No Chains on Me…

This is great! Definitely represents how I feel the debate went down Courtesy of James Osborne as seen on his facebook page

Fascinating article out of the SanFran Weekly. Its a horribly long article, but definitely worth the read. Can really challenge our view of society and what it will look like if we want to be an influence in a world like this. If I were a journalist, these are the kinds of articles I would want to write.

Homeless SF State students struggle to stay in school and stay loaded

A second article is a little bit more out of character for me, but its very much like the first. It describes a very unique way of approaching a group usually labeled as social outcasts. Take care in reading it, but it definitely provides insight into a group usually ignored and scorned. Its another very long article, but worth it if you have the time.

The Real Girlfriend Experience

What are we doing about people like this? How are we praying and caring for them?

Facinating article. Read on:

£5 billion (about $US 10 billion) sounds like a lot of money. So what is worth $10 billion?

Half a London Olympics.

The annual profit of Google.

10 Space Shuttle launches.

And one physics experiment in Switzerland.

The CERN experiment officially begins with what is heavily promoted as ‘Big Bang Day’. Stephen Hawking, the remarkable scientist has said that the experiment is:

vital if the human race is not to stultify and eventually die out Together they cost less than one tenth of a per cent of world GDP. If the human race can not afford this, then it doesn’t deserve the epithet ‘human’

I am not a nuclear physicist, so the explanation does not make a lot of sense to me – it is something about recreating conditions found after the Big Bang to better understand the nature of the universe. Some maintain that there is a small chance the experiment will produce a Black Hole which will destroy the planet. In which case I will have wasted precious moments writing this.

Anyway. If there are any nuclear physicists out there, it would be nice to know why this is experiment is ‘vital for the human race’. Maybe they are expecting to find a new energy source, I don’t know.

I know this sounds rather predictable to some, but I would really like to know how we (the tax-payers of Europe who are paying for this thing) can justify the cost in a world of hunger.

According to the World Bank, the cost of meeting all of the millennium development goals would be $40-60 billion per year. It is said that the cost of educating every child to at least a primary school level would be about $10 billion.

In the face of world hunger, disease and poverty, can the world afford these vanity projects?

By the way, US consumers spent $15.4 billion on petfood in 2006 and about $9 billion on breakfast cereal.

Author Bio:: Joe is not sure he can justify his own existence.

[From The Value of Money]

This is pretty sweet:

I have a problem guys… I can’t stop taking pictures. Over this past week/weekend, I racked up close to 1000 pictures, between The Garden concert, the soccer game and Labor Day activities. I think its getting out of control. At least my senior year will be well documented.

Anyways, music. Not sure the John Mayer/Jars of Clay thing is legit. I can’t recall listening to them at all. There was one night I fell asleep with music on and woke up at 5 and it was still playing… oops

Got to take a first crack at dark, weirdly lit concert photography tonight. Had the chance to shoot The Garden as they played out front of the SSC. I hated almost every shot I took until I uploaded and got a look at some of them. Definitely glad I took a very wide variety of shots. I have a poor lens for shooting in as darkly lit situations as I was. But it worked. There are some pretty decent ones in the set. I’ll upload them soon after I’ve had a chance to go over and select the best, touch up those that aren’t, but the lesson is don’t judge the shots based on the 2.5″ screen of the camera. Shoot and keep everything. Check later… Definitely a new experience, and no better music to shoot to then the Garden. Amazing work guys! You’ve improved every time you play!

Also, I have the full Lightroom 2 now, so I can do some decent work on them! Yay!

Slow week for music, as I’ve been in and out of the presence of music devices. But the list is pretty accurate I think. They added a feature that tells me how many places a given artist has moved over the past week. Cool… A new artist in the top ten this week. Yael Naim is pretty sweet. Very strange style, but I like it. Also, she has a cover of Spear’s Toxic. Notafan of the original, but the covers I’ve heard are all excellent. One is by Naim, the other is by Mark Ronson, who also, oddly enough, joins the top ten listing, mostly because I went back and listened to that cover + the rest of his album!

And the albums for the week. Classic Crime is at the top, mostly because I really like their new album I told you about sometime last week.

Here they are:

Oasis is killing this week. Them and Travis both, but I picked up on Oasis earlier this week and haven’t been able to put them down. Its been a while. You can tell by how high their play rate is.

Now the breakdown by album. Don’t Believe the Truth by Oasis has become my favorite of theirs I think. Track of the week is actually Roll It Over off of the Standing on the Shoulder of Giants album. But here you go.

Spent some time tonight working on these pics. This is a sweet hobby… Anytime you want to see my latest, check out my pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hungerandthirst/

“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Working towards an overall look/feel to my pictures. Getting closer.

“He leads me in paths of righteousness… for His Name’s sake.” -Psalm 23:3
Maybe overdid this one. Not sure. I almost like it.