I don't normally comment on financial stories

But this one has a great line. From the New York Times, quoting a small bank owner:

“The credit pendulum is stuck at ‘stupid,’” said Lou S. Barnes, an owner of Boulder West Financial Services, a Colorado mortgage bank. “I am turning down loans every day that my grandfather in his Ponca City, Okla., savings and loan in 1935 would have been happy to make. And he was tough.”

What's Nagin Hiding?

Nagin's email was erased professionally, well after it was requested by the Times Picayune and his excuse was "they ran out of space to store it."

Hurricane Season

There is a tropical wave in the Caribbean which stands a chance of moving into the Gulf of Mexico and becoming the first named storm of the year, Ana. It would have little to no chance of hitting the United States, but the first storm is the first storm. Keep an eye on things, people!

This Weather is Obscene

Driving home today. 38 degrees celsius for my European reader(s).

Let Me Just Say One Thing

This stuff is delicious.

Alternative Medicines Don't Work

The US government spent $2.5 billion dollars over ten years testing the effectiveness of "alternative medicines" and has come to the conclusion that the majority do nothing or are less effective or just as effective as dummy pills.

Conclusion: if it's called alternative medicine, it's not been proven and likely does not work. If it did work, it could apply for patent status and make the companies who make it a lot more money. All those companies are trying to make money, why would they turn down MORE money? The answer is that they would not if they could, their "medicines" simply don't work.

Nagin Quarantined in China

Mayor Ray Nagin quarantined in Shanghai, China.  The officials are claiming it's because someone on his flight had a confirmed case of H1N1 swine flu, but I have my doubts.  I personally think it's a goodwill gesture by the Chinese government to the citizens of New Orleans.  

So from me to you, China, THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Utility Lens

I am an amateur/hobbyist level photographer with a fairly nice camera, but I am always drooling over lenses. I currently shoot with a Canon xsi, 12.2 megapixel with the kit 18-55 mm Image Stabilized lens and a telephoto 55-250 mm Image Stabilized zoom lens, which is a fairly recent acquisition (only having had the camera itself since October of last year). Years ago I had a lot of interaction with professional level cameras and my parents have owned a film SLR (single lens reflex) longer than I've been alive, recently making the crossover to digital SLR themselves as well.

All that said, and with some very nice results to speak of through using the camera with the current lenses, I was reading a photography magazine the other day and foolishly read about the "best in value" kit lens that comes with the Canon 5D Mark II, a 21.1 megapixel, full frame sensor monster, a 24-105 mm Image Stabilized zoom lens with USM (ultra sonic motor) for ridiculously fast auto-focusing so you don't miss a picture. It led me to the thought: what a great utility lens you would almost never need to change out. My kit lens is great, but limited, due to the 55 mm range, and my telephoto obviously is not getting a group shot inside a room any smaller than an auditorium, starting at 55 mm. All of this is idle desire aside, I have to wait quite a while before I spend any more money to make my hobby easier, but a guy can dream:

(1) 24-105 mm IS, USM;

(2) 28-105 mm, without image stabilization, much cheaper version of the above lens, still neat;

(3) 17-85 mm IS;

(4) 50 mm, 1.4-22 f-stop (VERY low light shooting possible without flash); and just for fun, not utility at all

(5) 45 mm tilt shift (for very narrow depth of focus pictures).

Just The Facts

Seen going down Poydras and stopping and putting on the emergency flashers in front of the DA's office. Not making any guesses as to why, just saying what I saw.

Berlin

Bound for Foreign Shores

I've hardly been posting lately, but now I finally have an excuse.  See everyone in a few weeks.

New Journalism

This is really a story, in a real newspaper, it is not April Fool's. It is both hilarious and an awful state of the industry of journalism; the substance of the story is good, the theme is utterly ridiculous.

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From the article:

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"Nearly a third of all women admit that their muffin top is the part of their body that they would most like to change."

Email 2.0

Just pick a subject and gmail writes it for you!  It's a revolution in email!

Also, Squeezable bacon!  Why has this never been thought of before?!  From your friends at thinkgeek.

Coffee for Runners

Drink coffee and run faster and longer! Seriously!

From the article:

"Now, Dr. Tarnopolsky and others report that caffeine increases the power output of muscles by releasing calcium that is stored in muscle. The effect can enable athletes to keep going longer or to go faster in the same length of time. Caffeine also affects the brain’s sensation of exhaustion, that feeling that it’s time to stop, you can’t go on any more. That may be one way it improves endurance, Dr. Tarnopolsky said."

Read This Case For One Line

Kucinich v. Texas Democratic Party.

"Kucinich, Kucinich for President, Inc., and Willie Nelson immediately filed

suit in the district court seeking to temporarily and permanently enjoin TDP

from enforcing the oath on the grounds that the oath violated their First and

Fourteenth Amendment rights."

You know you're interested now.

Abita Strawberry

Abita Strawberry is in stores. They're not even bothering to punch the freshness date on the back of the bottle (see left), it's selling like hot cakes!

Get some before it runs out!

More Vitter

I was actually getting ready to write something good about Vitter after last week's story about how he did his part to get spending bill money for Louisiana, but then he went ahead and did this and this.

The most egregious was the pay raise vote. If he had voted with Reid instead of against him, he would have guaranteed passage of the exact same language as his bill. Instead, he voted no. The reason? Reid's was a stand-alone bill, and his was part of the spending bill, and by including his approved bill in the spending bill, he would have torpedoed the entire bill, which he is against, but had no actual probability of defeating. So instead, he gets to stand on his principled high horse and say they voted against the bill to take away Congress's automatic raise, but he did too, and had he voted yes for Reid's bill, he would have actually abolished the automatic pay raise. Instead, it was more important to him, to his principles, that it be included with the spending bill than the law actually passing. Once again, hypocrite.

Governor Brad

Brad Pitt is in Washington D.C. lobbying for New Orleans. He is unpaid, he spends inordinate amounts of his own time and his own money and asks his friends to help with the cause that is rebuilding New Orleans.

Meanwhile our elected governor is busy representing the Republican Party, critisizing funds for other states that go towards preventing natural disasters as "wasteful" and turning down federal funding for UNEMPLOYMENT.

Just pointing out some facts.

Pressing Legislation

In the face of the most serious threat to the United States and the state of Louisiana EVER, David Vitter is finally jumping into action to act on his constituents' behalf.  The economy, you think?  No, much more important - rampant monkey attacks.  Yes, not just a single incident in Connecticut, which according to statistics has the deadly chance of happening once every 10 years . . . no 20 years . . . no?, well ONCE, anyway, Vitter has finally been persuaded to pass an important bill through the senate.  

For the record, he hasn't done shit about the housing, taxes, or jobs, excluding whatever hookers he's stimulating his own economy with, except to vote against that legislation and otherwise make a jack-ass of himself.  As you'll recall, he's too busy with the vital interests of today: flag burning and illegal immigrants.  At least he has an interesting opponent in his next race.

Bon Mardi Gras

I had a great time Fat Tuesday, here's hoping you all did, too.  Hey Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Endymion's Horn

Rapunzel

Blue Print

Dry Your Wings

Mark The Fallen

An Older View

Pictures of New Orleans

For the next week or so I'm going to just try out a photo theme. The unifying concept is that they're all of New Orleans. I'm pre-editing and am going to have the blog posts as time-delayed, but all will be written today. I hope they go over well. If you click on any of the pictures it will open up MUCH larger in a new window.

p.s. Happy Valentine's Day!

Some Sense about Katrina

The Obama administration is finally doing something more than talk, unlike the last administration, about hurricane recovery, an editorial in the New York Times says.

It's about time.

Red Light Cameras Increase Accidents

Red light cameras increase traffic accidents. So says 11 studies conducted from Canada, to the U.S. to Australia, all by at least double digit numbers. There are no studies which state otherwise, there is no controversy. Red light cameras are about one thing: revenue.

Excerpt from one of the studies:

"Police in one community concluded that
nearly 90% of infractions at a trial camera were splitsecond
violations visible only to the camera lens,
which would not result in a ticket from an officer
(theNewspaper.com, 2006)."