Photographing That Federal Building Is Now Okay

A settlement that ended a lawsuit filed by Antonio Musumeci against the Department of Homeland Security makes it okay to take photos of Federal buildings. The Federal Protective Service now construed a Federal regulation not to prohibit individuals from photographing (including motion photography) the exterior of federal courthouses from publicly accessible spaces.

Can we stop with the H1N1 (swine flu) panic now?

The CDC, WHO, and media have gone a bit nuts, causing a bit of a panic with H1N1. It really needs to stop now.

Yes, it is a new strain, something unexpected, and we do not know exactly how things will turn out. So we should keep an eye on it and prepare for the worst, like we would for a tornado or hurricane warning.

But so far H1N1 has been no worse than the regular seasonal flu. Even the deaths caused by H1N1 so far are less than those killed by the seasonal flu. Take precautions with H1N1 like you would the seasonal flu.

And this thought that it is not safe to eat pork products is ridiculous. Since H1N1 is a combination of the human flu, swine flu, and bird flu, we should be more concerned about eating humans that have turned into flying pigs.

Photography Friendly posts

I'm going to close down my Photography Friendly blog in the near future and have moved my posts from there to here, under the label of photography. These are posts that deal with photography law and any issues of taking photos at places (if you need a permit or not, if it is not allowed at all, etc.).

Reno and Sparks, Nevada storm photo, part 1

Snow covered bush - January 2008,
originally uploaded by Sperlock74.

The total measurement of snow from my house today was 5 inches. This first photo is of one of the bushes outside of my home.

Reno and Sparks, Nevada storm report

Today's storm has definitely been an unusual one. It is rare enough for Reno and the surrounding area to have precipitation all day. It was raining when I woke up this morning at 6:20 and continued raining until it started turning into snow a little bit before 5:00 this evening. What made this storm unusual was the consistent strong wind that we have had all day, and blizzard conditions are expected until around 6:00 in the morning. Thankfully, my umbrella survived the strong wind where two or three umbrellas I saw did not.

We supposedly had flooding in a few areas (the past two floods have also been near New Year's Day), downed power lines, and a rock slide at the Vista Blvd. exit for Interstate 80. I have only heard of one power outage so far.

The snow is piling up as I type this and looks to be almost an inch thick. Forecasts expect us to get about 6 inches from this round of the storm.

A World Without Limbo - Not the Dance

With Hell already denied as an actual place and now with the possibility of suspending limbo, wouldn't that only leave Heaven for people to go to?

And if they just change what happens, how can you trust that everything else they say is correct?

Nanowrimo Update

I do not expect to reach the 50,000 word mark due to being ill one week and generally just too busy. Still, miracles could happen if I focus on the weekends and the Thanksgiving holiday coming up. Right now I am at about 8,500 words.

They spent money on this?!?

Traffic causes stress. Did money and time really need to be spent to find this out?

The Government Abuse the Patriot Act?

No, not them, not ever.

Don't let this article slip by you ;)

I learned stuff about bananas that I never knew before in this article explaining the probable danger that the banana is in. Now I know the background behind the song "Yes, we have no bananas" that I have heard many times before - the Spike Jones version, as opposed to the version mentioned in the article.

Stupidity will never cease to amaze me

Complaints about Best Buy's Geek Squad cars looking too much like police cars.

I won't even go into the silliness of the whole Geek Squad thing, but people are getting ridiculous.

I don't recall ANY law enforcement agency driving Volkswagen Beetles. And hey, here's a newsflash. Cop cars have flashing lights and sirens!
Are there people out there that would confuse penguins for police cars?!?

Then they go on talking about the "uniforms" they wear and how they could be mistaken for an officer. HELLO. They wear white shirts with ties and dark pants. Officers usually wear a full beige or full dark blue uniform.

Scotty, I Need More Power!

The power went out at my house somewhere around 4:30 pm. It came back on around 8 pm. While I left the house around 6, power outages like this puts things into perspective and makes me appreciate electricity more. With the triple digit temperatures, being able to turn on fans and the air conditioner has made life more enjoyable. Dealing with a power outage in this hot weather is difficult; I could survive it happening in the winter more easily.

Have you ever misread a headline?

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D89HSDA80.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down

First of all, it is sad that people are unable to let go of something that happened a half a century ago and use it as an excuse to act like children.

On the less serious side, they need to rename the headline of this story, as the first thing that came to mind that I thought this story would be about was cosplay. I must need help.

This stick in the mud brought to you by Saudi Arabia

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050213/od_nm/saudi_valentines_dc

Religion should never get in the way of one human being expressing their love for another.

Pompeiians Gone Wild!

(Link) An interesting look at the artwork of Pompeii. Has the human race really gone forward or are we really going backwards and fooling ourselves into thinking otherwise? Might not be safe for work unless you are an archaeologist. ;)

Teach your children well

This scares me. It should scare you too.

Some thing should never be...

Like certain people posing for teen magazines.

Religions distorted to justify killings

Granted, this article talks about the killings of wives and daughters, but I hope that people will take the next step and see that this is happening with a lot of the other killings that have been going on for thousands of years.

Do we really need the FCC to police the media?

As reported at Wired, there's talk of the FCC regulating cable and satellite radio. I'm still questioning if it is really necessary for them to do so, even with regular TV. Maybe there is a fine line when the FCC should step in, but I don't know what it is. I don't think we have crossed it, though. Besides, there are other solutions. One, people don't have to watch the show. Parents, monitor what your kids watch on television. If you don't want them to watch something, then be a parent and enforce the rules, don't go expecting the government to do it for you. Finally, if people feel the need to do more, then boycott the show. Or the station. Or the companies that buy commercial time for the show. If enough people feel that way, there will be change. If not many people get upset about something that happens on television, then maybe those people that do need to take a close look at why it gets them so upset.

Strange November weather

This evening, as I left work, I looked west towards the Sierra Mountains, seeing the clouds of an approaching storm. The clouds looked darker than normal, almost having an evil feel to them. I saw a flash of light out of the corner of my eye, but thought it was just the headlights of a car as it makes a turn. It wasn't until I was driving in my car that I finally saw it - there was actually lightning in the sky. I've never seen lightning this late in the year. It is very weird to be wearing a heavy jacket to keep warm and have weather you would associate with the summer happening outside.

I arrived home, got my mail, and as I got back into my garage to get my things out of my car, the rain started to fall, as if nature waited for me to take cover.

For more information on lightning, see http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast05dec_1.htm.