majoraxis

I am not a fan of Gaetz and don't think he will get confirmed - he is an embarrassment and will be a source of division and controversy, if confirmed. As for Bannon, he deserved to go to jail for not complying with the two subpoenas from Congress, so hopefully this will be the standard going forward, so Congress can get to the bottom of whatever they're investing in the future. Many of Trump's appointees are not qualified and can't be taken seriously, but because of what happen during his first term, Trump is hand picking loyalists, for better or worse. I agree with you! America deserves better...

Thanks for agreeing with my point - higher fuel cost led to inflation. Regarding tariffs - it has to be combined with other incentives to on shore jobs as it did not work in isolation the first time around. So you are correct tariffs alone with not solve the problem of bring back job to the US. Regarding mass deportation of illegal immigrants - there are economic costs due to accommodating millions of new illegal immigrants. Center for Immigration Studies (CIS): A 2024 report by CIS estimated that the lifetime fiscal drain (taxes paid minus costs) for each illegal immigrant is about $68,000. (Congress.gov) So illegal immigrants are not a net benefit to the tax payer, you either pay through inflation or you pay through taxation and/or debt. There is no free fiscal ride when it comes to illegal immigration. There is no evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein's criminal activities. Unsealed court documents and flight logs have not implicated Trump in Epstein's illegal conduct. Trump has stated that he had a falling out with Epstein "a long time ago" and was "not a fan." (Wikipedia) Public opinion on whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been "weaponized" against former President Donald Trump include: June 2023: A Quinnipiac University poll found that 62% of Americans believed the DOJ's case involving Trump's handling of classified documents was mainly motivated by politics, while 34% thought it was mainly motivated by law. Polls at Quinnipiac University March 2023: A Rasmussen Reports survey indicated that 64% of likely U.S. voters agreed with the statement that the FBI has become "politically weaponized, starting from the top in Washington." You are basically asking what is wrong with the American people? Nothing, as the People did allow a politicized DOJ determine who they want to be president. Once again, nothing is wrong with the American voter who unfortunately had to choose between a sex offender who proved he could run the country first time around and someone who they believed could not, as evidenced by the outcome of both the electoral college and the popular vote. Reminds of Bill Clinton - great economy, questionable morals. American voters had to selected from two evil candidates. Just because I support Trump does not mean I like everything he has done or said or will do. I support Trump because I believe he will protect our freedoms and I am ecstatic that a divisive administration (Biden - stop calling the now majority of American voters extremists - it is untrue and divisive.) that tried to limit free speech will soon be out of the White house. But not soon enough... I hope Biden is not leading us into a nuclear war with his recent escalation in military strategy. That is person you need to pose your f-bomb questions to... what the f is wrong with Biden? Does he not care for the common person who doesn't have a nuclear fallout shelter in their basement?

Thanks Andrew! First is the first amendment. I am a free speech absolutist. When people are censored by their government, even by proxy, I am against that administration and their bid for reelection. Missouri v. Biden, alleged that Biden administration officials pressured social media companies to suppress viewpoints on topics like COVID-19 policies, election integrity, and Hunter Biden. In 2023, a federal judge issued a ruling restricting certain federal officials and agencies from communicating with social media companies about content moderation. The case cited examples of alleged direct and indirect government influence on content moderation. I believe the Trump administration will not pressure social media companies to censor free speech. Second is lower fuel costs and lower inflation due to energy Independence under President Trump. By 2019, the U.S.: became a net exporter of energy for the first time since 1952. The US produced record levels of crude oil, exceeding 12 million barrels per day. reduced dependence on foreign oil, particularly from OPEC nations. Higher fuel costs have lead to higher inflation under Biden. Trump's presidency (January 2017 to January 2021), the average national gasoline price in the United States was approximately $2.46 per gallon. Under Joe Biden's presidency (January 2021 to November 2024), the average price has been around $3.54 per gallon. That's 43% higher inflation under Biden. Less than 2% of the registered vehicles on US roadways will be EV's by the end of 2024. Around 11 % of new car sales will be EV in 2024, so the impact of higher fuel prices effects not only 98% of US drivers by also the costs of transporting food due to increased fuel costs, which has lead to an increase of food costs/inflation. Third, I am strongly against human trafficking. Under President Biden (January 2021 – Present) The Biden administration has faced challenges with a significant influx of unaccompanied minors at the U.S.-Mexico border. Reports indicate that over 320,000 migrant children have entered the U.S., with concerns about the government's ability to track and protect them adequately. (New York Post) Sex trafficking of minors makes me sick and I believe there will potentially be less of it under Trump than there potentially was under Binden. Fourth, I am against war, so I prefer Trump's desire to deescalate international conflicts and wars and to not start new wars. Fifth is tenacity. If I were convicted of 34 felonies, like Trump I would exit my political career - but Trump was not deterred by his public humiliation/felonies. If I were wounded in an assassination attempt, that would be it - I would have ended my bid for a second term in the White House, but not Thump - he pumps his fist and yells fight, fight, fight and keeps going. Also, Trump did not end his run for the White House in 2016 when his locker-room-talk audio recording was made public. I would have ended my run right then and there out of embarrassment and shame, but not Trump, he keeps going. I know many people think he is an egotistical narcissist and I do too, but I get the sense that Trump's fragile ego and desire to maintain his public persona, will lead him to fulfill his promises (out of fear of further public humiliation.) I believe you can expect Trump to follow through on his election promises, due to his character flaws. Sixth, I like the idea of Trump surrounding himself with AI and automation experts like Musk, to help guide our transition and help the US regulate and/or deregulate AI, as necessary, and to help the US safely win the AI and quantum computing arms race. "President-elect Donald Trump's plans for artificial intelligence likely start with repealing President Joe Biden's executive order on AI followed by limiting government regulation of the technology." TechTarget I think that some time during next four years, there is going to be an economy reset and your average entry level office worker, customer service person, coder will be downsized due to AI and later, labor will be downsized due to automation. I think that no matter who the president is, the average person will be screwed economically in the next four years. I believe Trump will provide the decisive leadership needed to soften the landing, during the tough economic times ahead, and that's the final reason why I support Trump, flaws and all.

Thanks for the above video interview - I will check it out! I highly doubt that Trump is a trojan horse sent by Russia, North Korea, but I am open to any evidence. While allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election are well-documented (e.g., U.S. intelligence reports), Investigations such as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference found insufficient evidence to charge Trump or his campaign with criminal conspiracy. Trump's action during his Presidency: Russia: His administration enacted sanctions against Russia for election interference, the annexation of Crimea, and the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the UK. China: Trump initiated a trade war with China, imposing tariffs on Chinese goods and restricting Chinese tech companies like Huawei and TikTok. North Korea: When negotiating with North Korea, Trump did not make significant concessions or changes in U.S. policy. Sanctions against North Korea remained in place throughout Trump presidency. I was surprised to read that Biden also maintained the tariffs against China that Trump enacted in light of Hunter Biden's Business Activities: CEFC China Energy: Hunter Biden was involved in business ventures with CEFC China Energy, a Chinese conglomerate. Reports indicate that he and his firm received approximately $3.8 million from CEFC between 2013 and 2018. Payments to Biden Family Members: In 2017, accounts linked to Hunter Biden's associate, Rob Walker, received a $3 million wire transfer from a Chinese energy company. Subsequently, Hunter Biden, James Biden (Joe Biden's brother), Hallie Biden (widow of Joe Biden's son Beau), and an unknown fourth Biden received a total of $1.3 million from these accounts. On that note, I would appreciate it, when people respond to this thread, if they would share if they have identified conformation bias as I did above - I thought Biden would have eased up on the tariffs on China, which appears not to be case - I'm guilty as charged ; ) That way we can identify how we have be "programmed" by the media we consume in the face of the actual facts of the situation we confirm along the way.

Thanks Andrew! Based on the poll data below, it seems to indicate that on at least two key issues: the economy and national security, voters thought Trump would do a better job than Harris. Economic Management A CNBC survey conducted in October 2024 found that 42% of registered voters believed they would be better off financially if Donald Trump won the election, compared to 24% who felt the same about Kamala Harris. National Security According to a Gallup survey published on November 1, 2024, 53% of voters believed Donald Trump would better protect the U.S. from foreign threats, while 45% favored Kamala Harris in this regard. The same Gallup survey noted that voters were split on which candidate is best for democracy and national security, with Harris leading on protecting democracy and Trump ahead on keeping the U.S. safe. So, who will be better for inflation moving forward? Despite 54% of voters saying in a recent Gallup poll that they favor Trump to lead the overall economy, most economists pick Harris. In a new survey of 50 economists by the Wall Street Journal, 68% said inflation would be higher if Republican Trump's policies were to go into effect, while only 12% said it would be higher under Democrat Harris' plans. The other 20% said there would be no material difference. Economists predict Trump would be worst for inflation... so your opinion matches the experts... As you asked me specifically - personally, I do not like war - and heaven forbid a nuclear war... November 2024: Following his election victory, Trump communicated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, advising him "not to escalate the Ukraine war," signaling his proactive approach to de-escalation. USA Today Trump did not start any new wars during his presidency from 2016 to 2020. I can't imagine Harris doing as well when negotiating with Putin or Xi Jinping as Trump has, and I hope, will. The US does not need a war with China over Taiwan, so we need to end the war in Ukranie (as Trump is trying to do), so that China won't attack Taiwan thinking that the US can't fight a war on 2 fronts... Then there's the Iran-Russia connection and Gaza...there's a lot for Trump to be proactive on, just like he did with the Abraham Accords. To me, Trump is the lesser of two evils when it comes to national security as compared to Harris. Thanks for asking! Why do you think Trump "is not out for you (me)."? Why do you think Trump "is not out for anybody but himself and his racist rich friends."?

Just because the majority of voting Americas voted for Trump, does not make them conservatives or right wingers. Many of them simply voted against Harris, just as people voted against Trump in 2020. Picking the lesser of two evils is what it comes down to in American politics today and not some type of ideological victory as the media would have you believe. So when I encounter liberals - I happen to rent a room from one. When we actually talk about the issues, it turns out we have more in common as Americans than the media would have us believe. All these labels do is divide people... I'm pretty sure the hierarchy of needs is something like shelter, food, and sex rather than "believe what I believe or we can't work together to help each other get our common needs meet"... Ironically every day has now become "be kind to a liberal day" because the media completely lied to their base about the election forecast - no wonder people for Harris are upset about the election results - same thing happened on 2016. The situation is not people vs people - it is divide and profit by the media - it makes sick the brain washing the has taken over society. People are people and may the best film maker win regards of how they voted in an election, or what race or gender or creed they are. The facts is, it is the people against the media rather liberals against conservatives - what a deception - I happen to like pulp fiction and tropic thunder... great cinema is great cinema and great comedy is great comedy no matter who makes it and who is offends... The price of freedom is me allowing other's to express ideas that I don't agree with and other's allowing me to express ideas they don't agree with... hopefully the first amendment is practiced on this forum. ; )

The above image is for educational purposed only... do not distribute.

"Discovery, for allegedly feeding stills from the movie into an AI image generator to create unauthorized promotional content." "Alcon Entertainment claims in the lawsuit — filed in a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles — that the defendants used AI-generated images reminiscent of the 2017 film after Alcon denied a request to use footage for the October 10 event held at the Warner Bros." It seems that if you don't feed the original content into your AI model after being denied the rights to use the footage, you would have a better chance of avoiding a lawsuit... Kind of like when OpenAi asked Scarlett Johansson to license her voice and she said no and then they used a voice actor that sounded similar to her... OpenAi decided not to test the water after previewing the sound similar voice artist. I bet if an artist would drawn/created/made and photographed a model of a dystopian cityscape in rust colored smog/fog, and fed it into AI as reference to generate their final image even if it look similar to BR2049, Tesla would have had a better case for not breaking copyright law. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this case as maybe Tesla is intentionally pushing the limits on this to get a ruling that might favor AI generating content in regards to referencing copyrighted content... Also, we haven't seen the prompt - what if it was: "Red orange fog all around. we see a young man from behind standing, in trench coat, staring at a dystopian cityscape in red-orange colored smog/fog with rocky landscape between him and the city skyline." The image below was generate without any reference - I just used the above prompt ... warner brothers please sue imagine.art for using the flux model to generate this rather than me... Will using certain prompts get people sued? It makes me wonder....

I had an URSA Mini Pro 4.6k that shot Cinema DNG and BRAW (a firmware upgrade discontinued Cinema DNG). The BRAW was slightly less resolved with a slight color shift compare to the Cinema DNG. Once color corrected I did not notice which shots were which on YouTube. From the online comparison between BRAW and Pro Res RAW it seems that Pro Res RAW has a finer noise structure, which makes the Pro Res RAW slightly better looking IMHO. BRAW at higher resolutions like with the URSA 12k shooting 8k resolution, I have no complaints unless I don't provide enough light, then I see the slight limitations of BRAW as compared to Pro Res RAW.

Dobble post - please delete. Thanks!

I went on vacation and didn’t bring my GH6. I used my iPhone 15 for photos and video instead. Even if I would have brought the GH6 I would not have been prepared to shoot my friend’s kit boarding lessons from a lawn chair under a palm tree on the beach with a 15x zoom that I didn’t think to bring. Could I have maybe captured it better with the right lens on the GH6 - sure! Did he care - nope he like it so much he asked me to airdrop the videos to his iPhone as we were driving to the airport. For me getting the shot is as important as getting the perfect shot. And in the near future just getting the shot will lead good enough results with the help of AI. With less demand it is inevitable the lenses prices will fall until of course when there is a time when no one makes lenses anymore and ten years go by and the prices of lenses will start to go up and up…

As 2/3" sensors cameras like the F23 were mentioned. It is possible to optically adapted B4 lens with a B4 to PL mount adapter like the Abakus 321 adapter to cover the super 16 sensor crop 4k mode of GH5, GH6, GH7 (you would use a PL to m4/3 to mount it on the GH). You could also shoot on a number of Blackmagic cameras with a Blackmagic B4 Optical Adapter... there was a company who was using the optics of the Blackmagic B4 mount as the optics of their B4 to m4/3 adapter. Or you could make one of your own out of the Blackmagic B4 mount a m4/3 adapter and spacers and step rings and drill press and screws, nut and washers are required. The thing about 2/3 zoom lenses is because of the typical 10x to 12x zoom range you can have a dramatic depth of field decrease when zooming in with a constant aperture B4 lens. The following video has a mix of a Broadcast zoom lens, Sony full frame and Canon aps-c shots. All of the slow motion and zooming is via a B4 broadcast zoom lens (I don't think I had the 2x internal extender engaged on the B4 lens on the USRA 12k in Super 16 crop mode.) Sometimes you can see the vignetting, which I chose over less light as the 240fps really cuts the available light... and the 2x extender would have cut it in half again. Thanks! Mark

Looks like 16 stops will be the limit with Panasonic's new organic sensor tech. Hopefully it will be in the GH9... The organic sensor tech will also included Global Shutter and (functionally) on sensor ND... https://www.eoshd.com/news/ibc-show-panasonic-8k-organic-sensor-prototype-camera-with-on-chip-nd-and-16-stop-dynamic-range/ https://www.43rumors.com/panasonic-again-displayed-an-organic-sensor-prototype/ https://news.panasonic.com/global/topics/13982

Looks like the reviewer has an extra finger on his right hand. Elon is suing open AI for changing their mission from non-profit / open source to for-profit / closed source and to stop Microsoft from licensing AGI from OpenAI...