Last Night From the iPhone
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I had my phone in my pocket when I stepped outside last night. It was the first camera I reached for, but I think you can tell why I wasn't thrilled with the result.
But you might also be able to see why I thought it was worth a shot.
✍️ Reply by emailThe Boss
11:39 Thursday, 3 April 2025
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Pro-ordered Tracks 2 for delivery at Winterfell. CD boxed set. May have to make sure I still have a CD player. (Just kidding. Blu-Ray player can play CDs. Can't they? And I do have an external USB DVD-R drive so I can "rip-mix-play.)" (IYKYK))
✍️ Reply by emailOh Em Three
10:26 Thursday, 3 April 2025
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OMG, I bought the OM-3!
I've been craving it since it was released. I'm rationalizing pulling the trigger now because of the possibility of a price increase due to the Trump tax, er, tariffs.
I'll sell some gear when I get to New York. Might even get better prices for them if there's an overall increase in camera prices.
Should get here Monday, but B&H is saying there may be some weather delays.
✍️ Reply by emailTriangulate
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Went to lock the front door last night before turning in and caught a glimpse of the moon through the glass. Stepped outside to look at it, because why wouldn't you?
Saw it framed in this asterism (technically not an asterism, as the left vertex is Jupiter) and figured I should try to shoot it.
I wasn't that motivated, so I grabbed what was handy, in this case the OM-5 with the 45mm/f1.8 prime mounted. Tough to get the exposure right with the moon being illuminated by the sun, even (or especially) as a waxing crescent, only 25% illuminated (making it the first quarter).
Anyway, checking this morning, that's Jupiter as mentioned, Elnath above, and Al Kab to the right. Also faintly visible are 14, 16 and 19 Aur in a row near the upper right corner.
✍️ Reply by emailDan Caine's Confirmation Hearing
06:48 Thursday, 3 April 2025
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I spent much of Tuesday watching Cory Booker on the floor of the Senate. Being retired sometimes gives one the time to watch history as it is being made. I didn't watch Dan Caine's confirmation hearing.
In between packing boxes, and then trying to find things I may have already packed, I'm also reading an actual book I haven't packed yet, Nuremberg Diary, by G.M. Gilbert. (No link because the act of linking today is a form of signification and therefore freighted with unintended "meaning." I trust you can search the internet.) Gilbert was the prison psychologist at Nuremberg before and during the trials. Reading the back cover, I learned he first published The Psychology of Dictatorship, and now I'll have to search for that book.
I just opened to a random page, then decided to look at the entries for the month of April 1946, during the trial and six months before the executions that resulted.
Speaking with Jodl, the weekend of April 6-7:
“The killing of the 50 escaped prisoners and the plot against Giraud seem to disturb the military men more than the whole murder program that exterminated millions of Jews and other ideological opponents," I commented.
"Yes, of course-that concerns our honor vitally. We had nothing to do with the other thing. It will be shown conclusively that we had nothing to do with that."
He went on to explain how Hitler had disrupted the entire basis of the officers' code of honor and fair play in war which had been handed down through the centuries. Hitler brought with him a new radical capricious will which did not fit into their world — the world of von Hindenburg, von Neurath, etc. Even Goering understood the old officers' code and frequently had his way with the Führer on such matters.
"How do you explain, then, that Goering still maintains his pose of loyalty to the Führer?" I asked.
Jodi smiled. "Well, in his case, of course, he is in it so deep, as one of the leaders who brought the Party to power and loudly proclaimed his loyalty to the Führer for 20 years, he might just as well stick it through ... But the rest of the old officers' set were opposed to Nazism from the very beginning. We only played along because he was legally chosen Reich Chancellor. But it is funny, in the last two or three years of the war, Goering simply disappeared from time to time, going hunting, living his soft life in his various castles, collecting his art treasures- he just couldn’t be depended on for anything."
"We only played along because he was legally chosen Reich Chancellor."
"Honor" and "code" only have meaning insofar as the men and women who espouse them are willing to sacrifice their careers, or their lives, for them.
"Hitler had disrupted the entire basis of the officers' code of honor and fair play."
Might the same be said of Trump?
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff isn't a combatant commander.
When Trump invokes the the Insurrection Act, it will not be the CJCS who orders American soldiers to shoot American citizens, it will be the commander of NORTHCOM, under orders from former Fox News host, and now SECDEF, Pete Hegseth.
Jodl was hanged for "playing along."
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