PentaxForums.com - General Talk

Florida raised the tax on smokes

graphicgr8s — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:30:53 GMT

And there has been a 27% decline in smokers. So I say to all you non-smokers GET ON THE BALL. Florida is counting on you smoking to fund most of the government.

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette

Using song titles and lyrics - what can I do?

Tommy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:51:29 GMT

I have an idea for a few photos inspired by some song titles and lyrics of one or more famous musicians/bands.

So, am I allowed to use (famous) song titles and/or lyrics as a title for the photo?

I mean, if I can't, I'll probably do part of this as a private project anyway, but it would be nice to know where the limits are? Can I put it on a website? Can I publish it in a book without asking for permission?

I feel that I don't steal the original work, but at the same time I am definitely using that work to get inspired and in case of publishing a book, I will probably ride on the waves of fame of the particular band.

Let's say I make a photo of a family in a yellow submarine and call the photo:
"We all live in a yellow submarine".
It will then be obvious that I took the title from a Beatles song. Can I make a reference to the band saying "Photos inspired by The Beatles" and call, e.g a book that. My guess is: No.
But can I just use the title without any reference? That sounds like I'm really trying to sneak away with it.
Do I need to ask for permission and in that case, is it complicated or expensive?

Is there even a general rule or is this different from band to band, country to country?

/Tommy

Lost and Found...Chopard Campaign

benjikan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:36:40 GMT

Lost and Found...Chopard Campaign

Several years ago when living in the French countryside near Paris, I kept all of my film archives in the barn next to the house. Unfortunately most of those archives were lost. Recently, I was pleased to find that someone on the Fashion Spot blog found the published series from one of my Advertorials for Chopard and posted them there. I was totally blown. I also realized that I didn't have Photoshop at the time ;-)

I am pleased to be able to share them with you. They are from around 1986-87.

Benjamin Kanarek Blog Lost and Found…Chopard Campaign

Attached Images

One Good Dawg

straightshooter — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:56:29 GMT

Uga VII died today of rapid onset heart problems. :ugh: Uga was only 4 years old and had been the University of Georgia mascot for less than two years. He started out with a 10-3 record in his Freshman year and so far this year was 6-4 for a total of 16-7. Uga VII had some big paw prints to fill when he took over for his father, Uga VI who had a winning record of 87-27, 7-2 in bowl games and two Southeastern Conference Championships. His great-grandfather Uga IV gained notoriety for his feature movie role working with Clint Eastwood (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) and for his attempt during a game to emasculate Auburn player Robert Parker. :eek: Parker scored for Auburn and just continued running right at Uga who timed his leap almost perfectly but Parker managed to sidestep at just the right moment and, according to some, was only bit high on the leg and thereby avoiding a career as a soprano in the church choir. This can be found on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foGHh14uvKk' And his great-great-grandfather, Uga III was of course the famous bulldog who oversaw Herschel Walker's reign at running back complete with Heisman Trophy and National Championship. Uga III wore a bow tie and formal collar to the 1982 Heisman presentation and was and early pioneer of the common treatments for dry eyes. He had dry eyes and one of the professors developed drops to use on Uga that eventually became one of the modern dry eye drops (I think it's Restasis) available. :cool:

Even though there is some humor in the preceding, some of you may not understand what the big deal is. Uga is the bulldog mascot of the University of Georgia and is one of the most, if not the most recognized college mascot in the U.S. Around here, despite a few saying he's just a dog, (darn Georgia Tech fans) lol in truth Uga was the DAWG! Rest in Peace buddy. We'll miss seeing you bark at those cameras and trying to bite opposing players.

According to officials, it will be next season before a replacement is named.

Goooooooooooooooooooo DAWGS! Sic 'em. Woof Woof Woof

CW

First U.S. marijuana cafe opens

Fl_Gulfer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:04:20 GMT

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - The United States' first marijuana cafe opened on Friday, posing an early test of the Obama administration's move to relax policing of medical use of the drug.

First U.S. marijuana cafe opens in Portland | U.S. | Reuters

What made you feel down today?

LeDave — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:38:30 GMT

Today I was driving my sister's Scion tC home from school, I exited onto the Zoo exit from 77 South and I guess I was exiting too fast. I entered the corner at 45 mph on that sharp exit then slowly accelerated until 55 mph when hitting the apex of the corner. Right when I Was speeding up and at the same time straightening out my wheel to prepare for coming out of the corner, the car lost traction and oversteered. The road was wet and it was raining, what was I thinking!

I tried straightening the car out and slowing down but the car spun to the left for 15 degrees during the oversteer, it then spun quickly the other direction. I saw the curb coming up dead-on quick, I straightened out my wheels so I can hit the curb dead-on both sides so it wouldn't dent the central shaft. The car rammed the curb at probably around 40 mph and it flew right onto the other lane where another van was driving down the other direction, the speed limit was 50 mph then. I was lucky not to get hit by that, so I quickly reversed my car because it was facing the wrong direction. I drove onto the safety lane and placed my emergency lights on.

Another lady who was going to turn the other way quickly stopped and went into the safety lane and asked me if everything was alright and if I needed help with anything. I Told her thanks and everything's fine and I don't need any help or to call anybody, which of course is a lie. I felt really embarrassed and ashamed and stupid at the time.

Good thing nothing appeared wrong besides the left tire being flat I Thought. I checked around the car and I called my friend up for help. Moments later, a gentlemen pulled over and said "Got a flat tire eh?" He popped his trunk and in it was a bunch of car tools, he lifted my car and I grabbed the spare tire and he helped me change it. I said thanks a lot afterward and he said no problem and left. Strange but nice guy as he didn't say much and only helped.

I called my friend and told him I don't need help anymore and I would be coming to his house for further inspection. I was driving to his house when all the sudden the right tire was getting really bumpy and made strange noises. I stopped by a neighborhood and checked, only to find out that the right tire that was fine before, is now flat and smoke is coming out of it. I stopped there for awhile and called up my friend to come over and help me.

It was his neighborhood so he knew where all the location was, we drove very very slowly to few automotive places and they kept telling us to go to the next. The first one tried pumping air but they said it was too flat. The second one checked the tire that was replaced by the spare and said it was no good because there was a hole in it, it blew. I went to the next automotive repair place and they checked both tires and said that the wheel is dent and they gave me directions to get to that place for the repairs, luckily for me that the wheels are made out of alloy so the dents are repairable, with an estimation of 150 bucks each though. The place is almost 30 minutes away so I couldn't drive there obviously, so I left my car at the current automotive repair place.

Now I didn't open the hood to see if anything else was wrong, which was obviously stupid of me but I was too scared and worried about the front tires. I hope everything is fine and only both of the front rims that were dent are the ones that need to be fixed, as well as a new tire.

My dad and mom was really angry at me, they were screaming at me for a good 20 minutes and my dad stopped yelling of course, I'm already 20 and he doesn't like to yell or do child punishment on me anymore, which I obviously deserve. I felt bad because he just changed both front tires to prepare for the harsh Minnesota winter, as well as a full check-up. Now if anything else is wrong with the car I am afraid I will have to kill myself. I told my parents that it was okay and that I will pay to fix the car myself (There goes my money for the DA* 50-135 and 16-50), and my dad told me that he will help me out.

I had to cancel my FA 43 1.9 Limited on eBay also since I am really unsure if I will be able to ship it out on time due to a very very busy schedule. We now only have two cars to use and in my family are my two sisters, both have work and one goes to school, both my parents go to work, and I go to school. So there is going to be a extremely tight schedule on how to fit everybody to meet their needs. Now that is where I really felt stupid come in. My sister was bitching hard at me when she found out and I got sort of angry but at the same time I do feel stupid, but I just don't like it when she calls me names like that. But I do have a sociology test tomorrow as well as a paper due and I hope I am able to get to school on time.

Australian Political Question.

Mallee Boy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:02:15 GMT

Heard our Qld Premier on the ABC this morning lamenting Federal Govt decisions impacting on State Govt finances. It is not a surprising utterance as Qld now plunges head long into record debt and the hits keep coming.

A quick digression here for others not familiar with Australia's political system...and this is a quick & dirty summary....we have three levels of Govt: Federal; State and Local. Federal basically has the purse strings in that it raises the bulk of the taxes and distributes these to the States...who in turn throws a bit to Local Govt.
Federal Govt has defined responsibilities under our constitution, and the States have defined "rights" under our constitution. States can raise some taxes within their defined area of responsibility, called fees & charges, as can Local Govt through rates etc.....confused yet? :confused: yeah, well we are too. I will stand corrected here if wrong...but I think Australians are the most over governed populace on planet earth

Back to the topic.
Ms Bligh's point was that if Federal Govt decisions (immigration, dams etc) put unsustainable pressure on her budget then the Federal Govt should reach a bit deeper into its own coffers to help her. Dont think Ms Bligh has quite worked it out yet that the Federal Govt is in a far worse financial position than they are telling her or indeed any of us. (Australia now has a projected Federal Govt deficit of some $300 billion....we had a 13 billion surplus two years ago)...we have a problem.

Anyway....to the point and the question .

.....do we need State Governments any more?
Here you have a State Premier clearly saying that decisions are being made in isolation with no regard for the consequences, realities or practicalities.
Would not we be better off with this layer Government removed from the process? Then decisions would have to be made with regard to consequences, realities and practicalities, because those making them would wholly accountable, not the duck shove and blame game that we currently get. I have experience over 20+ years in our public health system (corp gov/admin) to the highest national level and have seen first hand the national sport that is played out daily in health...it's called Cost Shifting....and its going right this minute in every State Health Dept and in Canberra...and has been for a long long time...and costs us (taxpayers) an absolute fortune.

And that will only be one small example, the waste and duplication would stagger us if we really knew the full story.

I understand the need for State Govts back when our forefathers started out, but that was in an era of no communications, no telepphones, and poor transport. Todays technology makes it all totally different.

I think it is time for this debate and I am genuinely interested to hear your views.

Grant

Now I Know How They Will Do It

Parallax — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:47:02 GMT

Now I know how the Democrats will end the year with no health care bill and not take the blame for it.
Smokin' Joe
Can you say "scapegoat"?

Great Western Fireball

wildlifephotog — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:31:06 GMT

Any of our Colorado folks see or hear this?

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

Also check out the predictor for the space station flybys.

B&H has catalogues?

Reportage — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:26:49 GMT

just received the winter catalogue. May not seem strange to most people just that i live in a another continent so pretty odd to see one in the mail. But i`m impressed. Sure makes better reading then whats on the papers nowadays..

Is there a subscription charge for this?

Please vote and comment!

jct us101 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:16:32 GMT

Seven - Every Day with Rachael Ray - Talk to Us!

What's wrong with some of you people?

larryinlc — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:35:55 GMT

Are your political beliefs so important to you that you must act like school children on this, a public forum? The vitriol here is becoming excessive and sickening. I refuse to believe that your daily lives are filled with such nonsense, so why bring it here? Do you hope to change minds? Ain't gonna happen so why even try? I'm just trying to understand the point of all these political jabs. This is not my place, but if it were, there would be more than a few asshat awards given.

Please don't think I'm choosing sides. I'm calling out all the forum political pundunts on both sides of the spectrum. I know, I don't have to read these posts, but they're almost hard to avoid now.

I have the utmost respect for all my fellow Pentaxians here and rightfully so, but, the constant bickering and banter is challenging that belief.

Are you good people for real? Do you act this way when not at the keyboard?

Larry

Temperatures

graphicgr8s — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:46:52 GMT

So the Algore says the core temperature of the earth is several million degrees. Interesting to say the least. If it were a few (4) million degrees they would call it a Star.
And people actually believed him on global warming?

Al Gore: Earth's Interior 'Extremely Hot, Several Million Degrees' | NewsBusters.org

Quote:

For several years as uneducated sycophants in the media gushed and fawned over every utterance from former Vice President Al Gore, NewsBusters has informed readers of just how absurd the junk science he's peddling really is.

Last Thursday, NBC "Tonight Show" viewers got a perfect example of how the Nobel Laureate basically makes things up, and that his poor grades in college were quite an indicator of just how little he understands about science.

Can this guy get anything right?

Fact Checking

graphicgr8s — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:41:37 GMT

So there is no media bias? How come AP "fact checked" Sarah Palin's book?
So they did the same for the Clinton's books?
Or Obama's?
Or Joe Biden's? (Every one knows he wouldn't plagiarize anything)
Inquiring minds want to know.

possible new cameras coming up?

Reportage — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:11:16 GMT

*Listed by pricepoint.
*Listed body only price whenever i can.
*Created as of Nov 18 2009 referenced from B&H website.

Did an excel of whats currently available...from the pricepoints it looks inevitable there will be something to replace the K20D pricepoint...perhaps a 6fps version?

there is a gaping hole in the Full Frame side. Likewise for Panasonic and Olympus. A bit sad that the only FF with body-inbuilt-shake reduction is Sony`a A900.

watch where you put that sticker..

Gooshin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:04:34 GMT

Probably Bad News: News fails, because journalism isn't dying fast enough. Ouch, That Is Some Poor Sticker Placement

A woman came in the photo lab the other day, and

little laker — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:00:18 GMT

I just wanted to share this story from last week.

A woman came in the photo lab on Saturday, and budged in front of about 6 people in the line. At first I thought she was a friend of the woman I was ringing through, when She asked me how big of a print we can do, and the cost.
So I looked everything up for her.

That's when she said there's a gallery downtown with a photo I really like... except they're asking for $300.00 for it.
So she then said how she was going to photograph it, and get us to print it off for her.

I of course told her it's illegal, and we wouldn't touch it.
I couldn't believe that she started saying that I have to and she really needed that photo... blah, blah, blah.
When I responded that I'm an artist and I wouldn't want anyone coping my work she actually became worst.

What really got my attention though is when she left. She looked squarely at me and said

Quote:

I WON'T get it, because YOU charge too much.

The way she said it I felt that she was directing the comment at me personally, which got me wondering if someone in the gallery displaying some of my work told her she could talk to me in the lab ;)

Thankfully we had a gallery meeting on Monday, where we discussed it.
It didn't take us long to put a No Outsiders Cameras policy in place, hopefully protecting all the artists.

I honestly don't know what I'd do if someone like her brought a photograph of one of my pieces in asking me to print it.
I hope that I never find out.

Tax the Rich

graphicgr8s — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:13:11 GMT

We need to tax the heck out of the rich so they can never ever do something like this again!

Hillsborough school board accepts $100M Gates grant
Or this

PND - News - Gates Foundation Details $100 Million Global Health Research Initiative

What a disgrace!

Why won't the Obama stop them from these things?

Wait. Glory be. They are. Thank you Big O.

The Upcoming Trials in NY

Das Boot — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:22:01 GMT

I'm trying to wrap my brain around the decision to bring the trials to public court. I'm not debating the right to trial - I'm concerned about the release of sensitive material. No, I'm not talking about how the detainees were treated in custody. I'm worried about agents in the field, the flow of information, and the overall security of the nation. It's going to be almost impossible to have a public trial without releasing certain amounts of intel. Even worse would be if the detainees decide to represent themselves. Everything would be there for the taking. Without this information, we will have a mistrial. I'm of the idea that just setting them free and taking our chances would be better. Could this not have been a public military trial? Televise it. When something sensetive comes up - cameras off. When it's all done, all records are sealed... They won't be public like in a public trial. What's going to happen to all those agents that have spent a lifetime making connections and providing information? Are we really willing to compromise our national security for this public spectacle?

Those Paper Dragons...

Das Boot — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:47:28 GMT

I made one of these a few years ago and forgot about it. Here's a video of the illusion and a PDF of the cut-out sheet to make your own. Just some good cheap fun on a rainy afternoon. Maybe make one with your kids.

Attached Images

Optical Illusion Dragon.pdf (243.4 KB)