January 2009 Archives

Government intervention in the market place, in corporate America?? "Socialism" is the cry of the neo-cons. I call it horse sense.

Public money should come with significant regulation, especially when it is being giving to welfare corporations that have stolen the American dream to fill their own greedy pockets. Hell, I suspect a close examination would probably land some of these white collar thieves in jail!

The way I see it? The welfare state isn't the unemployed, unweb mom with an infant on each hip, a cigarette in her mouth, a beer in one hand and a syringe in the other as the Republican party would have us believe. No, the welfare state, for the rest of my lifetime without doubt, will be the greedy, thuggish, thieving corporate executives who have destroyed American's job opportunities, medical insurance options, and retirement plans, while pocketing millions and millions from tax payer dollars heading straight into their already fattened bank accounts.

The name of the game for corporate America needs to be: accountability for the wretched mess they have created. Then it should be time to tackle the governance structures that let this happen. Oh, we already started the later when we ousted the Republicans whose policies allowed this thievery to thrive!

An angry U.S. senator introduced legislation Friday to cap compensation for employees of any company that accepts federal bailout money.

Under the terms of a bill introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, no employee would be allowed to make more than the president of the United States.

Obama's current annual salary is $400,000.

"We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer," an enraged McCaskill said on the floor of the Senate. "They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses." Watch McCaskill's heated words »

McCaskill's proposed compensation limit would cover salaries, bonuses and stock options.

[Source: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots' - CNN.com]

The Manchester - Boston Airport is really nice. The last time I was here I was also impressed. It's design is clean, minimalist, sunny, and open--making generous use of glass in the ceilings as well as the walls. The people are courteous and efficient. The space just has a very positive, bright energy about it.

But best of all, pull out your laptop and just start using the internet! No forcing you to log in, no demanding compliance to terms of service, no fees--just start using their free wi-fi. I love that--true, unfettered, generous attention to the customer.

This is so unlike corporate America, where the norm is nonsense like: "Please listen to our menu as the options have recently changed..." or "We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause..." Bull! Those words have zero authenticity. If the corporation truly cared about their customers, they would cut top executive pay and provide the resources needed to give customers service that doesn't make poor use of their time.

So a great big thank you to those responsible for the design and functionality of the Manchester - Boston Airport. (I sent them an email expressing the sentiments of this post just before publishing this.) You model good business practice that focuses on customers.

This project uses Photoshop to blend old war pictures with current pictures of the same place. Some are provoking.

Shouldn't Limbaugh be in prison? I mean, didn't he admit to criminal activity?

Limbaugh and many of his listeners have said they hope Obama will fail. That means they want America to fail. Or, at least, they want the kind of America that Obama stands for to fail - you know, the one where civil liberties are respected, where the rule of law prevails, where a multi-lateral foreign policy is embraced to increase homeland security, and where an African-American Democrat can become president.

[Source: The United Haters of America | CommonDreams.org]

Yes, you are looking at an icy tomb for an unidentified body lying at the bottom of an elevator shaft in an abandoned building that once housed school textbooks and supplies. Numerous people, while fully aware of the body, ignored its presence for at least a month. A news reporter had to call police, 911, and the fire department multiple times to get anyone to respond to the scene over 24 hours later! And 1 in 50 people in Detroit is homeless?!   

When I read this story by Charlie LeDuff of The Detroit News, I felt like I live in some apocalyptic sci-fi nightmare, not the land of opportunity. How can something this horrific be actually a way of life in this nation while, at the same time, Wall Street fat cats, after taking billions of dollars in tax payer money, give themselves and their ilk billions of dollars in bonuses?

What the hell is wrong with this nation? Have people no humanity? Have people no sense of community? How can this be permitted to exist side by side with those living in the luxury of reckless abandon?!

I am outraged! Steaming!

I thought this would be a good time to post a couple of photographs I took of Mount Redoubt in Alaska back in August, 2007 while driving down to Homer, as scientists are predicting the volcano will erupt soon given its current increase in seismic activity. Alaskans are preparing for the eruption. You can visit my photo albums of the Alaska trip at this link. Here is a link to a live web cam where you can catch the action as it unfolds. But be patient as mother nature has her own timetable.

In this top photo, what appears to be a cloud on the back left side of the volcano is, I'm told, actually escaping gasses from the volcano. While the volcano looks to be just beyond the tree line, it's scale is deceiving. A large bay or inlet is just beyond the tree line, as you can see in the bottom picture, and the Volcano is in the distance on the other side. Alaska is beyond gorgeous!

These "lightbulbs" are in fact speakers. But, if they really wanted to impress me, the sound energy would provide light from the speakers as well! From Boing Boing:

Castiglione Morelli is the latest designer to toy rudely with our expectations of thermodynamic energy transfer.

In so many ways!

I've mentioned before that I live in a community with a very high percentage of children, probably well above the national average. And these children are growing up with more than plenty and privilege, which really doesn't overly concern me as I don't see endless access as necessarily leading to perdition and the excesses that spoil.

However, a few weeks ago I saw something that really did disturb me: a very young mother was pushing her infant in its stroller along the strand (the walkway along the Pacific Ocean) with a 6 x 8 inch DVD player blasting some children's DVD into the child's limited consciousness.

Now, why did this bother me? Is it because I wonder if this showed a lack of attention to the child? Is it because I feel humans of all ages need to see and experience the real world around them to learn more about it. Is it because I think that human interaction with an infant is more important than trying to amuse and distract it? Is it because I am growing increasingly ill over excessive commercialism? Is it because I believe parents need to raise their children instead of mass media? Is it because I wonder if a constant diet of multimedia of all types shortens children's attention span and limits their capacity to be creative, active producers instead of passive consumers? Is it because I consider a steady diet of multimedia to be a distraction from the real issues that matter to human existence?

I don't know why, really. But this greatly bothered me.

This is just one of the 15 stunning long exposure photographs presented in this Digital Photography School post. Click the photo to enlarge it. I've got to do more of this!

These photos, taken through out the Bush presidency, remind us of his sadly comic routines. They were published in an opinion piece by the renowned documentary maker, Errol Morris, in The New York Times.

It's an interesting piece, entitled Mirror, Mirror on the Wall that's well worth the read. The photos appear with their original, unedited captions and were selected by press for a variety of reasons. I have probably not selected a representative sample (only 4 of them) here as I utterly detest what George represented in office. He disgraced our nation and systematically assailed our nation's values.

The selected pictures speak for themselves. (Clicking on any of them opens the larger version.) The last one was shot just before Bush delivered his farewell to his staff as his time in office was coming to its horrific end.

This Tim Cook, Apple's Chief Operaing Officer, quotation from the Apple earnings conference call last week.

There is an extraordinary breadth and depth and tenure among the Apple executive team, and these executives lead over 35,000 employees that I would call "all wicked smart". And that's in all areas of the company, from engineering to marketing to operations and sales and all the rest. And the values of our company are extremely well entrenched.

We believe that we're on the face of the Earth to make great products, and that's not changing. We're constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.

We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.

And frankly, we don't settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we're wrong and the courage to change. And I think, regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.

[Source: Tim Cook's View of the Apple Philosophy - Mac Rumors]

When you don't have anything else to talk about, choose the weather... especially when you live on the ocean. Last night the wind was strong, cold, and determined, making for some interesting shots.

And I shot these pictures this morning shortly after sunrise.

Why does it take virtually 3 weeks to boot up Microsoft Word on the fastest MacBook Pro laptop on the market as well as the fastest Mac Pro available? Can't these programers figure out a way to get Word to launch without the need for the user to take a coffee break before the document finally appears?

This is ridiculous!

I know I'm very different from most people on this next topic: I detest attention being focused on me. I don't know why, but I've always been the quiet, shy type. And I tend to not have any special regard for people who are "famous" or well known. Fame seems so silly on so many levels.

I will never forget being at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. I was with a family member when we happened to see an internationally known musician inside a building standing by the window looking out. My relative screamed, jumped on top of a bench and began frantically calling his name and waving so he would see her. I thought I would die. I was mortified.

So what, he sings. People know his music around the world. He's just a guy like everyone else. He just has made a lot of money through mass marketing his music. I like his music but could care less about seeing him. He could be a very nice man or a jerk for all I know.

Well, why am I bringing this up today?

I flew home from Salt Lake City yesterday. A famous actress sat next to me in business class. Frankly, I was tired. I had been traveling around for the past 5 days, hadn't slept well, had a back ache from the hotel mattresses, and was fighting off a sore throat from speaking non-stop.

I generally don't talk with the people sitting around me, though there have been some very notable exceptions: both good and one bad. I went to sleep. She was reading. When we landed and people began getting their baggage from the overhead bins, they realized who was sitting next to me and began embarrassing themselves. She was gracious.

I got my things and went to wait for my ride home. While I was standing there she and an entourage that had joined her at the gate (I found that interesting--airport security would never have allowed anyone to meet me at the gate without a ticket) came out to the curb to wait for her ride. The paparazzi was waiting. Cameras were flashing all around me. I was being bumped and knocked about as if I weren't even standing there.

She put on her sun glasses and began spinning about to avoid facing the photographers who were completely obnoxious. I was just hoping my ride would hurry up and arrive! I wanted to get out of this mess.

Hers arrived first. As she walked to the door of the car, she began wagging her finger in the face of one of the photographers who had been horrendously obnoxious. I wasn't listening to what she was saying to her, but the photographer, a woman, was just taking her picture non-stop as she wagged her finger in the camera lens. What a spectacle!

Once behind the heavily tinted glass of the car, the female photographer walked up to her window and waved to just go above and beyond in her efforts to be a witch with a capitol "b".

My Goodness! I hate fame.

Text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, as delivered.

OBAMA: My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers ... our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.

The "reign of error" has ended. Hope has begun in the eyes of true leadership! I was working all day today, but we took the time off to see President Obama sworn in to office and present his speech.

I can now hold my head up high again, with pride in our nation and our leadership.

Hopefully I will rarely ever need to mention this man again as our nation turns its attention to rebuilding that which he, his administration, and his party destroyed in just 8 years. We were fooled. We were duped. But, as he so brilliantly articulates in this presentation of his incisive thinking, never again!

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

In my continuing series, which will end tomorrow, the last day he holds the office he desecrated, I want to yet once again call attention to his ineptness. I feel a bit compelled to fight his efforts to rewrite the recent history of his failed administration.

This is one quotation that was absolutely, and most regrettably, the truth.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

"Too many good docs are gettin' out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." —Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

I can't wait until this ass is out of the White House and I can stop dogging him out for a while. But, he gave his bye bye and spewed more insanity as he tries to rewrite the truth, the facts, the horror of his tenure in office.

Arianna Huffington: Thursday night's valedictory speech was quintessential Bush: delusional from beginning to end. He made Afghanistan sound like a swell place to vacation when, in truth, only those with a death wish venture out these days without an armed convoy. He lauded Iraq as "a friend of the United States" -- without ever mentioning the fact that if Iraq has a BFF it is Iran, not America. He claimed that America's "air, water, and lands are measurably cleaner." Who is doing the measuring, the same eco-unfriendly companies to which he handed his environmental policies? It's dangerous spin. It's easy to feel a pang of pity for a guy heading out the door. But the more sympathy he evokes, the more susceptible we are to the lies he is telling. Before we know it, his revisionism becomes accepted as the truth.

Read her entire post at: Huffington Post

Well, as you have noticed, I intend to bash the buffoon until his last day in office. How dare he try to spin truth any more! Go away, little man! Go away!

Let me but count the ways...

• Total value of U.S. government contracts in 2000 that were awarded without competitive bidding: $73,000,000,000
• Total in 2007: $146,000,000,000
• Number of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed: 4
• Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000
• Chance that the buyer of a U.S. home in 2006 now has “negative equity,” i.e., the debt on the home exceeds its value: 1 in 5
• Estimated value of Henry Paulson’s Goldman Sachs stock when he became Treasury Secretary and sold it: $575,000,000
• Estimated value of that stock today: $238,000,000
• Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1
• Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37
• Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37
• Percentage change since 2001 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses: +172
• Estimated percentage by which Social Security benefits would have declined if Bush’s privatization plan had passed: –15
• Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3
• Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677
• Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations: 22,000
• Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50
• Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069

Source: [ Harper's Magazine ]

Why did so many in our nation feel compelled to follow this man, to support him, to believe in him? His own words show his ineptitude--the emptiness of his mind.

• "I think we agree, the past is over." George W. Bush, On his meeting with John McCain, Dallas Morning News, May 10, 2000
• "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right." —Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001
• "People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you." —Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002
• "I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it…I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet….I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one." —President George W. Bush, after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004
• "My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we're going to run out of debt to retire." —radio address, Feb. 24, 2001
• "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." —State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003, making a claim that administration officials knew at the time to be false
• "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." —Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001
• "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." —Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002
• "But all in all, it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me." —summing up his first year in office, three months after the 9/11 attacks, Washington, D.C., Dec. 20, 2001
• "I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." —Washington, D.C. June 18, 2002
• "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." —to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004
• “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories … And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." —Washington, D.C., May 30, 2003

Source: About.com

I hate all forms of unsolicited contact: junk mail, junk email, junk phone calls, junk left on the mailbox, the front door, under the windshield wiper. I hate the little moving ads that appear at the bottom of a screen while I'm watching a TV program, the loud commercials during a TV program break, billboards, ads in print. I guess I just loathe commercialism. I almost always know what I want and where to find it and don't appreciate the constant intrusions into my cognitive space, into my zone of attention.

There is one exception.

The Territory Ahead clothes catalogue always features photography of some of the most gorgeous places on earth. I look forward to seeing the pictures in it. From time to time I buy a shirt from them, but, HAH!, that's only to support the photography budget of the catalogue! (They really do have great clothes, too.)

This month's features the most spectacular photograph of The Monastery of the Holy Trinity, Meteora, Greece--a breath taking shot of a dramatic place. Finding where the picture was shot was a challenge. Once upon a time, the catalogue editors included information about the shoot location and even had links to travel agencies that sponsored vacation plans to these exotic places. Sadly, no more.

But try as I might, I can't find the photographer. If any one does, let me know.

Here's a link to a Wikipedia article about the geology of the area and its monasteries. Here's a Panoramio link to some shots from around the area--nothing overly exciting. Here's a Flickr search of the monastery with some interesting shots. But the best angle is still from the photographer who shot the cover of the Territory Ahead catalogue. I hope they don't mind my scanning it for your viewing pleasure. It is, after all, free advertising for them...

Evidence is beginning to appear that suggests that all of the cameras in our surveillance society do nothing to cut down on violent crime. Yet we are spending vast amounts of money on them to make feel as though we are safer. This video from Seattle I Am is clever and thought-provoking.   

With face recognition technology finding its way now into consumer applications (like Apple's newest release of iPhoto--a really cool product upgrade), I think we are beginning to see that when face recognition technology converges with the ever present surveillance camera, we can easily create an American Gestapo that spies on innocent citizens with ease and facility and with no oversight whatsoever. With little of no effort a person can be tracted in realtime by a computer system aggregating his/her face from all of the video surveillance captured by the ever-present cameras. I personally find this alarming. Big Brother, 1984, is here.

And no, don't ask me to trust my government. The past 8 years have demonstrated in very stark terms how quickly our freedoms can be dismantled by government.

These quotations from the document embedded below:

Violent incidents  do not decline in areas near the cameras relative to areas further away," added the study, which noted the cameras helped police bring charges against six people accused of felony property crimes. "We observe no decline in violent crimes occurring in public places."

Wired, in their post that got me thinking about all of this, states that...

the report did show that, over the past two years, property crimes such as burglary and muggings dropped an estimated 24 percent in areas within 100 feet of San Francisco camera locations.

Get your own - Open publication

Puns are fun! Even though the contrast needs to be pumped up on the photo, I still love the idea!

Inspired by the collection posted last year on Best Week Ever (previously at Neatorama), the folks at Torontoist decided to scour Toronto and find local pun business names. They found (and photographed) more than 60! Link -Thanks, David Topping! [Source: The Great Torontoist Pun Hunt]

Numbers like 1.33:1 or 2.35:1 are ever so confusing, but this post at 37 Signals helps show the different types of aspect ratios by referring to screenshots from TCM.

Pinnochio (1940)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Star Wars (1977)

…the events of the last few months should have etched indelibly on the national psyche the conclusion that laissez faire, robber-baron capitalism—the Great Idea of the conservative movement—has proven a dreadful failure.

... George W. Bush and the Republican Congress did not abandon the legacy of Ronald Reagan. They fulfilled it.

Reagan branded in the popular imagination the notion that “government is the problem, not the solution.”

Bush and his ideological counterparts in Congress took that philosophy to its logical conclusion, dismantling as many of the safeguards and safety nets put in place since the New Deal as they had time to dismantle.

They preached the gospel of unregulated greed, arguing that what’s good for unscrupulous lenders and multinationals en route to Dubai is good for America, and we all paid the price.

That should be the Great Lesson of the first Great Depression of the 21st Century.

--Drew Westen

[Source: AZspot]

Asked by People magazine what moments from the last eight years he revisited most often, W. talked passionately about..."
[Source: New York Times: An Extremist Makeover?]

Now, in the extraordinary times represented by the last 8 years, what would you expect the president of the United States to say?

• Could it be the fact that his administration was completely and incompetently asleep at the wheel when the World Trade Centers were destroyed?
• Could it be the utter disregard for providing appropriate and timely assistance to the victims of the Katrina tragedy?
• Could it be the his administration's authorization and wholehearted support of torture?
• Could it be the complete collapse of the nation's economy with its resulting global economic impact as a result of his and the Republican parties failed economic policies?
• Could it be the loss of the moral, economic, and human rights authority and the respect of our nation on the world stage?
• Could it be the environmental assault on the planet his policies have enacted?
• Could it be the staggering, record national debt he and his party have left for lifetimes to come?
• Could it be his assault on civil rights with unauthorized wiretapping and spying on American citizens, with the suspension of due process in the legal system?
• Could it be his efforts to privatize one of democracy's most important institutions: public schools?
• Could it be his radical expansion of the powers of the presidency thus upsetting the balance of power as the framers of our constitution envisioned our nation?
• Could it be his deception in leading the nation into an unjustified war that has resulted in the needless murder of nearly 100,000 people? The list could go on and on and on.

But what did he say? What did this imbecile, this simpleton, this arrogant, stubborn man say was the most "anxious" [his chosen word] moment of his presidency?   

... the pitch he threw out at the World Series in 2001: “I never felt that anxious any other time during my presidency, curiously enough.”
[Source: New York Times: An Extremist Makeover?]

What?!

This pitch, this profoundly anxious moment that seared itself indelibly into the president's memory, occurred on 10/30/01--that's less than 3 weeks after 9/11/01. And this is what he revisits the most from his past eight years in office?! My God!

If ever a president completely and wholly deserved impeachment, this sheer failure does. I have no words to describe the extent to which I am overwhelmed with disgust. And you can print that quotation in the Marietta Daily Journal!

This presidential tenure has been a horror--a blight on the history of this democracy.

I am overcome!

Find out what's on the exact opposite side of the earth from you at this link. I'm in California. If I drilled through the earth in a straight line, I would pop out in the Indian Ocean. Hmmm... Madagascar, now that would be a nice place to photograph!

is just one click away. (You were warned!)

Just one more week with a buffoon in the White House! I'm beside myself with gleeful anticipation. But what will comedians do without a national court jester? To start the celebration, enjoy this from David Letterman: the top 10 Bush moments caught on film.

This might solve talking to a person who never looks at you in an iChat video conference.

An Apple patent suggests that we may see the iSight camera move from above the display to right behind it.

[Source: Apple files patent for an iSight behind a display]

High today of 82º?!

And I just came in from showing the sprinkler guy what needs to be tweaked in the yard's sprinkler system. You know, here in the desert, since it never rains, if you don't regularly water the yard, it dies!

I think it's already gone higher than they forecast! It's way too hot for January!!

I'm sure everyone wonders what would happen if I nuked this, that, or the other in the microwave. Well, the folks at this website shot video of various things being microwaved until they were destroyed: christmas lights, eggs, soap, etc. My favorite are the eggs.

This is fascinating. I knew that data centers required massive amounts of power to run the computers and keep them cool, but I hadn't thought of it in these terms.

How much CO₂ does a google search produce if a google search produces CO₂? Well, Harvard physicist Alex Wissner-Gross did the math:

… a typical search generates about 7g of CO₂ Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”

Google is secretive about its energy consumption and carbon footprint. It also refuses to divulge the locations of its data centres. However, with more than 200m internet searches estimated globally daily, the electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by computers and the internet is provoking concern. A recent report by Gartner, the industry analysts, said the global IT industry generated as much greenhouse gas as the world’s airlines - about 2% of global CO₂ emissions. “Data centres are among the most energy-intensive facilities imaginable,” said Evan Mills, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Banks of servers storing billions of web pages require power.

Link - via BuzzFeed

[Source: Google’s Carbon Footprint]

My new Canon 5D gobbles up an impressive 21.53 megabytes every time I snap a picture. So the size of the data card in the camera matters--a lot. My daily record for shooting was over 1,700 shots at Point Lobos after a tremendous storm stirred up the Pacific Ocean in an impressive way. Shooting in RAW on a 16 gigabyte card only lets me capture just over 500 images on a card.

I just purchased 2 Hoodman 16 GB UDMA cards that come with a lifetime warranty. I asked the manufacturer (they're a local company) when 32 GB cards would be available. She said, "This summer, about June." Apparently the new standard has a 2 TB data capacity. When considering the fact that the Canon 5D will also shoot HD video at 1080i, I can see a need for large storage capacity.

I also suspect, as portable storage media gets more affordable, we will see the death of the computer hard drive in the not too distant future.

The format of future memory cards, SDXC, just announced by the SD Card Association - of which Panasonic is a founding member - allows data storage in capacities between 32GB and 2TB.

That's 2 terabytes, folks: about as much storage in one thumbnail-sized device as I have in every computer and external hard drive in my home added together. That's also as much data that's on forty 50GB double-layer Blu-ray discs. Panasonic notes as much in its press release -- is the company teasing the potential demise of Blu-ray before the format even properly lifts off? The spin goes something like: SDXC will allow "consumers to conveniently store more data, helping them to experience a true High Definition digital lifestyle."

[Source: The 2TB memory card arrives // Current]

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Source: Familiar and Unfamiliar Quotations  

It just keeps getting more and more interesting. Almost every day more news about proposition 8 hits the media outlets here in LA. I'm sort of over it. But lately, it's getting more interesting because it involves even larger issues than civil rights for minorities. Now, the entire election process is under siege!

Apparently a lawsuit has been filed by the supporters of Proposition 8 to order the Secretary of State's office to remove all donor information from their website, which it is required by California law to publish to meet campaign disclosure requirements. This has huge implications. I am a strong proponent of transparency in the workings of government, especially the election process, which the current campaign laws are designed to protect. Suddenly, extreme conservatives want to do away with campaign disclosure requirements? Why? What do they have to hide?

I certainly hope that people are not being physically threatened or physically intimidated in any way, on either side of this issue. That's just wrong. People are entitled to their opinions. I suspect that the reason for the lawsuit is more directly related to matters of commerce. Numerous businesses who have provided funding to support Proposition 8, even when many of their employees opposed it and had no idea of their employers financial support, have been boycott by those who opposed the ballot initiative. When 48% of the state population might boycott something, that can have serious business implications. In these difficult economic times, some businesses are apparently going bankrupt because of this while others are losing talented employees over it. Immediately after the election many were very boastful in the local media of their support of the proposition. Now, the tide seems to have turned dramatically. They don't want anyone to know.

And today the media reports that the California Fair Political Practices Commission (CFPPC), I didn't even know we have such a thing, is investigating the Mormon Church for allegations that it made vast non-monetary donations to the campaign that were not reported. Again, if true, this is a violation of campaign finance laws. As I've blogged before, I believe strongly that when any organization functions as a political action group (PAC), regardless of whether that organization supports or opposes any political position or candidate, that organization, in compliance with federal law, should not be tax exempt. And, I have always  strongly believed that the separation of church and state must be maintained in our country, a position that has been assailed at every opportunity, to the long term detriment of this nation in my opinion, by this soon-to-end presidential administration.

And, for everyone who just can't get enough of a really bad thing, the lead council in the suit against the state to void all existing same sex marriages is, of all people, Kenneth Starr. Remember him? He was the Republican party's bulldog that, in my opinion, wasted millions and millions of tax payer dollars in the media spotlight trying to unearth some tidbit of financial scandal, that his very investigation actually proved never existed, against the Clintons. Instead, he gave the bloodlust machinery a sex scandal. Can't he just go away?! I had no idea he is a law professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu.

And one final interesting tidbit. This has probably been around forever and I'm the last to find out, but someone created a Google Maps mashup of the donors who supported Proposition 8. If one exists for those who opposed it, I am unaware of it. You can zoom in down to the street! Now that's transparency in campaign contribution disclosure! [Interestingly, earlier in that same newspaper, I learned of a Google Maps mashup showing the location of arrests because of gang-related criminal activity. Mental note: areas to avoid! The times in which we live...]

Los Angeles International Airport officials have updated earlier information regarding this morning's arrest: "A male Hispanic was detained and subsequently taken into custody at 12:20pm today by federal and local law enforcement officers who are investigating his attempt to bring several weapons plus ammunition into LAX. At 10:49 this morning, the man driving a grey 4X4 Silverado was stopped by Airport Police officers for a routine vehicle inspection at the intersection of westbound Century Blvd. and Sepulveda Blvd., one of the main entrances into the passenger terminal area of LAX.

Thirty handguns and 7 rifles, plus fully loaded ammunition magazines were found in the same container in the back of his pickup truck. The driver was arrested at 12:20 pm for weapons transportation violations and will be booked at Pacific Division LAPD."

Frankly, I'm shocked that, unlike the alien crop circles around the world, these alien sand circles have received no media coverage at all! Obviously, in its rapid exit from the scene, the spacecraft left the entire bay area engulfed in some type of cosmic dust that greatly resembled thick fog and served to keep eye witnesses from knowing in which direction they traveled!

UPDATE: The strange yellow posts are a highly sophisticated communication technology to keep in contact with the mother ship even a distances exceeding trillions of light years. It has been disclosed by an anonymous official source close to the investigation that these are in fact the same type of communication system found at Stonehenge, just remarkably smaller due to advances in alien technology and a generally increasing disregard by the alien life forms to not blight the earth.

Time to do the laundry.

I put myself on a waiting list for the Canon 5D Mark II back well before Christmas because I was told that even then I should not expect to receive the camera before April! Well, to my delight a box arrived yesterday...

After charging the battery, I rushed down to the ocean and shot my first pictures with it at sunset. The top two photographs are completely un-retouched and were shot at late sunset last night. The bottom picture has just a tad of work done to it in Lightroom and was shot this morning at sunrise.

I didn't use a tripod with any of them! This camera handles low light amazingly well (and even has an ISO setting that extends up to 1600, though it did produce a grainy result last night in very low light).

First shots:

First impressions of the new 5D:

• I like the feel and sound of the camera. It's not as loud as my EOS 30D. It's probably all in my head, but it sounds more sturdy.
• I especially like the info display on the back of the camera which makes reading the camera settings much easier for me.
• I love the idea of the self-cleaning sensor! I just hope it lives up to the task over time.
• I've decided to commit to shooting in RAW with this new beast, and at 21 megapixels per shot, the file sizes are shocking! I have typically kept many of my not-so-perfect pictures for various reasons. Not any more! Those suckers hit the trash immediately after import!
• I first started shooting in both RAW and JPG. However, when I saw the elephantine file sizes last night, I decided to make the switch to 100% RAW. No more JPG! I'm concerned that the significantly larger file size has some serious storage issues associated with it. My Drobo is already 75% full. And importing and working with the photos will also take longer. This will definitely impact workflow.
• I like the larger display on the back of the camera combined with the ability to use the scroll wheels/dials to get to information and change settings quickly. This feels much more intuitive.
• While I am now at a point that I rarely use the quick presets on my 30D, I at least knew what the icons meant. They made sense visually. The icons for the CA Presets, as they are called on the 5D, leave me utterly cold. I haven't a clue which one I would use in a pinch as I would have to find the manual to see what the icons mean every time I would go to use one. Yuck!
• But, by far and away, Tim likes!

Click on each image below to see the 360º panorama linked to that image and shot on location in Maine.

The first pano was one of my more difficult challenges as I shot the pano from a floating dock, meaning I was bobbing up and down. Precision is everything in the pano shoot. The last thing you want is for the camera to move--at all! And then there was this little issue of trying to stay out of the picture without falling off of the narrow dock and into the water. Miraculously, I stayed dry.

I had issues with the Cadillac Mountain pano as well. The wind was blowing so fiercely, and was it ever cold! I had to hold on to the tripod to keep it from blowing over. I then realized that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep the tripod from shaking in the wind! Again, that whole precision issue!

Remember, once the pano window opens, you can click and drag anywhere you want to see in the 360º field of view. Enjoy!

Click Above: Alamoosook Lake and Lakeside Inn

Click Above: The very point of Schoodic Point in Acadia National Park

Click Above: Atop Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park

I travel so much I haven't done much of anything here in the greater Los Angeles area to actually appreciate where I live. Well, I take that back. I do walk along the ocean with regularity. And I also ride my bike along the ocean as well. (Yesterday, for example, I rode over 10 miles.)

So today it was off to do a hike in Eaton Canyon in Pasadena. I was impressed with the beauty of the city of Pasedena. The area of the city I had visited before wasn't at all appealing to me. But these homes actually reminded me of Atlanta: they had yards!

At any rate, the hike route I took is shown above (I was wearing my GPS) and was slated as "easy." Well... The first mile in was an easy walk near the creek/river bed. You can see the picture of that area in the top photo of me above. (I know, rare to see me in a picture as I hate having my photo taken!) The last .5 was another matter entirely!

Hikers have probably a dozen creek crossings. At one of them I decided a wet foot was better than a broken one (from sliding off a very round rock). So I stepped directly into about a foot of rapidly flowing, very cold water. That shoe is still drying out.

And then there is another issue: the guidebook said the hike was 1.5 miles. However, the GPS I wore said I hiked 6.1 miles today. So here are the stats:

• Distance: 6.1 Miles
• Time: 3 hours and 19 minutes
• Elevation Gain: 465 feet

At the end of the trail hikers arrive at the base of about a 70 foot waterfall. At least the last part of the hike was in the shaded canyon itself. So the breeze was pleasantly cool as I clawed my way up and down boulders.

In the next day or so I hope to post a few more pictures of the area. Photography simply can not capture the grand scale of the canyon. If I get back to this place (I have others on the list), I'll shoot some 360º panos in here and wear some waterproof boots. But, for now, here's a shot of the waterfall.

This is absolutely a crazy, insane death wish. (And it didn't take too many searches on YouTube to find a video of one. No, I didn't watch it.) But it looks like sooo much fun!

As Americans, we are constantly fed an unending diet of "craving." With manipulation to crave, to develop an increasing desire to possess and to collect, why would we expect anything less than our national obsession with things and image, with lifestyle, with status. Greed, as psychosis, seems inevitable. After all, we have been conditioned to believe that spending our way into national prosperity is our patriotic obligation. We are made to feel guilty if holiday sales figures are down.

But what really does constitute your personal definition of "enough?"

I'm confident it differs widely. And is this craving for "more," this dissatisfaction with "now," this yearning for greener grass on the other side not also a vital ingredient in our drive to create and invent as well as consume? Does it not also fuel our curiosity--our need to explore? And how does it fashion our definition of what is important?

Goodness, this citation below really got me thinking...

Thumbing through a new tome by John C. Bogle, I came across this:

While attending a party at the Shelter Island estate of a billionaire hedge fund manager, novelist Kurt Vonnegut pointed out to Joseph Heller, the author of Catch 22, that their host had made more money in one day than Heller's phenomenal best-seller had earned during all the years it had been out.

Heller smiled at Vonnegut and said: "Yes. But I've got something he'll never have. Enough."

Which crystallizes for me what's been wrong with the country (and world?) over the past several years.

We were driven over a tall cliff by folks who could never, no matter how rich they became, have enough.

[Source: TAG Blog: Why We're In A World of Hurt]

Eat!! Very clever via: Bad Banana

I'm just now slogging through email and discovered this holiday YouTube sent to from my cousin. Somehow it ended it getting caught by my spam filter. I watched it. Even though Christmas has passed, this is way too good to pass up!!! Thanks, Cuz!

I've mentioned before that I've been transferring all of my photographs out of Aperture and into Lightroom 2. I decided to take a break from tagging the tens of thousands of photos to create a new photo gallery.

I am now using SlideShowPro Director as my online photo management and presentation system. It's has two plugins that work inside of Lightroom to facilitate exporting tagged photos and was a significant reason I decided to make the migration to Lightroom. (Not to mention Aperture's technical and performance problems!)

SlideShowPro is astoundingly complex and powerful. This system has taken me many, many hours to come to understand. I'm just now starting to get my head around how this thing works--mind blowing! But I really like it, even though the plugins have some significant issues/bugs. I've been working with their technical support and learning how to get around some of the problems. Still, the two create a very powerful toolset.

So, click the photo below to visit what will become my complete photo management system as time goes by. At the moment it's just one gallery, a collection of 14 photo albums that comprise over 250 of my pictures from Maine. Thousands more pictures to come...

By now everyone is familiar with the Zune fiasco. At the end of the year, tens of thousands of Zunes mysteriously quit working. Microsoft is scratching its head trying to figure out why and assures the loyal customer base a solution will be in the works as soon as they can determine what killed "the iPod killer."

I say, "rest in peace!"   

Well, Happy New Year everyone. Let's all hope the future will be much brighter than 2008, the year of despair, the year of Bush. Only a few more days 'til we are rid of him. May his legacy always rot in hell where it belongs.

These figures from the New York Times today:

• Decline in the S&P 500 in 2008: -38% (The great depression saw a 41% decline.)
• 1.9 million jobs lost in 2008
• -$6.7 trillion loss of market value in the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000
• -0.016% yield on the 3-month T-bill
• July median home value: $230,900. November home median home value: $180,800.
• Oil prices on July3: $145.29. Oil prices on December 31: $44.60
• Number of banks the US government now owns stock in: 206

And while the Bush family raked in record oil profits, while the Republican party was assuring Americans the economy was sound, while we were bailing out major financial institutions, while the US auto industry was melting, while the national debt reached record highs each day, George took pride in the fact that he stuck to his principles. What an ass! What an idiot! What arrogance!

Well, I'm hoping that the new year will bring the positive change everyone in America needs.