Ups and Downs of the Week

Red Sox – Hanging in there, but they ceded first place to the Yankmees tonight. Still two chances in this series to grab it back.

Standard & Poor’s – They reduce the credit rating based on a $2 trillion mistake and then won’t retract their statement? Is saving face worth launching another recession?

Cooler Weather – We’re finally getting into relatively cooler weather. I was getting sick of high 90s and killer humidity.

Messing around with low light, high ISO shots again. This was taken with my cheapo 55-250mm f5.6 IS lens at 1/10 sec handheld and ISO 12800 (+2EV). Then post-processed to bring the exposure back and reduce noise.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Red Sox – Couple stumbles, but they’re still looking good.

Debt Ceiling Circus – Let’s Make a Deal, ok?

Sleeping Bear Dunes – Very cool place (although it was very hot the day we were there).

The old bed spread has become a choice leisure spot.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Red Sox – Finally playing like the team we were, (ahem) promised. Aside from missing starting pitchers, they’re firing on all cylinders now. Still can’t seem to gain much ground on the Yankees, though.

Nightmare in Norway – There are nutcases everywhere. This one is a particularly sick animal, though. Wonder which rock he crawled out from under.

Debt Ceiling – Just work out a deal and be done with it. Stop playing chicken with the economy. It’s in bad enough shape as it is.

I love watching this guy spray for mosquitos. He gets right down to the tree tops as he passes over the house. The noise is awesome. These were taken with a 50mm lens, which is considered a “normal” lens. In other words, no zoom. This is just what the eye would see if you were standing where I was. The only difference here is that the images are reduced in size to fit the page.

The near trees are just on the edge of our yard.

Here’s the whole row on one side of the yard. They’re getting a tad out of hand. We need to thin them out some.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Red Sox – Still on top in the ALE, but they must address the holes in their pitching rotation. Only Josh Beckett is healthy and performing well. Hopefully Buchholz and Lester will return to health and be back very soon. Lackey is still undependable and they have no dependable #5 pitcher. Wakefield can occasionally pitch a gem, but he’ll lose just as often. And tonight’s drubbing at the hands of the Rays showed that Miller is not the answer going forward. Luckily, the Yankmees also lost tonight, so no ground was lost in the ALE standings.

Prosecutorial Incompetence – A couple of high profile cases this week have shown that prosecutorial incompetence is sadly all too common. The Roger Clemens perjury prosecution ended in a mistrial almost as soon as it started because the bozos representing the government showed a videotape that had been expressly forbidden as evidence by the judge. All that taxpayer money wasted because highly paid lawyers had a brain cramp. The whole affair has been ludicrous anyway. Congress had no business “investigating” steroid use in baseball. Clemens had no business voluntarily testifying and like a dumbass he lied to Congress through his teeth. Now lying to a bunch of liars may seem like no big deal, but if Joe Schmo down the street would face charges for doing so, then Roger should as well. But chances are good there will be no retrial and Clemens will face no punishment beyond the fortune he must have spent for his lawyers.

Then there’s the prosecutors in the Casey Anthony trial, who botched the case from step one by going for a capital murder charge when they had no case to support such a charge. Had they gone for second degree murder or negligent homicide, Anthony would be starting a long prison term instead of getting ready to walk out a free person.

Nutcases – While I’m on the subject, there have been threats and incidents in FL over the verdict in the aforementioned Anthony trial. Some nutcases have been threatening to kill Anthony and some poor girl who happens to look like her has already been assaulted. You have to be pretty sick to want to kill someone because you think they killed someone else. Where does that cycle end?

Technology – Sarah conducted a webinar yesterday for a bunch of librarians in Massachusetts without ever leaving the comfort of home. We set up Skype on both ends and she was able to converse with them and show them her presentation. It all worked perfectly.

Rupert Murdoch – In Tomorrow Never Dies the actor Jonathan Pryce played a maniacal news mogul who controlled so much of the news media that he was able to shape worldwide events. His character may have been intended as an exaggerated personification of Rupert Murdoch, but recent events in Great Britain have shown it may have painfully close to the truth. Murdoch’s News Corp has been accused of illegally hacking in to cell phones of too many people to list, ranging from the families of 9-11 victims to a murdered British schoolgirl to victims of London’s 2005 bombings. This is a pure example of why the monopolization of the media is such a bad thing. When one person or firm gains control of too much of the available media outlets, the news and information that flows out to the viewer becomes whatever the person in charge decides it should be. I would like nothing better than to see this scandal break up the News Corp empire.

Heat Wave – We’re in for a real blistering heat wave starting tomorrow afternoon. Temps in the middle to upper 90’s and humidity well into the tropical range will be with us for the following week. Oh boy.