Follow-up on Photoshop

Powerline did get a corrected version of the Kerry mess hall photo. Theirs was even better than mine, but then I'm not much of a color corrector. I have had a lot of experience in trying to improve these "available darkness " shots like this one, though.
Theirs:


















Mine:

Gerald Ford

On the passing of former president Ford, I offer this photo. Just six years out of office, he came to Durham to participate in the 1982 Duke Childrens Classic. Pictured here with some other golfer and one of Perry Como's show business friends, I remember being struck then by the unobtrusive security around th ex-president--just a few guys in casual dress with "hearing aids".

Ain't Photoshop Something

Powerline used this photo of John Kerry to make a point.

They could have applied a little fundamental color correction in Photoshop and made the point much better.



One of the remarkable things about digital photos is how much detail is hidden in the shadows.
You can find my favorite color correction text here.

Waiting for Santa

Other blogs have posted old Christmas photos, so I thought I'd join in.

One of my Favorite Night-Before-Christmas's was in 1969. Our dachshund "Punkin" had just had a litter of puppies, so we included them in the wait for Santa.

Here is a picture of my first wife with some of the puppies:

Nachos

This is a little early, but next Saturday is the International Day of the Nacho, so looking at the origin of the word is appropriate.

The Worst Word in the English Language

I was actually going to write the word "******" for the title of this post, but I couldn't do it. I guess that makes "******" the worst word in the English lanaguage. I don''t believe that word should be used as an epithet, but I do think it has other uses and shouldn't be absolutely banned.

Language Log

I bookmarked Language Log some time ago, but I haven't checked it often. After yesterday's entry, I think I'll look in more often. It is the most interesting commentary I've seen on the Mel Gibson affair.

The Fourth of July

If you haven't sung the National Anthem today, sing along with this one.

Words of the Day

With Dictionaries.com, it is now easy to translate what Peggy Noonan meant when she used "termagant" and "phenomenological" to describe Hillery Clinton. That makes these the Words of the Day.

Amazing Street Painter

I've always liked the work of street artists. Here are photos of one in Barcelona and others in San Diego.



For a truly amazing street painter, look at this!

Today's Sports Quiz

Who are DeSagana Diop, Udonis Haslem, Antoine Walker, Adrian Griffin, and Jason Terry?

A. Reserves for the Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup hockey team.
B. Members of the USA World Cup Soccer team.
C. Starters in the NBA finals.

I would guess "B" and be wrong. The correct answer here.

Favorite Irish Joke

In recognition of St. Patrick's Day, here is my favorite Irish joke. Some twenty-five years ago it was named one of the Ten Best Clean Jokes of that year.

The CIA has lost contact with one of its operatives in Ireland, so it sends another spy to try to locate the man. All the new guy knows is that the operative's name is Murphy and the password phrase is "It's a beautiful day today" and the response is "and it will be a beautiful day tomorrow".

The new man flies to Shannon airport, rents a car, and heads out hunting for Murphy. He stops at the first village he comes to, goes into a pub, and tells the pubkeeper he's looking for a man named Murphy. The pubkeeper tells him, "Well, there's Murphy the pharmacist, there's Murphy the plumber, even I myself am a Murphy." The CIA guy thanks him, and as he is leaving says, "It's a beautiful day today."

The Pubkeeper replies, "Oh, it's Murphy the spy you'll be looking for then."

Interesting New Tool

This is a couple of weeks early, but I saw this tool on the internet and thought others might like to get one. It is certainly versatile.

Nychthemeron

The word of the day is "Nychthemeron". I've never heard of it before.

Old Family Photos

If you want to see some old family photos, check out these, and here, too. They are among the oldest color photos in the world--only a hundred or so years old.

Smile of the day

An Expert Slips

The right side of Blogostan has been atwitter this week about a photo in the New York Times that mis-identified a piece of ordnance in Pakistan. Powerline cited it, and the American Thinker has gotten in a pissing contest with the Times I over it. They report:

"Ned Barnett is an expert on military technology, and frequently serves as a contributor to The History Channel on mil-tech issues. He has plenty of experience researching military ordnance.

"He told me: “Based on my extensive experience in researching military technology, I can verify that this is a 152mm or 155mm artillery shell – unfired – and by the looks of it, fairly old. It also looks like it has a fuse in it, suggesting that the guys in the photo are either ditch-water dumb or have a death-wish."

He has missed the boat on the "unfired" part. The shell has obviously been fired. Note the grooves on the rotating band near the base of the shell The rotating band engages the rifiling grooves in the gun barrel and cause the shell to rotate during flight. If unfired, there would be no grooves on the shell's rotating band.

Does This Make Sense to You?

Michael Feldman's What Do You Know quiz referenced this USA Today Survey that makes absolutely no sense to me. In case the link doesn't work, the survey says "More than nine in 10 investors say they would chose a financial services company with strong ethics; only 5% prefer higher returns." Surely something is missing somewhere.

I am reminded of a comment on Wall Street Week many years ago. Someone had inquired about a "socially conscious mutual fund that would return 20% annually". One of the regular panelists (Eddie Brown, I think) observed with a wry smile that he'd deal with the Devil for a 20% return. I can't imagine 1% of investors being primarily concerned about Ethics, much less 92%

Scott McBride

I haven't written much about my (former) step-son Scott McBride. But on his recent return from a year-long business trip in Baghdad, I thought I'd give him some pixels on SawdustForBrains.


Scott & Brenda in 1989

When Brenda and I got married in 1990. I hardly knew Scott. He had lived with his father when Brenda's first marriage broke up, so I had only seen him only on rare occasions when her family got together. Scott graduated from Elon in 1990 and couldn't find a job he really wanted. In early 1991 he enlisted in the Army because it would give him a leg-up on the state wildlife service job he really wanted.

Scott at Induction


Scott went into the infantry, and Brenda and I (and Scott's sister Heather) went to Ft. Benning to his basic training graduation, as much as any other reason, I admit, so I could revisit my ROTC Summer Camp experience from thirty years earlier. It was eye-opening to see the Army of the 90's compared to the army of the 60's that I knew. There were two big differences: 1.) Scott's basic training company was mostly white— only a couple of "brothers" out of 150 soldiers, and 2.) Everyone wanted to be there. All the time I was in the army between starting basic ROTC in 1960 until I mustered out as a lieutenant in 1968, if they had said I could go home, I'd be gone. But Scott's fellow soldiers all wanted to be there and looked forward to their army service.

Scott was assigned to the 10th (Mountain) Infantry Division (this was Audie Murphy's and Bob Dole's unit in WW2) and moved to Fort Drum outside Watertown, NY. In October, 1991, his unit (2nd Btn, 22nd Infantry regiment ("the Triple Deuce") was sent to Somalia to replace another10th Mountain unit that had been in the middle of the middle of the Battle of Mogadishu that was the subject of the book (and movie) Blackhawk Down.

Scott spent 6 months in Somalia but has never talked much about his experiences there. He also had a short stay in Haiti in 1994 when the 10th Mtn was sent there. In 1995 he moved from the infantry to Armored Cavalry and he and his family moved to Ft. Carson CO. There, he realized what he really wanted to do in the army was fly helicopters. At first he wasn't selected for Warrant Officer Candidate School, a pre-requisite for helicopter school, and was sent to Germany for a short assignment, but in early 1995 went to Ft. Rucker in Alabama, first for Warrant Officer School and then for two years of helicopter school.


Warrant Officer McBride

He almost didn't make it out of WO school, when he was discovered to have "contraband" in his locker (a tin of snuff), but an NCO on the school staff stood up for Scott when he was honest and admitted his error, and scott was only held back one class rather than being dismissed from the school.


Pilot McBride
After a year of basic flight school, Scott chose to fly AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and spent another year at Ft. Rucker learning Apaches. He then spent a year in Korea, after which he was assigned to the 229th Attack Helicoptor Regiment at Ft. Bragg, and we got to see a lot more of him. After about six months in Fayetteville, his unit was sent to Afghanistan



He spent six months there in the fall of 2001 and returned to the US just before Christmas. His unit was transferred to the Third Infantry Division and he went to Iraq with that unit in late 2004.

He has just returned to Ft. Bragg from Iraq and he will be there with his new wife Heather ("the other Heather") until summer when he will probably be moving to Ft. Gordon (Savannah, GA) and rejoin the rest of the 3rdID.

I haven't seen much of Scott since Brenda decided she didn't want to be married in 2003, but I'm proud of him, as we should all be of the dedicated folks who protect us from "the bad guys", and it's good to have him back in the western hemisphere.

Not Guilty again

As previously reported, I had nothing to do with this.
I don't know nothing about this either.