Alaska Governor and political lighting rod Sarah Palin is stepping down as the Governor and will not seek reelection for that office. In her normal fashion she took no questions.

The timing of this announcement is too early to make a run for President in 2012. This follows the release of several e-mails between her and the McCain campaign about her husband’s, Todd Palin, involvement in an Anti-American group that wanted Alaska to separate from the United States.

The text from Palin’s speech as released by her press relations department:

Governor Palin Announces No 2nd Term

No Lame Duck Session Either

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-167

GOVERNOR PALIN ANNOUNCES NO SECOND TERM NO LAME DUCK SESSION EITHER July 3, 2009, Anchorage, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin announced today that she will not seek a second term as Governor of the State of Alaska and will relegate the power of governor to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell in order to serve Alaska’s best interests. Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will move into Parnell’s current role.

“People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing’s more important to me than our beloved Alaska,” said Governor Palin. “Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine.”

Standing outside her home in Wasilla, Alaska, Governor Palin reflected upon some of the administration’s accomplishments for Alaska as she approaches her final year in office.

“I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” said Governor Palin after the announcement. “Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose. It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success. I look forward to helping others – to fight for our state and our country, and campaign for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops, and energy independence.” The transfer of power will occur following the Governor’s picnic in Fairbanks on July 26. At that point in time, Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell will be sworn in and Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will assume his role as Lieutenant Governor. Governor Palin will spend July 4th in Juneau. ### Selected Accomplishments of the Palin Administration

General

* Transferred more control of public issues to the local level Natural Resources
* Created the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office to oversee responsible development
* Held the line for Alaskans on Point Thomson that encouraged drilling
* Restructured the state’s oil taxes to create a clear and equitable valuation formula for our oil and gas
* Initiated and implemented the largest energy project in the world through the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act
* Removed government from the dairy business and put it back into private-sector hands

Ethics

* Ushered in ethics reform
* Cleaned up previously accepted unethical actions affecting development

Fiscal Notes

* Slowed the rate of government growth
* Worked with the Legislature to place billions of dollars in savings
* Vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars in capital budget line items
* Reduced Alaska’s dependence on federal earmarks by nearly 85%
* Eliminated state-funded personal luxuries like the jet, the chef, and junkets
* Refused a pay raise, along with the Lieutenant Governor

Education

* Provided unprecedented support for education initiatives Public Safety
* Filled long-vacant public safety positions over the last year Corrections
* Broke ground on the new state prison

Fish and Game

* Maintained biologically-sound wildlife management for abundance Environment
* Established first sub-Cabinet on climate change

Legal

* State’s rights protected in two recent victories handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court

###

What do you think about Palin’s exit from the Governor’s Office? If you would rather leave a voicemail than a written post here’s your chance. Simply click the Call Me button and enter your phone number and the system will call you to record you message. Please leave your e-mail so I can verify that the message left is a legitimate comment. I’ll will post some, if not all the messages, left unless you don’t wish to have it shared. Just keep the response on topic, refrain from personal attacks and no foul language. This is a free service and I’m beta testing this as an addition to the commenting that is already in place.

Following all the e-mails, here it is the step by step on how you too can add your Twitter flock to your Wordpress powered blog. You can get this running in under five minutes thanks to the new improved Wordpress admin panel. One thing to remember is that the images are being called in from Amazon’s S3 storage and it may take an hour for the images to first show up on your page. Be patient, changing the settings then publishing again and again could lead to more frustration as it will only delay your first feed.

1 – From the plugins panel select Add New.

2 – Search for Twitter Friends.

3 – Select Install

4 – Activate the Twitter Friends Widget

5 – Go to Settings for Twitter Friends. This should be at the far left bottom when you first activate the plugin.

6 – In the Twitter Friends options sets add your Twitter user name and password then save. Select if you want to show your friends or followers.

>

7 – Create a new page, not post, then switch to HTML mode on the edit area and add the following code:

[twitter-friends title="My Twitter Friends" limit="300" type="friends" size="normal"]

The variables you can change here are title where you can give your flock any title you want, limit where you set the maxium number of Twitters you want to show, if you have million followers you may not want choke the server down there Ashton. The type is either “friends” or “followers” which you want to show, I selected followers as a “thanks for the follow” gesture. Finally the size is the size you want your Twitter’s profile photo to be, you have three choices “mini”, “normal” or “bigger”.

After you can entered all your choices you can hit publish or you add some copy to explain the page to people who may not be up to speed on Twitter. Once you have done these simple steps you should have a page that looks like the Flock of Twitters page. Additionally the plugin has a sidebar widget you can add to your sidebar.

Here is a small example of how it will look:

I hope you found this a quick and easy article and you were able to get your flock proudly displayed on your blog. When you do leave a comment with the URL where you have yours up at.

Blue Jay.egg on Aviary.

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I’m bad to play favorites when it comes to lenses. When one comes my way that I like the perspective, sharpness and the overall way it handles it’s going to stay on my camera 90% of the time. Any photography that is honest about their style will admit they have one lens they can not function without.

My all time favorite working lens is the Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 manual focus which I keep on a FM2 or F3 depending on how much weight I wanted to carry around. Keep mind that I’m talking about the film days. On another camera body I had a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 for wide shots. I kept a Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 and a Nikkor 180 f/2.8 in the camera bag I carried for when the need arised for either. Also in the bag is three Vivitar 283 strobes, but that’s an entirely different story.

The reasons the 105 is my go to lens are because it’s super sharp, small, rather fast at f/2.5 and has a shallow depth of field to separate the subject from the rest of the scene. The short telephoto as allowed me to make and capture eye contact with a subject without moving into their comfort zone. When Nikon quite production on the 105mm f/2.5 I picked up another one just in case…

Since the move to digital I had to adjust to several changes that weren’t in my usual photographic routine, one of the biggest changes was autofocus (AF) lenses. I had avoided AF altogether while shooting film. I worked for a camera store when the first AF lenses where coming out and I wasn’t impressed – they were slower than I operated and just felt child’s toy when you held them. I was forced to add some newer glass in the wide angle department because the DX format multiplies the focal length and all I could get was AF. Fortunately the engineers at Nikon have improved the speed and optical bench on the latest generation of lenses.

When I decided to buy a small dSLT to use for personal photos when I’m out walking around I went for the “kit” that had the Nikkor18-55mm and 55-200 VR lenses, the price was right and the overall weight wasn’t like my working bag. What I found was that I was keeping the 55-200 lens on the camera all the time. Granted it is not the fastest ship in the Nikon Armada and it is not perfect through the whole range of focal length and aperture settings as Nikon’s higher price lenses. Where is lens shines is in it’s size, focal range and vibration reduction (VR).

The photograph above isn’t the greatest, but when you consider how I shot it you can see how this lens shows it’s strength. The lens was at 200mm (or 300mm in 35mm format) at f/5.6 with a 1/60 second exposure at 800 I.S.O. and taken at 7:30pm under a canopy of trees, all while being hand held. The photo on the screen can’t match the colors and sharpness I got when I printed the photo out on an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 printer. If I had taken the photo without a VR lens there wouldn’t be much to see. For a lens targeted for the casual user the 55-200mm VR Nikkor is ultimate sleeper that packs a lot of bang for the money. It has earned a place in my around neighborhood and recreational photography equipment line-up.

In Case You Haven’t Noticed…
I’m in the middle of a layout change and adding some extra features since moving to a new server. I’ve had a lot of e-mails about the Flock of Twitters page and wanting to know how it is down. Sorry if I haven’t answered all you yet, but I will post a how-to with screen shots later today if you are wanting to add something similar.

Today starts a new era in the Volunteer State. Starting today Tennesseans can order wine from out of state wineries and have it sent to their homes. Sounds like it’s a good time to celebrate with Winemessenger.com. Get your corkscrews ready for the Merlot, put Sideways in the Blu Ray and kick back.

Now members of the Tennessee legislature need to get to work and pass the Red, White and Food law for the state.

Comments are the hardest thing to keep under control and have stay on topic.  There are hundreds of scripts that will post comments and links to other websites or Spamming. At one point I was not moderating the comments left and I found that it made the readers’ experience difficult as they try to avoid clicking on a rouge link in the comments.

When I started holding the comments for moderation, checking each against know spam and reading myself before it was allowed to be seen with the story I noticed there were less comments getting posted. The plus side is the comments that do make the cut have helped to build a stronger post and give me stronger insight on what people really want read.

Now in 2009 I began seeing the conversation about the stories was moving off site and on to Twitter. When you look at the big picture, that wasn’t a bad thing at all.  I started seeing more traffic when one article would catch someones attention they would Tweet what was on their mind in regards to the post and attach a link to the site or story. This past April was prime example of how one person reading and sharing could spread like wild fire. That month alone ate up my yearly hosting budget on excess bandwidth charges. I began to looking for options that would pull the Tweets along side the comments of each story and keep the dialog alive and have all sides represented with the original post. Not that I wanted to pay for extra bandwidth. I wanted to see that some thoughts would be able grow into actions. Now one start-up project may make this possible and pull all the Twitter comments into the story’s page.

Tweetboard by 140ware is a widget that resides on top the website that allows posting comments regarding the post Twitter. When someone is reading an article they can click on the little green tab and log-on to Twitter and share their thoughts. From that point all Tweets referencing the post will be nested below in and in order. The concept is solid and implementing the Tweetboard on a site is simple. It works exactually the way they say. The only suggestion I would have so far is that there was an option to pick the color of the tab on left side.

I’m going to run the Tweetboard for a while and see how it shakes out. If there is a lot spammy comments or other off topic uses, it will come off. So give it a whirl and share your opinion on this layer of communicating.

From now until the July 7^th or until inventory is gone Geeks has Asus Eee PC 900A Atom N270 1.6GHz 1GB 4GB SSD 8.9″ Netbook Linux (Pearl White) for $149.99 with Secret Savings Code:

This is the lowest price I’ve seen on this netbook or any other brand netbook with these features and Intel Atom processor. This lightweight and compact netbook is the ideal companion for vacations this summer. It was designed to surf the Internet, check e-mail, connect with friends on Facebook and Twitter, upload your digital photographs and video, watch videos, listen to MP3s and more. If you are wanting a computer to work on projects from the office, then this netbook was built to work with Cloud applications like the free office suite Google Docs.

A quick look at the Asus Eee 900A features:

• Pearl white color
• Asus customized Linux operating system
• Intel Atom N270 1.60 GHz processor – Best in Class mobile processor
• 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• 4 GB SSD (Solid-State Disk) internal storage capacity
• No optical drive
• No floppy drive
• Intel UMA integrated video
• Integrated high definition audio with built-in speakers
• Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
• 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
• Keyboard with touchpad
• Built-in memory card reader
• 8.9-inch Wide LCD display with 1024 x 600 resolution (WSVGA)
• Factory Direct Warranty

I/O Ports:

• Three (3) USB 2.0
• One (1) 15-pin VGA
• One (1) RJ-45 Ethernet jack
• One (1) Microphone jack
• One (1) Headphone jack
• MultiMedia Card (MMC)
• Secure Digital (SD)

In addition to the picking up a wireless netbook for $149.99 you will also get a free 2 GB MP3 player. Just enter the Secret Saving Code at the checkout.

U.S. Federal Judge and blogger Richard Posner writes that he believes that stronger a copyright would help keep newspapers from disappearing. His plan would change the law so that linking to news story or any website could not be done without the web site owners permission.

This would probably work if it were easy to enforce violators. I’m pretty sure this idea was brought up in the early 1990s, I just couldn’t find where I first heard it.

One the biggest advertising expenses for business in local markets is the Yellow Pages. The pulp product has been around as long as people have been using the telephone. The problem today is that if you’re spending money on Yellow Page ads to reach the 40 somethings and below you’re wasting about every penny you put into it. This group of buyers are using local searches on the Internet or using social network sites to locate business in their area.

AT&T doesn’t want to lose any advertisers to social networks. In the first quarter of the year they brought in $1.3 billion in sales. In an effort to have a product that will reach an audience of younger buyers AT&T is rolling out a sister website the Yellow Pages website.

In an article on Forbes tells that AT&T will be rolling out a new website that marries the Yellow Pages with a social network. The mix may be a hard to compete against online heavy weights like Facebook and Google Adwords, but AT&T has something the new media companies doesn’t. A five thousand person sales force on the ground in every market.

The timing to compete against Facebook may have gotten easier for AT&T. Over the pass few weeks Facebook has been dealing with the issue of click fraud on advertising running on their network and working to fix the problem. Facebok did not make the problem known publicly or take any action until enough advertisers complained on message boards and blogs.

Click fraud is nothing new to the Internet. It is a common practice that a website does not get paid any money to run an ad and only gets paid when someone clicks an ad. Some website operators sign-up for an advertising program and just begin clicking the ads hoping to cash in undetected. It’s not been said if the fraud was done by someone working at the direction of Facebook or if the clicks were coming from someone wanting to run up a competitor’s ad spending.

While AT&T is working to deploy their newer Yellow Page venture it the perfect opportunity for newspapers to reboot their local online directory as well. Most newspapers already have some type directory incorporated in their news website. But few have added web 2.0 features to their directories took keep viewers on the site longer and have them coming back. For years newspapers have had to compete against the Yellow Pages trying to prove that money spent on a local newspaper ad campaign has a better ROI than the Yellow Pages. Now is the opportunity to over take the Yellows Pages as people are abandoning them.

If you are in the Knoxville (TN) area and you are looking for something kick-off summer here’s a great idea. Keith Ford, an old friend of mine from grammar and high school, is playing at the Louisville (TN) Landing Marina today starting at 7:00 pm.

Keith is am all around great guy and musician. Back where I come a good musicians were the ones that the venue didn’t have to erect a chicken wire barrier between the audience and the stage. Keith hasn’t looked out into the crowd and see chicken wire. I hate that I’m not going to be able to make it to the show. I don’t want to promise too much, but if you show up and mention you saw it here he might be able to hook you up with plenty of napkins for the night. Even without the napkins it is going to a great night to catch some good music on Fort Loudon Lake.

Facebook users can find the event here and I’ve added a map to the Marina below for driving directions.

The cover for the June 29th, 2009 Time Magazine has this credit:

PHOTOGRAPH FROM SIPA PRESS. DIGITALLY ALTERED. INSETS, FROM LEFT: PHOTOGRAPH BY RAOUL BENAVIDES FOR TIME; PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION BY C.J. BURTON FOR TIME

Whatever was altered it is hard for me tell what is organic and has been synthesized. I first suspected that the tower has been brightened, maybe it’s perspective adjusted. Secondly some of the faces behind that woman in the forefront lack even illumination and sharpness as the rest of the background. I’m still a little puzzled by the SARS mask on the fellow in the back, there are bullets flying all around Iran and he’s more worried about Swine flu. Whoever did the post work on the photo should get a medal.

Time did the proper thing by attaching the disclaimer to the photograph. The back-story behind the edit is one I would like to see told sometime in the future. There have been photographs that get published and then later are exposed as being altered and it discredits the photographer and publication.

After the previous photograph from Iran that was outed as an altered work without a disclosure I begin to think about when altering would be acceptable. Television blurs faces to protect the innocent or to cover offensive material. When I have had photograph sensitive subjects I try to adjust the composition and lighting angles show the subject, but just not make them identifiable, without resorting to removing the person later with Photoshop.

One time I had an editor ask me to move elements in a photograph that a reporter had taken to add more ‘drama’. When I brought up the time and ethical considerations, he went Nike and told me “just do it or” then he gestured to the door. Not having having immediate employment lined up, I did it. I found a good exit point a couple months later. In that case there was no disclaimer to accompany the photo.

Photoshop is one of the best tools a photographer and photo editor could ever ask for. It can save poorly exposed photos, correct color cast and sharpen the blurry spots. Revolutions have taught us regular tools can be used to create some serious damage. As magazines and newspaper are facing the shrinking of subscriber and advertiser base, they need to make sure they have a strong editorial policy about how editing software is used and when a disclaimer should be made about the photograph’s editing. The damage done by these powerful tools could collapse the foundation of trust the publications were built on. There aren’t many Mulligans being handed out to the print media these days.

Time did the right thing to shine a light the handling of the photograph. Covering a story in an area where the storytellers risk their own lives there probably is a compelling reason for the editing. If the editing was done to protect the safety of someone the photo or the photographer, then it seems justified to me. What do you think?