The World Is In Denial

The radio news said The Red Cross has decided that Syria is engaged in a civil war. They have said it is now inappropriate for the government to attack civilian targets. Well let me tell The International Community something:

The Syrian government is fighting the same war the United States government is fighting, on a different front. Egypt and Iran have already lost, along with at least 1/4 of Africa. Our common enemy has one name for the war: Jihad.

This is not a war where one can separate civilians from soldiers, combatants from non-combatants. This is not necessarily a war between two organized foes. This is a cultural war, of Islam versus the rest of the World. How's this for a prediction: by the time The International Community comes to realize that this is fourth-generation warfare, the civilized world will already be at a huge competitive disadvantage.

Our enemy does not wear a uniform on his breast. This uniform is IN the breast. The combatant and the non-combatant ARE the same people. The difference is where they point their guns.

This is not spears
This is not trenches
This is not tanks
This is a guerilla activity. FOURTH generation warfare. This is not your father's war - it is an entirely new paradigm. You will not win until you realize it. You will not win unless you take the INCREDIBLY politically-incorrect step of NAMING your enemy. And you will not win unless you are willing to to horrible things to people without uniforms.

You WILL bomb civilian areas.
You WILL target non-combatants. Intentionally.

Unless the world stands ready to firebomb Hamtramck, Michigan into submission . . . well, I hope you don't mind paying Jizyah.

Thank You, Jesus!

Today was a verrrrr big day for my photography kit. I had previously converted a couple of fast prime lenses for use with my Nikon (from Cannon FD mount) but they were pretty frustrating to use. The stock "brightscreen" focusing screen in my D70 is plenty bright, alright. And it has just about no depth of field perception. One can hardly tell with an f/2.8 screen what an f/1.8 lens is focusing on. This bums.

Yesteday I trashed a defunct Cannon AE-1 camera body for one reason: I gots to get me some manual focusing aids. The AE-1 comes to us from a time when men were men, lenses were fast, and focus was strictly manual. The focusing screen has both a split prism and a microprism collar. And it's bigger by quite a lot than the screen in a D70 (or D40/D60 etc.). Alex's blog let me know just how much bigger. The D70 screen is 1" x 0.8". The screen in this AE-1 was 36.7mm x 24.7mm. Alex's Blog brings the knowledge. Many, many thanks to Alex.

So I cut down the screen.

Click to enlarge the photo!


I scored the screen with a caliper to be sure the dimensions were proper, and cut it with a file which has a sharp corner. I covered the middle of the screen with scotch tape while I was working, to protect the fragile surfaces. It worked like a champ. I used polishing paper (read: super-duper fine sandpaper on plastic vs. paper backing) to finish the edges and that worked like a champ as well.

The final result:



It works. It did get a bit of foam smutz on it and most of that cleaned off with alcohol and some q-tips. The screen was from a Cannon so it was too thin with the edges trimmed off, so I had to use the shim from the camera AND some tape on the screen AND another shim. When the screen is too close to the prism, the camera has "back focus" . . . I added shims until it focused where it should.

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That's on TOP of the fact that someone straight-up GAVE me a half-decent tele-macro zoom lens yesterday. That gets the score up to two zooms to cover me from 18 to 300mm, plus two fast primes. That's a full beginner's kit. That, plus now I can see where I'm focusing. Win.

Thanks Jesus.

Hard At Work

Yeah, so you remember how for the last 50-ish years the U.S. government has been monopolizing space travel in the USA? And how it was supposed to be the end of U.S. dominance in space, when President Obama cancelled everything about NASA except the Muslim outreach department?

Well a private company has seen a need and is stepping up to fill the need. Virgin is going to start launching satellites. Wait time probably to be significantly less than waiting on Uncle to get one up. The investment dollars are there, now that tax dollars are not. Free market theorists 1, Statists 0.

Chutzpa: But Yer Honor, My Client Is An Orphan!

Of all the jackhole moves, this is one of the lowest I have ever seen in politics. President Obama, with the eager participation of his surrogates in the press, is calling Mitt Romney a closed book. Says if he doesn't have anything to hide, he'll publish his tax returns & bank records & whatnot.

Hello? Does nobody remember how the Obama team scrubbed Barry right off the face of the planet? What were his grades like in school? We don't know, they are sealed. How about his application to the bar? Sealed. Why can't his wife practice law anymore? Can't tell, that's sealed too. What did he write while leading the Law Review? Not telling. Don't even get me STARTED on his fakeass mothafukkin FAKE birth certificate they produced after spending ONE-POINT-FOUR MILLION DOLLARS to prevent it being published. President Obama, having promised one of the most open and honest administrations EVAR has had one of the least-open most-shady administratiosn EVAR. Chicago-style back room deals all over the place. Meetings at the coffee shop across the street so visitors wouldn't be on visitor logs. Refusals to answer FOIA requests, and using Executive Privilege to block congressional inquiries into MURDER . . . and they have the GALL to accuse ROMNEY of hiding stuff?

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The title, by the way, is a reference to lawyer for the twins who killed their parents in california, begging for mercy on the grounds they were orphans. There is a special kind of divine Justice for people who try to pull stuff like this. Too bad the country has to be destroyed due to the droves of Low-Informed Voters out there, before the Judgement comes.

Here It Comes.

Sometimes it sucks, being right. Well, I am right. I am right because I read Mish, who knows what he is writing about. I (and he) have been saying the "recovery" from the recession of 2008* was a dead-cat bounce since 2009. The first two pages of posts at his Global Economic Analysis Blog are full of charts and graphs trending the wrong way, big-time.

Hold on folks, this could be a little bumpy.

Overheard@work.com

NP: Oh man! I can't even feel my hair!
Guido: Why?
NP: Because of these gloves!
Guido & VFD: LOL

Then there was a conversation about how gloves make hair feel awesome. Sometimes it is a surreal place to work.

Independence Day 2012

My ass.

Celebrate, or else we'll tax you for not celebrating. Justice Roberts said we could.

The ratchet tightens faster under The Obama than under all the previous holders of his office, but it is a ratchet. SOME people started revolutionary wars against the sort of government your boy is trying to set up in the country they fought to establish. I'm just saying.

The sophisticated consumer of news will perhaps be disturbed by the comparisons which may be drawn between the government of America in this day and this day.

Unexpectedly 0% of Economists Polled Got It Right

Mish has been calling the USA in-or-near recession for a while. Bloomberg polled 70 "Economists" and exactly NONE of them guessed that the ISM would come back negative. Guess what? It did. Stop getting your economic news from the lamestream press and network news, and start reading Mish. Fer crying out loud.

If You Say This You Sound Stupid: Deprecate vs. Depreciate

Deprecate: talking bad about something

Depreciate: making something into something of lesser value

That one little "i" makes a great big difference. It is the difference between knowing what you are trash-talking about and sounding like you don't know what the language is worth. Sad but true.

If You Say This You Sound Stupid: Decimate vs. Decimate

Decimate: 1/10th destroyed or killed. This word came from the Roman military punishment of killing off 10% of a military unit for bad behavior or performance. Decimation is bad.

Destroy and/or Obliterate: decimate plus the other 90%. If something is destroyed it is broken beyond repair or injured byeond recovery. If something is obliterated, all traces of it are gone.

English user pro tip: DEStroy and obliterATE do NOT combine into the compound word "Decimate." You are a jerk if you use decimate when you mean destroy or obliterate. Sad but true.