The Old Bag.

December 27th, 2011

Back many thousands of years ago, when I was just a wee lad shooting photos with a Pentax K1000 and reading Popular Photography (rest in peace, Herbert Keppler), I kept hoping that PP would do an article or a series of articles or a column or something on “what’s in your camera bag”; basically, I wanted to know what real pros like Walter Iooss Jr. (warning: some photos, especially one in particular, may not be safe for work) and Eddie Adams took with them when they went on the road. I had ideas about being a professional journalist, one who not only did his own writing but also took his own photos.

Getting to the point, this piece at PetaPixel, showing what Umit Bektas packed in his camera bag for his stint embedded with a US military unit in Afghanistan, made my day today. That, in turn, links to a first hand account by Bektas for the Reuters Photography Blog, which goes into a little more detail and has some amazing photos. (Not of battle. You’ll know the ones I’m talking about when you see them. My God, look at that sky.)

My one gripe about these articles is that I’d appreciate some annotation. It looks like his backup laptop is an eeePC (a fine choice indeed), but I’m curious about what his primary one is. I can’t tell what his cameras are, either; the logo kind of looks like Canon, but again, I find it hard to be sure. I’m glad to see that he packed a GoPro (also the official choice of the Park City Snowmamas). And I had to look up “Bgan” and “Thuraya“.

But I still think this is pretty interesting, as is “A Glimpse Inside the Camera Bag of a Newspaper Feature Photographer“. More like these, please.

(Hattip: his Jim-ness on the Twitter for the initial link, and PetaPixel for the ones after that.)

(And of course, the most important thing about photography, war or otherwise, is: have a camera with you. I was so wrapped up in getting Christmas presents together on Saturday that I completely forgot to bring my camera gear, which ticked me off. I ended up having to resort to the Evo camera for photo purposes. Granted, between my sister and mother it wasn’t like we didn’t have multi-camera capability, including the ability to deploy a digital SLR if we needed it, but I was still ticked at myself.)

Posted in Christmas, Clippings, Photography | 2 Comments »

Administrative note.

December 27th, 2011

I’m taking this entire week off of work, and using the time either to do stuff I’ve been wanting to do, hang out with family, or both. (If the weather holds up, we may try for a range trip this week.)

In the meantime, blogging is sort of on the back burner. There will be a TMQ Watch this week, but it may not go up until later this evening.

Side note: Apparently, I have been designated the “coolest uncle ever” on Facebook (I am unable to verify this for myself, since I don’t do Facebook) because I got this one:

one of these:

for Christmas. (At least, I think it was one of those: it was an H&K folder that McBride’s had on sale, cheap, but I didn’t make a note of the exact model. I know it was one that had the tanto point. If he still has the box, I’ll get the exact model later.)

Posted in Admin, Christmas, Guns | Comments Closed

Someone is about to start a new chapter in their life.

December 27th, 2011

Chapter 7, that is.

There’s a rapper who calls himself “Young Buck” (real name David Darnell Brown). He owes money to people. People like the IRS. People like his baby mama. And people like 50 Cent and the G-Unit record label; according to the LAT, he owes them “more than $10 million”.

“Young Buck” originally filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11, which, as you know Bob, allows one to reorganize their debts. But now the Chapter 11 has been turned into a Chapter 7, aka “total liquidation”.

The fun part? The name “Young Buck” (which is also trademarked) is an asset that will be sold off in the liquidation.

A couple of notes:

  1. How did he get that far in debt to G-Unit Records? According to the LAT, there’s some sort of contract dispute involved, but I’d really like to know more about what’s going on here. In a way, it is kind of reminiscent of Steve Wyrick: how do you get that far in the hole before someone pulls the trigger?
  2. Can we all agree that the phrase “peep the mad flow” does not belong anywhere in an article on a major daily newspaper’s website (except maybe as a direct quotation, in quotation marks)?

Posted in Clippings, Music, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

The street finds its own uses for things.

December 26th, 2011

The radio signal travels deep into the arid countryside, hours by foot from the nearest road. There, the 8-foot-tall (2-meter-tall) dark-green branches of the rockrose bush conceal a radio tower painted to match. A cable buried in the dirt draws power from a solar panel. A signal-boosting repeater relays the message along a network of powerful antennas and other repeaters that stretch hundreds of miles (kilometers) across Mexico, a shadow communications system allowing the cartel to coordinate drug deliveries, kidnapping, extortion and other crimes with the immediacy and precision of a modern military or law-enforcement agency.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Radio | 1 Comment »

Things that say “Christmas” (part 1 of an ongoing series).

December 26th, 2011

Lord of the Rings PEZ dispensers

More Christmas related stuff later, maybe.

Posted in Christmas | Comments Closed

NFS: Not For Storage

December 21st, 2011

The Unix-Haters Handbook (which I am proud to say I own a physical copy of) is now available for free download.

(Hattip: Unix tool tip.)

Posted in Books, Geek, linux | 2 Comments »

Is this a dagger that I see before me?

December 21st, 2011

The Transportation Security Administration says officers found two throwing daggers hidden in a hollowed-out book at a checkpoint at Reagan-Washington National Airport.

I’m linking to the HouChron and not the WP because the HouChron story contains an illustration of the daggers and the book. (“Chapter 2: Ninja Equipment”?)

The daggers measured just over a half-foot long

Or, as we in the civilized world call it, “six inches”. About the length of a ballpoint pen.

Posted in Clippings | Comments Closed

The awesome power of the Internet.

December 21st, 2011

I went over to ask a cow orker a question, and he had this up on his monitor. And I said “What?!”

List of animals with fraudulent diplomas.

So it isn’t quite “A Short, Incomplete, and Somewhat Random List of People Who Have Had Their Heads Impaled on a Spike on London Bridge“, but still fun.

Posted in Clippings | Comments Closed

But hey! At least the trains ran on time!

December 21st, 2011

Havel’s anti-communist critique contained little if any acknowledgement of the positive achievements of the regimes of eastern Europe in the fields of employment, welfare provision, education and women’s rights. Or the fact that communism, for all its faults, was still a system which put the economic needs of the majority first.

(By way of Balko, who calls this “The most vile thing you’ll read today.” It is still early, but we feel that we’re going to have a hard time arguing with that.)

(Obligatory.)

(And by the way, the whole “trains ran on time” thing? Not so much.)

Posted in Clippings, Politics | Comments Closed

Important medical news.

December 21st, 2011

…51-year-old woman in the state died after she was infected with the “brain-eating” amoeba Naegleria fowleri, which enters the body through the nose and sometimes causes devastating meningitis. Apparently, the amoeba lurked in tap water the woman used in her neti pot, a pitcher-like device used to rinse nasal passages.

This is why I only use single-malt scotch in my Neti pot. (Mixing it with Mountain Dew is optional.)

Posted in Clippings, Neuroscience, Safety, Sarcasm | 2 Comments »

The OSU Sanction.

December 21st, 2011

No postseason play in 2012, loss of nine scholarships over the next three years, and probation through 2014.

Tressel, who was forced to resign on May 30, was separately issued a show-cause penalty. If any NCAA school wants to hire him in the next five years, it must first persuade the NCAA why it wants to hire a known rules violator and agree to certain restrictions.

(I really liked The Eiger Sanction when I was a kid, mostly for the mountain climbing. I was a little young to get the more subtle jokes, like the character named Yurasis Dragon.)

(And I’m more than a little surprised that there’s been no FARK link yet.)

Posted in Books, Clippings, Sports | Comments Closed

Quote of the day.

December 21st, 2011

I tucked it in there with the dishes following the well-known scientific principle of “why the hell not?”

Indeed. In our studies of the history of technology, we have found that much scientific and technical advancement is motivated by that same principle.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Closed

Grand juries gone wild! On the next TMZ!

December 21st, 2011

We have previously covered the grand jury investigation into the Harris County DA’s Office. We have not posted on this in a while, mostly because up until the past few days, there was not much going on.

The latest development is that prosecutor Rachel Palmer was summoned to appear before the grand jury and refused to answer questions.

This Lisa Falkenberg column contains a good summary of the most recent developments. And The Hon. Murray Newman is still all over this as well.

Posted in Clippings, HCDA, Law | 1 Comment »

By way of Jay G.

December 20th, 2011

Our first thought was “Dead rats? Not dead gophers?”

Our second thought was, “Is the gopher even indigenous to Massachusetts?”

(Hattip. Dead gophers explained here.)

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | 1 Comment »

On the first day of Christmas, the TSA gave to me…

December 20th, 2011

But Tuesday, the TSA Chorus made hearts light at Terminal 4’s American Airlines gates as they performed for passengers caught up in the extra madness of holiday travel at Los Angeles International Airport.

So. Many. Jokes. So. Little. Time.

Edited to add: You know, I think I’m going to crowdsource this. Can you, my faithful and cheerful readers, come up with appropriate lyrics for TSA Christmas Carols? Leave them in comments. Just to make this fun, best lyrics submitted before December 31st (as determined by a committee consisting of myself, Lawrence, and Mike the Musicologist, pending the agreement of the latter two) wins a crappy prize, probably something I have duplicates of.

Edited to add 2: It doesn’t have to be set to “The 12 Days Of Christmas”, by the way. You can use any Christmas tune, up to and including “Fairytale of New York“. But unless you think we’ll immediately recognize the tune from your lyrics, please do make a note of it in the comments.

Posted in Clippings, Music, Politics | 3 Comments »

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