More presidential photographs

I shouldn't give the White House photographer such a hard time about the Obama halo. I remember this photo from 2002 (or so. I can't remember for sure) that lined George W. Bush up on Rushmore. Photographers love to be clever.

Memo to White House photographer

I like your boss very much. But please never give him a halo ever again. Sincerely, Everyone Who Voted For Obama And Doesn't Think He Is The Messiah Posted on the White House blog.

Take it all with a grain of salt

I should add an important note to the last post. Take all those numbers with a grain of salt, as they also reflect, to a certain extent, how we spend our time. We drive more than we walk, we walk more than we ride our bikes, and we ride our bikes more than we light off fireworks. If we celebrated every Sunday with fireworks, you can bet that the risk of dying from them would be a lot higher. You also have to adjust for age. I am less likely to die from falling than someone 60 years older than Read more…

We are really bad at thinking about risk

This last week I've gotten into a discussion with a few people about vaccines and risk. I would highly recommend Wired's assessment of the situation from their last issue. But it's brought up a lot of thinking about risk. From everything I've read, it would appear that we humans are really really bad about understanding and responding to risk. Here's an important paragraph from the Wired article: Today, because the looming risk of childhood death is out of sight, it is also largely out of mind, leading a growing number of Americans to worry about what is in fact a Read more…

New Mary Holste Design website is up!

Mary's business has technically had a website these last couple years, but it's basically been a contact form, with little else going for it. After some solid work this past month, I'm happy to say that we finally have an actual website going. Check it out at MaryHolsteDesign.com. Also there are two screens below. Sometimes, the website you design may be your own. 🙂

Last night’s R-71 debate

I was very happy with last night's R-71 debate. We had a good discussion and good attendance (I think we had maybe 70 in the room, ranging from a state senator to a whole flock of college students). City Club has long hosted candidate forums and issue debates. But this was one different for a couple reasons: it was scheduled outside our regular programming and it was free. We had two presenters: Laurie Jenkins, a co-chair of the Approve 71 campaign, and Joseph Backholm, Executive Director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington. I asked five or six questions to Read more…