Jonathan D. Blundell

Lifehacker passes along a link for 16 great photo tips for Christmas. Here’s just one example:

There are certain moments during a Christmas gathering that are filled with all manner of photographic opportunities and the opening of gifts is like no other in that it is filled with an array of emotions, facial expressions and excitement – especially if you’ve got kids around. Switch your camera to burst mode (sometimes called continuous shooting mode) and take lots of shots at this time of the festivities. You’ll find you end up with some excellent series of shots when you do this….

Read more. Via Lifehacker.

Well a new day has dawned, I received a press release from Don Burnam, State Rep. Dist. 90 (in Fort Worth). No, I’ve received press releases before, but not as a blogger. They’ve all come to my inbox because of my role as a newspaper reporter.
But you know the Legislature is getting ready to start meeting again when everyone’s sending out press releases on their latest bills. Here’s the release from Burnam:

Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Ft. Worth), a member of the Law Enforcement Committee of the Texas House of Representatives, filed House Bill 418 which would limit the use of Tasers by law enforcement officers. Current policy allows individual police departments and officers wide discretion as to when a Taser can be used. Rep. Burnam’s bill would limit Taser use to situations in which the officer is “justified in using deadly force” as defined in the Penal Code.
“The number of incidents in which officers use tasers on unarmed people is truly alarming,” said Rep.
Burnam. “There are currently 16 documented deaths due to Taser use by police in Texas. There is a perception out there that Tasers are safe and generally harmless. That perception is dead wrong. Tasers have proven to be lethal and that’s why they should only be used in situations in which deadly force is justified.”
The situation is bad statewide: in Austin, incidents in which police officers used Tasers went from three in 2002 to 265 in 2004; in Lubbock, a lawsuit is pending after a police officer tased an unarmed man six times even though video released to the public shows he was not resisting arrest; recently in Houston, Texans football player Fred Weary was Tasered for no apparent reason as no charges were filed against him.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Tasers have been used in Houston 892 times in the last two years; in only 39 of those incidents would officers have been justified in the use of deadly force.
“All my bill says is that if you’re going to shoot someone with 50,000 volts, it should only be done when the officer is in grave danger,” Burnam continued. “If a suspect is unarmed or does not present a deadly threat to the officer, they should not be tased.”
Analyses of statistics from around the state show that Tasers are used disproportionately on minorities. In Houston, for example, police data shows that 63% of tased suspects were black.
“Tasers are being used on minorities with impunity,” said Burnam. “It needs to stop.”

I don’t know if tasering is really as bad as its made to sound here, but I would rather be tasered than shot. No doubt about that.
My initial assumption would be that the amount of tasering has increased over the last few years because the number of officers with tasers has increased. Only seems logical.

Please read this important message regarding your beloved tea and coffee….
Don’t fall into sin like your brothers and sisters have.

There might be some who allege that drinking just one or two glasses of tea does not lead to caffeine addiction. This is technically true, but unfortunately, not all Christians who partake in moderate tea drinking can stop with just a couple of glasses. It is not uncommon for Christian men and women to progress from tea, to coffee, to 64 ounce Colas or Mountain Dews. Where does it stop? How does one know when the line of addiction has been crossed? If caffeine is addictive, then why play with fire? We must conclude that Drinking tea is a sin (Counsels on Diet and Drink: Part II, Tea and Coffee, page 434).

I’m rolling on the floor spilling my coffee and tea everywhere.
Please be sure to read the entire entry and comments.

When you’re done, be sure and read Lessons from Africa as well.

Moby talks about being a weird Christian today on his blog:

i won’t ever argue with anyone about religion or claim that i’m right and they’re wrong.
but in my own weird and subjective way i’m a weird little christian.
i believe that there’s something somehow divine about the teachings of christ, and the fact that christ’s teachings compel us to be selfless and forgiving and humble and loving and non-judgemental.
this is one of the reasons that i get so annoyed with contemporary christianity and it’s seemingly comprehensive disconnect from the actual teachings of christ.
but, nonetheless, i find it odd when people come to moby.com or myspace to say ‘moby, we christians do this/that/etc’.
i kind of want to say, ‘uh, dudes(notice the contemporary colloquialism, that’s me trying to fit in)i’m one of you, ok?’
christ compels us to be better than we usually are.
christ compels us to forgive those who’ve wronged us.
christ compels us to love our enemies.
christ compels us to be humble and non-judgemental.
christ compels us to care for the neediest.
christ compels us to be non-violent.
christ compels us to recognize that the material world and all of our posessions will ultimately turn into dust, so we shouldn’t get too attached to our bodies, our lives, and our stuff.
and, most importantly (in many ways), christ compels us to love one another and look after one another, and to see all people as our own family.

I thought this comment was interesting:

and i’ll never, not for a second, say ‘what i believe is right, and what you believe is wrong.’ what i believe is what i believe. it’s subjective and it makes sense to me and it changes as i change and as my experience in the world changes.

That doesn’t seem to leave any room for absolutes. Are there absolutes in your faith that you will not negotiate? Should there be?

If you’re looking for hard to find drafts in your house, burn a stick of incense and hold it up to the walls/windows/doors. The smoke from the incense will change direction as a draft comes through.
Via Lifehacker

Instead of wasting yards and yards of expensive wrapping paper (that will just end up getting thrown away), use these creative ideas to still have pretty gifts without wasting paper. In addition to the old favorite, newspaper, Danny Seo has created a list of gorgeous alternative wrappings at his blog, Simply Green, including this idea to use vhs tape as ribbon. To avoid paper altogether, try furoshiki, a method of folding cloth to wrap things, which was featured a while ago at Make.
Via DIYHappy.com