Interesting related fact: Approximately 1.2 million earth-sized planets will fit inside the sun!!!

Thanks to Amehta and Erik for the responses. I am a little less confused now! I read through the entire thread that Erik provided and see benefits both to DNG and to staying with raw (Nikon in my case). One commenter suggested that converting to DNG in LR might result in having to stay with LR or Photoshop hes statement is below. He said:

"It is not supported by most other raw editors and you can't convert back to raw (unless you embed the raw – resulting in a huge file!). So you would be locked into Lightroom of Photoshop by using DNG."

any idea what this means? Is there a real possibility that i might be locked in to LR or some Adobe program in the future??

Can anyone tell me what the benefits of converting to DNG are? I have been processing raw files and not converting to DNG should i consider a change? A link to some helpful description would help if the answer is complicated. Thanks

This thread is very helpful. I have been using LR for several years and still don't understand the actual mechanics of it. I still stumble around in the organizational side but can generally find everything but only because i have tagged every single photo as i brought it in. I now have 47,000 or more. My very strong suggestion to anyone beginning is get organizational advice from someone who really understands it as to files, tags and how to save and categorize everything-the develop module is easy compared to this behemoth. I sort of have a "manageable mess" on my hands now. also, figure out how to back it all up and make sure you are backing up the catalog file. Thanks for this thread

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. i think i just want the backup to allow me to recover what was on the primary drive as of the last backup. Meaning i don't need the deleted files back. I see no reason to keep anything i did not want on the primary drive. Is there a primer on Backing up for Dummies that you could recommend? Thank you again.

May I ask an elementary question? I have read this entire thread and I think it proves what I have thought for a long time-I don't really know what I am backing up or how it works! I have a Toshiba drive set to backup daily (an incremental backup, I think). In the meantime, as I go through Lightroom, from time to time I may delete dozens of poor or unwanted shots from years past. Does my back up still contain all those deleted shots?? It sounds like it does. So, if I have some crisis and have to recover the photos, I will get all of the deleted ones back and have to revisit the entire group to get rid of unwanted photos again. Is that right? If so, any suggestions on how to fix this problem???? I have never heard of a "mirror right" option. Is that what I should be doing? Any thoughts appreciated.

Marilyn, I just received the Nest tripod from MT Shooter. very prompt delivery it is priced right and it is very sturdy, light and I think you would be pleased with it.

Mystery Solved!!! You only need to read the last line of the Tucker piece to see why she "can't fathom" the dislike for O-Care. Ms. Tucker is a "Visiting Professor." She is part of the recipient class in the country herself and believes everyone else should just "receive" from the others. Further she really wants to believe that seven million people signed up, which, of course, has not happened. Math or basic facts simply don't matter to people who have never really had a job producing anything or had to sign the front side of a paycheck. This is what we have teaching our children today. No doubt, much of life is unfathomable to Ms. Tucker. Mystery solved!!

OK, i stand corrected. thanks. JM

Russellray, just wondering which local, federal or state agency you work for or what school system. Care to let us know? Am i close?

Jim, you have some ability to weigh things and get at the truth. Good for you. Unfortunately, many do not and they simply believe and then just parrot the hate from the left which is not constrained by the truth or facts, in may cases. Don't be too sure that it is just a passing fancy. After all, they just put a president in office here in the US 5 years ago and then again last year. "The force is strong, Luke Skywalker."

Sorry, it is still a weed.

wlgoode, I looked at the site you sent along. I started to forward it to my apiarist friend but thought I would look through the site and see what it was all about. Sort of applying the rules I laid out above for others when taking the word of seeming experts on websites. I discovered a few things that made me question anything on the site. I thought it VERY interesting that under the ALIENS tab it said:
Extraterrestrial and extradimensional visitors are a fact that is becoming harder and harder to dismiss by ridicule. There is now too much evidence and too many high-level individuals are coming forward with their stories. The question is now when official disclosure finally happens.
OK, let’s keep an open mind about ET and his friends. Maybe they are here from somewhere and maybe even in a couple of dimensions. Next Tab, please.
It was when I went to the People tab that I really began to question the site. Under “People who made a difference,” the site lists Hugo Chavez, Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. For anyone who has been living under a rock, Chavez is the recently deceased communist dictator of Venezuela and Snowden and Manning are two US traitors who are the darlings of the left. One is in jail and the other hiding in Europe somewhere. All are praised because they took on the world corporatism and the establishment military. Sounds strangely like the same crap that the SumOfUs.org puts out and then tries to collect money from readers to support their agenda.
And then, the coup d’ gras that told me everything I needed to know about this joke you sent along. Buried down in the site is the link to Energy Grid University: it is an online university and they advertise as follows:
With a worldwide reputation for academic excellence, EGU is now regarded as an Ivy League university. In fact, a recent survey in the Educational Times placed us above Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford, Yale and MIT for not only academic excellence, but also originality and radicalism.
Our exceptional graduate and post-graduate courses are fully accredited by us, and you can rest assured that any qualification you receive from us can very easily and
legally be printed after your name and displayed on your wall.
Note that the courses are fully accredited BY THEM and the degrees can be legally printed BY YOU. And guess what, I have just printed my degree a few minutes ago. The test was quite difficult, “want color is the sky?” “How many fingers and toes do I have?” yes those are real questions and I really did print a diploma. Oh and some of the PhD’s they have granted are in “Metaphysics,” “Love,” and one was in “What the **** is Going On?” Take a look for yourself: http://www.energygrid.com/misc/university/

So, wlgoode, the whole site is a JOKE. Did you even know that? This is another of the anti-establishment, anarchist sites of the far left that spews hate and crap about the US, corporations and everything that made this country what it is today. Again, I say to UHH members, take this crap for what is worth- exactly that. Don’t take anything for granted and don’t sign up or sent these dopes your email address or MONEY. They will use it against you – and laugh about how stupid you are. Oh, wlgoode thanks for the amusement! JerryM

Jim, you got me interested in the bees too. You brought up the issue in your reply of bees being under a threat and how all of these little critters (bees butterflies, etc.) are indicators of the health of our ecosystem. Well, I have read a bit about the bee decline issue because I have a friend who is an apiarist (bee keeper) who has managed to keep me abreast of the bee decline phenomenon.
Yes, bees are dying (or are not reproducing) and this has caused a phenomenon being experienced world-wide known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). At present, the exact reason for it is unknown. For example, bees have historically suffered from huge losses in population recorded as early as 950 and 1443 in Europe, 1905 in the U.S., 1906 (Europe again), and 1995 in the U.S. in Utah. We have seen that a large number of factors can produce CCD-like symptoms. We have also seen that CCD is not new: CCD-like symptoms have been known to beekeepers for more than a hundred years but are sufficiently infrequent that when symptoms are severe, beekeepers become concerned that there is something new afflicting their bees.
In truth, it could be any of, or a combination of, several possible factors. The problems could be related to parasites, pathogens, in-hive chemicals, immunosuppression problems, agricultural chemicals, climate issues, stress from geographical relocation and a myriad of other things. Very recent studies have suggested that Zombie flies (Apocephalus borealis) may be overtaking huge areas of bee habitat and killing them by injecting their larvae into them.
Also, another theory is that it could be a simple matter of economics causing, or contributing, to the CCD. Since the price of honey is so high, rather than feeding the bees the leftover honey, apiarists have been selling the honey at the end of the summer and instead, feeding their bees refined sugar over the winter. It doesn’t make economic sense to feed them honey, or so it seemed. Unfortunately, the refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are not honey and they do not provide the same nutrition for the bees as honey. They have a different PH and they lack the enzymes and over 8,000 different micro-organisms recorded living in the “bee bread” which is normally the winter food for the hive. These are the same health benefits (including supposed immune response additives) you and I pay for to have fresh honey. Consequently, the bees do not get the same nutrition with HCFS. And perhaps most importantly, when you change the PH in a bee hive, it affects the finely balanced world of the microorganisms, and weakens the colony. Also, when they track pesticides and fungicides into the hive with during summer pollen gathering, that too can affect the microorganisms and the PH the honey. All of this can serve to affect the immune suppression systems and make them more vulnerable to all outside elements including pesticides or fungicides.
No clear answers here. Just don’t blame it on anyone yet—at least until some more facts are in. And don’t sign that petition!!!!

Jim, Thanks. It just made me curious because I deal with environmental policy and the Endangered Species Act for a living and was struck by the far-reaching conclusion that “…all signs point toward Monsanto as the main culprit.” Some quick research confirmed that, in fact, the monarch butterfly is under stress world-wide which could be caused, in part, by the eradication of its nesting plant, the milkweed- and Monsanto is the manufacturer of Roundup which kills the milkweed. But that is about where the facts stop on that issue. You then managed to reach the conclusion that “a key link in our food chain is under threat.” Pretty far reaching! It didn’t seem like a logical jump and it sounded like the typical hysteria that environmental groups do for fundraising, so I thought I would ask what you meant. Thanks for the response --and I have no doubt you believe what you are saying.
I will admit that the Monarch is beautiful and we should be concerned if it is indeed in “grave danger” and “on the verge of being a relic of history.” Especially if we know what is causing its demise, right? In truth, the language you used, or copied from the site, was a pretty good tip-off. One could just substitute “polar bear” or “harp seal” and have the same heart-wrenching sense of dread about the loss of a beautiful species. I could be moved by that plea, if it is true-- and if I knew who circulated the petition. Your assertions seemed a little hyperbolic and the source was apparently solely from the link you supplied. I realized: I have heard that story before.
So, just out of curiosity, I did a little research on SumOfUs.org, only to find that this “Monsanto Petition” is just the latest in a series of hysterical campaigns they have undertaken. I had never heard of the organization before but just a little research quickly showed that they are a fairly new part of the liberal, anti-capitalist, professional left (read that socialist/Marxist/anti-capitalist left) that trades on crisis after crisis--with or without facts or truth to substantiate their claims. Their website describes the organization thusly: “SumOfUs is a movement of consumers, workers and shareholders speaking with one voice to counterbalance the growing power of large corporations.” In short, they are anti-corporate political activists. Monsanto is just the latest in their anti-corporate attacks. (By the way, I know nothing about Monsanto and don’t have anything to do with them.)
As of March, 2012, the SumOfUs’ list of corporate criminals included: Apple, Starbucks, Novartis, Walmart, Carlsberg, Verizon, Microsoft, Google, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Yoplait, Lowes, Trader Joes and Johnson & Johnson. Each of these groups committed various mortal sins (against “workers,” animals, the rain forest, the climate and God knows what else), for which SumOfUs started a campaign doing exactly what you are assisting them in doing with the monarch: Pulling on some heartstrings and getting people to “sign petitions” and send their names and email addresses to them –which they WILL use for fundraising purposes. What you don’t know (but you will soon) is that they are using you, and the other UHH members who gave them email addresses, to support their “green mail” (like black mail) of major corporations. And you will be hearing from them.
Who are they? One excellent (and obviously critical) description of the leadership of SumOfUs says: “It reads like a big tub of dirty laundry, the same names that are continually recycled from one group to another, churned over and over again under a multitude of NGO names that just keep expanding and growing like a cancer.” These people come from and return to the Soros Foundation, the Tides Foundation, Moveon.org, 350.org, OxFam, Blue State Digital, Organizing For Action, to another of George Soros’ organizations called New American Dream and on, and on. They are the non-profit merry-go-round collecting email addresses and donations from unwitting people like you and children who want to save (fill in anything warm, fuzzy and pretty).
Any of you UHH readers that signed the so called “petition” to Monsanto will soon be receiving fundraising requests from them and dozens of other leftie anti-corporate, socialist groups, some mentioned above.
And Jim, there are some poor victims out there--- but they’re not the beautiful monarch butterflies that we all love. They are you and the other UHH readers that believed what you read and signed the petition to be on the donor list for some poor butterfly that they don’t really give a damn about. As soon as they wear this one out, they will move on to the next crisis and forget about the monarch. Don’t send them any money. I suggest you put them on junk mail as well as be a bit more discerning about what you put your name and email address on. And in the future, do a little due diligence on the groups you give your email address to. Any questions?