That argument has been done to death.

You celebrate 4th July - What language do you speak???

Also remember WWII was going on quite a while before Japan came into it and dragged America along. Your government showed little interest before that even to the extent of refusing Jewish children from the 'Kintergarten Express' on the excuse that it would not allow children into the country without their parents, ignoring the small fact most of the parents were in concentration camps at the time.
If you're going to quote history at least learn from it.

Sorry to say but some people on this forum should drag their sad bigoted arses into the 21st Century.
If this National Guard Captain was between you and your family and a terrorist or nutter with a gun would you be asking him if he was gay??
I am not/never have been gay but my life goes by the "Live and let live" rule.
Then again the OP might just be watching to see who rises to the bait. Won't be the first time :-)

Among many other names, a collection of swans in the water are called a 'regatta' - A 'wedge' if in flight.
Does not detract from the really nice collection of photos.

I do remember a US TV program called '77 Sunset Strip' where a character named Kookie would talk "Kookie talk" and it would have to be translated (for the viewers presumably)by the main character Stuart Bailey.
This took place in the late 50's - early 60's but because it was just a TV program it was accepted, although really based on the language used by the beatnik fraternity of the time.

The bottom line is that the English language is an evolving beast which will never stand still and if people use words often enough they will become the norm, although not necessarily accepted by all.
So instead of complaining, use these incidents to exercise your brain to decipher the code and consider yourself smarter than the speaker as you will now be able to talk two languages. ;-);-)

If he falls they can leave him. He's biodegradable.

With Evil they'd have to pickup the pieces of motorbike because that would be environmental pollution. :roll: :roll: :roll: :oops:

I use both AVG free and of course many programs use Java so that's also installed on both my Win 7 machines.
I've never had that particular warning, although AVG has warned me in the past about a couple of programs I know are safe.
A solution you could try is uninstall both AVG & Java after downloading the latest versions - Restart your computer making sure it is not connected to any mains supply - If it's a laptop leave for a minute or two to make sure all electricity is out of the system (it can lurk around for a couple of seconds in certain situations)
Plug into mains again and restart as normal.
Re-install both programs and possibly say goodbye to the warning.
If it still appears, there is the possibility another program running in the background is causing the warning, then it's a case of 'seek & destroy'
Hope this helps.

Got an email from Adobe to d/l Lightroom 5 (which is not officially released in UK until June 20th.)

Somehow they are charging £102.57 ($160.80) but this includes VAT (Value Added Tax) at 23%??

How the hell can they add another 3% onto a government tax and get away with it.

And some companies wonder why their software is a target for illegal downloads.
I think I give this a miss and just stick to my (legal) PS Elements.
Welcome to 'Rip off Britain'

Looking at the 'chewed' grass around him, he's certainly had his fill.
Great shot.

I agree with sarge, ditch number one as it does not show the dog in a good light and the leash and car background do nothing for the photograph.

I really love 2 & 3 though - The owner will be proud and leave the name, unlike some I've seen it's not intrusive to the subject.

Pop over here and Kai from Digitalrev will show how it's done on a Nikon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2lHQJFJ-nc

2 years last March my wife had a cough that was lasting more than a week - antibiotics didn't help so she was sent for an x-ray. They found a shadow on her lungs which turned out to be cancer. Between then and her death in July the same year the doctors, hospital staff and McMillan Nurses couldn't do enough for both of us. My wife was given all the treatment necessary for her illness, and I given all the backup to understand what was happening, but to no avail.

Total cost NIL (been paid for all our working lives through NH contributions taken out our wages)

Unless you've experienced the downside of the UK's NHS (and there is one sadly) don't believe all you read, especially if the source is 'The Daily Mail' a newspaper who are as reliable a source of news as 'Fox News' is.

Yes the NHS has problems, but unlike non supports of OBamacare there are countries in this world who will help with the health care of the less fortunate in our society even if it means putting up with the parasites who abuse it.

The state of the NHS is government lead. As the Tories want more private health they run will allow the rundown the NHS until it ceases to exist except as a 'poor mans St Elsewhere' This has been happening since Thatchers days as prime minister so the 'news item' quoted is hardly news to those who live in the UK.

Part of your question depends on your take on what 'being a Christian' is.

Long time ago, in quite a long deep conversation with a Scottish Episcopal minister/father, I was amazed to hear him say in his 30 odd years in the 'business' he hadn't really met all that many 'Christians'.

How does someone regard themselves as a Christian?

The following questions are not meant to get peoples backs up but to try to fathom out how people regard themselves in a Christian light.

Is it a belief in God and Jesus and the bible. If so is it the whole bible or just the New Testament or just the bits they think applies to their way of life.

For example:- I get a daily email from worldofquotes.com and today's one read-
“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. [Proverbs 22:15].”

Obey that one and you may be upholding your christian ethics but you're about to have the wrath of the PC crowd come down on your head and a possible court case pending.

Are you still a Christian if you are willing to see all Muslims in the same light as you view the terrorist ones let alone which political party anyone belongs to.

Remoman, you set an interesting question and have received many interesting answers except what is a Christian truly.

Me, I'm just a bloody heathen who can't believe in a God who makes tornadoes that kill innocents and expects people to pray to him/her for the survivors, along with the many other catastrophes that take place in this world natural as well as man made and just sits back and watches.
Please don't mention the book of Revelations as a time of retribution, because to believe that, in my opinion, is no different than to believe in any past, present or future "Rapture" and there's been many a discussion about that on this site and none of it in a positive light. :) :)

End of rant :roll:

This is a nice shot - With plenty of 'gazing' room to the right.
I really like this photograph - It's very pleasing.

To see the EXIF metadata I use a free program call Faststone Image Viewer (one of the best freebies out there)
Here's all I do.
Click the 'Download' link below the photo
Save photo to an already made folder
Double click on image in the folder which fires up Image Viewer (provided it's been installed) and move the cursor to the right of the screen and there's the metadata.
Of course there's tons more to this program than this action - Been using it for years.
Get it at www.faststone.org It's one of the free ones.

Really nice set - I like the dragonflies, and putting them all together shows a very peaceful morning walk.