Fancy Eat a Lamb ?

India complains over ‘offensive’ Australian lamb commercial

(There was a kind of diplomatic / cultural conflict.)

India has lodged an official complaint over an Australian advertisement that features the Hindu god Ganesha and other religious icons endorsing lamb.
In the TV commercial from industry group Meat and Livestock Australia, a number of religious figures — including Lord Ganesha, Jesus, Buddha and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard — are seen sitting down together to a lamb-based meal and raising a glass to the meat.
The image of elephant-headed Lord Ganesha, who is widely considered to be vegetarian, was met with anger in Australia’s Indian community.
The Indian high commission (embassy) in Canberra said it had taken the issue up with the Australian government.
Lord Ganesha along with other religious figures is found to be ‘toasting lamb’, which the Indian community consider to be offensive and hurting their religious sentiments, the commission said in a statement Saturday.
The Indian consulate in Sydney has also made a direct appeal to Meat and Livestock Australia to withdraw the commercial, according to the statement.
The industry body said it was meeting community groups to respond to their concerns.
It said it had undertaken extensive research and consultation when producing the advertisement, which was intended to promote inclusivity and not intended to offend.

(2017/09/12 14:22) – AFP-JIJI Press

It was an absolutely bizarre story, regardless whether any ground of complaint, even a shred of evidence whether any proven fact behind — or not.  Other than Ron Hubbard, no-one can proof even an existence of other figures like as what some of us are believing.  Not mention Hindu God, to believe the stories of those “religious figure” are just exists in the imagination of the people.  Think, to deny the story or alleged experience of UFO could make an insult to the person ?

Still, the “Real” trouble is, there are many attacks and killings of the person who is handling or eating Beef meat has been kept happening in India.

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Ideally ~~~~ or Typical

Think, about your own life, — how can it be “Ideally” re-organized.    Then think about how is your typical daily life ?  —– In either case you may need to think quite deep.

—– So, how about, can you imagine “Typical Buddhist” or “typical Muslim man” ? You may say that you don’t know about them deep enough, or you might draw an image of a caricature = funny exaggeration based on the popular stereotype.   As those Notion of Ideal, or Typical kind were artificially created abstract notions for the convenience of communication or try to show how I am intelligent, they never represent a reality.    Real truth is always stays few steps behind of “Ideal” or “Typical” —– and we all know it.

So, the obvious FACT is, what so ever the imagination you have made-up here just now, in the actual daily life, you ARE just carry on your same old daily Life = You must be realized here, extreme or exaggerated idea came up when you INTENTIONALLY THINK = otherwise you are not having such image or notion = In a real daily life, you ARE living without any artificial conscious of “I AM carrying out my living operation”.  —– As a matter of FACT, while reading this blog, you are even NOT aware of YOU are reading this.   While away from intentional thinking, we ARE naturally following the way of the commonsense or what the Buddhists call Dharma.  Of which we unconsciously follow.

This IS what all about of SELFLESSNESS, and the real situation of the Middle way. (Both extreme were created by the intentional thinking = live without such thinking  (Selfless Mushin)  we can follow the Dharma and it IS the very Middle Way.

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August Moon

August Moon   (In few days time it would be a new moon —– so, a solar eclipse is coming.)      In Japan 15th August is the Moon Festival though, in the Moon Calender, it will be in the September.  But I’m not sure how many people still remember it.  —– They might be thinking more, if north Korean missile is coming when they see the sky now. —— Lunatic isn’t it.

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PS : The photo above which was taken by the Tamron SP 500 mm F8 Mirror lens shows the Red and Blue fringe = it is a chromatic aberration.     This is a reputed to be one of the best 500 mm mirror lens in the history, —– I couldn’t accept such flaw in this lens = I may need to check if any loose element in the lens occurred ?   (By the way, why this photo is not as sharp as the other photo “Red Moon” is, this one was taken through double grazed window —– Red Moon was taken while window was fully opened.  😀  )

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Onion Business

Some time, I had to buy the onions from a street open stole, which has been wet by the passing shower.   Of course I have a choice to go to super market but I’m not such fussy.  (The same onion could be half of the price on the street — still, it would be only a matter of 10P 20P kind of money.) —– Then what will happen to that wet onion IS a bit different story. = I peel off all the wet skin and made them dry.   With wet skin, onion would get rotten easily = so, why not to make them naked. —– You might say why DO I choose to have so much trouble,  just because I didn’t buy dry onions from a roofed shop while paying 10P more. —– Is that true ?    AM I doing  more with wet onions ?    Whether it is a dry one or wet onion, we need to peel off exactly the same number of the skin = only the difference IS to do it now in advance or later.     Without seeing this, most of the people who saw my naked onion just got shocked.  Very Very funny.   😀    This IS the typical sample of,  how our mind was stacked with a preconception and couldn’t see even a plain truth. —– Open your eyes.   😀

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Save a junk (replace a Prism of Pentax)

In our network, I seems to be a man, the most hopeless junk would end up.  May be because I could find a way to repair or utilize it = not just I got some skills but also I’m keeping many junks which could be used as a spare to repair.  So, people described me a resourceful man —– then I gave a thought or two

—– May be the matter here was not what I got for spare or a skill to use but the way of thinking. = I got very flexible way of thinking, — or more precisely I never trained to follow the standard or regular method, therefore I may conceive totally different approach and able to find a fancy solution.  This is a freedom to be an outsider.  😀

One typical sample is the Tilting Macro Bellows of which I made the orignal nearly 50 years ago.  Only a small cost of lens and camera body caps + straight bracket etc, (and some cut and grue works) = what I got was a device which can make a close-up photo up to 1:1 + tilting adjustment.  Simply the reason to make such adapter was, I needed to have a macro lens though, I didn’t have a money (I was a Uni’ student and my saving had gone to Nikon F body and 50mm F2 already). —– If it was the situation, the answer and the solution was, why not to make one myself !  The requirement for close-up photo was, to hold the lens further away from the body, and how far from the body correspond to the magnification = 50mm extension for 50mm lens would create 1:1 / life-size close-up. —– And what I made, Tilting Macro Bellows, was good enough, and worked exactly what I expected.  In there, there was no jump of thinking = everything was pretty rational and simple —– yet still, as no body ever made like this before indicates, there was a kind of blockage in thinking that the camera device must be very rigid and elaborated. (to be a good salable commodity —– no solution for homemade poor man’s choice can be existed) 

A Pentax film camera brought by somebody got hopelessly heavy black fungi in the center of the finder prism.   In normal sense, the prism may be replaced (by Pentax or somebody keeping a spare parts) but the cost of the repair would be no less than £50 or even more, while the value of such old camera would be less than £50.  It’s no worth to consider. = so, the camera came to me.  —– I was thinking to use its mirror to make a side view adapter etc. 

Then somebody need a film camera for Pinhole photo, I thought this camera can be a good candidate.  For hours of ultra long exposure (use dark ND filter together) view finder has to be blacked-out too. —– but, to frame a direction, finder would be useful. —– To remove the fungi, peel off the paint and coating then clean the glass — is a straight forward procedure though, — wait a moment, the prism of the 35mm film camera must be all same size (as the image size is the same 36×24 mm) the prism doesn’t need to be the same Pentax. = Why not Canon. (as I happen to have a disassembled Canon body, it was easy to get a prism out of its frame.

So, I disassembled the Pentax K1000 body to remove the fungi infested Prism. (It’s alway the case, — I know from the past 40 years experiences — a screw fixing the wind-up lever is the most awkward to Remove.   Some of them were CCW screw and break-off, or using screw lock grue = needed to heat-up and melt) 

Once the top cover was removed, the prism is easily accessible.  Behind the prism (alongside the view finder) mounted CdS are for measuring the exposure. (Photo Right)  Pentax is doing exactly the same since their SP, but later addition of the top (smaller) CdS is to compensate the strong back (sky) light.

(Photo left was Pentax prism.  Photo middle was Canon Prism.  Photo right = Canon prism was happily settled on the Pentax head. )

On the end, the Prism swap operation was a great success.  Leaving an empty Canon junk frame behind,  the Pentax K1000 got new lease of life.     🙂

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Ultra Wide Angle Lens (Sony 12~24mm F4 Zoom)

I had an opportunity to test an ultra wide-angle lens, Sony 12~24mm F4 lens.  With its spec, the lens was amazingly light (in comparison to similar Nikon or Canon lens, it only half of the weight.  And smaller.)  Mounted on Sony A7R body, its handling balance was very comfortable. And function well.

Though, the image itself, the 12mm lens’ 120° view is not so new to the man using 15mm lens or fisheye lens almost like an everyday occurrence for the past 40, 50 years, looks nothing special.

To make the view with a big distortion of perspective or looks more natural is not difficult at all. (in fact, it would be only few degree of the camera angle or move the position few steps away.)

The lens was supposedly a rectilinear, not fisheye though, having rather prominent barrel distortion.  (Both Nikon and Canon seems to have about the same distortion) (All the pictures here showd quite of a vignetting (corners getting darker) because of they were taken with fully open F4 = so, the shutter speed was 1/3000th kind and the water splash became the dot ! )

The lens said to have some measure of dust and water protection though, we better not to trust them.  Simply because, we the user will be the one who suffer with the trouble, and the service charge of the Sony is three times more expensive (Any service start with £90 deposit and another £90 for repair — even for just tighten-up a screw !)

The image which give you the impact or pressure may not necessary be created by the lens, it is simply the matter of subject or the landscape.  (You have to find the “impressive subject” first.   😀 )

But I’m not implying you to feel any impact here.    😀

(You know, it IS a joke = Ultra wide-angle or Fisheye is easy to make a joke as they can twist the view very easily.  In other words, often it is very tricky to show the natural view without any exaggeration.  Such as, that the lens can take a picture of very confined place though, it would give a false impression, as if it was a wide space.)

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New Moon (about)

 

Not exactly.  If it was really a New Moon, we can not see it’s totally black face on front of a blight rising Sun.   Other obstacle is, normally we are not watching such early morning sky.  = So, I discovered this Moon almost in an accident.   It was after 3:30, I just looked out the window and found something blight object in a still dark dawn sky.  It took a while for me to realise that it was in fact a Moon.  It’s funny, we expect that the Moon is somewhat round, or at least half round, therefore like this, iron hook kind of THING can not be a Moon though, as it slowly moving up right, I convinced that this is in deed a Moon.   (The photo above was a picture of my kitchen window, overlooking the Moon. — by a 55mm lens on A7R camera)

It was the same kind of misunderstanding, that the white light IS exist (they were not white but the mix of all tri-color = same as a PC or TV screen, when all BGR lit evenly, we feel it was white) so as the Moon IS a round blight object in the Sky.  In reality, Moon is not blight at all but its surface shine when its was hit by the Sun light. = It’s mean, Moon shines only a side facing the Sun.  And, when the Moon was in the opposite of the Sun, we can see fully lit (hence it looks fully round) surface which we call Full-Moon.  And when the Moon is in the same direction of the Sun, we only see it’s un-lit back = This is the New Moon.  (And the half Moon is somewhere between.  🙂   )  The most frightening reality in the life is, when we see the full moon 12 times, a year has gone !

(Photo above left was a cropped center of a 18mm lens image and the right was a shot by a 500mm lens on A7R camera)

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What a hell = Pigeons

I found a pigeon in my veranda — sound may not be strange at all, but it was not a kind of visiting bird but nesting one.  When I open the door and step out, the pigeon fly away.  Then, I noticed a nest behind a plant pot.  I think, I stepped out at least two weeks ago.  Still, I’m not sure whether I just didn’t notice it then or the nest was made after that day (it is not likely, because the nest is having not only an egg but already feathering chick as well. —– It seemed the hen-pigeon didn’t comeback after that.  So, the abandoned chick had to go alone under a  cold night.  — Yet, next morning, surprisingly the chick was very active.  As no sign of the mother / hen-pigeon I decided to feed the chick.  (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a generous person.  Every week, I’m eating chicken etc = not vegetarian, not a friend of earth.  Still, strangely, time to time I did take care of baby animal (such as to revive stillborn kittens) or bird chick.  Simply because I had to DO something.) 

From my experience, I know how to feed baby chick. (It’s no use to put a birds-feed on front of  baby, as they don’t know to peck a feed by themselves.) === So that, by putting the fingers between the chick’s beak (to open them wide) then inject rather runny prepared meal (such as ground rice, wheat, bean, smashed maze, piece of apple all mixed-up with water) into the chick’s throat.  You must be horrified to hear such brutal practice though, this is perfectly harmless and effective method. —– only an alternative was, chew the grain / birds-feed in the own mouth and feed the chick, mouth to beak. (not very hygienic way — to the man or to the chick may be arguable.)  

As a sign of how the chick was happy with this rather brutal force-feeding, chick started to think my fingers as the mother’s feeding beak, so, started to peck and beg.

But, my honest feeling is, I hate this.  I absolutely hate.   Once I started, I have to continue this till the chick grown up.  Other trouble is, since the chick got me imprinted, wouldn’t fly away to join other pigeons.  And well may be the pigeon become a stoker to follow and watch me all through the life. (I know this, as it happened before, when I was in Japan.)  It’s no good to my life or pigeon’s life neither.   Fundamentally there is no way out, unless the mother Pigeon comeback,  It’s really a trouble.

—– I don’t know whether it was just a coincidence or was it the mother bird / hen-pigeon = a pigeon came several times (following day as well) (photo above right) and perched on the edge of kitchen window as if she wanted to know the well-being of her chick.  (May be she can hear her chick chirping even in a distance.)  (Sound getting like a pigeon’s soap-drama isn’t it ? )

—– This trouble in its reality is, feeding 3~4 times a day, cleaning the shit 10 times a day !  (Chick aim the bottom outside, so, take the chick out and wash the plastic container = this endless task is nothing but a hell in deed.  And yet another trouble is, as I have to wash my hand after I touched the chick, the hand became too dry = You see, why I said, I hate this !)  😀   (So, don’t ask about the egg left in the nest.  I can’t give my bosom to hug the egg all day = that egg must embrace the fate when mother bird abandoned it.  —– I can do what I can.)

—– Then, you might start to wonder why do I need to do this ?   Yes, this IS what the Karma mean.  You can not cherry-pick your Karma.  When it’s come, it has come.  And when it’s come, we have to deal with it with our best we can.  

One episode in the Agama scripture showed the understanding and the attitude of Lord Buddha toward the coming Karma.  In this episode, Lord Buddha was not expecting any query, let alone argument of why or what for kind, but just follow and do ( = own opinion or judgement was not asked = in other words, the expression of the SELF or existence of the SELF / Atoman was not expected ).  This is what the Buddhism is.   And this is the Zen.

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PS :  Whatsoever the Zen, the Chick died on the day before yesterday (on 18th).  On 17th, I was out half day.   So that, before I go out and after came back, I fed the Chick more feed. Then after that, the Chick drunk a lots of water — and vomit.  Did I fed too much for one time or while I was out, the Chick had been dehydrated ?  Or, since those two days, I put a boiled egg yolk mixed to the feed — was that wrong ? (Hen-pigeon eat many insects = so, it was a kind of supplement = that what I thought.) —– Anyway, the shit of Chick became smaller and became rather inactive.  Then yesterday morning, I found the Chick lying its side and the body temperature was rather low.  I gave warm wather bath. (But now I know, it was not the matter of the temperature, = Chick’s internal energy generator has been stopped working = it was no use to warm up from outside.) —– While I was drying up wrapped in the tissues under warm fan heater’s air, the Chick was loosing its response and became completely inactive.   It was the Chick’s final moment. —– the day later, I buried the dead Chick, under a flowering Juda’s tree in the wood nearby commons.

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Multi layered Cherry – X6 Lenses(?)

Mag Lens

Multi layered Cherry (Yae-zakura) started to flower.  Here is a collection of the photos taken by 6 different homemade Lenses / Pinholes.

Sony 30 mm Macro

Gaudy Lens

Gaudy Lens

Sony 30 mm Macro

Mag Lens

Sony 30 mm Macro

Gaudy Lens

Mono Pinhole

DD Pinhole

X4 Pinhole

X4 Pinhole

X4 Pinhole

Sony 30mm Macro

You must be convinced that how dry the images of “So called Good Lens”.  Still, you may not to have any choice but to go with the “Good Lens” other than just wet the lens with your spit.   😀   (Don’t worry, it’s not a serious matter at all.)

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When 3 Artists come together

There was a gathering with 2 Cinematographer / Video Artist = Mr A and Mr G.  Basically Mr A was curious about my homemade lenses etc.

It’s a visual artist’s habit.   They tend to grasp the world with their camera.   Then try to compile a poetry or report kind while using intentionally picked up material in the convenient order (and sometime made-up a false story.)   Since I brought my wire Dragon as well (Demonstration model), Mr A who never seen it kind was rather puzzled of its mechanism. (I guess, video camera’s eye might make small wire structure even harder to comprehend.)     Any how it’s a his business / expertise.  Something funny about this gathering was, since all three were long running artist, and got own style and the concept, each of us was shooting their camera in their own pace, without telling what he IS shooting or aiming what.  (So, when their footage come up, I might incorporate them into this post or make a link to their Post or Youtube.)

Mr A was shooting rather heavy weight video camera and Mr G was using 8 mm film cine camera.  (And I was using Nikkor 24 mm F2 on Sony A7R)

(I have no idea what they were shooting.   😀  )  While going through the same environment, we three may make completely different scope.

I wonder, are they making a kind of human drama ?   We are seasoned enough, to talk on the Film, not on the mouth.   (We no longer believe blah blah but the resulting solid image.)

They were 2 of the ordinally shot though, put them in this way might give you an impression, “We are walking towards the doomed future”.  (= that’s how the trick of the political bias works. “Donate the money to protect the earth, before it become  too late !  😀  )

The area in question was socially rather interesting place though, political Art never work. (Because, the art is the matter of emotion —– emotional power always makes mistake in the social movement.)

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