Mark McNease

Imagine going into a port-a-potty stall, never a pleasant experience to begin with, and there’s a face staring up at you from the tank. That’s what happened in Boulder, Colorado, during a yoga festival. The suspect slipped away. From the HuffPost: DENVER (Reuters) – Police in Boulder, Colorado were searching on Tuesday for a man who hid inside the tank of a portable toilet at a yoga festival, startling a woman who was using the facility. The bizarre incident happened June 17 at the Hanuman Yoga festival in Boulder, a college town northwest of Denver. The woman, who was not identified by authorities, said when she lifted the toilet seat lid, she noticed something moving in the tank, according to a Boulder Police news release. The woman exited the toilet and asked a man who was standing nearby to check inside. The man told police he saw someone inside the tank covered with a tarp.
]]>

A friend clued me into this, and I immediately tought of lgbtSr contributor KJOY. We’re both photographers (hers is on the professional side, mine’s a hobby). It’s a lot to digest about this new camera coming out, but something to keep a shutter – I mean eye – on. From PC World:

With a new kind of camera, Lytro wants to remove the headaches of focus from digital photography. Lytro, a start-up based in the Silicon Valley, hopes to revolutionize the camera industry by bringing “light field” cameras to the market this year. This type of photography captures the color, intensity and direction of individual light rays, allowing the user to refocus the picture even after it has been taken. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Lytro’s founder and chief executive, Ran Ng, likened the technology to a multitrack audio recording, in which each instrument is recorded separately and mixed later. A blog post on Lytro demonstrates the concept with an interactive photo. Clicking anywhere on the picture changes the point of focus, causing other parts of the scene to blur into the background. A picture gallery shows more examples. Lytro also claims that its cameras work in low lighting without flash, and can produce 3D photos with a single lens. “We have something special here,” Ng wrote. “Our mission is to change photography forever, making conventional cameras a thing of the past.”]]>

In a stunning confession that fits with his Pulitzer Przie-winning reporting, gay journalist Jose Antonia Vargas has come out as an undocumented immigrant – in the New York Times! From the New York Times: I decided then that I could never give anyone reason to doubt I was an American. I convinced myself that if I worked enough, if I achieved enough, I would be rewarded with citizenship. I felt I could earn it. I’ve tried. Over the past 14 years, I’ve graduated from high school and college and built a career as a journalist, interviewing some of the most famous people in the country. On the surface, I’ve created a good life. I’ve lived the American dream. But I am still an undocumented immigrant. And that means living a different kind of reality. It means going about my day in fear of being found out. It means rarely trusting people, even those closest to me, with who I really am. It means keeping my family photos in a shoebox rather than displaying them on shelves in my home, so friends don’t ask about them. It means reluctantly, even painfully, doing things I know are wrong and unlawful. And it has meant relying on a sort of 21st-century underground railroad of supporters, people who took an interest in my future and took risks for me.
]]>

From CBS Chicago: CHICAGO (CBS) – A renowned businessman and community activist in Chicago’s gay community has died at the age of 59. Roger “R.J.” Chaffin died this past Friday after a short illness, the Windy City Times reported. Chaffin was inducted into Chicago’s Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1997. At that time, he was described as “one of Chicago’s most visible gay businesspersons for more than 25 years” who raised thousands of dollars for AIDS charities. Continue reading]]>

From The Republic.com: PAYETTE, Idaho — An Idaho woman will serve at least three years in prison after she planted fake destructive devices at her trailer home, set fire to her truck then ran naked along a rural highway last summer to draw attention to her struggle as a transgender person. Catherine Carlson, 53, was sentenced Friday in 3rd District Court after being convicted of first-degree arson, unlawful possession of a bomb or destructive device, and using a hoax destructive device. She was also found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure. A Payette County jury convicted Carlson in April. The Argus Observer reported that Carlson sat quietly as Judge Susan Wiebe ordered her to serve a minimum of three years for each felony, to run concurrently, as part of a maximum 10-year sentence. She was also sentenced to serve 180 days for indecent exposure. Wiebe ordered Carlson to reimburse the county for $1,500 in emergency response costs.
Carlson will get credit for time served since her arrest in July 2010. About 50 homes were evacuated last summer after firefighters responded to a bogus report of a trailer fire and found pipes near a propane tank. The pipes contained no explosives.
]]>

We were just in Old San Juan two weeks ago on a cruise. I wrote afterward about the rising number of murders of LGBT people (18 most recently, at the time of the posting). The young waitress at the tapas restaurant where we had dinner told us murders were on the increase and it worried her. From the New York Times: LOÍZA, P.R. — As people strolled past the Alambique liquor store here recently, the puddle of blood and the bullet-shattered storefront behind it scarcely merited a glance. Yet another young man had been shot. Yet another tally would be added to the record books. For Roberto Clemente, who lives down the street from the crime scene, such casual acceptance illustrates just how deeply Puerto Ricans have been shaken by the island’s murder wave. “Enough is enough,” said Mr. Clemente, 59, who works for the town doing cleanup duties, as he motioned toward the liquor store. “We live unsafely in our homes. The cops know who did what, but there are no witnesses. Even if you see who did it, you stay quiet.” Now plagued by a steadily worsening murder rate, more Puerto Ricans are second-guessing their evening plans, contemplating moving to the mainland and sending away for gun permits in larger numbers to protect themselves. And the police are rolling out new strategies they hope will bring things under control.
]]>