September 2008 Archives

Finally, some horse sense!

I didn't know all of these–only Command-I. But since I'm an avid user of keyboard shortcuts, these all now go on the list.

Once in the Info window:

• Command-1 for the Summary tab,
• Command-2 for the Info tab,
• Command-3 for the Video tab,
• and so on.
• (Once a tab is active, you can use the Tab key to reach the various fields on that tab.)
• If you’re running iTunes 8, this same trick works in the new Multiple Item Info window—Command-1 is the Info tab, Command-2 the Video tab, and so forth.

You can even change tracks with the Get Info window open, and without reaching for the mouse to click on the Previous or Next buttons. The keyboard shortcuts

• for previous (Command-Left Arrow) and
• next (Command-Right Arrow) song work with the Get Info window open.

These Command-number key shortcuts, as they also enabled them in iTunes’ preferences. After opening iTunes’ preferences, you can, for example, jump to the Sharing section by pressing Command-3, or to the Apple TV section by pressing Command-6.

[Source: Macworld | Mac OS X Hints | Keyboard shortcuts for iTunes’ Get Info window]

I can't help it. This just makes me cringe in disgust and anger. The Republican chairman in Florida clearly says that the VP nominee needs to learn more but has the support of the party base.

Why?! What do they feel they need in a president? Just a few briefings can do the trick?! Every American, regardless of party affiliation, should expect the best the nation has to offer in a person that has a 20% chance of running the country if her boss is elected!

“I think the Katie Couric interview shows that she needs to be briefed more on certain aspects,” said Jim Greer, the Republican chairman in Florida. “She continues to be viewed very positively by the base of the party, but she needs to demonstrate that she’s got the knowledge and ability to be president should the need arise.”

[Source: Concerns About Palin’s Readiness as a Big Test Nears - NYTimes.com]

The bail out is only a temporary, stop-gap, quick fix–if it's even that!

The bigger fact, though, is that even with a short-term bailout, the underlying mega-economy is in the dumps. Government can help lubricate the gears of the economy by utilizing its capacity to engage in longterm investing. But this is really just a balance sheet adjustment. Unless we are also investing our time, energy, and remaining money in productive industries, education, and renewable resources, we will not have changed the real economy at all. [Source: Bail In or Bail Out?]

Too awesome for words.

But then, back to the reality that the sketches are more fact than fiction:<

But a McCain adviser said the conservatives worried that the campaign was squeezing the charm out of Palin were missing the point.

The adviser said preparing her for the debate was "really hard" because the Alaska governor was learning about issues she had never dealt with before -- including those regarding North Korea and other hot spots around the globe.

[Source: Conservatives to McCain camp: Let Palin be Palin - CNN.com]

And Fareed Zakaria clearly explicates why John McBush needs to get rid of her.

Giving a face to Big Brother!

From: http://www.designbyhumans.com/shop/detail/3190?category=mens

I hope Sarah doesn't cause an international incident with Russia while I'm actually here! This interview is astounding. And she is considered a serious candidate? She is pretty, but she's arrogant, apparently vindictive, and just dangerous!

So, is this really the very best that the Republican party can offer the nation in a VP candidate? Have they come to this? Or is there a secret agenda here in her nomination, something much more sinister and unthinkable?

Excuse me, but I want Katie Couric for office!

Watch CBS Videos Online

Yawn... Oh, yeah. More of the same...

In both cases, the pattern is the same. Ineptitude led to crisis; crisis then became the argument for the radical expansion of executive power. The administration insisted that it exercise its new authority with a minimum of scrutiny by Congress, the courts or the public.

...

These troubles are about more than a president who is unfaithful to his word. Bush has transformed the balance of power in our government. We are seeing the erection of an imperial presidency, immune from oversight when it fights terrorists and when it rescues banks.

...

These are not abstractions. They are the legacy of this grim epoch, one that should be equally offensive to conservatives and liberals. George Bush promised humility and delivered arrogance. The next president must not.

[Source: Bush the arrogant - Los Angeles Times]

From a George DubYuh who tells us how good the economy is doing to a George DubYuh who is telling us the economy is in serious trouble. Yes, this is the face of American politics–a system that is so fundamentally broken, the people of the nation do not trust it! Do not even want to participate in the process!

Who is holding the Federal policy makers, the very creators of this debacle, accountable?

Fire their asses! Every damned, greedy, sold out one of them!

Deregulation has destroyed the American economy.

Free markets care about one thing: maximizing profit margins--greed.

Our anti-trust laws are a good thing that would have prevented this: no single corporation or sector of corporations should ever become powerful enough to bring down our entire nation's economy! Ever! Where was the government? Oh, yes, approving the AT&T and Cingular merger.

Our news media is owned by so few very wealthy people, who want to get even wealthier, media is no longer independent and is failing to report the facts. This debacle in the making for the past several years should have been widely reported on by journalism--a dead and so soon forgotten art.

Americans, are we yet sick enough of the "fair and balanced" hogwash? Or do they still have more money to beat out of you while you are being kept anesthetized by the media makers?

Thanks to the Republican party for creating those new FCC rules 7 years ago, do you remember that under reported event?!, rules that allowed the wealthy to perpetuate their pillaging of the nation's wealth while pumping our heads full of their neo-conservative mantra, hate the liberals, hate the thinkers, ban the books, save the sanctity of marriage, fail the public schools, fear the terrorists lurking on every corner, give us all of your money--no more, more, more consumption, but doesn't Paris look good in that tight dress?

Has Joe American started to awaken from the glib buzz words such as "angry liberal" to realize that the whole of middle america should be angry? ... should be fed up with wealthy American CEO's putting their corporations on a completely new federal welfare program in the name of "saving the economy" while still blaming the nation's ills on "wasteful federal programs feeding the babies of unwed welfare mothers" (what could possibly be worse?!) and trying to privatize public schools by breaking the nations trust in one of the few public institutions that still largely works?!

No wonder we need to do away with social programs, like educating the American people, they might THINK!! Besides, we need all of that money to bail out the free market that was unfettered and deregulated. Remember, that was the Republican parties answers to economic prosperity! Yeah, we're prospering all right!

The present state of affairs goes so far beyond anything I ever could have imagined in this nation in my lifetime, yet it has happened in just short 8 years, 6 of which were dominated by an unchecked rein of the Republican party!

Hold the politicians accountable: fire them!

This election needs to send a clear message to the federal government: the American people run this country, and no body else.

But if you've not given the wealthy enough power and money, and you really, really, really want more of this same abuse of power and influence, then go ahead, vote for John McBush and Sarah ImPaleThem.

And why hasn't John McBush issued his medical records? Perhaps because thinking American's know the nation would fall into anarchy with an inexperienced Sarah in the Oval Office?! But I forgot, she's been keeping an eye on Russia for us! Thank god. I fee safer already!

And don't expect any more checks for $600 to keep the economy afloat, no. (How much did that cost the treasury?!) All of the money in the treasure and a whole whale of a lot that isn't there at all has to go to the corporations that robbed Americans of their homes and now will be successful in robbing the treasury of the whole nation!

I lack the vocabulary to describe what has taken place in the last 8 years! Suffice it to say: 8 years ago I told you so America! And I'm way beyond angry because things turned out worse than I could ever have imagined!

And you want more?!

Even in the cold pouring rain, for which, despite all of my planning, I was ill equipped (think hobbling around with a cold, wet sock on my foot with a broken toe in an exposed surgical shoe), Moscow is a beautiful city. I didn't realize this city, like many of the other great cities of the world, has a river that wonders through it.

The Kremlin and Red Square are beautiful and actually smaller than my childhood memories of the ballistic missiles and Red Army marching through it to the approval of the leaders of the USSR. The guide was rather out spoken in his support of their new democracy and the fall of the Communist Party. I didn't realize that they had two squashed uprisings attempting to restore communism. And, even according to the Russians, Russian history is so bloody and just awful!

I also learned that is Putin is extremely popularity because, almost entirety, Russia is enjoying an unprecedented economic boom as a direct result of high oil prices. Russia doesn't import a single drop of oil, only exports it at great profit.

One can see several tall skyscrapers being built in one area of the city. Regular apartments in these buildings sell for over 10 million dollars. I was also fascinated to learn that Moscow is among the most expensive cities in which one can live in the world.

And if I saw 1 wedding party throughout the day, I easily saw over 2 dozen of them! Many of them pose for pictures in Red Square and in the enormous and prestigious (very beautiful) mall next to Red Square. You can see this mall in the bottom picture. It looks a bit like the Louvre in Paris!

The pictures don't do the city justice because most of them were actually shot while it was actively raining! But this post contains some first glimpses. The Russia album will hopefully come sometime before the end of the year.

Don't forget, if you wish, you can click on any of the smaller images above to see a larger version of the picture.

I arrived safely in Moscow, Russia, a city with an official population of 12,000,000, but whose residents will tell you has about 16,000,000. The ride from the airport, where smoking was amazingly common, was very long indeed. Apparently a car broke down in the innermost lane on what appears to be like an interstate. The traffic was backed up, bumper to bumper, crawling at a snail's pace for many, many, many miles.

The driver who met me at the airport, a young Russian man who spoke rather good English, was undaunted. We went off road, driving on the dirt shoulder for miles. As the winters are severe here, the dirt shoulder had potholes almost the size of cars which he either dodged or navigated successfully! The trip started off with some adventure. I'm staying at the Marriott Moscow Grand, which is very nice, but is a long way from the airport into which I flew.

After a much-needed nap and shower, I met Tim, the young man who coordinated this trip. Though young, Tim has already lived a really interesting and full life, having spent time in the Peace Corps, and working as a teacher in the Ukraine. He is indeed an engaging conversationalist.

Once we got off of the main roads, walking through the city at sunset reminded me a lot of being in Rome, where cars are just parked everywhere–nice cars, by the way, expensive cars. Moscow is enjoying a time of economic prosperity. In places the cars were even parked on the sidewalks two layers deep. The streets themselves, like Rome, were then just wide enough for a single lane of traffic. And, as in Rome, the rules of the road appear only to be suggestions.

The air is permeated with a very nice, invigorating nip. People were all wearing coats. I'm glad I bought some layers for this trip!

Off we went to a wonderful restaurant by Patriarshy's Prud (Patriarch's Pond), for dinner. The Pond, which is really lovely, is well known as a highly regarded Russian literary figure, Mikhail Bulgakov, wrote one of his novels, The Master and Margarita, here. The main character, in this rather typically dark piece of Russian literature, met the devil at the opposite side of the pond. The restaurant seemed as trendy a place as you would ever find in the US.

As we entered, the lighting was solely the dancing radiance of large candles lining the floor of an otherwise dark hall with steps and landings. Up the steps, we were greeted and our coats taken. Reservations required. We ate on an upstairs balcony in a somewhat private nook. The three sided balcony overlooks a main dining area with large curve-topped windows from which patrons view the pond and surrounding park. Very nice. The food was excellent.

Because of his work, Tim is rather well versed in the most current thinking, research, and practices of the banking industry. I get the impression that at least part of his current job in Russia is to bring forward this awareness to the growing Russian economy. In fact, before our having dinner, he had had coffee with the head of the now non-existent Merrill Lynch of Russia.

As the conversation turned to financial matters, I was stricken with the obvious. No one is talking about the long term affect the American financial crisis is going to have not just on the USA, but on the world. He spoke, in an informed fashion, of the substantive impact this financial debacle is going to have on financing the already crumbling and mostly ignored American infrastructure: roads, bridges, and systems like water, sewage, etc. In my opinion, for at least a generation, our political and corporate leadership has been robbing the future to continue living an unsustainable lifestyle today, a mere artifice of true wealth.

He spoke of Russia now, for the first time in many years, having government funding for doctors, engineers, and teachers. Ever the educator, I began to think about how the children in the US are going to suffer as the reality of severe financial and credit constraints buckle down into local school districts, many of which are already suffering with debt issues. Schools, already starved for qualified teachers, will never get a federal bail out plan. Wouldn't supporting our schools be more appropriately considered an investment in the nation's future?

No wonder the federal government wants to shift the funding burden of America's school systems onto the private sector. And, what a clever way to do it: No Child Left Behind: break the nation's trust in one of the only public agencies that is actually functioning! The federal government certainly isn't functioning, just reacting and messing up everything it touches.

I found the conversation about the Russian schools very interesting. A grade level stays together from preschool through 12th grade, unlike the US model of elementary buildings that feed into larger middle grades buildings that feed into larger high schools. In Russia a given class remains together in one place from the beginning of the school experience to the end, bonding solidly. Bullying is rare as the older students become responsible for the younger students in the same building. Teen culture is just now beginning to emerge, impacting schools in new ways never seen before, as growing wealth emerges in Russia.

Well, after dinner, we walked back to the hotel. Tim mentioned that the heat in Russian is turned on centrally by regions. In some places is it now on, especially those near schools. In others, the heat isn't on yet. The only control individuals have over the heating system is to turn off the radiators in their apartments and open the windows. I found that really interesting and have some vague remembrance of one of my high school teachers using that as an example of how "bad" the USSR was. Good grief!

It was 4AM when I got up this morning to blog--5PM in Los Angeles. I'm wide awake but have no internet connection at the moment. The radiators are turned off, the windows are open, and the street below, even at this hour, is very busy by anyone's standard. Today, the camera comes out as I'm touring Moscow–a very different city from what I expected, although I'm not really sure exactly what I was expecting!

Note to self: don't drink the tap water as it has a lot of metals in it. Apparently the next city I'm to visit, a more industrial city, former closed because it was part of the military industrial complex, has even more water quality issues. In fact, those with sensitive skin even get rashes from taking a shower.

The whole article is a blast to read and sums up the whole of the grimy mess in which the Republicans have thrust us. It would be complete entertainment if Matt Taibbi hadn't nailed the truth. Here's just a tiny snippet:

Right-wingers of the Bush-Rove ilk have had a tough time finding a human face to put on their failed, inhuman, mean-as-hell policies. But it was hard not to recognize the genius of wedding that faltering brand of institutionalized greed to the image of the suburban American supermom. It's the perfect cover, for there is almost nothing in the world meaner than this species of provincial tyrant. Palin herself burned this political symbiosis into the pages of history with her seminal crack about the "difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick," blurring once and for all the lines between meanness on the grand political scale as understood by the Roves and Bushes of the world, and meanness of the small-town variety as understood by pretty much anyone who has ever sat around in his ranch-house den dreaming of a fourth plasma-screen TV or an extra set of KC HiLites for his truck, while some ghetto family a few miles away shares a husk of government cheese.

...

The great insight of the Palin VP choice is that huge chunks of American voters no longer even demand that their candidates actually have policy positions; they simply consume them as media entertainment, rooting for or against them according to the reflexive prejudices of their demographic, as they would for reality-show contestants or sitcom characters. Hicks root for hicks, moms for moms, born-agains for born-agains. Sure, there was politics in the Palin speech, but it was all either silly lies or merely incidental fluffery buttressing the theatrical performance. A classic example of what was at work here came when Palin proudly introduced her Down syndrome baby, Trig, then stared into the camera and somberly promised parents of special-needs kids that they would "have a friend and advocate in the White House." This was about a half-hour before she raised her hands in triumph with McCain, a man who voted against increasing funding for special-needs education.

Palin's charge that "government is too big" and that Obama "wants to grow it" was similarly preposterous. Not only did her party just preside over the largest government expansion since LBJ, but Palin herself has been a typical Bush-era Republican, borrowing and spending beyond her means. Her great legacy as mayor of Wasilla was the construction of a $14.7 million hockey arena in a city with an annual budget of $20 million; Palin OK'd a bond issue for the project before the land had been secured, leading to a protracted legal mess that ultimately forced taxpayers to pay more than six times the original market price for property the city ended up having to seize from a private citizen using eminent domain. Better yet, Palin ended up paying for the [expletive deleted] thing with a 25 percent increase in the city sales tax. But in her speech, of course, Palin presented herself as the enemy of tax increases, righteously bemoaning that "taxes are too high," and Obama "wants to raise them."

Palin hasn't been too worried about federal taxes as governor of a state that ranks number one in the nation in federal spending per resident ($13,950), even as it sits just 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434). That means all us taxpaying non-Alaskans spend $8,500 a year on each and every resident of Palin's paradise of rugged self-sufficiency. Not that this sworn enemy of taxes doesn't collect from her own: Alaska currently collects the most taxes per resident of any state in the nation.

...

Add to this the usual lies about Democrats wanting to "forfeit" to our enemies abroad and coddle terrorists, and you had a very run-of-the-mill, almost boring Republican speech from a substance standpoint. What made it exceptional was its utter hypocrisy, its total disregard for reality, its absolute unrelation to the facts of our current political situation. After eight years of unprecedented corruption, incompetence, waste and greed, the party of Karl Rove understood that 50 million Americans would not demand solutions to any of these problems so long as they were given a new, new thing to [sexually explicit remark deleted.]

...

So, sure, Barack Obama might be every bit as much a slick piece of imageering as Sarah Palin. The difference is in what the image represents. The Obama image represents tolerance, intelligence, education, patience with the notion of compromise and negotiation, and a willingness to stare ugly facts right in the face, all qualities we're actually going to need in government if we're going to get out of this huge mess we're in.

...

The truly disgusting thing about Sarah Palin isn't that she's totally unqualified, or a religious zealot, or married to a secessionist, or unable to educate her own daughter about sex, or a fake conservative who raised taxes and horked up earmark millions every chance she got. No, the most disgusting thing about her is what she says about us: that you can [sexually explicit remark deleted] for eight solid years, and we'll not only thank you for your trouble, we'll sign you up for eight more years, if only you promise to [sexually explicit remark deleted] for a few hours around election time.

[Source: The scariest thing about Sarah Palin isn't how unqualified she is - it's what her candidacy says about America | The Smirking Chimp]

I have been paying attention to 4 of the 5 elements of composition, but not until recently did I really become consciously aware of lines and angles as a determining factor for shot composition. I also think about other things as well, so I will find his next post of great interest! At any rate, here is the article in whole with embedded links for further discovery. Well done, Digital Photography School! Thanks!

5 Elements of Composition in Photography

Good Composition is a key element of good photographs yet is something that is hard to define.

Instead of looking at composition as a set of ‘rules’ to follow - I tend to view it more as a set of ingredients that can be taken out of the pantry at any point and used to make a great ‘meal’ (photograph).

Alternatively I’ve often described it as a set of ‘tools’ that can be taken out of one’s compositional tool belt at any given time in the construction of a great image.

The key is to remember that in the same way as a chef rarely uses all the ingredients at their disposal in any dish - that a photographer rarely uses all of the ingredients of composition in the making of an image.

Today I’d like to look at five of the ingredients (or tools, or elements) of composition that I draw on in my photography. They’re not ‘rules’ - just things that I consider when setting up a shot.

Pattern

Image by actionlovr

There are patterns all around us if we only learn to see them. Emphasizing and highlighting these patterns can lead to striking shots - as can highligting when patterns are broken.

Read more on using repetition and patterns in photography.

Symmetry

Image by straightfinder

Depending upon the scene - symmetry can be something to go for - or to avoid completely.

A symmetrical shot with strong composition and a good point of interest can lead to a striking image - but without the strong point of interest it can be a little predictable. I prefer to experiment with both in the one shoot to see which works best.

Read more on symmetry in photography.

Texture

Image by Grant McDonald

Images a two dimensional thing yet with the clever use of ‘texture’ they can come alive and become almost three dimensional.

Texture particularly comes into play when light hits objects at interesting angles.

Read more on using light to create texture in your photography.

Depth of Field

Image by orangeacid

The depth of field that you select when taking an image will drastically impact the composition of an image.

It can isolate a subject from its background and foreground (when using a shallow depth of field) or it can put the same subject in context by revealing it’s surrounds with a larger depth of field.

Read more on getting shallow depth of field and also this video tutorial on depth of field.

Lines

Image by stevacek

Lines can be powerful elements in an image.

They have the power to draw the eye to key focal points in a shot and to impact the ‘feel’ of an image greatly.

Diagonal, Horizontal, Vertical and Converging lines all impact images differently and should be spotted while framing a shot and then utilized to strengthen it.

These are just some of the elements of composition that I consider in my photography. They reflect my own style and personality but there are plenty more. Tomorrow I’ll share another 5 (subscribe to DPS to make sure you get them) but in the mean time I’d love to hear which ingredients of composition you draw on in your photography?

[Source: 5 Elements of Composition in Photography]

I wonder, should I just give in and give up? Is my government so corrupt, so right-wing extremist, so off target with my core values as an individual American citizen that I should just give up and stop caring at all? Should I let it rot in hell since I can do nothing to stop it, since many people think that the basic American values I cherish can be glibly dismissed as "liberal" or "crazy" or "politically incorrect?"

I can't hear or read the news any more without gasping in complete disbelief! How have we come to this place? And is it even possible to retreat from it? Has our nation's moral center really come to be greed, brute force, and extreme authoritarianism–it's all about me and to hell with you?

I believe in independent oversight to prevent corruption, yet today I read in the McNews paper (USA Today) that part of the $700 billion bailout plan would grant the Treasury Secretary unprecedented power:

The treasury secretary's decisions would be 'non-reviewable' and 'may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency'

What?! Is this a joke? How can this even be considered possible? Are we running our nation in such a reactionary posture as to preclude all rational thought? Is the federal government so beholden to corporate corruption as to just sign blank checks that many are admitting will exceed $1 trillion? What will the total cost of the welfare plan for business really be? And will we be forced to listen to politicians blame this bale out, this welfare plan, on those lazy welfare Americans who refuse to do a day's labor for a day's paycheck? And how will the incompetent managers of the nation's wealth (retirement plans, home mortgages, banking oversight, etc.) be punished for their reckless squandering that padded their bank accounts while draining the nation's?

I thought the Patriot Act was just a lunatic, knee-jerk response that we would move past, return to our senses and adjust in light of our 200 years of developing civil rights values. But I now am beginning to see it was only the beginning. We are losing our values at an unprecedented pace in reaction mode to crisis of the Republican party's own making–their 8 year failure to govern appropriately to jealously guard the safety and security of the whole of our nation's welfare.

I have never witnessed such a rapid dismantling of democracy under the scourge of fear for the sake of greed. This is far more than worrying about "ear marks," far more than worrying about "wasteful federal spending," and "bloated bureaucracy"–all of the absurd political dialogue designed to keep the average American on the street from seeing that fundamentally, our federal government is just completely broken, is rotten to the core, and may well be beyond repair.

So, what's up with Britney Spears these days? Or, "How 'bout them Dawgs!"

I just finished watching the TED talk embedded below. I can think of few things I've experienced this year that were more worthy of my deep consideration.

In this presentation, psychologist Jonathan Haidt speaks on The Real Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives. He is not trying to persuade one to embrace either but offers some astounding insight into the human condition and a better way forward than our current deadlock between the opposing camps that grip our nation.

He...

studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most. And he challenges all of us to step outside of our moral Matrix and pledge to work toward a more civil, productive political process. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 18:42.)

I highly, highly recommend some thinking time with this video! I certainly have a lot to think about to actualize these ideas in my life.

The podcast listen beow goes on my list of things to which I must listen. I had a conversation with a lady from Canada on the plane today about this very thing. She concluded our conversation with a very interesting aside:

"Hundreds of years ago people were controlled by keeping them ignorant and religious. With today's lack of separation of church and state in the worst state it's ever been in and with media keeping cogent substantive information from people by flooding us with theater of the absurd, nothing has really changed, has it."

Salim sez, "This is part one CBC's radio's Ideas feature on how surveillance pervades western culture and contributes to a new age of urban militarization. Surveillance is the the new Authoritarianism. A profusion of monitoring is ushering in a new age of paranoid politics." MP3: The Suspect Society on Ideas (Thanks, Salim!)

[Source: Suspect Society: CBC Radio's Ideas documentary on surveillance]

Barry sez, "The NYT has a terrific interactive graphic showing the financial destruction caused by the Wall Street meltdown. 29 firms have lost about a Trillion dollars. (that's trillion with a T)" A Year of Heavy Losses (Thanks, Barry!)

[Source: Infographic shows Wall Street's losses]

I love technology. But I hate voting machines! They make democracy invisible.

Electronic voting machines have been the focus of much controversy the last few years. But another election technology has received little scrutiny yet could create numerous problems and disenfranchise thousands of voters in November, election experts say.

This year marks the first time that new, statewide, centralized voter-registration databases will be used in a federal election in a number of states. [Source: Voter Database Glitches Could Disenfranchise Thousands]

So John McBush sold out to the right wing fundamentalist extremists because he has to get that vote to win!

Sickening!!

Republican presidential nominee John McCain would criminalize a promising branch of stem cell research, according to a statement issued by the candidate's campaign. Though such legislation would probably not survive Congress, he might extend President Bush's much-criticized limitation of embryonic stem cell research.

[Source: McCain Makes Sharp Right Turn on Stem Cells | Wired Science from Wired.com]

Warning!! More of my angry liberal mantra ahead! (Hah! No, I'd say fiscal responsibility is as conservative as it gets and long ago left the Republican party's ideology at the behest of greedy corporate America!)

My nation is coming apart at the seams!

The political candidates (right, left, and in-between) that talk about stopping all the "wasteful spending" by the federal government can just shut up already! Our biggest recipient on the federal dole is Iraq war funding. What a waste of money!! This should never have happened! Ever! Incompetent politicians! "Mission accomplished!"

I suspect before it's all said and done, our second largest example of wasteful federal welfare, and the newest addition to the welfare dole, will be corporate America.

Now corporate America and the federal dole are becoming one and the same! What a sweet deal for the failing corporations who are not going to suffer the natural consequences of their mismanagement because it would sink the whole nation!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am not an economist, but I just have a hunch that deregulated capitalism simply does not work!

Now before you get all high and mighty, screaming that I'm a terrorist or communist or unpatriotic or what ever mud you want to sling, let me remind you of a few important rules of the road!

Capitalism is NOT democracy. Democracy is NOT capitalism. Greed is NOT the American way. We do have SOME level of social as well as moral responsibility to human beings. Community is about working together for a common good, about helping, not taking advantage of others.

If the open capitalist market will adjust itself in time (as they say it is doing now), it will do so at the peril of many, many people (maybe the whole nation?!) because of those who were willing to take advantage of others to deepen their own pockets regardless of the damage they do.

Yes, now, the federal government is putting corporate America on welfare–a basically bankrupt government is bailing out the deregulated greed of astoundingly wealthy people who walk away from their reckless and self-enriching wrong-doing without any accountability.

In order to save the nation, maybe we have to put corporate America on welfare, but stop talking to me about cutting wasteful federal spending. Bailing out the American financial system, while probably needed, is second in wasteful spending only to the billions and billions we have poured into the Iraq war.

When will we start using some horse sense?!

Who will hold the Republicans accountable for this economic ruin they brought about by deregulation (and not just the deregulation of the financial institutions) and selling out to corporate short term profit-only interests? I lay this just as much at their feet as the corporate stock holders and CEOs–their big buds.

Hold them accountable when you pull that lever in November! It's such a shame that lever doesn't just flush out all the corruption in Washington.

Hmm... I've decided I'm not really an angry liberal, George W. I like the expression "livid liberal" better. You and your party have really hurt my country, and that upsets this patriotic American beyond belief.

I got this in an email, and suddenly I could see how I had been utterly deceived by the liberal media. Now I can clearly understand the one right choice for President!

• If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
• Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.
• If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
• Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, and you're a maverick.
• Graduate from Harvard law School and be President of the Law Review, and you are unstable.
• Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
• If you spend 3 years as a community organizer, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
• If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
• If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
• If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
• If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
• If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
• If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
• If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

I'm in Canada at the moment, in Winnipeg. Their newspaper, on page 2, has a large 8 x 6 picture of the incompetent President of the USA. The article is entitled: Psychologists redefine narcissistic disorder. The headline underneath this failed man, reads, "Psychologist says U.S. President George W. Bush exudes narcissistic traits."

A box under the the picture describes the man that has single handedly done more to directly harm, even long term, my nation than any other person in my life time. The box describes hubris and incompetence, the need to control and dominate, a delight on preying on those less fortunate–all most fitting descriptions of his horrendous misconduct in office and abuse of power.

And then Rover was quoted last night on TV stating that John McBush has gone too far in his lying to the American people in his campaign?! I laughed out loud! If ever there was a pot calling a kettle black, this is a classic example. In my mind Rove is as evil as the boss for whom he secured to the White House!

The Republican noise machine is in hyper drive, trying to do everything it can to distract you and I from the issues that should most, above all else, dominate the focus of Washington over the next 4 years.

Maybe Lehman's going belly up, because of the Republican party's deregulation, let the market sort it all out nonsense (which at one time I bought into), and Merill Lynch getting bought out, will break the noise machine's grip on media and refocus the nation ON THE ISSUE THAT MATTERS MOST right now–the economy that the Republics flushed down the toilet when they enjoyed absolute power!

God knows they want to avoid anyone thinking about their record for the past 8 miserable years.

Simply do not work: let the market sort it out–deregulate. WRONG! Greed causes exactly what we are seeing right now-- huge "market adjustment" which hurts people at the bottom. Now it's devastating the whole US economy and rippling through the world's economies which will have a long term negative impact on our currency.

It's time to rethink who runs this country!

get some sleep!

"those of means..."

From: It's Damn Cool to Be Rich

I saw a documentary of some sort about this place several years ago. The people who work here 24 hours a day, every day, are horrifically impoverished. They lack equipment, work barefooted and barehanded, literally wading through horrific toxins. Daily, many are maimed for life or killed. They live in unspeakably horrid conditions. As they have no medical attention and are paid hardly enough to live on, they have to work until they literally drop dead. I just can't get my head around the imbalances of a world in which this exists and which many of means feel is the correct order of things. How does one even address such a complex issue?!

When large container ships can contain or ship no more, they're sent halfway round the world to so-called "breaking yards," where they're dismantled (basically by hand), their metal is salvaged, and their intact structures, down to the doors and toilet seats, are put back onto the global marketplace. Today, these yards tend to be in Bangladesh or India – but location is just a question of cheap labor and (nonexistent) environmental regulations.

It's toxic work.

[Source: BLDGBLOG: Where cathedrals go to die]

I love this map! I've seen this data before, but it was always presented in a static format. Using this map, however, you can change the age range.

I am rather suprised it varies so much from youth to aged: more single males at the younger range and more single females (assuming their spouses have died) at the older range. Perhaps nature balances things out in the middle by having more guys born since we don't seem to live nearly as long as the women. Also of interest to me is where these populations seem to cluster geographically.

You can adjust the age range sliders on both sides and drag. Here is a 10 year spread around my age group. Even in my age range, already single women are beginning to dominate the population centers. Click to enlarge. Use the above link to visit the interactive map.

Seems the scientists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider are warming up this little puppy–well, actually, cooling it down. Apparently the tiny atomic subparticles only start to get all excited for us at unbelievably low temperatures, lower than -450º F! We just thought we had an issue with global warming!

At any rate, the collider has the internet all a buzz at the moment. Here are some interesting links about it: Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios, a YouTube video on how it works, and 10 Things... You ... Were Afraid to Ask. They're interesting and informative.

I'm just glad this thing isn't under my back yard! I personally want the $9.95 T-shirt (pictured below) but think it's a little too early to claim "mission accomplished."

Yes, as the planet gets too crowded, taking scenic vacation pictures becomes more problematic. Well here is a great little tip on ways to remove people from your vacation photos. I must confess to doing this myself. But, I never thought of the obvious: taking multiple shots from the exact same camera location (tripod being important) and using information from the combined images to remove the undesirables! Clever suggestion–along with some software to automate the process for you. Check out the details at this article, Remove Tourists from Travel Photos, at Wired.

OK, I just looked over my last jillion posts and realized I've got to get off the politics. It's killing me. All the negativity. Yuck. Glad politics isn't what I do for a living.

So, on to something different. How about this little GUI that searches for T-shirts. You type in a keyword and it searches for T-shirts related to it. Pretty simple, yet clever.

PleaseDressMe

The more horrific I realize Palin is! Others are coming to the same conclusion.

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch has endorsed Barack Obama. Koch's big issue is terrorism and he endorsed Bush in '04. But Palin pushed him over the edge. "I have concluded that the country is safer in the hands of Barack Obama, leader of the Democratic Party and protector of the philosophy of that party. Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation and a host of other needs and rights.

"If the vice president were ever called on to lead the country, there is no question in my mind that the experience and demonstrated judgment of Joe Biden is superior to that of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is a plucky, exciting candidate, but when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency."

[Source: Mayor Ed Koch Endorses Obama.....Thinks Palin is Scary]

He said it all!

I can't get through my daily RSS feeds without flying into a rant about politics again!

It was John McCain's night to shine Thursday at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. In accepting the party's presidential nomination, McCain promised to work against constant partisan rancor and reach across party lines. McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, aren't wasting any time and began the day campaigning in Wisconsin.

[Source: McCain Vows To Reach Across Party Lines]

I suspect this is like George W who ran on "being a uniter and not a divider--on bringing people together." Yeah! Right!! Mission accomplished there too, Dubyuh!

And what all did the book-banning Republican VP candidate do in her vitriolic speech night before last? I certainly felt the feminine gentility of her rancor!! And back to the banning of books: should we just go ahead and make it illegal to think?! Just nod and send us your money. It's much easier that way.

What a joke! What a sick pathetic joke! Oops! Am I sounding like an angry liberal again?

And obviously the Republicans wrote the front page of the LA Times yesterday, calling black white when they said Palin was "standing up to Big Oil." What?! Excuse me? This is the same woman that wants to kill the polar bears in Alaska for more oil? And, with a nod to delicately lying to all of Los Angeles county (that's 11 million people), the paper featured a huge portrait of McCain on the front page. Had it been an actual photograph of the same size, young children would have run into the streets screaming in sheer terror. And why do we always see him from the side and not face forward? Hmm? Has anyone noticed this ploy?

Yet when Obama speaks, he talks about issues and doesn't defame candidate's patriotism or character--THAT'S what it means to unite!

I had seriously feared that, if Obama gets elected, he would be assassinated. Now, a far greater fear is that if McCain gets elected, the same lunatic extremist religious fundamentalist fringe that bombed abortion clinics and murdered a physician within a mile of the house in which I grew up as a child will, in the name of god, heed some fanatical call to march in the army of god and assassinate McCain. Others have sent me emails concerned about this very same issue.

OK, I'll try to lay off venting my liberal anger for a few hours at least. :o)

Here's a great graphic on a wall in a gym. Source

I have blogged before about the absurdity of any government body in this democracy claiming that it can copyright our laws. This is so not democracy. When this man gets sued, I hope the lawsuit works its way to the supreme court. He will have my funding support!

He's giving you access, one document at a time

By NATHAN HALVERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Wednesday, September 3, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.
California's building codes, plumbing standards and criminal laws can be found online.

Carl Malamud

This Web site contains the Sonoma County Code and the 38-volume California Code of Regulations. Sebastopol resident Carl Malamud put the laws online in hopes California and other governments will drop their claim to copyright.

But if you want to download and save those laws to your computer, forget it.

The state claims copyright to those laws. It dictates how you can access and distribute them -- and therefore how much you'll have to pay for print or digital copies.

It forbids people from storing or distributing its laws without consent.

That doesn't sit well with Carl Malamud, a Sebastopol resident with an impressive track record of pushing for digital access to public information. He wants California -- and every other federal, state and local agency -- to drop their copyright claims on law, contending it will pave the way for innovators to create new ways of searching and presenting laws.

"When it comes to the law, the courts have always said there can be no copyright because people are obligated to know what it says," Malamud said. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse in court."

Malamud is spoiling for a major legal fight.

He has begun publishing copies of federal, state and county codes online -- in direct violation of claimed copyright.

On Labor Day, he posted the entire 38-volume California Code of Regulations, which includes all of the state's regulations from health care and insurance to motor vehicles and investment.

To purchase a digital copy of the California code costs $1,556, or $2,315 for a printed version. The state generates about $880,000 annually by selling its laws, according to the California Office of Administrative Law.

[Source: He's giving you access, one document at a time | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA]

Earlier I bemoaned the fact that the Democratic National Convention was not freely available on the iTunes Store. It now is!

If you missed the substance of what was presented in this convention, I highly recommend you take the time to explore the free video podcasts at the links below.

Since the Republicans are calling those patriotic Americans among us who disagree with their narrow, extremist world view "Angry Liberals" rather than offering the nation a better course than the one they have created for the past 8 years and want to intractably entrench in our very way of life, I will not bother include their links on my site.

Name calling is, after all, the oldest game in the book. We all learned it on the play ground before ever going to school. Besides, in my opinion, the Republican Noise Machine dominates the media airways anyway.

But back to sheer awesomeness: Below are links to some of the brilliant speeches at the DNC. Or you can visit the link above (or by clicking on the picture) to see all of the content, including audio-only versions of these speeches and more.

• Barack Obama (45:08)
• Al Gore (15:29) Some of the best thinking in the convention. He spoke very fast!
• Senator Joe Biden (33:07)
• President Bill Clinton (25:10)
• Senator Hilary Clinton (27:14)
• Michelle Obama (24:27)

So George W, the nation's worst president, referred to the "angry Left" in his address last night?

No, tell me he didn't open that door?!

Well, I suspect this failed president has no idea how angry Americans are because of his sheer incompetence and horrendous failure in office. I for one am mad as hell that he abused the powers of his office. I'm angry that, because of his deliberate and intentional deceit, tens of thousands of people, Americans included in this number, have been needlessly maimed and killed. I'm angry that he has seriously harmed the average American's standard of living. I'm angry that, in the name of God, he has inflicted his hatred, intolerance, and bigotry on people the world over, has tortured them in what he has called a holy war. I'm angry that he has damaged our nation's public schools with NCLB. I'm angry that he thinks it's funny to be stupid. This list could go on and on and on...

Call me "Left" or call me "Right." I could care less.

But absolutely call me angry--very angry at the moral, financial, and legal destruction his administration has inflicted on my country, undermining true American values for a facade of faith that amounts to person arrogance at best!

If ever a president should have been impeached, this buffoon was the one!

they live in glass houses like everyone else?! John McCain, in his first major decision related to running the country, made a catastrophic blunder!

The Blue Skunk tries to stay as apolitical as possible (weak stomach) but when this came across the state listserv this morning, the intellectual freedom fighter in me couldn't resist sharing it.

Excerpt from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/us/politics/03wasilla.html

Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through and it was unclear which books or passages were in question.

Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin's first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. "They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her," Ms. Kilkenny said.

The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to "resist all efforts at censorship," Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support. Ms. Emmons, who left her job and Wasilla a couple of years later, declined to comment for this article.

In 1996, Ms. Palin suggested to the local paper, The Frontiersman, that the conversations about banning books were "rhetorical."

Wouldn't it be ironic if the books Gov. Palin was trying to get rid of were on sex education for teens?

I guess I will have to break my pledge to vote for the first hottie to run for Prez.

[Source: Palin and censorship]

I have never made any secret of the fact that I strongly dislike Windows Vista and even XP. They constantly annoy me by getting in the way of my workflow.

OS X now does a similar when you download a file. It asks if you really want to open it. Well, hello! I wouldn't have downloaded the stupid thing if I hadn't wanted to open it! Here is a link to a fix for this Window's-like behavior in the 10.5 OS.

Not when the Republican Party dominates! Remember the Free Speech Zones where reporters who might disagree with George were basically quarantined? This is not democracy! This is not free speech!

I say, Now is our chance to get rid of them!

Amy Goodman and Producers Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous were arrested and released hours later at the Republican National Convention yesterday. All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers. Goodman was charged with obstruction, and felony riot charges are still pending against Kouddous and Salazar.

But it only makes sense. When you purchase a machine, are you being forced to purchase things you don't want that really are not innately part of the machine?

This is the third time that a French court had to force a PC dealer to return the money for an unwanted copy of Windows. The Slashdot article has some more information in English. The refunds were between 100 and 300 Euros, depending on version of Windows etc.

Do the math. Laptops nowadays often cost under 700 Euros. Laptop makers still bundle Windows and force it down customer’s throats, but if you don’t want that software, return it! It can shave up to a quarter off the price of your laptop, as you can also get a refund for MS Works or other software that was included without asking you. You can then use some other operating system on the machine, or if you want to keep using Windows, you can use your existing license. Tying a license you’ve already bought to a specific laptop you bought it for is also not legal in many countries, so if this happens to you, check out the legal status and sue the company.

If you don’t want to go through all that hassle, I have been selling brand-name (Fujitsu-Siemens) laptops without any operating system for almost a year, at decent prices. Send me an e-mail. We’re working on getting other brands to cooperate, too (HP is next on the list, after Lenovo chickened out).

[Source: French court forces dealer to refund Windows price]