Has North Korea joined the thermo-nuclear club?

[John Hill]

The mangy curs are packing again....

[John Hill]

Meanwhile the South Koreans have decided that pissing the neighbours off with loud music and propaganda will somehow advance the situation.

[BenThere]

So, John Hill, you dismissed my assertion with one of your own, along with a not-quite-polite expletive. In the spirit of compromise, then, I will accede to your rules in this instance and ask you to produce evidence to support your assertion that the points I raised can be reduced to your unsavory, one-word assessment, which, by the way, required no intellect or insight to produce.

[Gert By Sea]

Ben There, I believe that you are addressing your questions about John Hill's views on all matters Korean to the wrong person.

You should be addressing them to Chuks.

I don't believe John knows what his views are until Chuks has told him and the rest of the forum.

I strongly suggest that for the sake of your future credibility that you quietly disengage yourself from this campaign of personal vilification of John Hill, and concentrate your attention on the postings of Chuks and ask yourself "are these the rantings of a sane man?"

Keep in mind that Chuks is apparently an Airline pilot in Germany.

Remember Germanwings?

[Clever and Cunning.]

Ben There, I believe that you are addressing your questions about John Hill's views on all matters Korean to the wrong person.

You should be addressing them to Chuks.

I don't believe John knows what his views are until Chuks has told him and the rest of the forum.

I strongly suggest that for the sake of your future credibility that you quietly disengage yourself from this campaign of personal vilification of John Hill, and concentrate your attention on the postings of Chuks and ask yourself "are these the rantings of a sane man?"

Keep in mind that Chuks is apparently an Airline pilot in Germany.

Remember Germanwings?

Well seeing that you are John, you should really know.

[BenThere]

Whoa!

I have issues with John Hill, to be sure, which I express openly. I don't vilify John Hill, in fact I endorse his presence here and his freedom to assert his asinine opinions, as well as my freedom to ridicule them.

My credibility waxes and wanes independently. I don't control it by disengaging. Assign to what I post whatever credibility you wish. I'm going to say what I want as long as this website allows it (the last one didn't). And I'll also respond to what Chuks writes, not to who he is or where he works. That's how I approach John Hill as well. Once in a blue moon he posts something good.

[John Hill]

The elephant in the room, or North Korean defiance challenges moral authority of nuclear club.

http://news.yahoo.com/n-korea-defiance- ... 16022.html

Probably a subject to be thoroughly avoided on this forum!

[John Hill]

The South Koreans are blaring their propoganda across the border and their friends from America have been doing their own bit of dick waving with a B52.



http://news.yahoo.com/kim-visits-milita ... 51673.html

I am sure it is all being done with the best intentions....

[obgraham]

So John, if I play my stereo too loud, or fly my plane over my friend's yard, some neighbor is justified in going all nuclear?

[John Hill]

Obgraham, we must have more information to fully evaluate that situation.

Do you have a gun that you have threatened him with?

Does he have a gun that he has threatened you with?

[Chuks]

Are we expected to judge whether planting landmines is more or less aggressive than playing loud music?

North Korea has been caught doing such things as:

Sending a team of assassins to attempt to kill the President of South Korea.

Torpedoing a South Korean warship.

Kidnapping numerous Japanese.

Blowing up a South Korean airliner.

Planting a bomb in Burma in another attempt to kill the President of South Korea.

Planting mines on the border with South Korea that wounded two South Korean soldiers.

South Korea has been caught ... playing loud music? Oh, and practicing the "Sunshine Policy" for years in the face of North Korean obduracy.

What we get from John is that "we must have more information to fully evaluate that situation." Okay, John, how much more information do you need?

Actually, I think we have all the information we need. John Hill, well, he could be looking at a trout swimming in the milk and insist that's not proof of anything, that the CIA must have planted that trout just to frame the dairy. In fact, it seems that John simply likes the Kim regime's style, so much that he has taken it over himself.

"Gert by Sea" ... I love it! Only shows up now and then, often to help out John Hill in his hour of need, but who should assume that he's just John Hill under another name? Doing that would be like assuming that North Korea started the Korean War!

[Slasher]

You could've taken a better focussed pic of your cat's arse Mr Hill.

[John Hill]

A whakapohane is often not in good focus.

[John Hill]

A man who claims to be an American is being held as a spy in North Korea.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/11/asia/ ... -detainee/

[Chuks]

I don't know about that. It looks more like a problem with "camera motion" than a failure to achieve good focus.

If you get all excited doing that sort of "whakapohane" photography, John, so excited that your hands are shaking, then use a tripod to eliminate camera motion as a source of unsharpness. Well, either that or if you must do handheld photography, with the camera held half-concealed under your dirty mac for instance, then use a higher shutter speed, something like 1/500 second. If that shot was done at ƒ8 at 1/60 then ƒ2.8 at 1/500 should be about right.

On the other hand, if it really is a focus problem you are having with your cat, then you probably want to go for ƒ16 at 1/60, adjusting the lighting for proper exposure and using the hyperfocal technique. Put simply, it works like this, John:


H = \frac{f^2}{N c} + f

where

H is hyperfocal distance

f is focal length

N is f-number (f/D for aperture diameter D)

c is the circle of confusion limit

For any practical f-number, the added focal length is insignificant in comparison with the first term, so that

H \approx \frac{f^2}{N c}

In practical terms, focus about a third of the way past whatever you want to keep in focus, such as your cat's arse, focusing instead on the arch of its back for instance, and then check for acceptable sharpness by stopping down on your film camera, or else taking a test shot and then looking at the LCD on your digital camera.

[Chuks]

A bit light on the verité, but good for a laugh: http://thechive.com/2016/01/11/27-outla ... 27-photos/

[John Hill]

It would be an uncommonly stupid American who would post ridiculing another country.

[Slasher]

Dunno how accurate those photos are Chuks, but yes that link was good for a laugh!

H = \frac{f^2}{N c} + f

BTW how come you know so much about....stuff?

[Chuks]

I was once a staff photographer ... well, the staff photographer, actually, since it was a very small magazine, for the Wet Rubber Monthly, when one of my duties was writing an advice column for folks who needed help with their naughty photos, photos that were often shot in haste, with shaking hands, and in dim light.

Of course in those days we did not have digital cameras, auto-focus, electronic flash, high-speed film ... so many of the things that today's freaks, weirdos, and general perverts take for granted, completely forgetting my pioneer work in this field. (In fact, I consider myself to be to perversion what Eugène Atget was to Paris.) You try working in an S&M dungeon using a 4x5 Speed Graphic and flashbulbs and see how far you get!

It was mostly people, people usually either dressed in wet rubber, hence the name of our magazine, or else in very little except for handcuffs, shackles, chains, a little of this and that. I also did get questions about how to image cats, dogs, sheep of course, the odd gerbil ... so that here I thought I could help a fellow enthusiast out with yet another of his hobbies.

Check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Atget

John, there you are! I almost missed this, your Thought for the Day: "It would be an uncommonly stupid American who would post ridiculing another country."

That is a very astute observation, John. One does notice stupidity on the part of Americans, since it's so uncommon. Kiwis, though, stupidity such as yours seems to be taken as the norm; it's not uncommon at all. Why is that?

[Slasher]

You try working in an S&M dungeon using a 4x5 Speed Graphic and flashbulbs and see how far you get!

Except for the flashbulb bit I fully appreciate the difficulties you encountered Mr Chuks. But that is a
story best left to a future thread one day.