I don’t have any suitable Labor Day pictures, so here’s a picture of the Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Everyone told me I had to see it, and I suppose people used to labor here, so it’s at least minimally appropriate.

The weird smoothness of the water is due to the fact that I used a long shutter speed. I normally do this for waterfalls to produce a silky look, but for some reason I felt like doing it here. The change it produced compared to a normal shot is small, but kind of interesting.

May 8, 2019 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

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LET’S TALK ABOUT OPTIMISM FOR A CHANGE

Democracy and journalism are in crisis mode—and have been for a while. So how about doing something different?

Mother Jones did. We just merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting, bringing the radio show Reveal, the documentary film team CIR Studios, and Mother Jones together as one bigger, bolder investigative journalism nonprofit.

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