Niagara Falls...

...illuminated at night, August 2006.

Could it be...

...that this freak accident happened because there was no invocation to the Lord and Jesus Christ for the safety of all involved!!

Yet again something...

...related to this:
'The Reaction of the German Government Was Not Fair'

Acropolis...

...sometime in October 2006, Athens.

Oh my, their...

...lads are adventurers and gentlemen, and the others' faceless numbers, blown to pieces, whose mothers even don't get to mourn them.
Perhaps this also represents the adventures and gentle(wo)manly behaviour of their lads and lasses.

Might be worth...

...making sure that the iPhone you buy isn't the 16th!

A photo...

...from summer of 2006, in Toronto (possibly at Woodbine beach, don't remember the exact location).

Previously I...

...mentioned a racist murder in a courthouse in the German city of Dresden. Some news reports related to this story that I bookmarked, which I am linking to here without comment (except one at the last link):

What do you think of the reportedly low key response in Germany?

In Germany, Muslims want answers

Dresden nimmt Abschied (Dresden bids farewell)

Dresdner nehmen Abschied von getöteter Ägypterin (Dresden bids farewell to the killed Egyptian: my question, why is she "killed", and not "murdered" /ermorderten?)

Some further news...

...about the Honda Indy Toronto:
- The winner of the race, Dario Franchitti, is married to the actress Ashley Judd (learnt by reading the free newspaper I read in the train).

- I discussed with a friend of mine who knows much more about North American culture, and apparently car racing, beer, scantily clad girls, national anthems, Christ, and the military mix well with the kind of folks (mainly rednecks) who visit the North American circuits. I did mention the national anthems and the fighter jets, but forgot to mention the obvious presence of the military during the race; they had set-up stalls with military equipment outside the racing arena, and had paraded a few vehicles before the race started (see picture).

Honda Indy Toronto 7

A link to all the photos is here:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/farhat/HondaIndyToronto12July2009#

Honda Indy Toronto 6

The temperature, 69F, which, by the way, is around 21 C.

Honda Indy Toronto 5

Checking the worn-out tires...

Honda Indy Toronto 4

The eventual winner...

Honda Indy Toronto 3

Nikon and Canon guys...

Honda Indy Toronto 2

National anthems and prayers!!!

Honda Indy Toronto 1

Before the race began...

There is something...

...called IndyCar Racing, a manifestation of which took place in Toronto under the name Honda Indy Toronto. Now this seems to be a car race where funny looking cars with noisy engines are driven round and around the same roads over and over again (85 times in Toronto), some cars bump into each other given the narrow roads and even narrower turns, thereby providing some drama to otherwise monotonous and noisy repetition, and the cars' tires are changed many times during the race, demonstrating the agility of the team that does this act in less than, I would think 5 seconds, and providing good revenue, and advertisement, or both perhaps, for the manufacturer of the tires.
I am no fan of car racing, though of course I have heard of Formula 1, Michael Schumacher, and before that, Aryton Senna, and how he ended. However, it so happened that a friend of mine's company was managing the ticketing of the event, which was convenient, in that I got free tickets, which, otherwise, for a decent place with some view, would have been horrendously expensive.
First about the seating. We had tickets for the Gold Grandstand, which was what its name suggested, a grand metallic structure standing, except that it was not colored gold. The only reference to gold must have been due to its proximity to the pit lane, so that you were near the pits of different teams, and could see the cars in the pits before the race started, and when the cars returned to get the wheels changed. There was a Silver Grandstand as well, which was opposite to where we sat, and I think the placement was fair, in that those on the silver grandstand were closer to the road on which the cars were actually running during the race, so the view was balanced in a way for different price tags. There were other seating arrangements which I do not know about.
Another thing that I found amusing was the playing of the national anthems of USA and Canada, and more weird was the invocation for everyone to stand!! This is the kind of jingoism that I remember from "back home", where much is made of the national anthem and standing up for it, but apparently this tradition is alive and kickin' here as well. After that, even more weird for me, was a prayer invoking the Lord and Jesus Christ and what have you!! I mean, I thought, and still think, that Canada is not USA, but apparently this kind of stuff goes with IndyCar Racing. I would be really pissed of to know, however, if this kind of stuff happens in F1 circuits, though I can't think of the national anthems being played and Lord and Jesus Christ being called to bless the race and ensure the drivers' safety in Europe, but if this is part of the culture of car racing, I don't know about it.
Additionally, fighter jets flew overhead, which was good, since my children were impressed, though I think this was in the same jingoistic vein as the national anthem and the prayers, but at least right now my children are too young to have to explain the nastiness behind the jingoism to them, or the fact that fighter jets make a pretty spectacle, but their real use is not so pretty.
The race itself was okay, with lots of noise, and I envied the few who had brought ear plugs. I stuffed tissues in my childrens' ears, something which they did not like. I had taken my 20D with the 70-200mm L F4, and took lots of pictures. However, as mentioned previously, taking good pictures of the racing cars was difficult from where I was sitting, since the road was across from where we were sitting, and there was a metallic grill in the view as well.
Still, on the whole, good fun was had by all. Some pictures will follow in the next few posts.

It has to...

...be wondered how long it takes for the truth to come out. Is there a pattern? Probably not. Depends on the truth perhaps. Convenient truths might come out early, inconvenient ones may never.
New evidence may solve mystery of decapitated monks

Update to previous...

...post:

A colleague of mine from Germany has written me that today's Spiegel Online does carry the news, available here. Furthermore, the previous coverage by Spiegel Online is available in the links mentioned at the bottom of the article.
So I stand corrected that the news, which I consider is significant, has been covered. Still, I don't understand why the news is not linked directly off of the main page; instead, you have to go into the section Panorama, and there you find it quite low down the list.
In my opinion, this is significant news mainly for two reasons; one, that a racism-related murder took place in a courthouse, and two, that it has set off very emotionally charged reaction in Egypt. Even the title of Spiegel's report says "Egyptians blame Germany racism".

As a side note, I am convinced that not having comments on the blog is a very good thing. This way, if any reader of your blog cares about something, (s)he will send you an email. This has happened to me before, and it usually happens only from someone you know; plus the contact is more personal, not anonymous.

There is something...

...I don't understand. CNN and other news websites are reporting the funeral of an Egyptian woman murdered in a court in Dresden in Germany, but there has been no news of it in the german language Spiegel Online website, neither yesterday nor today. I wonder why this is not news enough in Germany (given that Spiegel Online is a well-respected and widely read german language news site).

A link to...

...more photos from the circus is here.

Some photos from...

...a circus we went to on 1st July that has setup its show near our place in Mississauga. There weren't any elephants though, since the management of the mall in whose parking lot the circus was setup did not allow the big animals.
The circus was okay, and the children enjoyed it pretty much. I had taken my 20D and the 70-200mm F4 L. One thing is for certain: low light and action needs something like F2.8, and IS. To have either of these, or both, you need, of course, well, lotsa cash :-(
On the other hand, I am only too happy with the combo that I have, 17-40 mm F4 L, and the 70-200mm F4 L. Nothing comes close to the L-series.

more circus photos...

circus photos...