Author: admin

“I wanted to take something that everybody had an idea of — ‘I’ve been there, I’ve seen the statue of liberty’ — but I wanted to show it to you in a way that you could never see it”

     – Stephen Wilkes

With markets closed around the world (and since 2008 some would say), here is something different.

Below is a sampling of some of the most iconic Day to Night photos by Stephen Wilkes, each of which captures the passage of an entire day in a single frame and which, as Wired states, takes an “absurd amount of time and effort to produce” including up to 15 hours to shoot and weeks to edit. “Wilkes says he is “maniacal” in his attention to detail when making these his information-dense, hyper-curated and highly polished accounts of a single day in some of the world’s most iconic locations. Every inch of his photos, some as big as 10 feet wide, are meant to tell a story. He says telling that story is an all-consuming process.”

More on this distinctly unique creative process:

The amount of work that goes into these photos is insane. After intensively scouting a location and planning the shoot, Wilkes spends as long as 15 hours behind the camera, often on a crane high above the scene. He’ll shoot more than 1,000 frames between sunrise and sunset, trying to capture the shifting light and activity throughout his field of view. Through it all he remains as still as possible for fear the slightest move will shift the camera even a fraction of a degree.

 

He and his assistant pore over the photos for weeks, creating dozens of digital collages that typically comprise 50 images. He uses a complex grid system to arrange the most interesting parts of each shot into a strong composition while staying true to the time of day that they were taken. The attention to detail reveals itself when you’re right next to the massive prints, which when seen up close stretch well beyond natural peripheral vision. The smallest oversight, like a slightly shifted shadow, can shatter the illusion by betraying the fact the epic image is in fact a collage of smaller images shot at different times of day. But when everything comes together perfectly, the viewer can step back or get nose-deep in the image without losing the sense of cohesion.

 

Another important aspect of the work is how Wilkes teases visual narratives out of seemingly chaotic public spaces. A few hundred tourists snapping selfies in front of the Sacre Coeur or an arrest on the Santa Monica Pier become nodes of intrigue in a network connecting individual frames that form the final collage. Wilkes says finding ways to connect the countless moments held within the image and the sweep of time it captures is one of the most exciting parts of the process. “It’s as if I’m a writer and I’ve been given this incredible thesaurus, so I have all these new words to write with,” he says.

And the photos:

The America’s Cup 2013, San Francisco

 

Wrigley Field, Chicago

 

Millenium Park, Chicago

 

Union Square, NYC

 

Shanghai, China

 

Times Square on New Year’s Eve, 2012

 

Washington Square Park, NYC

 

The Flatiron building, NYC

 

Central Park, NYC

 

Coney Island, NY

 

Barack Obama’s 2013 Inauguration Speech, Washington D.C.

Source: Wired

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/awkXEPKcd9k/story01.htm Tyler Durden

“I wanted to take something that everybody had an idea of — ‘I’ve been there, I’ve seen the statue of liberty’ — but I wanted to show it to you in a way that you could never see it”

     – Stephen Wilkes

With markets closed around the world (and since 2008 some would say), here is something different.

Below is a sampling of some of the most iconic Day to Night photos by Stephen Wilkes, each of which captures the passage of an entire day in a single frame and which, as Wired states, takes an “absurd amount of time and effort to produce” including up to 15 hours to shoot and weeks to edit. “Wilkes says he is “maniacal” in his attention to detail when making these his information-dense, hyper-curated and highly polished accounts of a single day in some of the world’s most iconic locations. Every inch of his photos, some as big as 10 feet wide, are meant to tell a story. He says telling that story is an all-consuming process.”

More on this distinctly unique creative process:

The amount of work that goes into these photos is insane. After intensively scouting a location and planning the shoot, Wilkes spends as long as 15 hours behind the camera, often on a crane high above the scene. He’ll shoot more than 1,000 frames between sunrise and sunset, trying to capture the shifting light and activity throughout his field of view. Through it all he remains as still as possible for fear the slightest move will shift the camera even a fraction of a degree.

 

He and his assistant pore over the photos for weeks, creating dozens of digital collages that typically comprise 50 images. He uses a complex grid system to arrange the most interesting parts of each shot into a strong composition while staying true to the time of day that they were taken. The attention to detail reveals itself when you’re right next to the massive prints, which when seen up close stretch well beyond natural peripheral vision. The smallest oversight, like a slightly shifted shadow, can shatter the illusion by betraying the fact the epic image is in fact a collage of smaller images shot at different times of day. But when everything comes together perfectly, the viewer can step back or get nose-deep in the image without losing the sense of cohesion.

 

Another important aspect of the work is how Wilkes teases visual narratives out of seemingly chaotic public spaces. A few hundred tourists snapping selfies in front of the Sacre Coeur or an arrest on the Santa Monica Pier become nodes of intrigue in a network connecting individual frames that form the final collage. Wilkes says finding ways to connect the countless moments held within the image and the sweep of time it captures is one of the most exciting parts of the process. “It’s as if I’m a writer and I’ve been given this incredible thesaurus, so I have all these new words to write with,” he says.

And the photos:

The America’s Cup 2013, San Francisco

 

Wrigley Field, Chicago

 

Millenium Park, Chicago

 

Union Square, NYC

 

Shanghai, China

 

Times Square on New Year’s Eve, 2012

 

Washington Square Park, NYC

 

The Flatiron building, NYC

 

Central Park, NYC

 

Coney Island, NY

 

Barack Obama’s 2013 Inauguration Speech, Washington D.C.

Source: Wired

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/awkXEPKcd9k/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The Turkish high-profile corruption scandal, whose fallout has so far resulted in the jailing of the sons of the Turkish minister of the interior Muammar Guler, just escalated sharply following the abrupt resignation of three key ministers from PM Erdogan’s government. Earlier today, first Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and then Interior Minister Muammer Guler submitted their resignations to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday morning. A few hours later, they were joined by Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar who also tendered his resignation as a member of parliament, however instead of doing so in a complacent manner, he lashed out at the PM and called for his resignation which roiled markets following an earlier relief rally.

As a reminder, Turkey has been shaken by three sensational corruption investigations last week that led to dozens of detentions and 24 arrests of people ranging from influential business leaders to senior bureaucrats and the ministers’ sons. Caglayan’s son Salih Kaan Caglayan, Guler’s son Baris Guler and Bayraktar’s Oguz Bayraktar were among those arrested in the sweep, which Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, called a “dirty operation”  to smear his administration and undermine the country’s progress.

Today’s developments are likely the beginning of the end for the current Prime Minister, because the shakeout “signaled a deepening rift in Mr. Erdogan’s government.” As the WSJ reports, while the economy and interior ministers joined the premier in condemning the bribery investigation as a plot to weaken the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Mr. Bayraktar lashed out at Mr. Erdogan for forcing the resignations, and in doing so also called for Erdogan’s resignation.

“I don’t accept being pressured because of this investigation, which involves bribery and corruption, and being told to ‘resign and issue a comforting statement,'” Mr. Bayraktar said, according to his office. The minister, whose son was questioned in the probe, denied wrongdoing. “To soothe the nation, I believe that the prime minister should resign, too,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the other ministers who quit echoed Mr. Erdogan’s allegations that the probe was politically motivated.

“It is very clear that the operation performed as of Dec. 17 is a dirty setup against our government, our party and our country. I have resigned from my post of economy minister to help bring out the truth and spoil this ugly game, which has included my child and my close colleagues,” Mr. Caglayan said in a written statement, according to his spokesman, who declined further comment.

The local markets were whipsawed by the developments, first rallying after the first two resignations, but falling sharply when Mr. Bayraktar called on the prime minister to quit.

The benchmark BIST-100 stock index reversed gains, falling 3.5% to 66555.3 in afternoon trading. The lira declined 0.5% to 2.0876 against the dollar, creeping toward Friday’s record low. The government’s borrowing costs rose as its benchmark two-year bond yields pared gains to 9.60% from 9.42%, after closing at 9.68% Tuesday. Bond yields decline as prices rise.

 

“With the two ministers’ resignations in the morning, the lira gained because the market saw it as a positive step that would reduce prevailing political uncertainties. But the third minister’s resignation, and call on the prime minister to step down, deteriorated investor sentiment,” said Gokce Celik, an economist at Finansbank in Istanbul. “Turkey’s lira has been under extra pressure recently due to domestic political uncertainties… it’s going to be difficult for it to stabilize as the year draws to an end.”

What may be behind the ongoing scandals? According to Al Jazeera, the investigations are widely believed to be linked to the recent tensions between the United States-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen’s movement and Erdogan’s AKP that, many analysts say, used to be allies in the past in a struggle against Turkey’s politically dominant military. The tensions, which have been festering for months, peaked after the government’s plans to abolish private prep schools. Gulen owns a large network of such schools. Erdogan recently said that those behind the investigations were trying to form a “state within a state”, an apparent reference to Gulen’s movement, whose followers are influential in Turkey’s police and judiciary.

Corruption in state tenders, money laundering, bribery, gold smuggling and distribution of prime land among favourites are among the accusations put on the suspects, sources at Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office told Turkish media. Formal criminal charges are going to be revealed after the prosecutor’s office announces the actual bills of indictment for the three simultaneous investigations it has been carrying out.

Those detained include the sons of Interior Minister Muammer Guler, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar. Various well-known businessmen were also detained, including Suleyman Aslan, the chief executive of Turkish state bank Halkbank, and Ali Agaoglu, a construction tycoon, as well as Mustafa Demirand, the mayor of Istanbul district Fatih. Some of these prominent people were arrested while others were released by court order, all pending trial (much more on the tensions within the Turkish government here).

As for just how the CIA is involved, as it always tends to be in any strategic government destabilization process, we will likely find out shortly.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/jc_zVQF7oQs/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Edward Snowden’s Christmas message, conveyed to the world courtesy of the UK’s Channel 4, from his Russian exile is simple: “end mass surveillance.” Alas, in a world in which social media exhibitionism is the norm, is his message increasingly falling on deaf ears? After all, there is a Duck Dynasty scandal, or Justin Bieber’s retirement at any given moment both of which are far more important than the loss of all personal privacy…

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ofzEKLKCJlg/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Edward Snowden’s Christmas message, conveyed to the world courtesy of the UK’s Channel 4, from his Russian exile is simple: “end mass surveillance.” Alas, in a world in which social media exhibitionism is the norm, is his message increasingly falling on deaf ears? After all, there is a Duck Dynasty scandal, or Justin Bieber’s retirement at any given moment both of which are far more important than the loss of all personal privacy…

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ofzEKLKCJlg/story01.htm Tyler Durden

When the first response taken by major banks such as JPMorgan, in the aftermath of the massive 40 million credit and debit card hack of the third largest US retailer Target, was to lower ATM withdrawal and purchase limits, it became clear that there was more here than simply a well-organized credit card number scrape. And indeed, as Reuters reports, the hackers who compromised up to 40 million credit cards and debit cards also managed to steal encrypted personal identification numbers (PINs) according to a senior payments executive familiar with the situation. And since from there to emptying bank accounts and saved deposits is only a keystroke away, with no credit card processor intermediate to offload liability to, banks had no choice but to immediately limit debit card access to as much 10% of their clients, in JPM’s case, in an unprecedented first, which just may have shown the way of how to limit a cash withdrawal panic if and when the need to do so arises.

From Reuters:

Target has not said how its systems were compromised, though it described the operation as “sophisticated.” The U.S. Secret Service and the Justice Department are investigating. Officials with both agencies have declined comment on the investigations.

 

The attack could end up costing hundreds of millions of dollars, but it is unclear so far who will bear the expense.

 

…

 

Daniel Clemens, CEO of Packet Ninjas, a cyber security consulting firm, said banks were prudent to lower debit card limits because they will not know for sure if Target’s PIN encryption was infallible until the investigation is completed.

 

As an example of potential vulnerabilities in PIN encryption, Clemens said he once worked for a retailer who hired his firm to hack into its network to find security vulnerabilities. He was able to access the closely guarded digital “key” used to unscramble encrypted PINs, which he said surprised his client, who thought the data was secure.

 

In other cases, hackers can get PINs by using a tool known as a “RAM scraper,” which captures the PINs while they are temporarily stored in memory, Clemens said.

 

The attack on Target began on November 27, the day before the Thanksgiving holiday and continued until December 15. Banks that issue debit and credit cards learned about the breach on December 18, and Target publicly disclosed the loss of personal account data on December 19.

And since in black hat hacker circles what is known by one is known by all, it is only a matter of time before America’s other largest retailers, are hit by the same PIN scraping technique, which in turn “forces” the banks to once again lower ATM withdrawal limits on a few million other debit card users. Ironically, perhaps instead of focusing on where the poor and middle classes shop, it may be time for the black hat hacker community to take a look at companies like Netjets and Ferrari where the PIN “scraping” wouldn’t drain the fund of the median income American but focus on those who have directly benefited from Bernanke’s ongoing asset inflation monetary experiment.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Nmb62rR7kpE/story01.htm Tyler Durden