Pro-Style Digital Cameras, Now Priced for Shutterbugs

The New York Times reviews two new S.L.R.-digital cameras:

Only four years ago, a six-megapixel digital S.L.R. made a $25,000 dent in your life savings. But last fall the air was filled with the sounds of Visa cards being slapped onto shop counters after Canon introduced the first digital S.L.R. for $1,000: the EOS 300D Digital Rebel. Next month it will be joined by a second $1,000 model, Nikon’s new D70. (Canon includes the lens for that price; Nikon does not. More on this in a moment.)

These are precision machines that, even in Auto mode, will reward the photographer, skilled or unskilled, with huge, crisp, brilliant, joyous photos.

Read more.

There’s also a nice slide show comparing cameras (see right sidebar of article).

Goo goo Googling

The New York Times’ David Pogue interviewed Google executives for the program CBS News Sunday Morning. According to Pogue, Google is expected to go public this spring with the highest valuation in high-tech history — $25 billion.

But, more importantly, along the way Pogue asked Google execs and staff to name their favorite Google tips and tricks.

• Download and install the Google toolbar. Not only does it put the Google search box into your browser full-time, but it also blocks pop-up ads and fills in forms for you. For Windows at http://toolbar.google.com. (Ad blocking, form-filling and Google’s search box are already built into the Apple’s Web browser, Safari.)

• Phrase your question in the form of an answer. “After all, you’re not looking for Web pages that ask your question,” explains director of technology Craig Silverstein. “You’re looking for pages that answer it.”

So instead of typing, “What is the average rainfall in the Amazon basin?”, you might get better results by typing “The average rainfall in the Amazon basin is.”

• This is an old one, but very important: Put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. If you put quotes around “electric curtains,” Google won’t waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word “electric” and another set containing the word “curtains.”

• Similarly, put a hyphen right before any word you want screened out. If you’re looking up dolphins, for example, you’ll have to wade through a million Miami Dolphins pages unless you search for “dolphins -Miami.”

• Google is a global White Pages and Yellow Pages. Search for “phonebook:home depot norwalk, ct,” Google instantly produces the address and phone number of the Norwalk Home Depot. This works with names (“phonebook:robert jones las vegas, NV”) as well as businesses.

Don’t put any space after “phonebook.” And in all of the following examples, don’t type the quotes I’m showing you here.

• Google is a package tracker. Type a FedEx or UPS package number (just the digits); when you click Search, Google offers a link to its tracking information.

• Google is a calculator. Type in an equation (“32+2345*3-234=”). Click Search to see the answer.

• Google is a units-of-measurement converter. Type “teaspoons in a gallon,” for example, or “centimeters in a foot.” Click Search to see the answer.

• Google is a stock ticker. Type in AAPL or MSFT, for example, to see a link to the current Apple or Microsoft stock price, graphs, financial news and so on.

• Google is an atlas. Type in an area code, like 212, to see a Mapquest map of the area.

• Google is Wal-Mart’s computer. Type in a UPC bar code number, such as “036000250015,” to see the description of the product you’ve just “scanned in.” (Thanks to the Google Blog, http://google.blogspace.com, for this tip and the next couple.)

• Google is an aviation buff. Type in a flight number like “United 22” for a link to a map of that flight’s progress in the air. Or type in the tail number you see on an airplane for the full registration form for that plane.

• Google is the Department of Motor Vehicles. Type in a VIN (vehicle identification number, which is etched onto a plate, usually on the door frame, of every car), like “JH4NA1157MT001832,” to find out the car’s year, make and model.

• For hours of rainy-day entertainment, visit http://labs.google.com. Here, you’ll find links to new, half-finished Google experiments-like Google Voice, in which you call (650) 623-6706, speak the words you want to search for and then open your browser to view the results. Disclaimer: It wasn’t working when I tried it. (Ditto a lot of these experiments.)

• Poke around the “Services & Tools” link on the Google.com home page and you’ll find some of the better-known lesser-known Google features, if that makes any sense.

For example, there’s Froogle (product search), News, Groups (Internet discussion boards), Google Catalogs (hundreds of scanned-in product catalogs), Images (find graphics and photos from other people’s Web sites), Blogger (publish your own online journal), Google language translation, Google Answers (pay a couple of bucks to have a professional researcher find the answers for you) and much more.

So true

From America’s Finest News Source, The Onion

Reality Show Slowly Sinks In
EAST LANSING, MI—Though she’d lived in denial for nearly a month, toy-store manager Ellen Cranmer admitted Monday that the reality show The Apprentice has finally sunk in. “Normally I never watch those stupid reality shows, and I certainly don’t integrate them into my regular week,” Cranmer said. “But since around the time of the Trump Ice challenge, I’ve been passing on social events so I can be home Thursdays at 9 p.m.” Cranmer said that she was shocked when she realized she hadn’t missed a single episode, and saddened by her belief that Amy will win.

Bush targets himself and those elusive weapons of mass destruction at dinner

President Bush poked fun at his staff, his Democratic challenger and himself Wednesday night at a black-tie dinner where he hobnobbed with the news media.

Bush put on a slide show, calling it the “White House Election-Year Album” at the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association 60th annual dinner, showing himself and his staff in some decidedly unflattering poses.

There was Bush looking under furniture in a fruitless, frustrating search. “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere,” he said.

Self-deprecating humor is welcome in a President, but this is decidedly not funny from a so-called “War President.” Nearly 600 Americans have been killed in Iraq.

From AP through SF Gate. Link via Eschaton.

The first woman inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…

Aretha Franklin, was born on this date in 1942. I Never Loved A Man, Respect, Baby I Love You, A Natural Woman, Chain of Fools, Think, The House That Jack Built, I Say a Little Prayer, Bridge Over Troubled Water — all great, but for NewMexiKen give me Aretha’s version of You Are My Sunshine.

The following is an excerpt from Richie Unterberger’s fine review in the All Music Guide:

When Franklin left Columbia for Atlantic, producer Jerry Wexler was determined to bring out her most soulful, fiery traits. As part of that plan, he had her record her first single, “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” at Muscle Shoals in Alabama with esteemed Southern R&B musicians. In fact, that was to be her only session actually at Muscle Shoals, but much of the remainder of her ’60s work would be recorded with the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, although the sessions would actually take place in New York City. The combination was one of those magic instances of musical alchemy in pop: the backup musicians provided a much grittier, soulful, and R&B-based accompaniment for Aretha’s voice, which soared with a passion and intensity suggesting a spirit that had been allowed to fly loose for the first time.

In the late ’60s, Franklin became one of the biggest international recording stars in all of pop. Many also saw Franklin as a symbol of black America itself, reflecting the increased confidence and pride of African Americans in the decade of the civil rights movements and other triumphs for the black community. The chart statistics are impressive in and of themselves: ten Top Ten hits in a roughly 18-month span between early 1967 and late 1968, for instance, and a steady stream of solid mid- to large-size hits for the next five years after that. Her Atlantic albums were also huge sellers, and far more consistent artistically than those of most soul stars of the era. Franklin was able to maintain creative momentum, in part, because of her eclectic choice of material, which encompassed first-class originals and gospel, blues, pop, and rock covers, from the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel to Sam Cooke and the Drifters. She was also a fine, forceful, and somewhat underrated keyboardist.

Franklin’s commercial and artistic success was unabated in the early ’70s, during which she landed more huge hits with “Spanish Harlem,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and “Day Dreaming.” She also produced two of her most respected, and earthiest, album releases with Live at Fillmore West and Amazing Grace. The latter, a 1972 double LP, was a reinvestigation of her gospel roots, recorded with James Cleveland & the Southern California Community Choir. Remarkably, it made the Top Ten, counting as one of the greatest gospel-pop crossover smashes of all time.

Washroom Billy

From Morning Briefing in the Los Angeles Times:

A savvy coach: On Packer’s assignment by CBS to work the Saint Joseph’s-Wake Forest game, Martelli said, “The first thing I did was laugh out loud. Then I silently applauded CBS because they get it. This makes a good story above and beyond the game.”

*

Billy who? Of Packer, Saint Joseph’s senior guard Tyrone Barley said, “None of the guys on the team knew who he was. I was watching ESPN Classic and he was doing one of the games. It was like, ‘Is he still doing games?’ ”

*

What about 1961? Much has been made of the NCAA tournament game involving Wake Forest and Saint Joseph’s in 1962, when Packer, a guard for Wake Forest, helped the Demon Deacons win in overtime.

Reader Harry Doyle, an alumnus of Saint Joseph’s, points out that in the 1961 East Regional final, Saint Joseph’s defeated Wake Forest, 96-86, in a game in which Packer fouled out and scored only four points.

“I guess it was too much to ask Billy to retort with a reference to that game,” Doyle said in an e-mail.

*

Clean escape: The late Al McGuire once said of Packer: “Call him ‘Washroom Billy.’ When the check comes, Billy is always in the washroom.”

A little too risky

An article about the Pulitizer Prizes at Editor & Publisher has this interesting tidbit:

Zack Stalberg still remembers the oddest experience he had during his two-year stint as a Pulitzer Prize jurist.

The longtime editor of The Philadelphia Daily News was on the committee choosing finalists in the commentary category in 2002 when a submission from The Onion, the irreverent humor newspaper, came before the group.

“As it went around the table, you could see that people were blown away by this work,” Stalberg said about the entry, which included the paper’s mock Sept. 11 coverage. “But it was a little too different, a little too risky. I voted to make it a finalist, but nobody else did.”

Highest pump price ever for gasoline

AAA reports that the national average for regular is now $1.740, the highest ever.

However, in constant dollars, gasoline actually cost more from 1973 to 1985. (The price peaked at $2.75 in today’s dollar in 1981.)

Crude oil is currently about 74 cents per gallon. The wholesale price is about 40 cents more. Taxes (federal 18.4 cents, plus state/local 23.6 cents average) bring the total to $1.56. The retailer gets the remaining 18 cents a gallon.

Circular firing squad

Brad DeLong takes Tom Toles cartoon one step further. [Click here to see the cartoon, which NewMexiKen noted earlier.]

It’s not enough to say that the Bush administration attacks on the character (for there are no attacks on the substance of his remarks) of Richard Clarke remind one of the flying attack monkeys from “The Wizard of Oz.” For what we have here is not just a bunch of flying attack monkeys, it is a circular firing squad of flying attack monkeys.

What an image!

Terror Alert Level

Terror Alert Level

NewMexiKen believes that making fun of the present terror alert system is not the same as failing to recognize the real tragedy of 9-11, or the danger possible today. Indeed it is one way of bringing attention to the fact that a meaningless warning system is being presented as if it were somehow a corrective measure.

Ub Iwerks…

was born on this date in 1901.

Iwerks was Disney’s right hand man in the creation of the early Mickey Mouse cartoons. Disney would come up with the ideas, stories, and motivations, then Iwerks would bring it to life. Bringing Mickey Mouse to life, however, was no easy task and it required Iwerks to spit out 600 drawings every single day. Iwerks dedication, however, would soon payoff for him and Disney. The third Mickey Mouse cartoon that Disney directed and Iwerks animated, “Steamboat Willie,” would be the one that would catapult Mickey and Disney into stardom and household names.

Though Iwerks and Disney were colleagues since age 18, they spliit in 1930 after Iwerks signed a deal with a distributor that had failed to pay Disney. Walt and Roy Disney bought out Iwerks’ 20% ownership in Disney Brothers Productions. After attempting to establish his own studio, Iwerks returned to Disney in 1940. He is credited with combining live action with animation.

Source: An online essay, Ub Iwerks – The Early Disney Years.

Toxic gases in park likely cause of bison deaths

From the Billings Gazette:

Five bison dropped dead in Yellowstone National Park apparently after being overwhelmed by toxic gases in a geothermal area.

The bison carcasses were found March 10 along the Gibbon River near Norris Geyser Basin. It’s likely the animals were killed by hydrogen sulfide or carbon dioxide trapped at ground level by unusually cold and windless weather, according to a report on the incident released Tuesday.

Read more.

Are spinning teacups next for Albuquerque?

From the Albuquerque Tribune

Mayor Martin Chavez said he wants a massive theme park as part of a plan to spiff up the West Central area. …

“Envision, if you will, something to the magnitude of Disneyland right here,” he said.

So far, the city has purchased 2 acres of land, city Senior Project Manager Al Soto said. It needs another 55 acres for the project, Soto said.

The estimated project cost is $50 million dollars; so far, the city has spent about $300,000, Soto said.

Beats building schools.

Piestewa kin seek end to peak fray

From The Arizona Republic, an update on the Piestewa Peak renaming challenge. The two sides are summed up nicely with the following:

“We should keep the name of the peak and not make it into a political issue that’s going to make the indigenous people feel, well, here we are, they are Indian givers again,” [Lori Piestewa’s mother] said.

“I guess because she (Piestewa) was Indian, but it annoys me because we had other Arizonans killed as well,” Stroud, 69, said. “To me it’s kind of a slap in the face for all the young men and women who have gone because they just keep making a big deal about her. She’s not even from Phoenix.”

Youngster strikes it big with huge night at the lanes

From The Seattle Times: Sideline Chatter:

Forget the 300 game and the 806 series Josh Garner bowled at Century Lanes in Hampton, Va., on March 15. Garner’s most amazing number is 12.

His age.

According to the local secretary of the Young American Bowling Alliance, Garner — 12 years, 8 months, 28 days, to be exact — is the third-youngest bowler to record a 300 and 800 on the same night. He rolled games of 279, 300 and needed a 10th-frame strike for the 227 that pushed him over 800.

As Josh’s cousin, Stu Blau Jr., told the Newport News Daily Press: “I was bowling on the lanes right next to him, and it was pretty cool. I couldn’t bowl because I was too busy watching him. The weird thing is he didn’t look nervous at all.

“I guess he was too young to realize what he was doing.”

Don’t be so sure.

“I told my mom that I’d get a 300 by the time I was 14,” Garner told the Daily Press, “but I never said anything about an 800. That’s a lot tougher.”

NewMexiKen has a better chance of a 300 game playing golf than bowling.

Oregon county bans all marriage

From CNN.com:

The last marriage licenses were handed out in Benton County at 4 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. EST) Tuesday. As of Wednesday, officials in the county of 79,000 people will begin telling couples applying for licenses to go elsewhere until the gay marriage debate is settled.

“It may seem odd,” Benton County Commissioner Linda Modrell told Reuters in a telephone interview, but “we need to treat everyone in our county equally.”

Read more.

The Wrong Ticket to Ride

Two Yale professors take a look at the ethics of buying a round-trip ticket to fly one-way, in this case by Justice Scalia. They conclude —

Of course, maybe Justice Scalia plans to use the return half of his ticket later. If he does not, however, he in essence has admitted to buying a ticket under false pretenses. He made a promise without any intention of fulfilling it. Justice Scalia is no doubt familiar with the legal term for such an act: it’s called promissory fraud.

The airlines’ policy may be annoying, inconvenient and customer-unfriendly. But they can legally insist that their passengers abide by it. And certainly a strict believer in the rule of law like Justice Scalia would agree. Then again, if a case about the airlines’ pricing practices ever reaches the Supreme Court, maybe Justice Scalia should recuse himself.

The Exxon Valdez…

hit Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound on this date in 1989. The spill was the largest in U.S. history, some 11 million gallons.

According to reports, Exxon has spent about $2 billion on the clean-up.