Old Film Cameras

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I own a few old film cameras. Like many of the items that were manufactured during the Victorian era, cameras from the early 20th century hold a fascination for me.

I just added another really elegant one to my collection. It is a Voigtländer Avus 9 x 12 which was made around 1914.

The Voigtländer company was formed in Austria in 1756, making it the oldest name in cameras. In 1840 it produced the world’s fastest lens, later the first zoom lens, and then the first compact 35 mm camera with a built in electronic flash.
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Disproportionate Force

When driving, if someone yells and honks at you, then holds up his middle finger to you, it clearly would be considered to be a disproportionate response if you take your .44 magnum handgun and shoot him dead.

If the same jerk then takes a box cutter and uses it to kill one of your family members; then calmly announces openly his intention to kill more of you, it would be considered entirely appropriate to use your Dirty Harry Special to blow his head off.

Once someone presents deadly force against you, and certainly once they have used this deadly force to kill a member of your tribe, and then even has the audacity to announce that he intends to kill more of your tribe, the concept of disproportionality no longer applies.

If someone makes a mortal threat against me or my family, I certainly hope that my deadly force seriously outweighs his. This is not some kind of a soccer game, where each side is supposed to have the same number of players, a regulation ball, etc.

The Palestinians need to stop firing the rockets into Israel. They have killed people. The Jews have asked them reasonably to quit, and they have chosen not too. In fact Hamas has clearly and calmly stated that it intends to continue killing the Jews in Israel.
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From here on out ANY level of force is appropriate for Israel to use until the Palestinians stop attacking, and agree that they will not attack in the future.
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Hamas

The Gaza situation is a complex and difficult issue. I was at the Munich summer Olympic games in 1972 the day that the Palestinian terrorists killed all the Jewish athletes. (p.s. I am not Jewish). I have travelled all over Israel as well as several of the Arab countries nearby there in the middle east.

I feel tremendous compassion for the poor people in Mexico, as well as the poor people in Gaza. And also to the poor people without health insurance in America. In many cases the people are being subjected to horrible things. A lot of it originates from their own government or their own government's refusal to reign in the people who openly violate the human rights of their own folks. A lot of the brutality is caused by a culture of corruption, toleration of the idea that anything goes, and a government that doesn't operate by the rule of law. (Sounds a lot like Cheney and Bush)

One can be completely certain that if just one, or maybe five or ten rockets were fired from Chihuahua into El Paso and Las Cruces, the terrible wrath of the U.S. military would be fully unleashed. This certainly would be true if the missiles were fired daily. The reaction by America would be completely disproportionate. And rightly so.
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If someone breaks into my house at night carrying a deadly weapon, then frankly it doesn't matter one bit if he is poor, hungry, and out of work. I will shoot the son-of-a-bitch cold dead. I won't first try to engage in a philosophical discussion with him. It makes perfect sense. One has the right of self defense against an intruder, and when someone is firing deadly weapons into your house you have every right to use overwhelming force to stop him. I hope that my self defense weapon is much more powerful than his offensive weapon.
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As long as Mexico refuses to accept that the United States has the right to exist, and as long as Mexico refuses to accept that the USA now owns this territory (which used to be a part of Mexico), and as long as the Mexican officials (and also the common people) close their eyes and tolerate even the occasional home made rocket being fired from Juarez into the USA, the Mexican people will continue to suffer unbelievably horrible consequences.

Hamas needs to stop firing the rockets into Israel. And the Palestinians need to accept reality....Israel isn't going to go away. No American administration would allow it. So the Palestinians need to begin trying to improve the lives of their own people instead of constantly trying to kill people.
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How To Avoid Bankruptcy

1. Cut up all of your credit cards. Always make monthly payments substantially more than the minimum.

2. If you can’t pay cash for it, don’t buy it. Sock a little money away each month until you have enough to pay cash for it. In some cases you will end up deciding that you didn't really need it after all.

3. Stop eating at fast food restaurants. In fact, stop eating out at any restaurants. Start cooking at home.

4. Turn the thermostat down a little in the winter and wear a sweater. Turn it up a little in the summer and wear shorts.

5. If you drive a car that normally gets less than 30 miles per gallon, start saving up to pay cash for a car that gets good fuel economy.
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GMAC Begins Loaning To People With Poor Credit (Again)

Today's papers have several reports about the financing arm of General Motors which is called GMAC (General Motors Acceptance Corp). GMAC is the part of GM that loans you the money so that you can purchase their low quality, poor gas mileage behemoths with no money down, and a loan where you will still be making monthly payments more than 4 or 5 years from now. And until the loan is paid off you are required to keep full coverage insurance, rather than just liability insurance.

The American taxpayers have bailed GMAC out. To the tune of $6 billion. It seems that GMAC had suffered too many losses because they had loaned a lot of money to people with bad credit ratings who couldn’t pay the money back.

But now, thanks to a big cash infusion from the Federal Government and the U.S. Taxpayer, General Motors can go back to loaning large amounts of money to people with very poor credit ratings. People who are more likely to default on the loans.

So if you still dream of owning one of those enormous hogs which GM makes, the ones which get abysmal fuel economy, then run right down to your local GM dealer. They are desperate to unload these hogs, and they are looking for fools like you. Until you actually sign the papers to buy that big smelly lemon, the salespeople will kiss your ass real good.
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Is this really the kind of reform that is needed to get the American economy healthy again?
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Go For It Israel!

If missiles were being fired into the United States each day from Mexico or Canada (or Cuba, or Russia, China, or Iran), you can be absolutely certain that the USA would not put up with it for one moment.
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Israel shouldn't have to tolerate this sort of agressive behavior either.
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They need to keep bombing those people until the Palestinians recongnize Israel's right to exist as a state, and until they stop this foolish agression and constant bombardment of Israel with missiles.
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Every day Israel should drop leaflets on the Gaza Strip explaining to the Palestinian people that as long as missiles continue to be fired into Israel, the bombing of Gaza will not stop. Period. Put the onus on the backs of the Palstinian populace.
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It also would be completely rational for Israel to stop selling the Palestinians fossil fuels to power their electricity generating plants. The Palestinians want to destroy Israel. That part is pretty clear. Why the Jews put up with this behavior from someone who wants to completely destroy them is beyond me.
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Obama Quitting Smoking

For the first year or two after a long time smoker quits, typically he gets tougher and meaner. I sure did.
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Good. Obama is going to need it!
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The Next Four Years - Politics As Usual

Since Obama was elected as President of the United States there has been genuine joy from many people around the world. The Americans who supported him have been briefly living in a sort of rose colored glasses, utopian high.

Just like drugs and alcohol make it far easier to simply ignore facts which conflict with one’s chosen perception, this Obama High has temporarily blinded the roughly one half of Americans who supported him (including me). Many people have been living under an unrealistic perception that things are going to get better once Obama takes office on January 20, 2009.

The right wingers have also undergone a bit of a perception shift. Now that they are convinced that they are the underdogs, they are getting meaner and more vicious by the day. Obama will truly try to reach across the aisle to the red neck right wingers, but they do not intend to reciprocate. Not at all.

The USA has lived through a decade where nothing substantial could be accomplished by the government due to gridlock. The Republicans are plotting and strategizing right now to make this even worse.

It is not just the nigger-hating lunatics like the Ku Klux Klan who are truly concerned about a smart, articulate, black man becoming president. It is many of the white upper middle class types. The medical doctors and business owners who have been making several hundred thousand dollars per year (and up), and who have gotten used to paying very little taxes. The mere mention of progressive taxation or heaven forbid: redistribution of wealth makes them get purple in the face.

I am glad that Obama is surrounding himself by experienced, bright, moderates. The greedy self-centered right wingers are certainly going to do their best to portray him and his policies as leftist, socialist, and communist. They will do their best to make him seem unpatriotic, maybe even as treasonist. I’m sure that already there are some congressional staffers with law degrees working on the best strategy to impeach Obama.

Yes, the Republicans will try to make the next four years “politics as usual.” But these are not usual times. The rapacious greed of these right wing crooks has pushed the American economy to the absolute breaking point.

The conflict between the ideas of greed and anything goes. Versus rule of law and social justice is going to come out into the open. We saw a little of this in the 1960’s. Mayor Daley’s brutality and the wanton killing of innocent students at Kent State University by the American military made both sides stop and think. And each side backed off, just a little.

This time fifty years have passed. The right wingers have had half a century to prove that eliminating all government regulation of business and rich people, and that trickle down economics is the way to go. This philosophy has been shown to be a DISMAL FAILURE.

America is rapidly becoming more like Mexico. A very wealthy class, a rapidly shrinking middle class, and a growing angry underclass of poor people. More and more Americans who don’t have health insurance, who can’t afford to send their kids to decent universities, and who won’t have much of any pension at all when they get too old to work.

This situation is becoming a little dangerous and unstable.

The policies of the big R. The right wingers. The republicans. The racists. This is what has brought the country to this terrible situation.

Now it comes out that the U.S. Army is openly planning on how to deal with “unforeseen economic collapse” and the “rapid dissolution of public order in all or significant parts of the US.” There is vigorous debate between police forces and the military about who should deal with the upcoming public violence once the poor people (ex-middle class people) in America begin to realize that the wealthy are trying to stick it to them again. This Army study of the situation is entitled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional “Strategic Shocks” in Defense Strategy Development.” -This report by the U.S. Army war college is causing some seismic waves.

Even during the great depression in the 1930’s the U.S. Military was not used to quell civil disturbances.

Using the Army to kill American civilians at home on American soil just seems a little too much like what one would expect to have seen in communist Russia, or in Hitler’s fascist Germany, or by Mao in China.

The point? Toughen up you folks who believe in social justice and you Liberals. Getting Obama elected was the very first teeny-tiny little baby step. The fight has just begun. The right wingers are sure getting prepared to do battle.

What the country witnessed in the 1960’s was kindergarten stuff compared to what is coming up in the next four years.
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Happy Birthday to The Euro

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The common European currency (called the Euro) is now ten years old.

I remember it well. I was living in The Netherlands at the time in a beautiful little town named Eygelshoven. I got up early and went to the service station in Kerkrade just so that I could get my change in Euros.

Many smart economists (and myself) thought it was ill-conceived and doomed to failure. Well… Ok, I admit it. I was wrong.

But I do still think it was a good idea for the British to keep their own currency, the Pound Sterling.
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LINK: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081228/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_euro_at10
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Ice Skating On Canals and Lakes

Reading the news from The Netherlands this morning I am reminded that they are having a very cold winter in northern Europe. I lived there for 15 years, having moved back to America exactly two years ago.

Eleven years ago the lakes and canals all froze up deep enough to ice skate on. What a trip for a boy from the deserts of West Texas.

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I was living in Hoensbroek in The Netherlands so naturally we went ice skating on the lake right across from Hoensbroek Castle. This is one of the best preserved castles in Europe. N 50.916601, E 5.917660

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LINK: http://www.castles.nl/hoen/hoen.html
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* Sub-zero temperatures inspire skating fever
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The contest to hold the country's first outdoor ice-skating competition on naturally formed ice has been won by Haaksbergen in Twente near the German border. The race is taking place on Sunday evening. With the forecast of a longish period of sub-zero temperatures, many Dutch skating clubs are clearing up their outdoor race courses.Cashing in on skating fever, factories are operating long hours to meet the demand of shops stocking up on skates.
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The last time the winter was cold enough to allow much skating in the open air away from rinks was 11 years ago. A whole generation of Dutch have grown up without the experience of skating in the big outdoors.
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Light Science & Magic

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I just finished reading the book called Light Science & Magic, An Introduction to Photographic Lighting" by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, and Paul Fuqua.
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At the moment I have about 25 books on photography sitting on the bookcase in my home office. That is only a very small fraction of the books that I’ve read on the subject over the last 50 years. Without any doubt, I learned more from this book about the essential subject of lighting than from any photographic book I have ever read.

On an entirely different subject, one little paragraph in chapter 10 got my attention.

I had a home dark room and did my own developing and printing many years ago. I come from the age where a 35 mm negative was considered really quite small. In order to enlarge to A3 or 11x14 you needed to start worrying about low grain film, i.e. ASA 64 or 32.

Nowadays most digital sensors are FAR smaller than a 35 mm negative. That is fine since most photos are viewed at about 5 x 7 or smaller. In fact many times they are viewed on a cell phone, where the screen is a little larger than a glorified postage stamp. But even really good digital SLR cameras like the Nikon D300 have what Nikon calls a DX size sensor. Although much larger than the CCD or CMOS in most point-and-shoot cameras, it is still smaller than a 35 mm negative.

So in many cases a lens acts different, thus a particular camera and lens combination is rated at it's “35 mm equivalent.” For example when I use of 200 mm telephoto lens on the Nikon D40, D80, or D300 it acts just like a 300 mm telephoto lens would when used on a 35 mm SLR camera.

A few VERY expensive digital SLR cameras are made with a full size sensor (i.e. 35 mm size) or even larger, but these are rare and are certainly not for the ordinary consumer. And even really good cameras like the Nikon D3X which has a “full size” sensor, don’t show any really significant improvement in resolution over the Nikon D300.

Well, anyway, back to chapter 10 in this really excellent book. Here is a direct quote, “Most digital cameras have much smaller sensors than the size of film they replace. The smaller image size means greater depth of field, which, in turn, means we can open the aperture further to get the same depth of field. This means a lot: just opening one f-stop potentially means carrying half the lighting equipment weight, and very often we can open several stops.”

So when my 200 mm lens is used on a full size sensor camera like the D3X, it no longer behaves like a 300 mm lens. Far more importantly, in low light conditions if one is using a 50 mm f/1.8 lens with the aperture wide open on the D40/D80/D300 you have significantly more depth of field than on the camera with a full sized sensor. Very interesting…
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Old Argus Cameras

At the flea market in El Paso, Texas at the old drive in movie theater near Ascarate lake I found a 70 year old camera today at a very low price.

It is an Argus Model AF. This camera was only manufactured in 1937 and 1938 so it is 70 years old for sure. This camera had a body made from Bakelite and has decorations on the front which clearly put it in the Art Deco era. Click on the picture and it will enlarge. I think it is beautiful!

I also have an Argus Model C3 which is somewhat newer.

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The model C was popular for many years including lots of WWII photography. It was made from 1939 until 1966.

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Probably more 35 mm photos were taken with the Argus C3 than any other camera. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_C3

There is a well organized and active Argus group on Yahoo Groups.
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Bones Christmas

On Christmas eve Fox aired the Bones Christmas TV special.

I’ve gotta come clean. I haven’t believed in Santa for more than half a century.

But at the end of the show when Booth and his boy showed up with the Christmas tree, with the Christmas lights running off an inverter powered by the black FBI SUV he drives…well I cried. Like a little baby.
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I guess that's one further advantage of living alone (with one's dog). My doggie doesn't find it the least bit strange to see a fat old man with a grey beard who could do a reasonably good Santa impersonation sobbing like a little girl.

Boy Howdy that was one Great TV Show!


LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NyFkfSDy2k&feature=related
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When Is The Recession Going To End?

This is like the child constantly whining, “Are we there yet?”

We are not even yet fully into the recession (depression??). Many more homes are going to be foreclosed upon. Consumers have stopped spending worldwide, so it is not just General Motors and Chrysler that are in trouble.

Lots of people who still have decent jobs and who have been paying the bare minimum on their credit card statements soon will be out of work. So they will default on their mortgage, their credit cards, and maybe even their car loans. Many people will lose their house, some their marriage.

Vast numbers of people (and companies) have borrowed far too much money. They were under the collective self-delusion that the good times would never end. The value of housing has to get down to reality, as do stock prices. People and companies have to work their way out of this mountain of debt they have created.

Most of America’s manufacturing operations and jobs have now gone overseas. The right wingers said this was a good thing and called it out-sourcing.

Many millions of Americans no longer have access to health care. The worst track record of any advanced country in the entire world. Most American workers no longer have dependable company-sponsored pension plans which will provide them with a reasonable level of dignity when they get too old to work.

Oil has peaked, but the world’s population is still growing. So long term energy is going to continue to increase in cost. Non-thinking religious fundamentalism is spreading.

For the last 25 years or so China (and to a certain degree Russia) has been following America blindly like a not very smart but extremely loyal lap dog. Their economy has completely embraced capitalism without rules or regulations, and the drill-baby-drill, environment be damned ideas. The badly misguided Republican and George W. Bush philosophy is now the Chinese economic model. As more and more jobs are lost in the big cities in China, and more companies close their doors, these newly prosperous workers will have to go back to the poor countryside where they came from. In political science they call what comes next the: Revolution Of Rising Expectations.

The American economy is going to be fundamentally different when it does eventually recover. This unlimited, no-rules capitalism where anything goes will no longer be with us. There will be far more regulation (thank goodness). America will probably no longer be the preeminent force on the world’s economic scene.

So just like the child asking “Are we almost there yet?” when Disneyland is still 500 miles away, the American consumer is in for a rude awakening.

My guess is that we will begin to see a slowing of the downward trends in the economy in about 18 - 24 months. To paraphrase a famous baseball player, the tough part about forecasting is that it is hard to make accurate guesses about the future. If I were a gambler (which I am not) I would bet that anything that sort of resembles an economic recovery lies 5 to 8 years off. Maybe not even in our lifetime.

My advice is to hunker down. Don’t take on any more debt, start paying off your various loans. If you own one of the low fuel economy hogs made in Detroit, get rid of it as quickly as you can. Stop eating out at fast food joints, and begin cooking at home. Put on a sweater, turn your thermostat down in the winter, and turn it up a bit in the summer. Begin to live a bit more sensibly and responsibly.

This actually may be the best thing that has ever happened to us. Life after the Great Bush Recession may end up being far better than before. It all is up to us…
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The best response I got to this post was from a friend who is a coat-and-tie law enforcement officer:
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Paul,
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That was a well written essay on the state of economy. Disillusionment in our greedy countries companies, politicians and their cronies have never ever been so high in my mind. They have "we've got ours go fuck yourselves or let them eat cake" attitudes and when cornered like a Madoff rat they actually have little smirks on their faces as they are lead to penthouse detention.
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I do fear the worse because our government leaders still are pandering and paying off their own till the last drop of honest blood is gone. Then they will feed on their own, then, perhaps a dragon slayer will emerge and chop the head off. Till then all we need now is a plague or dirty bomb. Then watch all civil liberties be damned.
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We are feeling it here, huge 401 losses in wife's part of ATT's 12K human surplus reduction and I've got a second house for sale. Hunkering down we are. If the people rose up as Jefferson would have us they would shoot us down. As in my favorite Hesston movie line God Dam them all to hell. Revolution of rising expectations? Yet I have that American optimist spirit, that we will make out the other side, what we will look like time will tell.
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Pam's Saddles and Harness Makers

I lived in Europe a total of almost 20 years. First in Frankfurt, Germany when I was in the Army during the Vietnam war. Then many years later for another 15 years in the very most southern part of Holland less than a mile from the border with Germany in Herzogenrath. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herzogenrath

My career had advanced to the point where I was the General Manager of the European Division of the American food processing company I worked for. It was a fun and challenging job which paid pretty well and provided the opportunity to travel and see a lot of Europe.

My wife Pam and I had a couple of horses and a delightful mutt dog named Chuy. He was named after Chewbacca, the fictional character in Star Wars who was Han Solo’s buddy. We owned a little Dutch house and some land for the horses to graze on, which was directly across the street from our house in Kerkrade. Pam’s main hobby was competing in dressage. We got to know some of the real heavy weights in the equestrian world, including several people who had won gold and silver medals in various Olympics.

Sadly most marriages are not permanent. Whether that is good or bad is another subject, but it is an unfortunate reality. After being together for seven years we had begun to grow in different directions.

Pam is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, but she decided to stay in The Netherlands after we divorced. She now owns a company there in Holland which makes saddles and harnesses.
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Sadly it is not common to find people who genuinely enjoy their job. People whose passion also makes them enough money to get by on. Turning one’s avocation into one’s vocation is so wise. And also so rare.

The website for her company is: http://www.pamszadelentuigenmakerij.com/index.html

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The Tales of Beedle The Bard

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Anyone who likes Harry Potter has got to read this little book of short stories.

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It is -Really Great!

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Fox Plaza Swap Meet

Strictly commercial. A waste of time. Really.

Going to flea markets/swap meets/car boot sales is kind of my hobby. I’ve been to all of the ones in the El Paso area...most of them many times. The one at Ascarate Lake is good, as is the one on Alameda near Socorro. Canutillo has a good one and so does Las Cruces.

I’ve also been to lots of them around the world: Just to name a few: London, the Lake District, and in northern England near Hogwarts Castle; in Brussels, Waterloo, and Tongeren, Belgium; Cologne, Aachen, Dusseldorf, Bonn, and Berlin in Germany; Paris, France has the largest one in Europe; Heerlen, Kerkrade, Rotterdam and Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

They all are different, and in their own way each is OK. But the one at Fox Plaza in El Paso, Texas sucks. Really. Don't waste your time on it.
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Christmas In El Paso

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Christmas is less than a week away. This evening right after sunset I took some Xmas pictures of the houses near to mine. The weather is so nice that I was wearing jeans and a Tee shirt, without even a light jacket.

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Social Injustice

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In reporting on the continuing rioting in Greece, the BBC quotes the Greek Prime Minister as saying, "long-unresolved problems, such as the lack of meritocracy, corruption in everyday life and a sense of social injustice" are fuelling the anger of young people.
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That feels a little too close to home.
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700 billion dollars

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Just to make sure that I was getting my math right I looked up billion. One thousand million.

So if America has 300 million (300,000,000) people then the $700 billion ($700,000,000,000) that Bush and Paulson gave to the irresponsible bankers and wall street jerks, comes out to $2,333 per person.

Taking a family as one man, one woman (appologies to you homosexuals), and one child this would amount to $7,000- per family. That really isn’t THAT much. Proably less than most families owe to Visa and Master Card. And if Obama is going to rapidly spend another $700 billion to jump start the economy, that that would bring the total up to $14,000 per family.

These are fairly big numbers, but they are ones that we can understand and deal with.
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Union Busting

It used to be sort of against the law for companies to engage in certain activities which could be loosely described as union busting. Owners and managers of companies got in real trouble for doing so.
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Now America gets to watch George Bush the Incompetent and his group of dishonest and mediocre lackeys engage in blatant union busting. Very odd times we are living through.
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It does show everyone that the Republicans are pro-rich wall street types who get multi-million dollar bonuses each year, but very much opposed to the normal hard working hourly people earning a living wage which includes health insurance and a reliable pension plan.
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Thank heavens this ignorant and revolting George Bush II will be out of office in one month.
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The Environment

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Air pollution, water pollution, habitat destruction, the hole in the ozone layer, global warming.

Yes, I think it is safe to say that there is no need for God to damn the human race. We are doing a pretty good job all on our own.
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Governor Rod Blagojevich

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Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois is a rude creep. He probably is a criminal too.

But it is important that even with a jerk like this we follow the U.S. Constitution. Accused people are considered as innocent until they are proven guilty in court. It is the price we have to pay. It’s a shame in a blatant case like this, but one day it may be you or your kid who is falsely accused.
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Ponzi Scheme

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Bernard L. Madoff is accused of conning his investors out of about $50 billion. Many of these investors were very savvy rich people and other financial industry organizations who were bright enough to realize that the rates of return his group paid were completely unrealistic. They should have remembered the advice, “If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.” No doubt an overwhelming majority of these wealthy investors considered themselves to be Republicans.

Apparently lots of people invested every penny they had with this crook. So now they have lost everything. Imagine how devastating that would be…one day you are comfortable, maybe even wealthy, and the next day you have nothing at all. As my father who was 15 years old in 1929 and was profoundly affected by the great depression used to say, “Not even a pot to pee in.”

One thing all these people had in common was greed. And faith. Maybe a belief in fairy tales too.

It really is unfortunate that these people have lost so much money.

But I’ll bet that this event doesn’t do anything to help these right wingers have more compassion for working people who lose these houses, or more compassion and understanding for folks who cannot get or cannot afford health insurance.

So you might suggest that these people are both greedy and totally self-centered. Maybe this incident will help the character development of these selfish, egotistical creeps.
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Nikon Creative Lighting

Most good Nikon SLR cameras allow one to fire a strobe light remotely. There is a small transmitter in the camera and a receiver built into the flash.

I have been watching the DVD from the Nikon School called “A Hands-on-Guide to Creative Lighting.” It is quite intensive and goes really fast. To get the most out of it one needs to be constantly using the remote control, pressing pause to think about concepts and even rewinding to re-play sections. So far they have discussed in generalities some important photographic concepts about light:

1. Sharp light (as from the sun or a strobe) versus diffuse light (think about a cloudy day).

2. The color of light, with orange/yellow being warm and generally better for photography compared with blue light.

3. Direction that the light is coming from and Shadows. This is an extremely important concept. Normally pictures taken soon after dawn or just before sunset will be better because of the dramatic shadows and the warming color of the light.

One thing they said really stuck with me. That the shadows are what makes a photograph interesting. No shade or shadows and the picture becomes clinical and boring. This is true in landscapes as well as portraits. I couldn’t help thinking about some of Ansel Adams’ photos of sand dunes and American Indian adobe dwellings. And it made me think about the portraits of my maternal grandfather Ora Barnwell taken around 1907, and a portrait of my father’s sister Billie. Both pictures were taken almost 100 years ago, yet the photographers then knew very well about shading and shadows, and they were done just perfectly.

What really hit home is them saying that the famous master painters in the Renaissance were very well versed in the use of shadows. It made me think of the oil on canvas painting called “The Kitchen Maid” by Johannes Vermeer which he painted around 1658 - at age 26. (Vermeer lived from 1632 - 1675. Only 43 years.)

I have seen this painting in person several times in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam back when I was living in Holland, and I own a reproduction of the painting which I bought in the gift shop of the Rijksmuseum. It is special not just because of the masterful use of shadows and shading but also it is very special to me because it shows 3 different German stoneware pots from the 1500’s, of which I have a fairly comprehensvie collection.
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Nikon CPU Contacts

I have a couple of old Nikon 35mm film SLRs which are pretty much manual, and two somewhat newer Nikon film SLRs which automatically adjust shutter speed and aperture and which do perform autofocus. I also have two Nikon digital SLRs. I have a bunch of old and newer Nikkor lenses too, some which are non-CPU and many of which do have CPU contacts.

Looking at the cameras the N6006/F601, the N60, and the D40X both have seven internal contacts through which the camera and the lens communicate. The D300 has eight of these internal contacts.

Many of my older CPU lenses have what I call the 4 + 1 format of contacts for a total of five contacts. Some of the newer lenses have seven contacts, and my favorite macro lens has ten contacts!

I find this both really interesting and a bit confusing, all at the same time. I’m intrigued and I sure wish some technical wizard with Nikon could explain this to me.
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I got an excellent response from Joseph Wisniewski:
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The five contact interface is actually 7 contacts wide, with a 2 contact gap. 2 contacts are power and ground, three more are a serial data interface (clock, data, and read/write). They do pretty much what Bjorn said, communicate lens data back to the camera, and communicate commands like "start VR" to the lens.
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The gap is because Nikon originally designed an entirely different AF system for the F3-AF. This system had 7 contacts, and a motor in the lens, and the camera would drive the lens motor through two high power contacts: "near to far" and "far to near". There was no serial communication, just power and limit switches. When Nikon made the new "screwdriver" system for the N2020 camera, they avoided using those two contacts, to keep old F3-AF cameras from frying the new "digital interface" lenses. Nikon F4 (aside from being the ugliest Nikon ever designed) actually had the circuitry to drive either the F3-AF lenses or the new AF Nikkors.
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AF-S and AF-I lenses need 8 contacts to function properly. They add an additional high power line so that the lens motor could suck power directly from the camera battery. A pair of additional motion detection lines allow the camera to track the direction and speed of lens movement. Nikon "recycled" the contacts from the "gap" in the second AF system. This tracking function is only used by high end bodies like D2X, D3, F100, F5, so those bodies have 8 contacts. Lesser bodies like D100 or N80 have 7 contacts. I don't know about some of the newer low end bodies.
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Although cameras have 7 or 8 contacts, Nikon AF-S (and older AF-I) lenses have 10 contacts. Two of these are for use with teleconverters. AF-S teleconverters have 10 contacts on the front (lens side), and 8 on the camera side. The two contacts let the converter send a "hi, I'm a 1.4x teleconverter" message to the lens. This allows the lens to send a "I'm not really a 105mm f2.8 macro, I'm really a 147mm f4 macro" to the camera. Even AF-S lenses that aren't normally used with teleconverters, like the 12-24mm f4 DX, have 10 pins, and often work properly on Kenko teleconverters.
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I'm not sure why a lens would have 7 contacts, unless it's a low end AF-S lens designed only to exploit the features of a low end body, leaving off the motion detection. Which lenses have you seen with 7 contacts.

The contacts are identified in Nikon service manuals (and on the circuit boards of cameras and lenses) as "A" through "J". "A" is the leftmost contact as you gaze lovingly into the lens mount of the camera. The names of the contacts vary depending on what manual you read. E and F are the "gap" contacts in older cameras.The first F3-AF interface:
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number
F3AF
A
VCC
B
Limit switch
C
Near to Far
D
Far to Near
E
F
Relative Distance
G
GND
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The second AF interface, as used in 5 contact screwdriver lenses:
number
N50
patent
A
VCC
LCVV
B
RW1
RW1
C
SCK
LCK
D
SIO
LIO
E
F
G
DGND
PGND
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The third AF interface, as used in cameras that support AF-S lenses:
number
N90, N70
F5
patent
A
LCVV
VCC
LCVV
B
RW1
R/W1
RW1
C
LCK
SCK
LCK
D
LIO
SI/O
LIO
E
RW2
R/W2
RW2
F
LBAT
LBAT
LBAT
G
PGND
GND
PGND
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The full 10 pins from the 300mm f2.8 AF-I service manual:
number
300mm
protection
A
VCC
cap to PGND
B
R/W1
pull up and series
C
Clock
series
D
DATA
pull up
E
Hotline, Pulse
pull up and series
F
Power for Motor
G
Motor GND
H
Hotline, Pulse
pull up and series
I
Reserve
J
Reserve
Mount
GND
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Public Radio in El Paso, Texas - KTEP

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KTEP has long provided a valuable service to the El Paso community by being the outlet for NPR, other unbiased non-traditional news, and public radio programming.

Now it seems that KTEP has lost its way. The radio station is listener supported, but not in any way listener controlled. The people who contribute money to the continued operation of the radio station are not asked what type of programming they prefer, nor do they have any input or control over programming or staffing at the station.

It would be interesting to see the results of a professional survey taken of KTEP financial contributors. The idea would be to see what types of music and programming they want. Since this information is not available at this time, one can only speculate what the listeners (financial supporters) want. Answers could be grouped either by one vote allocated to each contributor, or perhaps one vote for each dollar contributed by the contributor.

Whichever way the results are tabulated my guess is that the results would be overwhelmingly in favor of more news and public radio programs and against the massive commitment of the radio station to classical music. I suspect that the number of people wanting classical music is very small and that the money they contribute to the station is equally tiny. But that the classical music supporters are quite vocal. I’ll bet that maybe some arrogant, big mouth, tenured professors at UTEP get vastly more input on the type of programming at the radio station than the individuals who contribute financially to the continued operation of KTEP.

One thing is clear: Financial support by individuals will lag during periods of economic distress. If the radio station is not providing these financial supporters with the type of programming they want, contributions will decline even more.

In most of El Paso the public radio station in Las Cruces has an excellent signal. I find myself sometimes changing from 88.5 to 90.7 and back. Frequently I find that the programming from KRWG out of New Mexico State University more closely fits my desires. As a native El Pasoan and a graduate of UTEP I find this to be a little bit distressing.

Perhaps what is needed is for the public radio stations at UTEP and NMSU to merge. Eliminating one transmitter and much of the overlapping staff would provide more resources to pay for the type of programming that listeners want.

But what about training the college students who want to be radio DJ’s or technicians? If this is the main goal of the station then its financing needs to come from the university, not from the community. The name is Public Radio not College Radio.
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Caroline Kennedy

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I'm sure that Caroline Kennedy is probably a very nice lady. Maybe even her ideas agree with mine. Perhaps she researches things in depth before staking a position, and maybe she won't allow herself to be railroaded into quick decisions by some arrogant Bozo like W. But since she has not worked her way up from the bottom and does not have a track record it is hard to say.
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Being parachuted down into a top position just because of who your father or husband was goes against everyting that America stands for. Nepotism, royalty...political dynasties. Like the the Kennedys, the Bushes, and the Clintons. Noticed how brain damaged George W. is? This is what nepotism gets you.
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Sorry honey. Serve in the state legislature and maybe the national congress first.
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The Revolt Of The Disappointed Generation

Der Spiegel in Germany has a thought provoking article about the recent rioting in Greece. They call it “The Revolt Of The Disappointed Generation.”

This phrase should make people in almost all the advanced western societies stop and think for a moment.
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,596467,00.html
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The Shoe Ducker

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First there was the =shoe bomber.
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Now there is the -shoe ducker. -Both of these guys seem like pretty stupid jerks to me.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4BE28Q20081215
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Ignorant Red Necks

The Washington Post today has an article called “Red-State Army?” written by Danielle Allen. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/14/AR2008121401815.html?wpisrc=newsletter

In the article she documents that the states which consistently vote Republican also have a much higher percent of veterans. And its not due just to retirees moving to Florida either.

Back during ancient history in the late 1960’s and 1970’s America was also in the habit of fighting senseless, foolish wars. This particular one was in southeast asia, mostly in the country of Vietnam. A great many more soldiers were required for this “conflict” that the current ones, so the country of America had a system of involuntary servitude, the draft. Whether you liked it or not, if your country wanted you to be in the military you HAD TO serve.

I helped my little brother write his application for conscientious objector (which he eventually won). Some people fled to Canada or Europe. Others went to jail rather than kill. Joan Baez’s husband David was an example. Most of us just ended up wearing the uniform and hoping for the best. And those of us who lived got the GI Bill to pay for most of our college expenses, and then the GI Bill also financed our first house too.

White people with PhD’s were serving right along side of poorly educated black kids from Harlem or Mississippi. It was all very democratic. And eye opening for everyone.

But now in the era of the All Volunteer Army mostly the poorly educated and financially distressed serve in America’s military. Sort of like mercenaries. We have a military made up mostly of young people with dark colored skin and ignorant poorly educated whites.
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Of course the elite officer corps still has lots of people with PhD’s. This pattern does not bode at all well for the country.

Now this lady Danielle Allen has documented that the primary states where people participate in the All Volunteer Military are the same states which vote for people like George W. Bush. This is probably something we all sort of suspected but never really thought about.

She says, “The issue now is not racial integration but cultural separation.”

My young nephews and nieces absolutely cringe and hate to hear me say it, but if the country is insistent that it is going to continually fight wars, then mandatory military service should be reinstituted.

This sounds like something a red neck would want, but it comes from a person who is fairly well educated and who has a deep love for equality and democracy. From someone who also is an honorably discharged Vietnam era veteran. I was an honors graduate from UTEP, so the Army trained me as a tank driver, the ultimate off-road-vehicle.
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Chicago Corruption

Chicago is an exciting city at the south end of Lake Michigan. The city has about 3 million inhabitants, and the Chicago metropolitan area has 9.7 million people. Chicago has many interesting things in it, and it has a great deal going for it.

Unfortunately Chicago is also famous for rampant dishonesty and machine politics. Corruption among politicians is almost normal and expected there. It was the headquarters for Al Capone and later for Sam Giancana.

Today’s New York Times has an excellent article on the subject: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/us/14corrupt.html

Wikipedia even has an entire, rather long, article devoted corruption and lawlessness in the city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organized_crime_in_Chicago
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Union Busting Republican Style

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I read a really interesting article today by Robert L. Borosage called "Herbert Hoover Time." At the end of this blog entry I have included a link to his article.

He says, “There are defining moments in politics. By blocking the auto bailout, Republicans defined themselves. They are class warriors, willing to risk an economic calamity in order to break a union.”

This is pretty strong talk but I’m beginning to thing that it is correct. These Republicans are just fuming mad that these unionized auto workers make $50,000 to $60,000 per year. And that they actually have health insurance and a pension plan too. They wanted the workers to take an immediate pay cut of one half. To around $25,000 to $30,000 per year.

These people have families, kids in college, and mortgages to pay. Of course they would default on their house payments and go bankrupt if this was forced upon them.

The basic problem that GM has is not that their workers are well paid. The real problem is that General Motors makes shabby, morbidly obese cars which get terrible fuel economy. For years they reveled in their anti-environment greed, and now the company is dying because of it.

This is class warfare. These greedy, rich Republicans still believe in slavery. And the only ideology or morality they believe in is getting rich.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/herbert-hoover-time_b_150537.html
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General Motors Fuel Economy

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The one and only car that GM sells which gets decent fuel economy is the Chevy Aveo.
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And it is made in Korea by Daewoo. At least lots of Toyotas and Hondas are made in America by American workers.
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These Bozos with GM say there is nothing wrong with their business plan. It appears that there is something wrong with their intelligence and thought processes. Brain Dead.
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Lost in space.
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Bailing Out Greedy and Irresponsible Rich People

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When I bought my first house in the late 1970’s the “system” was very rigorous about verifying my income and my ability to pay. When I first graduated from college and I wanted to apply for a credit card, the “system” verified my income before I was granted a credit card. Same with the first car I bought on credit (24 month loan).

In each case the banking and lending system were properly regulated by the United Stated federal government. There were enough regulators, and they were ethical, experienced, and well educated.

What happened to America is that over the course of many years the pro-greed, pro-business Republicans stopped (invalidated) much of the essential regulation going on by the government. They called this concept de-regulation, and they said it was positive. They claimed that the market economy would “trickle down” a good bit of money to the poor if the rich were allowed to get even richer with almost no constraints, laws, or regulations.

In all fairness, many intelligent and prominent Democrats went along with this greed-driven deregulation and ethical blindness, including self righteous lawyers like Bill and Hillary Clinton.

For a long time virtually anyone, regardless of their income or lack thereof, could borrow many hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy their dream house, and their ability to ever repay the loan was not properly verified.

In December 2008, well over a year into this financial debacle, banks are still sending me unsolicited offers of “pre-approved” credit cards. And credit card maximum authorized balances are being automatically increased. In fact my credit card company got downright huffy when I asked them to lower greatly the maximum loan amount on my Visa card and to stop the automatic, non-customer approved increases in this limit.

The soon to depart Secretary of the Treasury for America, a great big tall and charming guy named Hank Paulson, has a degree in English. In college he played football, and he was the chairman and chief executive officer at one of Wall Street’s top firms, Goldman Sachs. He also earned an MBA from Harvard. But keep in mind that Harvard grants this degree to people who are not terribly bright and certainly not good students, like George W. Bush.

To keep the interlinked world economy from going completely catatonic and failing completely, the American government has recently been travelling pedal to the metal almost blindly bailing out practically every greedy and irresponsible financier they can find. I call this socialism for the rich.

The poor and middle classes are left to their own devices. They do not have access to medical care, their 401k pensions are now just a figment of the imagination, and after their houses are re-possessed they may even be sleeping in their cars.

Remember serfdom? How about the French revolution? When the government only protects the rich and powerful one needs to beware. Average people just won’t put up with this stuff forever.

During the Vietnam war it was fashionable and common to talk about revolution. What is happening in the early 21st century is that the rich and powerful are heavily screwing over the vast majority of middle and working class people, and not even using vaseline. And these greedy guys at the top of the mountain need to beware. Honest. The biggest problem with revolutions is that there is no predicting where it will all end up. America revolted from England, and things worked out alright. But this certainly has not been the end result in many other cases, maybe not even in most other cases.

People need to be held accountable and responsible for their actions or inaction. This applies equally at the individual level all the way from school students and teachers, to arrogant government officials and billionaire capitalists. This must be a system of laws, where everyone is treated equally under the law, or the entire house of cards breaks down.

It is still unclear if the not yet inaugurated Obama administration will eventually call the majority of these crooks to task for their evil deeds. They need to or we will face an even more serious breakdown of society.
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Investing vs. Gambling

If you have been wise about saving your money instead of going into debt to buy flat screen TVs, toys, or cars you may have some money saved. You may wish to invest some of this by buying into a company. For example you may get the opportunity to buy a part of the company you are working for now. Or you may know of a company that has a good product and is well managed. If you do know of such a company, then it may be wise to invest part of your savings in buying into this company.

But be aware that buying shares of a company is much riskier than keeping your money in the bank. If things go well you will earn a much better rate of return. But if things go badly you may lose all the money you have invested.

This long term investing by purchasing a part of a company is what capitalism is all about. The greater the risk of losing your savings, the larger the rate of return that you expect to receive.

Investing is a type of saving and this is good for society. But if you borrow the money from someone else in order to invest in a company this is much more like speculation or gambling. This is negative from the long term societal point of view.

So we are differentiating between investing and speculating/gambling. The difference is fundamental.

In accounting one has to understand the difference between tax avoidance which is both sensible and completely legal, and tax evasion which will get you sent to jail. Fundamental difference.
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Visible Wavelength

In air the human eye can see colors from violet, approximately 380 nanometers (nm), to red at about 750 nm. When you are underwater the visible spectrum that your eye can see is reduced to a more narrow range.
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One nanometer (nm) is one millionth of a millimeter.

A color of light can be described by its frequency or its wavelength, just like radio or TV waves. And there are indeed colors of light beyond red (infrared) and below violet (ultraviolet). Infrared light can be felt by humans as heat in a heating lamp.

Some animals are capable of seeing the light that the human eye is not capable of seeing. Some snakes can see quite well in the infrared, and other animals can see well in the ultraviolet spectrum.

When ultraviolet light (which is not visible to the human eye) shines on certain things, light which is indeed visible to the human eye is emitted. Sometimes quite brightly. This process is known as fluorescence.

The ultraviolet light that is easy and cheap to make is know as long wave (LW), or roughly 368 nm. This is what I call “plain old hippie black light.” These lights are readily available at a very reasonable cost. Certain minerals do indeed fluoresce quite well when illuminated by long wave UV light, for example many rubies, some calcites, and the mineral fluorite.

A much more expensive and difficult light to make is called shortwave UV (SW). It has a wavelength of 254 nm. Many more minerals fluoresce well under shortwave UV light than under long wave UV light.

More recently people have begun using medium wave (MW) lights which have a wavelength of approximately 312 nm. It is interesting to see that some minerals which do not fluoresce at all, or not very well at all, when illuminated either by SW or LW UV light do indeed fluoresce very brightly when illuminated by medium wave ultraviolet light.
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A few minerals fluoresce in different colors depending upon whether they are illuminated by long wave or short wave ultraviolet light. And a very few special ones are different in all 3 wavelengths, plus they continue to shine (phosphorescence) once all UV light is extinguished. And the phosphorescence frequently is in another color still.

One of the concepts that I find fascinating is that visible light is exactly the same thing as radio waves, microwaves, or x-rays. It is just a different color (wavelength). -- Think about that for a moment!

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Fluorescent Minerals: http://www.flickr.com/gp/55922094@N00/46Y9a8


LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uv_light



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Getting A New Dog

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My sister recently had a death in the family. Bodhi, a long time part wolf friend, recently passed away.

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She is going around the various shelters and dog pounds looking at the rescue dogs.

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So she and the President Elect have something else in common (in addition to being super bright and well educated).

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White Balance

Nikon digital SLR cameras normally do an excellent job of automatically adjusting to different types of lighting.

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But one can improve on this significantly by taking an adjustment looking at a piece of white paper or standard grey.

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I guess you can do this with all of their DSLR models, but I don't know. You can absolutely do it with the D40, D80, and the D300...I just checked the user manuals.

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Nikon DSLR D3X

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I'm really happy with both my D40X and my D300. When one looks at enlarged crops comparing the pictures of the same scene taken with the Nikon D300, D3, and D700 Ken Rockwell didn't find any substantial differences either in picture resolution of small details or in color depth. There does appear to be a slight improvement in the FX vs the DX sensor format when one is shooting in low light at high ISO sensitivities with the larger pixels generating less noise.

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Their latest DSLR, the D3X, probably will be about the same. There really must be SOMETHING I'm missing to justify the price.



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Roman Fibula

----------------------- (click on the pictures and they will enlarge)

In the Roman Empire fibulae (broach, safety pin) were used to keep one’s toga closed.

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They also as served as decorative ornaments, sometimes signifying status.
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Since the fibula was used all over the Roman Empire they had a recognized value, and sometimes they were used instead of coins as money.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibula_(brooch)

http://www.aurorahistoryboutique.com/P000038.htm
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Obama's Health Care Plan

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President Obama campaigned to end the war in Iraq and provide health care at an affordable cost to all Americans.

Now, even before he is inaugurated it appears that the Obama health care goal may be in the process of being watered down to the point of insignificance.

Today’s Washington Post claims that “In broad terms, Obama campaigned on the idea of reducing medical costs, improving quality and eventually achieving universal insurance coverage. He promised to cover every child and to reduce the average family's medical bill by $2,500 a year. He advocated a greater emphasis on prevention and expanding participation in the government-subsidized Medicare and Medicaid programs.”

No Way Jose’! -- What is this Spin Doctor crap? -- This is a re-writing of history. -Those kinds of lies are why George W. Bush has no respect from the American public and is so universally detested.
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Obama campaigned on the simple idea of:
Providing health care to ALL Americans at an affordable cost.

Period. Full Stop.
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Gay Marriage

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I am male and heterosexual. I have been married to (and divorced from) three delightful, beautiful, and wonderfully randy young ladies.

I basically got married for all the typical male reasons. Boobs, intercourse, drank too much, etc. Once I performed the act in order to have a child. And when I got divorced, each time I ended up giving my ex-wife an awful lot of money.

Probably my three divorces can be credited for the financial success I had over the course of my career. I simply HAD TO earn a good living so that I could pay my ex-wives.

From my perspective of being single for a good many years now, I think wanting to get married borders on total lunacy. Get a dog or a cat. Really. Marriage is subsidized by society because it is so incredibly expensive and such a pain in the ass to raise children properly.

If two lesbians want to live together, be a life long team, and also kiss and perform cunlingus on each other regularly, I think that is simply wonderful. And if two gay men want to live together and have regular anal sex I think they are stupid as shit and just begging to get AIDS. In neither situation does society have some basic interest in supporting the living-together relationship by defining it as a marriage.

I certainly don’t want the police or the government breaking down the doors of people’s bedrooms in the middle of the night to catch these homosexuals performing their sex acts. I really don’t care what they do sexually as long as they are both adults and each party consents. But I don’t want society subsidizing it.
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Roman Melon Beads

Light blue fluted melon beads have been found all over the Roman Empire.
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I have seen almost identical ones in Roman museums from Northern England to France and Southern Italy.
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I have self collected fragments of melon beads in areas where Roman Legionnaires camped almost 2,000 years ago.
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I have read suggestions that these melon beads were manufactured in the area that we currently call Turkey and then were traded all over the Empire.
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The color is typically light blue to a blueish green. They had a surface glaze made of calcium copper silicate which was called caeruleum by the Romans. It is also often referred to as Egyptian Faience.
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The blue glaze was made from 60–70% silica (SiO2), 7–15% calcium oxide (CaO), and 10–20% copper oxide (CuO). The beads were fired at approximately 850 to 900 degrees centigrade for about one hour in order to change or vitrify the glaze into a glass like material.
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