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 This week the mortgage market hit the lowest levels. Shouldn’t low mortgage rates be good news for the housing market? Shouldn’t it be good news that sales were up in April too? But despite the attractive mortgage rates, mortgage applications went down quite a bit following the home buyer tax credit deadline April 30. Plus, numerous homeowners are still out of work, a lot more than 1 million a lot more foreclosures are likely to occur and banks still have yet to put the homes they've already taken back on the market. The housing market recovery can have to wait. Read more »

If a mud run isn’t on your bucket list, you might want to consider it. Along with tractor pulls and cook-offs the annual run of trucks large and small through a course of, well yes, mud is a big deal in Northern Michigan. We were fortunate enough to be here this year in time for the Boyne Falls Annual Mud Run, where amateurs and pros alike took their straight up SUVs, pick-ups, and highly modified terrain warrior vehicles through a quarter mile of wheel deep mud—provided courtesy of the local fire departments’ hydrants and volunteers…

I’m sure Puffins don’t think of themselves as funny, but it is difficult to watch them when in breeding plumage and not imagine that they are wearing a clown suit and make up. ...

Hey everyone, i'm an amature photographer, actually got my D90 a little under a month ago, first DSLR and im still learning. Im picking up pretty quickly on all the different kinds of basic and prime lenses, and fisheyes, but i just cant figure out macro. I mean, there are 60mm prime macros and then huge zoom macros and i just dont know, first the difference besides zoom, whether they are 1:1 and what that ratio really means, and any recomendations on a good solid amature macro lens? Thanks