Hacked for Islam

I didn't quite know what to make of it when I first saw it, whether to laugh or be horrified. Sometime around 10:00 pm last Saturday night I received an email telling me my portfolio site had been hacked. When I checked, instead all the nice pictures on my landing page that normally greet a visitor I found this:


Accompanied by ominous music. According to the official incident report the attackers found a vulnerablity and ran a rogue code that over wrote any files with the word index in the filename, defacing a number of sites hosted on the servers. The attack was traced back to a group called Milw0rm and while I will likely never know the identity of the attacker and whether they were jihadists or just bored teenagers out for some mischief, the creep out factor was over the top, coming as it did the day after the 8th anniversary of 9/11. The site was fully restored in a matter of hours and I can't say enough good things about the customer support at Easystreet.

Andrew Wheating for Runner's World

The University of Oregon star is being billed as the great American hope in the 1500. A really nice kid, I hope he make it happen.

72nd All American Soap Box Derby World Championships

My daughter, as the top points earner in Region 1, earned a return trip the All American Soap Box Derby World Championships in Akron Ohio, held the third week of July. This year she bounced back after last year's devastating crash and won 8th place in the Stock Rally division.
It's often frustrating to attend this event as a photographer because while I am constantly inspired by the rich visual environment of the event, my job as car handler for my driver prevents the kind of attention necessary to make serious photographs. So I keep my G9 handy and shoot what I can when I can. Not much race day action this year due to her staying in the race but I'll trade the pictures for the trophy any time. If you have a kid between the ages of 8 and 17 I urge you to get involved in this fantastic old school family activity.

Playing Catch Up, Fourth of July