Category Archives: Sealand

MONIQUE FORD/Stuff

A leopard seal was being monitored on Sunday at whiro Bay after the spine of an elephant fish became stuck in the top of its mouth.

It was one stressful event after another for rescuers over the weekend as they rushed to help three stranded dolphins and a leopard seal, which had an elephant fish stuck in its mouth after attempting to have it for breakfast.

On Saturday, three young dusky dolphins were found stranded and an operation was launched by the Department of Conservation (DOC), Project Jonah and Whale Rescue to refloat the dolphins in deeper waters on the other side of Mana Island.

While two dolphins were successfully refloated, Whale Rescue coordinator Linda Robinson said the other dolphin died just before the release, likely from stress.

The dolphin had been buried and blessed by Ngti Toa.

READ MORE:* One of three dolphins stuck in Porirua Harbour dies after showing signs of distress* Kayaker heightens concerns for orca in Wellington inlet* Pod of orcas spotted in Porirua Harbour* Wellington's conservation community loses a lodestone in Colin Ryder

Monique Ford/Stuff

Two to three volunteers were assigned to a dolphin each on Saturday.

The dolphins had been disoriented and did not know where they were, Robinson said.

Robinson, who helped with the operation on land, said two to three volunteers, all of whom had attended a stranding before, were assigned to a dolphin each.

One of those volunteers was Mandy Coleman, who said the dolphins did not know how to get back to deeper waters and kept trying to swim towards the shallow inlet.

MONIQUE FORD/Stuff

Two boats transported the dolphins to deeper waters on the other side of Mana Island.

Robinson said it was unusual for dusky dolphins, a type of dolphin often found in deep coastal waters, to have swum towards the shallow waters of the harbour.

We still don't know why they came in.

While it was fairly easy for Robinson to coordinate rescue efforts for the three dolphins, there had been concerns with the boats, which would carry the dolphins to deeper waters, potentially getting stuck due to low tide, she said.

While everyone had wanted all three to survive, she was glad two of them had made it, she said.

If they had received no help, they would have all died in the harbour.

MONIQUE FORD/Stuff

The leopard seal left whiro Bay on Sunday at 11.30, but Department of Conservation staff were still monitoring the situation.

With two of the dolphins successfully released, Robinson said some volunteers headed from Porirua Harbour to whiro Bay, to tend to a leopard seal.

The leopard seal had washed up on Saturday morning and was being monitored after eating an elephant fish that had got stuck in its mouth, she said.

Crew were keeping an eye on the leopard seal and had been rotating with two-hour blocks.

MONIQUE FORD/Stuff

A cordon was initially put in place to keep the leopard seal and people safe.

Vets are there along with DOC. The leopard seal is a lot happier than before."

DOC spokeswoman Cassandra Spearin said the leopard seal left the beach around 11.30am on Sunday but staff were still monitoring the situation.

The seal had an elephant fish spine embedded in the top of its mouth and a cordon had initially been put in place around the seal to keep it and people safe, Spearin said.

Staff had been taking photos and sending those to DOC's technical advisors who with Wildlife Vets, she said.

The current advice is to wait and monitor. It's hoped that the spine will dislodge naturally, Spearin said.

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF

An operation to refloat the Dusky dolphins took place on Saturday as groups from DOC, Project Jonah and Whale Rescue battled against low tide.

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From dolphins to a leopard seal: One rescue after another in Wellington - Stuff.co.nz

Some very special visitors are heading to Blue Lagoon in Pembrokeshire.

Recent years have seen increasing numbers of the Grey seal population breeding in and around the lagoon and spotting them is an exciting wildlife encounter that many visitors wont forget.

However, the combination of the Blue Lagoons high visitor numbers, and its sheltered nature which makes it so attractive to seals, creates a situation where there is a high potential for disturbance to seals.

The time seals spend resting on land is vital to their health and that of their pups as they are digesting a recent meal, socialising, and feeding their young.

In order to provide them with a safe environment to raise their pups, National Trust Cymru will be closing the Blue Lagoon to visitors from September 25 through to November 5.

Visitors will still be able to watch these wild creatures in their habitat from the coastal path and coasteering activity providers who have signed up to the National Trusts Coasteering Agreement and undertaken specific training on how to operate around seals, will still have access to the lagoon with groups of visitors who have booked in advance.

Mark Underhill, National Trust Cymrus Countryside Manager, Pembrokeshire said: There are two species of seal that can be found in Britain; the Common seal and the Grey seal. Only Grey seals occur regularly in Pembrokeshire, where they are present all year around.

About half the worlds population of Grey Seal breed on our coastline and the total number in West Wales, mostly Pembrokeshire, is estimated to be about 5,000, with some 1,400 pups being born each year.

The breeding season is vital for our seal colonies here in Pembrokeshire, and we ask that visitors do not access the Blue Lagoon and that they follow the guidelines laid out by the Seal Alliance and Pembrokeshire Marine Code when on the coastal path.

Paul Renfro from the Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum said: The Pembrokeshire Marine Code recommends remaining at least 50m away from the seals, though they can be disturbed at any distance so its important to be responsive to their behaviour.

If a resting seal looks up or turns to looks at you then you are close enough at whatever distance you are at. Seals can be particularly sensitive to disturbance after periods of stormy weather and during the breeding season so we recommend giving them extra space at these times.

To avoid disturbing seals at this very important time of year, National Trust Cymru recommends adopting the following strategies:

Originally posted here:

This is why Blue Lagoon in Pembrokeshire will be closed to the public for two months - South Wales Guardian

Leader News Staffnews@ptleader.com

A Des Moines-based nonprofit known as Sealife Response, Rehabilitation, and Research or SR3 will present a virtual presentation on elephant seals at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 29.

There are two species of elephant seals, the northern elephant seal and the southern elephant seal, and both were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century, but their numbers have since recovered.

These incredible animals spend up to 80 percent of their lives in the ocean, and can hold their breath longer than any other non-cetacean mammal, plunging to depths of 5,000 feet beneath the oceans surface.

Presenter Kenneth Bach is a resident of Jefferson County and on the board of SR3, a dedicated marine animal hospital. He has more than 20 years of experience with marine mammals, including volunteering with the Marine Mammal Center, Ano Nuevo State Preserve, and SR3.

Register for the free presentation online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-amazing-elephant-seals-tickets-170234846007?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch.

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Elephant seals are the star of free presentation this month - Port Townsend Leader

Robert Montgomery Thomas| The Patriot Ledger

To the editor:

The Massachusetts Legislature, in its grand and glorious wisdom, is considering banning or has banned Native American figures, caricatures and names from appearing as mascots and logos for all school sports teams throughout the commonwealth.

Meanwhile, they intend to keep the figure of Myles Standishs arm brandishing a broadsword above the head of the indigenous native on the State Seal with some holier-than-thou Latin verbiage that basically means, Peace… our way or the highway.

And for Standishs bravery in assassinating the-then tribal leaders under a flag of truce, a massive state park near Plymouth was named in his honor.

More: Hanover votes for Hawks to replace Indians mascot

More: Four indigenous people on what mascots mean to them

The solution is to just remove the offensive arm and broadsword from the State Seal and re-name the state park for someone truly honorable, like those who were butchered.

ROBERT MONTGOMERY THOMAS

Weymouth

Please note, our newsroom is currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Letters mailed to the newsroom may not be received and reviewed in a timely manner.Thereforewe are asking readers to submit their letter to the editor through email at editpage@patriotledger.com.

Letters should be 200 words or less. To give everyone a chance to be heard, we allow one letter per writer every 30 days. Please include your name,townand daytime phone number for verification only.

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Letter: It's time to remove reference to Myles Standish from State Seal - The Patriot Ledger

Heidi Klum had a lot to celebrate this past weekend.

The supermodel's eldest son, Henry, turned 16 on Sunday and the proud mom shared two photos of the birthday boy to mark the special occasion.

The 48-year-old posted a throwback photo with her baby boy and a rare current snapshot of her son with a colorful sunglasses graphic covering his eyes. The "America's Got Talent" star also sent a loving shoutout to Henry in the caption.

"One more year around the Moon and back I love you so much Henry Happy 16 th Birthday You have the kindest heart and the biggest SMILE ," she wrote.

Klum shares Henry with her ex-husband, singer Seal, and is also mom to Leni (17), Lou (11), and Johan (14). The former couple was married from 2005 to 2014 and Klum remarried in 2019 when she tied the knot with Tokio Hotel guitarist Tom Kaulitz.

The proud mom has shown us glimpses of her happy family over the years but often hides their faces in photographs. In June, she shared the following photo with her two sons and captioned the post, "How did i get so short?"

The same month, the proud mom appeared to cover her children's faces with smiley face emojis in a photo of the family chilling out on a boat.

Last October, the supermodel posted a video of herself working out with her two daughters and the trio were all rocking masks.

In 2019, the family celebrated Christmas together and all of Klum's children cleverly hid their faces while posing for a group photo.

The supermodel's daughter Leni does appear to be following in her mom's footsteps, though, and has been making her mark in the modeling world. In August, the proud mom posted a video of her daughter walking down the runway and over the weekend, she shared a photo of her budding model at work.

"Well done @leniklum & BFFs @aboutyoude It makes me so happy to see you this happy ," she wrote.

Go here to see the original:

Heidi Klum shares rare pics of son with Seal to celebrate his 16th birthday - Yahoo News

Dr. Jeff Hersh| Daily News Correspondent

Q:My almost2-year-oldsondevelopeda barking-like cough and fever. I was afraid it was COVID,so brought him to his pediatrician.She said it was croup and his COVID test was negative. What iscroup?

A:When we breathe the air enters through our nose or mouth, goes through the throat into the larynx (the voice box), then through the trachea (the windpipe), and on to the large airways (bronchi), thensmaller airways (bronchioles) and finally to the lungs where oxygen passes through the alveoli (the tiny air sacs) walls to be taken up by the blood and carbon dioxide leaves the blood to be exhaled.

Croup is a respiratory (breathing) illness due to narrowing of the upper airway,i.e., the larynx, trachea and/or the bronchi,frominflammation or other swelling.Older patients typically have larger airways so can tolerate some amount of swelling, and hence do not usuallydevelopcroup. Therefore, it is younger patients, particularly between the ages of 6 months and 7 years, that typically develop croup symptoms.

There are two major types of croup, infectious croup and spasmodic croup.

More: What's Up Doc? My hip snaps when I exercise. What's going on?

Infectious croup is usually due to a viral illness (although bacterial tracheitis, where pus forms in reaction to a bacterial infection of the trachea,is a rare infectious cause), most commonly parainfluenzavirusalthough many other viruses have been implicated as well.The symptoms of infectious croup typically begin with cold-like symptoms, sometimes with a fever, and then develop intothe classic symptoms of croup, including stridor (a harsh typically high-pitched vibrating/whistling noise during inhalation), a hoarse voice and/or a high-pitched cough (oftendescribed assoundinglike a barking seal)and/orotherbreathing problems.These symptoms are typically worse at night,andwhen the patient is agitated or anxious.Theyareusually mild, last three to five days and resolve on their own.However, if the symptoms become more severe (the child develops high-pitched noises during both inhalation and exhalation, they turn blue/gray around the nose/mouth/anywhere else, they struggle to breathe, they become listlessor they develop any other worrisome changes)they should be brought to medical careimmediately.

More: What's Up Doc? Even people who have already had COVID-19 should get vaccinated. Here's why

Spasmodic croup(sometimes called recurrent croup as the child may get it multiple times)is due to non-infectiousupper airwayswelling due to edema (a fluid collection in the tissues which may be of an allergic or other etiology).Otherwise,itis similar toinfectious croup(although since it is not due to infection there is usually no fever).

Croup is very common, accounting forup to15% of visits to pediatric clinicsand 1% to 2%of visits to theemergency department.Overall, croup has a very good prognosis.Over85%-95%of children seen for croup can be discharged home after being treated. Of theless than5%-15%requiring hospitalization,only a tiny percentage (overall only 0.1%of all croup patients seen) are severe enough to require a breathing tube (intubation)for a machine to assist/breath for them. Of this very small number requiring intubation, less than one percent die (so less than 1 in 100,000 who were brought for medical evaluation).

More: What's Up Doc? No, we have not had enough people vaccinated to reach herd immunity

Kids with croup usually do not need any laboratory or imaging tests (although these may be ordered to rule out other possible causes of their symptoms).Instead, the severity of a childs croupisevaluatedbased ontheir symptoms, with some scoringsystemshaving been created to quantify the severity. One such system, the Westly croup severity score, assigns pointsper the clinicians assessmentas follows:

Treatment for mild croup usually includes supportive care such as over-the-counter medicationsfor fever, increased fluidsand keeping a close eye outto identify any worsening. Although cool mist/humidification has not been shown to significantly impact the disease, it also has not been shown tocause harm, and this home remedy is commonly used by many families.

More: What's Up Doc? Why all the worry about the COVID Delta variant?

Moderate and severe croup will commonly be treated with steroid medications (a single dose of dexamethasone has been shown to be beneficial as it is thought to decrease inflammation), nebulized racemic epinephrine (which decreases spasm of the smooth muscles hence opening up theupperairways), oxygen as needed, and possiblyheliox(a mixture of helium and oxygen as opposed to normal air which is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, thought to help since helium is smaller than nitrogen and this mixture is thought to decrease the work needed to breath).

Patients,specifically includingthose treated with nebulized epinephrine,should be closely observed for at least 3 hours aftertheirtreatment even if theyhavegreatly improved, as sometimes therecanbea rebound of more severe symptoms when the treatments wear off.Patients whose symptoms are so severe that they cannot breatheon their own, although rare, may require intubation.

More: Over the Counter: COVID-19 precautions that can benefit us into the future

If your child develops croup-like symptoms and you haveaconcernthatthey are not breathingwellyou should seek medical care immediately. If they are seen and discharged they will still need to be very closely monitored in case symptoms return and/or worsen.

Jeff Hersh, Ph.D., M.D., can be reached at DrHersh@juno.com.

Read more:

What's Up Doc? COVID test is negative; barking cough and fever may mean toddler has croup - MetroWest Daily News

More than 2,000 health workers across NSW, Victoria and the ACT are currently in isolation, placing more pressure on the remaining workforce as Covid cases continue to climb.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association says many health workers in that states hospitals are working shifts of up to 16 hours to cover the shortfall, while PPE issues have left some staff without access to fit-tested masks.

In NSW, which reported 1,259 new cases and 12 deaths on Wednesday, there are understood to be 1,190 health workers currently unavailable because of Covid exposure or infection, with 101 new cases across 11 different facilities in the past week.

In Victoria, the average number of unavailable staff due to Covid-19 across all Victorian public hospitals is 736, according to the most recent data available from 6 September.

Since then, community-acquired cases have almost doubled, with 423 new cases reported in the state on Wednesday.

The 736 health workers unavailable because of Covid in Victoria includes all hospital staff not just clinical staff and those exposed who are not infected.

Brett Holmes, the general secretary of the NSW nurses association, said the result of the furloughed workforce was that remaining staff were working harder and often doing double shifts as long as 16 hours.

It is harder they are working extraordinarily hard, Holmes said. The effect is often that other people have to pick up these shifts, of course, or they are working longer shifts.

A spokesperson for the Victorian health department said the state government was prepared for the workforce shortfall.

Our hospitals have been preparing for coronavirus since January last year, creating extra capacity and ensuring we have enough beds, equipment and PPE to manage any surge in patients, they said.

All health services are able to access Victorias surge workforce if required, which will become more and more important if case numbers increase and more staff are furloughed.

Holmes said that while the vaccination mandate would help address the problem in NSW, the experience in the UK had shown that Covid cases among the vaccinated health workforce had only dropped by 50%.

We need all of our nurses and midwives and other health workers at the bedside and yes, I think there is hope by the minister and the government that the requirement for full vaccination will somehow eliminate this problem of isolating health workers, but given the overseas research, I dont agree that that will be the case, Holmes said.

It is not clear that the need to isolate will be removed because you cannot really be sending someone to work who is carrying the virus and for them to be able to contain that behind their mask for eight to 16 hours a day.

On the issue of PPE, Holmes said that there had been a supply shortage of three types of mask, which had left health workers using masks that had not been fit-tested.

Fit testing is the process by which a mask is fitted and tested to ensure it has an adequate seal and is working correctly.

There is a supply issue and I dont know how long it will be before it is corrected, Holmes said. They have had to shift to other masks and if they have not been fit-tested for the other masks then that requires another round of fit testing.

On Wednesday, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the NSW health workforce was close to reaching a 90% first dose vaccination rate ahead of a mandate for the sector that comes into force on 30 September.

Berejiklian said she was confident health workers would get vaccinated and she was not concerned about people leaving the sector.

I am really confident that healthcare workers will put the interests of their patients and the interests of their own health [first] and Im very convinced we will achieve very high vaccine coverage, Berejiklian said.

Our health staff are seeing the consequences day in, day out, of Covid infection. They are seeing patients in ICU, hearing stories, and Id be very surprised if wed have a much hesitancy in our healthcare workers.

NSW was the first state to introduce a mandate for health workers but Western Australia and Queensland have since followed suit. Victoria is expected to announce a mandate for health workers with a plan to be discussed at Fridays meeting of national cabinet.

Original post:

More than 2,000 healthcare workers in isolation placing hospital systems under pressure - The Guardian Australia

Google hasnt brought any Pixel phones into India of late, but they did recently launch a set of earbuds, the Pixel Buds A-Series. This is an offering that goes particularly well with Googles Pixel phones and services like the assistant. In many ways though, the buds are rather ordinary. While they do offer reasonable sound, there doesnt seem to be any real standout feature.

The design is much like the previous edition, a little plastic case which is rather egg-like in shape but easy to carry and light enough. The buds themselves are also extremely light and when compared to many others they came out amongst the lightest. The biggest advantage of that, of course, is that they can be worn for long hours with little to no fatigue.

As is standard with many earbuds, the A-Series come with three sizes of ear tips. Since the buds actually sit in your ear canal, getting a good fit is important. While the material used on these buds is mainly plastic, they dont feel cheap. They are dual-tone with grey and white and you have an option for green as well. But no other colours.

The buds do have a little wing tip which is comfortable for some and not so much for others. Google even suggests that you may want to try different size ear tips for each ear till you find a good seal and comfort. There is no active noise cancellation, just passive isolation. The design is such that you can hear ambient sounds without too much trouble and yet pay attention to what is playing on the buds.

In terms of sound, the buds seem rather flat with not much by way of dynamic range. On a Pixel phone you can use the EQ settings that do make a substantial difference. I used the Bass Boost and immediately heard the change. There is also a setting for adaptive sound which is quite interesting: based on the ambient sound it actually increases or decreases the volume. This is a response to sustained noise rather than a one-off loud bang or noise. The buds are perfectly suited for casual music listening, podcasts and calls.

For Android phones, you can download the Pixel Buds app, which lets you manage all the options including the touch controls, the EQ and adaptive sound options, and firmware updates. The app also lets you see the battery status of each bud separately as well as that of the case. These settings get integrated into the settings of a Pixel device so no separate app is needed. Sadly, there is no app for iOS devices on which these buds work like any other Bluetooth headset.

The killer feature of the these buds is using your voice for Google Assistant. It works really well. You can invoke the assistant with Hey Google or Ok Google and it wakes up instantly. You can also touch and hold either bud and it will read your notifications and wait for additional commands.

Overall, the buds are a reasonable pair of headphones, good for calls, casual listening and podcasts, comfortable to wear for long durations, and most of all, integrated with the assistant. But theres no end of competition around and at 9,999, theyre still a bit expensive.

See the rest here:

Say OK Google to the new Pixel Buds - BusinessLine

Matthew Rolston, Hittorff, La Fontaine des Mers (Neptune), 2016

Matthew Rolstons exhibition Art People: The Pageant Portraits on view through January 2, 2022, at the Laguna Art Museum is a show as beautiful, as mysterious, as life-affirming, and as much about human creativity and art, as The Pageant of the Masters itself. And in a sense, it is also a metaphor for the career and work of Matthew Rolston himself.

At several exhibition-related artist talks by Rolston that I attended recently, including one where Rolston was in conversation with Merle Ginsberg at the Britely Social Club at the Pendry in West Hollywood, and another at the Laguna Art Museum where Christina Binkley was his interlocutor, Rolston discussed both his career and early influences.

Rolston grew up in Los Angeles and attended pretty much every art school in the area, including Chouinard (the forerunner to CalArts), Otis, and Art Center in Pasadena. He became enamored of Hollywood Studio Portraits that he found among the Collectors stores on Hollywood Boulevard. At an early age, his career was launched when he got an assignment to shoot Steven Spielberg for Andy Warhols Interview Magazine.

Rolston was fortunate in finding an early home at Interview, as fortunate as Interview was to discover Rolston. Back then, in the days when Warhol himself was very much a presence at the magazine, Interview was published as an oversize large format newsprint monthly, with cover portraits of celebrities stylized and colorized by Richard Bernstein very much in a Warhol-esque color/block style.

Inside were short features and longer Q&As with celebrities and other notables, done in a manner that was meant to convey an actual conversation you were eavesdropping on, rather than a 60-Minutes Mike Wallace grilling. Due to Interviews large format, the portraits accompanying the text were also super-sized and often in Black & White (a money-saving strategy that became an editorial point-of-view). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, most mainstream magazine photography was focused on a casual hyper-realism stars in jeans and white T-shirts, or stylized real portraits such as Avedons The American West of West Virginia coal miners that conveyed a hard-won beauty.

Matthew Rolston, Cyndi Lauper, Headdress, Los Angeles, 1986,

Interview tacked in a different direction a post-modern return to Hollywood glamour. Rolstons portraits were the opposite of casual: They were highly staged, with great attention to lighting, every element thought out, with specific references to classic images of stars such as Garbo or Dietrich, and no detail too small to be important.

From Interview, Rolstons career exploded, doing work for magazines such as Rolling Stone (hes shot more than 100 covers), Vogue, W, Vanity Fair, Harpers Bazaar. The New York Times Magazine and O, the Oprah Magazine (He has shot Oprah for more than 40 magazine covers, more than any other photographer). Theres a sense of fun to many of his portraits, even a winking nod at the past.

Rolston went on to make films and music videos, including for Madonna, Jewel, Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Foo Fighters, Beyonc, Seal, and Miley Cyrus as well as advertising campaigns for brands such as Estee Lauder, LOreal, GAP (his Khakis Swing video is particularly memorable), Revlon, Polo Ralph Lauren and Burberry, among others.

Beyond his photo, film and video work, Rolston has also served as creative director on hospitality projects for clubs, restaurants, and hotels (such as the Redbury Hotels), bringing his attentional to detail, style, and flair to every detail from marketing campaigns to staff uniforms.

Having reached the summit of so many facets of his professional career, several years ago Rolston decided to embark on a series of non-commissioned art projects, series that he conceptualizes and executes at his own initiative and own cost, spending at times years on the works.

Matthew Rolston, Joe Flip, 2010, from the series Talking Heads- The Vent Haven Portraits

Rolstons found inspiration for his first Art project Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits in a museum of ventriloquist dummies, the Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Rolston set up a portrait studio in the museum and photographed each of his subjects in an identical manner: square format, low angle, monochromatic backdrop, and a single light source. The square format recalls Warhols Polaroids, and the white backgrounds, Avedons late work.

Rolston has said that his photos of the dummies was, on one level, an investigation of what makes us human. Which is interesting when you consider no humans appear in the series.

Matthew Rolston, Art People- The Pageant Portraits, Exhibition View, 2021

Art People: The Pageant Portraits, Rolstons second art project, currently on view in Laguna (with a beautiful catalogue available from the Museum or the projects website) consists of portraits of performers taken during the 2016 Pageant of the Masters. The Pageant is a 90-minute outdoor performance of a series of Tableaux vivants or Living Art in which volunteers are costumed, made-up and inserted into stage sets that, when framed and lit, reproduce art works for an audience of some 2600 attendees every night from the 4th of July to Labor Day, every year since 1933 (except for 1942-1945 during WWII and 2020 due to the pandemic. There is narration and although at times the figures move and even dance, the performers are neither actors nor dancers. They are more akin to reenacters. It is a most unique, uncanny performance and a memorable experience.

Rolston attended The Pageant as a child and many times since. On several occasions he approached The Pageant about doing portraits of the performers, to no avail. Then at a certain point, Rolston enthused about The Pageant sufficiently that journalist Christina Binkley pitched the Wall Street Journal on doing a feature on The Pageant and then suggested that Matthew be the photographer. The resulting 2015 article, At California Pageant, Volunteers Inhabit Works of Art provided Rolston the entre with Pageant officials such that they allowed him to make portraits of the following years 2016 Pageant performers.

Rolston set up a studio backstage for photographing the costumed (The Pageant uses two complete casts, so they can appear one week on, the other off) during breaks in rehearsals, at intermission, and immediately after performances, and shot the dummy heads that are used as makeup guides.

Rolston used an extremely high-resolution camera (100 megapixels) and then printed the color photos on 60-inch sheets of cotton rag paper. As a result, the detail is incredible, the colors rich, the effect otherworldly. Although each shoot was fast, Rolston nonetheless had ideas of how he hoped to pose the performers. Rolston shot them as is in their costume and makeup and did no retouching. To the contrary, the imperfections we see (acne, crows feet, sagging skin) are, here, critical to finding the human in the faked. Rolston did engage in some digital manipulation (for example, in one image the hands are enlarged for reasons of proportion, as a sculptor might do). And if you look closely enough at the photos, you can see Rolstons reflection in their iris taking the shot.

Matthew Rolston, Barye, Roger and Angelica (Angelica), 2016

The results are striking: There is a golden girl, who seems very much a Greek nymph come to life. Her right palm faces forward in a sign we might see in a Hindu goddess. Although her eyes are open and piercingly blue, there is something of a somnolent haze about her, like a girl who has not yet awakened to her adulthood. In contrast, Rolstons Eve, taken from Rubens and Brueghel the Elders Garden of Eden, is no youthful nubile, but a mature woman whose face carries its share of sorrow and who grasps the apple at her side as if its secrets were her own. The Laguna exhibition features a selection of images including portraits of the Pageants traditional closing image, Jesus and the Apostles from Da Vincis Last Supper. Rolston has said this project is an exploration of: What is Art? and Why do we make Art?

Matthew Rolston, Untitled, #Pa834-460, Palermo, Italy, 2013, from the series Vanitas- The Palermo ... [+] Portrait

Rolston has also completed a third art project which he has not yet exhibited, Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits which grapples with death. Rolston traveled to the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Italy, where there is a collection of upright mummified corpses, fully dressed, ready for the Resurrection. But there is also a message posted at the crypt that states simply, What you are now, we used to be. What we are now, you will become.

I confess that at first, I struggled with Rolstons stated premises. What can wooden dummies say about being human? What can non-artists creating a staged derivative of a real artwork teach us about making Art? And what do mummified corpses in a crypt teach us about death?

The answer came to me when watching a TED lecture on YouTube: According to Historian Yuval Noah Harari, what distinguishes us from all other creatures, what makes us human, is our ability to be creative, to tell stories.

Therefore, in photographing ventriloquist dummies, Rolston is attempting to give life, as much as Geppetto to Pinocchio, or Dr. Frankenstein to his creature. In his portraits of the inanimate we see our own need to infuse objects with life - that is what makes us human.

Similarly, when showing us the human in those who make a tableau vivant, the element Rolston adds to the already costumed and made-up is his art. Simple but true.

And in photographing the corpses in the Capuchin Crypt in Palermo, Rolston is giving us a vivid demonstration that what us separates us from corpses is our ability to make art of them. What is death if not the end of our potential to create?

One can argue then, that in Rolstons editorial and commercial work, even in his work as a creative director, the collaborative constraints imposed by his subjects or employers are an application of his creative talent, but not Art.

By contrast, in photographing ventriloquist dummies, or stand-in performers in tableaux vivant, or even the staged corpses in Palermo, we can see that without Rolstons intervention, without his creative act, they remain inanimate, imitations of art, rather than Art itself.

In this sense, the answer to the fundamental and existential questions Rolston asks in his Art become simple: Creating is what makes us human. Because we are human, we make Art. And when we die, we cease to have the capacity to be creative. And, finally, as long as we are alive, we can appreciate Rolstons Art People: The Pageant Portraits in all their beauty and mystery.

See the rest here:

The Art of Matthew Rolston - Forbes

For months Ive been watching the construction of our new garage. The breeze-block walls have been built, soffits are in place under the eaves, the concrete floor has been poured and slate tiles are being fixed on to the roof. Soon it will be time to render the exterior with sand and cement, to seal and waterproof the walls, to varnish the new fencing, and finish it all off with a shiny coat of paint.

That means a trip to the DIY store, where the shelves are full of marketing appeals. Glossy varnishes promise to colour wood for five years. Fence treatments are UV resistant and rainproof within half an hour and protect against rot. Masonry paint is no longer just about the colour: do I need pure brilliant or ultra-smooth, anti-mould or weatherproof?

Many of these items rely for their seemingly magical properties on PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), known as forever chemicals. This group of synthetic chemicals are used to prevent corrosion, reduce friction and make products waterproof and stain-resistant. Used in everything from cosmetics to food packaging, PFAS also show up in paint (as a binding agent and to give a smooth finish), wood lacquers (for repelling oil and water, and stain resistance) and sealants. They are used in the top layer of solar panels, artificial grass and firefighting foams.

PFAS incredibly strong carbon-flourine bonds mean these chemicals do not biodegrade. Renovations will not last for ever but PFAS persist and accumulate in soil, water, air, wildlife and our bodies. PFAS have been found in human breast milk and the blood of 97% of Americans. Exposure to some PFAS has been linked to fertility problems, changes in metabolism, and an increased risk of obesity and cancer yet so much still remains unknown about their long-term consequences.

Eroded by the elements or dumped down drains, PFAS end up in the water system. Once there, remediation removing the pollution is impossible. Water-treatment plants can use activated carbon to filter out some, but not all, PFAS and other contaminants, but it is expensive and requires high-temperature incineration. Most of the chemicals from that silky smooth painted wall or rust-free railing ultimately end up in the ocean.

Globally, PFAS have been widely documented in rivers, lakes, wetlands and every ocean; they are on Mount Everest and in Arctic sea ice. But they are most prevalent where there are lots of people in European cities river catchments, for example.

Wherever there is society, theres use of PFAS, says Prof Ian Cousins, an environmental chemist at Stockholm University, who has studied this huge, diverse group of chemicals for 20 years. PFAS are raining down everywhere youll find them in rainwater wherever you live at higher concentrations than the environmental standards set for rivers.

Cousins thinks this is a bigger problem than we have acknowledged. We shouldnt be releasing these man-made substances into the environment because theyre cycling around in water systems. Some transform into more harmful PFAS before coming back into air from the oceans, then raining down back on to land. The upstream solution is to not use these persistent chemicals in the first place.

The market for just building materials containing PFAS, however, is worth $26bn (19bn), according to the American Chemistry Council (compared with $753bn for the semiconductor industry). Two of the most widespread and hazardous PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), used to make Teflon, and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulphonic acid) have been phased out in most of the world but remain in the oceans. PFOA and PFOS were most detrimental at the manufacturing stage, where factory workers were exposed.

However, not all PFAS are toxic to humans: the chemistry is much more nuanced. Mapping the universe of PFAS, and trying to understand which are bad and which arent, is an important activity but that is going to take decades [to calculate] and by then it could be too late to do anything about it, says Cousins.

Some PFAS used in building materials include big molecules, such as fluoropolymers, used as coatings on roofing, that are not released when it rains. But they leach into the soil once a building gets knocked down and goes into landfill. Substances that add water-repellency or are used to make paints, inks, varnishes and lacquers are more of an immediate environmental concern, because they have smaller residual PFAS molecules that wash off more easily.

Many short-chain PFAS dissolve in water. In the ocean, most remain near the surface, in a layer between 50 and 200 metres deep. Gradually, this layer mixes with deeper water. Some chemicals sink, ending up in sediment or in the marine food chain; others remain in the water column. Some, such as PFOA, act like detergents, repelling water and rising back to the surface, to be released again into the atmosphere; Cousins and his team found that some PFAS get released as marine aerosols or droplets in sea spray, when wave movements create air bubbles.

In fact, sea-spray aerosols from the ocean are the biggest source of atmospheric PFAS. There, they can affect climate and cloud generation and all sorts of things, says Cousins. In North Americas Great Lakes region, PFAS levels in rainfall exceed that of other legacy contaminants, such as mercury and pesticides.

Cousins recommends that manufacturers take a precautionary approach, by designing alternatives that biodegrade. Some PFAS-free alternatives do exist. Roofing materials can be made with silicone or acrylic coatings. Acrylics can be used to make paints durable and glossy. Silicones or paraffin waxes can make wood lacquers repel water; silicones and epoxy resins can seal porous building materials.

However, because ingredients are not always listed on the tin, it is tricky for shoppers to make informed decisions. A simple guide is to avoid anything labelled as perfluoro, polyfluoro or fluoro, which indicates they contain PFAS.

And it is not just amateurs doing up their homes who can vote with their wallets. Owners of large buildings, such as hospitals, universities and commercial property developers, have a lot of focused buying power too, according to Hannah Ray, of the Green Science Policy Institute. She wants PFAS chemicals limited to essential use only, where no feasible alternative is available. There has been some progress, she says: Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden have submitted their intention to restrict PFAS as a class and the US state of Maine will ban most uses of PFAS from 2030.

The Green Science Policy Institute warns of regrettable substitution replacing a hazardous PFAS with a slightly different PFAS not yet found to be toxic.

In the meantime, I am looking for safer PFAS-free alternatives for my garage, such as linseed oil to coat the wooden fence, and water-based eco paint ranges, although even these do include small amounts of PFAS as binders. The Cradle 2 Cradle certified building products list is a good place to start, and if there is a choice between glueing something or mechanically fixing it together with screws, I will choose the latter, because otherwise it is hard to know what the long-term effects of my choices will be.

Some PFAS could have effects that could be catastrophic, but its hard to predict, says Cousins. We could discover weve all been using a chemical thats going to make us sick but thats very difficult to remove from the environment.

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Forever chemicals: the hidden threat from the toxic PFAS on your shelf - The Guardian