Panasonic G1 (the mini SLR)

     I recently purchased the Panasonic LUMIX G1. This is a mini slr camera. It is a fierce camera that fits perfectly into the contours of my hand. The photo quality is AMAZING. On my first day exploring the features it was like a date with my true love. I had so much fun shooting my friends, objects and scenery. I was also trigger happy on my trip up to San Francisco. I can't say this enough, the photos were grand. The color, the focus, the quality. It all came together on the swiveling camera screen and even more once I connected this camera to my computer. On a larger screen the pictures were even more beautiful. For the price, around $460, it is well worth it.

     There are hardly any flaws with this camera. For the use and it not really being a "true" SLR, I cannot complain. The camera allows one to save their "Favorite" settings under a setting located on the dial near the shutter button. This camera does not have a shutter therefore it is SILENT. I was able to take pictures of my very shy friend Gabby without her even noticing until i pointed it out. This camera is loads of fun. I purchased Kodak made filters as well. UV, florescent, glare, etc. These filters just added value to my work. The quality can pretty much be professional, if only i had greater light setups or flash. Unfortunately I don't have the resources to purchase such add ons, but for the time being, this is love.

For a more in depth review, check out:

On The Might Of Princes - Here Come The Sirens

Check out this now defunct POST HARDCORE / SCREAMO band. But hold on, they are not like what you hear on MTV or Warp Tour. These guys are the real deal. They are On The Might of Princes.

Big Pharmaceutical

 I'm a self proclaimed crazy and I have a feeling that the pharmaceutical corporations have something to do with the current outbreak of swine flu due to them having a near satanic reputation for testing and allowing deadly diseases to go 'missing' from labs, it should really be a catch phrases. When people are buying into ideas of mass death by an 'unthinkable' threat we have to ask, "WHO is going to profit from this?" Answer, vaccine makers. I have done some quick searching in my spare time to see if anyone else had similar thoughts. I was able to find and have read a doctor's thoughts on the virus and he states that he believes that the swine flu thread must have been man made. Here is the exert from that section of his post: 

Where did This Mysterious New Animal-Human Flu Strain Come From?

Alongside the fear-mongering headlines, I've also seen increasing numbers of reports questioning the true nature of this virus. And rightfully so. 

Could a mixed animal-human mutant like this occur naturally? And if not, who made it, and how was it released?

Not one to dabble too deep in conspiracy theories, I don't have to strain very hard to find actual facts to support the notion that this may not be a natural mutation, and that those who stand to gain have the wherewithal to pull off such a stunt.

Just last month I reported on the story that the American pharmaceutical company Baxter was under investigation for distributing the deadly avian flu virus to 18 different countries as part of a seasonal flu vaccine shipment. Czech reporters were probing to see if it may have been part of a deliberate attempt to start a pandemic; as such a "mistake" would be virtually impossible under the security protocols of that virus.

The H5N1 virus on its own is not very airborne. However, when combined with seasonal flu viruses, which are more easily spread, the effect could be a potent, airborne, deadly, biological weapon. If this batch of live bird flu and seasonal flu viruses had reached the public, it could have resulted in dire consequences.

There is a name for this mixing of viruses; it's called "reassortment," and it is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created in the lab. Some scientists say the most recent global outbreak -- the 1977 Russian flu -- was started by a virus created and leaked from a laboratory.

Another example of the less sterling integrity of Big Pharma is the case of Bayer, who sold millions of dollars worth of an injectable blood-clotting medicine to Asian, Latin American, and some European countries in the mid-1980s, even though they knew it was tainted with the AIDS virus.

So while it is morally unthinkable that a drug company would knowingly contaminate flu vaccines with a deadly flu virus such as the bird- or swine flu, it is certainly not impossible. It has already happened more than once.

But there seems to be no repercussions or hard feelings when industry oversteps the boundaries of morality and integrity and enters the arena of obscenity. Because, lo and behold, which company has been chosen to head up efforts, along with WHO, to produce a vaccine against the Mexican swine flu?

Baxter!11 Despite the fact that ink has barely dried on the investigative reports from their should-be-criminal "mistake" against humanity.

According to other sources,12 a top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, has concluded that the current swine flu virus possesses certain transmission "vectors" that suggest the new strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon.

The UN expert believes that Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and the current A-H1N1 swine flu virus are biological warfare agents.

In addition, Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick -- the same Army research lab from which the 2001 anthrax strain was released, according to a recent article in the Fredrick News Post.13 In February, the top biodefense lab halted all its research into Ebola, anthrax, plague, and other diseases known as "select agents," after they discovered virus samples that weren't listed in its inventory and might have been switched with something else. 

Dr. Mercola 
April 29 2009 
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx

So, since I have a super hero complex I shall go on with my daily routines as usual until I am able to do something that really leaves a dent to the real ill plaguing the world which will remain to go unnamed for now. Now to quote Officer Barbrady who puts it best, "move along people. nothing to see here." Let's continue working our dead end jobs giving 30% to fund the world's end.

members

I just don't trust something that bleeds for five days and doesn't die. 

-Mr. Garrison

Women are ambitious succubi plotting together to formulate a plan for the downfall of men. Women have a mantis-abandon; they breed with a mate then decapitate the poor man and bathe in the squirting fountain of oozing red blood blissfully naked. Later they gather with their own kind to celebrate the birth of godlike sons spawned through false affection still dancing over the grave of the damned man. 

My mother divorced my father, or vice versa, after a hard night of adultery. See, this could have been kept in the closet, pregnant with black skeletons, but unfortunately the thinkable happened. Gravidity, months before anyone could be of wiser. The delicate platform of marriage hoisted by trust and the overrated word 'love' was bowled down and crumbled by the mass of possibilities in its tangible form, this caused the platform to crumbled to its knees. In other words, Atlas sneezed. The world stopped turning for a second and the spasmodic jerk caused what can only be illustrated in example as a vast freight pile up on a busy high way, only the insurance companies profited. This sudden whip lash moment of an unstoppable force of a duo meeting an immovable object of problem caused a rip in space which vacuumed up logic. In this new world down was up, money had value, drugs had meaning and the culprit became the victim. Not only did the mantis take the kids and hung out the corpse of man to dry of all rightful belongings and cash flow, but double fucked, this was not enough to feed the hunger. The marrow had to be sucked dry. On top of the masterminded larceny of taking all possessions and 50,000 dollars USD, they want 50,000 more, and the house. They being the mantises. Men, we must stand firm, never go soft. We are the rightful heirs to god's thrown. The example of Adam and Lilith has been forgotten to the ages, we must band together as brothers.

[not to be taken seriously, though the story is real]

 

Psychosis

Everybody has those ideas from time to time. The ideas that make you cringe. That make you metaphysically sweat. It's natural to be a little afraid of what you'd be capable of doing if you were to ignore your conscience and compassion. In fact, it's a good thing to be afraid - it means your conscience and compassion are still intact and working properly. I used to get really sick images in my head of me mutilating my rabbit. I love the little thing, and would never ever do anything to harm her, but the images showed up, unbidden. To make myself feel better about it, I'd find wherever she was napping and give her an enormous hug.

Our fears are right by the surface of the mind, sometimes, and it's natural to think about what we fear. But you've just got to remember that you're in control of your actions, and that these "other" thoughts will fade, in time. As long as you remember why you treasure the things you do, you'll be fine.

for you conspiracy theorist

The Catch 22 of Human(e) Thought

Argueing against creationism is equal to trying to break down a brick wall by smashing your head into it repeatedly. Not going to work unless maybe you have a few million heads and alot of time.
Creationism is a theory like "the world was shat out by a yellow-bellied sapsucker last sunday" is a theory, and it has just as much empirical weight behind it.

Evolution is a scientific theory, such as gravity. We don't know what causes gravity but we know if you let go of a pencil it will fall, or the monumental/ overwhelming mass of a black hole and the gravity created by it 'eats' anything close. It is an explanatory framework that makes sense of the literally millions and millions of individual pieces of evidence that support and are explained by it.

Pop Quiz

I.   I want to build a spaceship. For fuel I can use:

a) Dinitrogen Tetroxide

b) Faith

II. I just found out that the drugs I use to combat malaria are not working anymore. What happened?

a) God did it

b) The disease evolved and became harder to suppress

It's all about practicality. Physics helps us build computers, chemistry helps us make fertilizer, and evolution helps us find medical cures. What is the use of creationism?

The only people who think that there's any kind of "debate" between creationism and evolution don't know they lost 150 years ago. Some communities in the United States even tried to ban Pokemon because it features evolution.

Wandering around through life all moon-eyed and relativistic isn't very helpful though, is it?

Yes, both religious people and reality-based people have a point where they'll be forced to say "I don't know" if you keep questioning regressively.
The strength of science is that it thrives on "I don't know" - every "I don't know" is a pathway opened to new advancement and new understanding. For a religious person "I don't know" is filled by the gap of "god did it". This is what makes religion a useless means of interpreting the world - it's closed, masturbatory, and dogmatic.
Basically, you're claiming that if you can't know everything, you can't know anything. I call enormous motherfucking bullshit on that. Sure, we don't know everything about how the universe works. There are vast, unimaginable mysteries out there for us to discover. That doesn't mean we don't know enough to build a fucking space ship. Building a space ship is how we get closer to finding and understanding those mysteries.

The same way, science may not be able to answer questions of abiogenesis or universal origins completely, but we have enough solid, empirical evidence RIGHT NOW to say that the creation story, as it exists in the bible, is absolutely and completely wrong on all counts. Hell, we've had that for over a century; it just keeps getting stronger.
Don't be mistaken and be under the impression that both science and religion are things people retreat to to avoid having to say "I don't know". On the contrary; science is for people with the wisdom to say "I don't know", and the courage to look for answers.