Goosebaby

What photographic gear do you use (a) in the field, and (b) when you're out on a casual afternoon in your own free time?

Do politicians frequently visit to walk around the factory and hold photo ops with the workers? I visited the Everett facility a few years back, and it is the perfect backdrop for every political ad ever.

Regarding item 3 - have you tried Google BigQuery? Hadoop isn't necessarily "the answer" for all things Big Data.