Category Archives: WTF?

Aug 19

Where everyone with a camera is out to get you, or your children, or your local government building

Paranoia is the word of the day anymore. This story was brought to my attention thanks to Susanna Raab at Look Underfoot. It seems street photography is a threatened art in Britain, where amateur photographers are harassed left and right for being terrorists or pedophiles.

The police had the film developed and returned the pictures to him later that day, acknowledging that they were entirely innocuous. They also admitted that there had been no complaint from the public; they had stopped Carroll because they thought he was taking pictures of children. Carroll lodged a complaint with the local station. ‘The superintendent at Humberside police got in touch and was very sympathetic. But he still claimed that his officers had behaved correctly and at times of heightened security we have to accept less freedom for our own good.’

That last line is particularly chilling.

I’m going to go look at my Cartier-Bresson book now.

Apr 17

holiness

I spoke with DS earlier. He told me he was taking pictures outside a Catholic church, and he stopped to talk to a woman who walked out of the church. As he was taking information from her for his caption (I’m not sure if he had taken her picture, or if he was speaking to her about the church), she said something along the lines of: Be sure to include that the fathers are very holy here.
I had to laugh.

My father is holier than your father.

Apr 9

Shock at polar bear’s carp kill (WTF?)

“Germany’s celebrity polar bear Knut has triggered a new controversy by fishing out 10 live carp from his moat and killing them in front of visitors.

Critics say Berlin Zoo should not have put live fish inside Knut’s enclosure. But German media report that the carp were put there to eat up algae.

There is speculation that hand-reared Knut killed the carp just for fun.”

Controversy? Over a polar bear killing carp in his moat in front of
visitors (gasp!)?

What the hell? He’s a polar bear for god’s sake! That’s what they do.

Apr 2

In my humble opinion, which means little except in the small bubble that is my world, I believe the policy of destroying alligators because they are over five feet long is complete and utter bullshit. The argument is they are too big to “safely release.” I say, there must be some place in the glades where they can be relocated. Or a preserve. I can sort of understand the argument when there is evidence the alligator has been fed by people and associates people with food. I don’t know if there is evidence of that in this situation, yet the creature was hauled off to the processing plant because of his size. It irks me, but I’m a bleeding heart for wildlife trying to survive in the ever encroaching city.