Links for October 8th from 06:39 to 13:58

This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on October 8, 2008). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

Sometime between 06:39 and 13:58, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

  • Nebraska law lets parents abandon teens: Frustrated parents are dumping their teenagers at Nebraska hospitals — even crossing state lines to do it — and the state Legislature has scheduled a special hearing to try to stem the tide. Nebraska's "safe haven" law, intended to allow parents to anonymously hand over an infant to a hospital without being prosecuted, isn't working out as planned. Of the 17 children relinquished since the law took effect in July, only four are younger than 10 — and…on Tuesday, a 14-year-old girl from Council Bluffs, Iowa, was abandoned…. (I'm going to hell, but I find this horrifying and amusing — due to the badly written law — at the same time.) (via macanima)
  • NY Times Editorial – Politics of Attack: It is a sorry fact of American political life that campaigns get ugly, often in their final weeks. But Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember. They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent’s record — into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia. Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison.
  • Stitch yourself a thinner depth-of-field: The picture above should be completely impossible to take with a 35mm-sized camera. It has the frame-of-view of about a 45mm lens, but the depth-of-field of shooting that lens at an impossibly fast f/0.8 (ish). But I shot it on a plain ol' DSLR with a plain ol' lens. How? Read on.
  • Erecting The Needle Pt. 1: The Space Needle started construction in April of 1961. As digging began, the 120-foot by 12-foot (depth 30 feet) hole slowly filled with 5850 tons of concrete and steel. Anchoring the massive Space Needle, there would be more weight underground than in the tower itself.
  • Palin’s future, according to Garrison Keillor: It was dishonest, cynical men who put forward a clueless young woman for national office, hoping to juice up the ticket, hoping she could skate through two months of chaperoned campaigning, but the truth emerges: The lady is talking freely about matters she has never thought about. The American people have an ear for B.S. They can tell when someone's mouth is moving and the clutch is not engaged.
  • How to use Photoshop’s Lens Blur tool for tilt-shift fakery (Part 1 of 2): We all know Photoshop is a powerful tool. In two tutorials, I'll take you through how to use Photoshop CS3's Lens Blur filter to do two things: today, we'll make images look like they were shot with a tilt-shift lens. Tomorrow, we'll create clipping masks for objects that aren't entirely in focus.
  • Why McCain can’t stop saying “my friends.”: This is the discomfort of "my friends": Although it hopes to evoke amici's wave of the arm over the agora, on the stump it remains a phrase that demands fealty when, in fact, that relationship has not yet been granted to the candidate. It feels faintly bullying—an unpleasant echo of the singular menace of my friend.