buy American

I saw a statement: "There are 293 million people living in the United States. If each one would shift $20 a month in spending from foreign made products to American made products, that would create 5 million new jobs."

While I think the numbers are a bit off (never trust statistics), I appreciate the sentiment. I've never had a problem supporting our foreign friends, through the purchase of quality goods, but considering how much trouble our economy is in, I reccommend making an effort to by American made goods. Non-US citizens exempted, of course. :-)

And by "quality" goods, I mean I'd buy a Ferrari if I could. And I'll always buy Canon cameras. But where there's a reasonable American-made alternative, I will buy it. I always buy as local as possible.

old photographs

For those of you who recall this photograph, of the Manhattan Bridge, here's another view of the same scene. Slightly different angle, and slightly later.

more knowledge, useful or otherwise

Color perception in animals varies by species; most mammals are dichromats, perceiving two colors. Deer, for example, see blue and yellow, but not red, and their perception of blue is far broader and more acute than humans. A camouflage garment laundered in typical laundry detergent laced with ultraviolet dye, added to brighten colors, may blend into the background when seen with the human eye, but the deer's eyes are sensitive into the near ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, and the garment will stand out as a brightly colored object. Orange and red, however, are far enough from the deer's yellow receptor range that they will appear as dim colors, so what a human sees as a bright orange element in a camouflage pattern will appear as a dark color to the deer's eye. Similarly, the rods of deer are sensitive further into the near ultraviolet than are human eyes (though still lacking in response at the red end of the spectrum), and provide a greater response. This gives deer superior vision in low light conditions. Birds, on the other hand, do see red, and near ultraviolet; both ultraviolet dyes and blaze orange will be visible to them.