BJ Lawson, eager for the opportunity to join Ron Paul in the House of Representatives as a Constitutional Moderate, won the NC Republican primary with 70% of the vote. He’ll be running against 22-year Democratic incumbent David Price in November.

BJ introduced Ron Paul at his speaking engagement at Duke on the 2nd, and at one time headed up the Triangle area’s Ron Paul meetup group before he took to campaigning for Representative. He attributes his success to the increasingly popular message of freedom and Constitutional governance, rather than to any particular quality he possesses.

Regardless of Ron Paul’s success or failure in securing the Republican presidential nomination, I am certain that others, like BJ, have gotten involved with the political process because of their enthusiasm for his political message. I’m curious to know how widespread the phenomenon is, and suspect that it won’t end with this election year.

Many people tout change as essential to our nation’s prosperity. It’s encouraging to see that some are willing to effect that change, rather than simply reflect upon it…

Here’s some grassroots wisdom: “Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be”.

Lifehacker just had an update about installing the CHDK firmware hack for Canon digital cameras. I’ve been using it for a while, but only to enjoy a few new bells and whistles, like a battery meter, digital clock and other gizmos.

Inspired to download the latest build, Lifehacker had all the particulars about how to identify my camera’s model and firmware version and how to install CHDK. I had quite forgotten since the last time I did it, and they’re a great resource. The best part of all this is that it installs on your memory card - nothing replaces the program in the camera’s hardware at all, so there’s no risk of bricking your goods.

One of CHDK’s strengths is its ability to run ’scripts’ by a BASIC-like language. I’m starting to tinker with some of the custom scripts available. Maybe I’ll be inspired to write my own some day soon. Some of these leverage options in the firmware that allow you to set your camera to do many things that only some of the most expensive cameras can do. Blazing fast shutter speeds of 1/100,000 for high-speed photography; custom wide-range exposure bracketing for HDR photography; motion-detection + slow shutter speeds allow you to capture lightning strikes. There are many scripts available and the folks in the forums seem to be actively bouncing ideas back and forth.

If you have a Canon camera, check it out.