Celebrating the 4th of July and cartoonists

How about some biting humor -- and some not so biting -- to spark your 4th of July? 

The cartoons below were published at the Washington Post in 2009 (when we thought ethanol could replace oil as an energy source) under Comic Riffs in an article by Michael Cavna.
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JOHN COLE (cagle.com)

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JOHN DARKOW (cagle.com)

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JIM DAY (cagle.com)

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MARSHALL RAMSEY (cagle.com)

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And here's a more recent one from Cagle by Tim Campbell:
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TIM CAMPBELL (cagle.com)

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 While I was looking around I found this celebration of editorial cartoonists by the AAEC (Association of American Editorial Cartoonists), published at Damn! Cartoons #$&%! Cartoons.  It's a collection of videos showing a number of my favorite cartoonists.  Here's the opening illustration:
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Have a great 4th.  Be safe.

-- Marge

DIY: glow stick spatter

In honor of these velvety, somewhat mysterious, warm and dark summer nights experienced by those of you closer to the equator than Alaska, here is some do-it-yourself glow stick magic to try.

Here's a glow stick lantern resembling fireflies in a jar.
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The instructions at BuzzFeed DIY are

1. Cut open a glow stick and shake the contents into a jar. Add diamond glitter.
2. Seal the top with a lid.
3. Shake.

Note that this image with and without instructions can be found at many sites on the web; two others are Curbly, "How to: Make Glowing Firefly Jars," and Emma Rae's Halloween, "The Glow of Halloween."  The identity of the original poster is a mystery.

For tips on how to handle glow sticks and their glowy contents, here's a video by Anne Helmenstine:
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If you want more official information on how safe it is to open up a glow stick, take a look at this MSDS (a PDF), found at Glowsticks Ireland.

ActiveDark has some cool ideas for glow crafts.  Here's an image of glow sticks in balloons.
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Ah, summer.

-- Marge

Tea, Earl Grey, hot

Star Trek's food replicator may be closer than you think.  NASA even now is printing pizza, as reported in theGuardian and other news sources.  Replication of mechanical parts is already a reality.

For those of you who are not Trekkies (or more casual fans of Star Trek), the food replicators (not to be confused with the Stargate replicators) in the series could produce verbally requested items on demand. As with most technology, one has to be specific:
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While NASA has its eye on food replication, U.S manufacturing is being transformed.  In a form of pedal-to-the-metal 3D printing, layers of metal are deposited and bound to a form built up from a design programmed into the printer.  This process is revolutionizing American industry; as the NewScientist puts it "A Second Industrial Revoluton is Underway."  More to the point is this a piece from Time Magazine (requires a paid subscription), "Made in the USA."

The technology is called additive manufacturing, or more colloquially, 3-D printing. When most people talk about 3-D printing, they mean fun devices for hobbyists that can print plastic toys and other small objects when hooked up to a computer. When they talk about it at ExOne Corp., they're describing something a lot bigger. Additive manufacturing involves what looks like spray-painting a metal object into existence. These 3-D printers lay down a very thin layer of stainless-steel powder or ceramic powder and fuse it with a liquid binder until a part--like a torque converter, heat exchanger or propeller blade--is built, layer by layer. ExOne's employees are ramping up production lines to make 3-D printers at a price of about $400,000. Would-be manufacturing entrepreneurs can buy the devices and begin turning out high-tech metal parts for aerospace, automotive and other industries at lower cost and higher quality faster than offshore suppliers.

Look around the ExOne site to get an idea of the capabilities of this field.  The article from Time also offers a vision of manufacturing in the future:

ExOne's 3-D-printing machines, like a lot of new technology, will displace some labor. A foundry, for instance, no longer needs workers carting patterns around a warehouse; it can print molds and cores stored on a thumb drive, and no patterns are needed. An ExOne shop with 12 metal-printing machines needs only two employees per shift, supported by a design engineer--though they are higher-skilled workers. Rockwell [ExOne's CEO] envisions a thousand new industrial flowers blooming. "There's a world of guys out there who say, If you can deliver parts in six or seven days, hey, I don't need the machines. That's where job creation is going to come from." Overseas competitors will not be able to deliver that quickly or at the same level of quality.

Seems to me it's got to be good if it get American employers off the offshore outsourcing teet.

-- Marge

This Friday's jabs at government

Today we're exploring with words and pictures government transparency.  Don't get me wrong -- I like Obama and think he's a fine person and his leadership style shows forethought and restraint, for the most part.  But considering all that's been revealed about his administration lately, when he says he stands for transparency in government I don't believe it.  It could be that hounds from hell are sniffing out every crack in Washington that will reveal Obama in a bad light and all that was hidden became known in the last month.  Maybe so.

At any rate, here's my theme and variations on government transparency with an aside thrown in.

As a nod to Obama's apparent transformation to Tricky Dicky, there's this from Cagle Post -- Rick McKee's "Transparent Obama:"
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From Mike Keefe, formerly with the Denver Post, is this piece showing what we know vs. what the government knows:
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Looking at one of the mechanisms that lifts the veil, Kevin Kallaugher, aka KAL and a contributor to the Economist, depicts WikiLeaks:
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Last on the topic of transparency is Bob Gorrell's "Invisibility Cloak," published at The Week:
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This next cartoon, also published at The Week, made me laugh.  It's by R.J.Matson and titled "An Ear to the Ground."
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And that's it for today, Folks.

-- Marge

DIY: Own your life

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 At one point or another each of us asks, usually while still young, "Who am I?"  Related questions are "Who am I meant to be? (probably unanswerable since the future is hopefully not determined yet) and "What should I do with my life?".

Knowing oneself is more than likely the ultimate do-it-yourself project.  And the only truly valid answers result from interacting with the bump-and-grind of everyday life.  Friends help.  But in the end, you're on your own for finding the truth.

Since there is no operator's manual for a life, it seemed to me the internet might offer some insight.  My favorite find is Unfettered Mind (because that's part of what I am).

Instead of trying to describe who we are, let’s look right at our experience and keep in mind something John Audubon once said, “When the book and the bird disagree, always believe the bird.”

If a scientific approach is more appealing, try the PsychCentral Personality Test.  But keep in mind that any personality test is an average of the people who have taken it.  If you're truly an individual, you may not fit the norm and that's not necessarily bad.

Oprah's self-assessment page asks the question "Who Are You Meant To Be?"  After spending a fair amount of my life trying to discern what was meant to be, I finally decided I am what I am and to go from there.  Of course there's always room for improvement.

To round this out, here are "6 Powerful Questions That Will Change Your Life" or at least tilt the apple cart a little.

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O.K., now we've looked at who I am, it's time to look at what should I do.  While career isn't the only answer, navel-gazing isn't very informative.  Sokanu offers some good insights:

Your career, next to your relationships with friends and family, is the most important investment of your life. It's likely the greatest investment of your time. It's the biggest decider of the type of people you spend your time with every day, the environment that you spend your days in, and what you do with your mind and body. The cool part is that all of these details are what make a fun, purposeful life well-lived.
The Sokanu Concept

To me that's the goal -- a fun, purposeful life well-lived.

-- Marge

Shhh. They may be listening...

Editorial cartoonists are having a field day with the news that the NSA has a hush-hush court order to collect Verizon call records (theGuardian).  So without further ado, let's take a look.  All of the cartoons below were found at The Week, except for the last one, which was published at U.S. News.

Michael Ramirez, "Finally An Answer:"
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Chis Britt, "Unwanted Assistance:"
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Drew Sheneman, "Exception to the Rule:"
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Dana Summers, "Taking Out the Opposition:"
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Steve Benson, "N-S-A!:"
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Have you stopped to consider lately how much we've allowed the Al-Qaeda attacks to influence life in America?  Our collective/political reactions have eroded the legal (habeus corpus, fourth amendment) underpinnings of American society and intruded on our personal (airport security, surveillance) lives.  Sure there be terrorists, but can't we get our fear under control?
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-- Marge

DIY: Wear your brands, make money

In a recent article in Time Magazine, titled "The Human Billboard," writer Roya Wolverson wrote about a relatively new phenomenon -- microcelebrities.  The claim-to-fame of the microcelebrity described below, Jordan Reid, is a fashion/food/home decor blog known as Ramshackle Glam.  Quoting the opening paragraph of Roya's article (you must be a Time subscriber to read the whole article) --

Jordan Reid seems to be having a morning much like any other young mother's in suburban New York. "I'm really sorry, but I'm covered in spilled milk," she says as she steps out of her blue Subaru Outback after having tended to her 18-month-old son. Yet her catalog-ready appearance--Reid is wearing a leather bomber jacket, polka-dot ankle-rolled jeans and pink patent-leather flats under that spilled milk--is a tip that she isn't quite like her fellow moms. On any given day, after dressing and feeding her son, Reid spends an intensely regimented half hour cleansing her face with Moisturizing Facial Wash by Simple, washing her hair with Dove Color Care shampoo and riffling through a wardrobe chock-full of TJ Maxx clothing to compose a boho-chic outfit. She grabs one of her four Timex watches and one of three pairs of Ann Taylor sunglasses and scrambles down the stairs in her sunny three-bedroom home to eat breakfast on her new Noritake china collection (an eclectic mix of the Rochelle Gold, Hertford and Yoshino patterns).

If you're wondering whether this type of blogging is worth the effort, take a look at this second quote from the same article:

For enterprising bloggers, the lure is simple: income that can range from $100,000 a year to hundreds of thousands more. For marketers, the calculus is more complicated. Yes, they can target audiences, and the price is relatively low compared with already cheap online advertisements. And bloggers can offer a more authentic connection to brands for consumers who are weary of varnished sales pitches from Madison Avenue. But companies are also putting their brands in the hands of untested spokespeople and, in some cases, running into controversy about the blogger-sponsor relationship. Leery consumers prefer that bloggers' opinions be independent. Just last month, the Federal Trade Commission introduced tighter regulations for social-media advertising. Though there are clear successes, it's far too early to tell if the approach drives more sales than traditional marketing.

Other bloggers named in the article are Kelley Framel of the Glamourai,

Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes,

and Brit Morin of Brit + Co.

Eric Savitz writes more about Social Media Clout: The Rise of Micro Celebrity Endorsements at Forbes.

So how do you get started?  First, blog well and often about topics that the majority of internet users are interested in.  For ideas take a look at Pinterest, particularly the popular page.  Googling "blog about brands" will yield a good number of resources available.  A number of the sites look like freelancing portals.  One site I checked out -- Bloggers Required -- looks legit.

A word of caution for those who want to sign up for brand blogging at a site offering services -- the internet is full of entrepreneurs that will return little substance for your money.  When you find a site that seems to be what you're looking for, check it out before you sign up.  The service should be free for the blogger/freelancer.  Take time to read the terms of service; you are, after all, contracting with this company.  And keep in mind that many people want to make money freelancing -- be prepared to compete for assignments. 

-- Marge

Farmer panda

By Manyman (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

I'm guessing that most people are aware of how popular and useful Google's search engine is simply by the fact that a new verb has been coined -- google it.  According to the article linked, the American Dialect Society chose it as the "most useful word of 2002."  In the past we had to hang out in libraries to get the information we can find instantly at our computers/tablets/phones today.

Behind the scenes, linked to the workings of Google's engine, is a process called SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  This is a

...process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.

There are companies whose reason for existence is to advise other companies on how to use this process to market on the internet.

By Vishraval (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In 2011 Google introduced Panda:

...a change to Google's search results ranking algorithm that was first released in February 2011. The change aimed to lower the rank of "low-quality sites" or "thin sites", and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results. CNET reported a surge in the rankings of news websites and social networking sites, and a drop in rankings for sites containing large amounts of advertising. This change reportedly affected the rankings of almost 12 percent of all search results.  --Wikipedia

According to an article at Search Engine Land, titled Google Panda Two Year Later: Losers Still Losing and One Real Recovery, "Google sent shockwaves through not only the SEO industry, but also through online publishing in general." (For information on assessing how Google Panda affected your site -- if you don't already know -- check out this article, published in March 2011, at The Moz Blog.)

Some of the sites deeply affected are wiseGEEK, Suite101 (suspended publishing in March this year), and ArticlesBase, which lost 94% of its traffic when Panda was launched.  More sites were affected; these were chosen at random.

I guess my point is not all improvements are completely for the best, something is often lost. I, for one, will miss Suite101.

-- Marge

This Friday's poke -- Where is Will Rogers when you need him?

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.  -- Will Rogers

Wiley Post came to mind the other day, and with him Will Rogers; they both died in a plane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska, in 1935.  Will Rogers was an American humorist who captured the hearts of the American public.  Though I didn't walk the earth while he was alive, pieces of his routines were still being shown up to 20 years later in theaters.  Here's a brief history of Will, posted at Neils Stuff!.

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The Will Rogers quotes shown here were found at Brainy Quote.

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Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

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I wanted to show you the sweet folksiness of Will, but the closest I can get is this impersonation by Lance Brown.

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There is, of coarse, a site commemorating Will Rogers.

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About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.

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Here's one last quote:

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Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

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-- Marge

Monsanto, the bio-bully

Recently I was surprised to learn that legislation was passed by the U.S Congress to protect the private company Monsanto.  My first reaction was "WTF, why is the American government protecting a private company??"  While I was cussing into my computer, my son wandered in and responded that it's nothing new, Monsanto has had special privileges for years.

For some background, the Wikipedia article linked above states, among other things --

Monsanto is notable for its involvement in high profile lawsuits, as both plaintiff and defendant. It has been involved in a number of class action suits, where fines and damages have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, usually over health issues related to its products. Monsanto has also made frequent use of the courts to defend its patents, particularly in the area of agricultural biotechnology, as have other companies in the field, such as Dupont Pioneer and Syngenta.

Read the full article for more information on how Monsanto operates.  

As for the Monsanto Protection Act, it has certainly generated a lot of controversy.  In this Huffington Post article, titled "Is Outrage Over the Monsanto Protection Act a Turning Point for the Food Movement?," Michele Simon reports

In March, when I first wrote about how the biotech rider -- called the Monsanto Protection Act by its vocal opponents -- undercut the constitutional concept of separation of powers, it seemed hardly anyone (other than the usual advocacy groups) was paying attention. But then a lot of people got mad, really mad.

Within a few short weeks the issue exploded in the mainstream media, with the surest sign the issue had hit the big time being (what else?) coverage by The Daily Show (hilariously titled, "You Stuck What Where?"). Another indication was outrage even from a Tea Party blogger.

What's most angrifying is how it was passed.  Here's an excerpt from Snopes' analysis of this 'urban legend' [quotes mine]:

Because this act has caused such an outrage, it's a bit tough to separate truth from the emotion.  Here's one more article, found at Politifact, that seems a bit more objective.  Politifact rates the statement

The law "requires the USDA to approve the harvest and sale of crops from genetically modified seed even if a court has ruled against the crop as being dangerous to public safety or the environment."

as half-true.

During my admittedly limited research, I came to the surprising realization that Monsanto is unpopular all over the world. There is a "Monsanto movement" afoot called Occupy Monsanto.  If you scroll down the page, you'll see where March Against Monsanto protests are/have been scheduled.  The Washington Post features a slideshow of Monsanto protests around the world (May 30, 2013).  The March Against Monsanto was held on May 25th; here's a flyer from The Watchers.

While a lot of pork-barrel legislation is passed in the same manner as the Monsanto Act, in my view the passage of this particular piece opens the door for other companies to similarly take control.  If they haven't already.  It appears that once again the lobbyists rule.

-- Marge

DIY: YouTube channel art, adding text

Continuing with the previous post about YouTube One Channel art, today we will be adding text.

After opening the GIMP file and before starting to use the text tool, show the template layer by clicking on the eye in "Pasted Layer" ("Layers - Gradients" panel).  To use the template for sizing and positioning the text as desired, set the visibility to about 25%.  The Opacity control is near the top of the panel, just above the Lock button.  (Remember that the content has been merged with the background.)

Invoke the text editor by clicking on Toolbox/"Text Tool" (A big letter A about 11 rows down).  Click in the image area and type a word or two, then hold down your shift key and arrow back over what you just typed to select it.  In the "Change size of selected text" (instruction seen when you mouse over the input field), enter or select the size you want.  I set mine at 100 pixels.  In the "Change font of selected text" field, type the first letter of the font desired and a dropdown of available fonts will show.  If you want to see more of the available fonts, backspace (in the select field) and type in another letter.  The number of fonts available will depend on what you have installed on your computer.  Because I have a number of graphics programs, my list is extensive.  If you can't find a font you want to use, fonts are available online to buy or download free.

Selecting a font that suits the work can be challenging.  I finally settled on AdLib WGL4 BT.  To exit the "Text Tool," select another tool -- the "Rectangle Select Tool" is probably the safest choice.  To revise your text, reselect the "Text Tool" and highlight the text once again.

To position the text, select Toolbox/"Move Tool."  After checking that you have the layer with the text you want to position selected, place your cursor directly over the text, click and drag.  If you accidentally move the layer beneath, Ctrl+z will fix it.  My text is in two separate layers so that each can be positioned separately.

With the text layer selected you can add a drop shadow by selecting Filters/"Light and Shadow"/"Drop Shadow." A dialogue appears.  I set the Offset X and Offset Y to zero, the blur radius to 45, opacity to about 70%, and the color gold for the effect you see below. 

With the Offset X and Offset Y set to 10, the blur radius to 12, opacity at 50%, and the color bright green selected, you see the effect below. 

Note that you can copy a drop shadow to another layer with Filters/"Repeat 'Drop Shadow'."  Also you can revise the drop shadow with Filters/"Re-Show 'Drop Shadow'."  Be aware that each time you revise a drop shadow a new sub-layer is made for that text layer.  The sub-layers can be deleted by right-clicking and selecting "Delete Layer."

This is what the work looks like now, with template.  Notice that the text isn't exactly centered.  I'm not sure whether this will work or not, but will have to wait to test it.

To export to a file format that can be posted, begin by hiding the template (click the eye on "Pasted Layer."  Now select File/"Export to..."  The default file format is "dot png" and a good choice.  Accept the options (they're OK) offered by clicking "Export."  This is the final product:

Seems to me the content should be blended a little better and corners rounded, but that's a topic for another day.

-- Marge