Ask yourself: how has “elitism” become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn’t seem too intelligent or well educated.

Harris echos my thoughts that the idea that Governor Palin might have input to, or even one day direct US foreign policy is very scary.  It’s not the inexperience that worries me — it’s the experiences she has had up to this point.

I want to see our “best and brightest” get into politics, but unfortunately, there is no motivation for them to do so.

As an amateur photographer, I’m always looking for sources of good information on my craft. I’ve found many, and I intend to dedicate a page of this site to them. The one best source of information for me has been the website and podcast of Scott Bourne et. al. “This Week In Photography“.  The site itself is a simple WordPress blog, but Scott posts regularly about all things photographic.  The hour-long podcast each week covers news, listener questions, tips & tricks, and usually includes an interview with a well-known photographer or industry insider.  For example, their interview with Tom Hogarty of Adobe convinced me to store all my photos in DNG format.

Grace

Recently, Scott switched over from Canon to Nikon.  He sold all of his Canon gear through his website via Google checkout and I was lucky enough to obtain one of his items – an off-camera cord for my flash (Canon 480 EX).  I’ve been experimenting with holding my camera with my right hand, and the flash one- to two feet away in my left hand.  To the right is a photo of my favorite model using this technique.  No Photoshop here, just an auto-tone with Lightroom.

What is a skeptic?  Ask Brian Dunning.  He is one – and proud of it.  According to Brian, a skeptic is someone who applies critical thinking skills to claims that may or may not be true.  Skepticism is not just the art of debunking a bogus claim, but a process of examining any claim to find out if it is based on actual, verifiable evidence.

Brian’s site, skeptoid.com, hosts a weekly podcast that has become my favorite. In concise, 10-minute chunks, Brian takes a thoughtful (yes, skeptical) look at a number of popular and frequently controversial topics.  Recent podcasts titles: “Should Tibet be Free?”  “Genetically Modified Organisms: Jeopardy or Jackpot?”  “Should You Take Your Vitamins?”  Brian has produced 114 podcasts to date, which translates to roughly 19 hours of skeptical listening pleasure.  Is he ever wrong?  Yes, and Skeptoid #101 was even devoted to the errors in his previous 100 podcasts.

For those who don’t enjoy podcasts, Brian has made a 40-minute video explaining the process of skepticism and critical thinking.  He has also written a book that includes material from the first 100 episodes of Skeptoid.

Agree with him or not — and I sometimes do not — Brian does encourage you to think for yourself. In my opinion, that encouragement alone is worth 10 minutes a week.

Pandora is driven by The Music Genome Project which categorizes music not just by genre, but by techical attributes such as “harmony and rhythm, instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony.” Like a radio station, you don’t get to pick what song plays next, but the more feedback you give to Pandora, the more your station(s) play what you like.

Pandora is a great way to discover new music.  I’ve discovered many artists and bought (yes, for real $$) their music to add to my collection. You might think the music labels would be eager to see Pandora (and others like it) succeed.  On the contrary, the Copyright Royalty Board, backed by the RIAA is raising the royalties on Internet music stations like Pandora.  This year, Pandora will pay 70% of it’s revenue in music royalties.  Higher rates can have no effect but putting Internet radio out of business.  Traditional broadcast radio (owned by corporations with huge lobbying budgets) pay NO royalties; XM and Sirius pay about 2% of their revenue to royalties.

Check Pandora out.  If you like it, write your representatives in Washington and tell them that you want to save Internet radio.  Representative Howard L. Berman, a Democrat from California, is attempting to work up a deal between Pandora and SoundExchange, the organization that represents artists and labels, but so far there is no movement on the issue.