Posts Made By: James Brown

Hi Bill:

I think your choices depend upon what you mean by a "US Company." Grizzly Tools sells all kinds of small and medium sized metal and wood shop tools. Grizzly is a US owned importer/retailer. But the tools are made in China. As you might expect, you get a lot of tool for the money, but the precision and finish are probably not up to US standards. I have a Grizzly table saw and a small metal mill. I like them a lot.

Here is Grizzly:

http://grizzly.com/

Also check out these guys; they specialize in upgrades and parts for the small Chinese machine tools sold by many distributors.

http://littlemachineshop.com/

Jim

Gianluca Valentini said:

Hello guys

has anyone an idea of why my color channels are so weak?

These are the average combine of 12 10min subs taken with my TEC180 at F7 with the SBIG STL11000XM unbinned. I know I should have probably binned the exposures, but I wanted to keep the star size as small as possible to match what I considered a good h-alpha luminance.
However, I thought that 2 hours of color would have given me a pretty good result, but I was evidently very wrong :C

Any help/suggestion would be greatly appreciated: I'm loosing sleep over it, while I should loose it imaging

Ciao
Luca

Hi Luca:

The linked article by master astrophotographer Robert Gendler helped me a lot. Often the luminance data initially overwhelms the color channels. This article is very helpful in dealing with this phenomenon, note though that the technique described is very Photoshop specific.

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/LLRGB.html

Good Luck, Jim

Bill Wheaton said:

I mean really, emoticons are so 2003.

-Bill

I can't help you with your actual question Bill, but by and large I agree about the emoticons. What really bugs me are the actively dancing uber-stupid eye-rolling sign-waving animated emoticons some other forum sites have. They seem to drag the level of discussion down to junior high level all by themselves. Of course junior high level maybe the best level of discussion achievable by those who like actively dancing uber-stupid eye-rolling sign-waving animated emoticons.

Jim

James Witt said:

Pat,

Depending on its condition, completeness etc., how many eyepieces are included, the condition of the wooden boxes, how well it star tests ... I would say $5,000 to $6,500 AREA. The clock drive with weights and linkage could sell EASILY for $3,000 on up (depending on condition), $450 ish for a Super Unihex (if he has one in excellent condition), maybe $350 ish for an excellent condition Super Focuser (don't know if he has one). I would be willing to buy the clock drive myself if he wants to part it out.

A nice model 160 sold elsewhere for $8,000 a few weeks ago.

Currently I am finishing up a the rare metal replica pier for the same model we are discussing.

http://www.pbase.com/smokedaddy/unitron_pier&page=all

-JWW:

Hi James:

Thanks for the good and informative post which I quoted above in a slightly modified form. The link you included was technically and inadvertently a violation of the TOS section 4.2.2. My only alternative is to delete your original, moderators don't have the ability to edit or snip links out of posts. All of your original content is still included above. Sorry about this. I try to moderate with as light a touch as is possible.

Jim

Lee Spain said:

One of the things that Obama mentioned in the debate was that he was looking at was raising the capital gains tax in the interest of "fairness." Currently, the capital gains tax is 15%. Bill Clinton had lowered it to 20%. Prior to Clinton it was at something like 28%. Would it be a good idea to raise the capital gains tax given the shaky nature of the markets and given that many people are dependent upon investment income in retirement?

Hi Lee:

Raising the capital gains tax would be devastating for the economy, middle class investors and the US treasury. Obama is playing the envy card. Those who might vote for him because they see him as an opportunity to stick it to the "rich" really need to learn how a misguided tax policy will screw themselves the worst of all.

Alan Greenspan repeatedly advised Congress that the proper capital gains rate for economic growth and maximum federal revenue is -0-.

I suppose it is fun to think about sticking it to the rich playboy who lives in a mansion built by his ancestors and never works an honest day in his life. This guy is a fantasy though. Increasing the capital gains tax will hurt the most those of us in the middle class who scrape together enough to invest a bit. Heaven help the honest retired couple who are making ends meet by slowly liquidating the hard earned investments. Investments they made with dollars already taxed once as regular income! Maybe we should just stick a knife in those couples. It would probably be more humane than taxing them into poverty.

I can dig up tons of supporting economic data. Not today though, I'm too busy working.

Jim

Rod Kaufman said:

So who is going to have the better shot at beating McCain?
According to a new poll, it's
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/28/poll-shows-clinton-has-better-shot-of-beating-mccain/
While my expectation remains the same and I believe the beer queen and johnny will arrive in the fall at the White House, it's of interest that Clinton has opened up a bit of a margin.

Hi Rod:

I'm not sure why you think McCain will win... but that's not my reason for replying. The poll you linked to is interesting. But, the real news lies in the present status of the polling in each of the 50 states. We mustn't forget Gore's old friend the electoral college.

Clinton v. McCain = President Clinton

Obama v. McCain = President McCain

It will be interesting (assuming this polling data holds up) to see whether this affects the superdelegates who are anointed to select the democratic candidate. I know that if I were a D superdelegate, I would be voting for the one most likely to win. As of today, that is Ms. Clinton. But I'm a practical guy. I wonder if the party extreme will cause the Ds to commit suicide again?

Sources: [SIZE="Small"](Note the uncannily strong correlation between lefty and righty sources....)[/SIZE]

http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Clinton/Maps/Apr28.html

http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Obama/Maps/Apr28.html

http://www.hedgehogreport.com/polls2008prezev.php?gop=McCain&dem=Clinton

http://www.hedgehogreport.com/polls2008prezev.php?gop=McCain&dem=Obama

Jim

Lee Spain said:

I came across this article on outsourcing during lunch today. It does a good job of discussing the wages involved and how workers in the developing world are doing. In the short run, I think companies are maximizing their profits, but by exploiting workers they are probably holding back the growth of markets here and abroad. The guy losing his job in the developed world can't buy anything and the guy being exploited at slave wages can't buy anything either.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/339071/the_ethics_of_outsourcing.html?cat=3

Hi Lee:

One thing that always crosses my mind when I see these articles is; How come outsourcing is such a political hot issue, but we never hear about the offsetting insourcing? Why don't we hear about insourcing from the candidates the press, or the disgruntled citizenry?

My Subaru was made by Americans in Indiana for example. I wonder if the Japanese workers bitch about that? The insource/outsource equation is a relatively complex part of the word economy. It really isn't surprising though, that only one half of the whole picture gets exploited by politicians.

Jim

Rod Kaufman said:

So Mrs Bush has criticized the government of Myanmar for failing to meet the "basic needs" of its people in the time of a natural disaster. Well, she can certainly speak from experience...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/05/myanmar.relief/index.html

Hi Rod:

It looks to me that what she really said is that the military junta that controls Myanmar fails to meet the peoples' basic needs. Period. In this case she has made an indisputable point.

From the article:

[COLOR="Blue"][SIZE="Small"]"State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Monday the military junta that rules Myanmar had not given the team permission to enter the country.

U.S. first lady Laura Bush, who has a long-standing interest in Myanmar, urged the government to allow the team into the country, saying she expected Washington would provide "substantial" aid if it could conduct its own assessment of the situation on the ground.

And she blasted the junta, saying the lack of warning before a deadly cyclone hit on Friday was the latest example of "the junta's failure to meet its people's basic needs."

She criticized a draft constitution the government plans to put to its people in a referendum on Saturday, saying pro-democracy activists and some ethnic groups had been excluded from the process of drafting it. She said it would be "very, very odd" if the referendum went ahead as planned this weekend after the devastating storm.

The United States has sanctions in place against Myanmar, whose government is holding Nobel Peace Prize-winning democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. Casey said the sanctions might restrict what type of donations the United States can make, but will not prevent Washington from sending some type of assistance via the United Nations."[/SIZE][/COLOR]

It seems a bit odd that you should chose this particular event to take a pot-shot at Bush. Not surprising, but odd.

Jim

Tom Rodstrom said:

We know that the war will be over soon.

Remember, years ago, Jim, when I said Iraq would be a quagmire and that after the Bush economy crashes, there would be a bounty on Republicans?

You can thank George for giving you a liberal, Black President.

I remember that well Tom, and I think your predictions may be correct. (Although I still think the HRC will be the president, not Obama).

The real indicator of the size of the backlash against the Bush presidency will be in the Congressional races. If the Democrats pick up veto-proof majorities for example, we (Republicans) are in big trouble, and we can thank Bush. This is the case whether or not McCain wins. Obviously, the only way McCain can win at all is if Clinton or Obama prove to be simply un-electable. It still surprises me that the Democrats continue to insist upon nominating the high risk candidates favored by the non-moderate elements of the party.

Jim

Nice capture Jim. I love M104 images. The nearly edge on galaxy disk and halo structure are so 3D looking with the prominent dust lanes. Very nice!

Jim