Fireworks

I tried the special fireworks setting on my Panasonic DMC-FX7 camera. It is a long exposure setting that requires a tripod. The manual suggested using manual focus and I found that is very good advice. The other important thing is to center the fireworks in the viewfinder, which I didn't do so well.



Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

Bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra,

Bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra,
Originally uploaded by absxml.

These amazing pictures illustrate the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Iraq. So far, I haven't heard anyone claim responsibility for this atrocity. The madness of this war, or is it wars now, continues unabated.

I remember visiting a mosque in Touba, Senegal. This was a desparately poor area, but the people had spared no expense in building there mosque. As this is a major shrine, there much be even more reverence and feeling for this mosque. I can't imagine Muslims blowing up each other's mosques, even given the rivalry between the sects.

Thanks to the photographer, absxml on Flickr, for these pictures.

Great Old Time Folk Music

While visiting my hometown, Lewiston ME, two a week ago I attended a concert at St. Patrick's church. Then Neighbor to Neighbor concert benefited several food charities in the area. It featured a 100 voice chorus from the First Universalist Church in Rockland. Led by the super-dynamic Mimi Bornstein, the group did a great job on many spiritual and fold tunes. They got the audience involved, clapping and singing along.

The guest artist was James Durst, a traditional folk singer for all ages. He does a lot of tunes from the Weavers and leads a tribute group called Work of the Weavers. The image is from his latest CD: Internationally Unknown. I really liked his version of El Condor Pasa, a traditional Peruvian tune that Paul Simon made famous. Durst added his own words in Spanish.

St. Patrick's is a great venue for a concert. There is something in the acoustics of the old churches that really works great for voices. The concert was recorded and will be out on CD in a few weeks.

Whad' Ya Know at Penn State

I love the Whad' Ya Know Show with Michael Feldman. How he can do so much from such minimal material is amazing. I would definitely like to attend a live show some day. Unfortunately, out local station, WITF, broadcasts the show a day late. This link from the PSU news department also has a picture gallery. I have my own image of what a show is like. I guess it's similar.

Creating Maps

This is a cool new tool that lets you place a saved Google map in a blog, or other web page. You could do the same thing by learning how to program the Gooogle Maps API, but it's nice to have it automated. This is a map of the road from the Mont Alto to the Waynesboro Reservoir, where we go for many labs.

The Best and the Brightest

With the passing of journalist and author David Halberstam two weeks ago, I decided to go to the library to see if they had his big work on Vietnam, The Best and the Brightest. I had heard about it years ago, but had never gotten around to reading it.

So far I have only made it through the first few chapters. I am still in the Kennedy administration before the big commitment was made. Still, the overwhelming arrogance and ignorance of the policy-making apparatus is amazing. Those who were making decisions were reacting to short term political decisions. They never understood what was really going on in Vietnam. I will never think of the Kennedy administration as Camelot again.

The parallels to Iraq and all the decisions to go to war are amazing. Not in the details, but in the mindset. I wish the people in charge had read this before voting yes or making a decision for war. Maybe that would have kept us out of it.

Historical Marker Database

I have just found a very interesting site called the Historical Marker Database. Simply put, volunteers add information on historical markers they come across in their travels. After editing, each entry can be searched and viewed. Some of the information that can be entered includes: the inscription, location by street and lat/long, pictures, and commentary. There are already quite a few entries in the database. But when you think of all the markers out there, this could grow to be something very interesting for the armchair traveler.

It could also be a fun tool for history teachers to get their students interested in local events or class trips. This is definitely worth a look!