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Gadget of The Week
How serious are you about amateur digital photography? Fuji has released the S6000fd, an SLR-like digital camera that offers some very good specs for an under-$500 price point. (It's closer to $400 at many online stores.) Disappointing to some is the 6.1 megapixel rating, but that should still be more than enough for most people's uses while keeping the image size relatively low so you can fit more vacation shots on a memory card. What the camera does offer—aside from a rugged 35-mm look, a comfortable grip and a 10x optical zoom lens—is a high-tech "face detection" technology that is supposed to make it extremely easy to auto focus on a person or group of people in your shots. Reviewers say they like the feature, particularly in the way it can give amateur and "fully automatic" photographers a leg up in the shooting department. Plus, the photo quality is said to be very good, thanks to the quality of the (non-detachable) lens. It offers a good-sized LCD display as well as the manual controls that the typical 35mm hobbyist would respect, making it a very interesting gift choice for someone who isn't quite a pro, but who needs good results with minimum fuss (reporters, real estate agents, contractors), or folks interesting in pursuing their digital photography hobby.
[Publisher's Note] Celebrating the Best
Welcome to our tenth annual "Best of Jackson" edition, celebrating the best that Jackson and its surrounding communities have to offer in terms of people, places, services and products. (And, yes, lots of food and drink.)
Photos: John Horhn Announces Candidacy for Mayor
Photos of the announcement press conference and rally for Mississippi State Senator John Horne, who announced his intention to run for Jackson city mayor in 2009. Photos by Kip Caven:
FactCheck.org: New and Recycled Distortions in Debate #3
The debates are over and the results are clear: both candidates are incorrigible fact-twisters.
Bush said most of his tax cuts went to "low- and middle-income Americans" when independent calculations show most went to the richest 10 percent. Kerry claims Bush "cut the Pell Grants" when they've actually increased. Both men repeated misstatements made in earlier debates, and added a few new ones.
Space…The Fiscal Frontier?
No less an expert on fiscal responsibility than Treasury Secretary (and former railroad baron) John Snow did the chat shows on Sunday to push the notion that a new, bold moon and Mars initiative would not be too expensive of an undertaking. The story notes that a similar plan proposed by G.H.W. Bush (but without a moon base) would have cost $400-500 billion in 1989 dollars.
Dial Those Extra Digits Today
We cussed our phone system all morning until we remembered this. If you're in the 601 area code, don't forget that you now have to dial 10 digits to reach anyone, even if they're down the street or across the hall. All the more reason to put numbers in your cell phone address book -- it'll be interesting to see if those extra three digits cause an uptick in fender benders this week.
Kerry to Bush: ‘You Own It'
John Kerry unleased a new campaign theme today, which paints George W. Bush as the "Excuse President" by focusing both on lost jobs and on the mounting casualties (and apparent disarray) in Iraq.
Barbour Named Vice-Chair of GOP Governors
AP (hat-tip to WLOX) is reporting that the GOP governor's group has elected South Carolina governor Mark Sanford as chair and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour as vice-chair of the Republican Governors Association.
Kerry Gets Endorsements; Dean Shakes Up Staff
In the aftermath of New Hampshire, where Sen. John Kerry won 39% of the vote (and 14 delegates), Kerry has received the endorsements of Senators Jean Carnahan and Tom Eagleton in Missouri, and may received one from Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack gave him the nod as well. Read the report.
Andy Sullivan Turns On Bush
Andrew Sullivan, the (mostly) conservative warblogger and pundit, has written a piece for the New Republic called Attention Deficit, vigorously taking issue with Bush's recent appearance on Meet the Press.
International Organization to Observe U.S. Election
CNN is reporting that, for the first time, the U.S. presidential election will have international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The request for observation came after 13 Democratic members of Congress petitioned the State Department to request election monitors from the United Nations. According to the story, OSCE is the "largest regional security organization" in the world and it has sent monitors to 150 elections in 30 countries.
Krugman on the Republi-‘Con'
No, George W. Bush clearly is not a fiscal conservative, says Paul Krugman writing today in the NYTimes, the same day the Congressional Budget Office re-released it's 2004 budget deficit projections at $477 billion (and $2.4 trillion over the next decade). But, Krugman says, it's absurd to think the answer is to simply to cut spending on social programs.
Obama Camp Says He's Goin' to Oxford
According to a story at the Huffington Post, the Obama camp still expects McCain to attend the debate; if he doesn't, Obama will head to Oxford anyway and hold a town-hall meeting:
‘Social Security' E-mail Debunked By Snopes
I was just forwarded an interesting e-mail about 'Social Security Changes' that you might want to be aware of if you happen to be on the receiving end of an occasional chain e-mail. This one begins pretty benignly, but it gets pretty worked up by the end:
Barbour Postpones Medicaid Transition
PR from the Governor's office:
(Jackson, Miss.) -- Saying that a litigation (sic) had confused 50,000 Mississippi Medicaid recipients beyond repair, Governor Haley Barbour said today he would postpone the state's efforts to transition those recipients to Medicare and look to Medicaid reform opponents to come up with the $100 million needed for Mississippi's cash-strapped Medicaid program if the transition does not go into effect.
St. Pete Times: ‘Obama Effect' Could Elect Musgrove
A story in the St. Petersburg Times highlights the enthusiasm they say many African-American voters are bringing to this year's presidential election in support of Barack Obama. This enthusiasm is expected to help both Obama and down-ticket races in many Southern states.
Gallup Poll Not ‘Tightening' on National Vote
The assumption is that four days out from a Presidential election, the national polls would show continued tightening in the race between the two major party candidates. And, while these polls are only broad indicators of the candidates' chances (since it's the Electoral College that ultimately matters), it's interesting to see today that Gallups three models -- registered voters, traditional likely voters and expanded likely voters -- all showed increases for Obama in Friday's three-day rolling poll. One-third of the poll was conducted after the Obama infomercial and joint rally with Bill Clinton on Thursday.
Ole Miss to ABC: ‘Devastating'
Andrew Mullins, special assistant to the Chancellor at Ole Miss, told ABC News that postponing the debate would be "devastating" and that the university has invested millions in the debate scheduled for Friday night.
Win2Mac Gaming and Open Source Kids
Only Apple can make something called the Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) the sexiest tech-marketing showcase of the summer, but it looks like it'll happen, with a keynote by Steve Jobs over by the time you read this.
TEST DRIVE: Hunting Hybrids
When Mr. K—Ms. D's brother—is in town, he and I have a tendency to disappear for hours at a time. If you happen to reach me by cell phone during one of our excursions, you'd likely find that we're in a new vehicle from a local dealership, one of us manning the controls while the other peppers the hapless salesperson with questions about the mileage, the engine's power, the quality of materials, the mindset of the workers who built the car, the exact chemical composition of the flecked plastic dashboard insets …