Jumped Over The V-Dub

A Hewlett Packard PDA-cam shot, later morphed into a funky, cartoonish image, befitting the visual joke (which I only noticed just as I posted it).

Of course, it also helps to be the type who proudly wears "Geek Squad" t-shirts...

Getting down from being high - safely

To all my readers: Yes, I've been away - thanks for coming back. Meanwhile, my latest article for Israel21c.com just went up:

Israeli rescue device promises a 'safe exit' from world's high-rises
(Photo: Dave Bender)

Getting people out of a high-rise office tower or apartment building quickly and safely in an emergency usually means using the elevator or stairwell. But what happens when both of those methods are blocked, or the individual is incapacitated and can't get to them?

Ever since buildings began rising over four or five stories, passing the reach of even the longest fire department ladders, a trio of threats have kept police and fire departments, safety officials and building engineers awake nights: fire, earthquakes, and now, terrorism.

Inventors and designers, spurred by the devastating terror attacks against the World Trade Center, have tried everything from sedate open and closed slides, to chutes and ladders, helicopters and hovercraft, external elevators, and even supposedly 'easy-to-use' parachutes.

Read the rest here.

Friday, February 16

Israeli rockers getting 'by with a little help from...' Oleh! Records

Friday afternoon is a time when many Israelis are winding down, preparing for the Sabbath or taking a break at the end of a hectic workweek before heading out for a night on the town. But at Tel Aviv's Levontin 7 club, situated in a seedy, rundown neighborhood in the south part of the city, hundreds of young, hip looking Tel Aviv musicians have gathered to hear a presentation from Jeremy Hulsh, a shy and earnest Chicago native who speaks little more than a stumbling Hebrew.

But they have patience even when Hulsh switches to English. Because the purpose for this unlikely gathering is the launch of Oleh! Records, an ambitious new initiative which hopes to transform the way Israel is seen by Americans, while at the same time propelling some of Israel's most talented young musicians into the international limelight.

Monday, February 12

JerusalemOnline daily news update (special note to readers)

(I have taken a much-needed break from blogging for awhile, but will return in a few days, so please click back soon - DB 15/2/07)

Prime Minister Olmert allows Turks to inspect Temple Mt. building site
The race for the presidency: Collette Avital vs. her patron, Shimon Peres
Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli rocks on
Special: click to watch former CIA Director, James Woolsey

Click here or on image for latest Israel
Channel 2 news update.

Friday, January 26

Israeli death balloons wreak havoc over Lebanon

(WHAT do I keep reminding you about the uselessness of doing news parodies around here, hmmm? The following is a real news report - and reported by barkin' lunatics...)

Beirut- Eight people were hospitalized Saturday after inhaling toxic gases from poisonous balloons dropped by Israeli warplanes over Upper Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said among those who were rushed to hospital suffering from nausea and fatigue were a Lebanese staff sergeant, a recruit and An Nahar reporter Rana Jouni.

The agency said Israeli warplanes dropped at least 10 poisonous balloons with Hebrew markings over Upper Nabatiyeh at about 9 am Saturday.

NNA said contacts have been made between the Lebanese army command and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, which has instructed an Italian peacekeeping unit to take samples from the balloons for examination. The agency said the results are likely to come out on Sunday.

NNA had earlier said that the Lebanese army's engineering unit headed to the area and destroyed the balloons by explosives.

The army, in a communiqué issued Friday, warned civilians against messing with the balloons and urged them to report finding them to the closest army unit.

Yes, the "engineering unit" no doubt should have used very long pins, instead, to blow up the balloons... what wackos.

NOT one of the balloon seen over Beirut...
if only, though...

And here's the original Haaretz article:

An Israeli promotional campaign involving balloons caused panic among Lebanese civilians Saturday when the wind carried them over the border into southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese media reported that some civilians were hospitalized after inhaling the gas in the balloons.

However, the photographs published on the Web site of Hezbollah's TV station Al-Manar show green balloons from a promotional campaign for Ha'ir, a Schocken group newspaper. (and Tel Aviv's "Village Voice " wannabe weekly)

And, this just in: death-dealing IDF units are next reportedly planning to - oh no - send in the clowns (ah, I just slay me sometimes...)

Thursday, January 25

Bite down on this Israeli 'cuisine': edible lampshades

No, no, silly - not the bulb... that's for drunken Russian sailors on shore leave. We mean take a chaw' on the shade itself:

Shuli Levin's lampshades look so good you could almost eat them. But rather than cultivate the squash-like gourds that grow outside his studio in Bnei Zion, a moshav north of Ra'anana, for food, the intrepid Israeli industrial designer transforms their fibers into hip, cutting-edge eye candy for the home.

Forget 'Google Maps' - try 1,100 Holyland maps instead

Here is one really useful resource: The Jewish National and University Library recently posted some 1,100 original and rare maps of the Land of Israel on the Internet.

Israel: 'This Place Called Hope' (insert sigh here)

Dry Bones, once again, nails it

Daniel Gordon, in pondering the hellish moods, exposes' and general crap writhing through Israeli society over the aftermath of investigations into the government and IDF's conduct of the war against Hizbullah; a slew of investigations of the (take a deep breath and try not to spew...) Government, Justice Minister, Knesset parliament, Tax Authority, both chief rabbis, and now, presidency in Israel's (modern) history, quoting an IDF general he recently interviewed, writes,

“'In any normal country, people would be in the streets, burning tires, protesting by the thousands. But here, nothing happens. People are going on as if there’s nothing to get worked up about.'”

I’m not so sure that it’s terrible that people aren’t burning tires. Burning tires would suggest that a change in the government would be enough. But that would be delusional. The reason Israelis aren’t protesting, I think, is that deep down, they understand that this problem is much deeper than the government, or the corruption, or the war. It’s Zionism. No one frames it that way, but that’s the real issue. One hundred and ten years after the First Zionist Congress, people are beginning to wonder if Zionism hasn’t begun to fail.

Very worthwhile reading about the malaise engulfing Israel.

(H-T: The Muqata)