Do you have a laptop or tablet you can dump to? I don't anticipate a problem from security screening but Mr. Murphy is a B^t@h. Anything that can go wrong, will.

I have the Canon 75-300 and the Tamaron 200-500. I find the big one valuable but limited use. My walk around lens is a 55-250 outside or a 24-135 inside. Decided what you are going to do, then rent the lenses and see what actually fits your needs.

Which is better: Ford or Chevy? You will find the same rude remarks there. The instrument you use is dependent on many things. the most important is your preference. I shoot Canon, and have not complaints. Others shoot Nikon. You will find that if you compare the photos, you won't be able to tell which camera it came from which if the photographers are of equal skill. You said it was a Canon user, you don't say if it was a friend. If it is, I would say you don't need a new camera, you need a new friend.

I used both in a store and took a number of pictures to compare. They were both about equal. I bought the Tokina based on price. Glass is a little sharper, and the price is a lot better. Shooting with T3i.

I lost a whole set in the middle of a shoot. The numbers didn't reset, so it was not a format problem, but neither my camera nor my computer could find a whole day worth of vacation pictures prior to 3 PM. No clue why. Didn't change anything. Didn't remove card from camera.

1) no- 2) yes

I saw photos on-line taken for a local pet shelter. Since most animals don't photograph well in their cages, several of the workers take animals to the local park and photograph the animals in action (playing, chasing balls rolling in leaves etc.) The adoption rate goes way up. Rig your printing program to put your name on the photos.
Good luck

See if you can rent both lenses and try them for a week. The answer should become clear to you and your personal style.

Blame the teacher is a non-productive game. In any job, when management lays down the rules, you comply or get fired. If the Bd.of Ed. requires teachers to report ANY threat or perceived threat, no matter how minor, and regardless of circumstances, and the teacher solved the problem in the class and did not report it, but a parent complained, that teacher could be fired for not following policy intended to promote safety. Stupid? YES! but the rules come from the top and teachers don't have a choice in using what should be common sense. I put this one on the Superintendent & the Board. However, the Board is usually elected, and parents do have a voice in Board meetings. Because of this, parents take some blame too. I am not going to blame the teacher without knowing the policy of the District.

The only reason I can come up with is a caution in the event of total discharge. If you run the battery down, it may freeze. A charged battery will not. The warning may not be for camera use, but bag storage. Freezing may cause micro cracks, which will leak when put back into your camera. This is not a concern if you keep your batteries charged.

Here's the question. With temperatures well below freezing, why are they predicting rain? Yes, it could be freezing rain, but I've never seen this before. When it's below freezing, they say "snow," not "rain."[/quote]

The atmosphere has layers. It might be warm enough for rain only 50 feet up, but then it falls through a cold layer at ground level. If the raindrops falling through the cold layer are still above freezing, it may remain rain. As it cools, it becomes freezing rain, which lands on a cold surface and often forms black ice.
Hope this helps.

Beliefs are not subject to science. They don't need proving one way or the other. However, when evidence exists that contradicts belief, such as Heliocentrism, policy should not be based on beliefs. That is the purpose of the separation clause. There are 35,000 members of the flat earth society, but they don't have a great deal of influence on policy. That is as it should be.

The problem is the conclusion. If you find 10 books, all from the 1600s, but one of them turns out to be that style but written in 1900, it does not change the start of literature. That seems to be the conclusion drawn. Age of the earth will still be the oldest operating factor.

The young earth conclusion is hogwash, but I am not ready to dismiss that lightning may play a different role than previously described. I am not ready to exclude other erosional factors, nor can I accept without significant evidence, that lightning plays more than a localized impact. The observation needs to be evaluated, and not dismissed because some may draw inappropriate conclusions.

It is not hogwash. That you can ignore. This is blind faith, and that is dangerous. At the end of the dark ages, modern science (meaning actual research) was born. In the last 400 years, science has grown up and moved away from reliance on the church for confirmation. The church has not changed much, and still sees science as a challenge to faith. Science doesn't care. While the faithful question evolution, facts support (but don't prove) an explanation. (The existence of evolution is not in doubt by science- only the mechanism of evolution) At one time, it was blasphemy to claim the earth was NOT the center of the entire universe. In 1996, the Pope lifted the excommunication of Galileo. How long will it take to accept other aspects of science. As a side note, of people who call science "an alternative explanation", most will use airplanes, and go to the doctor for medication when ill. Apparently, not all science is bad.