Very good tips here on Flying With Fish

Some more photo tips for taking portraits. Simple and practical.

I was in the back seat with my camera gear so time again to play.

In this case, I used the flash very low reflected off the ceiling to light the inside a bit.

And here we are off the main road very near the British School of Kuwait.

This image is from The Big Picture, The Earth From Above I hope Yann Arthus-Bertrand doesn’t mind me using his copyrighted image in a reduced size in this post. His photos are awesome, and it must have been hard to get permission to take some of them. In Kuwait private ownership of aircraft isn’t allowed as far as I know it so how would he do it?

I’m not sure I want to go there considering all the depleted uranium that was used in the first Gulf War. And it makes me think how much depleted uranium dust is in the air in Kuwait particularly in the dust storms that we had for so much of this year.

Here is where the photo was taken.

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Or should I call it Lines and Glass?

From the summer. Nothing much going on here in Kuwait as it is the work week now. I tried it in black and white but it wasn’t too interesting. Perhaps if I spent a lot of time on the black and white, but this version with colours over the top is fun. Reminds me vaguely of Escher

National Geographic, Fast Lane to the Future. They are building the Quadlateral highway from Mumbai, to Delhi to Calcutta to Chennai.

Nice music to accompany the video and lots of photos. Some readers of this post, if there are any, may recognize one of the artists doing the background music. Good divided highways are the way to travel but there are so many problems from forcing farmers away from their land to the adoption of the western car culture.

And if you are interested in other issues causecast.org is an interesting site also.

The debate showed that Biden is clearly equipped with the foreign policy know-how required to deal with the dangerous, complex problems of the Middle East. It showed that Palin, despite her admirable enthusiasm, quick study of the issues and connection to America’s heartland, is clearly not. A key question about Palin that does not apply to Biden is, What happens to American foreign policy should McCain become unable to govern and she becomes president?

Though some headway seems to be made in Iraq.

But just a few months ago a similar tour might not have been possible. “You couldn’t walk here without taking fire” one soldier said. The security situation in Samarra has drastically improved in recent months and U.S. commanders attribute that to a number of factors including the Sons of Iraq, mainly former Sunni fighters who have turned against al-Qaeda.

My only question is as to how biased the Time Magazine writer is. But it certainly gives a contrast between the two parties, Democrat for diplomacy and Republican for isolation and threats.

Read it here on the CNN Middle East blog.

I’ll be there in less than two weeks!

Go here for some information and great photos.

1. Spend some time each day quietly reflecting on how we would like to relate to ourselves and others.
2. Remember that all human beings have the same needs.
3. Check our intention to see if we are as interested in others getting their needs met as our own.
4. When asking someone to do something, check first to see if we are making a request or a demand.
5. Instead of saying what we DON’T want someone to do, say what we DO want the person to do.
6. Instead of saying what we want someone to BE, say what action we’d like the person to take that we hope will help the person be that way.
7. Before agreeing or disagreeing with anyone’s opinions, try to tune in to what the person is feeling and needing.
8. Instead of saying "No," say what need of ours prevents us from saying "Yes."
9. If we are feeling upset, think about what need of ours is not being met, and what we could do to meet it, instead of thinking about what’s wrong with others or ourselves.
10. Instead of praising someone who did something we like, express our gratitude by telling the person what need of ours that action met.

The Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) would like there to be a critical mass of people using Nonviolent Communication language so all people will get their needs met and resolve their conflicts peacefully.

2001, revised 2004 Gary Baran & CNVC. The right to freely duplicate this document is hereby granted.

When you come to the gulf to work you get an X-ray for TB. We think TB is no big deal. Wrong. Click here to find out more. Note there are some depressing images.