Penman Shipp

Were we better people 50 years ago?

raoulwidman — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:45:06 +0000

America has changed drastically in a short span of time.

A friend sent me this photo recently of president Obama speaking to a group of 6th grade school children.

So, there he is — surrounded with wiring, speakers, amplifier, teleprompter and presidential podium with the great seal and backed by a well armed Secret Service agent to keep an eye out for any threatening looking kids. The teleprompter is there because you can’t just speak to children informally. Apparently these kids expect a well-prepared message.

. . . . Okay. Now let’s rewind the clock 50 years, back to 1960.

Here’s John F. Kennedy speaking to a small assembly of people in Logan County, West Virginia.

50 years earlier – no one to keep the crowd away – standing on the very top of a kitchen chair – no teleprompter – his back turned on the kid with a gun.

There is no legal warning label on the chair. If you’re not careful you might fall off. Most people know this.

There’s no teleprompter because the man knows what he wants to say and has enough confidence to say it – in his own words.

The kid with the gun can take it to school and show it to others. They won’t lock down the school for 5 hours or arrest him.

Why are we so very different after 50 years ? We are certainly not improved.

Obama Photo from story at News @ Spreadit.org JFK Photo from story at Boston.com

Rural Enlightenment – d.light solar

raoulwidman — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:56:00 +0000

Talk about filling a need – where there is a LOT of need. So simple. So brilliant!

Make Your Own Vaccine !

raoulwidman — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:52:32 +0000

This one’s hilarious, but unfortunately true !

Pass it On

raoulwidman — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:59:28 +0000

Had this idea today to celebrate Independance Day. feel free to share it and pass it on.

This is a GIF animated image.

Real Food – A homegrown revolution

raoulwidman — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:21:25 +0000

I was speaking with a dear friend recently when we came to the subject of eating real, wholesome food. I found that he had no idea of significance of the letters “GMO”. ( Genetically Modified Organism )

When you visit a natural foods outlet you’ll find many of the packages bear the phrase: “Non GMO”. I’d seen it many times before I read an article that explained the problem in detail. When you really grasp the situation it is actually pretty horrifying. I recommend you do read up on it and then alert thos you care about to do the same in the interest of their well being.

But as my purpose here is to help people rather than upset or enturbulate, allow me to share a solution rather than the problem.

This video is THE most uplifting thing I have seen on the subject and I believe it can inspire anyone that sees it. So enjoy !

If it affects you in a positive way then by all means pass it on.

Happy Independence Day !

raoulwidman — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:46:09 +0000

Competence

raoulwidman — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:19:01 +0000

If our government could approach the competence level of Mozilla, Linux, & Google we’d be experiencing all of the freedom we desire.

http://raoulwidman.blogspot.com/

Technorati

raoulwidman — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:16:00 +0000

7atg42fkxe

Our constitution doesn’t happen to mention “democracy”

raoulwidman — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:10:51 +0000

This piece is one of my favorite clips for its simplicity in showing the fallacy of referring to political ideas as “Right wing”, Left wing”, etc.

Just reduce everything down to two-valued logic and feed it out to the masses as idea A versus idea B and for heaven’s sake don’t give them any ideas about actually doing any thinking for themselves. … Might start giving them uppity ideas of Freedom, or Independence !

What is America’s true form of government?

Brushes and Paint.Net

raoulwidman — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:05:20 +0000

You’ve already heard me say how much I love Paint.Net, so there’s nothing new about that. Paint.Net just IS the greatest thing to come along in the last few years, through the hard work of developers Rick Brewster and Tom Jackson.

Just one thing though — while you can do anything you could ever want to with Paint.Net, there is ONE single feature yet missing — Brushes. Go to the Paint.Net Users Forum and you’ll see post after post, asking: “when will there be brushes?” etc.

Well just relax, everyone. Here’s the solution: ArtRage 2.5.

I needed a really good airbrush for a recent client’s job and tried out ArtRage. AWESOME! Not ONLY does ArtRage have ANY type of brush or paint effect you could ever hope for, it costs only $25, and (here’s the great part) you can use it in tandem with Paint.Net. Piece of cake.

ArtRage allows you to create multi-layered files just like Paint.Net and save them as individual files. So you do whatever you like in Paint.Net and any time you desire a brush effect, save the layer as a .PNG image and open that image in ArtRage. When you have the effect you like, Save the ArtRage Layer as a .PNG image.

Bottom line ? Photoshop costs about $400.00. Paint.Net is free. Add ArtRage 2.5 for another $25.00 and you just saved yourself $375.00.