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Make $100 the easy way – but you’d better act fast!
I was pretty excited about this contest and looking forward to entering, until I saw the following text in the news release announcing the contest:
North Dakota Tourism will retain exclusive ownership rights to all winning photographs for use in the 2008 North Dakota Travel Guide, Hunting and Fishing Guide and on the Tourism Division’s Web site.
What they’re doing is actually getting cheap stock photography. If a person goes to a professional stock photo site, a single photo can cost in the hundreds of dollars. Even then, the purchaser does not get ownership rights to the photo! Since there are few North Dakota photos on the stock photo sites anyway, it makes sense to try to lure North Dakotans to send in their own for a meager prize.
I don’t sell ownership rights to my photos, period. I’ve sold prints for the $250-300 range, but even those have a copyright penned on them next to my signature. These days one can’t be too careful to protect one’s intellectual property, and I keep up on the legal ins & outs of doing so since I work in this business.
If you don’t mind signing away the ownership rights to one of your photos, and can get a print done overnight at Bob’s Photo and run up to the capitol before end-of-business Friday, enter the contest! A hundred bucks is a hundred bucks, after all. But just make sure you’re aware that they intend to own exclusive rights to that photo. It’s up to you whether that’s worth it.
Follow the rays home
This sunset photo was taken from an anonymous overpass in eastern North Dakota…I don’t even remember where, but it was remote. I was hoping to get on the road in time to reach the Prairie Pothole lakes for the sunset, but sadly that didn’t happen. No worries, I was treated to an amazing sky nearly all the way home…and by the time it got dark, my windshield was so pasted with bugs that I couldn’t see much anyway! A quick stop at King Koin to pressure wash the truck took care of that once I reached Bismarck. Sometimes I take my Suzuki down to Fargo, park it in the KVLY garage, and drive one of their cars for the weekend. I’m sure glad I didn’t do that this time around! Cleaning bugs off my leathers and helmet is NOT fun.
Mandan should have one of these
Pink & Purple Power
Remember the stereotypical image of stacks belching forth acrid black smoke? Those days are long gone, thanks to pollution control measures. In fact, the only thing you’re likely to see from today’s power plants is steam…which makes sense, because that’s all a power plant really is: a steam factory. Once they’ve made the steam, they force it through the turbines of some very large generators, but the process of the plant is the liquefaction and ignition of coal in order to heat water into steam. As cleanly and as safely as possible, I might add.
On Golden Pond… river, actually
Logan County storm – check out this supercell
Another reason why E-85 is a joke – one that isn’t very funny
I have a hard time believing the farmer or rancher is going to come out successful in the long run, and it’s obvious the consumer is getting robbed. So who’s making money? Simple: the people collecting the government subsidies on ethanol blended fuels.
In ND, E85 can contain as little as 70% ethanol. Check the text on that orange button on the E85 pump. That means an E85 producer can hedge 15% of the ethanol in the fuel he makes and collect a 50 cent per gallon subsidy on 15% more product! What a racket, eh?
Why do you suppose they give it 15% leeway? Perhaps it’s because the ethanol evaporates and/or absorbs water. That’s why they can’t transport it using pipelines. So if it will absorb water in a pipeline, what do you suppose it’s going to do in the underground tanks at the gas stations?
What about putting a hygroscopic fuel in your gas tank? Do you feel like replacing a $500 fuel pump in your General Motors Flexfuel vehicle every winter when the water absorbed by the ethanol freezes up and takes out the impellers of your fuel pump? Since 1995, GM has integrated the fuel pump with the gas gauge sending unit in its vehicles. Trust me, I had to replace one. I couldn’t believe the $670 bill! Look forward to more of those if you’re going to start making ethanol ice cubes in your gas tank.
Let’s not forget that E85 is a thermodynamic loser as well. That means you get less energy out of gallon of E85 compared to a gallon of gasolene. Simply put: your car doesn’t have much power, your mileage goes down, and you save ZERO in the long run. But you get to feel better (until you crunch the numbers) and some fatcat gets to collect a government subsidy. E85 is a joke, plain and simple. Anyone who tells you otherwise has a purely financial interest in doing so.
Before Medora had its ampitheater…there was Fort Abraham Lincoln
This photo comes from a friend’s collection. His dad spent most of his time in the air and, like myself, never went anywhere without his camera. He’s amassed a treasure of North Dakota history, which I’ve been entrusted to share with you. You’ll be as astonished as I was.
The last time I was up at Fort Lincoln State Park, one of the young guys working for the park was able to show us where the ampitheater used to reside. It was a pleasant surprise to find out about it, and also to find a guy in his 20s who knows about it.
By the way, the executive director of the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation is pro-abortion ND state legislator Tracy Potter, who thinks the ND law outlawing abortion is “terribly embarrassing.” I suppose now I’ll be accused of “attacking” Mr. Potter because I’ve quoted his deplorable political beliefs, but that’s what liberals do: set themselves up in foundations, institutions, or bureaucracies, then cry “attack!” whenever someone points out what they believe.
Here’s a bit of advice for Mr. Potter: instead of trying to advance liberal social agendas in the state legislature, focus on Fort Lincoln and lean on ’em to keep the blockhouse gates open until dark (as the sign says) for local photographers to enjoy them at sunset! Only once this year have I driven out to Fort Lincoln before dark and found the gates unlocked. Now THAT is “terribly embarrassing.”
Friday night boat
