Tuesday, June 12, 2012

How High the Cliff?

Fed reports how much recession shrank US wealth
That economic cliff we fell off at the end of the Bush Administration?  The average household lost 40% of its net worth.  Wonder how the top 1% did?  Maybe we should do something to save the middle class?

Monday, June 11, 2012

Massive Synch Test

teIMG_0011pbsc by Watts4
teIMG_0011pbsc, a photo by Watts4 on Flickr.
Using 2 remote flashes and 2 cameras, I successfully synched several gadgets to pull this one off. This method is hit or miss, as the flash always is for 3D photography with the Canon SD1000s. Without remote flashes, I use both camera flashes when flash is necessary. I found the trick to getting the remotes to synch correctly is to turn off one of the camera flashes and set the shutters manually using SDM. I still can't stop the Canon auto-flash feature. It does set off the remote flashes, so I wait for them to recharge before hitting the shutter button the 2nd time.

Nando on Poverty

We simply won’t look at poverty
Well written piece about people who are mostly invisible.

MonoMonopoly: Abuse of Power

Federal regulators approve Duke-Progress merger with minor conditions
I can't choose which company I get my power from now, yet they have found a way to give me fewer choices.  Is this capitalism?  Why on Earth would we allow 2 monopolies to become 1 even bigger monopoly?  I wonder how much power companies donate to political campaigns.  Maybe that has something to do with this.  Shouldn't we have more competition, not less?  Why aren't Tea Partiers marching in the streets over this?  Why isn't everybody against this? 

Let's Get Back to the Good Ol' Days

Ugh, not again!
Christensen: Good ol' days? Let's review
This kind of rhetoric, lauding the past through rose colored glasses, is one of the more asinine Republican talking points this time around.  As many good points as this article makes, it falls short of calling this what it is, at its heart: veiled racism.  Everything was not so great 'back then', and most of the improvements in society can be traced in part to government programs that improved education, roads, access to health care, social security, etc.
It's almost enough to make the 'Forward' slogan worthy.

Holding Court

Reason for criminal charges in Edwards case remains unclear
It was always about the politics.  Why would Kay Hagan do what she did in the last paragraph?  Sometimes I think most NC elected Democrats are closet Republicans, or just damn fools.