Free Republic

Continuing his pattern of appearing on every television show – and particularly, every major sporting event – that will have him, President Obama joined the halftime show of the championship game of the Final Four last night. There he was given a four-minute infomercial about what a great guy he was, in the guise of an interview with CBS’ Clark “Special K” Kellogg. If this wasn’t an in-kind contribution, nothing is. Did Obama talk about the game? Not really. Instead, he continued his obvious campaign to reach out to female voters with gems like this: "A couple of things. Number...

Using facial recognition to process surveillance footage isn't a new concept — Scotland Yard began using the technique in the wake of last year's London riots — but a new system developed by Hitachi Kokusai Electric could make the process quicker and more flexible than ever before. Shown off at this year's Security Show expo in Japan, the system processes footage from both still images and live footage, recognizing faces in real-time, and can search through up to 36 million different faces for a comparison in one second. Recognized faces are displayed as thumbnails and grouped with matching footage,...

I am looking to upgrade my camera. I have a point and shoot Sony. I am looking for better quality pictures and the ability to take pictures of my son playing sports (fast speed no blur). Having said this, I am a total novice.. any advice?

Nikon has unveiled a new superzoom compact camera called the P510 that offers a ridiculous 42x optical zoom — the highest zoom ratio ever seen in such a camera. In 35mm terms, the lens goes from a 24mm on the wide-angle side to a 1000mm on the telephoto end. The 16.1MP camera also boasts a 3-inch LCD screen, 1080p video recording, GPS, 5fps continuous shooting, and ISO 3200. It’ll hit store shelves later this month with a price tag of $430.

Investment tips for 2012 With all the turmoil in the market, the collapse of Lehman Bros and the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, we all need some good investment advice For any of you with any money left, beware of the next year's expected mergers. Watch for these consolidations later this year: 1.) Hale Business Systems, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Fuller Brush, and W R. Grace Co. will merge and become: Hale, Mary, Fuller, Grace. 2.) Polygram Records, Warner Bros., and Zesta Crackers join forces and become: Poly, Warner, Cracker. 3.) 3M will merge with Goodyear and become:...

It just occured to me that although I've been enjoying this site for a long time I've never passed on the link.This site has owners manuals for many older cameras and flashes.It's free to download but the site is supported by donations, so kick in a couple of bucks.If you've ever tried to hunt down an old manual the value of this collection is obvious.SUPPORT FREE REPUBLIC BEFORE YOU SEND MONEY TO ANYONE!!!

Photography related ads from 1880 into the 1990s.

This ought to instill an appropriate level of fear, then The above photo by Ronnie Miranda appeared various places following the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver in mid-June. But the original is not just any wide-angle shot, for what he captured was actually a massive 1.0 gigapixel (one billion) digital image.Such technology offers astonishing detail that is obviously useful to anyone working in law enforcement or security/intelligence -how useful? Simply click on the pic above and then zoom right down by double-clicking on anybody in the crowd... pretty scary. One can clearly see the faces of almost every single individual (prior to the trouble breaking-out) with just...

The defendants stood before the hearing officer, traffic citations in hand, each accused of running a red light in Miami Gardens, as captured by one of the city’s 29 intersection cameras. Within minutes, seven of the cases were dismissed, with the hearing officer ruling they had tripped the cameras while making a legal right turn on red. The remaining three, who will now have to pay a $277 ticket, were sent off with a cheerful “Have a good day … and drive carefully.’’ While presumably those three violators weren’t happy with the outcome, neither are the municipalities in South Florida...

I'm posting my situation on a thread in order to alert others to be on the look out of ways the government, especially the local government, may be ripping us off. I believe we are being targeted as fools to pay for our politicians shortfalls. I live in Maryland, a very liberal state which taxes everything, and am seeing signs they are desperate to raise money instead of ways to cut spending. Here is a situation I found myself in recently: I received a "final notice" for speed monitoring violation from the town of Forest Heights PD (Maryland). However, I...

Memphis City Council Chairman Myron Lowery is proposing to bridge the city’s budget deficit by boosting yields from traffic fines on speeding. The plan is to add radar guns to existing red-light automated enforcement zones and capture photos of drivers exceeding the posted speed limits. “Look, the overwhelming majority of drivers are speeders,” Lowery observed. “That’s a pretty big potential source of revenue that we could get our hands on.” The National Motorists Association contends that “the majority of drivers speed because the posted limits are set below what they should be. They generate millions of pointless traffic tickets and...

I'm looking for a digital camera with no delay between shutter click and capture. Most have a 1-2 second delay. My grand daughter is into acrobatics and my daughter wants to take good pictures. Any help is welcome.

A thermal imaging project in the city of Boston has been put on hold because of privacy concerns. Lisa van der Pool of the Boston Business Journal reports. Boston officials had hoped to have aerial and street-level photos taken across about four square miles of the city this winter using infrared cameras that would show heat loss in the city homes. Officials planned on sharing the photos and analysis with homeowners, and were hoping the findings would increase enrollment in efficiency programs and also create business opportunities. But, the project hit a snag when the American Civil Liberties Union of...

EDMONTON, Alberta, The city of Edmonton, Alberta, is writing off nearly $13 million worth of speeding tickets because the reliability of cameras came into question. Crown Prosecutor Steven Bilodeau said he petitioned the provincial justice ministry to nullify the tickets as people were receiving tickets for impossible infractions, the Edmonton Journal reported. In one case on Jan. 12, a camera snapshot alleged a driver was traveling at 89 mph on a city street, but the video showed all the other vehicles around it moving at the same speed, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Bilodeau said all 141,729 tickets issued by...

PARSONS, Kan. — An unlikely pilgrimage is under way to Dwayne’s Photo, a small family business that has through luck and persistence become the last processor in the world of Kodachrome, the first successful color film and still the most beloved. That celebrated 75-year run from mainstream to niche photography is scheduled to come to an end on Thursday when the last processing machine is shut down here to be sold for scrap. In the last weeks, dozens of visitors and thousands of overnight packages have raced here, transforming this small prairie-bound city not far from the Oklahoma border for...

Anaheim voters made it clear today they have no interest in having cameras installed at intersections to catch red-light runners. Anaheim voters made it clear today they have no interest in having cameras installed at intersections to catch red-light runners. Voters overwhelmingly approved Measure K, which bans red light cameras from being installed at the city's intersections. City Council members put the issue on the ballot in part because they objected to the idea of using the cameras as a money-raising tool.

Houstonians rejected the city's red light camera program in a hard-fought ballot contest, delivering an immediate $10 million hit to an already dire budget situation at City Hall. With almost all votes counted, a majority of voters put a decisive end to the use of the devices, which had been used to issue more than 800,000 tickets and collected $44 million in fines since 2006. "This is a victory for the people," said Paul Kubosh, an attorney who defends red light runners and collected more than 20,000 signatures with his brothers to get the referendum on the ballot. "The voters...

Fewer people have been killed and injured on roads following a decision by a local council to switch off its speed cameras. Accident data shows that in the first nine months after the devices were scrapped in Swindon, there were 315 road casualties in the area as a whole, compared with 327 in the same period the previous year. In total there were two fatalities – compared with four in the same period previously – and 44 serious injuries, down from 48. The figures were seized on by campaigners who claim speed cameras do little to combat problem driving...

Several dozen Arizona speed enforcement cameras have officially stopped clicking earlier this morning as the state of Arizona officially killed a traffic enforcement program that failed to generate promised revenue. The state ended its two-year contract with Australia-based Redflex Traffic Systems, the company responsible for installing the cameras and processing imagery. A total of 76 fixed and mobile cameras will be removed from state streets and highways by Labor Day. The state said that drivers that have been snapped along Arizona highways before Friday morning are still responsible for paying the tickets. Drivers, however, are taking a different tune. “I...

Folks heads up, In a phone call I was made aware of a situation today with a Candidate running for the House.