Worth1000.com’s latest Photoshop© contest, Work-Safe Art 5, is being referenced in blog-space as “What If Ashcroft Used Photoshop?”. They have my favorite nude about a quarter-way down the page.

It was in Yahoo’s most popular articles today, so I didn’t think posting it alone was blog-worthy, but this self-built large format high-res camera is a camera hobbyist’s dream. (Someday I hope I have time to finish my first self-built camera and could move up to something like this.)

I decided to post a popular link because it was kismet that I also came across a Library of Congress link covering the Prokudin-Goskii online exhibit. Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii was the “Photographer to the Tsar” in the early 20th century and photographed in B&W (‘cause that’s all there was), but by adding film filters to the lens he was able to extrapolate color images from the photos.

So, it must be cool camera day.

Setting a shining example for one of the supposed hallmarks of conservative politics — personal responsibility — the editors of the New York Times admit that they were wrong in many of the stories they produced leading up to the war in Iraq.

Over the last year this newspaper has shone the bright light of hindsight on decisions that led the United States into Iraq. We have examined the failings of American and allied intelligence, especially on the issue of Iraq’s weapons and possible Iraqi connections to international terrorists. We have studied the allegations of official gullibility and hype. It is past time we turned the same light on ourselves.

…

We consider the story of Iraq’s weapons, and of the pattern of misinformation, to be unfinished business. And we fully intend to continue aggressive reporting aimed at setting the record straight.

Why brave the heat, dust and poison ivy just to have a little slacker fun when you can play disc golf online instead?

(I know you guys stereo-type me as being one of those lazy indoor couch-sitting geeks, but the only calls I ever got for participating in outdoor activity were for soccer —and I hate soccer. How come none of you want to play disc golf sometime?)

Today’s reason: they’re yellow-journalist propagandists and the whole world knows it, plus they’ll push the limits of the law and sometimes get caught breaking it.

Of all things, Scotsman.com News — Scottish news direct from Scotland — has this article about the GAO declaring that the Bush administration broke federal law with their Social Security ads. One of the many disturbing things this adminstration does is flaunt their ability to bend the law and not get caught. The many interviews with Ambassador Joseph Wilson have revealed (not only the Rove-driven obsession to keep the media focused on unimportant topics…like Kerry’s service awards but also) Rove pushing the story about Wilson’s wife despite the flagrant illegality of discussing top secret information.

That afternoon I received the call from Chris Matthews tersely informing me that Karl Rove had entered the fray with the comment that my wife was “fair game.” To make a political point, to defend a political agenda, to blur the truth that one of the president’s own staffers had scripted a lie into the president’s mouth, one of the administration’s most senior officials found it perfectly acceptable to push a story that exposed a national security asset. It was appalling.

It’s not a Fox broadcast special, it’s a list from The Pocket Encyclopedia Of Aggravation, by Laura Lee (via The UK’s Mirror) of scientific explanations for 25 (of Laura’s 97) things that annoy us.

19Why do you sometimes forget where you’re going?

It’s destinesia. The brain filters out more than 99 per cent of unnecessary information so you can focus on the task at hand. Destinesia occurs when you are concentrating so hard on something else when you decide to move, your brain fails to remember where you are going.