just one more reason

pieter hugo's new project:
PERMANENT ERROR
"For the past year Hugo has been photographing the people and landscape of an expansive dump of obsolete technology in Ghana. The area, on the outskirts of a slum known as Agbogbloshie, is referred to by local inhabitants as Sodom and Gomorrah, a vivid acknowledgment of the profound inhumanity of the place. When Hugo asked the inhabitants what they called the pit where the burning takes place, they repeatedly responded: ‘For this place, we have no name’.
Their response is a reminder of the alien circumstances that are imposed on marginal communities of the world by the West’s obsession with consumption and obsolesce. This wasteland, where people and cattle live on mountains of motherboards, monitors and discarded hard drives, is far removed from the benefits accorded by the unrelenting advances of technology.
The UN Environment Program has stated that Western countries produce around 50 million tons of digital waste every year. In Europe, only 25 percent of this type of waste is collected and effectively recycled. Much of the rest is piled in containers and shipped to developing countries, supposedly to reduce the digital divide, to create jobs and help people. In reality, the inhabitants of dumps like Agbogbloshie survive largely by burning the electronic devices to extract copper and other metals out of the plastic used in their manufacture. The electronic waste contaminates rivers and lagoons with consequences that are easily imaginable. In 2008 Green Peace took samples of the burnt soil in Agbogbloshie and found high concentrations of lead, mercury, thallium, hydrogen cyanide and PVC.
Notions of time and progress are collapsed in these photographs. There are elements in the images that fast-forward us to an apocalyptic end of the world as we know it, yet the alchemy on this site and the strolling cows recall a pastoral existence that rewinds our minds to a medieval setting. The cycles of history and the lifespan of our technology are both clearly apparent in this cemetery of artifacts from the industrialised world. We are also reminded of the fragility of the information and stories that were stored in the computers which are now just black smoke and melted plastic."

true love

valerie hammond

bad man's plaything

i've been thinking a lot about yarrow. it's a flower that makes a pretty bouqet, a leaf that's soft and yummy to sniff. a cough remedy, a fever inducer, it's the one you reach for when you have a cut that won't stop bleeding (damn new razor!) and why i just had to tell you about it, one of the best monikers in history!

Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
"In Greek mythology, yarrow grew from the rust that Achilles (thus, Achillea) scraped from his spear to help heal a man he had wounded (there's an interesting connection between iron/rust/blood/war/Mars here, kind of a neat obverse of the Venus/love aspect of this herb). Perhaps this myth is why in the language of flowers, yarrow can mean war or healing. Because it is aromatic, yarrow is often associated with the Element of Air, and it contains the planetary metal for Jupiter (tin), but it is traditionally connected to Venus because of the usefulness of the fresh herb as a poultice in skin problems. Yarrow also has the ability to potentiate other herbs when added to incense or when incorporated into love magick. It is put into love sachets, because it is believed capable of keeping a couple together for 7 years.
In Divination
Magickally, this herb is good for divination--the I Ching was originally thrown not with coins but with dried yarrow stalks--it makes a nice ingredient for dream pillows and for divinatory incense and tea (great to combine with mugwort for this purpose). Burning yarrow is said to produce visions of snakes. On a lighter note, yarrow has often been a device for divining the identity of one's future lover or determining whether one is truly loved.
As a Protector
In the past, yarrow was used as a protectant. It was strewn across the threshold to keep out evil and worn to protect against hexes. It was tied to an infant's cradle to protect it from those who might try to steal its soul. The Saxons wore yarrow amulets to protect against blindness, robbers, and dogs, among other things.
In Herbalism
Yarrow was commonly used to flavor beer before the introduction of hops, and it still flavors vermouth and bitters. A tea of the flowers raises the body temperature (good for the start of colds), works as a bitter tonic to help digestion, helps promote healthy coughing, eases spasms, and promotes menstruation (don't use during pregnancy). In India, yarrow was put into medicated steam baths for fever; the Chippewa used it very similarly for headache. Even now, the tea is sometimes taken as a remedy for the blues and for restlessness, especially during menopause. It is helpful in shedding fear and negativity.
Its Many Names
The many other common names for yarrow reflect how widely this herb has been used: allheal, angel flower, bad man's plaything, bloodwort, cammock, carpenter's weed, devil's nettle, devil's plaything, dog daisy, gordoloba, green arrow, herbe militaris, hierba de las cortadura, knight's milfoil, milfoil, nosebleed, old man's (the devil's) mustard, old man's pepper, plumajillo, sanguinary, soldier's woundwort, squirrel's taile, stanchgrass, stanchweed, thousand-leaf, thousand weed, woundwort, and yarroway." -harold roth