Vox Publica

I've been wondering for a while why digital cameras need a flash to take pictures inside or under poor lighting conditions. Sure, some allow you to set the digital "film" at a higher ISO, but then you will also get grainier pictures. Why is that? Is there something in the technology that impedes them from allowing you to take good pictures under bad light conditions? Is it a foolish attempt to imitate film cameras? Does anyone know?

Why are so many ancient languages written from right to left? Is it pretty random what direction a written language takes or is there something to guide it? Ancient Egyptian can be written in any direction. Is that true of other languages like Chinese as well?

Every time I'm interested in buying a product, I look it up on Amazon and then google it, to see if I can find it cheaper elsewhere. Nine times out of ten, the total cost of the product (when you consider price + shipping costs) is lower on Amazon than in the other webstores. What I don't understand is how those e-businesses can survive. Why would anyone buy a product for more? And yet there are hundreds of those e-businesses all over the place. Who buys from them? And why?

I just got Mika (and Camila) the Alex Toys Silkscreen Factory, which I will review later after we have printed more items. We just did the bandana it came with, but we'll have to buy other (cheap) items of clothing to silk screen.

In any case, as everyone who knows me knows, I can be quite dense for things related to arts and crafts and, really, how things work to begin with. So I have a question - Why do you need the silk for silk screening? Why not just paint directly on the fabric without the silk between the paint and fabric? If anyone knows, please e-mail me or comment.