Ugh, I'm losin' it. The other day I said my new Mac Mini was my 13th Mac. Not so fast, silicon-breath. I left out not only two of the three laptops I've owned, but a short-lived eMac and the 21"... | Continue reading

James, in the comments, gave me the idea yesterday that my monitor might have more ports on it (I've already been using the one on the side). So I checked—with a flashlight, craning my neck in ways it was not... Related Stories Work Experience Something To Shoot For Followup Abou … | Continue reading

I looked at "Supermoon Rising" this morning and was modestly shocked. (Black-and-white geek here.) The picture is best viewed on a calibrated monitor under subdued room light. For me, that means at night. I work in a room with windows... Related Stories A Curious Thing About a Bo … | Continue reading

Have a look at my latest. Took it at about 6:35 last night! I hit the balance point between ambient light and the moon's light, such that there's nice contrast but also detail on the surface of the moon and... Related Stories Open Mike: Clouds Over Seneca iPhone Photo New Work | Continue reading

Apple computers don't have enough ports for me. Apparently I'm the only guy in the world who has this problem. Well, the Mac Studio has enough ports, and the Mac Studio is the exact computer I wrote a whole article... | Continue reading

Okay, last post on real estate photography—y'all are used to how I sometimes chew a subject to death, right? Here's my second project. Really nice people—the woman is a voice artist and audiobook narrator, and has a giant soundproof booth... Related Stories The Leica D-Lux 7 and … | Continue reading

In the previous post, I at first wanted to use the term "true fan" because TOP has historically banned the use of the term "fanboy," due to the derogatory, demeaning way the latter term was hurled around when it was... | Continue reading

Under the heading of cameras, lenses and the like: how do you know when someone's a fanboy? Sample answer: ...They get excited by announcements or articles about new firmware for their camera. So...how do you know? Mike Original contents copyright... Related Stories Two 'New' Int … | Continue reading

A couple of recent comments that I think deserve your attention. I know you might already be tired of the topic of real-estate pictures, but I think it's always a good idea to take advantage of the vast expertise and... Related Stories Something To Shoot For Followup About Faked … | Continue reading

Just as a small addendum to the real estate listing photos post: remember I billed just under $600 for the whole job. Thirty-seven shots. I used to get a fee of $675 for one shot when I did portraits...that was... Related Stories Followup About Faked Photography Free Money (OT) M … | Continue reading

Rafael Nadal, of Mallorca, Spain, has announced that he will end his career after playing for Spain in the Davis Cup later this year. Andy Roddick on "Served" puts Rafa's career in context: when Rafa arrived on tour, the all-time... Related Stories Freaky Friday The Last Day of S … | Continue reading

I seem to be being judged from a lot of quarters these days. When I was a second-year student at the Corcoran School of Art, the School bought a city brownstone in the Dupont Circle area of D.C. to use... Related Stories Open Mike: How to Say Kamala (OT) Open Mike: The Walk-Jog ( … | Continue reading

Kind of a whirlwind weekend! The first observation: whenever I do something other than work on TOP, it takes me away from...working on TOP. Over the years many people have suggested I do many other things, but the problem is,... Related Stories Little Cropping Exercise | Continue reading

One disgruntled veteran at a FF annual meeting in 2016 was heard to complain, ‘They’re all fucking schoolteachers now.’ He was partly right. In the thirtieth Dáil in 2007 there were 3 university lecturers, 14 primary school teachers and 14 secondary school teachers; there were al … | Continue reading

Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, is working on a law that aims to ban so-called child-free ideology which it sees as harmful to traditional values. Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, announced recently that fines for “propaganda … | Continue reading

Monthly inflation went from 25% to about 4%. This is obviously great, but there are two small notes of concern. First, the 25% number was just one really bad month. Inflation had been at a baseline of about 4% for most of the last five years. The immediately-pre-Milei government … | Continue reading

1. Another meta-study on smart phone use and mental illness. 2. Ross Douthat has a serialized fantasy novel. 3. Movie Gen, on Meta. 4. “Home to only around four percent of the world’s automobiles, Africa accounted for 19 percent of road deaths last year.” 5. Why is “the Silent Ge … | Continue reading

That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column, here is one excerpt: Economists from Princeton, Vanderbilt and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis have estimated just how much hard work contributes to inequality in lifetime earnings. While the answer depends on context, they a … | Continue reading

Donald J. Trump’s presidency broke the mold in many ways, including how to think about judicial appointments. Unlike other recent presidents, Trump was open about how “his” judges could be depended on to rule in particular ways on key issues important to voters he was courting (e … | Continue reading

From the excellent Katherine Dee, here is just one excerpt: TikTok sketch comedy is in the same lineage of theater. It invites a suspension of disbelief from the audience, creators often play multiple characters, rapidly switching between roles with nothing more than a change in … | Continue reading

Ed note: The original article is here. The camera is here. If you want one from the first release, sleep not. - Chris Kern: "Mike wrote, ...in keeping with Leica's service to photographers, you will not be forced to pay... | Continue reading

1. Bitcoin documentary on HBO. Claims they will unmask Satoshi. 2. GPT Canvas, for writing and research writing, interactive. And more here. 3. Inaugural World Bank Business Ready report (successor to the Doing Business which ended in 2021 over political rigging) is now out. Hung … | Continue reading

Kotkin’s most prominent book project is his three-volume biography of Joseph Stalin: The first two volumes have been published as Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 (2014) and Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 (2017), and the third volume remains to be published. Here is m … | Continue reading

Question: An economist once said that the fiscal theory of the price level was true, or became more true, as governments approached insolvency. But otherwise it is not true. Can you reconstruct analytically why the economist might have held this view? The economist’s view hinges … | Continue reading

1. How does low fertility affect economic growth? Podcast with Alice Evans and Jesús Fernández-Villaverde. 2. Kalshi’s court victory (bravo!). 3. Do oncologists understand Adam Smith? 4. Why is the speed of light so fast? 5. Films recommended in CWT. 6. Paul Milgrom update. 7. Th … | Continue reading