A rare sight: an Alfa Romeo sedan, resting amongst a sea of volume vehicles.

Alfa Romeo: Wikipedia | Peter DeLorenzo

Wikipedia on The Pantheon.

Listening (during Lent [1]) to Ryan Adams’ latest, including “We Disappear” [2], I contemplated salvation optics, observed in different locales.

A few examples:

[1] Lent, via duckduckgo.

[2] We disappear lyrics.

I found Elizabeth Bruenig’s recent article: “A Benedictine retreat from political life cannot be the answer for today’s Christians.” interesting.

Background: Gazing at Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey and 2017.

Wikipedia on Frida Kahlo.

Viking Bar.

A few of these images are in Salt Lake City, but not within the Temple Square.

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A few links that may be useful as we continue into 2017:

America the Aggrieved Departs Center Stage By Thomas PM Barnett @thomaspmbarnett

Trump’s Rollback of the Neoliberal Market State by @johnrobb

What Steve Bannon Wants You to Read by Eliana Johnson and Eli Stokols.

‘Trump makes sense to a grocery store owner’ by Suhasini Haidar.

University of Wisconsin Political Science Professor Kathy Cramer’s book “The Politics of Resentment” [duckduckgo summary] continues to garner attention: Mark Sommerhauser.

Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media. Merging voter data with many other sources is hardly unique to Cambridge Analytica.

Der Spiegel on Martin Schulz and Angela Merkel.

Democrats, Trump, and the Ongoing, Dangerous Refusal to Learn the Lesson of Brexit by Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald

Mary Beard’s S.P.Q.R. is worth reading.

Finally, the Books of Daniel, Acts and Romans offer a useful foundation.

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Gilgal Sculpture Garden

Illustrious camera (and lens) manufacturer Nikon announced an “extraordinary loss” and a “fundamental company-wide restricting” today [1].

This news followed CIPA’s 2016 report that “total shipments decline(d) 31.7 % year on year; interchangeable lens camera shipments as percent of total shipments grow to 48%”.[2]

However, while iPhone images are quite good, [3]

there remain plenty of opportunities to use great Nikon (Canon, Sony, Zeiss, Fuji, and so on) lenses in combination with larger sensors and useful software such as IBIS, IS and VR (techniques to stabilize the image when using slow shutter speeds) along with high frame rates, as in “Drop the Puck”:

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[1] Nikon’s 13 February 2017 Press Release.

[2] CIPA 1 February 2017 Press Release.

[3] S is for Sports (2013 and 2014)