The above picture was taken seconds after a serious crash of Sauber F1 Team driver Sergio Perez during the recent Monaco F1 Grand Prix. At the time the picture was taken, nobody knew if the Mexican driver would even survive; he wasn't moving inside his car or responding to his race engineer over the radio, asking him if he was alright.
            The photographer took this image, however, with several things in mind. The most evident is how grayscale the image is, with the asphalt, shadows, rails, and even the buildings to the right all some shade of gray. The only thing standing out is the craine and the crushed safety barrier in the middle of the image that automatically attract the viewer's eye to that specific point. The car is clearly severely damaged, but the way the image was taken, it is hard to see exactly how bad or if the driver is OK or not, which mirrors exactly what was going on in any spectators' minds. Another thing the photographer decided to include in the image--having to zoom out a bit and sacrifice clearer detail--were the skid marks at the bottom right of the image. These not only show that the car crashed into the barrier while going in a straight line, but also that it was going blindingly fast. Looking at the image, anyone that hasn't even seen the footage of the crash can imagine how terrifying it really was and how severe, immediately sparking sympathy in hearts of anyone, not just Sergio's fans.

Monday Matters #2

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/09/04/andrew-sullivan-asks-did-osama-win-on-9-11.html


We now know that the chief goal of Osama bin Laden and his attacks on 9/11 was to provoke a civilizational war between Islam and the West. He used the attacks, on innocent people as well as the government, to provoke panic, fear, and devastation, which would later lead to irrational action. We, of course, followed the government and took this bait, dispatching troops to Iraq to engage in the war bin Laden hoped to start. It was a foolish decision, as it has now put the country into an economic recession and cost us countless lives, but we, in our panic, couldn't do anything but follow the government, and the government's choice was war. He succeeded in that area, but he never really succeeded in making a lasting conflict between the West and Islam. The US is finally pulling troops out of Iraq and we have chosen, of all people, Barack Hussein Obama, to lead the country that was supposed to oppose Islam. Bin Laden wasn't the one that won, it was us that lost; we lost ourselves to our fear and to general panic.

News Article Summary

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/41672-KHL-team-Lokomotiv-Yaroslavl-plane-crashes-kills-36.html
 On the seventh of September, a plane carrying the whole Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Russian hockey team, the coach, medical staff, and the plane's crew crashed outside the Yaroslavl airport, northeast of Moscow. All crew except for two people was killed, and the two that survived did so with major burns. The cause of the accident is not yet known, but it is certain that this is the worst accident in hockey history. The plane was carrying players and team members from several different countries, which makes this an international event, one felt by hockey players and fans all over the globe.