Irene Adler
A Scandal in Belgravia 2012
A Scandal in Bohemia 1891
Cumberbatch Reprises ‘Sherlock’ for Season 2
Great New Interview: Benedict talked with ABC’s Peter Travers (ps: he sang as well. :))
Great interview.
npr:
Friday cute overload. — tanya
They’re Valais Blacknose Sheep from Switzerland.
#MARTIN FREEMAN EVERYBODY!
MARTIN FREEMAN: HE WON A BAFTA.
He looks like my brother when he’s doing homework. ;D
(Source: staringiscaring, via simplyood)
![theatlantic:
A Crackdown in Crayon: Bahrain’s Children Draw Their Country’s Crisis
An endless cycle of peaceful protest and violent crackdown has endured for now 15 months in Bahrain, the tiny Arab island nation where a U.S.-backed Sunni minority rules over a Shia-majority population. Less visible than the geopolitics (Saudi Arabia has sent troops in support of the monarchy, which it sees as a bulwark against Shia Iran), the complicated dilemma for the Obama administration, or the lives and struggles of the democracy activists who refuse to give up, are the children of Bahrain.
Human Rights First, a U.S.-based NGO that has worked heavily in Bahrain since the Arab Spring began over a year ago, recently launched a project called Through Children’s Eyes to check in with Bahrain’s children and attempt to understand how the country’s conflict is affecting them. Two local activists who work with Human Rights First — and who are now both in prison on political charges — “asked some children who had been directly affected by the crackdown to draw whatever was in their minds.”
[Image: Maryam, age 7, told activists that the drawing portrayed her and her sister running to help their uncle, who was shot in the head by security forces. Graphic images of his body were broadcast widely in Bahrain after the incident. The Pearl Monument again appears, frowning.]
Read more.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m48c85vJwR1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
A Crackdown in Crayon: Bahrain’s Children Draw Their Country’s Crisis
An endless cycle of peaceful protest and violent crackdown has endured for now 15 months in Bahrain, the tiny Arab island nation where a U.S.-backed Sunni minority rules over a Shia-majority population. Less visible than the geopolitics (Saudi Arabia has sent troops in support of the monarchy, which it sees as a bulwark against Shia Iran), the complicated dilemma for the Obama administration, or the lives and struggles of the democracy activists who refuse to give up, are the children of Bahrain.
Human Rights First, a U.S.-based NGO that has worked heavily in Bahrain since the Arab Spring began over a year ago, recently launched a project called Through Children’s Eyes to check in with Bahrain’s children and attempt to understand how the country’s conflict is affecting them. Two local activists who work with Human Rights First — and who are now both in prison on political charges — “asked some children who had been directly affected by the crackdown to draw whatever was in their minds.”
[Image: Maryam, age 7, told activists that the drawing portrayed her and her sister running to help their uncle, who was shot in the head by security forces. Graphic images of his body were broadcast widely in Bahrain after the incident. The Pearl Monument again appears, frowning.]
The more things change, the more they stay the same…. There were a couple of things that spawned this—the sheet was one, the steepled hands another. Once I got started, there were a ton of them. The one I couldn’t find photos for was both Sherlocks sitting cross-legged in their chairs. Jeremy Brett has always been my favorite Holmes. He finally has some real competition.
(Source: usurperkingzant, via thesherl0ckblog)
Finger Painting with Brushes
Last weekend I bought Brushes, a digital finger painting app for iOS devices created by Taptrix.
While my drawing talents haven’t improved much since the second or third grade, I thought finger painting would be a great way to occupy my daily subway rides. Besides, there’s aspiration going on here: Jorge Colombo created five New Yorker covers using the app.
Here’s some general background: Brushes, as the name suggests, is a painting app that uses brushes. If you’ve used Photoshop, they’re the exact same thing. The app has 19 different ones and you can change each one’s size and overall style with some sliders that give you overall control.
Importantly, the app also uses layers so you can draw on top and underneath objects. The layers aren’t limitless so you end up using a few and then merging them when you have the need to move on to a different part of your picture.
Other essentials include a color picker, paint bucket for large fills, and opacity and brush size control. The eraser is handy and the history and redo controls are image saving.
So, a few days into my drawing with Brushes extravaganza, here’s what I’ve discovered:
- My fingers are fat, maybe a little too fat: I’m using Brushes on an iPad and while I can zoom in on specific parts of an image to work on a detail, and am getting more facile with this the more I use it, I’m thinking of getting a stylus.
- Drawing on an iPad in the subway is a great conversation starter: four or five people have come up to me over the past few days and asked about the app.
- I need to practice more: I’m finding this very addictive so this shouldn’t be a problem.
If you want to see how people are using Brushes, and what its potential is, check the Flickr user group. And if vector’s more your thing, Taptrix has another iOS app called Inkpad.
Images: Chickens are People Too, by me (Michael Cervieri); various screenshots of the Brushes app showing layers, color pickers, and brush types.
