Category Archives: Interesting

Very First Digital Camera Photos

When I was digging through some of the files that I had backed up on a random CD I found this assortment of some of the first photos I took with my, then new, Minolta G400. These are all unedited. Unfortunately, I’m missing a couple of them here and there. The ones I deleted must have been really bad because those that I kept aren’t that great either!

My Smugmug gallery is here: First Minolta G400 Pictures

Here’s some examples:
Very first photo taken!
Very first photo taken! 12/24/2003

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Mr. Rodgers’ Neighborhood?

Rick Reilly, of the back page columnist in Sports Illustrated fame (now writing for ESPN) just wrote a great article entitled, It’s Mr. Rodgers’ neighborhood now, on Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.

You’re either a Brett Favre man or an Aaron Rodgers man. Can’t be both, same way you can’t be a Sara Lee man and a Slim-Fast man. Not physically possible.

Gotta choose. Which are you?

Rodgers men are patient. Favre men are pissed the microwave is taking so long.

Rodgers men wait for their openings. Favre men make their own openings — with benzene torches.

Rodgers men love that their hero is having the kind of season Favre never had: 31 TDs, four picks (two of those off tips) and becoming the first QB in NFL history to start the season with 10 consecutive games with passer ratings better than 100. The man is playing as if he’s popping “Unlimited” pills.

Favre men don’t want to hear about numbers, unless you’re bringing up MVPs (Favre 3, Rodgers 0) and Super Bowl appearances (Favre 2, Rodgers 1). But that’s just longevity. Rodgers men want to talk about simple, eyeball-bulging greatness: (continue reading…)

Me personally? I like both quarterbacks equally well. However, the Packers have now become Aaron Rodgers’ team. Favre was great for a long time but held out for a few seasons too long. Favre should have retired as a Packer…he’d forever be a legend in Green Bay. He still will be, but it will just take a number of years for the memories of the last few years to go away.

Traffic Congestion

As long there’s no crash that is backing up traffic on 43-N heading out of Milwaukee, I’ll typically take it back to my apartment. If there is substantial traffic, then I tend to take Lake Dr north along Lake Michigan. That is a really scenic drive with a number of really cool houses.

Even when traffic is flowing well there almost always is a temporary backup at the Silver Spring/ Bayshore Mall exit. This Is likely due to the Silver Spring traffic entering right where the interstate is going from three to two lanes. However, I think a big contributor to the slow down are the idiots who feel they can drive in the lane that is ending (which they know because of all the signs) and then cut in right at the last second. This forces everyone else to brake and allow them to cut in.

The offenders tend to drive expensive cars and, I’m assuming, feel otherwise privileged because their time is so much more valuable than the rest of us. I tend to forgive some people that cut in at the last second because they may be from out-of-town or the lane-ending sign may come up quickly. But in the case above, the sign occurs plenty early. I’ve even seen people try and use the ending lane to pass a few cars and then cut back in.

It would make me feel really good if all the sign abiding folks just didn’t allow these other drivers back in (done safely, of course). Make ‘um hang out on the side of the road for awhile until they get the idea.

There is some research that may back up my traffic congestion theory: Traffic Jam Mystery Solved By Mathematicians

Update on credit card

Just got a call from the Bank of America fraud alert. Someone in China tried to buy $700+ dollars at a boutique store and $90 at something called “Noapple” today. The crazy thing was that this card number was getting changed anyway (re: my last post). I guess this just forces my hand earlier to update the auto-payments. The good news was that Bank of America had declined these transactions so the scammers didn’t steal anything. Hopefully Bank of America catches these horrible people.

Reminds me of a story on heard on 620 WTMJ yesterday and this morning: Police in downtown Milwaukee shot and killed a bank robber after he opened fire on them during his escape. While his cousin claims that he was a “good guy,” turns out he was actually on parole for robbing the exact bank that he robbed again yesterday. Police also have video of him robbing two other banks over the last few months in the greater Milwaukee area. Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel article here.

Amazing Photos of Shuttle and Hubble Transiting Sun

In this tightly cropped image, the NASA space shuttle Atlantis is seen in silhouette during solar transit, Tuesday, May 12, 2009, from Florida. This image was made before Atlantis and the crew of STS-125 had grappled the Hubble Space Telescope. Photo Credit: (NASA/Thierry Legault)

In this tightly cropped image, the NASA space shuttle Atlantis is seen in silhouette during solar transit, Tuesday, May 12, 2009, from Florida. This image was made before Atlantis and the crew of STS-125 had grappled the Hubble Space Telescope. Photo Credit: (NASA/Thierry Legault)

In this tightly cropped image the NASA space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Space Telescope are seen in silhouette, side by side during solar transit at 12:17p.m. EDT, Wednesday, May 13, 2009, from west of Vero Beach, Florida. The two spaceships were at an altitude of 600 km and they zipped across the sun in only 0.8 seconds. Photo Credit: (NASA/Thierry Legault)

In this tightly cropped image the NASA space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Space Telescope are seen in silhouette, side by side during solar transit at 12:17p.m. EDT, Wednesday, May 13, 2009, from west of Vero Beach, Florida. The two spaceships were at an altitude of 600 km and they zipped across the sun in only 0.8 seconds. Photo Credit: (NASA/Thierry Legault)

Qualifying for Free Amazon Shipping

I occasionally run into the problem of being a few dollars short of qualifying for free shipping when buying products from Amazon. Fortunately, I found a cool site that finds “fillers” to add whatever amount you need to qualify for the free shipping. http://www.superfiller.com/

Basically you end up getting a low priced item for “free.”

Managing American Hegemony: Essays on Power in a Time of Dominance.

Shadow Government has a very good interview with the Kori Schake, the author of this new book. Here is what she says about this book in her own words:

It’s a book about American power: why it’s so predominant in the international order, whether it’s likely to remain so, and how current practices can be revised to reduce the cost to the United States of managing the system. Despite clarion calls about the end of the unipolar moment and the demise of American moral, financial, military, and diplomatic power, the United States remains the defining state in the international system and is likely to be so for at least several more decades. If there were a market for state power, now would be a great time to buy futures in American power.

Here’s the first question of the interview:

SG: How does the United States end up so successful in this round of globalization?

Schake: The resilience with which Americans have found new professions as manufacturing migrated to cheaper labor markets contrasts favorably with revanchist efforts by other wealthy states to artificially preserve the eroding economic order rather than encourage and shape change. It helps that the U.S. economy is an engine of job creation, but that is a result of explicit choices about labor market flexibility. The signature advantage of the U.S. economy is the risk tolerance of its work force: the economy sheds and create jobs, and people mostly accept that the nature of economic activity is uncertain.

The adaptability of American workers mirrors the general malleability of the country. In a globalizing order in which many societies are attempting to shield their traditions from external influence, American culture voraciously seeks out and incorporates new elements that further broaden its appeal. Americans are so accepting of change and risk that we have come to exemplify what others fear: globalization is often equated with Americanization.

Click here to read the rest of the interview…

Here’s a very insightful quote that poses fighting terrorism as a luxury that most other countries don’t have: “Compared with the ravages of HIV/AIDS on the labor force, managing food scarcity caused by environmental change, or establishing basic governance and education, America’s preoccupation with terrorism appears a luxury. It is therefore in our interest to devote more attention to solving the problems we are not afflicted with but that are essential to securing the assistance of states whose help we need.” Make sure to read the whole thing!

The F-22 Raptor

Mark Bowden at the Atlantic has a great article on Col. Cesar Rodriguez. Mr. Bowden explains why we need more funding to replace our aging F-15’s and F-16’s; we must either pay that cost ahead of time in dollars, or during military operations with blood. The Weekly Standard calls it “nearly pornographic in its level of fighter jet detail.” The F-15’s kill ratio over more than 30 years is 107 to zero. “The F-22 Raptor was initially 144-0 against F-15s and F/A-18s in Red Flag exercises and it took until July 2007 for a fourth generation fighter (an F-16) to finally register a mock kill against an F-22.”

Inflation in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s central bank says it will soon introduce a 100 trillion dollar note as the once prosperous country battles to keep pace with hyperinflation that has caused many to abandon the country’s currency.

The new 100 trillion dollar bill would be worth about $300 in U.S. currency. A loaf of bread in Zimbabwe now costs about 300 billion Zimbabwean dollars — and like most commodities, the price increases every day.

Earlier this month, Zimbabwe introduced a 50 billion dollar bill as the country battles to fight cash shortages stemming from the world’s highest inflation rate. The official rate was 231 million percent as of July.

Source: CNN: Zimbabwe to print first $100 trillion note

Inflation and lack of confidence in the Zimbabwe dollar has caused many vendors to prefer the U.S. dollar, South African rand, or Botswanan pula. Doctors and nurses are even requesting their salaries paid in U.S. dollars.