POTD

click for high-res

This has been a difficult week. Work generally sucks; that is pretty dependable. What happened in New Orleans, though, really upset me.

The destruction in Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana was terrible. But New Orleans' rapid descent into chaos was shocking. Things must change from this point on. We are seeing the product of our government's zeal to outsource itself. Human life has to matter more than this. It must matter enough that no one should starve or want for water, no matter what happens.

But life must also matter enough to us that the kind of desperation we have seen this week, desperation born of poverty, never happens again. Those in the government, local, state, and federal, bear some responsibility, but so do all of us.

"Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to Me, [...] whatever you neglected to do for the least of these, you neglected to do it for Me."

Microsoft to open a retail store in Manhattan.

Tech company. Retail store. Hmmm. Why does that sound familiar?

They should keep branching out. Maybe do something like an MP3 player.

Google released a Gmail Notifier for MacOS X. Now I'm thinking about switching over to Gmail as my main mail address.

Additionally, it still smells like a skunk here.

There is an unbelievably strong odor of skunk here in my apartment. Really really strong; my eyes are watering. This is strange for two reasons:

• I live in a rather urban area; there isn't much wildlife here.
• I'm six stories up.

I'm afraid to know where this is coming from.

A very interesting article, from September, '04, about changes to the structure and focus of FEMA since 2000.

I never thought I'd see an entire city in the United States wiped out. I never thought I'd see the day that a mayor, governor, and U.S. President would allow one of the United States' great cities to descend into chaos, rule of law giving way to looting and violence.

And I certainly never imagined that, if something like this was happening, that the rest of the country would go on as if little else was happening. Our biggest complaint is that gasoline is too expensive. 30,000 people are living in Thunderdome, and the rest of us decide to hoard gasoline. I never imagined that something like this would happen.

The one thing that doesn't surprise me, however, is the news coverage. This week, I remembered why I stopped watching CNN. CNN and Time Warner should be ashamed of what they have done.

CBGB is closing? Now that's punk.

Speaking of Mr. Hoyt, the alleged subway swordsman, you really must read the Daily News' article about him. Much better than their usual third grade-level writing. Full of little gems:

"A half-dozen women have told cops they have witnessed Hoyt's onanistic orgies, and The News got calls and E-mails from even more possible victims yesterday."

But, really, this was the best:

"Hoyt, who owns two restaurants in Manhattan called Quintessence, was charged with four counts of public lewdness[...]"

"At Quintessence on E. 10th St., which serves healthy fare like hemp seed burgers and nut milk, workers were mum about the boss's alleged peccadilloes."

There is simply no way that "nut milk" was mentioned unintentionally. No comment, indeed.

So Mr. whip-it-out owns a restaurant. Interesting. He should just go work for American Apparel.

I think I might be damaged.

POTD

click for high-res

It looks like the Hurricane has moved a little east this morning. This may have saved New Orleans more ways than one. Points east will have a harder hit, though.

This soldier kept a 'blog:

What the fuck has my chain of command been doing? We were winning somewhat when I left. And now we're being pinned down in our own fucking homes? Insurgents are pushing locals out of their homes and taking over my area at will? What kind of fucktarded plan have we been half-assedly executing? Obviously the kind that neglects sound contact with locals. Obviously the kind that gives further distance to unbridged gaps between soldiers and locals. Obviously the kind that has shown enough weakness when confronted by the insugency that it has been encouraged to grow.

Back home (the USA kind) I have no home, no job, and my commander in chief is on vacation (he's about 20 days behind Ronald Reagan right now in the race to become the most vacationing president ever. Hey W! we all got our fingers crossed! Here's to you and two more years of presidency...er vacationing!). Luckily pretty much everything that is important to me can fit into the back of a truck. Luckily I just paid off one of those.

He was killed in action in Iraq.

Attention Photographers

Making any of the following statements does not make you cool, nor does it make you sound cool:

• Digital sucks.
• Film sucks.
• I hate autofocus.
• I only shoot in manual mode.
• Digital is more expensive than film.
• Film is more expensive than digital.
• I only shoot with primes.
• You only need one lens.
• Digital will never look as good as {Velvia 50 | Portra | TriX | Velvia 100 | TMax | E100G | Neopan}.
• Digital looks better than {Velvia 50 | Portra | TriX | Velvia 100 | TMax | E100G | Neopan}.
• Your feet are the best zoom lens.
• Nikon cameras are better than Canon.
• Canon cameras are better than Nikon.
• Nikon lenses suck.
• Canon lenses suck.
• Leica lenses are better than Canon and Nikon lenses.
• The best camera for a student is a fully manual camera.
• Photoshop is cheating.
• Film is dead.
• You need to buy a new digital camera every two years to "keep up."
• If [insert photographer's name] were alive {he | she} would {love | hate} digital.
• Bad photographers can make great photos with digital cameras.
• I bought [insert expensive lens], but it wasn't sharp; I got a bad copy and had to return it.

Saying things like this make you look like a douche. Please stop.

Also note that the following are stupid questions, so please stop asking them:

• Which is the best camera?
• What is the best lens?
• I shoot fashion and portraits and landscapes and macro -- what is the best lens for this under $300?
• What is the best f-stop?
• What focal length should I use for...?
• What is the best film?
• What is the best developer?
• Should I shoot in RAW or JPEG?

Very interesting; I hadn't thought about this.

About a quarter of the nations petroleum comes from wells and refineries around the Gulf of Mexico. This hurricane will certainly disrupt pumping and refining for a little while. It has the potential to disrupt it for quite a while.

Oil supply is already incredibly tight. A disruption of 10% (domestically) would cause prices nationwide to skyrocket. More than a little scary, but also a small taste of what is to come over the next 20 years.

I really love New Orleans and its people. You have a big storm heading your way; I'm thinking about you. Wish I could help.

Man stares at a woman on the NYC subway, unzips his pants and takes out his penis. Woman snaps a photo of him with her cell phone, posts it on Flickr. Local media and some web sites pick up the story.

Read the insane thread of comments that ensues. And be sure to look at the large version of the photo.

SixApart announces MovableType 3.2 with lots of new features and bug fixes. See Learning Movable Type for an upgrade tutorial.