Very nicely done! Stunning photos!

Stunning photograph! Sounds like a really nice spot!

I have the 100-400L - the "older one" which I use on my 70D. It is great for wildlife and the large birds here in Florida. I have not used an extender with it, but considering getting one. I have not seen anyone post a report that a Canon extender won't allow the auto-focus to work on a 70D.

Roseate Spoonbill


Cammouflage Alligator

A scientific mind does not stop assessing and judging. The longer we study certain things the more we find out. That is why we worry about people taking so many supplements which have no evidence supporting them at all. I am not talking about nutrients and herbs - I have patients who ingest huge amounts of iodine (they have been told that iodine "recognizes the bad bacteria in their gut and only kills the bad bacteria" - seriously!), diatomaceous earth, and other really bizarre things.

Statins are perhaps the best example of a controversial drug - statins are wonderful drugs for the appropriate patient - but many doctors do not appreciate that 10% of their patients will get severe muscle pain from statins. Doctors need to keep an open mind about side effects and realize that there are pros and cons about all medications - but sadly (I will confess) many doctors do not stay up with the literature and do not keep an open mind about these things.

Sorry - that's bulls*** Vaccines do not "depress" the immune system. Actually, the opposite happens - when we are exposed to something that stimulates our immune system, it is also stimulated in general. And to say that "many vaccines are of dubious value" because the flu vaccine is not always effective is horsecr**. Flu vaccine varies from year to year because the flu virus is one that is constantly mutating. Each spring infectious disease experts evaluate which new strains in Asia are most likely to make their way to North America and develop the vaccine based on those prognostications. It doesn't always work. The reason we do not have vaccines against some viruses such as HIV and Dengue Fever is that the viruses are constantly changing.

I would agree, but Canon does not mark down its refurbished cameras very much - $300 off of a $2400 body does not seem like such a good deal.

But mom does - with ketchup....

What a great comment. That is really when you know you did good! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Every where I turn I encounter people working hard - many without any benefits at all, and many working multiple part-time jobs because even the large corporations will not hire anyone full-time because then they would have to provide health insurance or pay a fine (one of the bad aspects of Obamacare). I am a physician. I am employed - but I get no benefits. My wife is working but gets no benefits. We are both looking for new jobs for that reason - I am currently purchasing health insurance for myself, my wife, and one child. The cost: $2300 PER MONTH! That works out to almost $28000 per year! Who the heck can afford that! I am well paid, but this eats up a very large chunk of my after-tax income, and I am considering going without health insurance, and like so many Americans, just hoping I don't get really sick before I can get Medicare. It is awful and not getting better.

Did you hear about the farmer who won the lotto? When asked what he was going to do now he said: "Well, I love farming, so I guess I'll just keep farming until the money runs out". :)

So - why doesn't an older camera take excellent photos? Is the shutter dirty and slow? Is the sensor dirty? If it is a brand-name camera it might be worth sending it to the company for an overhaul. If you want to stick with a DSLR you are invested in lenses so you need to stick with the brand you have if you want a new camera. If Canon, check out refurbished. Sometimes the deals are good.

If you are mostly taking photos for your own use and not for enlargement or publication, pick up a Canon SX50 - refurbished by Canon they are $300 on Amazon and they take excellent photographs and the lens goes from close-up to super-telephoto. You cannot go wrong.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-SX50-HS-Refurbished/dp/B014JP85O4/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1451063233&sr=8-9&keywords=canon+sx50

You can also consider a nice Sony P&S for $100:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-DSCW830-Digital-Camera-2-7-Inch/dp/B00HNJWUBI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1451063385&sr=8-2&keywords=sony+powershot

Nice! Thanks for the memories! :)

Yes - there are whackos of all types. It is understandable that people have real fear of autism - and Lyme disease, and all sorts of things that are hard to understand. And paranoia takes over from common sense at times... Obstetricians are still routinely sued (and lose) whenever a child has cerebral palsy. Surely the obstetrician must be to blame! They didn't do a C-section soon enough! They DID a C-section when they shouldn't have! Etc. Obstetricians who do not aggressively monitor labor with electronic fetal heart monitors are blamed for causing cerebral palsy - and yet study after study - even huge studies with tens of thousands of deliveries - have never found any difference in CP rates in babies who were intensely monitored versus those who were not. We used to blame God or the devil for things we did not understand. Now it is easier to blame the doctor!

Absolutely. Older adults often loose their immunity to whooping cough, and so we have seen epidemics around the US. Measles in the US is most often seen in communities of religious folks who feel they do not need to be immunized for some reason. (Personally, I think God won't mind waiting to meet/judge me, so I do what I can to stay alive! :) )

Part of the problem is indeed immigrants - and NOT so much the immigrants from Central America about whom may Americans are paranoid. These folks have problems with malnutrition and occasional TB, but not to the extent of that seen in immigrants from elsewhere. One study I read said that in Canada, immigrants from Tibet were virtually 100% positive for TB. Obviously vigorous health screening is required for such folks.

Our country practically eliminated TB though aggressive screening and treatment programs. I recall as a child every year at our elementary school the big blue bus would come - everyone had a skin test (the little needles were reused after heating them up in a little alcohol burner) and the bus had an x-ray machine to do chest x-rays on anyone with a positive test.

TB is a disease mostly of poor people who are undernourished and who live in close quarters. Fortunately, these people generally cannot emigrate across oceans to the US. When I was doing some work in the Philippines one medical officer with a gold mining company told me that they did chest x-rays on all potential employees and 10% of them were disqualified because they had active (and contagious) TB! But waves of poor immigrants flooding into Europe pose a huge problem with the potential of bringing in TB.

Scurvy? We take for granted our history of learning about things that impact public health and the efforts to educate Americans - through school of course but also early on with programs like the County Agricultural Extension Services, etc. Through education and public health programs (like putting iodine in table salt) our nation eliminated nutritional deficiency diseases like scurvy and pellagra. Many third-world countries have never developed programs like these. So it is not surprising that immigrant communities may suffer from these problems. Only people who have never had access to fruits and vegetables and who do not incorporate them into their diet would develop scurvy, for example. Pellagra is only seen in people who eat essentially nothing but corn - it is extremely rare, but I have seen it in refugee communities in Central America.

Wild rabbits are a threat to pass along tularemia, a bacterial disease which is somewhat related to plague. As I recall you most commonly get this from skinning an animal which has it - bears and rabbits being the most common.

Plague is not a disease obtained from eating wild rabbits. Plague is passed along by two routes. One is breathing in bacteria from an animal (or person) with the pulmonary form, which is rare. The most common way people get plague is by being bitten by a tick or flea which is infected with the plague bacteria. You can get it camping or hiking, but the most common scenario is when the family cat or dog plays with a dead rodent (often a prairie dog) and brings an infected flea home.