Civil War Photography
RJ. Szabo takes photographs of Civil War reenactors using the technology of the 1860s: the complicated and finicky collodian wet-plate process. He uses vintage lenses as well. The results are amazing - they look as if they were taken 140 years ago.

More on the Issaquah QFC WiFi thing: First off, the right QFC isn't in Issaquah, it's on the plateau in the City of Sammamish at 2902 228 Ave SE. Not only is there free Wifi but there are also two desktop computers connected to the Internet, free for anyone to use. There's a little area off to one side with tables and chairs and the two free computers. It's a nicer space than the coffee area at the Issaquah QFC. Using my laptop, I had to select the node (from a list of one) but there was no password and it worked fine. (With the KCLS setup, my computer just connected all on its own.) There's a Starbucks nearby but the free WiFi signal doesn't extend that far.

Thaks to Jim Sullivan of WiFiFreeSpot for encouraging me to check again on this QFC - he was right, it's free. So I have now found two eastside espresso places with free Wifi: this QFC grocery store and the Starbucks (or anywhere in the food court) at Crossroads.

I picked up a penny on the sidewalk today, as I usually do when I see one. If it takes a second to stop and stoop down, and another second to pick it up and stand back up, that's 2 seconds work for 1 cent. This works out to $18.00 an hour (tax free). But if your time is worth more than that, you're losing money picking up a penny.

For the Iraq war in Bellevue.

Against the Iraq war in Seattle.

Both photos taken today.

"Naturally the common people don't want war, but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
~ Hermann Goering (Hitler's Reichs-Marshall, 1939)

Thanks, Ginger, for finding this one.

American Politics Journal -- Dry Drunk: Is Bush making a cry for help? But we can't look away.

My thoughts as this war starts keep returning to this article from last September. Alcoholics make themselves the center of attention in their dysfunctional families. Pay attention to me, pay attention to me. Perhaps the whole country, or indeed the world, is becoming George W. Bush's dysfunctional family.

And all this may not hurt his re-election chances. The more emotion (of any kind) he instills in voters, the better his chances. Remember the Stockholm syndrome, where kidnap victims became attached to their kidnappers. One even became engaged to her kidnapper. No doubt there were many a shy nice boy (Al Gore?) that never had a chance with her.

And speaking of Al Gore, how come there is no movement to have the President elected by the popular vote (which Gore won)? That (and approval voting to reduce the distortions caused by third-party candidates) would improve the quality of our democracy. It's time to amend the Constitution.

Gaspricewatch.com lets you look up the lowest gas prices by Zip code.

The Free Wifi hotspots locations directory for Washington shows a spot at the Issaquah QFC coffee area. I don't usually go there because of their card program (card program groceries usually have higher prices even with the card), but perhaps I will try a coffee and see. [Update: Nope, no WiFi at all. And not much of a place to have coffee, either.]

Here's a table of cars with 4WD or AWD. It sure makes a difference here in the northwest, esp. when it snows. Local strategy for dealing with snow: hope it melts soon. But even in heavy rain, AWD feels more secure.

The Harris Poll on religious beliefs of Americans 2003
51% of the public believe in ghosts - now that's scary. Interesting, too, that 31% believe in astrology and 27% in reincarnation, both definitely non-Christian beliefs.

A few months ago I started using Osiris as my web hosting service partly because they provide Postini spam and virus filtering. Now that our new nwfolk.com email addresses have been thoroughly found by spammers, I find that the Postini service works well. At first it classified some legitimate mail as spam, but it lets me whitelist those senders. Lately it's been 100% effective in blocking spam and viruses. Your mileage may vary, but it works for me.

Why Nerds are Unpopular. I don't quite buy this argument. Some of the popular kids at my high school were smart. A big factor in popularity is being self-confident and outgoing. All the smarts in the world won't help you if you lack that.