Personally, I wouldn't make fun of a photo subject without his permission. Looks a little like racial stereotyping to me. Could offend some people for no reason.

In my opinion, it's a mistake to export raw materials that will be needed in the future. Very shortsighted.

Since it seems to happen during memory intensive operations, it could simply be failing RAM. Those do wear out occasionally, and it gets worse over time.
Nice to see everyone trying to offer constructive help. Too often when it's a problem with a Windows computer instead, the Mac snobs use it as an opportunity to rant against Microsoft. Hardware problems crop up everywhere. Many people consider 5 years to be the point where it's time to upgrade if you can afford it, so it might be time to give yourself a present and start fresh.

A post paying tribute to a deceased President really is not the place for angry comments. The h**ers should just start their own thread and rant on. Freedom of speech should be exercised with due respect for decency.

I suspect people are just ignorant when it comes to history. I watched a Senate hearing once where Senator Daniel Inouye was questioning a witness. I don't even remember who the witness was or what the hearing was about, but the guy had the stupidity to accuse Senator Inouye of being unpatriotic. I could tell that Senator Inouye wanted to get up and beat the guy with one arm, because he had lost the other one in World War II, fighting FOR America He was a Japanese American by the way. Mr. Bush joined up voluntarily, even though his father urged him to go on to college instead. He was the youngest American fighter pilot in WWII. Plus, like many others who served, he never bragged about his service. He simply considered it his duty as an American citizen.

And what people probably don't understand is that your son and others put their lives on the line to help protect Iraqi citizens as well. But even in countries where there is no warring going on, our soldiers are targets just because of the uniform. All are heroes.

Everyone who puts on a uniform is a hero in my book. They ALL put their lives on the line for our country.

The thing that I respected about him the most was when he kicked Iraq out of Kuwait WITHOUT miring us down in a long war. A lot of people around him were pressuring him to keep going and totally destroy the Iraqi army. However, President Bush knew what war was really like. How men and women and children all end up dead during battles. It's nothing to cheer about as if it's a football game. He also understood that Iraq served as a balance against Iran, and that it was best to just sit back and let them feud against each other without having to endanger America's military. Too bad others didn't understand that simple strategy. He was rich all his life, but still had compassion for less fortunate people, as did Mrs. Bush. I lean more towards the liberal side, but I recognize a good man when I see one, WH**EVER his political leanings may be. He was a good man, and a good American.

And not as tasty as they used to be either.

Your argument is disingenuous. You state nothing that was not about slavery at its heart. The south won the 3/5 compromise, but still denied the slaves the vote. Here is a paragraph from the Texas " Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union."
"We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable."
"That in this free government *all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights* [emphasis in the original]; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states."
The "contract" with the slave-holding states was deemed necessary to keep them in the Union. However, those states were completely open in their views that blacks were inferior subhumans. The contract HAD to be broken in the name of human decency. Georgia and Mississippi also clearly stated that slavery was THE issue that caused them to secede. https://web.archive.org/web/19980128034930/http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/reasons.html If all the slave-holding states stated on the record that slavery was THE issue that forced them to secede, any argument that asserts otherwise just falls flat on its face. That is REAL history, put to pen by the people who lived it.

The only "states rights" in question during that time was the "right" to own slaves! You can't clean it up by calling it states rights. That's exactly what the southern states tried back then. Slavery was a world-wide issue back then, not just an issue with the "liberal" north. Copies of newspapers and other publications still exist in libraries all over the country. They were not written by fake historians years after the fact. Here is a nice piece of history titled, "Confederate States of America - Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union." https://web.archive.org/web/20090201185344/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp
South Carolina explicitly states its reason for seceding from the Union. I invite everyone to read it as it is not overly long. Here are a few of the most telling paragraphs:
The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early day, passed a law in conformity with her constitutional obligation; but the current of anti-slavery feeling has led her more recently to enact laws which render inoperative the remedies provided by her own law and by the laws of Congress. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.

The ends for which the Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."

These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal Government, in which each State was recognized as an equal, and had separate control over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recognized by giving to free persons distinct political rights, by giving them the right to represent, and burthening them with direct taxes for three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for twenty years; and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor.

We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.

For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.

The issue was always slavery. Trying to hide it by calling it states rights is simply another way to try to hide the immorality of slavery.

Is there any chance that they can email copies to you? Texting programs really shrink the images. I have had some success using Irfanview to print pictures to a larger size, but if detail just isn't there to begin with, it's hard to resize them up. Maybe you could upload one here so people can see what you are dealing with and offer suggestions. Folks here would be glad to tinker with your pics to see what they can come up with.

Yes indeed. This thread started with teaching history. Too many people have tried to rewrite the history of our Civil War. It was all about slavery, one of the most evil practices devised by humans. England abolished it before we did. It shouldn't have taken a war to resolve the issue. One would think that people trying to escape from tyranny would recognize it in themselves. Greed blinds us to the truth.

I remember moving to a different state when I was a kid. The new school had to teach "new math" to the students, but I had already learned the basics at my former school. When the teacher saw how I was doing long division, she simply whispered in my ear, "Just keep doing it the way you are now." Must drive teachers crazy when changes are ordered from the top that they know just won't work for the kids. I saw an episode of Oprah Winfrey once where she was discussing education, and at one point she said, "What's wrong with learning proper English!" Her own loyal audience then proceeded to shout her down. That's what teachers are up against with parents who insist that everything must be made easy for their kids.