Back in the 1920s and 1930s companies would send out products that people did not order and bill them for it. People were a lot more naïve in those days and would often just pay for the item. The Government stepped in and said that if you receive a product that you did not order, IT WAS A GIFT! You were legally entitled to keep the item.

My take on IRAN is that the United States through Jimmy Carter's well meaning but naive view of the world, gave IRAN's version of Saddam Hussein protection to the Shah of Iran. In the 1950s, this SAME Shah was overthrown by the Iranian people. President Eisenhower gave his approval to putting the Shah BACK on the throne and he was as brutal a dictator as Saddam ever was. Oh, but wait, it was the Cold War and we needed Iranian listening posts to keep an eye on the Soviets and the Shah was anti-Communist and an US ally so that made all alright so we OWED HIM. This is why IRAN hates us today. The Russians have given SNOWDEN safe haven and we are still mad about that. What if the Russians had given Bin Laden safe haven? That is what WE did to IRAN. When we lost IRAN we had our GOOD BUDDY, enemy of IRAN, Saddam Hussein provide us with listening posts to replace the ones we lost in IRAN. They were second best but they were better than NOTHING. Saddam fought a protracted war against IRAN and eventually was able to end the stalemate. Saddam used chemical weapons on some Kirdish villages that supported IRAN and we heard about this on the news in the US for TWO DAYS and then it fell off the front page because we still needed those listening posts. Saddam had borrowed money from Kuwait and they were wanting payment. Saddam wanted the price of oil to go up to $18 (yes, count'em 18) dollars per barrel and Kuwait would not go along with that. Saddam then ASKED OUR OPINION of him annexing the Kuwaiti oil field to which we replied
that "that is an internal Arab affair". Saddam interpreted that as US permission so he REANNEXED the country of Kuwait that was created by the stroke of a British official's pen in 1924! We were "OUTRAGED" by "NAKED AGGRESSION". George H. Bush got Gulf War I going to try to win re-election. Saddam tried to have George H. Bush killed for double crossing him. George H. Bush IGNORED all of the reprisals against Iraqis would helped the allies in Gulf War I. Desert Storm was all about George W. Bush using the US military to settle a personal family score. In the process George W. Bush violated the first two protocols of the Nuremburg tribunal. Protocol 1 - Conspiracy to commit breach of peace. Protocol 2 - Breach of peace. The Nuremburg tribunal sentenced German government officials to HANG for these two charges. I guess the winners make the rules and WE have nuclear weapons and they don't so it makes it ok that we installed governments in Afganistan and Iraq.

In answer to my earlier question: What this the difference between the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003; the answer is that the United States got away with it and Germany did not.

We have NO RIGHT under international law to replace governments not of our liking. President Gerald R. Ford was strongly of this opinion too.

I have seen that footage. However, when I was in Beijing in 1988 there were an large number of Mitsubishi buses carrying all of us tourists around. Saw lots of Japanese products. I think they have gotten over most of it.

This argument has gone on since the end of WWII. I have studied this conflict in detail for over 40 years.

If I kill you with a rock or if I zap you with a high tech death ray, are you any MORE dead with the death ray than the rock? No. The atomic bombs PALE in comparison to the death tolls of the fire bombings of Tokyo slums (178,000) or Dresden (135,000). The method of destruction is pretty irrelevant to the dead. Yes, the radiation does linger unlike a fire bomb.

I have asked the question REPEATEDLY over the years and NO ONE has been brave enough to answer me: What is the difference between the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003? The citizens of Japan ALLOWED their government to invade China and commit horrible acts there without staging a revolution. When the bombers flew overhead and rained destruction on their cities, still no revolution took place. Even after Nagasaki an attempted coup took place in Japan to keep the Emperor from surrendering. As Harry Turman said, the estimates of 1,000,000 additional US dead in an invasion of the Japanese home islands, (paraphasing) What would I say to the families of the dead if I had a weapon that could have ended the war and did not use it?

That is the question that history raised. These people are martyrs to the nuclear age and probably helped prevent WWIII during the Cuban missile crises. Global Nuclear War was prevented by ONE political officer on the Soviet missile sub under attack by a US destroyer. Yes, folks, ONE guy prevented that sub from launching its missiles. That is how close WE came to having nuclear detonations on US soil.

Think about this in the context of Nagasaki.

Download the thirty day free trial of Adobe Premiere Pro. Drag the video onto the timeline and export it as 16 X 9.

Two shots taken with the model sitting very still. Overlay the two images and and alter the opacity of the foreground image. That is how I would do it as a videographer turned photographer.

My FIRST DSLR was a Nikon D2x that I bought off of ebay. This was my "Training Wheels" camera to learn how to use Nikon's autofocus system. The ISO was not high enough for my needs. I sold it and bought a Nikon D90 which is my current camera. You can get GOOD, LOW USEAGE used D90 for about $300. Don't be afraid of refurbished gear. It is like a used car that has been checked over by the factory. Better gear, lower price.

AFTER you buy your first camera, go buy the Magic Lantern book on your particular camera. Then go and READ the Magic Lantern book on your particular camera. I buy LOTS of camera gear from people who spent BOATLOADS of money on new gear and then never learned how to use it! DON'T become my next equipment vendor! Buy it, learn it, use it, enjoy it!

regardless of the camera you end up with.

I am an excellent teacher. I can teach you any number of skills ranging from cooking a great roast, to photography, to video editing, to setting up a computer network. However, I JUST can't seem to be able to teach ATTITUDE!

Get an HDTV/MONITOR. Make SURE it is BOTH! For about 50 bucks more they stick a TV tuner in your monitor and you have a lot more use out of your monitor. I use a Samsung SyncMaster T260HD to edit photo, video, quality check DVDs and Blu-rays, and can still watch TV on it.

I do both photo and video.

Clean your print heads and run a print test. Clogged print head will produce the exact same result.

Your hobby generates money to help pay for the equipment and you do a good enough job that people will give you money for what your hobby produces.

The SUBSCRIPTION ROUTE is WAAY MORE BETTER than the old way. I have been using Adobe products since CS 1.5! Look at the cost of updates over time! An update will cost you more than the subscription model. You can actually talk to tech support rather than paying a per incident fee. You also do not get the answer to a problem of "SUCKS to be you Sahib. Perhaps you should put in a suggestion for a bug fix and perhaps before the bones of your great grand children turn to dust, we will get around to fixing this problem." With the subscription YOU CAN CANCEL and stop giving Adobe money. They are MUCH quicker to fix things because they know this too! At $10 per month, how long will it take you to pay for the software? How many updates will you have to buy in that same time frame.

If you are still determined to give Adobe money with no accountability for their product, try www.videoguys.com. They are a very good source or go out to ebay. Adobe will transfer licensing.

CS6 has some very nice features. I teach people how to do 90% of the necessary photo editing in 20 minutes. PLENTY of online tutorials to bring you up to speed. Learning Adobe Products is like eating a whole elephant, you do it ONE BITE at a time.

And remember to take advantage of the 30 day free trial. Elements products stink on ice as far as I am concerned. STUPID Adobe does not have enough sense to create a common user interface for their product line OR maintain proper security on the online subscription service!

Look at the new A7 and A7R.

A very similar great Nikon lens is the 80-200 f2.8. Available used for about $600. The 70-200 VR I f2.8 runs about $1400 used. The 70-200 VR II f2.8 runs from $1,800 to $2,100.

All three are great lenses. If you need a second lens, take your pick. I own an 80-200 f2.8 and use it to shoot action in dark theaters.