Anba Hatre

Aswan, Egypt, Dec 2005: Anba Hatre is an earlier name of the 7th century Coptic Christian monastery of St Simeon- featured here in my previous post. During the exploration I shot some video on a very basic mini-DV camcorder, and due to this being my last tape I edited it all in camera to make […]

Decrypt

Egypt, Dec 2005: Inspecting some ancient tombs on the westbank of the Nile- across from Aswan. They were completely off the tourist trail and not mentioned in any guidebooks. We eventually found a man who had keys to them and he let us in for a look- after a certain amount of “baksheesh” was paid. […]

Pyro

Pyromania is an impulse control disorder in which an individual repeatedly and deliberately starts fires- in order to relieve tension, for gratification or for relief. The term pyromania comes from the Greek word πῦρ (‘pyr’, fire). This was just one of a dozen buildings torched by a pyromaniac over a single weekend two years ago. […]

Departures

“All reality is a game. Physics at its most fundamental, the very fabric of our universe, results directly from the interaction of certain fairly simple rules, and chance; the same description may be applied to the best, most elegant and both intellectually and aesthetically satisfying games. By being unknowable, by resulting from events which, at […]

In Vivo

In vivo (Latin for “within the living”) is experimentation using a whole, living organism- as opposed to a partial or dead organism. Animal testing and clinical trials are two forms of in vivo research. It includes “pure” research such as genetics, developmental biology, behavioral studies, as well as applied research such as biomedical research, xenotransplantation, drug […]

The Convent

This former Catholic girls boarding school and convent was closed in the mid 1980’s. The buildings have been used for a variety of purposes over the years (including featuring in a couple of Peter Jackson films), but it has now been deemed unsafe and closed indefinately. Although carrying the Historic Places Trust’s highest heritage protection […]