Wait-and-See Method Strikes Again

My Darling Wife had about the worst mittelschmerz EVAR earlier. She got kicked by a toddler right in the wrong spot on the guts and bang she was hurting. She retired early, and I had to carry her to bed. Later, I carried her to the restroom and back as she obviously could not walk. Verrrr bad, mmmkay?

Kid fell on head? Wait and see.
Does this cut look infected? Wait and see.
Is it the flu? Wait and see.
Appendicitis? Wait and see.

Well, maybe not that for that last one, but there was no vomiting and just now after a couple of hours of sleep she got up again to make another restroom visit. I went to help when I heard the bed creak and she was walking unassisted. So. Thanks those of you who prayed.

********
For those who won't click the link: Mittelschmerz is German for "I feel as if I've been stabbed repeatedly in my guts in the vicinity of my inside-the-guts lady parts".

Madness at Work

VFD: Hey, when is the drawing for this thing?
Guido: Tonight.
VFD: Thanks, WHEN is the drawing.
NJ: Why, are you having second thoughts?
VFD: No, I just want to know what time I need to call everybody to make fun.

********

There were only a handful of intelligent souls where I work today (who didn't buy lottery tickets). Last night I said I'd bet my life at a billion to one odds and today I'm proving I won't bet a dollar at 170whatever million to one odds. Sure it's a half billion dollars, but you're as likely to win if you play as if you don't, all the way out to a half dozen decimal places.

That said, if I can't get in to work tomorrow because everybody with a key called in rich, I probably won't be too happy about the $4 in gas I burned to get there and back home!

And no, to counter an often-repeated argument, nobody HAS TO win. This is what, 18 or 19 times they've drawn for this jackpot. The payout keeps going up with NOBODY winning.

*******

At least 10% of the people employed at my company bought into the office pool for one reason: they would suffer severe psychological trauma if the pool hit the jackpot and they weren't in on it. I wholeheartedly endorse this as a low dollar insurance plan for future mental stability. If you think you might be kicking yourself tomorrow, by all means go buy a ticket or ten. Just remember you wouldn't have won anyway, so don't feel too bad when you don't win.

Here I Make My Stand.

Here I make my stand, and I shall be pushed no further.

It is better that my country should be destroyed than that I should vote for a heathen to be its President.

"It Just Went Off!"

Two lives lost. As the song says, "one's in the morgue and the other's in jail; one got wasted and the other's a waste."

Atlanta teenager in jail facing involuntary manslaughter charges. His three year-old niece was shot in the stomach* and later died of her injuries in hospital.

Guns don't shoot themselves. Please take just a moment to review the 100% sure-fire way to prevent this happening in your own family.


****

* This is agony. An arm or a leg you can tourniquet and it goes numb. Shot in the guts is sheer pain until you die.

The UT Cartoon Is Not Racist, it's Just that Your News Networks Stink

If you think this cartoon is raysiss, you have missed the point entirely. Kudos to the people at UT for publishing such an honest, hard-hitting criticism of the national press corps.

Captions For The Win

This is timely, in light of the current lawsuit. The people who grow corn would like you to believe their commercials telling you that High Fructose Corn Syrup is the perzact same thing as table sugar. Your body can't tell the difference, they say. You know who can tell the difference? The researchers who did this study at Princeton University.

Well, it turns out HFCS makes lab rats fat. It also makes you fat, somehow even though the corn industry says it metabolizes the exact same as cane sugar. Riiiight. Anyhow, I showed this picture around the office, and I was NOT the only one who was thinking this. You are not supposed to laugh.

Google does horrible things to image quality to make the picture fit. Click the picture to see it full size.

Wait, So Al Sharpton Wants MORE Trayvon Murders?

1. Trayvon was killed in self-defense
2. The Mexican who killed him was an aggressor
3. These allegations are mutually exclusive

If you get into an argument and are --->.<--- this close to being stabbed, but the other guy goes away for whatever reason, you are no longer in danger and no longer acting in self defense if you go after him. This is an American legal doctrine: you are only acting in self-defense if there is a current threat.

So: we have a young black man being followed, then he confronts the guy following him. The guy could have acted in self defense but the black man backed off. Then the black man goes on his way and the guy with the white-sounding name went after him. You know what happens at this point? Trayvon acts in self-defense and beats the sh*t outta the guy, is what happens.

In England, if you are assaulted and end up kicking ass and taking names, YOU get in trouble. The person who was a victorious victim ends up in prison for assault! In America, if you kick the booty of an aggressor, you are your own hero and the Police give you a thumbs-up and tell you "self-defense, no charges filed."

What are you driving at, VFD?

The race pimps are currently trying to use the blood of Trayvon to convince you that 24 States with "stand your ground" laws should revoke those laws. The effect of this, if they allege the truth, would be as follows:

The guy attacks Trayvon and Trayvon gets killed, because Trayvon knows he has no right to stand and fight.

Hold on there.

Is that really the law you want? REALLY? Sure, if the truth is that the guy had turned to leave and Trayvon attacked him, the guy was acting in self defense and oh it's so horrible that he has the human legal right to defend himself instead of running away. Right, sure, fine, but what if your preferred story of Trayvon-the-victim is true? Then you want to repeal the right of young black men everywhere to defend themselves against the White Aggressor!

How perverse is this?

The Very Question!

"What is left? If the government can do this what else can it not do?" Justice A. Scalia March 27, 2012

I cannot say how glad I was to hear with my own ears that this question was asked by one of the 9 black robed figures. Still, I pray.

********

Say all you like that health care payment is a nationwide problem, but it is still not a national problem. The payment by an individual, for the services rendered by a private company, in one State, is an individual matter - or at the most, a State matter. There is no-where a place for the federal Government to stick its nose in this business.

Hold on there

If it's a national problem, why then prior to Obamacare are we FORBIDDEN to commit ourselves to INTERSTATE COMMERCE and buy health care payment insurance across state lines?

****

I think one way to look at this set of cases is as follows: If Obamacare's individual mandate part is tossed out by the supreme Court, it is a net neutral for the 2012 election. A dramatic example of how the President is a Communist who doesn't know anything about America is offset by the national press corps telling you the REPUBLICANS STOLE YOUR HEALTH!!!!1! So, then, the election will be decided based on the price of a gallon of gasoline. Pre-election gas price drop in October in 3...2... Oh, did you not hear about the Saudis sending us a "wall of oil" because suddenly them making a profit is a problem? Let's review again, on whose watch the price of gas recently doubled, and who has prevented us from getting away from imported oil recently? Hmm....

Pray for Our Nation

If the supreme Court of the United States rules that the individual mandate portion of Obamacare was an unconstitutional over-reach by Congress and overturns it in a very "prejudiced" manner so the Congress will know going forwards they can't MAKE us buy stuff, it will have been worth all the stress and worry.

If they don't, and they say Congress was within its authority, we're done.

Arguments before the Court started this morning. Christians, please pray for our nation. This is a critical moment!

Boortz Raises Another Interesting Question

Regarding the Trayvon Martin shooting . . . considering the Florida 'stand your ground' law when it comes to the decedent:

• He was minding his own business when he realized he was being followed.
• He was (allegedly) attacked

therefore(?)

• He was justified in (allegedly) being on top of and pounding the snot outta George Zimmerman
  

The report of the Grand Jury should be interesting.

MTF Curves: Not the Whole Story!

If you don't mind going deep into the weeds only to find that your ox is the one being gored, AND if you are a super geek about photography, you might be interested in the following .pdf article:

How to Read MTF Curves by H. H. Nasse, Carl Zeiss Camera Lens Division

Why I Caint Take It In French?

I went to Target and bought something. Then I went to www.target.com/survey/ to fill out their customer satisfaction survey for my CHANCE TO WIN $5000!* It had 2 buttons: begin in English, begin in Espanol.

Hold on a minute.

Why only two choices? How multiculturally-insensitive is THIS? WHY is my native French not a choice?! Why don't I get to pick Vietnamese!?!? How come I can't pick Chinese? Chimmy-ching-chong I got offended!

America. In this country, we do business in American. It's like English . . . speak it!

King Cobra, per Special Request

This guy was just hanging Out, literally. His head was 4-5" off the rock, and he was looking through the looking glass at the people looking at him. King cobra at the San Antonio Zoo. His hood is retracted, as nobody has aroused the ire of the King :)



For scale, the enclosure is about 5 feet across. This is no small snake.



The color has a blue-green cast because of the lighting and the intervening glass. I think I'd rather have a glass-green tint than a loose cobra!

Safety Gear for the Win

I just saw a crash on the teevee. Two guys on dirt bikes made a jump and collided in midair and came down from what looked like maybe 25 feet, to the dirt track below in a jumbled heap with their motorcycles. One guy bailed and landed on his feet and he was able to ride away after half a minute. The other guy landed pretty much on his head and it looked like he had a 350lbs bike fall on him. He was able to scramble off the track and bawl out the other guy, then he collapsed, and after a minute or so he walked off the sidelines with medical personnel.

As he walked away from the camera I noticed he had what looked like a HANS device (or something very like it) on his back. That cat would be DEAD a few years ago. Paralyzed, at best. Now, he's spitting mad, spitting blood, and holding what are probably several broken ribs. He'll need a new helmet, maybe a new vest, but not a new gravestone, yet.

Your Tax Dollars Hard At Work

The FBI and DEA were paying a couple guys to turn information about Mexican drug cartels at the same time BATFE was paying the guys to smuggle guns to the cartels so they could see what would happen to the guns. And the DEA and FBI didn't tell the ATF they were informants.

These people make, what, 50, 60, 70 grand a year, each? Then they have known felons doing felonious stuff on a level that qualifies as an act of war against Mexico, and they don't bother telling each other.

THEN they complain that YOU finding out about these shenanigans is making their job harder! Oh, the poor little sad pandas. Here's mud in your eye.

Hat tip to Sipsey Street Irregulars! If you have a couple bucks, Mike would appreciate a donation - he's doing more investigative journalism while recuperating from SURGERY than all the rest of the national press corps, combined.

If You Drive Like This, You STINK!

~or~ Austin Tailgaters: It's Like an Extreme Sport or Something

I have a Bad Drivers category on this blog because they stink at it around here. As we were driving back from San Antonio, my Darling Wife took a turn at the wheel and I was freed up to show you how you know you are in Austin. These sons of guns have no clue or else they don't care that they are taking EVERYBODY's lives in their hands, then holding on with just two fingers and running around in circles shaking their hands. We have lots of fatal collisions on the roads in Central Texas. It's a wonder we don't have more. Chalk it up to Grace and good crumple zone engineering, I guess.



The stripes are four feet long, ten feet apart. You do the math.



All of these were taken while we were going full highway speed. 70MPH speed limit and, in most cases, plus as much as they think they can get away with and not get stopped by the Police.



This lot passed us by. I took pictures of the truck tailgating the car in front, then the car behind the truck tailgating the truck, then the car behind tailgating the car behind. You don't need to see the stop-motion cartoon, so here' s the last in the sequence.









Seriously, they almost all do this on a regular basis



It's not NASCAR, people - drafting on the highways is a bad idea!



Do you have any idea what happens in a crash at 75MPH? Neither do these people. Yes, seriously they follow this close.



This is how they avoid collisions. Speed up behind and then jam the brakes.



At full speed and then some.



Tailgating leads to another type of typical Austin dick move: If they don't leave space, you HAVE to get in where you fit in. Then, because you wanted to be going slower than the person you cut off, you JAM THE BRAKES right after you CUT THEM OFF



I think the Department of Public Safety intends this as a sick joke or something. The driving public sure as [deleted] don't seem to pay it any mind.



The typical following distance at highway speed is from 20 to 40 feet. The safe following distance is several hundred feet.

Let Them Eat Cake Dirt

Scientists: early exposure to germs makes you (potentially) healthier later. Your grandmother was right and your helicopter mother was wrong, and that's why you are sickly. Now kick your kids outside and stop spraying that stanky disinfectant all over the place!

Before You Cry Too Hard For Trayvon Martin,

just remember:

• He was shot by what people in East Texas would refer to as a "mexican" = decidedly NOT white!
• He was beating the shit out of the guy who shot him, when he was shot
• The guy receiving the beating was the one screaming like a little girl on the recording
• The guy giving the beating is was a 6'2" football player one year from being a legal adult

But these true facts do not fit the narrative. Oh well, report the narrative anyway and publish old pictures to make it look like a white-on-black man-kills-innocent-boy situation!

Al Sharpton remains a race hustler who should be ashamed of himself, and Instapundit remains a go-to source for news.

So Close I Can Taste It

To you these may look pretty good. They may be better than your camera can do. To me, these highlight the limitations of my camera and lens combination.

Click any image to see it at higher resolution.

Crane with a funky wig


Crane wig inspiration? Starburst looking flower


Look on the left - BIG crane in flight


Still, not too shabby for autofocused snapshots handheld.

Totally Worth It

Moderate dehydration, fatigue, severe allergies, minor sunburn . . . and EVERYBODY had a great time at the Zoo. We went with four other homeschool familes and toured the San Antonio Zoo. Good great fun. Bloggingtime destroyed by processing photos.

I Can't Vote For Romney.

I just can't do it. He's a checked-pants same-old "Republican" of the type that helped get us in the current mess, and wants to get us out of it with more of the same, just like the rest of the senior Republican party leadership. Plus he's a mor(m)on. The latter kills it for me. The former maybe I could deal with (again), but not both.

I'll go to the polls, sure. There's a lot of down-ballot races that need attention from the voters and I'll publish my voter's guide as usual. But I am considering writing in George Washington for President.

To those who say one non-vote for the Republicrat candidate is two votes for Obama, I say: show me a good solid conservative, or even one candidate who is not a wobbly/squishy on EVERY SINGLE ISSUE and I'll show you a vote for him. This guy, never. The country is swirling the drain anyhow, it's no use voting for the slightly-lesser of two evils. No a vice-Presidential running mate who is solid won't sway me. The Man is The Man, until somebody peels a cap in him or he dies of a self-inflicted overdose of bravo sierra.

So long, America. It's been real.

You DON'T Say!

So the French murderer is a muslim trying to pull off an al-quaeda linked terror plot? Who could possibly have guessed it? I mean, aside from Michael Savage and everybody who listens to him and/or uses their own brains instead of watching the alphabet news networks.

I'm sorry, but this was called a full two days ago by a man willing to use his mind and then speak his mind. I tried to find a story to link last night and french muslim shooters were nowhere near the top of the search results page. Now, it's all over the place. Now that it is already reported AND undeniable and the "major" news networks were all badly scooped by John Q. Francoise out there.

The news networks in Europe and the United States: TERRIBLE when it comes to stories that don't neatly fit into the leftist narrative. Like this one. I shake my head.

Eat It

Tinnitus Successfully Treated . . . Faster Please

A few too many gunshots, a few too many turboprop engines, and a few too many large pieces of plate metal being dropped lead to tinnitus. Ask me how I know.

Anyway, in a "why didn't we think of this before" moment, it seems there is a therapy undergoing trials in which most of the people get relief from their tinnitus, compared to a 'placebo' therapy. They play back for people, what the people say their tinnitus sounds like. For hours a day, for weeks, then off and on for a few months.

For £4,500. You can buy a decent synthesizer and an ipod for less than that, though, so enterprising DIY'ers with tinnitus might be in for a personal triumph if this proves as easy as it sounds.

Hat tip to Instapundit. Who for the last day appears not to have mentioned the French Jewish school shooting at all, either - like the rest of the US press.

Shameful lack of reportage

A muslim extremist is being sought as the suspect in a shooting at a school full of children. But they're Jewish children in France, so no big deal. I have yet to hear word one about this anywhere but the Michael Savage show. There has been some reporting in the US press, but it is thin and you have to go looking for it.

Savage, by the way, called B.S. on the same-gun theory (same gun as used in the shooting of some French soldiers not long ago) because they started saying it was the same gun minutes after the shooting, when it takes hours or days at a screaming-fast forensic analysis pace to come to a guess that it may be the same gun. He also called B.S. on the theory that it was white supremacists doing the shooting; sure enough, the white boys are free again and they are looking for a muslim. Oh, and Savage said they should be looking for a muslim in the first place.

It doesn't fit the narrative, so spin and/or ignore it. Shameful.

Shenanigans!

How could you expect people to NOT think the game is rigged when you can't even get a caucus done? The current state of affairs in America is outrageous and the people are outraged. Then some folks try to steamroll the caucuses to be done the way they say it ought to be, and prevent the mess being videotaped, and videographers are arrested . . . and the largest Missouri caucus is closed before it gets any voting done . . .

and THIS is part of a process you want to tell me is not so large as to be useless? Democracy: good to about 4,000 people, then too little time runs into too many people and too much Good to Do runs into Not enough Other Peoples' Money.

The system, she is broken!

First Shots: Canon FD 50mm 1:1.8 Lens on Nikon DSLR

Spoiler alert: this is a tease. The actual construction will be discussed in another posting. For now, I will give a quick illustration of why all the cool kids like to have "a fast prime lens" for their cameras.

Here is a local model in available light, f/1.8 handheld at 1/30 second exposure.



This shows up on my monitor exactly as I saw it at the breakfast table. With the zoom lens that came with the camera, the camera would have popped the flash and spoiled the natural light, or else the exposure time would have been so long the image would be blurred from either camera shake or childish motion.

The subject is so sharp you could cut yourself looking at the picture. The background is blurred almost to obscurity. To save you having to download a multi-megabyte file, here is a 100% crop:



The blobs of color are magnetic letters on the fridge. The effect on screen is very very like the effect of your (my) own pupils dilated to take advantage of low available light, focused on the subject with everything else unfocused. Next time you are out in the dark, notice how everything in front of and behind what you are looking at is out of focus. If you want to make an image that looks just perzactly like what you will see in your memory of an event, sometimes a fast prime lens is the way to get it done.

It doesn't focus to infinity and the aperture ring is off a little. But in its effective range, it is magic. Plus, it can give fanboys fits and make those with stacks of orphan FD mount lenses (or a bit of esoteric photography knowledge) wonder just what exactly is going on here . . .



. . . this is, after all, supposed to be impossible.

********

"You mean impassible. Nothing is impossible."

Eff Dem Guys!

Seventy Two Dollars and Forty One Cents. That's what I just wrote out on a check to AT&T. That would be our now-soon-to-be-FORMER phone and internet service provider.

I switched to AT&T's DSL internet service many moons ago when it was the same $10 as Everyone's Internet (EV1.net). They have been ratcheting up their cost of service, and the final straw has been placed on this camel's back. Last month for their slow-ass basic DSL service, we paid $19.95. This month, with no warning or notice, it's an even $25.00. This upcoming week, imma be shoppin. We had been considering dropping our landline altogether. This might be the jumping-off point.

Our phone bill for the SAME service (DSL and a landline with an unlisted number with NO long distance) was $42. Then it went up and up and up and now $72 frikken dollars already. F those cats, AT&T just lost a(nother) customer due to bill creep.

Gone.

Be Not Afraid to Un-Bend Bent CPU Pins!

The main computer at the house just went under the knife. It got bumped from an Athlon 64x2 4200+ to a 5000+ I got for a song because it had a BUNCH of bent pins (dozens). Nobody wants a processor with bent pins!

Hold on there.

This is processor #3 that I've brought back from the trash heap by bending its pins straight again. It works, usually. I have also broken off a couple of pins, rendering the chips useless. But here I am rocking a 20% clock speed increase for basically $0 because I wasn't afraid to try.

It takes a while, especially for a 940 pin package. It is not easy, even using the proper (read: small tip) tweezers. It can be frustrating. But it may just be worth it. Go for it! The pins are already bent anyway, why not give CPU pin straightening a try?

s.l.o.w.l.y.

A generation ago, men would have killed for this computer. Now, it is painfully slow and outdated. Who can work under these conidtions? I protest! Somebody give me a faster laptop, please! Sure, it can run the latest and greatest software. Sure it can stream video. But I have to be to work in the morning, so . . .

What do you want for free? Thanks God for my laptop, but at times I could wish it were a little faster. And maybe a little cooler on my . . . lap!

Against "Gay Marriage"

Because words, and mental order, mean things.

I disapprove because

a) Marriage is (by definition) between a man and a woman
b) Homosex is a symptom of deep mental disorder, and is not done by well-minded people
c) As (see b), above) they cannot be fully sane, queers cannot be good parents so
d) Queers shouldn't be allowed to have children by the State, if the State has any role in the adoption of children
e) if you want to have a civil union that's fine . . . but it's not a marriage

Buggery is an evolutionary dead-end engaged in by sick people. If you want to have some sort of officially sanctioned economic union between people based on a criterion of their choice, fine. Don't let it be one where they can screw up the heads (and bodily orifices) of small children who never did anything to deserve it. Union based on double-donging it? Fine. Based on being cousins who take care of each other? Fine. Tax advantages for everybody (or nobody)! but it's not a marriage

Madness at Work

RA is about 5'2" and not all that muscular a woman.

RA came around and said she had some milk about to go bad; if we wanted to use it in our milk, we were welcome to it.

Taking it as a left-handed compliment I said "If you was a male, I'd give you a takedown for that!"

She held up a fist in the direction of my face and said "I got it for you right here!"

So Superior, Even A Total n00b Can See The Difference!

My Darling Wife came over to see what I was working on. I was putting the finishing touches on my lens project, and she asked what is the difference. I gave her a quick demonstration/lecture on the differences between fast primes and slow(ish) zoom lenses. She was immediately impressed by the superiority of the fast prime lens as old as I am, bodged on the wrong mount and manually focused with stop-down metering. As she should be. I use a fast prime at work, too, and compared to that lens the wide-range general purpose zoom one of the other guys uses looks optically broken.

If you don't have a fast prime lens, don't rent or try one. You will end up with fewer dollars.

You'll Have to Poke Harder than That!

I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was tired today, in part from a long day yesterday. He mentioned that he had really enjoyed the nap he took yesterday. Later, he apologized for poking at me. I mentioned that I work with some pretty coarse people and used to be a Sailor. It made me think a bit and I am reminded:

I am a stone-hearted so-and-so. You can't hurt my feelings, and you can't offend me.

You can't hurt my feelings because I don't care about you. Say what you like, you are a cockroach as far as my feelings are concerned. If I care about you, you are one of a small number of people who also care about me, and you wouldn't mean it if you said something mean, so I wouldn't take it to heart. I have selected carefully the people I allow access to my self!

You might be able to offend me, but it would take some effort on your part and you would probably make yourself sick at your stomach first. I might get up a serious case of pity for you for trying. I might make you take your words back and/or get a bit angry if you manage to find one of my few, small buttons to press. But to offend me is a very great feat indeed.

********

In related news: Oh, that's alright then.

My Darling Wife was watching the idiot box in the next room and all of a sudden I heard shooting and screaming over the loudspeakers. I go see what the deal is and it's a Good Guy shooting Bad Guys for torture, trying to get information to help his Righteous Cause. Oh. Well, carry on then.

After all, "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!" and if it means you are looking at torture and murder on screen . . . well . . . let's hope the Good Guy wins! (hint: he does)

Still Alive!

The party went surprisingly better than I thought. Thank God. Only double the normal number of people showed up vs. quintuple. Now I'm done.

In Case You Missed It

Greece is o-fishully in default on their sovereign debt. Credit default triggers swaps, and the big investors lose nothing, much. Those of you not reading Mish will want to know (because nobody else is saying) it: Greece is about to fall out of the Euro zone. The Euro was supposed to be a permanent institution based on strong national economies as members.

Right about now would be a bad time to be traveling to Greece, unless you don't mind a bit of adventure.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men Mothers

#3 is 4 years old. My Darling Wife wanted the first birthday party he has a chance of remembering to be a big one, so she invited a bunch of people. Usually most people won't come. This time instead of 25% we're looking a lot closer to 75%. We're expecting something like 50 people, half of them children, and our house is small . . . and it's raining and will be tomorrow, and muddy besides.

Previous plan: turn them out into the backyard. Current plan: ???

Feel free to pray for us. This is going to be crowded at best.

Madness at Work!

Fat Boi Cain't Be Faded! Edition

During a break, IT Buddy was snatching LB's remote controlled helicopter out of the air and walking around with it instead of letting it go. He got tired of LB's verbal abuse, so IT Buddy came and snatched my helicopter out of the air instead. I was having none of it. I went and grabbed him around his neck with my right arm, but he wouldn't let go. I put my right leg behind his and tried to throw him but it didn't work. We went down but he was so heavy I couldn't get any liftoff to toss him over my hip! He slipped out of my grasp while I was busy being surprised that I couldn't throw him.



He popped up and I did too, then I told him (for the 20th time already) to let go of my baby helicpter. Finally he let go. Then I complained to LB that I couldn't flip IT Buddy because he was too heavy. He said "I know, I hurt my back picking him up." LB gives piggyback rides when IT Buddy jumps him from behind and LB just keeps walking. In 8 years of piggyback rides, LB says, IT Buddy has never been this heavy.

All in good fun. This is what we call "rasslin'". Ladies, this is what happens when you are not around to scold us. Teehee!



But, says LB, you should have seen what went on here before IT Buddy went on antidepressants and we were an even smaller, even funner company. On the other hand, I guess it's better to be a little bigger and slightly less free at work . . . the OLD IT Buddy (not this IT Buddy!) used to show up and watch porn all day on the company computer network. Sometimes he was even sober! *rimshot*

Now that I think of it, I guess that explains why we always lost internet access for about an hour pretty much every afternoon. Wow.

Small company, big fun . . . but . . . with in reason!

Barbaric Treatment of Prisoners . . . Okay or Not?

I'm not sure how to feel about this one. Connecticut has a prohibition against prisoners committing suicide. They also mandate that jailers must care for the health of their prisoners. On the other hand, who is anyone to force feed another adult, if he be on a hunger strike in protest of his ill treatment? Well, their supreme Court just said the jailers are those anyones. It is (for now) okay for prisoners in CT to be restrained and force-fed against their will. This is barbaric, I freely grant. But in the case of a prisoner whose well-being the State must maintain,

is it acceptable?

A Hedge Against Inflation

While searching for something else, I found an eBay auction for the famous Nikon 58mm f/1.2 Noct-Nikkor. It was bid up over $3400. With 34 bids. Usually when I hear of $$$$ price for a lens, I think of a fast, long supertelephoto. But this is a horse of a different color.

Nikon lenses: the good ones hold their value. The really good ones increase in value.

George Bush Strikes Again!

The Internet was down at our house yesterday.



I guess it's just as well . . . I was busy trying to get the childrens' computers going for school next year. Does that count as a project, or as work?

Sorry, That's Just Crazy

Some very wide angle lenses you sometimes hear jokes about how you need to watch how you hold the camera so you don't get your hand in the shot. But I was browsing around Ken Rockwell's site just now and here's a lens that literally takes pictures of itself!

(as well as everything else within a 185 degree field of view)

Crazy.

On This Day In History...

50 years ago today: A black man showed up all the white boys. There were 36 professional black basketball players. Wilt Chamberlain scored against all those honkies, then he did it again, and again, and again, and again, and again . . . 100 points in a single game. Against a team of professional players. They quintuple teamed on him even, and it didn't work.

Wow. It must have been amazing to see him run the court, shoot, dunk, etc. But you don't get to see it.

The other day, NP, who had never thought about it before was shocked to realize that there is no audio recording of the voice of President Lincoln. Well, they didn't film everything in the 1960s either, and the only recording of this basketball game is a low-fi audio recording of the fourth quarter.

The guy who was keeping the statistics for the game wrote on a sheet of paper and gave it to Chamberlain. This is as close as you get to video:

You Are Not Alone

Everyone seems content to chalk up to natural causes the death of Andrew Breitbart. I would be happy to know that it was a natural death. It would be easy to believe, seeing he wasn't the healthiest man alive.

But still, of all the men in America he must be high on the list of people to die of "natural causes" before fulfilling a promise to release video that would sink Obama's reelection campaign. Here's hoping, for the sake of the Republic, that he should have just stayed home from the bar that night.